AmateurRadio.com

Screenshot of QSO with KG6ASY

Last night was a good night with the Warbler, with five contacts made using PSK31 on 80m. The locations of the contacts were varied; Ontario, Illinois, Kentucky, New Jersey and also Nevada.  This last one was a real surprise as checking the distance between myself and KG6ASY in Washoe, NV, revealed it was a little over 2,200 miles.  As the power out from the Warbler is 3W, it has not yet reached 1000 miles per watt but it is getting close. Tim, KG6ASY gave me a 549 report and his signal was 579 for me.

There is some DX coming in too on 80m  as I saw a French and a Spanish station on the waterfall last night.

The Warbler is proving to be a fun transceiver to use during the night on 80m.

Finished Warbler in box

Last Summer Gerry, VA3GLT, and myself attended the first Maplecon QRP convention.  At this event Gerry was lucky enough to win one of two HB-1A transceivers that had been kindly donated to the event by Youkits who were in attendance.

Gerry received the transceiver in the post and I recently got to see the rig when he can around to my shack with it.  We connected it up and I had a quick investigation of its capabilities.

This is a small form QRP transceiver of the field portable type like the Elecraft KX1, Hendricks PFR 3, the ATS series by KD1JV and the new dual band Ten Tec QRP rigs (which are effectively the same as the HB-1A but only offer 2 bands).  The HB-1A covers the 40m, 30m and  20m bands and although it is a CW only rig it does allow listening to SSB.  We powered Gerry’s radio from my 13.8V power supply and measure 5W output on 40m and 30m and about 3.75W on 20m.  The receive seemed sensitive and comparable to the KX1 and when the audio was routed through some powered computer speakers (there is ony a headphone jack, no speaker in the radio) the audio was good to listen to.  The CW filter bandwidth was adjustable from 900Hz to 400Hz.

The display was very nice, being a blue LCD as the photograph below shows.  The main tuning dial had a positive ‘click’ as it was turned.

This certainly is not intended to be a review, but I was pleased with what I saw of the performance of the HB-1A and I know Gerry is very happy with it.  It is a good addition to the ultra-portable group of transceivers that are out there on the market and worthy of consideration.

I did not make an audio recording when looking at the HB-1A but below is a video showing the performance by JE1TRV.  If you watch carefully you will see him adjust the filter bandwidth.

If you want to listen to my recorded interview with Yimin, the founder of Youkits then go to this post.

Screenshot of Warbler contact to Alabama

Last night I used the Warbler I finished a few months ago and had a very nice 40 minute QSO on 80m with Ken, KI3N, in Oxford Alabama.  First, it great that conditions were good enough for us to chat for 40 minutes using PSK31, but when you consider that the distance between us was about 970 miles then that made it quite an achievement given the band.  I was using the Warbler, putting out 3W now after some slight changes, and the 88ft doublet tuned with the homebrew ATU.  Ken was using 40W from an Icom IC-756 Pro into an 80m dipole.  The screenshot above shows what I was receiving.

Even though the Warbler is rockbound and uses a direct conversion receiver its performance is very good and makes it fun to use.  This was the furthest contact I have made so far with that transceiver.

Last Saturday  the Ottawa Amateur Radio Digital Group had their first Ottawa D-STAR symposium at Carleton University.  As a co-organizer I may be a little biased but I think this was a great success.  Despite snow flurries in the morning, causing bad weather conditions for some driving in, the day went very smoothly.  We used the internet to the full, with one presentation coming in via Skype from the UK; wireless access was provided for delegates; we had live streaming of the presentations as well as running a DVAP dongle too.

We had a full room and the presentations were excellent.  The final list of presentations were as follows:

• Welcome, Logistics, Agenda – VA3STL
• Introductions – VE3CVG
• D-STAR Past, Present, Future – VE3EI
• The VA3ODG System  – What Is – VE3CVG
• Linking and Routing – VA3KA
• DVAPs, Dongles and HotSpots – M0GRU
• Lunch
• The Spaghetti Bowl  – VE3CVG
• Overview of Gateway Technologies – VE2BFW
• FREESTAR – VA3OMP
• ID1 and High Speed Data – VA3YH
• D-RATs Overview- VA3STL
• DPRS Overview – VA3YH
• The YMCA-YWCA – VE3CVG
• Plans: Almonte Amateur Radio Club – VE3UIX
• Discussion

The slides of the talks can be found at the West Carleton Amateur Radio Club website and there is a link to some recordings of the streaming.

Andrew, M0GRU, was the presenter from the UK and he was displayed on a large screen TV whilst he could see the delegates by two web-cams in the room.  We were lucky to be joined by Greg who had managed to fly back from Regina,SK the previous night.  It was also good to be joined by Andrew’s father Rob, VE3UIX, who gave an update on the Almonte, D-Star repeater project.  Eric, VE3EI, of Icom Canada travelled up from the Niagara region to give the first talk of the day and an excellent overview of D-STAR’s past and future (watch for the IC-9100 being available in December/January, but start saving the money!).

The symposium ran from 10am to 4pm and because of many questions and full presentations there was little time for discussion at the end.

Feedback so far has been good and so I am very pleased with a successful day.

Thanks have to go to my co-organizer, Rick, VE3CVG; the Ottawa Amateur Radio Digital Group; the Dept. of Electronics for kindly providing the facilities; the Carleton University Amateur Radio Club members for helping guide the attendees around the campus; Maurice-Andre, VE3VIG, who unfortunately could not attend  but did provide directions over the air to those that needed it; and of course all the presenters and participants.

The Ottawa Amateur Radio Digital Group are organizing the first Ottawa D-Star Symposium at Carleton University on Saturday 27th Nov. 2010.  The will be a number of speakers and the the focus will be on some of the current developments such as the Freestar network, hotspots, DV and DVAP dongles and the D-RATs software.  We are lucky to have Eric Meth, VE3EI, from Icom Canada as well as one speaker Andrew, M0GRU, who will be linking in from the UK.

The current talk plan is:

• Welcome and Introductions – VA3STL and VE3CVG
• D-STAR Past, Present, Future – VE3EI
• The VA3ODG System – VE3CVG – where we are and issues
• DVAPs, Dongles and HotSpots – M0GRU
• Break (5 min)
• The Spaghetti Bowl – FreeStar, USTrust, NI-STAR, ircDDB, G4ULF – VE3CVG, VA3OMP,others
• Lunch Break (30min)
• ID1 and High Speed Data – VA3YH
• D-RATs -VA3STL
• Break (5 min)
• About YMCA
• About Almonte VA3AAR
• Existing Projects
• Project Opportunities
• Where do we go from here?

Space is limited but if you are in the Ottawa area and would like to attend then please contact me.

For readers local to my home area you may be interested in this exciting and free event in Ottawa this weekend. Full details can be found on the Artengine website. The essential details are:

Dates and times: Nov. 6th and Nov 7th, 12pm to 6pm.

Location: Arts Court 2 Daly Ave. Ottawa, ON K1N 6E2

If you are not sure what makers do or what goes on at a Maker Faire take a look at this video of the 2010 Kansas City Mini Maker Faire

Here are two more recent reception reports of my QRSS signal.

N8YE capture of QRSS signal from VA3STL

Steve, N8YE, sent one from South Eastern Ohio (above) from 20th Oct 2010 and my signal looks nice and strong. Also, I saw the  my signal this evening in KL7UK/5 Bartlesville OK grabber (see below).

From KL7UK grabber 23rd Oct. at 0215