AmateurRadio.com

Another question for the Sphinx?

The people power demonstrations in Egypt over the last week were probably fueled just that bit more by the government’s decision on 27 January to cut mobile phones and the internet. The deteriorating situation in Egypt is currently sharing top news position here in Australia with the monstrous tropical cyclone Yasi due to hit major population centres of far north Queensland in hours!

There’ve been reports of how protesters have turned to ‘old technology’ – fax machines, dial-up modems and even ham radio(!) – to restore communications with each other and the outside world. The BBC report Old technology finds role in Egyptian protests describes how dial-up modems have been used to contact international ISPs.

IDG News journalist Nancy Gohring wrote a piece in PC World explaining how Ham Radio is Not a Viable Option for Egypt. She quotes ARRL’s Allen Pitts stating there are no confirmed transmissions from Egypt yet.

The WeRebuild wiki details frequency bands on 40m and 20m being monitored including 7080.8kHz for CW signals. The wiki page does include transcripts of some messages received – but none since 29 Jan. And it would be a challenge to verify their authenticity.

WeRebuild have even set up an IRC channel for ham operators monitoring these frequencies. The Huffington Post quotes some of the messages.

As I write this there are 91 posts in a discussion thread on QRZ.com debating the use of ham radio by the protesters and overseas operators. Amongst the majority counselling caution and “Keep Ham Radio out of politics – if you don’t, Politics will shut Ham Radio down (in Egypt and in other places, too)”, a minority of posts take an alternate view such as this contributor:
“Freedom is not free. To advocate “staying out of it” on the grounds of damaging ham radio is the same as our founding fathers telling the militiamen on the green at Lexington to stay home, lest the British come take their guns too. The only legitimate reason for staying out of it is the decision of which side you are on — and yes, when it comes to liberty we all have an obligation to investigate the issues and take sides.”

This is a passionate and interesting discussion of what constitutes emergency
communciation and how hams should respond to calls for assistance such as “health and welfare traffic” etc.

Meanwhile closer to home (and across the US as well) people brace themselves for some of the most extreme and destructive weather which is sure to cut power and communications for extended periods. And hams will be there to help.

Cyclone Yasi Update: VK amateurs are maintaining a listening watch on the WICEN frequency 7075kHz. Full details of relevant HF nets and local north Queensland repeaters have been published by the WIA. Tomorrow morning’s 6am Gnarly Net should make for interesting listening on 3600kHz.

The national broadcaster, the ABC is heavily promoting two shortwave frequencies on its 24 hours TV news channel, in anticipation of its local AM and FM towers being damaged by the cyclone. The special rolling coverage of the cyclone can be heard online and on 9710kHz by day and 6080kHz by night.

Quite frankly I can’t think of anything worse than choosing QRP Kits to ‘lay down’ as an investment, rather than build. Mind you it doesn’t look like they need to be put in the cellar for very long!

Two exciting new possibilities for portable HF have become available.

Steve Weber KD1JV's ATS-4

A few hours ago Steve Weber KD1JV announced that the ATS-4 kit was available again. These apparently sell out very quickly – so if you’re interested, act now!

Many people hanging around the AT_Sprint Yahoo group have been waiting patiently for many weeks for this morning’s announcement.

The ATS-4 is a “miniature 5 band CW rig with digital mode capabilities” designed for 80, 40, 30, 20 and 17 or 15 meter operation in the field. The AT stands for Appalachian Trail. It’s tiny – according to the KD1JV site, about 1/3 larger than an Altoids tin – the universal QRP standard of enclosure measurement – at 4.9″ wide, 2.7″ deep and 1″ tall.

ATS-4 features include a built-in Iambic A or B mode keyer with three message memories. The rig can convert Morse input via paddle to transmit as PSK31. And PSK31 and RTTY are possible using Pocketdigi software on a PC, laptop, netbook or PDA.

The other exciting portable possibility – which was designed to be independent of this kind of hardware – is the SDR Cube. George Heron, N2APB and Juha Niinikoski, OH2NLT developed this self-contained and portable SDR Transceiver using a Softrock front end and embedded Digital Signal Processing. One of the features of this design is that no PC is required. This follows naturally from George N2APB’s work developing the NUE-PSK modem which liberates portable PSK31 & RTTY ops from lugging along a laptop.

The SDR Cube

The SDR Cube is still available for ‘early-bird’ special prices, so again, not one to put off considering for too long. It’s also available in a range of different forms, from bare PC boards through to kits and assembled and tested. The design is deliberately open and flexible to accommodate experimentation. As the comprehensive SDR Cube site explains

The SDR Cube is a totally self-contained, embedded SDR transceiver for CW & SSB using a Softrock for the RF front end and a pc board implementation of an HF modem.  A PC is not needed for using the SDR Cube, as all DSP processing is accomplished by an embedded DSP processor on the three internal pc boards.  The Cube is designed to fit into an optional 4” x 4” x 4” pre-cut black powder-coated aluminum enclosure containing all controls, a blue graphic display showing the transceiver settings and an exciting 8 kHz-wide band scope of spectrum signals, and the popular Softrock RXTX v6.3 board.

Full ordering details for the SDR Cube can be found here.

Spotted a very interesting post from Tobias, DH1TW on his blog ‘Contesting & SDR‘ titled Does SDR really suck?. He wonders out loud if the performance, flexibility and cost of SDR is so excellent, why hasn’t it taken off? What possible barriers might there still be to it assuming a place matching its promise and achievement?

He identifies the missing link as adequate user interface. He mounts a case arguing for a similar level of investigation and development on the user experience front to match the investment and experimentation on RF and signal processing.

And he acknowledges that there may be more than one user interface solution. Contesting and HFPack have different UX demands as other experts understand. Look at Elecraft‘s K3 and KX1, or the Steve Weber, KD1JV designs, especially the ATS series. And now Tobias argues, SDR gives us the opportunity to re-think user interface design from the ground up.

Who says that the radio controls must be on the front of a black box and located perpendicular to your shacks desk? SDR allows us for the first time to completely redefine and optimize the radios User Interface! Are you serious into contesting? If so, you want to pay special attention to ergonomics. Why not having the control console directly next to your keyboard? Or do you prefer portable, backpack operations? Then your focus will lie on the limited physical dimensions. N2ABPs SDR-Cube is a nice example on this.

A very timely – and well illustrated – read.

Last week at the Waverley Amateur Radio Society monthly meeting there was a fascinating and well-prepared talk from Justin Lavery VK2CU on the history of the Heathkit company.

The scene at the front of the clubroom was not unlike this great shot from the website of Fred W1SKU.

Heathkit equipment on display at W1SKU

Only there were more pieces of equipment on display! Justin’s clearly been collecting for a while, specialising in valve gear and the SB series. He had a stash of catalogues dating back to the early 1960s which evoked memories for many of us there old enough for Heathkit – even on the other side of the Pacific Ocean – to have been a radio icon.

Justin filled in the deep history of the company, with its kit airplane beginnings through to its heyday when it actually made economic sense to build your own colour TV!

He also managed to evoke the history of the time – which is some achievement for someone who I don’t think was actually alive for most of it!

MAKE magazine beautifully evokes the times and the anticipation – those long painful delicious moments between posting the order and the kit arriving.

Heathkit times (MAKE Online)

I was especially interested in observations about how the fortunes of the company were in synch with a strong tradition of making it yourself – which seems to be a core part of both the US and Australia. We both have frontier experiences still in our recent folk memory.

I wonder what Heathkit would make of the kit market today if they were still around. They certainly set a benchmark. And they certainly sold a lot of kits over the years.

So it was an interesting coincidence for me at least that on the same day as I’m thinking about Heathkit and how I used to long to own an HR-10 and a DX-60, I received my Genesis G59 Mk2 SDR transceiver kit.

The Genesis G59 is a very exciting sounding project. I believe I’ll have a pretty impressive SDR transceiver once it’s complete.

While GenesisRadio is more cottage industry in scale than Heath – who grew so much they opened a factory in the UK – the quality is there where it counts. Part of the decision to take the plunge was an estimation of the support both from Nick Hacko VK2DX and the online community of builders on the Yahoogroup.

One step in phase 1 building the G59 SDR kit

The then and now comparison shows how much kit building has changed. Kits now can be delivered across the world in days. Speedy support from a global network of enthusiasts is available via email. Documentation is able to be kept up-to-date and builders alerted to important developments. And most amazing, of course, the firmware can easily be updated and improved.

The key to the success of all of this is the social glue of the builders online. That’s another reason not to delay the build and to glean maximum advantage of the communal energy available there.

The Genesis documentation is clear with excellent photos. Not the component by component style of Heathkit, but totally adequate.

So far I’ve completed phase 1 successfully (the power supply) and am in the middle of the second phase (the microcontroller circuit). I’m taking it slowly and really enjoying those moments at the end of the night when I can get to it. That lateness is the one reason I’m taking it slow. The other is – I really enjoy this part!

Over the weekend sunspot 1112 erupted and produced a strong solar flare. Now according to Space weather sites there’s a 25-35% chance of high latitude auroras on 19-20 October.

And right now a group of four Norwegian friends are enjoying their annual DXpedition to Kongsfjord – well and truly in the high latitudes – at 70°43′N 29°21′E at the top of Norway.

Kongsfjord, Norway - a nice place to set up your 500 metre Beverage antenna

Four of the main participants are Arnstein Bue, from Trondheim, Bjarne Mjelde (host), from Berlevåg, Odd-Jørgen Sagdahl, from Trondheim and Tore Johnny Bråtveit, from Trondheim. As you’ll see if you visit their pages these men are serious medium wave and short wave DXers, with impressive equipment racks and listening achievements to match.

Arnstein Bue’s blog DX Paradise gives a sense of some of the QSL trophies. DXpedition host, Bjarne Mjelde’s blog Arctic DX has an entry logging their first day last Friday anticipating the weather awaiting them:

“+2 Celsius, 15-20 m/s (35-45 mph) northerly winds, rain and sleet showers…”

As I write this it’s early afternoon there and according to their website it’s warmed up to +4 Celsius!

They also appear to operate remotely from this spot. Their antennas include a new 500 metre long Beverage aimed at the North Island of New Zealand which is clearly working very well. Two shorter Beverages (225m & 330m) and a Quad Delta Flag Array complete this dream DXing antenna farm.

And if you visit the site you’ll see ample evidence that they clearly know how to enjoy themselves at the dining table as well. Local King crabs are accompanied by the finest New Zealand wines. Their dining notes are as tempting as their DX!

Main course was pork sirloin marinated in garlic and chili, served with tagliatelle, basil, leeks and cherry tomatoes. With the pork we tried Kim Crawford’s Pinot Noir. Maybe a bit light for the quite tasty meat, but absolutely a super wine!

For dessert we had local blueberries with grappa – another Kongsfjord signature dish! And now we are off to listen to more recordings and prepare for another – hopefully eventful night. The solar indexes are going down and the K-index for Tromsø is now 0, and we hope that it will remain like this!

The main website is also the repository of a number of documents on DXing issues by Dallas Lankford. There are also data sheets for a large number of receivers (including AOR, Racal, Rohde & Schwarz, R L Drake Company, Siemens, Harris, TenTec, Icom etc) and information about antennas. Bjarne Mjelde has distilled his experience into a definitive article about the best antenna wire. The conclusion? A thumbs up for galvanised steel and aluminium. A number of his reviews are also aggregated on the site, including reviews of the IC-703 and the Perseus SDR.

Their sites demonstrate how much a part SDR plays in modern DXing and monitoring. There are some huge SDR recordings and mp3 files available as well. Retrospective analysis of these files enables them to find rare stations as well as – presumably – traditional live listening.

It’s been a delight checking in on their site each day to catch up with the activities of such a convivial group of friends. Truly inspiring to this reader on the other side of the globe.

Recently there was an interesting discussion here on vk2rh.com about some of the barriers to a wider takeup of the new wave of Chinese QRP or DIY ham radio kitset activity. One of the hurdles of course is language and the current lack of an English language user base to grow and deliver email support for kit builders.

Overnight Adam, BD6CR has made available an English translation of the construction manual for the KN-Q10 QRP kit designed by Ke Shi BA6BF. The KN-Q10 is a four band (3.5, 7, 14 & 21MHz) 5W SSB/CW transceiver kit.

The KN-Q10 4 band SSB/CW QRP kit designed by Ke Shi BA6BF

Adam has also revived the Yahoo group China_QRP -

“I have made a decision to turn this yahoo group into a forum to support overseas  Chinese kit builders and merchants. We will see more overseas kit builders and merchants joining.”

John AE5X posted a report about the manual translation earlier today. He also included a link to a discussion thread about the kit on the Chinese language HelloCQ forum. The photos here are sourced from the designer Ke Shi, BA6BF’s own postings and give some sense of the finish and quality of the project. There’s a large number of photos of the Q10 under construction on the thread.

A view of the BA6BF designed KN-Q10

John AE5X noticed the current lack of a schematic & parts placement diagrams and an operating manual for the kit even though this appears to be referenced in the translation. Certainly this version of the manual doesn’t offer the comprehensive ‘hand-holding’ guidance Elecraft, SWLabs or Softrock kit builders are used to. John sees no inherent problem with this – as long as prospective buyers are aware. I see this manual translation as an important first step towards opening up this exciting DIY/QRP activity to a wider audience.

Today on the China QRP Yahoogroup Adam has explained that he is selling the KN-Q10 kit for US$280 which includes air parcel delivery anywhere worldwide and that he accepts PayPal. If you’re keen to buy, it might be best to contact Adam via the Yahoogroup to identify the appropriate email address for that.

UPDATE 15 October: Adam BD6CR has already posted an updated version of the manual and it now also includes photos and links to the schematic diagram of the KN-Q10 and a Chinese language document with photos illustrating the modification to the encoder.

One of the photos from the currently Chinese language KN-Q10 encoder modification guide