AmateurRadio.com

KK4JDO’s son made a Lego enclosure for the Ham It Up upconverter

Richard, KK4JDO, shared a proud dad moment on Reddit. His son created a Lego enclosure for his Ham It Up upconverter board.

The lesson? Sometimes the simplest solutions are right in front of you (or at least in your kid’s toy box)! 🙂

A big friendly welcome to my new readers who will be reading my blog entries via AmateurRadio.com – I hope my articles will provide insightful reading.

If you are not already “in the know” im based in the UK and provide distant learning course for UK amateurs alongside Steve (G0FUW) and Lewis (G4YTN) along with home based learning we also provide in class education as well.

PSK Receiver No. 001 with Raspberry Pi

The education element of the hobby really interests me and not content with the 3 tier license, we also provide buildathons for anyone who is interested in electronics, radio or construction.

Our very successful PSK receiver kit (Instructions here) has now been used up and down the UK and orders are still coming in for the kit via the RSGB all over the world. Its a perfect kit for newcomers or students wanting to build a radio related project for their intermediate practical assesment.

A couple of weeks ago we were asked to provide a buildathon for 21 young scientists at the BRLSI in Bath. And when I say young I really mean 8 – 14 years of age.

All but 3 kits went away working that afternoon and one of the first was a young 8yr old girl who had never held a soldering iron or had any clue what was really going on. But by the end of the day not only had she completed a build of the receiver but was decoding PSK signals on 20m in less than perfect conditions.

That was a particular highlight of mine on that day, seconded only by persuading her father to pop along to some of the in-class lessons and see what it was all about.  It seems that there is a little bit of curiosity in radio in all of us. even today !!

Whereas we are keen to knock ourselves for not connecting with the youngsters, and gaining interest in the hobby, it actually seems to be that we are not that great at following up and converting the curious mind into a radio hobbyist.

Dave Benson K1SWL and I did Field Day at Winslow State Park part way up Mt. Kearsarge. We only operated for 3 hours, but we had a fantastic time and worked stations in Washington, Oregon, California and New Mexico among many others.

Our view was the best!

We met at 11:00 am at the gas station in Wilmot Flats. Then we headed up the Kearsarge Valley Road toward the mountain. We weren’t sure what to expect… but we really lucked out. We had a spot all to ourselves at the end of a small field. We had suitable antenna trees on all sides, and hardly any bugs. A slight breeze kept us cool most of the time.

I put up an inverted L with 65 feet of wire. It went up about 30 feet and then over. I used the earchi.org 9:1 unun. The KX3 tuned perfectly on 15 meters.

Dave used a K2 with a resonant 20 meter dipole up about 35 feet. He fed it with coax and didn’t need a tuner.

We operated with solar charged batteries using Dave’s call (K1SWL) as 2B battery. Remarkably, we didn’t interfere with each other at all. A few keying remnants was all I could hear. Dave got a very slight bit of hash now and then.

Here’s Dave testing his setup before the 2:00 pm gun.

We feasted on freshly picked strawberries and cookies in between contacts. (thanks Judy!) It seemed to us that activity was down this year, but maybe it was just band conditions.

I started out using 9 AA cells with the KX3 at three watts. I didn’t have any trouble making QSOs with this setup. I just wanted to see how it would work in a competitive environment. After 30 Qs, I switched up to five watts and a LiPo battery.

The park closes at 6:00 pm and we started packing up shortly after 5:00. (We’d had enough… How do these kids go all day and half the night?) Thanks for all the Qs… see you next year.

Today I unpacked this kit which I’ve had a couple of months. I have been waiting until I feel a bit better (less wobbly and clumsy) but now feel well enough to start the build.

Ultimate 3 beacon kit – received from Japan

I’ll build the TX low pass filter for 10m first as this looks “do-able”. The other parts may have to wait a few weeks. I want the kit building but want to do it when I am fit enough. The big issue will be boxing it. My brain bleed makes drilling cases a nightmare for me.

I was surprised to find no enclosed instructions. Guess one is meant to look on the net. Only unpacked the LPF module so far.  Being very careful.

Why would an amateur radio operator be interested in space weather?  Is it worth the time and resources to forecast propagation, in the daily operation of a typical ham radio station?

Gary, host of the popular ‘Ham Radio Now’ video podcast, talks with Tomas Hood (NW7US), propagation and space weather columnist for CQ Amateur Radio Magazine (and in the late ‘Popular Communications Magazine’ as well as ‘CQ VHF Quarterly Magazine’) and The Spectrum Monitor Magazine. Gary discusses with Tomas how scientists forecast space weather, and how the average ham radio operator can also make predictions, and what propagation forecasting can bring to the daily operations of an amateur radio enthusiast.

Watch on YouTube: ‘Ham Radio Now’ Episode 156: Propagation…

Tomas, NW7US, talks about radio propagation on shortwave (HF) as well as space weather.

Today we went on a day return by train to London to be with our son Tim, his wife Jo and our grandchildren Lucien and Amandine. Tim met us and took us back to Kings Cross. Booking in advance and with Senior Rail Cards if works out cheaper than driving. At present I cannot drive because of my brain bleed last year.  It was good to spend time in their home again after so long.

With the grandchildren in London today

Totally by accident, we sat next to Nick G4IKZ on the train back from London. I’d not seen Nick since work days over 6 years ago. Many years ago we worked together in several Cambridge companies. Nick is one of the brightest minds I’ve had the privilege to know. There are few better RF engineers. We compared notes on 6m WSPR of course. He confirmed his 6m antenna is a horizontal Moxon.

Being late back, I decided not to turn the rigs on tonight.

I was up in Kasabonika, Ontario last week June 25th and 26th. I was up there doing Chainsaw training in this remote fly-in only Native Reserve. Kasabonika is located about 575kms North of Thunder Bay, Ontario. I took along my HB1B MKII with built in battery, my Elecraft T1 tuner, Chameleon Hy-Brid Micro coil and my PRC-271 whip along with a 15′ counterpoise and jaw mount to attach Hy-Brid coil to.
I called CQ for what seemed a long time while battling black flies and mosquitoes. A tune down the band on 20 meters showed W1AW loud in this community that is very much quiet in the way of line noise and other man made QRN. I tuned up just a bit to hear Peter OX3XR calling CQ with no takers, here is the information on that QSO.
Time: 2314z
Date:06-25-2014
Freq: 14052.5
Pwr:4 watts
Rig:HB1B MKII
Key:Micro switch
Antenna: Chameleon Hy-Brid Micro and PRC271 whip and 15’counterpoise with jaw mount
Location: Kasabonika, Ontario
Station worked: OX3XR
Name: Peter
His report:559
My report:539

Needless to say the contact made my day all the way around. Thanks Peter for the great contact.

Fred VE3FAL