Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 215
August 18th, 2018 | 
Author: 
FT8 QSO Mode
No character type restrictions, 23 characters per 15 second transmit period.
KN4CRD
ARRL annual report highlights membership problems
Membership is forecast to continue to decline in 2018 (2% loss is forecast).
KB6NU
New FCC Part 95 rules
Additional FRS channels and increased power on certain FRS channels from 0.5 W to 2 W.
ARRL
AREDN mesh network progress
We have been working on bringing up an AREDN mesh network at ARRL HQ and here at AA6E.
AA6E
Nunavut operation
Active from Iqaluit, Nunavut as VY0BRR using all modes and all bands except 160.
Southgate
How much battery do you really need?
There are some basic battery concepts that will help you sort through this confusing topic.
Off Grid Ham
Breaking ground
With building permit in hand, it’s finally time to get my vertical… vertical again!
W0EA
SDR-Remote: A physical tuning and control knob for SDR#
This is a physical tuning knob that connects to your PC, and can be used with programs like SDR#.
RTL-SDR.com
Screwdriver antenna experiences
Even on a compact SUV.
Surrey Amateur Radio Club
Video
More on the J-pole Antenna
A close look at how the J-pole antenna works with special attention to how it’s fed.
David Casler
How to decode 433Mhz low power devices
Here we take a look at decoding some of the micro transmissions from Low Power Devices on the 433Mhz band using RTL433 software for Linux and Windows.
Tech Minds
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Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 214
All about Ham Radio
An introduction to the world of amateur radio.
SparkFun
JumboSpot DMR Hotspot
One of the latest crazes in the world of DMR radio is the Chinese iteration of the DMR hotspot. The principal attraction? Low cost. The Jumbospot costs about $45.
John Hagensieker
Light Up 2 Meters Night, an FM Simplex Event
August 26, 2018 7-9pm local time.
K5ACL
Radio hams at DEF CON 26
DEF CON 26 is taking place August 9-15 in Las Vegas and radio amateurs will be there giving presentations on HAARP, amateur satellite communications, and SDR’s.
Southgate
DIY vs. commercially made solar panel
The price of commercially made solar panels on eBay is around $1 per watt and have been for a few years, but the price of individual solar cells are likewise at a low price per watt, around $0.48.
Hack A Day
Receiving GOES weather satellite with a 2.4 GHz WiFi grid antenna
GOES 15/16/17 are geosynchronous weather satellites that beam back high resolution weather images and data.
RTL-SDR.com
Moving Pictures: First dabbles in Amateur TV
I’ve spent the last couple of weeks experimenting with some Amateur Television ATV and Digital ATV.
AmateurRadio.com
Wisconsin residents embrace Amateur Radio
An estimated 2 million people are on the airways worldwide, according to the American Radio Relay League. About 830,000 amateur radio stations are located across North, Central, and South America alone.
U.S. News
A primer on grounding for Hams
Nothing like a fierce electrical storm to get Hams talking about susceptibility to lightning strikes. Well, we experienced just such a storm in early August, which provides the perfect opportunity to review the topic.
VE7SAR
Video
Building a multi-band HF dipole antenna
Here I build a multi-band dipole antenna for HF use on 40-20-15-10-6 meters. Some call this a fan dipole.
RadioHamGuy
Nashville Amateur Radio Club Field Day 2018
NARC Field Day 2018 at Lock 2 Park, Nashville, TN
K4CPO
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The Spectrum Monitor — August, 2018
Stories you’ll find in our August, 2018 issue:
SHARES: The Federal Government’s Plan-B HF Communications System
By Steve Handler
In the aftermath of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crises, President John F. Kennedy wanted to improve the communications systems that linked the federal agencies. The goal was to provide better interconnectivity and also survivability of the system in the event of war or natural disasters. The result was the National Communications System (NCS). On September 20, 1988, NCS created the SHAred RESources (SHARES) High Frequency (HF) Radio program. This program was tasked with backing up the landline, and later cellular, telephone systems. Current SHARES participants include the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Health, and Human Services, Homeland Security, Interior, Justice, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs. Other governmental entities include the Federal Communications Commission, General Services Administration, NASA, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Non-governmental organizations include entities such as the American Red Cross. Critical telecommunications infrastructure companies such as AT&T and Verizon also participate in SHARES. Steve explains how it all works.
APRS and other Digital Communications: Part 1
By Cory GB Sickles WA3UVV
While many hams may think of APRS as a mode that has little more to offer than beaconing and radiolocation functions, it is a figurative Swiss Army Knife of utilities that can be of use in contacting other hams while traveling, exchanging quick text messages, satellite communications, email, public service, and many other activities. From the mechanical age of RTTY, with its clacking printers chewing through rolls of paper to the peculiar digital whine of FT8, amateur radio has always been at the forefront of wireless digital communications. Cory explores the various facets of APRS and other non-verbal digital communications in Part 1 by looking first at the history of digital communications starting with the original binary code: CW.
Not the Sounds of Silence: Exploring the ELF and VLF Bands
By Georg Wiesalla
The many (man-made) signals and (nature) sounds in the low frequency regions can travel for thousands of kilometers all around the globe and inside the Earth-Ionosphere waveguide. Therefore, ELF and VLF emissions have been, and are still being studied for a very wide range of military and scientific purposes. They can be found in many areas of science and public life, even in some leisure pursuits including aviation, amateur radio, detection of nuclear explosions, ELF and VLF-range emissions by meteorites, geological mapping, ionospheric research, military communications, radio astronomy, seismic research and under-sea exploration and oceanography. Georg takes us on a journey into radio depths.
Buying New and Used Radio Gear
By Robert Gulley AK3Q
Buying new or used radio equipment can be a daunting task for the experienced radio enthusiast, but even more so for folks new to the hobby. As an avid radio enthusiast and amateur radio operator, Robert has owned many different types of radios and associated radio equipment. From AM/FM broadcast radios to scanners, shortwave radios to amateur gear, and very old radios, to some of the latest SDR equipment, he has purchased gear from many different sources. He has been very fortunate (and yes even lucky) in that very few purchases have been made from less-than-honest people. The few, which were bad experiences, certainly taught him some valuable lessons.
Scanning America
By Dan Veeneman
Lenoir County (NC); Missouri Dept. of Conservation
Federal Wavelengths
By Chris Parris
Nevada Scanner Safari 2018
Milcom
By Larry Van Horn N5FPW
Military UHF Traffic Control Frequencies
Utility Planet
By Hugh Stegman
The Silent Summer: US Gets Quieter
Shortwave Utility Logs
By Hugh Stegman and Mike Chace-Ortiz
VHF and Above
By Joe Lynch N6CL
It’s All About Propagation
Digitally Speaking
By Cory GB Sickles WA3UVV
DV33
Amateur Radio Insights
By Kirk Kleinschmidt NT0Z
Portable Generators: Test and Enjoy!
Radio 101
Ken Reitz KS4ZR
Monitoring HF Marine Radio During the Tropical Storm Season
Radio Propagation
By Tomas Hood NW7US
Solar Wind and Coronal Mass Ejections
The World of Shortwave Listening
By Rob Wagner VK3BVW
FT8, WSPR and the Shortwave Listener
The Shortwave Listener
By Fred Waterer
Health on SW; Canada as DX; BBC Offerings
Amateur Radio Astronomy
By Stan Nelson KB5VL
Cosmic Podcasts; Books, Charts and the National Radio Quiet Zone
The Longwave Zone
By Kevin O’Hern Carey WB2QMY
SDR: You can do it!
Adventures in Radio Restoration
By Rich Post KB8TAD
The Rescue: Drake SPR4 Communications Receiver
Antenna Connections
By Dan Farber AC0LW
Collinear Array: Multiple Elements in a Single Piece
The Spectrum Monitor is available in PDF format which can be read on any desktop, laptop, iPad®, Kindle® Fire, or other device capable of opening a PDF file. Annual subscription is $24. Individual monthly issues are available for $3 each.
Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 213
ISS packet radio system back late this year
The currently silent packet radio system on the International Space Station could be back on the air by year’s end.
ARRL
Tutorial: Plot and decode weather balloon data
A radiosonde is a small weather sensor package that is typically attached to a weather balloon. As it rises into the atmosphere it measures parameters such as temperature, humidity, pressure, GPS location etc, and transmits this data back down to a receiver base station using a radio signal.
RTL-SDR.com
Edwin Armstrong’s Battle for FM Radio
It is a story of innovation, but also a story of personal vanity, corporate greed, stubbornness, marital problems, and even suicide. The only thing missing is a long-lost identical twin sibling to turn it into a full telenovela.
Hack A Day
Locating Sources Of Noise
As our lives become filled with technology, the likelihood of electronic interference increases. Every lamp dimmer, garage-door opener or other new technical “toy” contributes to the electrical noise around us.
Surrey Amateur Radio Club
Digital nets on 11m
Digital modes (ROS, FT8, SSTV, PSK31) are emerging on 11 meters.
Delta Alfa
Milliwatt DX on 868 MHz
Packets transmitted by the gateway of Ryan Walmsley, member of The Things Network East Coast, Great Yarmouth, was received 235 km away in Utrecht, Netherlands.
Southgate
Q&A: Summer of Tariffs
Will a 25 percent tariff be material on a single switch purchase costing a few dollars? Of course not. But this helps illustrate that once you start entering into the hundreds and thousands of dollars, these tariffs begin having an impact.
SparkFun
Ruth Willet is 2018 Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial Award recipient
The Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial Award is given annually by the board to a radio amateur under the age of 21 whose accomplishments and contributions to both Amateur Radio and the local community are of an exemplary nature.
ARRL
Video
QRP vs 20 Watts – What is the Practical Difference?
Running one hour in a contest at 5 watts, and the next hour at 20 watts.
Outdoors On The Air
Flight of the Bumblebees 2018
This is a popular QRP CW amateur radio event. The Bumblebees are portable stations.
N4KGL
Compact Homebrew End Fed QRP Antenna
I built this antenna specifically for low wattage QRP use to be compact and inexpensive. It utilizes a 9:1 unun wrapped on a T106-2 toroid and minimal hardware to be lightweight.
WI9LL
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Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 212
Significant changes in store for FT8 and MSK144
Enhanced versions of the MSK144 and FT8 protocols will extend the message payload to 77 bits.
ARRL
ISS SSTV activation July 30-31
The Russian cosmonauts on the International Space Station are expected to activate amateur radio Slow Scan Television (SSTV) transmissions.
AMSAT UK
Why wire diameter is important
The larger the cross-sectional area of the conductor, the more electrons are available to carry the current.
VE7SAR
3D printed Arrow II portable satellite antenna clips
WI9LL has designed clips for use with the Arrow II Portable hand held satellite antenna.
WI9LL
Operating tips for VHF SOTA
I’ve been using VHF and higher frequencies for SOTA exclusively and have activated over 100 summits in Colorado and other states.
K0NR
FCC proposes $18,000 fine for Ham in interference case
“Given his history as a repeat offender, these apparent violations warrant a significant penalty.”
ARRL
A visit to the home of FreeDV and codec2
I knew I was in the right place when the squid pole supporting a corner dipole came in to view.
Marxy
WWFD in AM HD
America’s only AM HD station.
The SWLing Post
Is your repeater ID boring? Try something like this.
If your repeater ID is getting a little stale, perhaps this will give you some ideas on how to freshen it up a bit.
KB6NU
Receiving astronaut Amateur Radio conversations with an RTL-SDR
If you live in an area that can ‘see’ the ISS at the same time as the school then you can easily pick up the downlink.
RTL-SDR.com
Send APRS data/telemetry via Xastir command line
You can do it all via RF if your Xastir setup is already paired to the radio and configured to transmit.
S55MA
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Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 211
Ham radio technology used in Thailand cave rescue
UK radio amateur John Hey G3TDZ (SK) designed the special low frequency radio equipment, the Heyphone, used in the recent cave rescue in Thailand.
Southgate
SDR: Direction finding techniques
Public KiwiSDRs distributed around the world can be used to pinpoint the physical locations of any 0 – 30 MHz transmitter using the TDoA technique.
RTL-SDR
New: No Nonsense Amateur Radio Podcast
The No Nonsense Amateur Radio Podcast is a discussion of where we are in amateur radio and where we’re going. It is a production of Dan, KB6NU, and Tom, KB5RF.
No Nonsense Podcast
A short guide on baluns
Unless precautions are taken to minimize it, all coax fed antennas will have significant current flowing on the outside of the coax shield while transmitting.
Surrey Amateur Radio Club
ARRL contest award certificates now available for download
This new online certificate feature will offer enhanced content over what has been offered previously on ARRL certificates.
ARRL
88 MHz Trans-Atlantic signals heard in Ireland
Northern Ireland managed to hear a Canadian radio station across the Atlantic at 88 MHz.
EI7GL
W6/NC-353, Burdell Mountain – 2018
I did this summit late last year as my first morse code activation. Last time it was a combo POTA/SOTA activation. This time would be only SOTA. And it was a heck of a lot warmer too!
KE6MT
Shortwave radio listening continues its steep decline
Shortwave audiences are virtually disappearing in Pakistan, and down substantially in Nigeria.
BBC
3D printed 10KV tuning capacitor
I will show you how to build a super-cheap tuning capacitor that will tolerate up to 10,000 Volts of RF and allow you to use up to about 100 Watts of RF into my 14MHz (20m) antenna.
The SWLing Post
Directive Systems 2 Meter Rover Yagi
With an 8 foot boom, it’s just the right size to fit on the roof of my SUV for transport and works great on the fiberglass push-up mast.
K5ND
Video
Make your own LED battery level indicator
In this video I will show you how we can use the classic LM3914 IC to create an LED Battery Level Indicator.
YouTube
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Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 210
K4R Dry Tortugas EL84 roving trip on schedule
Robert KE4AL, Rich N4ESS, and Matthew, NJ4Y will be arriving on Garden Key, EL84np in the Dry Tortugas mid-day on Friday July 6, staying all day Saturday, and then leaving Sunday morning July 8.
Southgate
Postmortem decoding of SSTV/APRS
SSTV decoding went quite fine using the Android app Robot36.
Notizbl0g.
Exposing hospital pager privacy breaches
It has been a known open secret that for years many hospitals have been transmitting sensitive patient data over the air completely unencrypted via their pager network.
RTL-SDR.com
The legacy of Iraq’s amateur operators lives on
People from all over the world reached out to Baghdad’s team of “hams” in hope that they could lend a helping hand.
The National
Radio Amateur to pay $7,000 to settle FCC interference case
Ham intentionally interfered with the communications of other Amateur Radio operators and failed to properly identify.
ARRL
Home Beaches On The Air
Beaches On The Air (BOTA) is an award scheme for radio amateurs and shortwave listeners that encourages portable operation from beaches.
BOTA
No more bullying
This form records reports of bullying within Amateur Radio in Australia.
VK6
Pentagon Amateur Radio Club
The Pentagon Amateur Radio Club (PARC) is open to all active duty military, government civilians, or contractors assigned to the Pentagon.
K4AF
15 kilometre LoRa SSH link with RNode
I decided I’d try to see if I could create a useable SSH link over a distance of 15 kilometres, with just two RNodes, and no intermediaries.
unsigned.io
Video
How to hack your 433 MHz Devices
Hacking an outdoor awning to auto retract based on windspeed gathered from a home weather station.
YouTube
