Stories you’ll find in our September, 2017 issue:

Icom IC-R8600 All-Band All-Mode Software Defined Receiver
By Bob Grove W8JHD

To say that Bob Grove, a longtime radio reviewer, is impressed with this new offering from Icom, is a severe understatement. Bob writes, “With the release of this Software Defined Receiver, analog receiver design is relegated to history. Never before have so many features and options been offered in one general-coverage receiver. No wonder it comes with a 93-page, 8 x 10-inch instruction manual!”

Electrical Pioneers: The Life and Times of Guglielmo Marconi and Ernst Alexanderson
By Georg Wiessala

Regular TSM contributor, Georg Wiessala, explores the lives of two of radio’s legendary pioneers. He notes, “It is hard to imagine in our own age just how groundbreaking, confusing and inspirational the work of the early radio pioneers was in theirs, at a time when even the Eiffel Tower became a radio mast. However, our era of borderless communication and technological advance carries with it echoes of the ‘globalization’ of earlier times, as the 19th Century turned into the 20th.”

Rocky Mountain Ham Radio Inc., the Dayton Hamvention 2016 Club of the Year
By Wayne Heinen N0POH

RM Ham, as Rocky Mountain Ham Radio, Inc., is known, is a different kind of amateur radio group—it’s not a club where you fill out an application, pay your dues and join. You can only become a member by participating with the group and over time, if you pitch in on a regular basis, you get an invitation to have your name added to the roster. The exclusive nature of this club is actually its greatest strength. Wayne explains the incredible things this group of hams have accomplished and how your club can benefit from their organizational skills.

Impact of the FCC’s TV-Band Repack
By Mike Kohl

Despite the reported $1.75 billion set aside by Congress to pay winners in the spectrum auction, there are many surprises awaiting the FCC that perhaps should have been expected in advance. Not the least of which forces the FCC to go back to congress to ask for enough money to affect band repack changes. Radio stations, low-power TV translators, even amateur radio clubs will be affected by changes mandated by the FCC. Mike explains the process currently changing the landscape of America’s TV band that will continue taking place over the next three years.

Scanning America
By Dan Veeneman
Dubuque, Iowa, and RACOM

Federal Wavelengths
By Chris Parris
Portable WHCA Trunked Systems

Milcom
By Larry Van Horn N5FPW
Twentieth-Century Military Monitoring—This isn’t Your Daddy’s Milcom Anymore

Utility Planet
By Hugh Stegman NV6H
Tracking the Buzzer: The World’s Most Popular Radio Station?

Shortwave Utility Logs
Compiled by Hugh Stegman and Mike Chace-Ortiz

VHF and Above
By Joe Lynch N6CL
Honey, I Repurposed the Loop!

Amateur Radio Insights
By Kirk Kleinschmidt NT0Z
Are Hams Well-meaning Scofflaws?

Radio 101
By Ken Reitz KS4ZR
The Ups and Downs of Antenna Installations

Radio Propagation
By Tomas Hood NW7US
Historic Event in Cycle 24: the GLE

World of Shortwave Listening
By Jeff White
Shortwave Broadcasters Meet on the West Coast of North America for the First Time

The Shortwave Listener
By Fred Waterer
North vs. South Korea on Shortwave; CFRX, BBC Programming and More!

Amateur Radio Satellites
By Keith Baker KB1SF/VA3KSF
Spotlight on Chinese Amateur Radio Satellites

The Longwave Zone
By Kevin O’Hern Cary WB2QMY
Gear up for a New Season!

Adventures is Radio Restoration
By Rich Post KB8TAD
The “Moving Coil” Radio: National NC-100 (RCK Version)

Antenna Connections
By Dan Farber AC0LW
Antenna 101: A Nuts and Bolts Review

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.

The Banggood portable BF-UV8D retails on eBay for just £14.25 with free shipping to the UK from China. In all honesty, just how can anyone compete?

This is a 5W RF 400-480MHz transceiver and comes complete with charger, back clip, antenna and battery. If I was Yaesu, Icom and Kenwood I’d throw in the towel now. Once the Chinese really wake up, the Japanese manufacturers have no chance of surviving. The Japanese will be driven more and more to niche markets, then die. I cannot see them staying around in the amateur market for too long.

At the moment the Japanese have quality on their side, but the Chinese will soon be as good. At the moment it seems everything, just about, is made in China. Recently I bought some Olympus binoculars – these said “Made in China”. The Chinese seem to be able to make most things at prices that simply cannot be matched.

20 years from now we’ll be living in a very different world.

You can buy a 433MHz module for just over £1 with free shipping from China!!

They make profits too, so how do they do it?

In this episode we talk with Ria Jairam, N2RJ, again. I had Ria on my podcast back in episode 76 where we talked about Software Defined Radios. This time around, we talk about Remote Operations.

Remote operations has come a long way in the past 20 years or so. I have heard about people having a remote site 10-15 years ago, but their setups is a lot harder to make. Now, you can do it with just a Radio and an internet connection. Well you might need some wires and stuff too but…

Ria was kind enough to let me use her station last week remotely. Ria lives in New Jersy and I live in Texas. While I was using it I made my first HF contact in probably 15 years to a gentleman in TN and another one from IL. So basically I was talking from Texas to New Jersey to Tennessee and Illinois.

Technology has advanced so far and makes working remotely a lot easier. I recently listened to an episode of the Hamradio 360: Workbench podcast where George was talking with Michael VA3MW about his setup. The reason that he did remote operations was because he lived in the city and his noise floor was way up, but he had another piece of property, a family cabin if I’m not mistaken, that he setup his station at and was able to connect remotely to it from his home.

The reasons for operating a station remotely are vast.

• You live in an HOA or another antenna restricted location.
• You live in a retirement home but you still want to make those DX contacts.
• You live somewhere that has a high noise floor and you couldn’t make a contact even if you had an awesome setup
• Maybe you can’t afford a $1000+ HF setup, you can RENT the use of a remote station.

Listen to the episode and check out the show notes

Judy and I rode our bicycles from Andover to the Potter Place railroad station. I operated in the Worked All Europe contest and managed 9 countries in 20 minutes. The weather was perfect and 20 meters was in good shape.

What a day for a bike ride… a perfect August afternoon. It was nearly 80F with a nice breeze. We arrived at Potter Place around 3:00 pm. I tossed a half wave wire over a maple tree on the hill over looking the old station. There was a picnic table directly underneath. I used the KX3 on 20 meters.

The band was full of stations operating in the WAE contest. I had no trouble making contacts. I’ve changed my log to show the countries worked.

13 Aug-17 1925 14.041 SN7Q CW 599 599 Poland
13 Aug-17 1927 14.036 OM3RM CW 599 599 Slovak Rep
13 Aug-17 1928 14.031 RU1A CW 599 599 Russia
13 Aug-17 1930 14.030 DM6V CW 599 599 Germany
13 Aug-17 1933 14.030 HG5F CW 599 599 Hungary
13 Aug-17 1935 14.019 S500R CW 599 599 Slovenia
13 Aug-17 1936 14.021 DP6A CW 599 599 Germany
13 Aug-17 1938 14.023 R6AF CW 599 599 Russia
13 Aug-17 1942 14.033 ED2A CW 599 599 Spain
13 Aug-17 1944 14.039 YO9HP CW 599 599 Romania
13 Aug-17 1945 14.043 9A1AA CW 599 599 Croatia

After nearly a dozen QSOs, I packed up for the return ride. The results from operating QRP out of a backpack with a short wire must be the closest thing to pure magic. Combined with a glorious bike ride… well… it’s fantastic!

Ham Cram is accepting registrations for an online guided-study Extra Class licensing course. The course begins in late September and is co-sponsored by the Gloucester County Amateur Radio Club, GCARC.

The W1UL ham cram method has four distinguishing characteristics:

• Incorrect answers are not studied
• Only those questions most likely to be on the VE test are studied
• It’s the fastest and most reliable path to a license or upgrade
• It’s free!

This course differs substantially from the normal Ham-Cram.com independent study license prep because the Extra class pool is 50% larger than the Technician or General Class pools, making associations between question and answers more difficult. In addition the Extra subject material is more challenging.

A required book is offered for free but donations are requested. The donations will be exclusively used to enhance the ham-cram.com website. The purpose of the book is showing pool questions and answers in context.

Here is the normal (non-context) display:

(E0A05) What is one of the potential hazards of using microwaves in the amateur radio bands?

The high gain antennas commonly used can result in high exposure levels

The answer follows the question.

Here is the same question in context:

(E0A05) What is one of the potential hazards of using microwaves in the amateur radio bands?

An antenna creates by taking energy that would normally radiate from the side or back of the antenna and concentrating it in the desired direction. Microwave frequencies have exceptionally short wavelength allowing development of antennas having substantially higher amounts of radiation (gain) raising the effective radiated power in the desired direction.

Contextual usage does not make you an expert but it gives you additional insight into the question and answer pair.
Candidates complete and report on their results of assignments and participate in discussions on a dedicated email reflector. The pace of the course is initially targeted at one subelement (out of 10) per week but actual progress depends upon the pace of candidate assignment completion.

For those with commuting distance of the GCARC clubhouse in Mullica Hill, NJ (across the river from Philadelphia), the course will terminate with a two hour review session immediately followed by a VE test. However, W1UL will conduct a review session and VE test for any club in the ARRL SNJ section or any location within 70 miles of Tuckerton, NJ provided there are at least three candidates, (not all necessarily from the same club), a club furnished location for the review/VE session and the club provides two additional Extra class VEs. For people not in the Southern NJ area the email reflector used for the rest of the course will host the review.

Reserve a virtual seat for the course now since reservations may be limited.

Email urb at ham-cram dot com with reservations request and questions.

73 Urb W1UL – 67 Years a Ham