Stories you’ll find in our April, 2016 issue:

Let Portable Antennas give you a Noise-Free Vacation
By Keith Baker KB1SF/VA3KSF

An increasing cacophony of mostly man-made RF noise on our HF bands makes it ever more difficult to hear particularly weak incoming stations, sometimes to the point of making reception of favorite shortwave or ham DX stations all but impossible at home. Keith shows us how you can take a break from noise using portable antennas that really work.

What You Should Know before Investing in an Antenna
By Richard Fisher KI6SN

Whether you are a relative newcomer to amateur radio, SWLing, TV DXing or VHF-UHF scanning, or are a seasoned card-carrying veteran, only you will know the antenna parameters best suited for your amateur station or listening post. Your own passions, needs, capabilities, real estate, budget and a jillion other factors inform your antenna choices. Richard helps sort out the options and explains how to get the most S-units per dollar spent in pursuit of DX.

Wi-Fi Radio Primer Part 1
By Thomas Witherspoon K4SWL

Always a hard-core shortwave radio listener, Thomas likes the tactile experience of turning the knobs of the shortwave, tuning in stations across the globe. So, when online listening became popular, it never occurred to him to give it a try. Then, at the 2012 Winter SWL Fest, an excellent presentation on the merits and technologies behind Wi-Fi radio intrigued him. After downloading and installing the Pro version of the TuneIn radio app, he had to admit, it was a pretty powerful listening experience…one he could easily get used to.

Piggy-Bank Ham Radio Part 1
By Cory GB Sickles WA3UVV

After hearing someone bemoan the “high cost” of amateur radio and how such a “prohibitive expense” was preventing many from becoming hams, his knee jerk reaction was, “Really?” Sure, if you’re referring to a super-mega-über contest station, then he might agree, but just to get started, you don’t need deep pockets—just some preparation and some well-placed effort. Cory outlines a “cheap and dirty” way to start enjoying HF—with the basic Technician class license. Just as ham radio itself has no barriers as to age, the ideas he shares can work for anyone, whether you’re a student, retiree or somewhere in between.

Multiple FTA Satellite Reception Techniques Revisited
By Mike Kohl

The most cost effective way to get into Free-to-Air satellite reception is with 75 to 90-cm antennas for most Ku-band reception because they’re cheaper and shipping costs are less. But needing to monitor multiple FTA satellites forces a decision about whether to use multiple Ku-band antennas linked together with a DiSEqC switch, or to motorize one or more antennas. Which Ku-band satellites do we actually watch on a regular basis? After the busy Galaxy 19 satellite at 97 degrees West, what satellites do we need continuous access from on a 24 hour basis? Mike shows us how to properly set up a motorized Ku-band dish or use a DiSEqC switch.

Scanning America
By Dan Veenaman
Growing Acceptance of TETRA

Federal Wavelengths
By Chris Parris
The 2016 Political Season

Utility Planet
By Hugh Stegman NV6H
Uncovering U-2s on HF

Digital HF: Intercept and Analyze
By Mike Chace-Ortiz AB1TZ/G6DHU
US ALE Smorgasbord

HF Utility Logs
By Mike Chace-Ortiz and Hugh Stegman

Digitally Speaking
By Cory Sickles WA3UVV
Digital Destinations

VHF and Above
By Joe Lynch N6CL
The Meteor Shower Nobody Saw—Revisited—Again

Amateur Radio Insights
By Kirk Kleinschmidt NT0Z
Home-Brewing and Kit Building Isn’t What It Used To Be—But It’s Almost What It Will Be!

Radio 101
By Ken Reitz KS4ZR
Last of the Standalone DRM Portable Radios?

Radio Propagation
By Tomas Hood NW7US
Season of Lights (Aurora)

The World of Shortwave Listening
By Rob Wagner VK3BVW
Clandestine Stations Alive and Well

The Shortwave Listener
By Fred Waterer
The Queen’s Birthday, KBC Cutback and VOA Tibet

Maritime Monitoring
By Ron Walsh VE3GO
Radio Action on the Great Lakes Returns

The Longwave Zone
By Kevin O’Hern Carey WB2QMY
Spring Remedies

Adventures in Radio Restoration
By Rich Post KB8TAD
Sound and Light: The Mitchell Lumitone 1260

Antenna Connections
By Dan Farber AC0LW
Multi-banding a Single Antenna: Several Routes Beckon

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I’m fairly new to this amateur radio community and I’ve already learned a lot. What excites me about it, beyond making contacts, is the making of parts and equipment. Homemade or homebrew items are sprinkled liberally around the community. I appreciate what I have learned and I’m excited to learn more.

So, here’s my problem:

I went through a couple of radios, mainly mobile radios, until I found suitable base radio for starters. After my young son decided to play with my adjustable power supply, he fried my Yaesu 8900, beyond repair. I took it to a local operator, who, after careful investigation and minor repair, declared the radio dead. He offered his condolences and offered that he might be selling a radio, not that he was trying to force me to buy it. I inquired about this radio. It was a Kenwood TS-2000. Looks nice and has a lot of buttons. He told me he was going to take it to the local ham fest to sell and if it didn’t he’d make it a good deal for me.

As fate would have it, the radio didn’t sell. Indeed, he sold it to me for an undisclosed amount that was more than a good deal for me. He added an HP DPS-1200FB server power supply to avoid the incident to which my Yaesu had succumbed. I was happy and overwhelmed. This radio was more than I ever imagined, and I’m still learning about it after almost a year.

Eventually, I discovered that VOX is very useful for HF work. So, I added a cheap computer studio mic and went to work on HF. Then, there are the local nets on the local repeaters. While not forbidden to use VOX on the repeater, setting things was just a bit tricky. So, I opted to use the supplied Kenwood dynamic push-to-talk mic for repeater work.

Now, the two mics are in play. Any time I switched between the repeaters and HF, I also switched mics. I had to disconnect one and attach the other, which, besides being cumbersome, just made me worried I’d eventually mess up the connectors.

Behold! The idea for a microphone selector switch was born.

Read the rest of this entry »

This handy item, purchased recently on eBay, can be useful for those needing an inexpensive frequency counter and tone code analyzer.

It comes complete with battery, three inch telescoping antenna — but no instructions. Size is 4 x 2 3/8 x 1 inch and comes in camo color.

To turn on just press the button on left side to reset the unit, then hit the transmit key of the test radio, and in a second it reads the frequency and tone. It shuts off automatically after about 10 seconds. The back cover has a convenient hole for hanging the unit.

As per the manufacturer it covers 50 MHz – 2.4 GHz and I have tried it on 2m, 70 cm bands, and on the FRS band. It seems to work fine. Can’t say how long this unit will last but if someone wants a much better and much more expensive unit, Optoelectronics makes one for nearly $500: http://www.optoelectronics.com/#!cd100/c6qo

For years I have been an avid chaser of DX and special event stations. I am accustomed to patiently working pile-ups. I have also been an operator of a special event station and have had to pick out callers trying to get through. I know how hard it is to be on both sides of the pile.

I appreciate when the special event operator is overwhelmed with callers and decides to use split frequency operations or operations by the prefix number. This help to reduce the chaos and allows a lot more stations to be heard. However, it is frustrating when the special event operator switches to prefix numbers after I have been working the pile-up awhile, and almost always begin with numbers starting with “1.” I am in “9” land, which means I have to wait another 30-45 minutes for my chance. If I am lucky, propagation is still good but many times that isn’t the case.

I realize that this is just part of operations. However, it might help if the special event operator limited the number of stations or minutes operating each prefix number so that everyone gets a chance without losing propagation.

Another idea would be for the operator to consider starting numbers beginning with “0” or “9” areas once in awhile. The point is to give everyone a reasonable and timely chance to work the pile-up.

As a young man, I was a CW Radio Operator aboard a U.S. Coast Guard Cutter (CastleRock/NBZF), I was thrilled everyday to go on watch. It led to me getting a ham ticket in 1955 and thereafter, enjoying the hobby. I always stayed a “CW” operator and never enjoyed the 2-meter FM “thing” as it seemed more like CB to me!

Later in life I got the opportunity to work on Merchant Marine vessels, and after some 30 years, with the exception of Telex, not much had changed.. CW was still alive and well, though many of the shore stations began closing down (i.e. WCC, WSL, KPH, etc.).

The writing was in the wall when more and more ships traffic went Telex.. Frankly, because of the length of a majority of these messages, including ship food stores and engine room parts, my keyer would have blown up!

Then not long after, they brought cell phones aboard — the beginning of the end for the ship’s Radio Officers. In 1999, most of the remaining Coast Guard and commercial Maritime stations went silent.

All I can tell you is that while it lasted , it was a great job. But it’s hard to call something a job when you have loved it all your life.

I am very concerned about our hobby these days: no CW requirement. Why would today’s generation want to study for a test when all they have to do is get online and they can communicate all over the world with no QRM, QRN, QSB etc.?

I can see the increase in FM 2-meter and 450 MHz FM for emergency help and that is great, but on the other hand is it actually “hamming” or “quasi police work?”

This is the trouble we older hams have, we live in the past trying to eek out a weak CW signal from some far off country.

With my 100 watts and dipole antenna, I had nightly CW QSO’S with ZL2LI from Christchurch, NZ while I was in Cleveland, Ohio. We could barely hear each other on some nights pushing the “cans” closer to my ears. But it was a thrill each and every time. Will the kids of today ever experience that?

On 7035 kHz., every night we had high speed CW ops from the “CFO” required minimum speeds of 45 WPM and nomination came from at least 2 CFO operators. This club was started by Jim Ricks. W9TO who had invented the famous Hallicrafters “TO” keyer. There are over 1,500 members.

But most of the ops like me are aging.. We need new young blood to keep the organization going.

The fact of the matter is we need new young ops in our most wonderful hobby to learn and use CW So that this art is NEVER lost.