AmateurRadio.com

I took a bike ride for the first time this year. I rode along the Pemigewasset River and worked Wisconsin and Florida. It was a glorious day.

Starting out at Shaw Cove, the water is much higher than usual. Buds are just beginning to show. The trail is strewn with debris from spring flooding. Tree branches block parts of the trail, but I can ride around it all. I head north a bit more than a mile and stop under a huge pine tree.

I brought a half-wave end-fed for 20 meters. The wire is about 30 feet long. I tossed it over a pine branch and set up the KD1JV Mountain Topper. The view is spectacular.

I sit on the ground with the Mountain Topper in front of me.

I’m powering the rig with a Powerfilm LightSaver solar panel with built-in 18650 battery. I’m using a USB dongle to step up the voltage from 5v to 10V. It’s a perfect setup for the Mountain Topper which puts out about 3.5 watts with 10V. I can operate indefinitely as long as the sun is shining.

Right away I hear K0BXB from Wisconsin and call him. Martin gives me a 539. He is 559 to me. Soon I hear Bernie KB4JR in Florida calling CQ. He gives me a 559. He is running 500 watts and is strong to me. I tune down the band and hear Tom W2TMT from Florida calling CQ. Tom gives me a 559. He is a strong 599.

After operating for 20 minutes, I pack up for the ride back. Soon the black flies will be out and bike rides will be troublesome for a few weeks. I take one last snapshot of the sparkling river.

Jim Cluett, W1PID, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Hampshire, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

The Summits On The Air (SOTA) program originated in the United Kingdom but has propagated to most countries around the world. The program came to Colorado on May 1st, 2010 with Steve/WGØAT sending a CQ from Mount Herman, just west of Monument. Today, the SOTA program in Colorado (called WØC-SOTA) is very active with roughly 180 activators that operate from Colorado summits.

To celebrate our 10th Anniversary, WØC-SOTA is organizing a 10-10-10 Event with a challenge for Activators and Chasers alike. (Activators operate from summits, Chasers try to contact them.)

Activator challenge: Activate 10 (or more) 10K feet (or higher) summits (in Colorado/WØC) within 10 days.

Chaser challenge: Chase Activators on 10 different (or more) qualifying WØC summits (10K or higher) within the 10 days.

Event Date: We will kick-off the event in conjunction with the Colorado 14er event on August 7th, 2021 and conclude on August 16th.

Everybody is invited to participate, either as an Activator or a Chaser. Block off these days in your calendar now and start planning for how you can participate. Feel free to operate as much or as little as you would like. It is all about having fun messing around with radios. Any HF, VHF or UHF band can be used for making SOTA contacts, with the most popular ones being 40m (CW & SSB), 20m (CW & SSB) and 2m (FM).

There will be a leaderboard on the W0C-SOTA website showing all participants who meet one of the challenges. More details will be announced on the WØC-SOTA Website as soon as they are hashed out.

For more information on the SOTA program in general, see the worldwide SOTA website.

Full Disclosure: May 1 is actually the 11th Anniversary, but the COVID-19 Pandemic interfered in 2020, so we are catching up.

 

The post Celebrating 10 Years of Summits On The Air in Colorado appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

Bob Witte, KØNR, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Colorado, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

In this episode, Martin (M1MRB) is joined by Chris Howard M0TCH, Dan Romanchik KB6NU and Edmund Spicer M0MNG to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. Colin (M6BOY) rounds up the news in brief and in this episode we feature The not so simple Dipole

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• Updated Radio Frequency Exposure Rules Become Effective on 3rd May 2021
• New 122GHz DX Record
• Amateur Radio has a New Census
• Radio Amateur Helps Rescuers to Locate Lost Hiker
• YOTA Summer Camp Croatia Postponed to 2022
• GB5UTA Active in June for U3A Event
• 60 Metres in New Zealand

Colin Butler, M6BOY, is the host of the ICQ Podcast, a weekly radio show about Amateur Radio. Contact him at [email protected].

Joyce/K0JJW and I did another activation of Mt Herman (W0C/FR-063) today. This is a repeat summit for us this year but we were looking for an easy hike not too far from home.

As usual, we were just using the VHF/UHF bands for the activation. My favorite rig for this type of SOTA activation is a Yaesu FT-90, a very compact mobile transceiver (4 x 1.2 x 5.4 inches) that is no longer manufactured. It has a unique heatsink with an integral fan that can handle the heat from the 50-watt transmitter.  We use a Bioenno 4.5 Ah LFP battery to supply the power for the radio.

I was trying to work Bob/W0BV about 65 miles away and we were not able to complete the contact. The distance is not too difficult but there are several mountain ranges in the way. Sometimes we can get the electromagnetic waves to sneak through, but not today. Hiking down the mountain, I was thinking about how we could have probably made the QSO on SSB or CW, instead of FM.  I chose not to bring the all-mode transceiver (FT-817) along today, so that was not an option.

That is when the idea hit me. The FT-90 is the right form-factor and power level for VHF/UHF SOTA but it is limited to FM. Yaesu, if you are listening, here’s what I’d really like to see in a small mobile transceiver:

• FT-90 size radio, perhaps a little larger but not much
• 2m and 70 cm bands (include 1.25m if you’d like)
• At least 25 watts of output power, more would be better (say 50 watts)
• All mode capability (CW/SSB/FM/Digital), sure go ahead and toss C4FM in too.
• No internal battery…I’m going to have to use an external battery anyway to get enough battery capacity

At various times, I have had people ask “why don’t they put SSB in handheld radios?” They recognize that SSB has weak-signal advantages over FM, so they wish their handheld transceiver (HT) could do it. I say rather than shove more features into an HT, put it in an FT-90 size radio. It would be a much more usable solution.

Although I arrived at this radio concept thinking about SOTA, it would also be a great mobile rig for general use. The FT-90 was popular because it was very compact AND it had a removable faceplate that could be mounted almost anywhere. There really is no way to get VHF/UHF SSB into a vehicle other than those all-band radios like the FT-857 and the IC-7100. Oh, did I say FT-857? Sorry, that model has been discontinued. The satellite operators will love it, too, especially if it could work 2m/70cm crossband full-duplex.

So there you go, Yaesu (or Icom)…a fantastic product concept at no charge. I would be happy to beta test it for you.

That’s my idea for today. What do you think?

73 Bob K0NR

The post Here’s the SOTA Transceiver I’d Really Like appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

Bob Witte, KØNR, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Colorado, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Unboxing the Icom AH-705 Compact Auto Tuner, one screw at a time.

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George Thomas, W5JDX, is co-host of AmateurLogic.TV, an original amateur radio video program hosted by George Thomas (W5JDX), Tommy Martin (N5ZNO), Peter Berrett (VK3PB), and Emile Diodene (KE5QKR). Contact him at [email protected].

After many IC 7610 Icom owners had seen the 7300 series radio receive a firmware upgrade some time ago Icom has just released a firmware update for the IC 7610! The upgrade is outlined below: 

Changes from Version 1.20

 [Spectrum scope is improved]

-A Scroll mode that can seamlessly change the displayed scope range, depending on the operating frequency, is added.

- A popup screen that displays when SPAN or EDGE is selected is added.

- The number of FIX EDGE memories is expanded to 4.

- The Reference level is independently memorized for each band.

- The Reference level of the Center mode scope screen while transmitting is fixed at set level independent of the user’s selection.

- The Scope function of the RS-BA1  is improved.

    

[Other changes]

-The transceiver’s settings are now retained after updating the firmware. (not when reverting to an older version)

-While operating in the Data mode, the Receive Tone Control is deactivated.

-The default setting of the CI-V USB Port is changed to “Unlink from [REMOTE].”

-The RS-BA1 Version 2 software will support the IC-7610's Scroll mode from its firmware Version 2.40.

Below is the link to the firmware update:

https://www.icomjapan.com/support/firmware_driver/3298/

Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

YUT - Replulse Bay, NU (courtesy: ve3gop.com)

Propagation on MF has been both hot and cold for the past few weeks, seemingly depending on where you live and the amount of geomagnetic activity affecting your region. As well, the Sun has been throwing a lot of Coronal Hole Streams toward earth which may or may not affect this weekend's propagation ... but this is all part of the radio-magic fun.

A 'challenge target' for listeners in North America is YUT - 335kHz in Repulse Bay, NU, at the north end of Hudson Bay. Even though running just 25 watts, it's widely heard throughout North America and Europe and is a good target for listeners everywhere. Listen for YUT's upper sideband on 335.406 kHz.

When tuning for NDBs, put your receiver in the CW mode and listen for the NDB's CW identifier, repeated every few seconds. Listen for U.S. NDB identifiers approximately 1 kHz higher or lower than the published transmitted frequency since these beacons are modulated with a 1020 Hz tone approximately.

For example, 'AA' near Fargo, ND, transmits on 365 kHz and its upper sideband CW identifier is tuned at 366.025 kHz while its lower sideband CW ident can be tuned at 363.946 kHz. Its USB tone is actually 1025 Hz while its LSB tone is 1054 Hz.

Often, one sideband will be much stronger than the other so if you don't hear the first one, try listening on the other sideband.

Canadian NDBs normally have an USB tone only, usually very close to 400 Hz. They also have a long dash (keydown) following the CW identifier.

All NDBs heard in North America will be listed in the RNA database (updated daily) while those heard in Europe may be found in the REU database. Beacons heard outside of these regions will be found in the RWW database. These databases have recently been re-vamped and are slicker than ever before!

From CLE coordinator Brian Keyte (G3SIA), comes the following CLE info:

Hello all

 

If you are interested in some remote listening - maybe due to local difficulties - you could use any one remote receiver for your loggings, stating its location and with the owner's permission if required.( e.g. see  kiwisdr.com ) A remote listener may NOT also use another receiver, local or remote, to make more loggings for the same CLE.

These listening events serve several purposes. They

• determine, worldwide, which beacons are actually in service and on-the-air so the newly-re-vamped Rxx online database can be kept up-to-date

• determine, worldwide, which beacons are out-of-service or have gone silent since the last CLE covering this range

• will indicate the state of propagation conditions at the various participant locations

• will give you an indication of how well your LF/MF receiving system is working

• give participants a fun yet challenging activity to keep their listening skills honed

Final details can be found at the NDB List website, and worldwide results, for every participant, will be posted there a few days after the event.


The NDB List Group is a great place to learn more about the 'Art of NDB DXing' or to meet other DXers in your region. There is a lot of good information available there and new members are always very welcome. As well, you can follow the results of other CLE participants from night to night as propagation is always an active topic of discussion.

You need not be an NDB List member to participate in the CLEs and all reports, no matter how small, are of much value to the organizers.

Remember - 'First-time' logs are always VERY welcome!

Reports may be sent to the NDB List Group or e-mailed to CLE co-ordinator, Brian Keyte (G3SIA), whose address appears above. If you are a member of the group, all final results will also be e-mailed and posted there.

Please ... give the CLE a try ... then let us know what NDB's can be heard from your location! Your report can then be added to the worldwide database to help keep it up-to-date.

Have fun and good hunting!

 

Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].