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LHS Episode #565: Young Sherlock Holmes
13 December 2024 | by 
Hello and welcome to the 565th installment of Linux in the Ham Shack. In this short topics episode, the hosts discuss Youth on the Air Month for 2024, a new version of Elementary OS, the latest release of OBS Studio, the new hotness in Manjaro and much more. Thanks for listening and have a great week.
73 de The LHS Crew
Russ Woodman, K5TUX, co-hosts the Linux in the Ham Shack podcast which is available for download in both MP3 and OGG audio format. Contact him at [email protected].
Snapshot of 10m conditions
The ARRL 10m contest happens this weekend (I got the date correct this time), and as we all know, 10m can be a band full of surprises. I once again put my ZachTek WSPR desktop transmitter to work for 24 hours. Below is a snapshot from Wednesday 19:00 UTC to Thursday 19:00 UTC.
The graphs indicates that 10m becomes active around 1100 UTC, peaking at 14:00 UTC and staying decent until 21:00, when the band begins its fast closing for the day.
Antenna pattern of the Hustler 4BTV
Kp index at the time
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| The band begins to open at 11:00 UTC |
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| The Band peaks at 14:00 UTC |
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| The band begins its sharp drop off starting at 21:00 |
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].
I am at peace with the RFI gods.
The RFI black book
At the beginning of November, I posted regarding the journal I was going to start regarding my RFI. I wanted to log ideas to try, results from the ideas and detailed records of the RFI. In the past, it was scribbled on a paper here and there and when needed to refer to I could not find the notes. This was a great help and allowed me to track what did and did not work.
I then blogged on December 1st regarding ferrites I had purchased. They were bought and arrived in mid-November and I had a chance to give them a go. Now in my post on the ferrites, I did mention I purchased a brand called Fair-Rite, which I felt where a very good brand. I wanted to make the first test for this product an easy access one. I have mentioned in the past our electronic Maytag washing machine always had issues with RF from my operating. When I transmitted the washers would stop and just hummed. If the machine was not being used but still plugged in and I transmitted all the LED lights would come on and it would start to buzz. The only solution while operating was to turn off the power to the washer. In the past, I tried some snap-on chokes from MFJ and put them on the washers AC power cord, which did not work. I snapped on 2 of the Fair-rite chokes and to this day I have had no issues at all with the washing machine. The machine can sit there powered on or doing a load of laundry and no issues at all.
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| Fair-Rite with 4 loops (4th on backside) |
That was a very promising sign to me and I was thrilled to see such positive results. Back to my RFI journal. The only issue I was facing was my contest program N1MM+ while I was transmitting would freeze. I was not able to transmit a contest reply and that would prove frustrating. After a short time the program resumed but that could be 3 seconds, 30 seconds or a PC reboot. The other issue was my N1MM+ programs logging screen would go black and sometimes the whole program had to be rebooted for it to work again. I felt I had narrowed down the issue to my ground leads. I have 3 of them, the Icom 7610, LDG autotuner and the PC metal frame. Each of these 14 gauge green ground wires is fastened to a copper plate where the main ground is secured. I wound the ground wire 4 times through a clamp on the Fair-Rite toroid and also on the incoming number 6 ground cable (I put 3 snap-on ferrites on that as there was no way to wrap that size of cable). I spent the whole weekend on the radio in the CQ WW DX CW contest on all bands and full power. I did not have one issue at all. Since then, I have taken part in CWops and MST weekly one-hour contests without issue again. My fingers are crossed that I have found the right ferrite for the job.
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].
AmateurLogic.TV 2024-12-07 16:35:58
Ham College episode 119 is now available for download.
Ham College 119
Technician Exam Questions Part 6.
T1F – Station identification, Repeaters, Third party communications, Club stations, FCC inspection.
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].
Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 359
Iowa State club launching experimental repeater today
High altitude balloon will make FM contacts possible across the Midwest.
Minnesota Ham Radio
Machine learning enhanced FM digital voice
Transmitted over the air (OTA) using commodity FM UHF radios.
FreeDV
Prototype 2el Yagi for Radiosonde fox hunting
The design is for a two element Yagi using a Half Folded Half Wave Dipole driven element and reflector.
owenduffy.net
Open-weather apt
A browser-based decoder for automatic picture transmissions (apt) from satellites NOAA-19, NOAA-18 and NOAA-15.
Open-weather
POTA has a REST API
A Python script for tracking the parks near you that you haven’t activated yet.
Copasetic Flow
KSKO’s one man, full-time operation connects interior Alaska
Alongside the McGrath studio, a collection of seven repeater stations and two partner stations broadcast widely — across stretches up to 150 miles.
Alliance of Rural Public Media
AI noise removal from off-air single sideband
It should be possible to do this sort of processing in near to real time.
marxy’s musing on technology
Why we designed the high school direct conversion receiver
We might have used a variable capacitor but variable capacitors are now expensive and hard to source.
SolderSmoke Daily News
VLF receive loop
More verticality?
Real-World Amateur Radio
AI generated Ham Radio song
With the help of AI, I chose a slightly different musical arrangement for a more universal version.
RADIOSCOPE
Video
Ham Radio for Hackers
Some people consider ham radio operators to be the original hackers.
HOPE XV
2-meter operations above the cloud deck
Flight from KTIW to W27 over a blanket of cloud cover due to a temperature inversion.
W7NY
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Amateur Radio Weekly is curated by Cale Mooth K4HCK. Sign up free to receive ham radio's most relevant news, projects, technology and events by e-mail each week at http://www.hamweekly.com.
Checking out 10m band conditions before ARRL 10m contest next weekend.
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| 24 hours on 10m |
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| Time stamp of when 10m is best for me |
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| Antenna radiation pattern for 10m Hustler 4BTV |
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].
Time to “Fair-Rite” out the issue!
Order bulk and save!
Those of you who are regular blog readers know I have had my fair share of RFI that has affected my PC, washing machine, headphones and key. I have been doing some reading that all ferrites are not alike. Yes, they may be a mix 31 but there are good and very good ferrites on the market. I looked around at the popular dealers that dealt with chokes both beads, snap on and rings. I have read many good reviews on the Fair-Rite brand of ferrites. There were two electronic dealers I have dealt with in the past Mouser and Digikey. Mouser was where I ended up as I had ordered from them and was very happy. I found the Fair-rite snap-on chokes I wanted and ordered them along with one Fair-rite round ring ferrite. These items shipped the same day and were at my door in no time. My mission with the new ferrites was to solve my PC issue. When operating N1MM+ contesting program now and then (mostly at the most inconvenient of times) the Windows hourglass would pop up on my screen. For anywhere from 4 seconds to 20 seconds I was not able to transmit using any of N1MM+ macros. Not good when a station is waiting for a contest reply from me. The other thing that happened again in N1MM+ the log window would just go black. The only way to solve this issue was to restart the program.
I have an idea what the issue may be and I want to see if this Fair-Rite product is truly a quality product or not. More on that in the next post.
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].
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