Ham College episode 46 is now available for download.
General Amateur Radio Exam part 17. Solar Propagation Effects, Delta Loop and Log Periodic Antennas.
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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].

In my previous blog post, I listed four barriers to getting on HF:

• antenna restrictions
• radio frequency interference (RFI)
• cost
• the fiddle factor.

Fiddle Factor really represents how multiple issues can come together to dramatically increase the complexity of an HF installation.

Now I’d like to propose some ways of dealing with these barriers.

Antenna Restrictions

A lot has been written about this problem and there’s enough material to write a dozen books about this topic. The remedies that come to mind fall into two main categories:

• Hide your antenna
• Change your location (temporarily or permanently)

Common strategies for hiding an HF antenna include: attic antenna, low profile wire antenna, flagpole antenna and temporary antenna. I recently came across this fabulous guide to stealth antennas from The Villages Amateur Radio Club. It was developed based on practical experience in an HOA-controlled community. One interesting point they stress is that the mode you use interacts with the capability of the antenna. Simply put, if you are using a compromised antenna then it really helps to use a more efficient mode such as CW, PSK31, JT65 or FT8. Good advice!

I received quite a bit of feedback via twitter that a solution to antenna restrictions is change your location.  One answer is to permanently move your home to a new location, typically out in the country with wide open spaces and no restrictive covenants. This is easy to say and often difficult to do.  I am going to assume that for the most part you are stuck with your home location (for whatever reason) and not spend much time on it here. But keep this in mind when the opportunity to move happens. Every time I’ve purchased a house, I always evaluated the property for antenna options.

Another option is to change your location temporarily, as in portable operation (can you say Summits On The Air?) I like portable HF operating and have operated from a number of islands while on vacation. You don’t have to do a DXpedition, you can always just go to a local park and set up a station there. Heck, you can always “go portable” in your backyard. Set up  a temporary antenna, operate and take it down before anyone has a chance to complain.

Another “change your location” strategy is to use a remote ham radio station. Many clubs have established a remotely-controlled station (usually controlled via the internet) for their members to use. Or you could use one of the commercial remote radio systems (such as Remote Ham Radio).

Radio Frequency Interference (RFI)

RFI generally occurs when a device creates radio frequency energy on frequencies that you want to use.  One very discouraging experience is to turn on your newly-installed HF station to find the ambient noise at S5 across your favorite operating band. Frankly, this can be a really difficult problem to solve. Many books have been written on this topic, too. One of the best is The ARRL RFI Book. The ARRL RFI web page may be helpful, too.

The source of interference is either under your control (something in your residence) or it can be from external sources (your neighbor’s house, the AC power lines, …)  RFI sources are easier to find in your own home. A good first move is to go around and unplug everything electronic in the house to see if the problem goes away. Or you can go through your circuit breaker box flipping all circuits off until the problem disappears. (Of course, you need to keep you HF radio powered up so you can listen for the noise.)

If the problem is outside your home, things get a lot more difficult. You’ll have to track down the source and engage the owner of the device in a conversation about correcting the problem.

If the problem is power line noise, the electric utility is supposed to be able to correct it. However, the technical capability on RFI issues at electric companies ranges from none to quite competent.

Cost

What can we do about the cost of getting on HF? I’d say, not a lot. Your best strategy is to look for used equipment which can be less than half the price of new. However, if you are comparing an HF station to the cost of a $30 Baofeng handheld transceiver, you will probably be disappointed. In my previous blog post, I estimated that a used HF station could be on the air for ~$500.

One comment I received via twitter is that the cost alone may not be the issue. For some folks, the issue is spending that much money and not knowing how much success they will have on HF and whether they will truly enjoy it. Good point. One way to deal with this issue is to operate from someone else’s station to try out HF or to borrow some equipment. This will defer the cost until you know more about HF operating and judge whether it’s right for you.

One idea that might look attractive for saving cost is to buy an inexpensive, low-power (QRP) transceiver. I would avoid that option as it increases the fiddle factor.

The Fiddle Factor

The fiddle factor represents how multiple issues can come together to dramatically increase the complexity of an HF installation. When the complexity increases, the probably of success decreases because there are just more things to go wrong.

So the remedy is to avoid a high-fiddle-factor installation. Ideally, you would use a simple antenna (dipole, end-fed halfwave, etc.) hung in the clear with no obstacles around. Real world constraints may come into play here and require you to make other choices. Just be aware that each complication drives complexity.

Find a Mentor (Elmer)

The one universal strategy for success with ham radio is find a mentor, also called an Elmer. Having an experienced radio ham to answere questions and bounce ideas off of is extremely valuable.

How do you find a mentor? See Dan/KB6NU’s suggestions on the topic. You may have to settle for mentoring via the internet but it is way better to have someone local that can actually see your house and antenna installation options.

Anything else?

Those are my suggestions for how to deal with the barriers of getting on HF. I am sure there are more ideas out there.
What do you think?

73 Bob K0NR

The post Getting On HF: Some Remedies 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].

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.

CLE 237 will be held this coming weekend and will be somewhat different than normal.







'CLE's are 'Co-ordinated Listening Events, and NDB DXers around the world focus their listening time on one small slice of the NDB spectrum ... but this one is a little different.

This event has been organized around the Maidenhead Locator system and will challenge hunters to log beacons based upon the beacon's FIELD designation. Listeners should seek to log a maximum of five NDBs in each GRID FIELD.

The grid field is actually the first two letters of the grid locator, such as 'CN', 'FN', 'DM' etc., as seen in the map above. Each field itself is divided into 100 GRID SQUARES, but individual grid squares are not relevant for this CLE ... only the fields.

Most amateurs that operate on the VHF bands are very familiar with the 'grid square locator' system and many VHF operating awards and events are focused on working different grid squares. This may all be a new adventure for many non-VHF DXers but it does present a whole new way of keeping track of your catches.

I have always kept track of the grid square locator for all NDB signals that I hear and often find that a signal being heard from one particular square will lead to other beacons being heard (often new catches) from adjacent squares, while propagation is spotlighting that region ... it often pays to keep a grid square map handy while you search the band!

If you are not familiar with the grid square system, it's all pretty simple and this CLE only focuses on the largest part of the system, the FIELD. The first thing you should do is determine your own grid FIELD location, which, for North America, can be found very easily from the map above or anywhere in the world on K7FRY's locator map.

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.


From CLE organizer Brian Keyte:

===============================================
Here are the Final Details for this weekend's DX Listening Event.

We'll be listening for NDBs in as many Locator FIELDS as we can.

Fields are the first 2 letters of the 6 character locators ('Grid Square').

    Days:     Friday 26th October – Monday 29th October
    Times:    Midday on Friday to Midday on Monday, your LOCAL* time
            *(NB Many of us will be changing our house clocks this weekend.
               UTC time, shown in our logs, continues unaffected by that)
    QRG:      Normal LF/MF frequencies  190 - 1740 kHz
    Target:   UP TO 5 NORMAL NDBs IN EACH LOCATOR FIELD (see below)
                    (not DGPS, NAVTEX, Amateur or UNIDs)

Please also log YOUR NEAREST ACTIVE NDB - it will probably be one of
the five in your own Field.

A World map of all the locator Fields is attached.  You can see, for
example, that Field IO includes most of the British Isles.

(click map to expand)

Please post your CLE log to the List in a plain text email if possible,
with 'CLE237' at the start of its title and showing on each log line:

     The full Date ( e.g. 2018-10-26, etc., or just the day number 26 )
     UTC  (The day changes at 00:00 UTC).
     kHz - the NDB's nominal published frequency
     The Call Ident.

As always, put those FOUR MAIN ITEMS FIRST on each log line, with
any other optional details such as location and distance LATER in the
same line.

There is no need to show the locator Fields (the harvester program
will work out all of them and the nearest NDB you logged).

Your log will be easier to read if you leave a blank separator line
between the groups of up to 5 lines for each Field.

If you wish, you could add the 2-letter Field ident (NOTHING ELSE)
at the start of each separator line.

Any UNIDs that you come across will also be of interest - in a separate
part of your log please.

If you send interim logs, please make sure that you also send a 'FINAL'
log showing ALL your loggings for the CLE.

We will send the usual 'Any More Logs?' email to NDB List at about
18:00 UTC on Tuesday so you can check that your log has been found OK.
Do make sure that your Final log has arrived on the list by 09:00 UTC
on Wednesday 31st October at the very latest.
Joachim and I hope to complete the combined results within two days.


PLANNING YOUR LISTENING

It will really help you to plan your listening if you go to the excellent
Rxx Database  https://www.classaxe.com/dx/ndb/reu
(Replace the 'reu' by 'rna' if you are in North America, 'rww' elsewhere)

THE KEY PLACE to start entering details of what you want is
'Signal Locations - GSQs'.

Put a 2-letter FIELD id in that box to see all the NDBs in that Field that
have been logged from your part of the World (i.e. EU or NA or other).

You could alter the resulting list in lots of different ways:

Select 'Only active' (bottom right)
Enter your own Country or State in 'Heard Here'
Select a specific listener (yourself?) in 'Logged by' – BUT you might missa beacon that you haven’t   heard so far
Add extra locator Field(s) in the 'GSQs' box, separated by blanks
- In ANY of the above, you can select 'Map' instead of 'List' (top right)

Add your own full locator (6 characters) in the 'Distance - From GSQ' box to see the distances and bearings from your location.
In 'Sort By' (bottom line) select GSQ

Getting cleverer (!) you could use the wild card _ (an underscore) to see details of all Fields with the same column of Longitude or row of Latitude
e.g.  I_  selects all of locator column I (0  to 20 degrees west),  _O would give all of row O (50 to 60 degrees north).

Good Listening

73    Brian
---------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Brian Keyte G3SIA                ndbcle'at'gmail.com
Location: Surrey, SE England          (CLE coordinator)
---------------------------------------------------------------------

(As usual a handful of us may choose to listen via a remote receiver
with permission if required - its own location will be their temporary
home Field).
A remote listener may NOT also use another receiver, whether local
or remote, to obtain further loggings for the same CLE.

===================================================


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

Hello and welcome to this episode of Linux in the Ham Shack! In our deep dive this time around, we take an in-depth look at the new weak-signal chat mode called JS8CALL, formerly FT8CALL. We explore the history and development of the mode, how it's currently being used, the team behind the project, the operation of the software and much more. Thank you for tuning in and thank you for supporting our program.

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].

My QTH isn’t great for antennas. I’ve tried a few types but haven’t managed to find one that works for me, especially on the lower bands like 40m and 80m. About 2 years ago I made up a W3EDP antenna using some left over wire and a 4:1 balun. It was noisy and worse than anything else I had kicking about. So back in the box it went.

I thought I’d give it another go as domestic planning permission has been relaxed a bit. There are a few different configurations of the antenna but they follow a similar path. A long, not particularly resonant, antenna made up of a long element and a counterpoise.

 

In my case I followed the ‘ladder line method‘ where the antenna and counterpoise are as a single piece of ladder line for 17ft and the remainder antenna wire is just normal wire. So it looks like the original Zepp antennas and a little bit like this

 

The diagram above gives an additional component to the ‘normal’ W3EDP antenna. that is an additional counterpoise. I thought I’d give this a go based on a bit of background reading I did. NC4FB explains his experiences with the normal design and I have to say I had similar experiences. Namely that the swr was quite high and it was not that easy to get it down to usable levels on any of the bands when the antenna was first played with. A good idea to try my own extra’s.

So, test gear is as follows.

Antenna connected to homemade 4:1 balun with some mini 8 coax (about 7m) hanging outside a downstairs window. Antenna raised in a V shape with the balun box at ground level and the antenna supported about 1/3 of the way down on an aluminum mast approximately 8m off the ground. The end of the antenna is resting on the fence at about 1.8m off the ground. Hardly ideal but good for enough for a lash up.

I used a MR100 Antenna analyser. These are cheap and good for indicative measurements. There is also some good free software available to use with you Linux PC (There are probably windows varieties but I didn’t look).

I did 4 tests. Vanilla, i.e. no extra counterpoise. A 32ft counterpoise, A 16ft counterpoise & lastly an 8ft counterpoise. The outputs are below.

 

 

 

So what does this tell us?

Actually that there is a good argument on the face of it to add in an additional counterpoise. The 32ft one has a greater effect on the lower bands and the short on the higher bands. Nothing too contentious here then. So what happens if you connect them all up together.

It does lower the swr but that is probably not the only effect. I think this might need some extra experimentation or at least a bit more digging to see how to improve the antenna for my qth. But for now I’ll sort the lash up out and give it some on air testing.

Alex Hill, G7KSE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, UK. Contact him at [email protected].

It’s now October and throughout the northern hemisphere days are getting shorter, nights longer and the temperature is dropping. Consider then that as go you further north this happens in an ever more dramatic fashion. At the North Pole, the first and only sunset of the year happened on 21 September at the autumnal equinox. A scarce 1000 km south of that at 80 degrees north, there is still some daylight as the Sun reaches about 6 degrees above the horizon. That provides enough light to view the pristine environs of Ellesmere Island, around the Eureka Weather Station and the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL). The PEARL Site Manager and I made our first trip to Eureka in the Fall of 1994 and have repeated the long journey many, many times. Alexey Tikhomirov VE1RUS made his first visit to Eureka and PEARL in 2013, and has returned twice per year since.

Ellesmere is a large, mostly uninhabited island found just west of Greenland in the Canadian Arctic archipelago. It has one small community, Grise Fjord, at its southern tip, and two other notable locations, Eureka and Alert. Eureka is remote by any definition. It is accessible only by chartered aircraft and accommodation is limited and only available through the Eureka Weather Station by prior arrangement. It is an untamed landscape, that some might describe as bleak. It’s located on the northern shore of Slidre Fjord on the bank of Station Creek which is also the source of fresh water.

Looking out from there you see a hilly landscape devoid of trees, with a large ridge both to the east and west. Other than the weather station, humans have never established year round habitation this far north, although the Thule people did spend summers in the area. Remains of their camps are still visible many hundreds of years later. This part of the world does not give up its scars easily, it takes decades for vehicle tracks to fade away.

The vegetation consists of low willow shrubs and grasses and a surprising number of flowers in the summer time. By definition, this is an Arctic semi-desert with less than 30cm of precipitation per year. Many are surprised to hear that Eureka gets relatively little snow. However, as I like to say, “we see every snow flake that falls in the Arctic, and it’s usually going sideways!” Bad weather tends to take the form of high winds resulting in severe drifting in places. Winter time temperatures are typically well into the mid negative 40’s C January through into April, with -50C and lower always a possibility. At 80N, the Sun goes down for good on 20 October and is not seen again until 20 February. From mid April to mid September it is above the horizon for 24 hours a day. In addition to the Arctic weather, Eureka also is impacted by the Earth’s geomagnetic field. The geomagnetic pole is located something like 80 to 100 km east of Eureka, putting it pretty much dead centre in the auroral oval. This has the perhaps unexpected consequence that aurora are not usually visible from Eureka!

Both Eureka and Alert were established as part of the Joint Arctic Weather Stations (JAWS) through a partnership between Canada and the United States of America, in 1947 and 1950 respectively. In the early years, radio was the only means of communication and amateur radio was the means of handling personal communications between station personnel and their families in the south. John Gilbert, VE3CXL, among others served as radio operator arriving in 1956 for a two year stint. The story of those early years can be found in: “70th Anniversary of Amateur Radio at Eureka Part1: The original Station VE8MA” published in “The Canadian Amateur” the journal of the Radio Amateurs of Canada.

Consistent radio operations ended in Eureka sometime in the 1990s, and it was not until VE3KTB operated portable VY0 in 2014 that they resumed in a somewhat consistent fashion. In 2014 VE1RUS also operated as /VY0 and later met VE3CXL to talk about Eureka and the three agreed that it was time to re-establish amateur radio in Eureka in a more established fashion and so the Eureka Amateur Radio Club was formed with VE1RUS as the trustee of the station call, VY0ERC. The story of VY0ERC is described in “70th Anniversary of Amateur Radio at Eureka Part2: The VY0ERC Club Station” .

VY0ERC is currently located within the PEARL Ridge Laboratory (RidgeLab). PEARL is a comprehensive atmospheric observatory sampling various atmospheric parameters from the surface to over 100 km. It is operated by the Canadian Network for Detection of Atmospheric Change (CANDAC) a coalition of scientists from Canadian universities and government departments. PEARL has 3 facilities, the RidgeLab, the Zero Altitude PEARL Auxiliary Laboratory (0PAL) and the Surface Atmospheric Flux and Irradiance Extension (SAFIRE). Instruments located at the 3 PEARL sites include Fourier Transform Spectrometers to measure infrared radiance for determining trace gas amounts in the atmosphere, “Lidars” used to measure ozone and atmospheric particles, radars to measure cloud properties, air temperatures and air turbulence. There are also particle counters, UV spectrometers, a flux tower, and optical instruments that monitor the mesosphere. A more in depth description can be found at the CANDAC web-page, http://www.candac.ca. Being associated with a working and well equipped laboratory is very useful as many tools and supplies necessary for science tend also to be useful for amateur radio. Additionally, PEARL depends upon the most northerly situated geo-stationary satellite link for internet communications.

When VE1RUS and I are on-site, amateur radio activity at VY0ERC spans a wide range. HF SSB contacts can be made most days that the combination of time, weather, and propagation allow. Both are working on improving their CW and so we expect there to be more and more CW contacts. Digital modes, specifically RTTY and FT-8 are also both used. In February/March of 2018, the pair also put a number of grids on the air via FM satellite with contacts across the US and Europe via AO-91 and AO-92. This was made possible through a fund-raising campaign organized by Gabe AL6D and with the guidance of Patrick WD9EWK and encouragement of George MI6GTY. Gabe also offered the use of his TH-72 to make things easier.

One or both of VE1RUS and VE3KTB are on station for about 3-4 months of the year. Their operating schedule is driven mostly by the work schedule. It generally works out that the station is manned for many of the major contests such as CQWW SSB, CQWPX, ARRL DX, WAE RTTY, and usually one of either the IARU HF championship or the IOTA contest. Basically, any reason to get on and give out some contacts is considered a good reason! We are generally open for skeds if you drop us an email at [email protected]. Our non-contesting operating is always proceeded by a spot or two on the clusters.

The VY0ERC station consists of a TS-480HX, a Vectronix single 3-500Z amplifier (donated by Peter VE3AD) , a selection of antenna tuners and a wide range of antennas. The best band for contacts has generally been 20m, where a home-brew Aluminum tube Moxon rectangle is used, rotated by a HAM IV. A Cushcraft R5 vertical is also used on 20m-10m. It also makes for a good receive antenna on 40 and 80m! A variety of wire antennas have been installed and used with limited success on 40m and 80m. These include slopers, inverted V’s and flat-top dipoles, as well as a few other designs such as a full-size wire Moxon for 40m (not very successful) and a 40m half-square. The main challenge with these antennas is the lack of easily attainable height above ground. There are no usable structures other than the roof of the RidgeLab to use in supporting the wires. We hang the wires from a collection of PVC conduit strapped to the railings using bungee-cords. While very low-tech, this attachment method provides enough “give” in the system to allow the antennas to survive much longer than rigid systems in high-wind, heavy frosting and icing conditions. The weather has routinely destroyed each and every antenna put into service at the RidgeLab, despite our best efforts to remove them when we know there will be challenging conditions.

The inability to install low-band antennas at a sufficient height has led us to pursue a strategy of phased verticals for 40m and 80m. These verticals will either be telescoping, or mounted on tilting bases so that they can be quickly lowered –well quickly is relative in the cold of the High Arctic winter– when needed. As we all know, building an antenna farm is never inexpensive, but it is definitely rather more expensive when you factor in the transportation costs to the far north. In an effort to get a stronger signal on 40m and 80m, VY0ERC has initiated a campaign to raise funds to install a phase vertical array for both. You can read about it at www.gofundme.com/vy0erc-on-40-and-80m.

VE1RUS, VE3CXL, and VE3KTB invite any interested amateurs to join VY0ERC and participate in this Arctic Amateur Radio experience. Membership is free!

73!
Pierre VE3KTB
Alex VE1RUS
John VE3CXL

Pierre Fogal, VE3KTB, is a special contributor to AmateurRadio.com.