Stories you’ll find in our May, 2018 issue:

TSM Reviews: FlexRadio 6400M All-Mode HF+6 Transceiver
By Mark Haverstock K8MSH

While computer control has become integrated into amateur radio transceivers in recent years, there is still a substantial faction of amateur radio operators who want to hold onto the traditional buttons and knobs of their radios. FlexRadio’s new additions to the Signature Series give amateurs both options. The base Flex 6400 model is computer controlled, but they’ve also created an M version (M for Maestro) with traditional knobs, buttons and a touch display screen as well. The 6400M is an improved version of the 6300, with better specs, processors, and costs $500 less—at a price tag of $2000. It borrows features from both the 6300 and 6500 (both of which were recently discontinued). Note that the 6400 and 6400M models are identical, with the exception of the Maestro control interface. But, you’ll need to find a little extra table space at the operator’s position—it is bigger than a breadbox, with both the basic 6400 and the M versions have the same footprint and measure 7 x 14 x 13.125 inches. Mark unpacks the details of this modern and very capable HF+6 transceiver

Giving Undersea Cable its Just Deserts – 160 Years Past Due
By Richard Fisher KI6SN

Marconi got the hoopla for the first trans-Atlantic wireless communication. His transmission of the Morse letter S sped through the airwaves between the Canadian maritime province of Newfoundland and Cornwall, England, in the waning days of 1901. But 43 years earlier – in 1858 – it was New York businessman Cyrus Field who was the impetus behind the remarkable achievement of the first telegraphy Communications between two continents—Newfoundland to Ireland—under the sea. Why no such accolades for Cyrus in reciting the technological achievements in communication of the mid-19th and early-20th centuries, 160 years ago, no less? Richard dives deep to find an amazing web of undersea cables stretching around the entire globe—an vital part of modern communications.

TSM Reviews: Yaesu FTM-750DR VHF/UHF Transceiver
By Cory GB Sickles WA3UVV

Yaesu recently introduced and is now shipping another System Fusion transceiver – the FTM-7250 mobile. As this month’s installment of Digitally Speaking covers connectors and genders, perhaps the simplest way to describe the ‘7250 is for you to imagine that the FTM-3200 (VHF) and FTM-3207 (UHF) monobanders got together and had a baby. With the April release of the FTM-7250, Yaesu now offers a total of eight radios, with an even split between entry-level transceivers with “core” features and those with advanced-level feature sets. Think about that for a moment. Eight radios, plus two repeaters and two different networking concepts. That’s a fairly diverse selection of equipment – not to mention the various means of third-party support for this DV methodology – that is only four years old, from the time of its full release.

Free-to-Air Satellite-TV List Update
By Mike Kohl

Free-to-Air (FTA) satellite-TV enthusiasts sometimes have a challenge keeping track of satellite names and positions. Throughout the years aerospace companies merge, creating new names for their fleet, or launch a new series of satellites, reflecting advances in technology. This month, Mike has created an updated list for North American FTA viewers covering eastern Atlantic arc satellites from 1.0 degrees West longitude, across our domestic satellite arc, and extending to 166 East, which can be received by those with a 3 to 4 meter C-band dish from unobstructed locations on the West Coast. In addition to updating the list of names to reflect mergers and acquisitions in the industry and new satellites replacing old, Mike gives you tips on aligning fixed and steerable dishes.

Scanning America
By Dan Veeneman
Sublette County, Wyoming; Washoe County, Nevada

Federal Wavelengths
By Chris Parris
USS Portland HYDRA System

Milcom
By Larry Van Horn N5FPW
Military Base Profile: Edwards AFB (KEDW)

Utility Planet
By Hugh Stegman NV6H
Doing Battle with STANAG 4285

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

VHF and Above
By Joe Lynch N6CL
West Point Cadets Launch Two Balloons

Digitally Speaking
By Cory Sickles WA3UVV
Goes Inta / Goes Outta

Amateur Radio Insights
By Kirk Kleinschmidt NT0Z
Feed Line Ferrite Chokes—Noise Reduction that Beats the Best DSP?

Radio 101
By Ken Reitz KS4ZR
Gospell AM/FM/SW/DRM Receiver

Radio Propagation
By Tomas Hood NW7US
The Switch in May

The World of Shortwave Listening
By Jeff White, Secretary-Treasurer NASB
Shortwave Broadcasters and Listeners to Meet in Indiana

The Shortwave Listener
By Fred Waterer
Voice of Greece, Radio Tirana, and Country Music on Shortwave

Amateur Radio Astronomy
By Stan Nelson KB5VL
NAVSPASUR Revisited

The Longwave Zone
By Kevin O’Hern Carey WB2QMY
Bill Oliver—Quiet Giant of Longwave

Adventures in Radio Restorations
By Rich Post KB8TAD
A Not-so-Scarce Hallicrafters: Model SX-99

Welcome to the newest edition of Linux in the Ham Shack, Weekender Edition. In this episode, we have a special interview with our friend Carter Hutchinson, K9KJN, who has a varied and very interesting back story and current story. We also discuss upcoming ham radio contests, special events, Open Source conferences, obscure Linux distributions, listener challenges, wine, food and song. Everything to keep you going for the next two weeks. Thanks for listening and see you in Xenia!

73 de The LHS Crew

Monday April 30 I set up at Hobe Sound Nature Preserve, KFF-0241, to activate on 40 and 20 meters.  I waited till late in the day, arriving on site about 5:30pm EDT to set up and get ready for 40m to wake up as the sun goes down.  Took my time walking the entire area to scout a good spot.  Was previously here two weeks ago in a

time-pressured situation and hurriedly set up at the first thing I found, a simple park bench.  Not that much from which to choose here as this is principally a minimally-developed natural resource area, appealing to fishermen, hikers and nature-lovers, and not as well furnished with picnic areas like a State Park.

Got a eleven or twelve qso’s that day with the Link Dipole arranged up only a dozen feet in the beloved inverted vee style.  Not the best operating position, but sufficient.

Here I am on the original activation, looking optimistic despite the ominous smoke on the horizon (just a controlled burn, actually).

After an outrageously successful activation of Jonathan Dickinson State Park, only a few miles from here, this past weekend, I just knew I could return to Hobe Sound Preserve and catch many more Q’s to make my 44 needed to earn the coveted WWFF recognition.  At JD I got 23 qso’s Saturday but needed more to make the grand total of 44 so went back Sunday and got on the air a little

past seven on 40m, receiving a total of 49 more in under an hour!  Wow, I said; Gosh, I even had a little pileup going a few minutes at a time.  “Oh Baby, That’s a What I Like,” (with a Hatlo Hat Tip to the Big Bopper).  Couldn’t wait to do that again at Hobe Sound today.

Confidently, I left the house 5pm to head to the site.  Sorry I don’t have a picture of me confidently driving my car but just look how confident I’m still looking upon arrival; who wouldn’t want to work a ham like this one?

Took my time to walk most of the trails to scout the best location to set up and found this tranquil spot:

No cooperating trees in vicinity, so let’s set up a tower.s  Below’s the view from the idyllic picnic table and thatched roof.  The open area is to the North-NorthWest, ideal aiming direction for Southeast coast of Florida.  Same orientation as yesterday – good omens.

I’ve learned how to erect a tower alone; step one is to lay out the antenna (EndFedz in this case) to judge where to place the tower and its guy lines.  Lay the tower down, tie on the guy lines and provisionally place your tent stakes.  Remember to attach the antenna and attach your coax to said antenna (this is the voice of experience speaking) before pushing up the tower.  This is the dicey part, when having an assistant would be helpful, but in the spirit of self reliance, you can do this if you’ve guessed well where to place the tent stakes.  Something I’ve started to say to the Curious, especially when the Curious is a Park Ranger, when they ask what you’re doing, say “I’m setting up a radio station in a simulated emergency situation.”  They will eat this up.

After some fumbling, your tower will finally look like this:

This tower tip is at 22-23 feet; yesterday, same time, same antenna, and same band, I was up 35′ thanks to a handy tree.  But still, this looked really good so I expected similar if not better results, qso-wise.  Here’s the low end of the EndFedz on a photographer’s lighting tripod, up ten feet and guyed.

Bodacious good SWR as you can see in image below.  All’s well, it seems.

Eager and self-assured, about 6:30 I begin calling CQ, ready for the inevitable pileups. Quickly I stumbled into a net and was invited to check in, so I did.  Not POTA, but

a start.  A next contact happened 2-3 minutes later.  These always start slow, right?  Twenty-seven minutes pass, my confidence dwindling, before getting another contact, AA5UZ, whom I worked yesterday.  I’m going, “what’s wrong?”  This same setup yesterday was causing pileups; I could hardly write down the call signs fast enough.  I fiddled with the antenna, getting it higher, but no improvement in qso rate.

So what is it?  Is it Monday versus Sunday, are the bands that different one day to the next, is it that I the antenna location is that much different to limit results?  I kept at it, watching the sun go down and aware I failed to pack a table lamp or a decent flashlight but wanting the darkness to come and boost results.  Had a few small stretch when I got 4-5 contacts in quick succession, and heard others trying me that I just could make out, but nothing like yesterday.

I dunno; packed up at 8:17 (end of civil twilight), and it was pretty dark when I finally departed, rather deflated.  This was a lot of work for eleven qso’s, and I’m still only half way to the magic forty four.  From the time I left the house to when I returned, it was over four hours invested.  As an experiment, I will return to the happy spot at JD State Park where I got the 49 in an hour, and try again there to see if similar results occur at the same time, same band, same antenna setup.  Stay tuned!

But for now, it’s time for ice cream; that usually makes me feel better.  Thanks for listening; you’re in the log.  De k4wk, Wayne, http://www.hamdom.com

Here is this week’s space weather and geophysical report, issued 2018 Apr 30 0140 UTC.

Highlights of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 23 – 29 April 2018

Solar activity was very low. The strongest event of the period was a B2/Sf from Region 2706 (N03, L=281, class/area Dao/130 on 22 Apr) on 24/2145 UTC. The region slowly decayed to plage by 28 Apr. No Earth-directed CMEs were observed in available coronagraph imagery.

No proton events were observed at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit were at high levels on 23-24 Apr, normal to high levels on 25 and 28 Apr, and moderate to high levels on 26, 27 and 29 Apr. The slowly decaying elevated levels were enhanced from CH HSS activity prior to 23 Apr.

Geomagnetic field activity was mostly quiet with isolated periods of unsettled observed on 23 and 27 Apr. No notable disturbances in the solar wind were observed.

Forecast of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 30 April – 26 May 2018

Solar activity is expected to continue at very low levels over the outlook period.

No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to reach high levels on 30 Apr and 07-26 May. Normal to moderate levels are expected from 01-06 May. Enhancements in electron flux are expected due to the anticipation of multiple, recurrent CH HSSs.

Geomagnetic field activity is expected to range from quiet to G2 (moderate) geomagnetic storm levels. Quiet conditions are likely to persist until the arrival of the first of two negative polarity CH HSSs. Unsettled conditions on 06 May are likely to increase to G1 (Minor) storm levels on 07 May before decreasing to active on 08 May and finally unsettled over 09-10 May as the CH HSS wanes. Quiet conditions are then likely to persist over 11-16 May until the arrival of the second CH HSS. G2 (Moderate) storm levels likely on 17 May during the onset of the CIR ahead of the HSS. Unsettled to active conditions are likely on 18 May as total field strength decreases to around 5 nT with the HSS proper. Quiet to unsettled conditions are expected over 19 May as solar wind speeds slowly taper off. The remainder of the outlook period is expected to be mostly quiet under a nominal solar wind environment.

Don’t forget to visit our live space weather and radio propagation web site, at: http://SunSpotWatch.com/

Live Aurora mapping is at http://aurora.sunspotwatch.com/

If you are on Twitter, please follow these two users: 1. https://Twitter.com/NW7US 2. https://Twitter.com/hfradiospacewx

Check out the stunning view of our Sun in action, as seen during the last five years with the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXN-MdoGM9g

= = = = =

BOOK SALE: Space Weather and Sun Science – get these from Amazon, and help us stay online!

NOTICE: When you buy this (or any item after starting with this link), you are helping us keep our SunSpotWatch.com and other resources “on the air” (up and running!). In other words, you are helping the entire community. So, check out this book:

Here is the link to Amazon: http://g.nw7us.us/fbssw-aSWSC

We’re on Facebook: http://NW7US.us/swhfr

In this episode, Martin M1MRB is joined by Matthew Nassau M0NJX, Bill Barnes N3JIX and Chris Howard M0TCH to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. Colin M6BOY rounds up the news in brief, and this episode’s feature is - Is the online purchasing killing Hamfests?

• Canada Get New 100W 5MHz Allocation
• Beijing Authorises 60m
• 2018 State of Ham Radio Survey
• Radio Ham Operator Achieves Contacts Across All 29 Bands
• Sunday Times Publishes RSGB Response
• Contest Events at Dayton Hamvention 2018
• Kenwood Trophy Award 2018
• First Class CW Operators Club 80th Anniversary

Ham College episode 40 is now available for download.

General Amateur Radio Exam questions part 11. Digital Modes part 3, HF Antennas part 1.
01:05:41

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