In this episode, Colin M6BOY is joined by Martin M1MRB, Edmund Spicer M0MNG and Bill Barnes N3JIX to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. Colin M6BOY rounds up the news in brief, and this episode’s feature is The Art of De-soldering.

We would like to thank Kevin Murphy (W8VOS) and our monthly and annual subscription donors for keeping the podcast advert free. To donate, please visit - http://www.icqpodcast.com/donate

• Hams Promote Hobby to western Virginia School
• Distracted Driving in Canada
• Are Millennials are Killing Ham Radio??
• Older Callsigns Available from Ofcom
• 10 Watt EME contact from Essex
• Amateur Radio Operator to Change on International Space Station
• Croatia gets 60m, expands 160m Access
• German Klasse K Licence Postponed

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

AmateurLogic.TV Episode 112 is now available for download.

Tommy’s battery power solution for Arduino. Peter wants to make new Hams. George builds the ultimate color ‘Heads Up’ Display. And Mike joins us for some special holiday fun.

1:28:37

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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].

It's a fast and changing world and it appears I cannot write things quick enough at the game of Amateur Radio Blogging!


Tony G4WIF has just pointed me to the price of $109 for the uBitx and a new website!

I have just read what Asharr Farhan has said on the BITX20 group. The price will rise to $129 after Christmas, due to production costs, hiring more people etc. 


Of course I have just ordered mine!


Checkout here for details: http://www.hfsignals.com/index.php/ubitx/


Hope you all enjoy getting one just as much as I enjoy writing about these things.



73 Steve


Steve, G1KQH, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from England. Contact him at [email protected].

A  new HF transceiver from India is about to take to market, offering multiband operation 10 through to 80metres, with the inclusion of the WARC bands and general coverage receive.

Asharr Farhan the designer of the BITX20 and BITX40 has been working on the uBitx project for quite sometime.  Demonstrations, and circuit details have been made available freely to anyone on his website Phonestack.com since early Spring 2017, for those who wished to scratch build the transceiver.

But Farhan, not resting on his recent success of producing the single band BITX40 (40m) transceiver, that introduced many to HF for a small price a point of "$59" including a recent addition of stable DDS, which he called the Raduino. VU2ESE has now put the uBitx into production, and I understand will be made available soon from his HF Signals website for purchase. (Currently the website only shows the current 40m radio for sale).



Above, a recent tested production run of uBitx transceiver boards.



The uBitx will offer CW and SSB, with 10W output from a pair of IRF510's.  Arduino derived stable DDS using a Si5351 for all the local oscillators.

What you will get in the package will be a fully built and tested board.  My guess is it will be sold with a similar hardware package that was included with the BITX40, which will include the wiring hardware, connectors, pots, power and BNC connectors for the antenna etc. All you will have to do is wire it up, add a speaker and a case to complete the project.


The price for the uBitx has yet to be announced? But again my guess is it will be one of it's major success stories that will take the HF world by storm and introduce many to the affordable world of HF operation. Of course, I expect it will cost more than the BITX40, but you will be getting access to most of the HF spectrum, for something until now that has proved undeliverable to those on small budgets. 

Exciting times, keep watching HF Signals for further details.





Steve, G1KQH, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from England. 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.

I’m sure that you have heard of NPOTA, National Parks On The Air, and SOTA, Summits On The Air, and probably even POTA, Parks On The Air, The US program for the World Wide Flora and Fauna, but have you heard of the latest event that starts on Sunday, Dec 11, 2017?

Starting at 0000 UTC time on December 11, 2017 the new year long event celebrating multiple anniversaries for the NASA program will start. It is called NOTA or NASA On The Air.

With several NASA clubs doing several special event stations of the coming year, they decided to make a year long event where you, as the end user, can contact the stations to earn points through the year. You can even gets points during other events like Winter Field Day, the ARRL Field Day and others.

Losten to my latest podcast episode where I talk with Rob Suggs about it:

http://www.everythinghamradio.com/Podcast/93

Curtis Mohr, K5CLM, is the author/owner of Everything Ham Radio Blog and Youtube channel. Contact him at [email protected].

Here is the current forecast discussion on space weather and geophysical activity, issued 2017 Dec 07 1230 UTC.

Solar Activity

24 hr Summary: Solar activity continued at very low levels. Region 2690 (N07W23) decayed into a plage region. No Earth-directed CMEs were observed in available satellite imagery.

Forecast: Solar activity is expected to continue at very low levels over the next three days (07-09 Dec).

Energetic Particle

24 hr Summary: The greater than 2 MeV electron flux was at normal to high levels today with a maximum flux of 3,260 pfu observed at 06/1735 UTC. The greater than 10 MeV proton flux was at background levels.

Forecast: The greater than 2 MeV electron flux is expected to be at moderate to high levels for the next three days due to CH HSS influence. The greater than 10 MeV proton flux is expected to continue at background levels for the forecast period.

Solar Wind

24 hr Summary: Solar wind parameters indicated the continued influence of a positive polarity CH HSS. Solar wind speed decreased from approximately 635 km/s to near 525 km/s over the period. Total field ranged from 2 to 6 nT while the Bz component was between +3/-5 nT. Phi angle was oriented in a mostly positive solar sector.

Forecast: Solar wind parameters are expected to continue to be enhanced under a positive polarity CH HSS through day one. A slow return to nominal levels is expected on days two and three as HSS effects wane.

Geospace

24 hr Summary: The geomagnetic field was quiet to unsettled.

Forecast: The geomagnetic field is expected to be at quiet to unsettled levels on days one and two, followed by mostly quiet levels on day three as CH HSS effects diminish.

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:
+ https://Twitter.com/NW7US
+ 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

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What’s the difference between CB & amateur (ham) radio? Here ia a video with an opinion by our curator, Tomas (amateur radio operator, NW7US): Did NCIS TV Show Malign the Amateur Radio Service? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIWJ7kKbxiM?t=1m33s

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+ https://Twitter.com/NW7US
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