In this episode, Martin (M1MRB/W9ICQ) is joined by Chris Howard (M0TCH), Martin Rothwell (M0SGL), Dan Romanchik (KB6NU) and Ed Durrant (DD5LP)  to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. Colin M6BOY rounds up the news in brief, and this episode’s feature is SDR Play.

We would like to thank Dave Bowie (ZL4DRB) and our monthly and annual subscription donors for keeping the podcast advert free. To donate, please visit - http://www.icqpodcast.com/donate

• History of UK Special Contest Call Signs
• New Digital Voice Repeater for Southern Ireland
• Individual Licences Legal in Tunisia
• American Red Cross Asks ARRL’s Assistance with Puerto Rico Relief Effort
• VERON & Regulator to Discuss RF Pollution
• New US Personal Radio (Part 95) Rules Take Effect
• Ham Plans Community Station
• Falconsat-3 Available for Amateur Radio
• Yasme Foundation Grant to ARRL Ham Aid Fund

Colin Butler, M6BOY, is the host of the ICQ Podcast, a weekly radio show about Amateur Radio. 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.

Stories you’ll find in our October, 2017 issue:

October 4, 1957: The Beep Heard Around the World
By Richard Fisher KI6SN

Listening and peering into the night sky on October 4, 1957, hams, shortwave listeners, scientists, military personnel and ordinary citizens became eye and ear-witnesses to an epic moment in human existence—the dawn of the Space Age. Richard has collected the thoughts and memories of those who were among the first to hear and see the original man-made moon, known as “Sputnik-1.” The historic event not only changed the course of human history, but also changed the lives of many of the individuals who heard those first beeps from space.

A Visual Tour of the Tokyo Ham Fair
By Keith Baker KB1SF/VA3KSF

In early September, Keith had the distinct honor of being an ambassador for the Dayton Amateur Radio Association (DARA) at the big Tokyo Ham Radio Fair in Tokyo, Japan. He writes, “Our mission was to personally invite Japanese hams to join us in Dayton, Ohio, for next year’s big Dayton Hamvention. However, unlike the Dayton Hamvention, which is sponsored by a local (albeit large!) amateur radio club (DARA), the Japan Amateur Radio League (JRRL), the Japanese equivalent of our American Radio Relay League (ARRL), conducts the Tokyo Ham Fair each year.” Keith also visits the Akihabara section of Tokyo known as “Electric Town” and presents a visual tour of both.

TSM Reviews: Digitech AR1780
By Thomas Witherspoon K4SWL

Regular contributor, Thomas Witherspoon, is always on the lookout for interesting, unheralded shortwave radios. This month he takes a look at the Digitech AR1780, a relatively unknown, inexpensive portable shortwave radio that covers longwave through shortwave, FM and even the Air-band and, while it has some quirks, it has more than a few features in its favor. Find out why Thomas says, “For $129.00 AUD (roughly $103 USD), you’re getting a full-featured radio that is, by and large, a pleasure to operate.”

The European DX Council at 50
By Chrissy Brand

It was 50 years ago, in 1967, that the first conference of the European DX Council was held. The EDXC, an organization of leading DXers, is still going strong after all these decades. This is testified by the continued success of its annual conference and through the projects and information sharing that it still carries out. Chrissy reports on this year’s conference held in August in the Finnish city of Tampere.

Tran-Equatorial Propagation: Pillows in the Sky
By John Piliounis SV1OCS

Most radio communications at VHF frequencies happens between different locations in line-of-sight propagation and, more rarely, either through the E or F2 layers’ ionospheric refraction during periods of intense sunspots, or through tropospheric ducting. But Mother Nature has provided VHF communication links that also happen between symmetrical locations to the geomagnetic equator. Propagation of this type has been named Trans-Equatorial Propagation (TEP). John looks at the theory behind this phenomenon and the historic experiments to prove its existence to skeptics.

Scanning America
By Dan Veeneman
Post Falls and Kootenai County, Idaho

Federal Wavelengths
By Chris Parris
Eclipse, Weather Provide Scanner Action

Milcom
By Larry Van Horn N5FPW
Introduction to Military Monitoring:
What Equipment do you need to Monitor HF MilComms?

Utility Planet
By Hugh Stegman NV6H
Summer 2017: Nature Gets the Last Word

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

VHF and Above
By Joe Lynch N6CL
A DIY Hardware Store 2-Meter GOTA/EMMCOM Antenna

Amateur Radio Insights
By Kirk Kleinschmidt NT0Z
The Twists and Turns of Amateur Radio Rotators

Radio 101
By Ken Reitz KS4ZR
Monitoring Emergencies via FTA Satellite

Radio Propagation
By Tomas Hood NW7US
A Last Hoorah?

World of Shortwave Listening
By Andrew Yoder
AM and SW Pirates: Then and Now, Plus: Global HF Pirate Weekend

The Shortwave Listener
By Fred Waterer
BBC Program Notes for October and More

Maritime Monitoring
By Ron Walsh VE3GO
Nothing Remains the Same Except Change!

The Longwave Zone
By Kevin O’Hern and Cary WB2QMY
Get it in the Log!

Adventures is Radio Restoration
By Rich Post KB8TAD
Re-converting a Radio for the Summer of ’42 (Motorola 50P for Pontiac)

Antenna Connections
By Dan Farber AC0LW
Getting High: Antenna Effects and Oddities at UHF and Up

The Spectrum Monitor is available in PDF format which can be read on any desktop, laptop, iPad®, Kindle® Fire, or other device capable of opening a PDF file. Annual subscription is $24. Individual monthly issues are available for $3 each.

Ken Reitz, KS4ZR, is publisher and managing editor of The Spectrum Monitor. Contact him at [email protected].

I’ve had so much planned.  So many things to work on and write about.  So much that it’s created a bit of a mess in my workshop that needs to be looked through and organized.

 

If you’re wondering what’s been occupying my time, I’ll tell you.  I decided to go back to school and get the degree that I abandoned over 30 years ago.  We have a new grandson.  Our first!  And, KD2CHE’s little side business has been getting busy.

Now, with degree in hand, and my work schedule getting more routine, I will begin to attack the leaning tower of kits.  Some of the work also has to do with my transistor radio collection, but I will refrain from posting that here.

I wasn’t sure what to attack first, but it may be a QRP-LABS Ultimate 3S QRSS Kit, and then maybe my BITX40.

Then, probably a much needed update to the Radio Kit Guide page.

Stay Tuned!

 

–Neil  – W2NDG

Neil Goldstein, W2NDG, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New York, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Finally the long wait is over! The LF 2200m band and the MF 630m band have finally arrived for amateurs in the USA! I'm sure most of you have read the fine print regarding deployment of the two bands, but if not, here is the ARRL's recent announcement.

It has been a very long wait for the FCC to implement these bands after they were approved for amateur use in 2007 and 2012 at the World Radiocommunication Conferences in Geneva. Canadian amateurs have had 630m since 2014 and 2200m since 2009 ... in the meantime, we have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of American amateurs to liven things up and to garner new interest in these bands.

Before operating on these bands, amateurs in the USA are required to register their intent via a simple web form found here on the Utilities Technology Council's website. Then follows a 30 day waiting period during which the UTC will check out your location to be sure that you are not located within 1km of any power lines that might be carrying LF or MF PLC (Power Line Carrier) control signals. If you hear nothing back from UTC within 30 days, you are good to go.

A positive outcome of registering via the UTC form is that there can be no PLC signals implemented on the lines near you at a later date! By registering your intended operating location(s), you are locking-in these spots for no further PLC development. If you have an EOC or Field Day site that you think you may want to operate from at some point, register these as well.

I think it is important that even if you do not intend to operate on either of these bands or perhaps a few years down the road, that you register as soon as possible ... the fewer PLC signals operating close to or within the amateur radio spectrum, the better, and this is one way of furthering that goal.

There has already been a vast amount of published information on both of these bands, describing transmitters, receiving systems and transmitting antennas so I won't go into much detail here regarding these topics ... and besides, it's always very interesting to search these things out yourself, learning as you go. Be assured that either of these bands will present interesting new challenges not encountered in typical HF operation, but all of the basic principles you are used to still apply ... it's just that things are much bigger down below the broadcast band!

Far and away, the best source of information for US amateurs can be found on John Langridge's (KB5NJD) NJDTechnolgies website. John has been operating on MF for several years already with an experimental licence (WG2XIQ) and is more than an expert on this topic.

His daily blog includes a detailed account of worldwide activity on 630m and makes for fascinating reading. His website provides all of the information and valuable links that you might need to plan your own LF or MF station. The information on his site, if printed out, would make a wonderful LF / MF Handbook!

My own blog and website also contain much helpful material, with a particular emphasis on Canadian activity on these bands. All of my blogspots dealing with 630m can be found here and contain enough bedtime reading to keep you busy for many nights.

If you are thinking of getting on either of these new bands, particularly 630m, here is a short Q & A that may help you through the initial planning stage of  how to get started.

What modes are commonly used on these bands?

At present, due to the low level of two-way amateur radio activity, the WSPR mode has been dominant. This is a weak-signal 'beacon-only' mode so most two-way contacts take place either on CW or on the weak signal JT-9 mode. JT-9 has been specifically designed for HF and LF / MF weak signal two-way work and can dig as deep as -27db into the noise to provide a contact that could never be completed on other conventional modes such as CW.

With the influx of new activity on these bands, particularly on 630m, I expect that most two-way work will equal or surpass the amount of WSPR activity and that JT-9 and CW will do most of the heavy-lifting.

How far can I work on these bands?

Although the erp limits appear to be QRP-sized, this is somewhat misleading ... it is astonishing what can be done. Don't think that '5W eirp' means that you can only run a transmitter capable of generating 5W. Because antennas are so inefficient on these bands, it is often necessary to run several hundreds of watts in order to achieve the legal eirp limits. The bigger and more efficient your antenna, the lower the power needed becomes. On many nights, 5W eirp will get you clear across the country on MF.

However, if you build something for 630m that only produces 25W of power, you will still have the capability of working many stations in other states on most winter evenings or mornings, as propagation, the 'great equalizer', can be amazing at times.

Presently, most stations operating on WSPR will often be detected from one coast to the other and those with excellent locations near the coast will soon be working stations down under or in Europe, either on CW or on JT-9. If you can, design and build for the maximum eirp, 1W on 2200m and 5W on 630m.

What type of transmitter do I need?

If your interests are only in CW, then the sky is the limit when it comes to design. There are numerous simple solid state transmitter designs out there, using inexpensive FETs to generate power. I'm hoping, along with many others, that there will be a considerable amount of CW activity on 630m and even a simple 25-watter should provide you with lots of  fun. There may also be some appetite for QRSS CW which can give the weak-signal digital modes a run for their money while still using a simple transmitter.

If you are interested in digital modes, such as WSPR or JT-9, the easiest way is through the use of a transverter to take care of converting your HF transceiver's capabilities to LF or HF. There are presently a few commercial transverter options available and can be found on the NJDTechnologies links page.

A good choice is the inexpensive 630m transverter produced by John Molnar, shown below and available both as a kit or prebuilt. It works well and is very popular.

630m Transverter - John Molnar WA3ETD / WG2XKA

Although not available commercially, another popular 630m homebrew design is one from G3XBM which will also provide a way to get on the digital modes. He also has a 2200m design, should your interests be focused on that band.

G3XBM -630m Transverter

Any of these simple transverters are capable of controlling a higher-powered switching FET amplifier as your station progresses.

If you want something in the 'Collins category', the tranverters (both 2200m and 630m models) produced by VK4YB's Monitor Sensors provide around 70W output and are incredibly well designed and built. I have been very happily employing a 630m model for well over a year now ... my review of the transverter can be found here.

VK4YB - 630m Transverter

I suspect that we may soon see more commercial products become available over the next year but if you are handy with a soldering iron, building your transmitter will all be part of the 630m challenge!

I would like to put on a beacon. What do you suggest?

The best and most informational type of beacon is a WSPR mode beacon. A WSPR beacon operator can always determine where his beacon is being heard, in real time, along with how well it is being heard, by watching the uploaded 'spots' of his beacon on the WSPRnet. You will have much better coverage with this weak-signal mode beacon compared to one on CW ... for every CW report received, you would likely get ten times or more that number on WSPR.

Although WSPR is a great mode for checking out propagation, it's very easy to get into the habit of nightly beaconing and not developing your station any further. If you do run a WSPR beacon, be sure to try some of the other two-way modes such as CW or JT9 and call CQ regularly ... ham radio is all about making two-way contacts!

I don't have enough property for the large antennas required, so I won't be able to use these bands.

Even if you are limited in space, you can still enjoy these bands. There are many examples of stations on small city or suburban-size lots that are consistently heard across North America on 630m. If you have the room for an 80m or 40m dipole or inverted-L, that will be enough space to work these bands. An inverted-L for example, can be base-loaded and tuned to resonance. Along with several ground radials, even a small antenna system like this will allow you to work skywave DX or be heard across the country when propagation is good. I'm constantly amazed at how well these bands propagate with very low amounts of erp. Don't let living on a small lot stop you from exploring these bands!

All I hear is noise on these bands ... how can I use them if I can't hear anything?

Growing noise floors are common to everyone and this is often the biggest challenge for LF and MF operators, especially those in densely populated regions. Armed with a little knowledge and investigation, oftentimes seemingly impossible QRN can be substantially reduced if not eliminated entirely ... even easier when the noise source is found to be in your own home! While some amateurs just give up at this stage, most will see it as an interesting challenge to be overcome and part of the many learning experiences offered by these new bands.

In addition to the informational links provided above, I have just added a new 'Getting Started On 630m' page to my website. This page has a two-part article that I recently wrote for The Canadian Amateur, our national amateur radio journal. The articles describe a simple way of getting on 630m CW as well as providing some basic antenna information and ideas.

This blog also has extensive writings involving 630m over the past few years, describing equipment used and suggestions for new operators, much of it involving homebrewing. There are several links on the right that will take you to specific blogs dealing with 630m.

For present LF and MF operators here in Canada, the arrival of our American friends to these bands is generating much excitement and anticipation. The opening of these bands in the USA will pump new life into this part of the spectrum for all North American participants and the opportunities for homebrewing and experimenting are boundless. It should be a very exciting winter!

If you have not taken the 60 seconds required to register your station on the UTC webpage, please don't neglect to do this via the link provided above. There have, reportedly, been thousands of amateurs doing this already, as it effectively locks-out their locations for any future PLC deployment that might keep them off these bands at a later date.

See you in mid-October on 630!
Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

It has indeed been a long time since I've moved to this new work location. The old work QTH was in Warren, NJ and the new is in Whitehouse Station, NJ. Same job, same company, different campus.  I am about 10 miles (more or less) farther west into the interior of New Jersey than I used to be. It adds about another 10 minutes to my commute.

There are two of us in my department. Things were easier in Warren, as we both worked from the same (and only) building on campus.  We staggered our lunch breaks so that one of us was always on duty. Here, at the new work QTH, we are split between two buildings, each one of us minding our own store, so to speak. Unless you master bi-location, you can't manage both buildings at the same time with one man.

That led towards a hiatus in lunchtime QRP operations as it just seemed not the greatest idea to spend so much time away from the desk. I know, it's time I'm entitled to (it's only an hour) and I really should get away from the desk to remain fresh in the afternoon.

So I decided to take advantage again, beginning this week.

I went out to the car yesterday and hooked up the KX3 to the Buddistick. I heard a lot of stations on 20 Meters, but got no answers to any of my calls.  I know the equipment works, I figured it was just a bit of "rust" on my part. But, boy howdy, was it hot yesterday! It reached into the upper 80s (about 30C) here at lunchtime and since I was parked outside, it was hot like an oven in the car. It was a double negative experience - too hot and skunked on contacts.

Not one to be deterred, my little eye spied on something that I had forgotten. This campus has picnic tables!  Many of the employees go out to eat outdoors on the nice days. There are plenty of tables, they are spaced widely enough apart where conversations cannot encroach on one another.

It dawned on me that this would be the perfect place to set up the KX3 and the magloop! Sure, I'd probably get some stares from the other lunchers, and maybe from some of the employees who take advantage of their lunch break to walk the perimeter of the campus - but what they heck? Right? It's not like I haven't been stared at before. It's not like people haven't come up to me to ask, "What is that?" before, so tossing self-consciousness into the wind, I decided to set up at one of the tables today.

I chose a table towards the end of the line of tables, the one with no umbrella. Sure, it would be a little hotter with no shade, but it's less than an hour and besides, there's be no metallic umbrella ribs to possibly interact with the magloop.

Before hunting for a QSO, I decided to call CQ for a bit on both 20 and 17 Meters.  I really didn't expect anyone to answer, although there's no reason why anyone wouldn't. I just wanted to conduct a little Reverse Beacon Network experiment.

Experiment done, I went back to 20 Meters and found the "sweet spot" with the loop's tuning capacitor. (I was able to set up in under four minutes, by they way. Almost as fast as setting up the Buddistick on the car.) Tuning the KX3 around, there were a bunch of loud stations.  Finally, I came upon GI4DOH, Rich in Northern Ireland.  He had a strong signal and a great fist, so I gave him a call.  He came back to me on the first shot!  He was 559+ here in NJ, and I got a 559 in return.


According to his QRZ page, the loop that Rich is using is a receive only loop.  This was not a loop to loop QSO.

After working Rich, I popped on up to 17 Meters.  There I heard OE3DXA, Wern in Austria calling CQ. Again, loud signal, great fist, so I gave him a call.  Just as with GI4DOH, I gave him a 599+ report but this time I got a 599 in return.  Both QSOs were solid with no repeats asked for with regard to info, so I am assuming I was at or near Q5 copy. (Even if the 599 in return wasn't exactly accurate.)


It was time to pack it in, and I was satisfied with the two DX QSOs for the day.  With regard to my Reverse Beacon Network experiment, this was where the loop was allowing my signal to be heard:


As for spectators, I did get one guy who stopped to ask, "What is that? And what are you doing?" I explained that it was Amateur Radio and an Amateur Radio antenna. In response, I got the (what seems to be standard) "People still do that?" question.

I went into "pitch" mode and explained that yes, Amateur Radio is alive and well, and that for a lot of people in the Caribbean right now it's the only way they can get word out to their families abroad, that they are OK after the hurricanes.

So it was a successful day, I'm happy and it looks like there might not be rain for the rest of the work week.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Judy and I drove over to the beach today to escape the heat. It was almost 90F here. I worked Italy, Finland, Hungary, Cuba and California from the shore.

What a fantastic day… and the drive paid off. It was nearly 10 degrees cooler at the beach with a nice breeze. We had lunch, rode our bikes and then Judy took a swim… while I set up the KX3 and a 30 foot wire.

I extended a DK9SQ 33 foot mast and attached the wire to the tip. Then I rised the mast and tied it to corner of a bench overlooking the harbor. Voila… I had a station. 17 meters was excellent from the beach, and I made 4 of my 6 contacts there. Here’s my log:

25 Sep-17 1920 18.076 CO8LY CW 599 599 Cuba
25 Sep-17 1922 18.082 IK3VUT CW 559 599 Italy
25 Sep-17 1928 18.085 IK5ZWU CW 559 599 Italy
25 Sep-17 1940 14.034 OH6NVC CW 559 579 Finland
25 Sep-17 1945 14.025 HA8VV CW 589 589 Hungary
25 Sep-17 1950 18.080 N6UOE CW 579 599 CA

Before heading home, we decided to take another bike ride. We went to a little laneway on the other side of the harbor. I got a snapshot of my operating position from there.

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