In this episode we talk with Ria Jairam, N2RJ, again. I had Ria on my podcast back in episode 76 where we talked about Software Defined Radios. This time around, we talk about Remote Operations.

Remote operations has come a long way in the past 20 years or so. I have heard about people having a remote site 10-15 years ago, but their setups is a lot harder to make. Now, you can do it with just a Radio and an internet connection. Well you might need some wires and stuff too but…

Ria was kind enough to let me use her station last week remotely. Ria lives in New Jersy and I live in Texas. While I was using it I made my first HF contact in probably 15 years to a gentleman in TN and another one from IL. So basically I was talking from Texas to New Jersey to Tennessee and Illinois.

 

Technology has advanced so far and makes working remotely a lot easier. I recently listened to an episode of the Hamradio 360: Workbench podcast where George was talking with Michael VA3MW about his setup. The reason that he did remote operations was because he lived in the city and his noise floor was way up, but he had another piece of property, a family cabin if I’m not mistaken, that he setup his station at and was able to connect remotely to it from his home.

The reasons for operating a station remotely are vast.

• You live in an HOA or another antenna restricted location.
• You live in a retirement home but you still want to make those DX contacts.
• You live somewhere that has a high noise floor and you couldn’t make a contact even if you had an awesome setup
• Maybe you can’t afford a $1000+ HF setup, you can RENT the use of a remote station.

Listen to the episode and check out the show notes

 

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

HM - 221 kHz Hamilton, Ontario

This coming weekend will see another CLE challenge. This time the hunting grounds will be all inclusive: 190-1740 kHz. As well, there are two options, HOME and DX as explained below.



For those unfamiliar with this monthly activity, a 'CLE' is a 'Co-ordinated Listening Event', as NDB DXers around the world focus their listening time (usually) on one small slice of the NDB spectrum.

Summertime CLEs can often be challenging, not because of poor propagation but more likely, summer lightning storms ... hopefully it will be quiet for your location.

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'  (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, G3SIA, comes the usual 'heads-up':


Hi all

Our 222nd Co-ordinated Listening Event, 'DX and HOME', starts on Friday
and runs for an extra day. First-time CLE logs will also be very welcome
of course.

Days: Friday 25th August - TUESDAY 29th August
Times: Midday on Friday to Midday on Tuesday, your LOCAL time
QRG: Normal LF/MF frequencies (190 - 1740 kHz)
NDBs: Normal DX and 'HOME' ones (not DGPS, Navtex or Amateur)

There are two parts (you can listen for either or both of them):

DX:
Please try to log NDBs that are over 2,000 km / 1,250 miles from you.
(If you don't have details of the distances of NDBs from you, please see
the end of this email)

HOME:
If you have any, please log the NDBs in YOUR OWN radio country.
For listeners in AUS, CAN and USA, that means your State or Province.
Our full list of radio countries can be found at:
http://www.ndblist.info/ndbinfo/countrylist.pdf
(If you also mention any of your home regulars NOT heard, it will help
others to know about NDBs, maybe DX to them, that may not be active)

Please post your CLE log to the List in a plain text email if possible,
with 'CLE222' at the start of its title and showing on each log line:

The full Date ( e.g. 2017-08-25 or just the day number 25 )
UTC (the day changes at 00:00 UTC).
kHz - the nominal published frequency
The Call Ident.

Please put those four main log items FIRST, with any other optional
details such as location and distance LATER in the same line.

Your log will be more interesting if you keep the two parts, DX and HOME,
separate in it. Any UNIDs that you come across will also be of interest -
in a separate, third, 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.

I will send the usual 'Any More Logs?' email at about 17:00 UTC on
WEDNESDAY so you can check that your log has been found OK.
Do make sure that your Final log has arrived on the list by 08:00 UTC
on Friday 1st September at the very latest.
Joachim hopes to complete the combined results on the Saturday.

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

(If you wish you could use a remote receiver for your loggings,
stating its location and owner - with permission if required.
A remote listener may NOT also use another receiver, whether
local or remote, to obtain further loggings for the same CLE.
The HOME radio country and the distances would be based on
where the receiving equipment is located)

DISTANCES TO NDBs FROM YOUR LOCATION

The Great Circle program GcmWin by SM3GSJ can produce a nice great circle
map centred on your location - see http://www.qsl.net/sm3gsj/

Users of Michael's NDB Handbooks will already have their distances and
bearings to the NDBs.

Alex's WWSU program has a facility to create a map showing the areas
inside the 2000 km circle.
To create this,
click on 'Tools'
click on 'Station Radar'
select Range from “2000” to “10000” km
select “show NDB stations”
click on “Generate Image”
click on “Save To File”
That will create a text-file containing information on the selected NDBs.

The REU/RNA/RWW Database provides a powerful way of finding which
NDBs to search for:

1) Go to the signals screen using -
http://www.classaxe.com/dx/ndb/reu?mode=signals
If you are in North America, replace the reu above with rna
If you are not in Europe or North America, replace the reu with rww

2) On the Range line, put your *Locator in the 'From GSQ' box (e.g. mine
is IO91tg) The DX fields become enabled when a GSQ is entered.

3) Enter 2000 in the first DX field, leave the second blank and leave the
units as 'km' (or use 1250 and 'miles', if you prefer)

4) Select 'Only Active' and press 'Go'.
Now you only see NDBs that are over 2000 km from you.

Change 'Show' in the top line to 'All Results'.
The other fields are also active - e.g. you could enter specific States or
Countries in the Location line to limit the search to the NDBs there.
And/or you could click on 'Map', then on 'Go' and uncheck 'Clustering'

*If you do not know your Locator you can quickly find it from your
Latitude/Longitude (and vice versa) by using:
wingrid.exe V4.1 - freeware from W4SM 

These listening events serve several purposes. They:

• determine, worldwide, which beacons are actually in service and on-the-air so the online database can be kept up-to-date

• determine, worldwide, which beacons are out-of-service or have gone silent since the last CLE covering this range

• will indicate the state of propagation conditions at the various participant locations

• will give you an indication of how well your LF/MF receiving system is working

• give participants a fun yet challenging activity to keep their listening skills honed

Final details can be found at the NDB List website, and worldwide results, for every participant, will be posted there a few days after the event. If you are a member of the ndblist Group, results will also be e-mailed and posted there.

The very active Yahoo ndblist Group is a great place to learn more about the 'Art of NDB DXing' or to meet other listeners in your region. There is a lot of good information available there and new members are always very welcome. As well, you can follow the results of other CLE participants from night to night as propagation is always an active topic of discussion.

If you are contemplating getting started on 630m, listening for NDBs  is an excellent way to test out your receive capabilities as there are several NDBs located near this part of the spectrum.

You need not be an ndblist member to participate in the CLEs and all reports, no matter how small, are of much value to the organizers. 

'First-time' logs are always VERY welcome!

Reports may be sent to the ndblist or e-mailed to either myself or CLE co-ordinator, Brian Keyte (G3SIA), whose address appears above.

Please ... give the CLE a try ... then let us know what NDB's can be heard from your location! Your report can then be added to the worldwide database to help keep it up-to-date.

Good hunting!


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

These little rigs from Yaesu have basically remained unchanged since 2000. They cover all bands from 160m-70cm (not 4m or 1.25m), all modes, 5W. With transverters, mine have been used from VLF upwards on all available bands. They work well, but I was surprised Yaesu did not do an upgrade in time for the last sunspot peak. Also, I was surprised they had no real competitors. These days there are a few SDR radios around, but the FT817 reigns supreme.

With mine I have worked the world including some great handheld DX. For base station use I recommend the Z817 auto-ATU.

I tried the Elecraft auto ATU but prefer the Z817. I am very happy with the FT817, although the early ones had PA failures with low voltage. This was fixed (I think) in the FT817ND.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/ft817

Roger Lapthorn, G3XBM, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cambridge, England.

In this episode, Martin M1MRB/W9ICQ is joined by Leslie Butterfield G0CIB, Matthew Nassau M0NJX 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 Essex Hams and FT8.

We would like to thank  Ian Tickle (G4ZJH), Anonymous Donor and our monthly and annual subscription donors for keeping the podcast advert free. To donate, please visit - http://www.icqpodcast.com/donate

• Successful Ham radio Exams confirm Cuban Growth

• Ofcom Short Call Signs Licencing Problem

• New Owner for Practical Wireless and Radio User Magazines

• Radio Ship Navigation Returns to Combat Cyber Threat

• The Australian Travelers Net

• BBC to End AM Local Radio

• Ham Radio Promotional Posters

• Morse Code Trainer 20WPM App

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.

HAKUNA MATATA

It may not have been the YASME but the recent voyage of the HAKUNA MATATA had all of the radio fun that one might ask for during the mid-summer doldrums! (more later for those too young to recall the YASME)



Crewed by Mark (VA7MM) and YL May (VA7MAY), Toby (VE7CNF) and XYL Nancy, the 31' Benateu recently completed a 14-day circumnavigation of Georgia Strait's Gulf Islands. This is a yearly adventure that has been successfully completed for the past few summers and looks as though it may now be an annual tradition.

Normally, the crew kept up regular radio contact on HF as well as on VHF when possible but this year saw a major departure.

In previous summers, near the end of the voyage, the crew has always visited us here on Mayne Island for an afternoon of vittles and libation before heading for home. There is always a good amount of time spent recalling the past-year's radio activities, winter projects and reminiscence of the 'good old days'. Last year, just as the party was ending, I jokingly suggested that 'next year', it would be cool to work them from the boat on 630m.

Although there was no immediate commitment, I knew that the seed had been planted, and with three of the four crew being engineers, I suspected it might be hard for them to resist, and ... just before departure, the local bunch of 630m ops were put on alert to be watching for CF7MM/mm on 475 kHz CW as they would be attempting to work us from three different overnight anchorages during their summer voyage!

Evidently Toby had been working quietly during the winter to make this become a reality. Here are some pictures of the system along with Toby's (the system's builder) comments.

Variometer and matching transformer

I have attached photos of the CF7MM/MM 630m setup on Hakuna Matata. The lower black toolbox holds a variometer with selectable taps and a matching toroidal autotransformer with selectable taps. At the base of the antenna is another series loading coil.

Wire vertical and loading coil

The antenna wire is 14 ga 38 ft long with plastic Unadilla "END-sulators" at each end. Ground was the boats's cast steel keel and a couple of 30 ft wires near the gunnels. The rig is an IC-746 with my power-mixer transverter. Transmit power was about 20W TPO.

Toby (VE7CNF) working the pileups!

Tuning and matching was done with a resistive voltage divider setup, signal generator, and portable oscilloscope. Once the matching was figured out, I could re-tune the variometer to give a dip on the transverter's RF voltmeter and check that we had the same RF voltage as with a dummy load connected.

Tuneup

The antenna equivalent circuit is approximately 100 pF in series with 27 ohms. Coil losses were 23 ohms for about 50 ohms total load resistance, so the matching autotransformer was not used. The base loading coil is approximately 170 uH and the variometer is 950 uH, for 1120 uH total inductance.

The route, heading north from Vancouver

We tried disconnecting the gunnel ground wires and leaving only the keel, and found that the antenna capacitance and resistance did not change. When we disconnected the keel and left only the gunnel wires, the antenna capacitance dropped to about 87pF and antenna resistance dropped by a few ohms. It appears that the keel provided most of our ground coupling to sea water and it would have been a sufficient ground on its own.

More details of Toby's 630m transverter as well as a practical 630m antenna tune-up procedure can be found on his website here.

All-in-all, I think the 630m operation was a great success and very likely the first-ever 630m marine mobile operation on that band, as I don't recall this happening anywhere else over the years. It was also a great way to pay homage to the band's original maritime heritage where its quality groundwave and skywave capabilities were used to advantage for so many decades safeguarding mariners worldwide.



Maritime mobile operation on the amateur bands has some great history behind it, including the yacht YASME. In the mid-50's, Danny Weil was the first ever amateur to undertake DX'pedition style operations via sailboat, as he visited numerous rare islands in the Caribbean and South Pacific.

Danny on the YASME - courtesy: www.gm3itn.co.uk

Original YASME QSL -  courtesy: http://hamgallery.com/

His exploits were regularly published in CQ magazine at the time and always made for exciting reading as Danny would eventually wreck three YASMES over the years! His adventures laid the groundwork for future island-hopping DX operations such as those undertaken by Gus Browning (W4BPD), Don Miller (W9WNV) and all that followed ... I'm sure they would all have enjoyed working the HAKUNA MATATA as well!
Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

HAKUNA MATATA

It may not have been the YASME but the recent voyage of the HAKUNA MATATA had all of the radio fun that one might ask for during the mid-summer doldrums! (more later for those too young to recall the YASME)



Crewed by Mark (VA7MM) and YL May (VE7MAY), Toby (VE7CNF) and XYL Nancy, the 31' Benateu recently completed a 14-day circumnavigation of Georgia Strait's Gulf Islands. This is a yearly adventure that has been successfully completed for the past few summers and looks as though it may now be an annual tradition.

Normally, the crew kept up regular radio contact on HF as well as on VHF when possible but this year saw a major departure.

In previous summers, near the end of the voyage, the crew has always visited us here on Mayne Island for an afternoon of vittles and libation before heading for home. There is always a good amount of time spent recalling the past-year's radio activities, winter projects and reminiscence of the 'good old days'. Last year, just as the party was ending, I jokingly suggested that 'next year', it would be cool to work them from the boat on 630m.

Although there was no immediate commitment, I knew that the seed had been planted, and with three of the four crew being engineers, I suspected it might be hard for them to resist, and ... just before departure, the local bunch of 630m ops were put on alert to be watching for CF7MM/mm on 475 kHz CW as they would be attempting to work us from three different overnight anchorages during their summer voyage!

Evidently Toby had been working quietly during the winter to make this become a reality. Here are some pictures of the system along with Toby's (the system's builder) comments.

Variometer and matching transformer

I have attached photos of the CF7MM/MM 630m setup on Hakuna Matata. The lower black toolbox holds a variometer with selectable taps and a matching toroidal autotransformer with selectable taps. At the base of the antenna is another series loading coil.

Wire vertical and loading coil

The antenna wire is 14 ga 38 ft long with plastic Unadilla "END-sulators" at each end. Ground was the boats's cast steel keel and a couple of 30 ft wires near the gunnels. The rig is an IC-746 with my power-mixer transverter. Transmit power was about 20W TPO.

Toby (VE7CNF) working the pileups!

Tuning and matching was done with a resistive voltage divider setup, signal generator, and portable oscilloscope. Once the matching was figured out, I could re-tune the variometer to give a dip on the transverter's RF voltmeter and check that we had the same RF voltage as with a dummy load connected.

Tuneup

The antenna equivalent circuit is approximately 100 pF in series with 27 ohms. Coil losses were 23 ohms for about 50 ohms total load resistance, so the matching autotransformer was not used. The base loading coil is approximately 170 uH and the variometer is 950 uH, for 1120 uH total inductance.

The route, heading north from Vancouver

We tried disconnecting the gunnel ground wires and leaving only the keel, and found that the antenna capacitance and resistance did not change. When we disconnected the keel and left only the gunnel wires, the antenna capacitance dropped to about 87pF and antenna resistance dropped by a few ohms. It appears that the keel provided most of our ground coupling to sea water and it would have been a sufficient ground on its own.

More details of Toby's 630m transverter as well as a practical 630m antenna tune-up procedure can be found on his website here.

All-in-all, I think the 630m operation was a great success and very likely the first-ever 630m marine mobile operation on that band, as I don't recall this happening anywhere else over the years. It was also a great way to pay homage to the band's original maritime heritage where its quality groundwave and skywave capabilities were used to advantage for so many decades safeguarding mariners worldwide.



Maritime mobile operation on the amateur bands has some great history behind it, including the yacht YASME. In the mid-50's, Danny Weil was the first ever amateur to undertake DX'pedition style operations via sailboat, as he visited numerous rare islands in the Caribbean and South Pacific.

Danny on the YASME - courtesy: www.gm3itn.co.uk

Original YASME QSL -  courtesy: http://hamgallery.com/

His exploits were regularly published in CQ magazine at the time and always made for exciting reading as Danny would eventually wreck three YASMES over the years! His adventures laid the groundwork for future island-hopping DX operations such as those undertaken by Gus Browning (W4BPD), Don Miller (W9WNV) and all that followed ... I'm sure they would all have enjoyed working the HAKUNA MATATA as well!
Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].