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 Simple Hands-Free Kit for your Mobile.

We would like to thank Andy (ZS5CEY), an Anonymous Donor and Myles (VE7FSR) and our monthly and annual donors for keeping the podcast advert free. To donate, please visit - http://www.icqpodcast.com/donate

• WIA Successful Amateur/Ham Radio Exams Trial

• Join the New Zealand CubeSAT Race

• First Slovak Spacecraft Launched

• US Radio Hams May Retain Full 76-81 GHz band

• Proposed UK Amateur/Ham Radio Foundation Course Changes

• Girl Guide Achieves Amateur/Ham Radio Licence

• FCC Announces Head of Enforcement Bureau

• Norwegian FM Networks Continue Shutdowns

• Brandmeister DMR Radio Irish Server

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

What is an amateur radio repeater and how do they work?

In this video, with a non-amateur-radio viewer in mind, I chat about the very basic concepts of a repeater.  This is a vlog (video blog) entry on my video channel, and it is shot in a relaxed, “ride along with me” format. Feel free to share this short overview with those who might be interested in our hobby.  There are more of these sorts of ridealongs coming.

Thank you for watching, and for sharing…

..

Visit, subscribe: NW7US Radio Communications and Propagation YouTube Channel

Judy and I rode our bicycles along the Pemigewasset River at Old Hill Village this afternoon. I operated the IARU contest on 20 meters. I worked Latvia, Puerto Rico, England, Spain, Germany and four states. What a beautiful day.

We passed through a low area along the river. It was covered with debris from flooding earlier this week.

But there were only a couple of impassable sections; the rest was gorgeous. The trail was strewn with wild flowers… yarrow, buttercups, vetch and daisies to name a few.

We rode south along the trail for more than two miles and stopped under an old butternut tree. Here I tossed my 33 foot wire over a high branch.

I set up the KX3 at the edge of the trail and sat down to operate.

Making contacts was easy. Stations were strong and plentiful. Band conditions were good. I operated for about 20 minutes and made 11 QSOs. Here’s my log… I’ve replaced the ITU zone with the QTH, so you can see where I made contacts:

08 Jul-17 1951 14 DJ7UC CW 599 599 Germany
08 Jul-17 1954 14 K3TN CW 599 599 MD
08 Jul-17 1955 14 W4ML CW 599 599 VA
08 Jul-17 1956 14 YL4HQ CW 599 599 Latvia
08 Jul-17 1957 14 K4P CW 599 599 Puerto Rico
08 Jul-17 2002 14 GR2HQ CW 599 599 England
08 Jul-17 2003 14 K4AB CW 599 599 AL
08 Jul-17 2006 14 K2DSW CW 599 599 IA
08 Jul-17 2008 14 DL0CS CW 599 599 Germany
08 Jul-17 2010 14 EF4HQ CW 599 599 Spain
08 Jul-17 2013 14 W0FLS CW 599 599 IA

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

One of the cool things about the Summits On The Air program is that it has many different awards available. The SOTA database records the QSOs of everyone involved in the program and is used to qualify for the awards. QSL cards are not required. The most coveted awards are Shack Sloth (reaching 1000 points as a “chaser”) and Mountain Goat (reaching 1000 points as an “activator”). There are so many SOTA activators on the air these days, reaching Shack Sloth is not too difficult. Just get on the air and make the contacts. (Last year, I completed Shack Sloth using VHF and higher frequencies only.) Mountain Goat is much more of a challenge because you have to physically go out and activate each summit, one at a time. Currently, there are 9 radio hams that achieved Mountain Goat status in Colorado. I have a long way to go for Mountain Goat.

Most of my SOTA contacts have been on the 2 meter band (144 MHz) using FM, SSB and CW. Recently, I put additional emphasis on making QSOs on two of the UHF bands: 70 cm (433 MHz) and 23 cm (1.2 GHz). With the SOTA scoring system, there are no extra points or credit for working the same station on additional bands. Still, I’ll often check with the other station on 2m to see if they want to make a QSO on one of the other bands…just because. The SOTA database does keep track of these QSOs separately so you can go in and look at your results on, say, just the 70 cm band.

For some unexplained reason, 1.2 GHz has my interest right now and I’ve been trying out my capabilities on that band. The 23 cm amateur band is one huge hunk of spectrum: 1240 to 1300 MHz (US allocation). To put this in perspective, this 60 MHz swath of spectrum is 171 times the size of the 20m amateur band. (Yeah, I grant you, the propagation on 20m is usually a lot more interesting.)  So the first thing I ran into on this band is the lack of commercially available equipment. I think the number of radios that will do 1.2 GHz has actually declined in the last decade. I ended up buying a pair of Alinco DJ-G7T handheld tranceivers that put out 1W of RF power on 1.2 GHz.The second thing I ran into is the lack of other hams that have 1.2 GHz gear. But when you do find them, they usually are interested in making a contact! (I suppose it gets lonely on that band.)

Initially, Joyce K0JJW and I made some short-range SOTA contacts on 1.2 GHz using the two handheld radios, on the 1294.5 MHz FM calling frequency. Then I started looking for DX contacts from local stations that have 23 cm gear. To provide some additional antenna gain, I used a 4-foot yagi antenna (Comet CYA-1216E), specified as 16.6 dBi. One of the cool things about UHF and higher is that compact antennas can provide some serious gain. My best DX so far is 54 km (33.5 miles) but I expect to be able to do distances 3 to 4 times that. The SOTA awards system considers the 23 cm band to be “microwave” so my 54 km QSO just barely qualifies me for the 50 km award. (The microwave awards are based on distance worked, unlike the other SOTA awards.)

Just another fun thing to do on the ham bands, pursuing the Universal Purpose of Amateur Radio.

73, Bob K0NR

The post Using 1.2 GHz for SOTA 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.

Last week's favorable northern declination of the Moon allowed me two days of activity, once my moonrises had lagged far enough behind the early sunrises.

With fixed elevation and not having the ability to track the moon as it rises, I can only operate for about two hours before the moon gets too high. The highest elevation that I am able to work seems to stop near 20 degrees.

With QSLs from earlier sessions still arriving, I noted last week's activity was down somewhat from the previous month ... summertime activities usually take priority over EME for most moonbouncers.








During my two mornings of moon time I worked five stations which included two new DXCC countries, bringing my 2m DXCC total to 30. Stations worked at the end of June were:

                    ON4AOI #106 (new country)
                    OH3AWW #107 (new country)
                    I2RV second QSO
                    DK9WI #108
                    IK6CAK #109

ON4AOI - 4 X 14V / 14H array

OH3AWW - 4 X 9el array

IK6CAK - 9H / 6V 8el LFA array more

Interestingly, all of the stations answered one of my CQs, with one CQ having three different callers at one time ... pretty exciting and something that I don't think has occurred here before! But that wasn't the only excitement of the week.

In the middle of a CQ following my QSO with IK6CAK, I heard a faint 'crack' sound from my amplifier, an aging RF Concepts 2-135, followed by the unmistakable whiff of a 'too hot' electronic component ... every ham is familiar with this always unwelcome odor and it usually spells trouble.



During the next CQ, I saw a trace of smoke coming out of the amp's back corner vent holes, at which point I reluctantly shut things down in the middle of some superb EME conditions.

After tearing into the amplifier, the only thing that looked stressed was a small inductor (L14 below), part of the output filtering / impedance matching circuitry.


It looked a little darker and somewhat stressed and as I gave it a poke with a screwdriver blade, it immediately disintegrated into what you see below.


It was a small (1.2uH) encapsulated RFC which appeared to be wire-wound on a core material that I did not recognize and likely suitable for VHF. I surmised that after several years of 100% duty-cycle JT65 operation, the inductor had been over-stressed to the point of failure ... helping to filter all of those nasty high frequency harmonics can't be an easy job!

After a search of my RFC collection (see below), salvaged mostly from junked TVs, monitors, VCRs and other electronic cast-offs temporarily 'borrowed' for stripping from our local recycle center here on Mayne Island, I settled on a 1.2uH choke that I hoped would be a suitable replacement. It had just a few turns so I assumed it was wound on some sort of powdered iron or ferrite form. Whether or not it would behave at 144MHz was another question.


After reassembling the amplifier the following morning, I keyed up at full power during the EME window but halfway through my initial CQ I saw smoke and then flames coming from the inside of the case ... yikes! Shutting down immediately killed the fire and after tearing into the amp yet again, I saw that this time, the output coupling capacitor (C51) had completely destroyed itself.


The new inductor (L14) appeared a little heated, but I assumed it was only smoke-damaged from the nearby flameout of the capacitor. I replaced C51, an 820pF silver mica, with a higher rated one of the same value and, once again, gave it the smoke test ... literally.

After a few seconds, a whiff of smoke appeared from the back of the amp, followed by the SWR trip-out kicking in and shutting the amp down.

This time it appeared that the inductor was definitely complicit in the destruction of the capacitor as it was charred and black. I surmised that whatever core material the little inductor was wound upon, definitely was not suitable at 144MHz and had caused the little inductor to either change value or to saturate ... whatever it was doing had created a highly reactive condition in the output circuit, changing the output load impedance and sending the SWR sky-high.

This time I replaced the inductor with a homebrew one, wound on a plain phenolic former, hoping to avoid any ferro-magnetic / frequency compatibility issues. After reassembling the amplifier, it seemed to be happy once again and ran nicely for several 60 second JT65B sequences at full power with no smoke or component heating!

By this time I had run out of favorable EME windows as my moonrises were now too far to the south to keep me away from the neighbour's trees ... I'll just have to be patient and wait until the end of the month for the next definitive test. Let's hope there's no more smoke.
Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

Last week's favorable northern declination of the Moon allowed me two days of activity, once my moonrises had lagged far enough behind the early sunrises.

With fixed elevation and not having the ability to track the moon as it rises, I can only operate for about two hours before the moon gets too high. The highest elevation that I am able to work seems to stop near 20 degrees.

With QSLs from earlier sessions still arriving, I noted last week's activity was down somewhat from the previous month ... summertime activities usually take priority over EME for most moonbouncers.








During my two mornings of moon time I worked five stations which included two new DXCC countries, bringing my 2m DXCC total to 30. Stations worked at the end of June were:

                    ON4AOI #106 (new country)
                    OH3AWW #107 (new country)
                    I2RV second QSO
                    DK9WI #108
                    IK6CAK #109

ON4AOI - 4 X 14V / 14H array

OH3AWW - 4 X 9el array

IK6CAK - 9H / 6V 8el LFA array more

Interestingly, all of the stations answered one of my CQs, with one CQ having three different callers at one time ... pretty exciting and something that I don't think has occurred here before! But that wasn't the only excitement of the week.

In the middle of a CQ following my QSO with IK6CAK, I heard a faint 'crack' sound from my amplifier, an aging RF Concepts 2-135, followed by the unmistakable whiff of a 'too hot' electronic component ... every ham is familiar with this always unwelcome odor and it usually spells trouble.



During the next CQ, I saw a trace of smoke coming out of the amp's back corner vent holes, at which point I reluctantly shut things down in the middle of some superb EME conditions.

After tearing into the amplifier, the only thing that looked stressed was a small inductor (L14 below), part of the output filtering / impedance matching circuitry.


It looked a little darker and somewhat stressed and as I gave it a poke with a screwdriver blade, it immediately disintegrated into what you see below.


It was a small (1.2uH) encapsulated RFC which appeared to be wire-wound on a core material that I did not recognize and likely suitable for VHF. I surmised that after several years of 100% duty-cycle JT65 operation, the inductor had been over-stressed to the point of failure ... helping to filter all of those nasty high frequency harmonics can't be an easy job!

After a search of my RFC collection (see below), salvaged mostly from junked TVs, monitors, VCRs and other electronic cast-offs temporarily 'borrowed' for stripping from our local recycle center here on Mayne Island, I settled on a 1.2uH choke that I hoped would be a suitable replacement. It had just a few turns so I assumed it was wound on some sort of powdered iron or ferrite form. Whether or not it would behave at 144MHz was another question.


After reassembling the amplifier the following morning, I keyed up at full power during the EME window but halfway through my initial CQ I saw smoke and then flames coming from the inside of the case ... yikes! Shutting down immediately killed the fire and after tearing into the amp yet again, I saw that this time, the output coupling capacitor (C51) had completely destroyed itself.


The new inductor (L14) appeared a little heated, but I assumed it was only smoke-damaged from the nearby flameout of the capacitor. I replaced C51, an 820pF silver mica, with a higher rated one of the same value and, once again, gave it the smoke test ... literally.

After a few seconds, a whiff of smoke appeared from the back of the amp, followed by the SWR trip-out kicking in and shutting the amp down.

This time it appeared that the inductor was definitely complicit in the destruction of the capacitor as it was charred and black. I surmised that whatever core material the little inductor was wound upon, definitely was not suitable at 144MHz and had caused the little inductor to either change value or to saturate ... whatever it was doing had created a highly reactive condition in the output circuit, changing the output load impedance and sending the SWR sky-high.

This time I replaced the inductor with a homebrew one, wound on a plain phenolic former, hoping to avoid any ferro-magnetic / frequency compatibility issues. After reassembling the amplifier, it seemed to be happy once again and ran nicely for several 60 second JT65B sequences at full power with no smoke or component heating!

By this time I had run out of favorable EME windows as my moonrises were now too far to the south to keep me away from the neighbour's trees ... I'll just have to be patient and wait until the end of the month for the next definitive test. Let's hope there's no more smoke.
Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].