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Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 51
7 March 2015 | by 
US Amateur Radio numbers reach an all-time high
Amateur Radio growth in the US continues to soar. The trend has continued in the first 2 months of 2015, which saw the ham population rise to slightly more than 727,000.
ARRL
HF digital voice without the computer
The first batch of SM1000s are being built in China right now and we estimate shipping will start in late March.
David Rowe (VK5DGR)
Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2015 introduced in Congress
The measure would direct the FCC to extend its rules relating to reasonable accommodation of Amateur Service communications to private land use restrictions.
ARRL
Global 24 Radio on the rocks
Four months in, Global 24 is offering to refund money to supporters (maybe).
Global 24
A Photo Tour of the National Capital Radio and Television Museum
Museum Curator and volunteer, Brian Belanger, kindly gave me a private tour of the museum collections.
The SWLing Post
K3 Memory Manager for OSX
K3 Memory Manager allows the user to read/write/edit/erase memories from any slot in the K3/KX3, including setting split frequency/modes. It uses a basic table format which is simple to understand and quite intuitive to use.
Mac Ham Radio
WX Warning Program
WXWarn is easy to use free weather software that will monitor National Weather Service warnings, watches, forecasts, etc., and alert you (audio and visually) as new ones are issued.
WXSpots
How to
An idiots guide to programming your Baofeng UV-5R radio
I don’t need no “stinking” programming cable.
W7DTG
Tips on buying a used paddle
The contacts may be dirty and need to be cleaned, but make sure that no one has taken a file to them.
KB6NU
Understanding Single Sideband (SSB)
Single sideband is a special form of amplitude modulation (AM). What’s so ‘special’ about it? Besides just encoding voice information with variations in signal amplitude, or power, SSB consumes a little less than half the bandwidth of a full “double band” AM signal.
Ham Radio School
Video
HackRF on Sky Loop Antenna and Talented Balun
In this video I put up a 20 meter band Delta Sky Loop Antenna with lighting arrestor to use with my HackRF One software defined radio.
ToddFun.com
Interview with David Rowe (VK5DGR) creator of CODEC2 (digital voice on HF)
“This will be the year” for digital voice to explode in Ham Radio.
HamRadioNow
Making a Full Bridge Rectifier
A full bridge rectifier is one of the main building blocks of AC to DC converters.
Mehdi Sadaghdar
Yaesu System Fusion Introduction
GigaParts
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.
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Final Assault (Part 1)
The last I wrote I had 965 SOTA Activator points. The goal is 1,000 Activator points to achieve Mountain Goat status. I'm almost there. I did two summits today, Palomas Peak (W5N/SI-010) and Peak 6860 (W5/SI-022), to move my total to 985 points, almost there. Below are some video clips from my activations today.
It was a beautiful day to be in the mountains of New Mexico. Both of these summits are near Albuquerque, but very different environments. Palomas Peak is in an alpine forest and 6860, more or less in the desert. Al within about 25 miles of each other.
Mike Crownover, AD5A, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Texas, USA. Contact him at [email protected].
It was a beautiful day to be in the mountains of New Mexico. Both of these summits are near Albuquerque, but very different environments. Palomas Peak is in an alpine forest and 6860, more or less in the desert. Al within about 25 miles of each other.
The Trail to Palomas Peak
Palomas Operating Position
Palomas Descent
Taking a Break During 6860 Ascent
Arrival on 6860
6860 Summit
It was a beautiful day with two very different mountains. Lots of fun. Only 15 points to go. Stay Tuned for Part II.
Mike Crownover, AD5A, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Texas, USA. Contact him at [email protected].
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Amateur Radio Newsline Report 1955 March 6 2015
- Ham radio comes to the aid of a crash victim of an Arkansas auto accident
- IARU Region 1 VHF newsletter charts the future of those very high bands
- ARRL asks members to comment on it's HF band planning proposal
- Get ready for next summers International Lighthouse & Lightship weekend
- Planning continues for the VK0EK Heard Island DXpeedition
THIS WEEK'S NEWSCAST
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What happens when the lights go out……not much.
 |
| Candle light |
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].
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FLDIGI ported over to Android
The FREE multimode digital software package that many have used for years with Windows and Linux, has now been ported to Android. Again available without any restrictions!
Download the APK file, manual, and other details from here.
The software seems to cover many of the same functions, and modes, as its big brother Windows version.
I have only had a short time to play around with this tonight, but soon after I downloaded the APK on to my phone, a quick easy configure it was up and running within 5 minutes.
This now opens the door to cheap home and portable operation, using FLDIGI's modes likes PSK31 etc. Using simple Android tablets and Android PCs available from the likes of ebay for less than £50!
My 7" Android PC below, which should be suitable for use with FLDIGI.
Steve, G1KQH, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from England. Contact him at [email protected].
Download the APK file, manual, and other details from here.
The software seems to cover many of the same functions, and modes, as its big brother Windows version.
I have only had a short time to play around with this tonight, but soon after I downloaded the APK on to my phone, a quick easy configure it was up and running within 5 minutes.
This now opens the door to cheap home and portable operation, using FLDIGI's modes likes PSK31 etc. Using simple Android tablets and Android PCs available from the likes of ebay for less than £50!
My 7" Android PC below, which should be suitable for use with FLDIGI.
Steve, G1KQH, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from England. Contact him at [email protected].
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Phasers On Medium Wave
A recent posting on the Yahoo ndblist Group page, by veteran LF/MW DXer and front-end guru, Steve Ratzlaff (AA7U) in Oregon, described his thoughts on LF/MW antennas and his experience with phasers:
Some years back at the other place, I experimented with phasers, trying
all the various ones I could find or build. I had a long term loan of
the DXE NCC phaser as well. I compared them mostly at MW where a phaser is generally most useful; but also at LF and HF. In all cases and all
frequencies, without exception, the Dallas Lankford "MW Phaser #2" was
significantly better. I have placed that article in the ndblist Files,
under "Aerials and Technical Files" section should you have an interest
in looking at that article.
For LF use I never found any reason to use a phaser for trying to
optimize the level of a signal. Usually LF signals are short-lived and
often you only have a short time to catch an ident before it fades away.
You can easily waste 30 seconds or more just trying to optimize the
phaser; by that time the signal is usually gone. For those with a local
noise problem from a single general direction a phaser could be useful
in nulling out that noise, though of course you would lose the signals
from that direction too.
I also had room for antenna experiments, being able to compare them with
my longwire antennas. For those with the room, I believe it's hard to
beat an elevated longwire of approx. 400 feet or longer. I was very
fortunate to be able to string two E/W 1600 foot longwires, on either
side of the property about 400 feet apart and roughly parallel; and a
much shorter 400 foot N/S longwire. But even the N/S short one enabled
me to log a number of Greenland beacons (of course this was back when LF
conditions were still excellent, not like now).
Some folks have good results with the K9AY type antenna--Doug in TX has
good results using that antenna. But it's a ground-dependent antenna and
many areas don't have ground characteristics that support such antennas.
My area was one of those--the K9AY never worked very well for me. But an
elevated vertical loop worked very well, using the Wellbrook ALA100
preamp.
I had several rectangular loops up at one time, 120-150 foot
circumference using the ALA100, about 10 vertical feet distance between
the top and bottom wires to give a good capture area. These were very
sensitive at LF and a couple of times I was able to (barely) hear
distant South Pacific beacons that I was also hearing on the 1600 E/W
longwire. And of course the loop antenna is ground-independent so can be
used anywhere. It's bidirectional so can help in nulling noise too. And
such a loop doesn't take up much room as long as you can get it away
from local AC noise (which is true for all LF antennas, especially for
active whips).
Mark Connelly is a prominent east coast MW DXer and has a lot of info on
antennas and phasing on his webpage here. All his applications are primarily for MW DXing but the principles apply equally
well to LF.
The Dallas Lankford phaser article described by Steve, can also be downloaded from here.
LNV phaser, John Bellini in Colorado, also chimed-in with some additional thoughts based upon his own experience:
You do (ideally) need to have good antenna separation to have good/easy phasing of the two signals but you do not have to have two different antennas. If the antennas are too close, the noise fields can be too similar and you won't get good noise cancellation or if the antennas are too close the wavelengths of the signals compared to the antenna separation will be long and it will be a challenge to phase out a signal.
I have been using three, nearly identical, LNV antennas separated 85-110 ft, depending on which pair I use, and have had very good results using the Quantum Phaser.
A very informative discussion of backyard antennas (and phasers) suitable for LW/MWwork is described by Graham Maynard in this Medium Wave Circle article. In the author's own description:
Well, once again I say "That's it". This time my mind churning effort has been to understand and develop the results possible with simple, small back-garden, mixed loop-vertical antenna systems. It really is not as complicated as might first appear, and those willing to try could enjoy as I do, listening to other people's locals ··· Ontario ·· New York ···
These pages have been long in writing - they summarise many years of enquiring study and thoughtful co-ordination with determined and diligent empiric effort...
There's enough good bedtime reading for an evening or two here!
Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].
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More power for the shack.
A refurbishment of the shack is long overdue, and some advanced birthday money prompted me to take up one of ML&S recent deals. I had been looking at various Linear power supplies to feed the new layout, and the MP-304mkII would fit the requirement of servicing the array of rigs I have to feed.
Ordering was quick which I did over over the phone, as normal with Martin Lynch & Sons, the faultless delivery was on time! Infact so quick! I had forgotten to tell the XYL, so she was surprised by the delivery.
The MP304 is sold as a 30A supply, that does 15A continuous, and 20A for 15minutes @13.8V. Supplied with a mains voltage of 230V 50Hz.
There are various output connections on the front, including a handy Cigar lighter socket that can supply 10A.
The supply is variable by an adjustable pot on the front panel, which is biased in the middle of its range to set the supply at the nominal 13.8V. The output is adjustable between 1.5V & 15V DC. With a sliding scale of V/I) (Don't expect 15A Max at 5V as this works out at about 7A)
The large easy to read analogue Meter is switchable either to Volts or Amps.
Supply regulation is better than 1% and a noise figure <10mV is quoted.
We will see how this performs when I will load it up and do a few measurements in the next day or so.
A short form manual is supplied, a circuit diagram would of been useful for servicing in the future. (I have not seen one on the web?)
First looks are good, and not bad for the money of £99!
Steve, G1KQH, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from England. Contact him at [email protected].
Ordering was quick which I did over over the phone, as normal with Martin Lynch & Sons, the faultless delivery was on time! Infact so quick! I had forgotten to tell the XYL, so she was surprised by the delivery.
The MP304 is sold as a 30A supply, that does 15A continuous, and 20A for 15minutes @13.8V. Supplied with a mains voltage of 230V 50Hz.
There are various output connections on the front, including a handy Cigar lighter socket that can supply 10A.
The supply is variable by an adjustable pot on the front panel, which is biased in the middle of its range to set the supply at the nominal 13.8V. The output is adjustable between 1.5V & 15V DC. With a sliding scale of V/I) (Don't expect 15A Max at 5V as this works out at about 7A)
The large easy to read analogue Meter is switchable either to Volts or Amps.
Supply regulation is better than 1% and a noise figure <10mV is quoted.
We will see how this performs when I will load it up and do a few measurements in the next day or so.
A short form manual is supplied, a circuit diagram would of been useful for servicing in the future. (I have not seen one on the web?)
First looks are good, and not bad for the money of £99!
Steve, G1KQH, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from England. Contact him at [email protected].
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