AmateurRadio.com

Series Eight Episode Three of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast has been released. In this episode, Ed Durrant DD5LP and Martin Rothwell M0SGL to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. Colin M6BOY rounds up the news in brief, and this episodes feature Repairing Switch Mode Power Supplies Safely.

 

• 5-year-old Passes Ham Radio Exam
• Tour de France Ham Radio Volunteers Rewarded
• Use of Digital Modes in UKAC
• New Events Planner on RSGB site
• RSGB Publish Ham Radio Band Plans
• Canvey Rally supports Air Ambulance
• MacLoggerDX Version 5.58 Released
• First UK recipient of the 73 on 73 Award
• Melbourne QRP by the Bay

Colin Butler, M6BOY, is the host of the ICQ Podcast, a weekly radio show about Amateur Radio. Contact him at info@icqpodcast.com.

It's been said that if you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there. Said another way, it's always good to have a plan. As the K1N expedition was approaching, I had a look at my log to see what bands I would need them on. I was fortunate to work Navassa in 1992, so I didn't need this one for and all-time new one (ATNO), but I did need to fill a few band slots. But what did I need? Oddly enough I needed them on 20m. Navassa and North Korea are the only countries I need on 20m to have 'em all on that band. I also needed them on 160m, 17m, 12m and RTTY for a new mode.

My plan would've been relatively simple however I've been on a business trip the past week which has prevented me from chasing K1N. What's worse the trip was to Europe which is six hours ahead of Central Standard time, where I live. When I arrived back at my QTH at 7:00 Friday night, I was worn out. It was 2:00 am on my body clock and my body was ready for bed.

Ah, but I had a plan. However, to make the plan a little more complicated, my wife had foot surgery just seven days before and was basically confined to bed except for the very basic needs. So when I arrived home I relieved some of our family who had filled in during my absence. So, before I dare turn on the radio,  I got her squared away and comfortable then immediately checked the K1N spots. They were on 20m SSB and 160m CW. I figured I would try 20m as I assumed that demand had been worked down during the week. After just a few calls I had them in the log. Next, QSY to 160m for what I would figure to be an extended period. I quickly checked on my wife, all was good, back to the pile. After about 10 minutes of calling I had him in the log. 160m contacts are special to me. I only have an Alpha Delta DX-A attached to my tower at 50 feet. K1N was my 179th country with this set-up. So two bands down, 12m, 17m and RTTY would have to wait until the next day.

The next day dawned. First things first. Get some breakfast for my wife. Not hard, cereal and fruit. Make a cup of coffee, check the spots. K1N was on 17m RTTY and if I could log them there, that would be a two-fer, that is it would satisfy the need for the 17m band and the need for RTTY. I called for about 5 minutes and then the operator called for Europe. He would then work Europe for the next 6 hours. I would check back regularly, hoping he would come back to the states, but it wasn't to be.

During the late morning, there was a spot for 12m CW. I pounced on the spot and called for probably two hours off and on. I would periodically check on my wife, retrieve something she needed and then get back to it. The pile-up 20 kc wide and it was hard to find where he was consistently. Finally I found him and followed him up the band and got a QSO. Cool, now the 17m RTTY QSO would close the book on Navassa for me I could just manage that QSO.

Mid-afternoon sometime, K1N started working stateside again, but for the next hour would have software problems and they QRT'ed to fix that. When they got it fixed, worked stateside for about 10 minutes and then listened for JA. This was a little frustrating as most of the stateside QSO time had been used up by the software repairs. Finally. at 7:04 pm local time, 0104z, I was able to get the 17m RTTY QSO....Mission accomplished, all in less than 24 hours.

I haven't followed the entire K1N expedition, but, at least from a stateside view, the pile-ups are fairly orderly. They are still very large however. Whoever predicted the demise of ham radio, missed the boat. DXing seems to be as strong as ever.

One thing I like about the K1N expedition is that they seem to always have a station on 20m. I think that is a must to help calm the crowds who need a country for an ATNO. I also don't believe that it's imperative to have every mode on every band. I believe a major expedition should work the three main modes and operate on all bands, but not necessarily all modes on all bands. If in the final days  the pile-up diminish then start adding band modes. As I mentioned above, the 17 meter RTTY QSO checked two boxes for me, new band, new mode. More thought should be given to this approach.

So I still need them on 6m, but that's asking too much:-)




Mike Crownover, AD5A, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Texas, USA. Contact him at ad5a@gvtc.com.

Today I checked the sensitivities of my FT817 and FT817ND using a loaned signal generator. Although about 10dB deaf at 472kHz (expected) both were easily able to copy down to -127dBm on CW on all bands to 70cms. -127dBm is as low as the generator would go.  I could have added a 10dB attenuator, but did not.  I also managed easy access of GB3PY and GB3OV 70cms repeaters at the 500mW level into the V2000 vertical.  My conclusion is things are OK at my end and I wonder if G6ALB has some additional cable loss at 70cms at his end (water in the feeder?).  My antenna has been up for about 2 years whereas his has been up for around 20 years.

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

There were a lot of things to get done before playing in FYBO, and (channelling Yoda) get them done I did. Believe it or not, my FYBO operation was from the street in front of our house. I live on a relatively quiet side street, so there was no danger of being hit by a car or something like that. I opened up the hatch of the Jeep, just like I do at work, and set up my nylon camping chair and used the "trunk" of my Jeep as an operating table. My antenna was the Buddistick/magmount combo on the roof . I'm sure the neighbors were staring - wondering, "What the heck is he doing now? And what is that tall stick poking up from his car roof?" "And why is our dishwasher going crazy - I'll bet it's him!"

As I set up it was flurrying slightly and the temp was 35F (1C). And then it happened. I tried tuning up the KX3 and couldn't get a decent match. Of course these things always happen at the worst time! Calmly, I took the Buddistick off the roof and inspected it - no problems there. Then the magmount - AHA!  Where the coax meets magmount, the dielectric foam surrounding the center conductor wire cracked open (from the cold, I guess, because I keep it in the trunk when not in use). The shield was ever so slightly touching the center conductor and was making for a bad situation. A quick trip to the basement shack was in order. I cut the coax back, soldered on two new ring terminals and put everything back together. The KX3 was a happy camper with a 1:1 match.

In about two hours of operating, here's my summary:

W2LJ
Team Polar Bear
Field - Yes
Category - Single Op
Alternative Power - No (Batteries- Mains charged)
Lowest Temperature - 35
QRPp - No
Final Score - 7780 points

BAND  QSOs  SPCs  NQ7RP Stns
------------------------------------
    20      15       12          0
    14      10         8         1
------------------------------------
TOTAL:  24       20        1

Score - (24X20) (X4 Temp multiplier) (X4 Field Multiplier) +100 =7780

15 Meters was pleasantly active, affording me 10 of my 24 QSOs. 20 Meters was also busy but noisier, with some TN QSO Party stations and some SOTA stations thrown into the mix. I also was contacted by an SKCC station - I guess they have something going on this weekend, as well as one DX station - G4OBC. I tuned around 40 Meters at the end of my operating time, but heard no FYBOers.

There was no wind to speak of, so it actually didn't feel that bad outside.  I think the temperature reached a max of 38F (3C) while I was out. I was comfortable, except that my hands were cold, as I really couldn't send Morse while wearing heavy Winter gloves. And another discovery - the older you get, the more bathroom breaks you need when it's cold!  Too much information? Sorry!

Now, if that wasn't enough - my FYBO day was made even better by finally working K1N with 5 Watts. YES!!! I came down to the shack this evening to enter my FYBO log into my Master Log. While doing that, I heard K1N on 20 Meters (haven't worked them there yet) and they were truly 599 loud.  I double checked my power setting to make sure I was at 5 Watts and I jumped into the pileup. In about somewhere between 5 to 10 calls, I finally heard my call come back to me. Sweet! My personal goal is now complete. I got K1N in the log for an ATNO, and I also got them in the log using QRP power.

It was a good QRP day. A VERY good QRP day!

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 w2lj@arrl.net.

My plans today were to get out to my Winter Survival shelter and operate in FYBO and the RaDAR event. But snow and a very low windchill changed my mind on the outdoor adventure, but with about 45 minutes in the RaDAR event left I decided to saddle up my PRC-104 with Chameleon whip and give 15 meters go. With luck I was able to work a few RaDAR stations. Even in -15c (-21c with blowing snow) a warming smile was brought upon my face.

Thanks to those who pulled me out and gave me the opportunity to play late in the game.

http://youtu.be/lQO2CmgP7cQ

Other videos of my hobbies can be seen on my YouTube channel at :

https://www.youtube.com/user/VE3FAL1/videos

I could not feel my fingers when I got back into the house but it was a great experience none the less.

Fred

VE3FAL

Fred Lesnick, VE3FAL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Thunder Bay Ontario, Canada. Contact him at ve3fal@tbaytel.net.

The Raspberry Pi2 was delivered very quickly – thank you CPC! However, owing to a bit of silliness on my part I didn’t get it running until today. I’d assumed – always a dangerous thing – that the Pi2 used an SD card for its storage, like the Pi. Oh no it doesn’t! It uses a micro SD card. I didn’t discover this until I went to plug the SD card in!

Ah well. A quick Amazon order later and a micro SD card and an adapter was on the way. Those arrived here this morning, so I quickly prepared the micro SD card.

I had a bit of fun getting decent video on my rather old monitor in the shack and was starting to think I wasn’t going to find something better than VGA! However, a setting of hdmi_group=2 and hdmi_mode=16 gave me a reasonable compromise between getting a decent amount on the screen and being able to read it without green and yellow flashing in the background.!

The first bit of software I installed was the Gpredict satellite prediction program. It’s nice to have the map running in the shack. That went well and only seemed to be taking a very small percentage of CPU.

Then I installed RTLSDR and tested it, without any problems. I installed DUMP1090 – the ADS-B decoder as well as the Piaware software which uploads the ADS-B spots to Flightaware. Those programs run quite happily at the same time as Gpredict and use around 7% of CPU.

I fired up the Epiphany web browser and went to Twitter – again, the CPU was quite happy.

This looks very useful. I think I’d better order it a case!

Tim Kirby, G4VXE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Oxfordshire, England. Contact him at tim@g4vxe.com.

The Raspberry Pi2 was delivered very quickly – thank you CPC! However, owing to a bit of silliness on my part I didn’t get it running until today. I’d assumed – always a dangerous thing – that the Pi2 used an SD card for its storage, like the Pi. Oh no it doesn’t! It uses a micro SD card. I didn’t discover this until I went to plug the SD card in!

Ah well. A quick Amazon order later and a micro SD card and an adapter was on the way. Those arrived here this morning, so I quickly prepared the micro SD card.

I had a bit of fun getting decent video on my rather old monitor in the shack and was starting to think I wasn’t going to find something better than VGA! However, a setting of hdmi_group=2 and hdmi_mode=16 gave me a reasonable compromise between getting a decent amount on the screen and being able to read it without green and yellow flashing in the background.!

The first bit of software I installed was the Gpredict satellite prediction program. It’s nice to have the map running in the shack. That went well and only seemed to be taking a very small percentage of CPU.

Then I installed RTLSDR and tested it, without any problems. I installed DUMP1090 – the ADS-B decoder as well as the Piaware software which uploads the ADS-B spots to Flightaware. Those programs run quite happily at the same time as Gpredict and use around 7% of CPU.

I fired up the Epiphany web browser and went to Twitter – again, the CPU was quite happy.

This looks very useful. I think I’d better order it a case!

Tim Kirby, G4VXE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Oxfordshire, England. Contact him at tim@g4vxe.com.