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My first ever RX outings on 2m were with a derivative of the CQ2 super-regen RX circuit from Practical Wireless back in the late 1960s. The very first signal I ever heard on 2m was G3VEH/P on Caradon Hill in Cornwall. I was located at Kingsbridge in South Devon. I used a small crystal earpiece and a 19 inch whip. The same receiver was later adapted with the addition of an RF amplifier in my Fredbox AM transceiver. These were the days when AM was still king on 2m. The best DX contacts with the 10mW Fredbox were impressive.

A few years ago, I rebuilt my Fredbox and had a few local QSOs on 2m AM. It still works well for something this small and simple. More details of the Fredbox are on my website. Follow the link above.

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

A conversation has started on the QFOX reflector amongst the Hounds and Foxes. We're sharing with each other what our antenna situations are.

Myself, I am using a Butternut HF9V which is ground mounted and had about 55+ radials running from underneath it.  I also have an 88' EDZ which is up in the trees somewhere between 25-30 feet (8-9 Meters) up. My W3EDP is still up there, but I need to change the coax. Still haven't done that, but will, someday.

If you look at the standings in the Fox hunts, come the end of the seasons, you will find W2LJ firmly ensconced in the middle or just below the middle of the pack. I suppose if I had more wire up, higher - that could possibly change.  But what I have is what I have, and for that, I am grateful.

There are a lot of Hams out there who would consider what I have to be the "best antenna farm - ever". These guys live in places where their antenna possibilities are either severely limited, or perhaps not allowed at all. Some may even be restricted to operating portable 100% of the time, from their cars or local parks, perhaps.

So I am always mindful to be appreciative of what I do have - particularly when I find myself falling into that "wish I had more" rut.  It may not be as good as what a lot of others have, but it's also a lot more than what a lot of others are forced to live with.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!

BTW - To all my Orthodox friends out there - Merry Christmas!
Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Happy New Year!

2015 has started with some important developments. Ofcom have launched a consultation on draft regulations for new wireless telegraphy legislation. The proposals are intended to strengthen regulatory power and keep pace with technological advances with respect to interference of radio communications from electronic devices.

Current Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) regulations should prevent electrical and electronic apparatus emitting electromagnetic energy that would cause interference to radio communications but as most licensed operators have experienced this is not the case. In particular the growth of "power line" networking equipment (PLT) in recent years has caused much distress to amateur radio particularly in populated areas. I myself have suffered interference from what I believe are PLT devices.

It is certainly true that most newer devices are much better and are notched to prevent emissions in certain bands but there are still many older devices in use and imported non-compliant devices are still readily available. It is not just PLT devices that cause issues but solar panels with RF noisy inverters, unfiltered switch mode power supplies, plasma televisions and other equipment that pollute the spectrum.

Unfortunately at present Ofcom has limited enforcement powers so are proposing the law is amended to make it a criminal offence to continue using equipment identified as a source of undue interference.

Several agencies such as GCHQ, CAA and emergency services have voiced concerns in the past over the threat of RF pollution (Telegraph newspaper article) so not surprisingly this weeks announcement has been given the 'spooks' spin with some sensationalist headlines "You could be prosecuted over your broadband thanks to GCHQ" as the Telegraph reported.

I feel it is important that UK licensed amateurs respond to these proposals and the consultation is only open till next month it is very easy to respond on line at the Ofcom website. 

It is quite a timely announcement from Ofcom since I have been forced to use the QRM eliminator that I purchased back in August due to increasing interference. I have not been able to use it in line with the FT857D as it requires the PTT/TX-GND signal from the CAT/Linear socket from the transceiver to activate a bypass when transmitting. The issue being I wished to use the CAT functionality at the same time and this involved making up a harness with the appropriate 8-pin mini-DIN plug/socket. I purchased some plugs and sockets but kept putting it off due to the fiddly nature of the small connectors and I didn't wish to cause any damage to the FT857D by shorting the pins.

By chance I spotted this cable on eBay which is the same as my current CAT cable but with the addition of the PTT/TX-GND signal on a short pigtail with a phono (RCA) socket making it a breeze to complete the installation.

I am hoping to improve the noise performance by putting up a new HF antenna in the future, to this end I have had a nice Christmas present. A Feature Tech AW07A HF-VHF-UHF Antenna Analyzer


Once I have used it in anger I will post a proper report, but it seems a great piece of kit with some encouraging reviews, currently available of £168 on eBay it is a massive £200 less than the identical MFJ-266
Andrew Garratt, MØNRD, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from East Midlands, England. Contact him at [email protected].

Courtesy: http://www.solen.info/solar/

Those of you following the CLE low frequency NDB listening events, will know that this past one was longer than usual, running from December 25th to January 6th. Once again, the sun demonstrated its nasty-side, right on schedule. Conditions from this part of the continent were dreadful, while others, further to the south, were not as badly affected.

The cause of the poor propagation was a continual coronal hole stream, from a very large area in the sun's southern regions, as shown here. Now it appears that Coronal Hole 649, in the north, is about to swing into a geoeffective position, and take over the task of disrupting propagation.

CLE189 covered the range of 275-425KHz, with the objective of logging at least one beacon (preferrably the farthest one) on each available channel (150 in total). There are a number of channels that have no NDBs as well as many that get completely clobbered by 1 Kw DGPS (digital QRM) navigation signals along the coasts and the Great Lakes. Additionaly, I was fighting the new noisemaker in my neighborhood, which has yet to be eliminated.

Here is a screen shot of my Perseus receiver, showing the crud being generated...every 60Hz and never constant...drifting in and out of the desired passband continually. The only way to hear signals was to wait until there was a short hole created by the drifters going by. I will be happy when this is issue is finally resolved.

My log shows 111 stations in total, a surprising number, considering the poor propagation and the QRM. If anything, this demonstrates just what a superb receiver the Perseus SDR is:

29 01:26 275 HIN 1053 Whitney - Chadron Muni Apt, NE, USA
31 13:00 277 ACE 1344 Kachemak - Homer Apt, ALS
31 15:00 278 1U 521 Masset Municipal Apt, BC, CAN
31 15:00 280 GYZ 1005 Camp Guernsey - Guernsey, WY, USA
31 15:00 281 CRN 1510 Cairn Mtn - Sparrevohn LRRS, ALS
31 15:00 283 DUT 1867 Dutch Harbor - Unalaska Apt, ALS
29 09:00 284 QD 1014 The Pas Municipal Apt, MB, CAN
31 04:00 286 EKS 600 Ennis - Big Sky Apt, MT, USA
29 09:00 287 ZWG 1168 Winnipeg, MB, CAN
29 09:00 290 YYF 171 Penticton, BC, CAN
29 09:00 292 ZET 518 Devon - Edmonton IAP, AB, CAN
29 09:00 293 MB 18 Mill Bay - Sidney, BC, CAN
29 09:00 295 8C 537 Fairview Municipal Apt, AB, CAN
31 15:00 296 LGD 349 La Grande, OR, USA
29 09:00 299 TV 417 Turner Valley, AB, CAN
29 09:00 300 YIV 1272 Island Lake Apt, MB, CAN
29 09:00 302 QW 705 North Battleford, SK, CAN
29 09:00 304 FH 485 Mc Leod (Whitecourt), AB, CAN
29 09:00 305 YQ 1362 Churchill / Eastern Creek, MB, CAN
29 06:00 308 ZZD 515 Calmar (Edmonton Intl Apt), AB, CAN
29 08:00 311 9Y 421 Pincher Creek, AB, CAN
29 08:00 312 UNT 173 Naramata, BC, CAN
31 08:00 317 VC 873 La Ronge, SK, CAN
29 12:00 320 YQF 469 Red Deer - Penhold, AB, CAN
29 12:00 323 HJH 1393 Hebron Municipal Apt, NE, USA
31 06:00 325 YJQ 312 Bella Bella (Campbell Island), BC, CAN
29 12:00 326 DC 131 Princeton Municipal Apt, BC, CAN
29 07:00 328 YTL 1465 Big Trout Lake, ON, CAN
29 12:00 329 YEK 1414 Arviat, NU, CAN
02 09:00 330 2A 1147 South Indian Lake Apt, MB, CAN
29 13:00 332 POA 2681 Pahoa - Hawaii Island, HWA
29 09:00 333 STI 540 'Sturgeon' Mountain Home, ID, USA
29 09:00 334 YER 1560 Fort Severn, ON, CAN
29 09:00 335 YLD 1813 Chapleau - Devon, ON, CAN
29 12:00 336 LF 1167 La Salle, MB, CAN
29 09:00 337 7D 956 Hudson Bay, SK, CAN
29 08:00 338 RYN 1316 Ryan Field Apt - Tucson, AZ, USA
29 09:00 339 6X 1237 York Landing, MB, CAN
29 09:00 340 YY 2452 Mont Joli, QC, CAN
31 15:00 341 ELF 1710 Elfee - Cold Bay, ALS
29 12:00 342 PFT 1232 Piney - Pinecreek Border Apt, MN, USA
29 12:00 343 YZH 571 Slave Lake Municipal Apt, AB, CAN
29 14:00 344 FCH 857 Chandler - Fresno, CA, USA
29 09:00 346 YXL 1401 Sioux Lookout Municipal Apt, ON, CAN
29 09:00 347 PA 814 Prince Albert, SK, CAN
29 12:00 348 MNC 112 'Mason Co' Shelton, WA, USA
29 09:00 349 GW 1999 'Teock' Greenwood, MS, USA
29 08:00 350 RG 1604 GALLY - Oklahoma City, OK, USA
31 08:00 351 YKQ 1948 Waskaganish, QC, CAN
29 09:00 353 LLD 2684 Lanai - Lanai Island, HWA
29 09:00 355 YWP 1572 Webequie, ON, CAN
29 09:00 356 ZF 995 Yellowknife, NT, CAN
29 09:00 358 SIT 750 Sitka - Biorka Island, ALS
29 09:00 359 SDY 879 Sidney, MT, USA
29 09:00 360 SW 1267 'Roadd' Warroad, MN, USA
29 09:00 361 E3 630 Wabasca, AB, CAN
29 09:00 362 YZS 1807 Coral Harbour, NU, CAN
29 09:00 364 4D 735 Helmet, BC, CAN
29 09:00 365 HQG 1362 Hugoton Municipal Apt, KS, USA
29 07:00 366 YMW 2179 Maniwaki, QC, CAN
29 09:00 367 R5 1038 Pukatawagan Apt, MB, CAN
02 10:00 368 PNM 1402 Princeton Municipal Apt, MN, USA
29 13:00 370 YBV 1169 Berens River Apt, MB, CAN
29 09:00 371 GW 1946 Jarpik - Kuujjuarapik, QC, CAN
29 09:00 372 ZPA 824 Glass (Prince Albert), SK, CAN
29 09:00 373 TF 1191 ARUBA - Pueblo Mem Apt, CO, USA
29 13:00 374 LV 776 REIGA - Livermore, CA, USA
29 09:00 375 BM 1163 Balmoral, MB, CAN
29 09:00 376 YAG 1345 Fort Frances, ON, CAN
29 09:00 377 EHA 1350 Elkhart - Morton County Apt, KS, USA
29 12:00 378 OT 381 EMIRE - North Bend, OR, USA
29 09:00 379 YBE 945 Uranium City, SK, CAN
29 09:00 380 OEL 1297 Oakley Municipal Apt, KS, USA
29 09:00 382 YPL 1461 Pickle Lake, ON, CAN
29 09:00 383 CNP 1146 Chappell, NE, USA
29 09:00 384 3F 792 Ile-a-la-crosse, SK, CAN
29 15:00 385 EHM 1693 Cape Newenham LRRS Apt, ALS
29 09:00 386 HAU 558 Hauser - Helena, MT, USA
02 09:00 387 CAV 1473 Clarion, IA, USA
29 08:00 388 AM 2596 'Picny' Tampa, FL, USA
29 13:00 389 CSB 1275 Harry Strunk - Cambridge Muni, NE, USA
29 10:00 390 HBT 1620 Borland - Sand Point Apt, ALS
29 09:00 391 DDP 3772 Dorado - Vega Baja, PTR
29 12:00 392 XVG 1344 Longville, MN, USA
29 09:00 393 BR 2101 'Depoo' Brownsville, TX, USA
29 09:00 394 RWO 1333 Woody Island - Kodiak, ALS
29 09:00 395 ULS 1342 Ulysses Apt, KS, USA
29 09:00 396 YPH 1923 Inukjuak Apt, QC, CAN
29 09:00 397 ZSS 760 Yellowhead (Saskatoon), SK, CAN
29 09:00 398 3D 965 Cumberland House, SK, CAN
29 09:00 399 ZHD 1371 'Thunder' Dryden, ON, CAN
29 09:00 400 FN 1071 COLLN - Fort Collins, CO, USA
29 09:00 400 CKN 1220 Crookston, MN, USA
29 09:00 401 YPO 1644 Peawanuck Apt, ON, CAN
29 09:00 402 L4 888 Nipawin, SK, CAN
29 13:00 403 AZC 971 Colorado City Municipal Apt, AZ, USA
29 15:00 404 GCR 1185 Glacier River - Cordova Apt, ALS
29 14:00 405 2K 538 Camrose, AB, CAN
29 09:00 406 YLJ 725 Meadow Lake, SK, CAN
29 08:00 407 CO 1157 PETEY - Fountain, CO, USA
29 09:00 408 MW 221 PELLY - Moses Lake, WA, USA
29 10:00 408 JDM 1270 Wheatfield - Colby, KS, USA
29 12:00 410 GDV 860 Glendive - Dawson Comm Apt, MT, USA
29 09:00 412 1W 996 Sandy Bay, SK, CAN
29 12:00 413 YHD 1361 Dryden Regional, ON, CAN
29 09:00 414 GRN 1094 Gordon, NE, USA
29 09:00 415 CBC 3129 Cayman Brac - West End, CYM
29 09:00 417 IY 1508 CHUKK - Floyd, IA, USA
29 09:00 419 RYS 1975 Detroit / Grosse Ile, MI, USA
29 09:00 420 FQ 1422 MONTZ - East Chain, MN, USA
29 09:00 421 VLY 1721 McKenney, TX, USA

Once again, the 10' x 20' loop was employed for the entire affair, surviving two bad wind storms during the listening event.
Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

This blog post is LOOOOONNNNGGGG overdue and for that I’m truly sorry.  I suppose when one builds some sort of following via social media and through blogging and podcasting and then just vanishes the concern may arise.  Please allow me to take a moment to provide some explanation.

As many of you know I was actively pursuing a QSO a day in 2014 and having an absolute blast operating in the ARRL Centennial QSO Party.  While my podcast had suffered a few months of neglect, I was active on Twitter and actively blogging about my progress with the QSO a Day and the ARRL Centennial operations.  All was going well until mid August then everything changed.  The life (and world) my wife and I had created just simply crashed around us in a devastating manner.

My wife and I do not have any children.  She and I were both raised around animals and grew up with dogs and cats in our lives.  While I had spent much of my adult life without animals, this all changed when I met my wife and she moved to the US.  I became the daddy of two cats (Socks and Moustey).  Socks and Moustey traveled to the US (Denver) on a British Airways Boeing 777 and in their long life had managed to live in three different countries (Belgium, England and US). 

We lost Socks in the fall of 2008.  At the time he was 15-16 years old and had lived a good life.  My wife had given him the very best life a pussy cat could ever want.  At the time of Socks’ passing, Moustey was also 15-16 years old and we were concerned if she remained the only cat in our house that she might suffer.  So we adopted a kitten and named him Skye.

Now, after about two years we realized that Moustey really wanted a more relaxed and less stressful life from what Skye (being 2 years old) wanted.  So we adopted another kitten (Mickey) in 2010.  Mickey and Skye were best friends and Moustey was allowed to gracefully retire for the most part and our little family was happy and content.

Moustey passed away on August 8 of 2013 at the age of 23 years old.  About 30 minutes after Moustey left us to go to the Rainbow Bridge, I received a call from my mom that my grandmother had passed away.  This all happened the week before my wife and I were scheduled to fly to Belgium to visit her family.  August 2013 was not a great month.  But as we would soon discover, August 2014 was going to be even worse.

Mickey began throwing up.  Now this is just something cats do and if you are a cat person….you know this.  So after the second day we decided to take Mickey to the vet.  We took him to our local vet and he was examined.  The vet could find nothing wrong.  He performed an x-ray and scan.  No blockages detected…basically nothing detected to give any cause of alarm.  We were sent home with some medicine and told all should be fine in 24 hours.

24 hours later Mickey was not improving.  He was not eating and he was not drinking.  My wife and I decided to take him to the 24 hour animal hospital. After about 30 minutes, we were told what they thought might be the cause and for the first time in my life I heard the term dysautonomia. 

Dysautonomia is a disease which attacks the central nervous system and causes it to malfunction.  Additional scans and x-rays were performed of Mickey’s esophagus and stomach.  Basically the disease prevents the esophagus from delivering food into the stomach and also fails to prevent the stomach acids from flowing up the esophagus.  Basically causing an extremely bad case of acid refux.

There are many other symptoms which Mickey exhibited.  Sort of the final test to determine if he had Dysautonomia was  his heart rate.  His heart rate was very low and when given a dose of atropine (which normally causes the heart rate to increase) his stayed low. 

We were told Mickey only had a few days (at best) to live and we took him home with us and spent about four hours with him before we had a service come to our home to help him pass away peacefully.

While I dearly loved both Mickey and Skye very much, Mickey was my little buddy.  He would follow me all around the house.  I taught him to play fetch when he was just a kitten and we were very close.  Mickey was only 4 years old.

Of course, panic started to set in and we asked the hospital if it was possible for Skye to also have this disease.  They told us it was very rare and while we were very sad to have lost Mickey, we were both determined to show a brave front around Skye and knew he would also miss Mickey very much.

Just a few days after we said goodbye to Mickey, Skye began throwing up.  We called the hospital and they reassured us how rare it would be for Skye to also get this.  And we should understand that Skye is grieving as well and to relax.

Well….less than a week later we were saying our goodbyes to Skye.  He also developed this cruel disease.  Skye died one week after Mickey.  Skye was 6 years old.

We all face the certainty of death.  We are born and we will die.  The same applies to cats.  While we grieved for Socks and Moustey….we accepted the fact that it was their time.  They lived a long and good life.  But this just simply is not the case with Mickey and Skye.  They were taken from us far, far too early. 

Unfortunately, we do not know what caused Dysautonomia to come crashing into our lives.  Most vets still say it is rare for the disease to pass from one to another.  I guess we suspect food.  But as I said, we have no proof.

Anyway….my wife and I still struggle with this loss.  It may sound strange, but when I started to think about getting on the air, or doing anything amateur radio related….I thought about my cats and it made me sad.  Yes, I’m still sad and I know that ham radio isn’t the cause of anything and I know my interest will return.  But this is why I’ve been mostly silent.

Thank you for understanding and thank you for reading. 

73,

Jerry

KDØBIK

Jerry Taylor, KD0BIK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Colorado, USA. He is the host of the Practical Amateur Radio Podcast. Contact him at [email protected].

At the moment there seem to be several competing digital modulation schemes First there was ICOM’s D-star system, then C4FM from Yaesu, and of course DMR, which is gaining ground in the commercial PMR world.  There are even a few experimenting with TETRA, as used by the public services. Like Betamax and VHS, the best system may not win in the end.

At the moment, I am just not interested. I’ll wait to see who wins in the end. My bet is DMR will win in the end as there will be a plentiful second hand market from PMR. This will never be so with any proprietary system. DMR is an open standard, so there will be plentiful radios around and at decent prices before too long.

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

It seems that if I'm not chasing down noisy power poles or hunting for drifting wireless headsets, both of which have tried their best to tax my 6m reception this past year, I spend several hours each year chasing down delinquent noise generators!

I spent yesterday afternoon searching the neighbourhood for the source of an annoying and disruptive 120Hz hum. Testing my patience for about a week now, the AC buzz has been ripping-into my usually quiet LF reception, disrupting efforts to participate in the latest CLE (189) listening event. Although conditions have been poor, as usually occurs during these events, the signal-shrouding AC hum has made the event a real struggle.

I had been hoping that, whatever the source of the suddenly-appearing interference was, it would disappear as quickly as it had arrived. I had first noticed it several weeks ago, but it would always go off around bedtime and often was not there at all in the evenings...but the past week it has been there 24/7.

Yesterday I had finally had enough and with Sony 2010 in hand, along with its built-in ferrite bar antenna, I tuned the radio to 630m and started walking around the neighbourhood.

The first thing I noticed was that the signal was being propagated along the overhead powerlines and it was difficult to get a direction of the true source...all nulls pointed to the closest line. Walking to the north, the signal gradually became weaker and reversing direction to the south produced an ever-increasing AC hum...progress! I eventually found a corner where the QRN peaked, and walking in all directions from that point saw the noise diminish...getting warmer!

There were four possible homes here that could be the cause of the problem. I spoke with three of the four homeowners, all of whom seemed genuinely concerned about the source. They all let me into their homes and, with radio in hand, look for the source of the (by now) loud buzz. None of the three homes seemed to furnish the nasty noisemaker.

House number four was unoccupied but was, I was told, up until about a week ago. Venturing on to the property, the S9 buzz started to climb and by the time I had reached the porch, the Sony was on the verge of self-implosion...getting very hot now! A knock on the door confirmed that nobody was home but...behind the curtain, there it was...a floor lamp was turned ON!!

With the source now located I could now breath a little easier but unfortunately could not hear any quieter. Hopefully the owners, who go back and forth to the mainland frequently, will return soon and that LF will once again sound as it should.

What could be screwed into that floor lamp? I'm betting on a poor-quality or about-to-fail CFL bulb.

The one on the left is the actual bulb that I removed from a crawlspace, about four years ago, three houses away. It had been creating the same sort of buzz, only louder, as it was much closer. It was not emitting any light whatsoever yet continued to generate noise as well as present a real fire hazard. The house occupants had left it switched 'on' in order to discourage the local otter population from making a winter home in their crawlspace. Somewhere along the line the bulb had failed and started generating large amounts of AC hum.

This one was tough to find, as even several blocks away, it was very loud. It seems that power lines make wonderful LF antennas. I had to make a map showing signal strengths at many locations to find the source... my neighbours have since given me a key to their house, just in case it happens again!

So...what do you think is in house number four?
Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].