AmateurRadio.com

First of all, thank you to the 1,450 people from all over the world who entered the giveaway. That’s a record number of entries for us!

Now for the moment you’ve been waiting for… the winners!  OK, here they are:

Three (3)
Complete NESDR XTR HF SDR packages including:
NESDR XTR SDR Set
(Brand new model, featuring the popular E4000 chip tuner)
Ham It Up upconverter
Upconverter Enclosure (silver)
Male MCX to male SMA pigtail (SDR cable)
Male SMA to female BNC adapter (antenna adapter)
Estimated $129.95 value

Luc ON7DQ
Tom KJ9P
Mika KF4IVM

Five (5)
Complete NESDR Mini 2 HF packages including:
NESDR Mini 2 SDR set
Ham It Up upconverter
NESDR Mini 2 enclosure (silver)
Upconverter enclosure (silver)
Male MCX to male SMA pigtail (SDR cable)
Male SMA to female BNC adapter (antenna adapter)
$111.95 value

Ed N2RWH
Claudio PU4BIT
Paul MM1BJZ
Joseph KK4PYN
John KC8JZO

Twelve (12)
NESDR Mini 2 SDR sets
$25.95 value

Rob KA2PBT
Delrey K4WJR
Mike KA7PLE
Marco DE8MSH
Dale WX8W
Suresh VU3JOG
Boban EA2DVR
Chris KD4OGD
Robert KB5SQG
Carl M0SER
Budd WB7FHC
Bob WB3DYE

If you won, you’ll be hearing from me very soon! If you weren’t one of the lucky winners, NooElec has sent us some coupon codes for those who would like to order on their website:

Matt Thomas, W1MST, is the managing editor of AmateurRadio.com. Contact him at [email protected].

W5OLF’s tiny WSPR-AXE-CW

Jay, W5OLF, the creator of the “no PC needed” WSPR-AXE-CW beacons for WSPR on 30m, 20m or 10m has just started a new website.  He expects to start selling the new versions of his little beacons, either as kits or built and tested units, in late January. These stay on all the time (the PA can be turned iff) , but frequency is randomised over 100Hz within the WSPR window. Once set, the timing is fine for ages and ages – certainly days or even weeks.

Jay’s email (replace the (at) with @ ) is: w5olf(at)comcast.net .

His new website is www.w5olf.com .

I am privileged to be a beta tester of his 10m version (500mW). As you will have read in earlier posts, this unit certainly works very well, mine having been copied all over the planet in just a few weeks. Just press a button to sync time on an even minute and watch all the reports come flooding in. I was blown away with mine. Tiny, but brilliant. If you like WSPR I can thoroughly recommend this little unit. It comes pre-programmed with callsign, locator and power level.

UPDATE 1448z: This little unit has been spotted in Antarctica (13676km) 8 times today already. My antenna is nothing special, just a low 3 band end-fed wire.

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

Courtesy: http://www.noaa.gov/

Somewhat disheartening Cycle 24 never fails to surprise us with its unexpected behaviour and this week is no exception. A week ago, the solar flux was sitting at an uninspiring 138 but has gradually been rising because of the recent growth in new sunspots. At noon today, the flux had reached a level of 219...one of the highest levels of this cycle! With such high numbers, 6m junkies are understandably growing fidgety and watching the rising MUF with hopes that it may reach that magic number of 50MHz.

The last time the sun did this, at the end of November, I was able to work two stations in Florida on F2 during a short surge in the MUF that had been hovering in the 46-47MHz range. Maybe we'll all get lucky again soon if solar activity continues to climb.



Courtesy: http://www.noaa.gov/

Once the geomagnetic field can stabilize for a few days, with high flux, we should see the MUF begin to rise again....tomorrow hopefully. The constant flaring (over a dozen flares in the past two days) and the impending arrival of an earlier CME, may be all that we need. Any auroral event will likely cause a very good spike in the F2 MUF the following day. An excellent short article on Understanding Solar Indices by G3YWX may be found here.

Today's rise in the MUF was a disappointment as the highest I saw was about 43MHz, for a brief few moments. The MUF then dropped back below 37MHz but continued to surge into the high 39's.

This short video, made today at around noon, shows the MUF surging....the band full of signals one moment and then empty the next. The region between 10m and 6m is chalk-full of commercial FM activity (police, fire, utility, etc) and makes and excellent way of monitoring the trend in MUF growth...at times it seems that the F layer is alive and breathing as it trys, usually without success, to climb higher and higher. One of stations in the video appears to be from Maryland, on the typical E-W propagation path seen at this time of the year. My receiving antenna is my normal 4-el 6m Yagi, which must be horribly inefficient at this frequency yet...notice how strong signals can be when they are propagating right at the edge of the MUF:


 So... hang onto your hats boys....it could be an exciting week yet!
Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

I’ve just about had enough of rig CAT control with my IC7000. After buying 4 different CAT interfaces and attempting for numerous hours to get the things working, some of which do for a while, I’ve stripped away the (lack of) capability.

One of the more frustrating aspects of this hobby is that whilst some areas move on, some just relentlessly remain steady in the mediocre. The argument between serial and USB is about as dead as it can be but us with serial to USB converters get short shrift.

I like my IC7000. Its my main rig but when it comes to rig control with a PC then its been a complete disaster, working one minute then not, then back to working again. Oddly enough my IC703 before it wasn’t too bad but this one refuses to behave for any length of time.

The last straw was to plump for a complete reset, removing all my memories and leaving me with a blank rig and still no CAT control.

Anyone want to buy a partially used G4ZLP digimaster pro?

Alex Hill, G7KSE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, UK. Contact him at [email protected].

Looking on the internet, there is a wide selection of 10m (28-29.7MHz) transceivers available. Many can be extended (illegally in the UK) to cover CB frequencies.

As an example, the Alinco DR135 is available for £144.99. I am sure shopping around will show that lower prices are possible. This rig was available (special offer) for less than £100 recently. At one time, single band 10m rigs were illegal in the UK. This is no longer the case and these rigs can be a low cost way of getting on this most interesting band.

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

With headphones clamped to my ears, the past two Saturday nights have been spent in the Bruce Kelley 1929 QSO Party. Before I was hit with the '29-bug, these two weekends were usually taken up with the ARRL 160 CW Contest, and then with the ARRL 10m Contest the following weekend. Perhaps it's just as well that the BK has taken priority as I'm not sure if I could hang-in until 0100 or so anymore for the topband affair....or sit all weekend for the 10m fracas. At least the BK action finishes up early here out west, as by the time 10pm rolls around, most of the guys further east have hit the sack...my kind of contest!

Courtesy: http://www.spaceweatherlive.com

This year's conditions were rather dismal, on both weekends, as...once again...the planet was whacked with more coronal hole streaming. These things are ionospheric-killers from what I can see, as the level of signal absorption shoots way up, and quickly...not as much however, the further you get from the auroral zone.


Not to disappoint, the usual BK winds came up, right on schedule as well, almost coincidental with the start of the Party. Thankfully, weekend number two saw no wind whatsoever....a rare event in December....but, from the sound of many other notes, I wasn't the only one having windy weather.
  
More information on '29 building may be found here in previous "'29-style blogs" and good project discussions always abound at the Yahoo "AWA Group" builder's site.

It's really not too early to start building for next year's BK!
Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

The Ultimate3 QRSS/WSPR Transmitter Kit is the third version in the “Ultimate” QRSS/WSPR kit trilogy. It can produce QRSS, Hell, WSPR, Opera and PI4 slow-signal modes anywhere from audio to 10m and above. Plug-in LPF filters are available for all 12 HF/MF/LF bands.

The price is USD $29.00. To order please visit QRP Labs.

The Ultimate 3 is probably the lowest cost beacon available. I still have my unbuilt kit awaiting better health to build, although several kind folk have offered to build mine for me. Jay W5OLF kindly supplied me a 10m 500mW, single PCB, WSPR beacon (WSPR-AXE-CW) ready assembled and that has blown me away: it has been copied in every continent on 10m.  The Ultimate 3 is the more flexible design but the WSPR-AXE-CW is an ideal tiny WSPR only beacon.

My Ultimate 3 kit was ordered with GPS, but it was supplied without this, but with an extra PCB – I think I got the wrong order. I really should write to Hans Summers, but I have been too unwell. For now, the kit remains unbuilt. I intend to build it when I am fitter and less clumsy, hopefully in 2015.

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