AmateurRadio.com

After working the QRP Fox Hunt last night, and over time working a bunch of DX and a lot of the W1AW Centennial WAS stations, and other pile up causing stations - I really have to wonder what goes on in the minds of some people.  It seems like when there's some kind of quarry to be had, whether it be a QRP Fox, a DX station, or a W1AW/XX station - common sense goes right out the window and sheer insanity takes its place.

Take for instance last night.  I was trying to work Steve WX2S on 40 Meters who lives about 18 miles from me.  Ground wave was strong enough that he was about a 229/339.  The advantage was that not only could I hear him, but I could also hear the stations that were calling him.  I ended up not working him, but even so, it was a unique opportunity to observe.

Steve was working split from the beginning and he was handling the pile up deftly.  But I was left shaking my head, because so many times - all through the hunt, people continued throwing out their calls while Steve was engaging another station! I sat there, kind of dumbfounded. There was Steve, sending out "559 NJ STEVE 5W" to whomever, and all the while there were stations sending out their calls, over and over and over, without so much as taking a breath!

So here's the deal......if you can't hear the quarry well enough to realize he answered someone other than yourself - then why the heck do you continue to throw your call sign out there in the first place? Obviously, if by some miracle, he actually came back to you - would you be able to hear that well enough to realize it and complete the exchange? Something tells me ........no.

Part of pile up discipline (on the part of the chasers) is to realize when you have a legitimate shot. But in any case, whether the quarry is 229 or 599 on your end, don't you think it would be a lot wiser to send your call maybe twice at most and then take a break to actually listen?

Listening. That seems to be a dirty word in the minds of a lot of folks.

Look, I know we all make mistakes and I've made my fair share, too.  No one is perfect, and I can understand forgetting to turn the "split" function on or some other such thing.  But deliberately sending your call over and over and over in the vain hope of somehow scatter-gunning the target is really just inexcusable, and rude and inconsiderate of your fellow Hams.

As always, this is just my humble opinion. Your mileage may vary.

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 [email protected].

Don’t get me wrong — I do like standard connectors.  A while back, I wrote about how the micro-USB connector became the standard power/data connector for mobile phones. Well, that is unless you own an iPhone.

The good news is that we do have a standard power connector for 12 VDC in automobiles. The bad news is that it is an ugly behemoth derived from — can you believe it? — a cigarette lighter. For some background and history, see the Wikipedia article. The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) has a standard that describes this power connector (SAE J563). Alan K0BG correctly warns us to “never, ever use existing vehicle wiring to power any amateur radio gear” including the 12 volt accessory plug. (I always follow this advice, except in the cases when I don’t.) I also found this piece by Bill W8LV on eham.net that describes the crappiness of these connectors.

Well, there is a new standard power connector showing up in cars: the USB port. These ports provide the data and power interface for mobile phones, integrating them into the auto’s audio system. Standard USB ports (USB 1.x or 2.0) have a 5V output that can deliver up to 0.5A, resulting in 2.5W of power. A USB Charging Port can source up to 1.5A at 5V,  for 7.5 W of power. This is not that great for powering even low power (QRP) ham radio equipment.

Now a new standard, USB Power Delivery, is being developed that will source up to 100W of power. The plan is for the interface to negotiate a higher voltage output (up to 20V) with 5A of current. Wow, now that is some serious power. We will have to see if this standard is broadly adopted.

Two things are obvious to me: 1) the old cigarette lighter connector needs to go away and 2) it is not clear what the replacement will be.

What do you think? Any ideas for the next generation of 12V automotive connector?

73, Bob K0NR

The post How About a New 12 Volt Automotive Connector? 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].

I have not had a chance to wade through the report(s) from this ITU meeting in Korea ahead of WRC2015 to see if a contiguous 60m band amateur allocation is any more probable. The few bits I did read were talking about budgets! We certainly will need a contiguous 60m band in the quiet years ahead. A nice new worldwide amateur band there would be very welcome.

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

It's December, and that means Christmas and Hanukkah are right around the corner. And sometimes for a Ham, "The Holidays" presents a quandary.  Imagine this scenario - your lovely XYL comes over to you and asks, "What would you like for Christmas, Dear?"

You look lovingly into her eyes and say, "A 60 foot Rohn tower with a 3 element beam". And then you get THAT look - and you know instantly, in your heart of hearts, that your request has gone over like the proverbial lead balloon.

Or maybe the wife of your best Ham bud calls you and asks, "What can I get Jim for Hanukkah this year? And no, I'm not getting him a 60 foot tower and a 3 element beam".  What do you say? Somehow, I don't think K3, or IC-7800 or FT-DX5000 would go over too well, either.

So, as we get closer to the gift giving season, I'll post some items that I come across that may help break the "What do I get for my favorite Ham?" log jam.  My aim will be to keep to suggest gifts that won't break the gift giving budget while at the same time would be a gift that almost ANY Ham would enjoy receiving.

I came across this one this morning on Facebook (see- Facebook is actually good for something!). I thought this was unique, and I sure wouldn't mind having one of these hanging from my shack wall.


This is a little plaque commemorating the 50th anniversary of the ARRL postage stamp. It was issued by the United States government for two reasons - to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the ARRL, and in gratitude of all the valiant work performed by Hams during the Alaskan earthquake ans tsunami that occurred that year.

You can get this little beauty from Hamcrazy.com.  It's reasonably priced and will not break the bank.

Suppose you are a CW aficionado, or perhaps your Ham bud is.  The following is always a perennial favorite - the Morse Express Christmas Key.


The above photo is the key being offered for 2014.  These keys are small enough to be used as a Christmas Tree ornament, but yet are fully functional. One of my most favorite straight keys of all times is the 2004 Christmas Key which my lovely Marianne gave me that year. It has a fantastic feel to it and is perfect as a traveling portable QRP ops straight key.

Please note that I am in no way connected with any of the companies offering these fine wares. I receive no recompense and I have not even been asked to endorse any of these items. This is just W2LJ offering a public service to those of you out there who may be stymied by either of these two  questions - "What can I give?" or "What would you like?".

To be continued as I come across neat stuff!

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 [email protected].

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

With the solar flux index remaining relatively high over the past week, the F2 MUF has been spending most of the day in the mid 40MHz region. For 6m operators, it's always a good sign to see the MUF climb this high as it only takes a nudge to keep it climbing, hopefully to reach that magical 50MHz level.



The region between 10m and 6m is chalk-full of commercial two-way FM activity, particularly from 39MHz on up. With the skip zone running east-west, oftentimes the distinctive Boston accent or the unmistakable Bronx chatter can be heard...police, taxis, fire departments...sometimes even with sirens blazing away in the background. Other times, things will be further south, with accents favoring easily-recognized southern drawls.

Early this morning at 0641Z, a small M1.8 flare added some extra fuel to the F2 fire, resulting in an unusually early-morning rise in the MUF.

Courtesy: http://www.solarham.net/xray2.htm

By 0900 local time, it was hovering around 46-47MHz when I started to hear the 22-watt W4CLM beacon near Atlanta, Georgia. Warming-up the transmitter and calling a few CQ's on 50.098, I was soon answered by Bob, N3LL, in EL86 on the west coast of Florida ....a nice single-hop (2600mile) F2 QSO. Another CQ brought KJ4E in EL98, to the northeast of Bob.

Courtesy: https://maps.google.com/

Now normally, at this time of the morning, the F2 MUF would continue to slowly climb....usually peaking-out somewhere between 1030-1230 local time, so things were looking hopeful. During our exchange, N3LL peaked at 599 as the MUF continued to surge between 46 and 50MHz, struggling to maintain its ever weakening-grip on the magicband.

From here, things went south fast and for some reason, the normally slow climb halted as the MUF quickly retreated to the low 40MHz regions...it was all over.

The end of the opening can be clearly seen in the geomagnetic activity recorded at the Kiruna Magnetometer (Sweden). The circled area indicates the period of high MUF:


 ...but what started the sudden spike in the MUF today...was it the earlier flare or the suddenly south-going 'Bz' component of the Interplanetary Magnetic Field as seen about an hour earlier?

Courtesy: http://www.solarham.net/solarwind.htm

Such are the things that 6m junkies find fascinating, as this portion of the spectrum is always full of surprises and curiosities. Even as it slowly decays, poorly-performing Cycle 24 can't resist the opportunity to keep us guessing once again.

I wonder what surprises tomorrow will bring?


Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

You can see where the 15m band starts!

This weekend I dipped my toes into the CQ world wide DX CW contest and by dipping my toes I mean very casual contesting. With my station being a QRP setup I rarely ever jump in the contest on the Friday evening. I find the CW speed is fast and very rare is a QRP station ever heard in the pile ups, so rather getting frustrated I relax and do other things on the Friday evening.  I was on for a few hours on Saturday morning and afternoon. The propagation conditions looked good and I was hearing lots of

20m action Saturday afternoon

European stations booming in…..BUT……it was hard to raise a contact either on 15m or 20m. I have the MFJ 1788 loop antenna so 10m is not an option, I did hear that 10m was booming with great signals and propagation. I took Saturday evening off from the contest and decided to give things a go on Sunday. I had some running around to do Sunday morning so the contest time came early afternoon and I must say the conditions were still good and I was delighted my signal was being heard in Europe with some repeats but it was being heard. Some of the highlights were contacts into Hawaii, Canary island's off Africa and Jersey island.  I was able to net 25 contacts in the contest so as you can tell I was not on all that much but I did enjoy the time. More important was the way I was able to set the station up for contesting. I plan on doing more contesting both local and DX so to get the software and hardware working well together was one of my plans for this contest. As you can see from the picture all my radio gear is nicely tucked away in a roll top desk. For me it's a great setup I only have to roll the top up, pull out a keyboard, pull out some side shelves, moves some accessories onto the shelves and presto Im on the air! Lets get back to my contesting setup….

The contest desk

Below are the programs and hardware I use and why they are great for my setup.
The software programs:
N4PY's radio control program. This program allows me to control my K3 and KX3 with very fast and convenient mouse clicks. As an added bonus the program has virtual com ports and it's simple to incorporate other programs and hardware. Also the support that is offered with N4PY is great and most questions I have had are dealt with same day.

N1MM contest software There are other software programs out there for contesting but this is the only one I have used from day one of my contesting. N1MM has come out with a new program called N1MM Plus, I have not tried it as of yet and a rule I have is to not try new programs or upgraded programs just before a contest. N1MM supports most if not all contests, it's very easy to use
 works great and that's good enough for me.  N4PY's program has virtual com ports and it allow me to setup N1MM so it seamlessly works with N4PY's program.

MRP40 CW decoder Yes you read it correctly I have a CW decoder program, this is not a free program but I have found it works the best of any I have ever tried out. So why do I use a decoder…..well I have found that in contests there are op's who for some reason send at speeds that only a decoder program can read. This program has helped me with making a contact that never would had happened if I was decoding by ear. 

The hardware I use for contesting:
Elecraft P3 This is one of the best investments I have made it's a stand alone pan adapter that uses no PC memory. I have found it's nice to see how the band is doing and this piece of equipment does just that. For contests  I can tuned from contact to contact. I am able to see 100, 50, 10 or 3 hz segments of the band. With my narrow band width MFJ 1788 I set the P3 to 10 hz and I can see a detailed segment of the band I can work before having to retune the loop.

Elecraft K3 What can I say it's a great contest and general QSO rig and to not get into boring details about the rig…..for contesting I have installed the following Inrad 8 pole filters 500 Hz, 400 Hz and 250 Hz and with the width control on the K3 I can narrow the filtering to 10 Hz!!

Winkeyer USB This unit came as a kit and was fun to build and is great for contesting. I have the keyer directly hooked into the K3. You can control it with N1MM software but as far as I know there is a latency issue with the keyer being used with N1MM, for that reason I hook it up directly to the K3. There are 4 programable buttons on the top (very easy to program via PC software) I program in my call, contest exchange, TU and the last button has a repeat of the exchange only less the 599. I place the Winkeyer beside my keyboard for very easy access to send my call and exchange, my hands are never to far away from the keyboard.

Flex Radio's Flexcontrol In the picture it's located in the white paper. N4PY's program again through a virtual port allows me to have VFO control of the K3. There are also 3 programable buttons as well to control the K3. I have programmed one of the buttons to the K3's spot function and in CW contests it's a great option to have.

Begali Contour Key I find with all the software ways to send CW it's very important to also have to old fashion key handy. Many times I have had a station asking for a repeat of my call or report, to send it with the key allows me to leave a longer spaces between letters of my call. This method has had my call or report get through to finalize the contact.

Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

I’ve been a General class ham for many years now, but the thought of upgrading to Extra has always been hanging over my head. Honestly, it’s not really that I miss the additional band privileges — I really don’t — but after being licensed for close to a quarter of a century, I feel like I should take the time to just get it done.

I’ve been studying using Dave Casler’s (KEØOG) online self-study course. If you’re not familiar with his videos, you should check them out. They’re incredible and he offers programs for Technician and General, too.

What are you waiting for? Maybe it’s time for an early 2015 New Year’s Resolution?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j99xlpv5zJU

Check out his website here.

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