AmateurRadio.com

Landwade was the site of my first “over the horizon” optical tests. The tests were successful, but predate my stroke by some time. I remember well being surprised at the reception when “on beam”.

We go here each year about this time for a delightful walk of about 1.5km calling at the small private church (locked these days). The church is surrounded by seas of snowdrops and aconites at this time of year. Landwade is very quiet at all times. It is in Suffolk but was in Cambridgeshire until 1994. It has been occupied since Roman times, but consists of a few farms, a hall and the odd cottage these days.

I have updated one of my other blogs.
See http://eachurches.blogspot.co.uk/ .

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

I’m back up and running on HF after getting purchasing a very lightly used KX3 from Elecraft to replace my smoked radio! The radio arrived last Wednesday and I was back on the air that night. I’ve made a few casual contacts using various digital modes. I even worked K1N late in the week with 12 watts with CW on 20M. While not truly QRP, it does show that you don’t need a kilowatt to bust a pileup!

Also a notable contact was with KN0WCW/2 – that’s KNOW CW – the club call for the FISTS CW Club NA Chapter. Cody was the operator of the night from 2 land. I was slightly embarrassed even answering his call…my CW is rookie level at best, even with the great keyer on the KX3. I couldn’t get the /2 to come out right no matter what I did! Cody hung in there with me and we had a nice QSO. I didn’t keep him too long so he could log some more. Good job there Cody!

Michael Brown, KG9DW, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Illinois, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

An amateur band at 40MHz would be really useful as I suspect the F2 MUF has been in this region several times in the last few years. There are a very few beacons around 40MHz (UK and Denmark only I believe) but wouldn’t it be good to have even 100kHz around this frequency? Sadly it is very unlikely, but I would happily lose 100kHz at the top of 10m in exchange.   It would also be a very useful Es band.

Somehow I can’t see this happening, more is the pity.  The world of radio science would really benefit. This would have been so much more useful than 146-147MHz recently released to UK amateurs by NoV.  I know a handful of UK amateurs are trying narrowband DTV but the 2m band is mainly Japanese “black boxes” and is mostly white noise in most areas.

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

Steam coming off the water down at the lake

The little motor in the antenna

Today is supposed to be one of the coldest days this winter and up to this point we have had some very cold days! This morning I went out to get our food shopping done and going from the car to the market it was so cold it took your breath away. We live in a condo and in the underground garage the temp was -7C, most of the time it's well above 0C but not today. The temp this morning without the windchill was -22C and the weather is forecasting later later today with the windchill it  will drop to around -40C!! Today is a good time to stay indoors and play radio. The MFJ 1788 seems to have no problem in this cold weather. As a matter of fact the colder the weather be better the SWR, the little motor that operates the large capacitor has no problems in this weather. This afternoon I'm hanging out on 20m at the QRP watering hole of 14.060 calling CQ and listening. I was calling on 15m and it really did not seem like the band was open I then moved up to 20m. Since I was calling CQ I checked the Reverse Beacon Network and noticed that on 15m I was spotted by F5MUX from France. This is the first spot EVER for me from my new location being spotted  outside of the U.S. Well it's getting late in the afternoon and I was skunked on the bands today…..oh well maybe later this evening!
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

Click for bigger image.

The Tenner is a very simple CW rig for 10m. It produces about 500mW output and has worked across the Atlantic on many occasions. Offset RX-TX seems to work out at about right, although no special circuitry is employed. This simple circuit just works. Although I used an “at hand” SBL1, any double balanced mixer is likely to be OK. Although I did not try it, a homebrew DBM would be fine.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/lapthorn/tenner.htm

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

AmateurLogic.TV Episode 75 is now available for download.

Building the Northwest Digital Radio DV3000 D-Star Hot Spot. A new device with new capabilities. Tommy and George’s Radio Shack bargain shopping. Capital City Hamfest Go Kit competition, JLO and Don Wilbanks. Peter installs Cinnamon Linux.

1:15:05 of ALTV Fun

Download
YouTube

George Thomas, W5JDX, is co-host of AmateurLogic.TV, an original amateur radio video program hosted by George Thomas (W5JDX), Tommy Martin (N5ZNO), Peter Berrett (VK3PB), and Emile Diodene (KE5QKR). Contact him at [email protected].

It's time to sell off some more items to get some ham bucks. These are things that have not been used in the shack and are just gathering dust!
1)The qrpometer is a great portable power and watt meter it's a kit that is no longer sold. The power levels go as low as 100mW's and up to 8 watts. I made a case for the unit and added an external battery compartment for easy battery changes. Also it has BNC connectors for easy connect and disconnect. For more info on this great unit follow this link  the price for this unit is 50.00 dollars

2) A balun from from Balun designs it's a 1:1 balun and works great for coax line isolation. It's rated up to 300 watts for more info click on this link
The price of the balun is 25.00
3) Mini Circuits splitter for those of you with a K3 and have the subRX this is very handy to have. I have a link from the Elecraft reflector that better explains this pairing this unit with your K3

The price is 25.00
4)  The rig runner 4005 great for fusing and running your shack accessories and radios.
The price is 50.00
5) KX3 PCKT cables for the KX3 these are brand new and never used.
Price 20.00 including shipping 

6) LP Pan and E-MU 0202 external sound card, the LP Pan is set up for the K3 all the cables are included. Also a  power cord for the LP Pan complete with Anderson Power pole connector and quality USB cable for the E MU 0202 as well as quality coax jumper for LP Pan to K3 or P3. The price for both is 270.00

Extra connectors

7) Elecraft spare VFO A and VFO B knobs the set  for 15.00.











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