AmateurRadio.com

Interesting news that I’ve picked up over the last couple of days is that both Wouxun and TYT will be offering a version of their quadbander mobiles which will include 70MHz.

In the case of the Wouxun KG-UV950PL you lose 28MHz, which makes good sense to me, giving you 50/70/144/432MHz. Although 28MHz is a great mobile band, – FM only is maybe a bit restricted. Martin Lynch & Sons’ website carries a link to the new rig, which is not yet available – but hopefully not far off. There’s talk of 50W output on 70MHz.

I have it on good authority that the TYT TH-9800 will also be available in a configuration which includes 68-88MHz. In the case of the TH-9800, this is at the expense of the 50MHz band – so you would have 28/70/144/432MHz. The TYT version will hopefully be in the UK from mid-December.

All of this sounds good for 70MHz FM activity – particularly being packaged with other bands – whereas PMR boxes used for the band tend to be big and don’t do anything else for you (albeit they are the right price!)

I wonder if we’ll see triband 70/144/432MHz mobile antennas available?

Tim Kirby, G4VXE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Oxfordshire, England. Contact him at [email protected].

It was really all that on the bands last weekend. Easy fun as well. Just dial in 10 or 15 meters and stations back to back, with great signal strenght and from all over the world. Just blurt 59 24 into a microphone and the other party is as happy as a clam. My radio was alive and despite me being not too keen on contesting I did spend quite some hours on Saturday and Sunday giving away point, just for the heck of it.

More importantly, I did a side by side comparison of my 5m and 12 meter verticals. The 5 meter one is hooked up to a transmatch, the 12 meter one to an CG-3000 autotuner. The latter is prone to RF feedback, but since being partly above my roof it did perform better. I haven’t found the perfect lenghth of wire to cover all bands with the CG-3000, but for now I am satisfied with it.

I didn’t work any special stations, only VK9XSP from Christmas Island. They were easy to work in CW as well, because of the few takers. Unfortunately it left me with no time to participate in the CLE-188 as advertised by Steve VE7SL. I think I wouldn’t have heard much either, because when I tested the setup on Thursday there was so much noise I couldn’t even get clear signals from the local beacons. Never mind, there is always next time.

The only thing that made this weekend a little sad was to learn of the passing of Julian G4ILO. His blog was great and I am glad to have exchanged some mails with him. He will be missed. I hope conditions are always top where he is now.

Hans "Fong" van den Boogert, BX2ABT, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Taiwan. Contact him at [email protected].

It was with much sadness that I read of Julian’s death last Friday on Twitter and then on his blog

Like many others who have tweeted or blogged about Julian’s passing, I found his blog an inspiration and there was always something of interest for me.

On the air, I think I first worked Julian on 2m CW back in the 1980s when he was still ‘down south’. I remember it well, as G3ILO was local to me and working G4ILO made me smile. We didn’t have many on air QSOs in recent years, although we emailled and commented on each other’s blogs quite regularly.

A memorable communication from Julian was an APRS message he sent me, bounced off the ISS. We also had a nice Echolink QSO one evening, when I was on the train and he was in his shack. We never worked on DSTAR, a mode that it fair to say, did not appeal to Julian at all, and he was quite happy to say so!

Happy memories of a very interesting man who I shall miss. Sympathies to Olga for her loss.

Julian’s last blog post reminds us to hold our loved ones close…

Tim Kirby, G4VXE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Oxfordshire, England. Contact him at [email protected].

It was with much sadness that I read of Julian’s death last Friday on Twitter and then on his blog

Like many others who have tweeted or blogged about Julian’s passing, I found his blog an inspiration and there was always something of interest for me.

On the air, I think I first worked Julian on 2m CW back in the 1980s when he was still ‘down south’. I remember it well, as G3ILO was local to me and working G4ILO made me smile. We didn’t have many on air QSOs in recent years, although we emailled and commented on each other’s blogs quite regularly.

A memorable communication from Julian was an APRS message he sent me, bounced off the ISS. We also had a nice Echolink QSO one evening, when I was on the train and he was in his shack. We never worked on DSTAR, a mode that it fair to say, did not appeal to Julian at all, and he was quite happy to say so!

Happy memories of a very interesting man who I shall miss. Sympathies to Olga for her loss.

Julian’s last blog post reminds us to hold our loved ones close…

Tim Kirby, G4VXE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Oxfordshire, England. Contact him at [email protected].

I have been on the radio now and then this past week the only one there was me and the static, there is nothing wrong with the K3 or the antenna the wrong has been the atmospheric conditions.  This weekend alone there have been 3 M class solar flares not making those in the CQ SSB contest happy campers. Not saying there is no DX out there as I have been reading from fellow bloggers and there has been some DX contacts but for me it's just not there. I was on the radio today and was not able to even raise U.S contacts just south of the boarder.
Lets hope the conditions some what improve this week…..
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

Quite a few people who use WSPR use the tiny Microvert Antenna whose design seems to have originated in Germany. For example, this diminutive antenna is only about 30cms long on 28MHz. It uses the coax intentionally as a counterpoise with an RF choke the right distance down the coax. Performance is several S points down on a full sized antenna like a 1/2 wave dipole. With small antennas there is always a compromise! Versions have been made for most HF bands. The  antenna looks ideal for portable or balcony use, being small and easy to erect. Perhaps I should test my (currently poor) build skills by making one for 10m or 20m WSPR use?

I wonder who reading this post has used a Microvert Antenna and how they found it?

See http://download.antennex.com/preview/archive4/Apr601/microvert.pdf .

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

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

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

Since then, there have been three more major flares from this same region, one at X1.0 (on Saturday) and the most recent (this morning) at X2.0. Oddly enough, none of these flares have produced CME's as little plasma release has been detected. Any associated auroral events will be very weak or unlikely in spite of region 2192 being geoeffectively positioned at the time of the flares.

However, the near light-speed arrival of Friday's emitted UV radiation caused a fast rise in the muf as spotty signals from various regions of South America were soon being heard on 6m in North America.

The most prominent signal was that of CX7CO (Carlos), in Montevideo, Uruguay. Thanks to the ever-alert KE7V, who posted news of the sudden arrival of Carlos, he was widely worked around North America including the west coast, a region that is usually left-out of the action. Known to have worked Carlos from here were myself, VE7XF, VE7DAY, KE7V, K7CW and possibly others outside of my hearing range. Shortly after working the west coast, Carlos was heard working JA's as his signal became weaker.


The distance from Mayne Island to Montevideo is 11,425km (7100 miles), which would tend to indicate that the contacts were a result of F2 propagation. Some have suggested a Sporadic-E-to-TEP link but I have my doubts...several 'TEP markers' were not present and there were no signs of any Es activity from this area. Although his signal peaked at 569, it is not uncommon for F2 signals to be weak, unlike the bone-crushing levels they can sometimes reach.

Courtesy: https://maps.google.ca/

As spot number 2192 slowly rotates out of view, it looks like the overall solar flux levels will quickly decline, diminishing the chances of any new activity on 6m this fall. One thing however is for certain...you just never know what might come next on the Magic Band!
Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].