Winter Field Day 2023 (Jan 28, 29 UTC)

Join the Winter Field Day!

You do NOT have to operate from a cold location; home operation is an allowed category.

Winter Field Day is a communications exercise. WFD is held on the last full weekend in January. WFD can be worked from the comfort of your home or in a remote location. You can participate by yourself or get your friends, family, or whole club involved. Winter Field Day is open to participants worldwide. Amateur radio operators may use frequencies on the HF, VHF, or UHF bands and are free to use any mode that can faithfully transmit the required exchange intact. Similar to the ARRL’s Field Day, bonus points are earned in several ways, including using non-commercial power sources, operating from remote locations, satellite contacts, and more.

Winter Field Day

Winter Field Day

Winter Field Day is sponsored by the Winter Field Day Association. We passionately believe that Ham radio operators should practice portable emergency communications in winter environments as the potential for freezing temperatures, snow, ice, and other hazards present unique operational concerns. WFD is formatted to help increase your level of preparedness for disasters and improve your operational skills in subpar conditions. Click here to read more about the history and purpose of winter field day.

Do check out the rules, as there are some important things you must know.

During the last weekend in January, ham radio operators worldwide participate in Winter Field Day. We encourage you to grab your radio, get outside and join us during this uniquely challenging event. Click on the links below to view our 2023 Rules and our Resources page. The Resources page has a plethora of information, including FAQs, logging software recommendations, operating aids, and more.

Website: https://www.winterfieldday.com/


Visit, subscribe: NW7US Radio Communications and Propagation YouTube Channel

What say you?

 


Here at VE9KK's household, my XYL has returned to part-time work from home and involves a computer and the internet to communicate regarding work. Last week while she was working and I was on the radio she told me her LAN connection kept dropping out. I did some experimenting and sure enough, it was my CW signal on 15m that was doing it. I quickly grabbed my last FT240-43 toroid and wrapped the CAT6 cable around it which did the trick! 

I then did some reading and learned that the CAT cable should be loose around the toroid and not tight as this affects the small wire inside the CAT6. I also read that 7 turns were the magic number of turns. Finally and this is the question to my readers I read two thoughts on wrapping CAT cable around a toroid. One school of thought was it is perfectly fine and the other was it slowed down the internet speed? I never did a speed check on my wife's connection with and without the toroid. The reason for this is she never complained the speed dropped so why poke the bear! Has anyone out there had an issue with your HF signal dropping internet connections at home and what did you do about it? 


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

Radio Skinny-Dipping

I have been working on a homebrew 40 meter CW transceiver for over a year now. It’s a superhet design, with all discrete components built ugly style on copper clad board. I’ve taken various circuit designs I’ve built in the past and added some new ones. The project has been a great opportunity for me to use and learn about the NanoVNA. Every stage I built, tested, and tweaked with the NanoVNA, and recorded results in my lab notebook. The rig features a 4 Mhz IF, mainly due to me having a ton of these crystals. I built wide and narrow filters, just futzing around with various crystal and capacitor combinations, and implemented diode switching of the filters. The filters aren’t commercial grade, but they’re definitely good enough. The final PA uses an IRF510. I had to do several iterations of this before I got something to work. At 12 volts I get 4 or 5 watts, but I normally run it at 24 volts to get 10 watts. I’ve had it up to 36 volts, outputting 20 watts. I’ve been wanting to try 48 volts.

For the longest time the rig was just PC boards on my bench interconnected with alligator clips, but a few months ago I made it a bit more respectable and mounted the PC boards on a pine board and completed some permanent wiring. There are still several alligator clips jumpering things to make it work. I tend to leave the rig on all the time and just listen to it in the background while doing other things in my office/lab/shack. I even leave it on when I’m experimenting with or adding a new circuit, if possible.

I’ve made several contacts here and there when I stumbled upon someone calling CQ for POTA, a contest, or SKCC. I honestly haven’t been doing any logging or any paper code copying. There’s something satisfying about just walking over to the rig, tapping the alligator clip-connected straight key, and having a quick contact. There’s no keyboard, no waterfall, and nothing to navigate with a mouse. It’s just me and a bunch of components communicating over the ether.


Anthony, K3NG, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com.

The 1:1 isolation choke do-over.

 

New 1:1 choke with RG316 coax

 I have the Hustler 4BTV vertical antenna and have a 1:1 choke at the base of the antenna made by Balun designs. Some time ago I made a second choke that was placed at the radio end and posted the build here on the blog. I had a few comments regarding the coax that I used (RG8X) and that there could be an issue with the bending radius of the coax around the core. I was informed that over time the centre conductor could migrate toward the braid.

I also did some internet searching and found that the bending radius could pose an issue and I know the "issue" if and when it happened would do so at the most inopportune time. I decided to make another 1:1 choke from a thinner coax. I did have some RG316 coax from a mobile antenna mount I was not using and it would be ideal for the tight turning radius.

 On one end of the coax, there was a mini-UHF to PL-259 adapter which meant I only had to add one PL-259 connector. I will be using again an FT240-31 core with 10 turns. I decided on 10 turns as this will afford me decent characteristics on the HF bands. Using the RG316 coax the bending radius is no longer an issue. 


 


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

First Ever: Olivia Digital Mode on HF Weekend QSO Party

Announcement: Special Event Weekend, 02/11/2023

THE 1ST EVER OLIVIA DIGITAL MODE WEEKEND QSO PARTY

When is this special QSO party?

Valentine’s Day Weekend.  This event is held this year on February 11, 1400 UTC, through February 13, 0200 UTC

First Ever Valentine's Day Special QSO Weekend Event: The Olivia Digital Mode on HF

First Ever Valentine’s Day Special QSO Weekend Event: The Olivia Digital Mode on HF

Join our mailing group for live interaction with other Olivia users:
http://OliviaDigitalMode.net

Sponsored by the Olivia Digital DXers Club (on Clublog, and on Facebook: Olivia Digital Mode on HF Radio (Contestia included))

Example frequencies:

Olivia Digital Mode Suggested Calling Frequencies on HF

Olivia Digital Mode Suggested Calling Frequencies on HF

Certificate for participants, and more.  Organizer: Tomas Hood (NW7US), PO Box 110, Fayetteville, OH 45118.

This is the FIRST ever weekend QSO party for Olivia.

 

 


Visit, subscribe: NW7US Radio Communications and Propagation YouTube Channel

Conflict of Interest

The ARRL Ethics and Elections Committee has recused a director for publishing a book that competes with ARRL publications, creating a conflict of interest. I find this strange as ARRL is a non-profit amateur radio advocacy organization, not a for-profit company driven by shareholders’ financial interests. I thought, perhaps naively, the goals of ARRL publications were to promote and enable the hobby, and not primarily be a line of business or product offering that competes in the marketplace.

I find the framing of this really troubling, with the “ongoing conflict of interest” being caused “through the creation and publication of a book which competes with one or more ARRL publications”. If the book was published in the public domain and available for free, it still would compete with ARRL publications, and arguably would still be considered an ethics violation, despite such publication being totally altruistic and compatible with ARRL’s mission of amateur radio advancement. Such competition could perhaps also be claimed for publishing a website of antenna designs, or volunteering for a non-ARRL VE organization.

There is a conflict of interest here, however it’s ARRL’s interest in publication offerings that is in conflict with its primary mission of advancing amateur radio.

This article was originally published on Radio Artisan.


Anthony, K3NG, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com.

ICQ Podcast Episode 394 – Working with SMD’s

In this episode, we join Martin Butler M1MRB, Chris Howard (M0TCH), Martin Rothwell (M0SGL), Frank Howell (K4FMH) and Leslie Butterfields (G0CIB) to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. Colin Butler (M6BOY) rounds up the news in brief and in the episode's feature is Working with SMD’s.

We would like to thank  our monthly and annual subscription donors for keeping the podcast advert free. To donate, please visit - http://www.icqpodcast.com/donate

  • Mysterious Antennas Are Appearing in Utah's Hills and Officials Are Stumped
  • India Joins Beaches On The Air
  • Amateur Radio Operations at the US Military Academies
  • Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission Changes to the Amateur Radio
  • Goodbye Bluetooth?
  • M0RWX Activates All G Summits in One Year
  • Hamzilla 2023
  • QSOToday Expo March 2023

Colin Butler, M6BOY, is the host of the ICQ Podcast, a weekly radio show about Amateur Radio. Contact him at [email protected].

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