AmateurRadio.com

Dear Fellow Radio Amateurs,

The Russian Digital Radio Club has the honour to invite the radio amateurs all over the world to participate in the 1st Russian WW MultiMode Contest 2014. The objective of the contest is to establish as many contacts as possible between radio amateurs around the world and radio amateurs in Russia.

We invite all fans of digital modes to take part in contest from 12.00 UTC on Saturday 15th November till 11:59 UTC on Sunday 16th November, 2014. Types of modulation: BPSK63, CW, RTTY, SSB. The repeated contacts are permitted on different bands and different modes providing that a contact will be made not earlier than in 3 minutes. The output power should not exceed 10 watts on 160 meters and 100 watts on other bands. The operator may change the bands no more than 10 times within calendar hour (with zero on 59-th minute of each hour). Only one transmitted signal is permitted at any time.

Bands: 160 m, 80 m, 40 m, 20 m, 15 m, 10 m.

Prizes and certificates in all categories:

• SOAB – BPSK63-CW-RTTY-SSB
• SOAB – BPSK63-CW-RTTY
• SOAB – BPSK63-CW-SSB
• SOAB – BPSK63-RTTY-SSB
• SOAB – CW-RTTY-SSB
• SOAB – BPSK63-CW
• SOAB – BPSK63-RTTY
• SOAB – BPSK63-SSB
• SOAB – RTTY-SSB
• SOAB – CW-RTTY
• SOAB – CW-SSB
• MOAB – BPSK63-CW-RTTY-SSB

The certificate of the PARTICIPANT to all participants who have not borrowed prize-winning places, under condition of carrying out not less than 100 test (confirmed) QSOs.

You should send your log upload via the Web interface. All logs must be sent no later than 14 days after the contest (23:59 UTC on 30th November 2014).

73! de Russian Digital Radio Club

Filed under: Ham Radio Tagged: contest, digital

Jeff Davis, KE9V, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Indiana, USA.

Series Seven Episode Twenty-Two of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast has been released. The latest news, Martin (M1MRB & W9ICQ) and Colin (M6BOY) discuss the future of commercial Long Wave radio and Martin (M1MRB & W9ICQ) is joined by Ed Durrant (DD5LP) and Frank Howell (K4FMH) for our International Amateur / Ham Radio Roundtable.

• UK radio hams start 146 MHz development
• Radio Amateurs / Hams should consider 3D printing
• K for Kernow
• New HF network planned
• Exam Checklists
• NoV suggestion for Airborne Ham Radio
• Good news on 70 MHz

Colin Butler, M6BOY, is the host of the ICQ Podcast, a weekly radio show about Amateur Radio. Contact him at info@icqpodcast.com.

Series Seven Episode Twenty-Two of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast has been released. The latest news, Martin (M1MRB & W9ICQ) and Colin (M6BOY) discuss the future of commercial Long Wave radio and Martin (M1MRB & W9ICQ) is joined by Ed Durrant (DD5LP) and Frank Howell (K4FMH) for our International Amateur / Ham Radio Roundtable.

• UK radio hams start 146 MHz development
• Radio Amateurs / Hams should consider 3D printing
• K for Kernow
• New HF network planned
• Exam Checklists
• NoV suggestion for Airborne Ham Radio
• Good news on 70 MHz

Colin Butler, M6BOY, is the host of the ICQ Podcast, a weekly radio show about Amateur Radio. Contact him at info@icqpodcast.com.

AmateurLogic.TV Pacificon 2014 is now available for download.

George visits with friends at Pacificon 2014. You’ll enjoy these interesting topics and interviews.

1:14:06

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 george@amateurlogic.tv.

X108 for Shortwave or AM listening

Fred Lesnick, VE3FAL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Thunder Bay Ontario, Canada. Contact him at ve3fal@tbaytel.net.

It was a nice fall day, so Joyce K0JJW and I decided to go for an easy hike up Kaufman Ridge HP (W0C/SP-081) and do some SOTA operating. Well, maybe the hike was her idea and the Summits On The Air thing was my contribution to the plan. The hike is less than a mile and has about 900 feet in elevation gain, depending on where you start the hike.

This definitely a slacker operation: easy access, easy hike, great weather and 2m FM activation via a handheld radio and the 1/2-wave whip.

Note that there are two SOTA peaks with the “Kaufman Ridge” name: Kaufman Ridge North (W0C/SP-085) and Kaufman Ridge HP (W0C/SP-081), located near Trout Creek Pass in Colorado. Today we headed to SP-081 which we reached by following County Road 318 from Trout Creek Pass, which is also called Buckrake Drive and then Windmill Drive. These roads pass through private property to reach the San Isabel National Forest, where there is a gate that closed from December to April (see map). At this point, the road is easy 4WD, most 2WD high clearance vehicles will do fine. You can also approach from the south on FS 308 through Mushroom Gulch. 

We turned left onto FS 308 and then took a short side road FS 308B toward the summit. There are several over turn offs but 308B seems the best (shown in black on map). The road is blocked for vehicular traffic at 38.858659° N / 105.933921°W. You can continue walking on the road a ways or just head straight for the summit. While the hike is short and not that steep, there are plenty of downed logs to give you a challenge.

You never know who is going to show up on 146.52 MHz in the mountains but I had put the word out via email to some of the local hams to let them know I was doing a SOTA activation. When I got to the summit, I had a few stations already calling me and I quickly worked Ron N0MQJ, Fred N0VXE, Dave K0HTX, Jim KD0MRC, Bob W0BV and Don K0DRJ. Don was my “best DX”, about 60 miles away in Woodland Park with a few mountains in the way. Thanks to everyone that came on frequency and contacted me.

Side note: if you want to activate SP-085, go north on a forest service road (not shown on map) near where 318 and 308 intersect. Just drive a short ways north, find a parking spot and bushwack your way up the summit. You could easily activate both summits in one day.

73, Bob K0NR

The post SOTA Activation: Kaufman Ridge HP (W0C/SP-081) 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 bob@k0nr.com.

During the past few projects I'd noticed a serious diminishing of my 1/4 watt resistor stock and decided to see what was available from e-Bay.

Many of the dealers in China were offering various packages at reasonable prices and it is hard to resist 'free shipping'.

After narrowing things down I decided on one particular dealer, electronics-salon, who had only five minor complaints in over 17,000 transactions during the past 12 month period. As well, he seemed to be selling only high-quality components, unlike many of the sellers from China.

The offering was for:

0 to 10M ohm 1/4 Watts Axial Lead Carbon Film Resistors Assorted Kit.
E-12 Series 86 Values, Total 860 Pieces (Each 10).
Resistance Tolerance : +-5%.
Rated Power : 1/4 Watt.
100% New, Never Used.
RoHS Compliant.

With free-shipping, the cost was just over one-cent per resistor and would nicely re-stock my 1/4W trays as well as provide me with many more values to choose from than at present...hard to resist!

So...what happened?

Courtesy: http://www.ebay.ca/

The resistors arrived, packaged as shown, at the normal 'free-shipping' (slow) rate, which I don't mind. I selected three values to test and three samples of each value...120K, 68K and 8.2 ohms.
All resistors were within their 5% tolerance rating except for one of the 8.2's which measured 7.6 ohms... 2% out of tolerance.


I next smoke-tested a 680 ohm resistor for five minutes at slightly more than 1/4 watt dissipation. Measuring the resistor immediately after revealed that there had been no change in resistance.

Overall I am pleased with this purchase and would buy from this particular e-Bay seller in the future.
Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at ve7sl@shaw.ca.