AmateurRadio.com

See http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2014/october/price_of_70cm_handhelds_falls.htm#.VDP48MnTCSo  .
This is incredible: a 5W handheld for less than £8.

Looking on eBay, just £6.99 ($11) will buy a 70cms unit with charger from Singapore. Tell  me, how can ANYONE make money on these?

Thanks to G1KQH, a link to a review:
http://hamgear.wordpress.com/2012/08/11/review-baofeng-bf-666s-bf-777s-bf-888s-and-look-alikes/

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

“The emphasis is fun. The hope is that it will attract new people to electronic design, measurement and experimentation. Hopefully, this site stimulates interest in QRP homebrew electronics.”

That's how Todd Gale, VE7BPO, described his website. Up until this past weekend, Todd site was one of the Web's premier sources of inspiration, accumulated homebrew knowledge and hands-on experimental wisdom. I was shocked to receive an e-mail from Todd explaining that the site would be taken down because of continued  bandwidth / network struggles with his one and only choice of providers. It truly was sad news for myself and the thousands that regularly visit his site for guidance. However, all is not lost as Todd went on to say:

"....I will convert all the site files into pdf files and stick them on a download site sometime in the future. I may re-emerge with a small-scale site or blog at some point, but don't really know for sure."

Happily, today Todd has informed me that he will indeed begin a new POPCORN QRP  blog in which he hopes to update with his benchwork descriptions that we have all come to enjoy.

I have listed Todd's blog site on My Blog List to the right but you may prefer to set your bookmarks for his site. Don't expect too much until later in the month as he is still working his way up the blogger's learning curve....hopefully we will see him back soon. Best of luck with your new endeavour...and, like the original website, I'm sure it will be great!

Courtesy: VE7BPO

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

See http://www.vlf.it/zevs/zevs.htm .

Quite a few VLF/ELFers attempt to copy the Russian ZEVS transmissions to deeply submerged nuclear subs at around 82Hz, yes, you read right, Hertz. At these frequencies even a few watts ERP penetrate deeply in the sea. The Americans used a similar system called Project Sanguine at around 76Hz , but this has now gone QRT. I think they use green lasers now?

The ZEVS data rate is low and usually there are a couple of transmissions a day. Usually Spectrum Laboratory software is needed for long term stability. Several people have been successful, although I have still to try.

I hope the transmissions are just tests these days!

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

The new 'loop' is not really loop-shaped but is rectangular (10' x 20') and more like a Flag antenna shape. I considered a Flag but really don't need any back-end nulling capability since I'm mainly interested in listening to the east and to the north.


The main boom section is composed of two sections of 1" PVC thick-wall (Schedule 40) pipe joined at the center and reinforced with a 10' section of 2" x 2" Douglas Fir. In addition, the boom has a truss of 1/4" Dacron to take out any end-loading sag. The vertical end sections are 3/4" Schedule 40 PVC pipe, fastened with a T at the boom end. The center mast is made of 2" Schedule 40 ABS pipe with a long section of 1 1/2" ABS nested inside that telescopes upward to anchor the truss ropes and give some additional rigidity to the mast.

Main boom and mast construction

This type of construction would lend itself well to anyone interested in a rotating Flag antenna for the BCB / LF or 160m. The cost are very low, the structure is lightweight and the materials are readily available at most hardware outlets.



Looping E/W

Although the preamp is completely sealed and weatherproofed, I still decided to mount it inside a container. The container also provided a convenient anchor to terminate the loop end wires (PVC-coated #18 stranded) without putting any tension on the soldered terminals.

Although I have not had much time to listen, and conditions are still in 'recovery' mode from earlier disturbances, initial indications are that everything is performing as well, if not better, than expected. It certainly outperforms my 10' active shielded loop by a large margin. I have yet to do any serious S/N comparisons between it and my primary LF receive antenna, a large inverted L, which must be tuned to resonance for the desired listening range. I believe that the very quiet loop / Wellbrook combination will provide an overall S/N improvement.

I have always believed that smaller loops provide deeper and sharper front-to-side nulls so I was pleasantly surprised to measure (using Perseus) null depths from 25-30db, on various groundwave signals....more than expected. Skywave signals also deliver sharp deep nulls in the order of 22 - 25db...again surprising, but I'll take them! A brief listen pointing S-E last evening turned up good signals from 1 kw'ers KYHN (1650kHz) in Fort Smith, Arkansas and KKGM (1630kHz) in Fort Worth, Texas. An early morning listen revealed good audio from JOIK (567) Sapporo, Japan and JOAK (595kHz) in Shobu. Down in the ndb band, little 25-watter 'IP' on 210kHz was an all-time new catch from Mobile, Arizona.

There is still much to learn from this new antenna system but the biggest challenge will be keeping it up all winter. I did lose one of my 10' loops after several years, due to wind when the main (un-reinforced) PVC mast eventually failed from flexing fatigue. I will tie the ends of the new antenna down when the winds get strong to reduce as much mast flexing as possible. I could however, run the risk of violating another long-standing radio tradition..."if your antenna stayed up all winter, it wasn't big enough". I just can't win.

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

Series Seven Episode Twenty of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast has been released. The latest news, Martin (M1MRB & W9ICQ) and Colin (M6BOY) discuss the 2014 JOTA Event and Martin (M1MRB & W9ICQ) reviews a visit to the HMS Belfast Radio Club.

 

• WIA plans a submission on new VK operating conditions
• Beta release of WSJT-X v1.4
• Postage stamp features ham radio satellites
• Brazil proposes 5275 kHz to 5450 kHz allocation
• No Ham Radio 4 metre band for US
• SARL change beacon frequency
• Melbourne man guilty of Radiocommunications Act offences

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

Series Seven Episode Twenty of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast has been released. The latest news, Martin (M1MRB & W9ICQ) and Colin (M6BOY) discuss the 2014 JOTA Event and Martin (M1MRB & W9ICQ) reviews a visit to the HMS Belfast Radio Club.

 

• WIA plans a submission on new VK operating conditions
• Beta release of WSJT-X v1.4
• Postage stamp features ham radio satellites
• Brazil proposes 5275 kHz to 5450 kHz allocation
• No Ham Radio 4 metre band for US
• SARL change beacon frequency
• Melbourne man guilty of Radiocommunications Act offences

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

I've documented in this space before what I love about the Summits on the Air program. I love the mountains, the views, the exercise, the fresh air, the sense of accomplishment and the planning and executing of a successful radio operation. All of those elements came into play these past few days as I took a quick trip to the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee and North Carolina.

The bulk of the trip was spent on the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is a target rich environment from a SOTA perspective. The drive along the Parkway is beautiful all by itself, especially this time of year with the leaves starting to change. The Parkway is a winding road, with a speed limit of 45 mph, but because of the scenery you are tempted to drive slower. I highly recommend it.



From a SOTA perspective I wanted to activate as many summits as I could in a 2 1/2 time frame. I had been wanting to do this trip for over a year and finally found a hole in my schedule and some decent weather to make the trip happen. I wanted to activate summits in both Tennessee and North Carolina as these would be new SOTA Associations for me to activate. I had some frequent flyer miles on Delta Airlines that needed to be used so we flew into Knoxville, TN. The Smoky Mountains are just a short drive south from there.

I was able to activate eight summits, seven of which were 10 pointers with the other being an 8 pointer. In order of activation they were:
Greentop                                   W4T/SU-076
Clingmans Dome                      W4C/WM-001
Bunches Bald,                           W4C/WM-013
Waterrock Knob,                       W4C/WM-004
Black Balsam Knob                   W4C/CM-005
Mount Pisgah                             W4C/CM-011
Mount Mitchell                          W4C/CM-001
Richland Balsam                        W4C/WM-003

My XYL accompanied my on this trip. She is in great shape and is very helpful setting up and tearing down. Because she was with me and could carry the Alex Loop, my station consisted of Yaesu FT-817 with the 3000 MAh rechargeable battery, Pico Paddle and Alex Loop. The Alex Loop is easier to manage on crowded summits and worked well.

My operating strategy was simple, start on 20m and run the pile-up until I get several unanswered CQ's, move to 40m and get the local guys and then go to 15m to look for some DX. I had some decent DX on 15m. My typical activation takes around 25 - 30 minutes. Since these activations were during the week, I figured QSO counts would be down, however I would say they were better than I expected with 130 QSO's over 8 activations.

Greentop Mountain W4T/SU-076

This is a drive-up summit with radio towers on the top. I didn't have any trouble with RF in the radio however and had a nice activation, 16 QSOs including CU3AA and OE8SPW.

Greentop Mountain

Clingmans Dome W4C/WM-001

Clingman's Dome is a tourist attraction. While it is mostly a drive up, there is about a 1/2 mile hike to the top. Walking past all of the out of shape tourists, I felt rather fit. The trick for the operation is to avoid the crowds. I went to the left of the observation deck and down a path to a clearing next to a air monitoring station and some solar panels. Nice and quiet, away from the crowds and as you can see below, a very nice operating position. 14 QSO's from here.

Operating Position at Clingman's Dome

Bunches Bald W4C/WM-013

As much as Clingman's Dome is a tourist attraction, Bunches Bald is not. It's off the beaten path on the backside of a campground. Got to SotaWatch for more details, but at the back of campsite #14 there is a faint trail to the summit. The hike is probably less that a 1/4 of a mile, but it is through some fairly dense woods/undergrowth, however the trail makes it easier. The summit is very small, so I wouldn't count on two different stations if you do it with someone. I made 27 QSO's from here including EA2LU and F5UBH.

Benchmark on Bunches Bald

Operating from Bunches Bald

Waterrock Knob W4C/WM-004

Waterrock Knob has a visitor center, toilets and a nice trail to the summit. While the trail is nice its a challenging little hike, not too long, but steep in places. Wonderful views from here. 16 QSO's from here including EA2LU, EA2IF and CU3AA.

View from Waterrock Knob

This finished off the first day. As you can see from the pictures, the weather was glorious and the scenery fantastic. The XYL and I finished off the with a nice pizza pie.


Black Balsam Knob W4C/CM-005

This is a unique summit for the area in that there are no trees on top. I'm sure there is some reasonable explanation but I didn't talk to anyone who knew. I would have guessed that this summit would have "bald" in the name since it has no trees, however, it's a "knob". Bunches Bald, is anything but bald as it has lots of trees and undergrowth on the summit. Go figure. From the trailhead this is probably a 2 mile roundtrip but not a bad hike at all. Because there are no trees on the summit you can see for miles and miles. Beautiful!! 22 QSO's from here including EA2LU and DJ5AV.

Operating from Black Balsam Knob

Mt. Pisgah W4C/CM-011

This is a classic hike in the region. It's 3 miles round trip and gains 750 vertical feet, however the first third of a mile is relatively flat, so most of the vertical gain comes over the last mile. The trail is well shaded, but the trail is rock laden, be sure to wear supportive shoes. Pisgah is a summit that will, at most any given time, have 5 -10 people on top. There is an observation deck, however, based on N1EU's recommendation, I crossed under the tower and operated from the other side of the tower opposite the observation deck. I made 15 QSO's from here including a couple of EA's.



Operating from Mt. Pisgah

My XYL Cris on the trail to Mt. Pisgah

Mt Mitchell W4C/CM-001

Mt. Mitchell is located in Mt. Mitchell State Park. The mountain is the tallest mountain east of the Mississippi. There is a nice road to just below the summit, which is just a short walk away. This is another summit with an observation deck and as before I walked to opposite side of the summit from the deck. I found a nice flat rock to operate from. I made 16 QSO's from here including CU3AA.

Mt. Mitchel Benchmark

Operating from Mt. Mitchell

Mt. Mitchell Summit

Operating from Richland Balsam just before a rain

Departing Richland Balsam in the rain

Mike Crownover, AD5A, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Texas, USA. Contact him at [email protected].