Amateur Radio Newsline Report 1938 October 3 2014
- ARRL again asks the FCC to make ham radio primary in at 2300 to 2305 MHz
- WIA campaigns to save that nations 9 centimeter ham radio allocation
- FCC Commissioner takes a close look at the 400 MHz and up spectrum
- Good news for Brevard County Florida ham radio tower exemption
- Hollywood Celebrates Ham Radio operation brings a big surprise
- An interesting new rover design is being tested by NASA
CLE186 – Perils of Perseus
ZVR - 368 Vancouver - Middle Marker Rnwy 08R - reported as far as California |
As is usually the case with CLE's, propagation conditions begin to deteriorate shortly after the announcement of the upcoming event. By the weekend's arrival, conditions are usually much worse than earlier in the week and such was the case once again! In North America, lightning activity and mediocre propagation dominated the three-night event, with the consensus of opinion giving the nod to Saturday night and early Sunday morning as being the best period.
Courtesy: http://www.lightningmaps.org/ |
Here on Mayne Island, Friday night was pretty much a wash and only the stronger signals made it through the din and into the log. A twilight check on Saturday evening indicated improving propagation and less lightning, renewing optimism that the entire weekend would not be a wipeout.
Since purchasing the Perseus SDR earlier this year, I have been using it exclusively for the past few CLE's. I have been exploiting one of it's main features....the ability to record the entire band overnight and then tune through the band the next day, as in real time. I no longer had to prop my eyelids open until 0100 or later, or to leave a sound sleep to journey out to a cold shack to hunt the pre-sunrise band for anything new....yes, Perseus has made it possible to DX while I sleep!
Now the very concept of this horrifies many of the 'purists' and I myself held-out for several years before venturing over to the darkside...but...embracing new technology along with its associated new learning is what is important. If I get to sleep-in because of it, even better!
So....that's the way it is supposed to work, but due to operator error, Perseus failed to launch on Saturday night, and the best conditions of the CLE were missed altogether. Having seen the error in my ways, the perils of Perseus will, hopefully, not strike again!
Conditions on Sunday night were noisy once again, although not as bad as Friday, and the following log was gathered after parsing through my overnight recordings.
09 29 0900 350 OKT Yoakum, TX - new catch
09 29 0700 350 RG Oklahoma City, OK
09 27 0400 350 SWU Idaho Falls, ID
09 29 0900 350 VTR McGrath, AK
09 29 0800 351 YKQ Wasaganish, QC
09 27 1330 353 AL Walla Walla, WA
09 29 0800 353 CY Cheyenne, WY
09 29 0800 353 DI Dickinson, ND
09 29 0800 353 IN International Falls, MN
09 27 1330 353 LLD Lanai, HI
09 29 0800 353 PG Portage, MB
09 27 0400 353 RNT Renton, WA
09 27 1330 353 ZXY Whitehorse, YT
09 29 1100 355 AUB King Salmon, AK
09 29 0800 355 YWP Webequie, ON
09 27 0700 356 MEF Medford, OR
09 29 0700 356 ODX Ord, NE
09 27 0700 356 ON Penticton, BC
09 27 1330 356 PND Portland, OR
09 27 0700 356 ZF Yellowknife, NT
09 29 0800 356 ZXE Saskatoon, SK
09 27 0400 358 SIT Sitka, AK
09 27 1300 359 BO Boise, ID
09 27 0500 359 SDY Sidney, MT
09 27 1300 359 YAZ Tofino, BC
09 29 0800 359 YQZ Quesnel, BC
09 29 0800 360 SW Warroad, MN
09 29 0900 361 E3 Wabasca, AB
09 29 0800 361 HI Holman, NT
09 29 1000 362 6T Foremost, AB
09 27 1300 362 BF Seattle, WA
09 29 0800 362 CD Chadron, NE
09 29 0600 362 RPX Roundup, MT
09 29 0800 362 YZS Coral Harbour, NU
09 29 0800 364 4D Helmet, BC
09 27 1100 365 AA Fargo, MN
09 29 0800 365 DPY Deer Park, WA
09 29 0800 365 HQG Hugoton, KS
09 29 0800 365 MA Mayo, YT
09 29 0800 366 YMW Maniwaki, QC
09 29 0800 368 ZP Sandspit, BC
09 27 1330 368 ZVR Vancouver, BC
I have, over the years, logged all of these beacons before, except for one..."OKT" in Yoakum, Texas...new catches are always nice and are harder to find it seems. The Google Map's 'street view' shows what appears to be a nice top-loaded "T" antenna at OKT:
Courtesy: https://www.google.ca/maps/ |
My CLE186 beacons - Courtesy: https://www.google.ca/maps/ |
It was nice to salvage Sunday night but I'm still a little bummed about missing the best night of the weekend...at least I had a good night's sleep.
Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].
School Daze
Last night was the second session of our eight week Technician class license class. I think some of our seventeen students walked out of the building with dazed expression on their faces. And I guess that's to be expected right now, as we're out of the introductory "This is Amateur Radio" feel-good fluffy part and we're now into the heart of the course, which is basic electricity and components and all the good stuff.
The concepts of current, resistance, voltage were easily digested by their inquiring minds. The concepts of capacitance, inductance, reactance and impedance? Not so much. But Marv K2VHW and I broke it down into the simplest "lay terms" that we could and I am pretty confident that they have a basic, rudimentary (if not shaky) understanding of the concepts. I am trying pretty hard to find "real world" equivalents that they can relate to, so these concepts don't totally fly over their heads.
I have to admit that back in Ye Olden Days, when I was studying for my Novice license, I wore the very same expression on my face when I left those sessions each Tuesday evening in October and November of 1978.
If you have no concept of electricity and electronics, it CAN seem daunting. But if our students do the required reading, and maybe even do a little Googling on their own, they will have that "Aha moment!" when it all comes together.
As a class, they have several things going for them. The first is that our young students are whizzes at note taking. While Marv is handling the teaching part of a segment, I try to keep an eye on our charges, to watch facial expressions and such. The younger students have their highlighters and pens going at warp speed, taking notes and marking pertinent paragraphs and sentences in their license manuals. The older adult students are no slouches, either. But there's one important difference - their facial expressions are more telling. While the "kids" are sponges, absorbing all this stuff, every now and then, I will see one of the adults screw up their faces as if to say "What?!?" It's at that moment when I will try to pause things for a bit and try to interject an example or some such thing that they're familiar with that brings the concept home to them.
The important thing that we try to stress as much as we can (without beating them over the head with it) is that they HAVE to do the required reading homework. This way, we can answer any questions on any sticky points that they might have. We also give them the reading material that will be covered in the next week's lesson, so that they're not walking into the material blindly.
These two weeks will probably be the very hardest of the eight week class. Electrical concepts and components last night. And next week, electronic and basic radio circuits. After that, we'll get into "the good stuff" - propagation, antennas, operating procedures, setting up a station, etc. That material is probably more in line with what they expected when they were signing up for an Amateur radio course.
I will make it my business during this coming week to make up a handout with some Internet sources that they can refer to in order to make the "meat" that they were fed last night just a little more palatable. As any licensed Ham knows, this is an ongoing process that doesn't end with passing the test. In fact, it's just the very beginning.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].
The Spectrum Monitor — October, 2014
Bear Hunting: Tracking Russian Air Force Flights via CW and SSB
By Tony Roper
When Tony Roper talks about bear hunting, he’s not referring to tracking furry creatures around the countryside using sophisticated radio devices as aides. He’s referring to monitoring the Russian Air Force Strategic Bomber networks on HF. The Bear networks use both CW and USB for communication; CW is Duplex with ground stations on one frequency and the aircraft on another; while in USB mode, the networks are simplex. Tony shows you when, how and where to find these bears of the air.
Free-to-Air C and Ku-band Satellite Signals in North America
By Ken Reitz KS4ZR
As the current solar cycle continues its fade and international shortwave broadcasters continue chiseling away at their budgets and on-air schedules, wouldn’t it be great to have a radio that picks up the latest English broadcasts from around the world in full fidelity audio, without fading, static and other atmospheric problems and cost less than $200 with no monthly fees or Internet connection? And, what if this same system could tune in dozens more TV and radio signals? That’s the advantage of Free-to-Air C and Ku-band satellite monitoring in North America.
The Summer of ’42 Radio
By Rich Post KB8TAD
Rich Post had promised a fellow ham, to whom he owed several favors, that he would look at an old radio that he would like to have working again. Rich had just opened the front door as two friends were carrying a small console radio up the sidewalk to his house when he glimpsed the back of the cabinet and immediately recognized the Philco from a distance. “It’s a Summer of ’42 special,” he yelled out. The radio was a Philco model A-361, first sold in April 1942. His friends understandably looked a bit puzzled at his comment, so he proceeded to explain the history behind the set’s existence.
Pirate Radio Superlatives
By Andrew Yoder
Over the years, radio listeners have asked Andrew, “Who was the first pirate?” or, “Who was the first pirate to broadcast from a ship?” Unlike Major League Baseball, which has kept meticulous records for more than a century, pirate radio is a largely empty record book, with few dots to connect. But this article isn’t cast in bronze, like the plaques at the Baseball Hall of Fame. It’s more like the senior superlatives from your old high school yearbook. Andrew has been researching old loggings, newsletters, magazines, and books for information and here are a few of the things he’s found.
The Spectrum Monitor is available in PDF format which can be read on any desktop, laptop, iPad®, Kindle® Fire, or other device capable of opening a PDF file. Annual subscription (12 issues, beginning with the January 2014 issue) is $24. Individual monthly issues are available for $3 each.
Ken Reitz, KS4ZR, is publisher and managing editor of The Spectrum Monitor. Contact him at [email protected].
AutoCAD files for Ultimate 3
I’ve used AutoCAD for a while (because I had a work licence) but since being promoted I didn’t need CAD software…boooo (I also had an inventor licence but that wasn’t used as much). Anyway, back to the point.
I made a couple of front and rear panels for the QRPLabs ultimate 3 WSPR transmitter and thought that someone else might like to make one. Well if you do the dxf files are below. You can modify them easily in Draftsight (A free 2D bit of CAD software) that accepts AutoCAD files. The file shows the parts embedded on a sheet that can be used for laser cutting and your local FabLab or similar.
Anyway enjoy
Alex Hill, G7KSE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, UK. Contact him at [email protected].
Noble Radio NR4SC update: strong signals
I had a few minutes to play in the RSGB 70MHz activity contest this evening. Although I was still only using the vertical antenna which is not ideal for such activity it proved a useful session.
Neil G4BRK my nearest 70MHz neighbour was on and going well. His signal was well over S9 and it is a compliment to his signal and to the NR4SC’s receiver than he was gone within about 4khz either side, which I was quite happy with. M1PRO, a little further off were also rattling the s-meter and easy to lose a few khz either side.
Most distant signal heard was from Keith G4ODA in IO92/Spalding.
A 70MHz HB9CV antenna arrived today, so I’ll put that together at the weekend and see what can be done.
Tim Kirby, G4VXE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Oxfordshire, England. Contact him at [email protected].
Noble Radio NR4SC update: strong signals
I had a few minutes to play in the RSGB 70MHz activity contest this evening. Although I was still only using the vertical antenna which is not ideal for such activity it proved a useful session.
Neil G4BRK my nearest 70MHz neighbour was on and going well. His signal was well over S9 and it is a compliment to his signal and to the NR4SC’s receiver than he was gone within about 4khz either side, which I was quite happy with. M1PRO, a little further off were also rattling the s-meter and easy to lose a few khz either side.
Most distant signal heard was from Keith G4ODA in IO92/Spalding.
A 70MHz HB9CV antenna arrived today, so I’ll put that together at the weekend and see what can be done.
Tim Kirby, G4VXE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Oxfordshire, England. Contact him at [email protected].