AmateurRadio.com

…..the summer of 2014 that is. Boy it has been hot lately. Last Monday we had a record for September: over 38 degrees Celsius and my own weather station peaked at 39.0 degrees. And the end is still not in sight. Tropical storm Fung-Wong will bring some much needed rain this weekend and with it somewhat lower temperatures. But after that it is back to spending day after day with sweat soaked clothes stuck to your body. With the shack on the top floor and without airco it is now oozing heat, even at night. And I so long for heating up my iron and getting ready for winter DX fun on the lower bands. Patience is a virtue and I need lots of it. 73 and stay cool.

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

G1KQH has found some very low cost TDA2003 ICs.  I use one of these in my VLF beacon shown in my RSGB RadCom article and on my website. Best range is just short of 6km by “utilities assisted” earth-mode.  When fitter again (currently I am not allowed to drive and I am still too clumsy when on my feet and moving because of my brain bleed last year) I intend to continue my VLF experiments. I have used these ICs at 8.97kHz, twice, and sub-multiples of that frequency.  Beyond 20kHz would be outside their spec limits, but they may still work?

G3XBM 5W VLFearth-mode CW/QRSS beacon

Evening Roger,

Used in your LF PA 10p each nuts!

http://www.banggood.com/100pcs-TDA2003-10W-IC-Car-Radio-Audio-Amplifier-Integrated-Circuit-p-944202.html

Or you can buy in 10s @ 16p each inc delivery!

http://www.banggood.com/10pcs-TDA2003-10W-IC-Car-Radio-Audio-Amplifier-Integrated-Circuit-p-922620.html

Banggood sounds Chinese. I have no idea if these are genuine parts or not. They are advertised as 10W car radio audio parts.

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

Judy and I rode our bikes along the Pemigewasset River in Old Hill. I stopped on a knoll overlooking the river for 15 minutes and worked Belgium, Moldova, W1AW/4 in NC and Germany.

The day was fine, but a bit cool and breezy. It definitely feels like fall is approaching. Every now and then the scent of wild apples would fill our nostrils as we peddled along. Yellow leaves lay on the path. Wild asters dotted the lane way.

On the knoll I tossed my line over a pine branch and hooked up the KX3. I started out on 17 meters. Right away I worked Pat ON7PQ in Belgium. He was 599 and gave me a 569. Then… another quick contact with
Moldova… ER3MM, Victor. He gave me a 449.

Then I switched to 20 meters and heard W1AW/4 in North Carolina booming in. I made the contact easily.

I switched to 15 meters for one more QSO. Hans DL8MCG was calling CQ and I answered him. I wasn’t strong… barely 539, but we had a nice chat. “UR FB with 5W,” he sent when I told him I was QRP. Hans was running 500 watts to a vertical.

I packed up and joined Judy who was knitting in the sun farther down the lane.

The crickets are singing a new song now. It’s the song of cooler days and the coming of winter.

Jim Cluett, W1PID, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Hampshire, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

W1ZU's home setup.

I had some spare time just before dinner time and thought it would be a nice idea to sit down and relax at the radio. The rig was set to the QRP watering hole of 14.060 and very soon after I heard W1ZU calling CQ. Now having said that I just read the other evening in my CQ magazine of how important it is to listen, so I thought I would give the ears a workout and the key could sit idle. By listening I found out that W1ZU was operating from a summit in Maine, that he was activating SOTA (summits on the air) summit W1/DI 006. Not being an active SOTA chaser I did some more listening and was very surprised how fast the pileup developed to contact him. It would seem you can obtain points for contacting summits and this one was worth one point. Once the pileup settled down I threw my call out and Scott came back to me with a decent report. If I did not spend the time to listen and just tossed my call in and make the contact and move on I would never had learned the detailed info about this contact.
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

Map of Stations Worked in the Mini-CWT

Every Wednesday the CW Operators Club has a mini contest called the MINI-CWT.  It runs for one hour – 10:00 pm to 11:00 pm local time here in Kansas.  This time works great for me – kids are in bed, and house chores are complete!

This is the second time I have operated this contest and I had a blast.  Conditions on 20 meters were awful here – I didn’t hear one signal on the band except some digital signals.  So I immediately went to 40 meters and stayed there for the duration.

All told I worked 20 stations, for a score of 400 points- all stateside with one except being Canada.  I was really happy with this result!

When I worked the June contest I only worked 6 stations for a total score of 36 points, so I greatly improved tonight!

You can see a map of the locations of the stations I worked during the contest last night.  I created this using a site that I found that is really cool.  It is QSOMap.org – and it lets you upload an ADIF file and it maps the locations.

I really enjoy working contests.  Running QRP it gives you the opportunity to work some really good operators that also have excellent antennas.  Everyone I called last night, I worked!

Thanks to all the ops that pulled my signal out – you made it a fun night!

Also be sure and check out my N0HYD YouTube Channel!

Burke Jones, NØHYD, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Kansas, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Map of Stations Worked in the Mini-CWT

Every Wednesday the CW Operators Club has a mini contest called the MINI-CWT.  It runs for one hour – 10:00 pm to 11:00 pm local time here in Kansas.  This time works great for me – kids are in bed, and house chores are complete!

This is the second time I have operated this contest and I had a blast.  Conditions on 20 meters were awful here – I didn’t hear one signal on the band except some digital signals.  So I immediately went to 40 meters and stayed there for the duration.

All told I worked 20 stations, for a score of 400 points- all stateside with one except being Canada.  I was really happy with this result!

When I worked the June contest I only worked 6 stations for a total score of 36 points, so I greatly improved tonight!

You can see a map of the locations of the stations I worked during the contest last night.  I created this using a site that I found that is really cool.  It is QSOMap.org – and it lets you upload an ADIF file and it maps the locations.

I really enjoy working contests.  Running QRP it gives you the opportunity to work some really good operators that also have excellent antennas.  Everyone I called last night, I worked!

Thanks to all the ops that pulled my signal out – you made it a fun night!

Also be sure and check out my N0HYD YouTube Channel!

Burke Jones, NØHYD, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Kansas, USA. Contact him at [email protected].