In this episode, we join Martin Butler M1MRB, 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 Restarting Hamfests.

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• Reaching Youth Through Amateur Radio in the Classroom
• Beware of Counterfeit Icom Products
• Germany's Proposed New "N" Class Entry-Level Licence
• RSGB Construction Competition
• QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo Heads to YouTube
• RSGB ESC Publishes Annual Report

Hello and welcome to Episode #489 of Linux in the Ham Shack. In this short-topics episode, the hosts cover the future of morse code in amateur radio, more grants from the ARDC, pipewire, Xanmod, Nitrus and much more. Thank you for listening and we hope you have a great week.

73 de The LHS Crew

Fixed mode with 20kHz span

I have had my Icom 7610 for several years now and am still very much enjoying it. From time to time I enjoy working DXpeditions and having Dual receivers and dual spectrum scopes with the Icom 7610  is very handy. The spectrum scope has 2 tuning options which are fixed and center modes. It could just be me but I find center mode hard to follow were as fixed mode seems very easy to follow. When you come across a station that is working split more often than not it’s because there is a large pileup and it’s more efficient to work split. For those readers who are not certain what split operation is this LINK explains it better than I can. 

During split operation especially with a very rare DX station, there are LOTS of operators trying to contact the prized DX station. For this reason on the DX’s listening frequency, there are many ops trying to make contact. When you as an operator want to get involved and try to contact the DX station you have to drop yourself in the pool of stations calling the DX station.
The trick is where to set your VFO dial to have a chance to be heard by the DX station. In most cases, the DX station has a routine to move up or down his listening frequency which is your transmit frequency. One must listen and watch the waterfall to see who the DX station is answering call after call. You can then get the idea if he is moving up or down his listening frequency and by how much. 

As I said there could be lots of callers and this translates to a very crowded waterfall display. To find out where to drop your call one must have a closer look at the waterfall. When this is done you can get some separation between the calling stations. Thus allowing you to better see who the DX station is answering. Then you have a good idea when and where to drop your call and hopefully be heard.
As I said the center mode I find very confusing and when I use it in split mode and spin the VFO I am just lost as to who is where and for this reason I use fixed mode. 

As a side note: In center mode when you spin the VFO the signals on the waterfall move and the VFO marker remains stationary. In center mode when the VFO is changed the waterfall signals remain stationary and the VFO marker moves to the next signal.

As was said earlier it is best to have a closer look at the waterfall to see the action. In fixed mode, the smallest slice of the band you can have is 20khz. When operating CW as I do this for me is not enough for a very crowded calling group. In center mode, you can get a slice all the way down to +/- 2.5kHz or +/- 5kHz. For me, these are great options and with CW I generally would choose +/-2.5kHz but the rig has to be in center mode and that just does not work for me.
I have found a workaround so I can use the center mode, select +/-2.5kHz and still have the moving VFO B marker and not a moving waterfall! Below are the setup steps I take to make this happen.

In fixed mode, I find the DX station with VFO A

I then press the Dual-W button

Then press and hold Dual-W button to get the settings for VFO B the same as VFO A

I then press the split button

I press the Dual soft key my scope becomes over-under as this is how it is setup. You can see the dual scope view in the post pictures.

I change both scopes to center mode if not there already.

I now set the span to the same on each lower and upper scope in my case it is +/-2.5kHz I then touch VFO B frequency readout on the upper band scope (to activate VFO B)

Now in the upper band scope, VFO A remains stationary on the DX station. VFO B (in the upper band scope) now moves when the VFO dial is turned. The VFO marker moves (like fixed mode) and the band signals remain stationary.

The lower scope is still there but I don’t pay any attention to it. I found if I did not stay in dual scope mode I would lose the CENTER mode for VFO A and FIXED mode for VFO B. 

5+/-kHz in center mode but VFO acts like fixed mode

Now with all this said I just know there is going to be a comment that informs me I can press 2 simple buttons on the rig and get the same results. I seem to always take the long way around with things. I have added some screen pics of how the waterfall looks when in 20kHz, +/-5kHz and +/-2.5kHz span during a DXpedition. As you can see when in +/-2.5kHz mode the calling station are easy to see compared to fix 20kHz and +/-5kHz selections. But best of all I have fixed mode operation of VFO B with these small spans. 

+/-2.5kHz span view of pile up calling DX station

 We have lost another of the 20%

Looking back, it is ironic that Jim wrote the following about Brett Garrett VE7GM when Brett passed away in August 2018

"They often say that 20% of a given membership do 80% of the work... Brett was one of the 20%, no, more like 5%. An active member of both the Surrey Amateur Radio Club (SARC) and Surrey Emergency Program Amateur Radio (SEPAR), Brett freely shared his knowledge and led Surrey Amateurs to two very successful Field Days."

I can attest to the same about Jim Smith VE7FO and his involvement with VECTOR and SARC.

I first became aware of Jim when I laid the groundwork for the Vancouver Emergency Community Telecommunications ORganization (VECTOR) around 1999. Jim lived in the Dunbar area of Vancouver, and I became aware of his involvement with the Point Grey club, and that he was very knowledgeable about HF.

Jim was an avid contester who enjoyed working all modes -- especially CW and RTTY. A true mentor at heart, he often hosted "newbies" at his Vancouver home to introduce them to contesting. Many a new contester was given real experience operating "in the fray" and encouraged to keep honing their skills.

That knowledge translated into a very successful series of first Field Days for VECTOR. Jim also took on the project of planning the HF tower and antennas at e-Comm, the regional 9-1-1 and dispatch centre. That facility also houses the Vancouver EOC and its Amateur Radio component. Jim was a terrific resource in suggesting what might and might not work for that location, and he got that tower completed and functional. It was also Jim who persuaded me to look at offering our own Basic Amateur Radio classes. Well... 22 years later we are still offering them with the same basic content that we worked on back then, except now they are provided by Surrey Amateur Radio Communications (SARC), on-line, with successful students across Canada and even graduates abroad.

VECTOR Field Day (about 2003) Jim VE7FO as Station Manager in the new VECTOR bus.
Fred VE7CX in the foreground.

Around the time that I left VECTOR for the SARC group in 2004, Jim decided that he too would become a member of SARC. What followed was a mentorship program to introduce new members to contesting, one of Jim's passions. I spent many hours at his QTH working various contests under Jim's expert tutelage.

In one of many articles written for our SARC newsletter 'The Communicator', Jim wrote:

"My own involvement with SARC started when I was recruited by John VE7TI, as a Field Day operator. There are many enjoyable ways of conducting FD which range from everyone sitting around the BBQ, telling stories and making a few contacts to the hard-core contest style where everybody goes all out to WIN. I was told that it would be a hard core, win for Canada situation.  Being a hard-core contester myself I took the bait.

Well, it turned out that the operators, while enthusiastic, didn't have the HF contest experience necessary to achieve the goal.  Nonetheless, it was obvious that the potential was there so, once FD was over, I joined the Club and made a FD training proposal to the Exec with the goal of winning for Canada, which was accepted. 

This training started in October and ran until next year's FD.  It consisted of many formal training sessions including classroom style and participation in the major contests, during which the ops received coaching on the operating techniques for maximizing the number of contacts per hour.

This would be a very significant investment of time for the trainees. This "Get Your Feet Wet" program to provide a low commitment introduction to contesting so that they could see whether or not they liked it."

Jim was instrumental as well in the team organizing what was probably SARC's best scoring Field Day ever. It was in 2015 and, encouraged by Jim, Brett and Stan VA7NF, the Field Day Committee decided that operating QRP might put us in a better scoring position than our usual high power entry.

It took quite a lot of persuasion, but in the end, it was indeed to be QRP. Jim's specialty was consulting propagation predictions and other data to see what we might be able to do with just 5W.  Hoo boy!!  With some adjustment to our antenna lineup, he suggested that we could do very well indeed.

Did we?  We sure did.

Shattered the Canadian record for all categories.

Out of 2,719 FD stations in the US and Canada in 2015, some with more than 10 transmitters and most running 100W, we ranked #91 with our 3 transmitters and 5W.

Altogether a VERY significant achievement which any club would be proud of.

Wouldn't have happened without Jim (or Brett)

It may not be common knowledge that Jim was responsible for a lot of improvements to the premier Amateur Radio Contesting software N1MM+. As an expert contester Jim was able to make suggestions to the programmers that made the software the contesting leader it is today.

Jim always had a liking for analytics, and he took the lead in creating 'Station Manager' training. This role is as important to getting the maximum number of points in a contest as it would be in a real emergency, ensuring that critical traffic got through. The role includes selecting the most useful bands according to shifting propagation, switching antennas, and to assigning operators, so he was constantly monitoring rates, band conditions/solar conditions, greyline, run rates, etc. Everything was graphed and plotted.

Jim was also an active member of ORCA DX and Contest Club, and of the BC DX Club.
As the BC coordinator for the Pacific Northwest Challenge, for many years he looked after the collection of scores for the inter-club contest trophy -- the Pacific Northwest Cup -- and was a frequent attendee at club meetings.

We will miss you, Jim.

Thank you for all that you taught me and others.

We were very fortunate to have had you as a member.

Now Jim is gone

Damn!

Rest in peace.

~ John VE7TI