AmateurRadio.com

Judy and I drove over to the beach today… and what a day it was! We had a beautiful walk on the beach. I worked Bulgaria, France, Italy, TN and GA with a wire that was only three feet off the ground!

We brought our bikes and after a picnic lunch we rode a few miles up the road and back along the shore. Judy picked rose hips (rich in vitamin C) from the wild Rosa Rugosa along the way. It was in the low 80s F with just a little breeze. After that we sat on some benches in front of Rye Harbor. Judy lay down in the sun, and I strung a wire from the bench to a low bush that was 40 feet behind us. At most the wire was only 3 feet above the ground. I’d brought the kite, but there wasn’t enough wind to fly it. So I used what was available.

I had brought the KX3 and tuned around 20 meters and heard a couple of strong stations… the first one was W1AW/4 in TN. What the heck, I thought… I’ll give it a try. I got an answer on the first call and completed the exchange. Whooppee! TN on a 30 foot wire 3 feet off the ground. Next I worked Tony W4FOA in Georgia. He also gave me a 599. Now I was feeling pretty confident and went down the band for some DX. IK1ZNL, Paolo in Italy was 579. He answered my call and gave me a 559. Yikes… DX with a low wire. Then I worked LZ37MP in Bulgaria. I was working DX with the nicest view in the world…. Rye Harbor.

I thought I’d see what 30 meters was like. The Europeans were working each other all over the band, and they were strong! So I called a few… but no luck. I was hearing them, but their local signals were much stronger than I was. Anyway, I worked Chris F8DGY in France on 30 and completed the exchange, but clearly he wasn’t hearing me very well. But what the heck… I simply couldn’t ask for more. A perfect day, a beautiful beach and some DX by the sea.

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

My own surface mount version of the Pixie2

This page provides a guide to Pixie and related kits in a table format. These are simplistic single-band transceivers which are fun to build, yet they perform well enough to be used, although with some effort, for real contacts.

The idea of using the power amplifier transistor as a mixer seems to come from George Burt – GM3OXX – whose five transistor FOXX was described in 1983 in SPRAT. The basic design of the oscillator, PA/mixer and the simple keying has been more or less unchanged since RV3GM – Oleg Borodin – described the four transistor Micro-80 in 1992 in SPRAT. Later the Pixie 2 by WA6BOY replaced two of those transistors with the LM386 audio amplifier (QRPp 1995). Most later versions are variants of these designs.

Foxx
Foxx-3 kit from Kanga, £29.95	Incorporates a sidetone oscillator, changeover relay and low-pass filter. Different versions for the 80, 40, 30 or 20 m bands
Micro-80
Kit from QRPme, $35.00	Micro80D. Updated version with choice of  high or low impedance headphone, polyvaricon tuning cap and board mounted connectors, 80 m.
Pixie2
Kit from HSC Electronic Supply, $14.95	For 80 and 40 m. Eham review
Kit from Kenneke, $29.95	Includes 80 m crystal
Kit from QRPme, $40.00	Lil Squall Transceiver ][. Several components and the output low pass filter are on sockets. Comes with a crystal for 40 m.
Ali Express Ham QRP DIY Kit Shack 40 m, $15.07	40 m version. Tuning pot for VXO.
Radi0kit, £22.00	Enhanced Pixie2 which comes in 80, 40 and 20 m versions. Judging from the PCB layout it has an improved pin 7 muting circuit.

What can we say to characterize these designs? One the one hand they are very simple to build and get to work. One the other hand they are also simple in the sense that they do not always perform very well. Therefore I don’t think I would recommend them to any novice ham. It takes some understanding of frequency offsets and sidebands in order to make real contacts. But many have had great fun with this minimalist transceiver which in its basic version puts out some 2-300 mW. And it encourages experimentation and modifications. Also, it should be remembered that it isn’t really necessary to get a kit, as the Pixie 2 is quite simple to build from scratch also. I did that myself.

The original designs and many variants and modifications are documented in the Pixie file document of SPRAT. There are many, many more clever modifications out there and I have my share on this blog also. To sort out and link to all the other pages is too daunting a task, so therefore I have focused on kits here. Finally I wouldn’t be surprised if the table is incomplete so I would appreciate comments if you think that something is missing.

Sverre Holm, LA3ZA, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Norway. Contact him at [email protected].

Back in 2000, I applied for and received W2LJ as a vanity call.  I had upgraded to Amateur Extra back in 1994, and I had been wanting a shorter call sign. I picked W2LJ as L & J are my first two initials. The fee was all of $10 back then, if I remember correctly.  It seemed like a bargain - a buck a year.

This from the ARRL today:

ZCZC AG16
QST de W1AW
ARRL Bulletin 16  ARLB016
>From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT  September 4, 2014
To all radio amateurs

SB QST ARL ARLB016
ARLB016 New Amateur Radio Vanity Call Sign Fee Set at $21.40

The FCC has adjusted very slightly downward - to $21.40 - its proposed Amateur Service vanity call sign regulatory fee for Fiscal Year 2014. In a June Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM), the Commission said it was planning to hike the current $16.10 vanity fee to $21.60 for the 10-year license term. The FCC released a Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (R&O) in the proceeding on August 29, in which it recalculated the fee to $21.40 for the 10-year license term. The $5.30 increase still represents the largest vanity fee hike in many years.

The new $21.40 fee does not go into effect until 30 days after the R&O is published in The Federal Register.

In the R&O, the FCC said it considered eliminating the regulatory fee for Amateur Radio vanity call sign applications but decided not to do so "at this time," because it lacks "adequate support to determine whether the cost of recovery and burden on small entities outweighs the collected revenue; or whether eliminating the fee would adversely affect the licensing process." The Commission said it would reevaluate this issue in the future to determine if it should eliminate other fee categories.

The FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau sets the vanity call sign regulatory fee using projections of new applications and renewals, taking into consideration existing Commission licensee databases, such as the Universal Licensing System (ULS) database.

The FCC reported there were 11,500 "payment units" in FY 2014. The Commission said the vanity program generated an estimated $230,230 in FY 2013 revenue, and it estimated that it would collect nearly $246,100 in FY 2014.

The vanity call sign regulatory fee is payable when applying for a new vanity call sign or when renewing a vanity call sign, although some older vanity call signs are not subject to the regulatory fee.
NNNN
/EX

I wonder what the fee will be in 2020 when it's time for me to renew again!  I think it was around $14 in 2010 when I last renewed.  Oh well, if you want to dance, you have to pay the piper, I guess.

I love this part, though. "In the R&O, the FCC said it considered eliminating the regulatory fee for Amateur Radio vanity call sign applications, but decided not to do so "at this time," because it lacks "adequate support to determine whether the cost of recovery and burden on small entities outweighs the collected revenue; or whether eliminating the fee would adversely affect the licensing process."  Translation - "Naaah!  We decided to raise it by $5.30 instead."

Ya just gotta love the Federal Government!

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].

Nick Bennett 2EØFGQ co-hosts TX Factor with Bob McCreadie GØFGX and Mike Marsh G1IAR. Contact the team at [email protected]

Courtesy: https://maps.google.ca/

It seems that the recent Trans-Pacific reception of WD2XIQ's Texan WSPR signal by VK2DDI has stirred up a lot of interest from the boys down under. Despite some recent geomagnetic disturbances, some of those that are taking the time to beacon or to listen are being justly rewarded. Sunday's overnight beaconing has produced four more confirmed reports of the U.S. Part 5 experimental stations being heard in both VK and in ZL.

Once again, John ("XIQ"), was heard on the other end....not in Australia but in New Zealand, by Con (ZL2AFP) listening in residential Wellington. Con also caught signals from Larry, W7IUV, in central Washington state, operating on 630m as WH2XGP. Not to be left out of the action, Rudy, N6LF, running as WD2XSH/20 made it down to both VK2XGJ and VK2DDI before the sun came up south of Eugene, Oregon.

Larry, W7IUV ("XGP"), was running a true backyard-size antenna system...just a 34' loaded vertical with a sloping zig-zag top loading wire.  His small wire radial system covers a 16' x 25' patch. His homebrew amplifier, constructed almost exclusively from salvaged computer parts, uses 8 switching MOSFETs in push-pull / parallel running in the rare linear mode! The fascinating description of his amplifier's design and construction can be found at the W7IUV website. With the small vertical, estimated erp is  ~ 10 watts.
Larry's station should be inspirational for anyone who thinks they need huge antennas to be successful on 630m!

Rudy, N6LF ("XSH/20"), runs around 20Weirp to a large top-loaded vertical. The center (radiator) pole is almost 100' high while the top-loading support poles are 80'. Full details of Rudy's fine system, along with much more about 630m, may be found at the Antennas By N6LF website.

N6LF/WD2XSH/20 630m Top-Loaded Vertical

It wasn't just the U.S. Part 5'ers who were on the ball early Sunday morning. ZL2AFP, set up with just a small PAØRDT-style miniwhip at 28' feet and an IC-746PRO receiver, managed to snag two of the northerners. John Simon, VK2XGJ, also listening from a normal-sized suburban lot in Dapto (NSW), with lots of nearby powerlines, caught "XIQ"'s Texas-launched signals on his venerable FRG-100 tied to another small active miniwhip at 20'. Interestingly, the U.S. signals were detected about four hours after local sunset in both ZL and VK. 

LF RX Stack at VK2XGJ

It seems clear that 630m has much to offer in the way of some exciting propagation opportunities and that experimenters do not require large amounts of room to take advantage of this unique part of the spectrum.
Hopefully conditions will continue to provide more long-haul reports in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, remember that Canadian amateurs now have free access to the 630m band, but much more activity is needed...VE6, VE5, VE4, VE3, VE2...who will be the first on 630m in those provinces?  It's time to start melting solder and stringing antennas before winter arrives!


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

Organisation isn’t one of my strengths and my logging of contacts has been pretty woeful. It consisted of a spiral bound note book full of various scrawls sometimes tabulated for contests but more often than not a free form mess. With good intentions I purchased a proper RSGB Deluxe log book months ago but that has remained pristine and has just become a handy band-plan look-up!

Until recently I had only made a small number of voice QSOs on HF and had entered those manually into the online eQSL, QRZ and HRDlog logbooks I maintain.  JT65 data mode logging was handled by the JT65HF program itself and for the UKAC and other VHF contests I have been using the MINOS logging program - all in all a bit of a mishmash.

Now my operating confidence has grown I am making more contacts and so I really need to computerise and centralise my logging. After  looking at a number of programs I opted to give Charlie Davy’s (M0PZT) freeware PZTLog a try and after using it for a couple of weeks I am very impressed.


The program has a multitude of features but at the moment I am using it to simply enter and log details of contacts, combined with the CAT interface to the FT857-D and the OMNIRIG control the mode, frequency, band and power settings are automatically populated.

The really nice selling point for me was the inbuilt data mode operation. I have tried PSK and RTTY before using other programs but I often found myself confused and intimidated by the interfaces and jargon.

PZTLog uses the MMVari engine to operate PSK/RTTY and it uses a familiar waterfall display. The TX/RX window and  QSO macros are easily accessible and I found the interface much more intuitive than other programs I have used. On installation, the macros are already populated and labelled sensibly and are easily editable. By double-clicking received text you can set Callsign, Locator, RST/Serial, Name/QTH quickly and with ease.

In a short time I have made a good number of PSK QSOs as well as a some RTTY contacts, even giving some points away in the fast paced SCC RTTY contest last weekend.

Importing and exporting of logs is very easy and it has inbuilt eQSL uploading, but at the moment I am having trouble making that work reliably but that I think is me rather than the program.

PSK is a great mode, running no more than 30W, often less I have made a number of nice DX contacts and countries including Argentina, Oman, Japan and the Dominican Republic.



Thanks to Charlie’s program I now have a better understanding of how the mode and QSO works so may try some of the more sophisticated programs, or I may just stick with PZTLog for a while. Check out Charlie's page for lots more interesting information as well as some very funny light hearted audio features poking fun at the hobby.

In other news the VHF UKAC contesting is improving. Last week I made a last minute decision to lower the pole and put up my homemade wooden 6m MOXON but glad I did. Conditions weren’t good but still made a respectable number of contacts but not a lot of distance. I’ve climbed to 30th place in the 50MHz low power AL section.

A last minute decision to swap the aerial, but worth it! Shame missed out on some E's when got called away :-( #ukac pic.twitter.com/TRarIikVpD
— Andrew Garratt (@nerdsville) August 26, 2014

Last night was the 144MHz UKAC and what a great night it was, conditions were brilliant and it was very busy on the band. Still operating search and pounce mode I snagged just 32 contacts, but with 13 multipliers giving me by best score so far on that band.  Operating in the low power AL section as M6GTG it is hard work getting through the pile ups but it was great fun trying.

Well that was fun, great conditions and some nice DX even operating as M6GTG #ukac pic.twitter.com/KwTLXiTPDD
— Andrew Garratt (@nerdsville) September 2, 2014

Finally I became a licensed ‘foundation level’ amateur a year ago this month (M6GTG), and have since become an ‘intermediate’ (2E0NRD) and have now taken the bold step of applying to take the ‘advanced’ examination next month. I say bold because I haven’t taken a course or studied for it per se but with my background and education I have covered most of the theory even if it was over 25 years ago – with a bit of serious reading, revision and dusting off of the memory banks over the next few weeks I hope to be ready!

Well here goes nothing.. best get studying pic.twitter.com/FTDPqTPKSa
— Andrew Garratt (@nerdsville) August 28, 2014

Andrew Garratt, MØNRD, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from East Midlands, England. Contact him at [email protected].

At the moment, I can cover 6m, 2m and 70cm vertical with the V2000, 2m omni-horizontal with the 2m halo, 2m and 70cms SSB/CW/digital with the small, hand rotated beam (3el/5ele) and 10m, 20m and 40m with the end-fed PAR wire antenna strung up to a tree. I can get on 630m by loading up the coax cables to various antennas or using the earth electrodes in the ground. I can get on other bands too by tuning various coax feeders.

V2000, 2m halo, and 2m/70cm beam (hand-rotated). PAR end-fed is not visible but goes to a tree.

I will probably take down the V2000 and 2m halo later and replace them with a 10m halo (Homebase-10) for the months until next spring. I think the 10m halo will be a more effective antenna for 10m than the PAR. It will certainly be higher. Main problem at present is my mobility: climbing ladders is not a good idea in my present state, so antenna work is all but impossible.

Despite the low  power (5W or less) and lowish elevation, I am able to work out to around 200km on 2m and 70cm SSB in contests.

UPDATE WEDS: 449km best DX (Scotland) on 2m in the UKAC last evening with 5W and 3el.

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