Amateur Radio Newsline Report 1935 September 12 2014

Canada will proposes world-wide 60 meter ham radio allocation 
China announces a Lunar circling mission carrying amateur radio
Slow Scan television is back on the air from the ISS
FCC announces increase in the cost of a United States vanity callsign 
New Zealand hams to celebrate a major ham radio historical event
THIS WEEKS NEWSCAST
     Script
     Audio 


Excited


Marv K2VHW and I, under the auspices of the South Plainfield Amateur Radio Club, will be teaching a course for those in the greater Central New Jersey area who want to earn a Technician class license.

Here's the flier that Marv designed to advertise the class:


I'm excited, because so far we have eight potential students who have pre-registered. We have room for more, so if you're interested or know someone in the Central NJ area who might be interested, contact either Marv or myself.  We would also ask that anyone who has pre-registered or wants to register, to please try to attend the next SPARC meeting on Wednesday, September 17th at 7:00 PM at the South Plainfield OEM building.  At that time, we will be taking count and placing a group order for license manuals for the class.  Marv and I are both ARRL Registered Instructors, and a such we can apply for a group rate for the manuals.

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 w2lj@arrl.net.

Cycle 24 Battles On

Courtesy: http://www.nasa.gov
It seems there are still a few surprises left in the strange life of Cycle 24. Yesterday's major X1.6 solar flare seems to be nicely positioned for an earth-impact on Friday. The blast follows an earlier M4.5 flare the day before and the one-two combination could deliver some interesting VHF propagation as the solar stream impacts our planet.

Courtesy: http://www.nasa.gov

Video of the event shows what looks like a near full-on earth-directed hit but for a northerly component. Only time will tell.




Sky watchers as well as VHFers should be alert for possibly major auroral displays on Friday or Saturday.

Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at ve7sl@shaw.ca.

A New 630m Loading Coil & Variometer



I've decided, for the time being, to keep my 2200m (136kHz) antenna tuning system separate from the 630m system. This means that I'll need to build a new loading coil, variometer and impedance matching transformer. I'm not really sure why I should maintain the 2200m capability since there is not really much activity here. The only two excuses that I have at present are the fact that it took a heck of a lot of work to get to this point (but it was mostly "fun work") and that the U.S. may be getting the band soon. I'm also not convinced that even if the U.S. does get the band that it would translate into much new activity....so, for the time being, I will keep the system intact.

I've used an online coil calculator to design the coils needed for loading and for the variometer....it will be interesting to see how close the finished values compare with the calculated values. I hope they're not too far off! Here is what the plan calls for:



The main loading coil will be built on a low-loss 6" styrene pipe coupler using #16 solid copper transformer wire, spaced at 3mm. The coil will be elevated above the main form by strips of styrene rod that I have filed small notches into, every 3mm. The rod height will be staggered around the form, gradually stepping down one full turn every 360 degrees. Inside the main coil, the smaller variometer coil will be wound with poly-covered #18 stranded wire on a short length 3 1/2" PVC pipe.




Hopefully I'll get something that tunes from 130-230uH, approximately....if so, I'll not only be happy, but really surprised!


Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at ve7sl@shaw.ca.

9/11 – Never forget.





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 w2lj@arrl.net.

MFJ 1788 and humid weather

Large plate capacitor
Over the past few weeks I have been very busy with work and not really anytime for radio or anything else really. I was on the radio for a very short time last week and the weather outside was very humid and HOT! The antenna I have is the MFJ 1788 loop and I have always been able to get a decent SWR on most bands the antenna was designed for. But for some reason I was not able to get an SWR under 2.1:1 on some bands the best I could do was 3.1:1. It turns out that the Humidity can affect the MFJ 1788 antenna and my guess is since the antenna has a large moving plate capacitor the humid air affects the air gap between the plates? The other day the weather was back to cooler non humid conditions and I tried the antenna again and the great SWR was back again. The antenna had not moved and nothing had changed other than the weather.

Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at ve9kk@hotmail.com.

FEMA Director Craig Fugate, KK4INZ to Emergency Managers: “What’s your backup?”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLOJXvkBbkg

FEMA Director Craig Fugate, KK4INZ, debunks the argument that Amateur Radio is no longer relevant in our hyper-connected smartphone, tablet, satellite phone, networked radio system world:

“If you really want to short-circuit your local or state emergency manager who says that Amateur Radio isn’t really viable anymore… ask them this,” said Fugate. “Can you communicate across your jurisdiction or across your state without touching the public switched network?”


Matt Thomas, W1MST, is the managing editor of AmateurRadio.com. Contact him at editor@amateurradio.com.

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