AmateurRadio.com

that I link to an article written for eHam, but here’s a really good one written by Ron KA3J:

http://www.eham.net/articles/32380

It regards Technicians (or any new Hams for that matter, CW and QRP – relevant topics for this blog!) And just to let you know how good it is, up to this point in time, Ron has not been heckled in the commbox!

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].

Posted by Bobby AK4JA (who I’ve worked – fantastic op!) on QRP-L today. Provocative? Yes. Controversial? Yes. True? No, but I kinda like it anyway:

“QRP – a real man’s mode , not for sissies and certainly not for selfish, impatient , ego-maniacs – Man up, grow a set and go QRP if you dare!”

Not trying to start a QRO vs QRP war, but I enjoyed the humor. And it makes for a good battle cry. Definitely better than “Life is too short for $200 finals” or whatever some guys like to bandy about. And no, I won’t be changing my tag line.

Hey, Bobby! I think this would make a good T-shirt!  Something on the order of this:

Hee hee!  Is that a challenge, or what ?

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].

This coming weekend is International Lighthouse/Lightship Weekend. Here’s an article I caught online:

http://www.thedailynewsonline.com/news/article_4b4d8e82-21ea-11e4-9326-001a4bcf887a.html

I’ve had the opportunity to work various lighthouses and lightships the world over throughout the years and it’s always been fun.  Back when the Piscataway Amateur Radio Club was in its hey-day, we activated the Twin Lights Lighthouse in Atlantic Highlands, NJ.

Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

AmateurLogic.TV Episode 69 is now available for download.

In this episode Peter demonstrates a new microcontrolled component test. George talks all about Dummy Loads. Tommy shows us the new DV Mega Raspberry Pi D-Star Hotspot. And a visit to the K7LWH D-Star Repeater site in Bellevue Washington.

We also announce our 9th Anniversary Sweepstakes where some ham is going to win the Ultimate Mobile Station.

1:20:46 of premium Ham Radio content.

Download
YouTube

George Thomas, W5JDX, is co-host of AmateurLogic.TV, an original amateur radio video program hosted by George Thomas (W5JDX), Tommy Martin (N5ZNO), Peter Berrett (VK3PB), and Emile Diodene (KE5QKR). Contact him at [email protected].

During last year's fall season, VE7CA (Markus), VE7BDQ (John) and myself were getting prepared to venture into the nanowave world....that part of the electromagnetic spectrum that lightwaves of various wavelengths call home.


Over the course of many months, I had become intrigued by the lightwave experimentation being done by amateurs in the UK and particularly those being done by Roger, G3XBM. Like many of the UK builders, Roger had been building and testing simple low-power LED lightwave transmitters along with simple receiving systems. It was fascinating to follow his progress thanks to his daily blog (read his '481tHz' optical postings here) which documented every detail...both failures and successes. Even though not amateur radio per-se, to me it represented the best of what is so wonderful about our hobby and experimental homebrewing in particular. Unknowingly, Roger had me hooked and eventually I started to seriously contemplate building a lightwave system.

What finally pushed me over the building-brink was an amazing series of articles by Stuart Wisher (G8CYW) published in Radcom magazine and now available for download on Yahoo's "UK Nanowave Group". This four-part series was full of ideas, schematics and inspiration. I would challenge any homebrewer to read them without wanting to start building almost immediately! The group itself is an excellent source of circuits and up-to-date information regarding the latest activity amongst the UK amateur 'nanowavers'.


Now.... just having a lightwave system would not be much fun without having someone else to talk to. My first challenge was to find someone, preferably another ham, with whom I might be able to communicate once I had a system built and....they would need to be a homebrewer as well since none of this stuff was available 'off the shelf '. I contacted Markus (VE7CA), a very skilled homebrewer and sent him the series of Radcom lightwave articles. I did the same with John (VE7BDQ), another ardent builder and the main motivator (although he never knew it at the time) in me becoming hooked on ham radio as an early teenager. Both immediately called 'all-in'....our nanowave project was off and running!


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

The Adventure Tuner Kit from SOTABEAMS is an affordable small project suitable for beginners and pros who will end up with a useful wire antenna tuner. According to SB:

It’s an L network tuner – but with a difference: the L network is bi-directional to increase the matching flexibility of the tuner. Both sides of the L network can be used for the antenna or the radio. It’s got co-ax socket on both sides of the network too so it can be used to extend the useful tuning range of narrow-band co-ax fed antennas – such as making an 80 m dipole usable across the whole band.

The inductance is provided with switched inductors giving a range of 0 – 5.6 uH in 0.1 uH steps. Hyper-bright LEDs indicate antenna current to aid tuning. They are in circuit all the time to give you reassurance that your system is working at peak efficiency. The typical matching range of the Adventure Tuner is 3.5 – 30 MHz.

It looks like another swell Saturday morning project melting solder followed by radio adventures from the field and shack.

What’s not to like?

Filed under: Ham Radio Tagged: kits, news

Jeff Davis, KE9V, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Indiana, USA.

Yesterday, at this time, the bands were humming (relatively) with Skeeters, WES’ers, and WAE’ers, just to name a few. 24 hours later, during a later lunch break ……. not much of anything.  This is where I was picked up by RBN:

Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].