Posts Tagged ‘amateurradio.com’
Free Shipping for ARRL Members? Not Yet…
February 21st, 2019 | 
Author: Obi Wan Kenobi might have uttered, ‘There’s a positive change in The Force’ these days in Newington. It’s no secret that the ARRL has been suffering from the transition of a career long Chief Officer (Dave Sumner) to a new CEO who can effectively lead the non-profit corporation, also a public charity, which declared a $20.5M net asset figure to the IRS for 2017. The failed interim CEO, Mr. Gallagher, tried to execute an executive style which he perhaps found successful in the financial world but a flop at a non-profit like the ARRL. His retirement after only a brief period in Newington was perhaps best for all involved. I wish him well as a fellow amateur radio operator. He just proved to not be a good fit as CEO of the League.
You’re Our Only Hope!
The realization by President Roderick and the changing Board of Directors that this executive style could not bring success to this transition in executive leadership at the headquarters in Newington CT resulted in the hiring of Howard Michel WB2ITX. He had been at the similar, but the far larger IEEE organization, which operates sort of like the ARRL for engineers and other technologists in the United States. It’s net asset declaration to the IRS in 2017, by comparison, was $415M! But he has shown in the brief time he’s been CEO in Newington that he understands the difference between management and executives in the non-profit world. More to come in a future blog post on that distinction.
At the recent ARRL Board Meeting, Mr. Michel was able to get approval for what seems to me to be a fundamental change in the organizational structure and, hopefully, the culture which drives the some 100 employees of the American Radio Relay League. While I may write more about these fundamental changes that the new CEO has put into action on February 11, 2019, here is synopsis from the League’s website:
‘The Board received the report of ARRL CEO Howard Michel, WB2ITX, who outlined plans to reorganize and refocus the activities at ARRL Headquarters. Michel said providing better value to membership is a top priority, and he sees value creation and value delivery as key components to long-term membership retention and growth.’
Better value to membership? Now, that is a mouthful to us members! The operational details of that value proposition will be what members, including former and potential members, will consider and remember. That is, what is the ARRL actually going to do in order for members to see a greater value in their annual dues? They could be convinced with a quick strategic example: offering free shipping & handling on purchases from the ARRL Store to current League members!
Let’s look at this small but important thing of free shipping and handling. As I discussed with Dan Romanchik KB6NU on the ICQ Podcast this week, he and I both are Amazon Prime members. Our British colleague, Martin Rothwell M0SGL, smiled at this recognition during our recording as he works for Amazon across the Pond. Dan and I both stated that we tend to not buy books and related items directly from the ARRL website because of the stiff shipping and handling fees. Instead, Amazon Prime members get free shipping on most items which Dan and I take advantage of with these purchases. So Amazon realizes the retailer’s profit margin from the sale of ARRL products through the Amazon.com website. The League, however, only reaps the wholesaler’s margin.
To be fair, the League does give a few Members Only discounts of, say, $3, off of a $27 book—if the League publishes the book. (Note that the League also resells RSGB publications so they probably have those price arrangements locked in without much margin to discount.) And, there are periodic discounts sent out to members via postcard or email advertisements. I’ve found that they only amount to relieving me of the net shipping charge. I cannot use any other additional discounts such as the annual Birthday Discount that I get during my birthday month. As a certified ARRL Instructor, I get a discount on some purchases but I cannot use any of these other discounts. All of this complexity adds up to the member just using Amazon Prime or just not buying a book or other product on impulse. The moment of excitement passes.
I’m a retired Editor-in-Chief for Springer Media, a very large scientific publisher based in The Netherlands. I ordered all the textbooks in my college bookstore as a student worker back in the early 1970s. In between, I launched two peer-reviewed scientific journals, edited others, and negotiated publication relationships with several major publishers. I’ve been an editorial consultant to a dozen or more textbook publishing houses. So I come at this from decades of experience in the publishing industry, not just the consumer side of publishing. So let’s look at typical publisher (wholesaler) and book reseller (retailer) relationships. Many hams may not realize the pricing structures in place worldwide on book publishing.
But the ARRL will ‘lose’ money by offering free shipping and handling to members, right? I can certainly hear Marketing Manager Bob Interbitzen NQ1R saying that upon hearing this idea. Perhaps not. They may actually make more money. Amazon is a major bookseller (an understatement if there ever was one). The typical wholesale discount to a retail book seller is 55%. Large retailers might get 60% while the independents buying them for 40% of the stated retail price. Thus, the ARRL sells Amazon and perhaps others these books at a greatly reduced wholesale price but not when the point-of-sale is through the ARRL Store on their website.
“The typical wholesale discount to a retail book seller is 55%.”
I do not know what the ARRL’s financial terms with Amazon or other retailers is. But it is highly unlikely that it differs substantially from these industry norms. After all, amateur radio operators are hardly a significant market for Amazon to break with their acquisition norms for retailing. I wish it were different but it’s not. The actual financial relationship that the League has with it’s retailer on books and other items could be something very, very different. I want to acknowledge that. But, if it is, that’s another issue. Moreover, shouldn’t that information be made known to the membership?
So, if the ARRL could do something to stimulate more direct sales to members from their website, they would recoup the wholesale discount to Amazon on each of those sales, right? What could drive more members away from Amazon (especially Prime members) and back to the League’s Store?
If CEO Howard Michel’s intention is to increase value to League members, giving them free shipping and handling because they are members would do that. And, it would do that in a tangible and visible way to the entire membership of some 150,000 out of the 750,000 or so license holders in the U.S. Trading out the typical 55% wholesale discount to Amazon (and other retailers) to increase the value of membership would actually result in a higher profit margin to the League, all things being equal. Mr. Michel would indeed qualify as the Obi Wan Kenobi of the ARRL should he bring this about. The League should, at least, run honest numbers on this change to see what the financial impact might be on current revenue.
“The business of increasing the value of membership in the American Radio Relay League: that would be a good deal. And a good deal for both members and the League itself!”
But it would also be like a lightning strike to ensure that the membership sees and believes that this reorganization of the ARRL Headquarters means business. The business of increasing the value of membership in the American Radio Relay League: that would be a good deal. And a good deal for both members and the League itself!
Will they do this? I don’t know. But your telling CEO Michel and your Division Director that it’s what you want would help get it on their minds. And having the CEO and Board of Directors listening to you hams, whether you’re a current member or not, is definitely a good deal!
MiniTiouner DATV Receiver built
The build was straightforward and there are some instructions by Mike G0MJW but only really referenced them for the commissioning stage, checking voltages etc. I was pleasantly surprised to see a large degree of protection on the board, fuses both filament and poly-fuse, reverse protection and zener diodes in the circuit.
The MiniTiouner uses free to download DVB-S receive and analysis software called "Minitioune" written by F6DZP. The Software is hosted on the VivaDATV forum. So I registered and downloaded the software.
V8.0 of the software requires a pull-down resistor adding to the USB module to identify the type of board, so that was added (not pictured).
Power was connected and then plugged the USB lead into the PC (Windows 7 32bit) and it went off and installed drivers. The documentation said I should see two USB controllers, but I was seeing four?
There are several test programs included in the software package to test drivers and board and they were showing errors.
The PC I was using has had no end of serial USB devices plugged in and out over time so suspecting another Microsoft Windows "disappearing up its own backside" driver issue I tried it on another more vanilla machine but had the same problem.
This seemed to point to the USB interface (an FTDI FT2232H Mini Module) perhaps it wasn't programmed? So I downloaded the FTProg utility from FTDI but instead of seeing a FT2232H was showing it as a FT4232H device.
Doing a Google found a reference to the same problem. I downloaded the data-sheet and checking with a meter I could see pins CN2-5 and CN2-11(VIO) on the module didn't have 3.3V for some reason and as the post said if the VIO pin is missing 3.3V it defaults to a FT4232H. In the end I checked my soldering (no fault found) I removed the module from the socket to examine it and after re-seating it the board sprang to life so seems it was just a bad connection.
Eager to test I set up the ADALM-PLUTO SDR running DATVExpress as I'd done previously with the commercial set-top satellite receiver and we had a picture! It was time for a cup of tea!
Now it was working all that was left was to put it in a box.
I have only had a brief play with the software since the weekend but was interested to see if I could receive some RB-TV (Reduced bandwidth) So I set the Pluto and DATVExpress to transmit on 146.500MHz using a low symbol rate (250 Ksymbols/s) and it worked! Bertie was wriggling a bit too much for a clear picture but I had now actually used my 146-147MHz NoV. Now just got to learn and understand the various modulations and settings.
I was able to try out another piece of software, the Spectrum Analyser from Steve Andrew for the SDRPlay. It turns the SDR receiver into a handy spectrum analyser with 10MHz bandwidth from 1kHz upto 2GHz and was able to check the output of the Pluto.
This wasn't a proper test setup by any means, the SDRPlay was still connected to the dual-band collinear outside the shack so the noise is the usual hash I see, but the Pluto was putting out a decent waveform, it did help putting on a proper resonant antenna (a spare mobile magmount) rather than the tiny one supplied.
I plan to do a bit more with the 5.6GHz FPV stuff before the weekend having took delivery of some nice grid antennas and hope to get out to try a contact or some tests with members of SKARS 73
Moving Pictures! First dabbles in Amateur TV
They say "a picture paints a thousand words"and I've always liked the idea of sending pictures via radio having dabbled with sending and receiving SSTV and SSDV, including pictures from High Altitude Balloons (HABs) like the Hamfest HAB flight I did back in 2015
But I've also been intrigued by "Fast scan TV" to transmit moving images. I've seen demonstrations at conferences and in online videos and joined the British Amateur Television Club BATC a few years ago but apart from reading the CQ-TV magazine I had not done anything mainly due to expense and investment I mistakenly thought I would need to make.
Recently I have seen mention of using easy and low cost equipment to get on the air on 5.6GHz (the 6 cm amateur band) using cheap modules intended to transmit “First Person Video” (FPV) back from drones.
These simple units can be used without any modifications to get on air. A number of operators have used them with high gain WiFi panel and/or dish antennas with a clear line of sight path to send pictures to stations using the same equipment over paths in excess of 50km, the current record is over 160km. Chris Leviston M0KPW has an excellent website describing his 5.6GHz system http://www.5-6ghz-atv.co.uk/ and there is more information at the BATC Wiki https://wiki.batc.org.uk/5.6_GHz
Inspired I ordered some kit from eBay a few weeks back, a receiver module and transmitter arrived quite quickly (no slow boat from China this time)
The equipment is powered by a 12V supply and input and output is a composite video signal and audio. It can be fed by a standard camera or video source but I dug out an old Raspberry Pi and soon had it generating and transmitting a test card with the required call sign overlay. The modules are channelised, the displayed 33 number is bank 3, channel 3 which is 5.665GHz selected by the BATC since it sits inside the amateur allocation,
Over the week I refined the Pi software, adding the Pi camera and various libraries in python to generate video with informational overlay, adding a GPS allowed calculation of the locator square when out portable. I have put it in a box (sorry no picture of that) and a switch to flip between live video and test card. I also had a bash at making some double biquad antennas. Regularly updating my twitter feed with various milestones (I recommend you follow me)
Pi sending live video via 5.6GHz with text overlay using pi camera and raspivid easy peasy.. pic.twitter.com/Fthfpbw0r0— Andrew Garratt M0NRD (@nerdsville) July 28, 2018
While browsing the BATC website for information I spotted that there was an ATV Academy workshop being organised by the Telford and District ARS, giving people the opportunity of finding out a bit more about ATV and people could bring along their equipment and projects for advice. So at the last minute I decided to go but because of the distance could only really go on the Saturday. But it was well worth it and a great day. I was made to feel welcome by everyone there and was able to show off my modest achievements on 5.6GHz and learned about the BATC Portsdown Transceiver and MiniTioune receiver projects, even buying the parts to build the receiver.Lol, wife looking suitably impressed by the Pi based image generator which flips between live feed and test card using switch pic.twitter.com/M6qnif5V0P— Andrew Garratt M0NRD (@nerdsville) August 3, 2018
The academy coincided with a BATC Activity weekend and they were going up to the summit of the nearby Long Mynd to operate on the Sunday. Since I wasn't there I had planned to go to a local high point to see if I could make contact with some of the other operators and stations and got the kit ready on a cheap lighting tripod. I was going to use an old portable satellite dish with one of my double biquads at the feed point.Having a great time learning all about ATV today, showing off my humble efforts pic.twitter.com/YTwEf7Sjdl— Andrew Garratt M0NRD (@nerdsville) August 4, 2018
Nevermind I have ordered couple of cheap high-gain mesh dish antennas so when they arrive I will get out again and arrange some skeds, hopefully roping in some of the radio club.
In addition to the 5.6GHz stuff I have also taken possession of an ADALM-PLUTO SDR from Analog Devices. It is inexpensive (£90/$100) and designed to allow educational experimenting in software defined radio. It is a SDR receiver and low-power transmitter. They had been in short supply but availability has improved.
Charles Brain G4GUO has added support for the device into the DATV Express software. I am hoping to use it for some experiments in RB-TV (Reduced bandwidth TV) so I can actually use my NoVs
I took the PLUTO along to the ATV workshop and was able to see it transmitting and being received by other peoples receivers. So last night I got out the two satellite receivers I have and with a little bit of persuasion with settings got some DVB-S DATV transmitted and received.
Anyway, that is enough for now.. but will try to keep the blog updated as I experiment some more, but follow my twitter account @nerdsville for realtime updates 73 AndrewBit of "shaky cam" but shows the ADALM-PLUTO transmitting across the shack using #DATVExpress being received by an old FTA satellite box. pic.twitter.com/souCJA9qBK— Andrew Garratt M0NRD (@nerdsville) August 5, 2018
That ol’ Summertime Classic
OK, so maybe I'm an Amateur Radio and QRP nerd, but what is more sublime than sitting somewhere in a nice shady spot on a hot summer day, making contact after contact with QRP friends around the USA and the rest of the world? The breeze in your face, the Bumblebees buzzing, the bands hooping with CW?
That's right ....... nothing!
This year, the last Sunday in July falls on July 29th and the contest runs from 1700 to 2100 UTC. So grab your radio, a hunka wire and make like a bee and get out to the field and pollinate those frequency bands! Get out of that musty ol' shack and enjoy the beautiful weather and sunshine. These are the things I dream about while I'm shoveling the pile of frozen over, rock hard slush that the snow plow leaves at the end of my driveway after every big snowfall.
For the rules, please go to http://arsqrp.blogspot.com/
For the roster, please go to https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OzR8FvgVX9J2U0BsjPPg7uzqbuv4C93IAmf7hr8_5GY/edit#gid=0
72 de Larry W2LJ - Bumblebee # 12
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
You know you’re a Ham when ……..
In The Loop! – First Impressions of the MFJ-1788
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| Temporary test setup |
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| PSKReporter showing where I was spotted |
I had a few more sessions and a few days later I tried it out to receive the Shortwave Radiogram broadcast from Bulgaria on 9400kHz, this time as it was a broadcast band had to use my ear to do the tuning, adjusting till I heard a rise in 'noise' and signal.
I have now got the loop up on a rotator and mounted slightly higher up with a shorter length of RG213 (not on the video) it is still quite low and unfortunately is slightly shielded to the south by the neighbours metal roofed building,Trying out the loop antenna, @SWRadiogram— Andrew Garratt (@nerdsville) May 19, 2018
images this afternoon from Bulgaria 9400kHz pic.twitter.com/53HRwIHUQz
I am very happy with the loop. Transmission wise it unsurprisingly doesn't seem a huge improvement over the OCFD on its resonant bands, it scores over the OCFD is on its 'non-resonant' bands such as 30m and 17m. But the massive improvement is in receiving, signals are stronger and noise is much lower, picking up some more distance signals even given the poor conditions.
The antenna cannot be said to be a pretty thing to have in the garden! The tuning is very particular, in the video I show the 'auto tuning' isn't ideal. It requires the radio to be putting out a signal into a mismatched load for what could be nearly a minute. Not good for the radio and is a source of QRM during this time, the usual technique of tuning slightly off a QSO frequency is more problematic due to the sharpness of the resonance. You can still tune off frequency and then tweak with the slow tune buttons to bring it in. I've noticed that on some of the higher bands it occasionally doesn't auto-tune because the 'dip' seems very short/sharp and the controller doesn't react in time and overshoots especially using low power settings.still evaluating the RX of the mag-loop and according to pskreporter heard 92 countries, 1182 stations on FT8 30m/40m in the last 17 hours.. pic.twitter.com/ZuWZOFFiP2— Andrew Garratt (@nerdsville) May 22, 2018
I also have had issues trying to operate the radio remotely, I have tuned it up on an FT8 frequency in the morning and then later in the day logged in to try to make a few QSOs during a coffee-break to see the loop has drifted out of resonance. This can only be down to the loop getting warm in the summer sun.
I am still evaluating the antenna but am looking at making a better controller, over on AmateurRadio.com where this blog is syndicated, I have had a number of kind comments including one from Elwood Downey, WB0OEW who pointed me to his published design of a controller, using a similar method to what I was toying with. Thanks Elwood.
73 for now, more updates soon.
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| The antenna farm |
In The Loop! – Repairing a MFJ-1788
Earlier this year I spotted a posting on social media by a member of my club who had brought a MFJ-1788 second hand who was having issues with it not working. I had offered some advice on its repair and glibly offered to take it off his hands should he want to dispose of it. A few months later I got a message asking if I was still interested? I certainly was at the price he wanted.
I collect it at the club meeting a fortnight ago still with a 5ft pole still attached as a bonus! Thankfully it fitted in the car (just).
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| Loop as purchased, with pvc tape covering loop |
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| Control Box |
I downloaded the manual and schematic from the MFJ website and I saw there were conspicuous warnings about using an 'isolated' power supply both in the manual and on the back of the controller, with ominous warnings of damage if you didn't. Most shack supplies have the negative/black pin connected to the chassis/ground.
The controller had come to me supplied with a standard fused lead, you know the ones that come to connect your ATU/SWR meter lamp to the shack supply? Mmmm.. my spider sense was tingling!
I pulled out a small double-insulated 12V plug-in supply from my collection (you can spot them as they often have a plastic earth pin) and with nothing else connected powered up the controller. The meter lamp came on and some of the LEDS briefly flickered and heard a few clicks from the internal buzzer then nothing. Pressing buttons did nothing and then I caught the unmistakable scent of burning electronics!
Opening the box up on the bench quickly spotted the source, the regular had well and truly smoked, but since nothing had been connected the short must have been in the controller itself (and it was not the dodgy wires that look like they had been victims to a wayward soldering iron)
Inspecting the rest of the board it was clear that it had been repaired (badly) once before, the two main transistors/FETs (Q1/Q5) used to control the motor clearly showed signs of being replaced (misaligned and with tell-tale scorching from an hot air gun)
a SMD diode had been swapped and one of the 'fine tune' switches had been replaced, its removal had obviously been problematic taking with it some of the through hole copper and adjacent tracks which had been lifted/damaged.
Before opening up the box I had expected to see 'through hole' components and DIL logic ICs not for it to be all surface mounted. Undaunted I went through the parts list and decided to get replacements for all the semiconductor parts not knowing at this stage what I would have to replace. Getting two of each device in some cases five or ten of each due to minimum order quantity, the staggering cost was £8 ($11) including postage!
While waiting for the parts to arrive I decided to check out the actual antenna head. I removed the plastic covering and attempted to extract it from the pole..
First issue I had was the mounting. One bolt had seized, the nut inserts are held in quite soft aluminium so not surprisingly the insert came out out the mounting when trying to remove it. Using grips to hold the insert the bolt still refused to turn and in the end it sheared off with very little force! Obviously quality fittings these!
The variable capacitor was suffering a common problem due to poor quality control, the fins had gone out of alignment. Each fin is a separate assembly held on a shaft with a nut to compress them together. It is a simple fix, just realigned and tightened the bolt. The limit switches and motor connection were okay (another common problem) Applying a voltage to the coax connector the motor turned fine, reversing the voltage reversed the direction of turn, the vanes going fully in and fully out before the limit switches activated.
The components arrived prompty and so I got the hot air gun out and set about repairing the board.
I started off replacing the regulator (and the damaged power track) and Q1/Q5 and we had the flickering of life. Pressing the AUTO TUNE button the LED lit and there was 9V across the antenna connector, pressing the other AUTO TUNE button had -9V across. This is why you need an isolated power supply since it reverses the voltage to control direction. The radio doesn't see any of this voltage due to the bias-t arrangement. However if the supply shared the shack ground you would short out the supply, but the current would go via all those delicate electronics! Which is what I think had happened.
It soon became clear that most devices had suffered damage and so I ended up replacing the regulator 78L12, Q1 (SN7002 FET), Q2 (MMBT3906), Q5 (MMBT3906) all the logic ICs CMOS 4001, 4011 and 4066 and the LM324 Quad op-amp chip. I also gave the board a good clean since was covered in grime and flux residue.
Once I was happy the controller was reassembled and connected to my FT-857D on minimum power and the loop antenna propped up against the side of the shack. Success! I was able to successful tune it as per the instructions on 40m and 10m, the two extremes of operation and could here the telltale rise in receive noise as it became resonant.
I have yet to put the loop up in situ for a proper evaluation but have refurbished an old TV rotator to mount it on. I have fitted some nice new quality bolts. The black insulating tape round the loop has been removed, preferring the silver look myself.
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| Waiting to be put on the pole |
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| Shiny once again |
Assuming it does performs and will find out this weekend, I have paid a total of £65 ($90) (£50 for the initial purchase the rest for replacement parts) which is an absolute bargain as to buy new it is expensive.. very expensive!
One of the main supplier in the UK, have it on sale for £699 ($940) but this includes their engineers inspecting and rebuilding each one before shipping! (Can only be due to poor build quality control and warranty claims) the RRP seems to be around £570 ($770)
It does amaze me how much this units costs new. While the loop construction is generally good, the mounting fittings appear to be poor and the issues with the capacitor and quality control are widely reported.
The components in the controller are not expensive, the switches, meter, box are the usual MFJ fare and the design is quite old (the PCB has copyright 1998 on the silk screen) the auto-tune process requires the radio to be putting RF into a mismatched load for up to a minute and even with low power and SWR protection this isn't good for the radio PA.
Perhaps most surprising is given the risk of damage due to incorrect use is why firstly the loop isn't supplied with a power supply anyway as they only cost a pittance and secondary why their isn't any protection built in? I intend fitting a simple 100mA fuse to offer some protection should a problem occurs.
If the loop performs it may be another project to build a better controller, there are a few designs out there on the internet using Arduino and DDS devices to create auto-tuners. Has that pile of potential projects just grows taller?
73 for now.. and promise to post a bit more regularly
