AmateurRadio.com

Without much (if any) advertising the Google+ ‘Chinese Ham Radio Equipment‘ community reached a 1000 members today. I intentionally made the community public, so there’s no need for a Google account in order to read there.

The downside of a community becoming larger is spam. Some of it is captured by Google itself and kept in a moderation queue, but some of it slips through and has to be deleted by the moderators. Because the moderators live in different time zones, spam never lives long.

What I still miss a bit there is the interactive part. If the community would be just another URL with the same content, it’s basically pointless. Questions about Chinese ham radio? Ask there, there’s a lot of knowledge and experience there.

Also nice: a carton box.

The carton box didn’t waste much time to cover the distance between the USA and Europe, but took almost the same amount of time to travel from Amsterdam Schiphol airport to my QTH — a one hour drive under the most challenging traffic conditions. Customs took their time…

Icom Inc. has published firmware update E3 for the IC-7100 on their global website. This new firmware has been designed to improve RX audio quality.

The following firmware have been updated:

• CPU M to Version 1.04
• DSP I to Version 1.02

The new firmware can be downloaded here.

I saw it posted to QRP-L and is also appearing on the Web page for QRP Kits, that Doug Hendricks has sold the business. The new owners will be James Bennett and Kathy Long who own Pacific Antenna. For those of you who might not know, Pacific Antenna is the home of the PAC-12 antenna, a very popular portable, lightweight multi-band vertical. The target date for the takeover is April 1st.

It states that Doug will continue on as a consultant, but has decided to fully retire and will no longer be involved in the day-to-day operations of the company.

This is significant news and Doug has long been an advocate of bringing affordable, relatively easy to build kits to the QRP community. He has collaborated with Steve Weber and others in recent years to market such radios as the PFR-3, the Ft. Tuthill transceivers, and many other receivers, tuners, and useful accessories as well as pieces of quality, yet inexpensive test gear.

Best wishes to Doug KI6DS, as he embarks on his retirement. Maybe now he'll get more of a chance to get on the air more and enjoy the hobby he has supported for so many years.

On a similar note, when Dave Benson K1SWL ended his business, Small Wonder Labs a few years ago, it looked like a gloomy day for the QRP world. However, many of Dave's kits have been picked up by QRPMe and now I see Dave post to QRP-L every now and then about radio events that he is actually able to participate in and enjoy.

So we have the best of both worlds in that these long time QRP stalwarts are passing the torch to the next generation of QRP entrepreneurs. Not only are we not losing their life's work, but at the same time, we're actually getting the chance to meet and converse with these QRP icons on the air. Seems to be a win/win situation.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to say the very least!

This article follows up on this one. The title could also be: doing measurements on hand held radios is hard. Actually, some measurements I did in the past might not be so accurate after all.

Measuring in dBm
If you measure in dBm, what I always did, you assume that the device at the other end is 50 Ohms, just like the manufacturer promises you in the specs. Slowly but surely we are finding out that this is not always the case. As a result I might have to switch to microvolt (µV), a method which doesn’t require a perfect 50 Ohms at the other end.

Can’t we just convert it? 0.5 µV @ 50 ohms = -113 dBm, a piece of cake, right? No. You must know the actual impedance of the receiver if you want to convert from dBm to µV. Erik PE1RQF did some measurements on a few hand held radios to find out the true impedance. The outcome was, well, a bit scary.

What this means for us
What this outcome basically means is that generating cold numbers on sensitivity and antenna performance are nice, but don’t tell the whole story, or could be misleading.

• Antennas which prove to be the best performers (RX/TX, VSWR), tested under optimal conditions, are not necessarily the best performers on a specific brand/model of hand held radio.
• There are antennas which aren’t 50 Ohms at all, but could very well outperform everything else on the market because your radio isn’t 50 Ohms either.

Do the test yourself
The best example I can give you is this one: take a Baofeng BF-666S, 777S or 888S, use the stock antenna, and make notes of the performance in the field. Try to hit repeaters which are barely in range. If you have a field strength meter, measure field strength when transmitting.

Remove the stock antenna and replace it by a Nagoya NA-701, NA-771, the $3.79 antenna, or the Baofeng UV-B5 antenna. I tried all of these; just pick whatever 3rd party antenna you have. Repeat the tests.

What happened here is that the short stock antenna was the best of the bunch, all 3rd party antennas had a negative influence on the performance of this specific Baofeng model. The same 3rd party antennas mentioned above did improve the performance of the Baofeng UV-5R, often by a wide margin.

Exception to the rules
The funny thing is that reception suffered greatly too. This is quite uncommon and a sign that hand held radios don’t follow the rules. For example, if you just want to receive on 20 meters and your dipole is 2×6 meters instead of 2×5 meters, you would never notice the difference. With your hand held radio however you will.

Privacy and freedom are constantly traded in for a (often false) sense of security. This has nothing to do with ham radio, you’d probably think, but even our hobby isn’t immune.

Repeaters
Repeaters are only useful if the antennas can be placed high above ground. In the Netherlands we use a number of existing locations, most of which were once used for analog TV and radio. The owners of the towers decided that safety and security will prevail over (safe, terrorist-free) ham radio.

The following systems will be affected:

• ATV repeater PI6ATV, both analog and digital,
• 2 meter repeater PI3UTR,
• D-star repeater PI1UTR,
• DMR repeater PI1UTR,
• RX co-location for the 70cm repeater PI2NOS,
• RX co-location for the 10 meter repeater PI6TEN,
• Four Hamnet access points and links.

There is a chance that the equipment can be relocated to a lower section of the tower while keeping the antennas on the original altitude. Even in the best case scenario the costs of relocating will exceed the minimal financial reserves – good coax cable is expensive, and we would need a lot of it.

I’ll end with this quote: Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. (Benjamin Franklin)

Last night's 80 Meter QRP Fox hunt was interesting and frustrating, all at the same time.  I have written about the Fox hunts here many, many times - but for newbies, or those unfamiliar with the process, the procedure is germane to rest of this post.

The 80 Meter Fox hunting ground takes place on spectrum real estate centering on the QRP Watering Hole of 3.560 MHz. The 80 Meter woods is 10 kHz on each side of that, from 3.550 MHz to 3.570 MHz. One Fox "hides" in the upper half and the other in the lower. You find the Fox calling "CQ FOX", send the required exchange back and forth, and you earn a pelt if successful.

Last night, the two Foxes, Earl N8SS and Dale WC7S decided to do something a bit different. Earl planted himself 1 kHz below 3.560 MHz, while Dale planted himself 1 kHz above the Watering Hole. Both worked split - Earl down and Dale up.

Sounds like good, clean fun, eh?  In theory, yes - very good. In practice, good - but not very good. And the difficulty that ensued was not the fault of Earl or Dale. Once again, it was due to the Hounds (AKA, the pile up) not listening.

I caught Earl two minutes into the Hunt at 3.559 MHz. I heard him (key words) call "CQ FOX" and then "DN". That raised my eyebrows a bit, as I wasn't expecting that.  But I quickly adjusted VFO B and nabbed him on my third call. At this point, all was peachy keen.  Then, going up to the high end of the 80 Acre Woods, I heard Dale's pack of Hounds - not very far away at all.  From the location of the Hounds and figuring on a "standard split" of 1 kHz, I figured out that Dale was probably sitting around 3.561 MHz. I tuned over there and indeed, there he was - very weak, around 119 ESP levels.

What made things even more difficult were the Hounds chasing Earl, who weren't listening and were trying to work him by calling "up". And they overwhelmed Dale's weak signal completely. And there lies my complaint.  If you can't hear the Fox well enough to determine that he's calling "DN" then what are you doing, calling him at all?

Listen - don't make assumptions!

It got to the point where Dale must have realized something not good was going on, as he moved up a little bit farther. That was nice, but there were other problems to deal with, on that end. I had the KX3 in Dual Watch mode and finally had to turn it off, because some of the shenanigans going on there were pretty bad too.  I heard one Hound who blindly sent his call - I kid you not - 10 times in a row without so much as taking a breath! 10 times - really ?!?  I think that Dale was able to work two Hounds in the time it took this one guy to send his call that many times. Wow! And obviously, if you are sending your call that many times, then you are not listening - and that's the most important thing you can do in a pile up.

Paul WW2PT is one of the bloggers I list in my blogroll. He has a very good post that contains an interview with the K1N Team, post-Navassa.  Go over there and read his post. What you read there will make your eyes wide as saucers.  But because this is so important, I am going to take the opportunity re-post the K1N Team's assessment on why many in a pile up are not successful.  I wish the Hounds in last night's hunt had read this. The main issues they saw were:

1. Not listening to the DX operator
2. LISTEN to and LEARN the rate and rhythm of the operator
3. LISTEN to WHERE the operator is listening and his PATTERN of moving his VFO, know where he will listen next!
4. Learn to use your radio (split/simplex, etc)
5. Do NOT jump to and call on the frequency of the last station worked. The DX station will NOT hear you because the din is total unintelligible chaos.   Move UP or DOWN from that frequency, as we on our end were continuously tuning up or down after each Q, so if one jumps onto the last-worked frequency, we will not hear you, even if you were the only one there, as we have tuned off.
6. TURN OFF ALL SPEECH PROCESSORS AND COMPRESSION! Do NOT overdrive ALC.   There is a night and day difference in listening to NA/AS and EU pileups.   The horrible distortion makes it impossible to copy many, if not most EU callsigns.   There were MANY loud stations that we did not work, simply because we could NOT understand their terribly distorted callsign.   Have you ever listened to yourself in a pileup?   We gave many stations a “19” signal report.   Very loud, but extremely unintelligible!   You want to have INTELLIGIBILITY, not distortion!
7. Give your callsign ONCE and ONLY ONCE!   DO NOT KEEP CALLING! We would tune on by those who did not stop calling.   We are looking for RATE and getting stations into the log.   You should be, too!!!
8. If the DX station comes back with your callsign, DO NOT REPEAT YOUR CALLSIGN, AS WE ALREADY KNOW IT or we would not have answered you.   Many stations (in all modes) would repeat their callsign two, three and even four times!   We only want to hear “5NN” or “59” from you.   Anything else is a total waste of time and CHEATS others out of a chance to get into the log.   Only repeat your callsign if it needs correction, and then let us know it is a correction.   Anything else is cheating others out of a contact, as our propagation windows and time on the island are limited and we need to maximize the opportunity for everyone.   SPEED.
9. Take some time to listen to the next DXpedition working NA and listen to the rate and rhythm of the operator.   It is fast, quick and efficient, and more people get into the log! Then listen to him work EU.   The wise operator will catch on quickly to what it takes to get into the log!
10. SPREAD OUT!   Our highest rates (for any continent) were working the edges of the pileup where there was less QRM and weak stations were much easier to work than loud stations in the middle of the pileup.   If we say, “Listening 200 – 210,” 70% of the pileup sits exactly on 200 in an unintelligible din, 25% of the pileup sits on 210 and is almost as bad.   5% of the pileup will be spread out somewhere between 201 and 209, making them very quickly put into the log.   S P R E A D   O U T ! ! ! !
11. LOUD is NOT better!   MORE AUDIO/COMPRESSION is NOT better!   Finding the spot to be HEARD is the MOST important thing you can do to get into the log. My biggest thrill (and I’m sure on both ends) is finding the lone weak station and getting him into the log quickly.
12. LISTEN to the DX operator INSTRUCTIONS!   As we would constantly tune our VFO, if we find a clear spot, we would often say, “33” (meaning for YOU to transmit on 14033, 28433, etc) and a few would listen and get into the log very quickly.   You cannot hear these hints if you keep calling calling calling calling………   Many times I would say, “listening 200-210” and after a while would say, “listening 240-250”.   Often 30-45 minutes, even and HOUR later, I would find MANY still calling on the original “200-210”…..of course, they would never show up in our log, as I was not listening there.   LISTEN LISTEN LISTEN and LISTEN SOME MORE.   The less you transmit, the better chance you have of getting into the log.
13. LISTEN
14. If you don’t want to get into the DX log, just ignore the above suggestions.

The best advice IS "listen, listen, listen and listen some more". Avoid the temptation to jump in blindly and work shot gun style. In the end, you will work more DX - and Foxes, if you listen. And, by becoming a better operator, you will not only be more successful, you will earn the admiration and esteem of your fellow operators. No one wants to earn the label of "LID".

End of rant.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Something is definitely wacky with this HP laptop that I am using. Maybe I need to call in a priest and have an exorcism done. Maybe I need to shake a dead chicken and some garlic at it.

You know the story. The other night, I loaded the latest version of TQSL for LotW and requested a new call sign certificate from the ARRL. The certificate came, I tried loading it, it wasn't recognized. I tried re-booting the computer several times - nada. I uninstalled TQSL and re-downloaded it and re-installed it. Zilch.

I e-mailed the League and described my problem. They kindly sent me an eleven page .pdf file, describing what to do with troublesome call sign certificates. I was going to un-install TQSL again, delete my certificates and start from scratch. But then I got this nagging little feeling. Give it one more shot, a little voice said.

I successfully signed and uploaded my ADIF file to Newington, without so much as a hiccup, burp or hitch. I did NOTHING new, different or out of the ordinary. Tonight it worked like a charm, when the other night nothing worked. Then I took a look at the certificate properties. "Successfully loaded 2/23/2015" or words to that effect. What? But that's not possible! At least that's not what it was saying the other night! The other night, the certificate couldn't be found!


Excuse me while I run out for some Holy Water. Computers are dark magic and evil. Either that, or I have just crossed over into the Twilight Zone.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!