Posts Tagged ‘CW’
January Special Event – Straight Key Century Club and K3Y/0
March 10th, 2015 | 
Author: All month long, during January 2015, a group of volunteers using the special event callsign, “K3Y” with a slant-region number (i.e., “K3Y/3” or “K3Y/0”), were on the amateur radio HF bands (and some, on six meters). I was one of these volunteers, operating nearly every day of the month for at least one hour, but some times a few hours per day.
“K3Y,” the Straight Key Century Club’s annual January celebration, commemorates the club’s founding in 2006 following the American Radio Relay League’s Straight Key Night. A small group of participants wanted to extend the fun of SKN throughout the year. The SKCC is the result.
For the first three years, the club’s founders used K1Y, K2A, and K3Y as the celebration’s special-event calls. But someone cleverly noticed that a 3 is nothing more than a backwards, curvaceous E. This “KEY” event has operated under the K3Y call ever since.
The on-air party is open to members and non-members alike. It runs from 0000 UTC Jan. 2 through 2359 UTC Jan. 31. It’s a great time to introduce others to the joys of hand-crafted Morse code using straight keys, bugs, and side swipers.
In this video, you can see this operation at my ham radio shack, as I am the control operator of the special event station, “K3Y/0”, during one of the many shifts. “K3Y” is the special event callsign of the Straight Key Century Club (SKCC). The special event operates each January.
In the following video, you can see some of the QSL cards associated with this year’s operation, and then some other QSL cards in my collection.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOsNjT7OCyc
+ The SKCC website is at http://skccgroup.com
+ The “K3Y” special event page is http://www.skccgroup.com/k3y/index.php
+ My page is at http://NW7US.us
+ My Morse code page is http://cw.hfradio.org
Tubular Bells and VLF interference
Remember that album from Mike Oldfield? A user on YouTube found out that this album contains a hidden and unintentional CW message.
This was caused by a powerful VLF station located next to the recording studio, which interfered with the recording equipment. Because the signal is very weak nobody ever noticed it — until now.
The video below shows you how to receive VLF signals with nothing else than an antenna plugged into the microphone input of your sound card and SDRSharp to make it visible and audible.
The decoding of the the Tubular Bells signal is shown at 9:54.
First 40m Pixie QSO
At 1000z this morning I exchanged RST 579 reports with G6ALB who is 3km from me on my 40m Pixie on 7.023MHz CW. This was my first on-air QSO. Netting was perfect and I used the rig directly into my low Par triband antenna. An ATU might have helped. Andrew G6ALB said the channel was pretty busy but that I was a good RST579 with no hint of chirp. This afternoon we’ll put the rig on his spectrum analyser. I gave Andrew 579 probably reflecting the poorer MDS of the Pixie. I have no idea of his power or antenna.
My initial goals have been met: I built the kit and have managed a QSO on the air with it. With the fatigue associated with my brain bleed still very apparent (I am well and truly shattered currently), I was well pleased. A few more QSOs with the 40m Pixie would be good, HI.
$10 well spent. Excellent little kit. FB little transceiver. Works surprisingly well.
Tenner 10m CW transceiver
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| Click for bigger image. |
The Tenner is a very simple CW rig for 10m. It produces about 500mW output and has worked across the Atlantic on many occasions. Offset RX-TX seems to work out at about right, although no special circuitry is employed. This simple circuit just works. Although I used an “at hand” SBL1, any double balanced mixer is likely to be OK. Although I did not try it, a homebrew DBM would be fine.
630m Crossband Tonight!
Just a reminder about the 630m crossband activity night this evening. There have been two updates to the plan. VE7SL will start one hour later than originally planned and John, VE7BDQ, will be listening on both 160m and 80m QSX frequencies for callers.
The frequencies will be:
- VE7SL TX 473.00KHz QSX (listening) 1808KHz (160m) and 3535KHz (80m)
- VE7BDQ TX 474.00KHz QSX (listening) 1813KHz (160m) and 3532KHz (80m)
The last time this was done, transcontinental contacts were completed ... hopefully conditions will continue to co-operate and propagation will be good tonight.
630m Crossband Activity Night
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| 630m to HF Crossband |
Our plan is to operate from 0200Z through 0700Z, (1800-2300 PST Saturday). Beginning at the top of the hour, we will both be calling CQ on CW and listening for any callers on HF. CQ's will continue until there are no more callers and will begin again at the next top of hour time slot. This should allow for a wide variation in propagation and the possibility of eastern contacts as the evening progresses.
The frequencies will be:
- VE7SL TX 473.00KHz QSX (listening) 1808KHz (160m) and 3535KHz (80m)
- VE7BDQ TX 474.00KHz QSX (listening) 1813KHz (160m)
If you have not had a look for any 630m stations, hopefully you will take the opportunity this coming Saturday night ... you really do not need any special antennas for receiving on 630m. Many of the stations that I have worked on crossband have been using HF dipoles for low-noise reception.
I'll be promoting this event on several of the reflectors and groups that I regularly enjoy and I also invite you to pass the word on to others. Please watch the blog for further updates.
See you Saturday I hope!
Duck broken
So that’s it, I’ve broken my duck (I think those across the pond have something to do with cherries). Thanks to David, G7AGI I had an error and gap strewn QSO as part of the LIDS net. It took a little over 20 minutes to complete the basics and a bit of a rag chew at glacial speeds.
It took a lot of brain power but as I got into the QSO it got easier. The only sad point was some DQRM at the start which forced us to QSY.
A thoroughly enjoyable moment and something I’ll not forget in a hurry. Next stop the world at 50wpm!
