Posts Tagged ‘shortwave’
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
The Importance of 1929 – Part 1
When it comes to the Bruce Kelley QSO Party and the rules involving the use of circuitry and tubes popular in 1929 or earlier, some have enquired..."Why 1929...what was special about that year in particular?"
Over the past few nights I've spent some enjoyable hours reading QSTs from the late '20's. It seems that 1929 was really the beginning of much that we have come to recognize, for all of our lives, as 'Amateur Radio'....but to answer the question, we really need to go back a few more years.
Prior to that time, and especially in the very early years, amateur radio seemed to have much in common with the 'wild-west'. Rules, if any, were difficult to enforce, as was licensing. May hams operated without a licence, choosing their own call letters. There was a lot of crazy stuff happening...bootleggers, broadcasting music and a general 'every man for himself' approach.
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| Headquarters - Courtesy: http://qsl-history.webs.com/ |
With the appearance of QST, in 1915, membership grew quickly and it soon became a sign of notability to be a League member. By the late 20's radio was thriving and growing at unprecedented rates. The U.S. amateur population grew from 16,000 in 1926, to 30,000 in 1932 alone. By 1938 there were 50,000 licenced hams in the U.S.
However, a federal judgement, in 1926, ruled the Radio Act of 1912, to be largely unenforceable, creating even more chaos amongst broadcasters. Things were getting somewhat chaotic in the amateur radio world as well as in the commercial field. The time was ripe for some serious changes.
In order to gain some control over this new technology and the chaos surrounding its usage, more so in the commercial field (ships, aircraft, broadcasting, telegraph), the U.S. Congress passed the Radio Act of 1927 thus giving more tools to the recently-established Federal Radio Commission, the forerunner of today's FCC.
Although the Radio Act of 1927 gave the FRC the power to enforce regulations, it came down to the international agreements hammered out in the winter of 1937 to make things happen. The International Radiotelegraph Conference, attended by representatives from 72 countries, met in Washington, DC to grind out some international 'rules' since the growing popularity and surprising success of the 'shortwaves' was now of worldwide concern.
Much as we see today, the fight for radio spectrum had begun. The 172-page Washington document makes fascinating reading and in it we see the basis for many of amateur radio's beloved fundamentals.
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| Courtesy: http://www.arrl.org/ |
The amateur's of 1927 didn't know it yet, but they would soon be deep in rebuilding their stations to meet the 'new requirements' of 1929!
Vintage Radio Reading
I really love old radio magazines, especially those from the 30's, but to purchase any original copies today is very costly. If you grew up in the 50's or earlier and became hooked by the magic of radio as I and thousands of other kids did, then you no doubt recall the plethora of great monthly magazines devoted to 'radio'. Now, thanks to AmericanRadioHistory.com, most of those great old hobby magazines of the past can be viewed online and enjoyed once again.
Just a few of the many magazines available are: Radio Craft, Short Wave Radio, Radio, Radio World, White's Radio Log, Popular Radio, Popular Electronics and Radio Amateur News, later to become Radio News.As a pre-teen short-wave listener in the late 50's, I couldn't wait to get my hands on the latest edition of Popular Electronics, stuffed with its latest SW broadcast news, frequency lists and DX stories.
Thanks to David Gleason's work, I always have several of my favorite classics downloaded to my I-Pad's bookshelf for offline reading. With hundreds of recent updates this spring, there appears to be a lifetime of vintage reading now available!
As a builder of vintage-style radios, particularly transmitters, I can often find new inspiration from the magazines particularly devoted to ham radio. If your workshop library is lacking in vintage reference material, you need look no further than this site for a vast source of building inspiration....transmitters of all description along with receivers from crystal tuners to complex multi-tube designs.
So many of these early publications were the brainchild of Hugo Gernsback, a prolific writer and editor of both technical and science fiction magazines but sometimes blurring the boundaries of each! I suspect that his wide variety of radio publications had some significant role in the way radio so quickly transformed the world. Even in the 50's, long after the 'golden years' of radio, it was not uncommon to still see radio antennas on most houses, at least in my neighbourhood!
If you haven't visited this wonderful resource yet, I'm sure you will be amazed at what you find.
An Amazing Moment in Space Weather – Massive Solar Eruption June 2011
While many are talking about how Solar Cycle 24 is the weakest since the Maunder Minimum (the period starting in about 1645 and continuing to about 1715 when sunspots became exceedingly rare, as noted by solar observers of the time — see this Wiki entry), there are moments when activity on the Sun strongly increases, providing brief moments of excitement.
Here is a case in point, witnessed by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO; see SDO Mission) on June 7, 2011, when the Sun unleashed a magnitude M2 (a medium-sized) solar flare with a spectacular coronal mass ejection (CME). The large cloud of particles mushroomed up and fell back down looking as if it covered an area almost half the solar surface.
SDO observed the flare’s peak at 1:41 AM ET. SDO recorded these images in extreme ultraviolet light that show a very large eruption of cool gas. It is somewhat unique because at many places in the eruption there seems to be even cooler material — at temperatures less than 80,000 K.
This video uses the full-resolution 4096 x 4096 pixel images at a one minute time cadence to provide the highest quality, finest detail version possible. The color is artificial, as the actual images are capturing Extreme Ultraviolet light.
It is interesting to compare the event in different wavelengths because they each see different temperatures of plasma.
Credit: NASA SDO / Goddard Space Flight Center
Video: http://g.nw7us.us/1aOjmgA – Massive Solar Eruption Close-up (2011-06-07 – NASA SDO)
Visit: SunSpotWatch.com
Solar Plasma Filament Eruption – The Sun – November 6,7 2013
The Sun currently is active, with powerful, complex magnetic structures that have formed a healthy number of sunspots. We are seeing a fair number of x-ray flares, which push the 10.7-cm flux higher than we’ve seen in a while.
Sunspots and flares means better propagation in general, especially on the higher frequencies of the shortwave spectrum. While a flare can cause a short period of “blackout” conditions (especially on the lower frequencies) on the sunlit side of the Earth, such activity is part of the positive activity that ionizes the F-region, providing for DX.
Here’s a movie of one such flare and the release of solar plasma, a release known as a coronal mass ejection (CME): At about midnight, UTC, on 6 November 2013, a moderately-strong M-class flare erupted, with a “beautiful” CME: http://g.nw7us.us/18a0QvI
(Source: SOHO/SDO/NASA)
We will see continued flare activity over the weekend, so expect great conditions on the HF bands, with momentary blackouts. Keep up to the minute on space weather at http://SunSpotWatch.com
73 – de NW7US
Propagation Columnist, CQ Communications Magazine, Popular Communications Magazine
http://NW7US.us
Amateur Radio Kit Roundup – Updated 2/26/2013
Splinter Transceiver from BreadboardRadio.com
Kit building appears to be on the rise again. With so many people talking about it lately I attempted to research sources for kits, only to find out that there wasn’t a single-source for Ham Radio kit suppliers.
I decided to put together a good list of sources for kits that are currently available. Many of these are for QRP operation, but a few are full-featured professional transceivers (Elecraft, DZ). On the beginners side there are a few sources that stand out: Hendricks has a great assortment of kits, including some SSB QRP equipment. QRPme offers the inexpensive, easy-to-build tuna-can products, and I would like to make special mention of the Four State QRP Group NS-40 which has the coils etched right into the PC board! What a great idea! I’ve covered trasmitters, transceivers, and some receivers here. Some accessories are mentioned in the source descriptions.
Revised 2/18/2013 Changes in Hendricks, YouKits, Tony Parks. Added CR KITS, and BreadBoard Radio.
Revised 2/20/2013 Added K5BCQ & K5JHF Kits
Revised 2/26/2013 Added Kit Radio Company, GQRP Club, Kenneke Comm., Walford Electronics, Kanga UK, QRP Project, Kits by EA3GCY, and OZ QRP
Enjoy, and feel free to add any corrections, or additions in the comments. The list can always be found at RadioKitGuide.com–Neil W2NDG
-Hendricks QRP Kits http://www.qrpkits.com/
- BitX20A/17A SSB Transceiver. The BitX20A and BitX17A are complete SSB kits with board, all parts, digital display and custom powder coated and punched case that is based on the BitX20 that was designed by Ashlan Farhan. Output is Read the rest of this entry »
Amateur Radio Kit Roundup – Updated 2/18/2013
The Splinter – from Breadboard Radio
Kit building appears to be on the rise again. With so many people talking about it lately I attempted to research sources for kits, only to find out that there wasn’t a single-source for Ham Radio kit suppliers.
I decided to put together a good list of sources for kits that are currently available. Many of these are for QRP operation, but a few are full-featured professional transceivers (Elecraft, DZ). On the beginners side there are a few sources that stand out: Hendricks has a great assortment of kits, including some SSB QRP equipment. QRPme offers the inexpensive, easy-to-build tuna-can products, and I would like to make special mention of the Four State QRP Group NS-40 which has the coils etched right into the PC board! What a great idea! I’ve covered trasmitters, transceivers, and some receivers here. Some accessories are mentioned in the source descriptions.
Revised 7/19/2012 Changes in Hendricks QRP Kits, YouKits, Genesis Radio, Tony Parks, and removed the coming soon designation on Heathkit. I didn’t check ALL of the prices, so don’t hold me to total accuracy in that department.
Revised 10/22/2012 Changes in Hendricks, YouKits, Tony Parks, Small Wonder Labs, Wilderness Radio, and Four State QRP Group. Removed Heathkit, Added HSC.
Revised 2/18/2013 Changes in Hendricks, YouKits, Tony Parks. Added CR KITS, and BreadBoard Radio.
Revised 2/20/2013 Added K5BCQ & K5JHF Kits
Enjoy, and feel free to add any corrections, or additions in the comments. The list can always be found at RadioKitGuide.com–Neil W2NDG
-Hendricks QRP Kits http://www.qrpkits.com/
- BitX20A/17A SSB Transceiver. The BitX20A and BitX17A are complete SSB kits with board, all parts, digital display and custom powder coated and punched case that is based on the BitX20 that was designed by Ashlan Farhan. Output is about 10 Watts. $180.00 + S&H
- PFR-3a 3-Band Portable Field Radio. Bands : 40 meters, 30 meters and 20 meters. Tuning range: Full band coverage. Mode: CW only. $240.00 + S&H
- NADC30/40 CW Transceiver. Nearly All Discrete Component CW Transceiver for either 30m or 40m. Tuning range ~ 60 kHz. Power output: 3.5 watts. Full Kit: $130.00 + S&H
- Ft Tuthill 15 Meter CW Transceiver. Two 60 KHz tuning ranges, ~ 21.000 – 21.060 and 21.075 – 21.135 MHz. Power Output: 5 Watts. Complete Kit (w/ case and digital dial) $130.00 + S&H
- Ft Tuthill 160 Meter CW Transceiver. Two 30 KHz tuning ranges, ~ 1800 – 1835 and 1830 – 1865 MHz. Power Output: 5 Watts. Complete Kit (w/ case and digital dial) $130.00 + S&H
- DCxxB Board Only Trasceiver Kit. These radios are the next generation of the popular DC40 transceiver that was also designed by Steve Weber. The kit will come with 1 crystal for the band specified. 7.040 for DC40, 10.120 for DC30, 14.060 for DC20. Board-Only kit with decals: $30.00 + S&H
- Weber Tri-Bander. The Weber Tri-Bander can be built for any three of these bands: 80, 40, 30, 20, 17, or 15. 5 Watts out on all bands at 13.8 VDC. Built in Iambic keyer with 5 to 40 wpm code speed. DDS VFO for rock steady stability with 50 Hz and 200 Hz tuning rates. Many more features! $200 + S&H
- Scout Regen Receiver. A simple 2 band regenerative radio receiver that is capable of receiving signals from 3.5 to 11 MHz. A complete kit with L shaped aluminum chassis, quality doublesided Read the rest of this entry »
