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Yesterday I had my final CW Academy session. As an indication of how good it was and how much we valued it, not one of the five of us ever missed a single session! There were sixteen hour-long sessions over two months. And it was all free!

Late last year I noticed a couple of messages from Jack W0UCE inviting hams keen to improve their CW skills to join in and pointing them to this page detailing the thinking behind CW Academy’s approach.

What was on offer was a series of online sessions in a small online group re-learning the code. The hour-long sessions are designed to get you to read in your head and to break or avoid habits (like writing everything down) that will prevent you from increasing speed later.

The target for our beginner group was around 20wpm. The sessions took place using Oovoo which is like Skype for groups. (Apparently it’s important that the instructor can see who is having difficulties.) We logged on twice a week. In between times we were expected to practice daily using a nifty online tool, Morse Translator. This neat web app lets you practice listening to code and adjust both character speed and Farnsworth spacing. Our default setting from day one was 20wpm character speed with gaps to yield an effective speed of 10wpm. Morse translator is a great model to help practice sending as well. I found including sending practice helped lock in recognition of words.

Our teacher or Elmer was Rob K6RB. He shared his intense enthusiasm for CW with us as well as his experience on air. After a few weeks of walking us through the alphabet, numbers and prosigns and practising new letters and words, Rob gradually upped the speed. Then the rubber hit the road about week five when we were QSOing back and forth. Rob patiently introduced us to the format of the typical QSO, contesting and even handling a DXpedition. His aim was to prepare us for these so that we’d know what to expect and what was expected of us when we joined in. We got the benefits of decades of operating experience in these sessions.

The CW Academy is an initiative of the CW Operators Club. CWops is international in focus and it was great to be accommodated as the token DX in the group.  As they say on the webpage “available to anyone, anywhere”.

The training has got me confident to get back on the air with a practical code speed and as a bonus, interested for the first time in having a go at contesting, initially the CWops fortnightly Mini-CWT contest which we spent a couple of sessions rehearsing.

A big TU to CWops and Rob K6RB for all their efforts running the CW Academy.

This is the first post about my project to build W3FF’s Homebrew Buddistick antenna. This is Budd Drummond’s design which is documented on his homepage. The plans for this antenna are on his web site.

I am a new Ham Radio Operator and am just getting my feet wet with HF. I have a Yaesu FT-857 sitting in a box waiting for a power supply and an antenna to get me on the air. I wanted to build an antenna that would be fairly easy to make as well as not very costly.  After a fair amount of research, I settled on this for my first HF antenna. It looks like it’ll be easy to set up and take down as needed as I intend to use it for Field Day, and any other times I am out in the field. I really don’t intend on being tied down to a home station. I am going to build up a portable station of some sort.

My first step was to collect the parts. I spent a few weeks picking up bits and pieces. This first picture is what I bought in terms of hardware components. I did not find the 1 1/4″ bolts that Budd specified, so I bought 1″ and 1 1/2″ versions and will figure out which to use as I make that part of the antenna.

The PVC components are pictures below already cut and drilled per the instructions.

The next step that I am going to tackle is cutting the wire for the coils and wrapping them.

In the following picture, I have started wrapping the coils. A couple are done and I still have a couple more to do.

While doing this, I found that it’s important to wrap the coils close together tightly as the longer coils were pretty tight getting all all the wraps in between the holes that were drilled for the tag ends to go through. The easiest one was the 20m coil. The toughest was the 60m coil with 82 wraps. After wrapping the 60m coil, I had to work the wire wraps down again to get all the wraps to fit.

I’ll post more as I go . . .

I made my first antenna. It’s a 2 meter yagi using the recipe on this web page: http://www.ccars.org/Projects/TapeYagi/index.htm

It works but not quite as well as I expected. After my first test, I found a stray strand of wire shorting the center and shield conductors where I separated them. I fixed that and am waiting to re-test. I’ll follow up with the results from that test.

After fixing my stray wire, I got much better performance and it works great!

For the past several weeks I’ve been using my keyboard tapping, when not working on IT projects, mainly for coding, so my blogging has suffered a bit.  Here’s what I’ve been up to in the Radio Artisan laboratory recently:

My Arduino CW Keyer code now supports six separate transmitter keying and PTT outputs and it’s no longer necessary to use PTT lines for transmitter keying line multiplexing.  K1EL Winkey emulation mode has been enhanced to support Winkey 2 commands and has been tested successfully for SO2R operation.  I’m currently working on LCD display code that will use the Adafruit RGB LCD Shield.  This unit is really sharp looking and uses only two I/O pins for interfacing using the I2C protocol.  I’m planning to use I2C a lot more in all of my projects in the future.

I have added to my Arduino Rotator Controller software brake control and “slow start” capability, and rotators with any starting azimuth and rotations of up to 719 degrees can be configured.  If you’re not familiar with this project, you can interface nearly any rotator to any logging or control program.  Experimental code for using the HMC5883L digital compass and ADXL345 accelerometer is included if you want to homebrew your own rotator and not use pots for reading azimuth and elevation.  On the roadmap is support for the LSM303DLHC combination digital compass and accelerometer and the Adafruit RGB LCD Shield.

I’m currently working on an Arduino controlled balanced antenna tuner.  I won’t go into all of the gory details here, but needless to say it’s going to be commercial grade, very configurable, and have QRP and QRO versions.  No stepper motors or expensive roller inductors.  This is going to be fun.

If you subscribe to CQ magazine, be sure to check out my article in the June 2012 issue entitled “Summit Expeditions – Outdoor Radio Adventure Close to Home“.  I talk about operating from Summits On The Air (SOTA) locations and give some thoughts on equipment choices and the benefits of outdoor operating.  If anyone wants to invite me to a big time DXpedition in a cold, high latitude QTH, please send me an email :-)

So that’s what’s been going on here.  Keep your software updated, your beverages cold, and your rig warm.  73

Today at the NW Arkansas Hamfest, I took the General test and passed! I am planning on participating on Field Day and will probably get my first contacts on HF then. 

Note: The FCC database shows me as a General License holder now on 6/11/2012

Today the FCC release a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) regarding Deployable Aerial Communications Architecture (DACA).  In a nutshell, this technology involves deploying a light aircraft containing communications equipment over a disaster area to provide emergency communications.  Those familiar with mobile wireless will recognize this as somewhat analogous to a COW (cellsite on wheels), and the military has been using similar technology for years.

A whitepaper on DACA describes the potential for this technology:

The DACA vision for disasters involves an aerial capability that is deployable within the first 12-18 hours after a catastrophic event to temporarily restore critical communications, including broadband, for a period of 72-96 hours. This capability would be useful in situations where the power grid may be inoperable for 5-7 days, depleting back-up power supplies and resulting in an almost complete failure of landline, cellular, land mobile radio, broadcast, and cable transmissions, as well as Wi-Fi and Internet services. In such circumstances, access roads and bridges may be impassable, preventing communications repair crews and fuel suppliers for generators from entering the area. If DACA systems were available, users on the ground could continue to rely on their day-to-day communications devices in a transparent manner.

While DACA technology does not involve amateur radio, nor does amateur radio have a horse in this race, amateurs may find DACA technology interesting, as the recent interest in unmanned balloon experiments with amateur radio payloads would suggest.  The FCC in the NOI is seeking comment from industry on logistical, regulatory, and technological questions.  I imagine it will be several years before we see DACA technology ready for prime time and probably only in major metropolitan areas.

In July I’m giving a 45 minute talk on amateur radio to a local neighborhood group that restored and maintains an old historic schoolhouse down the road from my QTH.  I plan on bringing my FT-897 and throwing a dipole up in the yard so I can tune around the bands and maybe even whip up a phone QSO.  (It sure would be nice if 20 was open to Europe.)  I’m going to avoid “death by PowerPoint” and just work off of some simple bulletpoints.

So, any suggestions on what to talk about?  What would you definitely not talk about?  Any tips from seasoned speakers on things to wow the audience with?