Here are two more QSLs from stations whose callsigns spell words. I got lucky with Buzz, WA4AIM. During our QSO, he noted that he’d been off the air for a while, and his wife had just located his stash of QSL cards. Otherwise, I’d have been out of luck. Thanks, Buzz and Steve!
Archives for February 2010
Ferrite Beads are an Elegant Solution
Here’s a cute article on the use of ferrite beads written by a couple of engineers at Intersil. Some interesting stuff about why ferrite inductors work so well.
You Know You’re a Radio Geezer When…
Reprinted with permission from the Feb 2010 newlsetter of the San Bernardino Microwave Society:
You know you are a radio Geezer when:
- you have more tools than you’ll ever need, but can’t find them.
- you need to keep your radio’s user manual on the desk.
- your antennas are getting smaller and closer to the ground.
- it’s been 40 years since you’ve had the snot shocked out of you.
- you forget the band plans.
- you check into the weather net, the noontime net, the Bell Telephone net, and some other net just because they are there.
- you still have a phone patch and Q multiplier in the cabinet.
- your radio warms up faster than you do .
- RF gets into your hearing aid.
- you have to find your teeth to have a QSO.
- you can no longer see the parts used to make radios.
- you know how to properly tie a wire bundle using waxed string.
- some of your test gear is older than your adult children.
- you have to add light in front of your radio so you can read the dials.
- you buy a piece of gear only to find out you already had one in the garage you forgot about.
- you can no longer log, make QSO’s and drive at the same time.
- you realize a Life Membership in the ARRL is no longer a good value.
Some of these are funnier than others, but I think the last one is probably the most telling. Can you think of any others?
CT2GQV’s Homebrew Blog
Ricardo, CT2GQV, writes the blog, The “Speaky” HF SSB transceiver and other homebrew projects. I found this blog because Ricardo linked to one of my blog posts.
I like it a lot. Ricardo is a hard-core homebrewer, and has posts on a number of projects including:
- 0-500 Khz converter to 4 Mhz
- 100 w dummy load
- Attenuator
- Batery tester
- BFO for hf-radio
- Digital modes interface
- HF SWR meter
- Noise generator for filter aligment
- PCB helping hand
- RF Probe
- S9 signal generator
…and much more.
I’m adding it to my links list. It’s certainly worth reading.
First, Check the PC Board
Building is a lot of fun. You can build your own stuff, or take advantage of the work done by other hams and build projects from the ham mags like QST or CQ. One of the advantages of building projects from magazines is that frequently someone has already designed a PC board for it.
Even so, make sure you check that PC board before you start soldering parts. A recent purchase shows why.
The image at right is a scan I made of a PC board that I purchased to make a little 80m transmitter for transmitter hunting. Last night, I gave it a visual inspection before beginning construction, and I’m glad I did. For one thing, I noticed several spots that hadn’t been etched properly. These are marked with a “*” on the scan.
Those defects would have been easily corrected with an X-Acto knife, but when I flipped the board over to inspect the component side of the board, I found that none of the legends matched the holes in the board. Upon further inspection, I determined that the image used to print the component layout had been inadvertently rotated 180 degrees.
I e-mailed the vendor late last night, and this morning when I checked my e-mail, I’d already gotten a reply. The vendor apologized for the error, and said he’d get a new board out to me as soon as he could make a new batch. What great customer service!
Field Day Packets Available
From the ARRL website:
Attention All Amateurs…
2010 Field Day Packets Now Available (Feb 2, 2010) — It’s that time of year again — time to start gearing up for ARRL Field Day, June 26-27, 2010! ARRL’s flagship operating event — always held the fourth full weekend in June — brings together new and experienced hams for 24 hours of operating fun. Field Day packets are now available for download and include the complete rules (including changes for 2010), as well as other reference items such as forms, ARRL Section abbreviation list, entry submission instructions, a Frequently Asked Questions section, guidelines for getting bonus points, instructions for GOTA stations, a kit to publicize your event with the local press and more.
Green Radio?
I’ve been living in Uganda since October 14, 2009, just over three months. I have visited Uganda on four previous occasions for three to six weeks each time. I remember well my first visit in the summer of 1999. That was the year we were preparing for Y2K, and there were a whole bunch of voices predicting the meltdown of civilization.
On that visit, I travelled across the countryside in an old Toyota LandCruiser. As we drove through village after village, I came to the conclusion that if the world were to meltdown because computers failed at midnight, December 31, 1999, it would have no effect whatsoever on Uganda.
Why? Because no one in the interior of the country was connected to an electrical grid! Most had never seen a television much less had the resources to own one. A few had radios.They simply lived too close to the land to be even remotely dependent on computers and the devices computers managed. They were, and are, a green society in that they make do, recycle, use what they have, improvise from resources at hand, and live off the land.
What, you ask, has any of that have to do with ham radio? Well, depending on your point of view, lots, or nothing at all. I just received the January 2010 issue of QST courtesy of a visitor from the States. American magazines are like gold here, and I am savoring each page. The cover calls this issue “the DIY issue,” and the articles largely live up to the billing. What impresses me, though, is how complicated ham radio can be, and in most cases, has become. Both the articles and the advertiserments describe many devices for connecting a radio to a computer, or operating a radio in conjunction with a computer, or operating over the Internet. Just about every company or person mentioned has a Web address. There’s also an article about working satellites, which I would like to do when I can. From another source, I just received an email notifying me of a QRP Net that will be meeting on Echolink!! QRP on Echolink just seems odd to me.
Ham radio is a technologically sophisticated hobby. It always has been. In the early days, savvy operators created components from what they hand. Today’s operators use and assemble more complex gear, but in principle do the same. There is one exception, however. Today, we rely on ready-made parts, manufactured components, and advanced engineering. Driven by time pressures and the compulsion to get on the air quickly, our economic status usually means we can buy what we need, plug it in, and go.
At the same time I browse QST, I have been reading “Calling CQ” by Clinton DeSoto. I found a link to the 1941 first edition in a PDF file one can download for free. Mr. DeSoto describes the early days of ham radio, and I am struck by the ability of ham radio operators to create working radios from almost nothing. Their ability to improvise and adapt is possibly directly tied to their times, their financial capacity, and the impossibility of buying parts or components given their circumstances. I will be the first to admit I cannot do what they did.
It was after I arrived in Uganda and began assembling my station that I began to have a new appreciation for the fine science of improvising and adapting. I had limited space to bring stuff and there are no simple or inexpensive means to acquire them. So one must do what one must. The whole country is run that way. Resources are limited and pricey. Don’t run out and buy it if one can make it or adapt something else to work. Even my ladder here is homebrewed. There are no ladders for sale in the entire district. You gotta make one if you want one. “Green” living is, in its simplest expression, living closely with what’s around you. It is Field Day every day here.
We all accumulate junk boxes and use what’s in them. Even though we use microprocessors and internet connections and computers, hams are really “green” at heart. Creativity is, by definition, the art of making something new or using something old in a new way. I hope we all have gear at our disposal that does not require an internet or computer connection to work. The scare about Y2K came about because of our dependency on systems stored or managed somewhere else. While there is no fear these days of a Y2K-like meltdown, I am still concerned about an over-reliance on systems outside our control. The emphasis these days on emergency radio procedures should speak to us hams about the need to be ready, whatever the situation, to get on the air and communicate regardless of the challenges we face. And if you want to practice, I have a spare room here in Masaka.
Media Hit: WeatherBrains
Weather and ham radio have a lot in common, most notably SkyWarn. This week, episode 210 of WeatherBrains, “a weekly audio show delivered by the Internet that unites weather geeks worldwide” has a pretty long segment on amateur radio.
Starting at about 7:45 of this episode and lasting past the 40:00 minute mark, the amateur radio segment includes guests Allen Pitts, W1AGP, the PR Manager for the ARRL, and Rob Macedo, KD1CY, SKYWARN Coordinator for the National Weather Service in Taunton, MA. James Spann, WO4W, is the show’s host. They talk about all kinds of things including emergency communications in Haiti, SkyWarn, and the Civilian Weather Observer Project.
Help Say No to This Proposed Rule
Usually, I don’t pay much attention to Notices of Proposed Rule Making (NPRMs) by the FCC. But this one—WT Docket 09-209—has got my attenion. The proposed rules would clarify certain rules regarding vanity callsigns and revise the rules applicable to club stations.
It’s the latter that I’m concerned about. The revision would add the following wording to 97.5(b)(2):
After [date reserved], no additional club station license grant will be made to a club whose trustee already holds a club station license grant for that club.
In other words, clubs will only be allowed to hold a single club call sign, unless the club already has more than one, even if there are good reasons to hold more than one club call sign. Our club, for example, has four club call signs:
- W8PGW is our long-held club call sign.
- WC8RC is the call sign we use at our club station at the Washtenaw County Red Cross.
- WA2HOM is the call sign we use at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum.
- W8CWN is another call sign that we use occasionally at the Hands-On Museum. This was the call sign of Dr. Richard Crane, one of the founders of the Hands-On Museum, and we requested it to honor Dr. Crane.
None of these callsigns were obtained for frivolous reasons and they all serve a purpose. Should this rule be enacted, however, clubs who have similar operations would be unable to get more than a single club call sign. This sounds like a solution looking for a problem to me.
I urge you to contact the FCC and ask them to strike this from the NPRM. You can make comments in the following ways: via the Federal eRulemaking Portal or via the FCC website. Comments must be submitted by March 26, 2010; reply comments are due no later than April 12, 2010.
Operating Notes: 1/25/10 – 1/31/10
This week, I made some notable QSOs:
- Monday night, I contacted K0HL, operating CW mobile from his truck in ND (see right). On his QRZ.Com page, he lists his occupation as clockmaker. I need to e-mail and ask him how he became a clockmaker. I’ve always had an interest in clockmaking.
- Tuesday night, I had a QSO with YS1ZC. He’s my first contact with El Salvador.
- On Thursday night, I stayed up late. When I got home from bowling, my wife informed me that her parents’ power went out and that we might have to go get them, if their power didn’t come back on soon. Just after midnight, I called CQ on 80m, with my crummy 25W and random-wire antenna, and lo and behold, I got a call from DJ0KC, who heard me while getting ready for work. He’s my first European on 80m, and only my second DX contact. I’m amazed when I make any contact on 80m, much less a DX contact.
- Thursday night, I worked HA3NU. He is the first DX station that I’ve worked with the same suffix as mine.
- On Saturday, down at the museum, we worked one of the stations in the REF French DX Contest on 20m. Later that evening at home, I heard a couple of French stations on 40m and worked them. That got me caught up in the swing of things, and overall, I made ten contacts, including one in Guadeloupe and three in Martinique. I also made one on 80m—F5KIN—who, as you’ll note, has a callsign that spells a word (kin).