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Operating Notes: 30m DX, 1000 miles per watt

April 3, 2023 By Dan KB6NU 1 Comment

30 meters was hopping the night of March 27. I worked two all-time new ones (ATNOs): 9X5RU (Rwanda) and EY8MM. 9x5RU had a strong signal into Michigan and had decent pileup going. I set up the dual receive bandscope on my IC-7610 and was able to quickly find the frequency of a station he had just contacted and quickly tuned there. It only took me three calls before they heard me.

Just a little later, I heard EY8MM calling CQ just slightly up the band. I was surprised that he hadn’t created a pileup at all. I worked him on my first call.

I have both now confirmed via Logbook of the World, bringing my total to 169 countries.

All you need is….QRP

Another measure of how good the bands are are the number of QRP stations that I’ve been working lately. One such station is W3FSA in Maine. John was running about 5 W with a (tr)uSDX that he’d recently built. We had a very solid, 20-minute contact, with his signal averaging about S7 the entire time.

He paid me a nice compliment, too. He said, “I know we’ve worked before, but I can’t remember your name. You’re the teacher, though, right?”

1000 miles per watt!

Last night was also a good night for QRP on 30 meters. Dave, KC9FLI answered my first CQ, and I gave  him a 579 report. It turns out that he was running only 1 W with a Penntek TR-35.

He was so strong, that it occurred to me that he could probably qualify for  1000 mile per watt award. QRZ.Com said that he was 293.5 miles away from me, so I reckoned that if he could reduce power to 1/4 W, that should do it.

I suggested this to him, and he agreed to give it a try. He first reduced power to 500 mW. At that level, he was between S5 and S6. Next, he reduced power to 250 mW and he was still solid copy here in Ann Arbor, MI. How cool is that?

I then did a little searching for 1000 miles/watt awards and found two of them:

  1. North American QRP CW Club (NAQCC). The NAQCC 1000 Mile per Watt Award is free, but the rules state, “The power used to initiate a QSO is the power that counts is especially true for this award. You can’t start a QSO then keep lowering power to get a better MPW figure.” So, I guess our QSO doesn’t strictly qualify.
  2. QRP-ARCI. The QRP-ARCI 1000 Miles per Watt Award doesn’t appear to have that restriction, but they charge $10 for their certificate.

Even if he doesn’t get a certificate, Dave will have the satisfaction of knowing that he completed a 1000 mile per watt QSO.

Filed Under: DX, Operating, QRP Tagged With: 9X5RU, EY8MM, Rwanda, Tajikistan

Next edition of ARRL Handbook to be written by ChatGPT

April 1, 2023 By Dan KB6NU 1 Comment

For more information, contact:
ARRL PR Dept.
[email protected], 860-555-1212

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 1, 2023, Newington, CT—The ARRL announced today that the next edition of the ARRL Handbook would be written by the generative AI program, ChatGPT. One of the reasons for the change, noted ARRL Publishing head honcho Page U. Booker, W1PUB, is that the cost of producing the Handbook manually was just getting out of hand. “Nate Gold, N0AU, is a great writer and editor, but he charges an arm and a leg. With membership falling, we just can’t afford him anymore.”

Another reason for the move, Booker commented, is that no one actually reads the Handbook. “Seriously,” he said, “When was the last time you actually opened the thing? That being the case, it really doesn’t matter how accurate the book is. It just has to sound plausible.”

Booker also announced that the new Handbook will have a Node Red interface so that you can access the material remotely while operating FT8 on 20 meters.

Filed Under: Everything Else

Videos: Tying knots, chatting on HF with VarAC, and the tech behind POTA

March 29, 2023 By Dan KB6NU 1 Comment

Useful knots for portable hams

After watching  this video, I’m actually able to tie a taut hitch.


VarAC HF Chat

I’m not a big digital guy, but this looks interesting.


W8TAM: Powering POTA

Parks on the Air (POTA) is arguably one of the coolest things in ham radio today. Here, Thom, W8TAM, a friend of mine and one of the masterminds behind the technology, explains some of the tech that makes it so popular.

 

Filed Under: Digital Modes, Operating, Parks on the Air Tagged With: knots, POTA, VarAC

ICQ Podcast #399 – Hamzilla 2023

March 26, 2023 By Dan KB6NU Leave a Comment

In this episode, I joined Martin Butler M1MRB, Caryn Eve Murray KD2GUT and Edmund Spicer M0MNG and discussed the following topics:

  • Echo of BBC’s first broadcast in Scotland 100 years ago is heard from centenary event at Pacific Quay

  • Steubenville-Weirton Amateur Radio Club Donates Books to Library System

  • Is there a Better Way to Safeguard Vital Repeaters?

  • In the Car, Podcasts and Online Audio Continue to Grow

  • FreeDV Aims to Bring Open-Source HF Digital Voice Into the Mainstream

  • Astronauts from UAE Taking on Space Education

The episode’s feature is about Hamzilla 2023, a hamfest in the U.K.

Hams actually listen to us?

I’m always pleasantly surprised when I run across hams who say that they listen to the podcast. Mostly, it just seems like we’re babbling when we record the podcast, but when people say that they enjoy listening to it, it makes doing it all worthwhile.

Last week, at the HamSCI Workshop, I introduced myself to a fellow who said, “I know who you are. I recognized your voice from the podcast.” We proceeded to have a really nice conversation about the workshop.

Last night, I worked someone on 30 meters, and my being on the podcast made it possible. He emailed me after contact saying, “I’m a new CW operator and I heard your call tonight and recognized it from podcast fame, so I answered. I appreciated that you slowed down right away, but I immediately regretted my decision when you sent more than RST and state.” That is to say that he probably wouldn’t have answered my CQ if he hadn’t recognized my call sign.

I replied, “I could tell that were a bit unaccustomed to ragchewing, but kudos to you for trying!” I went on to say that I hoped that he should feel free to call me anytime. The only way to get better, after all, is to make contacts. I hope that I get to work him many times in the months ahead.

I’ll extend that invitation to all of you. If you ever hear me on the air, or see me at an amateur radio event, please feel free to say hi.

Filed Under: Clubs, Digital Modes, SWLing, VHF/FM/Repeaters Tagged With: BBC, FreeDV, libraries

100, 50, and 25 years ago in QST: 100 meters, 10-meter tips, build your own rubber duck

March 24, 2023 By Dan KB6NU Leave a Comment

Here are some interesting articles from the March 1923, March 1973, and March 1998 QST. To find and download the articles, go to http://www.arrl.org/arrl-periodicals-archive-search. Note that you do have to be an ARRL member to make use of this service…..Dan


March 1923: “Exploring 100 Meters.” This article describes some of the work going on to induce amateurs to operate on wavelengths of 100 meters and below. That’s 3 MHz and up, frequency-wise. That was “short wave” back in the day. Activities described included a 100-meter CQ Party and weekly “short-wave tests.”

The March 1923 issue also included a couple of other interesting articles:

  • “What the Department of Commerce Things of our A.R.R.L. Voluntary Lid” is a compilation of letter extracts describing agreements between amateur and broadcast stations.
  • 1XM, the radio station at the Massachusetts Institute of Techology is showcased in the “Who’s Who in Amateur Wireless” column.

March 1973: “Beginner and Novice: Tips on Ten.” In 50 years time, amateur radio has gone from its first steps into the shortwave region to operating on 10 meters. And, now that we’re headed towards the peak in the sunspot cycle, 10 meters will be plenty active again. In this article, Ed Tilton, W1HDQ, gives some great advice on the propagation modes that you can take advantage of on 10 meters and covers a wide variety of antennas that you can use for this band.

Another great article in this issue is “The W2FMI Ground-Mounted Short Vertical” by Jerry Sevick, W2FMI. In addition to writing the book on baluns and ununs, Sevick did quite a bit of work on short verticals. The example in the article is a 6-ft. vertical for 40 meters.


March 1998: There are a number of interesting articles in this issue, including:

  • “What is Good Amateur Practice?” by Dave Sumner, K1ZZ. Specifically, K1ZZ addresses the issue of good amateur practice as it relates to band planning.
  • “Helping New Hams Get Started” by Dennis Agosta, KB0RFA. This is a nice article on how to engage new hams.
  • “Understanding UTC” by Gary L. Trice, K4xxx. This is a one-pager on what UTC is, and how to use it.
  • “Make Your Own ‘Rubber Duckies'” by Paul Stump, N0LRF. Paul writes, “You can build a replacement antenna that delivers a lower SWR and more RF output than the one that came with your radio—and you can do it for $10 or less and a couple hours of fun!”

Filed Under: antennas, Books and Magazines, Classes/Testing/Licensing, Operating

Operating Notes: DV-1 revisited, strong ground wave??

March 23, 2023 By Dan KB6NU 1 Comment

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about what seemed to be a lack of marketing in amateur radio. I recounted my experience at Northern Telecom with a product called the DV-1. Well, as it turns out, one of my readers is also a former Northern Telecom employee. He wrote:

Small world! I joined BNR Atlanta in 1985 as a market research manager in data communications. Later that year, I ran a customer study to identify why DV-1 didn’t sell and whether anything could be salvaged. The results of that study started a helluva controversy at NTI in Nashville. As you probably know, there were several attempts to repurpose the DV-1 platform but nothing ever worked out.

For years there was a DV-1 at the Nashville building. It’s the only place I ever saw one in use.

I really wanted to see that study, so I emailed the fellow. Unfortunately, he no longer had a copy, but I really wanted to hear more. I suggested a telephone call, but he suggested we get on 40 meter phone, which we did. We had a great chat about our experiences with the DV-1 and with Northern Telecom in general.

Is this ground wave?

In the past week, I’ve had a couple of contacts whose propagation mode I can’t quite figure out. The first was with W8KIX on 30 meters. According to QRZ.Com, he is 48.3 miles away from me as the crow flies. He was really strong—S9+.

It’s hard to believe that we were working ground wave, but he suggested that we try 40 meter and then 80 meters to see if we could copy one another. On both 40 meters and 80 meters, we were both S9. So, does that mean we were really working ground wave? I would have thought there’d be some difference in signal strength had we been working sky wave.

Just last night, I worked VE3CWP on 40 meters. According to QRZ.Com, he’s only 35.4 miles away from me. He was actually S9 + 20 dB here. He gave me a similar report. As a result of this contact, I’m thinking that we really are working ground wave somehow.

As an aside, I was amused to read his QRZ.Com page. He writes, “Licensed since May 29, 1958, my 16th birthday.” My first ticket was dated July 16, 1971, my 16th birthday.

Filed Under: Operating Tagged With: DV-1, ground wave, Northern Telecom

HamSCI 2023: Some first impressions

March 20, 2023 By Dan KB6NU Leave a Comment

I’m on my way home from the HamSCI 2023 Conference, and while waiting in the airport, I thought I’d record some first impressions. As the date approached, I was feeling kind of reluctant about going. In fact, I almost didn’t go. In the end, though, I’m glad I did.

Impressions:

  1. Scranton seems to be typical of a lot of East Coast and Midwest cities that enjoyed an industrial past, but are not as vibrant today as they once were. It’s in a beautiful spot, and the people are very nice, and I’d say that things will get better in the future.
  2. Scranton is called The Electric City. This is partly due to their steel works’ early adoption electrical power and because they opened they opened what was was recognized as the first street car system in the country to run exclusively on electric power in 1886.
  3. I stayed at the Radisson Lackawanna, which is a very cool hotel (see right). It used to be a train station for the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad that ran from Hoboken, NJ to Buffalo, NY. From its construction, you can see how prosperous Scranton was at its peak. One of the unique features of this station/hotel are the 36 ceramic portrayals of scenes along the  railroad line. The first depicts the Hoboken ferry. The 36th depicts a resort near Buffalo.
  4. This was a small, but mighty conference. There were lots of presentations because they used the academic format, which gives presenters only 20 minutes instead of the hour that’s usually given to presenters at ham radio conferences.
  5. The focus was on ionospheric research, but there were topics of more general interest as well. For example, because the Doppler shift is of interest when describing the behavior of the ionosphere, there’s also an interest in accurately measuring signal frequencies.
  6. There were lots of students, as you may expect. The median age was, therefore, much lower than at many ham gatherings.
  7. The attendees were more diverse, too. There were many women and people of color present.

As a result of attending this conference, I’ve added a couple of things to my list of projects I’d like to do at some point. The first is connecting a GPS disciplined oscillator (GPSDO) to my IC-7610 in order to make my frequency measurements more accurate.The second is to play around with VLF reception and listen to some of the naturally-occuring phenomena that produce  RF signals, such as “whistlers.”

Filed Under: antennas, Propagation Tagged With: HamSci, ionosphere, PA, Scranton, VLF

You learn something new every day: screw extractors

March 14, 2023 By Dan KB6NU Leave a Comment

The Icom IC-2820H.

About a year and a half ago, I bought an Icom IC-2820H at the Findlay hamfest. It included the UT-123 option, which is a board that you plug into the main board, which gives it D-STAR capability. I mentioned in a previous post that I’d be willing to remove and sell that board as there are non D-STAR repeaters in my area.

I got one offer about a year ago, but that never panned out for some reason. Then about a month ago, someone else offered to buy it. After agreeing on the price, he sent me a money order for the amount, so yesterday, I attempted to remove the board.

I hit a snag, though, in getting the board out of the unit. To remove the board, you have to remove 10 tiny Phillips head, M2 screws. I don’t know who installed the board, but whoever did, really torqued down these screws, making them very difficult to unscrew. I got the first nine out OK, although some of them i had to really bear down on some to get them out.

The tenth was another matter. I stripped the head, making it unremovable, at least by any method I could find on the internet. I tried using a straight screwdriver and then a rubber band, but the darn thing just wasn’t coming out.

This morning, I took it over to my favorite hardware store, Stadium Hardware. The people there are really amazing. They’ll help you with almost anything. I knew that if it was possible to get that screw out, they could do it.

At first, the guy said, “Hmmmm. Looks like we’re going to have to drill that out and re-tap whatever it’s screwing into.” But, then, he walked away from the counter and came back with a set of damaged screw removers and a drill motor.

At first, it looked like he was just shaving more metal from the stripped screw, and I’m thinking that I’m really screwed now. Eventually, though, the screw began to turn and it came out. I ended up buying the extractor set, of course.

I took the radio home, popped the lid, removed the board, packaged it up (the guy who sold me the radio even had the original box for the UT-123), and I sent it on its way. The hardware store didn’t have the right screw to replace the ruined one, so I only had to replace nine of them.

The whole process was kind of a pain, but it was a learning experience, too. I learned how to use a screw extractor, and I now have the right tools to do the job.

Filed Under: Gear/Gadgets Tagged With: IC-2820H, UT-123

Partly-baked idea: Does amateur radio need more marketing?

March 8, 2023 By Dan KB6NU 4 Comments

Warning!! This is a partly-baked idea, so go easy on me….Dan


DV-1 users were given integrated voice and data terminals, like this Meridian M4020. They really wanted PCs, though.

I worked for Northern Telecom (NT) from  1985 to 1991. They had purchased a company here in Ann Arbor, MI and formed a division that was developing an integrated voice and data system, called the DV-1. It used quite sophisticated technology, and we had some talented hardware and software engineers, but ultimately the product was a failure because it wasn’t really what customers wanted.

Customers didn’t really want an integrated voice and data terminal on their desks. They wanted a PC. A couple of our engineers developed a PC interface card to allow PCs to be used with the system, but that never really caught on. They tried to use the hardware as a database server for NT phone switching systems, but since the hardware wasn’t designed to be a database server, per se, that didn’t work out all that well, either.

The problem, of course, was that there was no marketing. Some engineers somewhere said, “Hey, we have this neat technology. Let’s make a product and sell it.” What they should have said is, “Hey, we have this neat technology. How can we design a product incorporating that technology that people will want to buy?”

I think that ham radio suffers from a similar lack of marketing. There are lots of ham radio projects and products that suffer from ills that make them either unusable or annoying. It could be that the setup is too complex for the benefit to gained, or that a product is lacking a key specification. A transceiver, for example, may have an output power of only 500 mW, making it useful only in certain, limited applications. That same product might be a lot more successful, however, if it had an output power of 5 W or 10 W.

Many will say that hams should be savvy enough to deal with these limitations and still make things work. That’s true, but sometimes even the most savvy don’t want to be bothered, or they don’t see the benefit from taking the time to complete a complex setup. Many  hams are tinkerers, but they don’t have an unlimited amount of time. If the obstacles to success are too great, they’ll abandon a project or sell off a piece of equipment that’s too hard to use.

I’m not really sure what the answer is. I’m not a marketing genius, either. It’s easy to say that hams working on projects need to start thinking like marketers, but it’s a lot harder to do it. If you want your product or project to be successful, though, that what you need to do.

 

Filed Under: Everything Else, Gear/Gadgets Tagged With: marketing

Balun or no balun?

March 5, 2023 By Dan KB6NU 4 Comments

On the Elecraft-KX mailing list, an item popped up on a topic that I’ve been pondering for a while. Titled Balun necessary? Barry N1EU asked the question:

I’m planning some 40M-15M portable operation with a 44ft doublet fed with 25ft of twinlead into the KX2 ATU.  Is it, or is it not, necessary to use a balun between twinlead and KX2 antenna terminals for this application?

I’ve been pondering this very question myself, as my go-to antenna for portable operation with my KX-3 is a 66-ft. doublet fed with twisted pair. I’ve just been connecting the twin-led feed line directly to the radio with a BNC-binding post adapter, but it occurred to me last summer that I should perhaps be connecting the unbalanced output of the KX-3 to the balanced feed line. The antenna seems to work just fine without the balun, but I wonder in the antenna system would be more efficient with one. At 10 – 15 W out, you want your antenna system to be as efficient as possible.

As you might expect, this question generated a lot of replies. Many of the replies simply said, “A balun is preferred,” without really giving a reason for this. Many write that using a 1:1 balun or current choke would prevent common-mode currents on the feedline. The purpose of this being to reduce the chance of the feedline radiating and causing RFI or to reduce noise pickup.

I jumped into the conversation when it was well underway  and mentioned that I have been using a doublet with twisted-pair feed line. That prompted a private reply from Barry, and we struck  up a conversation on the relative merits of twisted-pair feedline vs. 300 Ω twinlead and whether or not to use a balun. In one of the emails, he wrote:

FYI Dan, did a little experiment. I set up a 44ft doublet on a summit yesterday and ran some 1 watt WSPR transmissions on 40, 20, and 15m using first a 300-ohm twinlead feedline and then a twisted pair feedline (PTFE insulated, harvested from surplus CAT5e cable). I’ve always been intrigued by the super lightweight twisted pair and several years ago used it once with very good results (high score in 2014 QRPTTF/SOTA event). But I always wondered about the loss involved, especially with the high SWR encountered in a non-resonant antenna.

I lacked sufficient time on the summit to be very thorough and methodical but I believe the data is valid. 30-45 minutes separated the transmissions for the different feedlines.

  • 40m – 24 reports for both – twisted pair averaged -3.75dB down from twinlead
  • 20m – 27 reports for both – twisted pair averaged -1.56dB down from twinlead
  • 15m – 13 reports for both – twisted pair averaged -4.15dB down from twinlead

Perhaps one day I’ll do a more thorough and methodical test but I think these results show that PTFE twisted pair is a viable balanced feedline and makes for an ultralight option for SOTA activation, although twinlead is preferred when weight is not an issue.

Other equipment used included an Elecraft KX2/ATU and Android phone running WSPR Beacon. The 300-ohm twinlead was connected using a homebrew dual FT140-43 core 4:1 Guanella current balun and the twisted pair was connected using a homebrew FT140-43 common mode choke (12 turns).

I should probably do some of my own testing. While scouring the shack for stuff to take to a hamfest a couple of weeks ago I ran across some quality 300 Ω twinlead, so I could make up a 66-ft. doublet with the twin lead feedline. I also have ferrite cores and try winding the twisted pair feedline around it to see if that makes any difference. Barry’s test show that the twin lead is more efficient, but twisted pair is easier to handle and does wind up into a smaller and lighter package for transporting to and from a POTA or SOTA site.

It would be interesting to do some testing with the 44-ft. doublet. In general, of course, the more wire in the air the better, but less wire again makes it more manageable. I’m going to have to download WSPR Beacon to my Android phone, too. In any event, it looks like I’ll have a lot of fun stuff to play with this summer when I can get out and do some activations.

Filed Under: antennas, Operating, QRP Tagged With: baluns, twinlead, twisted pair

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