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With constructors and hobbists looking at sourcing electronic components, even the hard to get stuff along with a bit of added value for money.  I have started a component list with suppliers from the far East.


Access it from the top right under Pages: Far East Component suppliers.


Or from this link: http://g1kqh.blogspot.com/p/far-east-component-suppliers.html



Hope you all find it useful?
Steve, G1KQH, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from England. Contact him at [email protected].

AmateurLogic.TV Episode 123 is now available for download.

Part 1 of George’s DTMF Radio Control project. Tommy with Easy D-Star Programming using CSV files. Emile supports TourDeCure Nawlins. And another AmateurLogic Foreign Food Taste Test featuring Rum Butter from the UK.

1:29:28

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George Thomas, W5JDX, is co-host of AmateurLogic.TV, an original amateur radio video program hosted by George Thomas (W5JDX), Tommy Martin (N5ZNO), Peter Berrett (VK3PB), and Emile Diodene (KE5QKR). Contact him at [email protected].

You have tuned into Episode 258 of Linux in the Ham Shack. This episode is the 19th edition of our Weekender series. In this episode, we discuss upcoming amateur radio contests, special event stations, open source conferences and more. We also give you some new distributions to try, amateur radio and open source challenges and then dive into our innate hedonism, discussing food, wine, song and much more. Thank you for listening.

73 de The LHS Crew

Russ Woodman, K5TUX, co-hosts the Linux in the Ham Shack podcast which is available for download in both MP3 and OGG audio format. Contact him at [email protected].

Hello, listeners! Welcome to Episode #257 of Linux in the Ham Shack. In this episode, the hosts discuss CNPOTA, YOTA and a bunch of other OTAs. There's also information on balloon-based repeaters, the demise of Palm Radio, OpenSpot 2, Apple's new T2 security chip, emotion analyzing AI and much more. Thank you for tuning in. We appreciate you, one and all.

73 de The LHS Crew

Russ Woodman, K5TUX, co-hosts the Linux in the Ham Shack podcast which is available for download in both MP3 and OGG audio format. Contact him at [email protected].

Our view of Toronto

In the livingroom

We are  in our new place and have been for some time now also it is beginning to feel like home! I have a room dedicated to my rollmop desk with my radio equipment in it which was better than the last setup where the desk was basically in the living room. By way of an update we are still in a condo but have moved 10 floors up (now on 16) in the same condo but a 2 bedroom 2 bath which is great. The "odd" issue I have been having is my MFJ 1788 mag loop has a very poor SWR when on the balcony of the new place. The best SWR I can get is 1.6:1 and thats it, I have tried moving it all over the balcony but  the SWR just gets worse. The balcony at the old place is basically the same size as the new one. The difference is the old balcony was a 1/2 circle and the new one is  rectangle. I brought the antenna into the living room and took it apart just to check and make sure the move did not damage it. All was well with the antenna and the next odd thing is from the living room on two chairs the SWR is perfect! Very less than ideal conditions and all is good with the MFJ loop. I also have the Chameleon CHA P loop and I put that on the balcony and it tunes to a flat SWR. This issue with this antenna is it has to be manually tuned as were the MFJ mag loop can be done from the warmth of my room.
I was able to run coax along the wall in such a way that it's not noticeable and out to our balcony. I took advantage of a persian carpet runner in the hallway to hide the coax. I then used Comet CTC 50M to get the coax outside. At the old place I was able to leave the MFJ antenna on the balcony but were we are not at times the wind that comes off lake Ontario is crazy so it's indoors.....not that it matters as the SWR is very poor. In the next post an update on my Sun SDRpro 2 rig.
Mike Weir, VE3WDM, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Ontario, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

In this episode, Martin M1MRB is joined by Leslie Butterfield G0CIB, Matthew Nassau M0NJX and Bill Barnes N3JIX to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. Colin M6BOY rounds up the news in brief and this episode’s feature is Remote Rig Amateur Radio Control.

ICQ AMATEUR/HAM RADIO PODCAST DONORS

We would like to thank Nigel Wells (2W0CGM), Edward Efchak and Malcolm Heath (KI7ZSX) along with our monthly and annual subscription donors for keeping the podcast advert free. To donate, please visit - http://www.icqpodcast.com/donate

• Armando M0PAM Champions Local Amateur Radio Rights
• LED Lighting Can Disrupt Radio Communications
• Licence to Supply Radio Transmitting Equipment
• Using Authentication in Amateur Radio
• HMS Belfast Armistice Amateur Radio Special Event Callsign
• Satellite Operation from RMS Queen Mary
• ROTA Recipes On The Air
• UKube-1 Falls Silent

Colin Butler, M6BOY, is the host of the ICQ Podcast, a weekly radio show about Amateur Radio. Contact him at [email protected].

Joyce/K0JJW and I were planning a trip that included some time in Europe. It turned out that our airline route would connect through Zurich. Rather than spend a few hours in an airport, we decided to spend a day or two in Switzerland.

Somehow the discussion turned to Summits On The Air (SOTA) and whether we should do an activation in Switzerland.  Slowly, a plan developed to do a “check the box” activation on a local summit near Zurich. As readers of this blog know, I’ve been exclusively using VHF/UHF for SOTA activations. We decided to pack really light so SOTA gear on this trip was extremely limited: 2m/70cm handhelds and vertical antennas. Sorry, no yagi.

SOTA Help

I came across this thread about the proper callsign prefix when operating under CEPT rules in Switzerland. The SOTA association is called HB but valid callsign prefixes are HB9 (full license) or HB3 (novice license). This sent me back to the CEPT rules to make sure I understood them correctly:  Recommendation T/R 61-01 and ECC Recommendation (05) 06. The short story is that as an Amateur Extra licensee, I operate as HB9/K0NR. Joyce has a General Class license which corresponds to the “novice” category under CEPT, so she uses the callsign HB3/K0JJW.  Apparently as an Extra, I had previously overlooked or forgotten some of the fine points of CEPT. Specifically, US Extras are given full privileges by CEPT but Generals can only operate in a subset of CEPT countries while Technicians get no privileges at all (yet another reason to upgrade your license).

I also put out a request for advice on the SOTA reflector:

Joyce/K0JJW and I have one day in Zurich later this month. Somehow the idea of squeezing in a SOTA activation while in Switzerland made it onto the itinerary.

This will be on 2m FM only with basic gear. The current plan is looking like a hike up Altberg (HB/ZH-015) but we are open to other ideas.

A number of people responded with helpful information. Soon I was contacted by Paul/HB9DST who suggested we do an activation together. Paul is an American living just outside of Zurich (his US callsign is AA1MI) and is very active in SOTA. We soon had our eyes on the Churfirsten SOTA summits which are southeast of Zurich (see Paul’s activation reports).  Ultimately, we chose the summit of Selun (HB/SG-049).

Activating Selun (HB/SG-049)

Access to the trail was via several train rides and a bus ride, then a short walk to the Selun cable car. This cable car is quite unique in that it is a homebrew design (see the photo below). We piled into the cable car and rode it to where the real hike started.

 

On the Trail

The bottom station of the cable car is at ~3000 feet (900 m) and took us up the hill to ~5000 feet ( 1500 m), so it definitely sliced off some elevation gain. The summit of Selun is at 7234 feet (2205 m), which gave us a moderate but not crazy difficult hike. My GPS app recorded a distance of 1.7 miles and 1900 vertical feet (one way).

 

The weather was excellent for late October with blue skies above and some clouds laying in the valleys.

Paul is an HF/CW enthusiast so that made sharing the bands very easy. He strapped his fishing pole to the summit cross and strung out an end-fed wire for 40m, 30m and 20m, making a total of 40 QSOs. Joyce and I took turns on 145.550 MHz FM using our Yaesu FT-1DR handheld radios with vertical antennas.

I made 13 contacts on VHF, including three Summit-to-Summit (S2S) contacts. HB9PMF was close by on SG-017 (Hinterrugg) another summit in the Churfirsten. I also stayed on the summit while Joyce and Paul hiked down out of the activation zone and worked me for chaser points, giving me a total of 15 QSOs.

My log is shown below. All contacts were on 145.550 MHz. Note that the calling frequency in Switzerland (all of Europe?) is 145.500 MHz. Joyce worked a subset of these stations.

Operating notes

I have to admit that it was a challenge keeping everything straight while making QSOs. I had to add the HB9 prefix on the front of my US callsign and “portable” on the tail end (local practice for activator stations). That’s “HB9/K0NR/P” instead of just “K0NR”…there is a reason we prefer shorter callsigns. All that along with the usual signal report, name, SOTA designators, etc. Fortunately, everyone we worked had reasonable English skills. Mein Deutsch ist nicht so gut. If I sounded a bit confused, I probably was and at 7200 feet I can’t blame the altitude.

It was definitely a thrill to work the S2S stations and two other countries (Germany and Austria) on VHF. (I have never done that on SOTA VHF from Colorado…I rarely work anyone outside of the state.)

After we hiked back down, Paul suggested that we had to stop in at the local farmhouse restaurant (Selun Ochsenhuette) for a drink. It was all part of the Swiss SOTA experience!

Paul was a magnificent host for our short stay in Switzerland. We stayed two nights at his place and he guided us on a fantastic SOTA activation.  Without his help, we would have probably activated a small summit near Zurich and would have been in the low clouds all day. We would have left the city thinking “I bet this is a beautiful place when the sun is shining.” Instead, we had an excellent day hiking the Swiss mountains and playing ham radio. Thanks, Paul!

Joyce did find one small way to repay Paul’s kindness. Being an skilled seamstress, she sewed Paul’s prized SOTA Mountain Goat patch onto his pack. Nice job, Joyce!

73 Bob K0NR

The post SOTA Activation in Switzerland (HB/SG-049) appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

Bob Witte, KØNR, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Colorado, USA. Contact him at [email protected].