AmateurRadio.com

I opened my mailbox this morning to discover the email that hundreds if not thousands of hams worldwide have been waiting for – a shipping notification from UPS to say that a 5lb package from Elecraft is on its way!

A 5lb package from Elecraft? What could that be? Ah. it must be the KX3 I didn’t order.

That’s right. Didn’t order. I haven’t ordered a KX3! I’m not saying I’m never going to, but I am not even going to think about it until such time as orders are fulfilled off the shelf. At the moment I believe that the lead time for an Elecraft KX3 ordered today is about 4 months. These days I just don’t plan that far ahead.

I forwarded the email to Elecraft Sales in the hope that they can figure out who this notification should really have gone to and why it came to me. But for a brief moment this morning I thought this was going to be my lucky day!

A couple of years ago we changed our broadband Internet service provider. The new provider did not support a static IP address. I have a QNAP network attached storage device which is primarily used for backup. However, it’s actually a Linux box that runs the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) software which I occasionally use as a web server for experimentation. I sometimes need it to be accessible from the internet. So I opened a free account with DynDNS in order to access the server using a host name.

Some time last year after I came out of hospital I started to receive emails from DynDNS informing me that my account was being disabled due to abuse and inviting me to open a paid account. As far as I could tell, the only “abuse” was that my script to inform DynDNS of my current IP address was running more than the number of times DynDNS permitted. I had no idea why it should start misbehaving like that and cynically thought it was just a ploy to convert free users to paid subscriptions. I was in no frame of mind to deal with the problem, nor to dig into my wallet, so I simply closed the account and had done with it. This would have had the effect of breaking some APRS-related functions on my site but I had other things of greater concern to think about.

A few days ago I decided to look into why the CDGVHF ANSRVR group was not sending any messages. ANSRVR is an APRS tool used to send APRS messages to groups of interested people. CDGVHF stands for Cumbria Dumfries and Galloway VHF group and it is intended to disseminate alerts about VHF and UHF openings in the Cumbria, Dumfries and Galloway area (grid square IO84.) It’s essentially a filter that acts on emails sent out by DX Sherlock and converts them to APRS messages addressed to ANSRVR. I could, of course, just have the emails sent to my smartphone. But it’s more fun to make use of ham radio!

I looked for an alternative free service to DynDNS and decided to try No-IP Free. As far as I can tell, No-IP won’t accuse you of abuse for updating your IP address too frequently, in fact its client software appears to do this every few minutes which seems like plenty. It does have a requirement that you confirm your account is being used once a month, which could be a bit annoying, but I’ll see what happens at the next update.

In the meantime, CDGVHF is now sending out propagation alerts again. To receive alerts of VHF and UHF openings in the IO84 area just send an APRS message to ANSRVR with the text CQ CDGVHF. You’ll need to repeat this from time to time as the server unsubscribes you from the group after 8 hours of no activity, unless you are using KJ4ERJ’s APRSISCE software which can maintain your subscription for you.

From May 5 until June 10 British amateur radio stations that have been granted permission to do so may use the prefix GQ, MQ and 2Q0 in place of their regular G, M or 2×0. For the duration of the 2012 Olympic Games British amateurs may use GO, MO and 2O0 instead of their normal calls.

As a sport-hating republican (and I don’t mean the American political party of the same name) G4ILO will continue to use the callsign that has declared me to be an ENGLISH amateur radio operator for the last 30-odd years. So now you know!

The Annual Digifest will be held on the first full weekend of June (2012 dates are June 2nd and 3rd ). This will be Digifest’s 5th year. Its popularity is growing with more than 200 logs received last year.

A peculiarity of this Contest is the great variety of different categories of participants in five digital modes: RTTY 75, BPSK 63, MFSK 16, HELLSCHREIBERand OLIVIA. The points calculation is based on the distance between the stations.

The contest consists of 3 convenient periods (8 hours each) during the weekend. To add more excitement those who like competing in real time will be able to see their results on a server.

There are lots of nice prizes, mostly RigExpert AA-230 and AA-30 Antenna Analyzers and RigExpert USB Interfaces. All prizes sponsored by RigExpert Ukraine Ltd.

As the number of the participants is relatively small and the most populated competing area is Europe, stations from NA, SA, Africa, Asia and Australia are at a great advantage. Last year those stations were the most prize winners. To support growing participation from Europe the sponsors have doubled the prizes so separate main prizes are now offered both for Europe and the rest of the world.

For those won’t be able to win a main prize there will be a lot of small gifts like T-shirts and paper awards. All the prizes will be mailed to participants’ home addresses. The results are usually available just 2 weeks after the end of the Contest, So, lets meet on the first weekend of June and have fun!

Complete rules can be found at http://www.mixw.net/misc/DigiFest/index.html and http://www.rigexpert.com/index?s=main&f=digifest

A DX Sherlock VHF propagation alert popped into my mailbox this afternoon to warn me about a possible Sporadic-E opening on 6 metres.

6m Sporadic-E opening 29 Apr 2012

My K3 was WSPRing on 10m at the time and when I went to look several new stations had been spotted indicating the presence of short skip propagation.

10m WSPR spots at G4ILO

I switched to 6m but very few WSPR stations were active and no spots were made or received. I tuned the receiver and heard a weak Polish station on SSB but the opening was over and no contacts were made.

Still, it is good to see some activity on the “magic band.” Things can only get better!

I thought my Baofeng UV-3R+ had developed a fault today. Whenever I changed channel the rig went into transmit.

Eventually I realized that the VOX was turned on. The clicks from the rotary channel knob were triggering it! Doh! I think I’m getting too dumb for this game.

Ebay is a good place to buy accessories like speaker/mics and headsets for your radios. A few years ago I used it to buy a speaker/mic for my Kenwood TH-F7E. After I sold that radio I used the speaker/mic with my TH-D72. When I tried it with my old TH-205E however I found that PTT didn’t work. I soon established that the reason was the genuine Kenwood accessories used a monophonic 2.5mm plug with only two contacts, tip and sleeve, for mic audio and PTT. The third-party accessories from eBay used a stereo 2.5mm plug with tip, ring and sleeve, but there was no connection to the ring. It looked as if the plug in the radio was trying to make contact in the area of the ring. This obviously was OK for newer Kenwood radios but with the 205E there was no ground connection for the PTT.

Ring and sleeve of the 2.5mm plug should be connected

My first thought was to open up the speaker mic, find the wire connected to the ring and connect it to ground. However I soon found that the cable of my speaker/mic had no wire connected to the ring at all. My only option was to try to bridge the two contacts together using solder. This I did, and the speaker/mic then worked with the TH-205E.

The Wouxun KG-699E and the Baofeng UV-3R+ also claim to use accessories with a Kenwood-compatible plug but just like the 205E I found that PTT did not work. I have just performed the same modification to the plugs on a “Kenwood-compatible” headset/boom mic and also one of the earpiece/mics that came with the Baofeng and Wouxun so that they would all work with all four radios. It is easy to do, but you need to take care as it’s easy to melt the plastic parts of the plug and you could easily ruin it if too much heat is used.

Using a sharp craft knife cut away a small section of the black plastic insulation between the ring and the sleeve of the 2.5mm plug to reveal an inner metal sleeve. Open this up a bit more using the edge of a jeweller’s file. Then make a solder bridge between the ring and sleeve. You need to apply heat using the edge of the soldering iron bit to the inner sleeve in order that the solder will bridge the gap. Apply the soldering iron for as short a time as possible to avoid melting the plastic insulation and destroying the plug. I used Blu-Tac to hold the plug in a steady position whilst soldering.

After you have bridged the contacts use a jeweller’s file to remove any excess solder from the plug. You should also smooth the plastic insulation between the plug contacts which may have melted and bulged a bit. The plug should be completely smooth between the contacts, the solder bridge and the insulation. It should plug easily into the socket on the radio. If it needs a firm push then try a bit more filing until it goes in easily. You don’t want the plug to get stuck in the radio nor for it to damage the socket contacts if force is needed to insert or remove it.

I accept no responsibility for damaged plugs or radios as a result of trying this modification. However I have done three of them now with success each time so it is possible with care. Now my “Kenwood-compatible” accessories will work with old and new Kenwoods as well as the Baofeng and the Wouxun.