AmateurRadio.com

Action on 20 meters

The propagation numbers have been flying high and the bands are open and hopping!! The above shot is 20 meters viewed on PowerSDR. It has not been this busy in some time even at 14.060 the QRP calling frequency I was able to pick up with out with any trouble KG1AFO, W4LVP K4YKI all in a QRP QSO's. In the other segments of 20 meters there both local (North America) and DX.  In the above picture where the yellow cross hairs are is the interference my Plasma TV is giving me. Even in that area I was able to copy  VA2DW and K4JJW who came in over the Plasma garbage!!

  Last night while on the radio searching out once again T32C my PowerSDR showed a pileup off the T32C frequency. Well over I went and sure enough it was a pile up but not for T32C it seemed to be for 3XY1D in Guinea. Hmm I thought never worked that part of the world so maybe I will give it a go. Then out of nowhere came (in CW) "phoney" very loud and over all the traffic. But not just once..... every 10 to 15 seconds!! Then in  CW came a response "NO" to which the reply was "yes phoney".  This ruined it for me as I would guess many others. Now the call did sound funny but I looked up the call and there is a DXpedition there for October and November. As I QSY'd along the band never finding T32C but possibly finding 3XY1D. I had not been given a chance to work him because of an operator who some how was given the "DXpedition gold enforcement badge". What is worse.....an operator pretending (maybe) to be someone they are not just for the joy of forming a pileup....or......an operator who deliberately (for sure) transmits over others knowing he is doing so....or both? Two wrongs don't make a right!

KAT100 in new enclosure

In a previous post I debated to either jump on the Elecraft KX3 band wagon or convert my Elecraft K2 so it can be used both as a home base radio and also for portable op's. The bottom line for now is the KX3 is out and I am in the process of converting my K2.  The end result will be that I'll have my K2 for portable operations with an internal battery and internal QRP antenna tuner. At home the radio will then hook up to the external antenna tuner (KAT100) and if and when needed the 100 watt amp (KPA100). So I ordered the KAT100, KIO2 (RS 232 interface), KAT2, KBT2 (internal battery) and the
enclosure to house both the KAT100 and KPA100. I have completed the external antenna tuner. It went very smooth

Toroid lineup

Bifilar winding

there were 10 toroids to wind but with practice these are not a big deal. But if you feel this is the only area of kit building that stops you from ordering....there is help!!! The Toroid guy is there to lend a helping hand, you can purchase quality pre-wound toroids for any Elecraft kit. This portion of the project took me about 2 weeks. That is 2 leisurely weeks I try not to do marathon kit building sessions, I end up making mistakes and missing things. The external ATU is now mounted in it's housing (I still have the alignment of the ATU to do). I have removed the KPA100 from the top of the K2 which went very smooth. There are only 3 connectors that plug the ATU into the KPA100 and it's ready to go. It's now time to get the RS-232 inter connecting cables made along with the RS-232 interface that is installed in the K2 built as well. This allows the K2 to communicate with the ATU, Amp and computer. The battery and KAT2 antenna tuner are on there way from Elecraft and I hope when done this next part of the project they will have arrived.

Above KAP100 waiting to be installed below from panel assembly

If you are ever thinking of doing this project with your K2 below are some links that helped me out.

KK7P offers some very good advice along with some excellent pictures as well.
Wilcox Engineering also have some nice pictures of the unit and advice.

Getting started

Well as most have heard Apple came out with their new iPhone last week. I was looking forward to the new iPhone 5 and disappointed when it was revealed as the 4S. Seems funny to me Apple let the iPhone 5 rumor build when in fact they planned the 4S.  It was just released here in Canada this week, there were folk lined up hours before electronic stores opened awaiting their new iPhone. As for Julie and I we bailed on the iPhone frenzy and picked up some months ago the iPhone 4. Our iPhone 3S's had seen better days and it was time to upgrade. So that brings me back to the new iOS 5 that Apple released last week. I checked it out and it will work on our iPads and iPhone 4 as well. There is improved features for text messaging, I would no longer have to dock to iTunes to get updates, improved camera,  a storage area called iCloud, some minor changes in the email and calender...these are but some of
the new things with iOS 5. Off I went to iTunes to get the update all went smooth....so I thought. I then restarted my iPhone and ALL my purchased app's were GONE.....all music......GONE and email......GONE!!!!!

All better....thanks Apple care

Since the fall is coming and kit building will be on the rise I wanted to recycle this post from last year...
When I decided a few years ago to venture into a new area of amateur radio.....kit building. I did  some research on the internet to see what I was up against. Having never built a kit and not really having any electronics background I did not want to get in over my head. So it was a simple kit to begin with but at the same time something I would use and not just become a home to dust bunnies. I decided on the Elecraft KX1 kit as it would I hoped turn out to be a functioning radio. One I could put to use in portable operation again this was another area of amateur radio I had yet to discover. So I practiced my soldering, put together some tools and one thing that kept waking me up at nights....(not really) was the TOROID WINDING!!!!!!! There is lots on the internet on how to go about winding a toroid. With the KX1 kit I found myself trying the different methods and at times  having to rewind some toroids many times. A few weekends ago during slow times in the ARCI contest I decided to do some toroid winding for my on going KPA100 100 watt option for my K2 Elecraft radio.

I added Soft rubber to jaws of the vise

Chopstick method

I just want to share some of the ideas I tried during my trial and error periods of toroid winding. Also the process I go through from start to finish. As with most any kit I have worked with you are given a recommended length of wire to cut and I have found at least with the Elecraft kits the total wire given is always more than enough to wind all the toroids. Now comes the fun part the winding, there was three methods I tried. The first was putting the toroid core in a vise and winding the wire through the core. I found this to be somewhat awkward for me, some may find it works for them but I was opening and
closing the vise and moving the core around more than winding the toroid. Using the vise seemed to take a very long time. But having said that if your hand is not steady the vise is a very good alternative. The vise did  great to just hold the toroid for the later step of stripping the leads...more about that later. The next idea that came across my path was the use of a chopstick, I included a picture of what I am taking about and we all know how a picture is worth a thousand words.
Using the chopstick I was able to form the turns of the wire nicely around the inside of the toroid. At the same time space the turns out so the toroid looked very balanced. I used this method with building my KX1 and as I wound each turn I inserted the chopstick and inspected the toroid. As I progressed to my next kit (Elecraft K2) I used the chopsticks for eating and not winding toroids. As it turned out this too was a method that just seem to complicate the winding process. As I gained confidence  winding  toroids I just put on my magnifying head set and wound them by hand!!! This proved to be the road for me in regards to gettin r done with the infamous toroid. See the link at the bottom of post to see how winding a toroid by hand is done.  Once the toroid is wound you have to remove the coating of insulation on the wire. In this regard I read of sanding it off, using a lighter or flame of some type to bun it off or a hot solder blob. I tried the sandpaper method but I found it to be a little hard on the toroid windings and sometimes the sandpaper got to close to the turns of wire and removed some insulation there as well. I gave the open flame a go but found I was just heating up the wire and really did not have any control over removing the insulation and heat required to remove the insulation.

Tinning leads

The method I settled on and works great for me is the solder blob method.  I use a type of mini vise with alligator clips on the ends to hold the toroid in place I then change the solder tip to a larger one.  The soldering station is turned up to about 800 degrees Fahrenheit the hot tip is placed on the lead to be tinned and solder is applied to tip and wire until a small amount of smoke begins to form. At that point the solder and soldering iron is moved slowly along the toroid wire adding solder as I go along. At this point I also want to mention that I also use a solder fume extractor when ever I am soldering and for sure when tinning the toroid leads. There are many on the market for a reasonable price.

                                            SOME TIPS I FOUND HELPFUL
1. I always recount the number of turns just before the last turn is done. I find sometimes more turns are needed or I lost count and I have the correct turns already.
2. Just before placing the toroid into the circuit board one lead is cut shorter than the other. I find this makes placement of the leads into the board holes easier. 
3.  I ALWAYS use an ohm meter to check that my tinning job worked and the insulation is stripped.
4. Once the toroid is soldered in place before cutting the leads flush with the  board I double check again with the ohm meter for continuity.

With practice I found the toroid winding can go smooth and it can be pleasurable as well.  

1 hour and 20 minutes of toroid wind.

                                     Links  that deal with toroid winding

The vise method   Once you are at the web page click on the upper left link "Toroid winding"

     

After reading  some blogs how QRP power has made it out to T32C I was game to give it a go myself. Well I went to T32C's website which by the way is fantastic. It is full of information regarding the DXpedition as well as live up to date spotting information. I checked the frequency's  the website said they would be on and it was only late last night I could just hear them over the noise level on 40m. That was a close as I got to a signal from the team. I tried today and nothing and will give it a go this evening as well. I am hopeful that I will be able to pull off a contact but at this point it is very hard to do so if I am unable to hear them at my QTH. I also went to the VOACAP website and punched in my info.....and well the results for me making a contact with my power, (QRP) location and antenna (attic dipole) gives me a slim to none chance!!!

PowerSDR screen

Over the last couple of weeks the sun gods have been looking down on us and smiling with record breaking sunspots and flux levels. Bands such as 10 meters normally quite has opened up world wide. Just this past weekend I was able to work Europe with just one watt. I found with these great conditions and wanting not to miss out on band openings the rig has been on lots more and the blog writing has gone down just a bit. One tool that has been in my ham radio pocket for some time now is my SDR Panadapter. What is an SDR panadapter you ask....in a nutshell it is a displays a segment of  radio spectrum for
the band that your radio is on. My setup is made up of the LP Pan, EMU 0202 Creative labs external sound card and the PowerSDR software.  The pan-adapter gives my QRP station some nice advantages the main one is the ability to see the entire CW segment at one time. I can see a strong station or week station then point and click and I'm there. Before I would be spinning the VFO from on end of the band to the other. I may just miss a station calling CQ and is now waiting for a response but to me its static with no one there and I move on missing this station for his

My LP-Pan unit below, new TS-990s

next CQ call.  Also I can flip to 10 meters and look at the pan-adapter to see if there is any action on the band or not....seeing if the band is open in a shorter time as opposed to spinning the VFO over the entire band. If you want to go down the Pan-adapter road at this time there are about 3 ways to do it. You can go all out and purchase a Flex radio system this is by far the most expensive way of going about it. Having said that it comes complete with all that is needed including a rig, processor for software and software all in one package. Or as I did you can order a pan-adapter, sound card and download the free software. Finally there is the stand alone Pan-adapter the only one at this time on the market I know of is the Elecraft P3.   This unit is plug and play there is not need for software or a computer...the only catch is you need an Elecraft K3. To be fair some of Icom's rigs come with a band scope. I am not sure how interactive they are. Also Yaesu has their DMU-2000 option that gives you more than just a band scope.  There is also some rumors of  Kenwood coming out with a new rig.  I have seen some pictures and along side is an
Elecraft type stand along plug and play Pan-adapter. Next question that most ham's ask is "how much for this toy" The option I chose I believe is the cheapest...the LP-Pan comes either as a kit or factory built unit. I chose the kit at 200.00. The EMU-0202 ran me 125.00 and the software is well what all hams want to hear....FREE!!! So for about 325.00 you can be in the Pan-adapter world. Oh and one last consideration is the speed of your PC. It is recommended  on the LP Pan site the following be used for your PC:

2.8 GHz processor (the more the merrier), preferably Core Duo or Quad.
1 GB RAM (the more the merrier, limited to 3GB on 32-bit systems, which are recommended)
16-bit sound card, preferably not integrated into motherboard. 24-bit preferred (lower noise floor)
48 kHz sound card... 96 or 192 KHz preferred (display width is roughly equal to sampling rate)
Separate video card, or integrated video with sufficient dedicated memory. Most of the SDR applications are video intensive.
So there you have it a pan-adapter setup...Christmas is coming and maybe it might be something you would like under the tree??

JUST WANTED TO ADD A NEW ADDITION TO THE POST I WAS EMAILED BY JOHN AE5X. HE REMINDED ME OF ANOTHER OPTION I NEGLECTED TO INCLUDE IN THE POSTING.  THE SOFTROCK AND IT'S A 20.00 KIT!!!! HERE IS A LINK TO GM0ELP'S BLOG DETAILING THE SOFTROCK.