AmateurRadio.com

In my last post regarding the ARRL and my disillusion of their discontinuing of most online courses I did not want to leave things on a negative note. We can complain about something each and every day but for me it's not about the complaining it's the solutions that matter. I turned to the internet to see what was out there regarding any online anything for Amateur radio!!! At Google typing in "online ham radio courses" netted my LOTS of study guides on how to become a radio amateur. As I weeded through the  many many many hits I came across some gem's. No they are not full fledged....the real deal.....online courses I was looking for but very good none the less.



AE4RV offers an excellent propagation primer it's in flash format.
K9LA has come very good tutorials on propagation on his website. 
The Potomac Valley Radio Club has Webinars and some dealing with propagation.
Wikipedeia I found to be very good for information as well as great links on most any subject.


101 Science offers an in depth electricity and electronics tutorials.
Smart flix offers many DVD's and some good ones on electronics.
Youtube has to many to mention just search electronic tutorial and the flood gates open

I have found that there also is lots of information on antennas, feed lines and RFI out there. The online course from the ARRL were a step by step learning process. It followed a building block strategy but at this time it's just not out there.
In closing I understand the ARRL is very keen on Ecomm  and it is certainly understandable. The weather that has brought about permanent change to many in the world is a good reason for Ecomm. Terrorism is not just "over there" anymore it can happen right at home and thus another need for Ecomm. BUT an amateur having a firm grounding in antenna theory, understanding feed lines, RFI, propagation and some electronics makes Ecomm all that much stronger.

A few years back I took the best online course and today I have found nothing that compares. It was an ARRL propagation course it involved interaction with a mentor who was assigned to you. It had fantastic course material, as well as hands on projects. Before enrolling  propagation  was like a foreign language to me. By the end of the course with the help from the mentor, course material and the reviews I began to fully understand how important propagation was and also understood terms such as CME, A and K index, Flux, Solar wind and so on. I was able to put it all together and make sense of things when it came to ham radio and propagation. To this day I still refer to the notes and course materials to clarify things. There were many online course's that were offered. Some courses that still interested me were antenna modeling and RFI....so it was off to the ARRL site to find it. The only coarse's that was offered were public service and emergency communications. I emailed the ARRL asking if any of the other courses were available below was my reply.

Hi Mike,
 
You are correct-- we now offer only emcomm courses online.  
We had to take down our old online course platform and 
have not re-invested in redeveloping the other courses 
to re-launch them on the new platform.
 
However, we are looking at ways to re purpose the content 
from those courses. The first effort is to publish 
an "Introduction to Antenna Modeling" course book 
utilizing the material from the course you mention.

 It seems to me that  a "course book" is the new online course replacement when (and if) it comes out. The propagation course formate was very good and can't be replaced with a book. Seems to me the online learning was just not a priority when the ARRL web platform was revamped......well I'm one disappointed ARRL member.

Over the weekend I was able to get some time to sit down at the rig and get some QRP time in. On Friday there was only time for two contact.  On 20 meters I heard F5HY calling CQ and at the time Michel was a decent signal. His code was a little fast on the CQ calling but I gave it a go. I was using 3 watts and he gave me 529 report.  The conditions were now changing fast and there was lots of repeats at both ends. The contact ended fast as the propagation seemed to be on the downswing. Michel lives in Luc Sur Mer 

F5HY station

France. I did send him an email after the contact he responded that he did not see me in his log. He said it may had been a miscopy of my call. He was going to look into it and get back to me. Up to this point I have not heard. But the contact to Luc Sur Mer France from my QTH with 3 watts works out to 1,218 miles per watt.


I then heard OZ3NP calling CQ on 20 meters and 3 watts just did not seem to cut it so I eventually cranked it up to 10 watts. Ben now heard me in Denmark and I was not sure if he was copying me at times but I'm in his log and I did get an email from him thanking me for the contact. That surprised me as this contact was plagued  with propagation gremlins. AT QRZ.COM Ben has a great setup and with his son now a ham radio history goes back three generations in his family. It was time to shut things down as there was other things that had to be down around the house plus Julie and I were going to have Chinese takeout yummy. 

OZ3NP

I was able to get back on the radio again Saturday afternoon. I checked out 10 meters but it was dead there was some action on 15 so I thought I would give it a go. Rudy IK4VFD was calling CQ so I pumped my 3 watts into my attic dipole. Rudy came back to me and gave me a 529 this was strictly giving out RST, name and QTH as Rudy had a pileup waiting for him. There was a couple of repeats on my behalf as the 3 watts was struggling at times. With this contact my distance into Parma Italy was 1,412 miles per watt. 
It was back to 20 meters as 15 seemed to be shutting down here I ran across UR4UC calling CQ Val came back to me on my first call. I received a 449 RST for some reason my keyer was acting up.....well at the time that was what I blamed it on. In fact it was my nerves getting the better of me during the contact. Not sure why but I can copy most QSO's when they are not a contact. As soon as I engage in a contact for some reason the code copying in my brain goes all funky. I also get all jumbled up with the sending at times as well. I could not understand why Val kept sending me  "UC   UC   UC"....it was not until almost the final 73's that I realized I was sending UR4NC!!! If you read the blog Val sorry about that. This contact netted me my best miles per watt contact of 1,620 miles per watt. 
It's now Sunday and I hope to get some radio time in this afternoon. 

How to pass the time while WSPRing

Leading up to last weekend the sunspots were at an all time high along with the solar flux......it seemed that the radio god's were smiling on us again!! I turned on the K3 on the weekend and it was kinda a  down, it seemed that 20 meters may not had been as hot as I hoped it to be. I then turned to WSPR and thought I would give that a go on 20 meters as well. I wanted to put this solar hot spot to the test.....so instead of setting the K3 on the standard  3 watts output I dropped it down to 500mw's. I gave it a go and was surprised at the good

Dipole at 500mw's

results. Now I had always wondered when using that low power and my SWR after the K3's internal turner on 20 meters is about 2.3 what the

actual power out on the antenna is??? Well according to VK1OD.NET who offers a great RF transmission line loss calculator I could get a good idea. So I punched in all the necessary information I was told my setup is about 95.23% efficient. Well I punched the numbers into Google and it came up with 95.23% of (500 milliwatts) = 0.47615 watts. So I was pumping out 476mw's into my European contacts on WSPR.

H900 on RX and dipole on TX 500mw's

Well I am some what of a gambling man so I dropped the power to 200mw's and that gave me an output of 95.23% of (200 milliwatts) = 0.19046 watts I was able to make some contacts with that power. I had also wanted to compare the ears of my attic dipole compared to my H 900 gain probe receiving antenna which is also mounted in the attic.
If you are a frequent user of WSPR then one knows it basiclly can run on it's own collecting data...so what does the ham do during this down time..........start building his KAT100 antenna tuner of coarse!!

Dipole on RX dipole on TX 200mw's

H900 on RX dipole on TX 200mw's

I have found that the USB world has not really taken over ham radio yet, sure there are some USB devices out there but not many. If you are like me you have more serial cables that you do ports on your computer. Most if not all new laptops only have USB ports. As for PC's they may come with a total of one.  There are the USB to serial converters but I find them to be a bit fussy at times to set up and get good communication going. Last year I came across a product called Edgeport from Digi international   these units can take up to 16 serial cables and with only one USB cable going to the PC. I have the 4 port model and found it on Ebay for about 60.00. Over the past year I have found this unit to work great. You can have all serial cables communicating at the same time. I have never noticed and troubles or slow downs. This is a great solution for the shack with multi serial cables and not enough ports on the PC. If you need it for portable use such as field day it's great as it gets it's power from the USB port so no external power source is needed.

Over the past week I have been doing some radio soul searching..... it all started with some operating time on my Elecraft K3. For some reason I turned to my left and there also on my desk was my Elecraft K2 with literally "0" operating time. At the begining of the summer I wanted to get the K2 portable and use it along with my KX1 on outings. I have the 100 watt module installed in the K2 and that would have to be removed and remote mounted for home use. So I went ahead and ordered the enclosure from Electraft to do this. I had planned this project to begin in the fall along with some other radio projects. Then it hit me "if I have the K2 why am I purchasing another portable rig ....the KX3" I shook my head wondering if Julie had slipped something in my tea!!!! So began the soul searching........the gears started to turn...what was the radio smarts thing to do....

1. KNB2 noise blanker
2. KDSP2 DSP module
3. KIO2 serial interface
4. KAT100 auto turner (to be built and for home use)
5. KPA100 watts module (for home use)

For this rig to go portable I need....

1. KAT2 internal 20 auto tuner
2. KBT2 internal gel cell battery

1. The KX3.....................................800.00 
2. Battery..........................................80.00  
3. Paddle..........................................90.00
4. Mounting bracket..........................30.00
5. Filter..............................................60.00
6. Mike..............................................60.00  

                     Sub total................1289.00                                                                                           
                     Shipping....................50.00 (approx)
                     Total cost...............1339.00

So again I asked my self "Do I need the KX3 or do I just WANT it!"

Don't get me wrong the KX3 is a GREAT radio and has many many things the K2 does not and will not ever have. I do have the cash on hand to purchase the KX3 it was all earned selling equipment around the shack. But after looking over what I already have....a fantastic fully loaded Elecraft K3 for home use. An equally fantastic portable rig being the K2 I am afraid I have to bow out of the KX3 race for now. I can't say the KX3 may never darken the shack but at this time my radio smarts tell me...."not now"

On Sunday afternoon it was now time to figure out why the lights in two rooms were flickering. Also along with the lights my two Astron power supplies would let out a deep hum now and then as well. I began by turning off the circuit breaker to the upper rooms to see what all this circuit breaker fed. I then went to each outlet to see if there were any loose wires. I came across a box that had many neutrals tied together and another group of hots tied together. They seemed to have no evidence of burning or overheating and all seemed to be very tight with the wire nut holding each set together. I still gave both  wire nuts a few good turns and put all the wires back into the box. I then went down again to turn on the circuit breaker and see if the problem was fix....low and behold the problem was gone and has never returned since. So even though the wires did not seem loose they must had been just enough to cause the lights to flicker. It's time to go back to radio fun!!!