AmateurRadio.com

Once moved out from home and on my own, I always remembered what my mom told me regarding credit cards. She said it was always good to have one as a just in case emergency BUT put it in a zip lock bag, fill it with water and put it in the freezer. This way if you are tempted to use the card you have to wait for it to thaw out and by then you may feel what you really "needed" was not a need but a want. 

The bottom line to that way of thinking is sometimes you have to take time to think about what you're going to purchase. Recently I did not use the frozen credit card theory but I am glad I took time to think. I had an email notice come to me informing me that my RSGB membership was coming to an end. The renewal was 70 British pounds which converted to about 120.00 Canadian dollars. ( I was just adding an RSGB link and noticed the fee was not 73.00 pounds which is 124.00 Canadian...NOT) That seemed very steep for me considering the main reason for my membership is the read Radcom magazine. The bottom line for me was that it was way too pricey so I was considering another radio magazine. 

I was looking at CQ magazine as in the past I did have a subscription from them but even then (about 8 years ago) the subscription missed issues and other times issues were late. I decided to wait it out and let the RSGB membership expire and then think about the next move. Kinda like letting the credit card thaw on the counter before I jumped.

Well CQ magazine does not seem to be doing well and online chatter has not been glowing. I just recently checked and their website is no longer loading. There was a statement from CQ saying they have "temporarily " suspended the magazine. In my humble opinion that is never a good sign. I have also read recently of those who just purchased a 1 or more year subscription and so far have received nothing. As a sideline, I feel CQ magazine should refund those who just purchased a subscription but we shall see. 

Well, I am glad that I let the credit card thaw on the counter before I jumped and made a subscription purchase to CQ magazine. To be upfront I will not be taking my chances on this company until it can show stability for at least 2024 without issue. Until then I will have saved some money and I can throw the credit card back in the freezer.

Last week I clicked on a desktop shortcut to open one of my radio programs and the arrow kept spinning and then disappeared and no program opened. I tried some other desktop shortcuts and some worked and some did not. 

Below is the road I travelled down to eventually fix the issue and it turns out that this could happen to any one of us. By outlining the path I followed I hope it helps others out there who may encounter the same issue. 

Before I begin by way of background my setup is as follows:
Win10 home 64bit
 Intel Core i5-10600K CPU @ 4.10GHz  4.10 GHz
RAM 32GB 

My first step was simple and has helped in the past, to restart the PC and give the desktop shortcuts another try. That did not work.
 I then chose one desktop shortcut and it's program to investigate and try to get it working. 

Next, I turned off my Antivirus software (Bitdefender) for a period of 15 minutes and restarted my PC, checking to make sure the Antivirus was still off (it was). I tried the program again and it did not start. 

I then went into Bitdefender antivirus made an exception file for the sample program and restarted but that did not work either.
Next, I started the PC in safe mode and was going to try the programs there but once the PC started the programs I wanted to test were not there. 

I uninstalled the program using Revo uninstaller (great program by the way) I then restarted the PC went to the program's website and downloaded the program again with the antivirus turned off. After restarting the PC I tried the program and it did not work. 

I did not think it was a Windows update as I run a program called Windows Update Blocker (another great program) it blocks all updates until I get the all-clear from the Askwoody site. This is a great site and click on the link to check out lots of great information there. 

It was now time to take things to the next level. I am a firm believer in backing up your PC for the just-in-case moments. The program I use for this is Macrium Reflect and with it, I make a clone and image file of my solid-state C hard drive. The backups are stored on separate internal HDs. One drive for the clone and one for the image. Click on clone or image if you are not sure what they are and you will be taken to a website that explains them. 

I decided to use an image of my C drive from an earlier date when I knew the desktop shortcuts and programs were working. Now you have to remember that anything on your PC after the date of the HD image date will be gone. If your image is from January 30th, 2024 anything on your PC after that date will not be there once you revert to that image. Now I know there is the Microsoft system restore as well but I have never had success with the program. I always get the message "System restore failed to restore to earlier image"
After Macrium Reflect did its magic and I was using an earlier image of my HD all programs were now working fine! So this thought.........
The next day I was on my PC and started the sample problem program and low and behold a spinning arrow and then the program did not start! 

I was doing some nosing around in Bitdefender and turned off the antivirus again, then under protection I turned off Online threat protection and did a restart still had the issue. I then did the same to firewall, ransomware, vulnerability protection and advanced threat protection. It was then I turned on advanced threat protection everything started to work just fine. 

Macrium Reflect restoring HD to earlier date

I then turned on each protection feature and checked the programs and there were no issues but once advanced threat protection was turned on programs would not start.
Within advanced threat protection in the settings, you had the option to set up exceptions but these exceptions had to include the "exe" program file within the file exception. (I found this out with lots of reading on the internet). As well all exe files from the program have to be included or the program will still be blocked from working.

Bitdefender Advanced threat exceptions

Well, last weekend I completed my 2nd field day "event" Some don't consider it a contest. I had a blast and can't understand why I have not taken part in this event in the past. This field day was the winter field day, now I am NOT a snow bunny at all so I was at my home station with the classification H and it was only me which made it 1H for the session...event....contest. I enjoy this contest (ops I said it) because max power is 100 watts and lots of folks are operating with minimal setups. This means I have to listen hard and pull some stations out of the noise floor. I operated only CW ( surprise surprise) and the speed is not rocket speed and things are much more laid back! I found the average CW speed in around 22-25wpm and that is fine with me. It gives my ears a break from the 35wpm and up I am used to in contests. The way I look at it any practice at any CW speed is great practice. In this...contest I hone my skills by digging calls out of the noise floor and there are lots of them. So cheers to all who took part in winter field day especially those who braved the snow and cold temps! Looking forward to the summer field day coming soon.

There have been times when as a ham I have needed things for the shack. As I look online and see the options out there and the cost I have my frugal within me kick in. I have had this internal argument in the past and it has worked out and saved me money other times it has cost me money. To be honest most of the time it has cost me money. 

What am I referring too you ask..let me give you some examples. At one time I needed a coax switch and there was the Alpha Delta and the other ones. The price point was almost 1/2 and I decided to go with the non-Alpha Delta brand. Bad move as in short order I started to have issues with the coax switch and ended up spilling the beans for the Alpha Delta. As a side note, the Alpha Delta was fantastic and NEVER an issue. 

Then there was the mobile antenna mount and I ended up getting the Larson and also a Diamond mount after a failed cheaper mount. Then the bargin power supply which was noisy and garbage was replaced with an Astron supply and I have never looked back. The cheap snap-on toroid chokes were replaced with quality toroids. 

I have learned my lesson over time and know that the pain of spending a bit more removes the larger pain when you have to spend again but I have to admit it took a few purchases for me to see the big picture. As a side note the brands that I mentioned are not by any means the only quality products just the products I purchased to replace the mistakes that I bought.

When I was working Mondays were not often looked forward to unless it was a long weekend and Monday was a holiday. Now being retired Mondays have a new meaning and one of the things I look forward to is the ICWC medium speed (MST) CW 1-hour contest. The times for mini test here in Atlantic Canada are 9-10 am and 3-4 pm local time. 

In the mornings I hug my mug of coffee, warm up the room and get the radio and PC up and running. Most of the time in the morning event I search and pounce for a time to get my head into the CW game. I enjoy the company and the speed is maxed at 25wmp. Not to worry if you are considerably slower as the op's will tone down the speed to match. It's one of the ways Mondays are more of a joy....a cup of java and a radio.

During the 2023 Canada Winter contest I had an odd thing happen twice with the Reverse Beacon Network website. But before I go into that let's talk about what I use the Reverse Beacon Network for in contests. This site has a huge amount of stations that just listen for stations calling CQ. If you are heard then you are shown on a world map along with your signal strength to that location. This is a great tool during a contest for me as it shows where and how strong my signal is. I have used this site for years but in the last contest, something happened that never has and it happened twice.

I was calling for some time on 40m CQ contest and I was getting Reverse Beacon Network feedback from my signal. The reporting station MM0ZBH reported me but on 20m? Informing me my signal was 6dB and on 14036 and not 7.030 where I was calling CQ contest this was at 2337UTC.

 Earlier at 2212UTC the same station had reported me again on 20m this time at 14030 when I was calling CQ on 7030 and my signal strength this time was 28dB. This was odd and even more so when it happened twice in the contest. Any ideas out there and has anyone had the same issue happen to them?

MM0ZBH is the 6th station down on the list

Final score

 I am a bit behind with my posting about the Canada Winter contest that happened last weekend. I have been occupied with looking back on 2023 and my New Year's post. As said last weekend was the Canada Winter Contest I took part in the CW-only category and had a blast. The contest covers from 2m to 160m (excluding WARC bands) SSB and CW in which you can do either of both. The conditions were great in this part of the world and the bands were busy with contesters. I called CQ contest (running) for over 90% of the contest which helped me greatly to improve on working pileups. 

Some of the contact highlights were contact into the Yukon, South Africa and Australia. My average QSO's per hour was 66 and my highest was 90 per hour. The antenna I was using was the Hustler 4BTV (10m-40m) this limited me from 80 and 160 therefore on Friday evening I had to pull the plug at about 0120 UTC as 40m was closing down for me. The contest finished at 2359UTC on Saturday but I was getting tired and pulled the plug at 2330UTC. 

During the day on Friday here in New Brunswick, we did have some freezing rain and that affected some radio ops down this way. Fortunately, I can tilt my antenna over which I did and cleaned the ice off and put it upright again. I did this just before the start of the contest and had no issues. 

I loaded my log in ADIF format into Log Analyzer which gave me a map representation of my contacts. You can see my two distant contacts in South Africa and Australia. This software uses the station's grid square for map location. The issue with this is incorrect grid squares give you some odd results. In my case, the map shows one station in Saudi Arabia and another in the middle of the ocean. Both are a result of an incorrect grid square. But overall the program works great and gives you a nice visual of your contest contacts. The Log Analyzer software does have a workaround for when this happens details are found in a link in red at the top of the website page.

Almost worked all provinces.