AmateurRadio.com

Just like every other morning, the alarm clock went off at 7:30 and I made myself a coffee and then sat down at the radio to see how 30m FT8 conditions were. As always I turned on the Icom 7610, the PC and then started JTDX software. Everything seemed to be as it should be until I tried to transmit my FT8 signal into the pool. My radio went into transmit but no power output, now in the past I had the power on the Icom turned down to zero and it was a matter of just adjusting the power. I checked and the power was set properly but something was wrong. I then oped the settings tab in JTDX and looked at the audio sub-tab to my surprise the audio input and output selections had changed. I could not see in the drop-down list my Icom audio selection in either the playback or recording tabs? When all else fails with a PC shut down and restart! I checked the playback and recording tabs and now there was an Icom Codec selection but why was it gone, why did it change in the first place and finally what happen to the custom names I gave these selections? I have no idea why JTDX changed the audio selection and why windows removed the Icom recording and playback selections and then they returned but the custom names were gone. All is back to normal and JTDX is functioning just fine but it is very frustrating when these anomalies happen.

A drive though town

Good evening from Atlantic Canada, just yesterday we had our first Maritime snow fall in around 10cm or so. That's more or less a dusting when it comes to snow storms I am told down this way. The temperature was in around 0C during the storm but it cooled off after the snow fall down to -5C. Hmmmm so way the weather report......I had a chance to see how the Endfed antenna held up in the snow. When I got up in the morning I noticed the snow accumulation on the wire and caused a major sag. It's funny how a small wire can get such a large (compared to the wire size) amount of snow it it. Just a fast "flick" of the Endfed wire fixed the snow issue and the antenna was back to its normal height.
While on FT8 Saturday morning on 30m which is my normal watering hole these days with a cup of Java as I greet the morning I noticed a message appear on my PC screen. It was a message from my Win4icom software suite. Usually these messages are not a good sign and rarely contain info you really want to see while having fun on the radio. This message was not good news...and  my FT8 stopped working, my rig was stuck in transmit and CAT communication was lost.

Just love seeing these messages

To be fair I did have this message in the not to distant past. The messages informs you regarding a possible RFI issue, it turned out it was infact an RFI issue. After doing some reading on the internet I found others had issues with the USB cable from the Icom 7610 to the PC. The solution was fer-rite chokes on the USB cable which I did and the issue was gone. For some reason it was back and I wasn't   sure way? I did a very fast check of the chokes as they are snap on ones and sometime they unsnap but all seemed to be good that way. I had things to do and had to investigate the cause later in the day or evening. My antenna is an Endfed from KX3helper.com and as I have read many times on the internet and user groups that these antennas are prone to RFI issues. Up to this point I have placed a high quality 1:1 balun from balun designs on the coax feed close to the radio.  I have also grounded all my equipment to single point then to an 8 foot ground round. I have tried adding a separate counter poise to the Endfed antenna and that did nothing to improve things. It would seem that I now have some type of an RFI issue or according to the message a software issue but I am inclined to think it is RFI popping up it's ugly head again.

Make shift connection

My first question to myself is "what has changed with the radio, antenna and computer software"..... nothing has changed. The only thing that has changed was the weather it has gotten very very cold outside. Would the cold affect my ground system....? I have no idea if the cold weather can affect this or not? I went to the internet to seek out ideas from others who have an Endfed antenna. One thing that kept coming up was to ground the shield of the coax feeding the radio from the antenna. It was worth a try so I made a make shift ground on the outside of the PL-259 to ground. I started the PC and radio, I tried transmitting in segments as I increased the power output and low and behold the issue was gone and has been ever since. I did remove the ground and the issue returned right away so this seemed to be the solution that worked. I am now back on the air!

During my morning FT8 session I was transmitting on my normal morning band of 30m at 60 watts. I have been very pleased with my Endfed antenna at this new location and how it preforms on FT8. Yesterday I was shocked to see that my signal was picked up in Australia at -13dB and a distance of 17472 Km's this is a first for me.

My first CB radio

All of us have a story regarding the steps that moved us toward our adventure in Amateur radio. When I was growing up CB radio was in it's hay day and everyone had a citizen band radio either in their car or home or both. At a young age I was around adults that had CB radios and thus it exposed me to the magic of radio. The solar cycle was peaking and the bands were alive and this even more sparked my interest. I thought it was so cool that you could talk to someone over the air waves as opposed to a phone and not a cell phone as they were not even around then. I was almost a teenager and I picked up a Johnson Messenger 6 channel AM CB radio and way back then you needed a licence to operate a citizen band radio. Eventually I did apply for a licence and was given the call XM4240.  When I was young I lived in an apartment building in Toronto but was on the ground floor and that was not good for CB radio. My mom knew someone on the 8th floor and she agreed to me having an antenna on her balcony. So I ran the coax up to the 8th floor and I was good to go. At this point in time I was not interested in DX but to be honest I didn't  even know what it was I was just thrilled to listen CBers chatting and occasionally introducing my voice on the air to see who was there.

My first SSB CB radio

For about 8 years my CB radio endeavours took a back seat to school and then working for a living. Once married I began to rediscover my radio wonders, I purchased a SSB CB radio for the car. My new wife and I took a vacation from Ontario to the Maritimes with the SSB CB radio installed in the car. During the evenings I was in the car trying my hand at DX and at that time DX was working the U.S. states from Canada. One evening to my thrill I was able to work many states and I even had a pile up of U.S. states that wanted to work me from the Maritimes!! At this point in time I was hooked on DX and it began my ham radio adventure.
I now  had a full time job and was working on a family but my Amateur radio thrill was still very much alive. I was able to get a part-time job at an Amateur radio store that just opened up in my town. This was great exposure and allowed me time to study for my exams which I took and passed. My wife and I were renting a house in the country at the time and I was able to put up an R6 vertical antenna and through part time amateur radio job I got a great deal on an Icom 735 radio. I was fascinated with CW after learning it for my basic licence, I wanted to keep my learning curve alive

My pre-amp mic

regarding CW. I figured I worked very very hard to learn it I did not want to loose it and having said that our kids came along and ham radio took a second seat to family life. It was off and one with ham radio as the kids did there growing and maturing. Once the kids were in high school the amateur radio magnetic kicked in again! My CW was very rusty and needed to be brushed up on but I was determined to not loose this great "language" I acquired!!  From this point in time it has been an adventure and has brought me to the point were I am now with radio. It was the magic of CB radio that caught my interest and it started my adventure towards ham radio........what was your trigger toward ham radio......shortwave radio, listening to your dad on his ham radio or scanners...........do share how you received the spark for ham radio?

The Icom 735

Moving down to New Brunswick from Ontario involved lots of planning and changing of information to our new location. With regards to ham radio it meant a new call and changing what I thought was a "few things". Well...........I had no idea of all the changes that had to be done such as QRZ.COM, Club log, Eqsl, my blog, LOTW, ARRL, Rad com and the list goes on and on. Some of the changes involved a simple online form. Others involved emails to individuals and even phone calls to inform of a call change. When you think you have covered all the bases and there is nothing that is left which needs the VE3WDM to VE9KK change...........There are times when things are right under your nose and fail to see it!

My splash screen on the Icom 7610 for the past 2 months!

Ahhhh that's better.

Those hearing me on 20m FT-8

This evening I gave FT-8 a go on 20m and 30m and I was shocked with the contacts I was able to make. I was calling CQ on 20m FT-8 and JI3MJK from Japan came back to me! The contact was made and then JA3ADW came back to my CQ call. I was not able to make contact with him as there was about 4 other station also calling me, he may had given up. My evening contacts both on 20m and 30m were from Italy, U.S, Japan, Denmark, Slovenia and the Czech Republic and the U.S.  

Those hearing me on 30m FT-8 On 20m I was being heard in Japan, South America, Central America, Europe(including Iceland) and all over the U.S. On 30m FT-8 the food gates opened to Europe and all over the U.S but Japan closed down. Overall I am very pleased with how my Endfed antenna preformed this evening.