Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
OFCOM plans for the year ahead
March 26th, 2015 | 
Author: See http://www.ofcom.org.uk/content/about/annual-reports-plans/ann-plans/Annual_Plan_Statement.pdf .
Sorry, but this CRAP shows what OFCOM plans are for the year ahead. In an executive executive summary (mine) I would summarise this as,”continue to be a bureaucratic quango”.
It looks like it was written by a young, overpaid, headless chicken. Lots of “informed choice” and similar buzz words. Rubbish in my view. No-one there seems to be able to make decisions based on the use of a brain and common sense.
Give OFCOM some real power and let them make common sense decisions. My recent discussions on VLF/LF experiments are just an example of their total inability to think “out of the box”. Sorry, but as an OFCOM “customer” I am left very unimpressed.
Opinionated, me?
Ham College 3 Live Stream
Join us at www.live.amateurlogic.tv if you want to watch the raw, uncut, live version. China v. Japan
Up to now, the Japanese “big boys” such as Icom, Kenwood and Yaesu have pretty well dominated the amateur radio market, but the Chinese are on the march. Only last month I bought a 30W pep all mode rig for 10m: this was made in China. See also yesterday’s post about 40m Pixie kits at ridiculously low prices.
Be in no doubt: within a few years we will see the amateur radio market flooded with quality products made in China with low prices. At this point, the traditional Japanese brands will die out or be made in China. By the next solar minimum in around 4-5 years time the dynamics of the commercial amateur radio market will be very different. The writing is already on the wall.
Up to now most Chinese amateur products have lacked the finesse of Japanese products but this is rapidly changing. We are fast approaching the time when Chinese made amateur products will be every bit as good as Japanese products, but at very much lower prices.
In the end competition is healthy but this is likely to result in the death nell for all manufacturers not in China. We could well see the death of Ten Tec and Elecraft unless they design in the USA and make in China. The volumes of loyal customers who would be willing to pay USA manufacturing prices would be far too low, sadly.
Of course, we have already seen this with most consumer products and white goods. In the end, China will become too expensive and we will look for slave labour rates elsewhere. Sadly we live in a very odd world. This cannot go on for ever, but we are all complicit. At the moment we are exporting most of our manufacture to China.
Chameleon Antennas F Loop Field Test 03-21-2105
The nice thing about the area we are operating from is not only the view of Pine Bay and Lake Superior but there is no line noise or man-made noises that affect us, only things we hear are the wind, birds and small wind chime that is hanging in a tree.
So I then switched to the KX3, I think the cold was affecting the radio though as I had to crank the volume to 50 in able to hear the signals, combine that with weak signals on the band and was a bit of a chore to hear with the small speaker, but the best thing was I made a contact into Florida with KD4ZU running 5 watts on SSB from this rig. He said I had a great signal at his end was very much copyable with no problems. So 3 contacts on initial setup of the new Chameleon F Loop was indeed a great success for us, assembly was easy with no issues at all, and packing and unpacking into the Condo bag was easy as well. The tuner can also be mounted on a tripod if needed as it has a hole pre-drilled for that purpose, as you seen we had it sitting on the rock and had no issue running it.
A quick test of WWV on 10 megs also showed the directivity qualities of the side of the loop and the signal peaked quite well. It was now 1900z and we decided to pack up and head back down from the lookout and head home knowing we had another successful RaDAR and HFNow operating day after bands being so bad all week.
My latest video can be found here on my YouTube Channel:
Thanks goes out to:
Carl at Chameleon Antennas
HFNow group
RaDAR Group
Gary VE3ODE (Camera man and friend)
Teresa (VE3TLL) my YL who encourages me to get out and play radio
Elecraft for making a great radio like the KX3
ICOM for the hardy IC-703 of which Gary and I both own
Propagation Godz for opening up the bands
George and Mary-Anne who have allowed this beautiful spot to be viewed by others
Take care gang and be back shortly with more reviews, test and just plain fun.
Fred VE3FAL
The Ice Man
40m Pixie kit at INCREDIBLE price
I bought my 40m Pixie kit for $10 and thought this was a bargain. Then Andy Cutland sent me this link.
Hi Roger, this is the cheapest i’ve seen yet. What fantastic value !Check out this item I found on eBay:End time: 15 Apr 2015 10:33:10(Sent from eBay Mobile for Android)
At £3.19 with free shipping there is no way you could make this cheaper in my view. Remember this price includes a crystal, PCB and all the board mounted parts. This looks identical to mine which works very well. This is a refined Pixie and performance has exceeded expectations. Netting is excellent TX to RX and AM breakthrough very modest. My power out is about 400mW and a 1uV signal level very good on RX. A totally usable 40m CW rig for not much more than a cup of coffee.
Even with the after-effects of my cerebellum brain bleed I was able to build the kit without any issues.
Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 53
Colorado Governor signs Amateur Radio antenna bill into law
Friday the 13th turned out to be a lucky day for Colorado hams, as Gov John Hickenlooper signed into law an Amateur Radio antenna bill that mirrors the PRB-1 federal pre-emption policy.
ARRL
The tallest towers in the world
Name the tallest structures in the world. You’re almost certainly not thinking of TV towers. But dozens of nearly anonymous towers around the United States, most in small rural communities, dwarf all but the tallest man-made structures in the world.
Medium
Strongest geomagnetic storm of Solar Cycle 24
It didn’t take long for the VHF bands to start filling up with auroral signals as 6m diehards soon discovered that something was amiss.
VE7SL
Ubuntu Hams
The Ubuntu Hams Team exists to bring together Amateur Radio Operators and developers of Amateur Radio packages who use Ubuntu.
Ubuntu
Why you should learn to love Ham Radio
When I joined as a squeaky-voiced 12-year-old in the 1990s, it was like discovering the Internet before the Internet.
PopularMechanics
TNC-Pi: TNC-X for Raspberry Pi
TNC-Pi is a special version of TNC-X designed to interface directly with the Raspberry Pi computer. It can connect to the Pi either via the Pi’s serial port, or via the I2C protocol.
TNC-Pi
FUNcube team has received two million packets of telemetry data
FUNcube-1 (AO-73) was launched on November 21, 2013 and since then radio amateurs and schools have been receiving the telemetry packets and passing them to AMSAT UK.
AMSAT UK
Minimalist VHF Software Defined Radio
Our next step will be to mix this signal to VHF and add a PA to produce 1 Watt of signal on 2M, to support our VHF FreeDV work. Please contact us if you can help us with a VHF PA design!
Rowetel
Video
1st contact as a licensed Ham made via satellite
There probably are not any other 8 year olds who can claim that!
Vimeo
Tower demolition
This video features the demolition of a 300′ cable head end tower in Jackson, MN. Built in 1953, it did not want to fall over.
YouTube
New products
RUMlogNG now available
RUMlogNG is the next-generation of Thomas’ (DL2RUM) excellent RUMlog logging software and incorporates logging, rig control, Winkey support, DX Cluster, LoTW/eQSL/Clublog, support for HamQTH or QRZ.com XML lookups, award tracking, QSL printing, integration with Fldigi for digital modes, and much more.
Mac Ham Radio
CQmaps: Professional maps for Amateur Radio
At CQmaps, you will find that all the maps offered have been drafted with the utmost care and precision gained from 10 years of experience as a Geographic Information System (GIS) Analyst and cartographer.
CQmaps
Reviews
Baofeng FF-12P (UV-5X)
A clip on YouTube suggested that the UV-5X / FF12P scans faster. This proves to be true: the FF-12P outperforms all other Baofeng radios I own, including the GT-3 Mark II. Scan speed is about 5-6 channels/sec.
PD0AC
SSTRAN AMT3000 AM transmitter kit
The AMT3000 can be configured to work with the supplied simple wire antenna, which will essentially broadcast AM to radios throughout your home, or it can be configured for a Part 15 compliant outdoor base-loaded vertical antenna which will extend your range up to 3/4 of a mile, should your shack be down the road or in an outbuilding.
The SWLing Post
FT817 replacement?
I have mentioned this before, but I am truly amazed that Yaesu has not updated the FT817. OK, I have heard the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” argument but on simple commercial arguments I think they must be stupid. There is a worldwide market (500000?) ready to upgrade yet I think they have now missed the window of opportunity as sunspot numbers are falling.
I wonder if any sharp eyed, sharp eared readers have heard any rumours of an imminent replacement?
