AmateurRadio.com

Clint Bradford, K6LCS

Many hams don’t have the financial resources to buy some of the more exotic equipment you see in the full-page QST ads. Don’t worry, you don’t have to feel left out! What almost every ham DOES have is a dual-band HT. Clint Bradford, K6LCS, has created an excellent THE go-to resource to show you how you can easily work the FM birds with minimal equipment — most of which you probably already have! His site is truly a wealth of information.

He shared this with me:

It has been my mission in life the past 8+ years to show those who have never worked an amateur satellite that they CAN do it – with equipment they probably already own. I mean, when I first saw an AMSAT table at a hamfest several years ago, I just walked on by, wrongly believing that I needed 100W of TX power, multiple Yagis on the roof (which has led to divorces in my state), and that expensive Yaesu rotator.

Clint lays it out step-by-step:

• Radio options
  
  Clint uses a Yaesu FT-60R with a speaker mic, but you can use most dual-band HTs that feature the ability to program “split frequencies.” Ideally, you could use a second radio (or scanner) and work in full-duplex mode. According to Clint, there are discontinued HTs which support full-duplex including the Kenwood TH-D7/TH-D79, Icom IC-W32a, and the Yaesu FT-470/FT-51/FT-530.

• Antenna options
  
  Clint recommends the Arrow Antenna Model 146/437-10WBP or Elk Log Periodic Model 2M/440L5, but these very nice (but expensive) antennas aren’t your only option. He suggests that you could build a simple and inexpensive tape measure beam with very acceptable results. Just want to listen?  Well, Clint shares that although it takes more patience and finesse to work satellites with “lesser” antennas, one of the first 2-meter reception reports from the ARISSat-1 was from someone using the stock antenna on his Yaesu VX-9 HT!

• Find an “easy” satellite
  
  Clint recommends starting off with SO-50  or even the ISS (International Space Station). He has a great satellite schedule page on his site which lists the current status/availability of each bird and the necessary frequencies and CTCSS. Of note, some birds may require the transmission of a certain tone to activate a timer. After that, a different subaudible tone is used for the duration of the QSO. He does note that SO-50 can be a little “finicky” — for best results, work it full-duplex.

• Track the satellite
  
  You have to know both when the satellite will be “visible” to you, and where you’ll need to point your antenna. Clint has a tracking page on his site which lists some of the programs and apps he recommends. While there are a variety of commercial options, he offers some good free options including AMSAT’s Online Satellite Tracking and Heavens-Above.

• That’s it! Have fun!

If you haven’t already done so, download and print his 4-page PDF guide called Work FM Satellites with your HT! to use as a reference. Thanks for the hard work, Clint. We appreciate it!

BCD436HP Sentinel Software won’t read SD Card

Like many, I was excited to know that Uniden was coming out with a new line of scanners. As someone that owns many of their products as well as their HomePatrol I have really liked the direction they have been going with easy of programming (like GRE has done for some time) and the ability to use GPS to automatically update locations is another great option.

Well, you have read enough about the scanner and I will do my own review at some point, but this post is about the fact that there has been a nagging issue that I have seen others have and unfortunately, I ran into the same issue.

For some reason Uniden did not format their SD Cards in the same format so there has been some of us with both the UNIDEN BCD536HP as well as the BCD436HP that have had SD Card unreadable or not recognized by the Sentinel software.  I have read many posts out there about people getting frustrated and sending theirs back as defective units which I was concerned about when I read this, but alas after trying several cables, different computers with Windows 7, Windows 8 and even Windows 8.1 I found a very simple solution.

http://nicktoday.com/bcd436hp-sentinel-software-wont-read-sd-card/

AmateurLogic.TV Episode 63 is now available for download.

Tommy and George visit the Jackson Amateur Radio Club’s 2014 Capital City Hamfest and bring back some unique stories. A special appearance by the guys from Ham Dynasty. Peter talks All About Radio. Tommy shows us simple tips to Secure Your Pi. And George brings us some Soldering Tip Tips.

1:04:52 of ALTV with the usual suspects.

Download

View in web browser: YouTube

While I write this they are still booming in with S9 signals on 15 meter, but boy, the operator sounds tired. He takes frequent breaks, just to ease the pile-up.

Still, after a few calls he got me and after the usual 59 exchange I thanked him on-air. You could hear he appreciated it and the whole team does deserve a lot of praise. They had to handle a lot of messy pile-ups, but they did well. In the end I worked them on 17, 15, 12 and 10 meters, both in CW and SSB and that is more than enough for me. No need to bother them anymore, they deserve a good rest as from coming Wednesday. Cheers, guys.

It was the weekend of the Dutch PACC Contest. Me being Dutch I always look out for QSOs with the home land. And since the propagation gods were in an excellent mood the prospects for many QSOs with PA stations were also good.

Unfortunately the contest only starts at 1200 UTC on Saturday and just 20 meters was open at that time. I worked two stations in CW and called it a day. On Sunday it wasn’t much better: hardly any signals on 15 meters and then only weak SSB. I heard my old club station PA6A, but they couldn’t hear me. Bummer. But EA8AM from the Canary Islands was coming in 57 a bit higher on the band and I had a chat with him instead. Nice, another new DXCC entry in the log. I did work three PA stations around 0900 UTC then decided to cook dinner instead of spending time behind the radio.

But after dinner I couldn’t resist and tuned the bands again. And whadda you know! At 1130 UTC 15 meters was wide open to Europe and I could work six Dutch stations in CW in a row, before the contest closed at 1200. In total only 11 stations worked, so I won’t get first prize, but satisfying non-the-less.

But the icing on the cake came when I was updating my logbook. I gave my tuning knob a twirl and landed on 14006 kHz where RI1ANT was calling CQ. No problem working him and the third Antarctic QSO in the log. Can it get any better?

We all know those “before” and “after” photos where you have to spot the differences, right? Well, here are two for you to dissect.

BEFORE

AFTER

No no no, the Chinese medicinal hair growth tonic didn’t really work: my amount of hair is still the same. But a trained ham’s eye had no problem in spotting the change on the desk, not?

When my TS-440S broke down – again – a couple of months ago I was pretty upset. I was just getting back into DXing on long- and medium wave and winter was coming, which means more fun on 160 meters. My semi-QRP TS-130V was just not up to the task, so I had a tough decision to make. After telling myself “carpe diem“, “you only live once” and “come on, ease your mid-life crisis a bit” for a week I finally sold some of my mutual funds and ordered a KX3 kit. Being a very responsible husband and father I had bad feelings about diverting some family funds for my own pleasure. But boys need toys and I just don’t feel right without a decent rig (or some wheels, a guitar and Dutch cheese for that matter).

Now you just can’t let Elecraft send over a transceiver to Taiwan, because the customs people just don’t allow that. Importing transmitting equipment is strictly regulated and quite a serious matter to the government of Taiwan. Importing papers have to be arranged and customs forms signed, money has to be paid and stamps stamped on a multitude of documents and receipts. So, the average Taiwanese ham doesn’t bother with it and neither did I. Elecraft sent the KX3 to a good friend in Colorado who repacked it and send it in two shipments to Taiwan. The replacements parts for my “weather station” arrived safely and a couple of days later I had my KX3 ready and was back on the air.

Happy happy happy, but then I started to feel the limitations: the KX3 can only put out 12 Watts and even less if you want to do digital modes. Elecraft has a 100 Watt amp in their product line and it looks very nice……only its price not so much. And I am not a QRPer. I need some powerrrrr to compensate for my lousy antenna system. Most ham equipment over here is imported from Japan and so I started to look for a decent (read “cheap”) QRO amp. I first tried the second-hand market, but I ended my search at Amazon.co.jp where the ICOM IC-7200 was being discounted 31% to only 72,800 Japanese Yen. That translates to 720 US dollars and is in my opinion the bargain of the century. You can hardly get a decent second-hand amp, let alone rig, for that amount. And why buy an amp if you can get a whole new radio for such a nice price? So I ordered one, my good friend JA1RZD tested it in his shack in Tokyo and an acquaintance then brought it with him on a visit to Taiwan.

Now I am the happy owner of two very modern rigs. It’s quite a culture shock compared to the old Kenwoods I have, but I am beginning to feel the advantages of having DSP, computer control, very narrow filters and independent pass bands control. And you know what? The remainder of my mutual funds did so well since I sold a portion that I already have “earned” back the IC-7200. All’s well that ends well.

The fire crackers have been lit and the red envelopes handed out: Welcome to the year of the horse. Listen up for some extra activity from east Asia where we all celebrate the beginning of a new lunar year. Gongxi Facai to all of you.

73 de Hans