AmateurRadio.com

RTL SDR with SDR#

DVB-T Dongle from eBay seller digitalhome88

I received my DVB-T dongle from eBay finally about a week ago.  Here’s a link to the vendor I purchased from.  After getting the drivers loaded in Windows 7 on my aging Dell D630, I was able to get the SDR running.  Using the instructions here at rtlsdr.com, I finally got things up and running.  There was one mistake that made me lose several minutes.  I missed the instruction:  If your dongle doesn’t automatically show up, select Options then List all Devices.  Read carefully!  I’ve found that in my case, SDR# is the better choice of software.  For some reason HDSDR causes the dongle to lock up after changing bands.  I’m sure I’ll find out why because I see many others having good luck with it.  The old Dell was able to keep up, but seemed a bit choppy.  I dropped the sampling rate down a bit, and everything was fine.

My first tests were a little disappointing, yet this was with the cheesy antenna the dongle arrived with, and then with MacGuyver-ing an antenna adapter together.  The DVB-T dongles have a PAL-female connector on them, and nothing in my tin-o-connectors seemed to work.  Radio Shack carries an adapter that is PAL-male on one side and F-female on the other.  I went out and picked one up, as well as an extra F-to-BNC adapter.  Then I was able to go from the dongle to my simple outdoor antenna.

With a solid connection to my outdoor wire antenna (just a wire thrown into a nearby tree, and a counterpoise out on the roof slope), I was able to get all of the local repeaters, as well as repeaters in Manhattan, and much farther.  4 different NOAA stations came in, and aircraft traffic from the whole tri-state area.  I even grabbed a couple of 2 meter USB contacts, and quickly switched over to the TR-9000 to speak with one of them.  Performance with this setup was much, much better than I had expected.

My Elmer had stopped by Sunday to deliver a rig he repaired for me on his way out to Eastern Long Island, and I gave him a quick demo.  After playing with it for about 20 minutes he said “Send me the info.  I need to get one of these!”  Here is a quick video I took of some local repeaters, including a Ham ordering coffee from a McDonald’s drive-thru.  Sorry for the shaky video.

Click here for video: RTL SDR with SDR#

–Neil W2NDG

I activated Mt. Evans for Summits on the Air (SOTA) on July 15th. I took the route from Summit Lake to the top early in the morning since thunderstorms were in the forecast for the afternoon. I had the peak to myself for almost half an hour which was unexpected, considering that there is a road all the way to the top. I setup my vertical Buddipole for 20m and started my activation – so far nothing out of the ordinary besides the bad band conditions due to the recent CME.

I was talking to ACØA in Kansas when I spotted a National Forest Ranger running up the path from the parking lot. I could not understand what he was saying since I was

distracted by my ongoing QSO and the lack of oxygen combined with his running up the mountain made his signal about a 22, with highly distorted audio.

He arrived at the summit breathless and stood next to me, courteous enough to let me finish my QSO (or just to catch his breath?). He then introduced himself and informed me that I have to take down the antenna immediately.

My first thoughts were that the antenna was considered some sort of a safety hazard for other visitors but NO. The reason is, he informed me, that you cannot build a structure on Nation Forest land without a permit. Sounds like a sensible rule to me…. who wants to see cabins etc. erected on public land everywhere. I argued that my antenna can hardly be considered a structure and my short survey among the few visitors on the summit (~10 people) came to the same conclusion – nobody considered my antenna a structure but he insisted. Furthermore he instructed me to drive to the Clear Creek Ranger District HQ in Idaho Springs to get a permit. Needless to say that I was not planning to make a ~60 mile round-trip to get a permit for my activities. I already had enough contacts for my Mt. Evans SOTA activation and the fact that I had planned another activation for later in the day I did not want to waste my time arguing and started to pack up. Luckily I had my tape-measure YAGI with me for my next activation and I was hoping it would pass the NOT BEING A STRUCTURE test by the National Forest (to make sure I did not ask).

I tried to follow up with the person in charge for the Clear Creek Ranger District… she is on vacation. Sure glad I did not drive all the way to Idaho Springs.

GOOGLing, I found Forest Rules You Need to Know, published by the Secretary of Agriculture. On page two, under the chapter OTHER PROHIBITED FACTS it indeed prohibits “Constructing, placing, or maintaining any kind of communication equipment without a special use authorization“. Again, that makes sense to me to avoid that every Tom, Dick and Harry sets up his own repeater on public land… it does however not make sense to me for a temporary, mobile/portable antenna as I was using.

It would certainly put a damper on SOTA activations and the upcoming 14er event. I am almost certain that on Field Day a lot of antennas go up on NF land.

I would be interested in your experience and/or opinion and I am planning to follow up with the Clear Creek Ranger District. Maybe I was just dealing with an overly eager Ranger? Stay tuned…

Matt/KØMOS

I have a crazy idea. I want to run a ham radio technician class at the community center in my small town. I’ve never done anything like this before.

I told you it was a crazy idea.

I need your help.  I want to hear from people who have successfully run technician license courses.  I’m also looking to hear what DIDN’T work so I can avoid those things. I’m most interested in:

• How did you decide what book to use? There seem to be many good choices including the ARRL book and Stu Turner’s HamRadioSchool.com. There are also some free (and low cost) PDF texts available online.
• Did you use a specific curriculum, or did you kind of follow along with the book you chose?
• What multimedia did you use? Again, so many choices here including Andy Vellenga’s Ham Whisperer videos. I worry about putting them to sleep with PowerPoint.
• Was there just one instructor (you), or did you utilize several members of your club to offer other points of view?
• Did you let everyone in who expressed interest, or did you have some sort of selection criteria?
• How did you choose a venue for your class?  I’m thinking maybe the local fire station or community center.
• What did you find works best for a class schedule? I’m debating between running the class over two weekends versus one night a week for 8 weeks. Both have their pluses and minuses.
• What percentage of your students finished the class, and how many of those successfully licensed? I’ll be pretty depressed if I start with 15 students and only one gets their ticket.
• What’s the most important thing you wish you’d known before you did it, and what would you change because of it?

No reply is too short or too long. Address all of the questions, or just one. I appreciate any insight you can offer.

Despite widespread speculation that Wouxun would release a low priced mobile rig, it appears that the rig will be priced significantly higher than anticipated.

According to Ed Griffin of Wouxun.us, Wouxun has set a price of between $320-$330. He indicated that at this price the radio won’t be competitive.

I agree with Ed. At this price point there are better choices out there (and he indicated that he may have some mobile radio alternatives coming from Anytone and others).

After the unprecedented success of Wouxun’s HTs, this is a disappointment for sure.

Here is an excerpt from the email:

On June 21 I was informed that Wouxun would supply a small number of these radios to selected dealers (max of 10). At that time they also quoted a dealer costs that I thought was outrageous. The dealer costs was almost what I have always considered the retail price would be. In an email I told them sternly that with any dealer markup at all, the radio would not sell in the US and I would decline to purchase samples.

Wouxun response was that when full production began, the dealer costs would be lower. Since I’ve invested hundreds of thousands of dollars building a market for this company over the past few years, I decided I would not let others bring this radio to market before I did. I reluctantly placed an order for 10 radios, figuring I would sell them at costs, to get them to market.

After my order was shipped, Wouxun informed me that these sample radios must NOT be sold for less than $320-$330. They went on to say “If we found you or your dealer’s end price was lower this range without our permission in advance, then we will stop supplying this model to you.”

For the past two years, I’ve repeatedly told Wouxun that this radio must sell for no more than $250-$275 for it to be competitive with the big three Japanese companies. It appears this advice has fallen on deaf ears.

These pre-production radios lack some of the features the full-production radios will have. These will not be FCC Certified for Part 90 use. They will have narrow band capability but will not have the 2.5 kHz tuning step required for Part 90 radios beginning in 2013. The frequency range will be RX:136-174 & 350-480 and TX: 136-174 & 400-480. They did not indicate if any wide-band receive, such as 118 MHz AM, would be available on these pre-production models.

Although these radios may lack some of the bells and whistles we’ve expected, I imagine they will still be good dual band radios for the ham market. BUT, I still don’t feel they are worth $325.

Put my birthday gift (an RealTek RTL2832U based TV stick) in the suitcase to bring along with me on my family visit to the Netherlands. It worked fine in Taiwan but it was DOA when we arrived here. A pity since everyone is now talking about great sporadic E conditions. Only US$11, so no major monetary loss. I still have my HT and APRS setup to play with, but now my tracker is also not responding any more! Luckily the HT is still working fine and I’m having a good time talking to fellow hams on the local repeaters.

As a new ham (got my Technician and General last February), I am excited to try out all areas of amateur radio. Being eighteen years old, I’m also willing to schlep my rig wherever I can. This past week, I went on an Alaskan cruise with Disney Cruise Lines and I decided to try HF while on the Disney Wonder.

I began investigating cruise ship operation via Google, where I found mixed reports of success. It seems a lot of cruise lines don’t allow ham radio use onboard. I found a story from one ham who had success with Disney, so I started by simply sending an email to Disney Cruise Lines. I wrote:

I am a licensed amateur radio operator and I was wondering if I am allowed to operate my radio while I am on my cruise this summer in Alaska. I have heard other people have gotten permission in the past to do this, I would really appreciate the opportunity to. Thank you for your time!

A day or two later, I got a response stating that “Ham Radios may be brought onboard; however, there is no guarantee that they will function.” A little vague, the reply was enough to make me to continue on in my ventures.

Disney’s ships are registered in the Bahamas so I needed a reciprocal license to operate. Of course, I did all of this research way too late. However, I emailed the Utilities Regulation & Competition Authority, which is the responsible party for amateur radio in the Bahamas. To my surprise, they were extremely helpful and said while it using takes nearly a month, if I scanned and emailed the necessary forms, a copy of my passport ID page, a copy of my FCC license, and pay the $35 fee via credit card, I would get approved in time. Still a little unsure, I proceeded.

I still needed permission from the master of the ship, and I thought it would be impossible to prior to the cruise. I decided to write a nice letter and send it to the Disney Cruise offices in Florida as well as the port in Seattle where the cruise left from. On both, I simply addressed it to the “Disney Wonder Captain.”

I was pleased to receive a nice reply from the Florida offices on an official letterhead stating it was no problem as long as I did not cause any interference. About a week later, I received an email from the captain’s assistant stating Captain Thord Haugen “enjoyed reading my letter and has no problem with you operating your radio onboard.”

Now I was really excited! My license officially came via email the day before I left. I packed up my Yaesu FT450D, MFJ manual tuner (thanks to N8PZD, Clark for lending it to me!), and a 15m, 20m, and 40m Hamstick. Once onboard, I set up, mounted the Hamstick on my veranda and grounded it to the ship’s hull. Stupidly, I didn’t take any photos of my setup, but it was pretty simple. I fired up the rig and made a QSO as we left Seattle.

However, that is where my HF experience ended. I turned off the rig, came back later and found my radio wasn’t working. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do anything else on HF. Right now, my rig is on its way back to Yaesu for a warranty claim. All wasn’t lost as I brought my FT60R too and listened to all the port operations. I also worked 2 meters FM in various ports including Skagway, Alaska where the mountain repeater system got me to Whitehorse, Canada (about 100 miles).

In the end, it was quite an experience – both Alaska itself and ham radio. While I was really disappointed my rig died after all the pre-cruise work, I hope some others can benefit from my experience. Plus, I’m sure I’ll try it on another cruise in the future. It was pretty cool to be able to say “Maritime Mobile aboard the Disney Wonder Cruise Ship off the coast of Alaska” and I would recommend at least investigating if you are going on a cruise. I’ve heard Holland America has a written policy allowing ham radios, and they are probably your best bet if looking for a “ham radio cruise.” If you have any questions, feel free to email me.  73!

Tony, KD8RTT

If you’re a big fan of TWiT’s weekly amateur radio broadcast, HAM Nation, then you’ll want to note that the program is now on WEDNESDAY evenings at 8pm Central Time (GMT -5:00).