AmateurRadio.com

Following on from the kind words I received about the scafell pike photo I thought I’d share this one with you. I took it whilst attempting the Ennerdale horseshoe last August. The horsehoe is a 25 mile hike round the summits and it has 21 summits to activate. Some for SOTA (Summits on the air) and some are WOTA (Wainwrights on the air).

The photo was taken from the Summit of Green Gable which ended up being the second to last activation. The clouds came in as did the rain and so I made my way down to the valley floor and had a 6 mile walk back to the car which was parked at the base of the small fell at the front of the horseshoe in the middle of the picture. Crummock and Buttermere are the lakes on the right and Ennerdale lake is hidden round the back of Pillar on the left hand side. The western lakes are not as popular as the central lakes (Derwent, Windemere etc) and even though its only a few miles from a few small towns there was hardly a sole there.

Each year there is a marathon running race round the horseshoe. No cheating you have to go round all the summits! tempted?

Anyway I hope you liek the photo and if you’re ever in the lakes then listen out on 145.500Mhz as there may be someone activating a summit close to where you are.

There’s a rumor afloat that Wouxun may be getting closer to releasing their much-anticipated dual band mobile rig.

My source says he’s actually operated a final prototype of the radio (in China) and that it has all the bells and whistles you’d expect in a serious competitor.

The big question mark at this point is how much it’s going to cost. I think that it has to be well under $325 (the approximate street price of a Yaesu FT-7900R). By well under, I’m talking at least $50 cheaper.

My prediction is the price will be $250 and they’ll sell like hotcakes.

What’s your guess?

I ran into this online circuit design program, called CircuitLab, on a few blogs and forums, and have been playing around with it myself. There are many who are more technically-minded than myself (Fred W0FMS comes to mind), but I’ve had some initial luck playing around with it. It’s very visual and easy to use (on Firefox, at least). I’m curious if others have tried it and what your reactions are? I know that this isn’t the first circuit simulation program out there, but it seems ridiculously easy to use.

One night I am tuning around on 75 meters and I hear a piece of a ragchew QSO.

“Roger, Roger OM. I am a Real Ham too.” After a minute, I wondered, what other kinds of hams could there be? Unreal hams, imaginary hams, weird hams or phantom hams? I didn’t know.

Puzzled, I grabbed my FCC license and scrutinized it carefully. I was stunned. Right there in the middle of the license, under Special Conditions/Endorsements it says, “None”. Is that a mistake or a typo perhaps? Maybe I am a Non-Ham? I broke out into a cold sweat.

In a panic, I called my old buddy Ralph. Ralph knows everything about ham radio. He has been a ham so long that he says Marconi was his Elmer. Ralph calmed me down and assured me that I was a real ham. Ralph said that all hams are real hams if the FCC says so. Even though some claim only they are the real deal, anybody with a valid license is a real ham. What a relief!

With my fear arrested and my curiosity aroused, I wanted to learn more about the Real Ham phenomenon. Who are they? Are Real Hams like real men, who don’t eat quiche and don’t like change? Well, maybe they eat quiche in secret but they still don’t like change.

Since change is an essential facet of technology and amateur radio is a technology based hobby, then Real Hams should embrace change. Right? Apparently not; instead Real Hams complain about those that did not have to pass a code test, incentive licensing and the ARRL. I don’t get it.

What about the code thing? I’ve heard Real Hams say we should bring back the code requirement. I kept asking myself, what purpose it would serve other than to erect an artificial barrier to entry into our hobby. CW is a challenging and fun operating mode. It is a skill one could acquire if they wanted but is it any longer a core competency for a license?

My old buddy Ralph looks back on his CW days as a golden era. His radio lineage goes way back to the days of spark. Back in that day, that is all there was but even Ralph says the radio art has moved on.

“You mean it has progressed?” I asked.

“Sure”, says Ralph. “Listen kid (everyone’s a kid to Ralph), I got my first car in ‘08(that would be 1908). Back then you had to be a pretty good mechanic to just drive to town. You had to know about radiators, magnetos and manual shifting and you couldn’t call triple A either. Now you just jump in the car and turn the key.”

“We don’t have to rely on CW, like we did back then. With all the digital operating modes, VHF repeaters and the like we have lots of other choices. I haven’t tried it myself yet but I hear that you can even send e-mail by amateur radio.”

I began to feel better after my conversations with Ralph. Maybe I was a real ham after all. I’ll have to try CW after I finish my moon bounce project.

Ron, AE5NO

Some exciting news!  It looks like the new Baofeng UV-5R has arrived stateside.  Browsing Ed Griffin’s Wouxun.us, I’ve found a page indicating that it’s coming soon and the scrolling banner lists the price at $65 shipped (USA). Brick O’Lore has a great post showing some of the exciting new features:

BAOFENG UV-5R 4W
136-174/400-480Mhz

BAOFENG UV-5R The transcevier is a micro-miniature multiband FM transceiver with extensive receive frequency coverage,providing local-area two-way amateur communications along with unmatched monitoring capability

VHF/ UHF  DUAL-BAND TWO WAY RADIO

Frequency Range: 136-174 / 400-480MHz
Dual-Band Display, Dual Freq. Display, Dual-Standby
Output Power: 4 /1Watts
128 Channels
50 CTCSS and 104 CDCSS
Built-in VOX Function
1750Hz Brust Tone
FM Radio (65.0MHz-108.0MHz)
LED Flashlight
Large LCD Display
Hight /Low RF Power Switchable
25KHz/12.5KHz Switchable
Emergency Alert
Low Battery Alert
Battery Saver
Time-out Timer
Keypad Lock
Monitor Channel
Channel Step: 2.5/5/6.25/10/12.5/25KHz
Roger Set

Snowdrops are blooming in our front garden though it is still more then a month before spring. I think everyone had it with winter at the nortern hemisphere and are desperately looking out for the spring to come. Hopefully we don’t get any snow and ice anymore. Luckely the days are already getting longer. March means I go to the job by bicycle. Before I had my drivers license (long time ago) I did everything by bicycle. But the posession of a car makes you lazy. Now, with the increasing fuel prizes in mind I started to  use the bicycle again and  leave the car in the garage for as long as possible. Last year I cycled about 1900 Km in total. I checked the bicycle today and want to try the little Baofeng HT together with the mini headset while cycling. The mini headset has been modified as it did hang on TX due to RFI. Luckely there is nice video of this little headset mod.

The results of the PA-beker contest last year are published. I became 2nd again, just 2 multipliers short. Fellow blogger Paul PH0TO (PC4T last year) became 6th, not even the last place Paul. I will do my best to win this years QRP-SSB section. It’s just a matter of persistance I think…

Welcome to Handiham World.

Ice!  Are you ready?

Photo:  Ice and snow cling to the dipole at the WA0TDA station in Minnesota.  The 450 Ohm feedline and the antenna wire are carrying a coating of heavy ice, as are the nearby tree branches.

Photo: Iced birch tree branches pull the antenna wire down.  

Photo:  Heavy ice coats the 450 Ohm ladder line in this close-up.
Here it comes: The annual Spring severe weather season is here in North America.  Tornadic winds hit in the southern Midwest states of Missouri and Kansas last night, while the same huge weather system brought Minnesota freezing rain and snow.  The transition from winter to summer often means that we will be visited by bad weather that can take down antennas and put stations off the air at the very time their communications capability may be needed.  This storm was well-forecast because it was being watched even as it approached the west coast from the Pacific.  Computer modeling lends a new degree of confidence in such forecasts, so it is perhaps a bit easier than ever to be ready.  

The problem for any given amateur radio operator is that forecasts cannot predict exact weather circumstances in a small geographic area. In this particular storm, heavy snow fell north and west of my location but we only got about 3 inches worth.  Our snow was preceded by rain – freezing rain – which coalesced around antenna wires and tree branches.  When the snow came, it added to the mass already collecting on the branches and wires.  This was a prescription for power outages because tree branches would inevitably begin to break under the weight of the ice and fall across power lines. The power lines themselves, if in the clear, seldom collect enough ice to fall on their own. Sure enough, this morning almost 15,000 customers were without power here in the Twin Cities. Since the storm was more severe in the northwest part of the urban area, that was the place with the most power outages. Even so, in my town there were over 400 customers without power. Our power never failed or even flickered, probably partly because of just plain luck and good switching at the power company to keep failed power lines from bringing down the entire system. One thing I looked for specifically when purchasing my property was underground power lines. I have lived in too many neighborhoods where tree branches fell across lines and cut the power in almost every severe storm.

So what can you do to keep your own antenna systems from failing under the weight of snow and ice?

Wire antennas should be installed so that they have some “give” to them. That means that if the wire should be stressed by the extra weight of ice, the antenna will be able to bend with the weight enough to avoid outright failure. There are various methods of making a wire antenna a bit more flexible. The obvious one is to make sure that when the antenna is installed that the wire is not pulled up tight. Sometimes ingenious methods can be designed to allow an antenna anchored in a tree to move freely as the tree moves in the wind. Usually unless the tree is exceptionally flexible it will be enough to simply allow enough slack in the antenna wire to make for reasonable movement.

Rigid metal antennas are another story. Most amateur radio beam antennas are made of aluminum tubing. Some types of aluminum tubing are “aircraft grade” and may flex more than standard tubing before breaking. No matter what kind of aluminum tubing is used, it is not immune to severe damage from ice loading. If the weight of the ice itself bending the aluminum doesn’t break it directly, wind that comes up after the ice is coated onto the elements may very well finish the job and bring the entire structure down in pieces. I am not sure that there is any practical way to prevent this kind of damage in a beam antenna system, but perhaps someone with experience can weigh in on the matter and let us know. Few amateur radio operators have tilt over towers that can perhaps be used to bring the whole antenna down close to the ground with the elements 90° to the surface of the earth so that water will run off of them. But what happens to the horizontal portion of the tower that will then be collecting ice? It’s hard to figure out how to prevent ice damage on a beam antenna system, so keep your insurance paid up.
An antenna that is coated with ice and snow will not necessarily tune correctly. When I tried using the LDG auto tuner this morning to tune my 200 foot wire antenna on a frequency that had been previously “memorized” by the tuner, it behaved exactly as if it were visiting that 75 m frequency for the very first time. The tuner cranked away for a while before finally settling on what had to be a very different combination of capacitance and inductance to allow for a reasonable standing wave ratio. Once the ice melts off the wire, the auto tuner will have to search again for a new combination as things return to normal. One thing to consider is that not all automatic tuners will be able to match an antenna that is heavily loaded with ice and snow. The operator must be aware of this and be careful not to operate with a high standing wave ratio.
The antenna wire itself is not the only thing affected by ice and snow. If you are using open wire feed line as I am, you can expect ice loading on the feed line to contribute to changes in how the antenna behaves on the air. If you use coaxial cable, your only real concern is weight of the ice on the cable itself. Any place feed line comes into the house it should have a “drip loop” so that water can drip off the bottom of the loop of feed line as the ice melts. This prevents the water from following the cable through the wall of the house and into the ham shack.

Your antenna system will be more robust if you use good quality materials to construct it in the first place. Good antenna wire may be more expensive initially, but it will be more likely to stay up under ice loading than some bargain wire. As the old saying goes, “a chain is only as strong as its weakest link”. In terms of a wire antenna system, this means that a cheap insulator could easily be a failure point no matter what kind of expensive wire and feed line you use. Needless to say, you should always take the time to secure wires properly to center and end insulators so that it will not work loose under pressure as ice pulls on the wire.

Following a weather event such as high wind or icing, you should plan to inspect your antenna systems for any possible damage or tree limbs that might’ve fallen against the antenna wire. Any kind of antenna system should always be located well away from power lines so that a failure in either the power line or the antenna will not make one of them come in contact with the other.
Tomorrow it will be March, and that is the month that I usually think of as being the start of this severe weather transition season. Maybe it’s time to take a look at that go-kit and make sure that you are ready.

For Handiham World, I’m…
Patrick Tice, [email protected]
Handiham Manager