AmateurRadio.com

Like always this is my last contest before the summer and before I dismantle the horizontal loop antenna. Unfortenately I was a little exhausted from work last couple of weeks. No time for radio except once and a while with my little Baofeng HT on the bike. Besides that family life is getting more and more important as our little QRP Anneli is growing up fast, that means less time for the radio hobby. Anyway I had a difficult start at Saturday having no patience to work real DX, I was so tired I stopped at about 150 QSOs. Sunday was a lot better after a reasonable night sleep, although I didn’t have time till the afternoon I made 410 QSOs in the end with 80 DXCC in total on the list. Working a new DXCC (number 200) was my goal and at the end I managed that. I worked Z21BB (Zimbabwe) and TO7BC (Mayotte Isl.) both on 10m as “new” all band DXCCs. As the propagation was really good I concentrated my efforts on the high bands. I left 40, 80 and 160m for Sunday evening as I didn’t expect to hear many “new” DXCC for me at those bands. One thing did surprise me and that was a QSO with Japan on 20m Saturday evening I heard several VK stations as well on that time, very unusual and I guess it was all longpath propagation. I think I missed a lot of stations as well since I coudn’t be on the radio early in the morning, but as always I had a lot of fun in this DX contest.

You can find a log analysis here…

Some highlights:

10m: JA0JHA (Japan), B7P (China), V55V (Namibia), TR8CA (Gabon), PZ5P (Surinam), Z21BB (Zimbabwe), TO7BC (Mayotte), YB8Y(Indonesia), 

15m: VP52V (Turks & Caicos Isl.), JT5DX (Mongolia), TO5K (Martinique), KP2TM (US Virgin Isl.), WH7M (Hawaii)  

20m: JE1ZWT (Japan), 9Y4W (Trinidad & Tobago)

80m: UP2L (Kazakhstan)

AmateurRadio.com is offering a free prize drawing!

With the help of our very generous sponsor,
Import Communications (formerly Wouxun.us),
we’re giving away a
Baofeng UV-5R Dual-Band HT
+ a Free USB Programming Cable!

(144/440 MHz)
This is a nearly US$85 value.
Enter now to win!

All licensed hams in the U.S. and Canada are eligible to enter
Shipping to US and Canada included. Canadian winners responsible for any duties and taxes.

Read the rest of this entry »

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