AmateurRadio.com

There are rumors afoot that Wouxun is releasing a new version of it’s popular KG-UVxD line, the KG-UV6D. Based on the popular KG-UVD1P, “updates” have popped up such as the KG-UV2D and KG-UV3D. The internals of the radio are the same (as is the FCC ID). Only the firmware and some cosmetic differences in their cases separate the different models.

Andrews Communications in Australia has this page up where they show the radio. While some owners of previous versions have complained that it can’t be tuned in 2.5kHz steps in compliance with narrowbanding rules that go into effect in 2013, it seems the KG-UV6D firmware corrects the problem.

Who will carry this radio in the US?  Maybe PowerWerx, current retailer of the KG-UV3D. Back on July 19th, they registered the web addresses KGUV6D.com and KG-UV6D.com. Could be a coincidence. Or maybe not.

One unknown is whether or not Wouxun.us and PowerWerx will update their firmware to reflect the new 2.5KHz tuning capability.

Do you have one of these Wouxun HTs?  What do you think of it?

Testing out a new project or piece of gear on the air is fun, sometimes!

I get on the air to test a new gizmo and get a reply. Ah, this is great!

The other station sends my call back to me, then QSB strikes and bamo! Down in the dumps it goes. I hear only a dit here and there. Growl!

AGN AGN PSE QSB BK,

Now this is where it gets frustrating. The other guy send me my own call back 3, 4, maybe even 5 times. Like I don’t already know what my own call sign is, right!

I hear that clear as a bell, then, as if from a distant galaxy, I hear his call W~~~~~ , boomba— down in the mud again! OK, OK, I send back to him now; UR CALL ONLY UR CALL ONLY QSB QSB BK

Once more he send my call back to me again only this time 7 times in a row, using up all the possible propagation between us! Oy vey!

I send SRI QSB 73, de AA1IK SK

Does this happen to you too?

If anyone reads this and is just getting into QRP. Please, please Please, DON’T SEND ME MY OWN CALL BACK A BUNCH OF TIMES, I ALREADY KNOW WHAT IT IS, ITS YOUR CALL SIGN THAT I WANT!!!!

73 all,

de AA1IK

Ernest Gregoire

Geezer on the porch

Three large solar explosions will cause magnetic storms to hit earth over the next few days, according to Reuters.

More interesting is this quote from the article:

“The 1859 solar storm hit telegraph offices around the world and caused a giant aurora visible as far south as the Caribbean Islands. Some telegraph operators reported electric shocks. Papers caught fire. And many telegraph systems continued to send and receive signals even after operators disconnected batteries, NOAA said on its website.”

Whoa.

I always look forward to receiving my QST and CQ magazines each month, and I dutifully run to the CQ web site every month when the latest PDF of Worldradio News is made available for download. I really do enjoy reading about our hobby and appreciate the authors who contribute to these publications (for very little money in return). Shoot, I even study the ads, including those that have not changed in decades. (Why do some vendors insist on showing the faces of every radio by every manufacturer, as if we make our purchasing decisions based on those tiny thumbnails? And will MFJ ever change the full-page Hy-Gain rotator ad?)

However, as I opened the current edition of CQ, I could not help but notice that the lead article is about all the new gear unveiled at Dayton this year. Dayton. As in May! And it’s August. We once took such delay in a story’s content as the norm. It is, after all, the nature of the magazine publishing biz that there must be considerable lead time.

But as I read the short writeup on the Elecraft KX3, I recalled that there was a YouTube video posted way back on May 20 featuring Wayne Burdick K6XR giving a very enlightening ten-minute demo of this interesting bit of kit. In color. With sound. Old news in CQ? I’m afraid so.

ARRL recently did a major update on their web site, but it is still clunky and hard to navigate. It does offer some video (welcome to the 21st century) and plenty of archived articles and reviews, all of which is much more current, colorful, and searchable than the magazine could ever be. CQ is also trying, buying World Radio News and offering it as a free download.

But I have to worry that the day will come when it is no longer economically feasible to mail me a magazine every month. I still prefer taking that paper-and-stapled pub out on the deck to read, or to Subway at lunch to peruse while I enjoy my Black Forest ham sandwich.

Won’t happen, you say? The traditional magazine will never go away. Okay, can I see your latest copy of Look or Life? Mind if I borrow your Saturday Evening Post?

I rest my case. Truth is, media consumers want their content in a wide variety of ways, and will choose such media on three primary criteria: 1) How easy it is to consume in all those myriad ways, 2) How compelling the content is, and 3) How cheap it is to access.

I’m afraid that does not bode well for QAT and CQ.

73,

Don Keith N4KC
www.donkeith.com
www.n4kc.com
http://n4kc.blogspot.com

I’m in the middle of reading a fascinating book, 1421: The Year China Discovered America, about Chinese voyages of discovery in the early 15th century. The author claims to have evidence that, among other things, the Chinese landed and established colonies in the Americas about 80 years before Columbus “discovered” the New World. I haven’t gotten far enough in yet to comment on that, but the first part of the book lays the groundwork by discussing medieval Chinese history and culture and explaining how China spread its influence and came to dominate foreign trade in Asia and Africa at the time.

Despite having the world’s largest army and navy, and having already invented gunpowder and developed firearms, this book’s author says it wasn’t China’s style to simply invade a place and take it over. Rather, the Chinese sent treasure ships full of the finest goods, not only to trade but to bestow as gifts on local rulers. Once trading relationships were established, these rulers were given every imaginable luxury and invited to major events in China—with the Chinese providing transportation and picking up the tab for everything.

Of course, all this came at a price. If the foreign rulers wanted to continue to benefit from China’s largesse, and if they wanted their highly profitable trade with China to continue and grow, then they had to pay tribute to China, both financially and by swearing allegiance to the Chinese emperor. The Chinese came to dominate the region, generally without firing a shot (even though they were the only ones at the time with guns). It would do us well here in the west to study more Chinese history.

I bring this up because, as many of you are aware, the past year has seen the introduction to the U.S. market of ham gear from China. The two major brands we have seen so far are Wouxun (pronounced OH-shin) and TYT (Quanzhou TYT Electronic Co.). The prices are very low and from all reports we’ve heard, the radios work well, too. At Ham-Com in Texas this past June, one dealer selling these new rigs wanted to be sure everyone in the hall knew how well they were doing, so the booth staff banged a big gong every time a ham bought one. Following a commercial tradition that is at least 700 years old, the Chinese are establishing themselves in the ham radio marketplace with quality goods at low prices that significantly undercut their competition.

Of course, their competition is acutely aware of this, especially the Japanese manufacturers who know from their own experience how effective this strategy can be. After all, it’s been just over 40 years since the first ad for a Japanese radio appeared in U.S. ham magazines. The Japanese manufacturers used a similar approach, offering quality goods at low prices that significantly undercut their competition, starting with low-cost VHFFM gear and then moving into higher-priced HF equipment as well.

Most of the “long-established” U.S. manufacturers (I put that in quotes because many of them had only been in business for about 40 years themselves at that point!) could not or would not respond effectively and eventually dropped out of the amateur market, giving the Japanese manufacturers market dominance for the past three decades. Now, the Chinese manufacturers appear to be adopting similar tactics, and the question becomes whether the Japanese manufacturers will learn from their own success and how (or if) they will adapt to meet this new challenge.

Ultimately, it will be up to you, the consumer, to decide which radios from which manufacturers give you the greatest value for your dollar. Other issues that may merit consideration by consumers include possible Chinese government subsidies to hold down prices on exported goods, and questions about working conditions and worker pay at Chinese factories (we know nothing about these specific companies, only that this is an issue in the broader topic of U.S.-China trade). And, of course, we the consumers should not forget that the U.S. amateur radio manufacturing industry has rebounded, with newer companies taking leadership positions in several areas of the ham marketplace. One thing is certain: radios from China will be a part of the ham radio landscape for many years to come, and the presence of these new “players” in the market will continue to be seen in magazines, on dealers’ shelves and at hamfests around America.

Dayton and Dallas

Speaking of hamfests, both Dayton and Dallas (Ham-Com) seemed to be down a little in attendance this year, but most dealers reported strong sales nonetheless. Getting to and from Dayton proved to be challenging this year—it took me 13 hours to get there from New Jersey, which wouldn’t have been too terrible if I was driving…but I was flying! And after the show, both Ad Manager Chip Margelli, K7JA, and Popular Communications and WorldRadio Online Editor Richard Fisher, KI6SN, got stranded overnight at different airports while trying to get home to California.

Ignoring all that, actually being at Dayton was its usual incredible experience. Yes, there was the sewer backup that shut down nearly all of the restrooms on Saturday afternoon and sent sewage seeping across parts of the flea market. But on the other hand, there was the unplanned and unannounced visit on Saturday morning by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and the usual controlled chaos at the CQ booth.

Working a booth at Dayton is a lot like running a pileup on a DXpedition. There’s a constant line of people waiting to “work” you; you can only “work” one at a time, and you have to hope all the others behave until you get to them (99% of the time, they do). But the people you get to meet are the best part. Attendees at Dayton truly cover the full spectrum of the ham radio hobby. All, of course, are  just-plain-hams, having fun and chatting on a first-name basis … even though among those just plain hams were at least one Nobel laureate, two retired admirals, a former ambassador and at least one astronaut. It sure is a good thing we don’t have to QSL all those “eyeball” QSOs at the booth!

A couple of issue notes: Our coverage of ham radio’s response to the wicked spring weather across the U.S. continues this month with a detailed look at how SATERN (Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network) volunteers helped out in Joplin, Missouri after a massive tornado struck that city (p. 13); and Youth Editor Brittany Decker, KB1OGL, shares her experience with—and lessons learned from—a too-close-for-comfort encounter with lightning at her home in New Hampshire (“A Striking Story,” p. 38). Plus, of course, we have the SSB results of last year’s CQ World Wide DX Contest. Once again, this truly worldwide contest made its own propagation — nearly two dozen new records were set – and we received over 6500 logs, showing operation from 232 countries … including China.

73, W2VU

A little birdie let me know that an interesting web address is up for auction today. The Internet domain name, hamauction.com, is at a little over $300 at the moment. For those looking to set up a ham radio-related site, not a bad name!

For those who are interested, it’s being offered up for auction by the domain registrar.  Apparently the former owner didn’t pay the renewal fee, so now it goes to auction to the highest bidder.  There’s a good lesson here — if you own your own web address, don’t forget to keep your e-mail address current so that you get the renewal notices.  Even better, pay a few years ahead so that you don’t wake up one morning and your domain name is gone!

Anyway, here’s the link.

Sorry about the infrequency of posts this summer from me. Summers are a bad time for the amateur radio hobby for me every year and this one is particularly bad.

It’s been complicated by a storm that came through 5:15 AM CDT July 11th, with 70-90+ MPH sustained winds (for, I’m not kidding, 15 minutes) and took down *ALL* of my wire antennas. (Trees fell through their paths, so my designs were still mechanically solid, right?) So I’ve been very QRT and have spent the last several weekends cleaning up the lot and fixing storm damage to my house. At least the tower and aluminum antennas seemed to have survived the ordeal.

Because of all of this the amount of time I’ve had to dedicate to the hobby has been minimal for the last couple of months. I’ll get back to it when I can. I had a bunch of antenna work planned before winter anyway.. now I have twice as much! :O(

However, I am involved in a minor way on the committee that is handing the ARRL Midwest Division Convention and I am specifically handling Kit Building at the event.

Also I’m sort of the publicity guy too.. but I’m getting plenty of help for others for that role!

But, nonetheless.. I should still publicize… So here is a shameless plug for the event.

http://convention2011.cvarc.rf.org/

I’d like to personally invite all of my ‘blog readers to attend our convention in Cedar Rapids. If you are within a 250 mile one way drive.. it will be a no-brainer for a really fun and interesting weekend devoted to ham radio.

The convention will be held at:

Clarion Hotel and Convention Center – Cedar Rapids, Iowa
525 33rd Avenue S.W.
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52404

Mention the “ARRL Midwest Convention” when booking
Reservations: 877-949-2992 Fax: 319-362-1420

If there are issues at the Clarion, since it’s getting close to the event, don’t worry..the area is “hotel row” and there are plenty of options.

On Friday August 5th, we have an educational, hands-on tutorial on getting stated with the TI OMAP processor based BeagleBoard (Rev C) and BeagleBoard XM for Amateur Radio uses. It’s the intent of a group of mostly Collins ARC guys to eventually evolve this board into a SDR but many other projects (such as D-RATS/APRS gateways, portable HF digital mode units, etc.) have also been contemplated and input on this project will be welcome. The fee is $10 for this if you are registered for the convention also, $20 if not.

On August 6th we have a plethora of interesting speakers in an “operating” and “technical” track. There is also a Youth forum (12 and under is free for the convention). In addition, Ed Hare W1RFI and Kay Craigie N3KN ARRL President will be attending. Kay will be the banquet speaker. Since this is an ARRL convention an official “Wouff Hong” ceremony will also take place. This is a grand opportunity to become a part of this “official” fraternity! The list of speakers is on the schedule page, http://convention2011.cvarc.rf.org/schedule.html

I will also personally be the master of the kit building session that includes a cute little PIC based keyer that would work wonderfully in a Rover (AA0ZZ design) and a 40m NM0S (locally designed) HamCan two transistor regenerative 1/2 to 1 W PEP output transceiver.

WA0ITP of 4SQRP fame and K0NEB the “kit building” columnist for CW magazine are scheduled to attend and have stated their intention on assisting me if needed. The kits are suitable for beginners and I will NOT let you fail building one.

Then if you are smart enough to stay the night at the Clarion, you can attend one of the region’s best hamfests on Sunday August 7th (which is an annual event even on non-convention years)… Cedar Valley ARC “Summerfest” near the hotel at:

Teamster’s Hall
5000 J Street SW
Cedar Rapids, IA 52404

Which is about 1 mile from the convention.

Hopefully I will see some of the regular viewers of the ‘blog at the event.

The day of the event is getting close. If you want to come it would be highly appreciated if you mail your registration (from the website .PDF) as soon as possible.