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Conjectural Chats

July 7th, 2023 |

A recent e-mail in the AWA Group from Eddy, VE3CUI, elicited some intriguing comments which you may find of interest. Highlights from the exchanges have been selected for brevity:

Eddy VE3CUI – VE3XZ/3:

I’m here at the summer cottage, gamely calling “CQ” with my trusty old Vibroplex Vibrokeyer on what sound like dead bands on 15- and 20-meters…yet, when I check the on-line DX Beacon, my quota of entries at 100 is exhausted from across the continent, and beyond, from monitoring stations that have clearly copied me.

All of a sudden, 15-meters just explodes with CW contestors in the middle of Wednesday afternoon with morse machines all honking out endless “CQ CWT” at some 30+ WPM. I snag some very easy quickie exchanges from “VE7” and “W6” from the west coast — and then just as suddenly, the contest is over and I’m right back to “CQ…CQ…CQ” in silence again, all in vain.

How very ironic that self-professed “…devotees” of the CW art and craft — “CW Tops-Ops” — can all devote attention to the object of their affection for but one single hour, and in the middle of the week…! Shouldn’t they otherwise be gainfully fully employed earning a living, like all of the other non-retirees…?! Otherwise, why “…kiss and run” so, if they really and truly love the mode…?!

I just do not get it, I’m afraid…

**************Robert KG4KGL:

Well, as for the middle of the week timing, more people work from home now. I guess they stepped away from their work computer and spent an hours snagging some QSOs.

I work 12 hours, two days for one week and five days the following week, then rinse, lather, and repeat. So on my off days, I am on all the bands looking for QSOs and I hear the silence you speak of, all while registering on various beacons.

**************

Eddy VE3CUI – VE3XZ/3:

I guess that I especially noted the AWOL ops on the CW sub-bands about 3 years ago, or so…about the time that FT8 became all the rage, I s’pose.

But there’s a decided absence on the phone bands, too.

I can appreciate demographics having a hand in our diminished numbers, but this is all akin to outright extinction…! So many times I feel just like “…the last man standing”…

**************

Steve VE7SL:

I think most of these CW guys you hear during sprints and weekend contests are guys that love contesting more than love CW….making CW music with their laptops, copying and entering the exchange info and then on to the next guy … kind of like a long action-filled video game. In fact I suspect that many of these modern CW sprinters and weekend CW flash-crowd participants were probably weened on video games as there’s a lot in common with those things and watching a scrolling vibrant waterfall of signals, especially if the rest of their week is spent on FT8. I agree with Eddy that the emergence of FT8 coincided perfectly with the sudden demise of CW (and phone) activity that now seems the new normal. It’s boring as hell but seems to mesh nicely with the present generation of no-code hams and those living in condos and apartments with no room for antennas and a ton of noise to contend with.

**************

Eddy VE3CUI – VE3XZ/3:

Can you recall — nostalgically, of course — reading those QST features on the crucial need of Q-multipliers & crystal lattice filters in our receivers to “…help combat the crowded congestion on our Ham bands”…?!

I sure do. It all seems so very quaint & innocent from the standpoint of to-day, doesn’t it…? “The Lost World”.

**************

Steve VE7SL:

Indeed things have changed Eddy and seemingly very quickly. When I was first licenced and up until just a few years ago, a CQ on 7030 at ANY time of the day or night would guarantee an immediate response. Now you can CQ until the cows come home with nary a peep.

Something has also changed with the ionosphere as well over the past decade and I’m not sure why. Are we just seeing the long term effects of a terribly poor solar cycle (24) in spite of the newest one struggling to gain serious momentum? We’ve maybe just been spoiled by a series of above average strength cycles our whole lives up until Cycle 24 but something has changed. Both 40 and 80 go completely silent now on most winter nights, shortly after sunset. What happened to the awakening of the band at sunset? I’ve seen only enough of those the past two winters to count on one hand. It’s all very odd. Thankfully we experienced those bands at their very best, years ago. Hopefully the new cycle will pump them back up again, if that’s the problem. I dare not mention global-warming but it seems to have widespread consequences in the upper atmosphere so one has to wonder … the ionosphere as well?

**************

Eddy VE3CUI – VE3XZ/3:

Wow, that’s how long I’ve been AWOL myself from 40- & 80-meters at home — I had absolutely no idea that both bands were now dead at & after sunset like that…not so much as even a clue. And I’m old enough here to recall getting peeved-off about all of the foreign BC stations that routinely crowded-out SSB QSO’s on 40 as it grew dark here.

Like you & so very many others, I too expected the bands in general to “…shape-up back to normal” with the new sunspot cycle — & I’ve been waiting now for so very many years that even I’ve actually forgotten their number…! It just never seems to happen. Is it that oft-cited “Maunder Effect” that we all heard so much about a coupla years ago that’s responsible…? And as for global warming’s influence, who knows…? We’re all still wrapping our heads around how it might affect the climate on the planet, never-mind what might be happening hundreds of miles above its surface. All bets are off in that regard, I think…! But again, who knows, right…?

Anyway, I have the ICOM 751A & groundplane verticals at the ready here at the cottage, & we spend a lotta time here in the summer, too — so do listen for me in the CW sub-bands, on 40- straight to 10-meters, & all of the WARC bands in between. You can’t miss me — I’ll be the guy calling “CQ”, with zero takers in response…!

**************

Jim AJ8S:

Here’s an article about changes to the upper atmosphere which might or might not have an impact on ionospheric propagation:

https://www.wired.com/story/the-upper-atmosphere-is-cooling-prompting-new-climate-concerns/

I too have noticed a distinct decline in CQ ops except for the contests.

**************

Steve VE7SL:

That’s a great and somewhat troubling read Jim. Thanks for the link. Although the ionosphere was not singled out, the regions containing it all seem to be getting thinner which might certainly affect propagation behaviours as we’ve come to expect over the past few decades … which seems to be exactly what is happening, at least on the lower bands. In actuality, the amateur radio community might be one of the first to notice any long term changes not particularly explainable by solar activity.

**************

Eddy VE3CUI – VE3XZ/3:

A most interesting read, indeed. Does it partially explain, somehow, the state of Ham radio conditions to-day…? Could be…I just dunno. But does anyone else “…get it”, for that matter…?

I liken the situation of to-day to that proverbial Monarch butterfly that just alighted onto the bough of that maple tree in your yard: to the insect, that tree has always been there, unquestionably, throughout its lifespan. Which is true — for its lifespan.

But the reality of it is, that convenient resting spot is in reality a dynamic one, & not a static one. It wasn’t there maybe 15 years ago, & it might not be there after the next 30, or so. But the butterfly cares not a whit — that tree was always, and is always, there. Its limited lifespan will not afford it any other conclusion (assuming that insects can even actually derive any…!). Ditto our human lifespans. Maybe the current environmental trends are all otherwise “…normal” somehow & fit into some sorta pattern that goes well beyond our limited number of years of observation…?

Again, I dunno — what I DO know after some 10 years of very serious CW DX pursuit on160-meters, is this: up until about the 2010 winter DX “season” on Top Band, there was always a path, more open than not, to Europe well into the month of March, & beyond. But in the 2010-2011 season, the band essentially slammed shut for regular DX contacts across the Atlantic in February…in the 2011-2012 season it closed its doors in January…& in the 2012-2013 season (when an ice storm here rendered me QRT) the band simply folded for regular trans-Atlantic DX in December…!

How it has been at any time during the past 9 years, I have no idea. But I definitely witnessed & experienced a creeping steady trend there.

And now I’m witnessing a variation of this same “AWOL”-type stuff on all of the other bands, that started some 3 years ago, & which hows no sign of abating.

What an awful uninspiring time for any newbie to take-up an interest in SWL’ing, or Hamming. There is nothing whatsoever to aspire to — literally…!

**************

Steve VE7SL:

You haven’t missed much Eddy and like you, the last ‘great’ topband conditions here were the winter of ‘09-‘10. This coincided with the longest and deepest quiet-period from the Sun in as long as they have been keeping records. From the west coast, EU on topband has always been a rare short-lived treat but that winter had me questioning everything I thought I knew about the band. There were several weeks of nightly openings from here to Europe that would often start before my local sunset but the strangest thing was that during this extended period of transpolar activity there were no signals from the USA at all! It was nothing but EU CW from 1840 down to 1800, wall-to-wall and night after night. Signals were of the level often heard on 20m and if I had been tuning around blindfolded I would have guessed that I was listening to 20! I recall calling one exceptionally loud UA1 while running only 10W out and he came right back.

Sadly the following winter saw none of that propagation repeated as Cycle 24 had started to come to life. Even the bottom of Cycle 24 had nothing similar although there were a few good nights where I managed Cyprus, Mauritania and South Africa all on topband. It’s been terrible ever since as have been condx for our beloved ‘29 BK for the past several years, so much to the point where I had decided last year to forgo the work involved in setting-up the ‘29 station and give it a pass. However at the last minute, Lou convinced me to give it another shot. It turned out to be my worst BK ever (!) and what really proves it is that not only did I not work Lou (a first) but I didn’t even hear him, also a first!

[Lou is VE3AWA and the ‘BK’ is the annual AWA 1929 Style QSO Party]

I don’t know what’s going on with the bands either Eddy but as you say, in our own short lifetime of observation’s perhaps what we are seeing is more like the norm and we were just lucky enough to see several decades of abnormal (great) conditions! It’s all part of the magic of radio in the long run.

BTW, our chat here inspired me to spark-up on 20 CW this afternoon and my first CQ was answered by a 5W mobile down near San Francisco. After him and just to test my theory, I went to 7030 at 2PM and called CQ on 7030 and just about fell off my chair when my first CQ got a Washington state reply! I guess everyone just needs to get on the air and make some CW music rather than sending e-mail :-))

**************

Don VE3LYX:

Lots of cw activity. NRR group is one very active group. Every monday night. over 2500 members. Straight Key club is another … U can talk about it or get on the air . Make a sked with a friend BUT IF YOU DO honour Your commitment. I operate cw sometime every week usually on 40m.

**************

I think the last comment can go a long way to making the bands busier but with so many distractions that we have in today’s world compared with a few decades ago, it’s often difficult to squeeze-in some air time … even when retired!

I found the article regarding the physical changes noted in the upper atmosphere of great interest. My speculation regarding the ionosphere and global-warming may not be so far-fetched after all.

Another propagation oddity that is new (along the lines of my “something has changed” comment) is the annual summer sporadic-e season on 6m. I have been very active every summer on this band since the early 70’s but something peculiar began happening in the summer of 2001. In the middle of the ARRL VHF Contest, the band suddenly opened to Europe! This had NEVER happened before from the west coast and a number of ‘firsts’ were made that morning.

Since then, 50MHz has opened to Europe at least once per summer with these ‘over-the-pole’ openings becoming somewhat ‘normal’. What changed? Some summers will see polar openings for several days in a row, often lasting for several hours as the propagation bounces from one European region to another every minute or (often) less.

For some years now, it has been speculated that this over-the-pole summer propagation is somehow correlated with the formation of Noctilucent Clouds. Interestingly, these clouds follow the same yearly time slot as sporadic-e, almost to the day, with their seasons beginning and ending at the same time each summer! Do the NLCs form the reflective medium needed for 6m propagation between EU and NA or does the same phenomenon that causes polar-e also cause the NLCs? The NLCs usually form in the high Arctic regions, directly associated with our over-the-pole 6m paths.

This summer however, the polar path has been largely non-existent, with just one good polar opening (June 12) so far. Interestingly, a recent newspot in the Spaceweather website pointed out the fact that, this summer, the NLCs have been largely missing in action (!) adding further evidence to their possible link with the polar-e openings. There is still much to be learned about the magic band and its special propagation!

How fast is to fast?

July 6th, 2023 |

Author: Mike VE9KK

Good afternoon blog readers I hope you are still enjoying the summer heat and are putting it into perspective as it compares to winters freezing cold?

I have a question, when it comes to CW contesting…how fast is to fast? I have asked myself this question during CW contests, when I decide to search and pounce most of the time the speed is in around 30-34 wpm. Now having said that there are some big guns that run at close to 40wpm. BUT they have been spotted and always will be thus for the most part then the caller already knows their call. It is just the exchange that has to be handled and if it is a contest that has a generic exchange (CQ zone, ITU zone so on) then the software fills in the exchange details.

For a small gun like me it’s only now and then I get spotted on the cluster and I know when this happens as I get into a pileup situation. I am not some multi operator high power station with dream antennas I am just small potatoes. I feel that if I was to knock out code at 36 wpm I think my contact rate would drop? In my humble opinion ( please correct me if I am wrong) I should stay in the 30-34 wpm range to gather fish in my net?

What say you fellow CW contesters…..in a dark place in my mind I am thinking that for me its a waste of time to practice for the 38-40 wpm goal because with my 100 watts along with a simple vertical antenna at that speed I will hear crickets when calling CQ contest? What say you…………

Field Day with 4 AA Batteries

June 28th, 2023 |

Author: Jim W1PID

This year’s Field Day provided a chance to experiment with emergency communications. I used a tiny rig that fits in a 3 X 5 inch box and runs on 4 AA batteries. I set out to work 50 stations with this setup. I succeeded.

This box fits is a shirt pocket. It contains the MTR-3, earphones, adapters for power and antenna, the paddles, and an extension for the paddles. It does not contain an antenna or batteries.

For power I used 4 AA batteries in the Goal Zero Guide 12 power bank. It outputs 5 volts to a USB-A connector. I converted that to 10.3 volts with the Baofeng USB charging adapter.

I wanted to put this kit together for years. I was never able to find paddles that were small enough to fit. Then I found the N6ARA paddles. They are smaller than your little finger. They can plug directly into the key input. I used a short extension and held the paddles in my left hand and keyed with my right hand.

I put up an 88 foot doublet for the event and planned to operate 1B on the deck. Then it rained. I operated from the sun room as 1E on 40 and 20 meters. I made the 50 QSOs fairly quickly. I would guess my setup was putting out about 3 watts. The batteries would have been good for another 5 hours I think.

Then I switched to the (tr) uSDX rig running 5 watts. I wasn’t sure if it would stand up to Field Day traffic. It did wonderfully. I made another 50 QSOs with that tiny rig. I used a set of full sized paddles with three 18650 batteries for a full 12 volts.

Field Day provides a great opportunity to test emergency gear. These experiments satisfied me that pocket gear, with a modest antenna and a USB power bank will do quite well in a pinch.

Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 291

June 24th, 2023 |

Author: Cale K4HCK

This weekend is Field Day
Find an event happening near you.
ARRL

13 Colonies special event begins July 1
Event runs from July 1 through July 8 and consists of 13 colony stations and 2 bonus stations.
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Ofcom proposes multitude of changes to licensing framework
Changes include additional access to spectrum and airborne use.
Amateur Radio Daily

Report sheds some light on Icom’s Amateur Radio strategy
The report paints a picture of what Icom’s business strategy will be over the next three years.
KB6NU

Amateur Radio Moonshots
The 5 things that show the most promise in revolutionizing Amateur Radio.
Zero Retries

Cornbread Road: An episodic Ham Radio mystery
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KE9V

Amateur Radio helps air show fly high
Middle Tennessee radio clubs partnered to provide operations support throughout the 2023 Great Tennessee Air Show.
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My father may be gone, but our radio is still going
My most prized possession was once somebody’s trash.
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How to take advantage of ARRL log archives
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OnAllBands

Modding the Quansheng UV-K5 HT
A collection of modified firmwares for the Quansheng UV-K5 radio.
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The NVIS illusion
I don’t think there is any subject that is so misunderstood by hams as NVIS.
Ham Radio Outside the Box

Get in over your head
Starting off on something that you don’t already know how to do provides you with a fearlessness.
Hackaday

Video

Ham Radio enthusiast’s long road since the Derecho
Tower collapse and community to the rescue.
WBRC

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Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 290

June 17th, 2023 |

Author: Cale K4HCK

Legislation to remove antenna restrictions on Amateur Radio introduced in Congress
Bill to remove barriers to disaster and emergency communications and training.
ARRL

Listening to the ISS on the cheap
What do you need to talk to a $100 billion space station? As it turns out, about $60 worth of stuff will do.
Hackaday

King Hussein radio equipment donated to RSGB
A permanent display is being organised at the RSGB National Radio Centre.
RSGB

Video showing Flipper Zero smoking a smart meter may be fake
Meter featured in the video does not have any ability to be switched on and off wirelessly.
RTL-SDR.com

June 2023 VHF Contest — A non-stop Es blast
The 2023 edition of the ARRL June VHF Contest hit an all-time high for my home station.
K5ND

Field Day countdown
To QRP or QRO?
N4KGL

Five tips for a successful Field Day
Here are a few friendly reminders to help make this year’s event the most successful ever.
OnAllBands

Ham Radio & the Art of Bushcraft
Keep calm and carry in.
Ham Radio Outside the Box

Video

Detecting meteors with software defined radio
We take a look at how we receive and detect meteors as they burn their way into earths atmosphere.
Tech Minds

Adventures on 122GHz
An introduction to the challenges of operating on 122GHz.
RSGB

Get local weather info over APRS
Send the message “n 3” to “WXNOW” to get a weather report.
KM6LYW

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Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 289

June 10th, 2023 |

Author: Cale K4HCK

Hamvention sets attendance record
Attendance even surpassed the previous pre-pandemic record at the Greene County Fairgrounds.
Hamvention

Some radical thinking
Removing inline fuses between our radio and power supply.
VE9KK

OpenHam Wiki
An open repository of all things Amateur Radio.
YARC

Why is GPS free?
I’m a GPS engineer. I’ll answer this in a sort of roundabout way by explaining the history of GPS.
Reddit

[Podcast] The Ham Radio Guy
Providing education and news to the Ham Radio community, including discussion with Bob Heil, volunteering, and more.
The Ham Radio Guy

Six Meters — How I Love It!
Case in point, I’ve worked 24 grids in Argentina.
K5ND

Lewis and Clark Trail on the Air through Jun 18th
This special event is an on air activity that commemorates the historic Lewis and Clark Trail.
Lewis and Clark Trail on the Air

Installing AllStarLink on a Dell Wyse 3040
How to, plus some tips and tricks that make it easier.
Random Wire

One-way radio
KE9V ponders whether two-way radio has become boring.
KE9V

No cellphone? No problem!
Ham Radio users, from teenagers to eightysomethings, are ready to communicate in the next crisis.
The Gaurdian

Video

The perils of the Flipper Zero
Flipper Zero user lets the magic smoke out of smart electric meter.
YouTube

POTA activation + wildfire smoke
The overcast smokey skies definitely effected my signal reports.
N3VAN

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Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 288

June 3rd, 2023 |

Author: Cale K4HCK

MM0UKI adventurers reach Rockall
After defying rough seas, team leader Cam Cameron aims to beat 45-day record for staying on isolated rock.
The Guardian

Museum Ships Weekend
All stations that work at least 15 different ships will receive a certificate.
Battleship New Jersey Amateur Radio Station

International Women in Engineering Day
Celebrate its 10th year in 2023 on June 23rd.
Women’s Engineering Society

Decentralized Amateur Paging Network
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DAPNET

Cornbread Road
An audio format short story about a secret society of Hams.
KE9V

HF summertime propagation
Illumination of the ionosphere with UV varies greatly with time of day and the seasons.
OnAllBands

Long-delayed echo
The delay was 1.272 seconds.
AE5X

The joy of a low-slung wire
Something between 4 and 10 feet off the ground and horizontal in orientation.
QRPer

Video

Super cheap single pole beam for 21 MHz
Beams can be heavy and bulky so are rarely used by HF portable operators. But not this one!
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High power shortwave high in the Andes
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[Throwback] Morse Code vs. SMS speed contest on the Tonight Show
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DailyMotion

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