Not so long ago, I discovered a group of people here in Russia, who likes so called “green” radio, i.e. Q-mac, Codan, Barrett, Soviet R-143 and other professional and military transceivers. They prefer work on air outdoors, fleeing from big city’s (and even small village’s) QRM. They are experimenting with extremely short antennas such as 3-meter-whip even at low bands. They have their own frequencies that they call “channels”. For example, channel “5” is 7175 kHz and channel “7” is 14342.5 kHz. They work low power, usually less than 30 Watts, SSB. They shoot video and exchange it via Youtube. They never feel boring of talking to each other repeatedly. They call themselves “manpackers” and call their activities “A man-pack day.”

You can have a look at one of these QSOs, between me and R1BBG/P located about 700 km away in suburbs of Saint-Petersburg, made at “channel five” by means of a handcrafted magnetic loop antenna and QRP rig Yaesu FT-817. 10 Watts and Icom was from his side. The weather was fine, minus 10C only.

These days I contacted these man-pack people several times. I used power of less than 30 Watts and small antennas. I really liked it! Not bad part of hobby somewhere between QRP and QRO. Yes, not truly QRP, but truly fun of the radio!

This was first seen some weeks ago and I saw it earlier today in an email from Twitter. It shows you how to make a simple add-on yagi for your wi-fi router.

In my case I get sufficient range with the router “as is”. You might find it useful if you need to increase the range in a certain direction. It is a simple idea, which I like.
See https://hackaday.com/2017/01/24/a-simple-yagi-antenna-for-your-wi-fi-router/ .

OFCOM has published a paper outlining its proposed 5G frequencies.
See http://ofcom.cmail19.com/t/ViewEmail/i/7261046CD05FE3E5/59D1BD3EA2F08127C67FD2F38AC4859C

Winter Field Day Jan 28-29 2017

Fred Lesnick

Exchange: VE3FAL -10(1 station, outdoors), ONN (Ontario North)

Saturday morning packed the truck with gear and sleigh to pull into my shelter location South of Thunder Bay. This location serves as not only the area I like to hunt, hike and bike, but also my training grounds for Winter Survival as well as a training grounds for the 1^st Thunder Scout Explorer Group that I am proud to be part of.

I parked the truck and pulled the sleigh in 2 kms to the location. Opened up the tent and got the fire going straight away inside as well as outside. Morning temperature was nice and the hike was peaceful as well. Scouter James and part of the troop showed up just after 10am where we practiced building and setting primitive traps up as well as relax and enjoy the day. I prepped a spot for my KX2 in the tent and later put the Packtenna EF up in the tree’s with the help of Scouter James. We were ready to roll for the 1900z start of WFD. I opted to operate 40 meters QRP CW only as it was the only band that showed any real activity; the higher bands were very spotty.

Scouter James and I spent the entire night out at the tent while I played off and on in the test. I was able to make 10 completed qso’s (exchanges) and actually beat my score from last year. For me it’s not hardcore, I am just out to play and hone skills both with radio and survival.

I made a short video of the day dedicated to WFD and it can be seen on my YouTube Channel:

https://youtu.be/YIkrRFd3pq0

https://www.winterfieldday.com/

73 Fred VE3FAL

The monkeys are out, the roosters are in. If you are celebrating or not, a happy Chinese New Year to you.

Not much to report from my side. Amateur radio has taken a back seat, partly due to work, partly due to the enormous noise levels that plague me on HF. With the sun not cooperating there is little to be found on the bands, except for way down low. Steve (VE7SL) has promoted NDB DXing more than once here on Amateurradio.com and I am hooked (again), too. Even with my limited antenna I can pick up new stations every time I turn on my TS-440S. My best DX sofar is an NDB from Indonesia; over 3000 kilometers away. Not bad, but not good enough either. Unfortunately I have many AM stations in the area putting out ghost signals on Long Wave. Dealing with them is a pain, but it’s necessary if I want to join the fun on 630 meters. So far, no luck, but we’ll keep on trying.

Beat the winter blues and enjoy part two of our informative series on HF and VHF propagation. Steve Nichols G0KYA concludes with his explanation on how space weather affects our ability to communicate on the HF bands. Bob parts with some cash at Hamfest and Mike chats to Phil Willis M0PHI and Cathy Clark G1GQJ, two movers and shakers in the world of amateur radio.

We hope you enjoy the show!

www.txfactor.co.uk