AmateurRadio.com

Pat Tice, WA0TDA, is the manager of HANDI-HAM and a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com. Contact him at [email protected].

AmateurLogic.TV Episode 55 is now available for download.

Join Tommy and George as they relive their Excellent Adventure to Dayton Hamvention 2013. See what goodies we brought home, George’s award, visit with Midnight Science, Joe Eisenberg K0NEB, Bob Heil K9EID, Ray Novak N9JA, and more.

We also announce the very lucky winner of the Field Day Giveaway contest who’s receiving the Icom IC-7200 plus a custom shop paint job and accessories from GigaParts, MFJ, and Heil Sound.

1:12:02 of Hamvention fun.

Download

View in web browser: YouTube

George Thomas, W5JDX, is co-host of AmateurLogic.TV, an original amateur radio video program hosted by George Thomas (W5JDX), Tommy Martin (N5ZNO), Peter Berrett (VK3PB), and Emile Diodene (KE5QKR). Contact him at [email protected].

Today there has been a really big Sporadic-E opening on 6m which lasted for several hours. In fact it is still going on as I type this.

This snapshot of activity from DXMaps gives an idea of what the opening was like at its peak. The whole of western Europe must have been covered by a reflective Sporadic-E cloud!

From DXMaps I could see that the opening extended up to 2m for a time, though I didn’t hear anything myself. Unfortunately my QTH is poor for VHF so conditions have to be exceptionally good for me to hear any 2m DX let alone work it. So 6 remains my favourite VHF band.

I made several 6m contacts on SSB and several on PSK31. The most interesting call was LY44WFF, a DXpedition to Klaipeda, Lithuania KO05oi which is quite a rare square so I’m told. Best DX on PSK31 was probably David, 5B4AHY.

I never quite know how to answer calls on 6m PSK31. Some operators seem to use quick, contest style operating while others reel out their name, QTH, EPC number and so on. I prefer the quick format myself, with the aim of getting the contact completed before the conditions fade out. But if someone wants to exchange a bit more information I try to do that too.

A station operating RTTY was an unwelcome presence among the PSK just above 50.250. One RTTY station came up right smack on top of someone operating PSK63. Surprisingly I got perfect copy of the PSK63 station which was straddled by the RTTY signal! Surely it is time to abandon this old, wide, slow outmoded mode?

Julian Moss, G4ILO, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, England. Contact him at [email protected].

And are close to the Central New Jersey area this Saturday, please make sure to stop by the annual Raritan Valley Radio Club hamfest this Saturday morning.  We are located in the parking lot of the Piscataway High School on Behmer Road in Piscataway, NJ.

We are conveniently located, not far at all from Rte. 287, the New Jersey Turnpike, Rte. 1 or Rte. 78.

The hamfest has been “gaining steam” over the past few years, and turnout by vendors and sellers has been on the increase every year.  This year should be no exception. In addition to all the “stuff” that will be up for sale, there is usually some kind of neat demonstration of something going on, as well as VE testing. As a special treat, Alan W2AEW is usually in attendance, so if you’re a fan of his oscilloscope and test equipment videos on YouTube, there’s a pretty good chance you’d get the opportunity to meet and chat with him.

My main duties for the day will be to assist with parking cars and serving as a VE. But I’ll probably have the KX3 in the car, so if you want, and if you twist my arm gently, I could be persuaded to demo the KX3 along with my drive on mast mount and the PAR. Or, if you’d like to just shoot the breeze about QRP for a while, I’d be more than willing to accommodate.

The weather forecast for Saturday is in a word, BEAUTIFUL!  If you’d like more info, be sure to visit www.w2qw.org/ham fest.htm.

Hope to see you there!

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least.

Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

This Nexus 7 tablet is a great convenience. I can easily check e-mail, Twitter and Facebook very easily and quickly. It’s also great for Echolink, looking up call signs and checking the DX Cluster. It’s quite a nifty tool.

One thing that I have noticed though, is that it’s not so quick on the uptake when it comes to the blog. And by that, I mean that it really takes a long time for the blog roll to update with the latest changes. I can go on my desktop and Chrome will inform me that my fellow bloggers have published new posts, but yet the Nexus 7 and Chrome don’t seem to update as quickly. Sometimes it seems to lag several hours as compared to the desktop.

I am not enough of a computer whiz to know why that is, but it is a tad annoying. Still, the benefits outweigh this inconvenience, but it is curious.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

OM7RU

This evening 20m was once again rather slow but I was able to catch EI3KG from Ireland, Michal was 599 into Canada.  It was a very fast QSO with just the exchange of reports but I was able to raise Michal on my first call to him. I then came across LZ1IQ from Bulgaria and he was not able to pick me out from the noise floor. I did try a few times but gave up as there was a pileup waiting to work him and I did not want to hold him from working other stronger station.  Then came OM7RU Ricki from the Slovak Republic and I was refreshed to get a report of 569. I did mention to him that I was /QRP this is something I don't often do. Ricki was more of a relaxed DX op with giving out his name, RST and wanted the same along with the traditional TU 73.
It was time to shut the radio down for the evening and get on and  blog about the great contacts. As a side note my XYL's mom and aunt are over from England for a 4 week visit. This means the Plasma TV down in the living room is on. I get terrible interference on the rig from this TV. Its great that I have the MFJ 1026 noise cancelling unit when adjusted properly I lose any sign of the Plasma TV. This unit is great.


Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

Hello and welcome to the first episode to be released on schedule in quite some time! It looks like our contest to award a Beaglebone Black to some lucky listener is going well. Make sure to get your entries in before 10:00pm Central on June 16th, either by becoming a member or completing the thought "I deserve a Beaglebone Black because..." on our voice line at 1-909-LHS-SHOW (547-7469). The drawing will be held during our live recording of Episode #109 on June 18th.

In this installment, your hosts travel the world of Linux and Ham Radio, discussing the latest release of ArchLinux, hurricane and disaster preparedness, the free-software Mumble project, computers in education and more. We even have voice feed back from Lord D, addressing a philosophical topic discussed in Episode #101. Sit down with a drink and get comfortable. This episode will make you think--we hope.

73 de The LHS Guys

Russ Woodman, K5TUX, co-hosts the Linux in the Ham Shack podcast which is available for download in both MP3 and OGG audio format. Contact him at [email protected].