AmateurRadio.com

And sometimes “the next time” is the next day!  That was the case for me and A45XR in Oman.  Where I was unsuccessful last night, I scored tonight.  Chris in Oman was VERY loud into New Jersey at the very end of 20 Meters – 14.005 MHz.  He was 599+ loud.  The kind of loud that you know in your gut that if you stick with him (and he doesn’t QRT), you’ll get him in the log. As I was listening to him pick off the stations, I heard him come back to Chris KQ2RP (author of Signal to Noise – KQ2RP), who lives all of 28 miles from me as the crow flies.  When I heard Chris A45XR work Chris KQ2RP (hey, that was a 2X Chris QSO!), I really started to feel confident.  And I was in the log about 5 -7 minutes later. First time to work Oman and via QRP. Life is good!

BTW, here’s a picture of the insulator I fashioned last night from the pen barrel.  Sorry about the photo quality – I tried adjusting the exposure and contrast; but you’ll get the idea.

I received an e-mail from Joel N3GSE over the weekend, informing me that it’s not legal to own a slingshot in New Jersey.  Who knew?  I had so many as a kid! I could argue (if ever questioned about it) that since it’s attached to an “L” bracket and the projectile is attached via fishing line that it’s technically an “antenna line launcher” and not a sling shot, per se. I’ll have to ask my police officer brother-in-law about it.  Another stupid New Jersey law, if you ask me.

But as I was reading the statute (and I re-read it about 3 times to be certain), I saw that there was no mention whatsoever about pneumatic antenna launchers.  So I sent away for the following kit from the Joplin Amateur Radio Club:

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

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

Last evening I had a very short time on the radio I was not expecting much as the conditions have not been stellar. I did find 20m to be very busy and not reflecting the solar conditions. On May 2nd I was able to work EA4DRV and last night I heard him on again calling CQ. I gave him a call and made the contact with only 100mW's for a miles per watt of 37,968! Shortly after my contact I heard him giving a report to fellow blogger Larry W2LJ. I was only able to hear Larry very faintly just above the noise level. I did do a little more fishing but time was tight and I had to shut things down for the evening. This evening I think I am going to throw the line out again and see how the fishing goes!
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

HamRadioSchool.com is off to a great start with a learning system that includes a web site, iPhone app and a great Technician License Course book. The Technician book, written by my fellow instructor Stu Turner W0STU, has turned out to be very popular. Stu did a great job of balancing “teaching the right material” with “focusing on the exam questions.” We’ve used the book in our two-day Tech license class with great success.

Many people have been asking Stu when he’s going to write a book for the FCC General Class License. So, by popular demand, here it is: HamRadioSchool.com General License Course. Using the same creative style that worked well with the Technician book, Stu has delivered an easy-t0-grok book for getting your General Class License.

I was happy to provide technical assistance to Stu for this book and earned the esteemed title of Technical Editor.  It even says so on the front cover! (It says Technical Editor because I can’t be held responsible for proper grammar or spelling.)

Just like the Tech book, the General book has a companion iPhone app available on iTunes.

73, Bob K0NR

Bob Witte, KØNR, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Colorado, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Late last Summer, it came to my attention that the 903-MHz W3APL beacon had gone off-line.  The failure was intermittent and seemed to resolve itself after power was reset.  Several efforts to troubleshoot it were undertaken by myself and others, including running it at high duty into a dummy load over a period of days.  I was unable to get the problem to manifest itself on my bench.

A synthesized source (Analog Devices demo board) was offered by a friend of the Club, however it did not produce the desired output (or any output at all).  It’s not clear whether this was the fault of the synthesizer or the user (me).  The notional plan was to replace the beacon, which consists of a 75-MHz crystal oscillator followed by 12x of multiplication and a small RF power module, with the synthesizer and a new RF power module.  The project languished, as they often do in my hands.  But, two weeks ago I picked up the task again and made some real headway.

Really, the failure had to be one of a couple of things:  1.  Intermittent connection exacerbated by thermal cycling.  2. Oscillator “unlock” due to component aging and thermal cycling. I reasoned that as long as we could eliminate #1, the multiplier chain and amplifier should be fine.  The behavior seemed to point toward #2 or perhaps a combination of #1 and #2.  I came across a forlorn Programmed Test Sources PTS-040 that I had rescued from another group’s surplus heap to put in my lab.  I hadn’t used it in the two years that it was in my possession, so it seemed logical to provide it to the Club on a long-term loan.  The problem was that it didn’t go up to 75-MHz.  So, I cooked up a little multiplier chain.  My “good” HP spectrum analyzer is on-loan to a paying program so I had to make do with the FFT function on the fastest Tektronix portable scope I had in the lab.

My initial effort at the multiplier chain was to build a 2N3904 amplifier that swung way into saturation producing a signal rich in harmonics.  I went straight away for the 903-MHz signal but I couldn’t get a good enough lumped-element filter to eliminate the adjacent harmonics.  So, I tried for the 75-MHz injection.  This demanded a buffer amplifier so I lazily reached for the MMIC drawer in and retrieved one of the plentiful MAR-8s.  Plenty of gain…and, as I would find out in a moment…conditionally stable!  To exercise the eloquent euphemism of Ben, N3UM, the MMIC “burst into song” at about 63 MHz.

Back to the drawing board.  I knew that I had something that would work, so I redesigned the deadbug layout on an SMD protoboard (the kind with all the pads in a grid).  I replaced the discrete 2N3904 and MAR-8 MMIC amps with SGA-4586Z MMICs (which are a little too nice for this service, but I have a ton of them).  Viola!

It’s the little board on the far wall of the diecast box with the SMA connector on the left and two toroids.  37-MHz RF comes in from the PTS-040 through the BNC jack in the wall.  It’s multiplied up to 75 MHz on the new board and piped down to the remaining 12x multiplication and amplification stages before going to the little brick PA in the lower left (not visible).

So far, it sounds good.  I was able to monitor it with my W1GHZ transverter strapped to the IC-290A in my car and using a WA5VJB cheap Yagi tossed in the back seat.  I lost the signal about 5 miles away with that setup, which is really pretty decent all things considered at that frequency, etc, etc.  Nominally, the frequency should be 903.054 MHz.  I found it at about 903.048 MHz on the lash-up.  Brian, ND3F (aka N3IQ/R) reported that he found it at 903.046 MHz with KA3EJJ’s setup.  If you’re in the vicinity of FM19ne and are setup on 902/903, we’d appreciate a report.  The big thing is the long-term stability.  So, we’ll continue to monitor it.

Now…to get back to that 930 on my bench…

Ethan Miller, K8GU, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Maryland, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

at lunch time today. I went to the park, threw the PAR ENDFEDZ into a tree and tuned up on 18.078 MHz.  Janez, S51DX was calling CQ and he was loud so I put out my call and got into his log.

I probably won’t be able to get to the park until maybe Friday as the next two days are supposed to bring heavy rains to New Jersey.  I’m not complaining, as it’s been a very dry spring (unlike the Midwest) and we can use the moisture.

The nice thing about the PAR ENDFEDZ 10/20/40 MKII, is that you can remove the factory supplied radiator and replace it with your own for any bands from 60 Meters through 10 Meters.  This evening, I cut and tuned a radiator for the 17 Meter band.  I used 18 gauge stereo speaker zip cord and pulled it apart. The other half I will use for a 15 Meter radiator.  I soldered a ring lug to one end and then had to figure out an insulator for the other end.

The insulator that comes on the factory radiator looks like this:

I don’t have any solid plastic like that so I used the barrel of a stick ball point pen.  I cut it in half and drilled some holes and used the PAR insulator as a template.  Since this is always used as a very temporary installation, it will be more than adequate.

I saw on QRPSPOTS that John N8ZYA worked A45XR in Oman using 3 Watts and his indoor random wire antenna.  Great catch, John!  About 90 minutes later, I was giving it a shot using 5 Watts.  By the time I got on though, 17 Meters was changing, and even though the Omani station was still loud, he went QRT for the evening. Maybe next time.  That’s the thing you learn with QRP – there’s usually always a next time, even if it takes 15 years for someone to take another DXpedition to that island!

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].

That’s right, we’ve got yet another interview in this show. Is anyone screaming “UNCLE!” yet? George from Sierra Radio Systems and Nick from Pignology are our guests tonight, talking about several of their ham radio related products. They have a product launch they’re doing at the Dayton Hamvention this year and wanted to let everyone know what they have in store so it’s out there before the chaos in Ohio. Don’t despair, howver. This is not a sales pitch. Instead, our fine feathered guests get down into the nitty gritty of their product, explaining what it does, how it does it, what hardware it uses and what software as well. You’ll be happy to know it’s all Free Software based and an incredible find for anyone looking for comprehensive remote station control. George and Nick also happen to be responsible for a significant chunk of the donation money LHS needed to be a part of Dayton this year so we are eternally grateful to them for that. The best part of all this: That’s only HALF of the show. This one’s so packed full of information it might just explode.

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].