AmateurRadio.com

Episode #103 Audio (Listen Now):

Introduction:

• Pete, VE2XPL from the wAVE gUIDES podcast joins as the quasi-permanent co-host for LHS.

Announcements:

• The Dayton Hamvention is happening from May 17-19, 2013. LHS will be in the Hara Arena. Please help by donating to the cause.
• RARSfest is happening May 30, 2013 in Raliegh, NC. LHS will NOT have an ambassador at the show this year.
• CQ World Wide WPX Contest is happening March 30-31, 2013 (0000Z-2359Z) for SSB and May 25-26,2013 (0000Z-2359Z) for CW. All the normal HF bands are involved in the contest. The WPX contest is based on an award offered by CQ Magazine for working all prefixes. The contest draws thousands of entries from around the world. http://www.cqwpx.com/
• Ohio Linux Fest Call For Papers is now open:  “Ohio LinuxFest is looking for talks for our 2013 event, which will be held September 13-15, 2013, in Columbus Ohio. We are looking for a variety of talks at all levels, from Beginners through Intermediate to Advanced. Any topic related to free and open source software, or to open hardware, is fair game for a talk. If you have something to say, we’d love to offer you a an opportunity to say it. Just go to http://www.ohiolinux.org/cfp and fill out the submission form.”

Topics:

• The future of VoIP
  • http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/22/fcc-regulation-voip-whats-next
  • http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/21/voip-wiretapping-laws
• EchoLink, AllStar Link and IRLP are VoIP services
  • https://allstarlink.org
  • http://echolink.org
  • http://irlp.net
• Tucnak
  • Multiplatform VHF/HF contest logging program. Includes all features for Multi station: networking, ON4KST chat, CW/SSB keying, radio control and more
  • New version 3.17 released on March 25, 2013
  • Authored by Ladislav, OK1ZIA
  • http://tucnak.nagano.cz/wiki/Main_Page
  • http://tucnak.nagano.cz/download.php (Download link)
  • Also packaged for Debian (with repos!)
• Svxlink
  • Linux EchoLink server with qtel EchoLink client
  • New version 13.03 released on March 9, 2013
  • Authored by Tobias, SM0SVX
  • http://svxlink.sourceforge.net
• Qle
  • QSO Logger and Log Editor for Linux
  • No package support for Debian or RH based systems
  • Perl and sqlite on the back end
  • New version 0.0.35 released on March 1, 2013
  • Authored by Wilbert, ZL2BSJ
  • http://home.kpn.nl/w.knol18/qle/qle.html

Feedback:

• E-mail from Brad A. talking about iOS vs Maemo and the corporate/community Ubuntu status according to him.
• LHS Yearly Membership by Rubens K. Thank you!
• Gary, KE2YK, has promoted us yet again on his blog. Therefore we will promote him back.
• http://ke2yk.wordpress.com
• http://ke2yk.wordpress.com/2013/03/23/1311

Contact Info:

• Contact Russ at [email protected] or [email protected].
• Listen to the live stream every other Tuesday at 8:00pm Central time. Check the LHS web site for dates.
• Leave us a voice mail at 1-909-LHS-SHOW (1-909-547-7469), or record an introduction to the podcast.
• Sign up for the LHS mailing list.
• LHS merchandise is available at the Merch link on Web site.
• Check out the Badgerwear or buy one of the other LHS-branded items at PrintFection.com/lhs or Cafe Press. Thanks.
• Thanks to Dave from Gamma Leonis for the theme music.

Music:

• “14 Ghosts II” by Nine Inch Nails from the album Ghosts I-IV.
• “Discipline” by Nine Inch Nails from the album The Slip.

 

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].

Well, I finally broke down and bought a new rig this week.  You may recall I was debating between a Yaesu 950, Kenwood TS-590, Elecraft K3, and Ten Tec Eagle.  I ended up buying a Kenwood TS-590.  What led to my decision, you ask?

The simplicity of the Ten Tec Eagle is nice and refreshing, but I just couldn’t bear spending over $1,800 for such a simple rig.  It bugged me that the MARS mod wasn’t readily available.  This is one of my idiosyncrasies; any rig that I have must be able to transmit on whatever bands its capable of transmitting on, and I abhor hardware limited by software.  And for over a kilobuck, can’t Ten Tec spring for a second antenna connector?

Volumes have been written about the Elecraft K3, and any review below a 5 out of 5 gets dirty looks from the studio audience.  Yes, it’s a great rig, and initially it looks like a great deal until you start adding on the add-ons you really need to operate this rig.  Right off the bat it’s $2,100 for a 100 watt rig.  If you’re like me you’ll want a CW filter, a tighter phone filter, perhaps one to listen to and operate AM, and the general coverage filter band pass unit, and you’re looking at another $580.  Also, the chassis of the K3 is below what I would consider for a rig in this price class.  It’s not badly designed, but it’s really time Elecraft puts the big boy pants on and makes a die cast chassis.  I know someone will quip that the Yaesu 950 and Kenwood TS-590 receivers aren’t as good as the K3.  You’re absolutely correct.  Is that extra few dB of IMD performance or receiver sensitivity really worth an extra $500 – $1K?

I was torn between the Yaesu 950 and Kenwood TS-590.  Two things tipped the scales in Kenwood’s favor.  A read several reviews about the Yaesu’s multiple roofing filters being not that useful, however they made it a major part of the user interface on the front panel.  The other mention was Yaesu’s menuing system.  Having three Yaesu products currently I’m quite familiar with Yaesu’s menus, however I can’t say I really like them.

A few reviews of the Kenwood TS-590 indicated better performance on CW than the 950.  Admittedly I wanted to give Kenwood another try after their HF “design drought” of eight years, my fond memories of Kenwood back in the 80s and 90s, and the 850 I have has given me lots of great service for 14 years.  I was a bit nervous about the TS-590 having operated a TS-570 years ago at Field Day and being disappointed in the receiver, however Kenwood literature, which was quite extensive, indicated that the 590 was designed anew from the ground up.

The TS-590 so far hasn’t disappointed me.  I was able to figure out nearly all of the functions in the first 15 minutes without cracking open the manual.  Power, mic gain, and VOX settings are easily accessed with single keystrokes and don’t require menu navigation.  The menu is accessed via a button aptly labeled MENU.  The knobs have a quality feel to them and the front interface is consistent and well laid out.  What don’t I like?  Two items: the number keypad on the left side has the bands (1.8, 3.5, 7, 10, etc.) as the primary marking on the buttons and the number (1, 2, 3, 4…) are secondary, which gets confusing when doing direct frequency entry.  The second item is the CW QSK.  Much like my TS-850, it makes more relay noise than I would like, however it sounds good in the headphones.

The manual is very well laid out, and doesn’t have the Japanglish commonly found in older Kenwood manuals.  The rig achieves a nice balance between simplicity and complexity, not being overly flashy and offering a straightforward and useful display.  The free software controls every aspect of the rig, down to the AF and RF gain and power, and it’s a rather well designed and intuitive application.  New firmware can be uploaded to the rig as it becomes available.  I especially like the filter controls which are on one knob.  In CW mode it acts in shift and width mode, and in phone it changes to lo cut / high cut, which makes a lot of sense.

Overall, I’m pleased with my decision, and hats off to Kenwood for a nice little rig.  Sorry Yaesu, but let me know when you have an FT-817 replacement out and we’ll talk.  :-)

 

Anthony, K3NG, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com.

OK – so here’s the deal.  I mentioned that I wanted to come up with a drive-on support that will allow me to use my Jackite pole as a support for wire antennas for portable non-hike type ops.  What I used to use, when I had my Buddipole, was a 4 foot plank of oak.  I bought a threaded piece of 2″ pipe and a pipe flange.  I secured the pipe flange into the plank with screws.  When I got to a suitable spot, I would drive onto the plank, screw the pipe into the flange and drop the painter’s pole that I was using as a mast into the pipe.  Viola’ – instant Buddipole support!

The problem is the Jackite pole is a way bigger diameter than the painter’s pole – 2 3/4″ in diameter compared to less that 2″ in diameter for the painter’s pole.  The biggest diameter iron pipe that Home Depot had in small, pre-cut, pre-threaded pieces was 2″.  Not gonna work.

So I took my 4 foot plank of oak and cut it into two, more or less equal sized pieces.

Then using hinges, I reverted it back into a single 4 foot plank.  Seems silly doesn’t it, at first hearing?

Ahhhhh …. but there’s a method to my madness, because now I have a vertical section as well as a horizontal section.

I added two “U” bolts to hold the Jackite pole.  And here’s what it looks like “in action”.

Two things remain to be done. First, I want to replace the hex nuts on the “U” bolts with wing nuts.  This will make it easier to tighten and loosen in the field.  Secondly, I need some sort of “support strut” between the horizontal and vertical components.  I am not sure what to use. A strut like you would find in an old style attache case or an equipment case would be ideal; but I don’t know where you’d even go about buying case parts.  The only other thing that I can think of is buying a piece of aluminum stock and fashioning my own custom “strut”.  Anchor it on one member with a screw and allow it to swing, and cut or file a “hook” into the other end and let that come to rest on a screw inserted into the other member.

I don’t want to take a chance that a gust of wind could catch this and then either blow it back onto the Jeep or even worse, out to the side (taking radios and equipment with it!).

The easy answer is to just screw a shelf bracket in place.  But that would make this thing a permanent “L”. Right now it folds down onto itself, forming a nice 2 foot long piece that fits in the back of the Jeep quite nicely, not taking up a lot of space.  I definitely want this to fold for easy storage, but yet be strong and stable enough when deployed so that there will be no worries.

Any ideas?

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].

It occurred to me the other evening that it might be fun to get the FT817 going on JT9. Many of my QSOs using the FT847 have been made using 5 watts or so, really there shouldn’t be much difference.

It was a case of ordering an interface lead from my G4ZLP interface unit to the data socket on the FT817 which was a modest amount.

After the lead arrived today, I connected it up and the rig would switch to transmit, but the tones were not transmitted. I soon found that I had to change menu 26 on the 817 to User-U from the default. Also in menu 38 on the rig, I turned off the filtering.

That was all that was required. I tried a test transmission from the FT817 and monitored it on the 847 – it sounded good. I’ve already some JT9 QSOs in the log and the 5W signal has been heard in North America.

JT9 and the FT817 ought to be a very good combination indeed.

Tim Kirby, G4VXE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Oxfordshire, England. Contact him at [email protected].

You probably didn't know that April 27th, Samuel Morse's birthday,  is Morse Code Day and even if you did, my guess is that you forgot. So I have been pondering on how to celebrate Morse Code Day. What is the appropriate protocol for gift giving, celebrations, etc...?

A quick scan of the Hallmark Card site yielded no Morse Code Day cards. I suppose if there were any celebratory Morse Code Day cards they would be written in Morse Code characters, which non-Morse Code knowing people think is clever. The problem is we hear morse code, we don't write it. so it is painful to sound out the characters in your head to interpret the clever message, ....  .-  .--.  .--.  -.--   -- --- .-.  ...  .   -.-.  ---  -..  .  -..  .-  -.--  .-.-.-. Irritating isn't it. So I dimissed the card idea.

Then I went to the party supply store to see what party favors might be available, you know, Morse Code Day plates, napkins, forks, center piece ideas, little plastic morse keys and other morse related party items.  I was very disappointed at the selection. Basically there was nothing. When I asked for assistance, the lady looked at me as if  I had gone mad. "Morse Code Day, is this a joke? I insisted that there must be some unboxed supply of Morse Code Day merchandise in the back of the store. After a frustrating debate with the lady on the relavance of Samuel Morse, I thought I should leave before she called security.

Not to be discouraged, I went by the local bakery so see what Morse Code Day cakes they might have prepared in advance to beat the rush. Either I was too late or the baker forgot. There were no Morse cakes prepared, so I inquired about a custom cake. After I heard the cost of the cake, I realized what a waste of money that would be since there were no Morse plates and no Morse forks with which to enjoy the Morse cake with. How inappropriate.

Then I thought about dropping hints to my wife about Morse Code Day so that she might surprise me with a thoughtful Morse Code Day gift. But how? She probably has no idea who Samuel Morse is  and I'm  sure she probably thinks is "morris code" anyway. So I thought about starting a Morse Code Day awareness campaign with a public demonstration at the park, with news coverage, a collection of old code keys and even a "Learn Your Name in Morse" workshop. But then I thought of all the work that might be and it's very possilble the turn out might not meet my expectations and I would become frustrated. So like the other ideas, I abandoned this one as well.

Then I thought of getting myself a gift in celebration of Samuel Morse's creation, so what would be the appropriate gift? Obviously a morse code key would be appropriate. However before I even knew of  Morse Code Day, I had to self impose a "morse key in , morse key out" rule because of the space my morse key museum were taking up. I couldn't decide which key I wanted to sacrifice, so I gave up on that idea as well.

So what to do, no cards, no cakes and no keys. As I pondered the situation, I concluded to just forget about Morse Code Day, which is what most people do anyway.
Mike Crownover, AD5A, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Texas, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Mike Crownover, AD5A, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Texas, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

For the last few weeks, when I browse the pages in G4ILO’s Shack using Google Chrome browser, they start displaying in a plain text sort of mode.

How pages look in Google Chrome

How that page is supposed to look

I think what’s happening is the CSS style sheet isn’t being loaded. So the pages are appearing without any formatting. But why? This doesn’t happen in Firefox. It didn’t used to happen in Chrome. And it doesn’t happen in Chrome after I clear the cache. After that the next few pages display OK until it eventually happens again.

Is it just me, or is this happening to everyone who visits my site using Google Chrome?

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