AmateurRadio.com

Series Six Episode Eight of the ICQ Podcast has been released. News Stories include :-

• Boston Marathon All Hams Reported Safe
• First Cuba to EI contact on FO-29
• Radio hams active in Argentina floods
• Radio Ham named to Senior State Department Telecom post
• Irish entries wanted for Youngsters On The Air
• Ham radio club's 90th birthday
• Warwick University students fly CubeSat
• The Michael Owen Plaque
• UK 434 MHz balloons head for Poland
• UKQRM launches public facing website
• Inner Hebrides on Ham Radio Satellites
• VK5 National and Conservation Parks Award

Listener mailbag feedback and Martin Butler (M1MRB & W9ICQ) talks to the Cambs-Hams about their upcomg DXpedition to Mull.

Colin Butler, M6BOY, is the host of the ICQ Podcast, a weekly radio show about Amateur Radio. Contact him at [email protected].

Series Six Episode Eight of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast has been released. The latest news, listener mailbag feedback and Martin Butler (M1MRB & W9ICQ)is joined by the Cambs-Hams to discuss their upcoming DXpedition to Mull.

• Boston Marathon All Hams Reported Safe
• First Cuba to EI contact on FO-29
• Radio hams active in Argentina floods
• Radio Ham named to Senior State Department Telecom post
• Irish entries wanted for Youngsters On The Air
• Ham radio club's 90th birthday
• Warwick University students fly CubeSat
• The Michael Owen Plaque
• UK 434 MHz balloons head for Poland
• UKQRM launches public facing website
• Inner Hebrides on Ham Radio Satellites
• VK5 National and Conservation Parks Award

Colin Butler, M6BOY, is the host of the ICQ Podcast, a weekly radio show about Amateur Radio. Contact him at [email protected].

The eagerly awaited JT-Alert for WSJT-X has finally arrived! You can download it from the Ham Apps website.

This useful accessory will let you know if you have worked a station B4 or whether a station will fill a wanted band or mode slot. It sends spots of JT9 stations to the HamSpots website, providing a useful reverse beacon for the mode. It also logs contacts to  a few of the popular logging programs including MixW which happens to be the same log format used by KComm. Due to some nifty programming this new version of JT-Alert works with JT65-HF as well.

This new program couldn’t come soon enough for me as I have worked just about everyone who is on JT9 at the moment and it was getting tiresome doing manual log lookups. Hopefully this new program will attract some new participants to this amazing mode.

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

Elecraft K3 Final Build Assessment and First On Air Testing

So the Elecraft K3 build is finished ☺ Yes it has been a long process for me but only because of my time and schedule. I think this is a project you could finish in a weekend if you really put dedication into it but I’m not sure you would want to. I will explain this as I go along…

The first questions I got were why would you do this? There are so many radios out there to purchase and some could argue many better. Well, that’s subjective of course and I’m a big fan of my Yeasu 1000mp, which I believe is my third one. I also love what Icom is doing with their new rigs but I remember a hobby that I used to table and build circuit boards, solder resisters and diodes and even build a Heathkit or two. I wanted to regain that experience in the hobby…. Get on air with something I assembled and tuned… something my hands were inside and I know where everything is and could replace if needed. How comfortable would you be installing a filter in your radio? I could do it in 10 mins now ☺ so that is a big part of the why.

The second part – FUN. Yes, if you read my posts you will see some frustration in my build. There are a few reasons but one is I was sick during the first phase… I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis and was in the midst of an episode when I was doing the first few days of assembly. Take that out and I think you would find that I was having much more fun. ☺ Also – I have a really busy with work, life and family so I wanted something that I could have to sit down and take my mind away. This project seemed like a great one.

So here are the videos of assembly if you haven’t seen them and then I will provide you my overall thoughts below:

http://nicktoday.com/elecraft-k3-final-build-assessment-and-first-on-air-testing/

 

Nick Palomba, N1IC, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Florida, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

The front cover of the May 2013 issue of RadCom features an article about “Activating Wainwrights.”

Inside there is an excellent article by David G0EVV about the Wainwrights On The Air scheme (WOTA).

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

So I just finished writing a post about frustration being ultimate reason that many hams can't stick with QRP. Many have high expectations, some  are unreasonable expectations that can't be met. When I last wrote of this I was declaring my optimism. Well, I have crossed over into the state of frustration.

Years ago I built a Rockmite. It is a fun project. When I finished it, I didn't take the time to put the antenna connector on it or the dc plug, I simply use alligator clips to get everything working. I remember calling CQ for a few minutes made a QSO, which the station on the other end actually recorded to let me know how my 400 mw sounded. Pretty cool and this milliwatt stuff isn't all that bad.

While cleaning my shack a few years later, since I had never used the RockMite since that first QSO, I threw it away. The day after the garbage man took it I'll admit I was a little remorseful. Ever since I have been watching the auction sites for a Rockmite to replace it. I didn't want to go to all the trouble to build another one, I just wanted one to have and play around with occasionally. The other day that replacement arrived at the house. I hooked it up and called CQ for an hour, some of you may have seen my spots on QRPspots.com. A few guys tried to hear me but couldn't. Today I came home from work and hoped to make a QSO with a local during the afternoon and called CQ for another hour. Lastly I tried again tonight. No joy. Probably 2.5 hours of CQing with the Rockmite and no QSO. So it is a little frustrating. What else could I have done with my life during those 2.5 hours. After calling so fruitlessly with a QRPp, rock bound rig, the KX3 now looks like a QRO rig.

Oh well, I'll try it again. QRPp is a little like fishing, they might not bite today, but they might be tomorrow, at least that is the optimistic way to look at it.


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

It was a very unseasonably warm day today in Central NJ. I took advantage of temperatures in the mid 70s, and headed out to a park near work during my lunch break. North Branch Park is all of about five minutes away.

I decided to use the Buddistick on the mag mount on top of the Jeep, so set up was a snap. After getting to the park, I was on the air within just a few minutes. There was a ton of activity towards the low end of 20 Meters, but it was all contest traffic. I probably could have worked a few DX stations, but I didn’t know the exchange, so I headed towards the QRP watering hole instead.

There, I ran into Martin KØBXB in Burlington, WI. We had a short QSO as I didn’t have a lot of time. It was very pleasant however. Martin was 579 into NJ and I received a 539 in return. Martin was using his IC-7000 at 5 Watts into a G5RV.

Later on, back in the building, I saw that Martin is quite the accomplished Ham. He builds, he experiments, and he was the winner of the May 2012 QST Cover Plaque Award.

So it just goes to show, you never know who you’re going to run into when you turn on the rig! In addition to learning more about Martin, I did a little research on his town of Burlington, WI. It’s an old town that was settled somewhere around 1835 by the sons of some Revolutionary War soldiers. Burlington is nicknamed “Chocolate City, USA” because of the Nestle chocolate factory that is located there (pssst …… don’t tell the folks in Hershey, PA ……. OK?).  Burlington was also the home of a lot of notable and famous people. But one in particular, caught my eye.  Burlington, WI once was “home” to Gregory Itzin. If you’re a fan of the TV series “24” then you know Mr. Itzin better as President Charles Logan – unfortunately, not one of the good guys.

But getting back to the topic of QRPTTF practice, I wanted to share with you all how I carry my portable QRP equipment out and about.  My KX3 is my pride and joy, so I want to protect it as best possible. A tip o’ the QRP hat to TJ WØEA for recommending the Lowe Pro Traveler 150.  We’re having thunderstorms tonight, and I’m off the air, so I made a little video:

Hope you enjoy it – I’m certainly no WGØAT or K6BBQ, but you’ll get the idea.

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].