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I’ve resumed my role in the vhf white noise listening club with this evenings UKAC 50Mhz contest. Its a bit early in the season to expect any results with 6m from here but nice to get a full 3 qso’s with my new (and more xyl friendly) 4 ele yagi, from Powabeam.

 

I opted for the smallest one they did as the previous long boom 5 ele was just too big and basically got in the way for much of the year. This one is shorter by quite a margin and performance isn’t far off what I would have expected from the previous one. Oddly enough it was a gift from my mother in law through the DX shop. Well done her, and by far better service than I received through other well known and innovative antenna manufacturers. The specs are largely what you would expect from a small beam but the quality of manufacture is superb. There is no need to trim or tune anything. Just bolt up and away you go. All in all less than 10 mins from start to up on the portable mast. Highly recommended.

Operating at home certainly beats sitting in a car, freezing yourself half to death, on the side of a fell road but there is not much in the way of chance that I’ll get good results from here without the aid of Es. When I could no longer hear the beacons in Northern Ireland it was time to turn the rig off though.

Alex Hill, G7KSE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, UK. Contact him at [email protected].

Today I hiked along the Winnipesaukee River. I worked Sweden, Slovenia and Russia. What a great hike!

It’s a perfect spring day… 45F and the snow is melting! I hiked on the old rail right-of-way along the Winnipesaukee River. The river flows from Lake Winnipesaukee in Laconia to the Merrimack River in Franklin. The trail passes through some beautiful farm land.

After about a mile I turned north toward the river. A piece of land juts out into the river. I setup on a large rock with a fantastic view. I’m using an HB-1B on 20 meters with a half-wave wire.

I’m looking toward the east… that seems to be where the signals are coming from too. My first contact is with Steve SM4OTI in Sweden. He gives me a 599 and sends “HI” when I tell him I am running 4 watts. He’s running a KW to a 4 element beam. “UR doing FB WID 4W,” he sends. Of course, he is very strong to me. I’ve worked Steve nearly a dozen times over the years.

I move up the band a bit and answer S57KW. Jure in Slovenia doesn’t get my call sign on the first try, but he gives me a 559 report. “UR 4W QRP doing good job,” he sends.

Finally, I work Vlad RU6AV near Moscow. He gives me a 579. When I tell him I am running 4W /P, he asks about my antenna. I tell him it’s a 10 meter wire. “FB CONDX HI… UR 4W FB Jim.” Then he tells me he is running 200 watts to a 3 element yagi.

I have been operating for only 10 minutes. It’s exhilarating! A beautiful spring day… glorious river scenery and some nice DX for icing on the cake.

My view to the west is perfect. Hopefully we’re seeing the last of the snow. I’ll hike more often now that the days are getting warmer.

Jim Cluett, W1PID, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Hampshire, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

From the That Took A Long Time department, the FCC granted a waiver requested by the ARRL that clarifies the rules concerning the use of TDMA (i.e., MOTOTRBO or DMR) on the ham bands. I posted on this topic way back in March 2011, so refer to that article for the background. Update: ARRL article posted here.

I was surprised to find that the FCC quoted my comments that I filed on this proceeding:

Some commenters state the proposed rule change “removes an ambiguity in Part 97 concerning the use of single slot TDMA technology” and it “enable[s] and encourage[s] the adoption of spectrally efficient narrowband technology.”  Comments of Robert Witte at 1.

OK, fine, it was buried in the footnotes but I appreciate the mention. I can now die in peace knowing that my name is in the FCC record and not associated with a rules violation

Thanks to Jeff K0RM, for pointing this out.

73, Bob K0NR

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

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's that time of year, at least in Texas where I live, the flowers start to bloom, the temperatures start to rise and antennas need some work. This past weekend a friend of mine, Hector, AD6D/XE2K, came to help me (he did most of the work) with some tower climbing, element straightening, rotor fixing and antenna building. In a addition to the antenna/tower work we completely reorganized my shack, so it was a busy weekend. I am now greased and gassed and ready to go for while. I found some things in the shack that I hadn't seen in a while, so I will be getting reaquainted with some of my toys.

I also received my new Yaesu VX8-GR with the build in APRS/GPS capability. I was up on APRS in a matter of minutes, pretty cool. There are various applications of APRS, but for a hiker/climber it is a nice safety device so that you location is known in case of emergency and if you are activating a summit, chaser can follow your progress up the mountain.

I also managed a QRP QSO with EY8MM, so the new restored antennas are working great.

After I recover from the weekend, I will write about some more interesting topics.
Mike Crownover, AD5A, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Texas, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

The Arduino platform has struck a bit of a chord with me. It is very well supported with both hardware and software, which makes it ideal for people like me who don’t have the background or skills to get a project off the ground. There are plenty of resources around the internet that off either ready made projects (just add hardware) or Books that explain the concepts and procedures in detail. Even the books tend to be supported by websites that have the code available for download if you wish.I came across a new(?) book by Leigh Klotz Jr, WA5ZNU titled ‘Ham radio for Arduino & Picaxe’ seems to be available through the ARRL but not the RSGB at the moment.

The book is supported by a website which has forums, code and links to the various projects that are presented. The links include the almost ubiquitous Sparkfun website, which has been supplying bits and bobs to US based hobbyist’s as well as those internationally for some time. The Sparkfun site is also a good place for technical data and resources such as libraries for Eagle.

Anyway, as usual I digress. The book is currently available through the ARRL and possibly in the future through the RSGB. The contents page looks like it has a whole heap of projects that will keep us busy for a long time. If its your cup of tea then I hope you can get a copy and enjoy the projects.

Alex Hill, G7KSE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, UK. Contact him at [email protected].

Let me start with saying that I love having goals and challenging myself in different ways… I came up with a challenge that I didn’t think would be too hard to meet but would be fun and stretch my operating time a little more than I have been on the air in a while. I love DStar and the fact that I live in an Antenna Restricted area makes me try to be more creative than ever on keeping my radio skills high as well as having some fun doing it. 50 States WAS is always one of the first challenges people go after when getting on HF so I thought why not try to do 50 States on DStar and to make it interesting come up with a catchy way to say it so there grew: 50 States in 50 Days. Sounds catchy right? I thought so…

Honestly, it should be a very easy goal to attain from a technology standpoint I mean get on a Reflector and you could pick off 5-6 states on a major reflector in on setting. Also, just linking to 50 repeaters should only take you what a day or two to do if you just rush through it…. Here is what do you haven’t added… Full time job, wife, two kids with full schedules, 4 dogs, 15 other hobbies and the fact that I’m pretty tired at the end of my day!! I have thought about doing this project for a while but I jumped in with both feet tonight with some free time I had tonight….

With that said… Let’s get started!!

March 30 –

• Linked to KI4WXS in the Charlotte area to talk to my friend John – KJ4KJM who I got into the hobby and we had a quick QSO on his way home from work.
• Linked to AA1HD in Vernon Connecticut because I was on a roll at this point and reconnected to one of my oldest (no age but long term) friends in the hobby Fran (W1FJM)
• Linked to AC7O in UT and I got a change to meet Bob – KF7LQS who just got a 91ad and was learning his way around DStar from Logan, UT. Really nice guy and someone you should connect with if your online
• Linked to K3PDR in Philadelphia, PA as my wife happened to be in that area and I LOVE THE FOOD there. After a few calls… K3DS Dennis came back to me while he was putting some finishing touches on his Shack.

Since we have some thunderstorms coming through and tornado warnings in effect I decided to shut down and take the rest of the night off. I’ll be back to my quest tomorrow hopefully…

Full story: Worked all States DSTAR – 50 states in 50 days | NickToday Blog

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