AmateurRadio.com

I had an all-day session on the JT modes today. Actually, almost all of today’s contacts were on JT65A. I did listen for JT9-1 signals a few times but most of the time I only saw stations I had already worked before.

I put out a CQ call on 15m JT9-1 and Joe Taylor K1JT came back to me. I’ve decoded Joe’s WSPR signals numerous times and I’ve exchanged several emails with him but I had never had a radio contact with him until now, so that was a nice surprise.

Then it was back to JT65A. The contrast in activity was extreme. There were so many stations active I couldn’t find a space to call CQ, so I had to wait and pounce on new stations that called.

I must say that when using JT9 I miss the infrastructure that has been built up around the JT65A mode – the reverse beacons, the auto-spotting to PSK Reporter so you can see how far your signals have got, the JT-Alerts when you decode someone you’ve worked before. I especially need the B4 alerts. My memory is so bad I can’t remember the calls of stations I’ve worked before so I have often called people who I have worked only a couple of days earlier. I guess that due to the lack of new stations they probably don’t mind too much!

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

After my posting about Sporadic E a couple of days ago, I had an interesting email from Steve G1KQH who pointed me in the direction of a simple way of getting onto 29MHz FM (and AM) using one of the Intek CB radios, the M60.

You do need to pop the cover off and remove link LK2 – this allows the rig to cover 25.610 to 30.100 in ‘PO’ mode (the rig is configured with different settings for different adminstrations’ CB allocations, but PO allows the widest coverage).

Here’s a video from Simon Parker on the modification required

Here Simon shows cycling through the various modes

I’ve not tried this, but it looks a temptingly cheap way to get on 28/29MHz AM/FM for the Es season if you don’t already have a rig.

Thanks Steve for the tipoff and thanks Simon for the video ‘how to’.

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

Welcome to the first episode of Linux in the Ham Shack that doesn’t have Richard it in, on purpose. I can personally say that I feel his absence rather heavily in this program, but overall I think the show went rather well. Harrison, VE2HKW, was kind enough to be a guest host to help me out. Episode #102 will also have a couple of guest hosts, rather likeable ones at that, and so it will go until a permanent(?) replacement is found for Richard. We can only hope he comes back one day to grace us with tales of strippers on scooters and discharging firearms indoors. Until then, I soldier on. Thanks for listening and remember, you can send feedback to [email protected], or by voice mail at 1-909-LHS-SHOW (547-7469).

73 de Russ, K5TUX

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].

As previously written in this blog, I enjoy chasing mountain summits for the Summits on the Air (SOTA) program. Until now, all I have done is chase peaks activated by others. The attraction of the program to me is based on my love of the mountains as I have done many miles of backpacking and climbed 6 of Colorado's 14,000 peaks. Both of my sons are Eagle Scouts and hams, AB5EB and KB5SKN, and we used to take yearly trips to the Rockies. However they are both married with children now, so my time in the mountains has diminished considerably, that is, until this week.

Since joining the SOTA chase, I have been looking for summits to activate, but the problem is that the closest accessible peak that counts for the program is several hundred miles away from my QTH. So, I had to look for opportunities. As I checked my business calendar I had a two day meeting in Scottsdale, AZ. Ah, there are mountains there. So I did a little research and contacted another SOTA activator from the Phoenix area, Jim Davies, K7JFD. Jim was kind enough to offer a few suggestions of both easier peaks and some good candidates that had yet to be activated. As my schedule developed I was able to have most of day free and so I planned use that time activating a summit.

Based on the results of my research, I settled on East End Peak, a summit that had not been activated.  It is located in the northern region of the McDowell Mountans outside of  Phoenix, AZ. It is the highest peak in the range, at 4,057 ft (1,237 m). East End is mainly covered in rocky boulders and is accessible from the Tom Thumb Trailhead in the McDowell Sonoran Conservancy. From the trailhead East End Peak is 1.82 miles, one way, and 1,405 feet vertical assent.

My wife of 37 years accompanied me on the trip and is also experienced in the mountains, so we saw this as a challenge and renewal of our love of the mountains.

My lovely wife Cris, KC5HZQ

The packing for the trip took some thinking, but to keep this story from getting too long, my station consisted of a Buddistick vertical mounted to the top of my hiking stick, an Elecraft  KX3 and a 4 amp/hour battery for my power supply. The hike up the mountain was pretty tough as the last 400 feet were without a trail. There were a lot of boulders, cactus and thorny bushes to navigate, however, we found our way to the summit to set up the station. Since this trip occurred on a Wednesday, the number of summit chasers would be limited, but I had announced the activation, so I knew there would be a few folks waiting on me.

We first set the station up a few feet below the summit and the path to the east coast was blocked by some boulders, so after I worked a few W6's and W7's we moved the station up to the absolute summit where I was able to work some of the guys on the east coast. After switching bands a few times and several unanswered CQ's I shut down and packed up. I put 18 stations in the log, coast to coast, with my QRP set up and my wife and I enjoyed a lovely day in the mountains. The calories burned per QSO was pretty high, but we had a lot of fun and we slept extremely well that night. I can't wait to do it again.

Making QSO's from East End Peak in Arizona

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

Last night, while hunting in the 80 Meter woods in the QRP-L Fox hunt, I continued to work on my PigRig.  I came to the part where I am winding T1, and I guess I had a case of brain flatulence, because I just couldn’t figure out from the instructions, how the center tap was supposed to be done.

Before going to bed (late), I came up here and fired off an e-mail to the Flying Pigs e-mail reflector looking for some enlightenment.  When I checked my e-mail this morning, there was an e-mail from the Head Honcho himself, Diz W8DIZ.  He explained to me (very patiently) what should have been as obvious as the hand in front of my face.

Thanks, Diz for excellent customer service! And also thanks for being super courteous and patient with someone who seems to have had a “Senior Moment”.

On the other hand, last night I was fortunate to work an SU9 station from Egypt on 40 Meters.  I was doing the “happy dance” as this was my first QSO with Egypt – ever.  So I dutifully went to QRZ to look up QSL information, only to find that LOTW is not accepted (as it’s too cumbersome and difficult to figure out), that paper QSLs are not really wanted, but if you go to PayPal and enter this particular PayPal address (along with the appropriate “donation”) that a QSL card can be had.

What ?!?    I mean, really …… what?

OK, I understand that Egypt is not the most commonly found country on the air; and I’m sure that QSLing is quite the tedious chore (if not a downright pain in the butt).  But isn’t that what QSL managers are for?  And really, I mean even I can figure out how to use Log of the World.  You know, the guy who had trouble figuring out how to wind a simple toroidal transformer? …… Yes, me – even I figured out how to use Log of the World.

I hesitate to use that hackneyed expression, but if I can figure it out – you can figure it out.

Maybe I ought to quit my job, move to a “rare and exotic” locale, get on the air, make a couple hundred QSOs a day, and start charging a few bucks per QSL card.

But then I guess I’d have to figure out how to use PayPal.  (Of course, I am being facetious, I already know how to use that. Learned how just around the same time I learned how to use LOTW).

72 de Larry W2LJ

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

Happy to be back from the vet's

First off  I took a vacation day from work as I  had to take Oliver (our cat) to the vet for a followup after dental surgery and by the way looking back on my career decisions I should had been a veterinary dental surgeon! They do say hind sight is 20/20. Oh and for those wondering Oliver had a great checkup, he was ecstatic  to get out of the veterinary clinic and home. Some of the other time today was spent on the radio TRYING to make contact with TX5K. On all the bands I had absolutely no problem hearing the pileup trying their luck at making contact but I could not even hear TX5K!! On Saturday my wife has a hair appointment and a trip to the dentist.....no surgery just a checkup....BUT  in ham radio lingo what does XYL at the salon and dentist spell........RADIO TIME!!! So I am going to give TX5K another go before the DXexpedition is over. So why did I entitle this post "Anonymous is getting very smart!" In the past I had
maybe 2 or 3 "anonymous" postings a week. Now let me clarify what I mean my anonymous......these are advertisers trying to post a comment on my blog but the main idea is to plug their biz with a link! Blogger has been excellent with the ability to discern between the real deal anonymous comment and the...let me take advantage of your blog and plug my biz anonymous comment.  Over the last month I have noticed a large increase of anonymous comments (the take advantage type) trying to use my blog. Not sure why this is.....my blog can't be all that popular? I really don't care if they "try" to post their fake comments but what I have noticed is they must be getting smarter in how they word the comment. Blogger is  not recognizing it as spam but seeing it as a legit comment. These past couple of weeks I have had to go through my comment section of blogger and delete comment posts that are just plain spam! Has anyone else had this issue? Or do you have suggestions on how to deal with this?


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

With a couple of brighter days earlier this week and milder temperatures, perhaps it is starting to feel like Spring. Did I mention how much I hate the dark, cold days of Winter?!

Driving home on Monday night from the gym, I switched on the FT8900 and it came to rest on 29.600FM. There, were two huge signals; two Swedish stations talking to each other in a local QSO. Signals were clearly very solid. I wasn’t surprised to discover that there had been a few 50MHz ES contacts on Monday evening.

This lunchtime, I was listening around on 28MHz from the mobile and was pleased to hear the band open into Russia and I had a nice contact into the Moscow area.

So it feels like the first few Es openings are starting to take place on HF at least.

I am contemplating running 50MHz WSPR this season when I am not able to be in the shack and see how far that goes.

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