AmateurRadio.com

JT65-HF-Comfort, the fork of JT65-HF that I mentioned a few weeks ago, has now been made into a public beta. There is now a project page at http://abcsolutions.de/jt65hf/. There is also a forum at http://jt65hfcomfort.iphpbb3.com/. If you use JT65-HF then you should really join the forum in order to have an input to the changes being discussed.

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

Series Six Episode Five of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast has been released. The latest news, mailbag  and Martin (M1MRB & W9ICQ) reviews Amateur / Ham Radio Apps for your Android Tablet.

• Pat Hawker MBE G3VA Silent Key
• Ham radio club to celebrate Legion birthday
• The VK0RTM 6m beacon on air
• Short-wave radios banned in Zimbabwe
• Beijing jamming BBC World Service
• St Patrick's Day special event
• Amateur radio association raising funds
• UK amateur radio licences fail to expire
• Review of Amateur Radio Exam Questions
• WSPR on the Raspberry PiMariana Islands

The following are a few of the 365 Ham Radio apps found in the Google Play store. Most are free, however if the app is chargeable it will cost less than £10 and will have the adverts removed.

• EveryCircuit
• 555 Calculator
• Ohms Law Calc       
• ElcalcZs
• RF calculators
• RF Pad Calculator
• Resistor Color Code
• Alldatasheets
• Digi-Key
• Equivalent Resistance
• Circuit Simulator
• Capacitor Buddy
• UK Band Plan
• ISS Detector
• HF Beacon
• NCDXF Beacon
• Grid locator
• QRZDroid
• Morse Code Trainer

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

The ARRL web site reported on this Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture from the FCC. That’s government talk for “we are fining you.”

In case you are wondering how you can get fined by the FCC, here’s the sequence of events that resulted in a $10,000 fine for this person:

• Get a Technician License and then let it expire.
• Repeatedly transmit on 14.312 MHz, interfering with licensed radio amateurs.
• Have FCC agents track the signal to your house
• When the FCC agents enter your house to inspect your radio station, leave the transmitter sitting on 14.311 MHz.
• Tell the FCC agents that you will remove the microphone from the transmitter and only use it as a receiver.

Hmmm, why does 14.312 MHz sound like a familiar frequency?

73, Bob K0NR

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

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].