AmateurRadio.com

A few weeks ago, I was at my day job working diligently on something. I popped up the SotaWatch web site to see of anyone was out activating SOTA summits. Sure enough, Steve (AKA Goathiker, AKA WG0AT) was headed up Mt Herman for the day. (I have recently declared Mt Herman to be the Most Radioactive Summit in Colorado…at least for amateur radio.)

When I had a few minutes break, I went out to my amateur-radio equipped SUV in the parking lot to call Steve on 146.52 MHz. Steve came back to my call and we made a quick contact and he was in the log. Even though he was an easy line-of-sight path away, I had trouble copying him. Opening the squelch revealed that I had a large noisy signal sitting on 146.52 MHz. I didn’t think too much of it and assumed it was coming from the vast array of electronic equipment inside the building.

As I left work that day, I tuned to 146.52 MHz to see how quickly the interference disappeared as I drove away. I was surprised to find that the interference did not go away, it was covering a wide area. On my commute home, the noise was remarkably constant. This interference seems to follow me everywhere! Eventually, it sunk in that the interference was coming from my own vehicle. Huh, I didn’t have that problem before.

When I arrived home, I turned off the ignition and the noise was still there. I started disconnecting everything in sight, trying to make the noise disappear. Finally, I unplugged the cute little USB charger/adapter that was inserted into the cigarette lighter socket. Bingo, the interference disappeared. It seems that this little adapter has a switching circuit in it that is generating a large amount of hash. I have not investigated it fully, but it trashes out a substantial portion of the 2 Meter ham band.

It used to be my favorite adapter. Buyer beware.

73, Bob K0NR

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

A couple of days ago I had an email from Joe, K1JT, author of the WSPR and WSJT software. He had read my post about my first JT9-1 QSO in which I said that I missed the JT65-HF user interface. Joe pointed out that WSJT-X is in a very early stage of program development, and user input will surely help to define its future evolution. He asked what features of the JT65-HF GUI I found desirable.

I replied with what I thought were the key points that made JT65-HF easier to use. The result is a new version of WSJT-X which I have just tried. One change is that the horizontal ‘panadapter’ display scale now matches the waterfall when the user has set FFT Bins/Pixel greater than 1.

However, the real big change is that double-clicking on a decode line now generates a set of messages addressed to the second callsign on the line, regardless of where you double-click. It also sets the Tx and Rx frequencies to that of the decoded transmission and selects the first message in the sequence. This is a big time and error-saver in the few seconds you have between receiving a call and having to reply. You still have to set Auto to ON to enable the transmitter and select the next message in the sequence after the first has been received. Perhaps it’s a matter of personal preference but I don’t think it is a bad thing for the user to take control of this rather than have the program try to work out the appropriate reply. In other words, double-click on a decode when it is a CQ call or a reply to your CQ. Use the Tx n buttons to select the next message in the sequence as you progress through the QSO.

Try this latest version of WSJT-X. I think you’ll find it a big improvement. Now all we need is for Laurie VK3AMA to come up with a version of JT-Alert that adds logging and ‘worked before’ detection and there will be no reason not to switch to this much narrower JT mode.

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

Thierry, F4EOB from Paris is still hearing strange echoes on the VOA Chinese service broadcasts. There isn’t really any good explanation for this phenomenon.

Now during winter he is hearing it both on 13650 kHz from 9 to 12 UTC and on 21590 kHz from 9 to 11 UTC. The 21590 kHz transmission has been heard by him for a long time and I mentioned it here last year also. As then the echo is about 2 seconds. Thierry also made a youtube video of it with a recording.

The transmitter locations are in Asia. The 19 m band site is on the Mariana Island (Tinian) and the 13 m band transmitter is in Tinang in the Philipines.

In my blog last year I discussed possible explanations such as multiple transmitters or multiple round-the-world travel. But since the delay is so consistent and has had the same delay for such a long time, the probability that it is man-made is rather large.

Thierry tells me that this LDE can easily be heard with the WebSDR at the University of Twente in the Netherlands also. I would be curious to hear from people outside Europe who could compare the Dutch WebSDR with their own local reception and see if the same echoes are heard everywhere.

Sverre Holm, LA3ZA, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Norway. Contact him at [email protected].

This is a small article I wrote for our office newsletter.  Major implications for portable Amateur Radio equipment and emergency communications.

 

Batteries.  They have become a huge part of our everyday lives.  Think of how many devices we use that need to be recharged regularly.  Cell Phones, iPads, laptops, digital cameras, cordless vacuums, electric razors, and now cars too.  Tesla and other pioneers in the electric car industry are slowly moving toward technology that resolves a lot of the capacity issues in their devices, with some models now reaching a 300 mile range.  The iPhone has become another great example of what engineering can do for battery capacity, with newer models able to go for a day or more between charges with normal use.  Capacity is no longer the issue it once was.  Charging time is now what’s holding battery technology back in applications like cars, industrial machinery, and tools.  Even using one of the Tesla Superchargers takes about 30 minutes to charge a Tesla S to 50 percent capacity, and most cell phones still take an hour or more for a full charge.

The answer to this problem may lie in a substance called graphene.  Graphene was invented in 2010 at the University of Manchester, UK.  The two scientists who came up with the process were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.  Graphene is a single layer of carbon, forming a thin sheet, one molecular layer thick, and has amazing properties both physically and electrically.  Graphene is extremely conductive, and shows promise in the field of electronics, helping to create faster and smaller semi-conductors, as well as many other practical uses.

The original method to create graphene is extremely low-tech, and not very practical.  The Scientists at the University of Manchester were able to pull a single layer of carbon molecules off of a piece of graphite by using Scotch Tape.  This proves to be impractical on a large scale though, and a new method was needed.  Last year at UCLA, researchers found a way to make graphene out of graphite oxide dispersed in water using low powered lasers.  The lasers they used however, were the ones in an ordinary DVD burner.  By coating a DVD with graphite oxide, and burning it on the label side using LiteScribe technology, they were able to create sheets of graphene, opening the door to a cheap method of creating this substance.

The real surprise came when one of the researchers attached a square of graphene to a light bulb, and managed to keep it lit for 5 minutes, after a charge time of only a few seconds.  What they had stumbled on, was a new way of creating something called a super capacitor.  Capacitors store electricity like batteries do, but charge and discharge rapidly, sometimes many times a second.  A super capacitor combines the properties of both a battery and a capacitor, giving us a component that can charge rapidly, but behave like a battery once charged.

Thanks to the new method of creating graphene, this technology is closer to reality than most.  Imagine being able to recharge device in seconds instead of minutes or hours.  The possibilities this brings to the computer and auto industries are fantastic.  It also opens up the idea of cordless, rechargeable devices to a host of new industries.  Keep an eye on this, as it is going to change the way we look at portable devices, and energy storage.

Neil Goldstein, W2NDG, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New York, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

While listening to the bands this evening, I finished my NorCal QRP Dummy Load kit that I purchased a few years ago.

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

Yesterday I had my final CW Academy session. As an indication of how good it was and how much we valued it, not one of the five of us ever missed a single session! There were sixteen hour-long sessions over two months. And it was all free!

Late last year I noticed a couple of messages from Jack W0UCE inviting hams keen to improve their CW skills to join in and pointing them to this page detailing the thinking behind CW Academy’s approach.

What was on offer was a series of online sessions in a small online group re-learning the code. The hour-long sessions are designed to get you to read in your head and to break or avoid habits (like writing everything down) that will prevent you from increasing speed later.

The target for our beginner group was around 20wpm. The sessions took place using Oovoo which is like Skype for groups. (Apparently it’s important that the instructor can see who is having difficulties.) We logged on twice a week. In between times we were expected to practice daily using a nifty online tool, Morse Translator. This neat web app lets you practice listening to code and adjust both character speed and Farnsworth spacing. Our default setting from day one was 20wpm character speed with gaps to yield an effective speed of 10wpm. Morse translator is a great model to help practice sending as well. I found including sending practice helped lock in recognition of words.

Our teacher or Elmer was Rob K6RB. He shared his intense enthusiasm for CW with us as well as his experience on air. After a few weeks of walking us through the alphabet, numbers and prosigns and practising new letters and words, Rob gradually upped the speed. Then the rubber hit the road about week five when we were QSOing back and forth. Rob patiently introduced us to the format of the typical QSO, contesting and even handling a DXpedition. His aim was to prepare us for these so that we’d know what to expect and what was expected of us when we joined in. We got the benefits of decades of operating experience in these sessions.

The CW Academy is an initiative of the CW Operators Club. CWops is international in focus and it was great to be accommodated as the token DX in the group.  As they say on the webpage “available to anyone, anywhere”.

The training has got me confident to get back on the air with a practical code speed and as a bonus, interested for the first time in having a go at contesting, initially the CWops fortnightly Mini-CWT contest which we spent a couple of sessions rehearsing.

A big TU to CWops and Rob K6RB for all their efforts running the CW Academy.

Stephen Rapley, VK2RH, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New South Wales, Australia. Contact him at [email protected].

RFI from new monitor

This evening I was on the radio and had the Elecraft P3 up and running as always. I just happend to be looking at the P3 external monitor when my PC's monitors went into sleep mode. I noticed that some signals (now seen as RFI) dropped off the screen. I had noticed these signals before and knew it was RFI but had

Both monitors off

 no idea it was coming from the monitors! My new AOC e2351F LED monitor seems to be the major culprit but the Acer Z233h does add just a little on it's own. If I turn the monitors off (via the monitor button) the RFI is gone or if the monitor goes into sleep mode. You can see from the picture to the right where the RFI was from the tails. So the question now is how does one go about narrowing this down? I have power supplies to each monitor...but would they be the problem if the RFI is gone when the monitors are turned off but supplies are still plugged in? Can you ground a flat screen monitor to my station ground? Could the RFI be traveling down the monitor cables? Well this is just another project to keep me busy. I am lucky that the RFI is not the same on all bands these shots are from 18mhz and it seems to be the worst of them all. Any ideas blog world??
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].