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Happy Anniversary !!!

29 January 2013 | by Larry W2LJ | Leave a Comment (3)

I took the test for my Novice license in November of 1978. I received my ticket in the mail at the very end of December 1978. I remember that I was sitting, taking a break from my job at the camera store where I was working. We were having a post-Christmas sale and it had been a frantic day. My Mom had called to tell me that I had received the vaunted envelope from the FCC and that my call was KA2DOH. Between that time and my very first QSO, I was occupied with putting my station together.

For some reason, in my mind, I always remember my first QSO as having taken place on January 29th, 1979. But a look in Logbook Number One reveals the date as January 28th, 1979 – so the 34th anniversary of my very first QSO was yesterday!

As I recall, that was a Sunday afternoon and it was 2110 UTC, so that would have been 4:10 PM local time – yep, that’s just about right. And my victim ……. er, QSO partner was Adam KA9CIH.

As far as I can tell, Adam is no longer active or even licensed. KA9CIH doesn’t come up at QRZ.com, nor does it come up at N4MC’s Vanity Headquarters. A search on his name returns nothing, either.

From my log, I can see that was the only contact I made that day. I guess I was so petrified from that initial 20 minute QSO, that I didn’t go near the radio for the rest of the day!

The station in my bedroom at my parent’s house consisted of a Drake 2NT transmitter attached to a Globe VFO (by 1978, Novices were no longer constricted to being crystal controlled.) This used VFO had a cable coming out of it that had a crystal base soldered to it. So not knowing any better, I just plugged that into the 2NT’s crystal socket. I didn’t blow myself up and it worked! The Drake 2NT was my parent’s Christmas gift to me that year. They purchased it (under my direction, as a result of several well placed hints) from the used equipment list from Burghardt Amateur Supply.

My receiver was a Heathkit HR-1680, which I had bought and built myself. My camera store salary was allowing me to make “OK” money at the time. I wasn’t getting rich; but I was able to afford a few hobby items here and there. (Still ain’t rich to this day!) The purchase and construction of the HR-1680 was the reason for the month’s delay between receiving my ticket and actually getting on the air.

My antenna was a wire that stretched from my bedroom window to our unattached garage, ran through an insulator there, bent at a sharp angle and was anchored at another second story window on a different side of the house (imagine a slightly sloping horizontal “V”). I soldered a piece of coax to the end of the wire – center conductor to the “long wire” and the shield I connected to the cast iron radiator in my room. The radio end of the coax went to an MFJ tuner. I switched between the transmitter and receiver using a double throw knife switch. That this “Rube Goldberg” mash up worked was a miracle; and the fact that I made contacts at all was an even bigger miracle.

I worked all the Novice subbands available to me on 80, 40, 15 and 10 Meters. There were times that the old MFJ tuner would spark and hiss at me on 80; but I had a ball, anyway. To this day, I have the feeling that if I went back in time and saw that set up, knowing what I know now, I would probably shake my head and tell my younger self how crazy I was.

I look at my log and see how I logged EVERYTHING – unanswered CQs and all. But that was good because looking at it now brings back so many vivid memories. I upgraded from the 2NT a few months later to a Kenwood T599D after my Globe VFO crapped out. I had the Heathkit and Kenwood setup until I ordered and built my Heathkit SB-104A. I distinctly remember soldering SB-104A boards while watching the 1980 Winter Olympics on TV.

I upgraded to General on June 2nd of 1979. I’ll never forget THAT day. Somehow, the Morristown, NJ Club had gotten the FCC to come to their hamfest to give exams. I wasn’t about to miss the grand opportunity of taking my General test without having to travel to Manhattan, even though I was sick as a dog that day with about a 102 fever. And it was sweltering outside that day to boot, and to make matters worse, the hamfest and exams took place in the UN-air conditioned Morristown Armory. I was in no condition to drive; and somehow I wangled my sister into driving me, waiting for me and driving me back home. But in a strange way, I think being sick was a help, as I was feeling so lousy that I didn’t have the normal pre-test “jitters”. They graded the tests right then and there, and I was told I passed and was given the AG designator so that I could use my new privileges immediately.

I don’t have a copy of my Novice license; but I still have my General license.

Looking further at my log, I see that I made very few A3 QSOs after upgrading. I discovered the hard way, by the ire of my family, that SSB screwed up the TV – royally! I pretty much stayed with CW with only occasional “very late hours” phone QSOs. And I couldn’t stay up too late as I was a working man – so the overwhelming majority of my QSOs (roughly 95 -97%) have been CW since that original one back on January 28th, 1979.

Ahh ….. the sweet, sweet memories!

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].

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KX3 is working and so is QRPp

28 January 2013 | by Mike VE9KK | Leave a Comment (0)

Yesterday when I got home from my failed out door op's adventure with KX3 I found out what I did. It was operator error on my part. The night before I failed to understand the KX3 charging procedure fully and I was rushing to get the battery charged for the next day. I thought I had put the batteries on a 16 hour charge by misunderstanding the simple procedure I inadvertently stopped the charge cycle. So in the morning I did try my KX3 on battery power and it did not work but I discovered in the manual that the radio power on thresh hold had to be lowered when using NiMH batteries. I did this and the KX3 came to life. Little did I know that was all the life the batteries had in

It's charging!!

them most likely a very small factory charge.....Yesterday when I got home I looked over the instructions this time more slowly. As I went through each step at the end a time count down appeared along with "BAT CHG". I never saw this the night before! This meant is was WORKING and charging. New next few day here the temps are
going to rise into the +12C or more so I may take my KX3 into work and maybe get on 40m in the morning before I start work.
Today was a snow day for me here at VE3WDM we had a large and non forecast snow fall last night. I have over an hours drive to work on a good day and when I went out to the car at my normal 4 a.m ( not a spelling error yes 4.am) funny I call it the morning and others in my family call it the middle of the night.....I digress.....It was snowing like crazy and I did try to make it in but no roads were not cleared so it was to dangerous.
I got on the radio for some time today and snagged me some QRPp contacts. On 15m this morning I heard Rudy IK4VFD calling CQ. He was in and out at times but I gave him a go with 500mW's of K3 power and I got through to him!! He gave me a 539 report and did not seem to have any trouble getting through our exchange of QTH, Name, RST and a few pleasantries. I sent Rudy an email with more info about my station and the power that I was running as at the time I told him it was QRP. He got back to me with an email thanking me for our QSO. So that contact was 8467 miles per watt!!

I then found F9IE calling CQ from France and it sounded like he was just outside my window. So it was time to switch in the Hendricks attenuator and drop my power down to 150mW's. It took a few calls but Bernard was able to give me a report of 449 along with EU-064 as he is on Noirmoutier Island to boot!! So that contact gave me 24,261 miles per watt of a contact.

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

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GB4LBC problems

28 January 2013 | by Alex G7KSE | Leave a Comment (2)

Well it never rains….

Sometimes it snows

Other days it blows a gale

That’s the simple tale of gb4lbc this weekend. Our special event station barely made it off the ground. Or rather it nearly did because of the wind. Any wire antennas would have been blown down and would have hurt someone.

So its a shame we didn’t get much air time this weekend but maybe next time.

Better safe than sorry

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

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A day in the park………

27 January 2013 | by Mike VE9KK | Leave a Comment (6)

Packed and ready to go

Powering up..and NOTHING

Julie had a great idea the other day, I could get my new Elecraft KX3 some on air time from the car. The plan was we go to a park, me with the radio and Julie with her camera. While she was off taking photos I could operate QRP from the car. First my KXBC3 (to use NiHM batteries and charge then) had to be installed in the KX3. That was done yesterday evening without any problems (I did a YouTube video
of it soon to be posted) I then placed my Ansmann 2850 MaH batteries in

the radio and set it for a 16 hour charge. I tried the radio at home today on The internal batteries and the KX3 was dead!!!! Off to the manual were I found out the rig is preset if the voltage is not over 10 volts the rig will not start. ( Rig holds 8 AA batteries) No problem I was told to drop the threshold to 8.5 volts if using

NiMH batteries. That was done and on came the rig all was well. Off to the park ......Julie helped me get setup and off she went. I'm ready to go.....powered up the KX3 NOTHING!!!! Very frustrating to say the least. I packed everything up and

Julie had more success than me

now waiting for Julie's return and composing this blog post on my IPhone in the parking Lot.
NOTE....UPDATED POST TO ALLOW CANADA GOOSE PHOTO TO BE VIEWED IN LARGER FORMAT.

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

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Series Six Episode Two – Introduction to Repeaters

27 January 2013 | by Colin M6BOY | Leave a Comment (0)

Series Six Episode Two of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast has been released. The latest news, listener mailbag and Chris Howard, 2E0CTH provides an introduction to repeaters.

RSGB 5 MHz Working Group disbanded
Ofcom testing DAB+ in the Brighton area
Australian given an AMSAT accolade
The Shelby Hamfest is back
Canvey Radio Rally
FCC Amateur Radio Service enforcement actions
Icelandic Radio Hams get 472 kHz band
New 5 MHz Channels in Eire
Full 5 MHz allocation for Greenland
5.3 MHz in Sweden
Android Smartphones include 70cm Radio

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

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ICQ Podcast S06 E02 – Introduction to Repeaters (27 January 2013)

27 January 2013 | by Colin M6BOY | Leave a Comment (0)

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

Listener mailbag and Chris Howard, 2E0CTH provides an introduction to repeaters.

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

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RR9O back on the air

27 January 2013 | by Juilian G4ILO | Leave a Comment (0)

ChangeDetection sent me an alert that the International Beacon Project web page has changed. The Hawaii beacon KH6WO has gone off the air.

The Russian beacon RR9O is still shown as off the air but I noticed today that Faros has recorded several spots of this beacon on the 17m and 12m bands. Other amateur beacon monitor sites have recorded it as well. I have updated the beacons.txt file for VOAProp with both changes.

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

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