AmateurRadio.com

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].

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].

Packed and ready to go

Powering up..and NOTHING

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

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].

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

• 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

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].

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].

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