AmateurRadio.com

Over all it was a very good year as I and my family had good health (I did have a cancer scare but things turned out to be ok).

1.The year started out with me earning my way toward the  ARRL Diamond DXCC award, I wanted to do it QRP style and well I came up short with only 83 DXCCs for the year. BUT having said that I am very very happy with the results of 83 contacts and I am sure I can snag the others this year for a DXCC award in the QRP category.

2. A new radio arrived as well the Elecraft KX3 and that sure is some radio and I  have not yet been able to give it a real good workout.

3. I started out 2012 wanting to increase my CW coping speed for contests and the best way for me to do that was to get on the keyboard.  My keyboard skill is find expect for the numbers and where they were without looking. I have now accomplished that goal as well. I had used various CW programs to help me out with the speed and getting the numbers and keyboarding are now in harmony.

3. I wanted to clean up the shack of unused ham gear no sense it sitting there taking up space....that was done (my beloved KX1 included). I was very surprised at the amount of money that came in from stuff that I was not using......now I am looking at my K2 along with the external Elecraft tuner and amp (100 watt) and thinking of putting in up on the auction block. I have the Elecraft K3, KX3 and ordered another K2 to build and sell over the winter months when ham radio is slow.


4. I was able to work my first split contact which to me was pretty cool.

5. I starting posting videos on Youtube up to this point I have a total of 8 videos, 22 followers and 5,638 views to date. It was rough going at first trying to figure out how to upload, edit the video and getting my Iphone to do a half decent job of recording as that is all I have as of yet.

6. During the summer months I was able to pack up and use my Elecraft K2 for some short QRP CW contests. It was nice to get out in a local park and operate the rig.

7. I descovered the art of QRPp operations and was able to top my miles per watt award

8. My kit building was strong and included Qrpometer, Hendrick attenuator, KX3 (kinda a kit), starting a new Elecraft k2, Smart charger, adding a gell cell to my  K2 as well as some mod's to the Elecraft K3.

9. For some strange reason it was the first year I have not gone to  any ham radio flea markets.....not sure why that is?  Wait a minute I can think of one reason....lots of junk!!












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

Harry K7ZOV left this comment on AmateurRadio.com – thought I would re-post it here (for those of you who might not visit that fine site).

“I was in TX for the holidays. I brought 2 antennas. But used only one with both my TenTec Eagle and my KX3. No counterpoise. No Ground. 20 ft of coax. Worked 80-6 with the KX3 internal ATU. Worked Cuba, South America to Canada. The West coast from the far east side of Texas and lots of States.

Check out the link for more detail. Oh and the “wire” part was only a bit over 50 ft and hanging from a tree at about 30 ft at the highest point and 10 feet at the lowest point. My favorite antenna now.. LINK: http://www.earchi.org/92011endfedfiles/Endfed6_40.pdf

For a 40 meter and 20 meter only… Here is a second link:
http://www.earchi.org/proj_homebrew.html

Have fun and 73 one and all

Harry K7ZOV”

Thanks, Harry – great links to EFHW antennas that you can buy or build.

And here’s another thought – although I have never used them, I do have friends who have had great success with small magnetic loop antennas.  Not only are they great for portable ops (WGØAT uses one) but they are also great for those of you who are antenna restricted.  A friend of mine here in NJ thought his Hamming days were over when he moved into an apartment that was constructed from materials that in essence, created a live-in Faraday shield.  He started using magnetic loops and was shortly working DX again at QRP power levels from inside the apartment!          http://www.alexloop.com/

You might also want to check out the Yo-Yo-tennas that Bill WA8MEA sells – they look pretty good for taking out to the field – http://hamradiofun.com/, if you’re not inclined to “roll your own”.

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].

Hosts: Bob Heil (K9EID), Gordon West (WB6NOA), and George Thomas (W5JDX).

Preparing for CES, Gordon dunks a radio in water, and how to reduce RF interference.

Guests: Don Wilbanks (AE5DW), and Cheryl Lasek (K9BIK)

Download or subscribe to this show at http://twit.tv/hn.

Submit your own video to Ham Nation! See the Video Guidelines, http://www.frozen-in-time.com/guide/

We invite you to read, add to, and amend our show notes at wiki.twit.tv.

Thanks to Joe Walsh who wrote and plays the Ham Nation theme.

Thanks to Cachefly for the bandwidth for this show.

Dr. Bob Heil, K9EID, is the founder of Heil Sound and host of TWiT.tv's Ham Nation which streams live each Tuesday at 6:00pm PT (9:00pm ET) at http://live.twit.tv. Contact him at [email protected].

Introduction:

• Welcome to another episode of Linux in the Hamshackedness, where the Chocolate Shake Fairy visits Richard.

Announcements:

• LHS now accepts micropayment donations via Flattr. It’s been successful for the Linux Outlaws guys, so we’re giving it a try here.
• We now have a countdown timer on the Web site that shows the time remaining until the next live recording. Of course, now that we’re recording on Wednesdays, we’ve decided to move back to Tuesdays. That will happen in January. Keep an eye on the web site for the dates. (Tuesday, January 8, 2013, as of this moment.)
• We also have a Google Community for Linux in the Ham Shack. It’s a great method for leaving feedback, show suggestions, questions, hate mail or anything else.
• The Dayton Hamvention 2013 will be coming up soon, so we’ve added the donation thermometer to the website. Please make a donation and help send LHS to Dayton again in 2013.
• Sign up for the LHS mailing list, too.
• Gnorman has a bio on the LHS About Us page.

Topics:

• Raspberry Pi in the Ham Shack
  • Russ has been working on getting an Echolink node running on his Raspberry Pi.
  • He’s chosen Raspbian as the operating system, which is based on Debian Wheezy.
  • Installation consists of downloading the iso, using dd to copy it to a secure digital card (SD flash memory card), booting the Raspberry Pi with the SD card, and following the prompts to install.
  • VK2MEV has posted instructions for configuring a Raspberry Pi as an Echolink node.
  • So far, Russ has Raspbian installed, as well as svxlink and qtel, but has not yet connected it to the usb sound card or attached it to his Rascal GLX interface to control the radio. Another option would be to use the Pi’s GPIO bus to control the radio instead of a digital mode interface.
  • VK2MEV also has a page describing WSPR on a Raspberry Pi. (Another page is VK2MEV’s blog on WSPRnet.)
  • Ted, WA0EIR, says he thinks some folks have his PSK31LX program running on a Raspberry Pi.
  • Russ mentions that there is a Slackware build for the Raspberry Pi.

Feedback:

• Cory, KD0QEA, asks if there are any “hangout” radio frequencies for LHS hosts and listeners. Well, Cory, there are none due to lack of time for the hosts to get on the radio. However, perhaps our listeners would like to establish an LHS net. Email your suggestions for bands, frequencies and times and we’ll announce them on the podcast. When Russ gets his Echolink node/Raspberry Pi running, he’ll be there more often. The node number will be 54711 (LHS11 on the telephone pad).
• Doug, N6LMX, left a voice mail about the Raspberry Pi. He has one and wonders which ham radio apps can be used on the Pi. He’s also using Raspbian as the operating system. Doug will be attempting to create a media center with his, as well as ham radio applications. Russ suggests running the Pi headless and using ssh from a smartphone or tablet to access it. That would avoid having to carry a monitor and keyboard around with the Pi. It’s likely that most of the popular Linux ham applications, such as fldigi, would work fine with the Pi, though you may need to compile them yourself. As for the media server idea, the Pi may not be quite powerful enough. Raspbmc is based on XBMC, and might be the best option. Ted, WA0EIR, has several Linux ham radio applications that should work quite well on the Pi. Richard also wonders if there are folks running APRS on the Pi, and there’s at least one. Thanks for the voice mail, Doug. We appreciate it.
• Dave, M0DCM, has been catching up on the show, and responds to episodes 95 and 96. He uses 75-ohm coax as a feedline with a 1:1 balun to horizontal and vertical dipoles, and is able to bypass his tuner on 21 and 24MHz. He goes on to describe his Linux and radio activities. Thanks, Dave.
• Thanks to everyone who sent happy birthday messages to Russ.
• Gorkon, aka Joel, says there may have been a problem with the ogg version of episode 96. Russ will take care of it if he finds the problem.
• Mike, from Sugarland, TX, has been trying to use N3FJP’s Amateur Contact Log (ACLog) program for logging, presumably under WINE, but it crashes and he wonders if anyone else has had any experience with this. If any of our listeners have tried ACLog under Linux, let us know, or respond on the Google+ LHS community. Russ suggests forcing WINE into 16-bit compatibility mode.

Contact Info:

• Contact Richard at [email protected], Russ at [email protected], or both at the same time at [email protected].
• Listen to the live stream every other Tuesday at 8:00pm Central time. Check the LHS web site for dates.
• Leave us a voice mail at 1-909-LHS-SHOW (1-909-547-7469), or record an introduction to the podcast.
• Sign up for the LHS mailing list.
• Sign up for the MAGNetcon mailing list.
• LHS merchandise is available at the Merch link on Web site. Check out the Badgerwear or buy one of the other LHS-branded items at PrintFection.com/lhs or Cafe Press. Thanks!
• Thanks to Dave from Gamma Leonis for the theme music.

Music:

• None this episode.

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].

Welcome once again to the Wonderful World of Linux in the Ham Shack. As indicated in the title, this episode is full of Sheer Hamshackedness. If you’re unsure what that is, we encourage you to pour yourself a nice glass of dark beer or a 100-proof spirit of your choice, put on your headphones and immerse yourself in the pure hedonism that is LHS. And if you believe any of that, we have a large vehicular conveyance over the East River in New York City up for sale as well. Anyway, we talk a little bit about Raspberry Pi computing, APRS, WSPR, Echolink, svxlink, Qtel and a bunch of other stuff in this episode. Hope you enjoy, as always.

73 de The LHS Guys

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].

I seem to get requests from time to time, to bring up this topic on the blog.  I can only speak for what has worked well for me.  There are as many number of solutions to this as there are QRPers who like to go out into the field, and I have only tried a relatively minor few.

The first thing to consider is what kind of portable operator are you?  Some of us are “Time is precious! Let’s get on the air and operate!”  If you’re one of these (like me!) then you are interested in ease and quickness of deployment.  The faster up, the faster I can get on the air.  Although antenna efficiency is important to you, it is not your primary concern.  You don’t want to be pumping RF into a string of wet pasta; but you want to spend your day outdoors operating – not finagling with antennas.

 For this type of operator (and I belong to this species) I have two recommendations:

 1 – EFHW antennas.  Basically, a piece of wire that is a half wavelength of the band you intend to operate.  A matching device or counterpoise is needed.  There are oodles of articles on EFHW antennas.  The best seem to be treatises by Steve Yates AA5TB and Joe Everhardt N2CX.  Google “EFHW” along with their call signs and you will get there.  If rolling your own doesn’t appeal to you, you can also purchase commercial versions. LNR Precision markets perhaps the best known models, the PAR ENDFEDZ series.

http://www.aa5tb.com/efha.html

http://www.njqrp.org/n2cxantennas/halfer/halfer.html

http://www.parelectronics.com/end-fedz.php

The name says it all – “End fed” – meaning needing only one support.  Basically, you throw a bottle (or some other weighted object) into a tree to get a hoist line over a branch, attach one end of the wire to the hoist line  and pull it up.  The other end connects to the matching device or your radio and you are good to go.  It’s simple, uncomplicated, and works well.  If you read any of Jim W1PID’s blog posts on AmateurRadio.com, you will see the resounding success that this type of antenna can provide.

Personally, I use the PAR ENDFEDZ 10/20/40, which will allow me to operate on those three bands without changing radiators.  If you want to operate on a different band, you can change the radiator wire.  The PAR comes with a chart that tells you, for each band,  how long a piece of wire to use with their match box

2 – Compact verticals.  What do you do if there are no supports?  A Buddistick or a PAC12 antenna could be the solution for you.  Both of these are basically the same idea.  A compact vertical which uses a tapped coil to make up for the fact that you are not deploying a full sized vertical.  You will have to bring a ground spike or small tripod or some other self improvised arrangement to deploy one of these.  You will need to use either radials (as recommended for the PAC12) or a counterpoise wire (as provided with the Buddistick).  This is not a true counterpoise, per se, but is more the “other half” of the vertical dipole that you are using.

Set up is relatively quick; but not as quick as the EFHW, especially if you are good in tossing bottles over tree branches!  It takes time to deploy the radials in the case of the PAC12 and the amount of “counterpoise wire” used with the Buddistick is critical.  The length will affect the SWR of your installation.  For both of these, it is handy to bring along a small antenna analyzer along (such as one of the Auteks) to help you tune the antenna rather quickly.

There is another way to deploy one of these compact verticals, which was brought to my attention by Bob W3BBO.  It worked well for him when he was living in an apartment for a while, and I used it and in turn, discovered that it worked well for me, too.  Instead of using a tripod, painter’s pole, ground spike, or whatever as a support for these compact verticals, you can instead attach the vertical to some kind of mount and attach it to your car.  I use one of those Lakeview tri-mag mounts.  Attach the vertical to that, pop it on the top of the car and go to town.  Yes, you have to find the best place to tap the coil, but the car acts as a great groundplane and there’s no need to fuss with counterpoises or radials.  It has worked well enough to garner DXCC and WAS for W3BBO while he was apartment living.  I have used this arrangement during outdoor QRP sprints and while on vacation and have had surprisingly good results.  This is NOT to be used while your vehicle is in motion however – strictly stationery mobile!

As a side note, I have used Hamsticks which are kind of related to this.  They are quicker to deploy than either a Buddistick or PAC12 plunked on your car.  However, you have to have a different radiator for each band that you intend to operate on. And my feeling (and I have no empirical proof to back this claim up, so take it with a grain of salt) is that Hamsticks are less efficient and even more of a compromise than a Buddistick or PAC12.

Now if you have a lot of time to operate, or if maximum efficiency is a concern to you, you have other solutions that you can pick from.   In instances like these, you might want to use a dipole or doublet, made from lighter weight materials.  Say you’re going camping for a week and there are plenty of tall trees available – why not?  Even if you decide to use one of these as a sloper, you’ll need to keep the low end roughly six feet off the ground for safety reasons.  You don’t want any unaware pedestrians walking into your wires! So you will need TWO supports – if you use heavier materials – then maybe even three.

I have made 44 and 88 foot versions of the Norcal Doublet.  I have made them both out of ribbon cable and speaker wire.  The ribbon cable is way lighter; but the speaker wire seems hardier. I have used the speaker wire just like the ribbon cable – that is, as feeder and radiator all-in-one.  What can I tell you?  They work well.  Not as efficient as a dipole fed by open line wire or coax; but well enough for temporary operations. The only thing is that you need two trees, ideally, and you need to get the wire up as high as you can.  Other than that, they will get you one the air.

http://www.norcalqrp.org/norcaldoublet.htm

There’s a good series on YouTube, by GB Hoyt  on deploying W3EDP antennas.  I have one of these as one of my permanent station antennas. There’s absolutely no reason that one can’t be made from light weight materials and taken out in the field.  It is a great multiband antenna and requires a balun and a tuner; but it is an option.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGYqRJCNmuY&list=PL4131B8B79AA5C84F

This is by no means an exhaustive or authoritative list. I am sure there are many, many more options available to you – limited perhaps, only by your imagination.  But what I have listed here is what I have tried and they have worked well for me.

Here is a good resource:

http://home.frognet.net/~mcfadden/wd8rif/field-antennas.htm

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].