AmateurRadio.com

Introduction:

• It’s Second Spring in Texas, and Autumn is beginning in Arkansas, so sit back and enjoy another exciting episode of LHS.

Announcements:

• Paid subscribers to LHS may have noticed the web site certificate had expired. That problem is fixed.
• Welcome new subscribers Michael S., Michael C., and Bill A. Thank you!
• Sign-up for the LHS mailing list.
• Our LHS Ambassador to Ohio LinuxFest will be Scott, N8VSI. Thanks, Scott, and we look forward to hearing all about it.
• Please donate to the podcast and click on the affiliate links on the website.

Topics:

• HF Antennas, Horizontal vs. Vertical
  • Tonight, our hosts discuss the pros and cons of horizontally and vertically polarized HF antennas.
  • One thought is that once the RF radiation hits the various layers in the ionosphere, the polarization doesn’t really matter much as it gets reflected to and fro.
  • Richard offers the practical reason for preferring horizontal antennas for HF: it’s easier to build and erect the long antennas necessary for these frequencies. However, for chasing DX, those long-distance contacts, many hams prefer vertical antennas as they tend to have lower angles of radiation.
  • Also mentioned: GAP antennas and the G5RV antenna.
  • Wire horizontal dipoles are inexpensive and easy to construct. Verticals are a good choice when space is limited and can have a lower take-off angle, providing a good ground radial system is installed beneath them.
  • Horizontal antennas can be more directional. A dipole wire running north and south will have a better propagation east and west. A vertical is omnidirectional, radiating equally in all directions. To complicate matters, a horizontal antenna lower to the ground will radiate at higher angles than the same antenna that is higher. This can be useful for communicating with stations that are close to you.
• A new section of the podcast: Russ’ Rant!
  • Russ has a Yaesu FT-7900R, a dual-band UHV/VHF mobile radio. It has a removable front panel, allowing the main part of the radio to be hidden and the display can be easily mounted on the dash. However, the speaker is on the body of the radio, so you can’t hear it if it’s hidden under the seat or in the trunk! Russ thinks the head unit should also contain a speaker, perhaps a very small one like in an mp3 player. Or put the speaker in the microphone.
• Returning to antennas, Richard recommends that KD8SZG (in the chat room), should try building his own wire antennas for HF. Any of the antenna books written by Doug DeMaw, W1FB, are good resources. His Antenna Notebook is one. (I also like the various ARRL antenna books, like the Simple and Fun Antennas for Hams. -Ed.)

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:

• “A Little Time” by Not From Georgia, from their album Love & Umbrella, courtesy of Jamendo.
• “Metal Heart” by Zamza, from their album Songs for Jukebox, courtesy of Jamendo.

The FCC finally got around to addressing a number of issues via a NOTICE OF PROPOSED RULE MAKING AND ORDER. This proposal is an odd mix of Volunteer Examiner (VE) rules, changing the license renewal grace period and dealing with a problem with emission designators.

This notice proposes changes to Part 97 of the FCC Rules and seeks comment on these proposals:

• Require that VEs give examination credit to an applicant who can demonstrate that he or she formerly held a particular class of license
• Provide that a CSCE provides element credit for the holder’s lifetime
• Reduce the grace period for renewal of an expired license to six months
• Reduce the time before a call sign becomes available for reassignment to six months (to match the grace period)
• Reduce the number of VEs required to administer an examination from three to two
• Allow remote observation of examination sessions by VEs (allow exams to be given via an audio and video system)
• Clean up some issues in the rules concerning Morse code testing (which has been eliminated)
• Allow emission types FXE and FXD to clear up issues concerning MOTOTRBO and DMR (see my previous post on this topic)

Comments on theses items must be filed with the FCC within 60 days.

73, Bob K0NR

The September 6 and 10 short form report has been compiled by Martin Harrison, G3USF and is available in the usual place

As the subject line reads, I’ve reached the final quarter of 2012 in my 2012 Challenge of having at least one QSO per day.  This update is for the month of September.

September was a busy month for me with a total of 346 QSO’s.  This surge in QSO numbers is of course due to my participation in the Colorado QSO Party.  I also spent a great deal of time organizing the new ham shack and even found time to attempt and successfully activate my sixth SOTA summit.

While it was looking grim on adding a new DXCC entity in September, Uruguay entered the logbook on 28 September to keep my streak alive of also adding at least one new DXCC each month in 2012.   I also had a fairly active month in working DX with 18 QSO’s logged. 

The QSO breakdown for September is as follows:

Mode
Number QSO’s

JT65
38

SSB    
302

PSK31 
1

2m FM  
5

Additional notes of interest:

DX Stations Worked in September – 18

New DX Entities in September – 1

Total QSO’s for 2012 – 1283

Total consecutive QSO days – 274

Days left in 2012 – 92

Until next time…

73 de KD0BIK

It seems that most of us hams make a lifelong commitment to learning. Mainly about technical stuff to do with the hobby but occasionally about yourself. Yesterday I learnt that designing a simple PCB for my shack clock  was going to take longer than a couple of hours.

Starting at the beginning I did the usual Googling about to find the right piece of software that would “easily” and “simply” turn my ideas into reality (I’m paraphrasing the marketing blurb but you know the kind of thing). I must be in a minority but this isn’t simple or easy. My shack clock is simple a radio controlled clock that receives a signal from the MSF 60KHz transmitter in Anthorn, Cumbria. No more than 30 miles from the house. An Arduino microprocessor converts the signal from the receiver into a simple LCD display. Currently the clock runs from a USB cable into the Arduino and into a heap of cables and wires on the desk. It has a certain aesthetic quality but not one you’d particularly call ‘3 year old boy proof’ (Sam likes to pull the wires out).

So downloading the freeware version of Eagle and firing it up, running through a bunch of tutorials and within a few short hours I had a schematic up on the screen. Even after wrestling about with some of the vast array of included libraries and checking of specs of things on various websites and ‘guessing’ my way through I think the schematic looks about right.

For this part of the project the Arduino had been replaced with the barebones microprocessor from Hobbytronics. Switching to the board layout gives a complete mess of wires and components that need shifting round. I now realise that this isn’t going to be a quick design. Normally at this point I’d share a picture of the work in progress. This time I will keep it to myself, until I can stop the board looking like a, well I don’t really know what it looks like but I know it isn’t a PCB yet.

Onwards and upwards!