AmateurRadio.com

If you haven’t noticed it yet then I will confess myself: I am a little bit of an oddball! I don’t like ham fests, field days, working mobile, going QRP in the park, ARES or hanging out at other people’s shack. My own shack is where I feel the best. My soldering iron to the left, my radios to the right, the key in front of it. Nobody who can bother me, but the world is coming to me via my set.

Unfortunately this has its limitations, because everybody needs help at some point. And as I am not a recluse I do enjoy some company, every now and then, with people who are like minded. So when I learned about the weekly meeting at the shack of BX3AA I decided to check it out. The Taiwanese hams I had met up till now were okay, but not really like minded. Well, that has changed. Sam (BX3AA) has a little ham shop in down-town Taoyuan. When you go in you are being welcomed by a very friendly 45 year old guy, some jazz music in the background and a cup of Taiwanese tea. And on Saturday afternoon hams from around Taoyuan join him for a cuppa. There is some talk, but you don’t have to say much. Sometimes every one is quiet so to better enjoy the tea and the music. Talking about like-mindedness! I think I finally found my posse!
Unfortunately Taoyuan is a very busy city and my car was parked in a wrong spot and thus towed away. A bummer after such an enjoyable afternoon, but BV3FQ (not in the photo, he had already gone home) made me forget it all a couple of days later. I had asked him where I could buy aluminium tubes and rods (trust me, not easy to find in Taiwan) and phoned me up and said he had already bought what I needed. Well, isn’t that a great way to get help!

Hans "Fong" van den Boogert, BX2ABT, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Taiwan. Contact him at [email protected].

Having written last week about the shifting conditions on VHF, it was fun to notice and enjoy both sides of the coin this weekend; summer conditions in the shape of some Es and autumn conditions in the shape of some tropo.

Saturday started off with an interesting QSO with Ian G4WUH on the GB3UK repeater – interesting because Ian was using one of the new Wouxun 144/433MHz dual band mobiles. Very nice it sounded too and Ian spoke highly of the sensitivity of the receiver.

Just as I was about to head back out to the garden I noticed some signals on 50MHz and discovered that there was some Es around up in the direction of Scandinavia. The best distances were SM2SUM (KP03) and YL2LW (KO26) but there were a couple of new squares closer to home in Norway. Signals got very loud at one stage and I thought I should check 70MHz. I was glad I did, as the first thing I heard was ES1AEW/2 on 70.200. Didn’t work him, but had a nice QSO with ES1CW on the key. Not so far away, but just as interesting was a QSO on 50MHz with the Grantham club, operating GB0BL from the Bressay light near Lerwick, Shetland – I was delighted as the GB3LER beacon was coming in and very often there are no stations to be heard.

Sunday morning saw 145MHz FM lively with lots of French stations. In particular, the repeater on 145.725 was strong, way over the top of GB3SN in Hampshire. A bit of research showed that it was the FZ2VHC repeater near Le Havre. I listened to a QSO finish and then cautiously dropped my call in. To my delight, Jean F6CRB replied, in English and was delighted to have a QSO with a UK station – we chatted for a few minutes. Some other repeaters and simplex stations were heard although the good conditions were over, probably by around 1030 local time as the day warmed up.

It was enjoyable to once again, get the 145/433 MHz scanning going again and see what could be worked.

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

That pretty much describes the state of the bands this afternoon.  I took a break from yard work this weekend for some R & R time, hoping to get some radio in this afternoon.  I got plenty of time behind the key; but not much to show for it.

I worked W7L, a lighthouse station and HA9RT.  W7L is in North Carolina Arizona (thanks, Hans BX2ABT), according to QRZ, and I finally got in the log after much trying. Hungary?  First try and a 579 report – go figure!

Another nice story with some beautiful pictures was posted by Jim W1PID today. He went up to Knox Mountain with his friend Hans, late Saturday afternoon. Detail here:

http://www.w1pid.com/knox_eve/knox_eve.html

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].

No room for Oliver on the old desk

The new desk twice the size

The first half of August sure has been busy around the shack here, not busy with on air time but with getting things done. I have built the A A Engineering smart battery charger for my Elecraft K2. I will be posting the build in the near future. On this project for the first time the during the "smoke test" I actually had SMOKE!!! With kits I have found some of the final check out testing is what I call "destructive" testing as opposed to non destructive testing. Going to a destructive testing  with the Smart battery charger post. One of the kits I built just a short while ago was the QRPometer and it did not have a case...well it does now and that too is going to be another post. I am really not finished with that case yet. I was at the
electronics store the other day (picking up parts as a result of a destructive test going wrong) and saw a neat 9 volt battery holder I am going to add to the QRPometer case. I also have sold all of my items that were up for sale and I have the funds to order my Elecraft KX3. It's not going to be here until  October but that will give me time to read the manual and set up a place for the radio. While on that topic with some of my funds I went online to Ikea and purchased a much needed larger table for my kit building. The old desk was just way to small and things were falling off. The old table was actually a computer desk and it now is off to the side in my shack with an  iMac (27 inch screen) one that Julie donated to me!!! So the new Elecraft KX3 is going to run on Mac software.

iMac waiting for the KX3

F8DGY's antenna

The on air time has been very limited as having to get things done around the house and shack the rig really has not been turned on. I did manage to get some radio time in late last week in the evening. I heard clear as a bell Chris F8DGY calling CQ on 20m. I dropped the K3's power down to 500mW's and gave him a go. He came right back to me with a 579 report. It was a fast exchange and he was off answering others. For me that that a 7,597 miles per watt contact.


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

Several times a week I have been on the brink of writing this. It’s time to get it off my chest. I curse whoever it was that decided to place the caps lock key to the left of the A on the keyboard. For what seems like one time in two when I go to type a letter “a” I hit caps lock instead (or as well.) I hAVE USually typed several more letters before I realize my mistake and have to bACKTRack, to the accompaniment of loud cursing.

A couple of decades ago, in the days of MS-DOS, it was possible to write a little program called a TSR (from Terminate and Stay Resident.) This program could intercept your keystrokes and convert them to anything you liked. I wrote one that trapped Shift+3 and turned it into the pound sign instead of the US default hash (#). Microsoft provided a utility called KEYB.COM that could do this but it occupied several K of memory and in those days you counted every byte.

I don’t know if that is possible in Windows. But I’d really love a program that could intercept the caps lock key and turn it into an A (or rather, an a) unless you gave it a long press!

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

Last weekend I decided I wanted to put four or five new frequencies into the memories in the UV-5R. No drama – I got out the USB lead, plugged into the laptop and was about to start the programming software, when I noticed that the driver hadn’t started properly – no Com port available!

Odd – it was fine last time I used it. So I tried reinstalling using the installer. No luck. Tried another version of the installer, no. Tried a generic driver. No. Then I remembered there was something funny about having to manually install ser2pl.sys. No.

After all this about an hour had passed and I only wanted to program about 6 simplex frequencies in. My patience was exhausted and I decided to program it manually.

This weekend I found the original install CD for the programming lead and I thought – great, I can definitely make it work now. Plugged the lead in, ready to set up the drivers and…

Yes, you’ve guessed it, it worked straight away without me having to reinstall or do anything. Why? I have no idea…..

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

Amateur Radio-wise, that is!

At the VE session this morning, we were able to welcome three new Hams into the fold. Well, make that two and one revert.  One of the candidates was a Ham years ago; but let his license lapse. So maybe it would be more accurate to say that we welcomed three potentially active Hams into the fold.

I guess I am from another era; as I get frustrated (a bit) when the first question out of a new Ham’s mouth is something to the effect of, “So where can I get a good price on a dual band handheld?”  Man, when I was studying for my Novice ticket, the LAST thing I wanted was an HT. All I had my sights on was HF and working the bands.  In fact, I didn’t get my first VHF radio until nearly a year after I was licensed.

I got my ticket in December of 1978.  Spent November and December and part of January assembling my station, which was a “pre-owned” Drake 2-NT transmitter (which was my Christmas gift from my parents that year) and a Heathkit HR-1680 receiver which I saved up for and built all by myself. That receiver was the very first of many Heathkits that I was to build.  Between buying, building and making an antenna, I had my first QSO on January 29th, 1979.  And it was an HF QSO.  I still have that QSL card, framed in my basement.  Can’t recall the entire call of the poor victim that I plied my nasty fist on, but I do remember his name was Adam and he was KA9something.

My first VHF radio was a Tempo1 handheld, the very first to have a synthesized VFO, not relying on crystal control.  I bought it a year later, after I had upgraded to General, specifically to assist in the 1980 Winter Olympics Torch Run.  Those were the Lake Placid “Do you believe in miracles?” Olympics and the torch run  traveled right through Central NJ on its way to Lake Placid.  I was with a local club providing communications in an ARRL led effort.  I still have the Public Service Commendation hanging on the shack wall that commemorated that event.

But for me, VHF and UHF were never a Number One favorite. Don’t get me wrong, I have spent A LOT of time on UHF and VHF repeaters – making friends, doing public service and all kinds of stuff.  But in W2LJ’s mind, when Ham Radio pops up in a little thought balloon, it’s always a picture of an HF radio, making worlwide contacts.  Just me, I guess.

I had another treat this afternoon, working my good friend, Bob W3BBO, who also took the plunge and just very recently got a K3.  He finished building his this past week and this was our very first K3 to K3 QSO.

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