Last Tuesday I decided I’d had enough! Well not quite, but I did feel the need for some holiday. I booked last Thursday, Friday and this Monday and Tuesday off, to try and climb some hills and sit by rivers. I’ve managed both of those and feel a little more human again. I don’t suppose it will last when I go back to work, but what can you do….

Anyway, a real pleasure has been to spend some time keeping an eye on 50 and 70MHz and trying to work some Es QSOs. It’s worked out quite well. There haven’t been huge openings with lots of QSOs, but I have been content to keep a close eye on the bands and try and work people as they come up – even if it’s only for a few minutes. Very satisfying and great fun.

The new 70MHz transverter is working out well – I’m delighted with what I’ve been able to work. Over the last few days I’ve worked IW4BIF, IS0AWZ, EA1KV, OM3CLS, TF3ML, SP3RNZ, SP9HWY, SP2FH, IK7LMX, ES1CW and 9A2006R. A gotaway was SV8CS who I heard weakly, but propagation wasn’t quite right – interestingly the SV8FOUR beacon was louder than Spiros, who has a great station, so the heavens were just not quite aligned!

50MHz has been good fun too, with plenty of ‘bread and butter’ contacts of interest including ZB2EO, EA6BB, TF/VE3IKV, TF8GX, 1A0C with a couple of very welcome North American contacts today; W1MU and N3DB. Always a thrill to work the US on six with the vertical antenna – which really isn’t built for DX,

Back to work tomorrow.

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

Welcome to Handiham World.

We wish our USA members a happy Independence Day, and our Canadian members a belated Canada Day. 

High summer here in North America isn’t exactly the best time to explore the HF bands, given the constant parade of interference-generating thunderstorms marching across the continent. While bands like 160 and 75 meters may seem like wall-to-wall noise, there are always some intrepid operators sticking to their usual schedules. The best time on both bands is usually early morning before solar heating and convection starts cooking up more lightning and thunder and before absorption becomes too odious, a real problem for propagation as the sun climbs higher in the sky. Summer is the traditional sporadic-E skip time of year, so it doesn’t hurt to keep checking out the VHF bands. A clue is that you might hear repeater identifiers that you don’t recognize because they are far outside the usual repeater coverage area. If you hear stations on 10 meters, you might also check out the 6 meter band.  You never know – perhaps there is an opening, and if you are trying to work all states, such openings can be pure gold.
Summer, especially post-Field Day, is often considered the least active time of the ham radio year. Radio clubs may shut down for a few months in the summer – usually June, July, and August – and resume operations in September. The conventional wisdom is that people are busy doing summer stuff like taking vacations, working in the yard, boating, fishing – you name it, ANYTHING but sitting inside at the radio! But summer weather might chase you indoors with its heat and humidity. Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad time to get on the air after all. Besides, summer is a good time to get antenna projects done. Let’s list some summer ham radio activities:

• Put up or repair your antenna system.
• Check out VHF propagation on 6 and 2 meters. Try SSB on both bands. Log your contacts and send us a brag about your farthest contact so that we can publish it and make you famous. 
• Go bicycle mobile! 
• Take ham radio on vacation with you, both as a mobile station in the family car and as a portable station.
• Check into the daily Handiham Echolink net. If you have a smart phone, try checking in via the Echolink app. (Android and iPhone)
• Try out the Handiham HF remote base stations. Say hello to the folks on the always-friendly PICONET on 3.925 MHz.
• Build a kit.
• Study for a license or upgrade.
• Try setting up your own EchoLink or IRLP node.
• Take your handheld radio with you on a walk and find out how many contacts you can make on local repeaters. 
• Set a goal to work as many stations as possible on 10 meters. Log all your contacts.
• What?!! You don’t have a logging program? Install XMLog and learn to use it. http://www.xmlog.com (Yes, it is blind-friendly, and it’s free.)
• On the water? Take ham radio with you on the boat. Don’t drop the radio in the water.
• New to blind-accessible technology? Try downloading DAISY book software and reading a DAISY book with it. Make it a ham radio book from the Handiham website. (More on this in a minute.)

I could go on and on (maybe I already have), but you get the idea.  Now let’s get out there and have some ham radio fun!
This is a reminder that the Handiham office is closed this week and open only with very limited services and hours next week.
Email me at [email protected] with your questions & comments.   
Patrick Tice, WA0TDA
Handiham Manager

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Storms sideline Handiham remote base stations:

Severe storms in northern Minnesota last night had disrupted internet service to W0EQO at Courage North. The station returned to service around 12:50 PM on 3 July 2012.
W0ZSW is still offline following storm damage and power outages that disrupted our internet and networking equipment at Camp Courage. It was the first time in the history of our double remote system that both stations have been offline at the same time due to storms. Due to limited staffing at this time, we are unable to resolve the problems quickly.
Solar Activity Forecast: Solar activity is expected to be moderate during the period (03 – 05 July) with M-class flares expected from Regions 1513 and 1515.
Geophysical Activity Forecast: Geomagnetic field activity is expected to remain at unsettled to active levels on day 1 (02 July) as CH HSS effects persist. Activity is expected to decrease to quiet to unsettled levels during days 2 – 3 (04 – 05 July) as CH HSS effects gradually subside. The CME associated with today’s M5/2b flare is not expected to disturb the field during the forecast period.

Pat Tice, WA0TDA, is the manager of HANDI-HAM and a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com. Contact him at [email protected].

A few weeks ago, I mentioned when I was talking about how you couldn’t really have too many handheld radios, I said that I would like to have a play with one of the GPS equipped, APRS handhelds. I didn’t say so at the time, but very shortly after that, I did have that chance!

I was doing some work on some APRS equipment for a review for Practical Wireless that you’ll be seeing soon in the magazine. However, along with what I was reviewing, David Wilkins G5HY of Kenwood Electronics very kindly popped a TH-D72E into the box of gear to look at. David said it was partly a safety net to be sure that I could do some full tests on the other equipment, but very kindly that he’d also seen my blog!

Well! I can now admit that the TH-D72E was the very first thing unboxed! It’s a nicely sized handheld and I found it easy to use. I used it mostly in its’ APRS capacity, although I did play around a little with it as a regular handheld and used it through the GB3UK repeater on Cleeve Hill. That worked fine and I found I was able to get a good solid signal into the repeater at 5W.

What I was really intrigued about was whether the MB7UC APRS digipeater on Cleeve Hill on 144.800 would hear my packets. I was pleased to find that the GPS locked up pretty quickly and established my position, even inside, though some times it would take a minute or more which was no big deal. I set the beacon so that it would be transmitted once every half hour (that felt right for this experiment).I left the handheld on the upstairs windowsill that ‘sees’ towards Cleeve Hill. Although I received the odd packet from MB7UC and it received the odd packet from me, there was not much. This illustrated the difference between a handheld antenna and having a collinear at 30 feet – on which the digipeater is very loud indeed.

I took the TH-D72E over to Cheltenham when visiting my Mum and was excited to get lots of packets through the handheld, digipeated through MB7UC including some from a Search and Rescue boat in the Severn Estuary! Very cool! And of course, being closer to the digipeater it happily heard my APRS packets and digipeated them.

How could I make it better from home and get a bit more coverage? Well, I then setup the Kenwood TM-D710E which I had as part of the review work as a digipeater and connected it up to the collinear. Now when I went out for a walk with the TH-D72E and it sent an APRS packet, the digipeater at home would repeat it and it could then be heard by the digipeater on Cleeve Hill – and a couple of others too! It was good to hear the satisfying beep of the handheld as it saw My Position being digipeated through other APRS digipeaters. Fun to come back and look on APRS.FI and see where I had been!

The Smart Beaconing feature on the TH-D72E was good and sent a beacon at appropriate intervals depending on how fast I was moving (on foot or on the bike – don’t worry, David – it was a mountain bike – not a motorbike!).

Lots of fun! The only thing that was slightly disappointing was the lack of a good APRS digipeater in this area – which would make the experience even better! But that’s hardly the fault of the TH-D72E! I also experimented with sending messages to and from other APRS stations which was good – and even sent a message to my pal Steve, WG0AT in Colorado – and his goats, Peanut and Rooster of course!

Battery life was pretty good, although not as good as some of my other handhelds. It was in line with the manual though and I think the reason for the relatively short time (between 5 and 10 hours between charges when APRS beaconing) was not only the regular beacon, but also the GPS which are pretty notorious for sapping battery life (the iPhone comes to mind!).

The TH-D72E is a ‘substantial purchase’ at over £400 – but there is a lot of additional technology compared to a more standard handheld – the packet TNC and the GPS all built into a small package that will easily fit in your pocket. This is surely how the mainstream manufacturers can compete, by putting extra value technology such as APRS/GPS or Digital modes like DSTAR – into their products. At £400 you really have to want to play APRS and have a nice GPS on your radio – but I can certainly recommend the TH-D72E – I thoroughly enjoyed playing with it and I’m sorry to have to give it back! Thank you, David!

Now what should I casually mention that I’d like to play with next……

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

Last night was club night. Its a good chance to catch up in person with the local hams and exchange bits of useful information. Normally how to fix the things I have broken, which seems to be quite a few things at present including 3 bikes, but that’s another story.

Kevin, M0KHZ came along with the view of giving us an understanding of where the Hermes High Performance Software Defined Radio (HPSDR) is. He started with a brief history which explained for us lesser mortals how the project got started and how the project team got to where they are today.

The prototype that was on display at Dayton and Friedrichshafen was fired up and Kevin showed us how the rig could be controlled over wifi and the potential of Hermes to take SDR to the next level and then further. Even though Kevin was tight lipped I got the impression that this was not the end of development

The detail is way over my head and the likelihood of me understanding these concepts fully is fairly slim but it doesn’t stop me wanting to get my paws on one. Needless to say I have approached the local financier / XYL who was less than interested so there’s more ground work needed there. The impression I got was that although there is a fairly full ‘expression of interest’ list at HamSDR (you’ll need to log in to add your name to the list) the commit to buy list isn’t yet up and orders are not likely to be taken until September. Plenty of time to save up.

SDR doesn’t fill everyone with the same excitement as it does me but its fair to say that whatever your stance you can’t fault this small project team for their dedication and know how as well as doing this not for commercial gain.

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

Date:            3 July 2012
Time:           Approx.    1700 UTC – 1800 UTC
Region:        CO-Front Range
Elevation:    4337 m / 14,264 ft – 10 Points
Call Sign:     KDØBIK
Frequencies:     14.342.5-ssb, 18.157.5-ssb,  +/-  146.52-fm
 

Equipment: Elecraft KX3 (2nd activation / Buddipole versatee vertical

APRS Track: On Road / On Trail

My wife and I are on a staycation (vacation at home) this week and while I’ve spent some time working on the new basement ham shack, I also wanted to take a much needed break and go and explore a portion of Colorado I’ve never had the opportunity. 

Mount Evans is very near I-70, I’ve driven past many times and I can see it from my office building in the Denver Tech Center.  It is much like Pikes Peak in the sense that there is a paved road almost all the way to the top.  I’m going to take my wife along for this SOTA adventure.  We’ll drive to the top and I’ll hike down far enough and then back up to call it a legal SOTA activation and hopefully make a few HF contacts and take in the beauty of Colorado.   We’ll then probably go to lunch in Idaho Springs.  Perhaps Beau Jo’s Pizza.

Please listen for me on 20m around 1700 UTC (11 AM MT).  I look forward to working you. 

By the way.  My Grandfather’s family name (and my Mom’s maiden name is Evans).  I’ll be dedicating this SOTA activation in my Grandfather’s memory.  If successful, this will be the first SOTA activation on Mount Evans. 

Until next time….

73 de KD0BIK

Jerry Taylor, KD0BIK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Colorado, USA. He is the host of the Practical Amateur Radio Podcast. Contact him at [email protected].

Tonight I spent getting the front panel assembly done.  I haven’t attached it to the main chassis yet.  I stopped after completing the panel itself as I’m a bit tired.

Two things that caused beads of sweat to pop out on my forehead.

1) The four screws that hold down the LCD cover bezel.  The first step, before even thinking of securing the bezel is a step that Elecraft calls, “removing the paint from the screw threads in the holes”.  I think that’s Elecraft just being nice and faking us out.  I don’t think there were any threads to get gunked up with paint, to begin with.  You’re cutting these threads by inserting these screws!

Elecraft recommends wetting the screw’s threads with “a drop of water” (oil can leave marks that can be difficult to clean up).  I didn’t feel like getting up to get a cup of water, so I did the next best thing.  I stuck the screws in my mouth.  Not the most sanitary, I suppose, but oddly effective.  Only one screw hole gave me trouble where I was worried about rounding off the screw; but firm pressure while very slowly torquing the screw did the trick in the end.

2) Mounting the mated Front Panel circuit and DSP circuit to the front chassis panel.  In the manual, Elecraft states that it’s a tight fit for the phones socket through the hole in the front panel.  Wow! I’ll say!  I finally got it through with some firm pressure but when the socket hit the back of the front panel, I got a loud “snap” from metal hitting metal.  For a second I thought I broke the circuit board, but a careful inspection revealed that all was well.

Other than those two panic moments, all went well.  Tomorrow, I will continue mounting the front panel to the chassis, and I may even get to the point where I get to do an initial power up.

Six man hours into this, so far.

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].

Ready for action

The time has come for me to open up my Elecraft K3 and preform some surgery. When I purchased the Elecraft P3 to enhance my K3 all was fine until the P3SVGA board was added to the P3. Since the power source for the P3 comes from the K3 with the addition of the P3SVGA board to much power was being  drawn. A

Diode to be removed

resettable fuse in the K3 now and then would trip out. So Elecraft (as they always do) came up with a mod for this problem.  The mod was sent out free BUT it meant opening up my 4k plus radio and removing one SMT diode, inductor and resettable fuse and replacing them with beefed up components. I didn't mind opening up the K3 and adding plug-in components....whole different story when it comes to De-soldering and soldering on the boards!!! For that reason the mod kit sat on my self for about 2 months, after all the P3 was now plugged into it's own power source so the problem was more or less solved.  This weekend in Canada is a long weekend (Canada day) and as always I get bored when I have to much time on my hands.......a little bird whispered in my ear that the board-um can be solved by doing the long over due K3 mod!!!  The board-um got the best of me along with that dam bird!!  I removed the K3 from service and I will say there sure is lots

Fans removed

KPA3 removed

of cables that go into the rig!! With the rig on the bench and beads of sweat starting to form I was off to the races and I hope with a celebration when I hit the finish line!!  As many times in the past I took the covers off and dove in. The first step was to remove the SMT diode easer said then done. This thing is very small it came out with
very little trouble. Installing the new one was another story and it did take me several attempts. When all was said and

Old F2 and RFC 48

done it was  not a pretty site at all but it's in and I hope it works. I was so nervous about screwing the SMT install up that it caused me to hesitate and be over cautious. So that resulted in the SMT not looking professional at all BUT I have fallen into this trap in the past, trying to make it look good and in the end totally screwing the install and or component up. I told myself "it may not look great but if it works thats what counts in the end" The other two component replacement required me to remove the KPA3 cooling fans and the KPA3 unit. The

Ready for new parts

instructions did say the KPA3 unit did not have to be removed if you were very very careful it could be done. Not feeling at all brave out came the KPA3 unit as well. The inductor and resettable fuse that had to be replaced were in plan view and HUGE compared to the SMT diode. I now had to DE-solder the two components and this is were the Hakko 808 was stellar. In under 30 seconds both component were

Great tool to have

out and not a drop of solder was left on each pad. The Hakko 808 is well worth the money that was spent on it, for removing components it's the cats behind!! Soldering in the new components was a breeze and it was time to put the rig back together and do the smoke test.

back home and working

New parts installed

Oliver gives the ok to power up

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