AmateurRadio.com

As hoped, I had a great weekend working the ARRL June VHF QSO Party (AKA the June VHF Contest). Band conditions were not as good as last year but we had some very good sporadic-e propagation on 50 MHz.

I operated from the cabin “portable style” in DM78av, near Trout Creek Pass. It was a two band effort (50 MHz, 144 MHz) but I did make a few Qs on 440 FM. Everything worked pretty well except my portable mast struggled with the high winds we experienced.

I kept my Yaesu FT-847 on 2 Meters the entire time, using its 50 Watt output to drive a 180W Mirage amplifier to a 2M9SSB yagi antenna. My FT-950 was put to work on 6 Meters, with its 100 Watt output driving a 6M5HP Yagi.

The contest started out slow with just a few local contacts on 2 Meters. About 3 hours into the contest, 6 Meters started to percolate and I heard east coast and midwest stations popping up. Soon, the sporadic-e was in high gear and I was working stations at a decent clip. Later in the day, the band swung around and I worked quite a few stations in pretty much every part of the USA. Sunday started out in the morning with a few contacts to the south, including XE2X in grid EL06. Later the band flipped over to the east coast, then hovered over the midwest. Later in the day, the VE stations from Canada were pounding in and it seemed they were having a blast working many different states.

    Band       QSOs X pt =  QSO pts.  X   Grids   =     Points
    ---------------------------------------------------------------
    50         398    1      398           126           50148
    144        38     1      38            13            494
    432        3      2      6             3             18
    ---------------------------------------------------------------
    TOTALS     439           442           142           62764

Note the CW keyer and paddles in the picture. I am not a great CW op but I end up making a few CW contacts “when the going gets tough” during VHF contests. Not shown in the photo is the Heil Pro Set headset with HC-4 microphone element and optional PTT foot switch. I have really come to appreciate how effective and efficient this headset is for contesting. I’ll also give a shout-out for the VHFLOG contest software by W3KM. I’ve tried a number of logging programs and really like this one for VHF contests.

73, Bob K0NR

Bob Witte, KØNR, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Colorado, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

When I made my 70MHz posting last night, I expected that was it for the day. Around 2130 local time, I popped up to the shack to have a listen to 50MHz and was surprised to hear some signals from UW2ZM and an LZ. Neither was particularly strong, although I thought it was unusual to hear them at that time. I’d have liked to work UW2ZM as he’s in KN58, but he was pretty weak.

Just before turning in for the night (we had a 04.30 alarm set this morning), I checked 50MHz again and CW was buzzing! Lots of I, SM coming in. But to my enormous surprise, I could hear a number of US stations taking part in their VHF contest. The first station I heard was NN1N, who astonished me by coming straight back to a very tentative call. The other stations I heard had big pileups and I didn’t get involved, but it was particularly good to hear the Mt Greylock Expeditionary Force, W2SZ coming through. There was a very loud K1 who had an enormous pileup.

No doubt for those with a bigger aerial than a vertical, there was some really great DX to be had, but I was quite satisfied with my transatlantic QSO.

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

On 10th June DX Sherlock showed that a big Sporadic E opening was in progress. The red lines showing contact paths stopped tantalizingly short of north-west Cumbria, unfortunately.

I listened on 10m but I didn’t hear the S9+ signals such an opening would suggest so I thought I would do some WSPR on 10m, moving to 6m if the 10m signals suggested the skip would be short enough. They eventually did, as DX Sherlock indicated the lift was getting stronger. I moved to 6m, running 5W to the attic multi-band dipole, and eventually spotted or was spotted by stations as far afield as Austria, Spain and Morocco.

During the peak of the opening I broke off from WSPR to tune the bands and make a few contacts. On 10m I worked TM210VH – a special call commemorating 210 years since the birth of Victor Hugo. I made contacts into Italy, Switzerland and France on 6m as well.

Seeing some massively strong signals now on 10m WSPR so time to check out 6m I think!

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

Like many others my little Pi turned up on the doorstep in a little cardboard box. As expected there wasn’t much in the box apart from a sort of ‘Welcome Note’ and directions for downloading the OS. Needless to say it took longer to download the OS than it did to write it to the SD card. So all connected up to the keyboard, mouse, screen and ethernet and away we go. Power on.

The first boot took a little while longer than expected but I expect it was creating bits and bobs all over the place. This was confirmed as subsequent boots to the command line, or rather to the login part of the command line took considerably less time. Login details are simple enough with the user name as Pi and the password as Raspberry. Something that you may want to change later on.

Once you’re into the command line it could seem a little confusing as to what to do next. Especially if you are used to a nice looking GUI with a mouse etc. Have no fear as a simple “startx” without the quotes fires up the window manager (LXDE – Lightweight desktop environment).

One thing I like to do is to run “sudo apt-get update” from the LX terminal just to make sure everything is up to date before we get started. The other thing that may be useful is to install synaptic package manager with “sudo apt-get install synaptic”. Again from the terminal window.

Time was running out for me at this point so I thought I’d have a quick look at Xastir (APRS application) to see if it would work. After a bit of a turned up face at the look of the interface I confirmed that it works as easily as it would on any platform. A bit of configuring and you’re away. I didn’t connect up the radio then as it’ll need a sound modem like the AGWPE for windows. That’ll be the next step.

One thing I hadn’t noticed is that there is no on board clock and the Pi get the time either by you setting it in the command line or through the ethernet. This could mean that if applications like WSPR can run on it then an external clock is going to be needed or a permanent connection to the ethernet.

So first impressions are done with and I have to say that it does struggle a bit if you ask it to do too much at once but that’s more to do with managing your own expectations but this is going to be a very interesting little gizmo to keep an eye on for ham radio

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

Back in April, for my birthday, both Julie and my Mum very kindly gave me some money. I decided to put it towards a new 70MHz transverter. I had been undecided whether to try and improve the FT-847 performance to an acceptable level or to go the transverter route. I didn’t really fancy some of the modifications required to the 847, so the transverter beckoned.

I decided to try one of the Spectrum transverters – the price was fair and the other options seemed to require importing. I ordered a transverter in mid-April and Tony, G4CFY told me that because he would be so busy, there would be some delay. I was ok with that and Tony was very good on keeping me informed.

Last Thursday a box arrived at home! It was the transverter. I was able to get it setup pretty quickly and found that I could receive the GB3RAL 70MHz beacon at Harwell by sticking my finger in the aerial socket of the transverter! Applying an antenna produced even better results but the band was quiet.

When I got home from work on Friday I had a quick listen around 70MHz before our customary Friday night homemade pizza. To my surprise and delight, I worked 2 stations; OK1TEH and TF3ML/P – Iceland was new on 70MHz for me!

This morning, as soon as I switched on 50MHz the band was open into southern Italy, so I wondered if 70MHz would be open. Sure enough it was and I was quickly working stations all over Italy on Es. Most stations were in the area of Rome, but I was pleased to work IF9/I2ADN (JM67). Later in the morning, the opening moved and I was able to work EA6SX and several 9A and S5 stations.

I definitely feel that the new transverter is working much better; the receive is much more sensitive than the FT847 and of course, 25W is proving handy. For now, I have used the FT847 at 28MHz as an IF. I just need to remember to drop the power down when I switch over to the transverter to avoid bad things happening.

Clearly this weekend has been a good one on 70MHz, but I hope to be able to devote more time to the band in the future

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

Not to shabby

There are hams out there that I pass by them now and then on my travels who have the luxury and availability to erect amazing towers with some amazing antennas on them. It would be great to have the land and be in the country and have "eye candy" towers and antennas. Then there are some with small city lots but do amazing things with long wires, smaller towers and beams. Last but not least there is "the other folks"...like me you either live in an apartment, townhouse and or have very strict neighborhood rules about all and any antennas!!! I am one who lives in a VERY antenna not so friendly place and I have to keep ham radio on the down low!! In my attic I have the DX-EE dipole from Alpha Delta it's good from 10m-40m but with the K3 antenna tuner I am able to add 17m and 30m. The attic is to small for the dipole to stretch from end to end, mine is in a "Z" configuration. It's about 25 to 30 feet off the ground but as said in the attic.



The SWR for such an antenna mounted undercover is below...
  7.000 - 7.060 = 2.58- 2.03 tuner brings it too 1.01
14.000 - 14.060= 2.26-2.08 tuner brings it too 1.01
21.000 - 21.060= 1.01-1.15
28.000 - 28.060= 1.15-1.12
Extra bands with tuner
18.068-18.100= 1.01-1.01 with tuner and 9.98 after tuner
10.100-10.130=1.01-1.01 with tuner and 9.13 after tuner.

So where can  5 watts QRP power and an attic antenna go??
Italy, Switzerland, Japan, Jordan, South Africa,  all of South America, England, Greece, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Niger, Algeria,Gambia, Alaska,Turkey, Ascension Island.........and the list could go on!!

How about 1 watt........
Germany, England, Scotland, Italy, South Africa, Czech Republic, France, Ireland, Poland, Ukraine, Sweden,

Lets move things down to 100mW's
Portugal, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Madeira Island, Spain, Croatia, Italy, Hungary, Czech Republic and so on.

Until I get an attenuator 100mW's is a low as my K3 will take me new adventures await me when my Hendricks 41dB step attenuator is built.

1. Contact with HA8JV with 100mW's which worked out to 45,868 miles per watt contact.
2. This year I have worked 73 DXCC countries and am working towards my Diamond Jubilee award by year end.
3. Up to this point 80 contacts that are 1,000 miles per watt or more.
4. Lastly and most important......having a loads of fun!!!!!
If your situation does not allow you to install a dipole or similar medium size antenna my first QRP antennas were two mobile whip antennas made into a dipole configuration. With these antennas I was able to add to my 1000 miles per watt count......and more. So don't let some restrictions stop you from taking advantage of our hobby because less can mean more!!
UPDATE.......as Julian G4ILO has reminded me with his comment, I forgot to mention all the above was done with CW.
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

has been very good the past few days.  I have worked a lot of European stations the past couple of days, and I have taken to listening for Special Event stations for the European Football Championships.

These stations are on the air from June 1st to July 5th.  So far, the few that I have contacted, from the Ukraine and Poland have been superb ops with great ears!  If you want to find out more about this program, you can visit:

http://sq2rh.idsl.pl/efc/index_en.php

The KX3 continues to impress.  Except for not being able to connect two antennas, like I can on my K2, it has all the features my K2 has (plus many more) in a much smaller footprint.  And the smaller footprint is not annoying, and I am a fudge fingered kind of guy.  The buttons have multi-functions, but not so many levels that it is frustrating.

I like having 6 Meter capability, which I have never had before.  I like the feature where the KX3 will auto zero beat the desired CW signal that you want to work.  The APF feature – Audio Peak Frequency really helps dig out the weak signals.  I can easily hear stations that cannot hear me, so I really, really have to get used to the fact that just because I can hear them, they might not be able to hear me, with me at only 5 Watts.

There’s more to be discovered, I am sure. I still have to come into the 21st century and hook up the radio to my computer and at least give computer control a try.  Up till now, I have been a “twirl the dial” kind if guy.  I don’t anticipate that changing really; but I’d like to give it a try, anyway.

One thing I am not too thrilled with is the weighting of the CW.  To my ear, the dits and dahs sound a little truncated, even with the weighting turned to the max.  Several folks have also mentioned this on the KX3 reflector and Wayne from Elecraft has agreed.  Once he gets back from a well deserved vacation later this month, he is going to incorporate a fix in an upcoming firmware update.

After watching W0EA’s video about the Lowepro Traveler 150, I went out to Wal-Mart and picked one up at a great price.  I am going to see how everything fits in, later this week, to start getting ready for our Lake George summer sojourn.  Maybe I’ll do my own video and post it here.

That’s it for now – going to head on down the shack and see who I might be able to work.

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].