AmateurRadio.com

20m WSPR results

As most of you know the conditions on HF over the last week have been dismal at the best of times. Over the weekend I found 20m to be flat and 40m was just more or less local stuff. So Monday I thought it was time to give WSPR a go again. I set the output to 1 watt and gave 40, 30 and 20m's  a go. I was surprised that 20m was alive on WSPR. It was odd that I was unable to hear any CW on 20m's but using WSPR at one watt I was heard overseas.  My fan dipole in the attic is not really setup for 30m's but with the tuner in the K3 I

30m's was local only

am able to fool the rig to see a flat match. The SWR on the other side of the K3's tuner for 30m's is about 9:1 (according to my LP100A) so with one watt from the K3 and a 9:1 match what type of power is getting up to the antenna. With the help of this calculator I can enter my feed line type, power input, frequency and SWR this will get me a rough idea of the power at the antenna. So at 1 watt with an SWR of 9:1 using 30ft of  LMR-400 on 30m's the output at the antenna is around 892mW's of  raw power!! That raw power got me local responses on WSPR.  As for 40m's with one watt........it was more or less dead.

40m's was dead

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

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].

Randy, K7AGE, attended the National Association of Broadcasters convention in April. Randy took along his camera and has posted three new videos.

Randy explains his day job-

In this video Randy was interviewed by Kirk Harnack host of This Week in Radio Tech as seen on the TWiT.tv netcast network.

This Week in Radio Tech, TWiRT, with Randy K7AGE, from NAB 2012

Wednesday night a Ham Radio Reception is held sponsored by Bob Heil of Heil Sound and BSW.  The reception was also streamed live on TWiT.tv network. Randy provides coverage of the event and was interview by Scott Wilkinson, host of Home Theater Geeks, also another TWiT netcast.

Tour around NAB 2012 and the Ham Radio Reception

K7AGE Amateur Radio Videos

Checkout TWiT TV

 

Randy Hall, K7AGE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com , produces amateur radio videos, and writes from California, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

A very creative way to add an important addition to your station. I would argue this may be essential for any radio amateur who find themselves in the hamshack for long periods.

Scott Hedberg, NØZB, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Kansas, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

I mentioned last week that manual programming of the memories of the UV-5R was a step too far, at least for me! At the time I ordered a programming cable from Hong Kong. It’s yet to arrive, but today, I had an idea.

I currently have a programming cable for a Midland CT-790 here. Now that looks to be a clone of a Wouxun radio and I knew that the Baofeng UV-5R was supposed to use the same programming cable as a Wouxun. Would it work, I wondered?

I grabbed the Baofeng UV-5R software from the link on http://www.uv-5r.com and installed it. There was an initial problem, because the programming lead installed itself as COM11 and the UV-5R programming software only went up to COM8. I managed to convince the cable to be COM1 (that takes me back to packet  days, playing with COM1….) and then fired up the software.

What I thought were error messages were in fact not! They are clearly interesting translations. After a couple of false starts, I managed to get the computer to read the UV-5R and download the memories into the programming software. From there, it was relatively straighforward to modify the memories and upload them back into the radio without incident. The UV-5R software is pretty basic, but it’s functional. Don’t expect handholding, but it beats trying to program the radio manually.

Since I had the Midland CT-790 (Wouxun KG-UV1P) here, I was curious about the antennas. I swapped the Midland’s antenna onto the Baofeng. Where I had struggled to blip up GB3UK on 430MHz with the Baofeng antenna, it worked better with the Midland. Same story on GB3WH on 145MHz. So it may be that the UV-5R antenna is worth replacing – although it’s certainly adequate. The Midland antenna is slightly longer and more flexible. The Midland antenna, if fitted on the UV-5R has a slight gap at the base which might not be ideal for longer term use.

All good fun and interesting – remembering this was a radio that cost less than £40. As K0NR comments in his blog on the UV-5R, a rig for the price of a tank of petrol/gas. Way less, for us…..!!

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

“One Watt! One Watt! What on earth bl***y use is that to you?! I don’t know… (sigh)” exclaimed one local straight-talking OM on 2m FM yesterday. His response to my acquisition of a rather dated Yaesu FT-790R ‘portable’ transceiver was less than encouraging. It’s just as well I’m an optimist then. With a maximum output of one Watt on one band (70cm) I think I’ll need to maintain an upward outlook. But here’s the thing – I always find myself drawn to obtaining the more elusive QSO. You need a certain amount of eccentricity and tendency to self-harm to stand on a hilltop for hours calling out on 23cm FM QRP, for example. I was the first in the area to start calling CQ on DV mode on 2m. It took months before my first simplex QSO and then very little since. The higher bands and modes have their rewards in spades, however. The rush of excitement when you finally make that new or distant contact. The perceived camaraderie knowing someone has gone to the same quirky lengths as you to operate on a lesser used band/mode or from an unusual location. You feel you have made a meaningful and personal connection, at least for the duration of the QSO. Oh, it’s such a far cry from exchanging reports of 5/9 with the fiftieth Italian station running 1kW on 20m you’ve spoken to in one morning. Better still, no QSL cards. Any why the FT-790? Well, at just over £100 it’s one of the few portable internal battery-powered transceivers you come across before taking the small fiscal leap to an FT-817, for example. Either way, it will hold its value if my 2m friend’s prophecy becomes true. Anyway, so far so good. It’s powered up and seems to be fully serviceable. I’ve even managed a short-distance QSO with John GW4ZPL over the Menai Strait in the Caernarfon direction, just a few miles away. I’ll be out and about when the weather improves and will post my experiences here. Will it be too futile, or with a bit of luck will I make that elusive QSO I’m after? Will my single sidebanded plaintive cries of CQ reach a caring ear? Maybe I’ll be happily shouting “One Watt! One Watt!” from a heathery Welsh hilltop.

FT-790, forlorn hope?

Rob Law, MW0DNK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Anglesey, Wales. Contact him at [email protected].

I would like to use an iPhone app to learn CW.  I think that most of my learning and practice will take place on the train each day, so listening to live CW is out of the question.  For those of you that may have already done this, I was wondering if you have a favorite CW app.  Post your recommendations in the comments.

–Neil W2NDG

Neil Goldstein, W2NDG, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New York, USA. Contact him at [email protected].