AmateurRadio.com

As I thought, I did not have any real time to devote to this contest, this being Easter weekend.

In about an hour and a half total operating time, I made 18 QSOs – the best DX being EA2LU, Jorge in Spain.  One QSO was made on 40 Meters, and the rest were made on 20 and 15 Meters.  15 Meters was the pleasant surprise.  There was a decent amount of activity there and the signals were nice.  QSB was a fast and furious beast to deal with, though.

If it were any other weekend, I probably would have been able to devote more time. But it is what it is.

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].

I had previously commented on the how most of the handheld radios are adopting SMA connectors instead of BNC connectors. See Say Goodbye to the BNC. For example, the Yaesu FT-60 uses a female SMA connector for the antenna connection. I’d say this is the standard approach for the amateur radio market.

A few manufacturers have decided to use the male SMA connector as the antenna connection for their handheld radios. I suspect that these manufacturers are following the lead of commercial manufacturers (e.g., Motorola) who use the male connector.

Many hams will want to adapt these SMA connectors back to the good old BNC, to connect to existing BNC connectors or HT antennas. I had commented that these adapters are mechanically weak but recently I have come across some more sturdy adapters.

The adapter in the center is the common adapter for cable use but arguably mechanically weak for adapting HT antennas. The adapter on the left adapts BNC antennas to an HT with a male SMA connector. The adapter fits snugly on the top of the HT and provides mechanical support. Similarly, the adapter on the right adapts BNC antennas to an HT with a female SMA connector.

The adapter on the left is available from Import Communications. The other two adapters came from Affordable Radio.

I have just started to use these more capable adapters so I am not sure how reliable they are in regular use. In any case, it makes sense to be careful to minimize the strain on any radio connector.

73, Bob K0NR

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

Series Five Episode Eight of the ICQ Podcast has been released. News Stories include :-

• Radio Stations for London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games
• Titanic special event callsign - GB100MGY
• Optical marking amateur radio exams
• 50W for Foundation holders in Belgium
• Amateur Radio Stamp for Luxembourg
• Ottawa relaxes rules for personal antennas
• New Irish Radio Enthusiast website launched
• Renewal of UK beacon and repeater public/products liability insurance
• V51VHF Beacons
• Lightning strike survivor feels lucky to be alive

Australian report from Ed Durrant VK2ARE and Martin M1MRB discusses a Young Hams Balloon Project with Alex M0WOJ.

Colin Butler, M6BOY, is the host of the ICQ Podcast, a weekly radio show about Amateur Radio. Contact him at [email protected].

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

RSGB had this puzzling note in its recent news script:

Some say that CW has been made obsolete by modern digimodes, which work well in conditions far too poor for the older mode. Now that Morse is no longer used in commercial radio traffic, the RSGB confirms that it would fight any moves to prohibit CW on amateur bands. The Society recognises that Morse gives much pleasure to thousands of operators, and will continue to support its use.

The blurb doesn’t cite any specific threats.  To use a quote never said by, but attributed to Jerry Seinfeld, “Who are these people?“

I’ve said before that there are people saying there are people saying that CW is dying, but I have yet to find anyone saying CW is dying.  Much like American politics, we tend to get our panties in a bunch making up things to be outraged over and threats to be worried about.  No radio amateur who has been licensed more than a week would seriously propose to outlaw CW operation.  Any amateur who does is likely insane or doesn’t have the capacity to garner support of anyone from amateurs to government officials.

Perhaps I’m reading more into the RSGB statement and giving it more time than it deserves, but my guess is RSGB suffers from one of the thorns that has been in the side of ARRL here in the States.  People make accusations that the organization doesn’t support the code, in order to increase the number of licensed amateurs and fill its coffers with more memberships.  The people who make such nonsense accusations are still upset with the elimination of the code test or just dislike the organization and look for whatever means to criticize it.  To this day I still hear people claim ARRL doesn’t support CW, despite petitioning the FCC for a 5 WPM test for the Extra class test and running code practice and bulletin broadcasts every weekday.  Myths are hard to replace with facts.

The 4 state QRP QRPometer

Back in late March I read on W2LJ's blog a post about the new QRPometer available from the 4 state QRP group. At the time I was also building my Elecraft KAT2 antenna tuner. I was getting to the stage of testing and setting up the tuner. I needed a watt meter for one of the tests. I do have the LP-100A meter and it is a super meter! BUT for me to use this meter it involves removing it from my Elecraft K3 setup and that is a REAL pain to do. So reading Larry's post about this new meter had me come to the understanding that this unit would be a nice fit for my shack......and also it's a kit! This little unit is a great SWR and watt meter. It's reads from 10 watts and goes down to 100mW's it has a large easy to read LED read out. The kit arrived at the shack on Wednesday of this week and it's still waiting assembly. I was fortunate to get the kit as it sold out very fast. I hope to get the unit built over the Easter weekend.
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

Could files on the driver CD included with some USB radio programming cables be triggering a malware alert?

It’s a possibility in one case, according to James, K7NEO. He apparently stumbled upon the warning yesterday after running a check on the driver CD he had received with his USB programming cable.

“I was excited to get my radio, but I erred on the side of caution and scanned the CD that came with it,” wrote James. “I can’t say it’s 409shop’s fault as I have no clue who did what — just giving everyone a heads-up.”

After receiving a warning from his desktop virus scanner indicating that the files could contain malware called “Trojan.ADH.2,” James ran the files through VirusTotal, a service that checks many different anti-virus programs simultaneously. Of the 40 services tested, he said that 23 indicated that the file was possibly suspect. We analyzed the same USB driver software available as an online download from both 409shop and a US distributor and neither showed as infected (VirusTotal showed 0 positive of 19 tested). It is also very possible, however, that this alert is a false positive and is being triggered erroneously.

Even if it’s not a false positive, Trojan.ADH.2 is a low-level threat and easy to remove if it were to infect your computer, according to Symantec’s website. The episode, however, has made James think twice about installing drivers, even from supposedly trusted sources.

“What really hit home for me was the common sense of never blindly trusting a source of data or files. You should always scan for threats,” he said.

In some cases it may be better to download drivers from the seller’s or manufacturer’s website directly versus using accompanying CDs. Not only are these often the latest and most up-to-date versions, they can also be more easily scanned through an online service (like VirusTotal) before downloading.

Editor’s Update: Jim, KC9HI purchased a programming cable from 409shop which came with a driver CD. He scanned the CD and found no viruses or malware. Not sure what to make of this other than to assume that the original case was some kind of false positive.

Heard back from Carol at 409shop. She didn’t indicate whether or not they had received other reports, but did offer up their website driver download page as an alternative:

http://www.409shop.com/shop_displaynews.php?id=292

Matt Thomas, W1MST, is the managing editor of AmateurRadio.com. Contact him at [email protected].