AmateurRadio.com

Each year I post an article with tips for Field Day organizers, but admittedly most folks who volunteer to lead such events already know how to organize a good Field Day event.  Something I see year after year but is rarely talked about is personal growth from these events.  What does personal growth have to do with Field Day, you ask?  By personal growth, I mean learning new things, becoming more technically proficient, and become an overall more skilled operator.  You see some folks who come one year who are nervous about getting on the mic, they observe others operate, and during a slow period they may get coaxed into operating awhile.  They get the hang of it after an hour or two and do fairly well.  Next year when they come back to Field Day, they readily volunteer to operate and can belt out 60 or 70 QSOs an hour, with someone logging alongside.  The next year they can operate and log all by themselves.  Perhaps later they will branch out and do digital modes or CW.  There’s a learning process going on, and it extends outside of Field Day where skills and techniques learned are applied to everyday operating or perhaps casual contest operating.  Ultimately these people become a key part of the Field Day organizing process, readily becoming a resource and providing expertise to others.

Unfortunately there tends to be an element at annual Field Days who don’t grasp this concept.  They don’t listen during the demonstrations of the logging program during the preparation meetings or at the final pep talk before Field Day operating kicks off.  They don’t want to know how the rigs work, they will depend each year on someone setting up the band, mode, and tuner before they operate.  Some may drive into the site several hours into the event, hop in an operating position in prime time hours, eat some food, and leave.  Now I’m not saying it’s wrong to be a casual operator, but if you’ve been at your local club’s Field Day for the past decade, you owe it to yourself and those who are putting a lot of effort into the event to help out, learn, grow, and contribute.

Get to know the logging program.  Most clubs these days tend to use free logging programs.  You can download them from the Internet, install them, and get to know how they work.  Undoubtedly you’ll be able to use the Field Day logging program in your own shack.

Learn about antennas.  There’s a reason why Miracle Whip or Buddipole antennas, while very portable, easy to setup, and convenient, are horribly lousy antennas for Field Day.  Yes, everyone does believe you worked Europe with one, which by the way, was on 10 meters when it opened up one day ten years ago.

Watch others making QSOs.  Some guys can’t make a QSO to save their life, and others can stack up QSOs like cordwood.  Band conditions certainly help, but you’ll notice some ops just take the mic and do short CQs, they skillfully adjust their verbaige in order to make the best use of frequency time, they manage pileups well, and they use proper phonetics and at the right times.  They amass QSOs effortlessly.  Other operators just can’t seem to get it together.  They do long 40 second CQs in which they say CQ numerous times, but say the callsign only once or twice.  They’ll wait a long time in between CQs.  When someone does answer they’ll waste time giving their own callsign, perhaps multiple times.  If they don’t copy the station on their first call, they’ll spend 30 seconds telling the station how weak they are, wasting precious time that could be used for the station to try again.  While no one is asking people to have the communications efficiency of an air traffic controller, you can have a lot more fun with less effort by adopting a few simple techniques.

Learn about the equipment.  Field Day is a great opportunity to see new rigs in operation you’re not familiar with.  Ask the owner of the equipment to show you how the menus work and find out what they like and don’t like about the rigs.

Bring a pair of headphones, a “Y” adapter, a notepad and pen, and ride shotgun on the CW station.  CW contesting is probably one of the most intimidating things in amateur radio, if you’ve never experienced it.  Sit alongside someone running CW on Field Day and just listen and try to copy callsigns.  After you attempt to copy a callsign, look up at the logging program screen and see what call the lead operator copied.  You will be amazed at what you can pick out and how you eventually get the “rhythm”.  Before you know it, you’ll want to hop on the keyboard and give it a try.  It’s addictive.

Network and help out.  While most clubs welcome people to come for a short period of time and operate, if you’re a regular annual attendee, you owe it to your club to stick around longer and talk with folks, get to know new members, and help with the clean up.  If you’re a seasoned amateur, you owe it to the hobby to help others become seasoned operators.

A couple of days ago I decided to take another look at the Spectrum Communications Off-Air Frequency Standard (OAFS). It had been suggested that its failure to work might be the result of a solder bridge or similar error. I had a good look at the board using a high power magnifier and found a pair of pads that were suspiciously linked to ground. A moment’s work with the desoldering braid and sure enough there was a solder bridge exactly the width of a PCB track.

Having found a fault I was optimistic that the board would work. The setup adjustments were completed OK. But instead of hearing BBC Radio 4 in the speaker as the instruction sheet suggested I received a loud heterodyne with some speech faintly in the background, like listening to an AM signal in SSB mode with the BFO a couple of kHz off-tune.

I was looking at the Spectrum Communications advert in Practical Wireless to check how the ferrite rod was mounted and noticed that the description said “Background heterodyne whistle at 2kHz confirms lock condition.” That is exactly what I was getting. Odd that the instructions didn’t mention it though. Nevertheless I gave a cheer and went ahead with installing the board in its box.

My happiness was short-lived when I put my frequency counter on the output. It was 10MHz sure enough, but it was not phase locked to anything. I was only receiving the output of the uncontrolled 10MHz crystal oscillator which could be tuned a few tens of Hz either side of 10.000MHz. No adjustment I could make would cause lock to occur.

Comments made to my original post about this suggested that I might have problems with the OAFS as I am not in a good location to receive a strong signal from BBC Radio 4. I’m unhappy with the amount of time I’ve wasted on this. I think it would be best to write it off and forget about it. I’d rather not be bugged by it or have it taking up scarce space in the G4ILO shack. If anyone would like to have it and see if they can make it work then it’s yours for the cost of the postage.

from e-Bay, after being inspired by Jim W1PID. A 12V 9800 mAh Lithium Ion battery to have for the KX3.  It’s smaller and lighter than the 12V Sealed Lead Acid battery I am currently using.  It will be coming from overseas.  So now it’s a race – which will arrive first the KX3 or the battery – the chicken or the egg?

Any bets?

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

After a couple of private e-mail inquiries, I’ve decided to address this here.

To be honest with you all, the fate of FOBB 2012 is unclear at best.

I sent an e-mail off to Rich Fisher KI6SN asking if he wanted me to manage it again this year.  So far, I have received no response.  Also the ARS Wiki and the pages containing last years’ results and those of prior years seem to have vanished.

Maybe Rich has decided to do something different with FOBB for 2012 – not sure what is going on.

If I hear anything, you all will be the first to know. 

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

I’m a huge fan of the platform.  Don’t get me wrong, a lot of the projects I think are just too simple and can be done on a PIC for a lot less cash.  That being said, there are some REALLY neat Arduino projects out there and I’ll be Highlighting more ham related projects here in the future.

Just in case you’re really not sure, here’s a snip from the Wikipedia entry on Arduino:

Arduino is a popular open-source single-board microcontroller, descendant of the open-source Wiring platform, designed to make the process of using electronics in multidisciplinary projects more accessible. The hardware consists of a simple open hardware design for the Arduino board with an Atmel AVR processor and on-board input/output support. The software consists of a standard programming language compiler and the boot loader that runs on the board.

Arduino hardware is programmed using a Wiring-based language (syntax and libraries), similar to C++ with some slight simplifications and modifications, and a Processing-based integrated development environment.

The whole entry can be read here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arduino

The Geek Group is a hacker/makerspace in Michigan that does a lot of really neat things (and they have one hell of a machine shop as well!).  In this video, they give a good basic introduction to what Arduino is, what sets it apart from a PIC and how you can get started programming and tinkering with Arduino.

If you know of any great ham radio related Arduino projects, post them in the comments and share!  I may add them in a future post.

Here’s “The Geek Group” video:

according to today’s “Red & Rover” comic strip – the Sun affects more than just Hams!

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

Photo made when I arrived to send to my XYL.

I was just finishing diner today when my colleague phoned that the shop I work was on fire. I didn’t believe him at first but he was very seriously and told me could see the smoke from were he did drive. That was a distance of about 15 km. I jumped into the car and was astonished when I arrived. You see for yourself:

http://112groningen.nl/Groningen/nieuws/18259/zeer-grote-brand-in-uithuizen-video.html

Luckely no personal injuries, just material…