AmateurRadio.com

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…

The first quarter of 2012 is in the books and so is a QSO for each and every day.   While the actual Q count is dropping from the total number of QSO’s I had in February and from January, I did manage to make a much bigger impact to my DXCC list.   The Q count is lower since I’ve been devoting most every weekend to working on the new basement ham shack.   This is important to me and will be especially rewarding when I move into the new space.   However, I’m not motivated by the total number of QSO’s I make, it is more about quality versus quantity. 

Another interesting point is the total number of DX stations I worked in March is also higher.  Of course, I did spend a few hours spinning the dial and working who could hear me during the March DX contest.  But perhaps this also means band conditions are gradually improving.  Just last night I worked E51M on 12m.  I saw a tweet from my good friend Martin, and spun the dial over to 12 to see if I could hear them.  E51M is working a DXpedition from Manihiki Atoll, North Cook Island.  It’s always a good feeling for me when I can log a DX contact, especially so when it is a new DX entity.  Of course, this goes in the books for April. 

I view putting Q1 behind me as a successful milestone.  However, before I schedule the parade, I know I’m just 25% into this challenge.  I need to begin thinking about how I’m going to handle vacation and other travel scenarios which will eventually come into play.  While my rules are somewhat relaxed, I did initially state that all QSO’s would be on HF.  I’m not sure if I’ve backed myself into a corner with this or not.   Time will tell…

The breakdown is as follows: 

Mode
Number QSO’s

JT65
48

SSB 
19

Additional notes of interest:

DX Stations Worked – 19

New DX Entities – 4

Total QSO’s for 2012 – 383

Total consecutive QSO days – 91

Days left in 2012 – 272

Until next time…

73 de KD0BIK

When I was browsing through eBay last night, I was interested to note that a new Baofeng rig, the UV-5R was available. It runs higher power than the UV-3R, has a keypad and looks an interesting evolution. Since the rig was only £38, it didn’t take much thought to order one. I shall look forward to it arriving.

In the meantime, Hans, PD0AC has already received one and is writing up his findings which look interesting.

That would be Greg K2UM’s KX3 and he was nice enough to post a video about it:

Saliva glands are working overtime!

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

PS: Wow! No spam comments today. 1st time in about a month that has happened.

A package from China arrived in the post this morning – a USB programming cable for the Baofeng UV-3R+. I got it from eBay seller happyhamshop where it was sold as a “USB programming cable for Wouxun handheld radio” but Baofeng claims that the UV-3R+ is compatible with Wouxun accessories. I was going to make my own cable but I didn’t have a 2.5mm stereo jack plug in my parts box so I decided to take the easy option and get a ready made cable for not much more than the cost of the plug from a components vendor.

The cable was detected and appeared as COM1 – the same com port number as my other USB to serial adapters that use the Prolific chipset. I haven’t tried it on the Wouxun – I can’t think of a reason to program channels on 4m – but it works with the Baofeng using both the manufacturer’s software and CHIRP, the platform and rig-independent memory management program.

It took me several attempts to transfer the memories from the old UV-3R to the new one. Writing a file taken from the old radio to the new one using either program caused the frequency display to read DDDD.25. Fortunately I knew enough about this issue to have used the software to make a backup of the factory configuration, which was easily restored.

The solution, if you’re interested, was to use CHIRP to export the memories from a file saved from the old radio to a rig-independent .chirp file, then load the factory configuration from the radio and import the file you just exported.

Problems with programming cables seem to be making up half the traffic in forums and groups dedicated to handheld radios. The problems are all associated with cables that use (or claim to use) Prolific USB adapters. These days, programming cables come with USB adapters built-in, so the need for separate USB to RS-232 converters – which could use a less troublesome FTDI or Silicon Labs chipset – is eliminated. But so, unfortunately, is the option to solve the problem by using a different type of adapter.

A couple of days ago I became aware of something that is certainly not going to make this issue any less common. Apparently a Chinese chip manufacturer has produced an unlicensed clone of the Prolific PL2303 USB to serial chip which is now being used in many of the USB cables that come from China. Prolific is understandably not very happy about this. It has released a new driver that detects the clone chip and fails with an error code 10, causing much frustration for the innocent end user.  The solution, apparently, is to turn off automatic updating and install an older driver (the cable vendor will hopefully have a link to a driver that works with the cable they sold you.) The problem seems to be worst for users of 64-bit Windows 7 for which there are fewer old drivers in circulation. I deliberately stay as far from the bleeding edge as possible, and have automatic updates disabled on my shack PC. So far I have had no problems with the 32-bit Windows XP Prolific driver I’ve been using for the last couple of years.