AmateurRadio.com

Ever since I replaced my primary station computer (a decision that may be reversed soon—details in a later post), I desired to replace the remaining 19-inch Dell Trinitron CRT monitor with something lighter and smaller.  Mom and Dad were in town a few weeks ago on a much-needed vacation and we went to the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy facility near Dulles Airport.  This is only a few miles from one of the best used computer shops in the DC area—CedarPC.

CedarPC is nice because they’ll sell you “damaged” stuff at a discount if you don’t care about the damage.  I inquired about a 24-inch flat panel I had seen on the web site, but they could not find it.  They did find me a nice 20-inch flat panel that was just missing the stand and the price was right.  The missing stand was no big deal because I wanted to mount the monitor on an arm so I could bring it closer to the HF end of the station desk, tuck it in at the VHF end, or even swivel it out over the couch to watch a DVD.  Sold.

Monitor arms are generally expensive…at least 2-3 times what I paid for the monitor itself, often more.  So, I went to trusty eBay and found something designed for mounting televisions for $15 including shipping.  This did require some modification of the monitor housing and liberal application of wide washers to reinforce the plastic in the housing.  But, it was done with all junkbox screws and washers.

Ethan Miller, K8GU, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Maryland, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

I understand the reason for split operation when you run a DXpedition. Without split operation you probably wouldn’t be able to hear a thing apart from the big guns shouting for attention. Unfortunately for a little fish like me the split is too wide, most of the time. My classic TS-130V has a RIT of only 2 kHz. Nowadays many operations choose splits of 5 or even 10 kHz, even for CW! Never mind, I’m already glad to be able to hear them.

Today, however, 10 meters was open again and after tuning around I found a 53 signal from T32C. Nice, but I heard them before, so no big deal. But it became nicer when I noted he was working a split of 0 kHz and he was calling out CQ because there were few takers. Out came my mike and with the 12 Watts I am putting out on 10 meters he gave me a 59 report. Yeah, right! I gave him the honest 53, but I don’t think he noticed.

Of course, when my TS-440S is fixed I have a 1oo Watts and wide  RIT/XIT again, but unfortunately that hasn’t happened yet. I got the missing parts yesterday and spent tonight putting the VFO#5 back together again. No luck, still lots of dots on the display saying that the PLL won’t lock and I’m measuring 8 Volts where I should be measuring 5 Volts. The search for the fault continues……unfortunately.

Hans "Fong" van den Boogert, BX2ABT, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Taiwan. Contact him at [email protected].

Series Four Episode Twenty-One of the ICQ Podcast has been released. News Stories include :-

• Solar CME and flares kill upper HF bands
  
• ARISSat used as teaching tool
• Simulated Emergency Test
• VI6CHOGM
• GB400KJB
• AO-51 to support 54th Jamboree On The Air
• WWII HRO receiver donated to museum
• Limited Greek 5 MHz permission
• Sputnik transmitters on-air
• XYL radio ham to stay in touch with husband

Your feedback and Martin (M1MRB) discusses Soldering and Leadfree.

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

Hopefully Monday will be an antenna-building day. I don’t know that it will all come together in one shot, but if I don’t get this project going it’s never going to get done.

I spent some time in the hardware store yesterday, picking out the many different bits and pieces that I’ll need for the job. Hard to believe how much it all added up to. Gulp! At least I had a coupon for $10 off of my purchase. As it is there are still a couple more little things I need, but I’ll have to drive up to Willmar for those on Monday.

Here’s a rough sketch that I made last March, dusted off and updated slightly. There are still a couple of unknowns — those are the figures in red.I’m not certain that I’ll need to attach anything to the adjacent church-building, since I may get away with just draping the wire in a nearby tree. But I’ll figure that out as I go. I’ve planned enough! It’s time to put this antenna up!

Todd Mitchell, NØIP, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Minnesota, USA. He can be contacted at [email protected].

After reading  some blogs how QRP power has made it out to T32C I was game to give it a go myself. Well I went to T32C's website which by the way is fantastic. It is full of information regarding the DXpedition as well as live up to date spotting information. I checked the frequency's  the website said they would be on and it was only late last night I could just hear them over the noise level on 40m. That was a close as I got to a signal from the team. I tried today and nothing and will give it a go this evening as well. I am hopeful that I will be able to pull off a contact but at this point it is very hard to do so if I am unable to hear them at my QTH. I also went to the VOACAP website and punched in my info.....and well the results for me making a contact with my power, (QRP) location and antenna (attic dipole) gives me a slim to none chance!!!
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

Still like the QSL side of the hobby. Last time I attended the local radioclub there was  pile of QSL cards waiting. Along them a long awaited card from ZD7X Tom who was operating from St.Helena in 2007. I got him confirmed now on 20, 17, 12 an 10m. When setting up WSPR this morning I heard a lot of Japanese stations booming in on 12m and 10m. But since I got a father-daughter day today I had no opportunity to make a QSO. Left WSPR on at 10m.

 

Bas, PE4BAS, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Groningen, Netherlands. Contact him at [email protected].

Introduction:

• Richard is still in the process of moving, but did get his WinLink rms gateway running as described in a previous episode.

Announcements:

• Jay Forrest has lauched The Linux News Podcast. The podcast will focus on topics such as software freedom, Linux development, Open Source software, Android and mobile devises, security issues, and Linux distribution releases. Our hosts offer their opinions.
• Ohio LinuxFest will be held in Columbus, Ohio on September 9-11, 2011. (Note: Russ will not be there, but maybe YOU can represent LHS. Visit the web site and look at the Ambassadors page to learn how.)
• Texoma Hamarama will be October 21-22, 2011 in Ardmore, OK. Richard might be there, so if you’re in the area, look for him!

Topics:

• Our hosts discuss the ARRL statement regarding HR 607, “Broadband for First Responders Act of 2011″. This bill provides for the re-allocation of the 420-440 MHz band, calling it part of the “Public Safety” spectrum. This is not the case, and we should contact our representatives and voice our opposition to this bill. The ARRL offers sample letters you can send to your representatives.
• Richard and Russ talk about various amateur radio programsfor Linux offered by Ted, WA0EIR.Russ built them all from the available source code on his Linux Mint Debian Edition 10 computer. In order to do so, he installed a number of development libraries:
  • libmotif-dev
  • libxmu-dev
  • libxpm-dev
  • libxbae-dev

  These are header files necessary for the compiler to properly build the programs.

• Each program requires the following commands to compile and install. Change to the directory containing the program and type:

    ./configure
    ./make
    ./make-install

  (You may wish to be root to perform the make-install command.)

• TWLOG – A basic QSO logging program. Useful for day-to-day logging, but not recommended for contest logs. It will export to ADIF. It requires the Xbae Matrix Widget.
• TWPSK – A simple bpsk/qpsk program. Co-written with Hansi, DL9RDZ
• TWCW – A Morse Code trainer that also allows keyboard CW operation.
• TWCLOCK – A world clock application that will also automatically send a CW identifier every 10 minutes.
• Check the /etc/X11/app-defaults directory for the “X resource” files to change the configuration options for these programs. For example, in that directory is a file called twclock that contains the callsign transmitted by TWClock.
• PSK31LX – A curses-based PSK31 program, so it runs in a terminal window or directly in a terminal session. For help, a man page is included. (Type “man psk31lx”.) It makes use of the arrow, control, and function keys. You can choose the audio and serial devices with command line parameters at start. Configuration parameters are stored in your home directory in the file .psk31lx.ini.

Feedback:

• Don, WS4E, asks for Internet resources for handicapped amateur radio operators. He’s familiar with the Handiham  organization, but wonders if there are others.There are many newsgroups and mailing lists dedicated to hams with disabilities. A Google search should return several. The Canadian National Amateur Radio Society site Amateur Radio for the Disabled, has several useful links. Richard mentions Lighthouse for the Blind. The ARRL has a page listing several articles. There’s also a Facebook group, Blind Amateur Radio Operators.
• Petr, OK2CQR, the author of CQRLOG, responds to Torsten’s (K5TOR) problems installing CQRLOG on a 64-bit machine: CQRLOG already has native 64-bit version. There is no need to install the 32-bit version. You can use the ppa at launchpad.net with packages for Lucid, Maverick, Natty and Oneirc. Version 1.2.1 will be part of the Oneiric release as well. More information is here.
• Donation from Paul G. Thank you! If you’d like to donate, please visit the website and click on the Donate link.

Contact Info:

• Contact Richard at [email protected], Russ at [email protected], or both at the same time at [email protected].
• Listen to the live stream every other Tuesday at 8:00pm Central time. Check the LHS web site for dates.
• Leave us a voice mail at 1-909-LHS-SHOW (1-909-547-7469), or record an introduction to the podcast.
• Sign up for the LHS mailing list.
• Sign up for the MAGNetcon mailing list.
• LHS merchandise is available at the Merch link on Web site. Check out the Badgerwear or buy one of the other LHS-branded items at PrintFection.com/lhs or Cafe Press. Thanks!
• Thanks to Dave from Gamma Leonis for the theme music.

Music:

• “Rise” by Rob Warren from the album “Rise,” courtesy of Jamendo.
• “Mechanical Butterfly” by Mechanical Butterfly from the album “Mechanical Butterfly,” courtesy of Jamendo.

Russ Woodman, K5TUX, co-hosts the Linux in the Ham Shack podcast which is available for download in both MP3 and OGG audio format. Contact him at [email protected].