AmateurRadio.com

…by the thing that most people are struck with nowadays: noise. With the wife on a business trip and I having to take care of the kids there was little time to spend in the shack last week. But when I did turn on the radio last weekend I was met by an S3 to S6 noise floor. And I thought moving out into the country would prevent me from suffering something like this. Alas, I moved to “gridlock” county, with grid being the power grid. Taoyuan county is full of high voltage power lines coming from the south and going to the capital Taipei in the north. The noise sounds a lot like RF noise generated by arcing power lines and I have seen defective insulators before in the area. I took my (t)rusty ATS-909 for a walk on Monday night and the whole neighbourhood is suffering. I haven’t located the source yet, but I will. In the mean time I’m QRT as the noise is so intense that I can’t stand it for even a couple of minutes.

noise

Now while this whole noise problem is something most people will be upset/angry/disappointed/frustrated/depressed about, nowadays I take the Buddhist approach: don’t long for things that aren’t there, but see opportunities in the things that are in front of you. (I know, not really a Buddhist saying, but one I made up myself. It does reflect the spirit, though). Just like KD0BIK with his unfinished dummy loads I started counting my unfinished projects: 2 BiTX transceivers, a variable power supply, my TS-440S with the dots problem, an AA0ZZ keyer, the VFO for my Pixies, a cloud temp sensor and a home brew Buddipole. Not to mention the antenna’s I still have to erect for 2m/70cm and NOAA-APT reception. Oh yes, my 1-wire weather station is also still packed up, waiting to be installed. Being QRT might just be the push to get my house in order and get something “really” done. By the time I am done the noise will probably have disappeared, too. I’ll see you in a bit.

Welcome to Handiham World.

As first reported on the Southgate site:

CQ Communications, Inc., will launch multi-platform digital editions of all of its magazine titles before the end of 2011, Publisher Richard Ross, K2MGA, announced today.

Those titles include CQ Amateur Radio (CQ magazine), CQ VHF, Popular Communications and WorldRadio Online. Many CQ book titles are already available in digital form on CD.

“The digital editions will supplement, not replace, current print editions, and will feature enhancements not possible in the print medium,” said Editorial Director Rich Moseson, W2VU.

“Versions will be available for a variety of online and mobile platforms* and will be hosted by Zinio, one of the top names in the e-magazine hosting business. This will assure that our magazines will always be able to take advantage of new technology when it becomes available.”

Examples of features that will be possible in the digital editions include live links to all World Wide Web addresses listed in each issue, as well as supplemental content, such as photo albums, audio and video files, software and more. “Imagine reading an article about meteor scatter and being able to listen to a meteor scatter contact with a click of a mouse,” said Moseson, “or reading an ad for a piece of new gear and being able to click directly to a video explaining its features. All of this and more will be possible in our digital editions.”

“At the same time,” he added, “the print editions will retain their unique characteristics, such as portability, the tactile experience of holding a magazine in your hands, no need for batteries and the ability to continue reading on an airplane after you’ve been told to turn off all electronic devices!”

The digital launch will begin in late October with the November issue of an enhanced, multi-platform, version of WorldRadio Online, which will again become a paid-subscription publication; followed by November CQ, which, appropriately, is the magazine’s first annual Technology Special. The fall issue of CQ VHF and the December issue of Popular Communications will round out the introductions. Digital editions will be available by single copy and by subscription.

Details will be in the near future in the magazines and on all CQ Communications websites.

(*Initially, digital editions will be compatible with the following platforms:
PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android 2.0 and higher.)

In light of the recent discussions here about World Radio going digital, is anyone surprised?  I remember when one of my favorite titles, PC Magazine, went to Zinio.  I tried it but could never get used to it.  Then, awhile later, they discontinued their print version. I never read another issue.

CQ Communications has seemed to embrace the “walled garden” of their print magazine instead of publishing articles on their website. This is an understandable business decision, but I think that they’ve missed an opportunity to build their online brands in trying to protect their paper magazines. Again, not sure that I’d do it differently. But looking at PC Magazine’s website, it seems that most content is now available free online. Granted, some will enjoy the magazine-like interface that Zinio offers, with their animated page turns, etc.

One line from this press release struck me as kind of funny:

Examples of features that will be possible in the digital editions include live links to all World Wide Web addresses listed in each issue, as well as supplemental content, such as photo albums, audio and video files, software and more.

Photo albums? Audio and video files? Live links to World Wide Web addresses?  These sound like cutting edge features. In 1996.  It has to be more than this to get people’s attention — and money.

The folks at CQ may have no choice but to start the process of moving to digital distribution with the magazine publishing business being as it is.  I desperately want to see this effort succeed.  We can’t afford to lose another great magazine.  CQ is smart to keep its print editions, at least for now.  But I believe that most hams will not pay for a digital-only magazine — at least not yet.  I hope I’m wrong.

Someone from the Short Mountain Repeater Club, made a nice video from the Huntsville hamfest. It shows Ten Tec‘s booth all setup and looking sharp. It’s a short video but by all means it still is nice to get a look at hamfests from other parts of the country.There’s not much to tell about this. It’s just a look at the booth and all the great radios TenTec makes. Short and sweet. Enjoy.

73.

Rich also writes a Tech blog and posts stories every Tuesday and Thursday on Q103, Albany’s #1 Rock Station website, as well as Amateur Radio stories every Monday thru Friday on AmiZed Studios and hosts a podcast called The Kim & Rich Show with his fiance’ Kim Dunne.

I ordered a Nagoya NA-771 antenna on eBay. I was impressed with the shorter NA-701 and wanted something with a bit more gain that was not poke-you-in-the-eye long. The NA-771 had mostly good reviews on eHam.

I ordered from an eBay seller that shipped from the UK. The price was £4.99. When it arrived, I found the packaging and the antenna itself claimed to be a Diamond RH-771 not a Nagoya NA-771.

But this is clearly another fake Diamond. The lettering is white whereas the real Diamond product is lettered in blue. The lettering also contains nonsense. It claims “144/430 MHz & VDE BAND HECEMNG COVERAGE JAPAN.” Eh??? Perhaps it was supposed to say wide band general coverage? And the antenna is only 36cm long whereas the real RH-771 (and the NA-771) are supposed to be 39-40cm long.

None of this would matter if the antenna was any use, but in fact its resonant frequency is just below 120MHz. At 145MHz the SWR is more than 4 to 1 and it radiates a poorer signal than the shorter Nagoya NA-701 antenna.

Anyone want an air band antenna? Yours for a fiver. And can anyone recommend a seller that has the genuine Nagoya NA-771?