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PowerSDR screen

Over the last couple of weeks the sun gods have been looking down on us and smiling with record breaking sunspots and flux levels. Bands such as 10 meters normally quite has opened up world wide. Just this past weekend I was able to work Europe with just one watt. I found with these great conditions and wanting not to miss out on band openings the rig has been on lots more and the blog writing has gone down just a bit. One tool that has been in my ham radio pocket for some time now is my SDR Panadapter. What is an SDR panadapter you ask....in a nutshell it is a displays a segment of  radio spectrum for
the band that your radio is on. My setup is made up of the LP Pan, EMU 0202 Creative labs external sound card and the PowerSDR software.  The pan-adapter gives my QRP station some nice advantages the main one is the ability to see the entire CW segment at one time. I can see a strong station or week station then point and click and I'm there. Before I would be spinning the VFO from on end of the band to the other. I may just miss a station calling CQ and is now waiting for a response but to me its static with no one there and I move on missing this station for his

My LP-Pan unit below, new TS-990s

next CQ call.  Also I can flip to 10 meters and look at the pan-adapter to see if there is any action on the band or not....seeing if the band is open in a shorter time as opposed to spinning the VFO over the entire band. If you want to go down the Pan-adapter road at this time there are about 3 ways to do it. You can go all out and purchase a Flex radio system this is by far the most expensive way of going about it. Having said that it comes complete with all that is needed including a rig, processor for software and software all in one package. Or as I did you can order a pan-adapter, sound card and download the free software. Finally there is the stand alone Pan-adapter the only one at this time on the market I know of is the Elecraft P3.   This unit is plug and play there is not need for software or a computer...the only catch is you need an Elecraft K3. To be fair some of Icom's rigs come with a band scope. I am not sure how interactive they are. Also Yaesu has their DMU-2000 option that gives you more than just a band scope.  There is also some rumors of  Kenwood coming out with a new rig.  I have seen some pictures and along side is an
Elecraft type stand along plug and play Pan-adapter. Next question that most ham's ask is "how much for this toy" The option I chose I believe is the cheapest...the LP-Pan comes either as a kit or factory built unit. I chose the kit at 200.00. The EMU-0202 ran me 125.00 and the software is well what all hams want to hear....FREE!!! So for about 325.00 you can be in the Pan-adapter world. Oh and one last consideration is the speed of your PC. It is recommended  on the LP Pan site the following be used for your PC:

2.8 GHz processor (the more the merrier), preferably Core Duo or Quad.
1 GB RAM (the more the merrier, limited to 3GB on 32-bit systems, which are recommended)
16-bit sound card, preferably not integrated into motherboard. 24-bit preferred (lower noise floor)
48 kHz sound card... 96 or 192 KHz preferred (display width is roughly equal to sampling rate)
Separate video card, or integrated video with sufficient dedicated memory. Most of the SDR applications are video intensive.
So there you have it a pan-adapter setup...Christmas is coming and maybe it might be something you would like under the tree??

JUST WANTED TO ADD A NEW ADDITION TO THE POST I WAS EMAILED BY JOHN AE5X. HE REMINDED ME OF ANOTHER OPTION I NEGLECTED TO INCLUDE IN THE POSTING.  THE SOFTROCK AND IT'S A 20.00 KIT!!!! HERE IS A LINK TO GM0ELP'S BLOG DETAILING THE SOFTROCK. 
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

This coming Saturday at the Melbourne Hamfest and ARRL FL State Convention QRP ops from around the state will gather for a time of eyeball QSO’s, bragging, show ‘n tell and maybe even some operating from the picnic tables in the park next door!

Get there early and do your tailgating and swapping so you can gather at noon near the front entrance. Look for K4UPG’s gawdy yellow hat and come up and say HI! Some of us want to go to lunch together and depending on the number we have a couple places in mind that are nearby the event site.

So come one and all (even the curious) and join the fun.

GATHERING: Front entrance to Auditorium

DATE: Saturday, 8 October 2011

TIME: 12:00-12:15 EDT

Bring some gear if you want to play radio in the park or on the beach later in the day!

Kelly McClelland, K4UPG, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Florida, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

I haven’t heard about this too much in the last few years, but back when I first got my license, I helped out with this. So I figured I would mention the Pumpkin Patrol since it’s now October and Halloween will be here before we know it!

When I was helping out, I was stationed on one of 2 bridges near where I lived. One was in the village of Fultonville, just off Exit 28 on the NY Thruway, and the other was in Amsterdam off of Exit 27 of the Thruway. Both bridges, went over the Thruway and were accessible because they were State routes that went over the bridges. Now I had heard on the news about kids throwing stuff off of the bridges down on to roads and cars. And after a particularity bad incident, the NY State Police decided to stop the problem right off. That’s where volunteer Ham Radio operators like myself came in.

I had heard on the local repeater they were looking for a few people to help cover bridges and that they needed someone to cover one of those 2 bridges by me. So I called the man in charge at the time, Jack, WA2YBM, and ask if I could help. Long story short, I got all the info and a plaque for the car so the police knew who I was, and went out and sat on the bridge till midnight and did my check ins. I did it a few more times. Then I didn’t hear anything about it for a while, so I never really did it again.

Although, given the chance, I might be willing to still do it, if the need arose. It was fun, but to be honest, it was also a little boring. But I kept myself occupied and still enjoyed the experience overall. If there is a Pumpkin Patrol in your area, I would encourage you to sign up and be a part of it. Especially if you’re looking for something for the first time out. This would be a good way to break the ice.

Here’s a link to a quick story from a couple years ago. Just a blurb on the news…

73.

 

Rich Gattie, KB2MOB, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New York, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Sad picture, isn’t it? For those of you that know the Kenwood TS-440S well it is a familiar picture: VFO#5 covered in “Evil Brown Glue“, or EBG as it is mostly referred to. As I wrote in my last post, I counted my unfinished projects and fixing my TS-440S was highest on my list, so I took it apart yesterday. Mine is actually not covered in much EBG at all, but that is because I already removed a lot of the stuff some time ago. But now that the shroud is off you can clearly see that the EBG has crept under most components. No wonder the VFO was unstable or not working at all.

I prepared everything well, so the actual disassembly of the rig and the VFO was a piece of cake. I put some more photo’s on my website for you to enjoy. I already discovered that I don’t have one of the transistors which needs to be replaced. Will have to get them next weekend when we go up to Taipei. In the mean time I’ll keep myself busy with removing the components and cleaning the PCB, which is a little more work than I anticipated. I’ll keep you posted. 73 de Hans

P.S. lots of rain and wind the last couple of days, which we haven’t had for a while. Apparently it cleaned the power lines of dust and grime…..and the arcing. The bands are nice and clean again.

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

I was playing with my DVAP and the Icom E92 earlier in the day and I wondered if there was a new version of the WinDV software available. I’d previously been running 1.1.3 successfully. I checked over at http://www.Dutch-star.eu and sure enough there was! Version 1.3 was there. As before, installation was very straightforward. First impression was of the changed user interface, with a light blue background and and more rounded controls. The program works well. I quickly hooked up to the K6MDD repeater in San Francisco and had a nice QSO with Darryl, WA6YTD. Darryl confirmed the audio was good and that the program was doing everything it needed to. I enjoyed the option that if the station you are working or hearing is sending a lat/lon, then that is shown in terms of a Google Maps link that you can click on and see the position of the station. Easy to do, but enjoyable to use.

Tim Kirby, G4VXE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Oxfordshire, England. Contact him at [email protected].

Today I grabbed a little time on HF with the K3.  I was pleasantly surprised to find 10m and 12m were open, so I listened around on those bands.  I worked a Welsh station, GW4BKG on 12m SSB and was pleased with a 55 report for my 10W.  Later I worked a mobile Italian station on 12m operated by Claudio, IW6DRH on SSB. That is the first time I believe I have made transatlantic contact from my QRP station to a mobile station, so again was pleased with him picking up my call first time.  Claudio was 57 to me with some QRN and he gave me a 55 report.  The antenna I was using was my homebrew 90ft doublet.

I later found some videos of Claudio on the web, so here is one that shows his mobile setup and him operating from his car. Thank you Claudio for the contact and the video!

Alan Steele, VA3STL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Ottawa, Ontario. Contact him at [email protected].

Please read Part 1 for the beginning of the story and some background.

Based on the information that I’d previously described, I sent an email to the Logbook of The World (LoTW) desk at the ARRL in mid-June briefly explaining what I’d learned and asking what would be needed for them to issue a certificate so that I could upload my contacts. (Briefly, each contact is “signed” using a digital certificate to ensure that it’s valid. The ARRL issues a certificate to an operator when it is satisfied that the contacts were made legally.) I got a quick response back which referred me to the ARRL’s Reciprocal Operating page which gives the requirements needed to operate from different locations around the world.  The information provided for that page links to OH2MCN’s terrific site that has details for hundreds of countries. The information on his site is largely provided by hams who have operated from those locations, but sometimes it’s not always completely up to date. (As an example, you can see my contribution to the entry for the Cayman Islands, which in turn has been updated since I wrote to Veke.)  Unfortunately, the information for Costa Rica did not include the updated details regarding SUTEL (and still doesn’t as of the time that I’m writing this.) I responded back to both the LoTW desk and the DXCC desk (since the DXCC desk is ultimately responsible for determining if an operation is “legal”), but did not hear back from them prior to leaving for Costa Rica.

After I returned, I electronically requested a certificate for my operation. As with most operations from other that a home country, I was advised that I needed to contact the ARRL with the required supporting documentation. I sent another note to the DXCC desk in early August again explaining the situation but after a couple of weeks of no response, I sent a note to Joyce, KA2ANF, my Division Director who did whatever magic Division Directors do and got me a reply form the DXCC desk. Unfortunately, the reply was substantially the same as the initial responses that I’d gotten back (referring me to the Reciprocal Operation page) and didn’t address the changes in the licensing authority. It said that even though their information was outdated, that I’d need a license or some other documentation from the local licensing authority.

At this point, it occurred to me that many of the people who I’d emailed or spoken to had operated recently from Costa Rica, certainly within the last two years, and several had been issued LoTW certificates. Since there was precedent, I figured that the best way to find out how they had gotten their certificates was to ask, so I gathered up a list of email addresses, and sent out an email, that said in part:

…I noticed that you have recently uploaded contacts from a Costa Rica operation to LoTW, and I was wondering if you’d recently obtained a certificate without a paper license, or if you had a previously-issued license that was used to obtain your certificate. To be honest, I’m hoping that you might fall into the first category meaning that there is precedent for my certificate to be issued under the same conditions.

Over the next couple of days, I got back responses from pretty much everyone I wrote to (and some that I didn’t; my note got passed on to a few others who I hadn’t originally written) and the story from each of them was the same: No, SUTEL wasn’t issuing licenses but it was OK to operate from Costa Rica as long as you were in the country legally and had an appropriate US license. N0KE, AA8HH, N0SXX, and K4VAC (which is a club) all confirmed that they’d been issued LoTW certificates based on the “new” information about licensing. Better still, I received information from several hams that included emails between themselves, the ARRL, and in some cases, between Keko, TI5KD, the president of the Radio Club de Costa Rica where the licensing information was explained and accepted as valid by the ARRL.

I wrote another note to the DXCC desk and provided this information, and waited. After another couple of weeks, I sent a reminder note (I know those guys are busy, and my issue certainly wasn’t a big one) and got a response back. They’d started to investigate, and would be getting back to me. I felt that at least they were finally reading what I’d written and there was hope. Just a few hours later, and I got back another email telling me that my operation was accepted and a LoTW certificate would be issued shortly. (It was.)

I’d like to thank everyone that I mentioned here for their help in getting through all this. In particular, Keko, TI5KD  was very patient in explaining the situation and helping me to be confident that I would eventually get through the red tape.

On a final note, I realized that in the spirit of “giving back” to the ham community, the best thing that I could do would be to get the information on OH2MCN’s site updated, so I’ll be writing to him shortly with the details that I’ve provided here (though in a more concise form).