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This is an unbuilt kit for an Off-Air Frequency Standard from Spectrum Communications. It is a crystal calibrator phase locked to BBC Radio 4 on 198kHz with an output of 2V peak to peak at 10MHz.

I got this with the intention of using it to frequency lock my Elecraft K3 using the KREF3 module. Regular readers may remember that last year I purchased a surplus Efratom LPRO-101 rubidium frequency standard to calibrate my radios. But a rubidium frequency standard has a finite life which will be used up very quickly if it is turned on all day to use as a real-time frequency reference. My intention is that the off-air frequency standard will run all day and keep my K3 as accurate as I need it to be.

I ordered the full kit from Spectrum. I was disappointed to find that what looked like a die cast box in the picture is actually a plastic box with a grey metallic finish. If I had realized it was not a die cast box I would probably have opted for the cheaper PCB kit and ordered one of the nice extruded aluminium alloy Hammond cases for the project. I hope it will be RF-proof enough to work in my shack environment where up to 100W may be used into indoor antennas.

The other disappointment was the rather home made looking PCB which does not have a silk screened component overlay. There is a printed layout in the instruction sheet but relating the component positions to the holes on the PCB is easier said than done. My initial thought was that I am not going to be able to build this. What I will have to do is draw the component overlay on to the PCB itself prior to construction. But it isn’t easy with my diminishing eyesight and need to use different strength lenses which makes switching between things at different distances a real trial. Having a silk screened PCB would just have made things a bit easier. I think my days of kit building are definitely numbered.

This is an unbuilt kit for an Off-Air Frequency Standard from Spectrum Communications. It is a crystal calibrator phase locked to BBC Radio 4 on 198kHz with an output of 2V peak to peak at 10MHz.

I got this with the intention of using it to frequency lock my Elecraft K3 using the KREF3 module. Regular readers may remember that last year I purchased a surplus Efratom LPRO-101 rubidium frequency standard to calibrate my radios. But a rubidium frequency standard has a finite life which will be used up very quickly if it is turned on all day to use as a real-time frequency reference. My intention is that the off-air frequency standard will run all day and keep my K3 as accurate as I need it to be.

I ordered the full kit from Spectrum. I was disappointed to find that what looked like a die cast box in the picture is actually a plastic box with a grey metallic finish. If I had realized it was not a die cast box I would probably have opted for the cheaper PCB kit and ordered one of the nice extruded aluminium alloy Hammond cases for the project. I hope it will be RF-proof enough to work in my shack environment where up to 100W may be used into indoor antennas.

The other disappointment was the rather home made looking PCB which does not have a silk screened component overlay. There is a printed layout in the instruction sheet but relating the component positions to the holes on the PCB is easier said than done. My initial thought was that I am not going to be able to build this. What I will have to do is draw the component overlay on to the PCB itself prior to construction. But it isn’t easy with my diminishing eyesight and need to use different strength lenses which makes switching between things at different distances a real trial. Having a silk screened PCB would just have made things a bit easier. I think my days of kit building are definitely numbered.

According to Bob Bruninga WB4APR, Kenwood announced an update to the TM-D710 firmware at Dayton. The changes are:

– INTERRUPT ALWAYS: always displays information about every packet received on screen for a few seconds, not just packets from new stations.

– INFINITE: extends the above to retain the information about the last heard packet on screen.

– MY PACKET: now displays the actual digi path used when your own packet is digipeated so you don’t just see that it was digipeated you can see which digipeater.

– TOP button: LIST display inserts new entries at the top so no need to scroll down.

– HEADING/UP: you can toggle the compass rose to North-UP or Heading
UP.

– PREVIEW of PHRASES: When selecting phrases you can see a preview of
first 9 bytes.

– READ/REPLY keys come up when a message is flashed on the front panel

– OVERLAYS: You can now select overlay characters on any symbol

– TOTAL hops can be set as low as 0 instead of 1.

– Auto-Powerup-Time set (if GPS is connected and is locked)

The update also contains some bug fixes. It does not include support for item-in-message or any other previously unsupported APRS features. 🙁

At this time the update is not yet available for download from Kenwood’s website.

According to Bob Bruninga WB4APR, Kenwood announced an update to the TM-D710 firmware at Dayton. The changes are:

– INTERRUPT ALWAYS: always displays information about every packet received on screen for a few seconds, not just packets from new stations.

– INFINITE: extends the above to retain the information about the last heard packet on screen.

– MY PACKET: now displays the actual digi path used when your own packet is digipeated so you don’t just see that it was digipeated you can see which digipeater.

– TOP button: LIST display inserts new entries at the top so no need to scroll down.

– HEADING/UP: you can toggle the compass rose to North-UP or Heading
UP.

– PREVIEW of PHRASES: When selecting phrases you can see a preview of
first 9 bytes.

– READ/REPLY keys come up when a message is flashed on the front panel

– OVERLAYS: You can now select overlay characters on any symbol

– TOTAL hops can be set as low as 0 instead of 1.

– Auto-Powerup-Time set (if GPS is connected and is locked)

The update also contains some bug fixes. It does not include support for item-in-message or any other previously unsupported APRS features. 🙁

At this time the update is not yet available for download from Kenwood’s website.

I was delighted to read that John, VE3EJ had been ‘inducted’ into the CQ Contest Hall of Hame this weekend at the Dayton Hamvention.Here’s what the citation had to say:”The 2011 inductee to the CQ Contest Hall of Fame is John Sluymer, VE3EJ. Sluymer has been an active contester and DXer since 1973 and is a founding member and current President of Contest Club Ontario, which has grown from 16 to 250 members in less than a decade. He also holds numerous Canadian domestic and DX contest records, was named the 2006 Radio Amateur of the Year by the Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC). A frequent host for single- and multi-op contest operations from his station, Sluymer is a longtime member of the CQ WW Contest Committee and a frequent speaker at hamfest forums and club meetings”Congratulations, John! I had the genuine pleasure of getting to know John when I worked in Toronto, Canada during the late 1990s. John is everything it says there, but lots more too. He’s a genuinely warm and great guy. He and his wife, Hazel have welcomed me to their house on many occasions – radio related and non radio-related! Though I’ve not seen John in a few years now, we run across each other on the bands from time to time and it’s always great to hear from him.Well done John !

I was delighted to read that John, VE3EJ had been ‘inducted’ into the CQ Contest Hall of Hame this weekend at the Dayton Hamvention.

Here’s what the citation had to say:

“The 2011 inductee to the CQ Contest Hall of Fame is John Sluymer, VE3EJ. Sluymer has been an active contester and DXer since 1973 and is a founding member and current President of Contest Club Ontario, which has grown from 16 to 250 members in less than a decade. He also holds numerous Canadian domestic and DX contest records, was named the 2006 Radio Amateur of the Year by the Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC). A frequent host for single- and multi-op contest operations from his station, Sluymer is a longtime member of the CQ WW Contest Committee and a frequent speaker at hamfest forums and club meetings”

Congratulations, John! I had the genuine pleasure of getting to know John when I worked in Toronto, Canada during the late 1990s. John is everything it says there, but lots more too. He’s a genuinely warm and great guy. He and his wife, Hazel have welcomed me to their house on many occasions – radio related and non radio-related! Though I’ve not seen John in a few years now, we run across each other on the bands from time to time and it’s always great to hear from him.

Well done John !

Over the last week, I’ve seen people reporting Es on 50MHz in particular, but by the time I’ve got home, I haven’t had the energy or time to go and have a look on the bands! But this weekend has been good.I’m particularly pleased to have had the opportunity to play as about 2 weeks ago, I got a Diamond V-2000 vertical for 50/144/433MHz up in the air. I’ll do a separate post about how it’s been working out on 144 and 433MHz and how I’ve been using it. However, this weekend was the first time I’ve used it in anger on 50MHz.Yesterday afternoon I noticed that 50MHz seemed to be open when I checked using the 70MHz vertical (which works on 50MHz too!). I swapped the V2000 over onto the FT-847. Over a period of a couple of hours I worked around 40 stations on 50MHz – exclusively on CW. Best DX was LZ1UQ in KN12 at around 2107km. Worked some new squares and some nice QSOs in general – and was pleased to note that the new vertical gave me a 2 or 3 S-point advantage over the old vertical (which has worked the US and Puerto Rico on 50MHz!).During the afternoon, I kept checking 70MHz and was very pleased to find LA6MV (JO59) calling CQ and even more pleased when he was able to hear me! I also heard LA4ANA (JO59) but didn’t work him. Heard the LA5VHF beacon from JO48 coming through as well. A little later, I also worked 9A2SB on 70MHz. This was using the 70MHz vertical.There was some Es around this morning (22nd May) as well, mostly the same stations that I worked yesterday on 50MHz, but made a couple of ‘new’ QSOs.The V2000 is noticeably quieter than the compromise antenna I’ve used before. It would be nice to have beams up for 50 and 70MHz, but given that my main interest is Es on those bands then the ‘vertical approach’ works out well. Incidentally, the picture makes the vertical look as if it’s very close to the power line… it’s not!