AmateurRadio.com

After breakfast this morning I went up to the shack as usual. I switched on the computer, switched on the main power supply and switched on the Kenwood TM-D710. When Windows came up I started my VHF instance of APRSIS32 for my local APRS gateway. Then I switched on my K2 to start the HF gateway. The LCD showed the usual “Elecraft” but then the segments went crazy and the radio emitted a noise that can best be described as an endless fart.

I switched off. Then I realized that I had forgotten to switch on the K2’s power supply. I switched it on, then I switched the radio on again and this time it started up normally. Phew! Then my fuddled brain worked out that this must mean the K2’s internal SLA battery has finally given up the ghost.

I built my K2 in 1999. Originally only the basic radio was available as a CW-only kit. Other options were soon added including the KSB2 module for SSB, the internal ATU and an internal battery pack. I added these options as soon as they were available, which must have been around the end of 1999 or early 2000, so the battery must be around ten years old.

As it happened I have rarely used my K2 portable so I have made little use of the battery pack. I used the radio in the field once earlier this year. The previous occasion on which I ran the K2 from the battery was during the floods a year ago when the power went off for several hours and I was able to experience what the bands were like without all the local QRN. Ten years is a very good life for an SLA battery and I wondered when it would fail, but I hated to throw it out while it was still doing its job. It seems that time had finally come.

I removed the top cover from the K2, disconnected the cables and lifted it off. Then I undid the screws securing the aluminium bracket that holds the battery in place. I noticed a small patch of corrosion in the area adjacent to one of the terminals, and when I removed the battery I noticed a drop of liquid in the same place. The battery had started to leak. I had got to it just in time. If my fuzzy-headedness hadn’t caused me to turn on the K2 without the power supply I might never have noticed the problem until it was too late and some of this electrolyte had dripped into the radio itself!

I’m not sure whether to replace the battery pack or not. In the meantime I thought I would put the battery bracket back and tape the battery cables to it, then put the top back on the K2 and get my HF gateway back on the air.

But it isn’t just the K2 that is getting old. I am, too, and I hate it. I’ve never had particularly good co-ordination but it seems to be getting worse. I can’t use a Morse paddle now and I can’t send faster than 12wpm with a straight key. Sometimes I have days where I’m even more clumsy than usual and my hands shake too much to do any constructional work. In that state it’s impossible to hold nuts and washers in hard to access positions while you turn a screw from the other side. I’m having one of those days today and I found that I couldn’t put the battery cover back. So I’ve put the K2 in a drawer until a day when I’m feeling sharper. Hopefully I’ll be able to give it a realignment at the same time, something else it probably needs after ten years. Until that time I will be off the air on HF APRS.

I’ve started collecting a list of the websites for the ongoing operations from the new DXCC entities in PJ (Netherland Antilles). I originally intended to do this for myself (so that I could make sure that my contacts were in the logs), but realized that it’d be useful for others. (I apologize if this has been done already, I couldn’t find a simple list myself.) The list as it stands is definitely incomplete and I’ll be adding to it as I find other websites. I’ve set it up as a separate page here on my blog which you can get to by clicking  Websites for 10/10/10 Operations from PJ2-7 from the list of pages at the top of my blog (or by just clicking that link).


At the time that I’m writing this, at least two of the sites have live video streams, most have online logs that seem to be updated very frequently, and one (PJ4D) even has a real-time log. It’s fun listening to the op (either via the video stream or over the air) and watching the calls scroll up the screen. 


Please let me know either by email or a comment to this of any additions or corrections and I’ll be happy to publish them.

I’ve started collecting a list of the websites for the ongoing operations from the new DXCC entities in PJ (Netherland Antilles). I originally intended to do this for myself (so that I could make sure that my contacts were in the logs), but realized that it’d be useful for others. (I apologize if this has been done already, I couldn’t find a simple list myself.) The list as it stands is definitely incomplete and I’ll be adding to it as I find other websites. I’ve set it up as a separate page here on my blog which you can get to by clicking  Websites for 10/10/10 Operations from PJ2-7 from the list of pages at the top of my blog (or by just clicking that link).


At the time that I’m writing this, at least two of the sites have live video streams, most have online logs that seem to be updated very frequently, and one (PJ4D) even has a real-time log. It’s fun listening to the op (either via the video stream or over the air) and watching the calls scroll up the screen. 


Please let me know either by email or a comment to this of any additions or corrections and I’ll be happy to publish them.

Most of yesterday evening was spent very enjoyably, getting to know our new cats – they are real stars! However, just before bed, I did pop into the shack to see what was happening.

OP7V from Belgium was very loud on 432.200 and I enjoyed a QSO with him. By the time I listened, 432MHz was quieter, so I switched over to 144MHz was was pleased to find DK3EE (JO41) coming through at great strength – so had a nice quick QSO with him and also DF0WD (JO42) who I also worked quickly.

Swapped e-mails with Allan, GM4ZUK and he’d been out portable last night and worked over 300 stations on 144/432/1296 over a few hours last night. Allan’s best DX on 1296MHz was OY and SP!

(Edited this in thanks to Ralf, DK4KW for letting me know about it)

This morning conditions were still good and ON0WV was coming through at S9 on 145.650 on my drive to the station. There was a very strong repeater on 145.6375 too, with French stations QRV. I didn’t hear it ID, so it may have been the Jersey repeater, GB3GJ.

I have operated most of the reverse beacon and weak signal modes but one that I have never tried is QRSS. “QRS” is the Morse Q code for “send slowly” so QRSS means send very slowly indeed. QRSS beacons send your call using very, very slow Morse, which listeners receive using a “grabber”, which is a slow moving waterfall display. If you’re lucky, they will email you a reception report, but you can also look for your signal yourself on one of the various online grabbers.

One day I planned to build my own QRSS beacon. When I found out that Hans Summers G0UPL had produced a QRSS beacon kit I was disappointed to learn that all the kits had been sold at the US Dayton hamfest. However I recently discovered that he had made a new batch of kits and not wanting to wait and find out they were all sold at the G-QRP Convention I ordered one at the weekend. The order process was extremely professional (amateur components suppliers who expect you to email your order and credit card details please note) and the kit arrived this morning.

I opened the envelope and was very impressed to find that the package included a printed copy of the instructions as I had expected to have to print them myself from the website. The PCB is of very high quality. But as I tipped the parts on to the workbench my heart immediately sank.

Because the microcontroller chip which keys the transmitter and has been preprogrammed with my callsign was wrapped in a slip of paper on which was written G4LIO, a transposition of my call that often afflicts people on the air as well – I don’t know why. The incorrect call was also written on the jiffy bag the kit came in. I checked the emailed copy of the order and the mistake was not mine.

After an exchange of emails with Hans I installed the chip in its socket, applied power and connected an earpiece to pin 2 which produces an audio tone to verify whether the chip had been programmed incorrectly. It sent G4LIO. 🙁 Why is it always me that gets the kits with the missing or faulty parts?

Interesting thread on the softrock40 email list about how easy it is these days to get a good sense of how well your station and the ionosphere are performing in an almost ‘hands-free’ way.

Increasingly modes like WSPR and tools like SDR have enabled us to let the radio do its thing and in a short amount of time access detailed logs of our successes – where we were heard. The softrock40ers were using this approach to compare their SDR rigs performance to other sets.

Rob KL7NA joined in the conversation. He pointed to his recent paper on what he calls ‘Robotic radio‘ that he presented to the DCC meeting in Vancouver WA recently.

Your radio is doing what the operator used to do automatically, and as you have been finding out, it is really fun to horse race different software demodulators, receivers and antennas, and radio locations this way.  I am trying to promote it as a way for our youth to get into amateur radio.  They seem to be very enamored by robotics.

Rob’s paper is full of interesting ideas and he lists the building blocks of Robotic radio… hardware, software and networks. He introduces his open source project CW Robot which is still in alpha and explains the thinking behind it.

This looks like a very rewarding place to play and discover – and there’s already a road map.

We’ve had a busy weekend which didn’t contain too much radio. Last week was a bit of a sad one for us; we scattered my Dad’s ashes on Monday and then on Thursday we had to say goodbye to our much-loved cat, Buttons who was 16. A cat-less house was not good for us and we were ‘directed’ to visit the animal rescue centre, run by the Blue Cross at Burford. There we met and fell in love with two new cat friends, Pippi and Max, who I am pleased to say have kindly consented to come and live with us. They moved in yesterday and needless to say, much fun and time is being spent, looking after them and trying to settle them in.

When I popped out to the garden centre yesterday, I noticed some reasonable 145MHz tropo to the east, with the GB3PO repeater in Ipswich coming in better than normal on the mobile. Just before I went to bed, I saw a tweet from G0PKT on the east coast saying that he’d been working some good DX on VHF/UHF. I stopped off in the shack on the way to bed and had a quick QSO with Juergen, DL5EBS (JO31) on 432MHz. Signals were great – also, DJ6JJ was on 432.200 working Polish stations. Interestingly, I was able to detect fragments of the signals from the Polish stations.

This morning, on the drive to work, conditions were still good. On 145.650, I heard ON0WV identify very clearly a couple of times. And during our commuter ‘net’ on GB3TD (433.075) we were surprised and delighted to be joined by John, G6HKQ from Norfolk.