AmateurRadio.com

I came back from a nice walk through the countryside, having picked a lovely amount of blackberries, damsons and sloes and popped into the shack. Earlier today, I’d started up my APRSIS client (APRSIS32 by Lynn, KJ4ERJ) and left it running.

I noticed there was a message waiting from Julian, G4ILO-6. I opened it up and to my surprise, it said ‘Hi via ISS’. Julian had launched a packet on 2m, it had been digipeated by the International Space Station and then come back to earth where it had been received by other iGates on the APRS network and found its way to me.

Thanks Julian for a really interesting message!

If you want to read about how this works and see the stations that have been heard by the International Space Station have a look here.

Over the last few days Lynn, KJ4ERJ has been adding some very cool features to APRSISCE/32 which I’ve been helping to test. The ISS packet digipeater is still operating so as there were several good passes during the daytime I’ve been playing on it as well.

Today I managed to hear my own beacon repeated back by the space station, and this time it was also gated to the internet by TF8TTY so my call showed up on the map of stations heard through the ISS at ariss.net. I also managed to send a couple of messages through the bird. Tim, G4VXE was impressed to receive a greeting relayed via the space station. I also managed a two-way exchange with Marc, PD4U, which I think counts as an actual satellite contact.

Of course, whilst it’s fun to bounce radio waves off a satellite it isn’t a very practical method of communication. The ISS is the best QTH ever and it can hear all the activity on a frequency at the same time, so communication is only possible if not too many people use it. Lots of messages never get anywhere because they are sent at the same time as messages from other people which you can’t avoid transmitting over because you can’t hear them. The space station decodes only the strongest, so turning the power up improves your chances of success quite a bit. You can get through the ISS using a hand-held VX-8, but only at 4 o’clock in the morning when most sane people are asleep, unless you are incredibly lucky.

The new feature in APRSISCE that I mentioned is the ability to open separate windows so you can track individual stations at a more detailed mapping level. Lynn has called this Multi-Track(TM) and he thinks it will be very popular with emergency communications teams who will be able to see the entire area of the event in the main window and see exactly where individual team members are at the same time. It’s only available in the development (beta test) versions at the moment, though.

It’s been several years (about 2 1/2) since I last editorialized about DX behavior in this blog. I try not to get on my soapbox too often, but I think I can write again on that same subject now that some time has passed.

Actually, I’ll let someone else do most of the work for me this time, after a bit of an introduction. In response to the increasingly poor standard of operating practice being heard on the bands, particularly when working DX, the First Class CW Operators Club formulated a draft DX Code of Conduct that they are trying to publicize. You can follow the links on their website, but they’ve also created a website at http://dx-code.org/ that has a number of useful resources (as well as the code itself, of course). I recommend that you visit their website and click around to learn more.

• I will listen, and listen, and then listen again before calling.
• I will only call if I can copy the DX station properly.
• I will not trust the cluster and will be sure of the DX station’s call sign before calling.
• I will not interfere with the DX station nor anyone calling and will never tune up on the DX frequency or in the QSX slot.
• I will wait for the DX station to end a contact before I call.
• I will always send my full call sign.
• I will call and then listen for a reasonable interval. I will not call continuously.
• I will not transmit when the DX operator calls another call sign, not mine.
• I will not transmit when the DX operator queries a call sign not like mine.
• I will not transmit when the DX station calls other geographic areas than mine.
• When the DX operator calls me, I will not repeat my call sign unless I think he has copied it incorrectly.
• I will be thankful if and when I do make a contact.
• I will respect my fellow hams and conduct myself so as to earn their respect.

I enjoy Dave Jones’ Electrical Engineering Video Blog, or EEVblog. He recently submitted this video to a competition.  It is a 90 second compilation showing the entertaining side of what he shares with followers and makes a great commercial for the EEVblog, so I include it here in case you have never watched one of his videos.  Warning, best not to watch this with the kids or grandma in earshot!

Don’t go thinking that Dave just fools around on his videos.  There is some pretty good information in the posts, so give his site a try if you like electronics.

As if I don’t have enough projects already, I recently obtained these two surplus FAA AM-6155 amplifiers on, as usual, very attractive terms.  I don’t have the equipment to properly test them at this point.  But, that is coming.  The FAA specified these to do 50 watts continuous duty AM.  With modification, they will do about 300-400 clean watts with 10 watts of drive on 144, 222, and 432 MHz.  Once I get the first two working (on 222 and 432), I plan to find two more of them and use them on 50 and 144 MHz.  For 50 MHz, I plan to remove the VHF/UHF cavity and components and install an RF deck using the same Amperex DX393 or Eimac 8930 tube.  Comments and ideas welcome.  They’re a lot cheaper than bricks!  One of my units appears to be at least partially converted already, but I’ve only had it open for a few minutes with my brother Seth, who got all of the mechanical aptitude in the family.

Note:  Thanks to WY3X for catching my error on the tube type.  He also notes that 300 watts would be a conservative maximum on 432.  I plan to run the amps with very low drive after tuning so I can compete in the ARRL’s low power category at 100 watts on 222 and 432.

As I mentioned previously, I was planning to make the NCJ North American Sprint and the ARRL September VHF contests my kick-off to the Fall/Winter contest season.  When a work trip was scheduled for that weekend, I assembled my portable station.  But, Sarah convinced me not to take it since carrying the ham gear always complicates travel a little bit.  Since the work trip was radio-related, I thought I’d share a couple of pictures and stories.

One of the projects in which I participate is the middle-latitude expansion of SuperDARN (Super Dual Auroral Radar Network).  SuperDARN is a global HF radar network that is used to monitor plasma processes in the polar ionosphere/magnetosphere.  It was recently highlighted on QRZ.com.  Last year, we built a pair of radars near Hays, KS.  This year, two radars are under construction in central Oregon.  I went out to assist with the initial phases of the build.

The radars are installed on an old HF over-the-horizon-backscatter (OTH-B) radar transmitting site in Christmas Valley, OR.

Two of these radars were constructed for the U.S. Air Force as an early-warning system for aircraft, one in Maine and one in Oregon/California.  The western portion of the radar was only turned on briefly for testing before being relegated to “warm storage” and then decommissioning.  Typical.  None of the antennas or transmitters are still on site and a lot of the copper wiring has been looted.  Everything left inside the building, including the backup generator, was in essentially mint condition.  As an aside, the transmitters from the Maine site were recently installed at Arecibo Observatory.  I have no idea what happened to the transmitters from this site.  Despite the fact that the antennas and transmitters were missing, there were a number of interesting things to see.

This OTH-B radar was a megawatt class (output, not ERP) system split into three segments/sectors, facing NW, W, and SW, each fed by four transmitters.  Each sector had a separate, dedicated 3-phase power line that came from a substation some 50 miles away—I found it on the way home.  You could follow the poles straight to it if you knew what you were looking for.   Each of the transmitting arrays was surrounded by a fence, for obvious reasons.  The fence was made entirely of wood.  Furthermore, almost all of the washers were a fiber material, not galvanized steel like the bolts.

At first, I thought that the washers might have been an electromagnetic consideration, like the wooden fence, which might have distorted the antenna pattern in the best of cases or simply melted in the worst.  But, I suspect now that it was a mechanical consideration to deal with dramatic changes in temperature and humidity in central Orgeon’s Great Sandy Desert.

The actual construction of the SuperDARN radar is not that exciting at this point, but here are some of the 72 aluminum poles we dressed with cables for the two radars.  Each radar has a 16-element phased-array of folded dipoles mounted in a corner reflector.  I installed a lot of N connectors on LMR-600 and a lot of Preformed end-grips on Phillystran, in addition to some more cerebral tasks.

The site has good optical conditions, too.  So, I’m looking forward to trying some of my optical instruments out there.  Here’s a quick star-trail exposure I took with the camera propped up on a picnic table in the motel parking lot.

So, that’s what I was doing instead of Sprinting and grid hunting!  I should be QRV in the NS Ladder tonight.

Ever see one of those tie bars or pins that say, “IYKDWYBDYKGWYBG”  My dad had one back in the days when men wore ties. The thing used to bug me cause he didn’t tell us what it meant right away. We tried guessing for a few days before he got tired of 7 kids all ganging up on him.

It is the famous “If You Keep Doing What You’ve Been Doing, You’ll Keep Getting What You’ve Been Getting!” Not sure who gets the credit for that one, but it sure stuck with me all these years. Of course, I’ve heard my bosses recite it a few times along the way too.

It only hurts when I laugh, or think, or move, or…use a new antenna in a contest!

That’s what this series of posts is about. Not repeating mistakes I’ve made. Maybe you can learn from my mistakes and save a bit of time. Or maybe you’ll just get a laugh and some relief from knowing someone else made the same mistake you’ve made. HA!

Well, last night, I did not follow my own advice. I put together a new antenna a few hours before the NAQCC Sprint and set it up. LESSON: As previously mentioned, don’t try to use a brand new antenna in a contest.

Ooops I did it again. Strike TWO! It was a disappointing night and too late to try to get another antenna up before the 2 hour sprint was over. So no contacts for me, I’m still scratching  my head. Was it the antenna, me, or the band conditions? BUT… I don’t think I’ll pull that one again. Unless I have a hole in my head…

72,

Kelly K4UPG

p.s. Don’t forget to take the poll on my blog for the best ham radio QTH in the USA! It is on the left side column.