AmateurRadio.com

I applaud Pete Smith, N4ZR, Rick Walker, K4TD, Felipe Ceglia, PY1NB, and Nick Sinanis, F5VIH for their innovation — Reverse Beacon Network (RBN) Telnet Feed combines data output of all current RBN Skimmer receivers at no-charge for ham radio operators world wide.

Is this the end of ham radio as we know it?

Certainly, not.

Boomer And Millennial.
I’m a late Baby Boomer born in 1964 at the tail end of my generation. Some say, we are the silent cohort, our voices eclipsed by earlier Boomers and the later Millenials. However, what is not recognized; we witnessed and actively participated in all the infant technologies that are now beginning to mature.

I played Atari with its read only memory cartridges. I have dialed both a rotary and touch tone phone. I watched wireless television succumb to cable when Home Box Office was a big deal on the block. We used push button remotes tethered to a cable before the ubiquity of wireless remotes. Remember, when someone actually switched channels on an analog dial?

I pushed eight track cassettes into players before cassette tapes ruled one’s Sony walkman. I participated in the battle of beta and VHS for dominance in delivering home entertainment; renting a movie was a big deal. Today, format competition continues as Blu-Ray wrestles for market share against that of DVD.

Change is not a big deal for the silent cohort or those thereafter, perhaps, it is expected, sometimes begrudgingly, sometimes with fascination.

Disruption.
However, even beyond the CQ Contest Digest discussion, a chasm exists between keeping ham radio in its purist form and technological progress. I hear those who are steadfastly resolved that ham radio is nearing an apocalypse — robots will soon replace humans in RadioSport?

I’d like to know, how many still spin their dial, looking for a DXCC counter given the near efficiency of spotting networks? Can one with a reasonable commitment to occupation and family afford such a time consuming luxury? Retirees need not answer that question.

The same is said, dial tone replaced rotary, compact disc replaced VHS, and liquid crystal displays replaced cathode ray tubes. What happened to auto-patch? Essentially, at the end of the day, it is digital change and the anxiety that follows the disruption of long established comfort zones.

Conclusion.
The Reverse Beacon Network Telnet Feed is not the end of ham radio. It is technological progression perhaps at the level of software and digital signal processing. I did not immediately leap to the idea that it is the symbolic end of RadioSport, rather, RBN is the result of hard work by a group of men who care about the longevity of ham radio.

RBN is a beginning and not the end.

See Also.
Fi-Ni Report : Contester Criticizes New Technologies.

Scot Morrison, KA3DRR, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from California, USA.

This morning I made a 6 element Yagi for 70cm using some 25A copper mains wire with the insulation stripped off and a length of wooden dowel. I copied the design from CT2GQV’s blog. The object is to see if I can hear radio signals bounced off the moon.

If you didn’t know, a bunch of guys that include Joe Taylor K1JT of WSPR fame have got permission to use the 1000-foot dish of the Arecibo Radio Telescope (shown above) for a couple of hours each day over this weekend to make radio contacts via EME. Using full power their signals should be strong enough to be heard using a hand held yagi and it should be possible to work them using just 100W with the same antenna.

I only have the FT-817 with 5W so it isn’t possible to try to work them, but I thought I would try to hear them, which is why I made the antenna. I think you’ll agree that their antenna is more impressive than mine! There are, of course, no 70cm signals to test it on, but there are plenty of noises and the yagi seems quite directional. The SWR is about 1.7:1 at 432MHz and falls gently as you go lower in frequency, but I’m not sure how to adjust it so I’ll leave it as it is for the moment.

The first session was yesterday. Unfortunately their PA blew up so they were only able to run 25W of power. Some contacts were made, but obviously not with people using low power and hand held antennas. Hopefully they will have got a PA working in time for the remaining two sessions, otherwise I am not going to hear a thing.

This evening they should be on between 1740 and 2020 UTC – that’s 1840 to 2120 BST. They will be transmitting on 432.045MHz using SSB or CW. Their call is KP4AO. The moon is only showing quite a thin crescent at the moment so it may not be easy to spot during daylight, even assuming the sky is clear as it is here. If you are in the UK the moon will be at an elevation of about 45 degrees to the south-west at the start of the session, declining to about 25 degrees due west by the end of it. If your QTH is elsewhere you can use this web site to locate it.

Tomorrow’s session is scheduled for 1840 to 2125 UTC – 1940 to 2225 BST. The moon will be in the same position relative to the start of the session.

Fingers crossed that they get the PA going so we can have a chance to hear something. If not, the antenna won’t be wasted as I’ve been meaning to have a try at satellite communications.

Julian Moss, G4ILO, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, England. Contact him at [email protected].

A few days ago I received another one of those email requests to update one of my online QSL logbooks.  I receive these periodically and they're somewhat annoying, though I should probably just delete my online logs.  I've found online QSLing to be just more of a PITA than it's worth, especially Logbook of the World (LOTW).  As I've mentioned in previous blog articles, I think LOTW is over-engineered.  I know ARRL designed it the way they did in order to minimize forged QSLs, but it's still horribly easily to forge paper cards or game the QSL manager system to get cards for QSOs that never occurred.  Perhaps some folks who chase awards need to wrap some sort of security or authentication around the whole QSLing process in an attempt to give it more prestige or relevance, but to me it's rather pointless in the grand scheme of things.

I love the KISS approach VA7VV has created, where you can just go to his site and print out a QSL card.  I intend to take a similar approach soon, though not as "self-serve" as VA7VV has done, but migrating to a PDF format where I'll just email a QSL card to anyone who requests one.

But I was thinking the other day, why not just do over-the-air QSLing?  With public/private key encryption it's easy to take some text or data and create a key that can be used to authenticate the information back to the originator.  There could be a program or website to generate keys on the fly.  I'm wondering if a key could be shaved down to maybe 10 alphanumeric characters that could be exchanged over the air like: "Here ya go Bob, here's yer QSL key: Gulf Delta Charlie One Foxtrot Zed Five Nine Yankee Three.... Good DX and 73!"  You record that in your log and if someone wants to authenticate it back to the station, they can grab his public key off of the 'zed or at ARRL and plug it into the program or a website.  I'm not sure how many bits the encryption would have to be decreased to to make the QSL key exchanged over the air short enough or make the encryption a reasonable enough level to prevent most forgeries.

Ah....maybe it's more trouble than it's worth and I should stick with emailing QSLs...
Anthony Good, K3NG, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Pennsylvania, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

One of the greatest uses of WSPR is to get accurate, real-world comparative reports on antennas. When comparing antennas in the past I have used two computers and two radios on two different frequencies using the same power and manually set the WSPR programs to both transmit on the next cycle so that they send their beacon signals simultaneously. During the transmission I set both programs back to “no transmit”. This way I get directly comparable reports from both antennas at the same time and I don’t have to worry about one transmission being received and reported by the other system.

Now, this is no longer possible. The WSPRnet website has implemented a “data scrubber” which will filter out invalid spots including bad calls (bogus decodes), bad timestamps, wrong band reports and duplicate reports. The latter are apparently the most common type of error, accounting for 1.7% of spots. I wasn’t aware this was that common, though it can happen due to reciprocal mixing in the receiver or the computer sound card. But one result of this is that you can no longer intentionally transmit two beacons at the same time using the same call, locator and power level, because if you do all but the strongest report will be filtered out.

I think this is an ill thought out move that will result in deleting valid spots just because they can’t be distinguished from invalid ones. The WSPR software does report the transmit frequency being used by each instance of the software so it should be possible in some cases to determine whether duplicate spots in the same timeslot are genuine or not. This won’t help those using hardware based WSPR transmitters that don’t connect to the website though.

Julian Moss, G4ILO, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, England. Contact him at [email protected].

Troubled car maker Toyota has suspended sales of its Lexus GX 460 worldwide after the US consumer magazine Consumer Reports claimed that the vehicle could roll over.

“When pushed to its limits on our track’s handling course, the rear of the GX we bought slid out until the vehicle was almost sideways before the electronic stability control system was able to regain control,” the magazine claims. “We believe that in real-world driving, that situation could lead to a roll-over accident, which could cause serious injury or death.”

Let me get this straight. If you drive like an idiot, the vehicle is supposed to prevent you from suffering the consequences of your stupidity?

I think the nanny state safety obsession in the western world has got totally out of hand. I don’t know how we put the genie back in the bottle (or even whether the population as a whole feels the same way and would want to) but any political party that would repeal the health and safety legislation, outlaw the compensation culture and put the emphasis back on common sense, personal responsibility and the need to prove criminal negligence in order to win a claim in the event of an accident would get my vote.

Julian Moss, G4ILO, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, England. Contact him at [email protected].

In State Multi Single.

• WE4S | 478 CWdgQ | 284 SSB | 51 CWdgMult | 46 SSBMult | 20hrs | 120,280 Points [TCG].
• W4LHS | 235 SSB | 51 SSBMult | 12,012 Points [Coastal Amateur Radio].
• N4YT | 182 SSB | 37 SSBMult | 8hrs41mins | 6,734 [SECC].

n = 3 scores submitted in this category.

In State Single Operator.

• WF4W | 545 CWdgQ | 52 CWdgMult | 16hrs25mins | 56,680 Points [ACG].
• NA4BW | 227 CWdgQ | 145 SSB | 43 CWdgM | 36 SSBMult | 6hrs35mins | 47,321 Points [SECC].
• N4DU | 419 CWdgQ | 47 CWdgMult | 8hrs5mins | 39,386 Points [SECC].

n = 10 scores submitted in this category.

Out of State Single Operator.

• N2CU | 159 CWdgQ | 57 SSB | 91 CWdgMult | 30 SSBMult | 9hrs | 45,375 Points [Western NY DX Association].
• KB3LIX | 137 CWdgQ | 56 SSB | 87 CWdgMult | 37 SSBMult | 40,920 Points [Allegheny Valley Radio Club].
• N2AA | 180 Qs | 105 CWdgMult | 14hrs | 37,800 Points.

n = 36 scores submitted in this category.

Congratulations Tom, N2CU for leading the Western New York DX Association to the GaQP club banner position for the year.

73 from the shack relaxation zone.

Scot Morrison, KA3DRR, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from California, USA.

It has been a glorious day today. After lunch I set off for Tallentire Hill armed with the TH-205E and three antennas: a 2m telescopic quarter wave, a 45″ 2m 5/8 wave Black Whip telescopic from eBay seller jeepbangkok and the SOTA Beams MFD.

I set up the MFD in the vertical position strapped to a fence post and put out some calls. Despite my high elevation the 2m band was quiet and I only managed to raise “the usual suspects”. Richard MM1BHO/M heard me calling through the GB3DG repeater and we had a short QSO. Then Keith G0EMM heard me call on 145.500 MHz and was willing to spend a bit of time doing some antenna tests.

Prior to this I had heard a contact on the GB3CS repeater and had quickly swapped all three antennas to see what the difference was on receive. There was no noticeable difference between the MFD and the Black Whip but both were significantly superior to the 1/4 wave telescopic (which is itself an improvement over the short whips and “duckies” normally used with 2m handhelds.) However the signal was steady on the MFD whereas it varied depending on the position in which I was holding the TH-205E with the BNC mounted antenna. When using the MFD I was sitting on the ground so it was above my head and my body wasn’t interfering with reception. When using rig-mounted antennas it is best to stand up as an extra couple of feet above ground make a noticeable improvement. But it is also worth turning around and moving a short distance as the direction you are facing can make a big difference to signal strength.

Keith confirmed that there was no difference in my signal between the MFD and the 5/8 telescopic. I was 59 on both of them, whereas I was only 4 by 3 on the quarter wave. Keith also gave me my second unsolicited complimentary report on the TH-205E audio, saying it was “just like my voice.” I was using one of the cheap Kenwood speaker mikes which I bought on eBay originally for the TH-F7E.

We were then joined by Colin 2E0XSD who again said that I was the same strength, 59+ on both the MFD and the 5/8 wave. I was only 4 by 7 on the quarter wave.

After I finished the contact with Keith and Colin I tried some more calls. I was able to access the GB3CS repeater using the MFD and the 5/8 – when in the right position – but not with the quarter wave. Some repeaters I could hear but not access even with 3W, which is what the TH-205E appears to put out on “high power” with the 7.2V battery pack, but perhaps they don’t respond to 1750Hz tone-bursts.

When I bought the Black Whip a few weeks ago I put it on the antenna analyzer and got this SWR curve. I seem to remember that I had to collapse the topmost section to get the SWR null spot on 145.000 MHz but I don’t suppose it makes any difference in practise.

I think the Black Whip 5/8 telescopic is a superb antenna for 2m FM use and well worth the few pounds it costs, as long as you have a radio that can handle it. The base is sprung to absorb any shocks but even with the HT Saver SMA to BNC adapter I was a little uncomfortable using it on the tiny TH-F7E. The big old TH-205E has no such problems with a large antenna, although its lower power output with the battery pack I have is a slight disadvantage.

Is it worth carrying the MFD instead of the 5/8, which telescopes down to the same length as a quarter wave telescopic antenna? Well, if you are using a modern hand-held radio then the MFD’s coaxial connection will avoid putting undue strain on the SMA connector. You can secure the MFD to a fence post or stuff the support mast in your rucksack allowing you to operate sitting down and even let go of the radio when receiving. The MFD is also convertible to a horizontal dipole for SSB use. So it still has several benefits. But I expect I will be taking the Black Whip on most of my hilltop outings.

Julian Moss, G4ILO, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, England. Contact him at [email protected].