PSKFest 2010

10 January 2010 | by Paul Lannuier | Leave a Comment (0)

A half-hearted effort, 7 hours in two shifts (1000-1500 & 2200-2400). Made 82 QSOs, (51 on 40m, 30 on 20m, and 1 on 80m). I just wasn’t as focused as I could have been this time, was doing some work on the Mac while calling CQ on the Dell, doing my best Rick Wakeman impersonation…

Still, I was able to check off a few needed squares on my 40m WAS grid (IA, MA and MI). Also worked TF (Iceland) for a new one from Texas.

This was the second PSK contest I’ve worked (the PSK Deathmatch in December being the other) and have to say I really like PSK as a contest mode, even more so than RTTY. The bandwidth savings are obvious — a whole lot more PSK signals can fit into a 100 kHz swath of spectrum, but also the copy on weak signals is vastly superior to RTTY, and the 100w maximum output levels the playing field to allow anyone with a modest antenna to be competitive.

PSKFest 2010 Results

QSOs: 82
US States: 32
Can. Prov.: 2
DXCC: 9
Score: 3526

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FCC 2, Republic of Texas Pirates 0

7 January 2010 | by Anthony K3NG | Leave a Comment (0)

In November I reported about Raymond Frank, the pirate radio station operator busted by the FCC who claimed that as "a citizen of the Republic of Texas" he wasn't subject to the laws of the United States or the Commission’s Rules. Frank allegedly operated a pirate radio station on 100.1 and 90.1 Mhz in Austin, Republic of Texas.

More Texans are attempting to use this problematic yet creative defense. Jerry and Deborah Stevens, who allegedly spewed RF on a frequency of 90.1 Mhz on your radio dial, also in Austin, the Republic of Texas, submitted a response to the Notice of Apparent Liability (NAL) denying that the Commission has jurisdiction over this matter and requested that "the matter be dropped". Mr. and Mrs. Stevens claimed the station operated only within the boundaries of the Republic of Texas, and questioned the FCC's jurisdiction over intrastate communications.

The FCC answered the question very clearly, giving essentially the same answer as Mr. Frank received, with a serving of Section 301 garnished with a $10,000 fine. We assume that has to be paid in US dollars and not Texan Republic currency. Once again 90.1 goes dark in Austin.

Anthony Good, K3NG, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Pennsylvania, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

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Critical Thinking

7 January 2010 | by Anthony K3NG | Leave a Comment (0)

As I have gotten older, while physically I'm not what I used to be, mentally and intellectually I think I have grown stronger. Looking back on the past decade I'm troubled that we've become a society that has abandoned critical thinking. Today with the Internet it's way too easy to have material that supports our already established beliefs and steadfast opinions available at our fingertips, and we're often all too eager to forward this information to others without giving the validity of it any thought. Critical thinking has been replaced with leading question asking, predetermined goal-oriented thinking, and political slacktivism.

This year one of my blogging goals is to engage in more critical thinking and present those views.

Below is a video on critical thinking that I think is excellent...

Anthony Good, K3NG, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Pennsylvania, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

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Handiham World for 6 January 2010

6 January 2010 | by Patrick WA0TDA | Leave a Comment (0)

Welcome to Handiham World!

Pat, WA0TDA, with handiham coffee mug.

This week is a busy one with back to back meetings all day Wednesday and Thursday, so that accounts for this late (and shorter) edition of your weekly Handiham World. I hope you all had a pleasant holiday season and are ready to get back into the routine of getting on the air every day.

I did want to let you know that Santa was good to me this year, because a brand-new Icom IC-7200 was under the tree on Christmas morning. I plan to learn a bit more about the 7200, then I’ll write a more thorough review from the our particular Handiham perspective. The best points about the rig so far:

Front-firing speaker
Easy to use numeric keypad
Built-in speech for blind users, no extra module needed
USB interface on the back panel
Easy to read display
Great receiver

So how’s that for starters? I’ll put together some more detailed thoughts later on, but I have to say that the new IC-7200 is really a step up from the IC-706 Mark 2 G that I had been using for HF. And I’m thrilled that manufacturers are finally including voice frequency readout that doesn’t cost extra!

Now, stay tuned for two new year’s resolutions. That means you!

For Handiham World, I’m…

Patrick Tice, [email protected]

Pat Tice, WA0TDA, is the manager of HANDI-HAM and a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com. Contact him at [email protected].

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RTTY Roundup 2010

4 January 2010 | by Paul Lannuier | Leave a Comment (0)

First contest of the year for me but was only able to put in 7 about hours on 40m (0244-0952 UTC) and logged 103 QSOs.

Not much luck with DX but nabbed LA (Norway, a new one from Texas) and a few other Europeans (G, I, OK, PA, SP), plus EA8, FM, HI, JA, KH6, KP4, P4, VE and XE. Stateside, I managed three new states on 40m (HI, RI and WY).

I wasn’t able to do anything on Sunday, just exhausted. Final score: 4,532

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ICQ Podcast Series Three Episode One (03 January 2010) – Choosing 2010 Construction Project

3 January 2010 | by Colin M6BOY | Leave a Comment (0)

Series Three Episode One of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast. News Stories include:-

Your feedback, and Martin explains our choice for the 2010 ICQ Podcast Construction Project.

Colin Butler, M6BOY, is the host of the ICQ Podcast, a weekly radio show about Amateur Radio. Contact him at [email protected].

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2009 Wrap-Up

2 January 2010 | by Paul Lannuier | Leave a Comment (0)

or: This Was The Decade That Was.

And with little fanfare I made my return to the HF bands in 2009. This, in keeping with the tradition I seem to have of always coming back to HF near the absolute ass end of a sunspot cycle after a prolonged absence during the peaks. The last time this happened was October 1995 when I went QRV at the tail end of Cycle 22 after being off the air for almost 6 years. Now I’m just in time to experience Cycle 24 which some predict will be the least active solar cycle in the history of this universe and all others, or some such. My lucky stars!

How long has it been this time? My logbook shows that other than sporadic activity (9 QSOs) between January 2001 and March 2002, I’ve been out of the game for over 10 years — my last contest from Closter, NJ was CQ WPX Phone in March 1999. Before that, my last spurt of activity lasted for 42 months (Oct. 95 to Mar. 99) during which time I worked a lot of mobile HF; discovered the joy of computerized logging during contests; discovered the further joy of losing copious amounts of computerized log data to the fickle whims of that third-rate, so-called “operating system” known as Windows (Win98, I believe it was that did my logs in….); I worked some CW contests for the first time; and got a new call, relegating that godawful N2HIE to the trash heap of bad-CW-call history. I was tanned, rested and ready for Cycle 23.

Then I got distracted — work took up more of my time, I got married, moved 4 times around northern New Jersey, got sidetracked by other hobbies (astronomy, photography, a brief and futile affair with model trains), spent 2+ years gutting and remodeling my mom’s house, then finally made the big move to Texas in August 2008.

Yet all during this time I never really let ham radio drift too far away. I may not have put a signal on the air but I had some or all of my radios set up at both my Bergenfield (2001) and Lake Wallkill (2002-2008) QTHs and did quite a bit of listening. Even had an FT-817 in my car for a spell and used to listen to 20m and 40m during my commute. I picked up a few key elements of my current station like a second NRD-515 receiver, a NCS Multi-RX audio mixer and a Heil Classic 5 mic; put an FT-7800 dual-bander in my Jeep; ordered and built my KX1 QRP transceiver; and got a new HF rig, the insanely great K3, in January 2008.

The only missing piece was an antenna and that came in June of this year in the unlikely form of a Tarheel screwdriver antenna (a hex beam or phased verticals being out of the question at the current QTH). And with that, on June 16th, WW2PT was back on HF. By the end of 2009 I had:

Installed Ham Radio Deluxe and DM780 and set up (grudgingly…) a Windoze machine for logging and digi-modes.
Deciphered the needlessly complex Logbook of the World registration process and got that up and running, and also joined up with eQSL to cover all the electronic verification bases.
Started working PSK and several other digital modes.
Started listening to more CW towards the end of the year (in preparation for Resolution #1, see previous post), but I only worked up the courage to touch the paddles for one QSO (HK1X).
Played in a few contests — IARU HF, IOTA, CQ WWDX Phone, WAE RTTY, PSK DeathMatch.

…and just over 6 months later I had worked all 50 states, 78 DXCC countries and 25 CQ zones — that’s a whopping 103 DX Marathon points! (tnx AE5X for the reminder…) QSLs have been trickling in, too, giving me 47 countries and all states confirmed in 2009. The final tallies for the year (as of 31-Dec-09) are…

2009 DXCC:

2009 WAS:

2009 WAZ:

Bring on Cycle 24.

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