This year’s Novice Rig Roundup was another great success, with hundreds of old radios being pressed into service to relive their glory days ... as did their operators! 

Bry - AF4K (SK)

Missing for the first time was NRR co-founder, Bry Carling, AF4K, who sadly became a silent key last year. I missed hearing him and always looked forward to the challenge of making it down to Florida from here. This year''s NRR was dedicated to AF4K - RIP Bry.

Some of this year’s excitement included the much better conditions on 15m over the previous solar-low years. The band benefited from an increase in the solar flux at the beginning of the week which kept the MUF a little higher than 21MHz for most of the Roundup.

It was particularly exciting to hook-up with VA1RST way back in Nova Scotia, on 15m. His little DX-60 did a good job in making the coast-to-coast leap at 559.

VA1RST in Nova Scotia

I think this year I heard more DX-60s than ever before! A couple of years ago it was the Knight T-60 that seemed to be everywhere. Don’t pass up either of these fine NRR rigs should you be fortunate enough to run across one.

All told, I completed 26 NRR contacts on 15m which surely is good news for future NRRs going into Cycle 25. If the bold predictions for the new cycle come to fruition, we may be enjoying 10m next time out as well!

My first contact on 15m was with Mike, WA5POK in TN, who came blasting through at 599 with his DX-40 only to have the power transformer in his National NC-270 go up in smoke a few days later. Such are the perils of living life on the edge, in the NRR!

Mike - WA5POK in Tennessee

I was lucky enough to snag Rich, WB2WGX in NY on 15m for his only contact on that band! I'm not sure why he didn't find more action as his Ranger II was 599 here on the west coast.

WB2WGX in New York

Worked on both 40 and 15m was Paul, WB5EVO in OK. Putting yet another DX-60 into the log with the notation of "599+"!

WB5EVO in Oklahoma

What would 15m be without a little DX? I was delighted to hear Jorge, KP4GC in PR, reply to my CQ to the south east. Jorge was heard working stations from coast to coast but may have also been living too close to the NRR edge as the bias supply in his Hallicrafters HT-37 took him off the air until he set up his Kenwood TS-520 for the duration.

KP4GC in Puerto Rico

Another duo-band contact (40 & 15m) was with Dan, K2YWE in MD whose Globe Scout was also 599, three S-units louder than on 40m.

K2YWE in Maryland

Although 15m provided a lot of excitement, most of my contacts were on 40m. Number 1 on the runway again this year was NRR regular, WB2AWQ down in Reno. Howie's fine homebrew parallel 807s were smoking-in up here, delightfully chirpy, in broad daylight.

WB2AWQ in Nevada

George, KA3JWJ in PA impressed again this year on 40m when his original Ameco AC-1 at 8W pushed the S-meter on my FT-1000 to S7.5! How do you do it George? Don't be fooled by that innocent-looking box sitting atop his S-38 inhaler, also used during our QSO. I thought our contact would likely hold up as the contest highlight for me, until later ...

 

KA3JWJ in Pennsylvania

WB2QLL, Pete in WI, surprised me on 80m with a ‘never before heard’ (by me) Harvey Wells TBS-50D Bandmaster at 20W out. These once popular transmitters promised buyers 80 - 2m operation, push-pull 6L6 plate modulation and a sturdy 807 final.

Harvey-Wells 'Bandmasters'

This was another contest highlight for sure, as I’ve always wondered how these rigs sounded on CW ... and Pete’s signal did not disappoint! It definitely has an identifiable sound.

W2QLL in Wisconsin

Many of you worked NRR devotee VA7MM, whose 100’ high dipoles and DX-60 swept-up an impressive 146 contacts. Well done Mark!

Mark - VA7MM in British Columbia

Not too far from him was another Mark from BC, VE7CA, who ran his rebuilt Ranger and much-modified HQ-120 on the low bands while his beautiful Drake twins carried the mail on 15m. His well-performing all-wire arrays are supported by a handy selection of tall backyard Firs.

VE7CA in British Columbia

'579' reports were exchanged on 80m with Tim, K9SB in IL, who was using a Johnson Adventurer and Hallicrafters SX-101A.

K9SB in Illinois

KØSM's '36 Tri-Tet

Andy's Tri-Tet runs at 400V on the plate, unlike the original design that called for 1kV on the plate and bare tank coil. Now that's really operating on the scary edge! At 8W output on 80 and 40, there's plenty of power to work with.

But it wasn’t just working Andy on 80 and 40 that made it so special as Andy later, tripling from 40,  finessed this little beast up to the 15m ultra-highs, making it to the west coast in fine shape. It was delightful to hear the '36 Tri-Tet's charming chirp on a band that didn’t even exist when this rig was first thought of. Thanks for the fun Andy!

Andy - KØSM in New York

For many more station photos and 'soapbox' comments from this year's participants, be sure to visit the NRR Soapbox page and ... if you didn't make this year's event then now's the time to start planning for the 2022 NRR ... see you all then!

CW Spans a Century

Radio Telegrapher School for Enlisted Specialists 1921

What other modes have remained as popular standards using standard ham equipment and continuously in use by amateur radio operators as CW?

It's time once again for The Weekender. This is our bi-weekly departure into the world of amateur radio contests, open source conventions, special events, listener challenges, hedonism and just plain fun. Thanks for listening and, if you happen to get a chance, feel free to call us or e-mail and send us some feedback. Tell us how we're doing. We'd love to hear from you.

73 de The LHS Crew

Good afternoon everyone and I wanted to post a comment that Eric Guth 4Z1UG the creator of QSO Today Ham Radio Expo left on my blog that is reposted at AmateurRadio.com. Click HERE to visit the post and the many comments.

I wanted to repost Eric’s comment here as I find that those who read the blog sometimes do not go through and read the comments. I felt it important to let my blog readers read his comment he posted.  He mentions Ron who in a comment identified as knowing Eric and who is a blind ham.

Below is Eric’s response:

I appreciate all of the messages above, even the angry one. Nobody feels as bad as me about what happened. All of this I explained in the messages that I have already sent out. I have re-learned my lessons.

Ron is a true friend. Like I did last August, I am building a presentation listing with links to the videos for blind hams. It will be up hopefully by Friday. They will find it easily with a screen reader on the QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo website home page: qsotodayhamexpo.com

The Expo will be in on-demand mode with all of the videos until April 16th, then I will put a link to my Vimeo library, so you can watch them forever, even on your Roku box.

Go to qsotoday.vfairs.com to enter the Expo. Just need your email address, no fancy ticket number.

Finally, if you don’t need that $10.00 back, I can sure use it to bring the next Expo in August. This operation is expensive to build and host. I love making it and hope to attend it myself, rather than staying in the kitchen, next time.

73,

Eric, 4Z1UG

There were some other comments about the content of the Expo, infomercials and content of the Expo presentations. Below was Eric’s response to this:

There are over 80 presentations, 20% of them given by Sponsors. Most were the hard work of individuals who put them up. Sponsorship revenue was helpful to start us out, ticket sales pay for the cost of all of the people and services it takes to make the expo. I hope that you will come back today to enjoy the presentations that are hardly infomercials, but the amazing work of our fellow hams.

 I was very much looking forward to the Virtual Ham Expo this past weekend. My wife and I were going to be away at a hotel for the weekend, a mini getaway. I took my Mac laptop along for the ride as I wanted to check in on the Expo in the evenings. When I tried to log in things did not work out as planned apparently I had to generate an "E-ticket". Not a problem so I clicked on the link and then was asked for my callsign, email address and then the problem my "order number"? About a 1/2 hour later I found the order number but I could not get the form to accept my order number. Over the weekend I tried several times but could not get my number accepted.  

I was reading online of other ops who were having issues as well. Below is some of the feedback that was being posted. 

- Issues gaining access to Virtual Ham expo 

- Issues with Airmeet video 

- Lobbies and Exhibition tabs were just blank.

- Live help was just a chatbot and you were forced to email and wait for an answer. 

There are many more issues that are listed in chat forums but this was a huge undertaking and with all things hiccups happen. 

As I was typing this post-Eric Guth 4Z1UG sent out the below via email: 

Dear Mike,

First of all, I would like to apologize for the poor experience that many of you had at the QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo.  After our very successful August 2020 Expo, I had a vision of combining what I loved about the vFairs platform (which is what we used last time) with a new technology that would provide a lot more interaction between attendees, speakers, and exhibitors.  

Unfortunately, we had many technical issues with the Airmeet Presentations and the integration of the vFairs and Airmeet platforms.  My brilliant programmer offered his resignation and to return his salary.  Ridiculous, as the failure of this project was mine alone.  I am deeply sorry for letting you down.

Fortunately for all of us, we had all the video presentations pre-recorded in the event of a technical disaster.  Therefore, all of the presentations that were to take place over the weekend are now in the final editing stages and will be available in the Expo Auditorium within 48 hours.  These videos are in glorious 1080P, high resolution, and streaming from Vimeo (a proven and strong video platform).  All of the 80+ speakers gave fantastic presentations.  

Please don’t let the last couple of days get in the way of watching our amazing speakers.  If you are blind or vision impaired, know that we have a solution for you at the qsotodayhamexpo.com website. Give us a day or two to make that preparation. 

To get to the on-demand site, simply click on the following link:  https://qsotoday.vfairs.com.  Use your email address to get in (the one you used to purchase your ticket).  No password is required.  Go into the lobby and click on the Auditorium door, or click Auditorium on the main navigation bar at the top.   If you have any problem with access, and you had a ticket, let us know immediately by sending an email to [email protected] for us to update the attendee list, keeping in mind that we are two hours ahead of UTC.  Again, we will need about 48 hours to get all the videos up and ready.  Note that while the vFairs platform at the above link will be open during the on-demand period through April 12, 2021, the Airmeet Lounge is now closed.

One of the things that we’ve stressed in all of our communications is that the QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo team is committed to constantly learning and improving what we do. Virtual conventions of this magnitude are new territory. We believe that there’s a place for a virtual ham Expo to serve the needs of the very large amateur radio community, especially those that don’t attend in-person national or regional events (or even local events).  We are committed to making that happen.  Our first Expo was a great success, our second one not so much.  Setbacks happen but it’s important to keep moving forward.  As such, we are committed to getting “back on that horse”, learning from our mistakes, and making sure that the next one is back on track.  Please stay patient with us and we’ll prove it to you.  

As always, I can be reached at [email protected].

The QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo will return on August 14th and 15th. 

Humbly yours and 73,

Eric Guth, 4Z1UG

Eric is taking responsibility for this and I for one will cut him some slack, after all, it's a huge undertaking and expectations were high. To me, he sounds very sorry and upset about how the event turned out. We all learn from our mistakes and I for one have made lots of them. 

The following footprints are of my CW signals on 2021-March-14 at about 04:00 to 04:20 UTC.

Click on this image to see a larger version of this image:

Location: EM89ad – Ohio
Antenna: OCD (Off-center Dipole)

Description of Antenna:

This is an off-center dipole, with the two legs running East-East-South (approximately 125 degrees of North), and West-West-North (about 306 degrees on the compass). The westward wire (leg) is approximately 107 feet in length, while the eastward leg is about 95 feet in length.

These legs (an off-center-fed dipole) is directly connected to about 90 feet of 450-ohm ladder line, which is hanging directly below, vertically, the feed point. The feed point is 50 feet above the ground.

The ladder line terminates (at the 12-feet-above-ground point) to a 4:1 current balun. This current balun then connects to a 100-foot LMR 50-ohm coax, which is running into the radio shack. It is connected via an antenna switch to my Icom IC-7610 transceiver. I am transmitting a 100-watt CW signal using an Icom IC-7610, in the following format:

TEST TEST TEST DE NW7US NW7US NW7US

The Reverse Beacon Network reports any spotting of this test transmission. The beta mapping interface, at http://beta.reversebeacon.net/main.php, then maps the resulting spots. To learn more about the RBN, visit http://beta.reversebeacon.net/index.php, or, http://reversebeacon.net/index.php.

I show the 20-, 30-, 40-, 60-, 80-, and 160-Meter band footprints.

I’ve been capturing these CW transmission spots, at different times of the day, today. I’ll get data from several days, at regular intervals, and create a overview of how the antenna appears to be working during this month and under these propagation conditions.

73 de NW7US dit dit

..

Welcome to the epic 400th installment of Linux in the Ham Shack. In this episode, we stream live from the QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo held on March 12-14, 2021. This episode is filled with interactions from conference attendees, listeners, supporters and more. We take questions from the audience, talk about amateur radio, open source, ourselves, hedonism and much more. We also do giveaways and just have a great time. Thanks for being part of our program and we hope you enjoy this live event broadcast.

73 de The LHS Crew