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International Ham Radio News & Opinion

ARRL CEO Is Out! YouTubers Bunch #10

25 February 2020 | by Jason KC5HWB | Leave a Comment (5)

A while back, several other Ham Radio YouTubers and myself started these collaboration videos and the feedback we have received on them has been very positive. Thanks to all in the Ham Community who support our efforts.

In this 10th episode of our Collaboration efforts, we talk about the most reent CEO of the ARRL, Howard Michel, WB2ITX, and how his term was so short-lived. I hope you enjoy the episode, feel free to comment below.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULlSlEQJRQU[/embedyt]

Jason Johnston, KC5HWB, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Texas, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

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LHS Episode #328: KiCad Deep Dive

25 February 2020 | by Russ K5TUX | Leave a Comment (0)

Hello and welcome to the 328th episode of Linux in the Ham Shack. In this Episode, the hosts interview Barry Buelow, W0IY, about his experience in engineering, circuit design, PCB design, schematics and the benefits of using the Open Sourcea tool KiCad for drawing, modeling and manufacturing hardware projects. Thanks for listening. We hope you find the information useful and entertaining.

73 de The LHS Crew

Russ Woodman, K5TUX, co-hosts the Linux in the Ham Shack podcast which is available for download in both MP3 and OGG audio format. Contact him at [email protected].

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So You Think You Have a Big Antenna

24 February 2020 | by Bob KØNR | Leave a Comment (6)

Many hams put up some pretty impressive antenna farms with large towers and big arrays. I have a small tower up at the cabin but it is quite puny (about 30 feet) compared to these more serious stations. I like to check out big antenna installations, especially the big commercial towers, as we travel around the country.

There are quite a few radio towers in the range of 2000 feet (~600 meters), as listed on this Wikipedia page. At 2063 feet, the KVLY-TV mast in North Dakota is the tallest radio mast in the world. The WEAU tower in Wisconsin, listed as 2000 feet, collapsed in 2011 due to a winter ice storm. Pete/WD4IXD recently pointed me to this video that describes how the tower was rebuilt within one year of the failure. Amazing story!

So you may think your antenna is big but it’s probably not 2000 feet tall.

73 Bob K0NR

The post So You Think You Have a Big Antenna appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

Bob Witte, KØNR, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Colorado, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

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Weekly Propagation Summary – 2020 Feb 24 16:10 UTC

24 February 2020 | by Tomas NW7US | Leave a Comment (0)

Here is this week’s space weather and geophysical report, issued 2020 Feb 24 0149 UTC.

Highlights of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 17 – 23 February 2020

Solar activity was very low. No active regions with sunspots were observed and no apparent earth-directed CMEs were detected this period.

No proton events were observed at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit reached moderate levels on 17-19 Feb and high levels on 20-23 Feb.

Geomagnetic field activity reached active levels on 18 Feb and active to G1 (Minor) geomagnetic storm levels on 19 Feb. The enhanced geomagnetic field activity on 18-19 Feb were attributed to the passage of a transient solar wind feature. Active conditions were once again observed on 21 Feb due to negative polarity CH HSS influence. Generally quiet or quiet to unsettled conditions were observed throughout the remainder of the week.

Forecast of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 24 February – 21 March 2020

Solar activity is expected to be very low throughout the outlook period.

No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to reach high levels on 24 Feb-01 Mar, 05-09 Mar, and 19-21 Mar. Normal or normal to moderate levels are expected to prevail throughout the remainder of the outlook period.

Geomagnetic field activity is expected to reach active levels on 26 Feb, 04-05 Mar, and 19 Mar due to the infuences of multiple recurrent CH HSSs. Generally quiet or quiet to unsettled conditions are expected to prevail throughout the rest of the outlook period under a nominal solar wind regime.

Don’t forget to visit our live space weather and radio propagation web site, at: http://SunSpotWatch.com/

Live Aurora mapping is at http://aurora.sunspotwatch.com/

If you are on Twitter, please follow these two users: 1. https://Twitter.com/NW7US 2. https://Twitter.com/hfradiospacewx

– – – – – – – – – – – – –

Be sure to subscribe to our space weather and propagation email group, on Groups.io

https://groups.io/g/propagation-and-space-weather

Spread the word!

– – – – – – – – – – – – –

Links of interest:

+ Amazon space weather books: http://g.nw7us.us/fbssw-aSWSC
+ https://Twitter.com/NW7US
+ https://Twitter.com/hfradiospacewx

Space Weather and Ham Radio YouTube Channel News:

I am working on launching a YouTube channel overhaul, that includes series of videos about space weather, radio signal propagation, and more.

Additionally, I am working on improving the educational efforts via the email, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, and other activities.

You can help!

Please consider becoming a Patron of these space weather and radio communications services, beginning with the YouTube channel:

https://www.patreon.com/NW7US

The YouTube channel:
https://YouTube.com/NW7US

Visit, subscribe: NW7US Radio Communications and Propagation YouTube Channel

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Morse Runner can now run on a Mac!

23 February 2020 | by Mike VE9KK | Leave a Comment (1)

In my quest to improve my CW I wanted to add Morse Runner to my PC I am not sure where it went as I am sure it was on my PC. It may not have been reloaded one time I reformated my hard drive in the past. I returned to Alex VE3NEA site to download his Morse Runner program to my surprise I noticed on the site a link there is now a way to run Morse Runner on a Mac PC. This is great for me as I have a Mac laptop and I can now use Morse Runner. KI4STU has created a WineSkin wrapper to allow this great program to also work on a Mac PC. The only issue I have found is that my antivirus program Bitdefender is not allowing the INI file to be saved. Because of this, I have to load my call sign and the program parameters each time I run Morse Runner. I am sure I will find the workaround for this BUT it's great a WinSkin has been provided for this program.

Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

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LHS Episode #327: The Weekender XLII

21 February 2020 | by Russ K5TUX | Leave a Comment (0)

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

Russ Woodman, K5TUX, co-hosts the Linux in the Ham Shack podcast which is available for download in both MP3 and OGG audio format. Contact him at [email protected].

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Barn Door Wide! Hunting For NDBs In CLE253

18 February 2020 | by Steve VE7SL | Leave a Comment (1)

This weekend's upcoming CLE event will be the "Barn Door" listening event.

Participants are required to use receivers without the usual narrow filters. Some of the older tube radios can do this easily as can most homebrew receivers ... especially the regens!

If you've never listened to the NDB band with a wide bandwidth, it is a fascinating experience! If conditions are normal, you can typically hear a half dozen or more signals, all at various pitches, vying for your attention. It's almost as if you have plunked yourself down in the middle of the NDB forest of signals, and they are coming at you from all directions.

Many choose to use one of their homebrew receivers for this event, often as simple as a '1AD' or a '1 Active Device' circuit.

From organizer Brian Keyte:

Hello all

Here comes our sixth 'Barn Door' Coordinated Listening Event.

Between us there will be a great variety of ‘Back to Basics’ receiver

types in use. Maybe this is an opportunity for you to bring back to life

that old receiver that has been collecting dust for so long!

    Days:      Friday 21 to Monday 24 February 2020

    Times:    Start at Midday on Friday 21st, your LOCAL time
                   End at Midday on Monday 24th, your LOCAL time

    Frequencies:   Centred on 360 kHz (see below)

    NDBs:     NOT MORE than 100 'normal' NDBs including any UNIDs
                    (That is not intended to be a target to reach)

We are all asked to listen with NON-SELECTIVE receivers - i.e. with a WIDE

filter or NO filter. Your 'barn door' should be open wide so you could hear,

at the same time, any NDBs 2 kHz away on both sides of your receiver

setting - E.g. NDBs on 348, 349, 350, 351 and 352 kHz with the receiver

set to 350 kHz.

You could listen with:

Whichever you choose, use the same receiver throughout the CLE.

If your choice of receiver includes a waterfall please use only the

audio output for your listening. You could even cover part of the

screen if there is no other way of stopping or hiding the waterfall.

Unfortunately the use of Pskov – and probably of recordings – is

not appropriate for this CLE.

You choose how wide a RANGE of frequencies you will listen in, CENTRED

ON 360 kHz. You could choose 350-370 kHz , 330-390 kHz, 260-460 kHz, etc.

(That allows each of us to choose a +/- range with enough NDBs to

match our equipment's capability. It will also allow us to compare our

loggings in the Combined Results, at least around 360 kHz).

Logs should show not more than 100 NDBs please (if more than 100

the harvester program will 'drop' the loggings furthest from 360 kHz).

We’ll summarise everyone's equipment on the first page of the combined

results, so please describe:

The RECEIVER/AERIAL you used and the FILTER(s) selected and,

if homebrew, the number of active devices used, transistor types, etc.

All the usual procedures for making logs apply:

Send your CLE log to NDB List, not in an attachment.

Please show on EVERY LINE of your log:

# The full date (or Day No.) and UTC (the day changes at 00:00 UTC).

# kHz - the beacon's nominal published frequency, if known.

# The Call Ident.

Show those main items FIRST on each line, before other optional details

such as Location, Distance, etc. Please send your complete log with

CLE253 and FINAL in the Subject line.

Whether you are a first time CLE-er or a regular, always make your log

interesting to everyone by giving your own location and do feel free

to share any comments you have on this unusual event.

Joachim or I will send the usual 'Any More Logs?' email at about 2000 UTC

on Tuesday 25th so that you can check that your log has been found OK.

Make sure your log has arrived on the List at the very latest by 09:00 UTC

on Wednesday 26th February.

We’ll try to complete making the combined results a day or so later.

However you choose to take part, we hope you will find your 'back to basics'

listening enjoyable and worthwhile.

Brian

------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Brian Keyte G3SIA ndbcle'at'gmail.com

Location: Surrey, SE England (CLE coordinator)

-------------------------------------------------------------------

P.S. NOT FOR YOU?

Listening without narrow filters is not going to revolutionise our hobby!

But there ARE some unexpected benefits and advantages:

1. Hearing several beacons on a few adjacent frequencies at the same time

becomes easier as you get practice at recognising them by listening to their

very different audio tones. At first, when listening to a random frequency

setting, you may hear just one or two beacons. But after listening for a

little while you realise that there are three - - four, maybe more, all of

them audible without altering any of the receiver controls.

It is a skill that gives satisfaction as you improve.

2. Hearing multiple beacons like that can be useful because, with no extra

tools, you can hear NDBs over a wide frequency range much more quickly than usual, perhaps spotting the arrival of new UNIDs or the return of occasional beacons. (To protect your hearing, keep your receiver gain controls fairly low, except around very quiet frequencies).

3. With normal listening it is easy to miss any NDBs that have abnormal

carrier frequencies or non-standard offsets. With 'Barn Door' listening

they won't escape because everything is let through.

4. When using a wide filter, you may be surprised by hearing some

Broadcast Station signals (e.g. harmonics) among the NDBs and you will

be able to identify them.

With a narrow filter, often you may not recognise an AM signal as audio

- it just sounds like nondescript 'hash' affecting a wide range of frequencies

around the central carrier.

Maybe listeners will report some other good things about their barn door

listening during the CLE - and probably some bad things too!

Do join in if you can.

**************************

These listening events serve several purposes. They:

determine, worldwide, which beacons are actually in service and on-the-air so the online database can be kept up-to-date

determine, worldwide, which beacons are out-of-service or have gone silent since the last CLE covering this range

will indicate the state of propagation conditions at the various participant locations

will give you an indication of how well your LF/MF receiving system is working

give participants a fun yet challenging activity to keep their listening skills honed

Final details can be found at the NDB List website, and worldwide results, for every participant, will be posted there a few days after the event.

The NDB List Group is a great place to learn more about the 'Art of NDB DXing' or to meet other listeners in your region. There is a lot of good information available there and new members are always very welcome. As well, you can follow the results of other CLE participants from night to night as propagation is always an active topic of discussion.

You need not be an NDB List member to participate in the CLEs and all reports, no matter how small, are of much value to the organizers.

Remember - 'First-time' logs are always VERY welcome!

Reports may be sent to the NDB List Group or e-mailed to CLE co-ordinator, Brian Keyte (G3SIA), whose address appears above. If you are a member of the group, all final results will also be e-mailed and posted there.

Please ... give the CLE a try ... then let us know what NDB's can be heard from your location! Your report can then be added to the worldwide database to help keep it up-to-date.

Have fun and good hunting!

Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

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