Getting the AT-100pro ready to sell.

About a month before the New Year I had a look around the shack and realized that I moved some items down to our new home that I used just as much as when they were at my old QTH.......these items were only taking up space and gathering dust. I decided it was time once again to put some radio items up for sale and send them on their way to someone who can use them. This gave me some "ham bucks" and to be honest I did not need much but what I did get was a new LDG 200proII antenna tuner and a new Endfed antenna which was the Ultimax DXtreme Endfed antenna   I did have the LDG AT-100pro (not the proII)  I say "did" because the LDG AT-100pro was sold. The reason I sold it was the LDG AT-100pro tuner is rated at 30 watts when operating digital modes. With propagation being what it is these days I have moved some of my operating toward FT8 digital. I would like to move a bit beyond 30 watts and the only way that can be done was to change out the LDG AT-100 pro to the LDG AT-200 proII tuner. A nice surprise was the LDG AT-200proII was able to tune a great match better than the LDG AT-100pro did. For example, I never had a decent SWR on 60M and for some reason when I switched to the LDG AT-200proII the tuner was able to tune 60m to a very decent SWR. I can now operate on this band without any SWR issue.  On the bands were a tuner was needed the AT-200ProII outperformed the previous AT-100pro. I have the interface cable from LDG that connects the tuner to my Icom 7610. This makes using the LDG tuner a breeze. The tuner when in tune will automatically reduce the Icom 7610 power to 10 watts. When a match is found it's stored in the LDG tuners memory using this interface cable I am able to operate on 30m and then go to 60m and when I start to transmit the LDG tuner reverts to the memory tuned position for 60m is a split-second, and I am good to go. If the band I chose does not have a stored memory tune then the tuner will perform a full tune at a reduced wattage of 10 watts. I just have to operate and the interface cable looks after the LDG tuner and getting me the best SWR. In my next post, I will look at the Ultimax DXtreme Endfed antenna.
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

This is the raw, unedited video from the New Years Eve 2019 live stream. It is over 6 hours long contains plenty of bloopers and mishaps (the kind of stuff you’ve come to expect from us). The first 2 hours are a replay of an earlier episode and the team getting set up to go.
The live show actually began around the 2:13:30 mark.

Appearances by:
George Thomas, W5JDX
Tommy Martin, N5ZNO
Emile Diodene, KE5QKR
Andy Anderson, AA0WX
Laird Nigel P Lawrence, G0MEJ/KG0PL
Dan Vanevenhoven, N9LVS
Ray Novak, N9JA
Peter Berrett, VK3PB
Amanda Alden, K1DDL
Jeff Carrier, K0JDX

George Thomas, W5JDX, is co-host of AmateurLogic.TV, an original amateur radio video program hosted by George Thomas (W5JDX), Tommy Martin (N5ZNO), Peter Berrett (VK3PB), and Emile Diodene (KE5QKR). Contact him at [email protected].

Closing out 2019, here are the top five blog posts at k0nr.com during the year. Some people may see this as a lazy way of creating one more blog post for the year without much work. This may be true, but I still claim it is a worthy effort to take a look at what content got the most attention for the year.

Leading the list is this blog post…a perennial favorite that seems to make the top five each year.

Getting Started on 2m SSB

Another popular post that just keeps on going is…

Choose Your 2m Frequency Wisely

A new post this year about VHF propagation comes in third. I am glad to see some new content getting attention.

The Myth of VHF Line-Of-Sight

A bit of a surprise that this post about two proposals for changes to the FCC licensing scheme is in the number four slot:

FCC Considers Changes to Amateur Radio Licensing

Editor’s Choice  

This last one was published in December so it didn’t actually make the top five for the year. However, every time I look at this photo, it gives me a chuckle, so I am including on the list as the Editor’s Choice.

Innovation in Vehicle Labeling

Happy New Year!

73 Bob K0NR

The post Top Five K0NR Blog Posts for 2019 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].

Ham College episode 60 is now available for download.

General Amateur Radio Exam part 31. The final episode covering the General pool. General question pool updates 3 of 3.

01:05:36

Download
YouTube

George Thomas, W5JDX, is co-host of AmateurLogic.TV, an original amateur radio video program hosted by George Thomas (W5JDX), Tommy Martin (N5ZNO), Peter Berrett (VK3PB), and Emile Diodene (KE5QKR). Contact him at [email protected].

Here is this week’s space weather and geophysical report, issued 2019 Dec 30 0435 UTC.

Highlights of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 23 – 29 December 2019

Solar activity was very low. New Region 2753 (S29, L=122, class/area Bxo/010 on 25 Dec) developed on the visible disk on late on 23 December while Region 2754 (N25, L=191, class/area Axx/010 on 25 Dec) developed on 24 Dec. Both regions were inactive and decayed to plage on 26 Dec. No Earth-directed CMEs were observed during the period.

No proton events were observed at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit was at normal levels on 27-29 Dec and reached moderate levels on 23-26 Dec. The maximum flux of the period was 462 pfu observed at 25/1810 UTC.

Geomagnetic field activity ranged from quiet to unsettled levels. A slight enhancement in solar wind parameters occurred beginning late on 25 Dec as a weak negative polarity coronal hole high speed stream (CH HSS) became geoeffective. Total field increased to a maximum of 9 nT at 25/1920 UTC while solar wind speed reached a maximum of 415 km/s at 26/1435 UTC. The geomagnetic field responded with an isolated unsettled period early on 26 Dec.

Forecast of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 30 December – 25 January 2020

Solar activity is expected to continue at very low levels.

No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to be at normal levels on 06-14 and 23-25 Jan while moderate levels are expected on 30 Dec-05 Jan and 15-22 Jan.

Geomagnetic field activity is expected to reach unsettled levels on 30 Dec-01 Jan due to weak CH HSS activity. Unsettled to active levels are expected on 14-15 Jan due to recurrent CH HSS activity.

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

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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!

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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

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Visit, subscribe: NW7US Radio Communications and Propagation YouTube Channel

“Best regardses” and “Best regards’s”

That’s silly, of course. We who speak and write in the English language know that you should not pluralize a word that is already in its plural form. “Best regards” means, “I wish you the best of regards.” It is implied that there is more than one regard. Perhaps there are a few, perhaps many more. It then is clear that we wouldn’t normally pluralize “regards,” into, “regardses.”

It is also silly to say that the best of regards owns something.  How can a regard let alone a group of regards own anything?  So, why “73’s” when written?

The usage of “73” comes from early landline telegraph (typically railroad telegraphy landlines). Originally devised in the era of telegraphs, 73 and other numbers were used to speed up the transmission of common messages over landlines by mapping common messages to these specific numbers.  And, numbers were quicker to send than the longer messages the numbers replaced.

QST, April 1935, on page 60, contains a short article on the origin of the amateur radio vernacular, 73. This article was a summation of another article that appeared in the “December Bulletin from the Navy Department Office of the Chief of Naval Operations,” published December of 1934.

Here’s a quotation from that Navy article:

“It appears from a research of telegraph histories that in 1859 the [land-line] telegraph people held a convention, and one of its features was a discussion as to the saving of ‘line time.’

A committee was appointed to devise a code to reduce standard expressions to symbols or figures. This committee worked out a figure code, from figure 1 to 92.

Most of these figure symbols became obsolescent, but a few remain to this date, such as 4, which means “Where shall I go ahead?’. Figure 9 means ‘wire,’ the wire chief being on the wire and that everyone should close their keys. Symbol 13 means ‘I don’t understand’; 22 is ‘love and a kiss’; 30 means ‘good night’ or ‘the end.’

The symbol most often used now is 73, which means ‘my compliments’ and 92 is for the word ‘deliver.’ The other figures in between the forgoing have fallen into almost complete disuse.”

We can see, then, that “73” mapped to “best regards” or “my compliments” and was intended as a general valediction for transmitted messages.  That’s why it is silly to say, “73s,” as that maps to, “best regardses” – 73s adds the plural to a plural.  (And, don’t make it possessive, as in using, “73’s” – a regard cannot own something).

For reference and some more interesting background on this, see http://www.signalharbor.com/73.html

An example of on-the-air conversation (or, QSO—“QSO” is the shorthand Q-code for, “two-way exchange of communications”) illustrates proper usage of 73. When saying your goodbye, you would tap out the Morse code as follows:

TNX FER FB QSO. C U AGN. 73 ES HPY NEW YR.

That is interpreted as, “Thanks for the fine-business chat. I hope to see you again for another chat. Best regards and happy new year.”

This, if you choose to throw around shorthand Morse code number codes when you are speaking, you wouldn’t say, “73s.” You would say, “73.”

My friend, David Edenfield, opined, “This idea is beyond turning into glue from the dead horse it’s beating again. This is so petty to be concerned with this. Even the Old Man Hiram Percy Maxim 1AW used 73s on his QSL cards.”

Well, even Hiram Percy Maxim has been incorrect and incorrectly used grammar. (chuckle)

There is something to be said about teaching new amateur radio operators the best of our traditions, history, skills, procedures, protocols, ethics, and culture. There’s no rational argument that can make a case that allowing these aspects of our service and hobby to degrade over time (by the lack of Elmering) is a good way to see our service and hobby thrive and progress.

I don’t see any slippage from high standards as being a good strategy for nurturing growth, progress, and effectiveness of our service and hobby. Keeping some level of excellence in every aspect of our hobby can only be beneficial.

In this case, how many new hams that learn to repeat ham lingo know anything of the history behind the common “73?” My dead horse turned glue is educational and it is my belief that educating about origins elevates the current.

73 – NW7US

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Visit, subscribe: NW7US Radio Communications and Propagation YouTube Channel

As 2019 moves closer and closer to becoming 2020 I wanted to spend time and look back on 2019. I looked at my blog posting history from 2019 and it was a slow year for posting. This had to do with working long hours and just too tired to get on the radio or to blog for that matter. My new Icom 7610 did not see too much operating time. During July, my wife and I had some heart-to-heart talks and I decided to retire. We both agreed it was time to move on to the next stage in life. The only thing that was holding me back was the change I had done the work thing at the same company for over 30 years. To just stop what I had been doing for so long made me feel uneasy but I put my notice in and by the end of July I was retired!
The next change was the location...... Julie and I both agreed that living in downtown Toronto was nice but it was time for a change. A slower pace was very agreeable to us both, so we decided to move to the east coast of Canada. We sold our condo in Toronto and purchased a home in New Brunswick and started to pack and move. I have to be honest I have NEVER made this many decisions in a single year in my entire life.
Fast-forward to the present.....we are settled in New Brunswick and my new call is a 2 letter call VE9KK. In Ontario, 2 letter calls are very very hard to get. In New Brunswick, I had a choice of 2 letter call signs. I chose a call that had good CW qualities. I have put up an EndFed antenna the property is small and the Endfed was my desk drawer taking up space, so I decided to put it into service. I'm now in my 5th month in New Brunswick and to date, I have logged 447 contacts as VE9KK and the first months at the new QTH I was unpacking and setting the house up. My first contact was on October 13 with IU8DON and since then I have logged more contacts in two and a half months than the first 7 months of 2019 as VE3WDM, I made a total of 311 contacts so it looks like retirement is treating me well in regard to my radio hobby.
I'm Looking forward to 2020 and what are my goals.......I want to look into the CWops cw academy program as this is really the only option I have found that works and can get my code on the upswing. Get involved with the local amateur radio club in town the Moncton Amateur radio club or MAARC. I would like to explore contacting some DXpeditions both CW and FT8 and or FT4. The above goals seem like a good start for the year as I don't want to go overboard with one hopeful goal after the other.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my blog readers.
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].