Oh Boy, what have I gotten myself into

TUBES

Heathkit HP-13a

Heathkit HW-101

Heathkit HW-101

Crystal filter

Welcome to the another edition of The Weekender version of LHS. In this episode, your hosts discuss, Scotch whisky, cheap wine, JT-65, casseroles with pepperoni and awesome, upcoming contests and special event stations and much more. Thank you for listening.

73 de The LHS Crew

Welcome to our 20th episode! In this revamped show we conclude our look at innovative amateur radio products from UK National Hamfest 2017, and Bob goes back to basics with an overview of setting up an inexpensive SDR dongle. We have two great prizes to give away in our free-to-enter draw. An RSP1A SDR receiver from SDRplay and a copy of the best-selling book ‘SDR’ from the RSGB. Plus we look back at the past four years of topics covered by the TX Factor team. We hope you enjoy it!

twww.xfactor.co.uk

Stories you’ll find in our January, 2018 issue:

TSM Reviews: Whistler TRX-1 Scanner
By Larry Van Horn N5FPW

With a lineage that extends back to three generations of Whistler/GRE scanners, this new generation of handhelds continues to build on a proven technology. Despite the steep learning curve getting the hang of operating the TRX-1, Larry notes, “Overall, I have been very impressed with the Whistler TRX-1. It will now be my new travel scanner…If you want to monitor many of the major digital scanner systems used in the U.S, and Canada, then you should seriously consider purchasing the Whistler TRX-1.”

TSM Reviews: Whistler TRX-2 Mobile/Base Scanner
By Bob Grove W8JHD

Operational capabilities of the TRX-2 mobile/base version of the TRX-1 handheld scanner are essentially the same. Bob takes a quick look at the main differences, including peculiarities in programming the TRX-2, which could help you decide which scanner is right for you.

TSM Reviews: Airspy HF+ Software Defined Radio
By Bob Grove W8JHD

Primarily directed toward shortwave and two-meter amateur radio applications, the HF+ offers wide dynamic range, superior sensitivity, low digital noise, suppressed background noise, and good image rejection. Bob is impressed. “Airspy’s noise reduction design is outstanding. Suppression of hiss enhances weak-signal reception on all modes. While noise suppression and clipping methods on competitive products often result in distorted audio, the HF+’s recovered audio remains crisp and clean of such artifacts on all demodulation modes.” Find out why Bob says, “Price vs. performance pushes the HF+ to the top.”

TSM Reviews: Fox Delta 1–60 MHz Antenna Analyzer Kit
By Robert Gulley AK3Q

Robert was intrigued by the Delta AAZ-0217MX antenna analyzer kit as a project not only for himself, but also as a possible club build for his local amateur radio group. It’s an intermediate level ability kit and, while it’s not expected to be as accurate as professional analyzers, Robert notes, “I would say it is doing a good job, and is certainly capable of telling you when there is a problem. In addition to being an interesting kit to build, for around $60 U.S. shipped, it is also a useful piece of test equipment for the shack.”

TSM Reviews: C.Crane Skywave SSB
By Thomas Witherspoon K4SWL

Always on the lookout for a capable, small, inexpensive, portable shortwave radio, Thomas was keen to put the new Skywave SSB from C.Crane through his real-world tests. It’s certainly got a lot going for it: AM/FM, shortwave, Weather Radio and a scanning Air Band. While, as with any new product, the Skywave SSB had some initial issues, and a higher price tag that other radios in its class, Thomas has a verdict: “It’s going to be my travel radio of choice going forward––it’s essentially a Swiss Army Knife of a travel radio.”

Scanning America
By Dan Veeneman
Long Beach (CA); Tennessee and Miami (FL)

Federal Wavelengths
By Chris Parris
Back to Basics: A Federal Monitoring Primer

Milcom
By Larry Van Horn N5FPW
DoD’s VHF High-Band 138-150 MHz: The Hidden Military Aircraft Band

Utility Planet
By Hugh Stegman NV6H
Winter Fun with European Aero Beacons

Shortwave Utility Logs
Compiled by Hugh Stegman and Mike Chace-Ortiz

VHF and Above
By Joe Lynch N6CL
Sporadic-E: Separating Fiction from Speculation from Fact

Digitally Speaking
By Cory Sickles WA3UVV
Ready – Fire – Aim

Amateur Radio Insights
By Kirk Kleinschmidt NT0Z
A Vertical Redeemed!

Radio 101
By Ken Reitz KS4ZR
SWLing like it’s 1989!

Radio Propagation
By Tomas Hood NW7US
New Year’s Resolutions

World of Shortwave Listening
By Jeff White
Shortwave in Africa – Still Very Much Alive

The Shortwave Listener
By Fred Waterer
Old Shortwave Voice Still Heard

Maritime Monitoring
By Ron Walsh VE3GO
Remembering Halifax Harbor; Marine Frequency Changes

The Longwave Zone
By Kevin O’Hern Carey WB2QMY
New Year’s Resolutions

Adventures in Radio Restorations
By Rich Post KB8TAD
Harman-Kardon A-260 “Chorale” Stereo Amp

Antenna Connections
By Dan Farber AC0LW
Wire Antennas Part One: The Dipole

The Spectrum Monitor is available in PDF format which can be read on any desktop, laptop, iPad®, Kindle® Fire, or other device capable of opening a PDF file. Annual subscription is $24. Individual monthly issues are available for $3 each.

When I get asked ‘what is ham radio?’ I generally get a bit tongue tied and waffle on a bit. There is nothing harder as a ham than actually defining the hobby. This is really down to how diverse the hobby is. Fundamentally at the core is a like of RF. Other than that it sort of sprays out a heap of sub genre’s that have a variety of different followers. Amateur TV, DX chasing, GHz…. the list goes on and on. Perhaps one day a map will be available that shows the full spectrum and a few of the relationships, but for now here is another one. I’m going to call it ham radio services as a working title, it is defined as the ham who uses his knowledge and equipment to provide a service based on RF. APRS igates are an example of this.

So what else is there? The Raspberry Pi has certainly opened up the opportunity to provide low cost services. I have one the is an APRS igate, one that runs my SatNOGS ground station and that was it until last week when I put an unused older Pi2 to good use as an ADSB receiver using a system called PiAware. Essentially a way of melding together an RPi, rtl-sdr dongle and an ADSB antenna. All so that it can listen out for the aircraft beacons and report positional information to the Flightaware website.

The ‘project’ took no more than a couple of hours, mainly because my Micro-SD card died and I had to scrabble around for another one. It is very simple to do and will put your Raspberry Pi to good use. Steps are summarised as

1. Sign up with the Flight Aware website and read through the docs on the PiAware page
2. Download the image
3. Burn the image to a (non corrupt) micro SD card. Plonk it in the pi
4. Plug in an Rtl-sdr (or you could splash out on a Flight Aware Prostick)
5. Power on
6. Find IP address of RPi on network (look in the router settings)
7. Go to site (mine is 192.168.1.100). You should have a screen that looks a bit like this

1. Claim you receiver (Instructions are on the screen). There will be a link in the place where it says ‘View your site statistics online’
2. Sit back and watch the packets come in. When you’re ready go to the FlightAware website and see how well you are doing.

Looking west is best as always from my QTH. Where’s the fun in that? I hear you say?

Its good to experiment, after all there is DX to be had, just not in the conventional sense. Lets take a comparison between WSPR and ADSB. A bit off beat but here goes, WSPR will tell you the distance and signal to noise of your station as heard by another, DX, station. You do the transmitting and someone else does the receiving. With the PiAware setup someone else does the transmitting and you do the receiving. Is this not the same thing? A different band ok but actually the same thing.

Beats attempting to get in contact with some short lived station in a rarely activated location by shouting into a microphone for hours on end. Say I. Wouldn’t it be boring if we all liked the same thing.

One final note. There are lots of RTL-SDR dongles to choose from. The cheap £3 ones from eBay work, they are reliable enough and coupled with the (normally) supplied antenna give me a range around 150-200 nautical miles. the Pro Stick mentioned earlier will extend that range by using a broadband low noise amp (LNA). If you live in an urban environment you can use the Pro Stick Plus that comes with a band pass filter or add in your own. you may also need to adjust gain settings and have a play. I am only using a wire antenna, I will find a reasonable supplier for a colinear or similar and report back.

Onwards and upwards

Too early to plan the Christmas QSO card?

We three keys from ham shacks are,
Sending code that travels afar, 

. . .