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North American QRP CW Club

16 April 2016 | by Jeff KE9V | Leave a Comment (2)

Later this year, the North American QRP CW Club will celebrate its twelfth year of existence. Birthed during a prolific period when many small ham radio groups coalesced into online radio clubs, the NAQCC has become one of the most successful of the litter.

There’s good reason why this club has continued to thrive where others have faded — you simply won’t find a more active or enthusiastic group of wireless telegraphers on the planet.

The timing was impeccable as interest in QRP activity was peaking in the amateur radio world around the time of the club’s formation. But you would be wrong to assume that the rapid rise of the NAQCC was merely a “fad” as sustained growth in the intervening years have proven.

John Shannon, K3WWP co-founded the organization (along with Tom Mitchell, WY3H) and was its guiding light over the first decade.

Shannon’s resume as a QRP CW operator is polished and he easily straddles the two centuries of our hobby – old school ham radio on the one hand, embracing the Internet as an effective means for spreading his minimalist view of amateur radio on the other.

The many activities of the NAQCC keep members as busy as they want to be on the air. That’s by design. While the NAQCC maintains a wealth of online resources to help new operators in the metamorphosis from beginner to seasoned operator, there’s an understanding among members that they should be on the air, not online — and to that end, the club doesn’t maintain a discussion-type mailing list.

On-air activities include regional nets, sprints, and challenges – like collecting letters from worked call signs to spell keywords. Special operating events are frequent and interesting, many of them taking place outdoors.

On a local level, there are seven chapters around the United States and overseas. These provide opportunity for fellowship, sometimes over coffee, breakfast or sharing a hamfest table.

This seems vital to the success of the organization given that it was created and exists in a virtual world. There’s no club headquarters, office, or paid staff. Its global presence and outreach exists by radio, the Internet, postal mail, and through local chapters.

When asked about those club activities he most enjoys, John Smithson, N8ZYA, Vice-President of the organization, said his favorite activity is the monthly challenges. He likes puzzles and the challenges are “much like doing the crosswords in the morning newspaper” – except it takes place via radio.

A particularly effective tool employed by the club is its monthly newsletter the NAQCC News. It appears as a PDF the first of each and every month. Trust me, this isn’t one of those clubs that publishes a “monthly” newsletter a few times each year as is common in our hobby.

Composed, edited, and published by club President Paul Huff, N8XMS, the publication shows up month after month, chocked full of club news, information, and member articles. It’s well-written and a joy to consume at a leisurely pace. The latest edition (April 2016) tips the scales at 49 pages – it’s more like a magazine than a newsletter.

Co-founders K3WWP and WY3H have since retired and moved on from their leadership roles. By all appearances, that transition has been smooth and seamless, a credit to the founders. There are plenty of reasons why such a change might threaten the continuation of any organization, but this has not been the case for the NAQCC.

Grounded on strong fundamentals and an abundance of enthusiasm, the future looks bright for this specialty club, and the legacy of John Shannon, K3WWP seems firmly cemented in this chapter of amateur radio history.

With over 8,000 members in all 50 states, 9 VE provinces, and 101 countries, the NAQCC might be be for you – if you’re seeking fun, new adventure, friendship, or something to rekindle the magic of radio.

Take a look at this video montage for a complete overview of the club and its activities.

Membership is free, and I’ve no doubt you will be welcomed with open arms.

Jeff Davis, KE9V, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Indiana, USA.

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Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 107

16 April 2016 | by Cale K4HCK | Leave a Comment (0)

ISS Slow Scan TV success
This week, radio hams around the world received Slow Scan Television (SSTV) transmissions from space commemorating 15 years of Amateur Radio on the International Space Station.
Southgate

American Airlines UFO report caught on Ham Radio
The pilot reported seeing an extremely large bright object that he estimated a mile wide to his right.
Open Minds

ARES group boots storm chasers off repeater
The Wichita County ARES group had to shoo at least two storm chasers from the group’s repeater.
Times Record News

Contact with the inventor
I had the honor to meet Joe K1JT on air at 20m JT9 this evening.
PE4BAS

My first attempt at NPOTA
They were chastising me because I wasn’t on the air long enough and were upset because they were waiting for me on 40m and didn’t make enough contacts on 20m.
NT1K

Multi-band Slinky Doublet
Further research showed a single slinky can stretch to ~5m in length and contains ~20m of coiled wire.
M0SPN

29 MHz – the forgotten frequency for amateur radio satellites
Unfortunately, a 29 MHz downlink would not be practical for most of today’s very small satellites, owing to the size of the antenna required.
EE Publishers

Coax cable: It’s all in the family
Even many experienced ham operators will approach a table full of coax cable reels at a swap meet or stare at online listings and feel lost in all the options.
Off Grid Ham

The Eagle has landed
Ten-Tec Eagle — A CW masterpiece.
Ham Radio QRP

Improved GPS reception with a ground plane
It definitely helped make indoors reception in my shack much more reliable.
amateurradio.com

Amateur Radio Weekly is curated by Cale Mooth K4HCK. Sign up free to receive ham radio's most relevant news, projects, technology and events by e-mail each week at http://www.hamweekly.com.

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VK4YB Lights Up West Coast On 630m

15 April 2016 | by Steve VE7SL | Leave a Comment (0)

The past few weeks have seen many of the VK 630m WSPR stations making it into North America's west coast and points east. VK2DDI, VK2XGJ, VK3ELV and VK4YB have been the signals most often seen. Particularly dominant is the signal from Roger, VK4YB, the northern-most station, located in Moorina, Queensland, near the Pacific Ocean.

Roger's signal has been decoded locally by myself as well as VE7BDQ and VA7MM, creating excitement over the more normal nightly spots from the central states.

2016-04-13 11:10 VK4YB 0.475646 -28 QG62ku 5 VA7MM CN89og
2016-04-13 11:20 VK4YB 0.475647 -29 QG62ku 5 VA7MM CN89og
2016-04-13 11:28 VK4YB 0.475647 -28 QG62ku 5 VA7MM CN89og

2016-04-13 11:28 VK4YB 0.475644 -23 QG62ku 5 VE7BDQ CN89la
2016-04-13 11:36 VK4YB 0.475644 -26 QG62ku 5 VE7BDQ CN89la
2016-04-13 11:52 VK4YB 0.475643 -25 QG62ku 5 VE7BDQCN89la
2016-04-13 11:56 VK4YB 0.475643 -28 QG62ku 5 VE7BDQ CN89la

2016-04-07 08:54 VK4YB 0.475643 -25 QG62ku 5 VE7SL CN88iu
2016-04-07 09:36 VK4YB 0.475644 -29 QG62ku 5 VE7SL CN88iu
2016-04-07 10:08 VK4YB 0.475644 -29 QG62ku 5 VE7SL CN88iu
2016-04-07 10:18 VK4YB 0.475644 -29 QG62ku 5 VE7SL CN88iu
2016-04-07 11:04 VK4YB 0.475644 -29 QG62ku 5 VE7SL CN88iu
2016-04-13 11:06 VK4YB 0.475644 -24 QG62ku 5 VE7SL CN88iu
2016-04-13 11:10 VK4YB 0.475644 -23 QG62ku 5 VE7SL CN88iu
2016-04-13 11:20 VK4YB 0.475644 -23 QG62ku 5 VE7SL CN88iu
2016-04-13 11:28 VK4YB 0.475644 -28 QG62ku 5 VE7SL CN88iu
2016-04-13 11:32 VK4YB 0.475644 -25 QG62ku 5 VE7SL CN88iu
2016-04-13 11:52 VK4YB 0.475643 -18 QG62ku 5 VE7SL CN88iu
2016-04-13 11:56 VK4YB 0.475643 -22 QG62ku 5 VE7SL CN88iu
2016-04-13 12:16 VK4YB 0.475643 -27 QG62ku 5 VE7SL CN88iu
2016-04-13 12:28 VK4YB 0.475643 -26 QG62ku 5 VE7SL CN88iu
2016-04-13 12:32 VK4YB 0.475643 -25 QG62ku 5 VE7SL CN88iu
2016-04-13 12:54 VK4YB 0.475644 -24 QG62ku 5 VE7SL CN88iu
2016-04-13 12:58 VK4YB 0.475643 -24 QG62ku 5 VE7SL CN88iu
2016-04-13 13:10 VK4YB 0.475643 -25 QG62ku 5 VE7SL CN88iu
2016-04-13 13:24 VK4YB 0.475643 -27 QG62ku 5 VE7SL CN88iu
2016-04-13 13:28 VK4YB 0.475643 -27 QG62ku 5 VE7SL CN88iu

Roger has sent the following information to me regarding his well-planned system:

My antenna is serendipitous.

I am a complete novice on 630m. I only came on the band about 2 months ago at the request of a local friend, Peter, VK4QC. That is not quite true, because I was on the band once before, about a year ago and made one contact and then managed to burn out the front end of my Drake TR7, which I had roughly converted to 630m operation.

My QTH is atop of a stony ridge on 10 acres. The previous owner said there was some soil somewhere, but I haven't found it yet! Ground conductivity is very poor, I think. If you drive in two stakes about six inches apart, an ohmmeter says infinity. That's if you can drive in a stake. Because after the first quarter inch you hit shale rock. Interestingly the shale layers are at about 60 degrees to the horizontal. There are some quartz inclusions. Yes, I have tried crushing the quartz and panning it - no gold!

Getting back to my story, I needed to put up a 630m antenna in a hurry. The idea of winding a big loading coil with the rotatable inner coil was a bit daunting. And putting down ground radials or an earth mat was out of the question. So, using only some wire, string and a bow and arrow, this is what I came up with:

What is missing from that drawing is that the wire is running North-East to South-West, all in a straight line, with the shack at the North-East end. It is line-of-sight from the top of the vertical section to the Pacific ocean. I didn't put the direction on the original drawing because I didn't think it was important. I thought it was essentially a top-fed vertical and would therefore be omni-directional. Nothing could be further from the truth. Experience has shown that it is very directional. I have never had a single report from Japan, and yet my signal has peaked at -3 in Hawaii (about the same distance). Also VK3ELV, using a quarter wave near vertical, gets almost nightly reports from both Japan and Hawaii and at similar strengths. That would seem to indicate a front to side ratio of more than 20dB for my antenna, which is surely impossible?

I estimate the feed point impedance is about 3000 ohms. The ATU has 48 turns on the secondary, tuned by fixed capacitors of 960 pF in parallel with a 500 pF variable which is about two thirds meshed. The primary is 5 turns fed by the transverter having a 50 ohm nominal output. The impedance at the top of the secondary should be near 5000 ohms, but the antenna feed wire is tapped about two thirds of the way up the secondary coil, which gives 1.03 : 1 SWR. The earthy end of the coil is connected to the mains earth and the metal work of the shed. I haven't tried terminating the far end. I did think about connecting it to the fence wire that runs round the property but I thought that might be a bit dangerous. There would be high voltage points in places. The transverter output is nominally 50 watts, but it is giving about 90 watts in reality.

Roger - VK4YB

Like many on 630m, Roger is using an Elecraft K3 into a transverter to generate his 630m 90 watt signal. It is interesting to see the strength of Roger's signal here throughout the night but particularly during the 1152-1156Z time slot. His signal peaked at -18db, right at the level of audibility ... CW levels, but quickly dropped. Throughout the night however, his signal was easily within range of the capabilities of the two-way JT-9 WSPR QSO mode ... had either of us been seriously involved in a two-way JT-9 QSO attempt during that night, it would have been quick work I think.

John, VE7BDQ, has already managed to push his WSPR signal to VK on more than one occasion ... this from a typical, suburban backyard inverted-L. The possibilities are exciting, but will mean some middle-of-the-night vigilance!

As activity on 630m increases in both VK and VE, we are beginning to see more and more DX possibilities arising, particularly during the Spring and Fall equinox periods when this path seems to peak. As activity in Japan picks up, it is only a matter of time before some of them begin showing up in numbers here on the west coast, as the path to JA has always been reliable and somewhat less demanding than the path to down under. I suspect also, that as the present solar cycle draws down (and supposedly goes 'quiet'), 630m Trans-Pacific signals will grow even stronger,and on most other paths as well.

In view of the JT9 QSO possibilities, I think it is clear that I now need to seriously think about building a transverter, allowing me to at least be in 'ready-mode' for the coming 630m challenges ... hopefully for the next equinox.

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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Bugging Out

15 April 2016 | by Richard AA4OO | Leave a Comment (4)

Vibroplex Bug QSO

Sometimes I'm in a mood to use my bug. I'm still a relatively new CW operator and using my Vibroplex Original Bug is both novel to me and a challenge compared to my Kent Straight Key or using paddles.

The key lineup with the Bug in the center

I purchased my bug used on a well known auction site for about $65. It dates to sometime in the mid 1970s but it doesn't differ much from bugs made in the past 75 years. I have added some weight to slow it down to around 19 wpm DITs by taping a heavy spacer onto the factory pendulum weight as well as adding a heavy metal spacer to the end of the pendulum. The weight on the end of the pendulum is held on by a simple plastic drywall screw anchor. I can pull the weight off the back quickly if I want to let it go up to about 25wpm DITs. Without the extra weights this bug sends at around 27wpm at it's slowest speed and up to... well I don't know how fast because I can't control it at the fastest speed yet and I certainly can't copy others at that speed so I usually keep it below 20wpm for now.

If you haven't used a bug I encourage you to give it a try. It's a challenging key to get the hang of but the effort to learn it is fun and rewarding. I especially enjoy the tactile feedback from that swinging pendulum and the the click-clacking of the pendulum against the hanging damper.

I was using my Ten-Tec Eagle (model 599) purchased used from a local ham. The Eagle is a super little QRO radio although in this QSO my output is 5w. If you have sharp eyes you may see that the power level is set to 7w but that is actually 5w output according to my external meter. The 100 number under the CW symbol is the bandwidth that I was using. I generally keep the bandwidth at 500 Hz but there was a station operating above us that I wanted to mask.

Ten-Tec Eagle 599

The Eagle is a great CW rig. This model has 3 front end crystal filters 2400Hz, 600Hz and 300Hz giving it nice selectivity for any mode.

I was working Ed, KG4W in VA who is an SKCC member. If you want to work other manual key stations 3550 kHz is a calling frequency for the SKCC. Ed told me during the QSO he was using a VIZ vertical bug which is a unique and interesting bug design.

He reported my signal as 599 and he was 599 as well. I was running 5w output power to my 80m OCF Dipole. He was using an Yaesu at 100w to a fan dipole. 5w was sufficient for this QSO but if he had reported me as 559 or weaker I would have raised my power to 20w to make copy for him easier. I enjoy using QRP but when I rag chew I don't want to make it difficult for QRO stations to copy me if I can help it so having the Eagle allows me to raise my power if necessary for the communication.

The QSO

So here's the qso between two bug operators. I hope you enjoy it...

That's all for now

So lower your power and raise your expectations

72/73

Richard, AA4OO

Richard Carpenter, AA4OO, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from North Carolina, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

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Thirty Minutes of Dazzle: The Sun in UHD 4K by SDO (NASA)

14 April 2016 | by Tomas NW7US | Leave a Comment (0)

Take a front-seat view of the Sun in this 30-minute ultra-high definition movie in which NASA SDO gives us a stunning look at our nearest star.

This movie provides a 30-minute window to the Sun as seen by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which measures the irradiance of the Sun that produces the ionosphere. SDO also measures the sources of that radiation and how they evolve.

SDO’s Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) captures a shot of the sun every 12 seconds in 10 different wavelengths. The images shown here are based on a wavelength of 171 angstroms, which is in the extreme ultraviolet range and shows solar material at around 600,000 Kelvin (about 1 million degrees F.) In this wavelength it is easy to see the sun’s 25-day rotation.

The distance between the SDO spacecraft and the sun varies over time. The image is, however, remarkably consistent and stable despite the fact that SDO orbits Earth at 6,876 mph and the Earth orbits the sun at 67,062 miles per hour.

Scientists study these images to better understand the complex electromagnetic system causing the constant movement on the sun, which can ultimately have an effect closer to Earth, too: Flares and another type of solar explosion called coronal mass ejections can sometimes disrupt technology in space. Moreover, studying our closest star is one way of learning about other stars in the galaxy. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. built, operates, and manages the SDO spacecraft for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C.

Charged particles are created in our atmosphere by the intense X-rays produced by a solar flare. The solar wind, a continuous stream of plasma (charged particles), leaves the Sun and fills the solar system with charged particles and magnetic field. There are times when the Sun also releases billions of tons of plasma in what are called coronal mass ejections. When these enormous clouds of material or bright flashes of X-rays hit the Earth they change the upper atmosphere. It is changes like these that make space weather interesting.

Sit back and enjoy this half-hour 4k video of our Star! Then, share. 🙂

73 dit dit

Visit, subscribe: NW7US Radio Communications and Propagation YouTube Channel

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Blue is a nice color but not on my monitor!

12 April 2016 | by Mike VE9KK | Leave a Comment (4)

My plan for Saturday was to spend some time on the radio and possibly make some contacts in the QRP ARCI Spring QSO party. I was at the radio 8:30 local time with the PC and K3 humming, I was not really able to find much action on the bands most of the day for this contest. I decided to do some blogging while I was surfing the bands. Late in the afternoon my mouse stopped working and then it came back, then a short time later my screen froze. I restated the PC and I noticed some ADIF files on my desktop that normally displayed as a sheet of paper now looked like brown filing cabinet drawers, that was very odd and has never happened before. Then it happened the screen turned blue, there was long string of codes displayed and then a memory dump and a restart. The PC seemed stable once it restarted but after a short time the same happened again and again. I was able to boot in safe mode and access Event viewer and see the error codes from the blue screen. From there I did a google search and found it could be a RAM, heat or a CPU issue. At this time Julie and I had to go out so I shut the PC down, 3 hours later I restarted the PC and it seemed to work without issue. This lead me to believe it was an overheating issue and I would look into it in detail on Sunday.

Crammed cards

Below is what I did on Sunday to sort through this issue:

I began with opening up the side panel on the tower checking for dirt, dust loose wires. The PC was clean and no loose cables.

I then started the PC while checking to see if the fans on the CPU and video card were working and they both were.

I did notice the video card was mounted right on top on my video capture card. The heat of the capture card was rising up to the video card. So I moved the video card to give it more room on the mother board and to give it more air flow.

I then downloaded CPUID HWMonitor and Coretemp his way I could see temp readings of the system. HWMonitor showed the video card was running hot at 60C and higher when the card was being used The CPU fan seemed to be cycling a lot from low to high speed as the temp rose. What adds to my heat problem is the PC is located in my roll top desk tucked in a “cubby” with no air flow. Also in the same location I have my Astron power supply that was on all day feeding my K3. I removed my PC from the location in the roll top to the floor and the temperature improved but still a bit high.

To improve my cooling I have ordered two fans for the tower to have air flow in and out of the tower, also I am removing the desk back panel in lower section to allow the hot air to escape.

Video card moved to bottom

Next I wanted to check all I could on the PC to make sure all other components were running ok as this may just not be a heat issue.

I did the following:

1. On each of my 3 drives I ran Check disc and all drives passed.

2. I ran memory check to see if the ram was ok and it passed.

3. Spybot was the next program to run which found 20 issues and repaired them.

4. CCleaner found some issues and repaired them.

5. I then defragmented all the drives.

6. Avast did a virus scan without any issues

The cramped quarters

7. I then ran widows update and there were a few updates that downloaded.

8. I then went into the BIOS and changed the CPU fan setting to run full speed all the time. This significantly reduced the CPU temp.

9. I then for the heck of it updated the BIOS as well.

I was on the PC most of the day today and part of the evening and there was no issues. I am hoping it was just a heat issue and by adding the tower fans and opening up the back panel the issue will not happen again.

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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Seven To Go

12 April 2016 | by Steve VE7SL | Leave a Comment (3)

Confirmed DXCC entity #332 arrived in the mail last week. With a total of 339 active DXCC entities, this leaves just seven to go.

Although I had worked Tunisia a couple of years ago on 15m, I was never able to get the contact confirmed. In spite of sending an SAE and green stamps for postage, 3V8HQ's several promises of his card 'soon to be mailed', proved to be hollow.

The contact with 3V8HQ was my first and only one with Tunisia, since being licenced in 1963. The low level of ham radio activity from 3V8 combined with the challenges of VE7 to Meditteranean Africa propagation, made it a difficult one to work.

courtesy: https://www.google.ca/maps

I was excited to see one other station becoming active this past year, club station 3V8SS ... but it seemed that whenever they were on (very early out on the west coast), they were on RTTY and not on CW. During the past recent ARRL CW DX test, I noticed that they were active ... a rare event and maybe another opportunity to work Tunisia on CW once again. As luck would have it, propagation was good enough to make the QSO, as my old (twice refurbished) Cushcraft A3S tribander came through once again.

My present confirmed list sitting at 332, combined with my 10 confirmed 'deleted' entities, brings the overall confirmed total to 342. The seven remaining entities will be very difficult, if not impossible, unless I live to be 150. They are:

            FT/G, TO - Glorioso
            HK0 - Malpelo Island
            KP5 - Desecheo Island
            P5 - N. Korea
            SV/A - Mt. Athos
            Z8 - S. Sudan
            ZL9 - Auckland / Campbell Islands

A couple of these have been active in past recent years ... for some, I was asleep at the switch and for others, I was away travelling at the time. With solar conditions heading downhill quickly, and possibly staying there for many many years, the prospects of working these last seven is looking pretty bleak.

On the other hand, my favorite winter band (160m) should continue to improve. Last week also brought a new DXCC QSL for me on that band, A35T in Tonga, bringing my confirmed total on that band to 157.

Getting new entities from here on out will be increasingly challenging ... I guess I need to remember, that if it was easy, it just wouldn't be any fun!

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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