AmateurRadio.com

They say the days are long, but the decades are short. It’s hard to appreciate how far we’ve come in fifty years — both in terms of technology and prices!

Here are a few of the ads from the March, 1966 issue of 73 Magazine. Enjoy the walk down memory lane!

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Matt Thomas, W1MST, is the managing editor of AmateurRadio.com. Contact him at [email protected].

Here is this week’s space weather and geophysical report, issued 2016 Mar 14 0430 UTC.

Highlights of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 07 – 13 March 2016

Solar activity reached low levels on 08-09 and 12 March. The largest event of the period was a C3 flare from Region 2519 (N05, L=007, class/area=Cso/80 on 13 Mar) at 09/1250 UTC. Very low levels of solar activity were observed throughout the remainder of the period. No coronal mass ejections (CMEs) observed in coronagraph imagery were determined to be Earth-directed.

No proton events were observed at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit was at high levels on 07-11 Mar and decreased to moderate levels on 12-13 Mar.

Geomagnetic field activity reached G1 (Minor) geomagnetic storm levels early on 07 Mar due to the influence of a positive polarity coronal hole high speed stream (CH HSS). Activity levels subsided to quiet to unsettled levels on 08 Mar and quiet levels by 09 Mar. Quiet to unsettled conditions were observed on 10 Mar and continued into early on 11 Mar when the co-rotating interaction region (CIR) ahead of a positive polarity CH HSS caused G2 (Moderate) geomagnetic storm conditions. As the CH HSS progressed, conditions tapered down to active levels early on 12 Mar and into quiet to unsettled for the remainder of the day. Activity continued to subside with only quiet conditions observed on 13 Mar.

Forecast of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 14 March – 09 April 2016

Solar activity is expected to be at very low levels with a chance for C-class flares throughout the forecast period.

No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to be at high levels on 16-21 Mar and 04-06 Apr. Moderate levels are expected on 22 Mar-03 Apr and 07-09 Apr. Normal levels are expected on 14-15 Mar.

Geomagnetic field activity is expected to reach G1 (Minor) storm levels on 15-16 Mar and 02-03 Apr due to the influence of a negative polarity CH HSS. Active conditions are expected on 17 Mar and 08 Apr. Unsettled conditions are expected 18 Mar and 01, 04, 07, 08 Apr. Quiet conditions are expected throughout the remainder 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: + https://Twitter.com/NW7US + https://Twitter.com/hfradiospacewx

Get the space weather and radio propagation self-study course, today. Visit http://nw7us.us/swc for the latest sale and for more information!

Check out the stunning view of our Sun in action, as seen during the last five years with the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXN-MdoGM9g

We’re on Facebook: http://NW7US.us/swhfr

Visit, subscribe: NW7US Radio Communications and Propagation YouTube Channel

We're done with the editing of Episode #164 and here it is for your listening pleasure. In this episode, your hosts tackle topics from Bugbook computers to permanent amateur radio licenses, from Turing phones to Raspberry Pi computers and from antenna modeling software to lobster on pizza. We hope everyone will find something to enjoy. Please let us know by sending us feedback. 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].

160m Spring Stew Perry Contest - QRP style

I had the opportunity to visit with Paul Stroud AA4XX as he worked the early hours in the 160m Spring Stew Perry Contest.  Paul is an avid CW operator dedicated to QRP and QRPp operations.   When he works contests he often participates using the Knightlites club call WQ4RP (Note the QRP in the call).

AA4XX operating as WQ4RP during the 160m Stew Perry Spring Top Band contest

160m Top Band

160m (top band) is challenging due to the physical logistics of a suitable antenna.  I had the opportunity to assist with a portion of raising the 160m vertical loop antenna at the "Excalibur antenna site" and installing the 24 elevated radials that help make this antenna so effective.  There's a lot of wire in the ground system.  The antenna site is located in the woods, off grid, and away from electrically noisy homes.  

Power to the remote shack is supplied by a quiet Honda 1kW generator operating a couple dozen feet from the shack.  Due to the lower power requirements of QRP Paul can run the generator on eco-mode allowing its small fuel tank to provide 8 hours of operation between fill-ups.

Paul uses a Ten Tec Argonaut VI, running 5 watts output into the Excalibur 160m vertical loop.  He uses N1MM+ logger software and a WinKeyer interfaced to the software.  He also employs a SDR (software defined radio) feeding CWSkimmer signals across the band.  An antenna splitter simultaneously feeds the SDR and the Argonaut. The SDR receiver is switched out during transmit by a DX Engineering RTR-1A Receive switch.  His CW key is a N3ZN ZN-QRP model.

The N1MM+ logging software keeps track of which stations have already been worked and the CWSkimmer interface displays calling stations on the band being heard by his antenna.

The remote QRP station setup for contesting

In the Stew Perry contest the only information exchanged was grid squares.  I'm still relatively new to CW and watching Paul casually copy grid squares sent at 30wpm was impressive.  I would have had to ask the caller to re-send their grid squares 5 times but Paul makes it look easy.

Instructions for the newbie

Paul demonstrating the contesting software and usage

Why QRP?

Finding the next station to work. (N3ZN QRP CW key in the foreground)

Why contest?

What's next?

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

Those of you that have been following the recent set of four YouTube videos posted in my recent PAØRDT Miniwhip Shakedown blog, regarding the care and feeding of the PAØRDT active e-probe antenna, may be interested in a fifth video in the series, posted by Mike in the U.K.

PAØRDT's recent modification of the isolating transformer, in the miniwhip coupling unit, provides much better immunity to common mode noise-coupling in the HF bands. Mike shows the installation and operation of the new unit along with some additional grounding out at the antenna.


Those of you that are looking for a possible solution to relatively good reception on LF or on the 630m band, might find the answer with a carefully thought out installation such as the one shown in Mike's video series.

Although living in the suburbs often means dealing with a lot of noise, particularly on LF / MF, Mike's system shows that excellent low noise reception is indeed possible. It is important to 'probe' your backyard with the antenna itself in order to find the quietest location for installation.

More information on the PAØRDT miniwhip and other low-noise LF / MF antennas may be found in previous blogs here.
Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

AmateurLogic.TV Episode 88 is now available for download.

Tommy brings up a 3D Printer Primer, Emile introduces Repo Claus, Peter talks about Raspberry Pi SD card corruption, and George shows another easy way to use copper clad PC boards with solder islands.

1:20:13

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].

Today, Joyce KØJJW and I activated Kaufman Ridge North (W0C/SP-085) for Summits On The Air (SOTA). We’ve been on the summit before, including the first ever SOTA activation back in September of 2012. This summit is close to our cabin, so it made for a convenient hike. The mountain is not that difficult of a climb but we encountered quite a bit of snow in March, up to three feet in places, which we tromped across with snowshoes.

My blog posting about the next mountain to the south, Kaufman Ridge HP (W0C/SP-081), outlines a good way to access both summits during the summer. However, a seasonal gate closure (December to April) means we needed to find a different route. We approached the mountain from the north, parking our vehicle on Castle Court (a short side road off of Kaufman Road). We quickly crossed what appears to be private property (empty lot, no signs) to get to the US Forest Service boundary. Once we hopped the fence we were on public lands. We intentionally routed to the east to avoid some houses.

I don’t claim that this route is optimal. We had to break a lot of trail, pushing through the snow. We found a section of trail that had recent snowshoe traffic on it but it wasn’t of much use to us heading to the summit. We followed numerous game trails which appeared and disappeared on the side of the mountain. Mostly, we busted through the snow on our own. Surprisingly, the last quarter mile to the summit had little snow, so we removed our snowshoes at that point and just hiked in boots.

My Yaesu FT-1DR has become my favorite rig for SOTA activations. It covers both 2m and 70cm with dual-receiver capability. it has a built-in GPS receiver and APRS capability that facilitates easy APRS tracking. Joyce and I have a pair of these which we’ve been using to track each other’s positions on the few occasions we get separated on the trail.

 

 

After we made the summit, I made a few contacts on 146.52 MHz. Thanks to Jim KDØMRC, Dave KØHTX, Carl K5UK and Candy KEØDMT for giving me my four required SOTA contacts.

The weather turned out to be better than predicted…partly cloudy and temps around 50 degrees F. On the way back down, we retraced our ascent path so we had more of a snowshoe trail to follow. I have to admit that this trip was a good lesson in how off-trail snowshoeing can really be a challenge. This was many times more difficult than a summer trail hike of equal length and elevation gain. Trip stats: 2.6 total miles, 1300 vertical feet.

At least, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

73, Bob K0NR

The post Winter SOTA Activation of Kaufman Ridge North 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].