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The Spectrum Monitor — December, 2015

3 December 2015 | by Ken KS4ZR | Leave a Comment (0)

tsm201512

Stories you’ll find in our December, 2015 issue:

A Virtual Tour of WEAF in 1927
By John F. Schneider W9FGH

The iconic radio station WEAF in New York City began in 1922 as a grand experiment by the Western Electric Company, a subsidiary of AT&T. Western Electric was interested in exploiting its collection of radio patents, which it believed would allow it to corner the market in the exploding field of radio broadcasting. The station went on the air August 16 of that year from an antenna atop the eleven-story Western Electric Building at 463 West Street. WEAF was initially conceived by AT&T as a “toll broadcaster,” a radio-station-for-hire, with blocks of program time that would be leased to anyone that wanted to broadcast. Later, WEAF began broadcasting from a new transmitter site located in more rural surroundings on Maple Avenue in Bellmore, Long Island, 28 miles East of New York. John gives us a tour of this historic radio station.

Variacs 101: Answering those Questions
By Rich Post KB8TAD

One of the most useful tools for vintage radio repair and restoration is the Variac. All it does is vary the line voltage from zero to full and, depending on its connections, beyond full line voltage. It can be found in the chemistry lab, in older hotels and theaters for varying the lighting levels, as noise-free dimmers in recording studios, and as a way to gently warm up guitar amps from a cold start. It has been used to control the heating of soldering irons, to carefully adjust coffee roasters, and to increase the life of older incandescent Christmas lighting. And, of course, for radio restoration, it allows an older radio to be powered-up gently and at reduced voltage.

Retro Radio: Antique Radio Classics and the People Who Love Them
By Richard Fisher KI6SN

The dulcet tones of Dinah Washington, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, The Andrews Sisters and Etta James no longer float through the air from the more than 2,500 radios consuming Barry Dagestino’s three-car garage and a nearby 1,000 square foot storage unit. The singers may be gone, but many of the radios that brought their voices to bygone generations are very much alive today—dusted off, rewired, restored and glowing from side tables and mantel pieces around the world. This first of the two-part TSM “Retro” series on Antique and Vintage Radio opens a window on broadcast band and shortwave receiver collectors, calling on the advice of experts to tell us how to get started in this fascinating niche of hobbyist communications.

Cutting the Cord: Part 1
By Mike Kohl

Much has been written in the mainstream press during the past several years about the subject of cord-cutting, which is the act of dropping cable-TV and other subscription services for less costly and sometimes totally free alternatives. This article is a primer on the options now available to most consumers, with future articles going into how-to details that will attempt to compare those options so that one can form an opinion about how to save money on home entertainment delivery.

Digitally Speaking By Cory GB Sickles WA3UVV
P-25 Networking: Staying Digital

Scanning America By Dan Veenaman
Scanning the Mall of America and DFW Airport

Federal Wavelengths By Chris Parris
Year End Wrap Up; Reader’s Submissions

Utility Planet By Hugh Stegman NV6H
Big Month for Russian Military Monitoring

Radio Intrigue By Don Schimmel
Old FAPSI Intercepts

Digital HF: Intercept and Analyze By Mike Chace-Ortiz AB1TZ/G6DHU
More on US Government 5-Letter Network

HF Utility Logs By Mike Chace-Ortiz and Hugh Stegman

Amateur Radio Insights By Kirk Kleinschmidt NT0Z
Forgotten Antenna Fundamentals and other Curious Tidbits: Part 1

Radio 101 By Ken Reitz KS4ZR
Timely News with a Global Perspective and some Great Music

Radio Propagation By Tomas Hood NW7US
NASA’s Solar Fleet Peers Into Coronal Cavities

The World of Shortwave Listening By Rob Wagner VK3BVW
Preparing for your next DXpedition

The Shortwave Listener By Fred Waterer
Christmas Radio Around the World

Amateur Radio Satellites By Keith Baker KB1SF/VA3KSF
A Whole Host of New Satellites

The Longwave Zone By Kevin O’Hern Carey WB2QMY
Miscou 2015 Recap

Adventures in Radio Restoration By Rich Post KB8TAD
In Command again, a pair of ARC-5 and SCR-274N aircraft transmitters: Part 1

The Broadcast Tower By Doug Smith W9WI
Going out with a Bang!

Antenna Connections By Dan Farber AC0LW
Year-End Quiz: Test Your Antenna Knowledge!

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.

Ken Reitz, KS4ZR, is publisher and managing editor of The Spectrum Monitor. Contact him at [email protected].

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CLE 200 Results

3 December 2015 | by Steve VE7SL | Leave a Comment (0)

The CLE 200 event this past weekend once again delivered mediocre propagation on all three evenings. In spite of Sunday night's G1-class geomagnetic storm and high K values, Sunday's overnight period proved to be the best of the weekend's generally 'below average' conditions ... this is the time of the year that LF propagation is usually at its best. Thankfully, there are still several months ahead that could offer some really great mid-winter prop.

The following NDBs were logged using the Perseus SDR along with my LF inverted L, resonated at 300kHz:

28 09:00 335 CC Concord, CA, USA
28 09:00 335 CVP Helena, MT, USA
28 08:00 335 YUT Repulse Bay, NU, CAN
28 06:00 335 YLD Chapleau, ON, CAN
28 09:00 336 LF La Salle, MB, CAN
28 13:00 337 FF Fergus Falls, MN, USA
28 09:00 337 7D Hudson Bay, SK, CAN
28 12:00 338 CMQ Campbell Lake, ALS
28 09:00 338 ZU Whitecourt, AB, CAN
28 12:00 338 RYN Tucson, AZ, USA
30 08:00 338 SHL Sheldon, IA, USA
28 07:00 338 TU Tulsa, OK, USA
28 12:00 338 YPX Puvirnituq, QC, CAN
28 12:00 338 K Port Angeles, WA, USA
28 10:00 339 6X York Landing, MB, CAN
28 10:00 339 MKR Glasgow, MT, USA
29 06:00 340 YY Mont Joli, QC, CAN
28 13:00 341 ELF Cold Bay, ALS
28 10:00 341 OIN Oberlin, KS, USA
29 06:00 341 YYU Kapuskasing, ON, CAN
28 09:00 341 DB Burwash, YT, CAN
28 09:00 342 PFT Pinecreek, MN, USA
28 09:00 343 YZH Slave Lake, AB, CAN
28 09:00 344 YOP Rainbow Lake, AB, CAN
28 09:00 344 XX Abbotsford, BC, CAN
28 09:00 344 FCH Fresno, CA, USA
28 09:00 344 BKU Baker, MT, USA
28 09:00 344 POY Powell, WY, USA
30 08:00 345 GF Grand Forks, ND, USA
30 08:00 346 OLT Soldotna, ALS
28 09:00 346 YXL Sioux Lookout, ON, CAN
28 15:00 347 TNC Tin City, ALS
28 13:30 347 DJN Delta Junction, ALS
28 06:00 347 LEN Leeny, ID, USA
28 15:00 347 SBX Shelby, MT, USA
30 08:00 347 YK Yankton, SD, USA
28 09:00 347 PA Prince Albert, SK, CAN
30 08:00 348 MC Mason City, IA, USA
28 07:00 348 MNC Shelton, WA, USA

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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Can anybody hear me

3 December 2015 | by Richard AA4OO | Leave a Comment (3)

Calling QRP CQ - Inconceivable

My 80m OCF Dipole has been a surprisingly good antenna and I've made contacts with it on all bands except 6m and 160m. Based on my past experience trying to tune up short antennas on 160m I really hadn't considered trying to use this Windom for 160m. But through some email exchanges with another ham in Illinois who had recently put up a 160m antenna we decided to try a scheduled QSO on the top band. So it was time to give the Windom a shot on 160m.

Amazingly my 80m Windom / OCF Dipole has 4.5:1 SWR native around 1.8 mHz and it matches easily with a tuner across the entire 160m band. That was a surprise.

I tossed my mighty 5 watts call out at 1810 kHz not expecting much...

Within a minute of calling CQ I had a faint QRP station from Maine tried to work me. After about 4 tries I finally copied his call correctly but then lost him. Immediately another station called me and we exchanged the niceties of signal reports, location, rigs and weather. I received a nice 579 report for my 5w and I gave him a 599+ report for his thundering kilowatt station. He needed to work my County so I was glad to be able to provide him with the contact. Following that call the former QRP station from Maine was back in there and finally we worked each other. We had a nice QRP to QRP QSO on the top band. He gave me a 549 report but he was using a 400 ft beverage receive antenna. I was struggling a bit more to copy him through local QRM on my side and a less qualified receive antenna and reported his signal as 339.

Those were my first two contacts on 160m using CW. Who'd have thought my cloud burner antenna and QRP power would get me such quick results on the top band. I just figured no one would hear me.

So how do you know if and where your signal is getting out ?

The Reverse Beacon Network

I had to quit right after those two QSOs but when I later checked my email the original station with whom I'd planned the scheduled QSO reported that although he had not heard me he said I was getting out and sent me a link to something called the reverse beacon net showing a couple of stations that were hearing me on 1810 kHz.

You mean I can find out in near realtime if and where my signal is being heard by an automated system? No way! That is cooler than a Ronco Pocket Fisherman. Recall that I'm relatively new at this stuff and this may be old hat for a lot of you. But the ability to toss out your call and in real-time check where your signal is getting to just warms the push-pull final transistor in my heart.

The Reverse Beacon Network can give you the last 100 reports of your station. So I took a look and saw some of my weekend activity where I was shooting some fish in a barrel (I mean working contest stations) and there were beacon reports of my call from such places as far South as the Antilles and as far West as Utah.

Map of the last 100 reports from Reverse Beacon stations of my call sign
Color coded by band

So the reverse beacon network report tells you what station heard you, the frequency, the signal to noise ratio (higher is better) and your word per minute (wpm) speed.

It even includes a speedometer

Being a new CW dude my word per minute speed is of interest to me. Most of my QSOs in the past week have been at 15-16 wpm. I'm using a Vibroplex Bug I received last weekend and have slowed it down with a home-made weight attached to a drywall anchor pressed on the end of the pendulum. I found it interesting that some beacon stations reported me at 19-23 wpm. I looked at the time and the frequency and realized that the higher speed was from my first on-air QSO using the Vibroplex Bug with N4HAY before I slowed it down with my junk box bug tamer.

My brief speed key session with N4HAY

So if you are using a manual key and don't know what speed you are sending just check out a beacon to see what speed they are reporting.

Summary

This reverse beacon stuff has been around a while. So unless you're a newbie like me you probably already knew about it. But if you haven't used before it's very cool, especially with regard to knowing how your QRP station is being heard. Are you making it 1000 mile per watt? Is your antenna propagating East, West, North or South. How and where is the skip? This answers many questions that I had been wondering about as I'm operating. A shiny new toy, just in time for Christmas

So that's all for now.

So lower your power and raise your expectations

73/72

Richard N4PBQ

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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More Low Noise Vertical (LNV) Construction

1 December 2015 | by Steve VE7SL | Leave a Comment (1)

New LNV At WG2XKA

The low-noise vertical discussed here previously, has recently been implemented by at least three of the 630m experimental stations. John, WG2XKA / WA3ETD, along with Ken, WG2XXM / K5DNL and John, WG2XIQ / KB5NJD, have all constructed versions of this receiving antenna after reading about the details here.

John's antenna, pictured above, is described in more detail here, along with some nice pictures of his matching transformer.

All stations report good results with the antenna so it may be something you might want to consider if your present receiving antenna is a noise-collector.

For those interested in getting started on 630m, John (WG2XIQ), has a ton of inspiring information available on his website here as does John (WG2XKA) on his site here.

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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CQ-DATV mags free

30 November 2015 | by Roger G3XBM | Leave a Comment (0)

See http://cq-datv.mobi/ebooks.php .

CQ-DATV is available for free download. I have not tried amateur TV but some remarkable results are being achieved by DATV in the 146-147MHz band. Like all things in our hobby, you can only do so much. I think the use of digital techniques has given amateur TV a new lease of life.

Roger Lapthorn, G3XBM, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cambridge, England.

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Weekly Propagation Summary – 2015 Nov 30 16:10 UTC

30 November 2015 | by Tomas NW7US | Leave a Comment (0)

Here is this week’s space weather and geophysical report, issued 2015 Nov 30 0318 UTC.

Highlights of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 23 – 29 November 2015

Solar activity was at very low levels with the exception of 23 and 25 November. Region 2454 (N14, L=121, class/area Dai/150 on 23 Nov) produced a few C-class events, the largest a C8/1f at 23/0228 UTC. Between 24/1130-1530 UTC, SDO/AIA 193 and 304 imagery observed a 20 degree long eruption, centered near S10W00, along a NW to SE oriented filament channel. No Earth-directed coronal mass ejections were observed during the period.

No proton events were observed at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit reached moderate levels on 23-27 November but decreased to normal levels on 28-29 November.

Geomagnetic field activity was at quiet levels from 23-26 November. Mostly quiet levels were observed with a few isolated unsettled periods on 27-29 November and a single active period observed during the 29/2100-2400 UTC synoptic period due to prolonged negative Bz and slightly elevated solar wind speed.

Forecast of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 30 November – 26 December 2015

Solar activity is expected to be at very low to low levels 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 normal to moderate levels for the majority of the period with the exception of 03-05 December, 08-09 December and 11-15 December following several recurrent coronal hole high speed streams (CH HSS).

Geomagnetic field activity is expected to be unsettled to active on 30 November-02 December with minor storm periods expected on 01 December due to a recurrent positive polarity CH HSS. Quiet to unsettled levels are expected from 03-05 December. Isolated active periods are likely again on 06-07 December and 10 December as two subsequent positive polarity CH HSSs become geoeffective respectively. Quiet to unsettled conditions are expected to dominate the remainder of the forecast period.

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

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Next Stage

30 November 2015 | by Mike AD5A | Leave a Comment (0)

Effective January 4th, 2016, I will be officially retired from the working world. A few key points contributed to my decision.

I've been working 40 years and that's enough
I've been married 40 years and that's, well, that's good
Both of my sons have lost their hair
My oldest grandson is 6' 2" tall

I think you would agree that these are all key indicators that it's time to be doing more or less, what you want to do.

I have a great job and work with great people and if I were mad about something this decision would have been a lot easier, but there comes a time when you know it's time to move on and that time has come for me. I still have my health and at this point I'm not willing to trade healthy years for a few more dollars.

So more radio, more golf, more hunting, more camping and hiking. And I hope, more blogging.

Mike Crownover, AD5A, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Texas, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

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