In this episode, Martin M1MRB / W9ICQ is joined by Leslie Butterfield (G0CIB), and Edmund Spicer M0MNG  to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. Colin M6BOY rounds up the news in brief, and this episodes feature is Planning a Ham Radio Christmas.

• Youngsters Build Antennas at Goonhilly
• Blue Heritage Plaque for Radar Pioneer
• New Amateur Radio Licence Guidance
• Tackling Pirate Radio
• Online Survey for UK Amateur Radio Hams
• New Symbol Graphics for APRS
• North Korea Operation
• BBC R&D White Papers
• Netherlands 5 MHz Allocation

Colin Butler, M6BOY, is the host of the ICQ Podcast, a weekly radio show about Amateur Radio. Contact him at [email protected].

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.

Another VE7 has been added to the group of Canadians who will be active tonight and tomorrow night during the CW crossband activity.

VE7CA will be operational during the evening on 475.5kHz. He will be listening for calls on both 3555kHz and 7064kHz. His hours of operation will be from 0300Z - 0500Z. This will be Markus's first operation on 630m and he would be delighted to work anybody that is able to hear him. He will be running ~ 25W output to a large top-loaded vertical, high on the hills of North Vancouver.

Please give a listen for him and make all of his hard work worthwhile!



Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

Just a reminder of the '630 activity event' ... including the crossband CW activity, tonight and tomorrow. The complete operating schedule, showing times and frequencies, can be viewed here.

The sun has been acting-up once again and band conditions have been up and down all week. Another CME is scheduled to arrive at anytime ... the jury is still out on how good or how poor the band might be.

More of a concern is the weather forecast. Very high winds are forecast for the west coast VE7 operators. I'm not worried about losing antennas but more likely, losing the hydro power, as often times the first big windstorm of the fall brings down a lot of branches and  trees ... and that means power outages. So if you don't hear me, or some of the other stations, that may be the reason.

As well, please be patient if signals appear too weak, as the long slow fade-rate on 630m will often result in a huge change just a few minutes later.

If you can possibly give a listen for any of the crossband stations and respond to their CQ's it would be really great ... we hope to see as many of you as possible tonight or tomorrow, weather permitting!
Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

AmateurLogic.TV Episode 84 is now available for download.

George demonstrates Windows 10 on the Raspberry Pi. Tommy talks about DHAP RF Commander. Peter builds the Pixie kit and has a few highlights from the DATV QSO Party. Plus the ‘Cheap Old Man’ is back! Emile gives us a shack update and shows how to time sync your computer over the air with WWVB.

1:12:30

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].

Another VE7 is almost ready to deploy on 630m.

There must be something special in the water in B.C. as it is certainly the present hotbed of 630m activity in Canada!



Markus, VE7CA, in North Vancouver, has been busy building a transmitter and a matching VFO, following the plans of GW3UEP. There must now be dozens and dozens of these robust little transmitters in operation around the world as it is easily reproducible (in various forms) and performs well. See the sidebar links for more details.



As well, Markus has been building the necessary auxiliary gear needed to tune up and resonate his antenna system. His recently constructed variometer and scopematch are shown below.




Some might argue of the necessity for a scopematch, but once you've tried it, you wonder how you could ever live without it ... the scopematch makes tuning the antenna system a very simple step and is an extremely valuable addition to the LF/MF shack.

Markus plans on using his main low band antenna, a large ladder-line fed horizontal loop, as a top-loaded vertical, while resonating the system with base-loading. A homebrew relay-control box at the antenna, takes care of switching between MF and HF.

I had a nice CW QSO today on 476.0 kHz with Toby, VE7CNF. He has made some significant changes at his station and his 20dB over S9 signal reflects his hard work. As well as rebuilding his top-loaded vertical, he has made modifications to his PA. Using a pair of IRFP4227 switching FETs in push-pull, his amplifier now brings him to the maximum EIRP limit of 5W. See a description of Toby's interesting station on his website here. When not on CW, Toby can be heard WSPR'ing, most evenings on 630m.

With the soon-to-arrive VE7CA, we almost have enough activity here in the Vancouver region, for a weekly 630m net or at least a good chance of a random 'CQ' garnering a response. How great it would be to have a VE6 or VE5 to join-in ... what say fellas!
Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

The idea to do something with satellites again came from my wife. She doesn’t want to participate in the radio hobby, but she does see the value of it and gives me lots of encouragement. Back in Holland I made my own Arrow style antenna and heard some amateur satellites, but I was never able to work one.

Lo and behold, right after she mentioned sats I saw a mention of TAMSAT on our local ham chat site. After the CTARL and the CRA this is the third amateur radio club in Taiwan, (although they are closely associated with the CTARL). As luck would have it they had an activity day late last month with lectures and a DIY activity, namely putting together a Mini-circuit’s PGA-103 low noise pre-amp. I went there and made some new friends as well as seeing some familiar faces from the CTARL. Here some impressions….

The opening of the day by BV2OL, who is a teacher at the Taipei City Tech College where the activity day was organized. He is also heading TAMSAT.

BX1AD came from I-lan to hold a talk about the XW-2 or Hope2 satellite range which was launched last September. This was indeed a very interesting talk. BX1AD is one of the most active Taiwanese when it comes to satellites.

BX2AI introduced webSDR receivers and since I am using those too I was able to add some information to the talk.

In the afternoon we put the PGA-103 pre-amp together. All components were of the SMD variety, so a magnifying glass and extra light were more than necessary for the – mostly – old eyes that put together the kit. Here BX2AN and BV2BJ in action.

BV2AP took care of the testing with an R&S spectrum analyzer.

22 dB gain on VHF, a little less on UHF and above.

A big thanks to BV2OL (middle), BV2AP (right), flanked by BV2FB.

Unfortunately I haven’t been able to put the PGA-103 into action, yet. The reason: I don’t have a shack at the moment.

Hans "Fong" van den Boogert, BX2ABT, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Taiwan. Contact him at [email protected].