AmateurRadio.com

The certificate for my entry in the 2014 ARRL September VHF Contest arrived in the mail last week. Given that it has been 11 months after the contest, I had pretty much forgotten about the effort. The ARRL VHF contest certificates look great, even if they do take a while to get issued. It turns out this contest entry was the combination VHF contest plus Summits On The Air (SOTA) activation from Mt Herman that I blogged about.

My blog posting said my score was 767 but the actual score was 780. Not a big score by any standard but not bad for ~4 hours of operating on a Saturday afternoon. As I suspected, this sets a new record for the Single Operator Portable category in the Colorado Section. What I did not expect is placing sixth in the overall contest (for my category). For the most part, this was just a really fun SOTA activation that included some VHF contest action.

Summary: The score doesn’t matter; any day having fun with ham radio is a good day.

73, Bob K0NR

The post 2014 September VHF Contest Certificate 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].

SB QST @ ARL $ARLB025
ARLB025 FCC Universal Licensing System, Other Applications to be Down for Maintenance

ZCZC AG25
QST de W1AW
ARRL Bulletin 25 ARLB025
From ARRL Headquarters - Newington CT August 25, 2015

To all radio amateurs

SB QST ARL ARLB025
ARLB025 FCC Universal Licensing System, Other Applications to be Down for Maintenance

FCC website maintenance in early September will make the Universal Licensing System (ULS), the Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS), the Electronic Document Management System (EDOCS) and other public applications unavailable for more than 5 days. The Commission said the outage will begin at 2200 UTC on Wednesday, September 2, and continue through the Labor Day weekend. The maintenance work should be completed by 1200 UTC on Tuesday, September 8. During the ULS outage, it will not be possible to file any Amateur Radio applications.

"[M]ost Commission resources normally accessible through the Commission's website, including access to all electronic filing systems and electronic dockets, will be inaccessible for the same period, with the exception of the Network Outage Reporting System (NORS), the Consumer Help Center (CHC), and the Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS), which will remain available," an FCC Public Notice said on August 20. "The Commission's website will remain available, but with reduced content and limited search capabilities." According to the Public Notice, the FCC will follow its normal schedule of operation during the maintenance period, but voicemail will be offline, and most Commission staffers will not have access to e-mail. Static content webpages on the fcc.gov domain, such as the FCC consumer guides, should remain available during the outage.

The FCC will extend filing deadlines for all regulatory and enforcement filings that fall during the maintenance period. Filings due on September 2, 3, 4, or 8 now will be due on Wednesday, September 9. "Except for the due dates specified herein, we are not automatically extending the deadlines for any other comment or filing periods that will be running during this time period, but requests for extension of time will be considered consistent with the Commission's normal practice," the FCC Public Notice said. "To the extent the due dates for filings to which reply or responsive pleadings are allowed are affected by this Public Notice, the due dates for reply or responsive pleadings shall be extended by the same number of days."

In a blog, "Modernizing the FCC's IT," FCC CIO David Bray said that with the world and the technology we use are changing rapidly, "the information technology used by the Federal Communications Commission must change as well." Bray said the FCC has "made significant progress to upgrade and modernize our infrastructure, and we continue to work on modernizing the FCC's legacy IT systems with the resources we have available."

"We understand that this temporary downtime before and during the Labor Day Weekend may be inconvenient for some FCC stakeholders," Bray added.

NNNN /EX

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

It seems that our medium-frequency NDB CLE's (Co-ordinated Listening Event) go hand-in-hand with solar disturbances and wacky geomagnetic conditions. If you want to know when the next big geomagnetic upset will be, just check the date of the next CLE!


Along with a half dozen M-flares and auroral-producing 'K' indexes of 5-6, most of North America was blanketed with severe thunderstorm activity, always typical of this time of the year. In spite of the poor conditions, several signals did manage to find their way into my log. Sunday night provided the best conditions, with far less thunderstorm activity and a slight improvement in propagation. Saturday night's lightning map looked like this:

courtesy: http://thunderstorm.vaisala.com/explorer.html

courtesy: http://www.noaa.gov/

Loggings in RED where made on Friday night, GREEN on Saturday night and BLUE on Sunday night.

All stations were heard on the Perseus SDR while using my LF 'inverted-L' resonated at 300KHz.

 LOG:

DD UTC    kHz     Call       mi    Location

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
22 06:00 240 BVS   48      Burlington, WA, USA
22 10:00 241 YLL   648    Lloydminster Municipal Apt, AB, CAN
22 12:30 242 ZT    223      Port Hardy, BC, CAN
22 10:00 242 XC   342     Cranbrook, BC, CAN
22 10:00 244 TH   1166     Thompson, MB, CAN
23 07:00 245 YZE 1890    Gore Bay, ON, CAN
22 12:00 245 HNS   865    Haines, ALS
24 09:00 245 FS   1311    ROKKY - Sioux Falls, SD, USA
22 10:00 245 CRR    821     Circle Town County Apt, MT, USA
24 05:00 245 CB   1528    Cambridge Bay, NU, CAN
23 12:00 245 AVQ    1298    Marana Regional Apt, AZ, USA
22 09:00 246 ZXJ   517   Y'Taylor' Fort St. John, BC, CAN
22 09:00 248 ZZP   486     Dead Tree - Queen Charlotte Is, BC, CAN
22 09:00 248 QL   471    Lethbridge, AB, CAN
22 09:00 248 QH    811   Watson Lake, YT, CAN
22 09:00 250 FO   1002    Flin Flon Municipal Apt, MB, CAN
22 12:30 250 2J   220    Grand Forks Municipal Apt, BC, CAN
22 09:00 251 YCD   32    Nanaimo, BC, CAN
22 09:00 251 PWD    850    Plentywood, MT, USA
22 12:30 251 OSE   1708    Oscarville - Bethel Apt, ALS
23 11:30 251 AM   1445     PANDE - Amarillo, TX, USA
24 08:00 253 GB    1324    'Garno' Marshall, MN, USA
22 09:00 254 ZYC   441    Calgary, AB, CAN
22 09:00 254 SM   891    Fort Smith, AB, CAN
24 11:30 256 TQK   1322    Scott City Municipal Apt, KS, USA
22 12:30 256 LSO    188    Kelso - Rocky Point - Kelso, WA, USA
22 12:00 256 EB   537    Namao - CFB Edmonton, AB, CAN
22 09:00 257 XE   757     Saskatoon, SK, CAN
24 09:00 257 SAZ    1329    Staples, MN, USA
22 09:00 257 LW    192    Kelowna - Wood Lake, BC, CAN
22 09:00 258 ZSJ   1324    Sandy Lake Apt, ON, CAN
23 08:00 420 FQ    1422   MONTZ - East Chain, MN, USA
24 09:00 428 POH   1433    Pocahontas Municipal Apt, IA, USA
22 12:00 429 BTS   1571    Wood River - Dillingham, ALS
24 09:00 434 SLB   1410    Storm Lake Municipal Apt, IA, USA
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thankfully, by this time next month and into October, quieter nights and better propagation will prevail ... fall often produces the best propagation of the year and has always been my favorite time of the year, outdoors and at the dials.
Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

OK - I've made the 2015 NJQRP Skeeter Hunt Scoreboard public, the results are as posted.

Congratulations to all of you who participated (you're all winners in my book!), but special congratulations to the "Top Five":

N3AQC - The North American QRP CW Club - First Place Overall - Top finish in PA by a multi-multi station - 14,380 points

KX0R - George Fuller - Second Place Overall - Top finish in CO - Top finish by a single op station - 13,652 points

N0SS - Mid-Missouri Amateur Radio Club - Third Place Overall - Top finish in MO - Top finish by a multi op - single TX station - 7,276 points

N3CU - Ken McIntire - Fourth Place Overall - Top finish in PA by a single op station - 6,148 points

K4YA - Myron Cherry - Fifth Place Overall - Top finish in TN - 6,084 points

The entire scoreboard can be viewed at: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lcRvpNb2jwgyJsqruCdecNiWXNpi6yz2l4vvJucp0UE/edit#gid=307219926

We didn't do too badly this year. 170 Hams signed up for Skeeter numbers (a record) and we had 60 log summaries submitted. That's about a 35% return rate.

As promised, the soapbox page will come shortly and I will announce when it's ready for viewing. Most nights this week will be busy as I will be volunteering with my CERT team for crowd control duties, as the Barclay Golf Tournament is being played out at the Plainfield Country Club, which is about 1/4 mile from my house.  Look for the soapbox announcement some time next week.

Thank you to all of you who sign up and those who participate, and those who help me get the word out about the NJQRP Skeeter Hunt. I'm already looking forward to 2016's event! And as always, if any of you have any suggestions as to how this event can be improved, I'm always willing to listen. Changes were made this year due to someone's input from last year and there was a good suggestion made to me after this year's event which will result in a small change in the way QSO points are calculated next year. I'm all ears, guys!

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!


Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

I know I promised the 2015 NJQRP Skeeter Hunt Scoreboard would be published today, so my recounting of my busy weekend isn't an excuse for not doing that. Actually the spreadsheet has all been compiled and is up on Google sheets, but is being held private for the moment.  I got an e-mail yesterday from Randy KB4QQJ. He had submitted his results last week and did not receive the confirming e-mail from me ...... and that would be because I never received them. So I asked him to re-send ASAP and I will post the link later today or tonight, either way.  If I have to change things around due to his entry after the initial posting, I will - but something will definitely appear at some point later today. From his brief e-mail to me, I don't think his entry will affect the top five finishers.

The weekend was busy chore-wise. And normally, I wouldn't consider that such a great thing. The HF bands have been so crappy, though, that at least I've been too busy to bang my head against that ionospheric brick wall.  The few times I did turn the KX3 on for a few minutes, I thought both my antennas had disappeared, with one exception I will talk about later.

I spent Saturday mowing the lawns, front & back, as well as completing all the trimming in the backyard. It's kind of amazing how much lawn I've reclaimed by beating off and cutting back all my neighbors' flora overhang from my two side fences. Not only does the backyard look bigger now, but mowing the lawn will be easier. Each time I got near the fence on each side of the yard, I was being treated to whaps in the face by low hanging bush branches encroaching from their yards. Not a problem now!

On Sunday, I had the great honor and immense pleasure to be interviewed by Eric Guth 4Z1UG for an upcoming installment of his "QSO Today" podcast. I have no idea when it will actually be released, but someday soon you'll be able to hear my voice and you'll suddenly realize why I've stayed a CW guy all these years!

All kidding aside, it was a fantastic experience. Eric is a warm and friendly person who immediately puts you at ease. It was just like having a QSO with a dear, old friend. The interview lasted for close to an hour, but it felt more like five minutes. Eric has done a lot of really cool podcast interviews with a lot of deserving and interesting Amateur radio ops, so why he selected me is anyone's guess. But you should do yourself a favor and follow the link I provided and listen to some of them. He's performing a great service to the Amateur Radio community by providing fascinating conversations for us to listen to. This series kind of reminds me of the old Edward R. Murrow "Person to Person" TV show, but on an Amateur Radio basis.

After I finished up with Eric, I dove into cleaning up the shack. I'm not proud to admit that over the past few months, it became a dumping ground and a pig sty (however, I am Flying Pig #612, so maybe that's appropriate?). I ended up spending about three hours, cleaning, organizing and pitching "stuff". I ended up filling four of those large 30 gallon green trash bags with stuff I should have tossed a long time ago, but never did. 

As a bonus, I "found" a few items that I have been looking for and had misplaced. For instance, last Winter, I had ordered a few kite winders that I wanted to use for storing the radiator wires for my EFHW antennas. As QRPTTF and FOBB approached, I knew I had them, but I couldn't locate them.  I had put them down in the shack, and just couldn't figure out where - exactly. I found them yesterday and they are now safely in my portable ops backpack. Of course, it's as we approach the end of the outdoor QRP contest season - but I have them. Yay!

I actually have room to move around and breath in there now!  Don't get me wrong .... it's by no means an immaculate shack. I still need to dust and I want to re-hang my DXCC, WPX and QRP-ARCI awards on the main shack wall before I will consider the job done. However, I can now bring a visitor into the shack without fear that they'll be swallowed up like one of those hoarders you see on TV.

I finished up the evening, by returning to the shack after dinner to see how 80 Meters was behaving itself. It sounded relatively quiet, so I guess that's another depressing sign that Autumn is on the way. (My regular readers know that I'm a Spring/Summer kind of guy and that Autumn bums me out because I know that Winter is not far behind.) I plunked down around 3.561 MHz and tried calling CQ for a bit. For my efforts (no real big effort!) I was rewarded with a QSO from Lee K4ISW in Chartlottesville, VA.  Lee just recently acquired a K3S and I was one of his first week's worth of QSOs on the new rig. Lee's K3S sounded great and Lee sounded happy - so I'm thinking a win/win situation is occurring at the K4ISW shack.

80 Meters sounded great after a Spring and Summer filled with static crashes and loud background QRN.  The return of 80 and 160 Meters into useful Amateur Radio bands is the ONLY good thing about Fall and Winter, in yours truly's humble opinion.

Take care guys/gals - QRP and CW on!

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Your friends at AmateurLogic are proud to announce our 10th Anniversary Contest.
Someone is going to win a complete HF base station thanks to Icom and MFJ.

Get the complete details and rules at www.amateurlogic.tv/contest

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].

Quick notes on converting the HP ES120 2950-watt blade server power supply to run “48-volt” amateur radio amplifiers.  The power supply I have has a slightly different in configuration from the one described by W8ZN on the K8GP site.

I picked up the power supply on good terms at Dayton some years ago and finally managed to get around to hooking it up after I put two 240-volt, 20-amp circuits in my shack this spring/summer.  I used a molded air conditioner extension cord with the female end cut off to attach it to the wall.  Hot-ground-hot is the wiring on the AC input side.  On the output, there is a jumper block and two pairs of blade connectors, with one pair being positive and the other negative, strapped together.  In the middle of the output there is a jumper block.

Here is where the steps differ from the W8ZN steps:  instead of shorting two pairs of pins together, this power supply requires three in a line to be shorted together.  It’s visible in the photo below, I think.  The center row.

I’m getting 51.4 volts unloaded.  Load will be described in the future as it comes to be…

Ethan Miller, K8GU, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Maryland, USA. Contact him at [email protected].