AmateurRadio.com

I still need these two QSL cards to complete the 13 Colonies special event for 2015.



Of course, it's kind of ironic that one of the two QSL cards that I need would be from the state that I live in - and that my original QSL request was sent to a town just two over from home. I guess I will have to re-send QSL requests to both New Jersey and Delaware.  However, instead of mailing the NJ one, I might just drop it off at the manager's mail box. He lives not far off the route I take to get back and forth from work every day. That way I'd be 1000% sure that he received it.

I've been e-mailing back and forth with my good friend Bob W3BBO. At a recent hamfest, he picked up these:


Yes, this is a Heathkit DX-60 and the accompanying HG-10 VFO. Well actually, he picked up the DX-60 at the hamfest. A friend supplied the HG-10 and advised Bob that it needed some TLC, and that if he could get it working, that he could purchase it at a super reasonable price. Bob has succeeded in getting it to work and he e-mailed me this morning that he is in the process of homebrewing a cable to get the output of the VFO into the DX-60.

That reminded me of a much earlier time, when I had these in my Novice station.



My Novice transmitter was a Drake 2-NT that I had purchased through Burghardt Electronics. I had purchased the Globe V-10 VFO from John Kakstys W2FNT who lived in Linden, NJ which was not too terribly far from East Brunswick, where I was living at the time.  My receiver was the Heathkit HR-1680, which was my very first Heathkit build. That it worked without a hitch the very first time, upon firing it up, still amazes me to this day.


Anyway, I had the transmitter and I had the VFO. What do I do with them? That was the quandary for me at the time. This was 1979, after all. There was no Internet, no Google. I had no Elmer with whom I could speak, other than the instructor who taught the license class I had attended (and I never got his home telephone number). So it was either get the information I needed from a book, QST or go with my gut and improvise.

I improvised.  There was a two conductor cable coming from the output of the VFO.  The 2-NT's crystal socket had two holes for where you would plug in a crystal. I figured that the output from the VFO had to go there - it just seemed reasonable to me. So I took a junk crystal, pried the bottom part off, which left me with a base and pins. Then I soldered the two wires coming from the VFO output to the crystal base pins. I plugged it in, hoping the 2-NT wouldn't know the difference between a crystal and a VFO.  I took a deep breath, muttered a prayer and turned everything on.  I half expected it to blow up, taking me along with it, or to somehow electrocute me.

It didn't.

I connected the 2-NT to a dummy load and adjusted it for the lowest output power I could (see, QRP even way back then, I just didn't know it yet!).  Then I turned on the HR-1680 and keyed the 2-NT to see if I could hear anything.

It worked!

I had successfully hooked up my VFO to my transmitter and did not harm myself or anyone else in the process. Much to my parent's delight, I didn't burn down the house, either!  I used that setup for a lot of QSOs and enjoyed the heck out of it.  After I upgraded to General and bought some equipment capable of doing SSB (silly boy), instead of selling off my Novice station, I donated it to the Handi-Hams, who were pretty much a new organization back then. I guess they must have been desperate for equipment donations at the time, as they gratefully accepted it - homebrewed VFO cable patch job and all.

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].

In the September 2015 QST magazine, there is an article about FSQCALL. This is an interesting digital mode with some free software to send quick, short messages between other hams. It’s meant to be more conversational than PSK – you type a sentence, hit enter, and away it goes. It has some selective calling features that let you address stations individually.

I loaded the software on my Windows 10 desktop, turned on my KX3, and was up and running on 30M with 5 watts in about 5 minutes. The software is pretty simple, especially after watching a couple of videos on YouTube first. I ran into Jim, W1PID, and also talked with Maine, and Texas.

For me, this is a great place to just hang out and see who’s around. No expectation of making endless CQs on 14.070, or sharing signal reports on JT65.

The simplest application for FSQCall is that it provides a ‘watering hole’ for a group of friends who wish to keep in touch and chat occasionally. Experience has shown that leaving your equipment running on 7105 kHz during the day, and 3580 kHz at night, will provide fairly reliable communications over about a 500 – 1000 km range. Depending on propagation, 40m may well work day and night. Only modest power is required. You can leave a message for your friend if they aren’t available, and even use one friend to relay a message to another. The software will tell you who is currently available.

I’m going to play with the message store/forward functionality next. If you didn’t see the QST article, you can read more  from ZL1BPU. Or, take a look at this video:

Michael Brown, KG9DW, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Illinois, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

In the September 2015 QST magazine, there is an article about FSQCALL. This is an interesting digital mode with some free software to send quick, short messages between other hams. It’s meant to be more conversational than PSK – you type a sentence, hit enter, and away it goes. It has some selective calling features that let you address stations individually.

I loaded the software on my Windows 10 desktop, turned on my KX3, and was up and running on 30M with 5 watts in about 5 minutes. The software is pretty simple, especially after watching a couple of videos on YouTube first. I ran into Jim, W1PID, and also talked with Maine, and Texas.

For me, this is a great place to just hang out and see who’s around. No expectation of making endless CQs on 14.070, or sharing signal reports on JT65.

The simplest application for FSQCall is that it provides a ‘watering hole’ for a group of friends who wish to keep in touch and chat occasionally. Experience has shown that leaving your equipment running on 7105 kHz during the day, and 3580 kHz at night, will provide fairly reliable communications over about a 500 – 1000 km range. Depending on propagation, 40m may well work day and night. Only modest power is required. You can leave a message for your friend if they aren’t available, and even use one friend to relay a message to another. The software will tell you who is currently available.

I’m going to play with the message store/forward functionality next. If you didn’t see the QST article, you can read more  from ZL1BPU. Or, take a look at this video:

Michael Brown, KG9DW, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Illinois, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

'ZSJ-258' Sandy Lake, ON

Yes ... it's CLE time once again! For you low-frequency buffs, another challenge awaits. This month's frequency range covers two sections of the MF band, 240-259.9KHz and 420-439.9KHz. Both regions have plenty of targets for North American and European beacon-hunters.

A list of all of the North American  targets in this range can be found in the RNA database, while targets for European DXers will be found here... specify the frequency range wanted and check 'show all results'.

An excellent target for this CLE is 'ZSJ', the Sandy Lake, Ontario NDB (258KHz) shown here. Its 500W signal and big antenna get out very well ... it has been heard in Europe as well as in Hawaii.

From CLE coordinator Brian Keyte (G3SIA) comes the following reminder:


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

Frustrated with that generic programming cable? This $2 solution might just be your ticket to sanity.

Let’s See…You purchased a radio and programming cable, loaded the software, and that’s as far as you’ve gotten.  You’re fighting with error messages: – Radio did not respond – Could not open COM port – Run Time Error and Windows (TM) 10 keeps changing your drivers.Now you do what many owners do. Put the radio in the drawer to be worked on later.  This is like buying a rollaway treadmill and putting it in the closet until the next time you want to exercise.  (NOT gonna happen)But wait, yours has the company name and logo right on the cable. – It doesn’t matter. Keep reading.There are a few options available, such as an  FTDI  cable.  It’s truly Plug ‘n Play, and costs about $20.But here’s a project that just might solve the issue for around $2. All you need is a small flat blade screwdriver, a soldering pencil, and a CP2102 board. CP2102 The CP2102 is a USB to TTL UART chip.   What? Long story short…  It’s the same thing that’s in your current cable now, except these work. CP2102 boards can be found on  eBay  for around $2 and on Amazon. Here’s How Let’s start with that original cable. Take a small screw driver and pry the open the case from the back where the cable enters. It should only be snapped together. Unsolder the 3 wires connected to the board. GND is Black, TX is Red, RX is White Solder the 3 wires to the corresponding terminals on the new board. Note 1: Some boards may have the TxD and RxD reversed. If it doesn’t work the first time, reverse the two wires. No damage has been done. Note 2: Some boards have pins on the back requiring small connectors. You can either remove the pins, solder to them, or use the connectors. Whatever floats your boat. Driver When you insert the new board into the USB port, give Windows a chance to find and load the new driver. Should take about 30 seconds. When it says Driver Found, you’re done. If the driver is labeled CH340 instead of CP210x in Device Manager, that’s not a problem. Both chips are designed to do the same thing. But I don’t have a Cable If you don’t have a generic cable, you can use 2.5 and 3.5mm stereo jacks. Here are the pin outs, and what Jim’s  (KC9HI)  cable looks like. Cosmetics If you are adventurous, try retrofitting the new board inside the original plastic housing.  This will require a Dremel tool, X-Acto knife, Glue, and some patience, but it can be done. If the board only has 5 terminals instead of 6, it’s not an issue. You only need GND, TX and RX. Some come protected with a piece of clear heat shrink over the board so you can see the cool blinking lights. Note 3: If you are trying to retrofit the board inside an existing shell, the red board below is a bit shorter and easier to fit. For a dollar or so more, you can find the same boards in a metal case. What’s the Advantage – First and Foremost, it works. Take the radio out of the drawer, program it and have some fun. – Next, it only cost around $2 to save the generic cable from the trash. – Very Important – Bragging Rights. Now, when you go to a club meeting and someone says they can’t get their cable to work, tell them they can build their own, just as you did. I hope you had fun with this project.  It’s super simple and very rewarding. I’ve made several and never had a failure. Say goodbye to driver issues. My thanks to Jim KC9HI for his input on this project.

John 'Miklor', K3NXU, is a special contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Pennsylvania, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

This was me on the 2m FM net in East Cambridgeshire last night. There were only 3 of us on last night. These days I tend to use WSPR quite a bit as my voice is still pretty poor. We meet on 144.575MHz FM at 8pm local time most Mondays. Note, this is in the all-mode section. Newcomers are always welcome to join us. QSOs are never more than 1 hour and frequently much less.

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

In spite of the recent high levels of geomagnetic disturbance (or maybe because of it), just as it did last year at this time, the path between North America and Australia has sprung to life once again. Last night saw the reception of  both WH2XND (NI7J), in Phoenix and WG2XXM (K5DNL), near Oklahoma City, by VK2XGJ in New South Wales, Australia. Not to be left out, VK2DDI, also in NSW, copied WG2XXM as well. Some of K5DNL's 630m gear can be seen here.

courtesy: John Langridge (WG2XIQ / KB5NJD)

The American beacons were operating in the WSPR mode, which has become very popular amongst 630m experimenters as well as those just interested in listening-in. WSPR is not a QSO mode but strictly a one-way 'beacon' mode. Although two stations may each spot each other, it is not considered to be a valid two-way QSO. A check of evening  WSPR activity will often reveal dozens of stations actively spotting what they are hearing.

VK2DDI runs the Berry Mountain Grabber, providing other VK and ZL experimenters a handy way of checking their system progress or propagation conditions but during good T-P nights, it can be a good place for U.S. stations to watch for their signals as well.

If you have been doing any WSPR work on HF, you might be surprised at what you can hear down on 630m, even without a dedicated antenna for that band. Surprisingly good results can often be had with a non-resonant antenna as the signal to noise ratio can often be better even though signals may sound weaker. Give it a try and spot what you hear!

If you are interested in learning how to receive WSPR, here is a nice tutorial by ZS6SGM. 

Should you be interested in knowing more about obtaining a Part 5 licence to transmit on 630m, John, KB5NJD / WG2XIQ, has a wonderful 630m resource page here, as well as more details about the recent down-under receptions. While there, be sure to check out his up-to-date 630m links page. He can be contacted via email or you can find him hanging-out most nights on the ON4KST kHz (2000-630m) chat page.

To keep on top of what is happening or who is on-the-air, most LF'ers rely on three sources:

• the RSGB LF Group reflector
• the Lowfer list
• the LWCA Message Board 

Radio amateurs in Canada have had 630m as an amateur band since May of last year but unfortunately are not allowed to contact any of the experimental stations. Hopefully the U.S. will also obtain 630m as a ham band some time soon. In the meantime, a Part 5 licence for any U.S. amateurs would be a good way to be all set when that day eventually comes!
Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].