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Two of the big names in radio programming are CHIRP and RT Systems. But which one should you choose?

CHIRP is free, open source software that’s used with a third-party programming cable. RT Systems makes commercial programming kits which include both  software and a radio-specific cable.

CHIRP supports a large number of radios including:

• Anytone
  AT-5888UV
• Baofeng/Pofung
  F-11, UV-3R, UV-5R and variants, UV-6, UV-82/82L/82X, GT-5, UV-82C, UV-B5/B6, BF-666S/777S/888S, GT-1, BF-F8HP
• Icom
  IC-80AD, IC-2820H, ID-800H, ID-880H, IC-208H, IC-2200H, IC-91/92AD, IC-V/U82, ID-RPx000V/RP2x, IC-2100H, IC-2720H, IC-T70, IC-T7H, IC-T8A, IC-Q7A, IC-W32A, IC-746, IC-7200, IC-7000, ID-31A, ID-51A
• Kenwood
  TH-D7A/G, TH-D72, TH-F6A, TH-F7E, TH-G71A, TH-K2, TK-7102/8102/7108/8108, TM-271A, TM-281A, TM-D700, TM-D710, TM-G707, TM-V7A, TM-V71A
• Yaesu
  FT-1D, FT-60R, FT-90R, FT-817/ND, FT-857/D, FT-897, FT-1802M, FT-2800M, FT-1900R/2900M, FT-7800R/7900R, FT-8800R, FT-8900R, FTM-350R, VX-170, VX-2R, VX-3R, VX-5R, VX-6R, VX-7R, VX-8R
• Wouxun
  KG-UVD1P, KG-UV2D, KG-UV3D, KG-UV6D, KG-UV6X, KG-UV8D

The RT Systems software supports a much larger array of radios:

• Alinco
  DJ-A10, DJ-A40, DJ-100, DJ-175, DJ-G7, DJ-G29, DJ-V17, DJ-V27, DJ-V47, DJ-V57, DR-03, DR-06, DR-135, DR-138, DR-235, DR-435, DR-635, DR-638, DX-SR8
• Anytone
  AT-398, AT-518UV, AT-588, AT-3208, AT-3318UV-A, AT-3318UV-C, AT-3318UV-D, AT-3318UV-E, AT-5189, AT-5888UV, ANILE-8R, NSTIG-8R, OBLTR-8R, TERMN-8R
• Baofeng/Pofung
  997-S, BF-F8, BF-F9, BF-388A, BF-530, BF-888, GT-1, GT-3, GT-5, UV-B5/B6, UV-5R, UV-E5, UV-8HX, UV-F11, UV-66, UV-82, UV-89, UV-920, UV-TEN4
• Icom
  IC-R2, IC-T2, IC-R6, IC-Q7, IC-T7, IC-T8, IC-V8, IC-R10, IC-R20, IC-W32, IC-T70, IC-80, IC-V80, IC-T81, IC-U82, IC-V82, IC-V85, IC-T90, IC-91, IC-92, IC-208, IC-746, IC-756 PRO, IC-2100, IC-2200, IC-2300, IC-2720, IC-2730, IC-2820, IC-7000, IC-7100, IC-7200, IC-7410, IC-V8000, IC-9100, ID-31, ID-51, ID-51+, ID-800, ID-880, ID-5100
• Kenwood
  TH-K2, TH-F6/F7, TH-D7G, TH-K20, TH-D72, TM-V7A, TM-V71, TM-271/281, TM-471, TM-D700, TM-G707, TM-D710, TM-D710G, TS-480, TS-590, TS-590G, TS-2000
• TYT
  TH-UVF1, TH-UV3R, TH-UV6R, TH-UV8R, TH-UVF9, TH-UVF9D, TH-UVF8000D, TH-9000,  TH-9800
• Wouxun
  KG-UV23, KG-UV1DP, KG-UV5D, KG-UV6, KG-UV8D, KG-UV899, KG-UV920P, KG-UV950P
• Yaesu
  FT-1D, FT-50, FT-60, FT-90, FT-250, FT-270, FT-277, FT-450, FT-817/D, FT-847, FT-857/897/D, FT-950, FT-991, FT-1500, FT-1802, FT-1807, FT-1900, FT-1907, FT-2600, FT-2800, FT-2900, FT-3000, FT-7100, FT-7800, FT-7900, FT-8000, FT-8100, FT-8500, FT-8800, FT-8900, FT-DX3000, FT-DX1200, FTM-350, FTM-400, VR-160, VR-500, VX-1, VX-2, VX-3, VX-5, VX-6, VX-7, VX-8/D, VX-8G, VX-110/150, VX-120/170, VX-127/177

Both CHIRP and RT Systems support several other less popular radios not listed above.

Here are my questions:

Have you used CHIRP or RT Systems programming software? What are your thoughts?

If you’ve used both, is it worth spending $49 on the RT Systems programming kit if your radio is supported by CHIRP?

Leave your answer as a comment!

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

courtesy: http://www.nrlmry.navy.mil/

In a QSO yesterday with Mike, VE7SKA, on Saltspring Island, he alerted me to what appears to be a possible tropo path forming between here and KL7. Mike is, as far as I know, the only VE7 to have heard the KH6HME 2m tropo beacon (on several occasions) and even had a partial two-way with KH6HME in the 1995 duct to the PNW.

Like our unprecedented early hot and stable weather pattern over the West coast, this path is fairly rare and has never really been explored ... this one appears to be forming a stable path towards Alaska. The predicted conditions can be viewed on Bill Hepburn's World Wide Tropospheric Ducting Prediction page. Select the Eastern North Pacific from the 'Region' drop-down menu and see the map for Saturday.

Perhaps there are some KL7s near the water, or not too far inland and with a clear shot towards the southeast, that would be interested in running some possible tropo tests over the next few days if the path shapes up as predicted in the Bill Hepburn maps for the weekend. Not ever having explored this possible path before might yield some interesting results ... and who knows how far south into Puget Sound a tropo signal from the north might reach? Maybe it's time to find out. Of course, any stations between here and northern KL7 (Prince Rupert?... Juneau? ... Ketchikan?) might also be interested in trying a possible 2m path.
Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

I was able to get out and participate in local Field Day activities with my club, the Benton County Radio Operators. We were out at a private facility out in the country, and ran off of battery and generator power for the event. I worked PSK31 on 20 meters alternating with another club member all day on Saturday. This was the first time I have had my entire station out in the field since building my box. I was also able to use one of my homemade antennas. The chosen antenna for the day was my homemade Buddistick configured for 20 meters. The painters pole holding up the antenna was guyed using parachute cord and three cement blocks as the anchors. The setup was easy to put up and take down and worked well. Since this is the same station and antenna I also use at home, there was really nothing new to try out, so it all had been thoroughly tested before Field Day.

Wayne Patton, K5UNX, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Arkansas, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Radio Memories
By Lawrence E. DeMilner W1TA

The benefits of amateur radio would eventually pay lifelong dividends for a 12 year-old boy, sitting for his Novice license exam 62 years ago. After being interviewed on the Today Show as a Boy Scout, he would later spend seven months as an American ham in the USSR at the height of the Cold War. Later still, he would spend three years as one of the scarcest DX calls in the world. It was all because of amateur radio.

XER – King of the Mexican Border Blasters
By John Schneider W9FGH

From its inception, radio has attracted more than its share of schemers and outright con artists. The story of John Brinkley and his questionable medical services, which allowed him to mass a personal fortune, is the story of one man dodging lawsuits and legislation designed to bring him down. But, before that could happen, he had built the most powerful radio station in the Western Hemisphere and turned it into a cash-generating machine.

When Our Vintage Radios Fought in the Air War
By Richard Fisher KI6SN

From post-war radio frenzies, created by a massive military-surplus market, grew a thirst among shortwave listeners and radio amateurs to acquire the gear that served so admirably in the skies—especially during World War II. Most of these receivers, transmitters and their accessories were top performers, and yet they were quite inexpensive on the surplus market. They were golden back then, just as they are today. Richard charts the history of radio and aviation.

Watts Up? Line Voltage for Vintage Radios
By Rich Post KB8TAD

Recently, Rich Post measured the AC voltage in his home electric circuits: 123.5 volts. According to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), that is well within the accepted service range of 114 to 126 volts for line voltage, which is nominally 120 plus or minus 5%; a range hasn’t changed since the original ANSI standard was published in 1954. He asks, “My refrigerator and microwave oven might be happy at 123.5 or even 126 volts, but what about my vintage radios?” Rich shows us how to safely reduce the voltage that our vintage sets work best at.

Multiple Satellite Reception from a Single Ku-Band Dish (Part 1)
By Mike Kohl

Direct Broadcast Satellites, such as DirecTV and DISH Network, are positioned close enough in the Clark Belt to allow several LNBFs mounted on a single dish to receive the satellites that make up their programming lineup of hundreds of channels. But, Free-to-Air satellites are spaced considerably further apart and transmit at considerably less power. Can FTA hobbyists employ this same technique? Mike has been experimenting with this for years and has achieved some pretty amazing results. He tells us how it’s done.

Scanning America By Dan Veenaman
EDACS, Talkgroups and RF Explorer

Federal Wavelengths By Chris Parris
FBI Aircraft in the News

Utility Planet By Hugh Stegman NV6H
U.S. Navy-Marine Corps MARS Closes

Digital HF: Intercept and Analyze
By Mike Chace-Ortiz AB1TZ/G6DHU
Swiss Diplomatic Network undergoes Changes

HF Utility Logs
By Mike Chace-Ortiz and Hugh Stegman

Amateur Radio Insights
By Kirk Kleinschmidt NT0Z
Six Meters: A New Twist on the Old Magic

Radio 101 By Ken Reitz KS4ZR
The Wi-Fi Scanner, SWL Option

Radio Propagation By Tomas Hood NW7US
The 10.7-cm Radio Flux

The World of Shortwave Listening By Keith Perron
Community-based Radio helps Nepal Recover after Earthquake

The Shortwave Listener By Fred Waterer
Sputnik Radio, BBC and the VOA

Maritime Monitoring By Ron Walsh VE3GO
Maritime Station Consolidation

The Longwave Zone By Kevin O’Hern Carey WB2QMY
BBB-4 Wrap-Up

Adventures in Radio Restoration By Rich Post KB8TAD
Powering the Zenith 5K037 “Farm” Set with AC and Forming a Dial Cover

The Broadcast Tower By Doug Smith W9WI
License? I don’t need no stinking license!

Antenna Connections By Dan Farber AC0LW
Round and Round, Part II: Jolly Green Delta Loop

Radio Horizons
Channel Master DVR+ Adds Streaming to OTA-TV

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 (12 issues, beginning with the January 2015 issue) 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].

I notice that the long distance records for terrestrial QSO's on 2.3 and 3.4GHz were recently broken. The records were set by veteran VHFer N6NB, Wayne Overbeck and W6IT, Greg Campbell. N6NB was operating portable in Hawaii while W6IT was operating Wayne's home station near Orange, California. Both contacts were on SSB. In Overbeck's own words as posted on the Tropo Ducting Reports reflector:

I'd like to post something about my trip to Hawaii for the current tropo duct. This trip has really turned out well so far.

Last week the Hepburn forecast suggested that a duct might form in a few days. So I bought an airline ticket and packed a station for
all bands from 144 MHz through 10 GHz in two large suitcases plus a roll-aboard and a backpack (total weight: 150 pounds). When I got here, I rented a small SUV and built a station in/on it. I made several trips to Home Depot for parts to build a rotating roof platform.

When the duct began on Tuesday, I drove all over Mauna Loa while listening to my own 222.030 MHz beacon in Orange County, Calif. It was a thrill just to hear it 2,500 miles away. By Thursday, the duct seemed to be at its best. Greg, W6IT, activated my hilltop station near Orange, CA and we worked Thursday night on six bands, including 2304 and 3456 MHz, both for new world DX records. I heard Greg well on two more bands, 902 and 5.7 GHz, but so far local QRN in Orange County has prevented him from hearing me on those
two additional bands. Let's hope the duct continues for a little longer so we can try again and also work more stations on the west coast.

I intend to write at least a conference paper and create a PowerPoint show about what I've seen and heard in Hawaii. I've noticed that the KH6HME beacon site, as good as it is, sometimes seems to be above the cloud layer that forms the top of the duct. Thursday night it was about 2,000 feet above the cloud tops. Seeing that, I drove down to 5,200' elevation to work Greg on all those bands. (The beacon site is about 8,200 feet above sea level.) My 222 beacon was definitely louder at lower elevations than at the beacon
site at that time. Friday night I operated at 7,300', which was near the cloud tops and where my beacon seemed loudest then. The size and elevation of the duct seems to vary a lot, perhaps explaining the way the KH6HME beacons vary in relative signal strength, with 432 being a louder at certain times while the 144 beacon is louder at other times. There are some very interesting natural phenomena at work here.

If anyone would like to watch a video of the record-setting 2304 QSO with W6IT, it's online on my website:
www.n6nb.com/2304rcrd.mp4 Thanks to Greg, W6IT, for his able operating on the other end of these QSOs.

73, Wayne, N6NB/KH6

With the present extremely hot stable weather on the west coast, chatter on the PNWVHF reflector suggested that operators on the coast as far up as Washington state should be watchful of any possible DX opportunities should a suitable ducting pattern form between KH6 and the coast.

The difficult and rare path between Washington state and Hawaii has been worked in the past ... lastly in 1995, when some alert '7's' found themselves in KH6HME's logbook. Paul, K7CW and Merle, W7YOZ described an exciting day from Washington state:


Then the JA's on 6 the following evening was almost too much to believe. 

Merle W7YOZ

Although the KH6HME VHF/ UHF beacons are still in operation, sadly, there appears to be no VHFers able to visit the beacon site and work the mainland, should an opening occur. Fred, KH7Y, the most recent beacon caretaker, has since moved back to California, leaving a giant hole in the VHF scene on the big island. I wonder if there is a replacement capable of activating the station?

Even without any operators at the far end, it would be exciting to just hear the VHF beacon(s) in this region. The 2m beacon, now on 144.277MHz, has even been heard here in BC, by Mike, VE7SKA, listening from his hilltop location on SaltSpring Island. Unfortunately no two-way contact was established at the time. Tropo of any kind is a rare event east of Vancouver Island's west coast because of the mountainous terrain.

One of the best ways to follow the formation of favorable conditions is to watch the tropo prediction maps on Bill Hepburn's website as well as the visible west coast weather patterns available here.

An interesting summary of the 1995 openings, as well as the associated weather pattern pictures, makes for fascinating reading on the PNWVHF Society's website, A Brief History of the KH6 Duct Into The Pacific Northwest.



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

Most of the South Plainfield Amateur Radio Club showed up at Spring Lake Park at 10:00 AM or a little beforehand. There was enough pre-Field Day organization that we all pretty much knew what had to be done and what our roles were. Set up went well:

First - set up the antennas, and organize the tent - our "home" for the next 24+ hours.















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