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International Ham Radio News & Opinion

Yaesu rebate (UK/ Europe)

27 June 2015 | by Roger G3XBM | Leave a Comment (1)

I see MLS is offering rebates on Yaesu gear for the next few weeks. The rebate on the FT817 is £36, making the effective retail price around £413. As far as I can see this is just a marketing ploy. A few years ago you could buy the FT817 for £349.

With the very good exchange rate currently I am surprised they don’t just slash the price and clear the shelves ready for the replacement. All development costs for the FT817 were recovered years ago, so the true retail price should be below £400. Yet again we are being taken for a ride I think.

The prices are as they are because we, Joe Public, is prepared to buy at these prices. My heart bleeds for all the poor dealers.

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

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Amateur Radio Weekly – Field Day Issue

27 June 2015 | by Cale K4HCK | Leave a Comment (0)

2015 Field Day locator
Field Day is June 27-28, 2015. This page is intended to show public Field Day sites that members of the public and media can visit.
ARRL

How do you choose where to go for Field Day?
The “get on the air” station is designed to get new hams and members of the general public on the air and let them make contacts.
KB6NU

Good operating habits on Field Day
Give a listen and notice how K5PO keeps the contacts short and to the point, clearly communicating using phonetics.
K0NR

Significant solar event may impact Field Day
SWPC has issued a Moderate (G2) geomagnetic storm watch for June 27 and 28. This is significantly weaker than the storm that peaked at Severe (G4) levels earlier this week.
Indiana Section ARES / NOAA

W1AW Field Day Bulletin schedule
All classes of Field Day stations can earn 100 bonus points for copying the special Field Day bulletin transmitted by W1AW.
ARRL

MF demonstration for ARRL Field Day 2015
Many of us that are active Part 5 stations on 630 meters are planning on repeating the Field day greeting event during ARRL Field Day.
NJDTechnologies

Field Day publicity
Club members attempting to tell what’s happening at their Field Day site need to avoid ham radio jargon. “Be ‘less hammy’ about it.”
ARRL

ISS voice contacts for Field Day 2015?
Possibly no FM voice contacts like we enjoyed last year for Field Day, but program Region 1 and Region 2/3, Packet, and SSTV and be ready–just in case!
Southgate

Camping and talking this weekend during Field Day
Hams, who set up radio stations outdoors and run them on generators, will try to contact as many stations as possible during a 24-hour period.
The Advertiser

Video

2014 Field Day
Contacts were of a secondary concern this year, as we all focused on experimentation with radios, power, and antennas.
KF7IJZ

Field Day from space
Astronaut Reid Wiseman (KF5LKT) describes his experience working Field Day from space.
AMSAT UK

2014 Field Day ISS contact
Surrey Amateur Radio Club makes contact with ISS during last year’s Field Day event.
YouTube

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.

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Ham College episode 6

27 June 2015 | by George W5JDX | Leave a Comment (1)

Ham College episode 6 is now available for download.

Ham College, the new show for those new to the hobby and those wishing to get into Amateur Radio.

In episode 6 we talk about and demonstrate diodes. More questions and answers from the Technical class question pool.

1:01:48

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].

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Getting ready for Field Day

26 June 2015 | by Larry W2LJ | Leave a Comment (0)

"Oh, the weather outside is frightful, but the radio is so delightful .... And since we have nowhere to go .... let it rain, let it rain, let it rain!"

That may very well be the tune we'll be singing this Field Day 2015. And we're supposed to be luckier than a lot of our fellow Hams in NY, CT, MA and PA. Our little patch of Central New Jersey should see just under an inch of rain, while some of those other spots are supposed to see a lot more. And it will all be a matter of timing. Looking at WeatherUnderground, we just may luck out with the heaviest rain falling AFTER set up and ending BEFORE tear down.

So the intrepid Hams from the South Plainfield Radio Club will do our best to stay high and dry as we put NJ2SP on the air for a second year. This year, we will be 3A Battery with a GOTA station in the mix. The Mayor and Town Council have already declared this week to be Amateur Radio Week in our town. The Proclamation was presented last Monday evening.

I wasn't there for the presentation - I was picking up Marianne from the hospital, but my buds were there!

In addition, the Office of Emergency Management procured a tent for us, so we should remain dry and comfortable despite whatever Mother Nature may dish out.

SPARC in the Park - Field Day 2015

Listen for us! We will have a KX3 for SSB, a KX3 for CW and FT-817 for Digital and I think a FT-897 for the GOTA station, which will use call sign KD2FSI. Our antennas will be the EARCHI EFHW for CW, a Tri-band Yagi (using a 20' extension ladder as a tower), and a W3EDP for the lower bands for SSB. The GOTA station will have a 10 Meter beam for its use.

We will be operating totally from battery again this year. No generator, except for a short while that will power a TV monitor that we will be using for an "educational event". We have local Boy and Girl Scout troops heading over for a lesson on radio. We also have ARRL and Town dignitaries scheduled to visit, so it will be an eventful weekend.

I really should have taken Monday off from work - hindsight is 20/20.

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].

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CLE 195 Results

26 June 2015 | by Steve VE7SL | Leave a Comment (0)

Propagation conditions co-operated for the recent CLE weekend but the weather did not. The high level of lightning activity resulted in some stations hearing just a fraction of what they usually hear in the 270 - 319KHz region. Although most of the lightning was a few states / provinces to my east, the results here were the same, with noise levels receding by ~18db when sunrise arrived over the lightning-affected regions.

It seems that almost everybody logged 500-watter YQ-305 in Churchill, Manitoba except me as this monster eluded me all weekend ... yet little 25-watter, YPM, in Pikangikum, Ontario made it through in fine form ... very odd.

The following stations were logged, all on the first night of the three-evening affair, with no new catches being added after night one:

20 07:00 272 XS 343 Prince George, BC, CAN
20 08:00 274 YPM 1299 Pikangikum Apt, ON, CAN
20 10:00 274 FR 928 Fort Resolution, NT, CAN
20 08:00 275 GEY 779 Greybull, WY, USA
20 11:00 278 1U 521 Masset Municipal Apt, BC, CAN
20 11:00 281 CRN 1510 Cairn Mtn - Sparrevohn LRRS, ALS
20 11:00 283 DUT 1867 Dutch Harbor - Unalaska Apt, ALS
20 09:00 284 QD 1014 The Pas Municipal Apt, MB, CAN
20 11:00 284 FHR 26 Friday Harbor Apt, WA, USA
20 09:00 286 EKS 600 Ennis - Big Sky Apt, MT, USA
20 10:00 287 PE 560 Peace River, AB, CAN
20 10:00 290 YYF 171 Penticton, BC, CAN
20 10:00 292 ZET 518 Devon - Edmonton IAP, AB, CAN
20 10:00 293 MB 18 Mill Bay - Sidney, BC, CAN
20 10:00 295 8C 537 Fairview Municipal Apt, AB, CAN
20 11:00 296 LGD 349 La Grande, OR, USA
20 09:00 299 TV 417 Turner Valley, AB, CAN
20 10:00 302 QW 705 North Battleford, SK, CAN
20 10:00 304 FH 485 Mc Leod (Whitecourt), AB, CAN
20 09:00 305 Z1 484 Three Hills, AB, CAN
20 11:00 305 ONO 448 Ontario Municipal Apt, OR, USA
20 10:00 307 M5 605 Manning, AB, CAN
20 10:00 308 ZZD 515 Calmar (Edmonton Intl Apt), AB, CAN
20 10:00 311 9Y 421 Pincher Creek, AB, CAN
20 11:00 312 UNT 173 Naramata, BC, CAN
20 10:00 317 VC 873 La Ronge, SK, CAN

CLE organizer, Brain Keyte, made the following comments in his CLE summary:

Most listeners seemed to be more affected by the natural QRN than by DGPS Stations' QRM.
Europe seemed to be relatively lucky with less static interference, especially for those able to pick their listening times.

We covered the same frequencies back in March last year. Surprisingly, Europe's reception statistics showed very little difference. The rest of the world had the more normal summertime problems, perhaps also a bigger loss of active NDBs, and some of their overall reception statistics (number of NDBs heard and total distance) were 50% lower.

The highest 'rest of the world' NDBs count, unsurprisingly, was achieved by Edgar 'down under'. It must be quite hard for many of us who are 'up over' and trying to keep cool, to imagine his mid-winter conditions!

CLE196 will be over the weekend of 24-27 July.

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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I fancy some 472kHz WSPR!

26 June 2015 | by Roger G3XBM | Leave a Comment (0)

It is ages since I was active on 472kHz, so I might fire up the FT817 and transverter to see if anyone can spot my 5mW ERP or I can spot others. I shall use the earth-electrode “antenna” and go QRT on 6m to free up the FT817.

It is summertime, so noise levels will be higher, making my weak signal harder to copy than in the winter. It will take me about 5 minutes to swap bands and reset everything. The FT817 has to be set to 500mW and split mode so I receive directly on the 472kHz band but TX on the 80m band into the transverter.

If you copy me on 472kHz WSPR please report it.

UPDATE 2009z: Well, that was a good start! I just switched to MF and received 2 spots by G8HUH in IO81mg (250km) in daylight. I shall now leave 474.2kHz WSPR running overnight to see what else happens. With 5mW (maybe less) ERP I am quite happy with his -26/-27dB S/N reports.

UPDATE 2126z: So far G8HUH (250km) has spotted me 10 times this evening. I have spotted no-one and no-one else has spotted me, as yet.

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

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Mr. Carlson’s Lab – A YouTube Treasure

24 June 2015 | by Steve VE7SL | Leave a Comment (27)

I recently watched two superb YouTube videos. The first described exactly how to determine the 'shielded' side of a fixed capacitor and the importance of knowing this information.

As you have probably noticed, most modern fixed capacitors no longer indicate the 'grounded' end or the lead going to the internal shielding. At one time, the capacitor's polarity was commonly marked with a band on one end but this is no longer the case ... even though one side is indeed still the shielded side. Depending on exactly what part of the circuit your fixed capacitor is being used in, connecting it in the reverse direction (shield going to signal side), can introduce hum, RF pickup, instability and generally result in poorer capacitor / circuit performance ... and all it takes to determine which lead is which is an oscilloscope!

The second video I viewed shows the process used to resurrect a Yaesu FT-1000MP in truly terrible condition. In a very professional step-by-step process the video shows the logical and systematic approach at making the radio better than new.

Both videos are done by a truly gifted engineer, Paul Carlson, VE7ZWZ, and are exceptionally well done ... the quality one would expect to have to pay for rather than freely view on YouTube.

If you visit Paul's YouTube channel, you'll find a host of other radio and audio-related videos and I guarantee that you will learn something of value ... and probably hang around to watch several more. They are really well done.

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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