It's time to dust-off that precious old Vibroplex, or any other type of bug, and give it a work out! The W6FSM Bug Roundup will take place on Saturday, May 16th at 1400Z through 1400Z (Sunday). This is 0700 PDT to 1900 PDST ... a full 12 hours of old-time CW delight.

Sponsoring the event is the Samuel F. Morse Amateur Radio Club (W6SFM) of Sacramento, CA. Detailed information may be found at their website, located here.

The club page describes the event as :

"a special time to bring bug operators together on the air. In the same spirit as ARRL's Straight Key Night, participants are encouraged to make simple, conversational, “chewing-the-fat” QSOs using their bug type key. This is an opportunity to exercise, share and exhibit your personalized fist. This is NOT a contest. Call "CQ BR" so folks know you are a Bug Roundup Participant."

You may have guessed by now that I love CW and always have, since learning the 'code' as an eleven-year old in Scouts! Our Scoutmaster had procured several sets of beautiful boxed Aldis signalling lamps, the same as shown below:

Image Courtesy: http://www.museumoftechnology.org.uk

As it turned out, I was the only one in the group that stuck it out long enough to learn any code and was thusly appointed the 'chief operator' of the lamp. Unfortunately, learning the code visually with flashcards, made it even harder to later learn CW by sound as, for many months, I had to convert the sound of the CW back to the picture of it in my head, before identifying the letter...thankfully my brain was still empty enough at the time, that I was able to overcome the unintended curve-ball.

Our leader worked in the Marine Building, the tallest building at the time, in downtown Vancouver.

Marine Building circa 1947. Courtesy: http://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/

The extra sets were distributed to several of the other local troops and numerous evenings were spent, at the very top of the building, working all of the other stations. It was usually cold and windy and most of the guys just wanted to go home but I loved it and could have stayed all night....it seems that there was little hope for me, even at that age! When it came to CW I was hooked and even today, almost 100% of my operating is on CW.

It's nice to see events like this and the ARRL's "Straight Key Night" along with clubs like the, "SKCC" , "FISTS", "FOC" and "The CW Operators' Club", all doing their best to keep CW alive. 

Hopefully you will have some time to play in the coming "BR".
Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

Here is this week’s space weather and geophysical report, issued 2015 Apr 13 0314 UTC.

Highlights of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity
06 – 12 April 2015

Solar activity was at low to moderate levels throughout the period.
Region 2320 (S12, L=211, class/area=Dac/180 on 07 Apr) produced an
M1/1b flare at 1443 UTC on 08 April and Region 2321 (N13, L=094,
class/area=Ekc/610 on 12 Apr) produced a long-duration M1/Sf flare
at 0950 UTC on 12 April, which were the largest events of the
period. In addition to the R1 (Minor) radio blackouts, Regions 2320
and 2321 produced numerous low to mid-level C-class flares
throughout the week and were the most productive active regions of
the period. A coronal mass ejection (CME) associated with the M1/Sf
flare from Region 2321 was first observed in SOHO/LASCO C2
coronagraph imagery at 0948 UTC on 12 April, but was directed well
east of the Sun-Earth line.

Region 2320 produced a C3/1f flare at 1906 UTC on 06 April, with
associated Type-II and Type-IV radio emissions, which resulted in a
CME that was visible in coronagraph imagery beginning at 1936 UTC on
06 April. This CME impacted Earth early on 10 April, causing periods
of moderate geomagnetic storms. See "Geomag" portion below
for further information.

Toward the end of the period, Region 2320 produced a C6/Sf flare at
2329 UTC on 12 April with associated Type-II radio emissions. A
subsequent coronal mass ejection (CME) was first visible in
SOHO/LASCO C2 coronagraph imagery at 12/2348 UTC but analysis is
ongoing to determine if this event has an Earth-directed component.

No proton events were observed at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit reached
moderate levels on 06-09 April and at normal levels for the
remainder of the period.

Geomagnetic field activity was at quiet to unsettled levels for
06-09 April under a nominal solar wind regime. The 06 April CME
impacted Earth just after 0000 UTC on 10 April, enhancing the
geomagnetic field. As the 06 April CME passed the Earth, 10 April
began with periods of G1 (Minor) geomagnetic storm conditions
between 0000-0300 UTC and 0600-0900 UTC and an isolated period of G2
(Moderate) geomagnetic storm period between 10/0300-0600 UTC. Active
conditions were observed between 10/0900-1500 UTC with quiet to
unsettled levels observed over the remainder of 10 April. Active
conditions were observed once again for the first half of 11 April
as residual CME effects continued to subside but the latter half of
11 April was quiet to unsettled. Quiet conditions were observed on
12 April.

Forecast of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity
13 April – 09 May 2015

Solar activity is likely to be at moderate (R1-R2/Minor-Moderate)
levels throughout the period, with the exception of 25-26 April, due
to the flare potential of Regions 2320 (S12, L=211) and 2321 (N13,
L=094).

No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit, barring any
significant flare activity.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is
expected to reach high levels on 21-24 April and 04-09 May, moderate
levels on 17-20, 25-28 April, and 01-03 May, and normal levels for
the remainder of the period.

Geomagnetic field activity is expected to be at G1 (Minor)
geomagnetic storm levels on 17 and 30 April with active conditions
expected for 16, 25, 29 April and 01 May, all due to coronal hole
high speed stream effects. Quiet to unsettled field activity
expected for the remainder of the period.

Don’t forget to visit our live space weather and radio propagation web site, at: http://SunSpotWatch.com/

Live Aurora mapping is at http://aurora.sunspotwatch.com/

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Back to life again

It's time to solder in the new P30 and P35 headers into the K3 then put the rig together hold my breath and plug it in! Now that the old headers are out and the solder pads are cleaned off I now want to fit each header into it's spot and see how they fit. Then I will solder them in and it's very important these headers sit flat on the board. Here is the process I use to solder the headers in, I first only solder the 2 outer most pins. This allows me to reheat the pads if the header is not flat on the board if you solder 4 or more pads at once it's very hard to reheat them if you have to reposition the header. Once I am happy the header is sitting properly on the board I then solder the rest of the pins to the board. I

Soldering end pins

don't solder them one after the other but instead I solder every other pin and then go back and solder the other pins. I do this because the plastic that supports the pins do get hot. I found if you solder one pin after the next the plastic supports have melted on me. Once the top side has been soldered I then turn the board over and solder the bottom solder pads in the same manner. Now that the pins are in I take a break and then come back and take a very close look at the pins. I am looking for proper soldering job,

Imports of checking both sides of board

also there has been no flow of solder from one pad to the next. Finally that I did solder all the pins, I have had this happen in the past were I have missed a pin. This is why I take the break as I have found if I don't I end up seeing what I want and I miss the unsoldered pin because I want to get to the rig put back together and try it. Satisfied with the solder job its time to clean the solder pads and I use a tooth flossing brush with 99% alcohol. This cleans off any residue and the alcohol evaporates. With the new headers installed it's time to put the rig back together and do the smoke test. At this point it's very important to take your time as you put the rig back together. There is the excitement in getting the rig back together and see how it work! This is the time you forget parts, not tighten parts, rush and misalign parts. Great care has to be taken when mating up the new headers. I had all go together well and as you can see from the picture at the top of the post the smoke test went well.

Flossing tool used to clean board

New header lines up with front board.

Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

AmateurLogic.TV Episode 77 is now available for download.

George builds the SkyPi-40 QRP transmitter for RaspberryPi and sets a distance record. Tommy installs the new ThumbDV D-Star dongle. Peter creates the VK3PB Sota Box, a Grid Square GPS unit. Plus your viewer emails and more.

1:05:59

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].

Steve G1KQH has tracked down yet another bargain. I think my SMA assembly skills are probably still not up to the task, but you can hardly go wrong at the price which includes free air-mail shipping. Another absolute bargain. I think Steve must have shares in Bangood!!  If not, they ought to make him their UK agent, HI.

Here’s another one (kit), we could get our teeth into:

http://www.banggood.com/DIY-Digital-Oscilloscope-Kit-Electronic-Learning-Kit-p-969762.html

I have that many kits at the moment, I don’t know where to start next? If I come back in another life can we have a 48hour clock pse!

73 Steve
http://www.g1kqh.talktalk.net/

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

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.

• ARRL tells the FCC that ham radio and vehicle radar can co-exist at 76 - 81 GHz
• UK hams get 70.5 to 71.5 MHz for digital experimentation by special permit
• South Africa hams gain full kilowatt power privileges
• NCDXF announces a grant of $50,000 to the VK0EK Heard Island DXpedition
• Radio tracking tiny birds as they fly south over the Atlantic

THIS WEEK'S NEWSCAST
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