Series Eight Episode Seven of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast has been released. In this episode, Martin M1MRB / W9ICQ is joined by Chris Howard M0TCH to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. Colin M6BOY rounds up the news in brief, and this episodes feature is HF in Limited Space.

 

• RSGB Youth Committee Minutes Released
• Radio Ham Operator over the Moon at Decoding Space Message
• Radio Listening Declining among Young
• The World Wide Repeater Directory Bring Integrated Routing to Radio Programming!
• Ofcom Licence Emails
• 2015 Young Ham of the Year Award
• Did the Eclipse Affect Propagation?
• Camb-Hams to Operate from Isle of Mull
• Radio Ham Established World War 1 Listening Post
• Irish Amateur Radio Course Guide

Colin Butler, M6BOY, is the host of the ICQ Podcast, a weekly radio show about Amateur Radio. Contact him at [email protected].

Last weekend, I had a fun time working the CQ WPX contest on SSB. I’ve always liked the format of the contest with the callsign prefix as the score multiplier (e.g., K1, K2, W1, W2, VE1, VE2 are all multipliers). Its like every new contact is a multiplier. This contest attracts plenty of DX but unlike some DX contests, everyone works everyone.

Consistent with the contest, the CQ WPX Awards Program issues operating awards based on callsign prefixes. The initial mixed mode (CW, SSB, digital) award requires confirmed contacts with 400 different prefixes. Back in the 20th century, I kept track of my confirmed contacts for WPX but lost interest along the way. I am sure I’ve worked more than 400 prefixes but the challenge was getting them all confirmed. More recently, the ARRL Logbook of the World (LoTW) added support for the CQ WPX Awards, so I started paying attention again, watching my CQ WPX total grow. I am not a big awards chaser but I have found value in using them as a specific goal to motivate me to get on the air.

Right before the CQ WPX contest, I had 380 prefixes confirmed via LoTW, so I figured that if I worked a few new ones during the contest, I could punch through 400 without too much trouble. I used my signature HF slacker approach at the cabin, using the Yaesu FT-950 to push 100 watts of RF power to wire antennas in the trees. For 40m, 20m and 15m, I used a trap-dipole antenna and for 10m I used a newly built ladder-line j-pole mounted vertically.

On Saturday, the propagation on the 10m band was smokin’ hot, strong signals from all continents. The 10m j-pole performed well. It was an absolute blast to easily work into Africa, Europe, South America, Australia, New Zealand and Asia.  The 15m and 20m bands were also very productive. My approach was to tune around, looking for new prefixes to add to my confirmed total. Propagation was not as good on Sunday but still respectable but I only operated a few hours.

After the contest, I submitted my log to the contest web site and loaded my contacts into LoTW (188 QSOs and 157 prefixes). Immediately, I received two new confirmed prefixes. Over the next few hours, I checked back to watch my CQ WPX confirmed total climb on LoTW. It did not take long before it passed through 400 (and the total is still climbing). I will admit that I really liked the instant gratification of seeing my QSOs immediately confirmed.

That’s when it hit me: I am done with paper QSL cards. The amount of time and effort it takes to get 400 paper cards in my hand is just not worth it. It is soooooo 20th century.

Disclaimer: Actually, I still enjoy and use paper QSL cards…they are now just a secondary activity for me.

The post CQ WPX, LoTW and the End of QSL Cards 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].

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.

Please don’t misunderstand my views on OFCOM here in the UK. Generally, they have been supportive of the amateur community and I am grateful for this.

However, I am very critical that they seem loath to make real decisions about anything hard. Perhaps this is because they need real teeth and less government fiddling in the wings? I believe they need to be fully independent of government interference and be able to make common sense decisions without excuses. All the time they seem to hide behind the law as a safe-guard from doing anything very hard.

I have been critical of the FCC many times but in several ways they take a more pragmatic approach to spectrum management. All the time OFCOM employees seem to fear taking any hard decisions in case they break the law. Perhaps we need to employ people who actually understand radio and spectrum issues. Oh sorry, I forgot, these are a dying breed. We only have “yes boys” left.

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

Well ... my new 1930's style MOPA transmitter is finally finished after several months of construction. I have also put together a page on my website describing the project.

For many years, December's high winds here on the coast, have always arrived coincidentally with the start of the annual 1929 QSO Party, making my signal dance around even more than usual! With the new MOPA, I'll no longer have to worry about high winds upsetting signal stabilty ... although many of us do enjoy hearing these musical sounds of '29!

By the way, there's still plenty of time for you also, to put something together for this annual fun event. You can see a whole page-full of inspiring '29 homebrew magic here (scroll to the bottom half) ... and there is plenty of help available for your project in the AWA Yahoo Builders Group ... we are always looking for more new activity, particularly here out west.

courtesy: natubes.com/

The new MOPA uses two type '10 tubes (like many, I use the war-time type '10 equivalent, the more affordable VT-25), one as a Hartley oscillator and the other as a Class-C final amplifier.

I'm looking forward to working many of you in the next '29 QSO Party ... in the meantime, I'm thinking hard about what my next project might be!







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

Well, I had a letter today from an amateur in South Africa who I hear have been allocated a small band at 40MHz. There are already a couple of EU beacons around 40MHz (OZ and G).

It would be so good if OFCOM here in the UK saw the real value in even a very small, shared band around 40MHz. Instead, we get given chunks (1MHz at 2m and 1MHz at 4m) which will hardly get touched by most. Surely a small 100kHz shared band at 40MHz that would really be of value to radio science has merit?

Of course, allocating ad interim chunks of unused spectrum to the amateur service is a “no-brainer” for dear old OFCOM. Fine doing this, but there would have been far better options, but these would have needed brain engagement, so out of the question? I hope that the RSGB and OFCOM talk some more and add new bits of spectrum soon.

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