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As I have blogged in past, I have a QTH in Santa Fe, NM. I have 5 acres, but according to the deed restrictions all I can do is look at it. No towers, no antennas, nothing. Since I spend most of my time here activating SOTA summits it's not that big of deal, however from time to time there is something I might miss because I have no HF capability, plus I like to chase SOTA peaks as well and I haven't been able to do that from here.

So with the help of Hector, XE2K, I am now able to work HF from here in a couple of ways. The first challenge was the antenna. While there is strict prohibitions against transmitting antennas, there is nothing prohibiting flagpoles. So I got permission to put up a flagpole. The flagpole I bought was from ZeroFive antennas. I bought the 20 ft. version. which is resonant on 20m with no tuning. I am using 16 43ft. radials However, I also put a SGC remote tuner at the base, which tunes all bands from 10m - 30m. Hector, who is very good at expanding the capabilities of any antenna, suggested we add a radiating wire to the mix. So we cut a 43 ft. piece of wire, attached it to the flag fastener and hoisted it to the top of the pole and tied off the end, in an inverted V configuration. the two antennas now are resonant, with the tuner, 10m - 80m. While it's not optimum, it is functional and now I'm on the air. In the photo below you can see the flagpole and the wire that makes 40m and 80m possible.


The next HF solution is to remote into my K3 at my home QTH in Texas. So I bought the K3/0 which is the remote radio device along with the RemoteRig interfaces. It is also now functional. So if I need a beam, I have access to that as well. So I am back in business on HF. Below is a look at the station. The K3/0 is on the left and an Icom 7200 on the right.


Mike Crownover, AD5A, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Texas, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

As I have blogged in past, I have a QTH in Santa Fe, NM. I have 5 acres, but according to the deed restrictions all I can do is look at it. No towers, no antennas, nothing. Since I spend most of my time here activating SOTA summits it's not that big of deal, however from time to time there is something I might miss because I have no HF capability, plus I like to chase SOTA peaks as well and I haven't been able to do that from here.

So with the help of Hector, XE2K, I am now able to work HF from here in a couple of ways. The first challenge was the antenna. While there is strict prohibitions against transmitting antennas, there is nothing prohibiting flagpoles. So I got permission to put up a flagpole. The flagpole I bought was from ZeroFive antennas. I bought the 20 ft. version. which is resonant on 20m with no tuning. I am using 16 43ft. radials However, I also put a SGC remote tuner at the base, which tunes all bands from 10m - 30m. Hector, who is very good at expanding the capabilities of any antenna, suggested we add a radiating wire to the mix. So we cut a 43 ft. piece of wire, attached it to the flag fastener and hoisted it to the top of the pole and tied off the end, in an inverted V configuration. the two antennas now are resonant, with the tuner, 10m - 80m. While it's not optimum, it is functional and now I'm on the air. In the photo below you can see the flagpole and the wire that makes 40m and 80m possible.


The next HF solution is to remote into my K3 at my home QTH in Texas. So I bought the K3/0 which is the remote radio device along with the RemoteRig interfaces. It is also now functional. So if I need a beam, I have access to that as well. So I am back in business on HF. Below is a look at the station. The K3/0 is on the left and an Icom 7200 on the right.


Mike Crownover, AD5A, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Texas, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

The 432MHz UKAC contest is usually a pretty dismal experience for me, low elevation, local noise and a mediocre antenna makes for a difficult evening. Last weekends VHF/UHF contest and some tests with fellow club member Stewart​ (M0SDM) on Sunday evening convinced me to try operating portable this week.

I have a small Moonraker 7-element ZL-Special on the main antenna mast, purchased originally for monitoring satellites and was pressed into service for SSB when I got licensed. It has never wowed me performance wise and I have been intending to replace it for quite a while but since I only use it one day a month it hasn't been a priority. So the mast came down last night and I removed it so I can take it out with me to operate portable from some higher ground tonight.

Using the 2m delta beam in June 2014

Last year I had a go at operating portable from the car and posted a write-up. It is my intention to repeat this exercise but with the 70cm antenna on top of my 'painters pole' mast. I have serviced the antenna and fitted a new short run of quality coax and spent a far amount of time with the AW07A analyser adjusting the antenna's tuning capacitor and have got the VSWR right down to 1.1:1 on 432.200MHz so things should be optimal.

I am looking forward to this evening, hoping it pays some dividends.

As I mentioned the 24 hour March 144/432MHz VHF Championship contest took place last weekend. I took part to give away some points just grabbing a few short sessions with the radio. I concentrated on the 2m band due to my issues on 70cm.

In my AW07A analyser review I mentioned some issues with my 2m LFA YAGI, thankfully these have been resolved. The use of some wire wool to remove some corrosion and a hacksaw to take 10mm from the long elements of the loop allowed the end elements to 'trombone' in sufficiently to get the antenna resonant and the VSWR is down to 1.2:1 on 144.300Mhz.

I only made 18 contacts, but was happy with the distances achieved with 30W, getting a lot further south than I normally do, given I am 18m ASL. There was also some local wideband noise (I captured a screenshot on the SDR) and the conditions gave some interesting fading.

M0NRD QSO map March 144 VHF

Noise across the band

   
Andrew Garratt, MØNRD, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from East Midlands, England. Contact him at [email protected].

The ANILE-8R was not the first Anytone Tech model I unpacked, but it will be the first to be reviewed thanks to its simplicity.

Baofeng vs Anytone
In terms of design this radio resembles the Baofeng BF-666S/BF-777S/BF-888S series: 16 channels, no thrills no frills, no display – just on/off/volume, a flashlight and a 16-channel selector. Both radios tell you which channel is active by using a speech processor. Based on this the two radios could be regarded as competitors.

I kept my Baofeng BF-666S in spite of its generous amount of flaws: the receiver can be trashed by about any out-of-band signal or mixer product, the oscillator isn’t stable (phase noise, which causes reciprocal mixing), and RX audio sounds raw, unfinished even. TX audio however is fine, battery life is great, and the price (below $20) is hard to beat.

The consequence of Baofeng’s cheap design is that I only can use the radio when I’m far enough away from any RF pollution. As you can imagine I was very curious if the ANILE-8R would outperform the Baofeng or not.

In the box
The radio, antenna, 7.4 Volts 1300 mAh battery, charger, power adapter, headset, small strap, manual.

Build quality
These radios are ideal for outdoor activities, because there’s not much you can break. The Baofeng already did well, but the Anytone feels much sturdier. It’s well built.

Side keys
There are three side keys and you can program them yourself. At default the upper key will switch on the flashlight, the middle one will tell you the remaining battery voltage, and the last one will bypass the squelch (monitor).

Programming options
Scanning, priority channel selection, CTCSS, DCS, and DTMF calling methods (individual or group calls).

Phase noise
The first thing I looked at was phase noise. During instruction evenings I use the Baofeng as the prime example of poor design; all I could hope for was that Anytone did a better job. They did.

The first image shows the Baofeng (notice the wide ‘shoulders’ which shouldn’t be there), the second image is the Anytone. I slightly zoomed in on the Anytone carrier to get a better view.

Harmonics
The Baofeng has no detectable harmonics, the ANILE-8R has one at -57.62 dBm. It’s just short of the -60 dBm I like to see, but nothing to worry about.

TX audio: loud and clear, just excellent. The most memorable quote from a listener was “I can’t tell the difference between this one and your gear at home.”

RX audio: Same story: loud and clear, with no noticeable distortion.

Sensitivity (@ 435 MHz): -125 dBm (@ 50Ω, 12 dB SINAD).

Frequency accuracy of this sample: -26 Hz.

Power output (@435 MHz): 1.2 Watts / 4.2 Watts.

Front-end: good. Unlike the Baofeng, the receiver doesn’t collapse quickly.

Bugs:
I noticed that RX audio muted when I switched on the flashlight. Audio stayed muted while a signal was present. Audio came back after:

• the carrier dropped and returned
• pressing PTT or one of the side keys.

Toggling the flashlight on/off had no influence.

I forwarded the bug to John K3NXU (Miklor) and the owner of Anytone Tech. It didn’t take long before my findings were confirmed. However, a few days later I found an option in the software which caught my eye: “Eliminate Squelch Tail When No CTCSS/DCS Signaling”. The default value was 55.2 Hz. When set to ‘Off’, the strange influence of the flashlight on reception is gone. Problem solved.

Conclusion:
Anytone Tech’s ANILE-8R is a very good radio and can make you forget the Baofeng BF series. Only when I start nitpicking I could make a remark about the belt clip. It didn’t seem to be designed for this radio, as there was quite a gap between the clip and the battery. I solved the problem by bending it a little bit.

Price: $46.99 (Amazon)
More information: Anytone Tech.

Hans, PD0AC, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Almere, The Netherlands. Contact him at [email protected].

In the few free moments I could spend the last week I made some progress with the Arduino. Bought a whole kit with an Arduino UNO, breadboard, wires and all and mounted it on a…..breadboard!

My son’s Windows 7 installation was so slow in compiling sketches that I wiped it and installed Linux Mint. He wasn’t pleased with it in the beginning, but he likes it better and better now. He played with some LEDs, but I tried to get some sensors going. The thermistor was quite easy and after looking at some code and getting the appropriate libraries the 1-Wire temperature sensor put some temperatures on the serial monitor. That gave me hope because my 1-Wire weather station is getting old and Maxim has phased out some essential ICs to keep it running. A new station based on Arduino boards could be a great alternative.

So I dug out a spare HIH-4020 humidity sensor and getting that to work was also trivial. Next was a photo diode and the one on hand was the SFH203P. The current produced by that sensor is so tiny that it can hardly be measured by the analogue input on the Arduino. The answer is to use an op amp, but the only one I could find in my junk box were some UA741s. They are special to me, because I used these to build some projects together with my father when I was young, so they must be at least 30 years old. But they require a bipolar voltage rail and can’t even work rail-to-rail. I tried them anyway, using a unipolar voltage supply, but no dice.

I had some other op amps lying around, but they were all surface mounted devices and I couldn’t find the matching break out boards. Guess I will have to find some through hole versions, like the TLC271CP which sell for a buck a piece here in Taiwan. Can’t go wrong with those for that price, I guess.

Hans "Fong" van den Boogert, BX2ABT, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Taiwan. Contact him at [email protected].

All month long, during January 2015, a group of volunteers using the special event callsign, “K3Y” with a slant-region number (i.e., “K3Y/3” or “K3Y/0”), were on the amateur radio HF bands (and some, on six meters).  I was one of these volunteers, operating nearly every day of the month for at least one hour, but some times a few hours per day.

“K3Y,” the Straight Key Century Club’s annual January celebration, commemorates the club’s founding in 2006 following the American Radio Relay League’s Straight Key Night. A small group of participants wanted to extend the fun of SKN throughout the year. The SKCC is the result.

For the first three years, the club’s founders used K1Y, K2A, and K3Y as the celebration’s special-event calls. But someone cleverly noticed that a 3 is nothing more than a backwards, curvaceous E. This “KEY” event has operated under the K3Y call ever since.

The on-air party is open to members and non-members alike. It runs from 0000 UTC Jan. 2 through 2359 UTC Jan. 31. It’s a great time to introduce others to the joys of hand-crafted Morse code using straight keys, bugs, and side swipers.

In this video, you can see this operation at my ham radio shack, as I am the control operator of the special event station, “K3Y/0”, during one of the many shifts. “K3Y” is the special event callsign of the Straight Key Century Club (SKCC). The special event operates each January.

In the following video, you can see some of the QSL cards associated with this year’s operation, and then some other QSL cards in my collection.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOsNjT7OCyc

+ The SKCC website is at http://skccgroup.com

+ The “K3Y” special event page is http://www.skccgroup.com/k3y/index.php

+ My page is at http://NW7US.us

+ My Morse code page is http://cw.hfradio.org

 

Visit, subscribe: NW7US Radio Communications and Propagation YouTube Channel

AnyTone Tech announced that their new lineup of HTs is now available via Amazon.

Here is the price list (includes free shipping in the US):

• AnyTone Tech TERMN-8R – $138.89
• AnyTone Tech OBLTR-8R – $98.89
• AnyTone Tech NSTIG-8R – $68.89
• AnyTone Tech ANILE-8R – $46.89

Here is sales copy from their flagship radio, the TERMN-8R:

The First Licensed Radio for Amateur, Commercial, and Public Use
The most versatile two way radio on the market, certified for use for commercial, public, and amateur frequencies. The TERMN-8R includes built-in modes with 23 GMRS channels and 5 MURS Channels. The TERMN-8R is FCC Certified for Part 90 and Part 95 usage.

Receive Transmissions on Six Different Bands

Customize Your Operation with Channels, Programmable Buttons, and more!
You can program your TERMN-8R exactly how you want it. There are 200 programmable memory channels. The side keys are programmable to multiple options. You can give channels alphanumeric names, without using a computer. The TERMN-8R has 2 VFO banks, and allows you to be in both VFO and channel modes at the same time. You can easily program from a PC to set-up the radio to operate exactly as needed.

What’s In the Box?
TERMN-8R Radio Body
2200mAh Battery
High Gain Antenna
Earpiece with Remote Mic
Desktop Charger
120v AC Adapter
Belt Clip
Wrist Strap

TERMN-8R SPECIFICATIONS
Frequency range:
[TX] 136 – 174MHz, 400 – 520MHz
[RX] 136 – 174MHz, 400 – 520MHz, 520-1710kHz (AM Broadcast), 2.3-30MHz (Shortwave), 68-108MHz (FM Broadcast), 108-136MHz (Aviation Band)
Channel Capacity: 200 Channels
Channel Spacing: 25KHz (wide band)12.5KHz (narrow band)
Sensitivity: ≤0.25μV (wide band)  ≤0.3μV (narrow band)
Operation Voltage: 7.4V DC ±20%
Battery: 2200mAh
Antenna Connector: SMA-Female / Antenna Impedance: 50Ω
Accessory Connector: Kenwood 2 Pin Standard
Stability: ±2.5ppm
Output power: 5W / 2W / 1W (Max 6W)
Audio Power Output: 1000mW/10% (1 WATT)

When someone gets a chance to try one out, please comment here so we can get an idea of how well they perform. I haven’t used any of them personally.

In addition to being marketed for amateur radio user, I think it’s interesting that the radio is both Part 90 (commercial/public safety) and Part 95 certified (MURS/GMRS). It appears to share its Part 90 grant with Anytone’s AT-3318UV-A/E.

Are the features worth the price? What are your thoughts?

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