AmateurRadio.com

Don Wilbank's Report on Ham Nation as seen on January 7, 2015

Interest in Canada's newest ham band, 630m, continues to slowly grow. Toby (VE7CNF) in Burnaby, BC, has made his first and second CW contacts on the new band!

Both myself and John (VE7BDQ) had the pleasure of working Toby on 473.000 CW on Thursday afternoon. Here is Toby's description of his station at present:


"I have put together a low-power 630m WSPR transmitter here. I have a USB-TG44A signal generator clocking a phasing-type SSB modulator with WSPR audio coming from a laptop. The modulator gives 45db suppression of the carrier and lower sideband. This drives a ZHL-32A 1-watt linear amplifier. I have a matching transformer and loading coil at the base of my 80-meter inverted-L antenna. Wire height is 10m.

Courtesy: VE7CNF

Courtesy: VE7CNF

Toby has indicated that he will soon start construction of a dedicated DDS-based transmitter, with more power to work with. Situated on a normal-sized suburban lot, and base-loading his 80m inverted-L, is proof once again that fancy antennas and a few acres are not needed to have fun on 630m. Toby's initial night WSPR tests were copied by WH2XGP (W7IUV), near Quincy, Washington, at a little over 200 miles (325km) and on the other side of the rugged Cascade Mountains!



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

Series Eight Episode One of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast has been released. In this episode, Martin M1MRB / W9ICQ is joined by Leslie Buttersfield (G0CIB) and Chris Howard (M0TCH) to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. Colin M6BOY rounds up the news in brief, and this episodes feature Martin Butler M1MRB / W9ICQ provides an Introduction to DMR/TDMA.

• Extremely young YL Intermediate passes
• Gerry Wells 1929-2014
• No change yet for UK Amateur Radio Exams
• ZS90SARL
• PZK and IARU Anniversaries
• CQ Hall of Fame Awards
• UK HF Propagation Prediction Maps

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

Series Eight Episode One of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast has been released. In this episode, Martin M1MRB / W9ICQ is joined by Leslie Buttersfield (G0CIB) and Chris Howard (M0TCH) to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. Colin M6BOY rounds up the news in brief, and this episodes feature Martin Butler M1MRB / W9ICQ provides an Introduction to DMR/TDMA.

• Extremely young YL Intermediate passes
• Gerry Wells 1929-2014
• No change yet for UK Amateur Radio Exams
• ZS90SARL
• PZK and IARU Anniversaries
• CQ Hall of Fame Awards
• UK HF Propagation Prediction Maps

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

Julie and I are having what we call a "Lazy day" today. It's basically a time of rest and relaxation things around the house that need to be done can wait just one more day! Well to start off my lazy day I remembered I had a digi version of QST waiting for me. I wanted to download it on my laptop and do some reading and sipping of nice warm latte. I never did get to the digi QST as something on the ARRL site caught my eye! CQ magazine has announced it is combining the January/February issues and dropping the digi version of CQ plus. I am a CQ subscriber so this caught my attention! Last February CQ dropped Popular communications, VHF plus and World radio online, we were told a new CQ plus was added to the digi version of the magazine to cover off some content lost in dropping those magazines. It would be an additional 60 or so pages and I thought that was a great deal so I subscribed. I started to get the digital version of CQ sent to me each month, I did think this to be odd as I thought the paper version was to come as well. I did email them and did not receive an answer so I assumed it was just the digi version I ordered.
Having read CQ's announcement of dropping CQ plus and combining issues I was not thrilled and wanted to see how time I have on my subscription. I went to their site, logged in and could not find any info about my subscription. I did find other items I had ordered including a calendar so I clicked on that. It was then I found out where my hard copy of CQ was going…..THE WRONG ADDRESS! For some reason the bill to address and ship to address's were different. We had moved and I did change all the credit card address's and added a change of address with the post office just in case. On their site you can only change the bill to address and not the ship to address. I even changed the address with CQ  magazine to boot.

Not to thrilled with CQ at this time…….
1. Shipping address is wrong even after an email to them regarding not getting my hard copy which went unanswered.
2. Can't even find my subscription details on their site.
3. Even if I wanted to change the shipping address I can't on their site you can only change the billing address.
4. They do have a customer service link on their site but you have to cut and paste their email address into yours…..not even a link is given. Plus I don't have high hopes of hearing back anyway.
5. The subscription I paid for…..12 issues and CQ Plus is now being changed. This was the big selling point from CQ when I purchase my year's (well I think it is a year as I can't check) subscription.
6. If you go to their website today you are still be told that CQ plus is being offered as part of your digi offer when in fact it is being cancelled see the bottom paragraph once you click on the link.
Well my lazy day is going to start NOW after venting here on the blog and as my blood pressure drops.


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

See http://www.gqrp.com/

Many times before I have said that SPRAT is the last magazine I would give up if I had to. GQRP Club membership is very reasonable indeed and I highly commend it to you. They now sell a DVD which has the first 160 copies of SPRAT on it.   If you join the club, the DVD is very inexpensive plus you get the next 4 SPRATs with the subscription. SPRAT is always filled with good stuff and always plenty of projects to build.

Go on, join!

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

Why do I bother on 6m WSPR? Apart from G6AVK (78km) with whom I exchanged spots more than a week ago I have had no success at all on 6m WSPR out of the Es season.  I get plenty of success on 10m with less power.  I go on 6m WSPR because I can do so at the same time as being on 10m. I get far more success on 630m with an ERP of just 5mW. I think I am going to give up on the “magic band” until April or May. Maybe I really do need 100W and a big yagi up high in the sky to make the band “magic” at this time of the year. My 1W ERP from a V2000 vertical omni antenna just isn’t enough or maybe all the activity is on other modes?

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