AmateurRadio.com

Series Seven Episode Twenty-Three of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast has been released. Martin M1MRB / W9ICQ is joined by Leslie Buttersfield (G0CIB) and Chris Howard (M0TCH).. Colin M6BOY rounds up the news in brief, and this episodes feature is BABYSTAR - Standalone DSTAR Hotspot by Martin Rothwell M0SGL

• Small Scale DAB Trial Consultation
• 40th anniversary of ham radio satellite OSCAR 7
• Raspberry Pi HDTV Transmitter
• London Science Museum - New Exhibition
• Milestone shortwave contacts with Australia
• Beta Testers Sought for New Heavens-Above Android App
• IY, Italian Special Amateur / Ham Radio Event Prefix
• 91% pass rate for South Africa

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

Ever since the spring when Moonraker supplied me with rubbish patch leads that just fell apart because the crimping was so poor, and a dual band VHF/UHF yagi antenna that had to be glued to fix one of the loose elements, Moonraker has not been my favourite supplier. They clearly did zero quality checks on the goods sold. I hope they have improved.

However they have some nice 10m radios at sensible prices including a 20W FM/AM unit for under £100 and a multi-mode 10m rig for under £150.

See http://www.moonraker.eu/ .

UPDATE 2200z:  Moonraker also supply PMR446 and LPD433 dual band transceivers. The latter band is within the 70cm amateur band, which is perfectly legal at 10mW with no amateur licence, here in the UK. On UHF, 10mW goes a long way from a local high spot. See http://www.moonraker.eu/professional-radio-and-446/pmr-446 . There are several to choose from.

http://www.moonraker.eu/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/602f0fa2c1f0d1ba5e241f914e856ff9/S/L/SL-02_big.jpg

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

I have been using LOTW as my online logging program for some time now and for the most part have liked using it. The logging programs I have on my PC are N3FJP's AClog and DXlabs log and both logs have made uploading to LOTW very easy with just the push of a button. For some reason I was on LOTW and I decided to search my log for possible fellow bloggers I made contact with. Low and behold it turns out that I contacted the following fellow bloggers…….W2LJ, EI9KC,AE5X and KL8DX. It's not many and may not be all but I sure was surprised that at some time in the past (some contacts were made before I got into blogging) I made on air contact with these fellow bloggers.



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

Stu W0STU just posted an article on HamRadioSchool.com about the use of phonetic alphabets. I had previously posted a Shack Talk article on the same subject.

The “standard” phonetic alphabet is the ITU alphabet but I am starting to think that we might need to get a little more creative on our use of phonetics. Why not innovate in this area, just like we innovate on the technical front?

Towards that end, I was reminded of his phonetic alphabet listed over at netfunny.com:

        A  Are               N  Nine
        B  Bee               O  Owe
        C  Cite              P  Pseudonym
        D  Double-U          Q  Queue
        E  Eye               R  Rap
        F  Five              S  Sea
        G  Genre             T  Tsunami
        H  Hoe               U  Understand?
        I  I                 V  Vie
        J  Junta             W  Why
        K  Knot              X  Xylophone
        L  Lye               Y  You
        M  Me                Z  Zero

Even this creative alphabet can be improved on. For example, I think H should be Honor.

What do you think?

73, Bob

The post Twisted Phonetic Alphabet 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].

After its’ trip to James M1APC, the TS940 arrived back here on Thursday. I had a slight fright when it arrived back, when it needed a reset on switch on. And indeed, each time you switch on, you have to hold the A=B and power it on, which resets the microprocessor.

It didn’t do that when it left James, so I can only assume that it got shaken up somewhere. Anyway, it’s simple enough to do that, so no problem. Other than that it is working really well!

I checked the transmitter output and that looks good – even on AM! I was listening to various US stations on 29MHz AM this afternoon and although signals were fading up and down, it sounded very nice. It also sounds good on SSB and I’ve been listening a little on 7MHz where signals were good.

I haven’t tried it on CW. I don’t seem to have a working external morse keyer. I was hoping to use my old Morse Machine MM-3, but that seems to have stopped working in the years since I used it last and despite a quick poke and a prod, I couldn’t persuade it into life. I’ll find a small external keyer somewhere soon, I’m sure. I hope so, as the receive seems quite good on CW. I was listening to W1AW/5 on 21MHz this evening when I didn’t really expect the band to be open. Copy seemed a bit better on the 940 than on my IC740 which is currently making my HF CW contacts.

But it’s great to have the TS940 back and it does have a very nice feel to it. Thanks James for all your help in getting it going.

Tim Kirby, G4VXE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Oxfordshire, England. Contact him at [email protected].

After its’ trip to James M1APC, the TS940 arrived back here on Thursday. I had a slight fright when it arrived back, when it needed a reset on switch on. And indeed, each time you switch on, you have to hold the A=B and power it on, which resets the microprocessor.

It didn’t do that when it left James, so I can only assume that it got shaken up somewhere. Anyway, it’s simple enough to do that, so no problem. Other than that it is working really well!

I checked the transmitter output and that looks good – even on AM! I was listening to various US stations on 29MHz AM this afternoon and although signals were fading up and down, it sounded very nice. It also sounds good on SSB and I’ve been listening a little on 7MHz where signals were good.

I haven’t tried it on CW. I don’t seem to have a working external morse keyer. I was hoping to use my old Morse Machine MM-3, but that seems to have stopped working in the years since I used it last and despite a quick poke and a prod, I couldn’t persuade it into life. I’ll find a small external keyer somewhere soon, I’m sure. I hope so, as the receive seems quite good on CW. I was listening to W1AW/5 on 21MHz this evening when I didn’t really expect the band to be open. Copy seemed a bit better on the 940 than on my IC740 which is currently making my HF CW contacts.

But it’s great to have the TS940 back and it does have a very nice feel to it. Thanks James for all your help in getting it going.

Tim Kirby, G4VXE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Oxfordshire, England. Contact him at [email protected].

I’ve little doubt that when my fellow NAQCC club member Jim Stephens (NX8Z) and I (N8ZYA) decided to set up and operate from Hurricane WV on November 11, 2014, we might have caught the last day of warm sunshine in West Virginia; it was a good decision. Today, as I type this blog entry, it’s 18 degrees Fahrenheit (7.7 Celsius ) in the Kanawha Valley. That temperature is a bit on the chilly side.

Our West Virginia Chapter of the club operated from this nice park last year. This year, we both set up around the same shelter with the same antennas. Jim uses a Buddipole and I used my end fed Par cut for 40-20- and 10 meters. We both used Icom 703’s and we both were dressed appropriately for the warm sunshine with temperatures in the mid 70’s. (23.8 Celsius)

Living in the Kanawha Valley, even in Hurricane season, seldom brings the harsh weather that runs along the eastern coast. Those bad storms simply take the appropriate interstate exit and we’re left in the clear.

Don’t believe it?…..let me just say “look at the photos”. We’re both wearing short sleeve shirts and Jim was looking like a Florida resident sitting in the shade and wearing shorts under an umbrella.

All kidding aside, we had a beautiful day at this park and worked seventeen stations while sitting in the warm sun. I can’t imagine a more perfect day at a more perfect park.

We plan to use the Hurricane Wave Pool Park in the future for more of our radio outings.

I had planned on using a new 31′ fiberglass pole for an antenna mount on this trip but didn’t want to take the chance of driving a steel stake in the ground to support the pole. There’s lots of “night lighting” in this area. I decided to err on the side of safety and use the existing trees. Perhaps on the next trip, I can shift shelters and use this one.

Before leaving the site we worked stations from Canada to Florida and I even managed to hear and work a couple of DX stations in Spain and Guernsey Island. Oscar (EA1DR) sent me his confirmation card from Spain.

The stations we worked were W8NNC in Ohio, W8GDP in Charleston WV (a member of our core WV Chapter group), VE3ED in Canada, WM3X in North Carolina, W2JEK in New Jersey, N4LTS in Florida, WA4WHV in North Carolina, KA0ENU in Tennessee, WA8ULB in West Virginia, K8SX in West Virginia (member of the WV Chapter group), EA1DR in Spain, W4DUK in Virginia, WB3T in Pennsylvania, WA8REI in Michigan, and W2LJ/P in New Jersey!

It was a real pleasure to work Larry (W2LJ/P ) as my last contact. Larry (W2LJ) is the Assistant Publicity Manager for the North American QRP CW Club and was operating “portable” from Warren New Jersey.

I also worked a station which I distinctly heard as GP6CW . I couldn’t find it on the data base. The only GP6 call I can find is GP6UW (my mistake)

There were several Special Event Stations commemorating Veterans Day on the air. I did something I rarely do and made a SSB contact with WW2COS in Georgia. This radio club is among a group that is slowly restoring a B-17G bomber.

John Smithson, Jr., N8ZYA, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from West Virginia, USA. Contact him at [email protected].