AmateurRadio.com

Just a reminder about the 630m Activity Night coming up at the end of this month. You may recall the details in an earlier blog. I think the most exciting thing about this evening will be the opportunity to try to make a crossband CW contact between one or more of the three participating Canadian stations, hopefully covering both ends of the country:

• VO1NA - Joe, in Torbay, Newfoundland. Joe will transmit on 477.7 kHz starting at 2130Z Oct 31 and will continue until 0130Z Nov 1. He will listen for callers on 3562 kHz and 7062 kHz.

•  VE7BDQ - John, in Delta, B.C. John will transmit on 474.0 kHz starting at 0100Z and will continue until 1000Z on Nov 1. He will listen for callers on 3536 kHz.

• VE7SL - Steve, on Mayne Island, B.C. I will transmit on 473.0 kHz starting at 0200Z and will continue until 0600Z on Nov 1. I will listen for callers on 3566 kHz and 7066 kHz.

Joe should have pretty good coverage of the east coast with his fine antenna system, shown above.

Please note that, at present, the 'crossband activity' is planned for Friday evening only since Saturday night's CW Sweepstakes Contest will make HF listening more difficult.

All stations will either call CQ or run “VVV” marker beacons while listening on their respective HF receive (QSX) frequencies, which will be included in the CQ or marker beacon message.

Also know that it is completely legal for U.S. and VE amateurs to contact Canadian amateurs via the crossband mode. Unfortunately, it is not possible to contact those stations that may be operating in the Experimental Service and not using an amateur radio callsign.

For additional information, please see the ARRL's description of the event.

Remember that you don't need a fancy antenna to listen on 630m. One of your HF antennas, fed as a 'longwire', will probably do the job....even better if you can tune it to resonance.

I will blog another reminder just before the event. We all hope that you can be there!


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

My resistor supply was getting a bit low, so I found a great deal for 2500 pieces, 50 Value kit, 1/4W 1/% Metal film:





Infact the price was so good, I ordered 5000 they arrived  here in less than a week direct from China.

http://www.banggood.com/Wholesale-New-Best-selling-2500-PCS-50-Values-1-Or-4W-0_25W-1-Pencent-Metal-Film-Resistor-Kit-p-40424.html
Steve, G1KQH, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from England. Contact him at [email protected].

The wife won't let me have one yet, but the video is well worth a watch and you may go and raid your piggy bank afterwards?:



Steve, G1KQH, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from England. Contact him at [email protected].

Today, OFCOM announced that 146-147MHz will be temporarily released to full UK licencees from Oct 31st this year, by NoV.  Personally, I would have preferred other parts of the spectrum to have been released instead as 2m is never that busy, at least it is very quiet usually around here. If you  plan to operate 146-147MHz in the UK you will need to get an NoV via the RSGB. Note that this is temporary.

I wrote to OFCOM suggesting officially allowing UK amateurs access legally to sub 8.3kHz, re-releasing the 73kHz band and a new allocation around 40MHz (ideal for Es experiments). In OFCOM’s release they say I asked for a new band at 400MHz. I did not.

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

The recent closure of Todd's valuable site has resulted in the entire data from there now being mirrored at two locations in .pdf format. It's all there, complete with all the schematics and photographs from the original site ...and is very easily searched.  The file is about 40Mb and consists of 945 pages!

• Jason, NT7S has posted the file here.

• Steve, VK2JA has posted the file here.

If you missed it earlier, Todd's new blog is slowly starting to take shape and by the looks of it will soon be running full-speed ahead.

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

Join us for the shooting of our 9th Anniversary live on Sunday, October 12th at 7PM CDT, 000 UTC on www.live.amateurlogic.tv

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].

I have been thinking about this for sometime, after some Ham friends and others have said to me "Steve you have good ideas at times and find some excellent search's for us Amateurs why don't you write a blog? You have been feeding others with the information for years" True I have made some excellent friends like Roger G3XBM http://g3xbm-qrp.blogspot.co.uk/ via his great blogging exploits and  QRP projects, along with Hans PD0AC's radio antics http://hamgear.wordpress.com/ . I don't expect I will write things to the same high standard as these pair for a while, as I do not have the time at the moment, but I hope I will make some sort of valuable contribution to Amateur radio over the years..

A bit about myself, I have been licenced since 1984. I never went to a RAE course, I just read up a few books on the subject like the Radio Communications Handbook http://www.rsgbshop.org/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Technical_6.html#a1426  armed with this info I walked into Cannock Chase technical college, and came out with 2 passes after nervously waiting for a few months for the results.. Not bad I thought? Of course I had been interested in radio since the mid 70s when I built crystal sets, and worked in the local television shop on a Friday after school and all day Saturdays. Along with the school radio club,  backstage lighting productions and the local drama club Rugeley players, I carried the knowledge forward and got some sort of career out of it and worked in the trade at Thorn EMI Automation's Test dept for 14 years or so..

Since 1984 my main Amateur interests have been largely around VHF/UHF and some 50MHz operation, using a Yaesu FT-736R. Nowadays it is small HF QRP projects (when I can find the time to construct).  Some may remember me from the AX25 Mailbox (GB7RUG) I ran for over 5 years,  I built it myself from converted ex CT2 units for the TNCs, and Pye PMR M & MX series radios for the radio ports, along with a 386 PC running DOS and FBB mailbox software on top of a G8BPQ node switch  package. It certainly was  full of fun and stress with 60 users at its peak, mail forwarding South to GB7COV via a 70cm link & North via a 4m link to GB7NOT. Fully operational 24/7 Serving Mid Staffordshire Radio Hams, it never failed once!  I retired the BBS at the end of 2001, I felt it had run its course with the Internet now in full steam..
Steve, G1KQH, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from England. Contact him at [email protected].