AmateurRadio.com

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

Just before lunch, Richard G3TFX called in on his bike. He was on the way to his granddaughter’s birthday party in the village.

This is a photo of us in my shack. Richard is on the left. He is a regular visitor.

It was Richard’s alertness that probably saved my life a year ago. I shall always owe him a debt of gratitude. Richard has recently returned to the hobby. He is usually on 40m SSB, but is fighting a very high noise level on RX. Already he has worked some impressive DX.

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

Series Seven Episode Nineteen of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast has been released. The latest news, Martin (M1MRB & W9ICQ) and Colin (M6BOY) discuss changes to Ofcom licence changes and Martin (M1MRB & W9ICQ) and Chris Howard (M0TCH) review the Leixen VV-898,

• New RSGB Youth Committee
• LTE test transmissions in amateur / ham radio 2.3 GHz band
• SB6 Ultra Portable 6m Beam
• Noble Radio NR-4SC 4 Meter SSB/CW Transceiver
• US Amateur Radio vanity callsign fee set at $21.40
• Friedrichshafen presentations available online
• Send your message 'from the Moon'
• The Ham Radio Un-Club
• California QSO Party
• International Air Ambulance Week 2014
• Voodoo Contest Group in Kuwait
• Ofcom Consultation - licence changes from April 2015

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

Series Seven Episode Nineteen of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast has been released. The latest news, Martin (M1MRB & W9ICQ) and Colin (M6BOY) discuss changes to Ofcom licence changes and Martin (M1MRB & W9ICQ) and Chris Howard (M0TCH) review the Leixen VV-898,

• New RSGB Youth Committee
• LTE test transmissions in amateur / ham radio 2.3 GHz band
• SB6 Ultra Portable 6m Beam
• Noble Radio NR-4SC 4 Meter SSB/CW Transceiver
• US Amateur Radio vanity callsign fee set at $21.40
• Friedrichshafen presentations available online
• Send your message 'from the Moon'
• The Ham Radio Un-Club
• California QSO Party
• International Air Ambulance Week 2014
• Voodoo Contest Group in Kuwait
• Ofcom Consultation - licence changes from April 2015

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

Once again, I have no knowledge of this supplier or if the goods are genuine, or “ripped off”, but the prices are very good. My thanks to Steve G1KQH once again.

Other valuable finds which may prove useful to constructors or groups:

 

5V 100mA regulators per 100 ( I had some of these).

http://www.banggood.com/100-Pcs-WS78L05-78L05-Voltage-Regulator-5V-100mA-Transistor-Triode-p-932782.html

 

Mixed Zeners pack:

http://www.banggood.com/300pcs-2V-39V-30-Values-1-Or-2W-0_5W-Zener-Diode-Assorted-Kit-p-87725.html

 

1N4148s

http://www.banggood.com/500Pcs-1N4148-DO-35-Switching-Small-Signal-Diode-p-943164.html

 

Precision Ref board (ideal for checking Cal of your DMM) could be used for stable VXO supply:

http://www.banggood.com/AD548-High-Precision-Voltage-Reference-Module-4-Channel-Calibration-p-932160.html

 

If you put the word “Transistor” in the search on Banggood quite a variety of well known general purpose come up at good prices..

 

Orders seem to take about 7 to 10 days to the UK

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

The North America SOTA Weekend coincided with the ARRL September VHF Contest, which I interpreted as a great opportunity to do a combination SOTA activation and QRP VHF operation. A few other folks thought that was a good idea so we all got on the air from SOTA peaks on the Sunday of the weekend. I decided to operate from Mount Herman (W0C/FR-063) in grid DM79. I hiked up the same mountain for last year’s September contest and got soaked by the rain. Fortunately, the weather was excellent this year, making it a great day.

For radio equipment, I took a couple of HTs for 2m and 70 cm FM and the FT-817 for CW/SSB on 6m, 2m and 70 cm. Most of the SOTA action would be on 2m FM but SSB is critical for working the VHF contest. I did put out the word to the usual VHF contesters that there would be FM activity and did work a few of them via 2m FM. The 2m FM calling frequency, 146.52 MHz, is commonly used for SOTA but is not allowed for contest use. (Another example of how this rule is just a barrier to contest activity.) We used 146.55 MHz for the contest contacts. I had coordinated with Brad WA6MM who was going to be on Grays Peak (W0C/FR-002), one of the Colorado 14ers. When he made the summit, I had my 2m yagi antenna pointed in his direction and easily worked him on 2m FM at a distance of 65 miles.  Brad was using an HT with a 1/2-wave vertical antenna. Also, I worked Stu W0STU and Dan N0OLD on Bald Mountain (W0C/FR-093) , which sits on the east side of I-25 right at Monument Hill. Contest activity was light, as usual for the September contest in Colorado. We did have two rover stations that activated a few of the unpopulated grids in eastern Colorado: George AB0YM and Jonesy W3DHJ.

Band       QSOs X pt =  QSO pts.  X   Grids   =     Points
 -----------------------------------------------------------
 50         8      1      8             5             40
 144        23     1      23            5             115
 432        14     2      28            3             84
 -----------------------------------------------------------
 TOTALS     45            59            13            767

My contest score was not bad for a few hours of operating QRP portable. It turns out that I had set the Colorado section record for “single-op portable” back in 1990 with just 624 points (using my old callsign KB0CY). Oddly enough, 24 years later it appears that I set a new record. (This speaks more to the lack of QRP activity during the September contest and less about my incredible operating ability.)

All in all, it was a great day in the mountains to take a hike and play with radios. I will probably do the SOTA + VHF Contest activation again.

73, Bob K0NR

Bob Witte, KØNR, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Colorado, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Transmitting with my wet noodle

I was off work on Friday and in the afternoon I found some time to get on the radio, I was pleased to see conditions had somewhat improved. The bands most active for me were 20 and 17 meters. The MFJ 1788 loop was very good at picking up DX I heard but was not able to contact G3XOV from England his signal was a strong S8 but as I waited for him to clear the callers who were before me his signal faded to S2 I still tried but was not able to make the contact. I then came across a station who's call started with "Z" that letter always gets my attention. From these parts a "Z" call could be very good DX. The call was Z63MED very odd call I thought maybe a special event station, I looked it up on QRZ.COM and found out it was a station from Kosovo. This country is still a developing story when it comes to ham radio. It does not as of yet have DXCC recognition as it just became a country in 2008. For more Kosovo ham radio history go to QRZ.COM and look up the call Z60A this is the call for the Amateur Radio Society of Kosovo.
Now for the exciting news…….I ended up only making one contact and it was with EG4GET and this I found out was a special event station in Spain and has to do with football or soccer as we know it here in North America. There are 20 special event stations you can contact and contact (from North America) with 5 gets you a silver award and 10 will get you the gold award, for more information follow this link . So back to the exciting news…….I dropped the power on my K3 to 1 watt and made the contact with this special event station without really any trouble for a distance of 3,754 miles per watt! Looking back when I moved into the condo and only being able to use a small antenna  in less than ideal conditions I felt my DX was going to be south of the boarder and that's it. I have come full circle to hitting over and above thousand miles per watt contacts. My record for miles per watt at this location is still 18,470 per watt in the ARRL CW contest.
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].