AmateurRadio.com

Okay so not exactly a ham radio blog entry here but its Wi-Fi related, so in a tenuous link its sort of radio related right ?

Recently I upgraded my home broadband to BT Infinity 2. It has been fantastic except for one little annoying thing. Every time I try to reconnect to the Wi-Fi my MacBook will not reconnect and insists the password is invalid.

This has only happened since the BT Home Hub 5 came about and I genuinely thought I had a broken hub. The issue seems to fix itself after a reboot of the hub, but within a day or so its annoying habit of throwing you off comes back.

So what’s the issue here – and more importantly the fix.

MacBook’s seem to have a hard time switching between Wi-Fi or 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. Why this is the case god knows. But the solution is very simple and easy to do.

1. Login to your hub usually 192.186.1.254
2. Click on Advanced Settings – Log in using your admin details, and click Continue to Advanced Settings
3. Click Wireless on menu at the top

You will now see options for 2.4Ghz 5Ghz  and WPS. We are going to change the way 5Ghz works.

1. Click on 5Ghz
2. Make sure Sync with 2.4Ghz is NO
3. Choose a name for a new wireless ID – I chose Lumber-5Ghz (My Wireless at home is called LUMBER – so it makes sense)
4. Make sure the interface type is selected “Up to 150 Mb/s)
5. I’ve selected Channel 64 – you may not need to change channel unless you have some interference
6. Choose a new password for you to join the new network.
7. Hit Apply

While you wait for the router to save the settings, I’ll explain what you have done.

You have separated the Wifi Networks into 2. You now have a 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz Network. Soon (leave it a minute) you will see your new 5Ghz network pop up in your Wi-Fi network list. Join it and you will be connected to your 5Ghz network. If your Mac cannot connect it will default back to your 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi network and stop that annoying “Invalid password” issue from reappearing.

Since doing this all the MacBook’s, Mac Minis and iMacs in my household have not has this issue reappear so it seems to be the fix.

I hope this does help anyone else who is having this issue.

Dan Trudgian, MØTGN, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Wiltshire, England. He's a radio nut, IT guru, general good guy and an all round good egg. Contact him him here.

Okay so not exactly a ham radio blog entry here but its Wi-Fi related, so in a tenuous link its sort of radio related right ?

Recently I upgraded my home broadband to BT Infinity 2. It has been fantastic except for one little annoying thing. Every time I try to reconnect to the Wi-Fi my MacBook will not reconnect and insists the password is invalid.

This has only happened since the BT Home Hub 5 came about and I genuinely thought I had a broken hub. The issue seems to fix itself after a reboot of the hub, but within a day or so its annoying habit of throwing you off comes back.

So what’s the issue here – and more importantly the fix.

MacBook’s seem to have a hard time switching between Wi-Fi or 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. Why this is the case god knows. But the solution is very simple and easy to do.

1. Login to your hub usually 192.186.1.254
2. Click on Advanced Settings – Log in using your admin details, and click Continue to Advanced Settings
3. Click Wireless on menu at the top

You will now see options for 2.4Ghz 5Ghz  and WPS. We are going to change the way 5Ghz works.

1. Click on 5Ghz
2. Make sure Sync with 2.4Ghz is NO
3. Choose a name for a new wireless ID – I chose Lumber-5Ghz (My Wireless at home is called LUMBER – so it makes sense)
4. Make sure the interface type is selected “Up to 150 Mb/s)
5. I’ve selected Channel 64 – you may not need to change channel unless you have some interference
6. Choose a new password for you to join the new network.
7. Hit Apply

While you wait for the router to save the settings, I’ll explain what you have done.

You have separated the Wifi Networks into 2. You now have a 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz Network. Soon (leave it a minute) you will see your new 5Ghz network pop up in your Wi-Fi network list. Join it and you will be connected to your 5Ghz network. If your Mac cannot connect it will default back to your 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi network and stop that annoying “Invalid password” issue from reappearing.

Since doing this all the MacBook’s, Mac Minis and iMacs in my household have not has this issue reappear so it seems to be the fix.

I hope this does help anyone else who is having this issue.

Dan Trudgian, MØTGN, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Wiltshire, England. He's a radio nut, IT guru, general good guy and an all round good egg. Contact him him here.

I was in the pileup to work W1AW/0 in South Dakota today. I already have them in the log, but I can’t seem to resist a good pileup these days. Anyway, after I worked them, instead of the normal “TU 73”, I got “W2LJ QRP?”

I answered “YES QRP 73 DE W2LJ” and I got a dit dit in reply.

I guess it was somebody who knows of me. The only other time that  happened was when I worked W1AW/1 in New Hampshire, but I knew going in that Dave N1IX was the operator. Dave is a superb op and fellow Fox hunter.

It would be interesting to know who was behind the key. It sure makes you do a double take when you work a station and the operator is familiar with you, but yet you have no idea as to whom you may have worked.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least.

Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

As I am doing my operating from the condo there are a number if items in the shack that have just been gather dust. My feeling is if Im not using it someone else can! So the following items are up for sale…….
1. Balun designs balun model 1110cu it's called a QRP balun but is rated at 300 watts. It's a 1:1 isolation balun I did use them at my old place to make sure not unwanted RF was radiating from the coax. Since I only have one antenna now I no long require one.
The price is 25.00 including shipping within North America.


2. Elecraft N-Gen this is a kit that I put together myself and works great. It is very good for many RF and IF alignment tasks. The price including shipping is 50.00.

3. LDG AT200pro antenna tuner I am no longer in need of a tuner as my K3 and KX3 all have on board ATU's this unit works and looks great. Price is 150.00 shipping included.


4 Hendricks 41dB step attenuator, I put this unit together myself and works great. Price is 50.00 including shipping.


The selling of these items will both clean up the shack and give me some ham bucks to clutter things up again!



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

This is a photo of the kit currently used. The top FT817ND is used mainly for 2m and 70cms (local FM net, SSB and CW, beacon hunting) and the lower FT817 for WSPR, JT65 and JT9-1 mainly on 6m and 10m. The lower rig is set at 2.5W, but the cable run to the V2000 vertical is lossy on 6m. I use a SignaLink USB audio interface to the PC.  This works well. For all digital modes I use the FT817 on DIG setting via the rear connector.   Sometimes I use the Z817 ATU, which I find very good. With this, I can get onto 5MHz and some other bands.

Best DX (on WSPR) is Australia at 1W out on 40, 20 and 10m and Israel on 6m WSPR (1W ERP).

Not shown (on shelf above) is the 472kHz homebrew transverter, the 15m MFJ Cub and the Mizuho 200mW 2m SSB rig. Also out of sight are a 136kHz beacon, the 2m Fredbox, the 6m Sixbox, the VLF 8-9kHz beacon, and optical rigs. I am waiting for better health to be able to use these again. Currently my operating is all from home and mainly modes not requiring me to talk, although I have ventured onto our Monday night FM net and the odd 2m and 70cm contest.

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

Three perhaps noteworthy amateur radio activities occurred recently around K8GU: 1. During the course of some HVAC upgrades, I was able to get two holes core drilled through the foundation to bring coax and control cables into the house; 2. I operated in the NAQP August CW contest; 3. Evan and I went to the Berryville, VA, hamfest.

These two ports exit the basement into a crawl space where I will ground the cables before they enter the house.  I still need to get some hydraulic cement or other quick-setting patch mortar to clean up the drill crater on the outside.  Total cost: $5 in materials and a large pizza for the crew.

Screenshot above shows TRLinux after the end of the contest (obviously it was today, not last night).  TRLinux performed flawlessly again with the YCCC SO2R+ box driving the KK1L band-decoder and 6×2 switch.  I operated for about five hours (probably a little more, and definitely more if I used the NAQP 30-minute time-off rule to calculate it).  I got up after my first operating sitting at the beginning of the contest and left the shack.  As I exited the door, I was hit with the smell of hot electronics.  You know the smell: like when you just let the smoke out of a transistor.  I walked over to the antenna switch matrix where I was using a triplexer to split the hexagonal beam to both radios.  It was warm to the touch.  It seems to have continued to function, but I’ll have to disassemble it at some point to see if any irreversible damage was done.

The August NAQPs are always fun for us out East because there is the ever-present opportunity for sporadic-E throughout the contest, giving us a chance to work nearby states, which can really drive up the multiplier (and QSO, depending on the direction of the opening) total.  Of course, this is the real boon of having a second radio: you can call CQ on your most productive band while looking for openings on the others.  I came down after supper with the family to “work 40 meters before it goes long” and ended up with blistering 10- and 15-meter runs into the Midwest and South.  Since Evan and I were planning to go to the hamfest and I don’t yet have a 160-meter antenna at the “new” QTH, I pulled the plug at midnight local time (0400).  Not sure 40 meters was even getting long at that point.  At any rate, it was wonderful to say “hi” to so many old friends from MRRC, MWA, SMC, PVRC, and beyond!

A final comment:  You can really tell how much better one radio is than another when you have them both side-by-side on your desk.  This was quite apparent when I had the K3 and the TS-930S and it is also apparent with the K3 and the K2.  The K2 is a wonderful radio and fun to operate, especially in the field, but it’s not the K3 as far as fit and finish, among other things.  No, I’m not buying another K3 anytime soon.  The K2 is quite enough for the second radio.

I’ve always heard that the Berryville, VA, hamfest had a good boneyard/fleamarket/swapmeet but I’ve never managed to attend.  I resolved to attend this year and was pleasantly surprised.  Evan came along for the ham-and-egg breakfast, which was good but he rejected the ham after only consuming about 1/3 of it, and a trip to the playground at the school across the road.  This is still a “real” hamfest like the ones I remember going to in the early 1990s before eBay and online trading really took the wind out of swapmeets.  There were plenty of rigs spanning the spectrum of boatanchor to relatively modern, HF and VHF/UHF.  There were lots of amplifiers, as well, (and a small quantity of CB junk; Texas Star, anyone?)  There were also lots of antennas, and even some Rohn 25.  The computer and cell phone accessory dealers were mercifully few and there were lots of tables of parts, bits and pieces.  This is a ham’s hamfest and I’ll be returning.  I picked up a bunch of Cinch-Jones plugs and sockets for my new cable ingress, plus some SMA connectors and flexible coax jumpers.  Plus, I ran into a few friends, although not the ones I expected to see!

Ethan Miller, K8GU, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Maryland, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

A few weeks ago I had one of my rare visits to the post office. As I was waiting, I saw a display of a new series of stamps and I just had to buy the one shown here. What caught my attention was not really the artist, but rather the Kurér portable radio.

The stamp was of course not about the radio but was issued in commemoration of the 100 year anniversary of the birth of Alf Prøysen. The English Wikipedia page has this to say about him:

Alf Prøysen (23 July 1914 – 23 November 1970), was a writer and musician from Norway. Prøysen was one of the most important Norwegian cultural personalities in the second half of the twentieth century, and he made significant contributions to literature, music, TV, and radio.

One of his main characters was “Teskjekjerringa” called Mrs. Pepperpot in English. She is shown here in the second stamp in the series. I remember this story very well from my own childhood in the 60’s as told in the characteristic calm and soothing voice of Prøysen himself. The character eventually appeared in 23 different languages. The radio is of course here because this and others of his plays were very popular on radio in the 50’s and 60’s.

And it was this radio, the Kurér (= Courier), that made me buy the stamp. It was a highly successful portable radio from the Radionette factory in Oslo from 1950 to 1958. It has four valves and covers long wave, medium wave, ‘ the trawler band’, and short wave. It has room for batteries (90 Volts and 1.5 Volts). But luckily it also has a built-in mains supply – the 90 Volt battery is hard to find these days. A total of 224 000 were produced and it was exported to many countries especially in the Middle East. It is very easy to repair even today.

I would think the most popular version today among collectors is the dark red one shown in the stamp. I have a grey one shown here with a simple medium wave transmitter that I have described before on top.

• Alf Prøysen honored with stamps
• Kurér radio. This radio could could need an English language Wikipedia page as well as a better Norwegian one.
• The Radionette factory 1927-1972

Sverre Holm, LA3ZA, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Norway. Contact him at [email protected].