AmateurRadio.com

Series Seven Episode Fifteen of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast has been released. The latest news, Martin (M1MRB & W9ICQ) and Colin (M6BOY) discuss the joy of working and operating a special event station as GA214CG comes live and Martin (M1MRB & W9ICQ) reviews Programming with Chirp.

• Thai hams get special permission for 6 metres
• UK CubeSail Amateur / Ham Radio Satellite
• Wirral Grammar School for Girls launch 434 MHz balloon
• Top Ten finish for UK Team in WRTC
• Spanish 5 MHz experimental period extended
• Andorra joins 5MHz allocations
• New Zealand Amateur / Ham radio Brass Monkey Contest
• Communicate with 'walkie talkie' dongle
• New Amateur / Ham radio Licences in Ireland
• 144 MHz channels to be used for the Commonwealth Games
• 20th Commonwealth Games, Galsgow 2014 Special Event

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 Fifteen of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast has been released. The latest news, Martin (M1MRB & W9ICQ) and Colin (M6BOY) discuss the joy of working and operating a special event station as GA214CG comes live and Martin (M1MRB & W9ICQ) reviews Programming with Chirp.

• Thai hams get special permission for 6 metres
• UK CubeSail Amateur / Ham Radio Satellite
• Wirral Grammar School for Girls launch 434 MHz balloon
• Top Ten finish for UK Team in WRTC
• Spanish 5 MHz experimental period extended
• Andorra joins 5MHz allocations
• New Zealand Amateur / Ham radio Brass Monkey Contest
• Communicate with 'walkie talkie' dongle
• New Amateur / Ham radio Licences in Ireland
• 144 MHz channels to be used for the Commonwealth Games
• 20th Commonwealth Games, Galsgow 2014 Special Event

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

This evening I went on 20m JT65 again and managed a couple of European QSOs in reply to the CQs of others. I am using JT65-HF software that is very simple to use. So far I have used the FT817 at either 2.5 or 5W.

JT65-HF screenshot

If you see a station calling CQ (shows up in green) you just click on it to start a QSO with that station. If he copies you and replies then the started QSO shows up in red – all very simple. Wonder if there is a similar (easy) package for JT9-1 on HF?

Looking on PSK Reporter I see plenty of USA stations were copying me too, so it should not be too hard to work DX with just a little effort even with my compromise antenna. When 10m and 6m are open, DX should be easier still.

With JT65-HF and JT9-1,  I have to be in the shack, but at least there is no speaking, saving my poor voice.

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

When I got home from work last night I quickly mowed the lawn because the weatherman said there was a sixty percent chance of rain on Saturday and Sunday and I wanted to get ahead of the game. After working in the yard I plopped down in the shack to see if I couldn’t make quick work of the W1AW/1 and W1AW/9 portable stations.

Worked them both within a whisker of each other on 40 meter CW then worked them both again later on 80 meter CW for insurance. I didn’t think the Indiana station would be difficult, but I wasn’t quite as confident about Rhode Island but all’s well that ends well and both are logged and another week of the QSO Party is behind us.

Given that the weatherman said it would probably rain, I shouldn’t have been surprised to wake up this morning to sunshine and blue skies. I swear the weather prognosticators are getting worse at their jobs even as technology has delivered into their hands unfair advantage over the elements.

Brenda says it’s because the weather has become “news” and all of them want to be the first to report a bad storm using giant touch-screens powered by super, frappa, chappa, slappa doomsday doppler radar systems.

She might be right…

Anyway, with the sun shining we hit the local farmers market early this morning and picked up more sweet corn, tomatoes, and a great big melon. And get this, the guy who was selling from the back of his melon truck, told everyone who would listen that he would be back in two weeks — with apples.

Yep, the days are ticking away and the orchards around here are near to busting with autumn goodies. Another cold snap is due to arrive here on Monday and it looks like the first few nights of August could break a few records.

Not to worry though, I’m certain there remains yet a few more days of blistering heat before Summer yields to Fall, but we’re on the backside of 2014 with school days and sweet apple cider coming up fast.

Filed under: Ham Radio, Life Tagged: cw, hr, qso
Jeff Davis, KE9V, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Indiana, USA.

The pride and joy in my shack is a Weller WECP-COD3 soldering iron. It is the only professional piece of equipment I have.

My late father used in when he was still working at Philips and he got to keep it after his retirement. Unfortunately his Parkinson’s disease advanced to such a stage that he gave the iron to me so that I could help him fix the electronics in his house. Recently the iron had been acting up and the culprit turned out to be the temperature sensor/switch. Even though Weller is a world-class brand, after 26 years of use it is no surprise that even their equipment starts acting up. That doesn’t matter, because a world-class brand has world class service and so I ordered a new sensor (50 Euro) which my ever so nice QSL manager Wouter sent to me. I could have ordered it locally, but then they still would have ordered it from Europe with a 45 day lead time. Here in Taiwan Weller is not sold any more, because Japanese stuff is cheaper. My iron is too old to be interesting any more. Well, I am old too, but quality still shines and Weller remains top quality.

So now I wonder: how old is the soldering iron in your shack? Do you go for quality or buy low price and throw it out after a while? Leave a comment if you please. It will surely be fun to read.

Hans "Fong" van den Boogert, BX2ABT, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Taiwan. Contact him at [email protected].

The weekend of July 19th & 20th saw the 1st YOTA UK event take place in Wolverhampton UK. This event was to run along side the main YOTA event in Finland for those who couldn’t make the trip to the main event.

YOTA is a fantastic initiative to promote amateur radio within young people. The European event has been running for some years now, but the RSGB was invited to take part for the first time this year.

On Saturday we had young amateurs complete antenna construction (Available here). Complete the intermediate practical’s and examinations. In the afternoon we also hosted the buildathon with the hugely successful PSK receiver.  Throughout the day we had talks, presentations and a special event station (GB1YOTA) running alongside the indoor activities.  It was a bit warm I can assure you and with constant rain, thunder & lightening it was a great day.

Sundays activities took place outdoors. While the special event station still carried on- many of the participants took part in some ARDF, a spot of operating and testing their newly constructed antennas. You can see a small snapshot of the Sundays events in this video.

A big thank you to Wolverhampton ARS who are based at  The electric club at Wolverhampton – who were amazing hosts,  Camb Hams for supporting and supplying the Special Event Station and of course all the participants who’s enthusiasm and technical ability was simply astounding.

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.

The weekend of July 19th & 20th saw the 1st YOTA UK event take place in Wolverhampton UK. This event was to run along side the main YOTA event in Finland for those who couldn’t make the trip to the main event.

YOTA is a fantastic initiative to promote amateur radio within young people. The European event has been running for some years now, but the RSGB was invited to take part for the first time this year.

On Saturday we had young amateurs complete antenna construction (Available here). Complete the intermediate practical’s and examinations. In the afternoon we also hosted the buildathon with the hugely successful PSK receiver.  Throughout the day we had talks, presentations and a special event station (GB1YOTA) running alongside the indoor activities.  It was a bit warm I can assure you and with constant rain, thunder & lightening it was a great day.

Sundays activities took place outdoors. While the special event station still carried on- many of the participants took part in some ARDF, a spot of operating and testing their newly constructed antennas. You can see a small snapshot of the Sundays events in this video.

A big thank you to Wolverhampton ARS who are based at  The electric club at Wolverhampton – who were amazing hosts,  Camb Hams for supporting and supplying the Special Event Station and of course all the participants who’s enthusiasm and technical ability was simply astounding.

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.