AmateurRadio.com

The Sun Today / July 03  Courtesy: nasa.gov

As poor as our latest solar cycle has been, there still seems to be plenty of life left. Now pegged as the weakest cycle in the past 100 years, edging out Cycle 14 of 1906.  This cycle, like its predecessors, has had a double peak....but, unlike the others, the second peak was stronger than the first. Initially predicted to peak with a SSN (smoothed sunspot number) of 70, this number was surpassed in October 2013, when the SSN reached 75.



Cycle 24 Prediction (courtesy: nasa.gov)

The present rotation has brought a number of active sunspot groups into view along with several small solar flares. The elevated solar flux has had an immediate effect on propagation, producing excellent F2 conditions on the higher bands. Today's solar flux is pushing 170 and on the rise! It makes one wonder what other strange tricks Cycle 24 might have up her sleeve for us yet?

Active flaring during the summer 50MHz sporadic-e season can often produce some odd long-haul paths along with the possibility of some transcontinental auroral-e propagation....so hold on, as it looks like the ride is not yet over!
Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

My 6m 1W ERP WSPR signals are yet again being spotted in Israel.

I think this is now 5 days this season he has spotted me at this incredible distance. In all I must have had around 20 spots if not more from him?  The considered wisdom is this is Es, but I do sometimes wonder what the propagation mechanism is. The lack of stations at intermediate distances may be because few are active on WSPR, but it “feels” like a single long hop, not unlike F2. My station and antenna are basic.

People who know better than me tell me it is not F2. Whatever, I am very pleased to have my QRP station being spotted so often in Israel.

 Today, starting at 0704z,  he has spotted me 6 times already by 0846z.

6m spots by 4X1RF (1W ERP here) to 0830z today

Most Es spots seem to be from Scandinavia currently, just 1 from Italy.

UPDATE 0942z:   Just Scandinavian Es for the last hour here.

UPDATE 1530z:  Another spot from Israel of my QRP 6m signal at 1314z. That makes it 7 just today!

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

The past few days have been spent refurbishing my next door neighbour's 1937 floor model Marconi radio...Model 82. All of the capacitors were replaced except for the micas, which seemed to still be in spec. Several resistors were also replaced as they had drifted far out of spec on the high side. Four tubes were replaced as well, after measuring low emission on my  Eico 667 tube tester. Additionally, several wires whose rubber jackets had cracked and disintegrated, were replaced. A new three- prong power cord was installed, along with a fuse holder on the back of the chassis.


The radio also had two small fixed bias cells....small 1.25V cells for supplying grid bias voltage to the AVC/IF stages.



Both cells had long ago dried so I tried to rejuvenate them  by following a procedure found on the web. The zinc casing was carefully pried up to remove the carbon covering disc and a few drops of distilled water were added to the dried-up crystals inside before re-sealing the case. The initial cell voltage of .11 VDC rose to 1.2 VDC after the procedure but I wasn't confident that the new 'seal' would keep air from drying the electrolyte out.

I decided to use small camera batteries (1.5VDC) in place of the original cells since they were very close to the same size. With heat shrink tubing surrounding the edges and bottom lip, they readily installed on top of the original holder and clamped solidly in place.




A small brass spacer was inserted into the cell holder to make contact with the bottom of the new cell.




I was pleased to hear how well the radio performed after all of the changes. I have attempted to record a short video (for the first time) using my I-Pad and then converting the video to mpeg format as well as trimming it slightly in newly-installed Windows Moviemaker freeware. Hopefully my videos will get better with practise!




My neighbour will be pleased as the radio belonged to her grandfather and she remembers listening to it a lot as a child. She has been kind enough to let my hang my 100' three-wire LF flattop over the top of her house and property to a tree on the far side of her lot....now that's a good neighbour!



While on a roll I also cleaned and re- capped a mid 50's 'All American Five', Sylvania (model 515) that another neighbour had given me several years ago. It was so dirty and grimy when first received that it was hard to even tell what color it was. Two tubes were also replaced. It now resides on the kitchen counter and is sounding great, playing oldies only!

My restored Sylvania 515

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

Wow! It was hot here today! It got up into the upper 90s (36C) today and I was loving it! Well, maybe not “loving” it, but I wasn’t hating it or wishing it away. I was in my element as I went out to the Jeep and proceeded to try a little QRP.

I wasn’t hearing too much on 15 Meters and everyone on 17 Meters seemed to be involved in a ragchew, so I proceeded down to the good ol’ standby – the 20 Meter QRP Watering Hole.  It was there that I heard a station calling CQ rather slowly.  I set the KX3’s keyer for about 13 WPM and waited for him to sign.  I am guessing that this person is a relatively new Ham because of the slower code speed and because he had a 2X3 callsign and the prefix was KK. I think in the #2 call district we’re still at KD as a newly issued prefix.

I sent his call twice followed by mine, three times.  He had a decent 579 signal, and he gave me a 549.  OK, not the strongest, but in my book, a 549 signal is decent enough to have a ragchew with.  After the preliminaries, I thought we were going to get into the heart of a nice chat. That’s when I got, “BANDS SEEM TO BE UNSTABLE. YOU ARE UP AND DOWN. 73 DE KKXXXX”. Just like that, he was gone.

OK …. wait a second ….. what just happened?

It seems to me that one of the attributes of short wave communications is QSB, i.e. fading.  It’s a rare conversation where it doesn’t occur, even mildly. It’s something you learn to adapt to and overcome in all but the severest cases, as you build up your skills. I feel bad for this guy, because if you’re going to limit yourself to only 599 signals, you’re going to miss out on a lot of fun. And you’re not going to develop yourself as an experienced operator, either.

The antennas are unplugged tonight. As a result of the hot weather and a cool (not cold) front moving through, we are getting some hellacious thunderstorms.  No hail, but the downpours have been heavy and even though the rains have stopped for now, it’s still lightning. A lot.

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].

Join us Live for the recording of AmateurLogic 68 ‘Field Day 2014′ this Saturday at 12:00 Noon CDT, 1700 UTC.

We had a great time. Look for the show on July 15th.

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].

This was the battery I purchased just over a year ago, it was for the Elecraft KX3 as a back up battery for the times my internal batteries gave up the ghost. Unfortunately the battery will no longer hold a charge and it's only after a year and maybe 3 uses. I am now in the market for an external battery that I hope will not let me down after only being called on 3 times. Any ideas out there??
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

Did I really hear China on 40M JT-65?

Last night I played around some more with JT-65.  The band conditions did not appear to be as good as they were the other night.  I was on both 20m and 40m.

I worked a few stateside stations in the 40 minutes I played on the bands.

When I looked at PSK Reporter this morning I was greatly surprised to see one of the stations that I had spotted.  It must have been one of the very first decodes I had after firing the rig up.

3T4CAV – in CHINA!  I can’t find this call sign on any of the online databases, so I don’t know if this is a mistake in the database, I guess I doubt it is, but this is pretty amazing.  And the signal report was -5db – which is actually a pretty strong signal report on JT-65.

I don’t remember seeing the decode on my screen, but I could have missed it as I was getting everything configured.

Anyway, that is pretty amazing if true.

Judging by the location of spots (both sent and received) around the country and down to South America, my 66′ ladder fed dipole in the attic seems to be working pretty well for this mode.

I do see lots of stateside stations working DX that I am unable to decode, so I think my initial feeling that receive is weak could still be true.  But its not stopping me from having fun on this mode!

Burke Jones, NØHYD, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Kansas, USA. Contact him at [email protected].