AmateurRadio.com

WSPR tonight. Best DX was EW1LN 1514 km. With QRP CW I worked YO7AHR and EA2CW/P sota station on 20 meter.

It seems to be a while since I stopped and wrote something here.

The simple satellite operation on VO-52 and FO-29, using the FT847, diplexer and the V2000 vertical continues. On VO-52 in particular, I have been surprised how well it works and have made a fair few QSOs, mostly on CW. Some passes are better than others, depending on the direction of the satellite and the vertical nulls of the antenna. I was interested to get decent signals through VO-52 the other day as it was over Greenland and the footprint of the satellite covered VE1 and W1 – so perhaps I may manage a QSO into North America when the time is right.

FO-29 tends to be a bit harder – just in terms of finding my downlink signal – again it depends where the satellite is, but I’ve managed a few contacts now, which is very pleasing indeed.

Nice to work GS3PYE/P – the Camb-Hams expedition to Lewis (IO68) on SO-50 this evening. I ventured out into the garden with the UV-5R and the Elk.

I’ve missed them both, but there have been at least a couple of Es openings on 50MHz. Earlier in the week, Ron ZB2B emailled to say that he had worked some stations in G, GW and EI in an Es opening and it looks like the band was nicely open yesterday morning (we were out, cleaning the local village church!).

Finally, apparently, this is my 1000th post to this blog. I enjoy writing it – and sometimes, enjoy looking back a few years to see what I was playing with then. It’s interesting to see how things change. Thank you to YOU, though, for reading it!

After a few more weeks of not getting on the air I managed to man handle the portable Hexbeam up to about 4 above ground level (Note: must get that tilt base sorted out) to compare it against the Cobwebb I have in the loft.

So before we go down the ‘It’s not scientific’ route. I’m ok with that, no big deal its just a bit of fun.

There are some significant differences between the two antennas that I hadn’t fully appreciated. Firstly the noise levels on the Cobwebb were quite a bit higher, which seemed to make the Hexbeam sound quiet, when in actual fact there was no significant difference on the higher bands when it comes to S points. But, the lower noise levels made it much nicer to use. The image below shows what I mean. There is a band of ‘mush’ slap bang in the middle where I switched onto the Cobwebb. Just so you know, the Cobwebb was way quieter than the vertical I had before.

It’s not a huge visual difference on the screen but the ears make it obvious. The gain on the Hexbeam made it easy to make contacts with C06LA answering on the first call, I’d never expect that on the Cobwebb.

You can also see that the signal strength is fairly similar, that was W4UH calling CQ.

So not much in it when the Hexbeam is really low, I’m sure it’ll beat the pants off the Cobwebb at 12m but interesting to see that the Cobwebb is ‘noisier’. Especially as I thought it was quite a quiet antenna.

Ok so not a radio related blog entry but its worth sharing anyway.

I have for the first time ever now joined the super fast broadband club. Using BT infinity2 I have for the first time broken through the “Up to” 16Mb/s download and jumped straight up to 76Mb/s download.

For the uninitiated this is accomplished by only installing Fibre cable to the nearest cabinet and then the existing copper to the house. The is known as FTTC. (Fibre To The Cabinet). and going forward its quite possibly the only large scale Fibre Optic roll out we will see in the UK. placing Fibre Optic to the home (FTTP – Fibre To The Property) is prohibitively expensive and the last large scale roll out nearly bankrupted NTL.

So how is it ? well to be honest I haven’t really noticed any difference browsing the web. But I have noticed a massive difference when everyone is using a piece of the internet connection. the upload speed has made a massive difference too. Being able to upload videos to YouTube and also working with files (day job) and placing them on remote servers is now much quicker.

The actual speeds I’m getting are not that different to the advertised connection – That being 76Mbs down and 19Mbs up. have a look at the before and after speed tests.

All Photos by W3ATB

Tim W3ATB and I rode our bikes to Eagle Pond along the old rail route. We worked Hungary, Israel, Ukraine, Indiana, and Virginia.

We traveled along the old Northern Rail route about four miles. It’s 60F and a perfect spring day. We skirted back and forth across the Black River starting out in Andover.

We stopped at the covered bridge to enjoy the scenery and rest a bit. About a mile and a half from Andover is Potter Place. The local historical society has turned the old station into a museum.

The route is a perfect bike path. Railroad grades are very slight so there are no hills at all. We come to Eagle Pond after riding 40 minutes or so. It’s glorious. Blue sky, sparkling water and some good DX. I’m running the KX3 with a 33 foot wire. I operate mostly on 15M and 17M.

Here’s my log:

25 Apr-14 1855 21.010 HA9RT CW 599 599 Hungary
25 Apr-14 1900 18.076 EM90WF CW 599 599 Ukraine
25 Apr-14 1910 21.018 HA8FK CW 559 599 Hungary
25 Apr-14 1915 18.091 KA4RRU CW 559 599 VA
25 Apr-14 1922 18.078 4Z5IW CW 559 599 Israel

Tim is sitting about 60 feet away running an HB-1B and the Par End fed wire. He’s operating on 20M. He has a nice QSO with an Indiana station. Amazingly, we don’t interfere with each other even though we have parallel vertical wires in close proximity.

We pack up our gear for the return trip and stop several times along the trail. Our butts are sore and our muscles feel the exercise. We’ll be in better shape next time. We pass a few spots with telltale signs of winter. They’ll probably be gone next time too. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow.

Ray Novak from Icom America came by the AmateurLogic studio with Icom’s newest 2m/70cm, D-Star capable radio. We had the perfect opportunity to host another smack down match. This time it was between the new ID-5100A vs the IC-2820H.
Check it out here: ID-5100A vs IC-2820H

Courtesy of N8NQH

Thanks to Tim, N8NQH for sharing a possible 60-cent fix for the loss of memory problems plaguing some Wouxun radios. He’s created a great little resource page for those looking to tackle this repair. According to him, the problem is a little 8-pin DIP surface mounted 24C64 serial memory IC.

Please note, however, that he makes it very clear that this repair is made at your own risk! Your mileage may vary, but at least it’s a possible starting place.

http://tim-yvonne.com/ham/wouxun-memory/index.htm