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I thought i would share a quick update on my WSPR experiments at home. My initial setup of the WSPR included what I though was quite a healthy heartbeat from the GPS module. In fact this was incorrect, i had the Serial Data and PPS lines crossed and the U3 thought the Data was the PPS signal. hence why the recalibration sent the Reference oscillator wildly off course.

Now fixed, i don’t have a heartbeat coming from the module, but thats because the GPS module is too close to the U3 and also there is a lack of pull up resistors between the 3.3v and TX pins. both these issues I will fix this week

Another point and is based upon many questions i am getting about the module is what antenna am I running. Well its simple Im using my main shack antenna – this being the MQ26-SR. With the calculated output of the WSPR module(288mW) and the ERP figures of the antenna (6dB), the grand ERP will be about 1.1W-ERP

This 1.1W ERP would account for how well the little module is doing. I have since corrected the DDS instability, by adding a heatSink, only the clock update and calibration need sorting – these both will be corrected when I sort out the GPS module.

This map shows a 8 hour transmission period, transmitting once every 4 minutes. No calibration is done as the GPS module is disconnected. I manually set the Reference oscillator by transmitting a 14Mhz signal and measuring the output on the Oscilloscope. I made the change to the oscillator by making adding the difference to the Ref. Oscillator of how much it was off by. (in my case just 163Hz)

Anyway here is a quick tour around the unit. This video was taken and made before I realised i had the GPS wired up wrong, and before I corrected the instability of the DDS module.

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.

Boy was I surprised to get this!

It was February 2013 and we just really finished unpacking all our boxes from the move into our new condo and I felt it was time to let some steam off and get on the radio. My new MFJ 1788 loop antenna had arrived and after some tweaking it was setup and ready to go. The ARRL DX CW contest was on and what a better way to give the antenna a workout! I blogged about my ARRL event and the use of the magnetic loop antenna. I was very pleased to see I was getting out and able to be a points giver in the contest. I was more concerned with checking out the MFJ's antennas performance from my condo location than taking the contest seriously. As a wise ham had told me long ago "always submit your contest score" and I did just that......last week a certificate came in the mail. It seems I was first place in Ontario south section for QRP!! No it's not top in the  country or world but for my condo station it was a great accomplishment. To think I was not even trying for an award.....maybe next year I will go for points and see how I do?
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

I truly had a blast this past weekend working 20m SSB contacts and giving away 5 points as a VE during the year long ARRL Centennial QSO Party.  As I mentioned in an earlier blog posting, I will be representing the Centennial State of Colorado when the W1AW/Ø portable operations schedule makes a stop in Colorado.  W1AW/Ø will be on the air from Colorado 21-27 May.  My contest operating is typically limited to Field Day and the Colorado QSO Party, so I wanted to spend some time on the air over the next few weeks brushing up on my “operating a pile-up” skills. 

I spent about 3 hours “on the air” over the Easter weekend and managed to add about 180 SSB contacts to  my log.  If you’ve done any operating the past few days you are well aware that band conditions have been up and down.  I was surprised at the feedback I received regarding my audio quality.  I think fellow hams are surprised to know that I’m running just 100w into a hamstick dipole mounted just above my roofline.  But this is the way for those of us living in HOA-hell.

Of course, I also have some weird issue going on with my Yaesu FT-950.  I promise I didn’t let the magic smoke out, but something is seriously wrong with my SSB workhorse.  You can read more about some of the testing I’ve done here.  As I stated in that blog posting, I do plan to try another power supply.  I’ll be pleasantly surprised if the issue is with my current power supply.  But I’m also prepared to quickly send my 950 to Yaesu California.  I need to get it back in time for when I operate W1AW/Ø.

If I had the privilege to work you over the past weekend, thank you for answering my CQ and I most certainly look forward to working you again soon.

Until next time…

73 de KDØBIK

Jerry Taylor, KD0BIK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Colorado, USA. He is the host of the Practical Amateur Radio Podcast. Contact him at [email protected].

Band conditions seem to have deteriorated lately. Bob W3BBO and I were discussing this on Saturday. The upper bands, 10, 12, 15 Meters still have signals on them, but they seem to be not as plentiful and nowhere as strong as they were just a month or six weeks ago. Just after the cold weather broke here in NJ and I resumed my QRP sessions, it seemed like each lunchtime from the car netted 3 our 4 or even 5 DX stations per sitting.

Lately, those kind of band conditions seem to have disappeared. Signals are fewer and weaker. But today was a case of the one that got away. I was tuning up and down the bands and heard JY9CF on 12 Meters. He was kind of loud and was calling “CQ USA ONLY”. I tried, and wasn’t being heard. But I did have time, as I heard him early on during lunch hour and he was getting louder. I figured giving just a little bit more time, I just might have nabbed him. However, many non-USA stations began calling, and the operator was getting frustrated as a few times he sent, “PLS LSN USA ONLY”. As his signal strength to me increased, so did his frustration. Finally he announced he was going QRT.

Rats! My gut was telling me that with a just a bit more time …… maybe. I am pretty certain that if I was home and had the shack KX3 fired up to the 75/100 Watt neighborhood, that I would have garnered a new country. It seems that 5 Watts and the Buddistick just didn’t cut it today, even though the JY9 station was the loudest I have ever heard here.

On the bright side, I did have a short QSO with Jim N0UR on 20 Meters. I have worked Jim in many Sprints and many QRP Fox hunts. It was good to hook up with him in an “everyday QSO” situation. Jim was running 4 Watts from his Flex1500 and he was a good, solid 579 here into New Jersey (when QSB wasn’t kicking in).

BTW, Paul NA5N has announced the theme for this year’s QRPTTF – “Tres de Mayo” considering how close this year’s event is to Cinco de Mayo.  I have already decided what I am going to do to be “in theme” – but I am NOT sharing until after the event.  All the rules can be found here: http://www.zianet.com/qrp/qrpttf/2014/ttf.htm

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].

Having some issues with my Yaesu FT-950. On Friday I noticed the 950 had a high SWR reading on 40m. Tried tuning and it wouldn’t correct the issue. I went back to 20m and over the weekend worked almost 200 SSB contacts without issue and was receiving solid signal reports on my audio all weekend long. Last night I tried working W1AW/5 on 40m and again couldn’t get the 950 to tune.

I decided to connect the 950 to a dummy load and check it out. I used my LDG AT-600ProII and the analog meter in bypass mode to record the following measurements with the FT-950 in CW mode and sending a continuous carrier.

10m – flat SWR and 50w fwd power
12m – flat SWR and 35w fwd power
15m – flat SWR and 25w fwd power
17m – flat SWR and 15w fwd power
20m – flat SWR and 10w fwd power
30m – flat SWR and 0w fwd power
40m – flat SWR and 0w fwd power
80m – flat SWR and 0w fwd power
160m – flat SWR and 0w fwd power

About 15 minutes later I repeated the tests, which produced different results as noted below:

10m – 35w
12m – 20w
15m – 15w
17m – 10w
20m – 5w
30m – 0
40 – 0
80 – 0
160 – 0

I’m a bit perplexed as to what is going on. I’m going to try another power supply tonight, but I have a feeling the 950 will need to take a trip to California and spend some time in the Yaesu hospital. I’ve also performed a full factory reset, but still getting the same results. Anyone else have any other bright ideas?

If the 950 does need to take a trip to California, I’m hoping Yaesu can turn it around in time to have it back for my stint operating W1AW/Ø.

Until next time…

73 de KDØBIK

Jerry Taylor, KD0BIK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Colorado, USA. He is the host of the Practical Amateur Radio Podcast. Contact him at [email protected].

The Lord may be risen, but the bands were down.
Paul Stam, PC4T, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from the Netherlands. Contact him at [email protected].

Anyone who knows me well may be slightly taken aback to find me writing about QSL cards! Each to their own, but it’s a part of the hobby that really doesn’t appeal to me at all. However, I’ve always said that I think it’s nice to be able to QSL contacts which are special to you in some way.

And so it was, I felt, the other day when I worked Berend, PA3ARK on FO-29. Berend often inspires me to try something new and so I thought it might be nice to try and create a QSL to commemorate the QSO.

I looked around and found the HAMQSLer program from VA3HJ. I managed to get past the ‘the final courtesy of a QSO is a QSL’statement at the top of the website! In my opinion, the final courtesy of a QSO is to say 73, but therein lies why I find myself at odds with the ‘every contact must be QSLed’ brigade!

The program is free to download and I found it well-designed and easy to use. I did have to install the Microsoft .Net framework 4.5.1 and install it on my PC before I could install the software.

I was able to import a background image of a photo of our village church to use. I really had wanted to try and use one of the aerial photographs I took of the village when I flew over in G3WGV’s aircraft a couple of years back. However, I found the colours didn’t really lend themselves to overlaying text on top of the photo. Actually, I’m sure a more artistically gifted person would have managed, but I opted for the easy approach – one where I had a nice blue sky, where I could place most of the text.

I found that I was able to setup various static text fields and create a QSOs box, which could be populated  from an ADIF file from my logger.

After a bit of resizing and trying various options, I was ready to import my ADIF records. I did tweak the Mode field in the ADIF record, so that I could show that the QSO took place on a satellite. The logger, of course, records that I was (in this case) transmitting on 144MHz, but not that it was a satellite QSO. I wanted this to be clear, so I amended the Mode field in the ADIF field to say CW Via FO-29, which I thought was clearer.

Tim Kirby, G4VXE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Oxfordshire, England. Contact him at [email protected].