AmateurRadio.com

I nailed it as far as guessing what the new KX3 product would be – the PX3! A small companion panadapter for the KX3.

No idea when it will ship and the asking price for the kit is $499.95. ($569.95 assembled) It looks really nice and I just might consider it for the shack KX3.  Time will tell. I’m not ordering it this weekend, even though Elecraft is taking orders already.  I’ll let the guys who have to have every single piece of Elecraft gear there is jump in line ahead of me.

The downside is that now until the darn thing is being shipped, there will probably be nothing else discussed on the KX3 reflector.

Let the whining and peeing and moaning begin!

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].

TX Factor, the UK’s first TV show dedicated entirely to amateur radio has certainly taken off. Episode 1 which launched back in February has seen over 22,300 downloads and the latest release has been viewed more than 7,400 times in the past 14 days. We’re extremely grateful to the amateur radio world for helping to propagate the news of this TV show and to help us achieve a large and appreciative audience. It’s made it all worthwhile!

If you’ve not yet watched an episode, then head over to www.txfactor.co.uk to see what’s on offer.

We’re always on the lookout for ideas for future show topics, so do let us know of any ideas we could consider for future inclusion.

Don’t forget to subscribe to our emailing list or YouTube channel to make sure you get notification of each new episode. Talking of which, episode 3 will be available in mid-May. The show features the famous Military Wireless Museum in Kidderminster with curator Ben Knock G4BXD and the king of kite aerials Roger Stafford G4ROJ. Mike Marsh visits the Exeter Radio and Electronics Rally and Bob takes a look at the new offering from FlexRadio Systems.

We’re currently building up a resource library of extracts from past shows which may be of interest to those who haven’t managed to watch an entire episode.

And if you can’t wait for the next episode, there is now TX Talk, a section of the web site where regular audio features on all aspects of amateur radio are uploaded. Right now, there’s an exclusive interview with FUNcube Project Manager Jim Heck talking with Bob McCreadie about the prospective changes to the FUNcube satellite’s transponder availability.

Nick Bennett 2EØFGQ co-hosts TX Factor with Bob McCreadie GØFGX and Mike Marsh G1IAR. Contact the team at [email protected]

WSPR on 20m tonight. 5 watts and my end fed wire.

Paul Stam, PC4T, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from the Netherlands. Contact him at [email protected].

Recent weeks have been extremely busy from both a professional and personal perspective. However, I seem to be getting back to a little more sane schedule that will allow me to blog a little more, which is very therapeutic for me. So some radio things that I am involved in.

I couple of weeks ago I hosted the annual IOTA Bash in Boerne, Texas. If you are into IOTA at all, it was a great gathering. Presentations from EA3NT, K6VVA, K9AJ and AB5EB. It was the 10th annual event and it's always a good time. Monitor www.islandradio.org for updates on next years BASH.

I  bought a K3. I needed to reclaim some real estate on my desk in the shack. I had an FT5000, which is a fantastic rig, but it is big. I will move it to my ranch station to upgrade my equipment there. So, far the K3 has lived up to all I've heard about it. It is a very flexible rig with a great receiver.

The SOTA powers that be have recently established more qualifying summits in Texas, some only 40 minutes from my QTH. While only 1 point summits, it is fun to activate any summit as the chasers are there and pile-ups are what we like. I plan to activate the first South Texas summit this afternoon. Maybe I will write it up after I'm done.

So, it's good to be at the keyboard again, thanks for reading this stuff.
Mike Crownover, AD5A, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Texas, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

I realise that I have not been very active monitoring 472khz WSPR this winter season. HF conditions seem to have been so good that I have rather ignored LF.

Noticing Roger, G3XBM blogging that 472khz WSPR was quiet, last night, I decided to run the FT847/HF6V on 472khz WSPR receive overnight. Sure enough it was quiet, but it was good to hear PA3ABK/2 and DF2JP, who I think is a new station to me.

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

For two years now I have used Norton 360 on my PC and it has served me well and not even a virus or any other problems………BUT I do have to shell out 60.00 per year to keep renewing it and having the fresh updates. There sure is a lot more I can do with that 60.00 than spending it on Norton! Then there is the other side of the coin how much will it cost me both in time and possibly PC tech help to remove a virus or what ever else there is out there from messing up my PC. In the past I have had some free virus protection programs along with trojan, malware and worms now and then it did not work. So am I getting the "wrong" free stuff, are they really not as good as rumored to be? My Norton 360 renewal message has been coming up my my PC for about a month now and as always I have been procrastinating the whole thing. Now I am down to the last day and just having to pay another 60.00 seems like a money grab to me. In the past here is the free protection I have had for the PC.
AVGfree ......this freeware say it protects against virus's, malware and spyware but to get a firewall, safe data download protection and anti spam you have to pay 60.00 per year. 
Spybot S&D is free and will protect me in the malware dept but not sure since AVGfree does that if I am just repeating a protection? I know there must be other free software out there or others that cost money but not asking you for more each year? What do you use.....how is it working for you......I'm open to suggestions as I am very fast running out of time. 


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

Agentschap Telecom – which is the Dutch version of the FCC – has decided to cancel the registration of my Dutch call sign PA2BX. And besides me also the calls of some 197 other Dutch radio amateurs who live abroad. Their reason being that since we don’t live in the Netherlands anymore we also don’t use the radio spectrum for which we need to be registered.

They already did so on March 12th, sent out letters to the operators involved on March 14 and then on March 19 informed the VERON, the Dutch Amateur Radio Society member of the IARU, that they were intending to do so. I don’t think I have to explain that I am very disgruntled with all this, and no doubt with me many others. At first sight it seems the AT doesn’t have any legal grounds to take this action and all is not lost, because I can always register again. But for now I cannot claim that I hold the call PA2BX and I cannot operate either in the Netherlands or with a guest licence in many other countries. These civil servants sure know how to waste time and money thinking of silly things like teasing us amateur radio operators.

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