AmateurRadio.com

This morning, 28MHz seemed pretty quiet as I drove to the station this morning – very little on SSB. When I got to the station, I tried CW which was just as quiet. As I spun up the band to the beacon area, I noticed some PSK on 28.120.

Some months ago, I downloaded the Multimode application for my iPhone which decodes PSK and RTTY. I just fired up the app, held the phone reasonably close to the rig and saw PSK signals appear on the display. To tune the signal in, you just drag the centre of the bar to the centre of the required signal and with any luck it displays.

This morning, it was fun to see 5B4/SQ2MQM working a JA station. And this evening when I got back to the car, LW5ER was coming through nicely.

Obviously you can’t have all this going whilst you’re actually driving. That would be dangerous! So, I tuned up the band to the SSB segment and the very first signal I heard was TX6G coming through – really great signals. In a perfect world, the next sentence would be that I cracked the enormous pileup running 10W to the whip.

Sadly no! The Anytone can’t deal with split frequency operation, so it was just a case of enjoying listening to the signals coming through from the other side of the world. I did stop in a lay-by and text Justin, G4TSH, who’s there, that they had a great signal to the mobile.

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

For as long as I first heard about SDR i wanted to get involved. Unfortunately children and jobs got in the way of significant investment. Until now that is. I received an email from a local ham who had an Angelia board that he no longer wanted.

‘Did I want to buy it off him?’

‘Yes’ said I before even mentioning it to the domestic CFO / xyl.

Long discussion ensued and eventually I have come away with this….

Needless to say some of the domestic staff were not amused. As a consequence I have an FT817 and a VX8-GE for sale. Any takers?

Alex Hill, G7KSE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, UK. Contact him at [email protected].

I have new neighbours and I am afraid they have PLC internet. I have to found out if that's the case. As you can hear its a terrible QRM on 10 meter band last Sunday afternoon.

Friday I did hear JA4FKX/QRP on 14060 KHz. Very good signal here, but no takers. I tried to call him but he could not hear me, even with 5 watts, I know Dick F8WBD worked him twice with 2 watts.

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

My quest for a QSO a Day in 2014 is going well.  The first quarter is complete and by far March was my best month in the shack.  I also continued my streak of adding at least one new DX entity to my logbook each month with March receiving two.  During the CQ WPX contest I managed to add Ceuta & Melilla and Balearic Is.   I’ll be honest…I had to look both of these up on the map.   But that’s the fun of amateur radio.

I’ve started April off on the right foot with getting W1AW/1 (Vermont) and W1AW/0 (Iowa) in the logbook.  I must also admit that I’m slightly behind on the ARRL Centennial QSO Party.  I’m currently sitting at four worked including Texas, Georgia, Iowa and Vermont.  Just 46 more to go…..

The QSO breakdown for March is as follows:

Mode
Number QSO’s

JT65
63

JT9
1

SSB
40

PSK31
5

2m FM
0

Additional notes of interest:

DX Stations Worked in March – 22

New DX Entities in March – 2

Total QSO’s for March – 109

Total QSO’s for 2014 – 219

Total consecutive QSO days – 90

Days left in 2014 – 331

Until next time…

73 de KD0BIK (Jerry)

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].

…and another….and another.

My first ever serious outdoor QRP operation yielded two additional firsts, namely first Trans Pacific QRP QSO and first US CW QSO on 12 meters. KZ5OM a.k.a. K6III was the one who made it possible, and my “thank you” QSL card was mailed to him directly. I didn’t know that Jerry is very active within the SKCC or the Straight Key Century Club. So in his e-mail back he suggested me to join the SKCC, get on the sked page and have another QSO with him. Also because I would be very welcome there.

Always being obedient I filled out the form on the SKCC web site and a couple of hours later K9JP mailed me my life long SKCC number: 12107.
Only after logging on to the sked page did I understand what Jerry meant by being welcomed. Immediately some ops wanted a QSO with me and I got mail asking for skeds. I hadn’t even hooked up my J37 yet, so on Saturday I did and my first every SKCC QSO was with VK4TJ, another very active SKCC member. On Sunday Jerry was also on line and we had our second QSO, although this time not QRP.

Chatting with others on the sked page is lots of fun and the atmosphere is very relaxed there. For now I am only one of three SKCC members in Taiwan and I know the others aren’t very active, so it’s no surprise I am so popular. The SKCC is also very popular, something I did not know. I became member on March 27, with number 12107. As I write this it is March 31 and already 23 other hams have joined after me, brining the total to 12130 members (minus a handful of SKs). Adding almost 5 members a day is quite impressive for a club dealing with such an old communication system.

The SKCC is about straight keys. I have two: my trusted J37 and a Junker NATO issue key. Never liked the latter because of the clicking sound it makes when you release the handle. It is German quality though, and if I don’t start using it I will probably never start liking it. So off came the banana connectors and on went a 5.25 mm jack. Four years of postponing, but done in 15 minutes. But I do like my various paddles and switching between paddles and a straight key meant switching jacks on the back of my IC-7200. Not convenient at all. So on Sunday afternoon took out the materials I had already prepared a long while back and finally made the switching box I had in mind. A year late, but an hour of drilling, fitting and soldering later I had the job done.

So thank you Jerry, it’s all your fault. Because of our QSO I am now member of the SKCC, had a lot of fun on air, started using my Junker key and finished a project.

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

This is to let everyone know that Wednesday night, Joe Walsh WB6ACU is going to be co-hosting TWiT.TV’s HAM Nation with Bob Heil, Gordon West and Leo Laporte. Will be a blockbuster show with several in- studio guests. Joe will be introducing a new Contest/Dx segment anchor that is joining the show. Watch live and fasten your seat belt!

Dr. Bob Heil, K9EID, is the founder of Heil Sound and host of TWiT.tv's Ham Nation which streams live each Tuesday at 6:00pm PT (9:00pm ET) at http://live.twit.tv. Contact him at [email protected].

If you own a smartphone and/or tablet device and use any of the amateur radio related apps designed for these devices, I would like to hear from you.  I’m conducting research for an upcoming episode of the Practical Amateur Radio Podcast (PARP) and would like to know what apps you are using, how you use them and how they work for you. 

Please contact me via the email address listed on my QRZ page.  Thank you!

73,
Jerry (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].