AmateurRadio.com

…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.

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!

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)

Over the weekend I recorded and released episode 67 of the Practical Amateur Radio Podcast.  In episode 67 I discussed using D-STAR along with the DV Access Point and the Digital Ham Access Point (DHAP) from Hardened Power Systems.  All of course powered by the wonderful little Raspberry Pi. 

Thanks for listening…

73,
Jerry (KDØBIK)

This is PART 4a (there is a part 4b below) of the project “Arduino Frequency Display For a Kenwood TS-520S HF Ham Radio”. This part covers switching to a new front end circuit as seen used by the DFD2 frequency counter from “Almost All Digital Electronics”. Their website is http://aade.com/DFD2inst/DFD2inst.htm

All parts: (PART 4), (PART 3), (PART 2), (PART 1)

(PART 4A)

This is PART 4b of the project “Arduino Frequency Display For a Kenwood TS-520S HF Ham Radio”. This part covers testing the circuit and frequency counter software when connected to the Kenwood radio but still on a bread board. The final display is not ready so in this video I simply push the frequence counts to the laptop.

(PART 4B)

Here is the datasheet for the PLL chip I used in (PART 4). Other datasheets can be found in (PART 1).

74HC4046 Phase-Locked Loop with VCO (PDF)

A couple of weeks ago both I and my wife were very lucky to sit in on the recording of News Quiz for BBC Radio 4. Its been an ambition of mine for a number of years to visit Old Broadcasting House and to watch a live radio recording in the Radio Theatre.

My host for the evening arranged a tour of the New Broadcasting house news floor, the Radio 4 Studios and most impressively the BBC canteen !

I was amazed how small the Radio 4 studios actually were. Gone of the days where you would have an engineer, Producer and Broadcaster sat in the same room.  But still in one studio there was still a record player and a reel to reel tape machine. Just in case any of the archives were not digitally stored.

The BBC news floor was impressive, many of the TV presenters milling around and a constant hub of activity. For that many people in a single location I was amazed how quiet it actually was.

After a prawn sandwich (my wife had salad – with Chips) we moved onto the Radio Theatre and sat in the front row for the recording of News Quiz. Sandi Toksvig of course was amazing. She started with a great story, and moved onto the recording of the show making it look easy and seamless, the panelists were on top form (Jeremy Hardy, David Mitchell, Elis James and Mark Steel)– and of course Kathy Clugston was superb in reading the news clips. it’s a shame that so much of the evening was edited out, but you have to compress 2 hours into 30 minutes, But the best jokes stayed in.

After the show we nipped back to the green room, and because on this occasion the panelists were cycling for Sport relief they all were pretty knackered, out of breath and in Jeremy Hardy’s case – drinking a cold beer. To be honest I was shattered watching them cycle during the recording.

I must add a special thank you to Jim and Kathy for inviting us as their guests and organising the whole evening. My wife and myself really enjoyed the evening out in London – It was so surreal that it almost seemed normal.