AmateurRadio.com

In a surprise announcement tonight, Ed Griffin of Import Communications (Wouxun.us) has abruptly ended sales and support of the popular Wouxun radios.

As one of the largest Wouxun distributors, Import Communications was selling as many as 500 radios per month, according to the company.

In an email to customers, Griffin indicated that he had been having difficulty dealing with the manufacturer in China. He also claimed that all Wouxun radios contain an “internal defect” which the factory is unwilling to address.

Griffin’s description of the lost memory problem / reverting to speaking Chinese matches my experience with two of my Wouxun radios.

Griffin wrote that he would continue to sell Wouxun accessories and is in the process of importing a new dual-band HT manufactured by Anytone.

Matt Thomas, W1MST, is the managing editor of AmateurRadio.com. Contact him at [email protected].

Press image for a larger view

Related posts:

• “Not so busy 70 cm ISM band” showing the status on a late Monday night
• “Video of busy 70 cm ISM band due to car key fobs“

Sverre Holm, LA3ZA, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Norway. Contact him at [email protected].

My first contact in the new year is immediately a new DXCC. On 12 m I heard V5/DL3DXX Namibia - Africa with CW. With 35 wpm I could work him.

48 American soldiers died at the crossing on September 20, 1944. Now they made a new bridge at that place, still remembering those brave soldiers who died there.

The Crossing - A special video about a bridge, I made a few days ago.

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

Here’s the top 5 blog postings for 2013 on the K0NR Blog, based on number of views.

1. The Updated Incomplete List of Ham Radio iPhone Apps – my short list of preferred iPhone apps for ham radio use

2. Digital Voice at Pacificon – a report on a few of the presentations at the Pacificon ham radio convention in Santa Clara

3. Yet Another HT From China (Baofeng UV-B5) - a look at one of the best low cost HTs from China

4. A Great Bag for the FT-817 – description of a really good bag for the Yaesu portable QRP rig

5. When All Else Fails or SHTF? – a discussion of “preppers” getting interested in amateur radio for emergency use

Also, these articles continue to get a large number of hits, even though they are a bit older:

FM/VHF Operating Guide – a guide to ham radio activity on 2m FM and other bands

Choose Your 2m Frequency Wisely – an explanation of the 2 meter band plan with Colorado emphasis

— 73, Bob K0NR

Bob Witte, KØNR, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Colorado, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

always seems to be conducted when weather is less than optimal for such things.

You may remember me telling how I had to temporarily re-hang my 88′ EDZ wire last Saturday. Just a week ago, we were enjoying weather in the low 50s (11C), it was a good day to perform that task.  But then during the week, I noticed it wasn’t working right and seemed to be deaf.  I thought initially that there was a short in the PL-259 connector.  I changed that out and it made no difference.  I suspected a fault maybe a bit farther back in the coax, as feedlines always seem to be a probem, but then I thought – what if the problem is with the window line and not the coax?

So today, I headed outside and this weekend, the weather is quite a bit colder than last. In fact, it’s quite the opposite of last weekend. Last night we had a low of -3F (-20C) and today’s high was about 20F (-6C), so where did I find myself?  Of course, in the back yard, freezing in the new fallen snow, inspecting my antenna to see where the fault might lay. And since I work better without gloves, that just added to the pleasure!

Fortunately, the fault was found quickly and it was an easy fix.  When I was re-hoisting the antenna, the window line must have flexed and stressed badly at the BALUN terminals, and on one side, the wire had snapped.  It proved to be a simple matter of loosening the screw, removing the old tiny bit of wire, stripping back a bit more of the insulation on that side of the window line and re-screwing the bare wire back down in place.  I needed tools no more sophisticated than the Swiss Army Knife that I always carry.  (You can’t work for a Swiss firm for 22 years of your life and NOT carry a Swiss Army Knife with you wherever you go.)

I went to my basement shack, where it’s a balmy 58F (15C) and was delighted to see the KX3 deliver a match in literally, just a couple of seconds.  My preferred wire is now back in action and I am quite a happy camper.  Now I just have to keep my fingers crossed that my temporary support line will hold for the rest of the winter!

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].

Keeping it simple

I'm only 54 years old but over the past few years it's either my age or the growing of the hobby both technically and gadget wise that has given me some senior moments!! I really can't blame just the hobby as I have had times when heading to the car to only stop and wondering where is was I was heading too and for what! I'm comforted from online reading that says this is from having lots on the go and nothing to do with loosing your memory.  How does this relate to ham radio you say...........The rigs I have are the Elecraft K3 and KX3 both are menu driven as are many other rigs on the market are. I find myself going to the user manual or as I call it sometimes the "useless manual" to relearn a function that was just used the week before. I have had my ego get the best of me at times and refused to hit the books as I "knew" how to do this silly function command!! After going through several unknown menu's and not knowing how I got there, what I have done to the rig and better yet how to get the hell out! Oh and don't get me started on passwords that a whole other blog post!

3x5 life savers

For those of you who have the same memory melt downs at times as I do here are some helps that I use. In high school and University the good old 3x5 cards helped me learn (notice I said learn and not memorize very big difference) and pass many a test. The 3x5 helped me in the past and is doing so today, I write down step by step instructions for anything ham related items so I can refer to the card and not the Advil bottle. I cover over the card with clear tape so it will last for some time and the only thing I have to do is keep the cards in a place I can remember.....but maybe there is a card for that...:)). Just today I wanted to charge an external battery for my KX3 as I was going to do some hamming this weekend. I pulled out the battery and for the life of me I could not remember the setup to charge this darn battery. Thanks to a fellow blogger Larry W2LJ who has the same battery set me on the right path with an email. Now the instructions (simple as they may be) are taped on the side of the battery. 
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

My excursion onto JT6M last night was a bit fraught, although ultimately very worthwhile and enjoyable. When I fired up WSJT, it errored – saying invalid number of channels.

I realised it was probably something to do with the fact that I had installed the VB-Cable audio driver onto the PC to route audio from the FCD to other applications. No worries, it’s just a simple case of adjusting the various device numbers.

Except that it wasn’t. Everything I tried still came up with the same error. WSJT-X was still working ok as was PZTLog, so I knew there wasn’t anything wrong with the interface or cabling. I disabled the VB-Cable driver, which put device numbers back where they originally were.No.

Starting to doubt my sanity which has been in question recently, anyway, I Googled it, realising that it was one of those times when the error was not what it seemed to be.

Fortunately I found this thread – thank you N0RQ! It looks like this can happen when you add or remove audio devices on your machine.

Deleted the WSJT.INI file, restarted WSJT, which of course creates a new INI file – entered my defaults and all was well!

A frustrating hour, but easily fixed once you know…

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