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Adios to CQ VHF

27 December 2013 | by Bob KØNR | Leave a Comment (2)

Another “dead trees” publication is coming to an end. CQ VHF Magazine is ceasing publication, with some content being rolled into a new online publication.

From the ARRL web site:

CQ Communications Inc has announced plans to realign its publications lineup and to launch a new online supplement to its flagship magazine, CQ Amateur Radio.
“The hobby radio market is changing,” said CQ Communications President and Publisher Dick Ross, K2MGA, “and we are changing what we do and how we do it in order to continue providing leadership to all segments of the radio hobby.”
Effective with the February 2014 issue of CQ, said Ross, content from the magazine’s three sister publications — Popular Communications, CQ VHF and WorldRadio Online — will be incorporated into CQ’s digital edition as a supplement to be called CQ Plus. The print editions of Popular Communications and CQ VHF will be phased out, and WorldRadio Online will no longer exist as a separate online publication. Current Popular Communications, CQ VHF and WorldRadio Online subscribers will be converted to CQ subscribers and receive CQ Plus at no additional charge. Details will be posted on each magazine’s website.

As the name implies, CQ VHF was focused on amateur radio activities above 50 MHz, which was well aligned with my interests. I’ve been writing the FM column for CQ VHF magazine since the summer of 2005 (wow, has it really been eight years?). I have really enjoyed this opportunity and found the four-times-a-year schedule to be just about right for me as an author.

All good things come to an end and it was not a surprise that CQ VHF would cease publication. Clearly, print media is struggling in most markets and a niche publication like CQ VHF was feeling the pressure. My thanks go to Joe Lynch N6CL for his leadership as editor and also to my fellow authors for the great content they produced over many years. I am going to miss having the magazine around but it is time to move on.

73, Bob K0NR

Update Jan 2, 2014: See this information at cq-vhf.com

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

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Amateur Radio Newsline Report 1898 December 27 2013

27 December 2013 | by Amateur Radio Newsline | Leave a Comment (1)

Two astro-hams repair the ISS in Christmas Eve spacewalk
Ham radio takes a big step forward in Kosovo
NZART issues a correction on 6 meter privileges
ARRL files comments on its own Symbol Rate petition
How high altitude balloon mission are tracked

THIS WEEKS NEWSCAST

Script

Audio

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First impressions of the Funcube Dongle Pro Plus

26 December 2013 | by Tim G4VXE | Leave a Comment (1)

Santa was kind enough to bring me a Funcube Dongle Pro Plus this year. As regular readers will know, I have enjoyed using the RTLSDR dongles for some low cost SDR work.

Reading around before Christmas, I thought that the FCD+ could be very useful – partly for satellite work as a simple receiver and for general listening.

Christmas Day was busy and enjoyable and it was this morning before I could have a look at getting it going. Installation really couldn’t have been simpler – just a case of plugging in and letting Windows find and install the drivers.

I already had a copy of SDRSharp on my machine and ran that up and changed the input device to be the Funcube Dongle Pro Plus. By default, the configuration in SDRSharp has a frequency correction of 120ppm, which throws frequency accuracy a bit! Simply remove this and restart SDRSharp and accuracy will be bang on.

I fiddled around a little and had a couple of lockup issues – so I decided to download and install the latest SDRSharp nightly build. This seemed to cure the lockup problems – or at least, in several hours of playing around, it hasn’t happened again, despite the laptop that it is running on, not being particularly recent.

Experience so far is very positive indeed. I am amazed at the sensitivity of the dongle. It is on a par with the other receivers I have here, if not slightly better. I was hearing GB3VHF very easily on the FCD+ plugged into the V2000 vertical. So far I have tried it on 50, 60, 70, 144 and 432MHz with good success. I have listened on 1296.200MHz, but nothing so far!

I have listened to a couple of passes of the VO-52 satellite using nothing more than the V2000 verical and results have been great, hearing a number of stations very easily; LX2LA, IK8ZLD, SP9TTI, 9A2UV, GM4CFS (all from memory). So it maybe that a viable garden portable setup will be the PC and dongle for the receive side and the FT817 for transmit. Maybe I will wait for the weather to get a bit better before I try that!

I have also used the VB-Cable software (rather like Virtual Audio Cable, but free) to feed data out of SDRSharp and into UZ7HO Soundcard Modem (which was reasonably successful although I didn’t feel I was decoding quite all the packets that I should have done) and also into WSJT.

Using WSJT, I decoded the JT65B from GB3VHF, received off the V2000 vertical. This was particularly impressive, as the signals were not huge at the time. I will have to try something weaker. Doesn’t GB3NGI transmit JT65B as well?

All in all, I am very impressed indeed. The FCD Pro+ is a wonderful addition to my shack – I can see it will be very much used.

Thank you, Santa!

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

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Receiving 10GHz EME signals with an RTLSDR

25 December 2013 | by Tim G4VXE | Leave a Comment (0)

Via the ever interesting RTLSDR blog, I was fascinated to read that Rein, W6SZ had used an RTLSDR receiver, a satellite LNB and an 18 inch dish to receive the DL0SHF 10GHz EME tests.

I really need to bump my LNB project up the list, I think.

See the article here

Very cool indeed!

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

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Merry Christmas!

25 December 2013 | by Larry W2LJ | Leave a Comment (6)

For a CHILD IS BORN to us, and a son is given to us,

and the government is upon His shoulder:

and His name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty,

the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace.

His empire shall be multiplied, and there shall be no end of peace:

He shall sit upon the throne of David, and upon His kingdom;

to establish it and strengthen it with judgment and with justice,

from henceforth and for ever: the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

Isaiah 9: 6-7

My wish for today is that all of you can share the day with family and friends. May your houses be filled with warmth and your tables be heavy with all good and tasty foods. And whatever your circumstances, may your hearts be filled with the peace, wonder and awe of the Christmas season.

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].

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A Christmas Eve Summit Activation

25 December 2013 | by Mike AD5A | Leave a Comment (2)

My wife, Cris, and I are staying in New Mexico for the holidays and our kids don't arrive until Christmas Day. So what better time for a SOTA activation than Christmas Eve, right. This time of year, the higher elevation peaks and thus the higher point value peaks have too much snow on them to make access practical. So in Santa Fe that means some of the peaks in the 7,000 - 8,000 ft ASL are much more accessible this time of year.

The Sierra De Las Valles Range, west of Santa Fe, feature many peaks in the mid 7,000's. The range is located in the Caja del Rio (Spanish: "box of the river"). Caja Del Rio is a dissected plateau, of volcanic origin, which covers approximately 84,000 acres of land in northern Santa Fe County, New Mexico. The drainage from this region empties into the Rio Grande River. The center of the area is approximately 15 miles west of Santa Fe. Most of the Caja is owned by the U. S. Forest Service and managed by the Santa Fe National Forest. Access is through New Mexico Highway 599, Santa Fe County Road 62, and Forest Service Road 24.

I decided to climb Montoso Peak, which at 7,315 ft. ASL is one of the tallest peaks in the Caja and Cris decided to come along for the hike. The climb is not particularly tough, other than there are no trails. The climb is 100% bushwhack and volcanic boulders and cactus are the primary obstacles. From where we parked our Jeep, we had a 640 foot vertical ascent over a one mile hike. It took us about 40 minutes to get to the top.

View from the Top

Once on top I set up the station, a KD1JV designed ATS4-B, a 4 band CW only QRP rig and a 20m/40M End Fed Half Wave. I hang one end of the antenna over a tree branch, usually about 20 feet up, and run the antenna wire to a 21 foot carbon fiber, telescoping, pole. Below you see a photo of me deploying the antenna by elevating the end of the antenna (on an orange winder just visible in the picture) over a limb using the fishing pole. The winder, once over the limb, falls to earth, I secure the end, then attach the antenna wire to my fishing pole, running the wire down to within 6 feet of the ground. I anchor the matching device to the pole, hook up the coax and away I go. The wire is an L configuration with the shortest leg coming down the pole. I usually just prop the fishing pole on one of the evergreen trees if available, rather than guy it..

Deploying the Antenna

Once set up, the chaser pile-up was great. Signals were good, I got good reports and even squeezed in a little DX, working EA2LU on 20m. I ended up with 36 QSO's, 29 on 20m, 5 on 40m and 2 on 15m in a little over 30 minutes on the air. Below you see my operating position. The orange Velcro wrap, just up the pole is where the antenna matching device is anchored.

My Operating Position

It was a beautiful day for a hike. Not a cloud in the sky and the temps were in the mid 30's with very little wind, warming into the 40's by the end of the activation. We did not see any wildlife, however we saw lots of Elk tracks. The local name for the peak is Bear Mountain, however we saw no bears or bear prints on this trip. I wisely did not inform Cris of this "local" name until we were descending the mountain.

As Cris and I drove down the long dirt roads and then the 4WD roads, we agreed, if it weren't for Summits on the Air, there is now way we would ever have climbed this summit or explored this area. But thank goodness for SOTA, what a great day in the Mountains.

The Route up Montoso Peak

Mike Crownover, AD5A, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Texas, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

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Christmas Eve – 2013

24 December 2013 | by Larry W2LJ | Leave a Comment (4)

Christmas Eve is so special to me. Growing up in a Polish family, Christmas Eve IS Christmas! So I had a hard time deciding what I should post that would be special for Christmas Eve 2013 – childhood memories of Christmas Eves past? Then, thanks to Steve WX2S, who jarred a very, very special Christmas Eve memory from 45 years ago, I decided to post this. It is so appropriate!

A VERY Merry and Blessed Christmas to you all, all of you on the good, good Earth!

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].

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