AmateurRadio.com

There are things in our daily lives that we acknowledge as being true, even though technically they aren't. There are all sorts of phrases that just don't make sense, but we say them all the time. I've played a lot of baseball and I am a big fan. There are phrases in that sport that confound logic. For example, when your team needs a rally and the batter at the plate takes a big swing and misses, how many times have you heard the phrase, "Okay , we don't need a homerun, just get on base.......really, you don't need a homerun? When, in any baseball game, do you not need a homerun? Yet, its a common phrase and if you are a baseball fan, I'm sure you've said it. Or, you yell at the pitcher who is having control problems, "just throw strikes". Now do  you really think the pitcher is thinking anything different? Do you think he is intentionally walking the opposing batters just to irritate the crowd? Or if you are a basketball fan, "They need to quit shooting so many three pointers". What you really mean is that you wish they would quit missing three pointers. How can you make a three pointer, if you don't shoot it? For the non US readers, I'm sure there are similar phrases in other sports that confound logic when you literally interpret the phrase.

So, that brings me to the term "QRP Key". We've all seen it, an advertisment or solicitation for a small morse key or paddle. Phrases like, "a nice compact morse key suitable for QRP operation" or the key is "QRP" sized. Now this brings a few questions to my mind. QRP in the technical sense means low power, so can you only sent 5 watts with this key?  I suppose QRP operators are not suppose to use full sized keys or bugs as obviously you wouldn't be QRP any longer. Does using a full size key boost your signal? Does this mean that this small key cannot be used for QRO operation, will this "QRP key" degrade my high power signal? What are the specifications for a "QRP" key?

What about the QRPp operator? What are they to do for an appropriate key? Surely if you have QRP keys, QRPp keys must be even smaller and only those with very small hands can be successful, QRPp operators.

All of this is very confusing from a literal sense. If I am new to QRP must I get a new key? Dare I mix my QRO and QRP paddles or will I have problems if I do? I have this nice desk paddle that I love, but surely I couldn't use it with my KX3, or could I? Since the KX3 is larger than my KX1 maybe I could use my big paddle with it, but definitely not with the KX1. Surely you understand the dilemmas here. What to do?

Now, a few more descriptive terms for these small keys is the term "portable", "small "or the phrase "for field use". These terms, from a literal pespective, seem to make more sense. Certainly these "QRP keys" make sense for the QRO operator on an expediton who doesn't want to carry around a heavy key. Begali uses the term "adventure key", which seems to be self explanatory and doesn't invoke a QRP only use.

So, be careful and use your own judgement on when and where to use your QRP key, someone may be watching.
Mike Crownover, AD5A, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Texas, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Guess the rude noise on 6m I recorded a little while ago but forgot all about

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

The Saturday afternoon sky

Not sure why but I have never taken part in any field day, I can remember there have been some years were I was busy. I have often seen field day setups as I drove from here to there but as I said I have never been involved in one. Well 2013 field day was my first I was not with a group from a club but did it on my own. Not because I'm not into clubs but was not sure if this year I would be busy doing other things as Julie's

Saturdays operating position

relatives are in from England. It turned out I was able to get some time in on Saturday and Sunday and I had a blast. I was operating search and pounce and was using my KX3 on battery power only. I did bring along my spare battery but did not have to use it either day. My antenna was a mobile whip and I stayed on 20m for the contest. I was reading on twitter how 10m and 15m were dead. Funny thing too I was also reading other twitter posts of how this was a field day with very little action on the bands. I found things to be very busy and I was always able to make a contact....well hear them but maybe not make the contact. It sure was a change to not have my PC with me during a contest. I was hand writing my log and also having to run down my contact list to see if I have worked the station already. I did get a few "worked B4" but that was due to the fact I was not able to see them in my log sheets. At the start of the contest I was getting asked to repeat my category almost every contact!! That told me I was for sure messing something up, turns out I was

Sundays spot...lunch time

Sundays weather

sending B1 and not 1B as a category....sorry to all those who I threw off at the start of the contest. Once I got the exchange sorted out all was going very well. The weather on Saturday was touch and go there was very severe weather clouds moving overhead all the time. I must say for the time I was out on Saturday I did not have rain at all. On Sunday it was once again very humid and HOT HOT!! The nice thing about Sunday was the bad weather seemed to had taken a good long break. On Sunday I went to a different spot, it was a nice park just north of me. I did have some folks stop by to see what I was up too but none hung around to long. When the contest was over I was on the air for only a total of 4 hours and I made 50 contacts CW only. I was operating at 4 watts on the internal batteries of the KX3.  I had a nice time and was able to give the Elecraft KX3 a good workout. So as I said this was my first ever Field day and I will for sure be putting this contest in the calender for next year.
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

A few days ago, I noticed some mention about a new version of the RTL1090 program. This is Windows software which you can run on your PC in conjunction with the RTL-SDR dongles and plot ADS-B transmissions from aircraft. For a bit more detail, please see my earlier blog post

Yesterday evening I downloaded the program and installed it, which was straightforward. My first impression was that I was seeing more aircraft than I had before. With the small antenna provided with the dongle on the desk in front of me, I was seeing aircraft further out than I had done before with the RTL1090 software. Testing again this morning, the same seems true.

As well as seemingly being a bit more sensitive, the new version of the RTL1090 software provides a bit more information in the List view abut messages which have been decoded, which might be useful or interesting (or encouraging) if you have not yet got the link to a plotting program working yet.

Download the new version of RTL1090 here

The other thing that looks quite interesting is that the team have produced a program to interface with RTL1090 and plot aircraft on a map. It’s called Globe-S and can be found here – I haven’t yet installed it, but it looks a nice interface.

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

The DX seems to have disappeared here in the valley; it left just a mysteriously as it came. There didn’t appear to be any reason why I captured it, in the first place, around the first of the year, and there doesn’t seem to be any reason it left; but I’m hearing very little here in the valley.

Just as a precaution, I’ve submitted a work order (I’m not holding my breath) for a “new” Gold coating of on the West Virginia State Capitol Dome, which is just up the  street. It seems only logical that the recent thunderstorms and a tremendous lightening strike (point blank) last week, on the dome, has reduced my DX to a trickle. I’m just not getting the usual radio signal “bounce” off all that gold.

All kidding aside; the weather has been terrible for the last few weeks. I think the same can be said about most of the European stations which I usually work. They seem to be underwater for the most part. I saw on the news this morning where Calgary Canada has been flooded. The mid west here in the US is still experiencing severe thunderstorms on a daily basis. I think we’re all in trouble with these shifting, and unusual weather patterns in the world.

Perhaps, in some unusual way, I’ll experience these unusual DX band conditions again next year at the same time? It’s beginning to sound like my DX contacts are somewhat of a fluke now, which is difficult to explain. I’ll be looking forward to the beginning of next year, to see if these conditions repeat themselves.

John Smithson, Jr., N8ZYA, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from West Virginia, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

I’ve been spending a few hours playing around with a FUNcube Dongle Pro. There was a lot of excitement about this project a couple of years ago when it started. In order to get one you had to be quick off the mark on Ebay. I never succeeded, then I got ill and then I forgot about it. This one was passed on to me by a friend who successfully purchased one but never used it.

I started off by following the instructions in the user manual. I followed this by installing and setting up a complicated-looking SDR program called Spectravue. I was baffled by most of this program’s settings and I wasn’t sure if it worked.

What I should have done was try some of the SDR programs I installed when I was playing about with USB TV dongles at the beginning of the year. I started SDR#, selected the FUNcube Dongle from a pull-down list, clicked Start and it just worked!

Simon Brown’s SDR-Radio worked as well, and with equal ease, though as luck would have it I tried it on the very day that the (free) licence key for the program expired. This appeared to come as much of a surprise to Simon as everyone else. As I type, Simon has just uploaded a fix which I have yet to install.

I thought I would try using the FCD as an ADS-B receiver which I did with the TV dongles but I soon discovered that I can’t. The FCD looks like a budget USB sound card to the SDR software, so its bandwidth is restricted to 2 x 48kHz. The digital TV dongles can transfer a much wider bandwidth. This is noticeable if you try to receive Band 2 FM radio – through the FCD the signal sounds distorted on peaks because the bandwidth isn’t quite wide enough for FM stereo which needs a full 100kHz..

It will be interesting to use the dongle with the FUNcube 1 satellite when it gets off the ground later this year (we hope!) In the meantime I’ll use it to watch for Sporadic-E in the VHF band.

Julian Moss, G4ILO, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, England. Contact him at [email protected].

When I was a kid, I vaguely remember a comedian on TV, who would say in a thick, mock German accent, “Peoples is crazy!” or something very similar to that.  That line kept running through my mind tonight as I volunteered as a CERT member for South Plainfield Emergency Management at the South Plainfield High School graduation ceremony, held at the football field.

We provided a whole bunch of services. We directed people to parking spots, and as it was a hot day – we handed out cold bottled water to anyone who desired it, we provided “a presence” and kept our eyes peeled for anyone who looked like they might get ill or faint, or might otherwise need assistance.

By the end of the ceremony, 260 high school grads received their diplomas after many speeches, much cheering and screaming and hoopla.

The best came at the end of the night, though, as dusk was falling and the near full moon started to rise.  On three separate occasions, I kept spectators from jumping over the chain link fence and running onto the football field to greet their graduates.  In each case, I’m not talking about kids here. I am referring to older “Dad types” who should have known better than to attempt such a stunt.  On each occasion, as the improbable was about to be tried, I simply but firmly stated, “Please go around to the gate and don’t jump over the fence.”  The first two guys said nothing – and just complied.

The third guy?  Oh, he was a good one. A rather snarky “And why should I listen to you?” was what I got for my request.  Rather than argue, I just very politely asked, “Sir, do you really want your son or daughter to remember their high school graduation night as the time that Dad had to go to the Emergency Room to get stitches in his leg after he cut it while trying to jump the football field fence?” He looked at me, thought about it for half a second and went around to the gate.

Peoples is crazy!

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

Follow up – Saw my fence jumper today at the A&P – yep, the third guy.  While I was shopping, he tapped me on the shoulder, shook my hand, and thanked me for preventing him from doing something “potentially very stupid”, as he put it.  Sometimes it’s all worth it.

Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].