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Posts Tagged ‘history’

QOD7 – Can you communicate with me in Norwegian?

March 29th, 2013 |

Author: Sverre LA3ZA

The Oseberg viking ship, 820 AD

Not so many nationalities are included in the exclusive group of countries with their own Q-code. I mean of course the QOD-code. I have never heard it used by radio amateurs, but it must have played a role some time ago in shipping.

The Q-codes date back to 1912 and were meant to be a short-hand for use in telegraphy. According to the list of Q-codes which Ralf D. Kloth (DL4TA) has on his web page, the meaning of QOD with a number added is: “Can you communicate with me in … 0 Dutch, 1 English, 2 French, 3 German, 4 Greek, 5 Italian, 6 Japanese, 7 Norwegian, 8 Russian, 9 Spanish?” As a response to the question the meaning was “I can communicate with you in …“

The reason for a separate code for Norwegian must be the historically large shipping fleet in Norway. This is still the case as graphically depicted in this overview of the Top 20 Ship Owning Countries, where we seem to rank as number seven – so QOD7 is appropriate!

But today all of them will QOD1.

Image from Wikipedia, user Karamell

Why do Norwegian callsigns end in A?

March 16th, 2013 |

Author: Sverre LA3ZA

Well actually not all end in A, but almost all of the recent ones do. Amateur callsigns in Norway are not so well documented on the web, so here is a short explanation.

Norwegian callsigns are used in these territories:

LA-LN for use in mainland Norway
JW is used on Svalbard and close-by islands Hopen and Bjørnøya
JX is used on Jan Mayen
3Y is used on Bouvet Island, Peter I Island, and in Antarctica (Queen Maud Land)

Depending on where I go, my callsign may be LA3ZA, JW3ZA, JX3ZA, or 3Y3ZA. We don’t have districts so the number does not mean anything, except for 0. Callsigns with 0 ~~are~~ were reserved for non-Norwegian citizens, but this has stopped so LA0 callsigns are no longer issued.

Usually the callsign starts with LA, but why do so many of the LA callsigns end in A?

The callsigns have been distributed with the last letter as the most significant letter, e.g. in this order for the two letter series: LA1AA, LA1BA, LA1CA, …, LA9ZZ. In the 80’s it was necessary to add a third letter and that series started like this: LA1AAA, LA1BAA, LA1CAA, …, LA1ABA, LA1BBA, … As an example LA9KTA was issued last year. With the ‘TA’ we are getting closer to the last one, LA9ZZA, in the series ending in ‘A’ now. Therefore in some years all new radio amateurs will get callsigns ending in B.

Some Norwegian radio amateurs have an LB callsign. LB was previously used for a novice license with a 5 WPM (words per minute) Morse requirement. That was when 12 WPM was required for a full LA license. The system was simplified to a single class when the Morse code requirement was abandoned in 2003. Those who had started with the novice license and later upgraded to a full license with LA callsign have been allowed to go back to their former LB callsign, and that’s what some have done.

We also had an LC license at the same time. That was a no-code VHF/UHF-license. All those callsigns ended with -T for Technician license, e.g. LC3SAT. That series is no longer used and it is not possible to get the old LC callsign back.

There is no vanity callsign system in Norway, but club stations were allowed by the Norwegian Post and Telecommunications Authority to get one of the rare single-letter callsigns that were issued to the very first radio amateurs (up to about the time of the second world war). There are only 26*9 = 234 of these callsigns and one example is LA4O for the Oslo group. But this practice seems to have ended now. It is also possible to inherit a callsign from family as I have done.

There are also a few special callsign series:

LD: Packet radio repeater nodes for VHF and UHF, e.g. for APRS. An example is LD3GT
LF: License issued to a company, e.g. LF2E
LG: Only Norwegian-Swedish station LG5LG in Morokulien
LN: Club stations may switch to this in some of the major contests, e.g. LA8W – LN8W

Map from Wikipedia, Norway

100 years ago

February 26th, 2013 |

Author: Larry W2LJ

Last night, I received an e-mail from Bob W3BBO about an item he saw in The County Hunter News. The article was written by Bob Voss N4CD, and it concerned a book written 100 years ago, entitled “Bert Wilson, Wireless Operator“. The book has been made available through Project Gutenberg.

The book was available in various formats, including kindle format. Bob and I are both kindle owners and avid readers, especially (although not exclusively) when the topic is Amateur Radio. I downloaded the book last night and began reading it today. Even though the book is 100 years old, it is a fun and easy read. It’s not terribly long, and I’m already a third of the way through.

You do have to keep in mind that this was written in 1913. The author, J W Duffield makes an early mention of “the unfortunate accident and loss of life” that happened “last year”. Of course, he’s referring to the Titanic, without directly mentioning the ship by name. The language is a bit different, with a lot of “By Jove”s, “Great Scott”s appearing throughout. Friends are referred to as “fellows” and there’s a lot of back slapping that occurs instead of the “high fives” that we have become so accustomed today. Further examples – baseball teams are referred to as “nines” and ball fields as “diamonds”, all fitting descriptions, but all very old-timey. There are also some very un-PC descriptions of things in there, so if you’re offended by that kind of thing, please be aware. We are talking 1913, here.

But as I’ve mentioned before, it is a very entertaining little story. I can only imagine that the target audience back then was the same audience for which the Hardy Boys and Tom Swift books were written in my younger days.

In fact, if you go to Project Gutenburg and type in “wireless” into their search box, there are a couple dozen various books that you will be led to. Some appear to be fiction, while others definitely are not. But they are all free and readily available to be downloaded for your reading pleasure.

The other thing that I wanted to mention is that there’s another unbuilt HW9 up for bid on eBay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Unbuilt-Unassembled-Heathkit-HW-9-Deluxe-QRP-Transceiver-Kit-/321078183712?pt=US_Ham_Radio_Transceivers&hash=item4ac1c04720

A couple of weeks ago, John AE5X mentioned an auction for one of these. That kit ended up selling for close to $2000.00. This one is up to $305.00 with 5 days to go. I am pretty certain that any unsuccessful bidders from the first auction learned a lesson about holding their cards closer to their vests. I am predicting that bids will probably (and I mean probably, but I might be wrong) not move much until right before the end of the auction in an attempt to keep the winning bid lower than the $2000.00 neighborhood. It will be interesting to see how much this unbuilt Heahtkit will end up selling for.

Almost makes me want to buy a K2 and just stash it away somewhere for my kids to sell in about 30 or 40 years.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP – When you care to send the very least!

My grandfather’s Blaupunkt radio

February 13th, 2013 |

Author: Sverre LA3ZA

As I was clearing out my childhood home I came across an old radio that my father had tucked away in the basement. It was a German Blaupunkt radio, and what a historic dial it had!

It turned out that my father had himself found it as he was clearing out his childhood home many years before and that it had belonged to my grandfather who died in 1959.

It covers longwave, medium wave and three shortwave bands from 5.5 to 21 MHz. I had never before seen a radio with a dial given in meters rather than kHz or MHz, but I have later understood that that was not uncommon for pre world war II radios.

Since the back was missing, I had no information about age or type. The tubes which were all in the 11-series suggested the end of the thirties, but here it turned out that the dial had valuable information.

The medium wave part of the dial had a separate side on the left hand for German stations and here one can find cities that are no longer in Germany such as Königsberg on 223 m and 291 m (1348 and 1031 kHz). Today this is Kaliningrad in Russia. The dial also showed Danzig on 230 m (1303 kHz), ”Schles. G. W.” (Schlesische Gleichwelle – a single frequency net with stations in Gleiwitz and Reichenbach/Oberlausitz) on 244 m (1231 kHz), and Breslau (315 m – 950 kHz). Today these are the cities of Gdansk, Gliwice and Wroclaw in Western Poland, an area which was in Germany until the end of the war. At least the radio must have been from before the end of WW2.

But there were a couple of more names with a lot of history in them. Troppau can be found on a wavelength of 249 m (1204 kHz), a frequency which it had until September 1939. Today Troppau is called Opava and lies in the Czech Republic. Troppau lies in the Sudetenland which Germany annexed on 30. September 1938. Finally one can find Memel on 531 m (565 kHz). This city is today called Klaipeda and lies in Lithuania. It was occupied on 22. March 1939 as the last German annexation before the outbreak of the war on 1. September 1939.

Thus the conclusion of this historic search across the dial is that the radio dates from some time between March and September 1939.

With some cleaning the exterior turned out to be quite nice. I thought to myself that I cannot give up now, so on inspection I could see that a couple of electrolytic capacitor had been replaced, probably by my father. It had the following tubes: ECH11 as mixer/oscillator, EBF11 and EF11 for the intermediate frequency stages, and EFM11 for the magic eye and the first low frequency amplifier.

The output tube and the rectifier were missing, and it was natural to look for tubes in the same 11-series. I was not able to find this particular radio in the large archives of the Norwegian Radio History Society, but there was documentation for a few other Blaupunkts there. From their descriptions I could guess EL11 for the output tube. Measuring the filament voltage for the rectifier gave 4 Volts, so then AZ11 was a good choice.

With some excitement I turned on the voltage for the first time, and to be on the safe side I connected it in series with a 60 W light bulb to reduce the voltage. No explosion! As incredible as it sounds, with full voltage it actually produced sound. But unfortunately after a few seconds everything disappeared. One evening with diagnosis of the radio and I could isolate the problem to the beginning of the audio section and two rotten shielded cables connecting audio in and out of the pentode in the magic eye. Not everything is as new after 60 years! After having replaced the cables the radio was perfect, and even the magic eye and the dial lamps functioned. In my experience the magic eye is often weak and in the Oslo region the dial lamps for the longwave band may have burnt out as the local station used to be on 218 kHz.

Some weeks later as I was about to clean the dial for dust I disassembled the glass in the front and found an inscription saying Blaupunkt 7W79 and the date 28.3.39. So the result of my detective search wasn’t too bad! In fact the dial was produced with an updated name just 6 days after the occupation of Memel/Klaipeda.

This radio cannot have been more than a couple years old when all radios were confiscated in Norway in 1941. Imagine how sad it must have been to give up such a nice and costly radio at that time! This must also have been one of the few radios that actually were returned to their rightful owners in 1945.

Now the radio has a prominent place in my house and every time it is turned on it is a reminder of both the history of my family and of a turbulent era in the history of Central Europe.

First published as “Min farfars Blaupunkt radio” in Hallo Hallo of the Norwegian Radio History Society, September 2001, updated in 2013. © Sverre Holm

Happy Anniversary !!!

January 29th, 2013 |

Author: Larry W2LJ

I took the test for my Novice license in November of 1978. I received my ticket in the mail at the very end of December 1978. I remember that I was sitting, taking a break from my job at the camera store where I was working. We were having a post-Christmas sale and it had been a frantic day. My Mom had called to tell me that I had received the vaunted envelope from the FCC and that my call was KA2DOH. Between that time and my very first QSO, I was occupied with putting my station together.

For some reason, in my mind, I always remember my first QSO as having taken place on January 29th, 1979. But a look in Logbook Number One reveals the date as January 28th, 1979 – so the 34th anniversary of my very first QSO was yesterday!

As I recall, that was a Sunday afternoon and it was 2110 UTC, so that would have been 4:10 PM local time – yep, that’s just about right. And my victim ……. er, QSO partner was Adam KA9CIH.

As far as I can tell, Adam is no longer active or even licensed. KA9CIH doesn’t come up at QRZ.com, nor does it come up at N4MC’s Vanity Headquarters. A search on his name returns nothing, either.

From my log, I can see that was the only contact I made that day. I guess I was so petrified from that initial 20 minute QSO, that I didn’t go near the radio for the rest of the day!

The station in my bedroom at my parent’s house consisted of a Drake 2NT transmitter attached to a Globe VFO (by 1978, Novices were no longer constricted to being crystal controlled.) This used VFO had a cable coming out of it that had a crystal base soldered to it. So not knowing any better, I just plugged that into the 2NT’s crystal socket. I didn’t blow myself up and it worked! The Drake 2NT was my parent’s Christmas gift to me that year. They purchased it (under my direction, as a result of several well placed hints) from the used equipment list from Burghardt Amateur Supply.

My receiver was a Heathkit HR-1680, which I had bought and built myself. My camera store salary was allowing me to make “OK” money at the time. I wasn’t getting rich; but I was able to afford a few hobby items here and there. (Still ain’t rich to this day!) The purchase and construction of the HR-1680 was the reason for the month’s delay between receiving my ticket and actually getting on the air.

My antenna was a wire that stretched from my bedroom window to our unattached garage, ran through an insulator there, bent at a sharp angle and was anchored at another second story window on a different side of the house (imagine a slightly sloping horizontal “V”). I soldered a piece of coax to the end of the wire – center conductor to the “long wire” and the shield I connected to the cast iron radiator in my room. The radio end of the coax went to an MFJ tuner. I switched between the transmitter and receiver using a double throw knife switch. That this “Rube Goldberg” mash up worked was a miracle; and the fact that I made contacts at all was an even bigger miracle.

I worked all the Novice subbands available to me on 80, 40, 15 and 10 Meters. There were times that the old MFJ tuner would spark and hiss at me on 80; but I had a ball, anyway. To this day, I have the feeling that if I went back in time and saw that set up, knowing what I know now, I would probably shake my head and tell my younger self how crazy I was.

I look at my log and see how I logged EVERYTHING – unanswered CQs and all. But that was good because looking at it now brings back so many vivid memories. I upgraded from the 2NT a few months later to a Kenwood T599D after my Globe VFO crapped out. I had the Heathkit and Kenwood setup until I ordered and built my Heathkit SB-104A. I distinctly remember soldering SB-104A boards while watching the 1980 Winter Olympics on TV.

I upgraded to General on June 2nd of 1979. I’ll never forget THAT day. Somehow, the Morristown, NJ Club had gotten the FCC to come to their hamfest to give exams. I wasn’t about to miss the grand opportunity of taking my General test without having to travel to Manhattan, even though I was sick as a dog that day with about a 102 fever. And it was sweltering outside that day to boot, and to make matters worse, the hamfest and exams took place in the UN-air conditioned Morristown Armory. I was in no condition to drive; and somehow I wangled my sister into driving me, waiting for me and driving me back home. But in a strange way, I think being sick was a help, as I was feeling so lousy that I didn’t have the normal pre-test “jitters”. They graded the tests right then and there, and I was told I passed and was given the AG designator so that I could use my new privileges immediately.

I don’t have a copy of my Novice license; but I still have my General license.

Looking further at my log, I see that I made very few A3 QSOs after upgrading. I discovered the hard way, by the ire of my family, that SSB screwed up the TV – royally! I pretty much stayed with CW with only occasional “very late hours” phone QSOs. And I couldn’t stay up too late as I was a working man – so the overwhelming majority of my QSOs (roughly 95 -97%) have been CW since that original one back on January 28th, 1979.

Ahh ….. the sweet, sweet memories!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP – When you care to send the very least!

Waxing nostalgaic

January 25th, 2013 |

Author: Larry W2LJ

I posted the other day about the Novice sub bands and how a lot of us got our feet wet there and paid our dues there. There is a really great Website about the history of the Novice license. You can find it at the Novice Historical Society.

The Novice Class license was issued for a period of almost 50 years, from 1951 until 2000. There are a lot of good stories and photographs in there, and I’m sure if you entered the ranks as a Novice, you will enjoy what you see there. It will bring back a lot of memories, perhaps summed up the best by the following line (not sure right now which Ham said it):

“We didn’t know any better and we were having the time of our lives!”

A lot of names and calls of some prominent QRPers show up in the list there.

If you didn’t become a Ham as a Novice, you should go take a look see and read some really good stories to get a feel of what it was like.

On the other hand, if you WERE a Novice and you haven’t posted your Novice story – please consider doing so! The stories make for great reading and this truly was an era of Amateur Radio which will never be duplicated. It deserves to be preserved for posterity.

Oh, and while I’m talking about nostalgia, I got a link through K6MM’s Website – television commercials from the 1950s and 1960s. Take a look and see how many you can remember – I was able to recall quite a few!

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

Taking stock

December 31st, 2012 |

Author: Larry W2LJ

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ……”

Mr. Dickens could not have written more appropriate words to describe my 2012. I have never been a big reveler of the New Year holiday; but this year, I am quite eager and pleased to see the ushering in of a new year and with it, new beginnings and new possibilities.

2012 was not all depression, sadness and tears, however. It did have highlights, particularly with regard to Amateur Radio. The KX3, which I had so diligently saved up for, and ordered on the first night of availability in December of 2011, arrived at the end of May. For me, it has lived up to and has exceeded my expectations. I am quite happy with it and am so glad that it is an available part of the W2LJ “radio stable”. Quite unexpectedly, a K3/10 joined the ranks as well. I hadn’t dreamed of or intended purchasing one – but consider this to be my dear Mom’s last gift to me. It is an amazing radio; and I am so lucky and fortunate to have use of both of these fine pieces of gear.

The inaugural 2012 NJQRP Skeeter Hunt was an integral part of my year. Once again, so many thanks to George N2APB and Joe N2CX and the entire NJQRP Club for agreeing to sponsor this new operating event. Also thanks to Bob W3BBO who helped me ruminate and come up with some of the details for this new outdoor QRP sprint. I had such an enjoyable time assigning Skeeter numbers, actually operating in the event and then collecting and tabulating and posting the results. I am so happy that my fellow QRPers seemed to have as good a time as I did, and I eagerly look forward to the 2013 edition of the Skeeter Hunt.

I got two new antennas up in the air this year. My venerable G5RV finally made way, after a dozen or so years, for the 88’ EDZ antenna. Later in the year, post-Sandy, the W3EDP went up to join it in the W2LJ antenna garden. Too small to be a “farm”, the antenna garden consists of the Butternut HF9V and the two aforementioned wires. I pray these wires will last as long as the G5RV did. There were plenty of hurricanes and nasty winters and wind storms that the G5RV made it through – may these two new wires be as resilient.

I have to include as one of this year’s highlights, my decision to purchase the PAR END-FEDZ 10/20/40 antenna. This simple wire is a delight for portable QRP ops. It’s super easy to deploy as a sloper or inverted “L”. It tunes up with nary a problem and is neatly and easily storable in my “Go Bag”. I can’t think of any downsides to this antenna. It’s well worth the price and comes along with instructions on wire lengths to cut so that you can use it for other bands, if you so desire. This antenna, as well as my Buddistick have become my aerials of choice for portable QRP ops.

Due to all the unfortunate events which took place this year, and their aftermath, I was not able to actually get on the air nearly as much as I had intended. I actually had “a QSO a Day” going until the middle of February, when events started taking unexpected turns. From that point forward, “unexpected” became the norm for 2012, and as a result, severely curtailed my on-the-air time My major 2012 New Year’s Resolution, to complete the ARRL’s Diamond DXCC Challenge, didn’t even come close to happening. So as 2013 arrives, I am going to tempt fate once more, and will try for a QSO a Day in 2013. I am not so foolhardy as to think I will be able to pull it off, but I will do my best – hence my ever present New Year’s Resolution “To get on the air more”!

In addition to day-to-day operating, managing the Skeeter Hunt and sending out notices for The Run For The Bacon each month, this blog (which will be entering its 9th year in 2013) has become a huge part of my Amateur Radio experience. It is a most enjoyable part of Ham Radio for me, and I want to extend my deepest and most sincere thanks to all of you out there who take time out of your busy day to read this and share the Amateur Radio world with me. You are the best friends a Ham could ask for. You all have helped me to deal with what would have otherwise been a most sorrowful year. A very Happy, Blessed, Joyous and Prosperous New Year to all of you!

Lastly, I hope you all enjoy Straight Key Night tonight and tomorrow. W2LJ will be hanging out near and at the various QRP “Watering Holes” (I will spot myself on QRPSPOTS, so be sure to look out for me). I will be using my Vibroplex Original as my aging wrists just can’t stand up to a classic straight key any longer. If we have the good fortune to work each other, please excuse my less than stellar “Bug fist”. I haven’t had much practice lately!

W2LJ 2012 QSO Map

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