lundi 15 avril 2024

• Amateur radio videos: W6LG on SWR, CW without Morse Code?, M0NTV on impedance matching
  W6LG on SWR Standing wave ration (SWR) is arguably one of the most debated—and misunderstood—topics in amateur radio. Here is Jim, W6LG’s, take on it. CW without Morse Code? In amateur radio, we tend to use the terms “CW” and “Morse Code” interchangeably. Technically, though, we send Morse Code using (...)
  
  

vendredi 12 avril 2024

• Random Noise: Wet antenna, POTA ragchewing, more ops sending BK
  Rain puts a damper (literally!) on 30m operations I love my homebrew Cobra antenna… …but it suffers from one big drawback. When it rains, the ladder line impedance changes and I have to retune the antenna. And, when it rains constantly for more than a couple of hours—like it has been here for the (...)
  
  

mercredi 10 avril 2024

• QSLs from the “Motor City”
  I’ve written before about the cache of old QSLs that my brother came across several months ago while conducting an estate sale. The recipient of these QSLs lived near Detroit, so it’s understandable that many of the cards he received came from hams in the “Motor City.” W8IFI proudly proclaims (...)
  
  

samedi 6 avril 2024

• Amateur radio videos: Extreme toroid winding, CW bandwidth, KB6NU on LICW
  Need to wind some toroids? While I’m waiting for my QRPLabs’ QMX kit to arrive, I thought I’d try to learn something about toroid winding. This video takes toroid winding to a whole new level.  W2AEW on CW bandwidth Question T8A11, in the Technician Class question pool asks, “What is the (...)
  
  

vendredi 5 avril 2024

• Amateur radio in the news: Hackable ham radio, ham radio at the museum, club hosts Scouts
  The Most Hackable Handheld Ham Radio Yet The [Quansheng] UV-K5, released last year, might be the most hackable handheld ever, with a small army of dedicated hams adding a raft of software-based improvements and new features. I had to have one, and $30 later, I did. Like Baofeng’s 5R, Quansheng’s (...)
  
  

lundi 1er avril 2024

• Operating Notes: Bandscope observations, a pirate on 2m, VU2
  Bandscope observations If you who read my blog regularly, you know I’m a big fan of bandscopes. Here are a couple of relevant observations: I almost missed a DX contact because the DX station called about 250 Hz below my frequency. Because I had my bandpass set to 300 Hz (+/-150 Hz), I couldn’t (...)
  
  

vendredi 29 mars 2024

• Debouncing switches can be a challenge
  One of the challenges that I faced when I started my Micropython keyer project was debouncing the switch closures. There are seven in all: five pushbuttons and the dit and dah inputs. So, I did what everybody does nowadays—perform an internet search. I searched for “switch debouncing with (...)
  
  

mercredi 27 mars 2024

• Operating notes: New CW ops edition
  I’m hearing some new ops on the CW bands these days, and I think it’s very cool. I’m not sure what’s motivating them, but whatever it is, I’m all for it. Here’s one email I got from a fellow after our QSO: Dan, I’m a new CW operator and I heard your call tonight and (...)
  
  

lundi 25 mars 2024

• ICQ Podcast Episode 426 – HamSCI Eclipse
  In this episode, I join Martin Butler M1MRB, Caryn Eve Murray KD2GUT, Edmund Spicer M0MNG, and Ed Durrant DD5LP to discuss: Amateur Radio Stands Ready to Support Eclipse Operations Discarded “Space Junk” From Iss Falls To Earth Without Incident At This Library, Check Out Ham Radio As Well As (...)
  
  
• Random stuff: Circuit debugging tips, choke cookbook, Bluetooth observation
  8 Tips for Debugging Electronic Circuits Jameco’s eight tips for debugging circuits include: Understand the circuit. Do a visual inspection. Use the right tools. Check power supply and ground connections. Consider signal tracing and analysis. Conduct incremental testing and isolation. Learn from (...)
  
  

samedi 23 mars 2024

• Amateur radio in the news: Wicker, Blumenthal sponsor ham radio bill; young people still drawn to ham radio, student starts ham club at Marshall University
  Sen. Wicker co-introduces Amateur Radio Emergency Preparedness Act [BROOKHAVEN, MS] U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) have introduced legislation to give amateur radio operators the right to install their antennas and serve the community. Homeowner (...)
  
  

mercredi 20 mars 2024

• 1930s cards for my collection of QSLs from stations whose callsigns spell words
  I recently posted about the collection of QSL cards from the 1930s and 1940s that my brother discovered at an estate sale that he conducted. I was very pleased to see that many of them had call signs that spelled words. I plan to add all of these to my (...)
  
  

mardi 19 mars 2024

• Operating Notes: I’m twitch-y, bye-bye X-6100, bring on the toroids
  I’m Twitch-y! Last night, I worked Luis, EA1TG, and this morning, he sent me a link to a video on Twitch that he made of our contact. (Click on the image to go to Twitch. For some reason, I couldn’t embed the Twitch video here.) This is kind of cool. I’ve been thinking of setting (...)
  
  

lundi 18 mars 2024

• Hamfests are as much about meeting people as they are about selling stuff
  Yesterday, my friends Paul KW1L, Rick K8BMA, and I drove down to Toledo for the Toledo Mobile Radio Association (TMRA) hamfest. This is generally a well-attended event, so I schlepped a bunch of stuff down there. Some of it was my junk, some of it odds and ends from the estates I agreed to (...)
  
  

vendredi 15 mars 2024

• Handmade QSLs from the 1930s
  My brother, Mike, runs an estate sale company, Metro Detroit Estate Sales (shameless plug intended). From time to time, he’ll call me when a sale he’s conducting includes some electronics or ham radio gear. A couple of months ago, he called and said that this most recent sale included a bunch of (...)
  
  

lundi 11 mars 2024

• Amateur radio videos: ARDC community meeting, Hamvention award winners, send texts over VHF/UHF
  ARDC Community Meeting 2024-02-24 Here’s the latest update from ARDC on their activities.  Hamvention 2024 award winners The winners this year include: Special Achievement Award: Anthony Luscre, K8ZT Technical Achievement: Ward Silver, N0AX Club of the Year: Young Ladies Radio League Amateur of (...)
  
  

vendredi 8 mars 2024

• Don’t miss it! The Solar Eclipse is only a month away. Learn How You Can Participate in Two HamSCI Roundtable Events
  The last total solar eclipse across North America for twenty years will occur on Monday, April 8. HamSCI is asking hams across North America to participate in learning more about how the ionosphere functions by getting on the air to help scientists in a series of ionospheric experiments. To (...)
  
  

mardi 5 mars 2024

• Amateur radio in the news: young ham to pursue engineering career, young people still drawn to ham radio in Ohio, ham club sends aid to Ukraine
  I often think that instead of emcomm, we should be playing up the educational aspect of amateur radio and how it encourages young people to get into engineering…..Dan Ham Radio Inspired This Scranton University Student to Pursue Engineering Many college students participate in sports, listen to (...)
  
  
• Operating Notes: W1AL, sunset propagation changes, new CW ops
  A couple days ago, I worked Scott, W1AL. When I looked him up on QRZ.Com, I found this: That looked remarkably like my “retro QSL:” so I emailed him and asked him if I’d sent it to him. He replied, “I thought your call sounded familiar!” Propagation at sunset If you’re like me, you’ve noticed (...)
  
  

mercredi 28 février 2024

• Amateur radio videos: ARDC Interview, microwaves, operating 160 meters
  A Free VPN Service from ARDC This interview took place at the 2024 HamCation. Amateur Microwave It’s easier than you think Can You Do 160 Meters on Two Wolf River Coils? K8MRD connects two Wolf River loading coils in series to see if he can use that lashup to tune on 160 (...)
  
  

dimanche 25 février 2024

• Inclusivity in Amateur Radio
  This is a guest post by Bud Talbot, W0RMT, and is cross-posted from https://w0rmt.net/. Recently, my ARRL membership was up for renewal. I thought about it for a long time, and finally decided to renew so that I could have a (very small) voice in the way the League is operating these days. (...)
  
  

jeudi 22 février 2024

• Senate Bill S.3690 Introduced to Eliminate Private Land Use Restrictions on Amateur Radio
  This bulletin was sent out by the ARRL last week. Getting legislation like this passed takes a long time, so let’s not just dismiss this out of hand. One positive thing about this bill is that it had bipartisan support. Wicker is a Republican, while Blumenthal is a Democrat. Contact your (...)
  
  

mardi 20 février 2024

• Amateur radio in the news: New club edition
  In my news feed this past month, there were two announcements of new amateur radio clubs being formed. I’m not so sure how often that happens anymore, so I thought I’d spotlight them here. I’ve always said that if you don’t like the current club in your area, start your own! New amateur radio group (...)
  
  

lundi 19 février 2024

• Random stuff: Even MIT gets it wrong, DIY Layout Creator, Astron power supplies with PowerPoles
  Even MIT News gets it wrong In a recent article, MIT News reported on a recently-developed tamper-proof ID tag. The gist of the story is that some researcher at MIT has developed a system that irradiates a small tag with THz waves and uses the reflections from the tag to identify an object. In (...)
  
  
• Operating notes: CB0ZA, poor fists, Cherry Valley
  CB0ZA A couple nights ago, I turned on the radio and could see two big pileups on 30-meter CW. Down towards the lower portion of the band, there was a big pileup, and up towards 10120 kHz, a decidedly smaller one. So, I fired up DX Summit, the DX spotting website, to see what was (...)
  
  

mercredi 14 février 2024

• More thoughts about QST
  Today, I got The Current email newsletter from the ARRL. This newsletter discusses what’s new in the latest editions of QST, On the Air, QEX, and the National Contest Journal (NCJ). For example, the featured article from the March 2024 QST is “Common Mode Current and Common Mode Chokes” by Larry (...)
  
  

mardi 13 février 2024

• Amateur radio videos: One CW question, ham radio is for hackers, antenna masts
  One CW Question Vince, VE6LK, has been on a quest to learn CW. Being a YouTuber, he’s asked a bunch of current CWops for tips on how to learn CW and improve one’s skills. He has a whole series of them on his YouTube channel. Here’s my contribution. Ham Radio is for Hackers It’s often (...)
  
  

lundi 12 février 2024

• Introduction to the KB6NU Pico Keyer Project
  In the May 2023 QST, K1SWL published the article, “A Simple Morse Memory Keyer by Dave Benson, K1SWL. I found it to be an interesting project, mainly because it used the Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller. I like the Pico because it has more memory and is faster than most Arduinos. I thought to (...)
  
  

samedi 10 février 2024

• Operating notes: First POTA for 2024, 30 meters open to Europe, K1USN SST
  First POTA of 2024! The weather this week has been unseasonably warm, so I decided to drive up to K-3315, the Island Lake Recreation Area for a POTA activation. I left my house about 1:00 pm and got up to the park about 1:30. It was in the upper 50s and partly sunny. The first (...)
  
  

vendredi 9 février 2024

• ICQ Podcast Episode 422 – GB0ROC Bunkers on the Air Station
  In this episode, I join Martin Butler M1MRB, Caryn Eve Murray KD2GUT, and Edmund Spicer M0MNG to discuss the following: Young DXPeditioners Prep for Guyana Some ARRL Reversals and Deferred Decisions Ham Club Provides Mobile-Radio Donation to Humanitarian Effort QRP Self-Spotting Website Hams (...)
  
  

samedi 3 février 2024

• Amateur radio videos: Make the most of solar cycle 25, backyard ISS contact, build a mini-HF loading coil
  How to make the most of Solar Cycle 25 It’s no secret that the bands have been in great shape lately. In this video, W3LPL shows how to make the most of it. Michigan ham talks to astronauts aboard the ISS from his backyard This video has been gotten a lot of press, but I (...)
  
  

jeudi 1er février 2024

• David Mills, W3HCF, developer of NTP, SK
  David Mills, W3CHF, recently passed. He was widely recognized as the fellow who invented/developed the network time protocol, or NTP, which keeps all of the computers on the internet in sync. He was also a radio amateur. This is something that I was unaware of. His New York Times obiturary (...)
  
  

dimanche 28 janvier 2024

• Random stuff: Online QSL generator, XYL calling, TX5S
  Online QSL generator Via a reddit post this morning, I found out about the HamRadar.Com QSL Generator. This is a nice bit of online software that will generate electronic QSL cards quickly for you. Fill in a form, select a background image and bingo, you have a downloadable QSL card. See figure (...)
  
  

lundi 22 janvier 2024

• ARRL Board postpones action on bylaws change
  I guess the board got the message that the members didn’t like the bylaws change that was proposed. A couple of hours ago, an ARRL Member Bulletin appeared in my inbox reporting on the board meeting that was held Friday and Saturday. Here’s what it says: ARRL Board Approves Free Membership for (...)
  
  

samedi 20 janvier 2024

• I need an illustrator for the cover of the update Extra Class study guide
  I need an illustrator to do the cover for my updated Extra Class study guide. The fellow who did the covers for the latest Tech and General study guides has taken a full-time job and doesn’t have the time to do one for the Extra. Preferably, I’d like someone who could do it in a (...)
  
  
• Random ideas and observations: Ice on the antenna, what happens to a signal in a scope, the Anarchist Radio Relay League.
  Ice on antennas Last Friday, we got about six inches of snow here. That was followed by the rain, covering everything— including antennas—with a coating of ice. Ice, in general is not a good thing on antennas or feedlines. We noticed this last Monday night on our weekly club net. Stations that (...)