PlanetHam.org

Today, Tuesday August 19th 2008, the UHF D-STAR Repeater GB7PI will have it’s input frequency changed to 9Mhz bringing it in-line with the new 9MHz split/allocation for GMSK repeaters

Here is a very interesting but odd but website. A collection and photographs of all sorts of historic and oddball items. Things like early receivers, valves, light globes, and tools are easily identified. A beautiful website!

Mark, EI7IS will finish in the post of the Irish Radio Transmitters Society's radio news editor in the coming weeks and IRTS are currently seeking a replacement

http://www.southgatearc.org/news/august2008/defence_spectrum_management_slides.htm

Weekly IOTA News - compiled by Fredy, DE0MST of the Deutscher Amateur Radio Club

The responses to the recent consultation by the UK regulator Ofcom concerning the 406.1-430 MHz band are now available

The NASA Web site has an excellent article about the ARISS program

The Summary Record of the 24-25 June 2008 meeting of the IARU Administrative Council is now available

On Thursday 7th August Ofcom published its response to the Ministry of Defence's consultation on reforming UK defence spectrum management and its plans to release and share spectrum

As reported last week, the SABS TC73 Electromagnetic Compatibility Committee met on Wednesday and discussed, amongst other, relaxation of PLT (also known as BPL) interference standards

Didier, F5OGL, Gloriosos 2008 team leader, wants to put an end to the 'speculation' by non-authorised hams, about the date of the next Gloriosos 2008 DXpedition

Tired of listening to the Myley Cyrus or the HCJB on your I-Pod? Wouldn't you like to be able to carry with you the kinds of ham radio conversations that you listen to while in your radio shack? Tune in to SolderSmoke!

Weekly IOTA News - compiled by OPDX

The VK9DWX DXpedition team has been busy last week testing all antennas and getting nearly everything ready to ship

During the last night of the Jamboree in Ireland someone stole the DK8ZM 'Rare Radio scouting and JOTA Badges collection', some 300 items!

A look back at events that made history this week - compiled by the Summerland Amateur Radio Club of Lismore, NSW

An International Space Station Expedition 17 ARISS school contact has been planned with participants from the Los Padres Council Troop 105, Santa Barbara, CA on 19 August

South Africa's Sandton Amateur Radio Club will be sponsoring a new award - where points are awarded for Chasing Maidens

Glenn Kraut, ZS2GK, in Mqandulin, a village in the Eastern Cape, made an historic contact with FR5DN on Reunion on 2 metres over a distance of 2,875 km

Come join the NAQCC and help us in our mission to preserve and encourage CW activity on our amateur bands

The Antrim and District Amateur Radio Society will be operating 'Railways On The Air' the weekend commencing sat 27th September from the excursion platform of the Railway Preservation society of Ireland, Whitehead, Co Antrim

Since Sunday, the COMPASS-1 CubeSat has been in emergency mode. The battery voltage is very low and the satellite is rebooting every pass

The responses to the Spectrum Commons Classes for Licence-Exemption consultation are now available on the site of the UK regulator Ofcom. The RSGB were amongst those responding

Over the past few weeks there has been speculation of an upcoming operation to Descheo Island (KP5) to take place in November. This bulletin is to provide the DX community with the actual facts on what has been going on and what will possibly happen

Authorities in Nebraska have a 34-year-old homeless man in custody who they suspect was involved in the weekend deaths of a ham radio couple living in rural Lancaster County

The 50th Anniversary Lioness of Italy Award has been launched to celebrate of the anniversary of the Brescia section of the Italian Amateur Radio Association

Andy Strangeway, a.k.a Island Man, would like to invite those of you with a sense of adventure to join him on the Rockall Expedition 2009. Rockall has only ever been activated once before, and then only for 3 hours

The RSGB reports on some of the problems experienced by the RSGB QSL Bureau following its move from Potters Bar to West Yorkshire

The Boys' Brigade are looking for Clubs and ex-Boys' Brigade members who hold an advanced amateur radio licence to help them link up over the weekend of 3 to 5 October. This is to celebrate the organisation's 125 years of existence

Amateur Radio operators seeking to experiment with High Frequency Digital transmissions now have a new option. EchoLink users may now access club station W6AOR via the internet

On August 19, members of the ARRL's Membership and Volunteer Programs Department counted ballots for contested Section Manager races in Idaho and Western New York. Section Managers serve two year terms.

On August 13, Matt Strelow, KC1XX, and Andrew Toth of XX Towers installed a new 40 foot tower on top of the ARRL Headquarters building for use at W1HQ, the Laird Campbell Memorial HQ Operators Club. This new tower supports the 3 element SteppIR 20-6 meter Yagi antenna that was moved from the old tower; the antenna was placed on the old tower in November 2007. The antenna also received modifications, allowing operations on 30 and 40 meters. Both the antenna and the 30-40 meter modification kit were donated by Mike Mertel, K7IR, of SteppIR.

While Tropical Storm Fay made landfall over Key West, Florida at 3 PM EDT on August 18, Amateur Radio operators throughout Florida were prepared "just in case." As Fay crossed Key West, Florida Emergency Management officials noted that while "Fay is no Hurricane Charley," it is following the same general path as 2004's Charley, a Category 4 hurricane and one of the most destructive hurricanes in recent history for the area; at least 13 people were killed in that storm. A tropical storm warning is still in effect for the Florida Keys and the majority of Florida's Atlantic coast. All hurricane warnings have been discontinued.

The GP-3 is a powerful board that you can use with or without a PC to do many physical computing tasks. I’ve talked about this board several times in this blog including this robot and this Visual Basic tutorial.

The boards are currently on sale. This is a great chance to pick up one or more for your next project.

The original purpose for this board was to act as an I/O device for a host computer (typically a PC). An efficient serial protocol (you can use a USB adapter) allows you to read analog voltages (5 channels of 10 bit A/D), output PWM, create and read pulses accurately, and control 8 bits of digital I/O. Library support is available for nearly any language. There are ActiveX and DLL libraries that you can use from C#, C++, Visual Basic, and many other Windows languages (for example, there’s a demo that uses the board with Microsoft Excel). There’s also a generic C library that works with Linux and most other platforms too.

With the free GP3EZ software, you can do many tasks (like the robot example above) using no programming at all. Better still once you have a script built using GP3EZ’s easy-to-use interface, you can “compile” the script down to the board and it will run without the PC until you reprogram it. In fact, things like timing become more accurate after you compile since the PC is notoriously bad at keeping time on small scales.

These boards aren’t on sale often, so pick one up while they are. Once you have simple I/O on your PC, you’d be surprised how handy it is. And since the GP3EZ scripts can run without a PC, using just one somewhere to replace a PC in a control application will save a bundle.

From WB9QZB via the HamRadioHelpGroup mailing list:

The ARRL/TAPR DCC (Digital Communications Conference) is being held in Chicago on September 26 - 28, 2008.

The DCC will be at the Elk Grove Village Holiday Inn located in Chicago’s northwest suburbs near O’Hare airport with a free airport to hotel shuttle and easily accessible from major interstate highways.

The DCC is the premiere, national, annual digital ham radio conference covering ALL the Digital Voice & Data technologies from HF to Microwaves.

There will be BOTH Technical & Introductory presentations covering all levels of experience with the digital modes and also an ARRL forum.

This year for the first time at the DCC there will be a D-STAR Friday Night event. We plan to have innovators, pioneers & leaders in D-STAR digital voice & data technology available to present and take your questions.

Icom will be at the DCC and TAPR plans to have it’s 70cm & 23cm D-STAR digital voice & data repeaters operating at the DCC connected to the internet gateway.

You can get more information about the DCC at http://www.tapr.org/dcc.html.

Reigster before September 1st & save $10 on your registration fee.

You can register at https://www.tapr.org/dccregistration.php.

Aug 22-29, 2008 -- Canary Is -- EE8AY -- QSL: EA8NQ -- Source: 3MonVHF (Aug 18, 2008) -- By EA8AY fm Punta Delgada LH (CAI-034) on Alegranza I (AF-004); HF + 6 2m; CW SSB FM + digital modes; QSL OK via Buro or direct

Oct 21-30, 2008 -- Suriname -- PZ5Z -- QSL: OM2FY -- Source: OM2TW (Aug 19, 2008) -- By OM2TW OM5AW OM5AA OK1RK OK1NY, perhaps others; 160-2m; CW SSB; first 2m EME fm PZ; QRV for CQWW DX SSB contest

NEW LEXINGTON - James McCarty Sr. has seen a lot in 94 years, including what life in the military is like and watching the world of communications change. McCarty enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1942, but before that he was interested in amateur radio and developed skills he thought he could use in the military. "I built my own equipment, knew code and had talked with people around the world," said the Fairview Assisted Living (former Perry County Home) resident. "Radio fascinated me." McCarty worked on his radios throughout high school in a little room he partitioned off in his parents' two-car garage. "I spent a lot of time in there," he said. "My father was in a position with his work that gave him access to materials I could work on my radios with." "As an amateur radio operator I've seen a lot of changes in technology," McCarty said. "I built big bulky equipment and now people talk with these little cell phones." Cell phones may have taken over the world of communication, but McCarty still holds his radio days close by. "I still drive and the amateur radio call sign I've had since before I graduated from high school in 1932 is on my license plate," he said.

Emergency communication network tested Scoop.co.nz (press release) - New Zealand An integral part of New Zealand’s emergency network, Amateur Radio Emergency Communications (AREC) also plays a...

Learn more about radio at http://wd9t.com

Apart from a rice cooker, the other gadget we picked up during our stay in Hong Kong is an induction cooker. You don't see them in stores in Australia for some reason. Now that the big element on our electric stove top has died, again, I've brought it out of retirement. Induction cookers work by inducing an electric current in the metal base of the pot that's sitting on it. This means that the

This is a very short blog update, sharing a new (to me) hardware supplier here in the UK. While trying to source a distributor for the strange header on the Resolution-T receiver, I came across Toby Electronics, here’s a link to their site:

http://www.toby.co.uk/index.asp

Apart from being the only UK supplier for the header I require, they also supply a wide range of other very useful connectors, LEDs and PCB hardware at very reasonable prices. Worth checking them out before spending more of your hard earned money with Farnell / RS / Rapid etc. These guys seem to be cheaper without a minimum order value - and realistic P&P (no affiliation).

End of update.

This post is dedicated to all the XYLs out there. We were discussing this last night during a local rag chew session on one of the local repeaters here in town. It seems the YLs have a distinct advantage over us Old men when it comes to the HF bands. Case in point was last night. We were over at Dad's house (KU4ME) playing on 20 meters and I happened upon a station from Italy. Well I tried to make contact a couple times without the amp to no avail. So then we tuned up the amp and was putting out a solid 500 watts. So I tried a couple of more times still with no luck. That's when my XYL (AJ4IJ) said let me try him. Sure enough she threw her call out there and he picked her out the very first time. She finished the contact and handed the mic over to me and I immediately made contact.
I've often thought when I throw my call out to make contact, I she increase the pitch of my voice to see what happens. However, I don't think it would be quite right. But to the YL's out there, and I'm sure I speak for all the old men out there whose XYLs are also HAMs, thank you for helping us realize we are indeed getting out to those distant stations.

By the way, the Italian station was IK4HLQ, Joe in Modena, Italy.

Well that's all I have for now. I'm still waiting on dad to send us the pics of Ashby (KJ4EGJ), who by the way is an official General Class now, operating at his station this weekend. Once I get them I'll post them up.

Until the 73 de AJ4JD.
Tim

These guys definitely have The Knack. Check out Jeff, K7JPD's Carl and Jerry web site:
http://www.copperwood.com/carlandjerry.htm

I have been wanting one of these little wonder rigs for a while. Now I have one! My uses for the rig will be an on-the-go rig - whether it is tossed in a backpack for a hike, light-packing (relatively - if you have read my post on EN39 you know I don't pack "light"), mobile, or any other grab-and-go type scenario. I figured I would install my remote kit in the truck and use the rig/controls as one for the rest of the stuff.

My first task was to figure out where to put the control panel. That would dictate the type of bracketry I needed. This is where it gets interesting! I considered about five different locations, but I didn't like any of them for one reason or another. My mobile set-ups in the past have always had me reaching for the controls. Visibility was fine as my HF rig sat right on the dash - easy to see, hard to reach.

My main goal was to find a place that was EASY to reach. That meant being low and within reach. The places I considered were to the left and right of the steering wheel down low. The access was great - it was at a comfortable height. The issue here is the visibility. Also, I am right handed so the left side was out of the question. I also considered on the side of the center console. That was easier to see than next to the steering wheel, but it posed mounting and access issues. I didn't want to mount the control panel on the front of the center console (near the cubby holes and power ports). This would have limited access and use to those.

I now had three issues: ease of reach, ease of visibility, and not blocking anything. This is when I started looking at the lid to the center console storage compartment. This looked like a good place at first. My preference would be to keep the control panel in one place, but there was no way to mount it at this location without some fancy metal work to get bends that would contour to the plastic console. If I mount it to the lid itself then the control panel is mobile - it moves with the lid, and it weighs it down so it will no longer raise on its own.

I looked at this scenario for a good while and studied how it would work. The access was great - the controls were literally at my fingertips. The visibility wasn't great because of the angle I had on the display. The only thing I was blocking was the very rear part of the open compartments.

Looking at the other alternatives it was very clear - some compromises had to be made and the only location that made sense was the console lid. So thats just what I did.



In fact, it got even better than this. Instead of mounting the controls straight in line with the lid I bent the bracket at an angle to tilt the control panel backwards and to the left so I could see it better. This little tweak made all the difference in the world!



I may even bend the bracket a bit more to get even more of an angle on it. The location of the tuning knob is very comfortable as it is now, though. I can rest my arm on the console and just move my fingers to scroll the bands.

I got the remote microphone with the rig too. I figured it is the closest type of hand mic/controller to what my IC-207H has and I use that mic in the truck all the time. The remote control features of the Yaesu mic are great! You need to get to know it, but it really is a great addition. I still prefer to tune with the big knob, but surfing the menu is easily done with the mic.

My mobile ham station went from this:



to this:



Boy have I really missed out on mobile HF! I have always managed in the past, but this set-up really changes my whole experience to something really wonderful. I am sure this goes without saying, but I am quite proud of my installation. It doesn't solve every problem but it is very enjoyable to use. I hope to catch you on the bands!

Medal auction It's reported that each Olympic gold medal in the last 20 years has cost Australian tax payers about 40 million dollars. I hear that the UK is now reaping the rewards of extra investment. Why not save a lot of bother and just auction the medals off the highest bidder? Anything goes Many events in the past have been won with the aid of performance enhancing drugs, advanced

The past few weeks I have been exploring the world of VHF by listening and playing around on 2M SSB as well as VO-52. I have had some success on 144.300 with my vertical and home brew Loop with DX opportunities such as GM4PPT (Richard) located in Scotland near to Ayr and one or two other interesting QSOs.

The rest of the time apart from HF operations, I have been tracking VO-52 and trying my best to put a signal into its Transponder and making some QSOs. I successfully had a QSO with DL6HP via VO-52 and tonight's pass brought signals to my Earth Station once again but this time I received them with my new home brew 2M Yagi. Tonight's contact was with G7BTA (Dave) who was approximately 200 miles south of my QTH down in Hereford.

The Home brew Yagi received well but my TX was still going through my vertical so you guessed it, the next job is a 433/70CM Yagi.

Here is the story so far, I used a broom handle, some 3mm thick aluminium sheet, and some 3mm Brass sheet.

I cut the sheet on a 6mm capacity guillotine with a 3 meter wide bed, which allowed a full 3X2 meter sheet to be cut. The aluminium elements are 15mm wide and the brass driven element was cut at 20mm wide.

The above diagram shows the element sizes and the element spacings.

The Image below shows the finished project assembled to the Broom Stick.
You can see the Three 15mm x 3mm Aluminium elements and the Brass 20mm x 3mm active driven element which is folded at one side creating optimum performance as well as 1.1 SWR across 144-146 MHZ.
The total length is 960mm wide + 480mm (folded element) + 35mm space between top element and bottom folded element. Total size was 1475mm.
Here you can see Me holding the Broom Stick Yagi, with My Dog Dudley assisting the installation.
I used the flat strip rather than round bar mainly because it was at my disposal at the time.

I will probably build the 433- 437 MHz Yagi from welding rods which are round. This Yagi was simple to build using screws and the wooden broom, but now I can no longer sweep out the shack as the broom has now become my Boom. h.i
The next stage is where I fixed some box section to the base of the Broom-Boom, here you see the yagi in its horizontal state.

The next image shows the Coaxial feed line which the braid is taken to the centre of the top part of the Brass Driven Element. Here you can see the Coaxial inner which is connected to the bottom folded part of the Driven Element. I used a plastic spacer to obtain the 35mm clearance from the top part of the Element
Another view of the Feeder which is 50 ohm Coax. And of course as usual ,I like my antennas away from nagging/complaints so once again the Tree provides height a well as stealth. ( I did straighten and line up the elements once I set everything up)
This one is a prototype, Once I have given it a serious testing I may construct a Dual band yagi similar to the LEO (Low Earth Orbiting) Satellite antenna, which should be arriving from Antenna warehouse USA any day soon. I am hoping to use the commercial Arrow antenna which is hand held with my Hand Held Radios and operate via AO-51, more about that in the near future and maybe I'll try to make something similar.

In the meantime thanks for reading and if your thinking about trying a Broom stick Yagi like this one, I hope you have as much fun and enjoyment making it like I just have had.

It does seem to work very well within the short time I have tested it, and I am feeling confident it will be a big improvement especially on SSB.

73 de Simon 2E0HTS

We spent all day on Saturday taking down the rotator, antennas and assessing the damage done by lightning to my amateur radio station. In short, Dave (KIØQ) spent much of the day on the tower and Rick (N0CFL), my father-in-law, XYL and I worked ground crew.

Weather was nearly perfect (no wind, ~82 degrees) and we were able to get everything safely on the ground without a major incident.

What we learned…

• Prosistel PST-61D rotator motor works (12Vdc will turn the motor) but the heading indicator (pot) was giving bad readings (~91 ohms). I was able to open the bottom rotator cover and found 4 fried MOVs (see pic).  Per instructions from Jay @ ArraySolutions, I have cut these off of the potentiometer and the readings are now normal. Lightning protection for the rotator will continue to be the ICE rotator line transient suppressor mounted at the tower base.
• The 4 element SteppIR could not be tested as the replacement control box has not yet arrived from the factory. However, we did notice deterioration of the rubber coupling “boots”.  Apparently, SteppIR had a supplier issue with these that has now been resolved. For some period, there were antennas shipped with these rubber (plumbing) couplers that were prone to UV damage.  I need to replace these - and I need to test the antenna itself.
• The AlphaDelta DX-B 1/4 wave sloper was removed.  Again, I had low expectations for this antenna and was never really happy with it (even though it only cost me $15).  I now have the parts for my 80 meter and 160 meter inverted Ls.
• The Cushcraft XM-240 two element 40 meter yagi  still needs to be thoroughly inspected and tested. It’s now sitting on two sawhorses over the SteppIR. SWR does not look good - but there could be many reasons for that, including the MJF 259 antenna analyzer issues from nearby broadcast antennas that I saw last fall and proximity to ground.

There is certainly a lot of work ahead, but thanks to some great help from some local hams, I now have a better idea of what needs to be done.

• Taking a new look at HF antennas.
• Waves and fields.
• Gains and losses.
• Feeding the antenna.
• Close-spaced beams.
• Arrays, long wires, and ground reflections.
• Multiband antennas.
• Bandwidth.
• Antennas for reception.

Part II, Theory Into Practice for example covers the following topics--

• The antenna and its environment.
• Vertical beams.
• Invisible antennas.
• Mobile and portable antennas.
• Small antennas.
• Making the antenna work.

Learning is fun and I will follow up as the pages turn.

73 from the shack.

I received this e-mail this morning. In a way, it’s a shame that more elections aren’t being contested……Dan

The following are candidates for ARRL Director or Vice Director in the fall election.

The Ethics and Elections Committee is still in the process of reviewing the eligibility of candidates whose names are marked with an asterisk; this process is scheduled to be completed by Friday, August 22. The other candidates have been determined to be eligible.

Candidates in contested elections are reminded that photos and 300-word statements are due no later than Friday, August 29.

Atlantic Division for Director:
    Bill Edgar, N3LLR

Atlantic Division for Vice Director:
    Thomas Abernethy, W3TOM

Dakota Division for Director:
    Jay Bellows, KØQB

Dakota Division for Vice Director:
    Gregory Widin, KØGW

Delta Division for Director:
    Karl Bullock, WA5TMC
    Mickey Cox, K5MC

Delta Division for Vice Director:
    *Ariel Elam, K4AAL
    David Norris, K5UZ

Great Lakes Division for Director:
    Jim Weaver, K8JE

Great Lakes Division for Vice Director:
    *Gary Johnston, KI4LA
    *John Meyers, NB4K
    *Daniel Romanchik, KB6NU

Midwest Division for Director:
    Bruce Frahm, KØBJ

Midwest Division for Vice Director:
    Cliff Ahrens, KØCA

Messrs. Edgar, Abernethy, Bellows, Widin, Weaver, Frahm and Ahrens are declared elected. Congratulations to all.

Sincerely,
David Sumner, K1ZZ
Secretary, ARRL

Sent in by Mike, kc7IT, here is an interesting article on how software guys are being encouraged to build things with their hands:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/17/technology/17ping.html


Sent in by our musician, Mark "Moj" Johnson, W8MOJ, here is an update on Wayne Green of "73" magazine fame:
http://www.computerworld.com