Messages

211

Amateur Radio / Re: Digital modes on HF... love it or hate it.

« on: January 23, 2020, 1318 UTC »

The guys in the local club have grown tired of my rants about FT8.  I just go numb when I hear a newbie talking about making DXCC a month after getting his license...all on FT8.  They don’t know what they are missing.  The point is the journey, not the destination.  You don’t value things that come too easy.

CW however, has actually seen a bit of an increase among the new hams here.  I don’t know why, but some of our new hams have put forth the effort to learn and operate on CW.

At a VHF conference a little while ago I heard some of the contesters complaining about FT8.  The rovers in particular were having trouble raising stations to run through the bands because the home stations were parked on the FT8 frequency and had stopped scanning the bands.

212

22 Meter Band HiFER Beacons / Re: 22m Beacon

« on: January 23, 2020, 1224 UTC »

If you go to the K6FRC web site (see above) and click on the picture of his 22M antenna, you will see a picture of his transmitter.  He does very well!

213

Longwave Loggings / Re: JJY Japan 40 kHz Time Station 1140 UTC 22 Jan 2020

« on: January 23, 2020, 1203 UTC »

BTW, the magic time for an ID is 15 and 45 minutes after the hour when they send JJY in morse.

It is going to be tough to verify what I am hearing is actually JJY.  On the French and German time stations I was able to get a correct time decode using the Kiwi decoders, so I was confident of what I heard.  This signal is so weak that a decode would not be possible, even if the Kiwi JJY decoder worked (it isn’t operational yet).

214

Longwave Loggings / Re: JJY Japan 40 kHz Time Station 1140 UTC 22 Jan 2020

« on: January 23, 2020, 1151 UTC »

I listened again this morning.  You could just tell something was there — without the waterfall it would be unnoticeable.  Strongest fade in was at 1121Z.  I need to try again a little earlier.

Some of the guys in my local ham club have been working JA’s on 160 meters the past few days.  The solar minimum has been helpful for the low bands.
 

215

Longwave Loggings / Re: JJY Japan 40 kHz Time Station 1140 UTC 22 Jan 2020

« on: January 22, 2020, 1157 UTC »

I’ve got traces of a weak carrier on 40 kHz at 1152Z, but no where near strong enough to ID.

I’m using my KiwiSDR and a 1000 ft LOG.

216

Longwave Loggings / Re: JJY Japan 40 kHz Time Station 1140 UTC 22 Jan 2020

« on: January 22, 2020, 1148 UTC »

Which antenna were you using?

217

22 Meter Band HiFER Beacons / Re: 22m Beacon

« on: January 22, 2020, 1135 UTC »

The two most consistent performers here on the prairie are K6FRC from out west in California and RY down east in Maine.  At FRC, the antenna is a relatively tiny 20 meter Hamstick mobile antenna on a metal roof of a small building (a shipping container). It has the advantage, though, of a nicely elevated site with no lossy trees in the immediate vicinity.

I frequently hear K6FRC from here on the East Coast.  I had always assumed he ran a little more than Part 15 compliant power into a more than average antenna since he is the only West coast 22M beacon I hear.  I am quite impressed with the coverage he gets with a hamstick at 1.8 mW.  But I think “nicely elevated” is not quite fully descriptive of the location...

http://www.k6frc.com/

What is it that Real Estate agents say....Location, Location, Location...?

218

Propagation / Re: Grey line map (real time)

« on: January 21, 2020, 1056 UTC »

I use one of the online ones. A solar propagation site has one that works.

http://www.spacew.com/www/realtime.php

While the grayline may be correct, don’t be fooled by the rest of the data at the map link above.  It has been a long time since we have seen a SSN of 86.

219

General Radio Discussion / Re: Reception based on East coast/West coast

« on: January 17, 2020, 1317 UTC »

An alternative to ground mounted/buried radials is to use elevated radials. The common lore is that 4 elevated radials will provide performance equivalent to 60 buried radials.

Things are usually not that easy though.  N6LF has researched this in detail, and his recommendation is for 12 elevated radials.  Still, you will need a boatload more buried radials for comparable performance to a vertical with elevated radials.  You can read his extremely detailed analysis here:

https://rudys.typepad.com/files/elevated-ground-systems-article-final-version.pdf

If you are using a vertical with elevated radials for transmitting, you also have to be aware that there will be high voltages at the ends of the radials.  You should also think about how you will address lightning protection for the elevated radial installation.

 

220

General Radio Discussion / Re: Pirate Act Passes Senate

« on: January 15, 2020, 1236 UTC »

At least one person at the FCC thinks this is good...

https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/business-and-law/senate-passes-pirate-act

221

SDR - Software Defined Radio / SDR.HU

« on: January 12, 2020, 1705 UTC »

The popular website SDR.HU, used to locate on line SDR receivers, has changed their policies to only allow access by licensed ham radio operators.

Other alternative sites exist for non-hams to find SDR receivers such as https://ve3sun.com/KiwiSDR, http://kiwisdr.com/public and http://rx.linkfanel.net.

222

General Radio Discussion / Re: Pirate Act Passes Senate

« on: January 12, 2020, 1521 UTC »

I read above someone said the FCC didnt want this...

I didn’t mean to say this was something the FCC didn’t want.  I meant to say they probably didn’t request it.  I am sure they would prefer Congress give them additional funding for enforcement rather than the potential for increased penalties.

This act places requirements for an annual report to Congress, and annual sweeps through the top 5 markets among other things.  I’ll bet the FCC will be told to do this within their current budget.

If this is in fact an unfunded mandate, I would think this is Act is not something they are happy with...but that doesn’t mean they won’t comply with it.  If you are a pirate in the “Top 5” markets (whatever they are) you should pay careful attention.

223

General Radio Discussion / Re: Pirate Act Passes Senate

« on: January 11, 2020, 1101 UTC »

I also find it interesting that they are so concerned with pirate radio that they feel the need to enact more laws.

I doubt this piece of legislation was something the FCC wanted.  As tailored as it is to the AM and FM broadcast bands, this looks like something a lobbyist pushed through for the benefit of his broadcast industry clients.  It takes little effort to get approved since no one is going to oppose it. This is another law that gives the illusion of accomplishing something while actually doing nothing.

Just be glad they limited the frequency range as they did.

224

The RF Workbench / Re: Power supply voltage

« on: January 10, 2020, 1302 UTC »

I agree that diodes would be the simplest way to do this...about a half volt drop for each diode in series.

If you need better regulation, another option would be a DC/DC buck converter (Similar to this: https://www.mpja.com/LM2596-Step-Down-Adjustable-15-37V-DC_DC-Converter/productinfo/30148+PS/ ).  These Chinese devices are available on eBay, Amazon, and other places for a couple of bucks.  You will need at least a couple of volts difference between the input and desired output voltage.  I would also be careful to filter the DC out of the converter to ensure it is clean and doesn’t modulate your transmitter carrier with noise.

You could also use a 7810 regulator chip, though if your input is 13.8 volts you might not have enough of a voltage difference for it to be reliable.

A fourth option might be possible.  Many power supplies have an internal adjustment to set the output voltage.  If your PR3 has this, you may be able to turn the output down far enough to meet your needs.

225

Longwave Loggings / TDF

« on: January 08, 2020, 0432 UTC »

Hearing TDF France on 162 kHz tonight, well enough to decode the time code information on my KiwiSDR.  TDF is much stronger than DCF77 was a few days ago.