The ISWL

Many here will not be aware of the International Short Wave League (ISWL) but at one time this was THE club to belong to if you were interested in shortwave amateur and broadcast listening and transmitting. At one time it had a great number of members from all over the world.

Today the ISWL is still going strong, albeit not as large as it once was, but they produce a good A5 full colour magazine packed with articles and news every month called Monitor. Unlike most amateur magazines, this has good coverage of shortwave broadcast news and reports as well as lots for SWLs and radio amateurs with monthly RX and SWL reports. The ISWL offers a number of other benefits to its members and you may like to consider membership. The magazine has few adverts and is a real amateur/SWL magazine, rather than a shamateur magazine for those with deep pockets. Like the GQRP club, the ISWL is run totally by volunteers. I like its ethos.
 
Membership is £18 a year for the paper magazine version but just £12 if you take the magazine electronically.

First QSL cards at G3XBM

Earlier this evening I was thinking about QSL cards. I send out very few paper cards these days (although hope to send out more after I move next year and have the chance of putting a nice windmill on the card!) but was trying to remember the very first QSL cards I ever received back in my SWL days in the early 1960s.

If my memory serves me right, the first ever QSL card came from Radio Nederland like the one on the left which had a flamingo and a windmill on it.  It was for reception on my shortwave crystal set. Subsequently I got several more cards using the crystal set and it became quite a challenge to see how many countries I could confirm with QSLs using the crystal set.  Although I heard stations worldwide - genuinely worldwide, not via relays - such as Radio Australia, All India Radio and Radio Havana, I don't think I ever managed any cards for crystal set reception beyond Europe.  My first ever amateur card was from a station in London that I copied on 28MHz in South Devon. I cannot remember the callsign sadly, but probably still have the card somewhere.The first card for a 2-way QSO was from my mentor G4PJ who had a shack right on the water's edge in Salcombe. His earth rod when straight from the shack into the salt water, so his signal was excellent even on my crystal set at 4 miles.

I still enjoy getting cards from the bureau and the quality of some cards these days is remarkably good and a far cry from the thin paper cards from the USSR when I was first licenced, although these were just as prized.

472-479kHz NoV Applications

The RSGB now has a link on its website (although at this time it does not appear to be working, but it did earlier for some) for the form to apply for an NoV to operate in the UK on the new 472-479kHz band.

This is the link I have http://www.rsgb.org/operating/novapp/472-479-khz-nov.php

I have yet to succeed and get my NoV application through, but hope to do so before Jan 1st 2013 when the band will be available to full UK licence holders as long as they have the NoV.

Dell PC update - a grateful customer!

You may recall that I wrote to the MD of Dell last week after getting nowhere with my 4 year warranty claim for replacement of an intermittent power socket and was pleasantly surprised when the corporate office offered to arrange for my laptop PC to be repaired free of charge.

Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop

Well, today the Dell service engineer turned up and replaced the WHOLE motherboard and the DC PSU. I am happy to report everything is now working well.  The engineer was courteous and efficient. Dell even rang from India to check the engineer had turned up and the job was done.

So, I'd like to put on record that I am, in the end, pleased that Dell performed so well. But, as a comment below points out, it took a carefully worded pleading email to the MD to get them to see sense and learn that the customer should be treated fairly and with respect.

WISPY reports

For the first time in a few weeks I set the WISPY 200mW 10m WSPR beacon running to see what reports I got whilst getting on with jobs.

It is fascinating that G8KNN who is just 12km away often gets me at similar levels to the reports I get from K1OF who is 5455km away, all due to the vagaries of HF propagation.

Ten-Tec Argonaut VI - at $995 FAR too much

Ten-Tec has now got the new low power HF transceiver, the 10W Argonaut VI listed on its website with details about its specification and how to place an order. It looks a neat, clean, simple radio and I believe it is not much bigger than the FT817.

Not having ever used Ten-Tec rigs and knowing that many people very much like Ten-Tec products, I cannot comment on how good this new radio is likely to be. However, I do feel qualified to comment on the price.

$995 for the basic radio (I guess around £995 here in the UK?) sounds far too much. I'm not sure this includes a microphone. The KX3 is a similar price yet covers ALL the HF bands and 6m as standard, with an optional 2m module, auto-ATU, battery charger and internal battery pack.  It has a more comprehensive features set and, probably, a higher dynamic range (i.e. better) RX.

The Argonaut VI does not cover 5MHz, 24MHz or 50MHz, even as options. There is no provision for an internal auto-ATU.

In my view, these omissions are unacceptable in a new HF QRP rig. The 12 year old FT817 covers ALL HF bands, and 6m,2m and 70cms with ALL modes yet is considerably less expensive. OK I expect the Ten-Tec has a better RX than the FT817, but to be honest I am pretty happy with the FT817 which hears most things and manages to hold its own from 136kHz (with a preamp) to 432MHz pretty well on RX.

To say I am disappointed with the Argonaut is an under-statement. Why, oh why, didn't they get this onto the market at a highly competitive $695 instead?

HF conditions

It is December 2012 and we have either have just passed, or are just approaching, the sunspot maximum for cycle 24. Conditions cannot be called fantastic can they?

Some of you with long memories may recall the BIG peaks of the late 40s and 50s and look back at them fondly.  I think we have no choice but to accept that those days have now gone for a generation and we have to make the best use of our bands as they are and will now be.

Even with much lower sunspot numbers the higher bands will still be able to support DX more often than thought. WSPR beaconing through the full solar cycle may reveal some surprises. In many ways the quiet times offer more interest although monitoring 10m for days and days on end and hearing just noise can be disheartening! This is when WSPR will be especially useful.

Anyway we are still near the peak and there is DX to be worked so let's enjoy it!

More WISPYs on 10m

The G4SFS version of WISPY

Yesterday I received a nice email from Peter G4SFS who told me that he and Dave G6WZA had made a couple of WISPY 10m WSPR beacon TX units using the schematic on my website. A few values changes were needed - not unexpected - but that they are now working well and receiving spots from distant monitors. This is a photo of one of them. WISPY is a simple QRP WSPR beacon for 28MHz using a low cost 14.060MHz crystal and inexpensive 2N3904 transistors throughout.

Conditions on 10m have not been too great of late, although I did exchange reports with PY2SDR at 9616km and 4X1RF. Interestingly, there have been a few early evening WSPR reports from DL which I assume are probably a result of wintertime Es propagation.  At this time of year there is a mini-peak in sporadic-E propagation, so it is worth keeping an eye on 50MHz and 70MHz too.

Dell - they listened

A few days ago I mentioned my run-in with Dell support and their refusal to repair my laptop's power connector socket under their 4 year hardware warranty claiming it was "wear and tear". Well one of my readers Mark G0NMY kindly sent Michael Dell's email address michael@dell.com - he is the founder and MD - so last night I wrote a well reasoned letter to him explaining my disappointment with the level of customer service and why I believed they were wrong.

Blow me down, this morning I got a phone call from the corporate office saying they had arranged an engineer to come out next Tuesday to fix the laptop free of charge!  To say I was amazed is an understatement. It took conversations with 4 people and an email to the MD of Dell to get the correct response but, bless them, they've "come good" in the end.

So, thank you for listening Dell. You are in my good books again.

Updated 472-479kHz countries list

Following feedback, Rik Strobbe ON7YD updated his list of countries with (or about to get) access to the new MF band as follows:

Monaco (18/05/2012)
Malta (11/06/2012)
Germany (13/06/2012)
Philippines (30/08/2012)
Slovakia (01/09/2012 ?) - special licence(s)
Czech Republic (01/09/2012 ?) - special licence(s)
Sweden (01/10/2012) - special licence(s)
Norway (30/10/2012)
Greece (01/11/2012)
New Zealand (20/12/2012)

Australia (01/01/2013)
Denmark (01/01/2013)
The Netherlands (01/01/2013)
UK (01/01/2013)  - available to full licence holders by NoV
Switzerland (01/01/2013)
Finland (early 2013)
Spain (early 2013)