Some off-air historical ham recordings

Thank you to those of you who have submitted ham audio links. Here are some for starters. I will add others if people let me have links.

http://files.myopera.com/davews/files/vp8.mp3 A recording of Bob McLeod VP8LP in Goose Green on the 20m amateur band on the evening of the Argentine invasion in the mid-1980s made by Dave Sergeant G3YMC.

http://files.myopera.com/davews/files/zl3gq.mp3 A short recording of a CW contact with Peter Watson ZL3GQ in Christchurch, NZ made by Dave Sergeant G3YMC on 4th October 1977 when using just 10W at Dave's end.

http://www.qsl.net/wa5iyx/ra/zk1aa69a.ra ZK1AA 6m keyer/beacon in 1969.

http://www.dxzone.com/catalog/Internet_and_Radio/Sounds/ has many different audio clips spanning many years and many bands.

Off-air historical ham recordings

Looking around for a site which has off-air historical ham recordings I found http://www.dxzone.com/catalog/Internet_and_Radio/Sounds/ which has quite a lot.

Somewhere I have a reel-to-reel tape recording made off-air 42 years ago of G4PJ (Salcombe, Devon) and I also have a recording made at the peak of cycle 22 (I think) when I tuned across 10m SSB hearing stations from Europe, South America, the USA and ZD9 (Tristan) amongst others.

There is an excellent website for SW broadcast interval signals at
http://www.intervalsignals.net/ which I believe I've mentioned before.

QRP DXCC score box

I've added a 2009 DXCC "countries worked" box on the RHS of the blog so I can keep track of what I work on various bands. So far, the score is just 15 countries worked with best DX being the USA on 20m CW, but it is only mid-January. Last year the score was around 60 countries worked.

10m QSO (winter sporadic-E)

This morning I worked my first 10m station this year - 9A2009ST on 28.480MHz SSB using 10W to my wire halo antenna. He was also calling CQ on 28.22MHz CW. The signals were not strong but this is clearly a case of mid-winter sporadic-E.

This year my aim is 100 DXCC countries on 10m QRP, so this was number one. An hour later and I heard G0FWX about 20 miles away so gave him a call and got a 52 report.

So now 2 x DXCC countries in the log on 10m ....only 98 to go this year!

Latest cycle 24 sunspot predictions

http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/images/ssn_predict.txt has the latest (Jan 2009) predictions for the progress of Cycle 24 suggesting that by the end of this year we should be well on the "up" again with decent 15/12/10m conditions.

Having said that, we have had another extremely quiet period now for almost 6 weeks. Unless a few spots start to appear we may still be bumping along the bottom of the cycle still.

QTH Locator with Google Maps

http://f6fvy.free.fr/qthLocator/fullScreen.php

This site has the useful ability to show QTH locator locations using Google maps. Enter the QTH locator and the map zooms to show where square actually is. You can also use it to find QTH locators in the first place and to work out distances.

Licence-free handhelds in 70cms

Did YOU realise that we now have to share the 70cm band with LPD433/434 walkie talkies? I understand that Ofcom has recently changed the requirement document (IR2030) and it now allows FM voice transmissions at 1mW/10mW on 69 channels between 433.075 - 434.775MHz. These handhelds are available in the UK from several CB/446 outlets. Look out for the words LPD433 in adverts. 10mW may not sound much but it goes a LONG way from a hilltop. If these units proliferate they could become a real problem for 70ms repeater and simplex users.

QRP - 4 continents today

After a slow start to the year because of family commitments, today saw some QRP CW contacts around the world. These included RV6HA, HB9ANJ, 7X4AN and KA2MGI with QSOs on 14MHz or 7MHz.

With the Elecraft K1 with internal ATU and the random 15m wire strung down the garden I can usually work most of the stations I hear as long as they are not buried in a huge DX pile-up. CW is a very effective mode especially if you are like me and have a simple, unobtrusive wire antenna rather than a huge beam on a large tower.

E44M Palestine DXpedition

E44M is busy working stations on 40m SSB currently and coming through quite well at 8pm UK time. From the DX cluster it looks like they are proving very popular. I have not tried to break the pile-ups with my QRP.

Z309KNV Macedonia

The first QSO in the QRP log this year was Z309KNV on 40m CW which seems to be a special call for Macedonia. The band was buzzing with several USA stations this evening but not managed to cross the pond yet.

Best wishes for 2009

My very best wishes for 2009. For a change, I'd like to quote an extract from the last of T.S.Eliot's Four Quartets poems which is called Little Gidding. It reminds me that every year is part of our never ending exploration and journey.

"With the drawing of this Love and the voice of this
Calling

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, unremembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always—
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one."

Go quietly on your journey in 2009 and may it be a very fulfilling and joyful one.

70cms good conditions tonight

Just worked GW0LJW in Gwent and G3VEH/M via a 70cms repeater in Somerset tonight when running 5W (actually about 1.5W into the antenna after the coax run) into the vertical colinear. Conditions are definitely up in that direction as the distance is about 250kms.

Dutch on-line SDR testing new bands

The on-line software defined radio (SDR) in Twente, Holland http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/ (very useful when testing 80m QRP rigs) temporarily added the 0-150kHz, 1.8MHz and 10MHz bands to the ranges with wider band coverage than before on 20 and 80m over the Christmas period. This SDR is now back to its usual 80,40 and 20m coverage (as of Dec 30th).

The South Hams and G5BY on 6m

A slight aside from ham radio, I just want to give a plug for the most beautiful part of England where I lived until leaving for university - the beautiful part of southernmost Devon known as the South Hams. Our family has lived here from at least 1428, the earliest date in our family history records when one of my ancestors owned one fee of land in the time of King Henry VI. You can understand why I still regard this as my spiritual home even though we enjoy living in East Anglia. We still make regular pilgrimages back to "the promised land" as my dear old dad called it. Indeed it is.

There is a new book of walks in this area called The South Hams Coast by Gerry Miles (see www.devonpaint.nl/ and also available from www.amazon.co.uk). The book is beautifully illustrated with coastal walks covering many of the high spots from where some great VHF DX has been worked. These include Bolberry Down from where G5BY worked the USA on 6m back in the 1940s when the band was briefly available. Today his QTH (see old picture) is "The Port Light Hotel" a delightful place to drink a pint or have a crab sandwich on a long sunny cliff top walk.

G4IRZ Silent key sale - items now sold

On behalf of his widow, the kit belonging to the late Len Winnert G4IRZ was sold today, as one lot, to a private buyer in East Anglia.

Radio Nature

A very happy Christmas everyone. One of my presents was the book called "Radio Nature" by Renato Romero which is a very good introduction to the weird and wonderful world of ELF/VLF natural emissions such as whistlers and tweeks. The book, available from the RSGB on-line bookstore, is an excellent read.

See also his excellent webpages at http://www.vlf.it/ .

Tunnel Diodes rigs

Way back in the 1960s I recall making a simple tunnel diode oscillator as part of a lab project and being excited to see such a circuit used to span 160 miles on 80m by a ZL station despite the power being microwatts only. These days tunnel diodes are almost unheard of.

Recently I spotted a similar tunnel diode TX and RX on AA1TJ's excellent webpages on which you can find more data and links to off-air records made at DX distances.

G3XBM is 60 today

Well, another milestone passed - I have reached the age of 60 and get a free bus pass for local English buses nationwide as well as a winter fuel allowance. At least there are some perks for getting older.

Elecraft K1

This morning I fired up my Elecraft K1 CW transceiver not having used it for some time. It is such a good little rig. Mine has the 4 band unit and internal ATU option and covers 40, 30, 20 and 15m. The filtering is excellent and the user interface good as long as you can remember the menu system, which I forget often when I don't use the rig for a time.

Within a few minutes of connecting the end-fed wire about 15m long into the back of the rig I had 5 QSOs in the log on 40 and 15m. It is such a perfect CW rig.

More details see the Elecraft website http://www.elecraft.com

£500 silent key sale - a REAL bargain!

Some weeks ago I mentioned that I had been asked by a niece of G4IRZ to help with disposal of his (silent key) radio gear which included an Alinco DX70 HF transceiver in original packing and an FT767GX, FP707 PSU and lots of other ATUs, SWR bridges, BC221, GDO, etc. Several requested the list, but no-one has put an offer in.

The whole lot is yours for £500, buyer collects from Cambridgeshire.

I believe the actual value of the kit FAR exceeds this amount but I am not in a position to spend time disposing of the items individually. If someone is willing to buy the lot from his niece she would be pleased (as would Len's XYL) and the buyer is likely to make a decent profit if the items are then resold separately. It would also make an excellent complete ham shack for anyone starting out.

Remember, £500 buys a huge LOT of decent gear for Christmas.

Dec 27th: Now all sold.

Solar data page - new URL

The Solar Data page has a new URL weblink. If you have this saved as a bookmark in your web browser the new link is now http://www.solen.info/solar/

29MHz FM

Just after 7pm tonight (Friday) I hope to do some tests with G4NUA in Cambridge around 29.6MHz FM. We will both be HORIZONTALLY polarised (Homebase-10 wire halos) running around 10W FM. If there are others in the mid-Anglia area who would like to join us then please do call in.

At one time there was a lot of activity on 29MHz FM but there is much less these days or is it just around here?

1930hrs update: successfully heard G4NUA at RS56 but he could only just detect my FM carrier (no modulation) his end. Surprised that we were unable to work each other at this distance with a pair of horizontal halos. On 2m he was 59++ and on 70cms 56. Ted was using the FT8900 4 band 50/35W FM rig covering 10m, 6m, 2m and 70cms - nice radio.

Useful on-line distance calculator

http://copaseticflow.blogspot.com/2008/12/new-qsl-mapper.html

Type in the 2 callsigns to get the QSL addresses and the distance, (in miles or kilometers), between them plus miles/watt. Thanks to KD0FNR for finding this one.

The distance of my 2007 6m QRP QSO with K1TOL works out at 5083kms.

UK price rises - Yaesu and Icom rigs

Have you noticed that prices of the Yaesu FT817 and Icom IC703 have been significantly increased by at least one of the big UK suppliers in the last few days?

With the falling pound I can understand margins being squeezed more than before but surely, with a VAT reduction and with Christmas coming, this must be the most stupid piece of marketing yet.

Later comment: Several people have explained to me that the yen/pound exchange has significantly worsened so there is probably little the dealers could do but pass on a major part of their price increase on goods from Japan. I also see that most dealers are now holding the old prices on goods in stock as well as offering some good trade-in deals.

SM6BHZ on 504.5kHz - strong

The 3W ERP beacon of SM6BHZ on 504.5kHz is coming in well tonight at 2215z in slow CW and QRSS3. QSB rate is slow with peak to trough being around 1 minute with me.

Ham gear for sale (silent key G4IRZ)

Recently I have been asked to help sell a large amount of ham radio equipment from an ex Royal Signals ham who is now a silent key - Len Winnart G4IRZ. This includes a FT767DX (base mains powered multi-mode rig), a DX70 multi-mode HF/6m transceiver still in its packing, FP707 PSU, a GDO, various ATUs and SWR bridges and lots more. If anyone is interested in seeing the list please email me at rogerlapthorn (at) gmail.com and I will send you the full list of items.

In particular, if anyone is prepared to make an reasonable offer for the whole lot I'd be happy to discuss. All I am trying to do is dispose of the equipment to someone who would make use of it at a fair price for his XYL.

Please contact me ASAP if you have an interest in this kit.

Argo plot of OK0EMW tonight on 505kHz

This is the Argo waterfall plot showing the Czech 505kHz beacon OK0EMW on QRSS3 (slow CW, 3 sec dots) coming in well tonight at 1700z. It was not audible by ear though. Note the QSB in the middle when the number 0 was being sent.

VO-52 satellite reception

Not listened for amateur satellites for some time so took a quick listen on 2m SSB around 145.9 this evening. Managed to catch a couple of VO-52 satellite passes and logged IK1SOW, EB2FJN, SP4BY and HB9XJ on SSB. I have printed out the passes for the next few days so will see what else I can receive on the FT817 and the vertical colinear antenna.

The first place to check for first-time satellite SWLs is the AMSAT page which has lots of helpful info on satellites, frequencies and passes.

WSPR beacons on the 500kHz band

There are now some stations appearing on the 500kHz band using WSPR mode which is a clever digital beaconing system allowing reception to be monitored and mapped/listed using PC software attached to a suitable transceiver and the internet. In effect you can set a transmitter running then check for reception reports from similarly equipped stations via an internet reporting page. See http://www.physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/ for more information. K1JT designs some mighty impressive ham software! When I get a WindowsXP machine that is reliable again I will try this mode I think.

A family picture

One of our greatest joys this past year has been our first grandson.  He is now 1 year old and looking more like a little boy every day that passes. His mum is French and his dad Tim is English, so he is likely to grow up speaking both languages. This is a nice picture of my wife Lis, our elder son Tim and little grandson taken a few days ago. Our other son and his Australian wife are expecting their first grandchild next March. Whether either will be interested in ham radio remains to be seen.

SAQ (17.2kHz) active on Dec 6th

There will be an extra SAQ VLF transmission this month on Dec 6th at 1045UTC on 17.2kHz. No reports are being requested and no QSL cards will be sent out this time.

3X5A (Guinea) worked on 10m QRP

There were few 10m CW stations audible today (Nov 29) in the CQWW contest but among the few was the DXpedition to 3X5A in Guinea, West Africa.

I called them around lunchtime but at first they struggled to hear me but a few minutes later they were stronger and a solid QSO followed. This was a new country for me on 10m QRP. This is a picture of their QSL card from last year (from their website). See the Voodoo Contest Group website.

160m good tonight

Although I do not do that much on 160m I took a listen this evening and conditions were very good. Heard were UA6MF, EY8MM and 3X5A all on CW. If conditions are similar next weekend there should be some good DX around for the CQWW CW contest.

SK6RUD on 500kHz and "cross pond" LF reception

SK6RUD was a good signal on 500kHz again this evening around 2000z on my basic set-up here.

The better equipped stations in Europe are currently receiving some of the experimental 500kHz stations from the USA during the night hours and some have even managed to detect some of the Lowfer stations operating between 160-190kHz running less than 1W DC input. This is amazing when you think they are being received in the midst of the high power broadcast stations on this side of the pond.

Late Swallow - faulty GPS?

Had a change from ham radio today when I went birdwatching on the Wash in North Norfolk with our University of the Third Age group in Cambridge. Conditions were good but the wind very strong. Some decent birds about on the tidal mudflats and lagoons including black tailed godwits, mergansers, goldeneye, golden plovers and thousands of shelduck. No snow buntings seen although there were a few about. Apparently there was still a swallow up there last week, which is very late for the UK. Someone suggested it had a faulty GPS so didn't know which way to fly!

See http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/s/snettisham/ .

Backscatter - microwave compendium

Last week G4BAO showed me a copy of a new book running to nearly 400 pages called "Backscatter" which has been created from articles previously published in the microwave newsletter "Scatterpoint". The book is available for £14 and, if you are into microwaves from 1.3GHz upwards this is a very useful reference book.

It was fascinating to read about something called rainscatter which allows 10GHz stations to work each other by scattering signals off rain clouds/drops up to distances of 600-700kms. This mode allows narrowband uWave stations to work great distances, even from less than perfect home locations. Small 45cm dishes and about 1W RF seems all that is required at 10GHz to use this mode, which works even with NBFM. Signals sound like aurora as they get spread by the scattering process.

I can't see myself getting on 10GHz in a hurry but I can understand the fascination with such intriguing propagation modes to be explored.

Another sked with the FETer rig (unsuccessful)

Tried a sked on 3560 this morning with Richard G4ICP in Braintree when using the FETer micro-transceiver with 18mW and the single FET RX. Although he was quite a reasonable signal with me, as was G3LUB in Aylesbury, Richard could not hear me. This all suggests that for the 1 FET transceiver to be more useful it needs more power on TX. Probably 500mW is needed to stand a reasonable chance of random QSOs - I need to experiment some more to get the TX power up.

I am still keen to do further local tests to see what the limit of daylight range is. At night there will be too much activity on 3560 to stand a chance.

Miracle Whip Yahoo Group

Back in 2002 I started the Miracle Whip Yahoo group for those interested in the Miracle Whip antenna and similar homebrew versions. Today the membership topped 1000 people for the first time making it one of the largest Yahoo ham groups. If you are interested in this and similar compact multi-band portable antennas feel free to join. Sometimes the topics can get quite heated.

Talk at the Huntingdonshire Club

This week I was fortunate to be asked along to the Huntingdonshire Amateur Radio Society to give my talk on Kitchen Sink Minimalist Radio. The club was excellent with lots of people attending and a real sense of "buzz" about the place. If you live in the Cambridge, Huntingdon, Ely or Peterborough area I'm sure you'll receive as warm a welcome as I did.

For those who attended and wanted copies of the presentation slides, they're now on my main www.g3xbm.co.uk website.

PS I've noticed I put up not quite the final version- I will change to the correct version when I get access to my WinXP PC.

Publish Post

uu80b micro-transceiver now on main website

www.g3xbm.co.uk now has the information on the 12 parts only micro-transceiver for 80m. I have also corrected the link to the DX cluster's new URL.