Planet Ham (English)

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I got licensed about four years ago, near the beginning of the bottom of the sunspot cycle. Add to that the fact that I haven't been particularly active for the past couple of years and I don't have a huge beam antenna or an amp, it means I haven't had many European contacts.

That seems to be changing for the better now. Last week I had QSOs with someone in Holland and someone in Switzerland, within about half an hour of each other. They were both new ones for me, believe it or not. Last night I finally had my first contact with an English station, Rich G0BLB, near Bath.

There's several reasons why I was really happy about that particular contact. Firstly, I'm originally from England. Secondly, one of my cousins over there is married to a ham, Andy 2E0HPO in Hertfordshire. And third, my signal wasn't as week as I thought it would be. If conditions keep improving it won't be long before I'll be able to chat with Andy. I only met him for the first time two years ago when my wife Donna and I were over there on holidays.

Actually, with conditions improving now, I'm at that stage in my ham career where a lot of my QSOs are new ones, which makes it more fun.

73 Steve

The AREN Annual meeting took place last weekend in Clonmel County Tipperary. The agenda included:

• Review of previous years activities
• Update on the Major Emergency Management Process
• Update on training materials
• Update on ARENs use of maps and mapping data.
• IARU HF emergency operating procedure workshop
• APRS workshop
• Update on use of NBEMS and Digital Modes on shortwave NVIS

The AREN Mobile Command Post (MCP) was in attendance for everyone to inspect. and a a wide ranging discussion on various aspects of Emergency Communications was had. Many thanks to all who participated and I look forward to working with everyone during 2010.

John Ronan, EI7IG

Yes, imagine that! Pete, now W1VG, used to be W1JKS which is now my call sign, sent me one of his old W1JKS QSL cards! A very nice surprise indeed.

I recently sold my Yaesu VX-8E because the lack of APRS RF infrastructure in this part of the world rendered that part of its functionality fairly useless and I didn't need two FM hand-helds. My Kenwood TH-F7E is a more useful radio to me because of its ability to receive CW and SSB. The only thing I didn't like about the Kenwood was the lack of a drop-in charger base. To charge the radio you have to uncover a charging socket and then plug in a lead from a wall-wart charger. That might seem like a small inconvenience, but having to crawl around on the floor plugging in the charger, then thread the charging cable through to a safe place to stand the radio while it charged was a bit of a chore. Most hand-helds offer a base charger as an option; even the cheap and nasty Chinese Jingtong had one. I think Kenwood missed an opportunity to sell an accessory here.

I was sure I wasn't the only one lamenting the lack of a base charger for this fine little radio so I posted a question about it on QRZ.com and was pointed by Mel KS2G in the direction of W & W Manufacturing Company of Hicksville NY, who make a range of replacement batteries and chargers for two-way radios and other devices. They offer battery packs for most amateur radios, including the Kenwood TH-F6A which is the US version of the TH-F7E and all of them are charged using a drop-in charger.

The company didn't respond to attempts to contact it via the contact form on its website, but Mel very kindly phoned and obtained an email address for a helpful lady named Flossie, with whom I placed my order.

It wasn't exactly cheap. Since the stock Kenwood battery doesn't have contacts for base charging I had to purchase a replacement battery as well as the charger unit. By the time I paid VAT and tax collection tax it came to half as much as the actual radio.

The new battery has a 2000mAH capacity compared to the 1500mAH of the standard version. The charger is a universal unit and takes plug-in "cups" for different radios, so if I ever sold the TH-F7E I could keep the charger and just buy a "cup" for whatever replaces it. I was a bit disappointed to discover that when placed in the charger the radio faces to the side rather than the front. It doesn't really matter, since you can't use the radio while it is in the charger, and perhaps they do that to discourage the temptation to switch it on. But it would look better if it faced the front.

Also supplied with the charger was a European 220V switched mode 24V 1A power adapter. I really didn't need that, and would have liked the option to save some cost by not having it. I haven't checked to see if it makes any of the usual switched mode warbly noises and broadband hash. I generally avoid switched mode power supplies at all cost. For batteries up to 7.2V which the TH-F7E is, the instruction sheet states that the charger will run from 15V so I am actually running it from my Diamond shack supply that powers my K3, which normally runs at about 14.2V. It worked fine, and charged the new battery in a couple of hours.

I am very pleased with this smart if rather expensive accessory, which will help me make the most of the TH-F7E by keeping it nicely charged up.

I just finished building this simple kit and thought others might like to know a bit about it. I had not heard about it myself until Bob W3BBO mentioned it in regard to a previous posting to this blog.

In short, it’s the best $15 I ever spent. Build time was an hour & that includes setting up the soldering iron, printing out the manual, etc. Although the video only shows 3 caps being tested, I have since tested about a dozen with equally impressive results. Repeatability from one measurement to the next for any give cap remains dead on, or for you Brits: spot on…

Since the annunciation of a value is audible (in Morse), I thought I’d make a quick video to more accurately demonstrate how it works and how it’s operated.

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Just seen the sunspot number - 51. Things are looking up. If anything, I think that the rate of improvement in sunspot activity is slightly ahead of predictions. Maybe we'll have a bumper cycle 24 peak after all. Only time will tell.

No Delegate fee is charged.

All Hams & SWLs are invited.

Contact Person : Mr. S.K.Vittal, VU2VIT

A few more people have been making the XBM80-2 transceiver. One is Alan Yates VK2ZAY who has made a de-luxe version with some refinements and additions. See it on his blog at http://www.vk2zay.net/article/238

After visiting the Winter Field Day operations last weekend the ops could certainly have used some hi-tech clothing. In –20C weather prevalent here in Ottawa and the actual temperatures measured at the winter field day site, this clothing would have been a boon to the operators’ endurance. I see Martin VA3SIE has been on another arctic trek with Roy VA3CKD operating portable yesterday during the Arizona ScQRPions QRP Club 2010 FYBO (Freeze Your B___s Off QRP contest). Temperatures and wind are always issues to be taken seriously in these northern climes.

Here’s an excerpt about this winter gear:

The heat is on

From the "why didn't I think of that" files, Mountain Hardwear (mountainhardwear.com/ardica) has just introduced the first pre-wired winter sportjacket that not only provides heat on demand but also powers and recharges your iPhone and other hand-held gadgets. Called the Refugium (for men) and Radiance (for women), these stylish, insulated jackets are designed to accommodate the optional Ardica Moshi power system to generate heat (up to 37 C) via integrated circuitry woven throughout the jacket. Toss in the $60 Tech Connector Kit for iPhones (or MP3 players, GPS units or cameras) and you're ready to rock 'n' talk while braving the Canadian winter.

Now I’m not sure if the power pack could be re-wired to power the KX1 or the FT-817 but I’m sure hams can find a way.

Links:

http://www.ardica.com/enabled/enabled.html

http://mountainhardwear.com/ardica

N0AR’S Winter QRP FYBO Shelter

I have been a subscriber to the Elecraft email reflector almost continuously since 1999 when I ordered my K2, and for most of that time have found it useful. But over the last few weeks I have come to the conclusion that the best thing the company could to do would be to close it.

The reflector has been a good forum for communication between Elecraft and its customers. But postings about the K3 have swamped postings about other Elecraft products, making it a frustrating forum for kit constructors. Now that the K3 has reached maturity there are very few useful suggestions for improvements to be made about it. Instead, most postings now seem to be nit-picking complaints, which often result in ill-tempered responses from others who feel there is nothing to complain about, which generate further ill-tempered replies suggesting that some people don't use their radios and don't even understand the problem.

The overall impression conveyed to any would-be K3 purchaser who subscribes to the reflector is that the K3 is a very flawed radio with some serious problems. That isn't how I see it. The K3 isn't a perfect radio but I don't think there is anything better around at the moment.

The obvious thing to do would be to unsubscribe. Except for the fact that the reflector is the only way to keep up to date with news from Elecraft. If you want to know about new firmware releases and what's in them, or know when new products like the P3 panadapter are ready to be released, the only way to get that information is to subscribe to the reflector. I have repeatedly suggested that Elecraft should create an "elecraft-announce" mailing list that contains only news from the company, and they have equally repeatedly ignored my suggestion.

Because the Elecraft reflector is an email list, every subscriber receives a copy of every posting, including every complaint, whinge, gripe and fanboy denial of the criticisms. This tempts everyone to have their say in topics regardless of whether their contribution is useful. Even if you resist the temptation to comment, reading of these "issues" sows seeds of doubt that perhaps there really is something wrong with the radio after all.

I think the reflector is turning into a public relations disaster for Elecraft that also serves to unnecessarily alarm its current and would-be customers. I think the best thing to do would be to put it out of its misery. But I doubt they will take my advice on this either. :)

17 Meters was open again this afternoon. I worked Eduardo CO8LY in Cuba. He was calling CQ DX and was way over S9. He sounded more like he was down the block; than all the way just south of Florida. Unfortunately, it was one of those "599 TNX" kind of QSOs. We have worked several times before; and I wanted Eduardo to know his signal was really carrying. I guess New Jersey wasn't the kind of DX he was looking for.

On the other hand, it looks like I am making some kind of progress with the PFR3A. I rewound T1 for the second time and re-installed with no improvement. So I decided that everything in the receiver circuit is probably pretty much just as it should be. That leaves the DDS.

With my trusty VOM and schematic in hand, I began to take some voltage measurements. I checked the 78L05 regulator; and everything seemed fine there. Then I went to check U10, the 812C35 chip. Lo and behold! No 3.5V at the positive leg of C35! This led me to believe of course, that U10 might be defective; or perhaps soldered in badly (it is one of the SMT devices).

So I went to the PFR3 Yahoo group and posted a question; as I was not really sure of the pin out configuration of this device:

Doing some troubleshooting as to why my receiver isn't working; I've come to believe there may be a problem with U10 (or a connection involving U10). I am currently not getting the 3.9V at the positive lead of C35 - only about .9V.

Now, bear with me for a second. If you look at U10, there are 4 solder connections - the "top" and then the three "bottom pins". Using my VOM to check for continuity, I get a short from the left most bottom pin to ground. I am getting a short from the right most pin to the positive lead of C35.

I am not getting a short from the middle lead to the cathode of D5, which I am assuming I should. Is the middle pin the input?

Tnx in advance,

Larry W2LJ

A few minutes later, I received a reply from none other than KD1JV himself:

The center pin of U10 is indeed the input and is connected to the metal tab on the top end of the part. In the PFR-3A, power to this pin comes from the +5V regulator. In the earlier 3 model, it comes from the raw DC via D5.

Your the second one to have a problem here. I wonder if the 50 Mhz clock chip is in upside down? If you look carefully at the silver box between the regulator and the AD9834 chip, you should see a little dot near the upper left corner. If it is in the lower right corner, it is in upside down and could be pulling the regulator output low, since it sounds like its trying to forward bias a diode.

KD1JV

Sure enough, the clock chip is indeed, upside down. I sent another e-mail to the list asking Steve for any recommendations in rectifying this. I have a feeling that I already know what this entails - and it's probably not going to be a simple fix. I do have some QuickChip hanging around somewhere in the shack to help me unsolder this chip.

Maybe there's some light at the end of the tunnel?

73 de Larry W2LJ

Just a few weeks ago, having played with the iBCNU application for APRS, I was thinking that Echolink would be a great application for the iPhone. I did a quick search and there wasn't anything there.

Chatting to Jerry, KD0BIK on Twitter this evening, he mentioned that an Echolink application for the iPhone had been released last Friday!

I downloaded it this evening (it's free!) and was delighted to find that I could connect to the GB3TD repeater along in Swindon - where I was able to surprise Rob, G4XUT with how I was connecting to the repeater.

So, I'm hoping that this will allow some QSO possibilities from the phone where I can't make an RF connection.

I'm catching up on hours including North American QSO Party, British Columbia QSO Party, and North American Sprint CW. What is the difference between winter and summer propagation in the northern hemisphere? Has anyone who is operating low power into sub-optimal antenna system(s) analyzed seasonal RadioSport results at the station?

Draft Analysis of Low Power Production Totals.
2007 NA Sprint CW Winter = 7
2007 NA Sprint CW Summer = 43
2008 NA Sprint CW Winter = 43
2008 NA Sprint CW Summer = 42
2009 NA Sprint CW Winter = 9
2009 NA Sprint CW Summer = 29
2010 NA Sprint CW Winter = 7

Total winter -Q production = 66 in the log.
Total summer -Q production = 114 in the log.

Average Winter -Q production = 16.5
Average Summer -Q production = 38

Winter frequency distribution is 43, 9, 7, 7 and summer distribution is 43, 42, and twenty nine. My first observation suggests summer propagation produced two times as many -Qs when compared against winter.

I'm also looking within groups and what factor(s) in the winter of 2008 spiked production total?

I observed an effect of gray line on 20m this weekend and the same phenomena occurred during the North American QSO Party. The band went silent shortly after gray line passed over the state of Texas. In fact, five of the seven -Qs in the 2010 NA Sprint CW log, were located in Texas as gray line approached and passed over.

A low power, low profile operator may consider the following 1.) Which band provides the best propagation opportunities given height of antenna in relationship to angle of received reflections, 2.) Where is my station located in relationship to skip zones and major metropolitan centers when comparing high/low angles of reflection in summer/winter and, 3.) What improvements can be implemented after comparing seasonal differences?

Subsequently, does a correlation between sub optimal antenna system(s) and seasonal propagation exist? Or is there a correlation between antenna system(s), seasonal propagation, and skip zones into major metropolitan areas?

I deployed my vertical this year whereas my doublet produced nearly the same winter totals across three bands in previous years. I operated 20m only for additional data harvesting this year with potential thunder storms in the local area.

73 from the shackadelic on the beach.

QTH: Inis Mor, Aran Islands, Co. Galway, IOTA: EU-006

EJ6DX will be used during the CQ WPX SSB contest in March 2010. Mike, UA1OMX is joining me on the trip. We are going to compete in the Multi-Single category this year. EJ6DX antenna setup will include 3 band yagi, HF2V for 40 and 80 and Inverted V for lower bands. QSL via RX3RC. More…

Update on 6W QSLs: Roman, RX3RC has replied to all QSL requests that he received directly. I am waiting for a batch of new cards to arrive in Dublin in February and will reply to all “directs” by the end of the month. QSLs received via the bureau will be replied to later this year.

I've been listening to competitors in the Black Sea Cup contest this evening. If you're one of those people competing, especially if you're in ITU zone 31, I've got a tip on how you can do better next year.

Shut the f%*& up and listen!

Seriously, I'm not an experienced contestor, but calling CQ contest, then waiting a maximum of two seconds for a reply is not going to get you many contacts. I timed most of the stations I heard and two seconds was the most that they were waiting, that's just long enough for me to hit the PTT and say Victor Kilo. By the time I finished and started listening again, they were half way through their CQs again. Those that were getting contacts were getting them maybe one out of ten CQs. God knows how many people were trying to call them and weren't getting through, I know I gave it a god try. Those that were getting contacts were getting mainly EU stations, or other stations in their area, ie, not the high scoring ones they'd like.

Now, I don't know if this is relevant or not, but 75% of the guilty stations had a nine in their callsigns. Yes, I did count them, I studied statistics at university last year as part of my science degree.

73 and good luck in the contest, Steve VK4VSP

A great local newspaper piece on Amateur Radio, Haiti support, and Harold Kramer, WJ1B. Check out the video, too.

We finished up the second and last day of our 2-day Ham Radio Technician License Class. The class ended with a VE test session, which was done by one of the local VE teams. We had 19 out of 21 students pass Element 2, qualifying them for a Technician Class License, for a 90% success [...]

another photoshoot.

Marie works as a waitress in a nearby Italian restaurant and from the minute I saw her, I knew she’d make a perfect model for an ongoing project of mine.

I’m always a bit leery of asking beautiful women to model for me because I know they must get asked that by every guy with a camera. I directed her to my website (no, not this one!) and told her to look it over and, if she liked what she saw, to give me a call.

After a few emails, we settled on a date and made the shoot this afternoon.

Tomorrow I’m going to build the LC meter kit from Jackson Harbor Press which I bought as a prelude to the FT80. It’s probably not necessary to measure and match the filter caps mentioned in the kit but any excuse to buy a piece of test gear will usually suffice, particularly when it only costs $15.

Here’s Marie, then back to radio for me, I swear…

 

 

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Got up this morning and checked VE3EN, Kevin’s SolarCycle24.com site and the sun is alive a well. Kevin has called them “popcorn” sunspots – they are popping up all over the north quadrant of the sun. There’s even an aurora watch for this evening and tomorrow. Here are a couple of images courtesy of SolarCycle24.com .

Kevin says:

“C-Class flare activity - C-Class flares are now taking place around rapidly growing Sunspot 1045. There is some polarity mixing within this region and there could be a chance for M-Class flares. Any earth directed CME's could trigger Geomagnetic Storming and Aurora.

Sunspots are now starting to pop up in many areas on the visible solar disk including a fast growing cluster which is now producing C-Class flares. This region will probably be numbered 1045 on Saturday.”

This spot will probably given number 1045 later today.

Dust off those 10 meter antennas – conditions are improving. 

Links:

Space Weather Prediction Center

SolarCycle24.com Daily Report

Scientists warn solar activity could hit London 2012 Olympic Games

Smart dust could give early warning of space storms

as snowstorms go .....

I woke up this morning to find that everything outside was covered with a white, puffy blanket of snow. From the second floor of the house, where our bedroom is, it looked worse than it turned out to be. I got dressed and headed outside to clean the cars off and shovel, so that my wife Marianne could leave for the hospital, where she is a dialysis nurse.

I took a yardstick out in the back yard, found a clear, undisturbed spot and measured only about three inches (7.5 cm) of snow. I'll take that any day compared to the 6-14 inches that they were predicting. Of course, it hasn't quite stopped yet, and unless heavier snow bands come through, I can see us only getting another inch or two, max.




Some friends that I have in Virginia, whom I keep in touch via Facebook (gasp! ..... yes, Facebook!) have informed me that they have gotten over 20 inches of heavy, wet snow. Last night, the meteorologists on the local news, were explaining that the reason the snow was delayed in our area is that our air was so relatively dry; and that radar showed that it was already snowing, but that the snow was actually not making it to the ground. And I guess they were right, because unlike Virginia, our snow was not heavy and wet, it was very light and powdery. It was really not that much of an effort to clear using the snow shovel. Of course, the toughest part was clearing out the end of the driveway, where the snow plows had left a wall of snow. But even that wasn't so bad compared to other snow events we have had.

Anyway, even though the snow is tapering off, I will not be participating in FYBO from outside. The winds are quite gusty (up to around 20-25 MPH) and there is a lot of blowing snow, which makes it difficult to see at times. Not an ideal situation. If it weren't for the winds, I'd have it not too bad, as the patio table is cleared off and would provide a nice operating platform. Instead, I will give up the X5 multiplier (it's only 25F outside) , for the X2 multiplier as it was 57 degrees down in the basement the last time I checked.

73 de Larry W2LJ

I had a good time operating in the FYBO contest today, even though I wasn't intrepid enough to do it from outdoors. As it was, it was only 57F in the shack at the start; and hovered around that temperature all day long +/- a degree here and there.

I was using the K2, which I disconnected from commercial power; and placed it on one of my 12V SLA batteries which I keep charged via a solar panel. At least I'll get to claim the "alternative power" bonus. The antenna was my ol' reliable G5RV. Here then, is my log (not long):

16o5 N4BP 20M FL 80F 5W
1618 AB9CA 20M AL 62F 5W
1626 KB0PCI 20M MN 72F 5W
1641 WA4GIR 40M NC 39F 3W
1746 W0RW 20M CO 30F 5W
1751 KX0R 20M CO 25F 5W
1929 N0AR 20M MN 20F 5W
1941 WA5BDU 20M AR 45F 5W
1949 N0EVH 20M MO 65F 5W
2005 WQ0RP 20M MN 26F 5W
2011 AJ4AY 20M AL 53F 5W
2106 KK6MC 20M NM 20F 5W
2111 N9AW 40M WI 22F 5W
2133 NQ7RP 20M AZ 50F 5W
2301 AE8M 40M OH 70F 5W
2309 KB4QQJ 80M NC 31F 5W
2313 NK8Q 80M PA 21F 1W
2319 K8RAT 80M OH 61F 5W
2322 W3BBO 80M PA 69F 5W
2329 WA8REI 80M MI 57F 5W

I very much envy Bob N4BP having to operate in a bone-chilling 80F! Mark NK8Q had an awesome 599+ signal into NJ from PA on only 1 Watt. Ken WA8REI was sitting in his unheated shack for a temperature of 57F - same as me, operating from my pretty much unheated basement. It was good to hear and work Jim KK6MC, the famed Dr. Megacycle from QRP-L fame. And I wonder if Paul W0RW was pedestrian mobile? He's known for operating with a radio in his backpack and vertical attached to the backpack frame.

In all, it was only 20 QSOs; and as you can see from the time jumps, I was either cruising the other bands or got busy doing other things. I did not sit for one uninterrupted lump of operating time.

Best DX? KH7Y Fred, in Hawaii at 2000 UTC on 17 Meters. He was sitting on frequency, running stations and he heard me on my first call. I always get a kick out of working Hawaii from New Jersey on 5 Watts.

73 de Larry W2LJ

PS: If you want to see a REAL, genuine, get-out-there-in-the-cold FYBO effort; take a look at Scott N0AR's summary in pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/11303376@N05/sets/72157623243064407/show/

I am sure we have all come across someone whose enthusiasm for a subject was so infectious it encouraged us to get more involved in that area.  It could have been a parent, friend, a club member or an elmer.  Well, if you have regularly listened to the Soldersmoke podcast you will found Bill Meara’s [...]

East of Mississippi Single Operator.

• N4OGW | 61 Qs | 39 Mults | 2,379 Points [ACG].
• W9RE | 59 Qs | 40 Mults | 2,360 Points [SMC].
• N4AF | 51 Qs | 38 Mults | 1,938 Points [PVRC].

n = 24 scores submitted in this division.

West of Mississippi Single Operator.

• WD0T (@KD0S) | 47 Qs | 34 Mults | 1,598 Points.
• K7SS | 45 Qs | 27 Mults | 1,215 Points [WWDXC].
• W0BH | 39 Qs | 30 Mults | 1,170 Points.

n = 16 scores submitted in this division.

NCCC Member (CA/NV) Single Operator.

• K6VVA | 47 Qs | 27 Mults | 1,269 Points.
• N6RO | 45 Qs | 28 Mults | 1,260 Points.
• N6ZFO | 42 Qs | 29 Mults | 1,218 Points.

n = 6 scores submitted in this division.

Congratulations Tor, N4OGW for leading the Alabama Contest Club to its top banner position this week!

73 from the shackadelic on the beach.

RadioSport USA | North American Sprint CW.
What works when snow is falling, the shack relaxation zone is heated, and a narrow band of ice is formed on the outside of the window? One can hear between the gaps of giant snowflakes or raindrops the sound of Morse code playing into the night.

North American RadioSport teams are preparing and competition between rival clubs spells a lot of ham radio fun going into Sprint night.

I'm scanning 20m at the moment logging -Qs anticipating Sprint action later this evening. Weather conditions along the Central Coast of California is wet with rain varying from heavy to moderate. Antenna lab is saturated however my 3-band vertical antenna stands in defiance. Noise generated by local storm system is minor.

Please review Sprint QSY rules especially after calling CQ or inheriting a frequency.

Pour on the CQ!

SFI = 78 | A-index = 1 | K-index = 3 | Sunspot Count is 22 @ 1811UTC.

In one of Dave Ingram K4TWJ’s last columns for CQ Magazine, he does a great write-up of AA1TJ’s Code Talker. Also mentioned in the article are well-known QRPers W1PID and W1REX.

CQ Magazine always has timely info and doesn’t seem to suffer from the months-long lag of other magazines – radio & otherwise – of having such lengthy lead times.

The same issue already has the Fort Tuthill 80 with a photo and brief description.

Dave will be missed by many. Whoever replaces him has some huge shoes to fill.

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It was a beautiful morning, the sun was shining from a cloudless blue sky and it felt warm, although the temperature was just above freezing. Olga and I decided to go to Keswick, which is one of my favourite places in the entire world, and where I'd live if property prices weren't astronomical. Though being a conservation area in a national park and surrounded by mountains it is probably one of the worst locations for ham radio imaginable.

I thought we would go for a stroll through the town and have a coffee and a look in the shops, which we did, but I also spent rather a lot of time standing around being bored while Olga looked at clothes. I loathe shopping, and would buy everything possible - including groceries - online if I could. If I decide I need something I generally purchase the first thing I see that will do the job. Olga has to examine every possible candidate and then agonizes over the decision for hours. Consequently we rarely buy anything for the house requiring a joint decision as I have usually lost interest in buying anything after my first couple of suggestions have been rejected.

In Keswick we saw very little evidence of any damage caused by the November floods - unlike the devastation that occurred in our home town Cockermouth. We walked down to the lake, where I took this picture using my phone, since I wasn't carrying the camera. The ducks and geese are very tame and you can walk right up to them. I'm sure they would take food from your hand if you had any.

Trying to do a small PCB for the XBM80-2 80m micro-transceiver using the Sprint Layout 4 PCB layout package I hit a problem: wanting to use a single sided PCB for low cost I did a groundplane fill. Then I wanted to connect certain pads to this. I cannot see how to do this! Several people have offered advice, but nothing seems to work: any attempt just results in a new clearance area being created. In the end I gave up and filled in the ground as another track and join it to the pads manually. The resultant draft PCB (1 inch square)  is shown here. I have not built it on a PCB yet, so this is only a suggestion. An SMT version could be half the size - i.e. VERY tiny indeed.

I finally bought a networkdrive to be used in my home network. My wife was complaining that all pictures were on the pc downstairs (my shackcomputer) and she want to see them also on the pc in the living room. Time to share the data. But I needed a NAS style disk, not just some [...]

Photograph 1 prior to this picture, Fred, KI6QDH and I deployed the antenna with reducer between upper and mid-section. The weight between sections caused sever structural loading that is the upper section pulled away from its mid-section reducer. We followed John Miller, K6MM's instructions calling for 24-inches of mid-section inserted into lower section thus resolving structural loading between mid- and upper section.

Photograph 2 with Fred, KI6QDH demonstrating wind loading in relationship to the vertical profile. Subsequently, the vertical will require some type of guying system with appropriate anchorage points. We are brainstorming the use of four cinder blocks in addition to a pulley system to hoist and secure antenna. An individual can safely deploy however the system really requires a team of two especially if power lines are within reach of the system. A winter storm with associated wind provided us with a worst case scenario without guying system.

Photograph 3 illustrates end cap configuration, the now removed mid-section to lower section reducers, and upper section to mid-section reducer. Structural integrity of the entire system was dramatically improved when inserting 24-inches of mid-section into the lower section.

The next step in our garage construction process is winding 1/2 inch spaced AWG#14 wire. Les Moxon, G6XN in his book, HF Antennas For All Locations, discussed radio frequency resistance of thin copper wires, the function of circumference, and the square root of the frequency.

Subsequently, thin wire like AWG#22 and upwards leads to increased resistance per half wavelength as suggested in Moxon figures 3.10 and 3.11 on page twenty six. One may consider AWG of wire prior to building their antenna system in relationship to system performance.

73 from the shackadelic on the beach.