A group from the Low Land DXpedition Team are active in Luxembourg from Aug 30th through Sept 6th. I just worked LX/PA3EWP Ron on the LX-DXpedition, on 10.142.93 mhz 30m RTTY. It was an easy work with 50 watts into a non-resonant 40m sloper & tuner. They're on several bands and modes for the next few days, so it'll be fun trying to work them. They're using a new logging system powered by the CQFriends webserver.
Update: DX 10.104.04 LX/PA3EWP CW @ 2:02Z on 9/3/11. Nice sig into NC! Easy w/50w on 40m sloper & tuner
Update 2: DX 18083.04 LX/PA7FM . Worked on 80m Dipole w/tuner. Need to put up WARC antennas!
You can find out more about this DXpedition at www.CQFriends.com . See you on the bands!
Dave WB4IUY
www.WB4IUY.net
Showing posts with label amateur radio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label amateur radio. Show all posts
Friday, September 2, 2011
Saturday, June 11, 2011
BAD storm & June VHF Contest
Wow... while getting ready for the June VHF contest this weekend, we had one heck of an electrical storm tonight (Fri, June 10th). Multi-discharge lightning strikes all around us, some so close there was no delay between the flash of lightning, crack of the air, and the BOOM from the thunder. Thank goodness I had disconnected everything in the shack prior. The power was out for a while and we were running on our whole house generator.
It's now 1:30am June 11th. The storm has finally passed, leaving cooler temps and over 3" of rainfall behind. You can see my weather station online, along with the weather data archives from my location, at http://www.wb4iuy.net/wb4iuy5b.htm .
Have all of my gear reconnected, all antennas tested, and ready for the contest! You can see the rules for the test at http://www.arrl.org/june-vhf-qso-party . Hope to see you on the air on 6m or 2m during the test!
Dave WB4IUY
www.WB4IUY.net
It's now 1:30am June 11th. The storm has finally passed, leaving cooler temps and over 3" of rainfall behind. You can see my weather station online, along with the weather data archives from my location, at http://www.wb4iuy.net/wb4iuy5b.htm .
Have all of my gear reconnected, all antennas tested, and ready for the contest! You can see the rules for the test at http://www.arrl.org/june-vhf-qso-party . Hope to see you on the air on 6m or 2m during the test!
Dave WB4IUY
www.WB4IUY.net
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Fied Day bit in News & Observer 6/27
I just finished reading the piece on field day in the N&O this Sunday morning. While it's probably accurate about it's aging fan base (no huge influx of youngsters), I think it was a slap in the face for what ham radio is and does for the rest of the world, and the fact that there are entire organizations...thousands of people... trained and ready in the event they're needed in an emergency. The support function that ham radio has provided recently, just over this past year, with various disasters around the world was also completely missed. The WHOLE PURPOSE of Field Day is that of a training excercise seemed to have been overlooked as well.
My take on the N&O piece was the portrayal of ham radio as an old, noisy hobby enjoyed by a dwindling bunch of us with grey hair and using 2-3 story antennas that aren't wanted as a result of suburbanization.
Oh well, that's just my opinion. You can read it for yourself at:
http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/06/27/553625/for-a-day-radio-reigns-again.html
My take on the N&O piece was the portrayal of ham radio as an old, noisy hobby enjoyed by a dwindling bunch of us with grey hair and using 2-3 story antennas that aren't wanted as a result of suburbanization.
Oh well, that's just my opinion. You can read it for yourself at:
http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/06/27/553625/for-a-day-radio-reigns-again.html
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Lack of respect for "Windows" on different bands...
There are gentleman's agreements and suggestions by the ARRL for various "windows" to be used by certain modes or activities. These include things like the "DX Window" found on many bands, call frequencies like 50.125 on 6m, and mode windows like the PSK31 window and the AM window. Many of these "windows" have been around for decades and are well documented in practically every amateur radio publication and all across the internet.
To preface this...I collect vintage Amateur Radio gear. There are lots of people like me, who collect older amateur radio equipment, restore it, and enjoy operating it on occassion. Many of these old rigs are crystal controlled and have been locked to these frequencies for decades, especially since these frequencies were widely known as the frequencies to operate AM on. Most of these rigs operate on AM.
The "AM Windows" have been around since before I became a ham in 1974. One such example of windows are the two frequencies 3.880 & 3.885 mhz in the 75 meter band. There are only a handful of such frequencies in the entire HF portion of our allotted amateur radio spectrum. AM has a typical bandwidth of at least 6 khz, and most of the older receivers were designed to accept this bandwidth for proper reception and reproduction of transmitted audio.
I'm always amazed at the number of people who tune either just outside of the window (or right smack in the middle of the window!) and operate SSB. Their arguements are often "I don't hear the AM'ers" or "I was here first and _they_ can move". I guess either they don't understand the design of their own receiver including it's more narrow passband and ability to null carriers from the oppsite sideband, don't understand that many of the AM Vintage rigs can't move to another frequency, or they simply just don't care where the window is.
AM'ers, for the most part, stay in the windows to enjoy the company of other collectors, experimenters (many AM ops build and/or modify their own gear), and others with similar interests. There are lots of us...the numbers are quite large. There are publications, businesses, and even entire hamfests dedicated to this facet of the ham radio hobby. We don't _HAVE_ to stay in these tiny slivers of spectrum called the AM Windows, but we choose to do so out of respect for the other modes scattered across the bands (among other reasons). We can operate anywhere those of you who operate SSB can operate...but we don't. We keep to ourselves and try to minimize our interference to others by operating in these widely known and universally understood "AM Windows".
Imagine if all SSB operations were be herded into a few tiny slices of spectrum called "SSB Windows", while AM operations ran across the entire phone bands. Imagine if AM'ers decided to "take back" a fair amount of spectrum and began having AM contests, calling CQ, holding nets, etc on AM all across the phone bands with our wider signals. Now imagine if those of you who operate SSB actually behaved as most of us do and gave AM a little "elbow room" around the windows so your SSB signals (and many of them are quite wide as well!) didn't jam the few frequencies that we relegate our own selves to.
I started typing this on this Saturday morning while working (or rather, trying to) the AM Military net on 3.885. A group of hams in the southeast US constantly obliterates operations on 3.885 Am by operating on 3.888 LSB. Their lower sidebands splatter all the way down to below 3.880. One of the guys is regularly heard on a rants that he will jam AM anytime and anywhere he hears it, simply because _he_ doesn't like it. This happens all the time, and is a perfect example of what this blog is about: People who either don't know or don't care how their operations in and around the windows impacts a much larger group of people who are operating in a manner as to minimize their impact on everyone else.
Please folks...stay out of and away from (by few khz) the AM windows with your SSB signals, so AM'ers can also enjoy their favorite part this awesome hobby!
To preface this...I collect vintage Amateur Radio gear. There are lots of people like me, who collect older amateur radio equipment, restore it, and enjoy operating it on occassion. Many of these old rigs are crystal controlled and have been locked to these frequencies for decades, especially since these frequencies were widely known as the frequencies to operate AM on. Most of these rigs operate on AM.
The "AM Windows" have been around since before I became a ham in 1974. One such example of windows are the two frequencies 3.880 & 3.885 mhz in the 75 meter band. There are only a handful of such frequencies in the entire HF portion of our allotted amateur radio spectrum. AM has a typical bandwidth of at least 6 khz, and most of the older receivers were designed to accept this bandwidth for proper reception and reproduction of transmitted audio.
I'm always amazed at the number of people who tune either just outside of the window (or right smack in the middle of the window!) and operate SSB. Their arguements are often "I don't hear the AM'ers" or "I was here first and _they_ can move". I guess either they don't understand the design of their own receiver including it's more narrow passband and ability to null carriers from the oppsite sideband, don't understand that many of the AM Vintage rigs can't move to another frequency, or they simply just don't care where the window is.
AM'ers, for the most part, stay in the windows to enjoy the company of other collectors, experimenters (many AM ops build and/or modify their own gear), and others with similar interests. There are lots of us...the numbers are quite large. There are publications, businesses, and even entire hamfests dedicated to this facet of the ham radio hobby. We don't _HAVE_ to stay in these tiny slivers of spectrum called the AM Windows, but we choose to do so out of respect for the other modes scattered across the bands (among other reasons). We can operate anywhere those of you who operate SSB can operate...but we don't. We keep to ourselves and try to minimize our interference to others by operating in these widely known and universally understood "AM Windows".
Imagine if all SSB operations were be herded into a few tiny slices of spectrum called "SSB Windows", while AM operations ran across the entire phone bands. Imagine if AM'ers decided to "take back" a fair amount of spectrum and began having AM contests, calling CQ, holding nets, etc on AM all across the phone bands with our wider signals. Now imagine if those of you who operate SSB actually behaved as most of us do and gave AM a little "elbow room" around the windows so your SSB signals (and many of them are quite wide as well!) didn't jam the few frequencies that we relegate our own selves to.
I started typing this on this Saturday morning while working (or rather, trying to) the AM Military net on 3.885. A group of hams in the southeast US constantly obliterates operations on 3.885 Am by operating on 3.888 LSB. Their lower sidebands splatter all the way down to below 3.880. One of the guys is regularly heard on a rants that he will jam AM anytime and anywhere he hears it, simply because _he_ doesn't like it. This happens all the time, and is a perfect example of what this blog is about: People who either don't know or don't care how their operations in and around the windows impacts a much larger group of people who are operating in a manner as to minimize their impact on everyone else.
Please folks...stay out of and away from (by few khz) the AM windows with your SSB signals, so AM'ers can also enjoy their favorite part this awesome hobby!
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