Category Archives: Ham Radio

Possible First 2200-Meter Transatlantic Ham Radio Contact

(Source: ARRL News via Mike Hansgen)

In late March, Paul Kelley, N1BUG, of Milo, Maine, completed what may have been the first transatlantic 2200-meter contact by a US radio amateur under Amateur Radio rules. Signals in this part of the spectrum and lower previously have spanned the Atlantic in one direction, and Canadian radio amateurs have reported transatlantic contacts on the band dating back several years.

“To the best of my knowledge this is the first transatlantic two-way QSO from the US on 2200 meters under Part 97 operation,” said Kelley, who told ARRL that he gravitates toward the more challenging, “weak-signal” aspects of Amateur Radio and has been experimenting and DXing for 37 years now.

“2200 meters is my new passion, and I am having a lot of fun with it!” he said. I had been dreaming of — and working toward — a transatlantic QSO on 2200 meters for some time. Recently, I asked Chris Wilson, 2E0ILY, if he would be interested in trying to work me on DFCW60 mode. Chris and I have heard each other on WSPR, but he does not hear me well enough yet for a JT9 or other digital QSO. Chris agreed to try DFCW60 — dual-frequency CW, 60 second dit length.”

This was not a quick contact. It took four nights to complete, using night-by-night sequencing. Kelley called that “the minimum possible time” for such a contact, which included an exchange of complete call signs, signal reports, and acknowledgements. Kelley said they used the TMOR reporting system, borrowed from the moonbounce world.

“The QSO was completed at 0020 UTC March 28 when I received ‘R’ from Chris,” Kelley said.[…]

Click here to read the full article on the ARRN News site.

Dave launches the WIRES-X SWL Receiver Net: Test run this week!

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dave Zantow (N9EWO), who follows up after his post last week about a possible SWL Net via the Yaesu WIRES-X network. Dave’s making the net a reality–here are the details:

YAESU “WIRES-X” SWL – RX Net : Right now considering once a month on the FIRST Thursday at 7 PM CDT (8 PM EDT or 0000 UTC Friday) but only if enough activity / check-ins happen. (Updated : April 02)

TEST NET : Thursday April 05, 2018 at 7:00 PM CDT (8 PM EDT. 0000 UTC Friday)
NODE : 30778
ROOM : 40778
Marked as “Dave’s Radio Receiver Page”

Many thanks, Dave, for organizing this!

Post Readers: If you’re interested in this SWL net, please follow updates on Dave’s website.

Video: Professor Joe Taylor K1JT talks FT-8 and WSJT-X

The ISS will be sending SSTV in April

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(Source: ARRL via Eric McFadden, WD8RIF)

Space Station’s Slow-Scan Television System to be Active in April

The Amateur Radio Slow-Scan Television (SSTV) system on the International Space Station (ISS) is expected to be active in April on 145.800 MHz (FM). The Russian segment’s MAI 75 SSTV has announced transmissions on Monday, April 2, 1505 – 1830 UTC, and on Tuesday, April 3, 1415 – 1840 UTC.

“Reviewing the crew schedule, the SSTV activity, which uses Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) radios, was coordinated around ARISS school contacts and is listed for April 2 and April 3,” said NASA ISS Ham Project Coordinator Kenneth Ransom, N5VHO.

The SSTV system, which uses the call sign RS0ISS, is also expected to be active from April 11 – 14 worldwide to mark Cosmonautics Day in Russia on April 12. Specific transmission times are not yet available. Images on all dates will be related to the Soviet Union’s Interkosmos cooperative space ventures project.

SSTV images will be transmitted in PD-120 format on 145.800 MHz (FM) using the Kenwood TM-D710 transceiver in the ISS Russian Service Module. ISS transmissions use the 5-kHz deviation FM standard. It’s possible to receive SSTV transmissions with only a handheld transceiver and appropriate SSTV software[…]

Click here to read the full article on the ARRL website.

The HF Voyager: Make contact with an “autonomous ocean-going drone”

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The HF Voyager (Source: JRF Amateur Radio Club)

(Source: Southgate ARC)

David, AA6YQ, author of DXLab – ‘Better DXing Through (Free) Software’, posted the following: ‘Jupiter Research Foundation Amateur Radio Club (JRFARC) has integrated an HF transceiver with an autonomous ocean-going drone. Our mission is to deploy a ham radio station that roams the world’s oceans while providing an opportunity for amateur radio operators everywhere to make contacts with rare locations.’

“We sent this new Voyager out to the open ocean on its way to California on January 15th, 2018 as a passenger on the JRF HUMPACs mission. As they search for ‘missing’ humpback whales, JRF’s pilots will guide HF Voyager to sections of the Equatorial North Pacific that are not normally available to ham operators. The station will use FT8 and PSK-31 on the 20 meter band as its primary operating modes. You may also find it using WSPR in times of poor propagation.”

See http://www.jrfarc.org/hf-voyager/

The portal in http://hfvportal.jrfarc.org/ takes a minute or two to display data.

The club plans to give a certificate of recognition to operators world-wide that have a confirmed contact with the HF Voyager. In the future we hope to collaborate with Amateur Radio organizations and publishers to sponsor operating events and contests for HF Voyager contact milestones.

Gridsquare collectors, maritime operating fans, Islands on the Air participants, and all other hams interested in this unique opportunity to make a contact with an autonomous roving maritime station should find this to be an exciting new aspect of their favorite hobby.

Be sure to check out our HF Voyager Blog for updates and schedules:
http://www.jrfarc.org/hf-voyager-updates

I think this is a pretty fascinating project–especially if the system can withstand the rigors of ocean travel and can be tracked and picked up later for replacement and upgrades.

I had never spent much time on the HF digital modes until last year when I caught the FT8 bug. While FT8 lacks some of the social nuances of, say SSB voice and CW, it is a fascinating mode that seems to defy HF propagation rules. It’s certainly an accessible way to work HF stations across the globe with a very modest setup. I think it’s an ideal pairing for a project like the HF Voyager.

Even if you don’t have a ham radio license, with an HF receiver and a free PC application, you can receive/decode FT8 contacts from across the globe.

Vintage Radio: How to read a logging scale

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Charlie Liberto (W4MEC) for the following guest post:

Vintage receiver frequency counter…sort of

by Charlie Liberto (W4MEC)

You probably know what a log book is, and maybe a logarithm, but do you know what a ‘Logging Scale’ was meant for? If you are a modern SWL’er, and have a receiver built in the last 40 years or so, you probably don’t have that mysterious 0 to 100 range on your dial, as shown at the top of the picture of the Hallicrafters S20-R main dial, and you may not have a dial at all, peering without question at a digital display of your received frequency.

The Logging Scale on older and vintage receivers had two functions: to let you find a station you might be looking for, when you knew the frequency it would be on, and to determine the frequency of a station, but you had to have known references. How to do that on those old scales that may have had 50 kHz or even 500 kHz hash marks between whole Megahertz numbers, or in that era, KC or MC numbers? The process is fairly straight forward, but did require you to know the operating frequency of at least 2 stations on the band of interest, and the closer they were to the mystery frequency, the better.

Let’s say you are looking for WLMN that is supposed to begin its operation day on 6025 kHz. and your receiver has a mark every 250 kHz between 5 and 7 MHz, that’s pretty iffy as to setting the dial. Now, you know that station WABC is on 5500 kHz, and station GXYZ is on 6525 kHz, so, tuning in WABC you note what number the pointer on the dial is over on the logging scale, maybe it is 40. Then you tune to GXYZ and you find it on 70 on the logging scale. The known difference in frequency between WABC at 5500 kHz and GXYZ at 6525 is 1025 kHz, and the logging scale number difference is 40 to 70 or 30 divisions. Take the 1025 kHz separating your two known stations, divided by the 30 logging scale divisions and you get 34.167 kHz per division. Some more math, the station you are looking for, WLMN is on 6025 kHz, which is 525 kHz away from WABC at 5500 kHz., divide 525 kHz by the logging scale frequency versus division number of 34.167 kHz which equals approximately 16. Take that 16, add it to WABC logging scale number of 40, and you should expect to hear WLMN on logging scale 56 on the dial.

Of course you can flip this process around. If you heard WLMN, but did not know it’s frequency, the same procedure worked backwards to interpolate the logging scale 56 into kHz, added to the WABC frequency/log number, or subtracted from GXYZ numbers, and you would figure out WLMN was on 6025 kHz.

What did this process do? It ‘calibrated’ your receiver dial to known checkpoints by using known frequencies of stations, such that you had a better idea of where you were frequency wise, but it did have it’s limitations. Older receiver dials usually had the lower frequencies divisions of a band close together, and as you tuned to higher frequencies on the same band, hash marks for frequencies got farther apart, while the logging scale stayed linear. This was because builders used the simpler straight line capacitance variable capacitor for tuning, instead of the straightline wavelength or straight line frequency style which would have made the dial more linear. If you used two stations on the low end to set a logging scale reference, chances are it will be quite a bit off in the frequency versus logging scale number on the high end of the dial. So, if you could find two stations that bracketed the one you were examining, that would assure the most accuracy.

After all that, you are probably saying thank God and a lot of engineers for a digital readout.

Thank you, Charlie, for an excellent tutorial and example of using dial logging. I’ve had a number of vintage radios over the years with logging scales and it took some digging to discover how they worked. While digital radios make the process as easy as pie, vintage radios are worth the extra effort!

ARRL Requests HF Privileges for Technician Licensees

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(Source: ARRL via Ron)

ARRL has asked the FCC to expand HF privileges for Technician licensees to include limited phone privileges on 75, 40, and 15 meters, plus RTTY and digital mode privileges on 80, 40, 15, and 10 meters. The FCC has not yet invited public comment on the proposals, which stem from recommendations put forth by the ARRL Board of Directors’ Entry-Level License Committee, which explored various initiatives and gauged member opinions in 2016 and 2017.

“This action will enhance the available license operating privileges in what has become the principal entry-level license class in the Amateur Service,” ARRL said in its Petition. “It will attract more newcomers to Amateur Radio, it will result in increased retention of licensees who hold Technician Class licenses, and it will provide an improved incentive for entry-level licensees to increase technical self-training and pursue higher license class achievement and development of communications skills.”

Specifically, ARRL proposes to provide Technician licensees, present and future, with phone privileges at 3.900 to 4.000 MHz, 7.225 to 7.300 MHz, and 21.350 to 21.450 MHz, plus RTTY and digital privileges in current Technician allocations on 80, 40, 15, and 10 meters.[…]

Click here to read the full article via the ARRL.