Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Paul Evans, who notes that the July 2020 issue of Radio Rivista is available to view online or via a PDF download for free this month.
Click here to download the July 2020 issue of Radio Rivista (PDF).
Thank you for the tip, Paul!
Radio Waves: Stories Making Waves in the World of RadioBecause I keep my ear to the waves, as well as receive many tips from others who do the same, I find myself privy to radio-related stories that might interest SWLing Post readers. To that end: Welcome to the SWLing Post’s Radio Waves, a collection of links to interesting stories making waves in the world of radio. Enjoy!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributors Bill, Paul, Mike Terry and the Southgate ARC for the following tips:
Join the Elmers at DX Engineering and a host of Ham Radio luminaries on Saturday, July 25, 2020, for the first DXE Virtual Hamfest and DX Academy—two online events combined into a full day of fun, learning, and drawings for DX Engineering gift cards (must be registered and present on Zoom during the drawings to qualify).
Both events are free and open to all—click here to register. Once signed up, you will receive a link to access the events in real-time on the Zoom webinar platform, or you can watch live on the DX Engineering YouTube channel.[…]
CNN Business reports: Efforts to clean house at the US Agency for Global Media continued this week as leadership indicated that international journalists who work for Voice of America (VOA) will not have their visas extended and a widely respected top editor at Radio Free Asia was fired, explained three sources familiar with the decisions.
Under the new leadership of Michael Pack, who took the job as USAGM’s CEO last month, the organization which oversees US-funded broadcasters VOA and RFA among others has been thrust into a wide-ranging shakeup which appears to be politically motivated.
With indications that Pack is not going to allow visas to be extended for international VOA journalists in the US, there are dozens of journalists who could face retaliation if they are forced to return to their home countries.
Read the full CNN news story
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/10/media/usagm-voice-of-america-visas/index.html
On the windswept prairie east of Colorado Springs, in a ramshackle trailer plastered with maps and codes associated with every sector of the world, strange sounds are coming from a radio.
Static mixes with R2-D2-like beeps and bops. Don DuBon has a microphone in one hand while the other twirls a dial, searching.
“Alpha, foxtrot, zero, sierra,” he says, speaking into the void. “Alpha, foxtrot, zero, sierra…”
That’s the call sign for the Pikes Peak Radio Amateur Association, the group of enthusiasts who make this trailer their base.
Hams, as they’re also called, take special pride in their contact with each other across the globe. They keep log sheets. One here by DuBon shows contact made with a Chuck (call sign KI6HK) in California; a Jake (K4BOM) in England; a Brooks (K2CNN) in Alabama; and others in Uruguay, Brazil and New York.
DuBon, N6JRL, is looking for others.
“Spain,” he says, recognizing the call sign heard through the clutter. “That’s a station in Spain. … He’s got a bunch of people calling him.”
“It’s called a pile-up,” says Jim Bishop, KD0KQL, fellow club member and retiree. The two are now gray but engaged in something that makes them feel young, still boys with their radios.
The Pikes Peak Radio Amateur Association (PPRAA), counting a little more than 100 members mostly from generations past, is among an underground but bustling faction of American culture. Active call signs given by the Federal Communications Commission represent 0.25% of the U.S. population. In El Paso County, the ranks number about 3,500.[…]
Pirate radio operators continue to be a problem – particularly in major metropolitan areas. The week before last, the FCC resolved two long-pending cases against pirate operators through negotiated settlements. In one case, the FCC last year initially proposed a fine of $151,005 for the illegal operation. After examining the operator’s finances, the Bureau agreed to a $4,000 fine now, with a penalty of $75,000 should the operator violate the law again (see this decision against an operator called Radio Concorde). In the second case, the FCC had proposed a $453,015 fine last year, but agreed to take $5,000 now, with penalty of $225,000 if the operator violates the terms of the consent decree (see the decision dealing with operator Radio TeleBoston). Last year, we wrote here about the much larger fines initially proposed for these two operators.
In both cases, the FCC seemingly recognized reality in taking the small upfront payments now rather than trying to collect huge fines that likely were beyond the ability of the operators to pay. The FCC also required the surrender of the operator’s equipment and a commitment to stay away from pirate radio for 20 years or face much larger fines. The big fines initially imposed in these cases were set even before Congress enacted the PIRATE Act early this year. The new law allows for fines on illegal operators of $100,000 per day, up to a maximum total fine of $2,000,000. Even without the full effect of the PIRATE Act, these cases show the deterrent effect of these large fines.[…]
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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Frank (ON6UU), who shares the following guest post which expands upon his previous DB4020 article:
by Frank Lagaet (ON6UU)
After telling you all about the DB4020 SSB build I’m here with the CW part of the kit, let’s say this is part 2. At a certain moment Javier let me know the CW interface kit was ready for shipment and some week later it was delivered to my QTH.
Again, a well packed kit arrived in a brown envelope, components and boards well packed in bubblewrap. I found even a board I did not expect which can hold a push button, a switch and the connector for your morse key. Javier thinks of everything it seems!
Unpacking the bubblewrap gave me this result, all components in 2 bags. In the bigger bag another 2 bags with 2 printboards, one for the CW interface, one for the CW filter. Great !! Checking the material bill resulted in all components there, another thumbs up.
I started, of course, immediately building it because I wanted CW in the transceiver as soon as possible. I don’t do much in SSB mode anymore and I already started missing CW on the DB4020, so I started my KX3 to listen to while I was populating the boards. I never thought CW was going to have this impact on me! …. ..
I started building the CW interface, again starting with all small items. I soon saw that the 2 relays which need to be soldered in were ideal to protect all components when the board is upside down, so I soldered them in very quickly. I then soldered in all other components ending with the elco’s.
Next phase was the CW filter. This board is small and came together in a blink of an eye, no problems there, the long legs of the 3 and 4 pin headers went in last.
The following day, I made all wire connections and soldered a 13pin connector, leaving one pin out since I want to have the option to choose the width of the CW signal I’m listening to. By cutting the FL CW + pin and adding an additional switch, I have now 500Hz or 2400Hz. Great option, for very little effort and simple. Another thumbs up here.
Now it was simply a matter of inserting the sub boards in the main board and all should be working. And it did! Hurray! The 500Hz filter works perfectly, filtering away all above or below stations nearby my operating frequency.
This is the result of the soldering work, 2 small boards which need to be inserted in the main board:
The CW interface still needs the 13pin header of which I cut one pin and mounted a switch to have the 2400Hz width.
The IC you see in the middle of the CW interface is the KB2 keyer which gives you several functions like 4 memories and beacon mode. The 4 potmeters are used to set the level on 40 and 20 meters, to set the delay between TX and RX switchover and to set side tone monitor level. The keyer also provides functions as keyer mode A or B, straight key function and can be set for speeds between 1 and 50WPM. WPM speed can be set in 2 different ways. Handy!
Here a picture of the CW filter inserted on the main DB4020 board.
The CW interface is inserted at the side of the main board, notice the 2 wires which go to the switch to allow switch-over between 500 and 2400Hz.
(Wiring still needs to be cleaned up in this picture.)
Finally, the result: a good working multimode QRP transceiver with 2 bands. It should be possible to make close to medium range with it as well as DX, even with QRP power.
And while I was building I also made a new key for this radio, it is made out of a relay and cost nearly nothing, looks good doesn’t it ? hihi.
The key, when in practiced hands (fingers hi), can do 50 WPM without a problem. My friend HA3HK does without blinking an eye at 40WPM with this kind of key and tells me that he can go faster if needed. Me? I’m going it a bit slower.
As this radio is only using little power (0.4A in RX, 1 to 2A in TX depending the power you set it) I thought, let’s make a battery pack for the radio.
The first plan was installing it in the box. I did not do that because the batterypack is also powerful enough to feed my KX2 and other QRP transceivers. Since I can use it with all of them, a loose battery works out better for me.
I started with an old laptop which had a broken screen and some other malfunctions, but still had a good battery, although I needed the battery connector of course. A piece of wood to mount the connector on was my next goal. And since I still have another laptop using the same batteries, I can charge the battery without problems. Simple, but good and it weighs much less than a gel cell battery.
The battery provides me with 12.5V and some 5Ah. Enough to last for hours on RX and for sure good enough to activate 2 SOTA sites in one day. It doesn’t look great but works great– that is what matters and to test it was more then good. Next will be getting the battery pack in a nice box. Better to re-use stuff than throwing it away I’m thinking.
I need to do something about the cover of the OLED display, there is still some work there to make it look nicer.
Some video can be seen on YouTube :
Finallym I’d like to thank you all for reading my articles about the DB4020. I had big fun soldering, tinkering with the box, making the key, and batteryholder/batterypack. My Hungarian friend HA3HK told me it looks a bit like a spy radio. …. ..
I also include one more time the link where you’ll find this kit :
https://www.qrphamradiokits.com/
73 TU ee
Frank
ON6UU
Thank you so much, Frank. No doubt, you had a lot of fun putting this excellent little kit together.
Implementing a filter switch was a fantastic idea and, obviously, not terribly difficult to do.
Based on the videos, the DB4020 has a low noise floor and very good receiver characteristics. I’m impressed that the CW portion of the radios has so many features as well, such as a memory keyer and beacon mode.
I also love how you reused that 5Ah laptop battery! I think that could almost give you a full day of SOTA activations at those consumption levels!
Thanks again for sharing this with us, Frank! We look forward to your future articles!
Radio Waves: Stories Making Waves in the World of RadioBecause I keep my ear to the waves, as well as receive many tips from others who do the same, I find myself privy to radio-related stories that might interest SWLing Post readers. To that end: Welcome to the SWLing Post’s Radio Waves, a collection of links to interesting stories making waves in the world of radio. Enjoy!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributors Rich Smith, Kim Elliott, and Pete Eaton for the following tips:
The Maritime Mobile Service Net (MMSN) on 14.300 MHz came to the assistance of a sailing vessel on June 25. MMSN control operator Steven Carpenter, K9UA, took a call on 20 meters from Ian Cummings, KB4SG, the skipper of the Mystic Lady, then some 40 miles east of Florida. Cummings reported that his engine had failed as he was attempting to return to his home port of Stuart, Florida. He not only had insufficient wind, but a strong current was carrying the vessel out to sea.
Cummings had been unable to reach any station via his VHF marine radio, since he was too far from the coast. Assisting in the call was Robert Wynhoff, K5HUT, also an MMSN net control operator. Cummings said his vessel, with one passenger on board, was drifting northwest toward the South Carolina coast.
“A major concern was that the vessel was heading directly towards a lee shore,” the MMSN reported. “Lee shores are shallow, dangerous areas which are a hazard to watercraft. Vessels could be pushed into the shallow area by the wind, possibly running aground and breaking up.”
Carpenter contacted Cummings’ family, who had already called the Sea Tow marine towing service. Sea Tow advised Carpenter to tell the captain to head closer to shore by sailing west, if possible. Carpenter told Cummings that if he was unable to get nearer to shore, he would notify the US Coast Guard, which was already monitoring the situation.
As the MMSN reported, “The Mystic Lady was able to make some headway, but it was very slow. Members of the MMSN made additional calls via landline to the captain’s family as to the ongoing status of those on board. The family was concerned but relieved that communication was established and that all were well.”
Several hours later, the captain advised that the wind had picked up, allowing him to head close enough to shore for Sea Tow to reach the vessel and take it back to port.
The Pacific Seafarers’ Net, which monitors 14.300 MHz from the West Coast after the MMSN secures at 0200 UTC, kept in touch with the Mystic Lady into the night while it was under tow.
The tired, grateful captain later messaged the net, “A million thanks to everyone last night who helped rescue us on 14.300. Everyone chipped in as we drifted north in the Gulf Stream 60 miles headed to a lee shore. The MMSN net control and several others stayed with us for hours, phoned people, and were immensely helpful. The situation on board was dangerous. We are now safely under tow home. You folks are amazing!”
In operation since 1968, the MMSN monitors 14.300 MHz 70 hours a week to assist vessels and others in need of assistance. — Thanks to MMSN Net Manager Jeff Savasta, KB4JKL[…]
From 1985 to 2017, I was an audience research analyst at the Voice of America. During that time I was preoccupied by the fact that the BBC World Service had a larger audience than VOA. VOA had a larger budget, so money was not the issue.
In audience surveys, I inserted a question asking those who listened to BBC more often than VOA: “why?” The answer provided most often was trustworthiness of the news.
I asked a listener from Burma (now known as Myanmar) why he thought BBC is considered more trustworthy than VOA. He replied that VOA is more closely connected to the U.S. government than BBC is to the U.K. government. I asked how he knows this. He responded that it’s because VOA says so every day.
He was referring to the “disclaimer” at the beginning of the editorials that, by the 1980s, were heard daily on VOA’s English broadcasts: “Next, an editorial reflecting the views of the United States government.”
The daily editorial was a requirement handed down by VOA’s parent U.S. Information Agency. The editorials are drafted by the VOA’s policy staff, sent to the State Department for approval and finally broadcast after a sometimes lengthy back and forth.
Michael Pack, the new CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, VOA’s present parent agency, is restoring the editorials to their previous prominence on VOA. In recent years, with diminished radio output, editorials were relegated to VOA’s little-viewed satellite television service and to a website separate from the main voanews.com. The revival of the editorials is a step in the repoliticization of VOA.[…]
Scientists associated with the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the University of Maryland, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and other institutions are offering a “bold prediction” on how Solar Cycle 25 will play out. In a paper, “Overlapping Magnetic Activity Cycles and the Sunspot Number: Forecasting Sunspot Cycle 25 Amplitude,” they assert that the next sunspot cycle will be of major proportions. The forecast stands in stark contrast to the consensus of forecasters who predict that the magnitude of the nascent Cycle 25 may not be much different from the current unremarkable solar cycle, which appears to have reach its low point.
“From the dawn of modern observational astronomy, sunspots have presented a challenge to understanding — their quasi-periodic variation in number, first noted 160 years ago, stimulates community-wide interest to this day,” the abstract points out. “A large number of techniques are able to explain the temporal landmarks, (geometric) shape, and amplitude of sunspot ‘cycles,’ however, forecasting these features accurately in advance remains elusive.”
Monthly sunspot numbers since 1749. The data values are represented by dots, and the 12-month running average values are illustrated as a red shaded area. Vertical blue dashed lines signify the magnetic activity cycle termination times that trigger the rapid growth of sunspot activity.
The paper notes that recent studies have illustrated a relationship between the sun’s 22-year Hale magnetic cycle and the production of sunspot cycle landmarks and patterns, but not the amplitude of the cycle.
“Using discrete Hilbert transforms on 270 years of monthly sunspot numbers to robustly identify the so-called ‘termination’ events — landmarks marking the start and end of sunspot and magnetic activity cycles — we extract a relationship between the temporal spacing of terminators and the magnitude of sunspot cycles,” the abstract explains. “Given this relationship and our prediction of a terminator event in 2020, we deduce that Sunspot Cycle 25 will have a magnitude that rivals the top few since records began. This outcome would be in stark contrast to the community consensus estimate of Sunspot Cycle 25 magnitude.”[…]
Software-defined radio and cheap hardware are shaking up a hobby long associated with engineering
Will the amateur airwaves fall silent? Since the dawn of radio, amateur operators—hams—have transmitted on tenaciously guarded slices of spectrum. Electronic engineering has benefited tremendously from their activity, from the level of the individual engineer to the entire field. But the rise of the Internet in the 1990s, with its ability to easily connect billions of people, captured the attention of many potential hams. Now, with time taking its toll on the ranks of operators, new technologies offer opportunities to revitalize amateur radio, even if in a form that previous generations might not recognize.
The number of U.S. amateur licenses has held at an anemic 1 percent annual growth for the past few years, with about 7,000 new licensees added every year for a total of 755,430 in 2018. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission doesn’t track demographic data of operators, but anecdotally, white men in their 60s and 70s make up much of the population. As these baby boomers age out, the fear is that there are too few young people to sustain the hobby.
“It’s the $60,000 question: How do we get the kids involved?” says Howard Michel, former CEO of the American Radio Relay League (ARRL). (Since speaking with IEEE Spectrum, Michel has left the ARRL. A permanent replacement has not yet been appointed.)
This question of how to attract younger operators also reveals deep divides in the ham community about the future of amateur radio. Like any large population, ham enthusiasts are no monolith; their opinions and outlooks on the decades to come vary widely. And emerging digital technologies are exacerbating these divides: Some hams see them as the future of amateur radio, while others grouse that they are eviscerating some of the best things about it.[…]
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Many thanks to Apache Labs who share the following announcement:
Sneak peek at the Andromeda 100W Transceiver……
10th GEN Intel 6 Core i7, 7 inch built in touch screen and an option to add up to two External HD Monitors.
Windows 10 Powerful PC and an Ultra High performance 100W SDR with PureSignal Goodness in a single compact Box!
Run FT8 and other Digital Modes out of the box!
Coming Soon!
We will post more information about the Andromeda transceiver when we have solid details.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Franco Venturi (K4VZ), who writes:
I just found out that the podcast ‘QSO today’ has organized a ‘Virtual Ham Expo’ (https://www.qsotodayhamexpo.com/).
The current list of speakers and their topics looks interesting (click here to read), and I thought you and other readers of the SWLing Post might be interested as well.
Thank you so much for the tip, Franco. I’ve been meaning to post an announcement about this online event. It seems to have attracted a lot of vendors and at least early bird registration for the show is free. Vendors do pay fees to host virtual booths at the events.
There are a number of great presentations in the line-up, so I would highly encourage readers to check out the presentation schedule and register for the expo.
Click here to register for the 2020 QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo!
Although I’ve been rather busy the past few days, I have managed to fit in a little radio time.
On Wednesday, I spent part of the day doing the RAC (Radio Amateurs of Canada) Contest to celebrate Canada Day. My simple goal in mind was to work as many provinces as I could. Although I only made a total of 25 contacts, I managed to work the ten provinces along the Canada/US border (including Newfoundland and PEI).
During the RAC event I heard pileups for the 13 Colonies Event which is held each year in conjunction with the 4th of July weekend. I like this event because it’s accessible yet challenging.
Yesterday morning, I decided to start collecting colonies. By the end of the day, I made a “Clean Sweep” of all of the colonies and even worked one of the “bonus” stations (WM3PEN). Over the next couple of days, I’l try to snag the other bonus station, GB13COL.
As you can see by my log sheet, I had to employ three different modes to snag all of these in short order:
I’m not a contester by any stretch of the imagination, but I was able to snag these stations within 12 hours without sitting in front of the radio the whole day. I simply checked the DX Cluster from time-to-time and pounced when the path was favorable. (All of my CW contacts were QRP, too.)
What’s so great about the 13 Colonies Event is that they strongly encourage SWLs to participate! From the 13 Colonies website:
ATTENTION SWLs: All Short Wave listeners (SWL). You will also qualify for the certificate. Follow the instructions on the Certificates page when you submit your log. A special SWL logo will be affixed to the certificate for you. One or all 13 stations logged qualifies you. Just log ALL of the 13 Colony states and you can get a complete set of custom special event QSL cards also! All 13 are different. QSL requests to be made to each individual Colony State Station with an SASE. Consider becoming a HAM too! 🙂
Look at all the fun we are having! (NASWA members-watch for us in your monthly journal publication).
All you need to participate is a radio with a BFO or SSB mode. Even a portable radio can easily handle this as most event stations are easy to hear throughout North America.
If you live outside North America or you don’t have a radio with SSB capabilities, consider participating via a KiwiSDR site. There’s certainly nothing wrong with this as I heard a number of remote ham radio operators working stations yesterday. If you choose to use the WebSDR/KiwiSDR route, I would personally stick with one geographic location for the entire event and declare the receiver location/url on your log sheet.
The event takes place July 1, 2020-1300 UTC to July 8, 2020-0400 UTC, so you still have plenty of time!.
Click here to read more at the 13 Colonies Event website and request a certificate.
Please comment if you plan to take part in the event or have in the past!
