WTF?

After a highly productive hour on 15m this afternoon, I turned to some SSB 'CQ'ing on 14MHz.

Hmm!  Something odd.  When I transmitted, I could hear some splatter, a bit like adjacent channel QRM coming through the FT-450's internal speaker!

What on earth was this?  When I pressed transmit and didn't speak, the power output meter on the rig was going up and down, as though I was saying something, with the strange 'QRM' coming out the speaker again.

Arrgghh!!!

After a moment of wondering what was happening, I pulled out and replaced the microphone connector (I have a cheap, but very good Behringer studio mic on a boom, with a handheld PTT switch).  The same problem.  I then pulled out the jack plug that connects the microphone to the input/PTT socket.

That was it!  Seemed like the connection in that jack plug had gone a little dirty or lightly corroded, or just a weak physical connection somewhere.

Quite a few audio checks later, the problem had vanished - hopefully, for good!

A new one...

Again blowing the propagation models out of the water, I turned on the radio at 24MHz this lunchtime, to find D68CCC - a DXPedition at 8481km away in the Comoros - busy working a steady but not piled-up flow of stations, largely because not many are well-equipped for 12m operation.

A few ~50W SSB calls through the 3-ele LFA on 24.950MHz yielded a solid QSO and logbook entry.

Always nice to bag a new one!

WSPR: it's finished.

Up until recently, provided you avoided most weekends, operating WSPR without much interference from other modes was regularly possible.

Even when FT8 made its debut, WSPR could continue merrily without issue.

But, since FT4 has joined FT8, and with DXpeditions giving an apparent justification for people to transmit anything they like, wherever they like, and without consideration for any ongoing transmissions, things have deteriorated markedly.

20m has now become all but unusable for WSPR on many days of the week.  This may sound unimportant, but it isn't.  Many people want long time series of WSPR results to investigate daily, seasonal and geomagnetic influences on propagation.  Many of these effects are often only well-known to those who use WSPR regularly.  WSPR can be used by anybody, for free, and without any complex software or equipment.  Everybody, at some point, can potentially make use of WSPR.

I've now largely given up on WSPR surviving anything beyond a few months on 20m, before it becomes so interfered with that it is useless.

In my defence, I have tried to press KJ1T - who never responds, the RSGB, EURAO and so on to bring WSPR under the more protected parts of the bands, such as beacons.  EURAO, in its defence, has at least understood and covered the matter in its newsletters past.  Beacons, in their traditional guise, can be said, in the face of the freely-available and easily used by anyone WSPR, to be all but redundant. 

So I can't see any conflict with putting WSPR - which anyway only needs a tiny segment of each band - in the beacon section.  Can you?

I think I may well try one more time to get WSPR moved.  It's not easy, because many people, even in our representative societies, don't want to listen, mainly as there is no shiny contest award and press coverage to inflate their egos using WSPR.

Maybe you can help, too?

A humour break...

I quite liked this blogpost, currently doing the rounds on the web:

https://hamsignal.com/blog/universal-amateur-radio-laws

Sadly, I can't seem to enter my own laws, despite the invitation to do so.

Here are a few that occur to me:

(1) If you buy 'milspec' products, the seller will rarely actually have an official 'milspec' for that product.  When you buy it, it will disappoint.

(2) The wind will always destroy your antennas eventually.

(3) Your new rig will always have something that was better in your old rig.

(4) A soldering iron is no good in the field.  You need a full-scale butane/propane blow torch.

(5) Motor vehicle spade connectors are the most useful thing you can possibly own.

(6) Anything other than stainless steel is no good for physical antenna erection.

(7) As soon as you put the finishing touches to your ham station, a neighbour will install solar PV.

(8) Always having a mind to operating /P and/or /M will lead to less anger and tears when (7) inevitably happens.

(9) As soon as you put up an antenna, your neighbour will complain to the council.

(10) When out /P, people will ask you why you're fishing in a field of grass.



Any others?

Learning something new.

During a recent online exchange about WSPR operation, a new user, who I expected was using a WSPRlite TX unit, told me he was actually using a ZachTek unit.

Well, I had never heard of this before, so off I went to the internet, in search of details.

The Zachtek WSPR transmitter.  Image: Zachtek.

At $124, plus 25% EU tax, plus shipping from the US, this is not very cheap, maybe around 150 Euro, total.  The WSPRlite is only about 80 Euro.

But price isn't everything.  The Zachtek is superior to the WSPRlite in many important ways.

First, the Zachtek has on-board GPS, meaning that everything, including TX start time and Maidenhead positioning is derived from satellite data and fixed automatically.  As someone who regularly forgets to bring a mobile phone along into the field to provide that data, I can tell you this is a very important benefit, over and above the WSPRlite.

Also rather more sensible is the Zachtek's output of around 300mW, compared to WSPRlite's maximum of 200mW.  Whilst even very much lower powers are often interesting to test, 300mW will generally give the kind of reliable, DX coverage many are looking for.

The other benefit, so far as I can see, is that the ZachTek already has in-built low pass filters.  The WSPRlite doesn't need filters for the 20m and 30m bands, but for all others, it does.  This is more expense (about 30 Euro), more connections, and a generally more unwieldy and rather fragile thing to deploy in the field.

So, altogether, the Zachtek seems to be a much more capable and convenient alternative to the WSPRlite.  I don't know anything about its reliability in the kind of tough environments one tends to deploy WSPR transmitters.  What I can say is that I've had two WSPRlites fail after about 18 months' use, which seems to be related to moderately cold weather use, even when otherwise protected from the elements.  That isn't great, really.

Zachtek also make a WSPR receiver, but I can't really see its advantage, over and above a much more general coverage SDR receiver, which will provide much more interest to the owner.  The one thing that's needed, really, is a field WSPR receiver that doesn't need an associated laptop, which use a lot of power and are expensive, with an on board connection to the mobile network, so that spots can be reported live.  Either that, or on board storage, for later uploading of spots.

Rain, rain, rain...

Thanks to an almost stationary, lawrge low pressure system over SE Iceland waters, it has been extraordinarily rainy over much of the UK the past few days.

When it rains very heavily like this, I always see a modest reduction in the resonant frequency of my 20m vertical delta loop.  Normally, this only sees a small increase in SWR - or so I thought.

When connected to my IC-746, the SWR indication during wet weather is considerably higher than indicated by my FT-450 - up to 1.5:1 at the upper band edge of 14MHz (the antenna is designed for the lower end).  But it is also quite high at the lower end, maybe around 1.35:1.  These are not in any way 'bad', and indeed, compared to some antennas, they are good SWR figures.  My SARK-110 analyser confirmed the IC-746's account of what was happening.

I had a good look, in pouring rain, at what was going on.  Excessive capacitive coupling to hedges and trees?  Unlikely, as even with lots of growth, the overall density of plants isn't much different from previous years.  Water bridging the feedpoint?  Not a problem with other antennas; I dried and greased it - no change.  Feedpoint not properly located at the 1/4wave-0.06 wave point?  Measured and found it slightly off, adjusted - only a 0.04 SWR change.

Then I remembered some distant advice from the early days: "twin feed can't pass through metal, go around sharp corners, or get wet".

I went to have another soaking, and found a modest length of twin feed sitting in standing water.  I pulled the whole line out of some weeds that had overgrown it over the years, and raised it off the ground, propped-up by bushes.

Any change?

Yep!  At 14.100MHz, the SWR is now 1.11:1.

So, whilst twin feed works fine in the wet, you antenna will be more consistent if you keep it off the ground, and out of puddles!

Five and a half years, and some SSB.

Are you fed up of FT8?  I mean, it's a great way to make a QSO, although I feel that I was making far more interesting DX contacts during the JT65A and JT9 era.  I also had more time to do something else in between transmissions, which was very useful!

But endlessly just racking-up QSOs for the sake of it, rarely looking operators up because they come and go so fast, it's just so unrewarding!

Remember what this is?

So, with some very strong signals on 15m FT8 yesterday, I suddenly remembered there was the potential to hear a human voice, higher up on the band.

So, I twiddled the FT-450 - now reaching five-and-a-half years of faultless daily service (it reached me as an immaculate, probably never-used second hand unit) - and sent a SSB 'CQ' on 21.275MHZ with about 60W peak into my monoband vertical delta loop.

Lo and behold!  A couple of strong US stations came back to me straight away.  The details went down on my diary, ready for later logging, just like the old days (i.e., a couple of years ago!)

I have to say that having a good QSO by SSB leaves one feeling much more satisfied, having learned about a fellow ham, their location, station and little details like the weather.  It serves the imagination so much better than the mindless digital handshakes that the digimodes ultimately are.  Voice takes the mind elsewhere in a way that digital doesn't, really.

But there you go.  At least we have the choice to use digimodes or voice, and that is a valuable thing.

Seeing double!

Conditions on 15m and 12m are quite good at the moment.  It's slightly windy today, so I turned my antenna into the southerly wind, and listened to what was going on in that direction.

5T5PA was busy at it again, with a very strong signal.

5T5PA, split in two...

But, I wonder if you have any explanation, dear reader, for the double signal, which continued for as long as I was listening - about 10 minutes?  It doesn't look like a propagation effect, as both signals are identical in characteristic.  I'm assuming it's some kind of software issue at the transmitting end, but not one I've ever seen before. [UPDATE: see comments, below, for the explanation]

Looking at general reception reports, I was amazed to see EA8BFK reporting me at +24dB!  That's probably the strongest report I've ever seen.

Incredible signal to the south!

Marconi Archive

Some time ago, I was interested in any documents or artefacts of Marconi's station at Cefn Du, near Caernarfon, North Wales.

A large archive of material from the Marconi era was handed over to the History of Science Museum, Oxford some years ago.  Someone who is a tour guide at Oxford wanted a 6m sked with me yesterday, and so he obviosuly reminded me of the Marconi material.

By now, the archive has been digitised such that you can spend a happy hour looking at high-resolution images of endless pieces of radio ephemera.

Start your browsing here: http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/marconi/collection/catalogue.php?invnum=12506&mode=large

Listening to me, far away, from home.

KPH is a very useful, permanently-listening KIWI-SDR receiver based in California.

Today, I looked up details about KPH, and had a quick listen to my own 14MHz, 1W signal being received 8221km away.

There I am, on the far left!

It's quite a strange experience to see your own signal received in real-time!  As I was fairly near the WSPR band edge, I could easily see which trace was mine.  As the decode progresses, it identifies each station by marker on the waterfall, as well as the usual text output.

Well worth reading about and listening-in with KPH, which you can do at http://radiomarine.org/

Hearing the ISS below the horizon?

I think I heard something odd yesterday, and would like others' input, if you listen to the ISS approach on 145.800MHz, FM.

Whilst I might expect to hear the ISS as soon as it clears the horizon - or even very slightly earlier on occasion, due to refraction and orbital effects, I wouldn't expect to hear it several minutes beforehand.

I observed this on two passes yesterday, each time a very weak signal being heard as the ISS crossed around 30 degrees north - when it was still well below the local horizon. The signal flickered weakly for a while, and then disappeared until the station became visible.

I don't know if it goes some way to explain it, but that is the tropical area where tropospheric propagation remains strong at this time of year. 

Has anybody noticed this before? 

ISS SSTV

Pretty good signals on two fairly low passes this afternoon, using the IC-746 and a simple SlimJim:

A small start...

Some time ago, I bought a Sandpiper Antennas 2m/70cm single feed Yagi, intended as a portable satellite antenna.

Although it's nicely made and robust, it isn't the easiest antenna to match properly.  Having had very good results with a simple SlimJim on 2m SSB over the weekend, I decided to spend an hour today pulling the 70cm elements off the Sandpiper Yagi, and getting a perfect match on 2m.

Eventually, I managed to get a good, flat SWR across the 2m band, down at 1.05:1 at 144.174MHz, the FT8 area.

The antenna isn't very high above local ground - only 3.5m - but we are already 100m up, with sloping ground all the way to the Irish Sea in the direction of the USA.

Beam direction of the USA.  A bigger antenna is required (possibly!)

I was surprised to find that HFTA terrain modelling yields 19.5dBi total gain at extremely low angles for this simple 3-ele Yagi.  That takes a modest 25W input into an effective 2.2kW output! 

If signals arrive at very low angles, I'm your station!

Mind your kilobicycles!

Well, I had to laugh.  The representative body of UK amateur radio, at arguably Britain's most important WW2 site - Bletchley Park - makes this remarkable blunder, posted 3/10/19 on their FB page:

Mind your decimal point (or unit multiplier)!

Last time I checked, 7KHz wasn't an amateur frequency.  A 'CQ' might be a long time attracting an answer...

Thoughts on the Brendan Prizes

With preparations here well under way to have a go at a 144MHz transatlantic QSO next summer, attention has turned recently to ensuring the rules are adhered to.

Overall, the Brendan Prizes rules are perfectly sensible and not overbearing.  But I was surprised at the difference in level of proof required, depending on whether or not a QSO is arranged.  If a 'random' QSO is made, then the level of proof, rather oddly, falls to less than that required for an organised campaign.   That doesn't seem, to me, to have any basis in reason.

The other area where one might benefit substantially more than receiving a silver plate or glass vase is, surprisingly, winning a defamation claim. 

Why? 

Well, imagine the kind of comments that will appear on social media and elsewhere from the disgruntled, disbelieving and disaffected under the procefure for making the QSO public:

'The Panel will make the claim public by providing details to the Amateur Radio press on both sides of the Atlantic, and invite relevant comments.  Any representation concerning the contact will be carefully considered before their decision is made.' [my emphasis]

IC-746 - a problem that wasn't!

Well, my heart sank yesterday as I connected up to the 2m slimjim atop my roof and tried to send FT8 with the new ICOM IC-746.

Nothing happened!

I tried to work through everything, but got nowhere.  The data transmission works perfectly on all bands except 144MHz - the very band I'd bought the 746 for!  If I manually pressed 'Transmit' on the front panel, the data went out just fine.  So it seemed to be a TX-trigger issue of some sort.

I could find no help on the internet, and so resorted to asking for help from ICOM in the UK.

Outstanding help from Icom.

I've specifically written this blogpost to highlight to others the incredible fact that ICOM actually phoned me back within 30 minutes of sending an enquiry to their servicing team.  How many companies bother to answer at all these days, let alone so quickly?

A very friendly technician told me it was simply a case of having a different transmit trigger line for VHF (the so-called 'HSEND' for HF, and 'VSEND' for VHF). 

With just one simple, free support callback for a second-hand rig, ICOM have shown themselves to be a rig maker worth taking very seriously in my next new purchase.  Take note, other makers!

Three others who must be thanked for kindly helping me when they might reasonably have just turned their eyes skyward at another fool asking for assistance were:

• Technofix, providers of just about any data/CAT cable you can imagine

• Neil, owner of low noise data interfaces and accessories at ZLP Electronics

• Sam Hayward at UK ham radio outlet, Radioworld

UPDATE:

I eventually found some useful information online, courtesy of N5KBP, Marty Duplissey.  My colleague PE4BAS rightly says there is pinout information in the manual (p.72), but I wanted to triple-check I wouldn't get it all wrong and damage the rig.  One thing to remember is that, when looking at the pinout diagrams, you are looking at the socket as it appears at the rear of the rig, not the plug you are trying to wire!

Here's what N5KBP kindly submitted, which may help others in future (or help me remember when I do it again!)

'All the audio goes through ACC1 regardless of band. Pin 4 is audio from computer to radio, Pin 5 is audio from radio to computer, pin 2 is ground and pin 3 is ground to transmit on HF. On ACC2 the only pin you will use is pin 6 for VHF ground to transmit.  All you need to do is to wire pin 6 on ACC2 in parallel with pin 3 on ACC1.   On my setup I built the ACC1 8 pin connection then just ran a single wire from pin 3 on it out to pin 6 on a 7 pin din plug for the ACC2 to enable transmit for VHF.  Basically get it going on HF then add the wire to ACC2 to enable VHF transmit.'

It turns out that it's quite difficult to solder another wire onto pin 3.  You need very thin gauge wire, first of all.  I found it a bit easier, although not ideal, to cut into the cable some way from the DIN connector, and take a tap from it.  Having not yet received my 7-pin DIN plug from E-bay, I couldn't wait and just fashioned a 'pin' from 1mm copper wire.

It got me going.  I replaced the wire with a proper DIN plug later.

This is my schematic for the connections:

Et, voila!  Works a dream!

First 24hr reception reports, with a fair few QSOs, too!

IC-746 arrives!

It's always a nice time when you get a new rig, even if it's a second-hand unit.

I had a nice hour's drive on a beautiful autumn's lunchtime to collect my IC-746 in person, a nice gesture from the e-bay seller.

As promised, the rig is indeed in 'mint' condition, showing no signs of use at all.  My trusty FT-450, also an e-bay purchase, was in a similarly good condition.

Some kind of order returns to the operating position.

Of course, with limited space for my equipment, I had to reconfigure and rewire a lot.  I also took the opportunity to vacuum rather an alarming amount of dust from around and within my FT-450!  A certain amount of woodwork was also needed to make everything work together.

The IC-746 is, I have to say, a lovely rig.  The sound coming from its internal speaker, or when passed to external speakers, is fantastic, and a huge improvement on the FT-450.  Rather luckily, as soon as I switched on, I heard a FP station calling by numbers, and managed to complete a SSB QSO easily with him - a new DX entity for me, though I'm surprised I've never heard from FP-land before.

Unfortunately, the 746 doesn't cover TX on 60m, but I'm not very often on that band anyway, and the FT-450 can easily be switched into action if needed.

No action on 2m - the reason for acquiring the 746 in the first place - as yet.  A decent Yagi is on the list of 'to buy' things, so I will certainly be ready by summer!