Author Archives: Bob K0NR

This Spewed Out of the Internet #6

Posted on by

0511-0701-3118-0930Lots of interesting things spewing forth from the internet these days:

Jeff KE9V articulated a compelling vision of web-based (“cloud computing”) ham radio logging. This caused a lively discussion among some readers (read through the comments on Jeff’s blog). I found the idea interesting but I am inherently suspicious of the notion of “cloud computing”.  (“I give you all my information and trust that you’ll do the right thing with it.”) As I read through the comments, I realized that what interested me was the idea of having all these logging programs playing well together and with other applications such as Logbook of the World. Right now, this is mostly a pain. That seems to imply we need well-designed standards that define how the software interoperates, whether it exists on my PC or in the cloud.

Jeff also had a great post about narrow-minded thinking. Reminds me of my previous post about Religion and Ham Radio.

The Fi-Ni Report had a hilarious piece about a ham that puts a small VHF/UHF vertical on top of a 100-foot tower:  Ham Claims New Tower is Not Overcompensating.

On a more serious note, it seems that some folks are concerned that the proliferation of radio communications towers are killing off certain migratory birds. This is the first time I have run across this issue, which surprised me a bit. A little Googling Binging on the web finds quite a few articles about it. It seems that the birds fly into the towers or guy wires, especially at night.

I found this spoof of Apple by The Simpsons on You Tube. Pretty funny….unless you are an Apple Fan Boy.

Scot, K9JY, publically admits to buying an Apple computer. One of my daughters has also turned into a Mac fan. I tell her, “Sure, if you want the silly computer to just work, buy a Mac. If you want to dig in and learn all about configuring networks, troubleshooting software problems, understanding file formats and becoming a real computer user, then get a PC. If not Windows, then Linux.”

In case you haven’t heard, the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing is coming up on July 20th. There is a really cool site (http://www.wechoosethemoon.org/) that is recreating the events in real time (40 years later). Check it out. What a reminder that we can accomplish amazing things if we commit our hearts and minds to it!  Unfortunately, it is also a reminder that it is easy to sit on our butts for 40 years and not accomplish much in space.

73, Bob K0NR

Standard USB: Missed It By That Much

Posted on by

usb-cable-mini-bI’ve blogged in the past about the need for standardization, especially when it comes to computer cables and power adapters. I have been feeling quite good about the progress I have been making with my personal collection of electronic gizmos. I’ve noticed that most of them have lined up behind the idea of using a mini-USB (Universal Serial Bus) port for both power and data. Now how cool is that? Someday, I might be able to carry one USB cable and a AC adapter and have it handle all of my information-age cabling needs.

Then I got a surprise: I upgraded my personal mobile phone to an LG enV3. Great, it also has a little USB connector on it, so it will be compatible with my other devices. Bzzzt. Wrong!  It turns out that the enV 3 has a micro USB port which is about the same width but thinner than the mini USB. It seems that the USB Implementers Forum decided that the mini USB was just a bit too fat for slimmed down mobile phones and personal digital widgets. And the mobile phone industry has decided to standardize on this new slimmer connector.

Then I had to admit that I remember when the mobile phone guys announced this new standard. I just missed the fine point about mini vs micro. I thought we were already mini and micro enough!

I see now that the ham radio manufacturers cleverly avoided this whole mess, clinging to that industry giant, the old reliable RS-232 serial port! Their late adopter (never adopter?) behavior has saved them the agony of flipping the USB port.

On a similar note, Apple will apparently never move away from their proprietary iPod connector, so they have also shielded us from the pain and agony of using an affordable, standard connector.

I guess I need to go find a micro-USB to mini-USB adapter somewhere.  Like this one.

73, Bob K0NR

XE1MEX Satellite DXCC

Posted on by

dxcc-logoDuring this busy Field Day weekend, I received an email from Alex XE1MEX reporting that he has achieved DXCC via Satellite. This is quite an accomplishment since he made most (or all?) of the contacts via LEO satellites. It turns out that I have worked XE1MEX several times on the FM birds from home and from PJ4 (Bonaire) and HR3 (Honduras). Although I have not been on the OSCAR satellites lately, a few years ago it was a major focus of my ham radio activity…resulting in VUCC on Satellite. I made it a point to activate rare grids and countries whenever I could and it was tons of fun!

It is great to hear that Alex achieved his goal of DXCC. I really appreciate that he took the time to thank the hams that helped him get it done by activating the various countries. It brings back memories for me…maybe I should dust off that Arrow II antenna and go find an island to activate!

73, Bob K0NR

Dear friends,

Today, I am celebrating the submission of my application for my DXCC Satellite award !.
All of you made a great contribution to make my dream came true and I really appreciate your support to achieve one of my important goals as amateur satellite DX operator.

All of you were operating out of your home when we had our satellite contact. On most of the cases, I did not get any other contact with those DXCC entities afterwards; therefore without your cooperation I would be still far away of achieving my long awaited goal (almost 10 years working/confirming):

Ramón, XE1KK> HC8/XE1KK, KP2/W1RSV, PJ7/VE7RKK (and others…!)
Drew, KO4MA> FS/KO4MA, KG4MA, VP2EAG
Allen, N5AFV> VP2V/N5AFV, J79AFM (and others…!)
Bob, K0NR> PJ4/K0NR, HR3/KB0CY
Neil, VA7DX> 3DA0WC, 7P8NK
Yoshi, JF6BCC> T88IY, KH2GR
Vladi, LZ3XV> 5N0EVR
Rafael, XE1GRR> XF4DL
Dave, W2VV> VP5/W2VV
Wayne, W9AE> FG/W9AE
Jerry, K5OE> 9Y/K5OE
Neil, W6FOG> W6FOG/6Y5
Nori, JE1PLR> A22BP
Bill, N2COP> N2COP/C6A
Francisco, CT1EAT> CT3/CT1EAT
George, DU1KIR> DU1/GM4COK
Rolf, DK2ZF> EA6/DK2ZF
Wayne, N5WD> V31WD
John, N8QGC> N8QGC/VP9
Jean, F6CBC> FM/F6CBC
My appreciation too for the satellite operators of the DX-peditions:
GB4FUN, VP6DIA, TZ6RD, 5K0Z and K5D

THANK YOU VERY MUCH TO ALL OF YOU AND BEST 73 !!
Alex, XE1MEX

Summits On The Air Video

Posted on by

I’ve been thinking a bit about “Trail Friendly Radios” for VHF in preparing an article for QRP Quarterly. I came across this video about choosing radios for use in the Summits on the Air (SOTA) program. SOTA is a fun program from Europe that has found some interest in North America. The basic idea is an awards program that encourages operations from the various summits in a region. This has some similarity to the Colorado 14er Event and its associated awards.

Anyway, here is the video by Richard G3CWI:

This Spewed Out of the Internet #5

Posted on by

0511-0701-3118-0930Catching up on the fine material spewing out of the web. Remember, if it came from the internet it must be true.

Newsflash: The DTV transition has happened and the world has survived. It just doesn’t matter, because it is television. To quote Joey from Friends, “it is a moo point….a cow’s opinion.”

Brian Wood, W0DZ, has opened a ham radio store in Loveland, CO. Good luck with it, Brian.

The Fi-Ni Report says there is a movement to regulate the speed of Morse Code. Really funny. I am not sure who is writing this stuff but their mind is sufficiently warped….which I like.

Did you miss the ARRL June VHF QSO Party? It was a party. Excellent 6 Meter propagation from Colorado to most parts of North America.

In the What’s Up with That Department, Riley Hollingsworth K4ZDH is now on the QRZ staff. I guess qrz.com is serious about cleaning up its act….they brought in the enforcer. I am a fan of Riley’s and best of luck to qrz.com.

From the This is Stupid Department, I came across this blog posting about teaching Fortran as a programming language in college. This is totally nuts. Maybe criminal.

I’ve been trying out Verizon’s broadband internet service, using my tethered mobile phone. I have to say this is pretty sweet, even if it costs $50/month. I was looking for a way to get internet up at the cabin in the mountains. No DSL or cable there, so the choices are limited. The Verizon signal is acceptable (could be better) but actually seems more usable for data than voice. (I guess we are more tolerant of dropouts on data feeds than on voice.)

73, Bob K0NR

Flag Pole Radio Tower

Posted on by

img_23341I have gotten into the habit of taking photos of interesting radio sites. This all started as part of my general tendency to visit mountain summits to play ham radio. It turns out that for some reason, there are quite a few radio installations in high spots. Hmmm, imagine that.

So I started taking photos of the more interesting ones. One thing lead to another and I now have a photo collection of lots of different towers, antennas and radio sites. Fortunately, my spouse thinks this behavior is cute…other people find it a bit crazy.

So I am driving west on Highway 24 and I see this really big flag pole at Lake George, CO. It just doesn’t look quite right— a bit too fat. I drive closer to get a better look and, sure enough, it is really a cell site with an antenna disguised as a flag pole. (This is at the US Forest Service work camp. )

Clever design, I think.

73, Bob K0NR

Jeep Wrangler Radio Install

Posted on by

One of my toys these days is a Jeep Wrangler (TJ) which we use for playing in the mountains. I finally got around to installing some ham radio equipment in it a few weeks ago. I mostly wanted to have good old 2 Meter FM – the amateur radio utility mode – in the vehicle. These days, it makes sense to include 70 cm (440 MHz) as well.

img_2349
The Jeep Wrangler

The first priority was to pull the old AM/FM receiver and put in a new Sony CDX-GT430. Crutchfield supplied excellent installation instructions and soon I had the center portion of the Jeep dash pulled out and the receiver installed. This work gave me valuable experience in pulling the Jeep’s dashboard apart. Not surprisingly, the Wrangler disassembles quite nicely with just a few screws here and there and a handful of those snap-in-place trim fittings to undo.

img_2355
Sony AM/FM/CD Receiver installed

The next job was to get a dual-band Yaesu FT-7800R 2M/70 cm transceiver installed. This is a one-frequency-at-a-time dualbander, very easy to use with all the required FM features. Originally, I thought I would just bolt the unit down in a convenient spot and call it good. As I surveyed the Jeep, I realized that I could do much better using the detachable control head approach (using YSK-7800 separation kit). The control head was mounted to the main plastic piece that covers the center of the dash using a pair of angle brackets from the hardware store. The radio box went under the back seat… somewhat protected from weather when the top is down and definitely not in the lower part of the Jeep floor. With the hardtop off, a hard rain can cause a small lake to accumulate inside the Wrangler. (I know from experience.)

img_2354
Yaesu FT-7800R control head

The most challenging decision turned out to be what antenna to use and where to put it. Mobile antennas are always a trade off between radiating effectiveness, ease of installation and overhead clearance. The Wrangler has a removable hardtop, made of fiberglass. This presents two problems: the fiberglass makes for a lousy ground plane and there will be times when we go topless. So a roof mount was not looking very attractive. Another choice was on the spare tire mount, which hangs off the back of the vehicle.  I’ve seen a few installations like this that look good. It looked like a more complicated installation and I was not sure how well the antenna would radiate off the back of the vehicle.

img_2359
Side view of FT-7800 control head with microphone installed

In the end, I chose to mount a short dual-band antenna on the hood near the driver’s side, using an NMO-style mount with one of the L-shaped trunk mount brackets. This is not the best location for antenna efficiency but it would be “good enough” for most use. The antenna is a 1/4-wave on 2 Meters, about 19 inches long, also tunes to 70 cm. The low profile has the added advantage of not getting pounded down by tree branches on the back roads. And I can take the hard top off without changing the antenna configuration. Did you spot the antenna in the first photo?

img_2360
Dualband 2M/70 cm NMO antenna

The Jeep had a obvious rubber plug that I poked through to get the DC power and antenna connections through the engine firewall. Per the usual guidance from the transceiver manufacturer, I connected the power cable directly to the 12-volt battery (with fuses in line).  The antenna seems to pick up a bit of ignition noise due to the close proximity to the engine, but it is tolerable.

Off to the mountains to have fun.

73, Bob K0NR

Recovering from Hamcon Colorado

Posted on by

hamcon_logo_09It has been a few days since I left Hamcon Colorado at Estes Park, but the glow hasn’t worn off yet! What a great event!

Joyce K0JJW and I drove up to Estes on Thursday night so we could help with the final setup on Friday morning. Brian N5ZGT (ARRL Rocky Mountain Division Director) gave a fine keynote address on Friday night. This was followed by Harold Kramer WJ1B, COO of the ARRL. Harold gave a Powerpoint tour of ARRL headquarters, which I found interesting.

The real show started on Saturday with tons of excellent technical and operating forums. I admit to some bias here as I did a presentation on Test Equipment for Amateur Radio and did a team presentation on the Colorado 14er Event. I attended a presentation by Mike Higgins K6AER on Lightning Safety. Mike did a great job of explaining proper grounding of an amateur station based on his commercial experience. Virgil Leenerts W0INK talked about switching power supplies, also an interesting presentation. Mike Gruber W1MG (EMC Engineer at ARRL HQ) covered powerline noise…a topic that has gotten quite a bit of my attention lately. Mike (W1MG) and I (plus a handful Technical Specialists in the section) staffed the Doctor is IN booth, answering any and all questions from the convention attendees.  There were plenty of other forums that I could not attend based on other obligations but the feedback I heard was all positive. The only negative comment received was that we should have had a forum or two on contesting (valid feedback).

In between activities, I managed to chat with a number of hams I had not seen in quite a while. It is always good to connect up with old friends. W1AW/0 Special Event station was active…I did not get a chance to operate the station but I did make it a point to work them on 2 Meters with my HT.

We attended the banquet on Saturday night, also a great affair. Yes, it did go a little long but don’t they always? The breakfast on Sunday morning featured Gordon Harman W0RUN speaking about the Desecheo Island DXpedition. Gordon did a fine job mixing in a few tales from Peter I Island.

The attendance of Hamcon was 499, so the size pales in comparison to Dayton (duh). But I think the quality of the venue, the program and the people involved is far superior.

73, Bob

This Spewed Out of the Internet #4

Posted on by

0511-0701-3118-0930Things have gotten quite busy at work, which is why I haven’t posted anything recently. The spare time I have has gone towards getting ready for Hamcon Colorado, as I have signed up to do two presentations and a few other tasks. Here’s some items that are worth mentioning that spewed out of the internet.

I haven’t seen the new Star Trek movie yet but Saturday Night Live did a skit relating to it. Also, the classic Shatner “Get a Life” skit is out on youtube. Both of these can be viewed here.

Speaking of youtube, the Society for Geek Advancement (huh?) has a video that features all of your favorite geek celebrities. Is “Geek Celebrities” an oxymoron?

The FCC posted some recent enforcement letters concerning amateur radio cases. Go Laura Smith! Included in this list is a nastygram to the idiots at Xcel Energy which is having trouble tracking down power line noise problems in Northglenn, Colorado. As the ARRL section Technical Coordinator, I had some involvement in this incident — all I will say is that it’s difficult to tell whether Xcel is incompetent or just irresponsible. Hard to say.

Speaking of the FCC, they have really gotten caught with their pants down in their analysis and handling of Broadband over Powerline (BPL). Thanks to the ARRL for keeping after them and getting the suppressed FCC documents via the Freedom of Information Act. Here’s a good article about it from an non-ham-radio source, ars technica.

K3NG raised the question of whether it is possible to have a useful amateur radio web site without the trolls and misfits. It seems that qrz.com is attempting to rise to the challenge. Good for them.

I stopped by the DTV.gov site that has information concerning the migration to Digital TV in the US. I was surprised to find that they added quite a bit of detail about when TV stations are switching over. Also, they have an interactive map that gives you estimated TV signal strength in dBm at an arbitrary location.  (Yes, real live technical information !)

From the Amateur Radio Fun in the Mountains Department, there is a group planning to create a packet radio link that extends the length of the Appalachian Trail (The AT Golden Packet Annual Event).  Sounds like fun to me.

73, Bob K0NR

One More Hamcon Colorado Reminder

Posted on by

From: Steve Williams KØSRW <k0srw@earthlink.net>
Date: Tue, May 12, 2009 at 9:48 PM
Subject: [Committee] Email for your clubs!

HamCon Colorado 2009 kicks off in just over 2 weeks, May 29-31, 2009 in stunning Estes Park, Colorado. Estes Park is the gateway to one of our nation’s most treasured prizes, the incomparable Rocky Mountain
National Park.

Through May 14th, save $5 from the walk-in price!  Visit our on-line registration page at www.HamConColorado.org.  It’s easy, it’s fast and it’s secure!  While registering, be sure to sign up for our Saturday luncheon, our Saturday evening banquet, and our Sunday morning breakfast!  All three feature great food, superb friends, and
outstanding speakers!

Registration goes up $5 on May 15th.  And, on-line registration closes altogether on May 20th at 10 PM MDT.  You can always register at the event for only $20, but we won’t have any more luncheon, banquet or
breakfast seats available then.

Don’t miss out, register now!

We’re also pleased to announce our Grand Prize, an ICOM IC-706MKIIG with a remote kit!  If you registered before March 1st, 2009, you’re in our Early Bird Prize drawing for a brand new Yaesu FT-8900 with a
remote kit!  And, we’ve even got a Yaesu VX-7 as our Special Bonus Prize.

You won’t want to miss out on the more than 35 technical sessions covering just about every ham radio topic you can think of.  Check out the Conference Schedule page at www.HamConColorado.org for more information on these!

More prizes!  HamCon Colorado 2009 is delighted and grateful that more than 115 prizes have already been donated by a large cadre of wonderful manufacturers, vendors and organizations.  Take a look at
the Prize Donations page at www.HamConColorado.org.  Even if you’ve got bad luck, you’re bound to see it turn for the better at HamCon Colorado!

Visit with your favorite manufacturers, stores and clubs!  They’re all listed on our Exhibitors page at www.HamConColorado.org.

Need more?  Ok, stop by our Silent Auction where you’ll bid against each other for great radios from Yaesu:  an FT-950, an FT-857D, a VX-7R, and two FT-2800s!  These radios are completely factory refurbished, factory packed, and factory tested.  They come complete with a 90 day factory warranty.  You’ve not seen auction starting prices like the ones we’ll have on these beauties!  Cash and PayPal
only please!!!  This will be a lot of fun!

There’s even more:  a VE Session, and a massive W1AW/Ø operation (sponsored largely by ICOM and Heil Sound) where you’ll truly be on the other end of the pileups with some excellent equipment!  Try sending morse with your left foot in our hilarious QLF contest, and practice your skills in our dastardly CW Pileup contest, or our outdoor transmitter fox hunt.  If you’ve never been to an ARRL Wouff Hong ceremony, now is definitely the time!

There’s something for everyone at HamCon Colorado 2009, and we sure hope to see you in Estes Park, May 29-31, 2009!

73,

Steve Williams, KØSRW
k0srw@earthlink.net

This Spewed Out of the Internet #3

Posted on by

0511-0701-3118-0930Here’s some things I found spewing forth from the Internet:

When Charles Simonyi was operating amateur radio station NA1SS from the International Space Station (ISS), I was looking around for the right frequencies to use, including doppler shift. I came across a really good web site on contacting the ISS. Check it out if you are interested in the topic.

According to Amateur Radio Newsline, the Indy cops that got in trouble for using ham radio gear for tactical communication were using modified Yaesu FT-2800 2-Meter Transceivers. With these radios opened up, they can operate outside the ham band on adjacent VHF frequencies. According to ARNewsline:

Some conversations were heard in the VHF police bands, at the bottom of the 2-meter band and on frequencies assigned to the MURS radio service.

MURS stands for Mult-Use Radio Service, an unlicensed radio service defined by the FCC. There are 5 MURS channels available: 151.820, 151.880, 151.940, 154.570 and 154.600 MHz.  These unlicensed channels would be a convenient location to hang out without the potential of interfering with anything important. However, a modifed amateur radio transceiver is not certified for use per Part 95 of the FCC rules.

I have not found any other information on the VHF police frequencies being used. Some departments maintain their licensing for VHF channels after adopting the newer 800 MHz radios. Modified amateur radio equipment is not certified for use on police channels. It sounds like these police officers were also using the low end of the 2-meter ham band. Even if they are licensed, it would be an inappropriate use of the frequencies. And a dumb one….of course someone is going to hear them and figure out what is going on.

You may have heard about Stephen Colbert from the Colbert Report getting his viewers to vote for his name on the new ISS module. It seems that he got the most votes but NASA declined to name the module after him (like that was going to happen). They came up with the alternative of naming a treadmill after him….all in good fun. The video is available on the Comedy Central web site.

On the K3NG Report, there was a funny post about the demise of phone operation on the ham bands, which is caused by the lack of testing for phone operating skill during the licensing process.

On the KB6BU Ham Radio Blog, there is an interesting post about the HP-35 calculator…a classic electronic product and an elegant design. The IEEE named the HP-35 and Hewlett-Packard Company as the recipient of the Milestone in Electrical Engineering and Computing award.

73, Bob K0NR

Getting Ready for Summer!

Posted on by

hamAs I sit here looking out the window, I see snow piling up on the back deck. Yep, spring time in the Rockies with a winter snow warning on Easter. It seems like a good time to take a look at upcoming amateur radio events this summer.

Here’s my starter list, with a definite bias towards Colorado, VHF, mountaintopping and radio contests:

Hamcon Colorado ( AKA the ARRL Rocky Mountain Division Convention) in Estes Park – May 29-31.  This is a wonderful event that comes to Colorado once every three years. As the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park, Estes Park is a great vacation spot, so don’t miss it!

ARRL June VHF QSO Party This is The Big One for VHF activity – June 13-15. June usually has very good propagation on 50 MHz, so we’ll usually have a band opening or two on 6 Meters during the contest. If you are new to VHF contesting, see the article How to Work a VHF Contest.

ARRL Field Day– June 27-28. We are still not sure if this is a contest or not but the truth is you can make it whatever you want it to be! Arguably the most well-known and publicized amateur radio event. See my previous post.

CQ Worldwide VHF Contest – July 18-19. This is The Other VHF Contest during the summer, sponsored by CQ Magazine. This contest is gaining in popularity and is focused on the two most popular VHF bands: 6 Meters and 2 Meters.  Hey, CQ, if you want people to take this contest seriously update the web site with the 2009 rules!

The Colorado 14er Event – August 9.  Focused on operating from the summits of Colorado’s 14,000+ foot mountains, this is The Premier Mountaintop Radio Event.   Check out the web site for full details….if you aren’t up to the mountaintop operating, then set your goal on working as many summits as you can from a more convenient location. Join the ham14er yahoo group to discuss and learn about the event.

The Colorado QSO Party – Sept 5-6. This contest is a fun event that focuses on activating the various counties in Colorado. Consider setting up mobile or portable to activate a rare one or two!

73, Bob K0NR

2009 ARRL Rocky Mountain Division Convention

Posted on by

This item was in the ARRL Rocky Mountain Division Update (email newsletter):

===== 2009 Rocky Mountain Division Convention =====

About ONE month remains til the 2009 Rocky Mountain Division Convention
(May 29-31). Have you made plans to join close to 250 hams (and
growing) in beautiful Estes Park, Colorado...gateway to Rocky Mountain
National Park? Registration online and by mail is happening right now,
and special hotel rates have been negotiated for convention attendees.

Among the guest speakers: Harold Kraemer WJ1B (ARRL Chief Operating
Officer), Gordon Hardman W0RUN (2009 Desecheo Island DXpedition
participant and chief engineer of Alpha Radio Products), Mike Gruber
W1MG (ARRL EMC Engineer and contributor to "The Doctor Is IN" QST
column), Cheryl Muhr, N0WBV, YL columnist for WorldRadio Online
(formerly WorldRadio Magazine), Editor for YL-Harmonics the Young
Ladies' Radio League's (YLRL) Bi-monthly magazine, and Brian Mileshosky
N5ZGT (Director, ARRL Rocky Mountain Division).

Nearly 30 technical and non-technical forums, great meals, transmitter
hunts, special event station W1AW/0, and much more await you.  Not to
mention one heck of a time meeting and greeting hams from all over the
Division and country.  It'll be a great event with a very fitting
theme: "Amateur Radio: Resilient, Relevant, Ready"

The hotel, where the Convention is being held, is almost at
full-capacity, so reserve your room soon!

Please mark your calendars and visit the Division convention's website
at http://www.hamconcolorado.org for more details, including
registration information.  Join us for a great time at an awesome
venue!

AMSAT DL Bounces Signal Off Venus

Posted on by

amsat-logo-semi-officialEvery once in a while, I stumble onto something that just makes me think “holy cow, how did they do THAT?”

The most recent is the German AMSAT group ( AMSAT DL) transmitted a signal to Venus and received the reflected signal as it came back to earth.

From the AMSAT (US) web site:

AMSAT-DL Achieves Outstanding Technical First:
Earth-Venus-Earth Path

Marburg, 27 March 2009 – On March 25, 2009 the AMSAT-DL team in Germany attained a major milestone in their mission to send a spacecraft to Mars. The team used their mission control station at the IUZ Sternwarte Observatory in Bochum to transmit a radio signal to Venus. After approximately 5 minutes delay and after traveling nearly 100 million kilometers the reflected signal from the surface of Venus was received. This was the first time a German station has received echoes of signals from other planets.

You may be aware that it is a common feat for radio amateurs to bounce signals off the moon and hear the return signal. Hardcore VHF enthusiasts contact each other on the VHF and higher bands by using the moon as a reflector. (Sometimes I kid them that using the moon as a “repeater” is cheating. Of course, it is nothing like that.) This mode is called Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) or simply Moonbounce. The path loss is high, around 250 to 310 dB, so high gain antennas and power amplifiers are required. EME is still on My List of Things to Do and I hope to get around to it someday.

If EME is an accomplishment, then consider the challenge of Earth-Venus-Earth (EVE).  The original press release is in German but the information is available in English on the Southgate Amateur Radio Club web page.  The signal traveled almost 100 million kilometers which results in a round trip delay of about 5 minutes. This is over 100 times the distance for EME.  The frequency used was 2.4 GHz, with an FFT analysis used to pull the signal out of the noise (with an integration time of 5 minutes). I have not seen an analysis of the path loss, so we’ll just use call it ginormous.

Why did AMSAT-DL decide to do this? Well, they want to prove out the feasibility of communications before they launch their spacecraft towards Mars!

73, Bob K0NR

ARRL Field Day 2009

Posted on by

2009-fd-logo-298x200The ARRL Field Day is one of the more popular and fun ham radio events during the year. You or your club can make Field Day whatever you want: a real contest, some time out in the woods, a public service event, drinking beer with your buddies …. whatever.

Field Day this year is June 27-28.

The ARRL promotional materials for Field Day are now available on their web site.

Here is the Public Service Announcement video:

By the way, the ARRL logo for Field Day looks good. Nice work by the ARRL graphics department!

73, Bob K0NR

Added on April 12th: Noticed a good Field Day post by K3NG

Paying My Dues

Posted on by

hamIn the past few years, I have noticed that it is easy for me to miss paying my membership dues for the various amateur radio clubs I’ve joined. Despite the trend towards electronic mail, there is a huge pile of paper mail that ends up on our kitchen table. Somewhere in there is a little postcard or letter reminding me to pay my dues. It often gets swept into the junk mail pile and into the trash can. Worse yet, many clubs just put out the blanket message that “all dues are due” in the club newsletter or an email message.

I did a little inventory last night of my membership status with the various clubs and sure enough, I am delinquent with several of them. Some of these organizations are repeater groups that only meet once per year, so there is no natural reminder built in. It is interesting that none of the clubs have followed up with me and asked “did you really intend to drop your membership?”  Many clubs are seeing a flat to declining roster due to the demographics of the ham community, so you’d think they would focus on retention.

Based on my experience, I reached these conclusions:

  • With some clubs struggling, I will pay more attention to this renewal issue so that I am supporting the local ham community.
  • Even though I operate my own UHF repeater and tend to hang out there, I’ve decided to increase my support to several of the local repeater groups. I’ve focused on the ones that actively support ARES and RACES activities, an important part of the amateur radio service.
  • Radio clubs can really benefit from monitoring their rosters and being a little more assertive on retaining members. I bet they could bump their rolls by 10 to 20% with just a little follow up.

What do you think?

73, Bob K0NR

This Spewed Out Of The Internet #2

Posted on by

0511-0701-3118-0930Been spending time on airplanes again. I think my business card should show my office as Seat 8C (always go for the aisle seat).

Here’s a few things flying at me on the web. K3NG reports that the new FCC Chairman has a reputation for being data driven, you know, like using facts and everything. I can go for that. Here’s the ARRL story on the FCC Chairman (Julius Genachowski).

In case you missed it (I did), Woz has been on Dancing with the Stars.  Woz is a cool guy, but who cares?

Fark.com had an interesting photoshop sequence that started with a guy adjusting some sort of antenna. Lots of creativity by the photoshopping readers. The poor guy is probably trying to figure out how to receive digital television.

From the Things That Really Matter Department, a big friggin’ asteroid just missed hitting the earth. OK, it missed us by 49,000 miles but in cosmic terms that is half a freckle.

I just noticed this article on the ARRL web site about Laura Smith, the FCC Special Counsel for amateur radio enforcement. She says will probably get her amateur radio license someday but thinks she needs to learn Morse Code first (read the story to understand why).

Closer to home, I have been tuning up my packet radio gear which has been sitting on APRS for the past year or so. It seems the local RACES folks want to use Winlink for emergency comms but I am not sure my TNC is up to the task.

—   73, Bob K0NR

Tweaking the Blog a Bit

Posted on by

wordpress logoThis evening, I am messing around with the blog a bit. I recently updated WordPress to version 2.7, which is a significant upgrade. I am still figuring out what’s new.

I decided the old template had just too much blue, so I switched over to “Journalist”…nice and clean. Also, the main text column is set up wider, which fits most computer monitors better. Maybe too boring, we’ll see. It is soooooo easy to change themes in WordPress.

For several months now, I’ve been using WP-SpamFree which does an awesome job of keeping the comments spamfree.

I finally got around to adding a blogroll. It seemed like just another thing to keep up to date, so I resisted doing it. However, I noticed that my web page was getting lots of hits off some of the other blogs that had me on their blogroll, so time to return the favor.

73, Bob K0NR

International Standards

Posted on by

radio_47I just got back from Mobile World Congress, the biggest mobile wireless show in the world.

The hot topic is an emerging mobile phone technology called Long Term Evolution (LTE). The basic idea is that there will be only one 4th Generation (4G) mobile phone standard worldwide. What a concept…one mobile phone standard that you can use anywhere on earth. (Well, there is that small detail of different frequency bands being available in different regions. And there are really two variations of LTE hiding in the standard. But we can still tell each other this is a single standard.) Of course, there is that competing 4G standard called WiMAX.

Worldwide technical standards are a good thing.

The show was in Spain and I stopped in the U.K. on the way home. This reminded me of another worldwide standard that doesn’t exist: driving on the right side of the road. In this case, a country only has two choices: drive on the right side or drive on the left side. Most of Europe drives on the right side but the U.K. drives on the left. You would think that the world could have agreed on this but apparently not. Go figure. According to wikipedia, 66% of the world population live in right-hand drive countries, which means that is the right approach (weak pun sort of intended).

Another world non-standard is electrical power. Around the world there are various combinations of line voltage, ranging from 100 Volts to 240 volts RMS with a frequency of either 50 Hz or 60 Hz.  I am not sure how all of these different choices evolved but by now they are very entrenched. My engineering mind wishes that we were all on the same power line standard, so that we can all be more efficient: one power plug could be used all around the world.  The adoption of switching power regulators has helped this situation, since one power supply can handle all of the power line definitions around the world. Add in a small collection of plug adapters and the problem is solved.

One defacto standard that is common around the world is the QWERTY keyboard, which originated with the typewriter. Later it transferred over to computer keyboards and now it shows up on many of the so-called Smartphones (see BlackBerry). This is another example of a very entrenched standard….there is probably a more optimum keyboard layout but this is the one that everyone has been trained on. The Apple iPhone delivers an innovative touchscreen interface (that everyone else is trying to copy and one up) that is redefining the accepted smartphone user interface. Even the iPhone chose to implement the QWERTY keyboard in touch form as the way to enter text.

The one non-standard that has caused the most pain and suffering around the world is the lack of a common connector on wall-wart chargers. I blogged about this a while ago. It seems that every manufacturer does it differently and they are not even consistent within their own product lines. In response to some pressure from the European Union (and my blog, I am sure), a coalition of mobile phone manufacturers have announced they will implement a common charger format:

The GSMA and 17 leading mobile operators and manufacturers today announced that they are committed to implementing a cross-industry standard for a universal charger for new mobile phones. The aim of the initiative, led by the GSMA, is to ensure that the mobile industry adopts a common format for mobile phone charger connections and energy-efficient chargers resulting in an estimated 50 per cent reduction in standby energy consumption, the potential elimination of up to 51,000 tonnes of duplicate chargers1 and the enhancement of the customer experience by simplifying the charging of mobile phones.

The group has set an ambitious target that by 2012 a universal charging solution (UCS) will be widely available in the market worldwide and will use Micro-USB as the common universal charging interface. The group agreed that by the 1st January 2012, the majority of all new mobile phone models available will support a universal charging connector and the majority of chargers shipped will meet the high efficiency targets set out by the OMTP (Open Mobile Terminal Platform), the industry body who developed the technical requirements behind UCS.

The Micro-USB seems like an obvious choice. I wonder why it takes until 2012 to get this done? If they do get this accomplished, manufacturers of other electronic devices will follow. Heck, we might even see it on a 2 Meter handheld.

73, Bob K0NR

Update (19 Dec 2009): I came across this article from Mental Floss on the history of driving on the right/left side of the road.

The FCC Gets Technical

Posted on by

While we wait for the official announcement that Julius Genachowski will be the head of the FCC, I have been pondering how the FCC management seems to be mostly lawyers by training. Last night I had this strange dream:

In a surprise move, President Obama announced that Fred Technofarble will head the Federal Communications Commission. Technofarble is uniquely qualified for this role due to his strong educational background in both engineering and law. His undergraduate degree in electrical engineering is from MIT and his law degree is from Harvard. His main area of study has been the use of government policy and regulation to encourage technological innovation. Most recently, he has been employed as the Chief Technology Officer for a Fortune 500 electronics company.

Technofarble is well-known as a computer and ham radio geek, spending his precious free time tinkering with electronic projects in his basement. He told the press that his first action will be to institute a mandatory testing policy for all FCC employees in professional positions.

“We’ll give them a very basic test that covers electromagnetics, communications and electronics. You can’t be making up regulations for something that you don’t understand, so we’ll insist on a basic level of technical knowledge for all FCC staff. This will be an easy test…the typical engineer or technician will be able to pass without studying but I expect about half of the lawyers to fail. Anyone that fails will be given 3 months to study and successfully retake the test, otherwise they will be terminated.”

Technofarble also indicated that anyone holding a valid Amateur Radio License would be given full credit for the required test.

Then I woke up.

73, Bob K0NR