Past Projects

This post was inspired by a hamfest purchase. Earlier this year I stumbled across an old issue of Circuit Cellar Ink and just had to buy it.

When I first studied electronics in school microprocessors were really expensive. Little 8-bit chips were hundreds of dollars so the community college I attended certainly didn't have any in the lab for us to play with. In the mid 1980's I'd wait for each new issue of BYTE Magazine to arrive and would immediately go to Steve Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar column. Those articles were the basis of my self-education in learning how to design and program what came to be known as embedded systems.

One day I saw brief mention that Steve was looking for people to be a part of his research staff. What the heck, it would be fun to at least apply so I sent off my letter... this was pre-Internet after all, at least as we know it today. A few weeks later to my disbelief Steve himself called on the telephone to discuss things and I became part of the staff which is another story entirely. I'll save that for a different day.

Eventually BYTE was purchased by McGraw-Hill and their battalions of attorneys wasn't too keen on the idea of Steve telling readers how to modify electrical equipment or even build their own from scratch. A new magazine "Circuit Cellar Ink" was born and the researchers followed our leader.

In those early days articles were needed to fill the pages while word spread. My friend Dennis WD9EEK and I co-wrote an article called Stepping Out, A Robot Arm that Demonstrates Microprocessor Control of Stepper Motors. It appeared in the July/August 1988 issue of the magazine (Volume 1, No. 4.)

 
It was a lot of fun being part of the research staff and a lot of fun working with Dennis on the project. Up until that point I'd never used a stepper motor before but I was a lot younger at the time and my attitude towards most new challenges was usually "How hard could it be?"

I hope you've had some fun projects both past and present.

73,

Tim N9PUZ

Quality Audio Connectors

A pet peave of mine is cheap, crummy connectors. They are often difficult to install plus they frequently cause all sorts of tough to diagnose intermittent problems. Recently I came across some really high quality 1/8-inch (3.5mm) mono and stereo connectors from Neautrik/REAN. They are available from Mouser in the US and undoubtedly many other suppliers as well. Cheap connectors are often well less than a dollar. These are $1.50 or more but you build a cable with one once and it just keeps working. A wise investment in my mind.

The mono plug is P/N: NYS226BG. The stereo version is P/N: NYS231BG. These are the real deal. Black metal handles, gold plated contacts.

73,

Tim N9PUZ

Always A Thrill...

Yesterday's postal mail brought one of my favorite things. New magazine? No. New catalog full of new toys? No. The letter carrier brought an envelope from the Northern Illinois DX Association . NIDXA is a DX club but they also run the 9th District Incoming QSL bureau. The envelope contained a dozen QSL cards from stations in Columbia, Poland, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Italy, Germany, France, and French Guianna.

I am not a big time DXer nor do I have anything approaching a superstation. Most of the time I run 100 Watts or less to an "all band" 80 Meter dipole fed with balanced line. Occasionally I'll use my amplifier on SSB but that's a rare event.

When you first get your HF privileges any contact is a thrill. If you spend a little time to learn more about propagation you'll find that a lot of the time your timing is more important than anything else. You increase the likelihood of DX contacts tremendously by knowing when to listen. Are you on a band with possible propagation at the time of day when it should occur? Is it a time of the day or week when the DX will be around, i.e.--not sleeping, not at work, etc.

Often, good times to listen for DX are the few days before a big contest. The frenzied atmosphere of the contest hasn't begun but lots of stations are verifying that antennas and equipment work, etc. You'll also find that the DX is more likely to engage in an actual conversation outside of the contest. On the other hand, don't be put off with just a short signal exchange and a 'thank you'. In many cases the operator on the other end may not actually speak English and has made an effort to learn just enough to make a contact.

73,

Tim N9PUZ

Online Mapping Tools

The other day I was looking at NVIS antennas and wondered what sort of coverage I might get from my location. Basically I wanted to see a circle drawn around my town with a radius of around 300 miles. The solution was at the Free Map Tools website. Specifically the Radius Around A Map Point page.

In addition to solving my immediate problem there are all sorts of other potentially useful things there. Give it a look.

73,

Tim N9PUZ

Simulated Emergency Test - 2010

This Saturday, October 2nd, is the 2010 Simulated Emergency Test or SET. If you are an ARES member I hope that you're planning to participate in some form or another. This helps to keep us ready for the day when a large scale disaster strikes and we have no instant messaging, no tweets, no Facebook, no cell phones.

Here in Springfield, Illinois where I live we have a new opportunity for the first time in many years. This will be the first activation of the new RACES station at the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. The station isn't fully operational yet as equipment has just started arriving but we do have some HF capability along with local VHF/UHF comms. We're bringing in all three operating teams to do some training and a little building and configuration along the way.

73,

Tim N9PUZ

Illinois Sideband Net

Traffic handling is a dying art that we really should save. It's hard to think of sending a message through the National Traffic System when we have cell phones, email, and even shudder, the plain old telephone system. But when the chips are down, and one day they will inevitably be down, at least some commercial infrastructure will fail. Amateur Radio and the NTS will still work--if we remember how to use it.

The Illinois Sideband Net meets every day at 6:00pm local time. The frequency is 3.905 MHz SSB. There isn't typically much if any traffic to pass. The beauty of checking in every day or at least once a week is that you know your antennas are still up, the radio and power supply works, and you remember how to use it all. If you are a Ham living in Illinois please stop by some evening for a visit.

You can read up on working within a traffic net on the ARRL web site.

73,


Tim, N9PUZ

Peoria Superfest

Two major events today. First, it was my wife Teri K9TLM and my 28th wedding anniversary. Life just keeps getting better. Second, this is the weekend of the Peoria Superfest which we have attended for many of those 28 years.

This is a long running central Illinois hamfest. This year the weather was against them. A fairly severe rain storm just before lunch time kind of killed off the flea market business. An awful lot of people packed up and headed home early. Too bad, the weather was beautiful later in the afternoon.

It was good to see old friends and put faces with newer ones. Most notable was a face to face meeting  with James K8JHR from Wyoming, MI. We've talked on the radio several times and had many email discussions but meeting up at big events like Dayton has eluded us.


On the way home Teri and had dinner with friends Bob K9KGO and Dorothy KB9WAN at a neat little place in Mason City, IL named Jack and Jo's. Excellent food. I highly recommend the Cajun Pasta but I can't recall ever having a bad meal there.

Hope you had a good Saturday as well.

73,

Tim N9PUZ

Jim Dunn K9CNP (SK)

September 9th was a sad day. My long time friend Jim Dunn K9CNP passed away. Writing about Jim deserves more of a book than a blog post but I want to hit a few of the highlights.

I first met Jim in 1977. He was an instructor in my Novice licensing class taught by the Sangamon Valley Radio Club. He became one of my Elmers and we've remained close friends ever since.

Jim was a Broadcast Engineer. He maintained many of the area AM & FM radio stations. A few years after we first met he took a position as Chief Engineer for the radio station at the University where I worked. There were many memorable lunch time discussions and a work related projects that I enjoyed very much. You never worked with Jim on anything without coming away having learned something.

Jim was very active in Amateur Radio to the end. He was a Volunteer Examiner for years, The ARES Illinois Section Traffic Manager, and the ARES Emergency Coordinator for Sangamon County. Jim also co-founded our local Sangamon/Menard County ARES group.

In his spare time Jim liked to travel, operate outdoors, and camp. He also built beautiful Native American style flutes.

Jim K9CNP doing what he loved.

20 Meter CW 2010 ARRL Field Day

I can't yet imagine how much we will all miss Jim. He will never be forgotten.

The wind is in the buffalo. (Jim will understand this)

73,

Tim N9PUZ

North American QSO Party - SSB

Today was the NAQP - SSB Contest. Originally I wasn't sure if I could participate at all but it turns out I worked the contest for a couple of hours. The bands weren't great. I only operated on 40 and 20 Meters because my antenna decided it wasn't going to load on 15 Meters and by evening 75 Meters was horribly noisy here. I made 39 contacts with only 9 multipliers total.

All wasn't bad though. I had a great time and given condtions I was especially pleased with 39 countacts as I was running 5W QRP with the Flex 1500 SDR. Even with my 5W the other stations only asked for repeats a half dozen times or so. Sometimes I think running QRP is only a problem when the other station knows that you are QRP ;-)

73,

Tim N9PUZ

First Flex 1500 DX

This afternoon I had a chance to play with filters, read about various settings in PowerSDR, etc. I was tuning around 20 Meters looking for some adjacent signals to play with filters. I came across CO0LC running a string of callers from his Cuban station.

I figured "what the heck" and tossed out my call. After my first call he said "the Papa Uniform Zulu station please?" I gave my call again, we exchanged reports, etc.

Okay, so Cuba to Central Illinois isn't exactly a rare contact. But it is 1,328 miles with 5 Watts and my inverted V... on SSB no less! I'm a happy camper.

73,

Tim N9PUZ

It's All About Horsepower

The Flex 1500 continues to be a lot of fun. Today I confirmed that my regular ham shack computer, a 2GHz Pentium 4 with 1.25 GB of RAM isn't enough to make things run smoothly. As an experiment I switched to a Dell laptop with a dual core Centrino processor at 1.8 GHz. All the drop outs and occasional screen freezing is gone now.

This testing was all done with PowerSDR 2.0.5. Now that those problems are cleared up I'll try PowerSDR 2.0.6 and the new firmware if the thunder ever goes away so I can bring the ham shack back on line.

73,

Tim N9PUZ

Flex 1500 QRP Radio

Well, a new radio has arrived here at ARS N9PUZ. I've been keeping an eye on the Software Defined Radio technology for a while and this year I decided to take the plunge and pre-ordered a Flex 1500 at the Dayton Hamvention. The BBT ("Big Brown Truck") brought the small package yesterday.

The Flex 1500 is a QRP (5 Watt) version of some of Flex Radio's bigger offerings. There isn't too much in the way of hardware as the bulk of the heavy lifting is done by a high powered digital signal processor ("DSP") and a largely open source piece of software called PowerSDR.

The photo above shows the Flex 1500 perched atop my Mirage MP1 SWR/Watt Meter. I don't think I'll be needing the 2kW range for this one!

The radio itself may be small but that doesn't mean you won't end up with a rats nest of cables. Here you can see the USB cable, headphones, microphone, and key plugged in and ready for action.

Above is a shot of PowerSDR along with my CW keyboard program. Other than powering it on and off, everything about the radio is controlled through the software. Modulation, demodulation, filtering, band changes are all done in software.

That's it for now. I haven't had a lot of time to learn and play yet but I'm pretty sure it's gonna be a lot of fun!

73,

Tim N9PUZ

2010 Field Day Report

Hot. Humid. Lots of fun!

Last winter Dennis WD9EEK approached me about doing a smaller ARRL Field Day operation than usual and heading to Jim Edgar Panther Creek Wildlife Area in central Illinois. We decided to move forward with that plan and invited a few friends to join us. The weather forecast included thunderstorms, temperatures in the mid 90's, and high humidity with a heat index over 100 degrees. A couple of people thought wiser of it and didn't come out but the four of us that did had a good time in spite of the weather. Here are a couple of photos I thought I'd share.

Our emphasis was on fun and although we each operated as individual entries I think there were around 500 Q's between us.

WD9EEK above was the instigator and handled reservations at the sight. Just before dusk on Saturday he was still making 20 Meter phone contacts.

Bob KC9HGW operated mostly 20 and 40 Meter cw with his Icom Pro 3.

No picture of yours truly. I'm the man behind the camera. This photo shows my IC-7200 and laptop running N3FJP's Field Day Logger.

Jim K9CNP was one of my Elmers when I was first licensed in 1977. He never bothered to get the "big rig", a Yaesu FT-857D out of the car. When he first got to the site Jim decided to try out his new 4 Watt Ten-Tec R4020 QRP rig with a 20 Meter Par Electronics end fed antenna supported by a crappie pole. 5 hours later when he headed home he and the R4020 had worked 36 states on 20 Meters CW! Below is a photo of Jim's killer station...

That's it for now. I've got everything unpacked and enjoyed a nice shower. I think a nap is in order!

73,

Tim N9PUZ

ARRL Field Day 2010

Well, it's Field Day time once again. I could look at a calendar to tell that but there's an easier way here in central Illinois. We had a gorgeous spring season with cool evenings and mild, sunny days. The past few weeks though it gets hotter every day and we have thunderstorms and heat indices in the 100+ F range. With weather like that it just has to be time for Field Day.

This year I'll be operating from Jim Edgar State Wildlife Area near Ashland, IL. Dennis WD9EEK and Bob KC9HGW will be there as well. Hope to work you this year!

73,

Tim N9PUZ

The Old Standards

Browsing through the articles section on eHam I came across a nice article on building a mono-band dipole antenna. There is a lot to be said for the dipole. In particular they work and work pretty darned well. I imagine that most Hams built one at some point in their radio careers. A lot of us continue to use them with great success today. Check it out...


Your First HF Dipole 


73,


Tim N9PUZ

What's In A Grid Square?

A lot of times you'll hear references to "grid squares" or more specifically "Maidenhead Grid Squares". You see 'em on QRZ.com, read about them in contest reports, and see where some contests especially for ATV, VHF, or UHF use them instead of States or Counties.

Here are a few links that will lead you to more than you ever wanted to know:

ARRL Web Page on Grid Squares

AMSAT Grid Square Conversion to and from Lat/Lon

One of the more interesting sites I recently saw mentioned on the LinuxHam mailing list is the Ham Radio Maidenhead Grid Square Locator Map. You can put in a call sign, grid quare, or a street address and it will use Google Maps and QRZ.com data to give you all sorts of location information. Here's a sample of what you get when you enter the call sign W1AW, the station at ARRL headquarters:

Whether you're into VHF/UHF contesting or are just curious where your local hams are at these resources provide some interesting information in an easy to use format.

73, Tim N9PUZ

It's Lincoln Trail Hike Time!

Next week, Saturday April 24th is the 2010 Boy Scouts of America Lincoln Trail Hike. Each year Central Illinois Hams provide phone and APRS support. The screen capture below is from http://aprs.fi. You can see myself and Bob KC9HGW (EPA2) testing out trackers and radios in the Springfield, IL area.

73, Tim N9PUZ

Ozarkcon 2010

Last weekend my wife Teri K9TLM and I went to Branson, MO to attend our first ever Ozarkcon put on by the 4 State QRP Group. It was fantastic as was the weather.

Saturday included several informative seminars. In this photo Dave Gauding NF0R describes a small loop he built from a bicycle rim.

Ozarkcon also featured several opportunities for kit building. Here, Paul N9PCS works on a keyer.

Creativity was unbounded. This building entry in the "Whacky Key" category featured a key carved from a potato and a carrot. Vegatarian CW anyone?

Of course there was serious work at Ozarkcon too. Here, Dave NM0S plays along with the nightly Bluegrass concert. Musicians came from Ozarkcon attendees as well as locals who just dropped in to jam.

All in all this is a laid back, highly recommended event. Schedules permitting I plan to go back in 2011. Hope to see you there!

73, Tim N9PUZ

Springfield Road Runners 1/2 Marathon

This year members of the Sangamon Valley Radio Club and Springfield's Community Emergency Response Team - C.E.R.T joined forces to support the Springfield Road Runners 1/2 Marathon.

There were 1,050 runners from around the Midwest that participated under cloudy skies and fortunately just a few minutes of rain. In this photo a group of runners goes through a water stop in Washington Park.


We utilized the local K9CZ 440.400 MHz UHF repeater as well as APRS to keep in touch with radio operators around the course. A UI-View APRS station was used to track medical vehicles and two pace vehicles. One was at the front ahead of the first runners, a second followed behind the last runners. This allowed race officials to observe the race as it progressed in addition to listening to voice communications.

You can see an UI-View APRS display and a VHF/UHF "go kit:" with radios, power supply, etc.

The trailer was provided by C.E.R.T. which is sponsored by the City of Springfield Fire Department.

The lead vehicle in the marathon was an Illinois State Police cruiser. Steve K9WAV and his son Ben KC9KNL are installing an APRS tracker system in the squad car at around 6:30AM.

SVRC volunteers were everywhere. Here Claudia N9HHE watches as a group of runners approaches the intersection she was watching.

Of course no matter how smoothly an event comes off there is always room for improvement. Here Bob KC9HGW and Steve K9WAV discuss the event and brain storm ways to improve support for 2011.

73, Tim N9PUZ

We've Been Disrespected!

Earlier today I installed a copy of Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Express. I mostly use an older version of that toolset but I needed to make a small change to a program that someone wrote in VB 2008. I was looking through the help files to look at the correct syntax for something and I ran across this little gem in the MSDN Library:

People express themselves using a language that has many words. Computers use a simple language that consists of only 1s and 0s, with a 1 meaning "on" and a 0 meaning "off." Trying to talk to a computer in its own language would be like trying to talk to your friends by using Morse code—it can be done, but why would you?

Unbelievable! I plan to send Microsoft a note about this. Surely if those people on TV who say "make my computer so it doesn't crash" can get an entire new version of Windows created just for them Microsoft will move quickly to correct this horrible statement.

73, Tim N9PUZ

Updating the Kantronics KPC-3 TNC

I've added some information on breathing some new life into older Kantronics KPC-3 TNCs. These are often available at bargain prices and you can make them very useful as digipeaters for APRS, etc.

Finally, the New Web Site

For quite some time now I've been meaning to move my web site and redo some things. That has finally happened to some extent. The site continues to be found at www.n9puz.com. Hosting is provided by HAMS4U and I highly recommend them. They do a great job and obviously cater to Amateur Radio.

A few of the articles on the old site are missing. They will be back but contained outdated information, broken links, etc. that will get fixed in due time.

73, Tim N9PUZ

A Busy Spring...

2010 has certainly turned out to be a busy time. So much that I've done a really bad job of keeping up with the N9PUZ blog here. Hopefully this post will bring you up to date and I'll have to post more on projects as I go.

First off there was exciting EmComm news here in Illinois. The Governor and the Illinois Emergency Management Agency announced that RACES once again has a role here. Shortly after that announcement Brad Pioveson W9FX who is the State RACES Officer and Jim Pitchford N9LQF who is one of the two Assistant RACES Officers asked if I would help with station planning for the primary Amateur Radio station that will serve the State Emergency Operation Center.

Next up I was appointed to the ARES position of Illinois Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator for Digital Operations. This covers some of the same issues we're looking at on the RACES team but also encompasses what I hope will be some opportunities to help ARES groups in other counties use various digital communications technologies more effectively. At this point in the process I am in learning mode. I'm trying to find out what people are currently doing, what they would like to do, etc.

There are some fun things on the horizon as well. In a couple of weeks my wife Teri K9TLM and I are heading to Branson, MO for the 2010 Ozarkcon QRP Conference. We'll also be making our annual pilgrimage to Hamvention and FDIM in Dayton in May.

There are a couple of interesting projects in the works too. I'll save those for another post.

73, Tim N9PUZ

Wisconsin QSO Party

Today was the Wisconsin QSO Party. I didn't have a lot of time to play so I decided to stick to 40 Meters and operated QRP CW. Those multipliers really add up -- my 10 contacts netted me 320 points!

73, Tim N9PUZ

Things Are Looking Up!

Today's main project was to switch out my network router and clean up some cabling. That involved reconfiguring a wireless LAN bridge between the office and the ham shack. Ultimately it went well but the wireless bridge is always a little cantankerous. Basically it doesn't like change but is a solid performer once you coerce it to change configuration.

There's good in everything though. Since I was in the shack area I fired up the radios and low and behold a couple of the locals on 146.430 were mentioning that signals were being heard on 10 Meters! Wow, It's been a long time since 10 was open. I took a little bit of a break and worked a few stations out East.

I really enjoy 10 Meters. The band was nice and quiet and a lot of stations were perfect copy even at S1 signal levels. Maybe happy days are here again!


73 -- Tim N9PUZ

Hardware Hacking and Radio Connections

In this a recent blog posting Dan KB6NU writes about hardware hacking. The more I think about it, how cool would it be if manufacturers like Elecraft or Ten-Tec would open source some or all of the software code for their radios so people could develop replacements or extensions?

I'm sure there are parts of that code they wouldn't want to let out but I still think it would be neat if they gave us an API so we could drop in our own filtering, control links, etc.

Speaking of radio control and modifications, the more I use my Icom IC-7200 the more I like it. A favorite feature is the built-in USB port that provides both rig control and access to the on-board audio-codec for digital modes. Once you install the drivers the USB port lets you use the sound card built in to the radio instead of the one in your PC. Makes a very nice single cable solution.

73 -- Tim N9PUZ

Where Does The Time Go?

Hmmm, 18 days without a post. What gives here?

It seems like since the holidays began I've been going non-stop although for the most part it's all been good stuff. The only Ham related item is that in December of 2009 I was elected to the Secretary position of the Sangamon Valley Radio Club here in Springfield, Illinois.

I hope to get back to some radio work and projects soon. Of course I'll be sharing those adventures here.

73 -- Tim, N9PUZ

Happy New Year and Welcome to 2010!

It was a busy December 2009 here. Lots of work and home projects that were necessary but largely uninteresting. I hope everyone's year ended on a good note and that 2010 will be good for you.

I just barely participated in ARRL Straight Key Night last night. Hope to make a few more contacts today.

73,

Tim, N9PUZ

DDS Sine Wave Generator

I have not had a chance to experiment with this yet but it's pretty interesting. I ran across a project using an Arduino board from the Academy of Media Arts Cologne where they generate a nice looking sine wave in software from 0 to 16kHz. The project is found here

This picture from the project's web page shows the Arduino board with a low pass output filter and a picture of a generated wave form on the oscilloscope. behind it. The web site mentions they have used a similar system to generate audio tones for a WSPR project as well.

73,

Tim, N9PUZ

.

One of my recent projects was a WM-2 watt meter from Oak Hills Research.


The WM-2 is a solid piece of test equipment with 5% accuracy and three power ranges: 5W, 1W, and 100 mW. I have a couple of small QRP transceiver projects in mind for the winter and the WM-2 seems like it will be a useful addition to my test bench.

Evaluation: The components in the kit are very nice quality. The meter movement and quality of the dial face are very nice. The instructions, while thorough could benefit from a couple of actual pictures vs. drawings in a few places but all in all if you pay attention to the instructions you'll end up with a working instrument right from the start.

73,

Tim N9PUZ

ARRL Sweepstakes - Phone

Pssst, hey kid... wanna do Worked All States in a weekend? This is Sweepstakes Phone weekend. There will be many, many operators on all trying to make as many phone contacts as possible beginning mid-day Saturday. Hope to put a bunch of you in the logbook!

73,

Tim, N9PUZ

MCP9700A Temperature Sensor Arduino Library

I've done a little polishing on my code for using the Microchip MCP9700A Temperature Sensor and converted it to a library for the Arduino. I'm releasing it under the GPL in case it might be of use to anyone else. You can download it here:

MCP9700A.ZIP

This is my first attempt at an Arduino library. Comments welcome.

73,

Tim, N9PUZ

Temperature Sensing on the Cheap

Recently I was experimenting and needed a temperature sensor in a TO-92 type package. After a little searching I discovered the Microchip MCP9700A. This sensor is a bargain at about $0.36 each in single quantities from Mouser.

The interface is dead simple. Vcc, Ground, and an output that you can hook directly to an ADC input of a micro. The part I chose measures from -40C to +125C and outputs 10 millivolts per degree. If you need Fahrenheit temperatures it's easy enough to do the conversion once you know Celsius.

I tested the sensor out with one of the Arduino boards and easily had it measuring and displaying room temperature in about hour.

73,

Tim N9PUZ

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Well, here in central Illinois we just wrapped up receiving many inches of rain in just a few days. I know some of you would love to have a bit of it and believe me if there was a way I'd certainly share.

Over the course of the last couple of days we've had some sump pump problems to resolve. These included:

• The outlet line plugging up because of the pump sucking up some gravel,
• Replacing the pump,
• Having to run a secondary utility pump because so much water was coming in that the regular one could not pump fast enough.

Why would you care about any of this? Well, there's a lot of down time in the middle of the night tending pumps, etc. and I got to thinking about some ways to monitor this ground water situation. There isn't a full formed project in my mind yet but some things I think might be important include:

• A sensor to detect the water level in the sump well being above a certain level and the pump not running.
• The amount of time the pump has run in the past hour. Actually, the amount of water that has been discharged would be cool but that might really complicate the system. I don't want the monitoring/measuring to decrease reliability.
• An audible/visual alert in the main living space if there are problems.
• A system to send me a text message if there are problems for when I'm not at home.

I'll be giving more thought to this. Other important household things are in the same vicinity as the sump so I may give some thought to anything I may want to watch over in terms of the furnace, etc. as well. All this looks like a job for one of those Arduino boards I've been tinkering with.

73,

Tim N9PUZ

Another Breakfast Success!

This past Saturday there was another successful "No Host Ham Radio Breakfast" here in Springfield, Illinois. We had good attendance with I believe about 51 people from quite a few of the surrounding counties.

I highly recommend that people do something similar wherever you live. Essentially I just pick a date and then start talking it up on the area radio nets, sending emails, etc. On the chosen date we meet at a buffet style restaurant for breakfast and spend a couple of hours catching up with old friends and meeting new ones. The only "official" activity aside from eating is a chance for everyone to introduce themselves and mention any local activities coming up with their organizations.

I think the "no host" format is important to the success. By that I mean that there is no club or organization sponsoring the get together. It always seems like there are people who don't like the local club, don't like the nearby club, don't like the ARES group, etc. Yet somehow if there's no organization involved they're able to come eat and have fun. People. Go figure.

73,

Tim, N9PUZ

Looks like the FCC is going to write some rules regarding net neutrality so that broadband providers won't be allowed to provide priority of their own services like telephone, etc. over those of competitors. This NPR story has more information.

I guess I have mixed emotions. On one hand if it's my "pipe" I think I ought to have some rights to provide the best service/speed with my own products. On the other hand I see the desire to make things "even" because in a lot of places consumers may only have one or two options for broadband Internet.

73,

Tim, N9PUZ

Arduino, Part II

Okay, I think I'm officially an Arduino fan. At least for one of a kind projects.

The board I recently purchased worked flawlessly. Beyond that a little web searching reveals all sorts of useful add-on hardware that is fairly reasonably priced. There are a host of accessory boards, or shields in Arduino-speak that make your life easier and your project easier. Some of the available shields include plain prototyping shields, ethernet shields, WiFi shields, ZigBee shields, motor controller shields, and on and on.

73,

Tim N9PUZ

Arduino

Recently I acquired an Arduino Duemilanove. I realize a lot of you probably think I'm coming to the party a bit late but I'm an embedded systems developer by profession and I have all sorts of code snippets for various micros, in-circuit programmers, etc. In short, I've just never had a need to pay extra for a board with a bootloader and software libraries.

A new project came up and it's a "one off" that didn't really justify a custom circuit board, etc. I was searching for reasonable priced boards that used the Atmel AVR processors and was reminded of the Arduinos while looking through the Sparkfun Electronics web site. If you ignore for a moment that they are the Arduino design and have their bootloader the fact is several of these boards are less than $18US in single quantities! They use either the Atmel AVR ATMega168 (16K) or ATMega328 (32K) micro so they are fairly capable in bare form at a price that's hard to beat.

When my board arrived I decided to have a look at the Arduino software and programming environment. I have to say there are some nice looking features and my plan right now is to try things out by using it for this current project.

One more thing that's very cool about Arduino... not only is the development environment, compiler, etc. freely available but it is available in Windows, Linux, and Macintosh formats so you can easily program on your computing platform of choice.

I will report more observations as things progress.

73,

Tim, N9PUZ

Reaching Escape Velocity

I love to read. Mostly about technical subjects but frequently about the exploits of others who do what I consider to be really cool things. One such guy is Steve Roberts. He once spent a few years of his life building an outrageous, high tech bicycle called BEHEMOTH then rode it around the country. 17,000 miles of riding. He's on to building a high tech microship now.

This week I got a copy of Steve's book Reaching Escape Velocity. So far it's a great read but it's not about technology per se. It's about how to launch gonzo engineering projects with the help of sponsors, volunteers, and a little help. Details of the book are here along with order info.

73,

Tim, N9PUZ

Winlink Testing -- Success

The Winlink Testing mentioned in an earlier post was a success. Over a two day period the only two stations that appeared in my "heard" list were KA9VAU and KA9STB. Both were far enough away that it had to be a VHF band opening and not potential interference.

I will make an announcement in all the usual places but by the end of the month N9PUZ-10 and N9PUZ-3 will move to 145.610 MHz.

Tim N9PUZ

Winlink Testing

Around noon local time on September 18 I switched the N9PUZ-10 RMS Packet gateway to a frequency of 145.610 MHz. That's the designated ARES digital frequency for Illinois. I'll be leaving it there through the weekend to monitor for any other heard traffic and to give anyone who cares to listen a chance to monitor for beacon messages, etc.

I anticipate moving the gateway and the N9PUZ-3 (alias SPI) packet digipeater to 145.610 MHz by the end of the month unless some unforeseen problem comes up.

73,

Tim, N9PUZ

New Web Site... The Work Continues

Work is slow but steady on the new, revamped web site. You can get a peak at the new N9PUZ now.

A Full Weekend

It was a ham radio weekend here. On Saturday I went to do a site survey in Carlinville, Illinois. I'm helping the club down there set up a VHF Winlink 2000 Gateway similar to N9PUZ-10 that I operte in Springfield. The Illinois ARES organization has an initiative to make Winlink 2000 available in each of the State's 102 counties and we're trying to do our part.

Sunday was the Capitol City Century bike ride. My home club, the Sangamon Valley Radio Club always coordinates APRS trackers and phone operators for SAG vehicles, rest stops, etc.

This coming Saturday is the annual Peoria Superfest. One Illinois' larger hamfests. I'm making my list...

73,

Tim, N9PUZ

Web Site Updates

I'm in the process of making some updates to my main web site. It's going to undergo some much needed reorganization and I'm moving it to a different host.

The new site will be hosted at www.hams4u.com/n9puz. My old domain name and web site are still active at www.n9puz.com and once the changes are a little further along that domain name will be pointing to the new site.

Thanks for all the reader support!

73,

Tim, N9PUZ

ARS Spartan Sprints

The first Monday of each month, September 7th this September, is the monthly ARS Spartan Sprint. The sprints are short, fun QRP contests. It is a contest but these are really friendly operators. They'll go as slow as you need them too and don't be surprised if you get a short rag chew when you meet someone new. Only two hours. Lots of fun.

73,

Tim, N9PUZ

'ZO Fest 2009

This past Saturday, August 8 was the 2009 edition of ZO Fest in Bloomington, Illinois. ZO Fest is the annual gathering of the Society of Midwest Contesters, a group of dedicated contesters and DXers in Illinois and neighboring states.

As usual a god time was had by all. Ralph Bellas K9ZO is the chief instigator and every year he and the other line up some of the best contesters, DXers, and DXpeditioners in the Midwest to share stories, experiences, and tips with the group.

I've had a day to rest up now and I'm already looking forward to 2010!

73,

Tim, N9PUZ

ARS F.O.B.B.

The last Sunday of July is always the Adventure Radio Society's Flight of the Bumble Bees contest. It's a four hour, low key QRP event that encourages people to head to the outdoors for an afternoon of fun operating.

I was only able to operate for a little over an hour and logged just two contacts. The propagation really stunk here today.Still, it's an enjoyable event that I particularly like because most of the ops call CQ at reasonable speeds that mere CW mortals can copy.

Highly recommended for your calendar in 2010!

73,

Tim, N9PUZ

It's Field Day Time!

It's the eve of Field Day. Saturday and Sunday many, many ham radio operators will switch their radios to battery power or haul entire stations into the field. There they will operate for up to 24 hours trying to rack up as many points as possible in the ARRL's annual non-contest.

Do you participate in Field Day? How? Some people operate from home. Others participate with a group. Some are serious about racking up points, others use Field Day as more of a party with friends.

My plans are to participate in two Field Day events. Our local club, Sangamon Valley Radio Club tends towards low key operating and a big Saturday evening cookout with all the families, etc. The local ARES group, Capitol Area Amateur Radio Emergency Response Team has a smaller more serious effort. Both groups seem to have a lot of fun.

It's going to be very hot here in central Illinois. Whatever you do, if it's outside drink lots of water, have fun, and stay safe.

73,

Tim

Support Your Local Hamfest

We read a lot about the big mega-Hamfests -- Dayton, HamCom, Pacificon, SeaPac, Huntsville, etc. Many of us travel to one or more of them a year in search of bargains, to renew old friendships or perhaps meet an "on air" friend in person for the first time. They are great!

Don't forget to attend and support your local hamfests though. They are treasures in their own right. Today my wife and I went to Egyptian Fest in Granite City, Illinois. 2009 marked their eightieth (that's 80 not 18!) year.

I remember going to the Egyptian Radio Club hamfest back in the 70's when I was first licensed. I'd rummage through old equipment having no idea what a lot of it was. Even though I wasn't buying the old grey beards would explain the equipment to me and perhaps share a story about people I hadn't met and how they had used this or that to first get on the air or make a rare contact. It was an enjoyable day I looked forward to each year.

Egyptian Fest is still a small, friendly hamfest. Today for their 80th birthday they pulled out all the stops with not one but two guest speakers plus a presentation on D-Star that I was unable to attend due to talking with too many friends while I should have been listening!

First up was Bob Heil K9EID of Heil Sound. Bob showed a presentation that described a little background on the company and then did an interesting presentation on microphones, articulation, and what you want to be heard effectively on the air.

Second up was retired FCC Special Counsel Riley Holingsworth K4ZDH. Riley talked about human nature in general and hams in particular. Along the way he shared a few humorous stories and then took questions.

Not every small hamfest will have speakers like Bob and Riley. But an awful lot of them have some pretty sharp people talking about some aspect of the hobby they love. If you don't go take advantage of them you're the one who's missing out.

The local hamfests are a good place for second chances too. Remember that vintage equipment I mentioned earlier? I'm pretty sure I saw a few of those same radios in the outdoor swap area today!

73,

Tim, N9PUZ

New Rig at ARS N9PUZ

After several years of great service from my Icom IC-718 I've replaced it with a shiny new Icom IC-7200. I really liked the IC-718. I had added the W4RT dual filters to mine and that made for a nice HF rig that had great performance in a compact, easy to use package. I always said the only way Icom could have improved the IC-718 was to replace the audio chain DSP with a nice IF chain DSP like they have in thier higher end rigs like the the "Pro" series. Perhaps they heard me.

The "Big Brown Truck" brought the IC-7200 yesterday. After only one evening I've decided I really like this radio. The variable DSP filtering simply blows away the mechanical filters I had in the IC-718. You can adjust the bandwidth for CW and USB modes in 50 Hz increments. The radio remembers the "wide", "medium", and "narrow" selections you make for each mode. The display is nice and crisp although a little smaller than the old radio. It is very easy to read.

I'll be writing more as I gain experience. I was able to try this radio and a Yaesu FT-450 and this one seems like the clear choice to me. If you are in the market for a $1,000 class HF rig this one bears close consideration.

The old IC-718? Fear not, I didn't put it out to pasture and it's not gathering dust. A Ham down South bought it and I've already had a note from him that it works great and he's enjoying it.

73,

Tim, N9PUZ

The RF Gain Control - Unsung Hero of Your HF Rig

A lot of times when I talk to Hams that are new to HF operation they mention how bad noise (QRN) and interference (QRM) can be. They often wonder whether adding an external DSP or internal crystal filters will eliminate the problem. Well, these accessories can help but new operators, and perhaps you as well, may already have one of the most effective tools in combating interference and noise.

The RF Gain control on your transceiver is the unsung hero of HF operation. It provides a variable means to reduce the strength of all of the signals coming in to your receiver. Used properly it can very useful in picking out just the signal you want. Here are the basics...

First off, if the band is just generally noisy like 40 and 80 meters so often can be, use the RF Gain control to reduce the static and noise levels you hear when you are not tuned to a signal until the noise is just barely audible. Then starting scanning for stations to work. If you're not trying to snag some rare DX station or pass an emergency message then there's no reason to make your rag chew tedious by hearing all that noise. As long as you can hear the other station does it really matter if the meter indicates S9 or S2?


Next, lets say you find a station to work but there is some QRM or QRN making it tough to hear them in spite of the adjustment you made earlier. Try this: Turn the RF gain control to minimum. You may hear nothing at this point. Then, turn the volume control up very high. You still may not hear anything. Now, use the RF Gain control (not the volume control) to control the volume of the station you want to hear. A lot of times this will make the easy to copy while drastically reducing the junk you don't want to hear.

Remember to turn down the volume control before you increase the RF Gain when you move on to the next QSO or things will get VERY loud! Once you practice this a little and get used to it you'll wonder how you ever got along before.

A New Springfield Area Digipeater

Last night my new packet radio digipeater went live at its permanent home. I've wanted to expand the footprint covered by the N9PUZ-10 VHF Winlink 2000 Gateway and Al N9MAF was kind enough to offer rack space and an antenna site at his VHF and UHF repeater location.

N9PUZ-3 has an antenna at about 95 feet AGL. Power is 30 Watts and operation is controlled by a Kantronics KPC-3+ TNC. The system has an alias of SPI and is located about 14 miles south of Springfield.

For those not familiar with conventional packet radio there is a tutorial by WB9LOZ. Packet radio is used as the underlying communication system for the VHF portion of the Winlink 2000 system.

Go SMC!

This past weekend Ralph K9ZO hosted a little bash for the Society of Midwest Contesters. SMC is a contesting club located in the "Black Hole" of locations--the center of the United States.

"ZOfest", as it was called was probably the best club meeting I've ever attended. There was of course the obligatory business meeting where the club's performance in contests over the past few years was discussed along with super secret, "if I told you, I'd have to kill you" plans for the years ahead. There were also some first rate presentations by various members on topics that included:

• What goes on "off air" before, during, and after a DXpedition
• Antenna Modeling
• Old radio collecting and restoration
• "Turn-key" vs. "carry it all yourself" DXpedition contesting
• Test equipment and troubleshooting your station

Oh, and there was lots and lots of great food, drink, and the camaraderie that makes Amateur Radio such an incredible hobby.

Every group should have an event like this periodically. It'll keep your spirits up during the bottom of the solar cycle and you'll just plain have a bunch of fun!

73,

Tim N9PUZ

ARES and Skywarn Participation

Last night a couple of major storm cells moved through Central Illinois and in particular Springfield where we live. Our local ARES group, the Capitol Area Amateur Radio Emergency Response Team (CAARERT), activated a weather net.

I imagine we are like a lot of groups. People show up for training, etc. but frequently the regular monthly nets are poorly attended. People have lots to do and giving up free time for routine stuff is difficult. However, when the real deal happens folks turn out. Last night without any fuss there were nearly 30 people on frequency ready to go out to spotter locations, work with the National Weather Service, etc.

Congrats to all!

Tim N9PUZ

Gasoline and Ham Radio

In a May 23, 2008 poll the ARRL asked " Have rising fuel prices reduced your willingness to travel to hamfests?". These polls are not supposed to be scientific, they are just for fun but when I looked at the poll on May 27th a surprising number of people, over 57%, said yes, gas prices had effected their willingness to travel to hamfests.

Since I just returned from the Dayton Hamvention and FDIM I thought about that a little. Here's my thinking...

From my house to Dayton is about 640 miles. If I drove a vehicle that got only 15mpg on the highway then at $3.50 per gallon my fuel would have cost about $150. The same trip at $4.50 per gallon would have used $192 in fuel, an increase of $42.

Our vehicle gets considerably better mileage than 15mpg and I'm not saying the extra $42 above is a non-trivial amount. However, I have to believe that if the $42 were a deal breaker you maybe shouldn't have been going on a big trip anyway. Also consider that that is for one person. If two, three, or four people are traveling together then the cost per person could drop to a difference of only about $10.

73,

Tim N9PUZ

Hope Springs...

I wouldn't exactly say the bottom of the present solar cycle is over yet but some of my recent operating does give hope. Over the past Memorial Day weekend I was able to work quite a few lower power stations on the East Coast, West Coast, Southwest, etc. Happy days may not be exactly here yet but I do think they are returning.

I made two prized contacts this weekend, both on 14.3425 MHz. First was Budd W3FF who I've worked many times but this weekend I finally worked him while he was mobile on his recumbent tricycle in Redding, CA. Second was Steve N0TU. Steve was operating portable from Mt. Herman in Colorado. He frequently backpacks along with his goats Rooster and Peanut.

How do you find these crazy operators? Check out the HFpack group. On any given day, especially weekends, you'll find a bunch of them monitoring one of the HFpack Calling Frequencies, primarily at 14.3425 MHz these days and 18.1575 MHz when the sun spots improve a bit.

I hope to catch you on the air one day soon.

73,

Tim N9PUZ

Byonics TinyTrak 4 TNC

A month or so ago I was shopping for a small TNC that I could use to build an APRS "tracker" system. We frequently use them around here when we support public service events, Red Cross Activities, etc. I ended up getting a Byonics Tiny Trak 4 because in addition to having the tracker features it is also a complete KISS mode TNC which makes regular two-way packet radio communications possible as well.

In addition to other activities I operate N9PUZ-10, a VHF Winlink 2000 gateway. This morning I tested the TT4 in full TNC mode and am happy to report it works quite well with Winlink using the Packlink MP program and AGW Packet Engine. If you're looking for an affordable, portable TNC that can be used in a variety of applications the TinyTrak 4 is worth evaluating.

73,

Tim, N9PUZ

Old Time Hamfests

This past Sunday Jimmie WX9DX and Bill K9KKL sponsored a small old time hamfest at Lake Springfield's Center Park (Springfield, IL.) We had a great time looking over everyone's treasures, and sitting and swapping stories about goofs we've all pulled at one time or another, tales of working that rare DX, or things we could do to improve our EMCOMM support.

Noon time featured a huge potluck meal with plenty of fried chicken, baked beans, and deserts. Certainly much better than the typical hamfest faire of hot dogs and chips.

If you need a good low stress, local activity for your group or club I highly encourage you to try a small, old time hamfest at the park. It'll remind you of all that's good about Amateur Radio.

Tim, N9PUZ

30 Meters

I've always enjoyed operating on 30 Meters but lately it's been one of the more productive bands for QSO's here at the bottom of the solar cycle. If you haven't been on 30 Meters for a while or maybe you've never been there it's time to take a look.

There's a moderately active Yahoo group for all things related to 30 Meters. You can look at the group web page where you'll find information on how to subscribe as well as a link to a great 30 Meter spot page.

The spot page deserves special note. Besides the usual features there are also feeds that come from "auto spot" stations such as mine. The auto spot stations listen around 10.140 MHz and when they decode PSK31 streams they spot them without an operator manually typing in the information. If your CQ or QSO shows up as an "auto" it means the station at that location heard your signals well enough to decode it. This near real-time propagation indication can give you good information on where you're really being heard. Currently there are just two auto-spotting stations in the US but look for more around the world to show up soon.

Lack of Sunspots Got You Down?

Does the current lack of sunspots have you down? Don't forget to check out 30 meters!

30 meters continues to be a productive band both day and night even during the solar minimum. One group who promotes its use is the 30 Meter Digital group hosted on Yahoo. They use a variety of modes like PSK, RTTY and MFSK. Mostly they have a lot of fun and just encourage operators to remember 30 meters. One neat thing they also promote is a nicely done digital spots page done by Sholto, KE7HPV. Please join anytime but especially look around 10.140 MHz on Sunday and Thursday nights when activity is especially encouraged.

There is no phone operation on 30 meters in the US but CW is alive and well there too. The QRP watering hole is 10.106 MHz but there's generally activity from 10.100 MHz to 10.130 MHz.

Antennas are easy on 30 meters as well. A dipole is less than 50 ft long and chances are something you already have something up will work anyway. 30 meters is a shared allocation, remember to stay under 200 Watts.

Remember... someone's got to call CQ! The band will sound dead if everybody just listens.

73,

Tim, N9PUZ

Travels...

Well, vacation was over all too quickly but we had a great time.

What can you say about operating W1AW? I was only there for an hour or so but what a whoot! Conditions weren't fantastic but I made about 10 contacts. I highly recommend stopping by to operate if you're ever in the area. People seem to love to work the station and it was a lot of fun to call "CQ CQ DE W1AW."

Another thing that impressed me about W1AW was the equipment. Yes, they have an amazing array of radios, amplifiers, etc. but it was the antennas that made me think. They are equipped to operate all sorts of HF, VHF, UHF but for the most part their antenna systems take up very little space. If you get to thinking your lot is too small to put up an antenna studying some photos of their towers may give you some good ideas.

As for the rest of our trip it was fantastic. The Fall colors were in full swing in New Hampshire and Vermont. We planned to do a lot of goofing off and relaxing and my report is we were very successful.

Where In The World Is Tim?

Wow, time flies. It's hard to believe it's been so long since my last post but it's been a busy summer and sometimes life just gets in the way. Here's an update...

The N9PUZ-10 TelPac gateway has been running very smoothly. There are several local users active with Winlink via the gateway now and it's been working well. I have some equipment changes I'd like to make just to switch to some dedicated equipment I've picked up but that will all wait until the weather turns bad for outdoor projects.

It's no surprise to anyone that the higher frequency HF bands and even the lower bands to some extent are really bad. Few sunspots, etc. I've had some fun the last couple of months during the Adventure Radio Society "Spartan Sprints" but that has a lot more to do with it being QRP CW than it any sort of outstanding scores.

The first part of October I'll be out in the New England area. I hope to visit and operate W1AW one day and do a little portable QRP operation from the White Mountains area of New Hampshire. No set schedule for anything, it is a vacation after all!

73,

Tim N9PUZ

TelPac Gateway and APRS

Yesterday K9WAV, one of the local APRS iGate operators started gating my TelPac Gateway beacon into the Springfield area APRS network. The result is if you are traveling in the area a red Winlink icon will appear on the local APRS map with info about the frequency to use for emails, etc.

Take a look at N9PUZ-10 here.

Also, we've been up and running about 1 week now and are looking forward to Field Day Winlink contacts to and from the W9DUA club effort.

Field Day 2007

Yeah, so the HF propagation stinks at this point in the solar cycle. Your group may not set any records but I hope everyone gets out to Field Day this year and invites along a bunch of those newly licensed Generals. Teach 'em about antennas. Play with some 6 meter stuff--there may just be an opening. Most of all welcome them into the world of HF and Amateur Radio!

The TelPac Gateway Is Stable

During the past few days there have been more tweaks and changes on the N9PUZ-10 TelPac Gateway. Things are pretty darn stable right now.

The RF problems have gone away with the switch from the FT-1500 back to the IC-207H. I'm sure I'll be able to use the FT-1500 but I need to work on a better grounding setup and I have other fish to fry right now.

Several users from the WL2KEmcomm group on Yahoo sent me copies of their KAM Plus TNC ".aps" files to initialize and control the TNC. There were a few tweaks in those that have brought my gateway to a stable condition. It's been running for several days without a glitch now and file transfers, updates to the APRS servers, etc. all appear to be working properly.

If you're in the Springfield, Illinois area and have VHF packet radio capability check out my TelPac Gateway web page and give it a try.

What are the future plans? Well, right now I'm building a TNC-X kit with the USB option so that I can have a portable station to do more testing. The TNC-X looks interesting because it can use a USB connection to your PC. Important since serial ports are going out of style these days. Other users have reported good success with them and at under $100 with the USB option they're priced right. Other interesting features include a) an expansion connector so you can add other gadgets and b) you get the source code for the microcontroller!

TelPac Gateway Update

Well, all sorts of fun things since my last entry. The gateway is still running and several local users have been successful at using it to receive and send electronic mail via VHF Packet. Thanks to KC9GQR, K9WAV, and N9ZGE for their testing efforts!

The past few days I experienced some quirky behavior with the system. Users got checksum errors when transferring email, occasionally got disconnected, etc. A user on the Yahoo Winlink group suggested it was similar to a problem he had that he tracked down to RF getting into the TNC.

Earlier in the week I had removed the original radio (Icom IC-207H) from the gateway and replaced it with a Yaesu FT-1500. That was about the time the problems began. Last night I went back to the original radio and will be getting some items to address the RF issues with the Yaesu as I'd rather dedicate that radio to the project.

VHF Telpac Gateway

I've been active in ARES work for quite some time with a special interest in digital communications. The evening of June 4, 2007 I put a VHF Telpac gateway into the Winlink 2000 system on the air in Springfield, IL. This gateway allows users with a VHF FM radio, a TNC, and some free software to send and receive email via VHF packet radio in our area.

More details are on my main web site.

Memorial Day

My personal thanks to all those who have served and still serve in our Military. All have given up a lot for our freedom by being away from their own families, suffering permanent injury, and enduring horrible conditions around the globe. Many have paid the ultimate price and today we especially remember and honor those men and women.

Regardless of your own feelings about the current conflicts please never stop supporting the troops themselves. Rant and rave to our elected officials about whether or not we should be involved. Always, always keep our troops in your hearts and prayers. Support them and their families.

DX Cluster Abuse and Misuse

N8S is up and running from Swains Island! Cool stuff, hope I can work them before they QRT.

Last night and today I've been watching the DX clusters to see who's working them, what bands, what modes, etc. As usual the morons with all of the "crap" spots have swung into action for the occasion. Why would anyone possibly think the rest of us would be interested in knowing that a) they can't hear them, b) they aren't operating their favorite band/mode, etc.? Imagine how busy the cluster would be if every Ham on the planet who didn't hear N8S posted a message to that effect. Now wouldn't that be special?

Here's hoping considerate DX'ers will use the clusters appropriately. If you're the first one in your area to work them on 40 CW today please spot 'em and tell us the frequency. If there's already 3 or 4 recent spots from your area but you weren't able to get a contact we're all sorry but we really don't care to know about your lack of luck via a post to the DX Cluster. Go grumble to your friends or cry in your beer.

73 and Good DX!

Tim, N9PUZ

What radio should I buy...

...is the most frequent question asked by someone studying for their Technician license or just having passed the test and waiting for their call sign to appear.

Very often they have been attracted by the siren's song of a multi-band handheld, what we used to call a handie-talkie. My advice before you purchase anything is to investigate your specific needs and location before you pull out that wad of cash. A hand held radio may be just the thing or it could be fairly useless.

Let's think about your locale first. Are there a lot of repeaters in your area? What kind of coverage do they have? If there are very few local repeaters or they do not have good coverage a hand held radio may not do you much good no matter how cool it looks. If it turns out that most of the hams in your area operate simplex without using a repeater you may want a more powerful mobile type radio along with an external antenna.

Also consider what type of activity there is in your area. Does everyone use 2 Meters? Is there any activity on 440 MHz? Whether you buy a hand held or a mobile type radio you can often save a lot of money if you need only 2 meter FM capability. Note if you go the mobile radio route you will need some sort of a power supply, an external antenna, and some coax to use it in the house.

The best advice is to seek out and talk with local Hams. They will know what's used in the area where you live. Despite what the advertisements may claim not every mode and band is popular in every part of the country. Track down the local radio club, ARES, or Skywarn group. These folks will know what type of radio works best in your area.

Welcome New Generals!

Welcome to all of the new General (and Extra) class licensees that have appeared on the HF bands since February 23rd when the Morse proficiency requirement officially went away. It's good to hear so many new operators who by and large are doing a great job.

I hope we also hear a lot of Technician and General OPs in the CW portions of the ham bands. With the testing requirement gone you can learn and experiment with CW at a more relaxed pace. Heck, even if you still need a cheat sheet for some of the characters give it a try even if your first efforts are at just a few words a minute. Even if you're not a great CW operator--I'm certainly not compared to many others--it's a lot of fun and can net you some contacts that are unobtainable otherwise.

Tim, N9PUZ

Station Identification: The Law vs Good Procedure

Several times in the past few weeks I've heard discussions regarding what is required for legal station identification by US Amateur Radio operators. I always thought that I knew the legal requirement and I'll bet most other Hams believe they know as well. But there seem to be a variety of opinions including a common belief that you must identify your own station as well as the station with which you are in contact every 10 minutes.

The ARRL maintains an online copy of FCC Part 97--the rules that govern the Amateur Radio Service. Section 97.119 Station Identification has the details of interest here. This excerpt at the beginning sums it up nicely...

(a) Each amateur station, except a space station or telecommand station, must transmit its assigned call sign on its transmitting channel at the end of each communication, and at least every ten minutes during a communication, for the purpose of clearly making the source of the transmissions from the station known to those receiving the transmissions. No station may transmit unidentified communications or signals, or transmit as the station call sign, any call sign not authorized to the station.

Note that in the preceding and in fact in the entirety of 97.119 that there is no mention of any requirement to identify the station with whom you are in QSO with. You are only responsible for identifying your own station once every 10 minutes and at the end of the communication.

Now it is very common in CW and other digital modes to hear people identify both stations at the beginning and end of every transmission. Legally this doesn't appear to be necessary however as a matter of good operating procedure it seems that it would be common courtesy to mention the other station specifically frequently since non voice modes can easily all "sound" the same. This allows both operators to stay in the same conversation and not inadvertently wander off.

I was always taught to use both call signs once in every CW transmission and both call signs for the once every 10 minute requirement on phone. What do you think is good procedure?

Classes Are Good. Don't Forget To Elmer

[Note: In Amateur Radio circles, an Elmer is a mentor who takes a less experienced Ham under his or her wing and teaches them a lot of the good stuff you don't learn while studying for your license.]

These days when you read the posts on QRZ.com or your favorite email list there's a lot of talk about the declining quality of the people coming into ham radio. I'm not sure that I agree that's true. After all, there have been lids as long as I can remember. If it is true perhaps those of us who've been around a while should shoulder some of the blame.

A lot of us devote time each year to helping out with Techician classes, etc. at the local club. This is a good thing but don't let it stop there. I think a lot of times a new Techician earns his or her ticket and that's practically the last time they ever hear from a Ham in their area. Once they have a license the real teaching needs to begin if we want to create good operators instead of just statistics.

In the Fall of 2006 my local club, the Sangamon Valley Radio Club and the nearby Macoupin County Amateur Radio Club co-sponsored a Technician class that produced around 20 new Hams. We didn't let the teaching and the fun end at the VE exam session.

Shortly after the class ended several club members had new Hams over to their shacks so see equipment in operation and to let the new folks be guest operators to check into the local VHF nets, etc. This sort of activity provides an introduction to the local community and gets the new people interacting on a more personal level.

Shortly after the new year, we held a "no host" Technician Class Reunion at a local restaraunt that featured a buffet style breakfast. We invited all of the people from the class plus spent a couple of weeks making sure as many area hams as possible knew about the event. The result was a 50/50 mix of old hands and newcommers that spent the morning talking, eating, and making new friends. As we adjourned from breakfast there was even a mobile antenna installation going on in the parking lot!

So, by all means keep teaching those Technician, General, and Extra courses. Just don't forget to keep Elmering!

73,

Tim, N9PUZ

The End of CW Exams in the US

The Federal Communications Commission announced that it will shortly publish a Report and Order in the Federal Register that will eliminate the requirement that General and Extra class Hams pass a 5 WPM Morse Code proficiency test. There are those who think this is a good thing and others who think it will be the end of Ham Radio.

Regardless of whether or not you were for the change, against the change, or just didn't care one way or another the debate is over. That ship has sailed and sometime early in 2007 the rule will be that no demonstration of CW proficiency is required to obtain any of the three US Amateur Radio licenses.

The important thing is that current licensees accept those who come after the new rules go into effect as "real Hams." They will have met every legal requirement needed to become licensed. Our job is to Elmer the newcomers, expose them to as much of the good stuff as we are able, and hold them and ourselves to high standards by setting good examples of operating skill, technical accomplishment, and fellowship between Hams.

73,

Tim, N9PUZ

VOAProp Propagation Tool

Back in July of 2006 I wrote about a simple propagation tool from G4ILO. Recently he's released a second tool called VOAProp that uses a more advanced prediction algorithm than the original HFProp. Read more about VOAProp and give it a try.

Vacations and PortaVentures

Last week was our vacation to Tennessee and the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. We actually began the Friday before hand in order to arrive in Seveirville, TN so we could attend the annual Ten-Tec hamfest.

I don't have the latest and greatest Ten-Tec gear but I do have an older Century 21. This was the rig all the Novice operators lusted over in the late 70's. Anyway, it was interesting to tour the factory and see the operation.

The Ten-Tec Hamfest is a real hamfest. The rules stipulate that all items offered for sale need to be directly ham radio related. No beanie babies. No endless piles of old computer equipment. Just vendor after vendor with all manner of radios, antennas, and parts. Based on the turnout of sellers and buyers we saw I'd say it's a good formula. I wish other hamfests would adopt this same rule.

Our plan was to spend a week relaxing in a mountain cabin and exploring the mountains. I took some HF gear along with the intention of doing some evening and early morning operating. Unfortunately Murphy tagged along and while the cabin and it's surroundings were very serene the location was plagued with an S9 noise level. I wish I could tell many tales of great mountain DX and long, relaxing rag chews but it just wasn't meant to be.

73,

Tim, N9PUZ

Experimenters and the Demise of the Serial Port

The common RS232 serial port was once ubiquitous on any laptop or desktop PC manufactured. Many PCs came standard with not one but two of these ports. We used them to attach modems and sometimes printers to the computer systems. Often Ham Radio operators and other electronics experimenters used the power of the PC and the readily available serial port to create inexpensive or unique gadgets by individually controlling the pins of a serial port. Items like data aquisition systems, EPROM or microcontroller programers, machine controls, etc. were created.

The serial port has vanished or is quickly vanishing from the PC of 2006 and beyond. Few commercial peripherals require a serial port and most newer devices use Ethernet or the now common USB port as their interface. What about all those cool gadgets we have lying around our shops and work benches?

Perhaps we need a new type of USB to Serial adapter targeted at "non-traditional" applications. The adapter would interface to the PC via a USB port but the hardware side would have a small microcontroller and level converters that truly reproduced the voltage levels and input/outputs of the traditional 9-pin serial port. On the PC side of things a software driver would be needed to look for all the world like a standard COM port down to the register levels needed to twiddle individual pins on the port. That bit twiddling would be transparently passed back and forth via USB to the micro and level converters on the other end of the converter. The end result is that it could function as a normal serial port but low level programs like programmers and other control devices could also read and write individual pins on the nine pin port.

Broadband over Power Line - BPL

BPL is one of the most widely discussed topics in Amateur Radio. Its proponents claim it will bring inexpensive broadband connections to anywhere with electricity. However, poorly implemented, it can wreak havoc with the radio spectrum used by Hams world wide for both hobby and emergency communications.

The Computing Unplugged Webzine is devoting a lot of editorial space to an issue they are just learning about...

The hams say BPL can both damage the radio spectrum and be damaged by it. The industry reps we've talked to say that was old tech -- the new stuff is better. As you'll see in our continuing coverage over the next few weeks, we honestly can't tell whether BPL is a good thing, or something that should be stopped in its tracks.

Read more about it on their web site: Computing Unplugged.