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Designating non-RTTY digital QSO's in future VHF contest logs
Keith Morehouse
The following is from N5RZ, who is doing the results write-up for the ARRL September VHF contest. Up until now, there has never really been a official position on how to log QSO's made using any WSJT mode. Some just use 'PH' for phone, since the radio is usually set to USB and others always used 'RY' to designate the QSO as something different. Now we have a preference for 'DG', which I will begin using next month in the January VHF contest. -W9RM **************************************** Notes and Observations FT8 usage continues to surge, as was most apparent this
September during an event with limited propagation
enhancement. While 6-meter FT8 is expanding and well
established, in some areas 2-meter FT8 activity is just
taking root. Even though it is not required to specify FT8
(or other digital modes) in Cabrillo-formatted logs, it
would be great to get a handle on how many QSOs are
made via the various digital modes. To that end, for future
contests, the Cabrillo specifications have recently been
updated to designate “DG” as a mode representing nonRTTY
digital modes. Things are also apparently changing
in the way VHF QSOs are being conducted, and it would
be great to somehow track the recent technology changes.
The contest community is actively discussing ways to
obtain that information. -N5RZ ******************************************** Keith J Morehouse Managing Partner Calmesa Partners G.P. Olathe, CO
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Chineses TCXO for 28 MHz IF 2M transverters
Keith Morehouse
I don't know how good these are or what the ultimate output level is, but this is the frequency you need if you want to stabilize your older DEMI (or whoever) 144 MHz transverter. They are being sold by the pair, so you have one to break and one to use. They shouldn't be too hard to integrate into almost any 28 MHz IF transverter. Look up the specs of your mixer for LO power requirements, check this one and then either pad it down or, more likely use it as is or drop a 0.99$ MMIC in as a buffer amp. I am sucked in for a pair. I've had a EBay search active for this frequency TCXO for two years and this is the first usable (hopefully) unit that has come up. I messaged the seller to make SURE it was a sine-wave output (most of these are clock oscillators with TTL or CMOS square-wave's output) and he verified it was sine-wave. If not, I guess I could legit return it by showing EBay his message. I bought a TCXO advertised just like this as a drop-in for a Yaesu FT817 and it worked fine and was dead on freq, out of the package. It was 20% the cost of a Yaesu equiv part. -W9RM Keith J Morehouse Managing Partner Calmesa Partners G.P. Olathe, CO
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Re: 6M sporadic E
KC7QY
I saw the notice a bit late but did get on just before 0200. Heard a couple of regulars from the southeast chatting on .130. Worked one station calling on .125 SSB (EM52)and then tried a CW CQ on .098. Got a reply there (EM57) but the band faded just just after we exchanged grids. Could still hear the guys on .130 but very weak by then. Jim KC7QY
On Wednesday, December 5, 2018, 9:50:32 AM MST, n5epa.bob@... <n5epa.bob@...> wrote:
I worked 10 stations on 6m SSB from 0055z to 0137z. There was a few more operators heard on 50.125 but I made no effort to work them there. Path rather broad from MS in the south to WI in the north. Not sure if the band opening continued as I shut down for a phone call and then the hungries. 73, Bob N5EPA
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Re: 6m Es opening - 2300Z
Ed
I had a least 3 traces that were uncopiable with rec5 Ed n5jeh
From: nmvhf@groups.io <nmvhf@groups.io> On Behalf Of WB2FKO
Sent: Tuesday, December 4, 2018 7:51 PM To: nmvhf@groups.io Subject: Re: [nmvhf] 6m Es opening - 2300Z
Was everybody on FT8? If so, were there decode incompatibility problems with people using versions 1.9 and 2.0? WB2FKO
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Re: 6M sporadic E
Keith Morehouse
I have 145 DXCC on 6M and still need VK :) I also frequently make the mistake of not actively watching 6 during the winter/spring period when the chance of TEP links is best. It appears MOST of the VK/ZL trans-Pac DX activity is on JT65 or FT8 - at least that's how it's been the last few days. -W9RM Keith J Morehouse Managing Partner Calmesa Partners G.P. Olathe, CO
On Wed, Dec 5, 2018 at 10:05 AM WB2FKO <mph@...> wrote:
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Re: 6M sporadic E
Mike WB2FKO
Good advice. I will try to pay
attention to 6m in the weeks ahead. My neighbor N5JEH worked
multiple stations in Australia around this time last year. -FKO
On 12/5/18 7:04 AM, Keith Morehouse
wrote:
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Re: 6M sporadic E
Bruce Draper
The 10 meter band was open till at least 0330Z, with lots of beacons, FT8, and SSB.
On Dec 5, 2018, at 7:04 AM, Keith Morehouse <w9rm@...> wrote:
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Re: 6M sporadic E
n5epa.bob@...
I worked 10 stations on 6m SSB from 0055z to 0137z. There was a few more operators heard on 50.125 but I made no effort to work them there. Path rather broad from MS in the south to WI in the north. Not sure if the band opening continued as I shut down for a phone call and then the hungries. 73, Bob N5EPA
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Re: 6M sporadic E
Keith Morehouse
I had my band-monitoring SDR up on the 2nd computer screen and was tipped off by the big bunch of beacons. I saw a couple of guys on FT8, all running version 1.9 or earlier, so I don't know who they were. I've been doing MSK144 meteor scatter so I have V2RC5 running. I also saw a few guys on SSB, but nobody CQing. It doesn't appear anybody is really watching the prop indicators this time of year. The CW window, which technically is still there, is usually empty unless it's a contest weekend or the opening is so good, the QRM level above .125 is bad. With FT8 on the scene, who knows if the QRM level will ever be high again ;) The opening started a little before 2300Z and was still going, by the looks of the beacons, at 2340Z when I went for dinner. We are entering the secondary Es season, so there should be increasing activity. Be aware that this is also the PRIMARY Es season south of the equator and it's not unknown to get good enough sporadic E up here in the northern hemisphere that we can link into the south Pacific or VK/ZL regions on 6. With low sunspot counts, the likelihood of this (TEP) is lower, but it has happened. VK/ZL was working trans-Pacific on 6 last evening, into South America (south of the equator). -W9RM Keith J Morehouse Managing Partner Calmesa Partners G.P. Olathe, CO
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Re: 6m Es opening - 2300Z
John Klem
From what I could see, almost everyone on FT-8 was running
1.8/1.9. Because I couldn't decode them with 2.0, which I
switched to a couple of weeks ago...to keep up with the meteor
scatter folks, who seem to be early adopters. I saw one lone
(non-local) station running 2.0, who was sending something like
"CQ v2.0 77-bit", and I could actually decode. I didn't see any
replies. I will be happy when I don't have to uninstall/install software just to switch modes. I listened for awhile on 50.090 (is that really a CW calling
frequency?) - nothing heard. John AA5PR
On 12/4/2018 7:51 PM, WB2FKO wrote:
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Re: 6m Es opening - 2300Z
Alan Shapiro <nm5s@...>
I worked 3 stations on SSB (50.125) and one on CW (50.099).
toggle quoted messageShow quoted text
NM5S
On 12/4/2018 7:51 PM, WB2FKO wrote:
Was everybody on FT8? If so, were there decode incompatibility problems with people using versions 1.9 and 2.0?
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Re: 6m Es opening - 2300Z
Mike WB2FKO
Was everybody on FT8? If so, were there decode incompatibility problems with people using versions 1.9 and 2.0? WB2FKO
On Dec 4, 2018, at 5:13 PM, Ed <n5jeh@...> wrote:
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Re: 6m Es opening - 2300Z
Ed
Not a very strong opening down here in DM65. But working a few. Take any opening in late fall.
Ed N5JEH
Sent from Mail for Windows 10
From: Keith Morehouse
Sent: Tuesday, December 4, 2018 4:18 PM To: nmvhf@groups.io Subject: [nmvhf] 6m Es opening - 2300Z
Strong Es opening from DM58 to mid EM6/7/8 now. 1st good winter Es opening heard here this season
-W9RM Keith J Morehouse
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6m Es opening - 2300Z
Keith Morehouse
Strong Es opening from DM58 to mid EM6/7/8 now. 1st good winter Es opening heard here this season -W9RM Keith J Morehouse Managing Partner Calmesa Partners G.P. Olathe, CO
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Robin Midgett <K4IDC@...>
Call for Papers and Presentations for the second Super VHF Conference, April 26-28, 2019, in Sterling, VA, near Washington, DC. The the second Super VHF Conference is jointly sponsored by Packrats, NEWS Group, and SVHFS, and Hosted by the Grid Pirates Contest Group and Directive Systems and Engineering details at http://vhfsuperconference.com/ Presentations or papers are welcome on VHF, UHF, microwaves, and higher. All aspects welcome, technical and non-technical - operating, contesting, homebrewing, roving, software, EME, surplus, antennas, test equipment, amplifiers, SDR, 47 GHz superregen, whatever. Your winter project might be a good candidate - take some pictures. N2CEI and W1GHZ will be coordinating the proceedings book and CD. submissions and questions to: conferencepapers@...
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New Mexico TechFest -- Call for Presentations
Brian Mileshosky
Greetings — The fifth annual New Mexico TechFest, an ARRL-sanctioned operating specialty event organized by Rocky Mountain Ham Radio - New Mexico, will take place Saturday, February 23, 2019. TechFest features a day of quality presentations and demonstrations provided by some of New Mexico and Colorado’s leading technical hams on a variety of emerging and relevant topics within amateur radio. The event’s purpose is to help expand attendees’ technical knowledge, facilitate collaboration, and encourage the discussion of new ideas with one another. TechFest is open to all interested hams and will occur at the New Mexico Veterans’ Memorial Event Center located at 1100 Louisiana Blvd SE, Albuquerque, NM 87108. Admission is $10. Online registration will open the week of January 6, when the event’s presentation lineup is announced. Presentation-related prizes will be drawn throughout the event. Refreshments including coffee, water, and light snacks will be available. Optional lunch, catered by local small business, will be available at an additional cost. *** CALL FOR TECHFEST PRESENTATIONS, POSTERBOARDS, AND DEMONSTRATIONS *** The New Mexico TechFest seeks presentations, posterboards, and demos on emerging and relevant amateur radio technical topics, techniques, and applications. If you’ve been working on a special project, are researching a technical topic, or have discovered or adopted a technology or technique that you’re applying within amateur radio, TechFest is a great venue to share your knowledge with the amateur radio community in a casual and friendly environment. Presentations will generally be 50 minutes in total length. Shorter posterboard talks and demos will also occur throughout the day. AC-powered tables will be provided to facilitate presentations and demos. Hams interested in providing a presentation, posterboard, or demonstration are asked to submit a summary/abstract of their proposed topic for consideration by January 1st. Visit the New Mexico TechFest website for submission details and key dates. Additional details about the New Mexico TechFest, for both attendees and potential presenters, can be found at http://www.rmham.org/wordpress/new-mexico-techfest A printable event flyer for posting on ham listserves, your club’s website, or your club’s newsletter is attached. We hope to see you at TechFest 2019. 73, Brian N5ZGT
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Damage to LMR-type coax - a lesson to remember
Keith Morehouse
This is certainly not a new discovery, but it's good to re-visit certain things once in a while. One of the problems with using any foamed or micro-porous Teflon dielectric coax cable (like LMR and other modern, stiff, low-loss cable) is the hazard of having the center conductor push through the relatively soft dielectric when under temperature extremes or with rough handling. Here is an example. I have numerous 20' lengths of LMR-400 cable, terminated with crimp-on N connectors that were commercially manufactured. You used to be able to get these things surplus on EBay, complete with test report and sealed in plastic for $10-15. They were good for jumpers and anything else that didn't move too much. If you had too much radial motion, the connectors would break off after a while. A couple weeks ago, after sorting through a jumble of RF cables used for various things (roving, portable op's, ect), I came across one 20 foot LMR-400 unit that had a loose crimp connector. I went ahead and cut off the old connector and replaced it with a nice, new-out-of-the-bag Andrew two-piece compression design and tossed it aside for test. This morning, I got around to testing it (no use having a network analyzer siting on the test bench if you don't use it to test things...) and found it had God-awful return loss (bad VSWR). Of course, I figured the connector had been installed improperly, but after disassembly, the connector looked fine. Further testing showed no change to the return loss when actively pushing and pulling on the partially disassembled end. Hmmm - maybe it's the OTHER end, so I punched up the TDR routine on the analyzer to try and find the fault. Long story short, the fault ended up being about 400mm BEHIND the connector I replaced. You can see why in this picture.  You can see that the center conductor has moved almost an entire diameter into the dielectric, but was not yet shorting. The interesting part is there was NO OBVIOUS damage to the coax outer cover - no crimp marks or crush marks - only a few scratches. I assume it was smashed under some large weight or run over by a vehicle or, maybe stepped on or subjected to less-then-minimum bend radius after laying in the hot desert sun. Sometimes, you can see a mark from a zip-tie on the cable, but not here. Whatever it was, the return loss was approaching 5 dB several places between 30 and 1500 MHz (and greater then 20 dB in the 432 MHz band). Cutting off 18" and re-attaching the same connector gave me a cable assembly with >25 dB return loss through 1500 MHz, with insertion loss of approx 0.2 dB at 50 MHz and 0.5 dB at 432. The take-away from this lesson is to always remember how unforgiving some high-performance, low loss RF cables can be when abused - even if there is no sign. Pretty much the only way to track down this type of fault is with TDR techniques. BTW, differentiating between the reference plane and the internal conductor attachment point of an N connector using a HP network analyzer is not a problem - there's plenty of room in there. -W9RM Keith J Morehouse Managing Partner Calmesa Partners G.P. Olathe, CO
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Re: 2 meter transverter up for grabs...
It's all yours, Erik. We just have to figure out how to get it to you. Email me off list and we'll make arrangements. -Bob
On Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 10:47 PM Erik Nelson <erik.nels0n99@...> wrote:
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Re: 2 meter transverter up for grabs...
Bob, If it's not spoken for I'm interested. 73, - Erik, KE5ZBG
On Tue, Oct 23, 2018, 14:54 redarlington <rdarlington@...> wrote:
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2 meter transverter up for grabs...
Hi guys, I have a 2 meter transverter (28MHz IF) up for grabs if anybody needs one. It's the current offering from transverters-store.com with the internal attenuator board. Power cable with Anderson power pole attached. Factory assembled. And best of all, free. I just installed an internal 2 meter module in my rig so it's surplus to my needs. Pickup in Los Alamos or we can meet up sometime in Santa Fe. Just let me know and we'll go from there. Bob - N3XKB
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