Puxing PX-777+ Explained (in English)
The latest craze around here: the cheap imported handy talkies you can find on eBay. Local hams have bought Jingtong, Linton, Puxing, and a few more I can't spell off hand.
I like the Puxing. It is FCC approved and has a lithium ion battery. It does cost a few dollars more than some of the cheaper radios, but it is still way under $100 shipped and works like a champ. The biggest flaw is the very poor manual.
So I took notes about what I know (and I what I could decypher out of the manual). You can find it in the
articles section. A great radio at a great price!
If you know something I've missed, pass it along and I'll add it to the article.
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New US Ham Band Allocations Coming Soon
If you don't keep up with the Ham Radio news, maybe you haven't heard that the FCC has reallocated the US Ham bands. The changes go into place on 15 December 2006.
The ARRL has a
band plan chart.
What are the changes? On 80 meters the top end of the CW/RTTY/Digital band now will be at 3600 kHz. Phone will now begin at 3600 kHz for Extras; and 3700 kHz for Advanced. The General phone band will start at 3800 kHz.
On 40 meters, the Extra/Advanced phone band will start where the CW band ends: 7125 kHz. The General phone band will start at 7175 kHz.
On 15 meters, the bottom of the General phone band will be at 21275 KHz. The bottom of the phone band for Extra and Advanced will remain unchanged.
On 10 meters, Novices and Technicians with CW credit will now be able to use CW/RTTY/Digital from 28000 kHz to 28300 kHz. Their voice band (28300 kHz to 28500 kHz) remains unchanged.
In addition, for Novices and Technicians with CW credit, there are now privileges for CW use only on the same frequencies as General and Advanced licensees on 80, 40, and 15 meters: 3525 kHz to 3600 kHz; 7025 kHz to 7125 kHz; and 21025 kHz to 21200 kHz.
My favorite band, 20 meters, remains unchanged.
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How's Propagation?
Yes, you can look at a lot of solar indicies and flux numbers, or you can watch real time spots on a Google map at this link:
http://maps.dxers.info/gmap/?b=20m.
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One Way to Improve your Morse Code Speed
I can't verify if this works, but you have to admire the creative thinking. AC4FS is converting the text of A Princess of Mars (one of the Edgar Rice Burroughs books about Barsoom) into Morse Code to improve his CW skills (he's converting them using a computer program and then copying them). The first chapters start out as 25WPM characters with 12WPM spacing and every few chapters the speed increases until at the end (not finished yet) the speed will be a true 25 WPM.
You can find the files he's completed (two speed tiers as I write this here:
http://www.hotpeppersoftware.com/downloads/pom_downloads.html.
I couldn't help but think of the old Monty Python sketch that featured Wuthering Heights in semaphore flats, Julius Ceaser by Aldis lamp, and, of course, Gunfight at the OK Corral in Morse Code.
I read about this on
KB6NU's blog, by the way.
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An Effective Small Antenna
Some years ago, I became very frustrated with the "long wire in the attic" antenna. I was at a local electronics store and saw the MFJ-1796 "vertical dipole" antenna. It wasn't very expensive (<$200 these days, less then) so I bought it. Over the years I've been very pleased with. However, when I dropped it last year anticipating a hurricane that didn't come, it didn't hold up to the stress very well. But as a testament to how pleased I'd been with it (it lasted over 10 years), I bought another one. To my surprise the antenna has been somewhat redesigned and I think this one will last even longer than the last one because the "problem area" in the old one has been redone.
I'll explain more, but first some "vital statistics." The antenna covers 40m, 20m, 15m, 10m, 6m, and 2m. No WARC bands (although you can use a tuner to operate on the WARC bands, it won't be as satisfactory as you'd like). The whole thing is 12 feet tall! As you can see there is a "side piece" which is fairly short, making the thing shaped like an L. Those things poking out are capacitor spokes -- just stiff wire. The antenna uses end loading (no traps). What makes this antenna different from most other verticals is that it is a dipole -- it is center fed and has two elements, so you don't need ground radials or a super earth ground. And at 12 feet, you can hide it anywhere.
I should explain about the 12 feet though. When I first read about this antenna, I figured 12 feet would easily hide behind my house. However, they suggest you mount the antenna up out of reach of pets and people to avoid RF burns. So I sunk a piece of TV mast into the ground and "guyed" it with some tent stakes, a hose clamp, and 3 lengths of nylon rope. So the total height is about 19 feet in my installation.
Installation is pretty easy, especially if you have help. The old antenna had a machined collar for the capacitor spokes that corroded and became unservicable over time. The new one, however, has two simple plates and stainless hardware, so it should be easier to maintain.
Tuning the antenna can be a little tricky, although even with it untuned (and using a tuner) it did a fine job.
Does it work? You bet. Even with the crummy propagation I've worked Serbia, Switzerland, and a host of other DX. Working stateside is a breeze.
If you really have to hide the thing, you might consider mounting it horizontally in your attic. Or better yet get the MFJ-1775 which looks like the same antenna without the "L" shape and made to mount horizontally.
With these antennas I'd think almost anyone can find a way to get a decent antenna up.
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Remote Operation -- Hamming while Travelling
Lately I've had the bug to work ham radio while travelling. Now I know some people carry elaborate setups that let them operate from hotel rooms, but I decided on a different approach. I want to operate my computer over the Internet.
Of course, EchoLink springs to mind, but I mostly operate CW, PSK31, and RTTY. I did stumble upon W4MQ's excellent software to remote Kenwood radios (with a little effort you can use his station over the internet, see
http://www.w4mq.com). But, at least for now, I don't have a computer hooked to the radio that will handle Windows XP.
So I took a lower tech approach. I have an old Windows 98 laptop hooked to the radio. The Kenwood TS570D I have does provide a "remote control" program (or you can use DXCommander, part of DXLab that I talked about last time or a similar program). So the control software and any digital program (like WinWarbler) ought to work if you could get remote access to the laptop.
So the first step was to install VNC (I already had RealVNC installed from
http://www.realvnc.com/download.html, but also check out
http://www.tightvnc.com for an alternative). Or you could use other alternatives (Microsoft Remote Desktop or NoMachine at
http://www.nomachine.com/developers.php). You just need a way to get to your screen remotely. If you are using Linux, you could still use VNC or NoMachine, or you could just use X Windows. The radio computer requires the "server" part of the software.
The next step is to load the corresonponding "client" on your travelling computer. From your local network you should be able to connect, start your radio software, and -- well, have a QSO! If that works, you are half way there. I did tell VNC to use 16 colors (turn the color waterfall off) to improve performance. Although I did PSK31, you could do other digital modes or even monitor SSTV this way.
You may want to experiment a bit before you continue. I found that HamScope, for example, had the unfortunate problem of crashing when transmitting with VNC active. May be the slow machine or may just be a bug, but it is annoying. MultiPSK works great (although it is ugly as it can be) and receives CW, RTTY, PSK in many flavors, TOR, PACTOR, Packet, SSTV, Hell, and some modes I don't even know about. So it makes a good choice. WinWarbler also seems to work.
The next step is to make your radio computer visible from the outside. If you don't have a static IP address, get a dyanmic DNS service like the one at
www.no-ip.com or
www.dyndns.com/services/dns/dyndns/. You'll need to set it up so your laptop has an address like wd5gnr.no-ip.com, for example.
The next step is that if you have a router or firewall, you'll need to "open it up". How you do this depends on your router and the software you use. VNC requires two open ports. Other software may differ. You've probably had to do this for other software, but if not, the documentation for your router and the software should tell you what to do. If you have a firewall on your PC (Linux or XP usually do) you may have to open that up too. Obviously if you don't have a router or firewall (some DSL/Cable modems have firewalls built in) you don't have to worry about any of this.
Then you are set! If your address is set to point to your external IP address, and your firewall is open you should be able to connect from anywhere and work the world. Keep in mind that before you leave you might want to tune the radio to where you want to operate (I switch out my tuner and rely on the radio's autotuner -- it gives me less band coverage, but means I can switch bands remotely). Same goes if you have a rotatable antenna -- either figure out how to remote control it, or point it before you leave. And, of course, you have to leave the computer on (unless you can figure out how to remotely wake it through your router). In my case, I don't have to leave the radio on -- the remote software can turn it on. But I do have to leave the rig's power supply on.
I haven't tried it, but I suspect that putting some VoIP software on the computer (like Skype or even EchoLink) would let me get audio back to the remote computer. This could open the door for SSB, FM, or even CW operation (with CW sending software on the radio computer -- the Kenwood remote software has a keyboard keyer, for example).
I got my ticket on my birthday (today) in 1977. So I've been hamming for 29 years. It is great to see there is still something new and fun to tinker with after all that time!
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CQ PC - Ham Radio With a Computer
It is no secret that I have a lot of computers, and it isn't much of a secret that I'm a ham radio operator. So it isn't suprising that I use a computer for many of my operating chores.
There's lots of choices for software, but I've been very impressed with DXLab. Just like Microsoft Office has a word processor, spread sheet, etc. DXLab has a log book, a rig control program, a DX spotter, and many other features. The user interface is not always the slickest, but the programs
work together. That's a huge feature.
Don't let the name fool you. The programs are not just for DXing. You can load one of the programs, all of them, or anything in between. Here's what's available:
- Commander - Controls many rigs via RS232 port
- WinWarbler - Very powerful PSK31 and RTTY program
- DXKeeper - Log book, interfaces with eQSL.cc and LotW; tracks award status
- DXView - Displays station locations graphically and optionally control a rotor
- SpotCollector - Manages DX clusters via radio or Internet
- PropView - Propagation forecasting and monitoring
- PathFinder - Locates QSL information
- Launcher - Launches sets of DXLab program
All of the programs are free and you can download stable or development versions. And they all work together. So if a station is spotted by SpotCollector, its position will show up in DXView. It is very easy to have Commander take your rig there, point your antenna (with DXView) and then put the other station in the log with just a few clicks.
Check it out at
www.qsl.net/dxlab. There is also an active Yahoo group at
groups.yahoo.com/group/dxlab/.
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