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G3XBM (Roger): Going backwards?

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After many many years of good service our HP "all in one" low cost printer, scanner and copier has finally died: it would probably cost far more to mend than replace.  So, a few days ago I bought the nearest equivalent. It was delivered today. An HP Deskjet 2540, bought as I was so impressed with the original HP machine.

Why is it that things seem to go backwards? OK, the new machine also supports wireless printing, but I found the set-up more difficult and far less intuitive.  The "easy start" guide which was purely diagrammatic was confusing.  Even installing the cartridges seemed more tricky. In one of my 2 laptops the CD failed to read.

They call it progress.

EA7EU (Pedro): TS-990S Firmware V. 1.07 ya está aquí...

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Acaba de aterrizar el nuevo Firmware del TS990S la Ver 1.07, que modifica "temas electrónicos" y compatibilidades, pero poco más, se espera muchas más modificaciones en la versión 1.08 a finales de Enero 2015.
TS-990S New firmware Ver. 1.07 just arrived 13/11/2014.

The next firmware Ver.1.08 (expected) which includes “475kHz band DRV output function” and other functional updates will be released around the end of January 2015 at the same time as the “TS-590S Ver.2 update“.

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EA7EU (Pedro): Remoterig anuncia nuevos Firmware para el RC-1216H, AS1269/1289 y Webswitch 1216H

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Los chicos de Microbit, los creadores de Remoterig también anuncian nuevas actualizaciones de Firmware para el RC-1216H, AS1269 y Webswich 1216H.

Esta noche me toca actualizaciones varias...

www.remoterig.com

PD0AC (Hans van Rijsse): Download DKARS Magazine – it’s free!

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DKARS stands for the Dutch Kingdom Amateur Radio Society. Its goals are: To represent the interests of amateur radio operators in European and Caribbean Netherlands; To represent the amateur radio interests at local, regional, national and European authorities; promoting the … Continue reading

EA1CS: VP2EAQ y VP2EAR , Anguilla Is.

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Rich, KE1B y Anna, W6NN estarán QRV en modo holiday-style desde la isla Anguilla como VP2EAQ y VP2EAR del 23 de noviembre al 1 de diciembre 2014.

QRV de 10 a 40mts en Cw, Ssb y Rtty.

QSL vía KE1B



73´s, Luis EA1CS

EA1CS: AH2/AB2RF, Guam Is.

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Kan, JJ2RCJ estará activo desde Guam como AH2 / AB2RF del 27 al 30 de diciembre 2014.

Se va a concentrar en las bandas WARC, RTTY.

QSL vía LoTW.


73´s, Luis EA1CS

EA1CS: El ciclo 24 en 2015 ( por KY6R)

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Richard KY6R / 14 noviembre 2014

Me he estado preguntando cuando alcanzará el ciclo 24 la cresta para empezar a deslizarse por la pendiente abajo. Todos suponíamos que el ciclo 24 sería terrible en comparación con el ciclo 23, estoy seguro que no se ha sentido así. Esto es probablemente debido a que la mayoría de lo que lo comentan han trabajado la mayor parte desde el segundo pico del ciclo 23. Estoy acostumbrado a este tipo de condiciones - y peor. Mucho peor.

Mientras que este ciclo no es tan "bueno" parece ser más ancho que el Ciclo 23. Esto significa que debemos tener más experiencias positivas ", incluso" entre 2011 y 2016. Para la isla Heard, el SSN será 50 veces mayor  de como fue cuando se activó VK0IR  y que hizo 80K QSO - aquella operación con una tienda de campaña y un generador fue todo un récord en aquel entonces.

El segundo pico ha sido incluso mejor que el primero y nos ha dado muy buenas condiciones todo este año - 2014, este pico  parece que será todavía decente a través del 2015 y en el comienzo de 2016. Todas estas Dxpeditions  seguramente - se beneficiarán de este ciclo "persistente":

73´s, Luis EA1CS

G3XBM (Roger): 10m USA - again

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Yet again, 10m is open to the USA even with my 500mW WSPR-AXE beacon. Not sure when it first opened but several USA stations were spotting me around tea time including KB9AMG, KF4FX and WA0JYF, all over 6300km.

For most of the day UR/SWL56 was spotting my 500mW beacon (76 spots!) at strengths up to an amazing +2dB S/N. For most of the afternoon, the USA stations were not spotting me. I did a re-sync at tea time and since then they have been copying me. This may be purely co-incidental and just "conditions". If I had not been spotted so consistently by UR/SWL56 I would suspect a small buglet in the WSPR-AXE software, but somehow this seems unlikely.

Anyway, now I am getting plenty of USA reports.

UPDATE 1910z:    WG2Z (5600km) was still spotting me at 1850z, but since then just local G4IKZ (18km). We'll soon see if there are later USA spots, but I suspect that is it.

UPDATE 2045z:   The last spot from the USA of my 500mW beacon were KC2GMM, N2NOM and  WG2Z all at 1850z. 10m has opened to the USA every afternoon for weeks and weeks now.

PD0AC (Hans van Rijsse): Yaesu FT-991 Pricing

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So far we had only rumors, an estimated price of $1600 – $1800. As it turns out the rumors were quite accurate. USA: $1699.95 (Universal Radio) UK: £999.00 (Nevada Radio) NL: € 1.269,00 (hamshop.nl) Availability not guaranteed (yet). As soon as … Continue reading

EA1CS: Kosovo, he cambiado de opinión ( por N6PSE )

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Paul N6PSE / 13 noviembre 2014

El mundo está cambiando. Mi mente está cambiando.
El año pasado escribí en el blog a cerca de mi punto de vista sobre Kosovo (leer aquí ). Soy uno de los pocos radioaficionados estadounidenses que ha visitado el país. Lo que vi allí ha influido en mis pensamientos.

Kosovo parece más una ciudad de tamaño medio que un país real. El desempleo es muy alto y casi toda la infraestructura es proporcionada por la Naciones Unidas: Para mí si la ONU se retirara de Kosovo, ésta se colapsaría y no parece dispuesta a protegerse a si misma.

Creo que el Programa ARRL DXCC no debe crear países, y sigue las pautas de la ONU en cuestión de conflictos.


Por desgracia la ONU es inepta en muchos sentidos. El Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU incluye membresía y derechos de voto por parte de Rusia y China......

Estas están cambiando tanto.... Rusia amenaza a Ucrania y ha tomado Crimea, tiene bombarderos "Bear" volando frente a la costa de California. China hackea a los EEUU poniendo en estado crítico la seguridad de nuestra tecnología militar. Su nivel de amistad y objetividad están en duda. No están siendo los mejores ciudadanos en el escenario mundial.

Lo que se ha propuesto es que la ARRL considere la adopción de Estados Independientes y Dependencias del Departamento de Estado estadounidense en su lista. Kosovo está en la lista de Estados Independientes. Si se adopta, Kosovo se convertiría en una nueva entidad DXCC.

Aunque sigo creyendo que la ARRL no debe servir para la creación de nuevos países como propio beneficio, ahora pienso que la lista de Estados Independientes y Dependencias del Departamento de Estado estadounidense es una lista más justa, equilibrada y objetiva que habría que considerar. Rusia y China tienen " problemas separatistas" en sus propios países y no propensos a apoyar la admisión de Kosovo en la ONU.

Si Kosovo se convierte en una nueva entidad DXCC o no, dependerá dela ARRL y que la lista sea adoptada para el Programa DXCC. Después de pensar mucho, mis pensamientos han cambiado y creo que la ARRL debe considerar los cambios propuestos.

73´s, Luis EA1CS

G3XBM (Roger): Unique reports with the 500mW WSPR-AXE 10m beacon today

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My little W5OLF 10m WSPR beacon - it really is TINY - has been going great guns again. These were the unique 10m WSPR spots today, so far.   Of course, several stations spotted me many times.  As previously, plenty of 10m USA spots in the log.

K2DSL (David): 2014 WAE RTTY Contest Summary

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I’m a bit behind with getting this posted but it was a long week at work.  Just before the start of the WAE RTTY contest last weekend I worked RI1ANT in Antarctica so I figured that should be a good sign.

On Friday night I ended up with 101 QSOs in the log but hadn’t yet sent/received any QTCs, a twist in this specific contest where you can send or receive 10 other QSOs with an EU station that count as points but not mults. Since the contest started well after sundown here, 10m wasn’t very active and it was already past midnight in Europe, so a lot of activity was within the US.

I started out using the current version of N1MM+ which was working fine, but keeping an eye on the N1MM+ Yahoo group I saw reports of issues specifically around receiving QTCs. On Saturday morning I got back on the air and had no issue sending a batch of QTCs but couldn’t get receiving to work, so I decided to export my QSOs and import them into the older N1MM classic. I fudged the one batch of QTCs I sent and modified the cabrillo log at the end to match what N1MM+ had for that QTC batch. The rest of the contest I used N1MM classic.

On Saturday, 10m was ok early but seemed to sputter out. I spent most of my time moving up and down each band (10/15/20m) and then switching to another band and doing the same. After taking a break I came back and accidentally launched N1MM+, realizing after I called a station I would send the wrong #. I quickly closed N1MM+ and launch N1MM Classic and apologized to the station.  There were 2 or 3 instances when I sent “QTCS?” and a station came back and said “Can’t receive but can send” so I figured they might have been running N1MM+.  I ended Sat night with 394 Qs + 480 QTCs.

On Sunday, 10m seemed open for most of the contest.  I worked RA7A and noticed he was sending 005 to the person before me, me and the person after me. Will be interested to see, if a log is sent in, what it shows.  20m was rather quiet on Sunday with more activity on 10m & 15m.  During the afternoon I started calling CQ on 10m and GU0SUP came back to me immediately. You can always count on Phil to hand out Guernsey during a contest. Activity stayed pretty high through the entire contest where I wrapped up with 684 QSOs, 850 QTCs and 521 total multipliers, I think my highest WAE RTTY score to date.

According to my SH5 analysis I worked 429 unique stations and 70 different DXCC entities.  I only primarily on just 4 bands and I ended up working 15 stations on all 4 bands.

Score summary:

 Band  QSOs  QTCs  Mults
-------------------------
   80:   25     0     40
   40:  109    10     93
   20:  237   300    146
   15:  190   300    134
   10:  123   240    108
-------------------------
Total:  684   850    521  

Total Score = 799,214

Map of contacts made using ADIF2MAP (click to enlarge):

2014_WAE_RTTY_Map

73,
K2DSL

G3XBM (Roger): Yaesu FT 991 - all mode, all band transceiver

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This rig does look like it will be popular, although at a stated UK price of £999 I have my doubts. This seems VERY high to me when the FT840D now sells for £619 before negotiation for a cash deal. UK exchange rates with Japan (£-Yen) have greatly improved, so rig prices should be falling dramatically. At £699, rather than £999 I can see it doing very well. Far less well at £999. In the USA expect to pay $999.

See http://qrznow.com/yaesu-ft-991/ for pictures and a video.  I see the rig has now passed FCC testing .  I have no news of CE approvals in Europe. Don't expect we'll see it in Europe before spring 2015.

I do hope dealers in the UK offer it at a sensible price. Get the price right and you deserve to sell lots of these units. Personally, I'd like to see a 10W or 30W version but doubt this will come in Europe or the USA. Of course, an FT817 replacement might be on the cards? We live in eternal hope.

G4VXE (Tim): TS940 back on the bench

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After its' trip to James M1APC, the TS940 arrived back here on Thursday. I had a slight fright when it arrived back, when it needed a reset on switch on. And indeed, each time you switch on, you have to hold the A=B and power it on, which resets the microprocessor.

It didn't do that when it left James, so I can only assume that it got shaken up somewhere. Anyway, it's simple enough to do that, so no problem. Other than that it is working really well!

I checked the transmitter output and that looks good - even on AM! I was listening to various US stations on 29MHz AM this afternoon and although signals were fading up and down, it sounded very nice. It also sounds good on SSB and I've been listening a little on 7MHz where signals were good.

I haven't tried it on CW. I don't seem to have a working external morse keyer. I was hoping to use my old Morse Machine MM-3, but that seems to have stopped working in the years since I used it last and despite a quick poke and a prod, I couldn't persuade it into life. I'll find a small external keyer somewhere soon, I'm sure. I hope so, as the receive seems quite good on CW. I was listening to W1AW/5 on 21MHz this evening when I didn't really expect the band to be open. Copy seemed a bit better on the 940 than on my IC740 which is currently making my HF CW contacts.

But it's great to have the TS940 back and it does have a very nice feel to it. Thanks James for all your help in getting it going.

K0NR (Bob): Twisted Phonetic Alphabet

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abc blocksStu W0STU just posted an article on HamRadioSchool.com about the use of phonetic alphabets. I had previously posted a Shack Talk article on the same subject.

The “standard” phonetic alphabet is the ITU alphabet but I am starting to think that we might need to get a little more creative on our use of phonetics. Why not innovate in this area, just like we innovate on the technical front?

Towards that end, I was reminded of his phonetic alphabet listed over at netfunny.com:

        A  Are               N  Nine
        B  Bee               O  Owe
        C  Cite              P  Pseudonym
        D  Double-U          Q  Queue
        E  Eye               R  Rap
        F  Five              S  Sea
        G  Genre             T  Tsunami
        H  Hoe               U  Understand?
        I  I                 V  Vie
        J  Junta             W  Why
        K  Knot              X  Xylophone
        L  Lye               Y  You
        M  Me                Z  Zero

Even this creative alphabet can be improved on. For example, I think H should be Honor.

What do you think?

73, Bob

The post Twisted Phonetic Alphabet appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.


G3XBM (Roger): Last stateside 10m spot today

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The last USA spot of my WSPR-AXE 500mW 10m beacon, thanks to Jay W5OLF, was W3CSW (5886km) at 1850z. Since then just local G4IKZ.

The little 10m WSPR beacon still impresses me greatly.  It is tiny yet seems to produce the magic of good reports from across the planet, and no PC is needed.

UPDATE 2053z:  The little 10m beacon was switched off just now at 2050z. Although plenty of USA stations received me, I was quite surprised not to be spotted further away today. There is no doubt in my mind that world-wide 10m spots will be achieved with this little unit. It is the best investment I have ever made in our hobby. I can't praise it highly enough. It proves size and cost do not matter!

G3XBM (Roger): Sunspots today

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The sunspot number today has risen to 117 and 10m propagation was forecast to be "good". F2 propagation on 10m looks promising.

UPDATE 2120z:   Although the band was open (again) to the USA, my little 500mW beacon was not spotted further away. Maybe tomorrow.

EA1CS: VU4KV, Andaman Is.

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La operación como VU4CB desde Campbell Bay, AS-033, está a punto de finalizar. Será cuandi Krish W4VKU, Prasad VU2PTT, Pai VU2PAI, Nandu VU2NKS,  Kumar VU2BGS, Chetan VU3DMP, Deepak VU2CDP, Sangeeth A45WH, Kiran VU3KPL, estén QRV desde la isla Neil, Andamán Group, AS-001 del 16 al 30 de noviembre 2014.



Tendrán 5 estaciones en el aire de 6 a 160mts en Cw, Ssb y Rtty.

Qsl vía W4VKU.

73´s, Luis EA1CS

G3XBM (Roger): Moonraker

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Ever since the spring when Moonraker supplied me with rubbish patch leads that just fell apart because the crimping was so poor, and a dual band VHF/UHF yagi antenna that had to be glued to fix one of the loose elements, Moonraker has not been my favourite supplier. They clearly did zero quality checks on the goods sold. I hope they have improved.

However they have some nice 10m radios at sensible prices including a 20W FM/AM unit for under £100 and a multi-mode 10m rig for under £150.

See http://www.moonraker.eu/ .

UPDATE 2200z:  Moonraker also supply PMR446 and LPD433 dual band transceivers. The latter band is within the 70cm amateur band, which is perfectly legal at 10mW with no amateur licence, here in the UK. On UHF, 10mW goes a long way from a local high spot. See http://www.moonraker.eu/professional-radio-and-446/pmr-446 . There are several to choose from.
http://www.moonraker.eu/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/602f0fa2c1f0d1ba5e241f914e856ff9/S/L/SL-02_big.jpg

EA7EU (Pedro): TAJFUN 1000 a elegir 50-144-70 Mhz by VH Electronics

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Espectacular la pinta de este amplificador de salida hasta 1000W para 144Mhz fabricado por VH Electronis.

También fabrica este modelo para 50 Mhz , 70 y 1296Mhz.

Permite hasta conexión remota, con consola etc etc.

El precio anda sobre los 1300€ + Impuestos.

Description

TAJFUN 1000 is small, lightweight but robus LDMOS Power Amplifier

Freqency Coverage: 142-146 MHz
Operating Mode: FM, CW, SSB, DIGI
Output Power: 1000W CW, 800W SSB, 700W FM a DIGI

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