Author: shedberg

NA1SS Active from Space

Saturday, December 03, 2005

There has been a marked increase in the level of ham radio activity from the International Space Station (ISS). Astronaut Bill McArthur KC5ACR has been active on the 145.80 MHz downlink, making quite a few random contacts with hams on earth. Many of the other astronauts with amateur radio licenses have focused on making the scheduled radio contacts with schools and didn’t take time to make random contacts. It is great to have Bill up there making contacts.

I have not made a contact with Bill yet, but have heard him several times now. Of course, quite a few hams can hear the ISS signal and lots of people are calling him. It is critical that hams on the ground use discipline in when they call on the uplink so that Bill doesn’t get totally overloaded by a pile up. More information on working the ISS is available at the ARISS web site.

General information on the ISS space station radio gear is available here. The ISS Fan Club web site is another great resource, as well as the AMSAT web page.

73, de Bob K0NR

Gainsville, FL


I had a nice QSO with Paul this evening – he’s a sheriff in Gainsville and is going to retire in the near future. His plan is to winter in Florida and spend the rest of the time in the Smokies Mountains… sounds like he’s going to have a mobile HF setup in his RV. Pretty cool.


I’m jealous of Paul’s Heathkit amplifier.


… another eQSL.



Had a QSO with Andy earlier today. I’m starting to like eQSL.

Here’s some info from his website:

My hobby is amateur radio. Having been licensed since the mid 60’s with most of my operating time spent on Morse code (CW) working contests and DXing although I do enjoy operating RTTY and occasionally SSB. I was first licensed as VE1ASJ.
Over the years I have operated from numerous spots around the world.
Some of the calls I have held are: VE1DX, VE1SPI, VE8CW, VO2AB, CY0SPI, HP9FC, VP9/VE1ASJ and ZD9BP.
Back in the Spring of 1970 I was lucky enough to arrive on the Island of Cape Verde just in time for the CQWW WPX SSB contest and operated as CR4BC.
I have also operated as CT3AS,PY7AKW,TF3EA and ZS1JD as a guest.
One of my enjoyments of the hobby was providing special prefixes when every available and of course I was always looking for new prefixes on CW.

A few more eQSL cards



This gentlemen was running the famous PSK-31 Warbler at only 3 Watts! His web site URL is shown on the card above and I decided to check it out. What it lacks in multimedia animated Flash whoop-dee-doo, it makes up in content. Bill has some serious talent – enjoy his version of the introduction to Money For Nothing with more of a amateur radio flavor (note to Sting – you have some competition!). Looks like Bill is the QRP (low power) guru.


I chatted briefly with Bob – he was helping steer me towards finding National Weather Service stations during SKYWARN Recognition Day.

How to make a CW contact

Making a CW contact is very similar to making a phone contact except of course you are using Morse Code. The process of CQing and exchanging information is about the same although CW operators use more abbreviations to make sending faster.

1. Call CQ as follows: “CQ CQ CQ de VE3BUC VE3BUC VE3BUC K” and wait for a response.

Note the abbreviations used. “de” means “this is” and “K” means “go.” You do not need to use phonetics in CW.

2. The other station may respond as “VE3BUC de PY1ANF PY1ANF K”

3. Now it’s your turn. “PY1ANF de VE3BUC GM UR RPT IS 599 599 NM IS DON DON ES QTH IS TORONTO PY1ANF DE VE3BUC KN”
To avoid confusion I have left out the punctuation in the above line. Normally punctuation is not used for casual contacts to reduce the amount of sending needed. It usually is quite obvious to both operators where the punctuation should go.

Notice the use of abbreviations. de, GM, UR, RPT, NM, ES, QTH, KN are all commonly used. The table shows the meaning of common abbreviations used in CW.

Abbreviation Use
de this is
ES and
GM good morning
K go
KN go only
NM name
QTH location
RPT report
R roger
SK clear
tnx thanks
UR your, you are
73 best
regards

4. The exchange of information continues as for phone except that CW operators will use the abbreviated form of words on a regular basis during their exchange.

5. At the end of the contact you might finish as follows: “… tnx Luis fer the QSO 73 es gud DX. PY1ANF de VE3BUC SK”

Again several abbreviations were used but these are obvious I hope. “fer” instead of “for” is simply less keying and “gud” for “good” also saves the wrist.

Amateur Radio Station NN3SI

From The Smithsonian: Natural Museum of American History web site

For nearly a century, amateur radio operators (HAMs) have energized the airwaves around the world. Exploring radio science and technology, providing emergency communications, or simply “calling CQ” to chat, HAMs are part of radio history. At the Museum’s HAM radio station, NN3SI, visitors learn about radio while they watch and talk with volunteer HAMs operating the station.

The unusual call sign, NN3SI, comes from the station’s origin in the Museum’s bicentennial exhibition “A Nation of Nations.” The FCC assigned a temporary call NN3SI for Nation of Nations-US zone 3-Smithsonian Institution, and later granted a request to make the call permanent.

The station participates in special events. During the dedication of the World War II Memorial on the National Mall, station operators made many contacts and taught children visiting the Museum how to spell their names in Morse code. Over the years, operators at NN3SI have logged contacts with HAMs in all parts of the world and with astronauts and cosmonauts in orbit.

The station operates on a range of frequencies from 3.5 to 450 MHZ. Licensed HAMs planning a trip to Washington, D.C., can sign up to operate the station during their visit.


Smithsonian Secretary S. Dillon Ripley (at left), ARRL President Harry Dannals and operator Joseph Fincutter inaugurate station NN3SI in July 1976.


Volunteer operators Stan Schretter (at left) and Don Sylvain making contacts during the 2004 Memorial Day weekend.

… I sent an email an asked how I’d go about arranging an appointment to be a guest operator at NN3SI and got the following response:

From : Carl Lagoda
Sent : Thursday, December 1, 2005 8:52 PM
To :
Subject : Re: NN3SI

Hello Scott:
You are certainly welcome to visit NN3SI and , while there, operate the station as a guest operator. We only ask that you present a photo ID to identify yourself. As you probably already know, the station is located in the National Museum of American History. I suggest that you enter the building by the Constitution Avenue entrance. NN3SI is in an exhibit called “Information Age”. The duty operators are there between 10am and 3pm with time out for lunch. Since the station depends on volunteer operators, we do not have continuous coverage so that you may not find an operator on duty. If you could name a specific date and time for your visit, we will try to have someone there for you. Regards de Carl w3cl

Maybe I can take a quick trip up to D.C. in late December when work slows down a bit. I think it would be really neat to be a guest operator at the Smithsonian’s amateur radio station! 🙂

What is an eQSL?

From the eQSL FAQ page:
Clever hams were sending electronic QSL cards by e-mail years ago. Back then, that was the only way to send them.

But e-mail is not a very easy way of exchanging cards. So, in 1998, we created the first eQSL exchange and called it www.QSLCard.com, and it has attracted a huge following. Our system does not use e-mail at all. So you really don’t “send” eQSLs. Instead, it stores your log in a large database. When another user uploads his log, we look at all the log entries that “match”, and allow you to display and print eQSLs from those matching log entries.

In April, 2000, we converted the entire system to a very robust and high tech database-oriented system and renamed our site www.eQSL.cc, the Electronic QSL Card Centre.

We are now the ONLY exchange for electronic QSL cards, with 56.0 million eQSLs from 302 countries currently online.

And, since virtually all of our technology is covered by patents pending, you can be assured that this will continue to be the place to maintain your online eQSL log!

——————————-

So far I’ve received the following QSL cards through eQSL:



Some amateur radio operators will only use eQSL as a method to exchange QSL cards – other won’t use it at all. I will admit, it is a little unsatisfying receiving an eQSL as compared to receiving an actual QSL card in the mail.

A Few Interesting Ham Radio Blogs

From The KØNR Weblog
One of the recent trends on the Internet is the use of Weblogs (commonly called “blogs”). Some of these are on-line journals; some are related to a particular topic or point of view. I’ve spent some time searching for ham radio related blogs and have come across these:

* KB6NU’s Ham Radio Blog http://kb6nu.com/
* Long Delayed Echoes (KE9V) http://ke9v.net/
* Hamblog (a shared blog with multiple contributors) http://www.hamblog.com/
* The Future of Radio (ham radio index) http://futureofradio.typepad.com/the_future_of_radio/ham_radio/index.html
* Amateur Radio and Scanner Blog http://wa3fkg.blogspot.com/
* Shedberg (Scott Hedberg KD7PJQ) http://www.livejournal.com/users/shedberg/
* W2LJ’s Blog – QRP and Amateur Radio http://w2lj.blogspot.com/
* K7VO Ham Radio Blog http://k7vo.blogspot.com/

Let me know what you find out there in the blog-o-sphere.

73,
Bob K0NR

Electrical engineer, ham radio enthusiast (KØNR), VHF Columnist for QRP Quarterly and FM Columnist for CQ VHF Magazine

My favorite amateur radio blogs are:
* KB6NU’s Ham Radio Blog http://kb6nu.com/

… from his website
Who the Heck is KB6NU?

I got an e-mail from a guy who noted that he couldn’t find my name anywhere on this website. I looked and he’s right. So, here’s a little bit about me. I’m going to figure out a way for a link to this post to appear on one of the nav bars so that readers can find it more easily….

My name is Dan Romanchik, and I’m just a guy who’s having fun with ham radio.

I’m 50 years old, and have been a ham for 34 years, although for most of those years, I wasn’t very active. I have been very active since the summer of 2002, after I got the bug again after working some CW at our club’s Field Day. Since then, I have:

* made more than 4,000 contacts, mostly on CW,
* increased my code speed to almost 30 wpm,
* built a bunch of kits and other stuff (including an Elecraft KX1 handheld HF transceiver),
* worked a bunch of contests and have even garnered a few certificates from doing so,
* taught a General Class license course the past two years,
* become president of ARROW, a club that serves ham in and around Ann Arbor, MI, and
* been appointed Affiliated Club Coordinator for the Michigan section.

I’m no “super ham.” I don’t have a 120-ft. tower with a three-element 40m beam on it. I don’t own a $10,000 transceiver, and I haven’t yet been on a DXpedition. I am having a lot of fun, though.

…. my other favorite amateur radio blog is:

* Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, and his StanZapples web site (http://homepage.mac.com/stanzapple/Menu1.html).

Stan has been a regular contributor to QST magazine and also put out a pretty good book on APRS. I enjoy reading his Friday column on the ARRL web site: Surfin’.

2005 SKYWARN Recognition Day – December 3, 2005 (0000 – 2400 UTC.)

SKYWARN Recognition Day was developed in 1999 by the National Weather Service (NWS) and the American Radio Relay League. It celebrates the contributions that volunteer SKYWARN radio operators make to the National Weather Service. During the day SKYWARN operators visit NWS offices and contact other radio operators across the world. I attended SKYWARN training back in May 2005 – my Spotter ID is VHAM120.

Object For all amateur stations to exchange QSO information with as many National Weather Service Stations as possible on 80, 40, 20, 15, 10, 6, and 2 meter bands plus the 70 centimeter band. Contacts via repeaters are permitted. SKYWARN Recognition Day serves to celebrate the contributions to public safety made by amateur radio operators during threatening weather.

I was able to make two contacts on 20 Meters using PSK31 to NWS stations: WX8MQT in Marquette, MI and WX7GGW in Glasglow, MT – indicated by the red circles above. I passed through Glasglow on my road trip earlier this year.