There are times when the bands are just awful. Maybe you need to clean out your box of connectors!
Connector Chess
73, Lee ZL2AL
Connector Chess
Category Archives: Amateur Radio General
Phillips, Pozidrive and Robertson Screws
Q: What’s the difference between Phillips, Pozidrive and Robertson (square) screws?
A: Philips drive screws are the screws that have cross-slots that look like an X, stamped into the head. Patented in the 1930’s, these were a vast improvement over the antique “slotted” screw, which tended to cam-out easily and were difficult to drive with power drivers.
Robertson (square) drive screws were patented in Canada in 1908 and address problems that the Phillips driver doesn’t quite solve. They allow the screw to be placed on the driver prior to the screw being placed in position. What this meant was that for the first time you could start a screw overhead or in a tight spot without an extra hand holding the screw onto the driver.
Pozidrive screws are the European answer to the Phillips shortcomings. The differences are subtle. At first glance it appears to be a Phillips, but on closer examination you’ll notice a second set of cross-blades at the root of the large cross-blades. These added blades are for identification and match the additional makings on the head of Pozi-drive screws, known as “tick” marks. So the marks are for identification. Identification of what?
Two features of the Pozi-drive screw and driver combination make it unique, and superior to the Phillips. First, the tip or the Pozidrive driver is blunt, which also helps it to seat better into the recess in the screw, unlike the Phillips which comes to a sharper point. This becomes a problem as the tooling that forges the recess in the head of the screws begins to show signs of wear. The recess becomes more and more shallow, which means the driver will bottom-out too soon and will cause the driver to cam-out.
The second unique feature is the large blades on the driver have parallel faces, where the Phillips blades are tapered. The straight sides of the driver allow additional torque to be exerted without fear of cam-out. Knowing this, we can see why a Phillips driver will have problems driving a screw with a Pozi-recess, as a Pozi-driver would have little luck driving a Phillips head screw. One more tip. In a pinch it is possible to drive Pozi-drive screws with a Phillips driver, but you will need to grind down the tip slightly, and expect some slipping to occur.
73, Lee ZL2AL
DXCC – LoTW – QSL Cards 101
There has been some confusion in the minds of newcomers to the DXCC program on just how DXCC fits in with LoTW and which updates which account and how does LoTW fit in with DXCC and what role does the card checker have in the mix. This is written in response to a query from a local ZL. I tried to make it easy to understand. It worked and the explanation may be able to help others
Perhaps this explanation this may help. Some assumptions are made
1. You have an existing DXCC account at the DXCC Desk
2. You have a LoTW account
3. Your LoTW account is linked to your DXCC account by your request to the DXCC desk. The assumption is that you have done that.
4. When you send VUCC or WAS cards to me, it has nothing to do with either of your above accounts. No linking, no cross referencing They don’t have any relevance to each other and you will receive your VUCC or WAS in due course. If you want those cards to count for DXCC totals you have to make another application and submit them via LoTW, Online Application or checked QSL cards
5. When you make an application to me, either by you completing and Online application and sending the cards to me, those cards are returned to you and the paperwork goes to the DXCC desk and the totals are added to your DXCC account and they magically show up in your linked LoTW totals.
5. When you make a LoTW application via the LoTW facilities, those credits are between LoTW and the DXCC desk and I have nothing to do with them. LoTW is updated and your linked DXCC totals are updated.
6. At any given time you can look at your LoTW account and look at your DXCC totals with relation to any award. You can also go to the ARRL DXCC Listings website and download a PDF file for the 3 main categories of DXCC. They are called the DXCC Listings.
7. As a card checker, I have absolutely no access to any LoTW account (other than my own) and cannot make an entries on behalf of an applicant.
The above should clarify how the system works. If you still have more questions (no question is EVER, EVER stupid if you don’t know the answer!) give me a phone call on 06 844 1226. Don’t hold back, get it clear in your mind and then things will become easier for you.
If its any consolation, I just switched my office computer from 30 years of various Windoze madness editions and updates to Apple iMac. The thought of Windoze 8 was reducing my will to live! I am on a big learning curve and have lots of questions on this particular subject. Fortunately there is an App for mac OS X which is called “Ask Alfred’ Bloody brilliant as it goes out to a huge database and newsgroup that will tell me. At 76, I need help. Some would say i need professional help to overcome my ham radio addiction 🙂
73, Lee ZL2AL
SM0DTK Antenna Designs
This fellow has some really cool, practical wire antenna designs and his website is well worth looking at. http://hem.passagen.se/sm0dtk/antennas.htm
73, Lee ZL2AL
The 2013 CQWW DX Contest
CQ WW Contest Dates
SSB: October 26-27, 2013
CW: November 23-24, 2013
Starts: 0000 UTC Saturday Ends: 2359 UTC Sunday
The last weekend in October marks the annual CQ World Wide SSB Contest. The CQWW is a contest for first time participants and also for seasoned fantastical contesters. You will have the opportunity to work countries you have never heard on the air previously. Better still, it’s very easy to do. The minimum you will need is a 100W radio and a wire antenna for any band.
The exchange numbers are very simple. The planet is divided up in 40 Zones. We, in ZL are Zone 32. The number you will be given is 59 (Signal report) and a zone number from 1 to 40. You will always give out 59 32. And the stations you work will be delighted to work you as ZL is still fairly rare. You don’t even need logging software. All you need to do is keep track of the date, Time, Band, Mode, Callsign and Zone. You don’t even have to send in an entry. It is possible to work 100 countries in the weekend and many do. And you will hear them. There will be over 10,000 stations on world wide
So have a go guys! The 2013 CQWW starts Sat 26th October 1PM local (0000 UTC) on Saturday and runs through until Monday 28th at 1PM Monday (0000 UTC) for a total of 48 hours. The best time to listen is mornings on 10M, mornings and afternoons on 15M, afternoons and evenings on 20M and after 6PM local on 40 and 80M
Go ahead, set yourself a goal of 20 or 50 or 100 countries or more. It sure beats listening to a repeater going kerchunck kerchunck!
If I can help… just ask.
73, Lee ZL2AL
How Many Does It Take To Spot A DX Station?
This was written by Don Greenbaum, N1DG back in 2005. It still has relevance today!
Q: How many dx Internet mail list subscribers does it take to announce a new dx station?
A: 1,343
1 to spot the dx and and to post to the mail list that the dxpedition has been spotted;
14 to share similar experiences of working the dx and how the dx could have been worked differently;
7 to complain about the dx operating habits, lack of low band activity, interference to nets, lack of WARC activity, too wide splits, too narrow splits, or not enough cw;
27 to point out the spelling/grammar errors in posts about the dx;
53 to flame the spell checkers;
41 to correct spelling/grammar flames;
6 to argue over whether it’s “dx-pedition” or “dxpedition”;
another 6 to condemn those 6 as anal-retentive;
156 to write to the list administrator about the dx spot discussion and its inappropriateness to the mail list;
109 to post that this list is not about splits, cw or low band activity and to please take this email exchange to dx-l;
203 to demand that cross posting to grammar-l, spelling-l and dx-l about dx be stopped;
111 to defend the posting to this list saying that we all work dx and therefore the posts *are* relevant to this mail list;
306 to debate which method of working the dx is superior, where to look for him, how many calls it took -5 being the lowest so far and why this is the worst dx pedition EVER;
27 to post URL’s where one can see examples of better operations;
14 to post that the URL’s were posted incorrectly and then post the corrected URL’s;
3 to post about links they found from the URL’s that are relevant to this list which makes the dx discussion relevant to this list;
33 to link all posts to date, then quote them including all headers and footers and then
add “Me too”;
12 to post to the list that they are unsubscribing because they cannot handle the
dx controversy;
19 to quote the “Me too’s” to say “Me three”;
4 to suggest that posters request the dx list FAQ;
43 to ask what is “FAQ”;
4 to say “didn’t we go through this already a short time ago on the List?”
141 to ask “How do I unsubscribe?”
1 to ask if anyone’s heard the dx…….
1 more to ask what country the dx is in….
Sound familiar?
73, Don, N1DG
Things To Come – A Cautionary Tale
By LES MITCHELL, G3BHK* (From: Radcom Magazine 1984)
OUR LITTLE GROUP of local ex-service G3 types often meets for a drink in the snug of the old coaching inn down by the riverside. Discussion ranges far and wide, but as one might expect revolves mainly around our wartime experiences and, of course, amateur radio.
Recently someone pointed out that he had not heard Bill on the bands for some time. Bill had obtained his licence immediately after the war and had spent every available moment chasing dx or chatting to his friends on 3•5MHz. Since he retired a few years ago he had spent even more time on the air, and it was very unusual not to hear him working on some band whenever one listened. When we compared notes we suddenly realized that no-one had heard Bill’s signal for over six months. “You live nearest to him,” said Joe, “why don’t you drop in and see what has happened. Let’s hope he is not a silent key, but I am sure we would have heard something if he had passed on.”
A few days later I knocked at Bill’s door rather worried that I might be faced by a tearful and grieving widow. The door swung open to reveal Bill with a big grin on his face and looking fitter than I had ever seen him. Within a short time I was sitting in an armchair with a full glass in my hand and explaining why I had called.
“Well,” said Bill, “it is a long story. You see just after l retired a relative of mine died and left me a useful sum of money. As you know, all my rigs were getting quite old, so I jumped at the chance to completely renew all my station equipment. “First of all l purchased one of those Sky-Gain automatic aperiodic multi-band beams plus the computer controller. This array works on all bands and the computer turns the array to the maximum signal path without any effort on the part of the operator. I mounted this on my old 100 ft. tower and it was fantastic!
“Then I invested in the very latest transceiver, the Fuji Yama FJ 20,001 which covers all bands l•8MHz. to UHF with full legal power and no tuning whatsoever. To supplement this I also bought two computerized attachments-one which enables you to enter all the call prefixes of the countries you have worked already on each band, and then commands the transceiver to hunt each band in turn and only stops when it hears a new prefix. This unit also allows one to program automatic replies – callsign, signal reports, handle, location and requests to QSL etc. It had an additional program which made automatic calls to any of my friends’ callsigns it heard on 3•5 and 7MHz. l had to keep these replies updated with the latest news: you know the sort of thing-the car has gone wrong again. I have just mown the lawn, the rheumatism is painful, the income tax people have overcharged me again, etc.
“The second computer unit was the printout attachment which automatically printed the log entries and produced fully-completed QSL cards. So you see l could just leave the rig on 24h/day and it would work the rare dx and also chat to my mates on 3•5MHz without me going near it except to add more printout paper and blank QSL cards. Apart from a trip to the post office every day to post the QSLs, it left me time for decorating, car cleaning, gardening and after-meal naps. After it had been on the air continuously for about a month I discovered I had worked every dx station which existed, and even my friends on 3•5MHz were not replying to my calls-I expect they did not like the impersonal touch.
Then I suddenly realized that this new rig had utterly and completely destroyed my interest in amateur radio. Even the walk to the post office was boring me, and the parcel post costs were also becoming a strain. So l then made the decision that after nearly 40 years on the air it was time to give up my hobby, I sold the rig, and with the money bought the XYL all the labour saving gadgets I could find – a washing machine, a microwave oven, a food processor, a dishwasher etc. Now she has as much spare time as me so we have taken up golf. It’s very relaxing and gets us out in the fresh air. In fact we are spending more time together than we have done since we were courting!”
Bill and his XYL and l smiled at each other as she refilled the glasses. When I related this story to the others later there were sad faces all around. “But,” I added, “Bill did tell me that he intends to renew his licence every year, so perhaps at some time in the future we shall hear him on again.” But remembering just how those two smiled at each other I have my doubts.
Sign of things to come?
73, Lee ZL2AL (Reprinted from Radcom 1984)
Cycle 24 Disastrous for Hams
The sun is currently in the peak year of its 11-year solar weather cycle scientists say.
This year’s solar maximum will probably be the weakest in 100 years and the next one could be even worse. The sun is currently at the maximum of Solar Cycle 24, but as this graph shows, there are far fewer sunspots during this peak than there have been in past cycles.
Cycle 24 in July 2013
Solar Cycle 24 has been underway since 2011 and its peak was expected in 2013, but there have been fewer sunspots observed this year compared with the maximums of the last several cycles. The stage is set for an even smaller maximum during Cycle 25 around 2025.
A small Cycle 24 also fits the 100-year pattern of building and waning solar cycles as witnessed by scientists during the weak solar cycles at the beginning of the 19th and 20th centuries.
DX is always there. Even in the low times of the sunspot cycles. It’s just that you will have to be a bit more cunning to work it
I cannot remember a longer, more tedious cycle than this one and it’s the sixth one I have been in since 1958 although I did manage to catch the end of grand daddy of them all which started in 1948 and finished in 1952. The first big one for me was 1959-1961 when you could work the world on 10 metres day after day with low power. Sometimes the band was open 24 hours. This latest Cycle 24, except for a a few good bursts last year has been a big disappointment.
I will stress again that the DX is always there. Especially when a contest occurs, they all come out of the woodwork!
And that’s DXing folks!
73, Lee ZL2AL
Plasma TV RFI Cure by K9YC
Here are the main points.
1) If it IS the TV, SOMETHING connected to it is acting as a 160
meter transmitting antenna and radiating it strongly enough for your
receiving antennas to pick it up.
2) There may be more than two antennas. Prime candidates are whatever
that TV is using as a signal source (cable TV, satellite, roof
antenna), the power line, and even connections to the audio system.
3) Like any other 160 antenna, bigger makes a better transmitter, so
use your noggin in figuring out which of these antennas are most
likely to be the most effective long wire antennas.
4) Apply BIG ferrite chokes to those antennas (not your antennas, the
ones connected to the TV). What you are looking for is the greatest
possible impedance from the choke on the frequencies where you are
hearing trash. See the tutorial on my website to learn how to get
that high impedance. It includes graphs of lots of MEASURED data
contributed by another member of this list who did them in a very
good lab.
http://audiosystemsgroup.com/SAC0305Ferrites.pdf
While the tutorial is written for pro audio people, any decent RF guy
should be able to use it to understand, troubleshoot, and fix ham RFI
problems. I’m working on a tutorial dedicated to ham radio
applications.
5) You need Z on the order of several K Ohms to make a serious dent
in this trash. As the data shows, for 160, you are wasting your time
(and money) with anything less than 10-14 turns around a 2.4″ #31
toroid, or 7-8 turns through one of the biggest #31 clamp-ons.
6) Do NOT try to kill the noise by finding “a better earth
connection” for that system. Any noise that you shove into that
ground wire will radiate, just like any other antenna carrying RF
current.
7) If you are going to put a commercial AC line filter on the set,
make sure that you have the shortest possible connection between the
filter and the set, ESPECIALLY for the green wire. See #6 above.
8) 12-14 turns of twisted pair like THHN stranded around that #31
2.4″ toroid makes a very good common mode choke for 160-40 meters.
Run only “hot” and neutral through the toroid, carry the green wire
around it. Put an RF cap of at least 0.33 uF between line and neutral
on the power source side of the choke. This cap will form a
differential mode filter with the imbalance in the inductance of the
choke. It must be rated for the AC line voltage. The wire in this
choke doesn’t need to be very big — the vast majority of standard
IEC power cords are #18, even those that look a lot beefier.
9) Do NOT add capacitance between hot or neutral and the green wire.
In addition to #6 above, doing so would create more leakage current
at power frequencies than is permitted under safety codes.
73, Jim Brown K9YC
Empire of The Air DVD
Empire of the Air DVD – A film by Ken Burns
Narrated by Jason Robards. Running time 120 minutes – Colour/B&W
A PBS Video ISBN: 0-7806-4057-8
Reviewed by Lee Jennings ZL2AL
For 50 years radio dominated the airwaves and the American consciousness as the first “mass medium” This film by Ken Burns examines the lives of three extraordinary men who shared the primary responsibility for the invention of radio and it’s early success, and whose genius, friendship, rivalry and enmity interacted in tragic ways. It is the story of Lee de Forest, a clergyman’s son who invented the “audion” tube; Edwin Howard Armstrong, a brilliant withdrawn inventor who invented, regeneration, oscillation, the the superhetrodyne receiver and finally the FM:technology we know today and David Sarnoff, a hard driving Russian immigrant who created the most powerful communications company on earth.
The video portrays these three almost dysfunctional pioneers who plotted, schemed and invented the technology which changed the communications of the world. It also tells the story of giant egos, jealousy and epic courtroom battles that consumed them to the point of multiple marriages and divorces, bankruptcy and suicide. There were of course many other inventors of radio around the world. Although this is a story from an American perspective it doesn’t diminish the drama and intrigue of the era. If you thought that Stephen Job of Apple and Bill Gates of Microsoft had a dustup you can appreciate the acrimony of these pioneers as they waged legal war with each other over their inventions and patents. While they spent time in the courtroom, David Sarnoff bought the licences for their inventions to make a fortune and become the most powerful media man in the USA owning both RCA and the NBC Broadcasting network. Incidentally, David Sarnoff was also an amateur radio operator.
The wonderful black and white still photography and colour clips of the early television era paint a vivid picture of the age. Interviews with prominent family members and early broadcasters fill in the backgrounds of these men. I was amazed to learn that Lee de Forest’s dream of broadcasting speech and music to the masses was pinched by the Canadian Regenold Fessenden who beat him to it by one year. Fessendon had General Electric build him a steam-powered alternator with enough poles to produce a carrier of about 80 KHZ. His modulator was the carbon microphone element from a telephone in series with the field coil. It is thought that when his steam turbine was running at maximum, his generator may have produced as much as 100 KHZ (UHF). On Christmas Eve of 1906,
Fessendon tried out the setup on an island just off the coast of Virginia. He and a friend spoke Christmas greetings to anybody who was listening, played a violin, and frequently gave out an address to which people could write if they heard the broadcast. It probably sounded terrible, but they got cards and letters from people all up and down the East Coast. It is said that people used to listening to the static crashes and buzzing CW signals from spark transmitters thought they were losing their senses when voices and music began to be heard. There were a few steam-powered RF alternators built in the world, but vacuum tubes were discovered around 1907 or so and electronics as we know it was born.
One two minute film clip showed about 12 well dressed gentlemen with bow ties in front a microphone creating the live sound effects for a “western” drama. Absolutely hilarious! Amateur radio is not mentioned in detail but the magnificent towers and radio antennas that were constructed back in those days are a wonder to behold. Marconi’s place in radio history is preserved and the sound and power of a fully operational rotary spark transmitter is awesome! Cutting edge technology between about 1885 and 1920 was to put a tuning coil on the output of the spark gap and to put the gap in to a chamber filled with hydrogen or some other substance and devoid of air so that a hotter spark could be made. Sometimes, the operator got a little too much air in the chamber by accident and the hydrogen would ignite, blowing the whole thing sky high, but that was just an occupational hazard of keeping in touch by wireless in those days.
I watched spellbound for two hours as the drama unfolded. The DVD from Amazon www.amazon.com at $18.00 USD over the internet and the shipping time is about 6 days from the USA. It was originally produced for the PBS (Public Broadcasting System) in the USA for running as a two hour documentary over a few weeks. It is well worth purchasing and would make an excellent video for club use.