Re: [HCDX] Dxers Unlimited script for 13-14 October 2007

["Prof.Arnaldo Coro Antich" <coro@xxxxxxx>]

Radio Havana Cuba

Dxers Unlimited's weekend edition for 13-14 October 2007

By Arnie Coro

radio amateur CO2KK

Hi amigos radioaficionados around the world, I am Arnaldo, Arnie, Coro,
radio amateur CO2KK, your host here at Dxers Unlimited, our twice weekly
radio hobby program... And here is item one, good news coming from
Geneva , Switzerland. TheSecretary General of the International
Telecommunications Union, the United Nations specialized agency has
taken his amateur radio license test and is now a licensed radio amateur
operator, Dr. Hamadoun Touré, Secretary General of the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU), received his Amateur Radio license
October 8. Touré, now holds the call sign HB9EHT. He was born in Mali,
Africa. He has a Master's Degree in electrical engineering from the
Technical Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications of Leningrad
and a PhD from the University of Electronics, Telecommunications and
Informatics of Moscow. Congratulations to Dr. Toure that add his
prestigious name to the hundreds of world personalities that are also
amateur radio operators.... And of course, when you hear on the air
HB9EHT from Switzerland, where he lives, give Dr. Toure a call and have
a nice two way QSO with him...

Item two: The Radio Amateur's Academy program of the Cuban Federation of
Radio Amateurs is now in full swing, with hundreds of participants all
along the Cuban archipelago. Some of the students are there in order to
prepare to upgrade their ham radio licenses, but the great majority are
newcomers to the hobby that will take the test required to be able to
obtain an amateur radio license and callsign...

Item three: A single 1.5 volts battery provides power to a unique
regenerative solid state radio receiver, that has exceptional
sensititivity and selectivity.... No, it won't provide output to a
loudspeaker, but the volume on the standard walkman or similar
headphones is more than adequate... The receiver uses very few parts,
and none of them are hard to find.... as a matter of fact, I just
completed another one made with totally recycled components removed from
an old VCR Betamax machine, that by the way are a treasure chest of
parts for your radio hobby construction projects...

More radio hobby related information coming up in a few seconds, after a
short break for station ID...

I am Arnie Coro in Havana, back with you after a short musical interval...

..................

Si amigos, this is Radio Havana Cuba, the 100 percent QSL station, since
the very first test transmissions using our telephone poles supported
antennas, and a Gates One Kilowatt short wave transmitter way back in
early February of 1961... You can send your signal reports, comments
about our programs, and radio hobby related questions to arnie@xxxxxx or
VIA AIR MAIL to Arnie Coro, Radio Havana Cuba, Havana, Cuba. Now item
four: Ham radio operators around the world getting ready for the
upcoming contests. In some particular cases, preparations have been in
progress for a long time and include transporting equipment and
operators to far away exotic locations with rare callsigns that attract
a lot of attention from other contest participants. But you don't need
to spend a lot of money and fly far away from your home QTH to enjoy an
amateur contest. For example, several Cuban contest enthusiasts have
done very well by installing additional antennas that are up just for
the contest. Among the most popular antenna set ups are the half square
verticals that provide very low vertical take off angle using two not
too tall masts. My half square beams were used by a Canadian contest
station that operated from rare CQ Zone 2 very succefully. The Canadian
hams with my good friend Bob Chandler VE3SRE as one of the organizers of
the DX expedition for a CQ Radio Amateur Magazine Worldwide Contest,
used masts made of thick wall PVC pipes for their 20 , 15 and 10 meter
bands half square vertical antennas. By the way, just recently a Dxers
Unlimited listener asked why the ham radio contests only take place on
the old bands, 160, 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 meter bands , and the answer
is that the so called WARC bands 30, 17 and 12 meters are rather narrow
frequency assignments, and in the case of the 10 megaHertz band, it is
shared with other radio communications services... so, the organizers of
amateur radio contests decided by consensus not to use those bands for
the contests...

According to another good friend CO2JD Charlie Oscar two Juliet Delta,
Juan Carlos Molina, an excellent CW operator that has won several
contests, operating on 40 meters at this phase of the solar cycle gives
the participant much better chances of achieving many contest points and
multipliers from local sunset to about an hour or an hour and a half
after sunrise. Juan Carlos has also operated on 80 meters , but he makes
many more contest points on 40 meters.

For your information, my favorite contests are the VHF - UHF ones, that
sometimes provide fantastic contacts, while other times are absolutely
boring, when no band openings happen... But, if you stay on monitoring
six meters during a VHF contest, a sudden sporadic E opening that may
last an hour or even less, can send your contest score way, way up !!!
Amateur radio contests are one of the more than 81 ways that you and I
enjoy this wonderful hobby of ours amigos !!!

.......

The Sun continues to be at a standstill, with many days, one after the
other without a single sunspot.... and consequently, the daytime maximum
useable frequency curve stays below 20 megaHertz and even lower...

Now item six.... SPRAT magazine the G QRP Club journal is a wonderful
source of practical technical know how... George Dobbs, radio amateur
G3RJV, the founder of the G QRP Club has written hundreds of articles
that will now be available in a new compact disk compilation. Visit the
G QRP Club's website for more information about the club's activities.
QRP means operating with low power, and hams around the world consider
5 Watts as the maximum power that will keep your station within the QRP
or low power definition. The use of the now extremely popular PSK31
keyboard to keyboard digital communications mode has opened up new
frontiers for QRP operators worldwide, as PSK31 contacts are possible
using extremely low power outputs to the antennas !!!

And talking about QRP, my lowest power amateur radio transmitter runs
from 10 to 100 milliWatts output... So far no contacts with 10
milliWatts but I have already made several nice two way CW Morse Code
QSO's on the 20 meters band using my QRP RIG running at the 100
milliWatts or one tenth of a Watt power output level... I have even
received several excellent 559 and 569 reports from stations in the US
and Canada, and a 339 report from a station in France...

QRP operation is a lot of fun and a real challenge to your operating
skills !!!

......

Dxers Unlimited's weekend edition coming to you via shortwave and also
via Internet streaming audio from 05 to 07 UTC. We are also on the
Hispasat One D satellite transponder 79 vertical polarization, again
from 05 to 07 UTC , but soon we will also be on the satellite with a
second channel for our English language programs.

Now, ASK ARNIE, la numero uno, the most popular section of the show...
answering a question sent from the Republic of South Africa, by listener
Desmond in Pretoria... Des ASKS ARNIE, when we should see at least some
recovery of the HF propagation conditions, because, as he rightly quotes
in his e-mail message, his receiver picks up practically nothing above
20 megahertz these days. Well amigo Des, according to my good friend
Angel Gonzalez Coroas, Cuba's number one sunspots expert, we very
probably will see more sunspots by the end of next year... Angel says
that the forecasts for cycle 23's final months were basically wrong, and
that it is now , from July to December of 2007 that the solar cycle is
going trough its period of minimum activity. And he adds that the rise
in the number of sunspots will be starting to significant by July of
2008 , but not earlier...

And now amigos as always at the end of the show, here is Arnie Coro's
Dxers Unlimited's HF and low band VHF propagation update and forecast...
Solar activity is expected to continue at very, very low levels, and the
geomagnetic field will be also very quiet for the next few days.
Ionospheric absorption will be at a minimum. Expect daytime maximum
useable frequencies on the best North -South circuits not to exceed 21
megaHertz, but Transequatorial propagation may provide nice openings on
the 10 and 6 meter bands from South America to the Caribbean, Mexico and
Southern United States, and from Africa to the Mediterranean region...
See you all at the mid week edition of the program amigos... and don't
forget to send your signal reports and comments about my show to
arnie@xxxxxx, I surely appreciate them very much amigos !!!

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