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Re: [HCDX] Dxers Unlimited's script for 9-10 January 2007
Radio Havana Cuba
Dxers Unlimited's mid week edition for 9-10 January 2007
by Arnie Coro
CO2KK
Hi amigos radioaficionados worldwide ! From Havana this is the mid week
edition of your favorite radio hobby program, Dxers Unlimited, with
Arnie Coro ... Stay with me for the next seventeen minutes listening to
radio related topics that I am sure you will enjoy... Here is the first
one: How Internet is actually helping to promote amateur radio, and also
providing ham radio operators with a lot of information about many
different aspects of the hobby, from specialized mailing lists aiming at
earth moon earth communications to up to date propagation information
that certainly helps to optimize your search for DX stations, without
forgetting to mention those web sites that provide instant data on the
DX stations that are actually on the air at any moment.
With the new concept by telecommunications administrations that the
Morse Code tests are no longer necessary to issue an amateur radio
license, we are certainly going to see a lot of newcomers to the hobby,
especially among those persons to whom the Morse Code learning curve
proved to be a very difficult challenge... But CW Morse Code
communications won't disappear from the amateur bands, as many operators
will continue to use it for weak signal work, and I am sure that many of
the newcomers will "discover" CW by themselves and start
enjoying its fascination... Because, without any doubts , CW
radiotelegraphy transmissions are capable of providing two
way communications with the bare minimum equipment requirements ...
Item two: Got plenty of feedback from Dxers Unlimited listeners
regarding the QSLs topic, and they all agree in one way or the other
that short wave stations should be encouraged to QSL to their
listeners... As regards to Tropical Band, AM broadcast band and FM
stations, QSLing is left very much to the existence of members of their
staff that are willing to devote time to answering the QSL requests...
Item three: Using a very simple vertical antenna that looks
very much like a fishing rod... a Canadian radio amateur tells
me that he has worked DXCC,that is two way contacts with 100 hundred DX
entities, so when he receives the last QSL card from
the 100th country worked, he will be able to apply for the DXCC award...
The antenna is put up in less than two minutes by fitting it into a jig
that he has installed on the balcony rail of his
eleventh floor apartment... And as explained in a recent Dxers
Unlimited's edition, the ground system or counterpoise is a permanent
installation. He has only to connect the ground to the base of the
antenna with a butterfly nut, and start operating
less than two minutes after taking the antenna from the closet where he
keeps it to the balcony.
He has made three loading coils for it, one to operate on 40 meters, the
other for 30 meters and the other one for 20 meters. On 15 meters the
antenna can be tuned with the antenna tuner without the need of a
loading coil, because it uses a capacity top had loading device that
artificially extends the length of the
three sections aluminum tubing antenna.
More about the Toronto Special Balcony antenna when Dxers Unlimited's
mid week edition continues after a short break
I am Arnie Coro in Havana..
........
This is Radio Havana Cuba, the name of the show is Dxers Unlimited , and
yes we do QSL, so you can send your requests
for the verification of reception reports to arnie@xxxxxx, or VIA AIR
MAIL to Arnie Coro Radio Havana Cuba,Havana, Cuba.
Now, as promised early in the program here is more information on the
Toronto Special Balcony Antenna... According to its designer and
builder, the idea to make it came right from Havana, when he heard yours
truly talking about balcony antennas and how they could make possible
operating an
amateur radio station on the HF bands with very small sized
antennas. Our Toronto friend who wants to remain anonymous, said in his
first e-mail that he had operated on two meters
and seventy centimeters from his eleventh floor apartment since moving
to that building. He said that the antennas he had tested for 2 meters
and 70 centimeters included ground planes, J poles several YAGI and
QUAGI designs and the only problem he had found was that signals from
and to the other side of the building were heavily attenuated, so his
coverage of the area behind
his building was reduced significantly. Nevertheless our Canadian friend
says that he enjoys now also working on 6 meters , having made recently
his first Auroral Curtain propagation two way contact... But, he wanted
to be on the HF bands, and with absolutely no possibilities of
installing a rooftop antenna due to the building regulations, after
hearing my explanation of how short vertical or inclined antennas
protruding from a balcony could prove to be efficient enough for HF
work, he began to think about the project.
He has a very nice antenna tuner, with a built in Standing Wave Ratio
bridge meter, and capable of covering a very wide
range of impedances... For this particular balcony antenna, the base
impedances involved are rather low, that is they are much less than 50
ohms, and that requires a very well designed tuner.
The Toronto Special Balcony antenna is built in three sections that
telescope into each other, with the one closer to the base
providing a very good mechanical strength, so that even under
heavy winds the antenna will not break up and fall into the
ground, something that must be avoided by all means as it
is a potentially dangerous problem. So, the first section is
made using 50 centimeters of 50 millimeters or two inch
diamter heavy wall aluminum tubing, followed by a second
section of 25 millimeters or one inch tubing that is two
meters long, and the final section is a stainless steel whip
antenna cut to a length of about one meter, making the
overall length of the antenna from the insulated Teflon
base of three and a half meters, and that's why it loads
up so well directly on the fifteen meters band without the
use of a base loading coil... The mechanical construction of the antenna
, as shown by the photos sent to me, is of an extreme
high quality, using sleeves that enclose the less diameter sections that
are held using Allen type bolts distributed in
such a way as to assure a very reliable mechanical assembly.
A later model instead of using the steel whip as the last section, uses
a length of three quarters inch heavy wall aluminum tubing to which a
top capacity loading aluminum disk is attached to
artificially increase the length of the antenna, making operation
on the 40 meters band more efficient.
At the base of the antenna there is an area that is used for
installing the loading coils for 40 , 30 and 20 meters band
operation and the copper link that is used for 17 meters,
15 meters, 12 meters and 10 meters band operation.
The antenna tuner is located right at the base of the antenna,
and according to the designer and builder, he is able to
achieve a one to one standing wave ratio on all bands from
40 meters to 10 meters without any trouble. Normally he runs his
transceiver at around 20 Watts power output or less,
a well thought practice if you consider that operating an HF
amateur radio station from an apartment building using high
power can create problems with neighbor's TV sets, stereos
and computers...
So far , he says that at the 20 Watts power level , no one has
complained....
As you may realize this was not a single weekend project
and it did require a lot of mechanical work, but it was
worth the effort, and it made possible to enjoy operating on
the HF amateur bands, and as a bonus, much better short
wave reception,as he tells me that the antenna is also used
for that purpose, providing much better reception on the
short wave broadcast bands from 6 megaHertz up... His
amateur transceiver has a wide range HF receiver covering
from 100 kiloHertz all the way to 30 megaHertz, and he
tells me that now he listens to Dxers Unlimited on
6180 kiloHertz with much better quality than when he
uses his portable radio with the telescopic whip.
If you live in an apartment building and have a balcony
or terrace, think about the nice possibilities that building
a similar antenna from readily available materials may
mean for you... both for ham radio and short wave listening!
......
Si amigos, you are listening to Radio Havana Cuba, the name of the show
is Dxers Unlimited and here is our next item today..
amateur radio satellites and how they are becoming easier
and easier to use ...but with the still not solved problem of
very short access periods.... After the now non operational Oscar 40
satellite failed to provide the world amateur radio operators with one
more ellyptic orbit spacecraft that could be accessed
for hours at a time, the satellites available for ham radio
communications are only low quasi circular orbit ones, that due to their
low altitude are only available for short periods of time, usually not
lasting more than fifteen minutes at best...
Anyway, even with a hand held FM dual band transceiver
and a simple dual band antenna you can make two way
satellite contacts in many parts of the world...they won't
last long, but can be made using several communications modes, from
voice to digital ... Amateur satellite communications are one of the
more than 80 ways that you and I can enjoy this
wonderful and even low cost hobby amigos !
......
ASK ARNIE, is the most popular section of Dxers Unlimited
and today I will be answering a question by listener Mario
from Turin, Italy. He wants to know more about gray line propagation,
that is the optimized propagation conditions
that happen along the line that separates day and night,
the so called terminator line that is so nicely seeing by
astronauts and cosmonauts from space... Well amigo Mario
terminator line propagation, as it is also known among radio
hobbysts, is a unique mode, of which we still need to learn a lot
about... I am sending you via e-mail an information package that I
compiled some time ago about this topic, that may help you
to better understand how this mode works... Included in the
package are a list of Internet websites that have information
about gray line or terminator line propagation for you to visit
and enjoy !!!
And now as always at the end of the show , here is our
exclusive and not copyrighted HF plus low band VHF propagation update
and forecast... Abnormal tropospheric
ducting, totally out of the usual tropo DX season is happening in the
Northern Hemisphere due to the unusually high temperatures registered
during this winter... Here in Cuba
we have seen tropo ducting earlier than at any previous year,
as early January brought a wide reaching tropo opening to the Gulf of
Mexico... Now the HF update...
Less than 50 percent probability of Class C solar flares
expected during the next three days
The geomagnetic field is expected to be QUIET
Solar flux will be very near 90 units and the A index
or planetary geomagnetic disturbance indicator is expected
to remain at very nice and low levels , making possible
good propagation conditions on the lower frequency bands
during the next three days
The estimated Catania , Sicily solar observatory WOLF sunspot number has
increased to 61...and the smoothed sunspot number
is now around 35, and that is the figure, 35, to use for making
your HF propagation forecasts using the typical software
programs for that purpose.
See you at the weekend edition of Dxers Unlimited amigos !
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