Re: [HCDX] Dxers Unlimited's script for 4- 5 September 2007

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

Radio Havana Cuba
Dxers Unlimited for  4-5 September 2007
By Arnie Coro
CO2KK


Hi amigos !, welcome to the mid week edition of Dxers Unlimited reaching 
you from Havana at a time solar activity is very , very low, and 
geomagnetic activity is also at extremely quiet levels, certainly what 
scientists have expected for this downward phase of the solar cycle. The 
very low solar activity now lasting for several weeks has led to what 
could best be described as about the worst HF propagation conditions 
seen during the present solar cycle, but things may take a turn for the 
better as we approach the autumn equinox. I am Arnie Coro, radio amateur 
CO2KK, your friend here in Havana, join me for the next eighteen minutes 
of on the air and on the world wide web time provided by RHC for this 
radio hobby show. Item one: This is going to be a Dxers Unlimited 
special edition devoted to on the air reading of some of the latest mail 
received here at Radio Havana Cuba’s correspondence department... I want 
to thank you all for the nice and encouraging letters that constantly 
reach us here at the station . Item two: : FM broadcast band Dxing 
special edition coming up soon,  at the request of many listeners that 
have found this aspect of the hobby a really
Interesting and challenging one indeed.... Item three: Selecting the 
right microphone for your amateur radio transceiver can improve your 
station’s perfomance dramatically... but here is my question... why try 
to find a special kind of microphone , when you can design and build a 
taylor made audio pre amplifier for your rig, including a set of tone 
controls to play with  and optimize the frequency response for your voice!!!
Stay tuned right on this same short wave frequency, .I’ll be back in a 
few seconds with this special QSL on the air edition of Dxers Unlimited, 
your favorite radio hobby program on short wave.
..........
This is Radio Havana Cuba, the name of the show is Dxers Unlimited , 
this is our mid week edition ... Here is now QSL on the air, again here 
today at the request of many listeners who wrote after listening to our 
weekend edition OK, listen to this flattering e-mail  from Don 
Kupfersmith, it is titled Very Educational and I read... quote   Hi, I 
have been employed in electronics and industrial radio most of my 62 
years. I also enjoy listening to your broadcasts , I only wish I had 
found your program on the short wave sooner. I tell my associates who 
are interested, and wish to enhance their knowledge in this field, Thank 
you for the great information, signed Don K.... Thanks Don, and do keep 
listening and promoting the radio hobby among your friends amigo, 
letters and e-mails like this one are certainly encouraging !
QSL on the air to Michael Bolton N5RLR, a nice ham radio call indeed, 
easy to remember , here is what N5RLR says in his e-mail ..by the way 
this one was apparently lost in cyberspace and took a looong time to 
arrive here in Havana,  Hola Senor Coro , CO2KK,  How are you ?
I thought I take time and write you complimenting you on the fine 
programming at Radio Havana Cuba. Being a radio amateur myself, I 
especially enjoy your Dxers Unlimited feature. I liked the recent 
installment about open-wire transmission line, and how a resourceful 
radio operator can construct if from recycled materials. However Arnie, 
you didnt mention anything about the gauge and spacing of the wire used. 
I’m sure that broadcast-production constraints, such as the 16 minute 
program length ,may prevent you from getting too detailed, and I am sure 
that you know we “hams” like to hear about detail...
Now here is my answer to Michael N5RLR regarding the open wire 
transmission line feature that I ran not too long ago here at Dxers 
Unlimited... YES amigo Michael, I should had given at least some kind of 
ballpark figures... So , thanks to you , I am going to talk again about 
the open wire transmission line made from recycled telephone company 
downlead, and plastic insulatoring spreaders made with PVC pipe cut to 
length... For HF bands operation, from 160 meters all the way up to ten 
meters, my favorite open wire transmission line uses 4 inch separation 
between the wires, that is 100 millimeters for those of you that are 
already metric...I have found that the 4 inch or 100 millimeter 
separation makes for an easy to build and later install and work with 
pararell transmission line... Of course you can use separations as wide 
as say, 10 inches or 25 centimeters, or as small as 50 millimeters or 
two inches with almost exaclty the same results, but, the 4 inch or 100 
millimeter separation is , in my humble opinion the best compromise... 
Cut your spreaders from PVC plumbers type pipe, the one that is white in 
color, and avoid the gray or black PVC, as it may have some kind of 
conducting material added during manufacturing, something that is 
certainly not good for use as an HF bands insulator... So amigo N5RLR, 
if you want to install a nice open wire transmission line feeding an 
antenna for the HF bands, use wire gauges from no 20 to no 12 , and line 
seperation of 4 inches or 100 millimeters, the line’s impedance will 
change with different wire diameters, but you really not need to be 
concerned about this at all....
This is Dxers Unlimited’s mid week edition... today devoted to listeners 
correspondence ... N5RLR has more questions in his letter, which I will 
answer soon here too... now let’s take a look at another e-mail that 
came from Columbus in Indiana, USA, this one is from a newcomer to the 
radio listening hobby, Clyde Parrot, who happens to be the prowd owner 
of a Sangean ATS909 receiver. While scanning the 31 meter band, he tells 
me the following... and I quote from Clyde’s e-mail... “Just after 
midnight this morning, I was listening to my new Sangean ATS909, just 
scanning the 31 meter band, when I happened upon a strong signal at 6180 
kiloHertz. The time was 0540 UTC , . The program was your Dxers 
Unlimited, Clyde continues to write, you were talking about solar flares 
and possible damage to satellite communications. Then from about 0543 to 
0546 the topic was about constructing a 2 transistor ½ watt QRP 
transmitter that is capable of working half way around the world.
I continue reading Clyde’s report  “The strength of the signal was good 
, about half way up the scale on my ATS-909, which I am using with only 
the built in whip  ( I think that that’s called barefoot... BUT no 
Clyde, you are wrong, barefoot is one you run an amateur radio 
transmitter or transceiver without an amplifier... that is barefoot 
!!!As you may see ham radio jargon is one of a kind .... Clyde then 
tells me in another paragraph of his e-mail that , and I quote “I am 
very new at this, and am wondering if the above information is typical 
on what one would expect to include in a reception report for requesting 
a QSL  ?.
And Clyde then says, thank you  for your help...I very much enjoyed the 
program and will be listening in the future... You perform a great 
service... end of quote...
Amigo Clyde... you did great with your signal report, see, you gave the 
name of the station, the frequency it was operating , an evaluation of 
the quality of the received signal, and a well written short description 
of the program content... And of course you gave an exact time 
check...If you follow this same pattern, you can be sure that every 
short wave station that stills takes care of its listeners and sends out 
QSL letters or cards, will be most thankful for your report and will 
send a nice QSL card for your collection !!!
QSL on the air, yes amigos , QSL on the air here at Dxers Unlimited... 
QSL on the air  once again to amigo  JT Spence in Saskatoon, 
Saskatchewan , Canada... I must, and I mean this, I must share with you 
all the enthusiasm of JT , when he came across what was obviously a 
tropospheric duct enhancing long distance, DX reception of FM broadcast 
band stations... Here is how JT described his first FM band opening... 
Dear Arnie, I just wanted to tell you about the MOST phenomenal thing I 
have EVER had happen to me with my short wave receiver in ALL the time 
that I have been listening and receiving broadcasts from near and afar 
... Anyway the phenomenal event which ocurred was that far away the FM 
stations reached the S meter maximum  signal strength indication...
Well amigo JT in Saskatoon, get ready for more tropo ducting... a 
weather related phenomena that makes the FM broadcast band signals 
propagate much farther than normally, as the lower atmosphere’s radio 
refraction index increases, making the VHF radio waves bend enough to 
propagate beyond the normal radio horizon.... By the way, weather 
related propagation phenomena have absolutely nothing to do with 
sunspots and solar activity !!!
................
Yes amigos, we do QSl here , since the very first day that we went on 
the air with a Gates  1 kiloWatt and a half wave dipole antenna on the 
49 meter band, during the month of february of 1961... QSL requests 
should be sent via AIR MAIL to Arnie Coro, Dxers Unlimited, Radio Havana 
Cuba, Havana , Cuba, or simply to Arnie Coro, Radio Havana Cuba, Havana, 
Cuba, and via Internet e-mail, you can send your signal reports and 
comments about the show, together with the QSL request to arnie@xxxxxx, 
again arnie@xxxxxx, hope you have enjoyed today’s special edition of 
Dxers Unlimited, which was totally devoted to your letters and e-mail 
messages to me...
  And now amigos, as always, at the end of the show, here is Arnie 
Coro’s exclusive HF propagation update and forecast... Solar activity is 
now at extremely low levels, with the solar flux reaching almost the 65 
minimum units ever recorded during a solar cycle minimum... So amigos, 
propagation conditions are going to be really poor or simply non 
existent at frequencies above 20 megaHertz for many more days..Best DX 
band for radio amateurs is going to be 20 meters up... but don’t expect 
fantastic openings of any kind…, 6 meter to the South may happen during 
your local afternoon and early evening hours as we enter into the Trans 
Equatorial Propagation season... For short wave listeners, best daytime 
bands for near FM quality listening will be 19 and 16 meters, with later 
in the day 25 meters running a close third place... And a reminder 
amigos, don’forget to send in your signal report and comments to 
arnie@xxxxxxx Keep those receivers tuning from the highest possible 
frequency they tune to DOWN, and when you detect the first DX signals, 
mark that frequency, as there are good chances that this would be very 
near the F2 layer maximum useable frequency for a given path... See you 
all at the weekend edition of the program next Saturday and Sunday UTC 
days amigos !!!

---[Start Commercial]---------------------

Preorder your WRTH 2007:
http://www.hard-core-dx.com/redirect2.php?id=wrth2007
---[End Commercial]-----------------------
________________________________________
Hard-Core-DX mailing list
Hard-Core-DX@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/hard-core-dx
http://www.hard-core-dx.com/
_______________________________________________

THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE IS FREE. It may be copied, distributed
and/or modified under the conditions set down in the Design Science License
published by Michael Stutz at 
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/dsl.html