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Re: [HCDX] Dxers Unlimited´s weekend edition for 29-30 March 2008
Radio Havana Cuba
Dxers Unlimited
Dxers Unlimited´s weekend edition for 29-30 March 2008
By Arnie Coro
Radio amateur CO2KK
Hi amigos radioaficionados around the world, and in space, welcome to
the weekend edition of your favorite radio hobby program, the one and
only that provides full coverage of the more than 84 different ways
that you and I enjoy playing with our radios... From the Cuban young
radio amateur that is now attempting to repair a 20 years old two
meters band handie talkie to try to access ham radio satellites, to
the old timer who wrote to me via e-mail saying that he was listening
on a homebrew antique replica, a regenerative receiver using the so
called space charge detector so popular in Australia and New Zealand
in the very early days of radio.I also received a nice report from a
Canadian listener that is picking up Dxers Unlimited using his bedside
small portable without an external antenna.... Si amigos, yes my
friends, you can be sure that people do enjoy this hobby a lot, and
even when it seems like propagation is very poor , sometimes you can
pick up rare DX, precisely because the poor propagation wipes out some
of the high power regular stations that are picked up at your
location.... Now let me give you yet another wonderful of how radio
has help a lot of persons to live a better life. For people that have
poor hearing or are totally deaf, enjoying the radio hobby is still
possible thanks to the use of the digital communications modes, that
allow keyboard to keyboard communications , without the operators
having to listen to any sound whatsoever. You can be sure taht amateur
radio is a great hobby that makes possible for people with severe
hearing loss or that have totally lost hearing to meet new friends,
participate in digital modes contests and share with others their ham
radio experience... And as I said right here last week ,for highly
qualified engineers and telecommunications technicians , the radio
hobby makes possible to perform some very interesting experiments
using the amateur band frequencies... some of those experiments have
become classics, like the ones made to determine the frequencies that
propagated above 25 megaHertz from areas located North and South of
the Earth´s equator, when the solar activity was so low that the F2
layer will not support such communications links.
European and African ham radio operators fully documented the
existence of what we now know as Trans Equatorial Propagation or TEP ,
that gives so many nice two way contacts on the 12, 10 and above all
on 6 meters, although 2 meters band transequatorial propagation events
do happen too.
Stay here on this frequency or world wide web Internet connection, as
the weekend edition of Dxers Unlimited will continue in a few
seconds... I am Arnie Coro, radio amateur CO2KK in Havana..
.........
You are listening to Radio Havana Cuba, the name of this show is Dxers
Unlimited and if you are listening for the first time to this program
with your new short wave radio, let me give you a nice welcome in
three languages, bienvenido, bienvenue, welcome amigo !!! Its nice to
have you join me here and also become part of the the ever increasing
group of radio hobby enthusiasts that listen regularly to my program
and communicate with me via e-mail, so now let me give you a new
e-mail address that you can use to send your signal reports and
comments about this and other Radio Havana Cuba programs... it is very
easy to send using the standard phonetic alphabet... ready to copy,
OK, here we go.
It is inforhc at enet dot cu, now let me say it slowly and using the
International Civil Aviation Organization´s phonetic alphabet...
It is India Nancy Foxtrot Romeo Hotel Charlie, the symbol for at ,
Echo, Nancy Echo Tango... now , just in case there was a little QSB,
or fading, let´s repeat the new e-mail address for Dxers Unlimited...
or on the air via amateur radio. It is India Nancy Foxtrot Romeo
Hotel Charlie, the symbol for at , Echo, Nancy Echo Tango. The e-mail
address arnie at rhc dot cu will continue to be active too, but
inforhc at enet dot cu will be using a new faster server, so please
try to use it from now on.
And here is now one of the most popular sections of the program... The
technical topics segment, that today will be devoted, as requested by
many listeners , to a panoramic view of the DX-160, a transmitter
built with recycled components at very low cost... The idea behind the
DX-160 is to increase the usage of the 160 meters amateur band,
because recent radio frequency spectrum use analysis made by
professional organizations show that 160 meters , an amateur radio
band, is seeing very little use, and that amigos is not good, because
the 1.8 to 2.0 megaHertz band may soon become the target of spectrum
hungry professional users, that believe it will be a very useful band
for local digital narrow band links.
The DX-160 will soon be presented at an upcoming technical meeting of
the Cuban Radio Amateurs Federation, and I expect this presentation to
bring up a lot of interest on that band that at this moment is mostly
used by Dxers and during ham radio contests.
---------------
Now more information about the latest analysis of solar activity by
experts that is stirring up a debate about the three active sunspot
regions now moving across the solar disc.
Some solar gurus say that the sunspots belong to the old cycle, that
is cycle 23 that started way back in 1996, while another group of
scientists are in doubt, arguing that although the new sunspots are
close to the solar equator and have the magnetic polarity of the spots
of the old solar cycle, at least two of them could be forming part of
the initial events of solar cycle 24.
The argument behind this line of thought is that when sunspots are
located near the equator, they may have the same polarity as the ones
from the old cycle, but they do belong to the new cycle.
So amigos, it seems like we must still wait a few more weeks or even
months until it would be possible to arrive at a definite conclusion
regarding the actual start up of the solar cycle...
The good news is that the ionosphere really doesn´t care much to what
solar cycle the sunspots belong, so we are seeing much better short
wave propagation during the past week due to the enhanced solar
activity... Spanish radio amateurs have reported excellent signals on
the ten meters or 28 megaHertz band from South America, and here in
Havana, I am picking up signals also from South America on the 20, 17,
15 and 10 meters bands.
But the bad news is that it seems like we will again have to deal
with an extended period of extremely low solar activity and absolutely
quiet geomagnetic conditions...
For those of you that have asked about how to find the information
required to fully understand how the
TTFD or Tilted Terminated Folded Dipole antenna works. Again let me
guide you to the website where the TTFD has been so well researched by
L.B. Cebik, who is offering at his website a treasure chest of antenna
related information...Ready to copy, OK here we go with the the URL ,
it is is www.cebik.com <http://www.cebik.com/>, again slowly and in
phonetics... Charlie, Echo, Bravo, India, Kilo, symbol for period,
Charlie Oscar Mike.... Look for the comprehensive information about
the TTFD antenna, and you will find some very interesting comparisons
about the performance between different lengths of these unique
broadband antennas at different frequencies. The TTFD, as I have said
here many times, is a compromise antenna system, a good choice if you
can only install a single antenna and want to cover a wide frequency
range. I even use a small sized one to provide a scanner with a low
cost antenna, that provides excellent coverage between 25 and 100
megaHertz, a four to one frequency ratio.
For example, a 3 meters long TTFD will be your choice if you want to
monitor the VHF bands from 25 to 100 megaHertz , and it will work
quite well, without you needing to use an antenna tuner..
I have also written a set of step by step instructions on how to make
your own TTFD, that can be sent via e-mail as a compact, rather small
attachment, so if you really want to test drive the TTFD antenna
system for short wave reception, just send me an e-mail to the new
address It is India Nancy Foxtrot Romeo Hotel Charlie, the symbol for
at , Echo, Nancy Echo Tango, and I will send you the computer file as
a compact e-mail attachment...
.........
Si amigos, yes my friends, oui mes amis, this is the weekend edition
of Dxers Unlimited and here at the request of several listeners let me
repeat the information about the Radio Rebelde´s short wave
broadcasts... Radio Rebelde, has stopped the use of the international
short wave broadcast bands and is now only operating on the 60 meters
Tropical Band, on 5025 kiloHertz with 50 kiloWatts , using a high take
off angle main lobe antenna. And another Cuban broadcast related news
item, Radio Victoria , from the eastern Las Tunas province, is on the
air 24 hours on 1050 kiloHertz, with an excellent antenna system. They
are receiving nice reports from medium wave AM broadcast band Dxers,
something that is making their chief engineer very happy indeed. Las
Tunas province is located to the west of Holguin province, and has
several local stations now on the air both on the AM and FM broadcast
bands. Now here is our next item here at the weekend edition of your
favorite radio hobby program. As said here many times,Cuban radio
amateurs are now involved in a revival of home construction of ham
radio equipment, including receivers, transmitters, transceivers,
antennas and station accessories. The national competition, soon to
take place will award nice presents to the best entries on each
category. Among the most popular entries are the ones focusing on the
homebrewing of rigs for the 160 meters band, that are intended mainly
for local communications. My own entry into the national event is
going to be the DX-160, a simple, easy to build, rugged and reliable
160 meters band CW transmitter that also has a high efficiency screen
grid controlled carrier modulator so that it can be used for local AM
phone contacts. The original Arnie Coro´s DX-160 dates back to the
1960´s and I made many nice two way CW DX contacts on 160 meters using
it... One of the nicest features of the new version of the DX-160 is
that they provide a very nice audio quality, enhanced by the use of
the electrect microphones that we are recovering from broken down or
obsolete technology electret microphones... The screen grid modulation
technology doesn´t use transformers that limit the frequency response,
so these rigs sound really nice when heard on widebandwidth AM
receivers. Amigos, homebrewing ham radio equipment is a lot of fun, I
can assure you, and all two way contacts , the QSO´s made with radios
that you have built yourself have a very special significance... and
as said here many times it seems like they sound a lot better than
expensive commercially built rigs !!!
Try it, and you will certainly agree with me !!!
And now as always at the end of the program here is Arnie Coro´s Dxers
Unlimited´s HF plus low band VHF propagation update and forecast...
Solar activity is now moving slowly down again... after the three
sunspot groups provided a most welcome enhancement to HF propagation.
But this period of higher solar activity that even included an M class
flare that was the first one of such intensity in a long time, is now
coming to an end. So we will see now , once again very low solar
activity as we pass trough the equinox ... so, don´t expect much
better DX conditions, because the ionosphere will be slowly moving
back to a totally flat state... We may see openings on 12 and 10
meters, but 20 meters will be the band of choice for ham radio
Dxers... Now the local noise levels will be slowly increasing as the
summer thunderstorm season approaches... See you all at the mid week
edition of the show, Tuesday and Wednesday UTC days , and don´t forget
to send your signal reports , comments about the program and radio
hobby related questions to arnie at rhc dot cu, or VIA AIR MAIL to
Arnie Coro, Radio Havana Cuba, Havana, Cuba
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