With Varying Frequency - Amateur Radio Ponderings

Tonight I had an interesting experience, a good friend (not an Amateur yet) just received an Icom IC-R75 receiver I had help hind for him, and had emailed that he would be listening to 14.310 USB if I had the time to call CQ and see if I could initiate a QSO he could SWL in on.

Listening for a while and then calling “Is this Frequency in use?  K9ZW” I neither heard anyone nor had a come back, until I had progressed to calling CQ for five minutes or so.

They I had a very polite and very professional call asking could we please QSY clear of 14.308 as the Marine Net was handling a Medical Emergency!

Needless to say I responded affirmatively, set the rig to RX-only and moved to stand-by on 14.308 on the off-chance my station could provide assistance.

The net had a real medical emergency, a head injury on a ship in the Pacific Northwest.

The details I copied in case they were needed are less important than how efficiently the Marine Net was able to secure professional help to assist the person in need.

Of course I was on the instant of emergency traffic needs ready to QSY (change frequency) and as in this case, to stand listening & available until I was certain my station would not be of use in addressing the emergency.

My Kudos to the Doctor patched in, the assisting marine officer, and those monitoring the Marine Net frequency out of hours.

73

Steve
K9ZW

Weather providing I’ll be in my safety harness in a 60 ft boom lift cutting tree limbs away, fixing & clearing gutters, doing some tower inspection & checks.

Oddly the lift didn’t arrive when expected, perhaps in the next few hours.

Should take about six hours in the lift when it is here.

Now if only mother nature cooperates - specially as the lift needs to be picked up Monday morning for another job.

Blog posts likely will wait until I’m done.

73

Steve
K9ZW

I had a long chat with Milt Cram, W8NUE at AmQRP’s NUE-PSK Booth. Though I received the NEU-PSK modem I ordered under the early-bird program a few weeks before Dayton, I had made less than 20 QSOs with the unit and was eager to learn more.

Presently there is a firmware update that Milt W8NUE offered to install if I had my unit with me. (I didn’t)   Future Firmware Updates are planned to expand the ability of the modem! 

Additional Modes and Logging Ability are high on the list.  Following the NUE-PSK reflector since Dayton some of these features are becoming reality, and again I need to get out the same interface I use with my Arduino boards to update firmware.

Fellow AmQRP team members were final assembling full kits for sale at the booth and demonstrating the modem to the gathered crowds of amateurs.

Not surprising that this excellent Modem Project has a personable and excellent team behind it!

Here are some of my previous articles on the NUE-PSK Modem:

AmQRP Releases a Significant Upgrade to the NUE-PSK Modem 

First QSO’s with NUE-PSK Digital Modem 

NUE-PSK Unit Arrives at K9ZW 

NUE-PSK - Huge Amateur Support for AmQRP PSK Project 

AmQRP NUE-PSK 

AmQRP’s “NUE-PSK Digital Modem” Reviewed in QST and QEX 

Field Portable PSK without a Computer - AmQRP’s NUE-PSK Digital Modem 

73

Steve
K9ZW

This is a repost of a February 2007 Article. Several of our local club members asked about WWV during a club shack session, prompting the return of this article.
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Did you know that the USA Government provides a free to use time reference that is as accurate as anything on the planet?

Perhaps you have heard the “beep beep beep at the Tone it is X:XX Universal Coordinate Time” on the air?

Perhaps you have an “Atomic Clock” or watch?

Perhaps you have even done sound-calibrations using the WWV radio signal and one of the digital mode software packages?

All use the WWV (and WWVH & WWVB) radio transmissions.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology is the US Government Agency charged with running the radio time beacons as part of its overall charter:

NIST’s mission is to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve our quality of life.

NIST Radio Station WWV is the part of NIST that Radio Amateurs most use.

Located in Colorado, the site itself is not open to the public, and looks like this:

How accurate is WWV’s time keeping?

Less than 1 microsecond of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) at the transmitter.

Of course the signal is delayed as it travels to your receiver.

This delay increases with distance, and also changes with Propagation as at various times the signal is bouncing between the earth and the ionosphere which effectively changes the distance. Usually in the USA the accuracy should be better than 10 milliseconds (1/100 of a second).

Over the telephone, acurracy drops, but WWV should still be accurate to less than 40 milliseconds (1/25 of a second).

The Broadcast Format

Is best explained by this NIST WWV Graphic:

WWV broadcasts much more than just the time. There is so much it is best to simply check the WWV Website for more information!

The Phone Option

WWV shortwave broadcast, can be heard by phone at (303) 499-7111 and for WWVH time announcements from Hawaii, call (808) 335-4363 WWVB does not have a number published

The Internet Option

You can synchronize your computer clock to NIST using either an Internet or a dial-up, and using simple software available at the WWV site.

Other Uses

Using WWV to calibrate radios or other gear is quite easy, but usually equipment specific. You will need to follow the directions for your specific gear.

WWV is a unique service. Though a few other countries have similar systems, no other has so much to offer on an open user basis.

Remember “It’s about Time” at WWV !!!

73

Steve
K9ZW

Great Ferry ride and drive back from Washington Island W9EVT, where we had booked again with George W9EVT and his XYL Susan. Memorial Day weekend on an Island, yeah! Adding to our Memorial Day observance is that George W9EVT is a Korean War era Navy vet and I spent my time in the Cold War Army.

Great time had by all!  Huge Thunder & Lightening Storm with Heavy Rains last night - power went down for a 1/2 hour across the Island.

The expanded “Ham Mansion” W9EVT/WI9DX Hamshack is moving along.  The main operating room will be 2-1/2 the length once the plasterers finish in the next few weeks.  The first of the theme rooms to be ready will be the “Collins Room” which was a couple days from being ready for moving gear in.

The rest of the “Ham Mansion” is a work in progress, all framed & closed in, with various areas ranging from needing just plaster, trim & paint to being open walls.  My understanding is the additional rooms will be progressed after the main room and Collins Rooms are completed.  

Various gremlins made radio work fall behind being helpful on other projects.  When we arrived the internet for the whole complex was down due to serious misguidance received from an On-Line call-in Tech Center somewhere out there.  Guidance from one of these “tech on the phone” led to a Router being used as NAT interface between the inside system and the Motorola Canopy system loosing all it’s settings.  

Certainly the phone tech meant well, and it very hard for a phone tech to visual what is a decidedly more complex than the average system, but the result was the entire system being unusable.  We had been called before we left, so we knew there was an awaiting troubleshooting exercise.

Having a go rebuilding the setting matrixes was a no-joy outcome.  Extremely puzzled I broke off for dinner and was very pleased when most of the system came back to life!  Seemed once the correct settings were installed that it took a while for the Canopy system re-authorize the network connection.  

A couple buildings I wasn’t able to hotrod the wireless back up to running, lacking the admin passwords to make corrections, but I was able to get plug in ethernet points up.

Always fun to trouble shoot a system you hadn’t designed or built, specially without full documentation.

The TenTec Omni VII received its bootloader update and full software updates.  I didn’t bring the correct cabling to update the Orion II, Icom IC-7800 and Yaesu FT-2000 units.  Next trip!

Working with the SPE Expert IK-FA it was clear that this particular example needs help - Expert has a new Level-III Update program to bring these amps up to spec.  George W9EVT is going to send it in for the warranty upgrades needed.

After the huge lightening storm - lightening could be seen running across the tree tops like a freight train at one point - we discovered the internet was again down, the phones were partially out and a few of the radios seemed to have reset themselves despite being disconnected and leads grounded.

The radios were a puzzler, as no direct hits were taken and nothing was “smoked” anywhere on the farm.  Guessing that the heighten airborne ambient energy was enough to “tickle” them.  At the peak of the lightening display you could feel a tingle while watching from a covered porch.

The internet turned out to be a wall wart to the same annoying NAT router that had not liked going onto battery backup and burnt out.  A trip out to th e workshop across the farm for a spare wall-wart (power cube) and all was well!

Phones were a bit more vexing, and by a process of testing & elimination we found a Direct-TV Satellite box in the Applehouse Master Bedroom had internally shorted out.  This is the second Direct-TV Satellite box to turn belly-up at Greengate this year (they have a bunch).   

Operating time was mostly limited to testing equipment.  

Did a spot of “poor man’s surveying” by using a GPS unit to pick out relative antenna base heights and spacings.  The unit I used is not highly accurate and perhaps is accurate, relative to the other points measured, by six feet (2m) or so.  As for absolute accuracy the entire plot should be within 50 ft (16m)  of actual.  I will use this data as a model the antenna array in NEC.

DIdn’t get the WI9DX work done I had planned, but hey there are only so many hours!

Far too short of a weekend.  great to get back onto the Island and at least get a few QSOs completed.

I need to ask permission to post the construction photos. Hopefully more to come!

73

Steve
K9ZW

On Friday night of the Dayton Hamvention, foot weary both, W9EVT and I drove out to the KOA Campground for the tail-end of the 160m Everynight Net BBQ & Gathering.

A Friday Tradition with the members of this net, they have quite a spread put on on a pot-luck basis.

Lucky W9EVT had stocked up on Sodas, Cakes & Chips as our contribution to the event.

The weather was perfect and the group a great time, talking, comparing notes and putting faces to voices heard often during the year.

My work & community schedule makes my check-ins on the 160m net at best once a month, but the group was in no way less gracious given my random & occasional check-ins.

 At the Hara the group has noon Photo Shoots on certain days.  George W9EVT was able to make one of these while I was driving around doing the Boat Anchor pickup routine.  (Covered in Dayton Hamvention 2008 Follow-Up Report No. 15 - Buying Boatanchors which will post in a few days.)

I really liked the quietness of the KOA site after the noise of the Hara all day.  Sitting around a campfire watching the moon and stars while talking about matters radio was a great time to be quiet and listen for me.

Check out my previous Article Every Night 160 Meter Group - 1.895 Year Round  and the 160m Everynight Net Webpage at:  http://www.wb8sqj.com/en160/index.html

73

Steve
K9ZW