QST Product Review Summary

N4KC shared this summary of QST Magazine product reviews for HF transceivers or receivers.  It provides a nice color-coded table with key measurements.

Thanks, Don!

March 8-9 Solar Events

The snapshot above tells the story of what propagation was like on March 9. We noticed much weaker than normal signals on 75 m during our morning QSO. Others reported 40 m to be weak, too. I have not heard about the upper bands.

Here are two of the many links that describe the flares and CMEs:
Biggest solar storm in years
Solar storms ramp up

Bell Ringers at BirmingHAMfest

Bell Ringers and friends gathered at the BirmingHAMfest on March 3. See the photos here.

VoIP Roundtable on 60 m

This morning we started on 75 m, with a few (remote or mobile) members of our group connected via Skype to Carl's rig. This used the VoIP HF roundtable arrangement that Carl perfected and documented a few years back (QST September 2009). When propagation faded to marginal levels, it was suggested that we try 60 m. Since several of us do not have 60 m capability, we were added to the Skype roundtable conference call that Carl had in progress. Below is a screen shot from my PC showing the 7 parties (plus myself) connected on Skype, along with a view of our chat room text on the left. Click on the image below for a larger view.

Carl continued the roundtable on 60 m with 3 other stations while the rest of us shared his rig via Skype.

Thanks, Carl!

A single-transistor 16 dB gain RF amplifier

Here are two photos of an RF amplifier built by KE4ID using the popular bug construction. (Click on each image to enlarge.) The use of a readily-available metal box saves cost and provides a convenient ground plane to which components can be directly soldered for grounding and mechanical support. The circuit is based partly on designs published by KK7B in QST and in the ARRL book Experimental Methods in RF Design.

Jack loaned this amplifier to me for evaluation as an interface between a stand-alone Yaesu digital VFO and my Heathkit SB-104A transceiver. I'm in the process of breadboarding a similar unit for this function. The output of the Yaesu VFO needs to be boosted to 3 V p-p to match what the Heathkit internal VFO provides. An existing jack for an external VFO makes the connection to the Heathkit convenient. The goal is to obtain a more stable and precise frequency control than what is possible with the internal analog VFO.

Here is the schematic diagram.(Click to enlarge.)

Telephone Pioneer QSO Party - Results & Announcement

The Telephone Pioneer QSO Party web site now has the results and discussion for the 2011 event, which was held in October for the first time. Once again W4BXI was very close to N6TP's top score. W4AXO was also among the top participants.

The above web site will also soon include an announcement about the 2012 event, which will take place on October 20-21.

Bell Ringers at BirmingHAMfest

BirmingHAMfest
Sponsored by Birmingham Amateur Radio Club
March 3-4, 2012
Bell Ringers / TPARCA forum
Saturday, March 3, 10:00 am @ Divan Room, first floor
Members, friends, family welcome