Friday, December 28, 2007
South Baldwin Amateur Radio Club
Visit the very nice web site for this club that includes the neighborhood of Joe KA4ZCO.
Smallest Radio Ever
Joe KA4ZCO calls our attention to this article about the smallest radio ever made:
First Fully-functional Radio From A Single Carbon Nanotube Created
First Fully-functional Radio From A Single Carbon Nanotube Created
Thursday, December 13, 2007
SAP-A-LOOP
from WA0SAP --
Here is the design of the "SAP-A-LOOP." I think it is close to what Brother Dave did for Fred, only his is hung upright in a vertical diamond shape. Basically the same thing.
Using the standard formula for a loop: 1005 divided by the frequency, in my case 7.125, that comes out to be about 141 feet of wire for a full wavelength. Using three conductor Romex wire still in the jacket, I form the loop in a rectangle pattern 44 by 27 feet, stuffed along the eaves of the house in the attic. Solder all three wires together in hopes to make it broadbanded, and it does.
The solid 12 gauge wire in the Romex forms very easy by using a ten foot piece of 1x2 with a "V" shape cut on one end to push the wire to the eaves of the house. So you don't have to go swimming in all the insulation to make a perfect rectangle. It is fed broadside in the middle of the 44 foot section on one side.
The only thing that concerned me was to having enough distance between the broadsides of the antenna. It would act like an inverted vee with the wires to close to each other, thereby canceling out your signal. So at 27 feet spacing I felt good about that, thinking that the minimum should be 24 feet.
Technically, a quarterwave piece of 75 ohm coax should be used at the feed point and then 50 ohm coax after that.
I was busting through pile-ups on twenty meters this afternoon, knowing that the other guys were running lots of power, beams and towers. I just had to let them all know about my attic antenna just beat up your beam, HA, HA. The other good thing about the "SAP-A-LOOP" is it has about 2 to 3 dB of gain, not bad for an attic antenna. Plus you don't have to worry about the ice, snow, and lightning.
Here is the design of the "SAP-A-LOOP." I think it is close to what Brother Dave did for Fred, only his is hung upright in a vertical diamond shape. Basically the same thing.
Using the standard formula for a loop: 1005 divided by the frequency, in my case 7.125, that comes out to be about 141 feet of wire for a full wavelength. Using three conductor Romex wire still in the jacket, I form the loop in a rectangle pattern 44 by 27 feet, stuffed along the eaves of the house in the attic. Solder all three wires together in hopes to make it broadbanded, and it does.
The solid 12 gauge wire in the Romex forms very easy by using a ten foot piece of 1x2 with a "V" shape cut on one end to push the wire to the eaves of the house. So you don't have to go swimming in all the insulation to make a perfect rectangle. It is fed broadside in the middle of the 44 foot section on one side.
The only thing that concerned me was to having enough distance between the broadsides of the antenna. It would act like an inverted vee with the wires to close to each other, thereby canceling out your signal. So at 27 feet spacing I felt good about that, thinking that the minimum should be 24 feet.
Technically, a quarterwave piece of 75 ohm coax should be used at the feed point and then 50 ohm coax after that.
I was busting through pile-ups on twenty meters this afternoon, knowing that the other guys were running lots of power, beams and towers. I just had to let them all know about my attic antenna just beat up your beam, HA, HA. The other good thing about the "SAP-A-LOOP" is it has about 2 to 3 dB of gain, not bad for an attic antenna. Plus you don't have to worry about the ice, snow, and lightning.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Hams praised for service in Oregon
A recent article at slashdot praised the efforts of hams to provide emergency communications. It includes a link to an article on the local Fox TV affiliate.
KE4HMN - Bell Ringer #319
Congratulations to Ollie KE4HMN on becoming the newest member of the Bell Ringers group!
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
K5JMM - Bell Ringer # 318
Congratulations to Joe K5JMM on becoming the newest member of the Bell Ringers group! As most of our weekday morning regulars know, Joe joins in most days during his commute to his teaching job at San Jacinto College in Houston. Be sure to visit his astronomy web page.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
WA0SAP returns to SSB
This morning's QSO on 7230 marked the return of Sap to SSB after an absence of several months due to antenna issues in his neighborhood. Welcome back, Sap!
He recently appeared on local TV in a story about emergency communications during their ice storm last winter. You can view the video report here following a local commercial.
CQ-WE
The CQ-WE radio contest will take place on November 10-11, which is about a month away!
More information about this radio contest, including official rules, location codes, log sheets, etc. is available at http://cqwe.cboh.org/
Birmingham, AL, (location code 'BH') was selected as the host location for the 2007 contest.
More information about this radio contest, including official rules, location codes, log sheets, etc. is available at http://cqwe.
Birmingham, AL, (location code 'BH') was selected as the host location for the 2007 contest.
Mobile Antennas
Tony N5FNH is a frequent participant in our weekday morning QSOs on 7230 kHz. Today he remarked about photos of his mobile antenna installation. You can find his photos and commentary here. This is one of the topics available from Tony's home page.
On a related note, the November 2007 issue of QST has an article on page 30 titled A Comparison of HF Mobile Antenna Designs. The author K1OF reports on field strength measurements between two different vehicle types using three different antenna designs.
On a related note, the November 2007 issue of QST has an article on page 30 titled A Comparison of HF Mobile Antenna Designs. The author K1OF reports on field strength measurements between two different vehicle types using three different antenna designs.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Marconi Clifden Celebrations
Thanks to N4OLN for this event notice --
On the 17th October 1907 Guglielmo Marconi sent his first commercial message from the then new station at Clifden, Ireland. This October in celebration of this historic event member of the Galway Radio Experimenters Club will be running a special event station from Saturday 13th to Wednesday 17th from Clifden. We have been issued the call sign EI100MFT for the event, MFT been the last call sign used on the original station. On the Wednesday we will be making a special linkup with the Marconi sister station in Glace Bay Nova Scotia. Part of this linkup will be an exchange of greetings between President Mary McAleese and Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia the Honourable Mayann E. Francis. We will also be honoured to have Princess Electra Marconi present as she is coming to Clifden for the festival along with an Exhibit from the Marconi Foundation in Bologna. The Galway Radio Experimenters Club will also be presenting a display of vintage equipment. More details on the festival can be
found at www.clifden.ie. Visitors to the station are more than welcome and if you would like to participate this can also be arranged.
Expected operating frequencies for EI100MFT CW 3.528MHz, 7.015MHz, 10.115 MHz, 14.045 MHz, 18.075 MHz, 21.045 MHz, SSB 3670 MHz, 7.065 MHz, 14.145 MHz, 18.145 MHz, 21.245 MHz.
Play on PropNET Weekend
Thanks to N4OLN for this event announcement --
Mark the "Play on PropNET" Weekend on Your Calendar
Play on PropNET is a two-day, worldwide event designed to promote PSK31 and propagation study on the 30 meter band. This event, scheduled for 0000 UTC October 6 -2359 October 7, will be on 10.1395 MHz. Simply download PropNetPSK, a free PropNET software program, configure it for your station and activate for the weekend.
PropNetPSK software will place the PSK stream at +1500 Hz (10.1410 MHz true). In normal operation, the software will cause your station to automatically ID at regular intervals (several times per hour) throughout the weekend. If your licensing authority requires that an operator be present whenever transmitting, switch to "Lurker" mode when you are away. This will allow your station to monitor and report anything that is heard, even if it isn't transmitting
PropNET uses the Internet as a reporting tool. Participants who are connected to the Internet (even using intermittent dial-up connections) will have their reports sent to a mapping system that will graphically display everything that is "caught" (a PropNET term for received). Transmitting stations will have their call signs shown on the map. Receive-only stations (Lurkers) will display using their 6-cipher grid-locator rather than call sign. Don't worry if you don't have an Internet connection at your station, as others will hear your transmission and report it to the Internet.
As an added benefit, all stations that report activity will have their activity added to an animated GIF file at the end of each UTC day. All worldwide activity will be captured to that animation and will be able to be played back at a later time.
All amateur and SWL stations worldwide are encouraged to participate for this first event of its kind. Thanks to the 30 Meter Digital Group for suggesting this activity and to the PropNET community of experimenters for supporting it. -- Ev Tupis, W2EV
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
WA5MLF Joins Blog "Staff"
thebellringers.blogspot.com welcomes WA5MLF as a new staff writer and site manager! His role as the manager of tparca.org/bellringers/ make him an ideal candidate for his new role on the The Bellringers Blog. Welcome John!Note that every post invites comments. We invite all visitors to comment on all posts and to send any suggestions for improvements/additions to W4UOA or WA5MLF.The thebellringers.blogspot.com also invites any Bellringers interested in becoming authors on thebellringers.blogspot.com to contact WA5MLF or W4UOA.
73, W4UOA
Carl
New Bell Ringers Chat Room
New Bell Ringers Chat Room
The new chat room can be reached from the "Chat" link near the top of the Bellringers home page
http://www.tparca.org/bellringers/
You can also reach the chat room by pointing your your browser to:
http://client0.addonchat.com/sc.php?id=237773
The chat room is "open" 24/7. You are invited to use it at anytime to help stay in touch with friends.
The morning coffee group finds it useful when the bands are not being very cooperative! Hi!
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