PA3CLQ's Leuke Linken Nr. 490
Beste mede amateur,
Dear
fellow amateur,
In
deze mail staat een link waarop het veertigste DKARS-Magazine is te
downloaden.
This
mail contains a link which the 40th- DKARS-Magazine is available for download.
De
Dutch Kingdom Amateur Radio Society is een stichting die de belangen wenst te
behartigen van ALLE radioamateurs binnen het gehele Koninkrijk der Nederlanden.
The Kingdom Dutch Amateur Radio Society is an organization that seeks to represent the interests of ALL radio amateurs throughout the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
De
DKARS doet niet aan copyright en het staat een ieder vrij om deze link aan
zoveel mogelijk radiovrienden door te sturen.
The
DKARS does not copyrighted and any person shall be free to forward this link to
as many radio friends.
DKARS
Magazine verschijnt 1x per maand en wij stellen het uiteraard op prijs als je
ook (radio amateur gerelateerde) bijdrages wilt leveren.
DKARS Magazine
appears 1x per month and we obviously appreciate it if you (related
radio amateur) to provide contributions.
Namens de Dutch Kingdom Amateur Radio Society wens ik je veel leesplezier nadat
je op deze link hebt geklikt:
On behalf of the Dutch Kingdom Amateur Radio Society, I wish you pleasant reading after you click on this link:
http://downloads.dkars.nl/DKARS%20Magazine%20201802.pdf
Wil
je in plaats van een PDF te downloaden het Magazine on-line doorbladeren?
Dat kan ook, ga dan naar deze link:
Want to download the magazine browsing on-line instead of a PDF? This can also go to this link:
https://issuu.com/pj4nx/docs/dkars_magazine_201802
Mist u een DKARS-Magazine kijk op:
Do you miss a DKARS-magazine see:
http://www.dkars.nl/index.php?page=magazine
En tot slot: heb je kopij, een mening, gevraagd of ongevraagd advies: dat kan 24 uur per dag, 7 dagen per week via
And finally, do you copy, an opinion, solicited or unsolicited advice: it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week through
73
namens de DKARS
Peter de Graaf
PJ4NX en PA3CNX
Secretaris DKARS
MRD Maritime Radio Day is being held annually to remember to nearly 100 years of wireless service for seafarers.
Since its beginning in 1900 it was the most important communication service until the end of 1998.
The
date of MRD should remember to the Titanic-disaster in 1912.
Former Wireless operators of the merchant marine, fisheries and coast stations
are requested to register.
1.
Date: 14th April 1200 UTC 15th April 2200 UTC
2.
Bands: 160m, 80m, 40m, 20m, 15 & 10m plus WARC
3.
Mode: CW only
4.
Output power: not limited
5.
QSO-Exchange QRK, name, call sign of last or favourite ship / coast station /
aircraft / maintenance company and additional: travel report, msg and/or qtc if
you like.
6.
Deadline of registering: 1st of April at midnight, deadline of logs: 1st of May
Certificate of participation (CoP) SWL have to sent a complete log to be able
to verify QSO data by selection. Licensed operators send either a log as .doc
or .pdf, or an e-mail with number of ships, coast, special and hams contacted.
Do
not send files with .adi, .txt or .xls
Logs sent by Postcards or letters send to:
Rolf Marschner
Narzissenweg 10
53359 Rheinbach
Germany
Certificate is available only by e-mail!
Results of MRD will be published on MRD homepage "Resultlists of MRD"
QSL cards: Each participant manages his QSL card. There is no QSL manager!
For registering click left on button “Please register” or use following
link: http://.......
.seefunker.eu
End
of registration is April 1st at midnight
*General Comment: *
Coast station- and ship callsigns could be operated only by former Radio
Officers, Operators of Coast Stations and from Radio Technicians worked in the
branch of installation and maintenance of coastal and ship radio equipment and
antennas.
Companies
as they are RAMAC, DEBEG, SAIT ITT/MACKAY RADIO-HOLLAND RCA etc.
*Radio
amateurs start with Nr. 001*
*Updated Participants List:*
http://www.mrd.seefunker.eu/mrd_pdfoutput.php
A message has reached me saying that one person could not join in the fun.
You
don't have to be a maritime CW operator or maritime maintenance or coast
station operator.
The event is open to all.
If
you aren't ex coast station or radio officer or maintenance company, you simply
give a number - see the last line of the message I sent.
You will hear some very, very good fists.
And
some average fists but the best fists are so incredibly good they will make you
cry they send so well.
Some of the guys operate at the former locations of coast stations!
That's fun!
73, DR N1EA
The SKCC for the Intellectually Challenged" Enjoy.
http://dsckb1wod.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-skcc-for-intellectually-challenged.html
Dave
KB1WOD
Very nice narrative!
Also
don't forget the Miles Per Watt (MPW) activity for those who like the challenge
of seeing how far they can go on the least power.
Warren KC9IL
March "Rag Chew" is on the web!
Get ready for some serious reading fun!
The
64 page March "Rag Chew" is packed with pictures of members' keys and
stations, stealth antennas, K3Y wrap-up, SKN pictures and many other articles.
The paper can be found at:
http://www.skccgroup.com/member_services/newsletter/issues/201803_Rag_Chew.pdf
Once
again, "thanks you" to all of you who have contributed and to all
those who "might" want to contribute, do it, it's easy!
73, Ted K8AQM/VE9AQM SKCCGroup
[skcc] New Members as of 02/11/2018 #Newmembers
Follow on PLL xxx
Keep
the numbers but decode them into alpha ,,,, i.e.; 1 7 4 5 0 T
For centurion go back to 2 and keep alpha fro T and S B I E G A T Or BIEGA2 if
you were a centurion
A0 B1 C2 D3 E4 F4 G5 H6 I7 J8 K9
But seriously, the numbers are just fine for me
VY 73 DE KQ4MM - Brian/
I think we all think the numbers are just fine for us.
It was fun to communicate about this in a sensible way
Editor
[slowspeedwire] Aluminum Levers and Main Line Instruments
The aluminum lever was introduced in 1893 to change the dead-clunk of local instruments to a higher, more distinct and louder tone.
So why were aluminum levers never applied to Main Line instruments?
One answer may be that Main Line instruments were big enough to take care of themselves and didn't need any help with volume.
Can anyone think of a better explanation?
-- 73 SW & (abram burnett)
===============================================
Sent to You from my Telegraph Key
Successor to the MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH LINE of 1844
===============================================
One factor may have been cost.
If, as you say, main line sounders did not need help, why spend
the money.
A story, somewhat an urban legend, concerning the Washington Monument is that
it was capped with aluminum as that was the most expensive metal
then available to use.
Before the advent of the electrolytic process for refining aluminum, it was
very expensive.
http://www.aluminum.org/aluminum-advantage/history-aluminum
More history on the monument's cap is at:
http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/jom/9511/binczewski-9511.html?utm_content=buffer32ea9&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Steve Bartlett
Interesting!!!
To this day I tend to think that many main line sounders (as we briefly discussed a while back there seems to be a lot of variation in the modern 15-B's sounds) have a deader clunker sound than even brass levered locals.
I have suspected (but have not measured it) that aluminum levers had less mass/weight than the apparently equally sized brass levers used in local sounders.
In most sounders with horizontally oriented levers, the spring force has to be strong enough overcome this weight (why relay armatures are vertical as well as being strong enough to lift the lever forcefully enough to make a reasonably loud "clack".
With a lighter lever, the spring force needed would be less and thus less magnetic force would be needed to overcome this weight.
Thus the sounder would operate well with less current.
The problem I see with this analysis is that local sounders are running off of a local battery source and thus there is no need to address a low current issue.
I would have thought it would have been a much bigger deal with main line instruments which in a poor "operating margin" environment need to be sensitive to small variations in main line current. Hmmm...
73, Chris Hausler
[skcc] My view on the 21st century's importance of telegraphy work in emergencies and global disaster situations situations
This
is my story and the story of a lot of other hams.
As soon as i had found out about the 2004 tsunami, I immediately tried to find
a way to help out.
Since all I had was echolink and VHF UHF radios to communicate, I started looking out for stations in the disastered areas (on echolink) that I could help.
Soon
realizing this was way too big for me alone and truly wanting to help (I
thought it was so awful what had happened, and on Christmas too!!!) I went on
to get a domain name from GD.. hundreds of hams from all over the world
contacted me asking how they could help their fellow brothers and sisters too.
People say we can't do much to do much using voip.
Nothing
is further is from the truth... I am the trustee for a conference server so
immediately dedicated it to welfare and emergency traffic only.
within hours, our NCS' got in touch with an India ham who straightaway started
relaying hundreds of messages.
As we still hadn't received the governmental authorisation to handle 3rd party traffic at that point we couldn't get back to most of the afflicted countries.
I remember waking up external affairs Canada in the middle of the night to obtain those authorisations...
I felt like they had no clue of what had happened a few minutes before.
Everyone
was provably sound asleep in the county's capital as it was pretty much the
case about anywhere in North America.
This long waited authorisation finally came in the morning, from what I
recalled.
It
felt like an eternity to us.
It took many more days to get to talk to the traffic sole originator station.
This
came to the echolink net via an Indian military naval vessel's phone patch
linked up to the echolink system.
Her name was Bharathi Prassad VU2RBI.
She's a good friend of all of us hams.
I'm sure a lot of you heard of her.
She went on to explain to our traffic net and members (we were QRV 24 hours 7 days a week) that her first messages wad routed to us via wireless telegraphy which amazed me.
I forget the exact why she had to revert back to CW though.
it
wad so long ago....
CW was
the only option available to her dxpedition members from the Andaman islands to
reach any of the outside world.
QSPs
to QSPs they would relay messages diligently some of which were of diplomatic
nature, most of them requesting supplies, medications, medical personnel.
If it weren't for Bharathi, her team, CW and all of the hams in the shade who
night after night and day after day (yes me too) stood on guard to relay those
important messages to the relief agencies, some lives might not have been
saved.
A few months after the tragedy struck, she was awarded a medal of honour by the
queen of the Commonwealth for rendering invaluable service to humanity.
If it hadn't been for Marconi s wireless system discovered at the beginning of
the century and for the involvement of so many hams around the world working
hand in hand together, this contribution would have never been possible.
Thanks to our heartful and generous fellow hams who are always willing to serve
when they are needed.
A big thank you also to our governments for preserving our resourcefulfrequency
bands from being sold to pecunary interests and thanks to Mr Guglielmo Marcony,
our mentor and leader who in fact, was the first amateur radio operator to sow
the first seed in the same fertile spectre that we use today.
I never wrote about this story of the contribution of these hundreds of these
fellow radio amateurs before.
It needed to be pointed out in the hope that it might help in a little way to save CW from disappearing from our bands.
The first mode ever invented and used.
I guess Jim inspired me with his message on the importance of telegraphy, even today!
Oh
yes!! Especially now!!!
It would take so little to bring all our grids down.
We just have to think of the Cathrina's flood that also ruptured ALL communications in the city in which, our group was also there to help.
When the calm returned, so did politics which brought it all down.
I find amateurs are doing very well when they work with their hearts.
I
will leave it at that.
I myself started with CW on HF when I received my license in 1986.
I
will always trasure that mode.
I just wish I had more time to dedicate to it and radio.
It
still is a beautiful sound to my ears.
I will try to get in touch with Bharathi.
I'll try to get her to join the group to give her point of view from the other side of the world.
I'm
sure she'll be glad to answer questions you may have.
We don't have to wait for the ARRL to claim the virtues of CW.
They have their constituency we have ours .
It's
about time CW shines again!!!!
Let's make CW great again!!
Pierre VE2EBP
Straight key speed.
You
can download the whole magazine here:
http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Popular_Radio__Master_Page.htm
Interesting
reading, the whole magazine
dah di di dit ... dah dit
Amateur Radio Station Kilo Four Tango Quebec Lima
BruceN
Good to know.
I
also went through various ball point pens - the pencils could break and I
didn't want that.
Then the fastest was the WRITE BROS. ball point by PaperMate.
These
days a Uni-Ball Jetstream or PILOT G-2.
NN the First
Ballpoint ink is a little thicker than fountain pen ink.
Historically, the first ballpoints used ink designed for high-speed presses.
It had to be "sticky" or it would fly off the inking rollers.
If
you've ever noticed that a ballpoint is a little stiff to write with when it's
cold, that's why.
So-called "rollerball" pens use a thinner ink, closer to fountain pen
ink.
Because
it's thinner it not only flows easily but takes less "push" to get it
onto the paper.
If you're going to hand copy, then I suggest using a rollerball pen --
preferably one that has a bit of mass to it.
My personal pick is the Retro 51 Titanium Tornado.
I'm a journalist; I do a LOT of writing by hand.
I've been using my Retro 51 for the last 12 years, every single day.
Choose a fine-line filler; no need to waste ink on big thick lines.
Any
good refillable pen that fits your hand and is easy to write with can be fitted
with a rollerball filler.
If you really want to get fine-grained, think about the paper you're using.
At decent smooth bond paper is better than cheap newsprint or notepad.
Smooth surface, also less likely to smear or wick.
A
decent grade of binder paper (like we used in school) is best.
I look at that elegant Spencerian or copperplate script on old telegrams and I
just WISH I could do that!
73, Chuck VE7PJR
I
think about the humidity of the paper.
Too wet then it rips easily, you can not write on it and not burn easily.
Too dry then you can write on it easily and burns easily .... I think about it.
NN the third
New Vibroplex Bug
I have a couple Vibroplex Vari-Speed devices and they work well. However, they out-of-the box they do not lend them selves to quick on-the-fly speed adjustment.
The
thumbscrew has less that a full turn of play and moving the adjustment arm
loosens the screw.
I took a unit to my local Ace Hardware Store and looked for a thumbscrew with
correct thread and then looked for neoprene and metal flat washers with the
correct size hole.
After
some fiddling with the placement of the parts and the snugness of the
thumbscrew, I finally got the Vari-Speed to easily adjust without loosening. I
have a short video of it in action on my website.
http://www.ac2c.net/images/Vibroplex_VariSpeed.mp4
When
it comes to properly adjusting a bug, I find the video from Jim Wade, WB8SIW,
most valuable and keep a link to the video in my shortcuts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qekmyx31Uxw
Ron, AC2C
Ron,
Great video of your bug in action.
That is a great way to adjust the vari-speed.
Can you save us a lot of time by listing the size of the thump screw and washers?
TIA.
73 Dale K3SEN
GE Dale -
It's really hard for me to list a true "parts list".
Anyone who's been to their local hardware store may realize that few of the
small parts you walk away with have true part numbers.
Rather, you tend to fill a packet with parts and list the quantity and price for a few of the items in the packet.
The parts I found were not stainless, but that's where I started looking.
Try
Ace Hardware, Home Depot, Lowe's or a local hardware store.
I took my Vari-Speed along with me and looked for a thumbscrew that had the
right threads - ended up buying a couple that were close to the right length.
I
also picked up a half dozen (or more) of various metal and neoprene washers
that had a small size hole and a diameter close to the diameter of the
VariSpeed piece.
After I got home, I was able to fiddle with various combinations that allowed
free movement without loosening the set screw.
It just takes a bit of individual effort.
Ron
[skcc]
COOTIE CORNER #cootie
I’ve
gotten into Cootie Keys of late - and have several in my collection.
But recently I realized that my Bencher dual paddle with MFJ 490 keyer offers a chance to use it as a sideswiper.
The advantage is that one can switch easily from electronic keyer to “hand key” without having to go into the radio menu.
Also,
I find the dual paddles are very comfortable when operating as a cootie, as
opposed to a single paddle.
On Mar 1, 2018, at 5:42 PM, Mike Pilgrim, K5MP mpilgrim@bellsouth.net wrote:
It's been a while since I've put out a Hype on behalf of the
Cootie key.
As a reminder we have a SKCC Cootie User's list which now accounts for 98 users of this very old keying methodology with a relatively recent resurgence, perhaps for good reason.
With the aging population in the Ham community, many have found this "sideswiper" technology to offer much needed relief to the old fingers, fists, and wrist joints.
If you've not tried a Cootie, I can refer you to the aforementioned list for all the testimonials at hand.
BTW, a link to the list can be found at the bottom of my QRZ page.
Be
sure to visit and let me know if I may attempt to answer your questions.
Speaking of the list, I have recently noticed the popularity of the GHD GF 501A
Cootie.
I'm curious to hear some reviews on that key.
I wonder if the performance justifies the expense and appearance glitz.
I'd be interested to get my hands on one for the right price, and then I could conduct my own assessment, and pass along what I might have learned.
If
anyone knows of one on the used market or soon to be posted there, please let
me know at my email address.
For what it's worth, I recently acquired a Vizkey Vertical Bug, and while
working my way through the setup instructions I accidentally created a Cootie.
Not
sure I can recall or relate just how I did that, but I was really surprised,
and I will admit that it keyed and sounded great.
One day I hope to edit and expand my discussion of Cooties on my QRZ page.
In
the meantime, let me hear from you if you need help to join us in this unique
art of manual CW keying.
Cheers,
Mike, K5MP
The list can be found at:
http://bit.ly/SKCC_Cootie_OPs_ro
or if you have difficulty remembering that link, then please visit my QRZ page where the list is included near the bottom of my biography.
Editor
Hello Friends,
KDM-2 Sideswiper
Fellow Sideswipers,
Many thanks to Colin, G3VTT, for my latest acquisition, a KDM-2.
It is so smooth to send with.
73 de Steve VK7CW
50 shades of grey ??
No no but..."Workshop" at local radioclub lefthand
corner :ON6RL, Guido testing those new build QRP-LAB QCX 5W transceivers
Jos Warnier
The
latest Space Weather report from Tamitha Skov Published on Feb 14, 2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbNqLCY1rUk&feature=em-uploademail
... region 2699 continues to boost the solar flux for amateur radio operators, but this will only last for a few more days until the region rotates onto the Sun's backside and out of Earth view. ...
Another latest from Tamitha Skov:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNs7oEQZEEQ&t=28s
... the amateur radio bands should be coming alive again as old region 2699 will be rotating into Earth view again in a few days.
Cheers, Darrel, aa7fv.
Have
a nice week(end) gents, BCNU.
73,
Yann, F5LAW
By OM Yann F5LAW SideSwiperNetGroup
73, from the town at the rivers "De Bergsche Maas" and "De Dongen" Geertruidenberg (800+ years city rights) at: 51.702211N 4.853854E
Editor Jan Pieter Oelp PA3CLQ
-30-
My simple website about Gigantic DF-Antennas
Part 1 "DF-Antenna Wullenweber Array"
Part 2 "DF-Antenna USSR Variants"
Part 3 "DF-Antenna USA Variant"
Next Part 4 "USSR OTHRA DUGA 1,2 & 3" at: