[BARC-List] Dxers Unlimited's script of the weekend edition of 15-16 July

[Dan Malloy]

Dxers Unlimited 15-16 July 2006

By Arnie Coro

radio amateur CO2KK

Hi amigos radioaficionados around the world and in space ! This is the
weekend edition of your favorite listener oriented and technically
minded radio hobby program... After all, our hobby is of a technical
nature, and as electronics, computing and telecommunications develop, it
has become a much more complicated hobby indeed..

For the early radio pioneers at the start of the 20th Century things
were certainly much simpler... They had to deal with lots of things that
were misteries at that time, and they learned a lot by doing simple
observations and experiments. But today's amateur radio operators, short
wave listeners, TV Dxers , long wave and AM broadcast band DXers have to
deal with a lot of complicated and difficult to understand information.

For example, if you are going to participate on an amateur radio contest
and want to have even a remote chance to be among those finishing at the
top , you must start learning a lot about computers, because nowadays
they are essential for a successful contest station to win.

But the knowledge explosion has also benefited the way we enjoy our
hobby. Take for example how many of you have learned to obtain,
understand and decode properly the up to date HF propagation forecasts
that do make a tremendous difference when you want to work a new country
that's on the air for the first time, or when you and I simply want to
know that propagation conditions are so poor that it is better to go to
the workbench and solder a few more components to a new radio kit that
we are assembling...

As I stated here a few weeks ago, the Internet , instead of becoming a
threat to the radio hobby , in the long run it will enhance our
possibilities of enjoying new technologies, like the digital
communications modes that have proven to be so fantastically reliable...
And something interesting is certainly happening, many "computer fans"
are learning about the radio hobby and now joining us !!!

Now here is item two... an up to date HF propagation conditions report:
On Friday the

14 Jul 2006 10CM Flux was at : 070 and the index was

Ap: 007

Saturday , 15 Jul 2006 10CM solar flux moved up a bit to: 072 and the
A sub P also went up a bit to/ Ap: 010

The forecast for Sunday 16 Jul 2006 calls for a 10CM Flux of : 074 and
again a very quiet geomagnetic field of just Ap: 007

Now here is what the scientists have to say about what's happening

Comment from the SIDC (RWC-Belgium): Solar and geomagnetic activity
remain very quiet as expected. Catania sunspot groups have now
completely decayed away, but two new small groups are developing at the
east side. Neither of these seems capable yet of major activity. The
solar wind speed had decreased a bit to 450 km/s but shows again un
upwards trend, still under the coronal hole influence. The IMF has
become more variable and showed occasional southwards orientation. We
may expect a little more geomagnetic activity because of that, but
probably limited to short durations.

So, decoding the above scientific talk into plain English, YES, we are
right at the bottom of the solar cycle, only one active sunspot group
number 10,900 or simply 900 is visible, and there are no signs of
coronal hole activity that may disrupt the Earth's geomagnetic field.

Now stay right on this frequency , as more radio hobby related
information will be following after a short break.

I am your friend Arnie Coro, radio amateur CO2KK, back with you in a few
seconds..

.....

You are listening to Radio Havana Cuba, the name of the show is Dxers
Unlimited, we are on the air twice weekly, and soon we will have our own
WEBSITE, with lots of easy to understand radio hobby related information
freely available to our worldwide audience.

Here is our next feature for today:

The Cuban Radio Amateurs Federations is celebrating its 40th Anniversary
this month. In July of 1966 the umbrella organization for all of the
nation's radio clubs was organized with a total membership of around 400
between radio amateurs and short wave listeners, today at the middle of
2006, the total membership of the Federacion de Radioaficionados de Cuba
has grown to almost 5000 radio hobby enthusiasts from all of Cuba's 169
municipalities. Among the relevant contributions of the organization are
the support provided to the nation's efforts during natural disasters,
especially during the past 7 big tropical hurricanes that have affected
the nations since the year 2000.

Item five: An old timer called recently on one of our local City of
Havana 2 meter band repeaters asking for the pin out of a certain
transistor type. A few seconds later , a young radio amateur came back
to him with the full data of the transistor that the long time radio
amateur was trying to replace... I was monitoring the 145.190 repeater
and asked the young chap how he could had answered so quickly to the
request, and he said that he had installed several databases with
electronic components information on his home assembled Pentium II
computer... Minutes later we were both testing my new computer to radio
interface running several digital modes on a simplex 2 meter band
frequency. This real life story is a good example of how amateur radio
in Cuba has developed as thousands of young persons have passed their
ham radio license test and are now on the air. They have brought a lot
of fresh conversation to our usual operating frequencies and many of
them are now providing help to still more newcomers to the hobby soon to
take their tests.

By the way, my computer to transceiver interface using a pair of high
quality 600 to 600 ohms transformers and an optocoupler to achieve
complete isolation between the computer ports and the transceiver's
audio output and microphone input worked very well, and using several of
my recently downloaded LINUX software, I was able to test the interface
using PSK31, plain old classic Morse CW, the nice sounding MFSK16 and
MFSK 8 keyboard to keyboard modes, and packet radio at both 300 and 1200
bauds, but my 9600 bauds test failed for some unknown reason. I am now ,
at the time of writing the script of the show, at 9 AM local time, that
is 13 hours UTC ,monitoring the HF amateur bands, and believe it or not,
even under such a low solar activity, I have picked up several European
amateur stations on 15 meters, and one on the 12 meters WARC band... So,
I am taking a break, and will continue writing the script of the show
later, because when HF propagation conditions are so good , even at the
bottom of the solar cycle, its certainly time to enjoy them amigos...

........

OK, here I am back again, its now 16 hours UTC, local noon time, and I
am returning to writing the script of the show... Yes, I made quite a
few two way contacts with amateur stations on the 20, 17, 15, and 12
meter bands, and even three contacts on 10 meters too...

I was using about 50 Watts output power on Single Side Band and a wire
dipole antenna few with parallel transmission line and an antenna tuner.

This is a very simple installation, just a self contained factory built
transceiver , that has a built in power supply, the homebrew antenna
tuner, transmission line and the above mentioned wire dipole antenna
that was installed about 10 years ago between two steel towers that
support my VHF and UHF antenna systems.

As you may realize, enjoying so many nice two way contacts , some of
them with long time friends, was made possible with even this simple low
cost installation, another good demonstration that amateur radio need
not be an expensive hobby at all.

A previously owned or as some other people like to say second or third
hand transceiver, a homebrew antenna tuner, and even a homebrew
microphone assembled from parts coming from a discarded telephone , plus
some coaxial cable, antenna wire and homebrew insulators and masts will
put you on the air on the HF amateur bands at minimum cost amigos !!!

.......

Now here is ASK ARNIE, the MOST POPULAR section of Dxers Unlimited....
today's question came from South Africa, where listener Emmanuel is
picking up our 11760 kiloHertz broadcast in English ever since we put
the new omnidirectional 6 dB gain over a dipole antenna system. Emmanuel
sent a nice e-mail message saying that he is enjoying Dxers Unlimited
and other Radio Havana Cuba programs, and that he wanted to know if he
can add an external beat frequency oscillator to his recently purchased
short wave radio receiver that doesn't have one. Well amigo Emmanuel,
you can certainly add a Beat Frequency Oscillator of BFO,and just place
it near to your radio in order to pick up CW , SSB or DIGITAL modes, but
keep in mind that the radio receiver's AGC, or automatic gain control
will not be disconnected, so the level of the BFO signal must be very
carefully set in order to avoid the receiver from loosing sensitivity,
because of the AGC action. Another fact to take into consideration is
that the receiver's detector is not the ideal type of detector for CW ,
Digital and SSB use. So, in short, YES, you can build a 455 kiloHertz
precision oscillator and run it near to the radio in order to be able to
receive those operating modes, but if you don't add a product detector
and disable the AGC system, you must adjust the level of the BFO signal
very carefully to achieve good results with the external BFO.

My suggestion to you is to start collecting parts to homebrew a
REGENERODYNE receiver that will pick up SSB, CW and Digital modes with
both high sensitivity and selectivity... I am sending to you , via
e-mail the circuit diagram and building instructions for the simplest
design of a REGENERODYNE that you attempt to build with the help of a
more experienced local radio amateur amigo... And thanks very much for
the nice report of our new antenna Emmanuel !!!

And now just before going QRT,here is Dxers Unlimited's HF plus low band
VHF propagation update and forecast. Fantastic Sporadic E openings
happened on Friday, and it was too bad that they didn't happen during
the weekend when there is a lot more radio amateur activity. Solar flux
at very low levels, near 70 units, and staying with sunspot numbers
below 20 for the next three days. Best time for DXing is still after
your local sunset, and about two hours before sunrise. Hope to have you
all listening to the mid week edition of the program amigos, and don't
forget to send me your comments about this edition of Dxers Unlimited to
arnie at ..., again, arnie at ... , or VIA AIR MAIL to Arnie Coro,Radio
Havana Cuba, Havana, Cuba.