My Icom IC-7600 HF Transceiver

About five months ago, my newlywed wife was nice enough to tell me that she did not have a problem with me purchasing my dream radio, the Icom IC-7600.  It sits alongside my Kenwood TS-2000X in my shack.  Now I know that many people own several HF rigs, but I do not see the point in that.  HF radios can be quite expensive.  I would rather concentrate on one or two radios in terms of the radios that I keep on hand.  I've owned a number of radios in the past from mobile radios, to HTs, to HF radios.  The IC-7600 is actually only my third HF radio.  The problem with having too many radios is that all of those radios need to be taken care of and used.  For example, firmware may need to be updated regularly, or the memories need tended to.  I don't have the time like I used to set up multiple radios.  I indicated that the IC-7600 is my third HF radio.  I've had the Kenwood the longest, but at one point I owned a Yaesu FT-897D.  The Yaesu was a decent radio, but I sold it to another ham when I thought she was ready to get on the air.  I am keeping the TS-2000X because I believe that some of its features complement the Icom.  Specifically, repeater operation is available as well as a satellite mode, and it operates on 2-meters, 70-cm, and 1.2 GHz, whereas the Icom does not.

I absolutely love the 7600.  Of course, it has the beautiful LCD screen and that screen contains the spectrum scope, but the screen contains a lot of other useful information.  However, the radio is much more than just the awesome LCD screen.  Shortly after acquiring the 7600, I participated in the IARU HF Championship, and made 23 contacts using the radio, including confirmed (with Logbook of the World) contacts with TM0HQ and NU1AW/5.  I felt that was pretty impressive given my limited operating time, and my rather limited antenna--an indoor Buddipole.  I only spent about two or three hours operating during the contest.  I had the radio on for a couple of hours on Saturday evening, and I had it on for about an hour on Sunday.  About half of my contacts were on 20-meters and the other half were on 40-meters.  I was operating in the search and pounce (S&P) mode, and most stations heard me on the first or second call.  I don't recall having that kind of success with my TS-2000X, but I may be comparing apples to oranges.  The bands did not seem as crowded for the IARU HF contest as they were during Field Day (which is the last contest I operated the TS-2000X in), and the pile-ups were not very deep for the IARU contest, or were completely non-existent.  I really am looking forward to using the 7600 during the next Field Day when the bands are typically very crowded.  I think it has a number of features on the receiving side that will make it easier for me or guest operators to pick out (more on this later) the individual stations.  For much of the operating that I do, however, the bands are not crowded at all.  I'm also looking forward to getting back on the digital modes after a two- or three-year hiatus.  In particular, I want to expand my operating skills to RTTY, and I think that the 7600 should be able to handle it quite well.  I would like to add that my first opportunity to operate split on the HF bands occurred shortly after I purchased the 7600.  I was tuning around the bands--probably on 40-meters--and ran into N4S.  N4S was the special event station commemorating the final flight of a space shuttle.  Although, I never got through, I was able to figure out how to program the 7600 to operate in split mode.  I got to hear first-hand the handful of stations that had not copied N4S stating that he was operating split, as they tried to call on N4S transmitting frequency.

Most likely the next time that I operate this radio during crowded band conditions will be the 2012 Field Day.  This radio will replace the TS-2000X during Field Day.  I may pack the Kenwood, but the Icom will be the primary radio that I use.  I'm looking forward to using several of its features that should really help pull stations out.  I suspect that it won't have any problem being heard.  Some of the features that I have used that will be helpful are:

• Adjustable IF digital filters:  Each mode has three filters that can be quickly selected with the Filter button.  For example, on SSB, I normally am using FIL2, which has a 2.4 kHz bandwidth.  This is a decent bandwidth that allows for an intelligible signal, but at the same time, does not allow too much noise.  My SSB filter FIL1 is currently set at 1.6 kHz, and FIL3 is 3.0 kHz.  As suspected, FIL1 is a little tight and the conversations are slightly harder to copy, but noise is lessened, and the tight filter helps keep out adjacent channel interference.  FIL3 makes for easy copy on strong signals, but with weaker signals, the wider bandwidth lets in more noise, which in turn makes the signal harder to copy.  Although I'm not a CW operator, the digital IF filters can be adjusted quite tight.  The really neat thing is that each of these three selectable filters (keep in mind that these filters are implemented with digital signal processing) can be fine-tuned.  You can adjust the roll-off of the filter skirts, the bandwidth, and the roofing filter used.  The roofing filter is in the first IF stage and is the radio's first line of defense against interference from adjacent channels.  I'm assuming that my Kenwood TS-2000X has just one roofing filter and it is probably about 15 kHz wide.  A passband that wide just lets in too much signal.  With the Icom, I can choose a 15-kHz roofing filter, or a 6-, or a 3-kHz one.  I suspect that being able to select the tighter roofing filters will greatly help during the crowded band conditions of Field Day.

The filter adjustment screen on the Icom IC-7600

• Twin passband tuning (Twin PBT):  I'm still trying to understand this feature, and I don't often use it because I don't fully understand it, but I think it allows me to adjust the lower and upper skirts of the IF filter.  So in that regard it does alter the bandwidth of the filter, which may affect the intelligibility of the signal, or the amount of noise.  The main feature of the twin passband tuning is its ability to filter out an offending signal.  For example if there is an interfering signal above the desired signal, you just adjust one of the Twin PBT controls and the undesired signal is filtered out.  I suspect that I will experiment with this feature quite a bit during Field Day, or the next contest that I participate in. 



The Twin Passband Tuning control

• Noise reduction:  The noise reduction is implemented digitally and unlike the TS-2000X it is actually quite effective.  Although it is best to leave it off with strong signals, it can helpful with weaker signals.

Noise reduction and noise blanker buttons and controls

•  1/4-Speed Tuning:  I know that this feature is available in the CW mode.  It allows more precise tuning with the main knob.
• Auto Tune:  Again, I believe that this is strictly a CW feature, but with a push of the button during CW reception, the receiver zero-beats with the signal.
• Auto Notch:  I've used this before, and I normally leave it turned on.  It clamps down really quick on a carrier.  People tuning up on the band during Field Day, or other contests is quite common.
• Audio Peak Filter:  This filter is applied to the CW sidetone during reception and definitely makes hearing the Morse Code easier to hear.  I may not use some of these CW-related features that much, but guest operators at my station may.

There are plenty of other features that will help with copying stations during Field Day or another crowded-band contest.  I make every effort to understand all of the controls on a radio and maximize my use of them.  I paid quite a bit for this radio and I need to get my money's worth.  If I don't, I might as well use the TS-2000X.

The Icom IC-7600 HF/50-MHz transceiver, LDG AT-200 Pro II autotuner, and the Power Master II wattmeter

 I'll probably have more to say about this radio in the future, but I do need to get more time on the air before I write more.

73,
Ned

Gearing Up For Field Day

As I start to write this, the American Radio Relay League's (ARRL) Field Day event is a little less than three weeks away. I always look forward to participating. This year is no different. Whether I get on the radio a little or a lot, I will enjoy the time spent with fellow amateur radio operators.

Field Day is two things. It is a demonstration of ham radio operator's abilities to set up their stations and make contacts in abnormal situations or less than ideal conditions, and is also a contest. Although those are the two main aspects of Field Day it also can serve the purpose of introducing the public to amateur radio.

For me, Field Day can also serve as an excuse to buy more equipment for my station. I haven't closely studied a calendar, but typically Field Day occurs six weeks after the Dayton Hamvention. It is around those two events where quite a bit of my amateur radio equipment purchases occur. This year there were several things that I purchased, or will purchase before Field Day arrives. For this year the main thing to purchase was a set of W3NQN bandpass filters. Based on some of my experience from last year's Field Day, I can tell you that transmissions from one station can get into another radio. One of the main station's at last year's Field Day was the 40-meter station. Rob, KB8UEY, was making contacts on his Kenwood TS-120S while Brad, W8NCI, was logging for him. I was on my Yaesu FT-897D trying to make contacts on 15-meters and I discovered that 15 and 10-meters were somewhat open. However, every time Rob keyed up on 40-meters, I wouldn't be able to copy stations on 15-meters. Hopefully the W3NQN filters will take care of that. They are rated to 200 watts, and we typically never run more than 100 watts. They also present about 0.3 dB of insertion loss, so hopefully each station that uses one (and I hope they all do) will see little if any impact to their ability to copy stations, while stations on higher bands will be able to copy their own contacts. The whole issue arises in the first place because no transmitter is perfect and specifically no stage in a radio transmitter is perfectly linear. If it were, there would be no 3rd-order, 5th-order, 7th-order and so on products created in the radio. It is these "harmonics" and general front end overload that cause the problems [note: if I am incorrect please let me know.] Another item that I plan to purchase before Field Day is the Byonics Micro-Trak All-in-One. This is an APRS tracker. It features a microcontroller functioning as a TNC, a 10-watt transmitter, and a high-sensitivity GPS receiver in a watertight Pelican case. Although someone else will likely be demonstrating a complete APRS station, I'll be able to transmit my position to the APRS network.

The other things that I am buying before Field Day mainly pertain to my sleeping arrangements. I enjoy staying at Field Day for the entire duration. That way I can stay up late, then get some sleep, and wake up early the next day, and thereby maximize the time I spend at the Field Day location. It has been several years (four, I think), since I slept in a tent. For the past two year's I have slept in a sleeping bag on the concrete floor of the picnic shelter that we use. It's not impossible to sleep that way, but it is not terribly fun either. Before that I slept in my car. That's not fun either because it is cramped, the seat doesn't fully recline, and the mercury-vapor (or high-pressure sodium) lights from the parking lot next to the shelter are bright. The last tent that I used belonged to a friend, but it is a huge family tent and definitely takes two people to set it up. I'm planning to get a smaller tent that hopefully I can set up on my own, or with just a little help.

There are always things that I can't purchase in time because I haven't saved up for them. This year I will not be able to get a new hard drive for my laptop in time to try some of the digital modes during Field Day. I will also miss the opportunity to try another radio at Field Day. I've made the decision to trade my Yaesu FT-897D for an Icom IC-7000. Of course, both radios meet the criteria for being small radios, but the IC-7000 seems like it would be better suited to the digital modes that I enjoy on HF with its IF-DSP filtering. I am also trading up on my sound card interface, but I will be making that purchase after Field Day. I have decided to buy the MicroHAM Micro Keyer II (MK2) after I saw them at the Dayton Hamvention. The MK2 acts as a complete hub for audio and CAT control. I will sell my two Tigertronics SignaLink USBs. They are great performers, but the MK2 should simplify my station somewhat, and doesn't rely on VOX circuitry to key up the radio. By next year, I should have a complete digital (and phone) station running at Field Day with the computer running the sound card modes and also performing logging. I also want to add a straight key to my station. I'm currently looking at the Vibroplex Straight Key Deluxe.

I also have a few preparations before Field Day. I try to work off of a checklist, and right now as of three weeks out, that checklist is still growing. I've spent the past couple of evenings working on the video that I shot at last year's Field Day. Yes, 49 weeks later. Basically, my delay was due to forgetting to work on them and prepare them for Youtube, but also in trying to find suitable encoding parameters for Field Day. My previous attempts resulting in terrible videos. I am now pleased with the results, and I will be sure to save my encoding parameters in a preset in Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0. I will have more to say about the videos in an upcoming post. As I have been preparing the 2008 Field Day videos, I have noticed that the white balance could be much improved. It's much easier to correct the color balance up front rather than trying to correct it in "post". I decided not to worry about it for the 2008 videos, but this year I will take my Lastolite EZYbalance foldup gray/white card over to Field Day and white-balance each scene. I also realized that I am running low on MiniDV tapes for my Sony DCR-VX2000 camcorder and will pick up some in the next three weeks. Finally, I will be taking along my pocket Olympus digital recorder or my Edirol R-09HR recorder in order to record the ARRL Bulletin. I'll have to see if there is any Field Day rule that prohibits recording, but if there is not the digital recorder will allow me to record the Bulletin, and play it back as often as necessary to achieve 100% copy. It's worth 100 points.

So, I will keep working on my checklist, and will slowly pack the items that need to go to Field Day. Of course, after that weekend has come and gone, I will post a blog entry about my experiences and lessons learned, and I will try to quickly get my photos and videos posted.

73,
Ned
N8OIF

Dayton Hamvention 2009 Debrief

Well, the Hamvention has been over for about a week. I thought that I would write a post about my impressions from this year's show. For the first time in several years, I attended all three days. Usually, I just attend Friday and Saturday. For a couple of reasons, I decided to also go Sunday. One of the reasons was that I wanted to sit in on one of the forums, the D-Star forum. The other reason was that I was asked to take a two-hour shift at the West Central Ohio Amateur Radio Association's (WCOARA) flea market space in order to help sell items. Between those two items, I knew that I had lost about a half day, so I tacked on Sunday.

I was staying at the house of a friend of a friend in the south-Dayton suburb of Kettering. My one friend and I drove from Columbus on Thursday evening to stay at her house. Staying there was quite convenient and meant that we did not have to wake up at some ridiculous hour in order to get to the show by the time it opened. We were able to wake up at a reasonable time and grab some breakfast on the way up to Trotwood to park at the old Salem Mall.

The bus rides were uneventful and were always available when we were ready. For the past several years, I have bought both the Hamvention tickets and the all-weekend bus pass. Buying the tickets, and especially the all-weekend pass, saves a little time and a little money.

This year, I arrived at Hara Arena with two purchases already in mind. I had no idea if either item would be available, but as it turned out both were. Some people might call it impulsive but I bought my first item within ten minutes of Friday's opening. I bought the new Icom ID-880H dual-band mobile radio. This radio only does one band at a time, but it also incorporates D-Star. I bought this radio at R & L Electronics right inside the main arena. I don't think it was an impulsive purchase, because I had researched this radio for about three months before making that purchase. The prices I had seen on that radio from the ham radio retailers before the show was right about $500. I paid $481, which included the 6.75% that R & L Electronics collected on behalf of the State of Ohio. My next purchase was a little while later (maybe an hour later). I've been wanting a new set of CW paddles. Now that purchase may be considered impulsive. I'm not currently a CW operator, but the Begali Signature paddle that I bought is a work of art and is a high-precision piece of equipment. I do want to learn the code because I would like to try some weak signal VHF and UHF contacts, and ultimately I would like to work the microwaves. It is also nice to have a set of paddles for those who may operate my station whether that is at home or Field Day.

With my purchases out the way, I started checking out all of the exhibits. I spend most of my time indoors looking at the commercial exhibits and I am not that interested in the flea market sales. The main things that I was interested in looking at were the new Icom IC-7600 HF/6m rig, and also looking at anything D-Star. I did those things and more. All along the way, I had my Canon EOS-5D digital SLR and was taking quite a few pictures.

I'll have more to post about the IC-7600. I spent about 15 to 20 minutes talking to one of the Icom representatives about this radio. As far as D-Star is concerned, there were a few exhibits that pertained mainly to D-Star. Icom has a booth in "Audio Alley" that seems to be mainly concentrated on their D-Star capable radios. The Dstarusers.org group had a booth along with a fully functioning UHF D-Star repeater that was also connected to the gateway. Dan Smith had his D-RATS exhibit in the main arena. D-RATS uses the digital data capabilities of D-Star radios to send files, short messages, emails and so on to another similar equipped station.

I thought that the Hamvention attendance was down a little bit. Other than the initial rush to get in the arena when the doors first opened on Friday, I thought that it was fairly easy to get around, and I was walking around with a backpack, camera bag, and a digital SLR. I also noticed that there seemed to be fewer exhibitors; not by a whole lot, as Hamvention still occupies the entire Hara Arena. I also noticed that the flea market was a little more sparse than I remember it. I haven't attended Hamvention on Sunday for quite a while, and I have noticed that in years past some people would abandon their flea market spaces on Saturday if sales weren't good. The flea market was emptying out quite well Sunday morning.

I did spend the remaining time grabbing lunch, hanging out at the WCOARA flea market space (to rest), and looking at all of the other exhibits. One of the exhibitors that I checked out was Byonics. I hadn't thought much about checking them out, but when I arrived early at Forum Room 1 for the D-Star seminar, the APRS seminar was still going on. A representative from Byonics was one of the speakers for the APRS forum. He was talking about their various tracker options. One of those trackers caught my attention: the Micro-Track All-in-One (AIO). The is a 10-watt APRS transmitter based on the TinyTrak3 platform. I do run a APRS beacon at home (N8OIF-9) using a Kenwood TM-D710A, but the Micro Track AIO would be handy for portable operations. Recently, I helped our ARES group (the Central Ohio ARES) in providing communication support for the Tour of the Scioto River Valley bicycle tour (from Columbus, Ohio to Portsmouth on Saturday, and back to Columbus on Sunday). I know that net control for that event does use APRS, and a 10-watt tracker such as the Micro-Track AIO would be beneficial. Other exhibitors that I checked out included the big three of Kenwood, Icom, and Yaesu. From what I can tell, Kenwood did not have a single new item to show. However, they had a poster that said they will be debutting a new HF rig and a new HT in 2010. I also checked out MicroHAM-USA, Buddipole, W4RT Electronics, Heil Sound, Tokyo Hy-Power, All-Ohio Scanner Club, TAPR, Amateur Radio/Video News, Radio Shack, AMSAT, West Mountain Radio, Palstar, Array Solutions, M² Antennas, NCG Company, MFJ Enterprises, Down East Microwave, and Flexradio Systems. I'll discuss those real briefly here:

• Icom: I mainly stopped by to check out the new radios; specifically the ID-880H mobile, the IC-80AD, and of course the IC-7600 HF/6m rig.
• Kenwood: didn't see anything new except the announcement that I mentioned earlier.
• Yaesu: I asked them what new items they were showing because it was not immediately apparent to me. They have three new mobiles: the FT-2900R (a 75W 2m), the FT-7900R (dual-band), and the "ultra rugged" FT-1900R 55W 2m rig. They also have a new HT: the FT-270 that they were displaying in a fish aquarium.
• Buddipole: I mainly stopped by to check on the status of some items they debutted last year, such as the mini Buddipole rotator and controller. They said they were still working on it. They were actively promoting kits that can turn your Buddipole into a short 2m or 6m beam.
• Palstar: I already own three Palstar items, but I wanted to look at their new Commander series of amplifiers.
• Flexradio Systems: these software-defined radios have advanced quite a bit lately. One radio that they sell is the complete radio and computer all in one case. They were showing the PowerSDR software, and they had a copy of CW Skimmer running. They also appear to be working on a VHF/UHF SDR.
• MFJ Enterprises: I was helping Jonnie, KD8BUP, pick out a antenna tuner for her Yaesu FT-101B HF rig.
• Heil Sound: I didn't spend much time there. I am interested in how to allow two people to each use a headset/boomset on one radio. This scenario sometimes occurs at Field Day. You want a headset for yourself and you need one for your logger.
• Down East Microwave: I briefly swung by their exhibit, but the crowd was fairly deep, so I kept walking.
• NCG Company: Jonnie also needs a new dual-band antenna for her car. The mag mount on the roof with coax going through the door has had better days. I think that the coax is bad. I was looking for a trunk-lip mount and a dual-band antenna to go with it. I was able to get a couple of ideas.
• Tokyo Hy-Power: I would like to start working weak signal VHF particularly on 2-meters. THP sells the HL-350Vdx 300W 2m amplifier that I would like to acquire within the next couple of years. I spent some time looking at that amp, and a 500W version.
  
• Radio Shack: A friend of mine works there and I knew he would be working the booth on Saturday. I stopped by and ended up buying a non-ham radio item off of him: an HD-Radio made by Accurian. I brought it home and it works out pretty well.
• W4RT Electronics: I mainly stopped by their exhibit because I knew they carried the line of LDG Electronics autotuners. I'm looking at the LDG KT-100 tuner for my Kenwood TS-2000X.
• All-Ohio Scanner Club: It was time to renew my membership so that I could keep receiving the Scannergram. In the end though, I had spent most of my cash and I opted to renew once I got back home.
• Array Solutions: This company carries quite an assortment of different ham radio gear. I am mainly interested in the W3NQN bandpass filters, and a new UHF coupler for my Powermaster wattmeter.
• AMSAT: I wanted to renew my AMSAT membership, but I decided I would take care of that back home. They were demonstrating what SuitSat2 may be like. They were saying that it will probably have a CW beacon, a voice beacon, a telemetry beacon, and a transponder. It may also have batteries and a few solar panels. A "launch" date is not know. I heard beforehand that they might be demoing a complete computer-controlled satellite station (which presumably means computer control of Doppler shift and control of az-el rotors). I did not see that demo.
• TAPR: I don't hear much out of TAPR these days. I know that they are still working on their High Performance SDR. I also thought about renewing my membership but I can do that later.
  
• Amateur Radio/Video News: This group has shot different videos and produced DVDs of the various forums, seminars, and Hamvention itself. I wanted to see what they were working on this year. Their presence was noted at that D-Star Forum and at the D-Star Friday Night Event. I just visited their website. Gary Pearce (KN4AQ) shot several seminars this year at Hamvention. He is now doing the editing, but I imagine I'll buy his D-Star DVD and his SDR DVD.
  
• M² Antennas: If I want to do VHF/UHF SSB then I will need a decent beam. This company seems to produce quality products.
  
• MicroHAM: I had heard of this company before, but had never paid much attention to them. Even this year, I initially just walked past their exhibit (I did slow down a little). On my second go-around on late Saturday or Sunday, I stopped by. They manufacture some very interesting equipment: items such as the Station Master Deluxe, the Micro Keyer II, and the Micro Keyer 2R and 2R+. After the show was over, I started looking at the pictures that I took of their equipment and decided to check their website to see what they were about. Now, I'm seriously thinking about buying the Micro Keyer II. It can be used with my Kenwood TS-2000X, and my Yaesu FT-897D. If I get an Icom IC-7600 down the road it can be used with that as well. All you need is a radio cable for each radio. Basically, the Micro Keyer II acts as a hub for voice, data, CAT control, and so on for the connected radio. It is connected to the computer with a USB cable. If I got this, I would probably sell my two Tigertronics Signalink USB's (those are great items; there's nothing wrong with them). The MK2 is just a more elegant approach.
  
• West Mountain Radio: I only stopped by briefly. I learned after the show that they were showing a new item. This item is called the PWRGuard and acts as a undervoltage/overvoltage protection device for the load that is connected to it. This might be a good addition to the shack.

For the first time this year, I attended an after-hours event. I attended the D-Star event at the Drury Inn. Although quite a bit of it was over my head (discussions of D-Star sys admin stuff), I think that I still got enough benefit out of the rest of it, that I would attend again in the future.

Now I have to wait almost another year for Hamvention to return. I'll probably attend all three days again next year, and I may even create my own Four Days in May (the actual FDIM is devoted to QRP operation). I'm thinking about attending Contest University next year. I really don't consider myself a contester, but I've heard that you can learn quite a bit at Contest University about operating techniques and station strategies.

I may have more to write about Hamvention in the not-too-distant future.

UPDATE: For those of you who attended Hamvention and picked up a program booklet: Did someone forget to include the list of exhibitors? I like to plan my visit, and it's hard to do without that. I did notice that a website was tracking inside exhibitors this year. I'll have to visit that website before next year's show.

73,
Ned
N8OIF

Mobile Radio

I'm thinking about buying a new mobile radio. I owned several mobile radios in the past. I probably started out with the Kenwood TM-741A. This radio came standard with the 2-meter and 70-cm bands. I added a 220-MHz band unit to it, because at that time I lived in Dayton, Ohio, and 220-Mhz activity was fairly common. I never installed that radio in the car, although I operated from the car with it from time to time. I was probably getting the power from the cigarette lighter jack. I had three separate glass-mount antennas on the car for 2-meters, 220-MHz, and 70-cm, plus I had a glass-mount cellular antenna on the car as well. I kept that radio for quite some time, but did not continue to use it. Then sometime after moving to Columbus in 1996, I bought a Kenwood TM-V7A. This was a dual-band radio with a bluish-colored LCD display. I had a friend help me install it. We routed the power from the battery through the firewall to the radio, which we mounted to the bottom of a slide-out ash tray, which I wasn't using anyway. Coax cables to the antennas were routed along the lower door "raceways" or whatever you want to call them. I can't remember but I suspect that the V7A had only one RF output, therefore I was probably using a duplexer to feed energy to the two separate antennas. I traded that car (a 1984 Toyota Corolla) in for a new 2003 Corolla. I have never installed a radio in that car. A half-dozen years or so ago at the Dayton Hamvention, I bought a Kenwood TM-D700A. This is a dual-band radio that features APRS operation. I had ever intention of installing it in the car, but I never got around to it. It stayed in its original box. A couple of years ago I sold it on Ebay for probably 90% of what I paid for it.

Now I currently have a Kenwood TM-D710A and an Icom IC-2820H. The D710A just like the D700A features APRS. The Icom IC-2820H is a dual-band radio and I have the DV chip installed in order to operate D-Star. I'm actually using those radios fairly regularly from the home QTH as base radios.

What I would like to do is buy the new Icom ID-880H to install in my Corolla. The ID-880H is a dual band radio but one band at a time. This radio is also D-Star ready. I don't know how much this radio will cost as it is just starting to be advertised, but I could certainly expect $550 or so. If I do decide to get this radio, I'll probably do it in two phases. In the first phase, I want to buy and install the antenna. That way I can use the antenna with my HT until I replenish my funds. The antenna that I am looking at is the Comet Antenna SBB-97 tri-band antenna. In case you are wondering why I would buy a tri-band antenna for a dual-band radio, the reason is that I am looking to the future. The SBB-97 is a 2m/70cm/23cm antenna. I've considered buying the Icom ID-1 radio. This is a $1,000 radio that is strictly 1.2GHz, but incorporates analog FM and D-Star. On the D-Star side, it has the same DV mode as other D-Star radios. DV is digital voice with low speed data. The ID-1 also has a DD mode which is a high-speed data-only mode. I initially talked myself out of this radio, saying that there is probably no one else in Columbus who operates one, and by checking out Dstarusers.org, that would appear to be correct. However, I had forgotten that I can still cross-band through the D-Star repeater and talk to those on 2-meters or 70-cm, and with the gateway, I can connect to distant D-Star repeater systems. So I will keep the option of buying the ID-1 open and buy an antenna that is appropriate. Along with the antenna, I will need a mount for it. I'm looking at Comet's trunk lip mount options. These use a short section of small-diameter coax to go past the lip of the trunk and the weather seal. Then they transition to an RG-58 type coax. As a temporary measure I can snake this coax between my fold-down rear seats to a HT that I keep in the front seat. Then I can get the ID-880H as part of the second phase. I'll likely have someone professionally install the power cable to my battery and find the way to breach the firewall. Then I will install the radio myself.

In the first phase, I can simply operate my HT by connecting directly to the antenna's coax. Also, when I buy the ID-880H, I can connect it directly to the coax. However, if I add the ID-1 1.2 GHz radio it looks like I might have to add not only a duplexer but a triplexer. Obviously a duplexer would be required because two radios would be involved, but I cannot find a duplexer that offers one port with 1.2GHz and the other port with 2-m and 70-cm together. I can find a triplexer that splits the signal from the antenna into three ports for 2-m, 70-cm, and 23-cm, but then I would need a duplexer to recombine the 2-m and 70-cm signals back together for the ID-880H. I'm currently only familiar with Comet Antenna's and Diamond's duplexer and triplexer offerings. If you are familiar with another commercial product, let me know.

One final note. Years ago I purchased a notch filter from PAR Electronics that is supposed to notch out 152-MHz where a lot of pager transmitters reside. I remember driving around Columbus with the Kenwood TM-V7A and getting quite a bit of intermod from pagers. Are these pager transmitters still around? I don't see many people wearing pagers these days, since they can send and receive text messages with their cellphones. Also, my last pager, a two-way Motorola pager, operated in the UHF bands if I am not mistaken.

73,
Ned

Two new Icom D-Star radios

I think that I first read about them a couple of weeks ago on someone else's blog. For the most part, information was only available on Icom's Japanese website and had to be translated to English. Now Universal Radio has pages dedicated to each one. The two new radios are the ID-80AD handie-talkie and the ID-880H mobile. I wonder if these will replace the ID-91AD, and ID-800H respectively. We will find out. I also wonder if Kenwood and Yaesu will continue to stay out of the D-Star game. Naturally, I'll be looking at their exhibits at the upcoming Dayton Hamvention.

I'm happy with my Icom IC-92AD HT and my IC-2820H mobile. I have made a few contacts through the Columbus, Ohio W8DIG 2-meter repeater. The W8DIG repeater system, however, is fairly low profile and I have difficulty hitting it from home. It's usually when I am out and about that I make contacts. I am somewhat disappointed in the D-Star network as a whole. One of the prime benefits of D-Star is the ability to interlink D-Star systems. So far, it appears that many systems are not interlinked. I believe that in order to be interlinked, it has to be registered with the Trust Server. W8DIG is not currently registered. It is possible to make a contact on the D-Star repeater and have your information show up on Dstarusers.org. The other problem that I am having is seeing my position information show up. I have the HM-175GPS speaker-mic, and I am fairly confident that I have the radio properly configured for sending the position information so that the APRS network can pick it up, but the IC-92AD is not showing up; only my TM-D710A station. Perhaps it is time to send an email to the W8DIG trustee to see what is going on and offer my assistance.

73,
Ned

Looking for a new HF rig

I'm not sure exactly why, but I am starting to get the urge to get a new HF rig. I have two radios with HF capabilities: the Kenwood TS-2000X and the Yaesu FT-897D. I never expected too much when I bought the FT-897D, but it's still a decent radio that offers HF (including general coverage receive), VHF, UHF, along with the AM and FM broadcast bands and the airband. It's also a lot easier to go portable with it than the Kenwood. I used the FT-897D at Field Day (the WC8OH, West Central Ohio Amateur Radio Association, group) and made several dozen contacts on 20, 15, and 10 meters. I thought it performed admirably. Actually, my main problem was the other transmitters getting into the front end of the 897. I plan to solve that at this year's Field Day with the purchase of W3NQN bandpass filters to put on each transmitter. Ever since I bought the TS-2000X, I have considered it my main rig, but starting last year, I started looking at other radios. I have heard several comments in the past about how great the VHF, UHF, and satellite capabilities are for the TS-2000, but those same people always stated that they believed the HF section to be only mediocre. The main radio that I started looking at last year was the Icom IC-756Pro III. From the product reviews in QST, it did seem to have better numbers in the receiver department.

I did a little bit of research on the IC-756Pro III last year, then I dropped the ball. I guess it was late last year or very early this year, I heard about Icom's upcoming IC-7600. And last week (I think it was), I learned that it had been FCC-approved and that Universal Radio was listing a price right around $4,000. That's is a good chunk of money, but doable.

My plan is to do more research on radios over the next year. However, once I set my sights on something, its too to let go. Perhaps, I will assume that I will get the IC-7600 and look for anything that might disqualify it from consideration. There are other radios out there that have similar or superior performance, but the ones for Icom that fall in that category are also even more expensive. There's Yaesu, and I'm sure that they have some great radios, but I haven't really checked them out. Kenwood, I've just about written off. It's been several years since they've released a new radio (the TS-480, I think), and that radio has similar characteristics to the TS-2000, if I am not mistaken. Ten-Tec makes fine radios, at least based on the numbers, but I do find their radios to be lacking cosmetically. There is Elecraft, also. From what I have heard, they are some of the best radios. Finally, there's Alinco, but I hardly have any familiarity with their products.

I plan to post more about my research on the Icom IC-7600. Naturally, I am looking at the receiver performance, but I also wonder if the transmitter section of the 7600 is clean. I also want to determine if it can handle high duty cycle modes such as PSK31 and RTTY at its highest power level. Normally, I turn down the power on my TS-2000 to the lowest that I think I can get away with (to still be heard on the other end), but I would like to know that I can turn up the power if necessary. I'm not that comfortable with doing that on the TS-2000. I also want to learn more the 7600's ability to do PSK31 and RTTY without the computer. My main concern there regards macros. When I'm using MixW with the TS-2000, I will use macros, but I do try to use them sparingly. I have several macros entered and ready to go, but I won't necessarily use them, unless I feel that the other station is using theirs as well. In other words, if the other station is practically going to automate the QSO, I might as well too, but if the other station wants to ragchew a little, I'll just manually type at the keyboard. Obviously, I can manually type the whole QSO at a keyboard connected to the IC-7600, but it would be nice to have the CQ macro stored, and a macro stored for answering the other station (i.e. urcall DE mycall). I've downloaded the owner's manual, and it appears that macros are supported. It doesn't call them macros, but that's what they appear to be. Anyway, there will be more research. I'll try to post regularly about what I learn about this radio.

As I wrapped up this post, I realized that I had previously mentioned looking for a new radio. At that time, I briefly mentioned the IC-7600, but I indicated that I was looking at the Icom IC-7000. I am no longer looking at that one. It's a feature packed radio, but again I would never have high expectations for it. I'll keep the FT-897D for my portable radio for now.

73,
Ned, N8OIF

Productive Test Sessions

This past weekend, I helped bring a few people into the amateur radio hobby. On Saturday, I was one of the three administering Volunteer Examiners at a test session sponsored by the Central Ohio Amateur Radio Emergency Service (COARES) group and the Ohio State University Amateur Radio Club. We had about seven or eight people show up. If I remember correctly, three people were already licensed, but the others had no amateur radio license. Everyone from that session came away with either a new license or an upgrade to their existing license. One person went from no license to a General class license. That was a pretty good session. It lasted about two-and-a-half hours.

On Sunday, I had volunteered to be a VE for an early evening session. I had also volunteered to help out with a HamCram session that led up to the exam. I had never heard the term HamCram before, but as the name suggests, it is a cram session for the test. There were two of us reading the Technician class question pool and reading the correct answer along with a brief explanation on each. Both of us were VEs, and about a half hour before the exam, our third VE arrived. There were five people attending the HamCram. One person sat in only for a refresher, as he already had his Technician class license. He stepped out during the exam, but another person took his chair during the exam to upgrade to General. So we had five people on Sunday who all came away with a new license or an upgrade. That exam was sponsored by the Columbus Institute for Contemporary Journalism (CICJ) and held at their headquarters. Two of the new amateur radio operators are associated with that group. Both exams this weekend were under the ARRL-VEC umbrella.

If you earn your General or Amateur Extra class license, I encourage you to become a Volunteer Examiner. I find it rewarding to help others obtain their licenses. These two sessions mark the seven and eighth for me. Becoming a VE is pretty straightforward. You download a VE Manual from the ARRL's website, study it as long as you need to, then take an open-book exam, and send the answers back to the ARRL along with a photocopy of your license (and maybe something else I'm forgetting). It takes them three weeks or so to review your materials and issue you your credentials. Then you just need to make yourself know to a VE team. Of course, the ARRL is not the only Volunteer Examiner Coordinator (VEC) out there. You can be accredited with more than one VEC and some have reciprocal accedidation.

73

Thinking About a New Radio

I'm always looking at the new radios that hit the market. Right now my eyes are on a radio that may not even hit the U.S. market for a year or so, and when it does, I may not even be able to afford it. That radio is the Icom IC-7600 that I briefly mentioned in a recent post. The speculation is that the 7600 will build upon the IC-756 PRO series of radios, but also borrow technology/features from the IC-7700/7800 series. If the speculation promises to be true, it should be a great radio.

My main radio currently is the Kenwood TS-2000X, with the Yaesu FT-897D as my secondary radio. The 897D is a great radio and I've made some DX contacts. I've added the LDG FT-897 autotuner, and the SSB and CW filters from W4RT. It's just that I've noticed when operating the digital modes on the TS-2000X that good IF filtering comes in handy. It's nice to be able to narrow the passband to remove offended signals, and particularly to keep them from driving the AGC. The narrowest IF filter that I have on the 897D is the 500Hz CW filter, and there is some IF shift that you can perform on that radio. Any tighter filtering is done with the DSP circuitry in the AF stage. The AF stage is past the AGC circuit. If you play with a digital mode program such as MixW for a while, you will notice that it will properly decode any one signal that you put the cursor on. As long as all signals are of equal strength you can actually have the passband wide open. So it really boils down to the effects of the AGC circuit and the AGC circuit will act on anything that makes it past the IF filtering. Rarely are signals of equal strength so the AGC will act on the strong signals and drive the remaining signals into the noise. If you can just filter them out at the IF stage, the AGC can't act on them and drive the desired (albeit weaker) signal into the noise.

So one of my main reasons to look for a new radio is to acquire one that has good IF filtering but is also portable. The radio that I am looking at is the Icom IC-7000. It has many features, including the IF-DSP filtering, but is somewhat smaller than the 897D. It is more expensive than the 897D and I will need to add an autotuner (my newly acquired Palstar AT2K is not really portable). LDG sells the AT-7000 specifically for that radio. I will also need Heil cables for my microphone and Proset Plus, and a CI-V interface for the computer control.

If I end up buying the IC-7000, I will likely sell the 897D and everything specific to it.

73

VHF/UHF Operating

I've been thinking about doing some VHF and UHF SSB operating. I've had plenty of experience with 2-meter and 70-cm FM repeater and simplex operation, but I have not had much operating time using SSB on these bands. Specifically, I am talking about 6-meters, 2-meters, and 70-cm. I remember about eight years ago at a Field Day, I made a contact on 6-meter sideband from here in Columbus, Ohio to a station somewhere in Florida. That contact was not made on my station. If I remember correctly, the radio was some Icom IC-706 variant (it might have even been the original IC-706; this was probably in 2001), and the antenna was a three-element beam. Even though the contact was not made using my station, it was exciting nonetheless. I'm not sure what recently got me interesting in this aspect of amateur radio, but it was probably just a magazine article or a web page.



I realize that the convention for VHF/UHF sideband is horizontal polarization, but I don't really want to mess around with tower sections and a rotator. I'm looking at antennas that provide an omnidirectional, horizontally-polarized radiation pattern. I realize that such an antenna would not provide the same gain that the antenna pictured above would, but I believe that if you stack them and phase them accordingly, you will add gain. The antennas that I am currently researching are manufactured by KU4AB. Phil offers horizontally-polarized antennas for 10m, 6m, 2m, 1.25m, and 70cm. I'm interested in the ones for 6, 2, and 70cm. The antennas are supposedly tuned for the SSB portions of the bands. They are made using solid aluminum rod, and have stainless steel hardware. The KU4AB.com website claims that pairs of their SQ-432, SQ-144, and SQ-50 can be nested on a mast and only take up 12 feet. Also, according to a claim on the website, Gordon West, WB6NOA, was able to make a 2-meter contact from California to Hawaii using the SQ-144 antenna. That's a distance of 2400 miles. That's exciting. I'm going to continue to look at these (they do get good reviews on Eham.net), but I'll see what else is available, too. I'll have more to report.

73

Power Back On

Well after 53 hours, my electricity is finally back. As many of you may know, the remnants from Hurricane Ike swept through the Ohio Valley on Sunday, September 14th. Port Columbus International Airport clocked a wind speed of 75 mph. Needless to say, winds that strong for several hours snapped many tree limbs and as a result about 400,000 homes in central Ohio were without power immediately after the storm. Now on Thursday, about 83,000 homes are without power.

Several items helped me during the power outage: a crank-up AM/FM portable radio, flashlights, amateur radio, and my cell phone with web browser. The crank-up radio is made by Freeplay. I won it several years ago at an amateur radio club meeting. It is the type of product that sits on the shelf for years at a time. About thirty seconds of cranking provides about thirty minutes of listening. The audio is surprising good. I used this radio to listen to 610 AM WTVN for updates on the storm damage and also to listen to the call-in talk shows where people were describing the storm and its aftermath from their perspective. As far as flashlights go, I have several, but the ones that I recommend are made by Pelican. One of my Pelican flashlights runs off of three C-size batteries and has an incandescent bulb. I don't use that one too much anymore. Another Pelican flashlight that I have closely resembles the first one but has two distinct differences. The first difference is that the shroud is photoluminescent. Therefore the flashlight is easy to find when the power has gone out. The other difference with this flashlight is that the light source is an LED. This LED points rearward into the reflector, and maximizes the light output. My favorite flashlight over the past few days however was my new Pelican headlamp. I wear it on my head and it runs off of two AA batteries. The LED light source is a one-watt LED and the lamp has three brightness settings. I used the brightest setting when walking around at night and the lowest setting when reading (it was still plenty bright). It make look silly, but it leaves my hands free to do things such as cook (I have a gas range, which was unaffected by the outage). My cell phone's browser allowed me to pass the time by browsing some of my favorite sites. It's not the same as browsing on a full-fledged computer, however. I was able to recharge the cell phone's battery at work, where they never lost power.

Finally, I did enjoy amateur radio a little bit. I think that my sealed lead-acid battery needs to be replaced, so I didn't place any large demands on it by transmitting, but I did listen to 40-meters, 30-meters, and 20-meters a little bit. Of course, it is simply amazing how noise free the bands are when the power is out and no appliances or other electronic items are operating in the area. There were many stations on the bands and they were easy to copy. That tells me that my best operating will probably be done away from my suburban neighborhood.

The Freeplay AM/FM radio, Pelican 2010 SabreLite Recoil LED Photoluminescent flashlight, and the Pelican 2630 HeadsUp LED flashlight.

73

My Station Equipment

I figured it was time that I talk about my station equipment. In this post, I will mainly talk about my base station equipment. In some future post, perhaps I will talk about my two HTs.


In this first photo, I have pictured my two VHF/UHF mobile radios that are currently serving duty as base stations. In the photo, you can see two mobile radio main units as well as two control heads. The main unit on the bottom is for my Icom IC-2820H and the main unit sitting on top of it is the Kenwood TM-D710A. As far as the control heads go, the 2820's head is in the foreground and has the green backlighting. The D710 control head is in back. Of course, the main reason for having the D710 is for its APRS capabilities, and my main reason for having the 2820 is for its D-Star features. These radios may never get installed in my car, but I would like to make up a box that these two radios can be mounted in and then quickly connected to the car battery and a mag mount antenna. In this photo, you can also see my Bencher iambic paddle. I barely know the Morse Code, but I have this paddle so that others can use it, particularly during Field Day.




In the photo below, you can see both of my current HF rigs, a pair of wattmeters, a pair of speakers, and a pair of radio interfaces. The larger radio is the Kenwood TS-2000X. This radio covers 160 - 6-meters, 2-meters, 70-cm, and 23-cm, but it does not cover the 60-meter channels. It has IF-DSP capabilities, satellite operating feaures, and a built-in TNC. The radio sitting on top of the Kenwood TS-2000X is the Yaesu FT-897D. The 897 has the LDG Electronics AT-897 autotuner attached. On top of the 897D are two Tigertronics SignaLink USB units. The one is the rear is connected to the Kenwood TS-2000X and has seen quite a bit of use lately. The one in the foreground is new and is connected to the 897D. I have not had a chance to tweak its settings yet. To the right of the TS-2000X, you will see a pair of speakers. The Kenwood SP-23 is sitting next to the TS-2000X, and a Vertex speaker (the MLS-100, I believe) is to the right of the Kenwood speaker. I've added both of the speakers fairly recently as I prefer their forward-firing sound better than the top-firing sound of the transceiver's speakers. On top of the Kenwood speaker, you will see the Powermaster wattmeter. That is the main display for the wattmeter. The Powermaster also has the HF coupler that samples the RF energy. It is shown in another picture. The LDG Electronics FT-Meter sits atop the Powermaster meter. As its name implies, it is connected to the FT-897D. I must say that it is nicer to read this meter than the 897's built-in one.




The next photo simply shows my sealed lead-acid battery in its battery box. Sealed lead-acid batteries are safe for use indoors as the hydrogen levels during charging are never high enough to be dangerous.




This photo shows a number of station accessories. The large black box on the floor is my Astron linear power supply. I believe that it can supply 35 amps continuous. There are two things sitting on top of it. You can see the Palstar DL2K dummy load with its backlit analog power meter. Sitting to the right of the DL2K, is a Bencher low pass filter. It's designed to not pass anything above HF frequencies, hopefully ensuring that I do not cause any unnecessary interference. I will have to remember to bypass it, if I want to operate 6-meters, though. By the way, neither of this two accessories block the ventilation on the power supply. The gold-colored box on top of the DL2K is the HF coupler for the Powermaster meter. Sitting on the floor next to the power supply are first, the Rigrunner 4008, and second, the Super PWRgate (both are products of West Mountain Radio). The green object with the small LCD display, is a meter that simultaneously measures voltage, current, DC power, and several other parameters. The sealed lead-acid battery and the Astron power supply simultaneously feed the Super PWRgate. The Astron normally runs the station, and it trickle charges the battery. If commercial power fails, the Super PWRgate allows the battery to immediately take over. The DC meter (the green thing) samples the output of the Super PWRgate immediately before it goes to the Rigrunner for DC power distribution to the other station gear.




Some of the things that I haven't pictured are my Palstar ZM-30 antenna analyzer (perhaps a future post), my HTs as mentioned before, antennas, my computer, Heil Sound Proset Plus boomset, Heil Sound Goldline GM-4 microphone (was free with the TS-2000X), and a Palstar DL1500 dummy load. I'm hoping to add the Palstar AT2K manual tuner to my station in a couple of weeks. I'll probably be talking about that, too.

73

One Missed Contest; Another Upcoming

I did not actually miss the Ohio QSO Party (OQP). I had put it on my calendar at least a month out, and the reminders popped up on my computer screen at the appropriate times. I just decided to sit it out this year. I'm in an apartment and currently my antenna is indoors. I normally try to keep my RF power set at lower levels, which have been fine so far for PSK31 and other digital modes. I was actually quite surprised when I ran my numbers through the RF Safety Calculator on the University of Texas website. The highest power setting that I think that I have ever used for PSK31 is 40 watts. However, PSK31 is a 100% duty cycle mode (there are always tones being emitted), so 40 watts is also the average power. The calculator asks for average power, so I use 40 watts. It also asks for the frequency of operation. I used 7, 10.1 and 14 MHz, and it asks for the gain of the antenna, and suggests 2.2 dB for a dipole. I have a Buddipole, which is a form of dipole, so I use 2.2 dB. On the 40 meter digital segment, a person in the uncontrolled environment has to be 2.04 feet from my antenna. On 30 meters, that number increases to 2.92 feet, and on 20 meter digital, one has to be 4.03 feet from my antenna. Keep in mind that the calculator asks for average power at the antenna. So I could have subtracted off losses in the coax: I'm using a combination of RG-58 and RG-213. I think that it is also implied that antenna inefficiencies could be weighed in, too. Obviously, antennas that are not resonant, or use things such as loading coils, will take some of the RF and convert it to heat in the coax or the antenna itself. That RF won't be radiating and potentially exposing someone. The point is that my neighbors are easily at a safe distance away. Things look even better when you talk about SSB, which is what I would have used in the OQP. In the OQP, I probably would have gradually worked the RF setting up to the full 100 watts that the TS-2000X is capable of, but SSB is not a 100% duty cycle mode. The characteristics of speech are such that the average power of SSB is about 20% of the peak power. Therefore, on the RF Safety Calculator, I would have put in 20 watts for average power, even though my radio is set at 100 watts. The 20% number assumes that a speech processor is turned off and you aren't using heavy equalization.

To make a long story short, I sat out the OQP because I wanted to be able to set up my antenna outdoors (not because of RF safety, which appears to be under control, but because 100 watts will create havoc in the shack), and I hadn't made arrangements to do that yet.

I will have my big chance to enter a contest in a matter of weeks. For a 48-hour period starting on October 25 (UTC) and running through October 26, the CQ Worldwide DX SSB Contest will be going on. Last year, I made six DX contacts during the contest, but I never officially entered. In other words, I did not submit a log. This year I will probably enter in the Single Operator Low Power category. I did notice the other day, that the logs from 2007 are available for viewing on the web. I checked the six logs for the stations that I worked: VP5T, ZY7C, ZF2AH, 6F75A, VP9I, and V26B. I appeared in four of the six logs. For whatever reason, I was not in the ZY7C log nor the 6F75A log. The operators probably misread my call. 6F75A is Mexico (yes, last year's CQWW DX SSB contest was my first real exposure to unusual callsigns). I've got Mexico (XE3RR on PSK31) confirmed on Logbook of the World. ZY7C is Brazil. It would've been nice to ask for a confirmation for that, but there is no point, since I'm not in their log. Assuming 15 meters opens up again this year like last year, Brazil and other DX should not be too hard to obtain, but 20 meters should work, too.

73

International QSLing

I believe that I mentioned in an earlier post that at least for now, I am going to send out QSL cards for all of my contacts on HF. I purchased my QSL cards over a year ago from CheapQSLs.com. They are decent cards. I had passed out a couple to friends here in town, just for a token simplex contact on 2-meters. Now that I started making HF contacts about a month ago, I'm actually preparing my cards and mailing them out, and I'm getting a few in return. I've also signed up with eQSL and Logbook of the World (LoTW).

As far as my domestic contacts are concerned, unless I feel that I really have to have a card, I'm just sending my card as is, with its 27 cent stamp affixed. With all other cards I will include a return envelope and postage. I've been doing a lot of reading about how to deal with QSLing the DX contacts. Most of my research has centered around the postage part of the equation. In many countries you can purchase International Reply Coupons (IRCs) at a post office. When they are sent to a foreign radio amateur he can exchange them for one unit of standard airmail postage. Apparently in a few countries, the weight of our QSL cards and the return envelope is more than one unit of postage will buy, so two IRCs are required. I've got about six DX contacts in my log, so the other day on my lunch break I stopped at the nearby post office. They appeared to have heard of IRCs, but they didn't carry any. Later that evening, I stopped at the post office near the Port Columbus International Airport. That post office, up until recently was open 24 hours a day. It still has very late hours. I figured if any post office in Columbus sold IRCs, it would be that post office. I got there shortly before the Guaranteed Mail cutoff time apparently. I had to wait in line about twenty minutes. As before, the postal clerk here seemed to know what an IRC was, and I was hopeful that they had some, but she consulted with a fellow postal clerk, who indicated that IRCs were "being phased out". I wasn't in the mood to argue, so I left and headed home. A little later that evening I got on the computer and did some more research. I saw two things that should help. First, the Universal Postal Union, that established the IRC program is accepting designs for the next IRC to take affect in June of July of 2009. That tells me that they are not being phased out. Second, I read a post on some site that says if you get the line about IRCs "being phased out", it's because the postal clerk is too lazy to deal with the issue. The message poster indicated that the U.S. Postal Service's own International Mail Manual (May 2008 edition) says that IRCs can be requistioned just like any other postage product. It doesn't say that the have to have them in stock, but suggests they do if they have demand for them. Radio amateurs are probably one of the few segments of the population that use them. Anyway, I guess I need to return to my local post office branch and enlighten them on their international mail manual and get them to order me some IRCs.

On a parallel track, I have been working on the envelope system. Last Saturday, I went to my local Staples office supply store. I just assumed that they would have envelope systems consisting of a return envelope and an outer cover envelope. I was wrong, unless you are talking about envelopes for wedding invitations and the like. I don't think they would hold my card, they are heavier than necessary, and are not really appropriate anyway. So, when I got back home I got on the computer and did some more research. I found at least two people that carry DX supplies including envelope systems. I decided to place an order with James Mackey, K3FN, at Air Mail Postage. His prices seemed reasonable. He sells three different types of envelope systems: normal, European, and plain. At first I figured the Normal system was appropriate, since the web site mentioned that Normal is common in North America, but then I realized that my card will fit in both Normal and European, but I need to consider what system will accomodate the DXer's card. I asked Jim, and he quickly indicated that the European would be best. Jim also sells foreign postage. If the IRC thing doesn't work out, I can order postage stamps from Jim, and if that gets to be too cumbersome, there is always the Bureau System, but not all DXers or their managers use the Bureau.

As an update to my IRC quest--many of my posts on here take several days for me to compose and edit--I stopped by the local post office again only this time I had an excerpt of the USPS International Mail Manual in my hand dealing with IRCs. It didn't help. When the postal clerk was unsure about IRCs, I calmly asked to speak to her supervisor. Naturally, he was on vacation. I've got his name and phone number, and I may try to call him in a week or two. I also asked a well-connected friend of mine if she knew someone (an avid DXer) that I could contact and help me understand the QSLing process better. She gave a name and email address. I'll send him an email shortly.

73

Icom IC-7600 Announced

Just a short post today.

About a week ago, I received an invite to a new Yahoo Group devoted to a new Icom HF/6-meter transceiver, the Icom IC-7600. It seems that this new radio has been unveiled at the Tokyo Hamfair. As of this morning, there are only 17 messages on the Yahoo Group, and there is a lot of speculation about this radio. Some people believe it will be quite some time until it hits the U.S. market; perhaps a year from now. Other people are speculating on where in the Icom lineup this radio will go. Some of those people believe that it will replace the Icom IC-756ProIII, but fall somewhere below the IC-7700. With a model number like IC-7600 that makes sense, but you can't trust model numbers. Finally, some of the messages on the group are talking about the price. I would imagine the price would fall somewhere between the IC-756ProIII and the IC-7700.

This brings up a dilemma for me. I would like a nice, small radio for portable operations. The current IC-7000 fits that bill nicely. However, I am also interested in a radio that has a better receiver than my Kenwood TS-2000 (which, by the way, has held its own quite well). I'm sure that the IC-7600 (assuming that it is a 756ProIII "Plus", or a IC-7700 "Minus") has a pretty good receiver, and assuming that its price is not too far removed from the 756ProIII, at least I stand a chance of being able to buy one. I always have my Yaesu FT-897D for portable operations.

73

More Digital Contacts on 30 and 20 Meters

I've been having a lot of fun lately on the HF bands. Of course, I've operated SSB before, both at my own station and at numerous Field Days. But over the past couple of weeks I have operated nothing except for the digital modes, including PSK31, MFSK16, Olivia, and Hellschreiber. Many of my earlier contacts were on 40 meters. Lately I have been using 20 meters or even the fairly unique 30 meters. I would eventually like to try a mode such as PSK31 on 80 meters, and when the sunspots return, I'll definitely be using 15 and 10 meters. 30 meters, as I mentioned, is a fairly unique band. In the U.S., amateur radio operators use 30 meters on a secondary basis to a fixed service. I wonder what fixed service that is. Every evening when I turn the radio on to 30 meters at around 2000Z on roughly 10.130 MHz, I hear a signal that sounds a little bit like RTTY, but this transmission has a fairly wide shift. By playing around with MixW, I can determine that the shift is 850 Hz, but I apparently don't have the baud rate set correctly, because nothing meaningful ever decodes. If anyone knows what this is, let me know. I routinely hear other digital transmissions, including one that I guess is PACTOR. In the U.S., we are limited to 200 watts PEP on this band (presumably to avoid interference to the primary users of the band), and although I haven't looked at the Part 97 FCC rules lately, I know that you cannot use phone or image transmissions. They are just too wide. On the other hand, I have read about people trying Olivia 1000/32 on 30 meters, so I presume that at least 1 kHz bandwidth is allowed; at least in certain segments. I just checked my meager log (I've been operating the digital modes less than a month): I've got five QSOs on 30. Four are PSK31 and one is Olivia (which I assume is Olivia 500/16 since I've never tried 1000/32 and only tried 500/8 once).

20 meters has been somewhat more productive for me. I currently have 13 QSOs in the log for 20 meters. All of those contacts are using PSK31, except for one which was PSK63 (very similar to PSK31 but with double the baud rate and, I believe, double the width). As I suspected 20 meters works better for DX than 30 meters, and 30 meters may be slightly better than 40. Of course, I believe the reason is simple. My antenna is a fixed height above ground and is not particularly high to begin with. Many hams realize that an antenna needs to be a certain fraction of a wavelength above ground in order to have the lower takeoff angles (for the RF energy), in order to work good DX. When the antenna is too close to the ground for the band in question, you have what many refer to as a "cloudwarmer". Going back to my log (which has less than 50 entries, because I have only been doing this less than a month), I have no problem working the eastern provinces of Canada, and I can easily work 500 miles out or so in the U.S. I have no other DX on 40 meters. On 30 meters, I only have seven log entries, but I have Cuba. Station CO8LY is located in Santiago de Cuba, which is 1430 miles from me. Not too bad. On 20 meters, my DX gets even better: Mexico (Cancun), Venezuela, and Colombia. The Venezulean station, YV4OW, is located on Margarita Island (which happens to be SA-012, one of the Islands On The Air). Margarita Island is 2300 miles from me. I can also hear TG9AHM in Guatemala and TI2CCC in Costa Rica. It's just a matter of time before I work them.

I can't wait until the sunspots return, because I suspect that my workhorse DX bands will be 15 meters and 10 meters.

As a final note, I started working on this post about a week ago, after I first worked a station on 30 meters. In the meantime, I received a comment on my post entitled "The Internet and Radio Propagation". David, K2DSL, left a comment for me about another web-based propagation tool (which I plan to take a closer look at and blog about), but he also left me an email where he indicated that he has an amateur radio blog, and that he had similar radio equipment to mine. I was encouraged by his post about the SARTG RTTY Contest that was recently held. David has very similar gear and was able to work all sorts of DX. Good job, David, and it's certainly encouraging for me.

Until next time,
73

The Internet and Radio Propagation

I wanted to share with you three web sites that I am aware of that can show you how propagation is faring on the various amateur radio bands. These propagation tools don't attempt to explain the propagation modes, such as sporadic-E, tropospheric ducting, F₂ layer skip, etc. They just present the user with a map depicting the actual propagation.

Here are the sites:

• VHF Propagation Map
• PSK Reporter
• PropNet Project

I'm going to discuss the first one in this post and leave it to a future (but soon) post to discuss the other two sites.

The VHF Propagation Map can display a map of North America, Europe, Australia, Minnesota, Missouri, or the world. I understand the emphasis on Minnesota. If you examine the URL of the site you will notice that the VHF Propagation Map is hosted on a site for a Minnesota school system. I'm not sure why Missouri gets special emphasis. The map attempts to display various 2-meter radio paths with the different color-coded swatches (for lack of a better word). Yellow colors represent shorter paths; orange a little longer, and red being the longest paths. The data behind the map is obtained from the APRS-IS system. Basically in the early days of APRS, the packet-radio system was entirely RF-based, but then the Internet became commonplace, and the data from the RF side of things was fed to the Internet. The "IS" stands for Internet System. It is all of the APRS data traveling on the APRS-IS system that makes sites such as Findu and this propagation map possible. The VHF Propagation Map site does explain that some HF data may be mixed in, but I figure the percentage of HF data is pretty low. I don't pretend to know everything about APRS, but I believe earlier on, HF (and in particular, 30-meters) was used for long-haul transmission of APRS data. The Internet does that now. Anyway, this website looks at the APRS-IS data. It knows where each station is because position is reported as part of the packet, and it knows where the packets came from that the stations heard, because the transmission path is part of the packet. The website analyzes that data and plots the map.

From a practical standpoint, the user of the VHF Propagation Map, clicks on an area of interest, such as North America. If their geographical area is covered by a yellow, orange, or red swatch or blob, they can expect enhanced communications on 2-meters. If the patch is red, they should probably be able to hit distant repeaters, or communicate long distances on SSB, or CW. During the 2008 summer sporadic-E season, I visited this site a few times. Sure enough, large sections of the eastern U.S. where covered with red criss-crossing swatches. Why not the western U.S.? This site does rely on actual APRS stations. There are sections of the country (Rocky Mountain region, Nevada, Montana, and so on) that just don't have as many amateur radio operators.

So try out this site, and when color appears over your location, fire up your radio and try to hit a distant repeater, or see how far you can talk on simplex, or get out your all-mode rig and work on picking up some more grid squares. Although this site relies on data from the 2-meter band (specifically the 144.39 MHz APRS network), you might look at the higher bands such as 222 MHz, or 430 MHz, if 2-meters starts opening.

73

Back on APRS

After a little bit of a delay, I am back on APRS. APRS is an acronym for the Automatic Packet Reporting System. I've probably been on APRS off and on for about nine years. Nine years ago is about the time that Kenwood introduced their TH-D7A handie-talkie (HT). It was fairly groundbreaking at the time, and until recently was the only HT that could do APRS, let alone packet radio. Around the time of the 2008 Dayton Hamvention, however, Yaesu (Vertex Standard) announced the VX-8R, that promises APRS and packet capability.

Well, anyway, I was an early adopter of the TH-D7A, and used it quite a bit when I first acquired it. A few years later, Kenwood indicated that they were introducing a "G" version of the TH-D7A. I'm not sure what the letter "G" meant, but this new radio added some incremental features to the APRS capabilities. One of the more notably features, if I remember correctly, was the ability to do 9600 bps APRS and packet. Around the same time Kenwood said that for a fee, owners of the non-"G" version could ship their radios to a Kenwood Service Center for a firmware upgrade. I did not do that right away. I probably waited a year or so, but I eventually sent it off. I continued to use the HT off and on, but at some point my usage declined and the radio stayed in my carrying case. When I decided to start using it again, I first discovered that all of the batteries that I had wouldn't hold a charge anymore, so I had to buy a new battery. Sometime after buying the new battery, I used that radio and an Arrow Antenna to make my first contact through the AO-51 satellite. I talked about this in an earlier post. A little more time passed and the radio itself developed a problem. Everything was fine except for the display. The display is a dot-matrix type of display, but it was showing strange characters. They were characters from the ASCII set, but nonetheless I could not understand why they were there, and I tried everything to correct the problem including a full reset. At that point, I decided to sell the radio on Ebay. I fully disclosed its problems and the radio was sold.

Meanwhile, I had purchased a Kenwood TM-D700A at the Dayton Hamvention, I believe. I had every intention of installing the radio in my car, but that never happened and the radio never left the box. I eventually sold it on Ebay.

This spring, however, I was helping my local ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) group, the COARES (Central Ohio ARES), provide communications support for the Tour of the Scioto River Valley (TOSRV). The COARES leaders indicated that APRS would be used this year, and that volunteers would space digipeaters about every two miles along the 100+ mile course (leapfrogging no doubt). I knew that my newer TH-D7A (G)--forgot to mention that I bought this radio brand new to replace my failing TH-D7A--would probably have problems in the hilly areas of southern Ohio. I decided that I would buy a Kenwood TM-D710A (the successor to the TM-D700) and become active in APRS. So I bought the radio a couple of weeks ago and got it set up last night.

I'm currently operating it as a base station under the callsign of N8OIF-9. You can view my position at the Findu site. The position is slightly off because at the present time, my position is hard-coded into the radio. I'm waiting on a GPS receiver to arrive that should provide better precision.

73

QSL Cards

I've been operating the digital modes on HF for about three weeks now. I've sent out a few QSL cards, and I've received a few. If you are not familiar with QSL cards, they used to be the primary way for amateur radio operators to confirm their contacts with each other. For some people, the cards form a collection and allow the operator to recall contacts made in far-away places. For others, the cards represent proof that the contact did indeed occur, when that amateur radio operator seeks an award.

The methods for confirming contacts got a fairly recent update (within the past ten years or so). An operator can use a service known as the Electronic QSL Card Center, or more succintly eQSL.cc, which is the URL for the website that this service runs on. The other method for confirming contacts is the American Radio Relay League's (ARRL) Logbook of the World (LOTW).

At least for a while I think that I am going to use all three methods to confirm my contacts. I don't think that I operate enough that postage is going to be a problem. eQSL and LOTW are free services, sort of. eQSL allows you to custom design your electronic QSL card and grants you access to other features assuming that you contribute a certain dollar amount in a certain time frame. LOTW is free until the time that you need to apply your confirmed contacts towards an award. What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of the different methods? Both eQSL and LOTW allow for almost instantaneous confirmation of contacts. I've noticed after some of my QSOs, that the other station has immediately loaded the QSO information in eQSL for our contact. That brings up what I see as one of the flaws of eQSL: since the other station shows up on your Inbox, what is to stop you from entering reciprocal information even though the contact was not complete. You will not see the other station on LOTW until you upload your information, or at least that is the way it seems. Other differences: Some consider the ARRL to be more prestigious. To apply for those awards such as the ARRL's Worked All States, you can either make your cards available for possible inspection or you can use the LOTW; you cannot use eQSL for ARRL award credit. Some people might consider LOTW to be more secure and immune from fraud. The normal sign-up process for hams in the U.S. for LOTW involves the ARRL sending a postcard to your FCC-listed address. That postcard has a unique code or password that is used to complete the registration process. Also, to add your contacts to LOTW, you either enter them directly after logging in to LOTW, or you digital sign a file from an ADIF-compatible logging program. eQSL also has its Authentication Guaranteed process. It can piggyback off of the LOTW authentication, eQSL can review your license, or they can send you their unique code-on-a-postcard.

For me, getting my QSOs confirmed will be easiest on eQSL. I just export an ADIF file from my program, currently Amateur Contact Log (AC Log), and upload it to eQSL.cc. LOTW takes slightly longer to load, because the ADIF file has to be digital signed and compressed first; but then you upload it. Actually, keeping track of postcards back and forth in the mail will probably be the most time consuming, but at least for a while, I'll do it.

On a slightly different topic, if you had asked me a month ago (before I got on the digital modes), if I was interested in awards, I would have said "no", but now I definitely say "yes". First of all, striving for an award, gets me on the air. Second of all, it requires me to hone my skills. I'll probably never have a contest-level station, so I will have to concentrate on my operating skills. I don't care as much about having a certificate or plaque for my achievements, but it would be neat to say, for example, that I worked all 50 U.S. states with my mediocre set-up. Contesters can probably work all states or achieve DXCC in a weekend.

As I receive QSL cards, either from eQSL or in the mail, I plan on posting them to my Picasa QSL album.

73.

my card (front):


my card (back):