Radio Havana Cuba Dxers Unlimited radio hobby program
Dxers Unlimited's weekend edition for 31 July 1 August 2007 By Arnie Coro Radio amateur CO2KK Hi amigos radioaficionados, it's certainly nice to share with you a little more than a quarter of an our devoted to our wonderful hobby, yours and mine... RADIO... I am Arnie Coro, radio amateur CO2KK and here is item one of today's show... solar activity has gone down dramatically during the past few days, with many days of zero sunspots count, giving scientists a nice opportunity of increasing their knowledge about complex process that take place 93 million miles away from Earth and that have such a dramatic influence in the way radio signals propagate via the ionosphere. Item two: News from Norway, about the new 60 meters or 5 megaHertz amateur band... for those who thought this was going to be a ham band that will only be of interest in Tropical regions, here is a news item that will certainly change that perspective: Norwegian radio clubs are now experimenting on 60 meters, during the long summer days way up North. Registered Norwegian radio club stations there have enjoyed special permission to test on 5 MHz . Almost all of these club stations have one-letter call sign suffixes and, in some situations, they may use the LE prefix instead of the more common LA prefix typically used by Norwegian amateurs. The special 60 meters authorization is restricted for use in emergency communication or training, and Norwegian stations may not work stations outside of Norway on 5 MHz. Norway's elongated shape makes it impossible to communicate from one end of the country to the other on 80 meters, and 40 meters "have its shortcomings" during hours of darkness. "We are only allowed to use the two frequencies 5.410 and 5.420 MHz, all modes, 100 W," a Norwegian amateur league official said and he added that 60 meters can only be used for communication between Norwegian club stations engaged in emergency communication or training for such communication, so this does not include any station outside of Norway." Well, amigos, in my opinion, this is a step in the right direction that will eventually lead to the telecommunications authorities around the world realizing the importance of granting radio amateurs more privileges to operate on the 60 meters band, a segment of the radio spectrum that is particularly effective to assist during emergencies...because of the excellent propagation conditions that are possible for short range communications via sky wave on that frequency range. And more news, here at Dxers Unlimited's midweek edition, this one has to do with the continuing positive impact of the decision about removing article S25 from the International Telecommunications Convention..S25 was the article of the Rules and Regulations e that made mandatory that radio amateurs had to take a Morse Code Test if they were to be allowed to operate on the HF bands. News come from Papua New Guinea where theP29Z-prefix hams, that had VHF only permits were granted HF access Rick Warnett, P29KFS, reports that the principal legal officer for PANGTEL, the telecommunications regulatory agency in Papua New Guinea-has already authorized HF operation by those holding a Limited Amateur Operator's Certificate of Proficiency (P29Z-prefix call signs). So from now on, don't be surprised if you copy P29Z prefix call signs on the HF amateur bands... More radio hobby related news and technical information coming up in a few seconds, after a brief musical interval... This is Dxers Unlimited's midweek edition coming to you from Havana, I am Arnie Coro...... .......... Si amigos, this is Radio Havana Cuba, the name of the show is Dxers Unlimited, and YES, SURE... we do QSL one hundred percent here, send your signal reports and comments about our programs via e-mail directly to me ... send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, again, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, or VIA AIR MAIL to Arnie Coro, Radio Havana Cuba, Havana, Cuba... Now Dxers Unlimited continues with more radio hobby related information: Cell phones and amateur radio!!! Everybody knows that whenever there is a massive emergency, cell phones simply stop working, or in the best possible scenario, it is very difficult to communicate using them. BUT, simple , relatively low cost amateur radio two meters and seventy centimeter band equipment, that is not dependent on super sophisticated computerized technologies like the cell phone systems, continue to work nicely ,providing reliable communications links that are not dependent of the number of users of the system, the main limitation of cellular communications . That's why amateur radio two meters band and 70 centimeter band repeaters continue to be regarded as a most reliable way of communicating during emergencies, something that here in Cuba we have confirmed here many times! By the way, a low cost handheld FM two meter band transceiver and a very simple antenna system is all you will need to stay in touch via a repeater, even under the worst weather conditions. Don't forget, if you are located in an area where hurricanes may hit, to keep at hand an emergency preparedness kit that should include enough batteries and a small AM-FM portable radio, as well as antennas and other accessories for your amateur radio equipment. Providing emergency communications is one of the most solid reasons why the amateur radio bands are still allocated to the amateur radio service amigos... Keep this always in mind, and help your local radio club emergency coordinator as much as you can... ...... Coming to you from Havana, this is the weekend edition of Dxers Unlimited amigos! Now here is LA NUMERO UNO, our most popular section of Dxers Unlimited.... YOU have questions and Arnie tries to answer them...Today, I'll be answering not one, but three questions sent in by Dxers Unlimited's listeners that are certainly of a great general interest to radio hobby enthusiasts worldwide Here is today's first question... Arnie, I am already experiencing a lot of line noise on my radio coming from a nearby 13 kilovolts power line... what's going to happen if my utility starts selling INTERNET service using the so called BPL or broadband over those power lines... ANSWER: I am afraid that if that happens you can't do anything, as the noise level from 1 to 250 megaHertz in your area will increase dramatically if BPL is brought into service... Already several European nations' telecommunications authorities have decided to prohibit BPL systems; yes they have simple banned BPL, after doing tests that demonstrated that such systems could become a serious menace even to vital safety of human life communications, including air traffic control systems. My own personal opinion is that BPL is doomed to failure, but not before it causes a lot of problems to other users of the radio frequency spectrum, because no engineer in his right state of mind can assure you that those systems would not have radiation leaks that will interfere with other users. Question number two, pregunta dos... from listener Mary Lou in the US state of Georgia. Mary Lou wants to know why does she sometimes hear short wave broadcasts with a hollow sound, a sort of echo... Well amiga , this happens when the short wave signals travel from the transmitter to your radio along two different paths , and one signal reaches your radio first than the other...The time difference between the two arriving signals is what makes the audio of the station sound in that particular way... And this is yet another reason for short wave broadcast stations to limit the power of the transmitters to the level required for a particular propagation path...Running five hundred kilowatts transmitters to reach a target audience located one thousand five hundred miles away or even less is not only a waste of money, but is also frequently the cause of poor reception quality due to multi-path propagation!!! Question number three: This one is bit more technical; it came from South Africa, where listener Mowani wants to know how he can repair a solar panel that no longer is generating electricity. Well amigo Mowani, according to a friend of mine that works for COPEXTEL the Cuban company that has installed thousands of solar photovoltaic systems all along our archipelago, sometimes solar panels stop working due to corrosion problems at the terminals where the solar cells are connected... My amigo Luis told me that you should very carefully check the connections of the terminals, and proceed to clean them, or in case that you find a broken wire to replace it with one of the same diameter... Luis also said that a bad solar cell can make a panel totally inoperative, and that he had fixed some panels by just going ahead and opening it and placing a wire bridge across the bad solar cell. As you may realize, solar cells produce about 700 millivolts each, so in order to achieve the typical 14 to 16 volts open circuit voltage required to charge 12 volts storage batteries the solar panel must be assembled using many series connected cells... One bad cell in the series will render the solar panel useless, but as Luis my amigo said, with patience, care and some technical ability , you can in many cases, make the panel useable again !!! But don't forget, after you have it working again, to provide protection against corrosion of the electrical terminals, and also to give the panel's supporting structure a new coat of anti-corrosion paint, followed by two coatings of high quality enamel paint... Service life of well built solar panels is considered to be no less than ten years, and experts here in Cuba where more than eight thousand solar photovoltaic systems are already in use, believe that the life of the expensive panels can be extended to up to 20 years with proper maintenance. And now amigos, as always at the end of the program when I am here in Havana, get ready to copy Arnie Coro's Dxers Unlimited's HF plus low band VHF propagation update and forecast... Solar activity very low, with solar flux below 71 units all the time .Several Dxers Unlimited listeners have reported excellent late season Sporadic E skip events this past week, with one especially impressive opening on July 29^th that extended all over North America and the Caribbean, with the maximum useable frequencies reaching well past the FM broadcast band and higher, and of course giving also 6 meters and 2 meters bands ham operators a chance to work some nice DX. The geomagnetic field is very quiet, but summer conditions continue to expand the ionosphere during the daytime, keeping the HF bands in rather poor shape during the local daylight hours. See you all at the weekend edition of the program next Saturday and Sunday UTC day's amigos!!! ---[Start Commercial]--------------------- Preorder your WRTH 2007: http://www.hard-core-dx.com/redirect2.php?id=wrth2007 ---[End Commercial]----------------------- ________________________________________ Hard-Core-DX mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/hard-core-dx http://www.hard-core-dx.com/ _______________________________________________ THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE IS FREE. It may be copied, distributed and/or modified under the conditions set down in the Design Science License published by Michael Stutz at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/dsl.html
