RADIO HAVANA CUBA DXERS UNLIMITED DXERS UNLIMITED´S WEEKEND EDITION FOR 9 - 10 FEBRUARY 2008 BY ARNIE CORO RADIO AMATEUR CO2KK
Hi amigos radioaficionados all around the world, and moving in orbit around Planet Earth,and according to recent headlines, never before so many radio amateur operators have gathered in space... although one of them is scheduled to return back to Earth in a few days. Let´s hope that many newcomers to amateur radio may be able to make their first contact with other hams orbiting the Earth during the next few days... Space ham radio operation is one of the more than 83 ways that you can I can enjoy amateur radio, although not many of us have the opportunity of flying into Earth orbit !!!. By the way, two way contacts on the two meters amateur band with spacecraft flying in low space orbit is quite easy using very simple equipment... a two meters band hand held FM transceiver, a handie-talkie, and a three or four element portable Yagi antenna is all you will need to contact fellow radio amateurs orbiting the Earth.... Item two: Just back from a surprise trip to Venezuela and a one week very short vacation here in Havana amigos... and still catching up with the backlog... I had the nice opportunity of visiting Radio Nacional of Venezuela, and also climbing to one of the mountains sorrounding Caracas, to see the unique AM broadcast band site of YVKE Mundial 550 kiloHertz and Radio Nacional of Venezuela´s Canal Informativo 630 kiloHertz stations, that are now sharing the same antenna system. YKKE Mundial 550 kiloHertz is a frequent DX catch in North America during this solar minimum and its 130 meters high tower stands high above the Avila mountain, overlooking Caracas. More about my visit to Venezuela , where I was invited to attend the Radio Club Venezolano amateur radio organization´s ceremony of installation of its newly elected executive committee, later in today´s weekend edition of Dxers Unlimited. I am Arnie Coro, radio amateur CO2KK, your host here at this twice weekly radio hobby program.... I will be back with you in a few seconds, after a short break for station ID... ....... Si amigos, this is Radio Havana Cuba, the name of the program is Dxers Unlimited, and yes we do QSL, we do verify reception reports with a beautiful QSL card that you will keep in your collection and show to your friends for years to come. This is our weekend edition and now here is item three : Dxing from South America... an eyewitness report... Sure I had done it before... I remember very well my first stay in Rio de Janeiro way back in 1981, during the ITU Region II Medium Wave Conference, where I used for the first time the Sony ICF 2001 digital receiver that was just coming out to the world market. I bought the receiver on my way to BRAZIL, during a four day stopover in Panama City, and was able to enjoy for the first time ever the use of a portable digital receiver. Our own 50 kiloWatt transmitter operating on 15340 kiloHertz was easily heard at Rio de Janeiro´s beautiful Hotel Nacional, designed by worldwide known Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer... The Sony ICF2001, the grand-daddy of today´s portable digital receivers, behaved very well from the 19th floor room of the Hotel, overlooking the San Conrado beach, near the famous Copacabana and Ipanema white sands strips... But in Caracas, many years later reception was quite different from the seaside location in Brazil... I was using another Sony portable, the ICF 7600G, and a short length of wire hanging down from the window... As expected, the location, a valley totally sorrounded by high mountains, made reception of AM broadcast band DX practically impossible, although the magic of short wave brought a lot of signals despite the extremely low solar activity that prevailed during my stay in Venezuela... Item four: Some of the self proclaimed gurus of international broadcasting sometimes fumble the ball and just loose it... for example, a friend e-mailed me this week a comment about my shows, in which the self proclaimed expert affirmed that my programs where sent to the station via a phone link.... Well, once again the guru missed... what really happens is that when I arrive at Studio 6, my sound engineer of many years now, Jose Costa Pupo, knows that the audio frequency equalizer must be set according to my own optimized frequency response curve... The shape of the curve is optimized for voice, so you won´t hear audio below 250 cycles per second, or above 3000 cycles per second... And sure, it does sound much better under difficult propagation conditions... So amigos, just for your information... no, they are not phone-in as many times proclaimed by a constant critic of Radio Havana Cuba... it is just your´s truly optimization of the frequency response to achieve the best possible reception of voice signals via short wave... Item five: More about my visit to Venezuela... Radio Nacional of Venezuela is now involved in a nation wide expansion and modernization of its broadcast facilities, that includes the installation of a large number of FM broadcast band transmitters to increase the coverage even to the most remote locations. The installation of several new AM broadcast transmitting stations is also now in the works, using solid state transmitters and highly efficient folded monopole vertical antennas. Most of the new AM broadcast band sites will be serving two of Radio Nacional of Venezuela´s national programs, by means of a diplexer arrangement that allows using the same antenna system for transmitting two different AM band frequencies . This is a very sound and economical approach that has been used for a long time by AM stations around the world, and now it is even a more efficient approach thanks to the use of the vertical folded and grounded monopole antennas, that also provide additional protection for the solid state output modules of the modern transmitters... So, in the not too distant future, I am sure that Dxers in South America, the Caribbean Central America and North America will be able to pick up the new Venezuelan AM transmitters broadcasting Radio Nacional of Venezuela different programs, as several of these sites will be using power outputs in the 10 to 50 kiloWatt range... the kind of power that makes possible frequent DX pick up from distances of more than one or two thousand miles away... .................. You are listening to Radio Havana Cuba, the name of the show is Dxers Unlimited, and you can send your signal reports, comments about the program and radio hobby related questions to [EMAIL PROTECTED], again, very easy to remember and to type too... [EMAIL PROTECTED], VIA AIR MAIL you can get in touch by sending a postcard or letter to Arnie Coro, Radio Havana Cuba, Havana , Cuba... and now the weekend edition of Dxers Unlimited continues via short wave and from 05 to 07 UTC we are also on the world wide web via streaming audio from http://rhc.cu.... Amigos, amateur radio once again demonstrated its unique ability to provide much needed emergency communications during natural disasters... The recent tornadoes that produced terrible loss of life and destruction in the United States of America were, once again, an occassion to show how ham radio operators could provide inmediate help and assistance to those in charge of handling the emergencies, when all traditional communications systems failed due to the devasting effects of the twisters... Every amateur radio operator should always keep an emergency kit ready , so as to be able to help his community when the need comes to provide effective links that don´t require the backup and support of sophisticated systems that despite all efforts, always seem to go out of order when the natural or man made emergency situations occur... And now amigos, just before going QRT, now back in Havana, at RHC Studio 6 and with the audio frequency equalizer set for optimum response to my voice... here is Arnie Coro´s HF plus low band VHF propagation update and forecast. According to solar scientists the almost never ending long, long end tail of solar cycle 23 seems to be going to last for at least several more weeks... predictions call for extremely low solar activity , rock bottom solar flux near 70 units and lower, and zero sunspots for at least six more weeks... so , short wave propagation conditions will be limited to the lower frequency bands, with daytime propagation reaching only up to 18 or 20 megaHertz. Night time maximum useable frequency on some paths will dip even below 7 megaHertz , something typical of extremely long periods of very low solar activity. For Low frequency bands Dxers, in the range between 100 kiloHertz and 2 megaHertz, propagation conditions will be ideal during periods of quiet geomagnetic activity... and when the eventual solar coronal hole sends a stream of charge particles to hit the Earth´s magnetosphere... then the AM broadcast band will bring in some rare and nice DX especially to the South of your location. Amateur radio operators that enjoy the use of the 160 meters band will be able to work some nice DX during the rest of February and early March... possibly the best conditions for 160 meters for many years to come... Hope to have you all listening to the mid week edition of Dxers Unlimited , Tuesday and Wednesday UTC days, and don´t forget to send me your signal reports , comments about the program and radio hobby related questions to [EMAIL PROTECTED], or VIA AIR MAIL to Arnie Coro, Radio Havana Cuba, Havana, Cuba... and to all of you that missed my show during my surprise trip to Venezuela and one week vacation in HAVANA and wrote e-mails asking about me... thank you very much to all amigos.. fortunately I am in good health and enjoying our wonderful radio hobby as always !!! ---[Start Commercial]--------------------- Order your WRTH 2008: http://www.hard-core-dx.com/redirect2.php?id=wrth2008 ---[End Commercial]----------------------- ________________________________________ Hard-Core-DX mailing list Hard-Core-DX@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/hard-core-dx http://www.hard-core-dx.com/ _______________________________________________ THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE IS FREE. 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