On Sun, Jun 25, 2023, 5:42 AM Michael Rutkaus wrote:
> ... most of the time
> had a friendly "swing" to his sending, it sounded like a casual friendly
> conversation.
Some operators dislike 'swing', while others have said it improves readability.
Something I find that enhances readability
Jim K9YC 30 June 2023 18:22 wrote:
>> I reluctantly changed over to an Electronic keyer about 5 years ago
> In the '50s, I used a Vibroplex that a cousin had used in the Navy. I
> switched cold turkey in the late '60s.
I did just the opposite. I had used an iambic keyer for several years,
I was looking through my old ARRL Antenna Books. The text in the "Antennas for
160m" chapter in the 1939, 1944 and 1949 issues in my collection state: "The
ideal form of ground is a series of conductors buried A FOOT OR TWO beneath the
surface, radiating like the spokes of a wheel from under
Sat Sep 1 21:21:26 EDT 2018 Bryon Paul Veal NØAH bryonveal at msn.com wrote:
> I think the problem is due to limited high Q antennas on top band, every one
> is
> more concerned about 30Khz of usable DX bandwidth.
> I find a lot of topband and is fully underutilized, much like 80M.
We must
Sat Sep 1 21:21:26 EDT 2018 Mike www.w0btu.com wrote:
> It may very well be true that tank coils made from round copper have some
> slight advantages over edge-wound. But after all is said and done, does
> this really make a great deal of difference? :-)
> I have an edge-wound roller inductor in
Thu Nov 23 13:42:27 EST 2017 Dave k4em at bellsouth.net wrote:
> did you slope the last 50' on each end?
Sloping the ends of a beverage serves no useful purpose. That's an old wives'
tale (or maybe I should say old Hammy Hambone's tale) started by W1WCR, I
believe. Whether the wire is
I ran across this, which was originally posted on the Broadcasting list and may
be of interest to Topbanders. Something I might add as a justification for
exceeding, if possible, the point of diminishing returns in a radial field (not
necessarily going all the way to 120) is that in many
My base insulated tower is 127' of Rohn 25G. An 80m half-wave dipole is
attached at the 119' level, the ends of which droop down to about 100' at each
end, with runs of Phillystran from the ends of the dipole to wooden poles in
opposite directions, each about 350' away from the tower. End
The ongoing dearth of activity seems to have hit especially hard this Fall, but
I have been noticing it for several years. Even when a major contest is on,
there is usually enough empty space left over for non-contesters to operate
comfortably.
Maybe another problem that we might be reluctant
Here it is Friday night, with relatively little QRN, but only a couple of
signals are audible across the entire 160m band. 80/75m has a few more signals
than that, but it's sparsely occupied as well. Usually by this late in the
season one will hear plenty of activity in the evening,
I installed my buried radial system in 1983, using #12 bare soft-drawn copper
and it is still in near-perfect condition. The radials were soldered to the
common point at the base of the tower, a copper ribbon laid around the
circumference of the base of the vertical, using a 15% silver alloy
> Brad KV5V wrote:
> I can only report that many years ago a professional antenna
> engineer (and ham buddy) in Dallas strongly recommended that I route all of
> the coax and control lines inside the tower. His reasoning: coax outside
> the tower becomes part of the radiating element when you
It looks like this one was sneaked in over us, but it has the potential of
severely affecting amateur radio towers and antennas. I have seen no mention
of this from ARRL, and the news just appeared a couple of days ago in
discussions on QRZ.com and the Tower Talk reflector.
New rules would
My base-insulated Rohn 25 tower is 127' tall, with 80m OWL-fed dipole attached
at 119'. I use the tower as 1/4 WL 160m vertical (actually a vertical tee since
the dipole adds considerable top loading), with 120 quarter-wave buried radials
each 133' long. I tried loading the vertical on 80m as a
>As another suggestion, try radials of two different lengths to give you
> two points of low SWR within the broad 75/80M band.
> Gene Smar AD3F
If you are talking about a vertical, you should be looking for maximum RF
current at the feed point, or better still, maximum measured field
> Joshua M. Arritt jarritt at vt.edu
Wed Mar 2 11:02:46 EST 2016 wrote:
>
Galvanized Fe material is problematic from an R standpoint as well (vs.
Cu). This results in a "lossy" ground plane. That condition has real
impact the effectiveness of the antenna system, when compared to an
all-Cu
So what I read into all this is: that those shared and excluded frequencies
are allocated to other occupants that now rarely ( if ever) use them, but that
national administrations don't think the amateur radio issue is important
enough to take on the task of co-ordinating with other countries
> Mike - I agree the objective, but the reality is a little harder!
>
> The 160 allocations across Europe, for example, vary widely. 1800-1810 is
not generally part of the allocated spectrum. Various countries have various
parts of the band with varying power privileges (you'll have seen
Remember, in the US amateurs are now allocated the entire band, 1800-2000 kHz
as primary users. Radiolocation is officially gone, although other than the
fishnet beacons, they have been absent for years, made obsolete by the GPS
system. Here in the US, there is virtually zero activity by
> What do you give if you listen to the signal on a beverage? Does it
> have a preamp and do you take that into account? A S9 on the transmit
> antenna won't be S9 on a beverage. I think the idea of using a contest
> to find out how you are getting out is fine but you don't, as others
> have
> I love contests, especially those with QRP categories AND, as a QRP
> afficionado, I do wish more hams would get on the air on Top Band just for
> the sake of making QSOs > I thoroughly enjoy working any ham on 160 CW,
> find out what my RST is, the other fella's power and antenna -
I submitted them as "reply comments" since the deadline for
originals had passed, but I think this covers everything I wanted to say,
despite a couple of typos discovered after the document was uploaded.
http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/comment/view?id=60001300591
Re Docket 15-99
While most attention so far has focussed on the proposed new MF and LF
allocations, there is also the issue of fish net beacons on 160m. The initial
comment deadline is past due, but REPLY COMMENTS ARE STILL OPEN THROUGH THE
30th of SEPTEMBER. We can reply to the ARRL
From: w...@sbcglobal.net
The FCC has agreed that the buoys need licensing they don't have, but rather
that requiring compliance
they have simply declared that the Part 80 (Marine) license now covers this
Part 90 activity. This is completely
unprecedented, as far as I know.
'JK
Money
From: w...@sbcglobal.net
The FCC has agreed that the buoys need licensing they don't have, but rather
that requiring compliance
they have simply declared that the Part 80 (Marine) license now covers this
Part 90 activity. This is completely
unprecedented, as far as I know.
'JK
Money
The FCC has raised the secondary Amateur
Service allocation at 1900 to 2000 kHz to primary.
Up until now, we were secondary users in that segment, with the Radiolocation
service having priority.
As high-resolution GPS service became available to
w8ji at w8ji.com
Wed Feb 4 11:32:18 EST 2015
I just twist my wires in a
coherent lump, flux it with liquid flux, and flood the twisted area with
solder. If I get really sophisticated, I slide a piece of copper pipe over
the twisted area, crimp it, and flood the whole inside with
I've been ham since 1969 and there has always been a issue with DQRM.
Mike N2MS
- Original Message -
From: Donald Chester k4...@hotmail.com
What does it say about the state of amateur radio to-day, that the term
DQRM has entered our jargon?
Yes, it has been with us a long time
It was very strong, centred on 1915 kHz, around 0430 GMT, Monday 09 February
2014 (Sunday evening in N America).
Don k4kyv
_
Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
My 160m antenna is unique in that I have never run into anyone else with
anything exactly like it. It consists of 127' of Rohn 25, insulated at the
base, with 120 buried radials each 133'6 long. Probably overkill, but I got a
good deal on a 16,000 ft spool of #12 bare soft-drawn back in
Which does radiolocation mean? Radar or loran/GPS/etc. or both?
Not obvious.
Rick N6RK
LORAN was a system of radionavigation, not radiolocation. Not the same thing.
Radionavigation is just what it says, a system used to help navigate a moving
ship, plane or land vehicle. It was a useful
From:
Roger D Johnson n...@roadrunner.com
I believe 1900 to 2000 kHz is shared with radiolocation in the US also.
I'm just thankful it's not on 1815!!
73, Roger
That's correct. But the FCC has proposed to discontinue the radiolocation
allocation in that frequency range, and return the
More information on the nature of the signal can be found here:
http://www.topbandhams.com/tech-page/30-washing-machine-daylight-recording-k3pgp
I did not hear it at all last night (Tuesday). It was weak but audible here
Monday night, but I noticed propagation was flaky, apparently affected
Kind of a pulsating buzzing sound, centred around 1915, but audible down to
slightly below 1900 and up to approximately 1925. At its centre frequency
last night (Saturday), it was just as strong as any CW contest signal.
It was particularly loud (S9 + 30) in the Northeast and ops with
I'm looking for opinions on the proper preservation of large diameter hemp
rope. Auction fever took over
during bidding on a 500' spool of 7/8'' Navy surplus material. I'd like to use
it with a pair of large blocks
and a couple of eucalyptus trees. What oils or chemicals would be appropriate
From: w...@w8ji.com
The worse case SWR of a 50 ohm system with 75 ohm cable isn't 1.5:1 when
normalized to 50 ohms. It is 2.25:1. 1.5*1.5 = 2.25
A 50 ohm load with 1/4 wave of 75 ohm is 112.5 ohms, and that is 2.25:1.
This is why the cable needs to be 1/2 wave long, so impedance is back
From: n...@cox.net
Please explain virtual SWR. I never heard that in any college classroom I
have been in.
Hardy N7RT
That's a phrase I coined in response to the situation Tom described; maybe
another term would be used in the textbooks. A quarter wavelength 75 ohm coax
working into
I think you're being overly picky. The 75-ohm cable would be at worst a 1.5:1
mismatch. Probably a fraction of a dB loss at most, particularly with foam type
hard line. If you have a source of good, low-loss 75-ohm coax that will safely
handle the power you intend to run, and which will hold up
A closed mouth gathers no foot.
73,
Don k4kyv
Hawaii is being donated to Mexico?? I don't think so! Eugene what the
heck are you talking about and where did it come from?
Jim
Yuri,
stop shitting on political issues amateur radio!
You want to be really smart sitting in K3-land and
The deadline is the 25th of this month. Just 17 more days left. Even if you
have zero interest on what goes on above 1850 kHz, it is still crucial to get
this passed. In the albeit unlikely but finite possibility that radiolocation
beacons will ever return, it would impact all users of the
THE CLOCK IS TICKING!
The FCC website lists the COMMENT DEADLINE as 25 FEB 2013, and REPLY COMMENT
DEADLINE as 27 MARCH 2013. Published in Federal Register on 27 December 2012
Proceeding Number: 12-338
Name of Filer: Office of Engineering and Technology
Lawfirm Name: FCC
View Filing: WRC-07
Then, why do broadcast stations that use vertical towers at approximately a
half wavelength, purchase valuable real estate and spend thousands of dollars
for the copper to install from 120 to 240 or more radials, each usually a half
wave or more in length?
See G. H. Brown: Ground Systems as
From: charlie-cunning...@nc.rr.com
Could you support a vertical 1/2 wave for 160 with aballoon?
You could end -feed it at the base through a 1/4 wave of 450 ohm
ladder line and it would be a FEARSOME 160 antenna! And the whole radial issue
goes away!!
I've operated a vertical 1/2
Here's an example of the kind of opposition we may be up against, who
may file comments in opposition to the NPRM, since Lindgren Pittman Inc.
likely won't want to recall and re-program units they have already
sold. This makes it all the more imperative that the amateur community
come up with
In ET Docket 12-338 the FCC proposes to raise the secondary amateur service
allocation in the 1900-2000 kHz band segment to primary status, providing
amateur radio operators nearly exclusive use of the band. At present, amateur
use of the top half of the band is on a secondary basis, shared
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