● A Guide to Digital Voice Modes ● In the Footsteps of Marconi ● Starting with Es'hail 2 WITH

ALL YOUR
FAVOURITE
COLUMNS

,
The UK s Number One Amateur Radio Magazine
FEATURES INCLUDE OPERATING FROM AUSTRALIA,
GETTING STARTED ON 23CM AND BOUVET ISLAND

Carrying on the Practical Way

3D Printing for amateur radio

REVIEW: MMDVM
NANO HOTSPOT
A COST-EFFECTIVE HOTSPOT FOR
D-STAR, C4FM, DMR, NXDN & P25
Homebrew Satellite Antenna
A useful weekend project APRIL 2019 £4.50
ISSN 0141-0857

THE NEW ADVANCED LICENCE IN DETAIL Display until 11th April 2019
 Sometimes in ham radio, you come across a simple idea that
makes life a lot easier. Here at Waters & Stanton I have recently
added the range of Spider Masts. It’s a fibre glass telescopic
mast that is very rugged and cost effective. My personal choice
is the 12HD. It’s 40ft tall but telescopes down to around 5ft. It
can support wire antennas and is great for an inverted V. The
light weight and superb strength makes it easy to erect and
Europe’s HAM RADIO STORE stands up well in windy locations. It also makes a great 40m
vertical. Or go for the longer one and put up an 80m vertical!
International Ham Stores - the sign that means a GREAT DEAL! Peter Waters G3OJV

DON’T
DON’T SEE
SEE WHAT
WHAT YOU
YOU NEED?
NEED? Call us for available stock and BEST PRICES
Your One Stop Source for Transceivers - Great Part Exchange Deals

FT-450D £599.95 FT-991A £1187 IC-7300 £1199 IC-7610 £3499

We give you 3 Years UK Warranty on all Yaesu - A Great Reason to buy from W&S The market leaders in Japanese SDR - W&S staff have the knowledge base
FT-450D..........HF-6m 100W ...........£599.95 IC-7300......HF-6m 100W ..............£1,199.00
FT-DX1200 .....HF-6m 100W ...........£909.00 IC-7610......HF-6m 100W ..............£3,499.00
IC-9700
FT-DX3000 .....HF-6m 100W .............£1,439 IC-7410......HF-6m 100W ..............£1,489.00
FT-DX500MP ..HF-4m 200W ..............£3199 IC-7100......HF-70cms ......................£999.00
FT-DX101 .......HF-6m 100W ................£TBA IC-9100......HF-70cms ...................£2,799.00
FT-818 ............HF-70cms 6W ..........£599.95 IC-7700......HF-6m ........................£4,789.00
FT-991A..........HF-70cms 100W ...£1,189.00 FT -DX101 IC-7851......HF-6m Flagship ..........£9,899.00
s now! The new IC-9700 transceiver will be
FT-857D..........HF-70cms 100W ......£729.00 Order yourdeposit IC-9700......2m-23cms ..................£1,799.00
with us in the next few weeks. It offers
FT-891 ............HF-6m 100W ...........£589.00 Just £1 00 IC-V80E......2m Handy......................£129.95 2m, 70cms and 23cms at an amazing
FT-2980E ........2m FM 80W.............£149.95 ID-51E........Dual Band D-Star...........£378.00 price. SDR on 2m and 70cms with
FTM-3200DE ..Dual Band Digi ........£189.00 Peter Waters G3OJV, operates the first IC-2730E ....2m/90cms Mobile..........£279.00
FT-DX101 to come into the UK. down convertion on 23cms. Great part
FT-7900E ........Dual Band Mobile....£209.00 ID-4100E....Mobile D-Star ................£299.00 exchange deals. Call Now. £1795
FT-8900E ........Dual VBand Mobile..£289.00 ID-5100E....Mobile D-Star ................£574.00
FTM-100DE ....Digi Mobile..............£299.00 Alinco DMR MD5-GPS Noise Free
FTM-400XDE ..Digi Mobile..............£419.00 CASH BACK! PS-30
FT-4XE............Handy Dual Band.......£59.00
DMR with Dual band
2m/70cms and GPS. Colour Here is a traditional
FT-25E ............Handy Dual Band.......£69.00 FT-991A..........£90 screen and easy operation. analogue 30 Amp
FT-65E ............Handy Dual Band.......£89.00
FT-891 ............£70 Includes UK CD data variable voltage
VX-6E .............Handy Dual Band.....£149.00
FT-70DE..........Handy Dual Band.....£169.00
FT-2DE............Hand Dual Band ......£379.00
FT-818ND .......£40 channel program to get
you on the air immediately.
power supply.
Heavy, rugged and
3
2 YEAR
£159.95 noise free! £99.00 WARRANTY

of Japan
K3S 1
100W HF-6m Transceiver
AR-DV-10
The K3S offers great value for money. Still the best analogue transceiver At last! A True Digital Scanner
currently in production, it has great versatilty. Its light weight makes it easy to
carry on DXpeditions. Its performance is legendary and beats any comparable • 100kHz - 3GHz At last, a scanner that will
transceiver, regardless of cost. You are protected against obsolescence by virtue • 10 Digital Modes allow you to listen to
of regular firmware updates and replacement modules. And you only pay for • inc Icom, Yaesu, DMR digital signals.
what you need! A wide range of options allow you to add a wide range of • Auto Mode Detect It automatically detects the
features to. • Water Resistant mode. Of course it also
Elecraft K3S Transceivers • Micro SD card backup works on AM and FM as
K3S/100-K...........100W Transceiver Kit .........................£2699.95 • Lithium Battery well. A total
K3S/10-K.............10W Transceiver Kit ...........................£2199.95 • Data Management communications monitor in
K3S/100-F ...........100W Transceiver Ready Built............£2849.95 the palm of your hand.
K3S/10-F .............10W Yransceiver Ready Built .............£2329.95
£849.95
Elecraft KX2 • Only 13 oz (0.3kg) - ideal for portable
Go Portable with Elecraft and handheld operation
• Internal 2.6 Ah, 11 V Li-ion AR-8600 MkII
Mic & paddle key battery optional extra The AR-8600 MkII is a high
are optional extras • Internal wide-range ATU option
performance all-mode
• Current drain as low as 135mA
• Built-in microphone and speaker
communications receiver
• Advanced DSP provides dual watch, that covers the frequency
noise reduction, noise blanking, range from 100kHz to 3GHz.
autonotch, stereo audio As such it covers the
• 80m - 10m 10 Watts • Versatile software-defined radio (SDR) complete radio spectrum.
architecture DC lead included.
• All modes + Data
• Operates in data modes (PSK31/RTTY)
£899.95 2 Year Warranty with or without a PC £599.95

call: 01702 204965 email: [email protected]

Waters & Stanton Ltd • Unit 1 • Fitzherbert Spur • Farlington • Portsmouth • PO6 1TT
@wsplc blog.hamradiostore.co.uk facebook.com/WatersandStanton Waters and Stanton
 Ham Radio UK’s Largest

LARGEST
LARGEST warehouse
warehouse •• LARGEST
LARGEST stock
stock •• LARGEST
LARGEST FREE
FREE car
car park
park
Diamond VSWR Meters Dummy Loads Diamond Yagi Antennas
Wide selection A great range of 6m, 2m and 70cms light weight Yagi antennas rated at 100W
Made in Japan Check our web for
Very accurate with Japanese engineering
full spec A-502HBR ....6m 2 El. Phased 6.3dBi 400W.............£89.95
Made to
Measure! Diamond DL-50A......100W PL ...£40.95 A144S10R....2m 10 Element 11.6dBi 2.13m boom .£89.95
Diamond DL-50N .....100W N ....£72.95 A144S5R ......2m 5 Element 9.1dB 1m boom ...........£49.95
Watson DM-150PL ...30W PL .....£44.95 A-430S10R ..70cm 10El, 13.1dB 1.19m boom.........£52.95
SX-100....160m-6m 3kW max............£96.95 Watson DM-15W......15W PL .....£21.95 A-430S15R ..70cm 15 El. 14.8dB 2.24m boom........£62.95
SX-200....160m-2m 200W max .......£181.95 Watson DM-15WN ...15W N ......£21.95 A-1430S7.....Dual 2m/70cm 7/9dBi 1.25m boom..£129.95
SX-400....2m-70cms 200W max ........£91.95 Watson DM-200N ....200W N ....£64.95
SX-600....160m-70cms 200W max ..£139.95 Comet D-21M...........100W PL ...£21.96
SX-1100..160m-23cm 200W max....£163.95 AVAIR For All Occasions
MFJ-267 1.5kW AV-20 AV-40
Metered Dummy There are times when
Compact you need a simple • 1.8 - 200MHz • 144 - 470MHz
Small Space load that has a • Scale 30W / 150W • Scale 15W / 150W
range up to 60Mz. VSWR meter that you • 3W for FSD • 3W for FSD
Ideal for HF stations. can take out portable • Cross Needle • Cross Needle
Fitted by-pass or pop in the car. The • SO-239 • SO-239
SX-20C....160m-2m 3kW ...................£79.95
switch. Avair range are a very
SX-40C....2m-70m 300W ...................£84.95
£176.95 cost effective answer. £49.95

Headgear Lapel Talkers Speaker Mics Hustler HF Verticals

Translucent A convenient 4BTV
earpiece on and economical 40m - 10m 4 Band vertical that will
curly cord with way to add a handle full legal power and can be
clip-on lapel or speaker mic to ground mounted
shirt pocket your radio. Fitted Height is 6.52m. £209.95
mic with PTT with rotating
rear clip and 5BTV
curly lead The ever popular 5-band model that
covers 80m to 10m. This is a great
WEP-501K ....Kenwood 2-pin ..............£14.95 WAP-700Y ......Yaesu / Icom 2-Pin.......£18.95 QS-112Y .......Yaesu / Icom 2-Pin .........£18.95 backyard antenna that can be
WEP-501M ...Motorola 2-pin...............£14.95 WAP-700K ......Kenwood 2-Pin ............£18.95 QS-112K .......Kenwood 2-Pin ..............£18.95 ground mounted.
WEP-501YA ..Yaesu single non screw..£14.95 WAP-700M .....Motorola 2-Pin ............£18.95 QS-112GP.....Motorola 300 series.......£19.95 The height is 7.64m
WEP-601.......Icom and Yaesu 2-pin.....£14.95 WAP-700GP....Motorola 300 series ....£19.95 QS-112Y4 .....Yaesu single non screw..£18.95 £269.95
WEP-300.......Earpiece 3.5mm ...............£6.95 WAP-700Y4 ....Yaesu single no screw .£18.95 QS-112Y4S ...Yaesu single screw.........£18.95
WEO0300K...Earpiece 2.5mm ...............£5.95 WAP-700Y4S ..Yaesu single screw ......£18.95 6BTV
This antenna is identical to the 5BTV
above buthas the 30m band added.
TigerTronics 1kW End Fed Design SpiderPoles ‘Easy Up’ Masts Again it handles full legal power and
MyAntenna USA stands 7.3m high. £289.95
Plug and No ATU Needed All antenna are rated at 1kW
Play USB Strong, fibre glass telescopic masts for
EFHW-4010 66ft wire antennas and verticals. A dream
40-20-15-10m answer for back garden or portable. Diamond HF Mobile Whips
EFHW-8010 132ft Here is a great ange of single band
The easy way to interface your PC and 12-HD ....12m long •1.18m collapsed
80-40-30-20-17 • Diam. 55m to 8mm • Weight 3.3kg....£99.95 whips that have PL-259 bases and an
radio for data operation. It comes with a
15-12-10m 18-HD ....18m long •1.7m collapsed easily adjustable upper tuning section
USB lead to match your radio. Just tell us
which radio you have and we will supply Peter Waters G3OJV says, this has to be • Diam. 73m to 4mm • Weight 6.8kg..£199.95 for quick hand adjustment.
the necessary lead. the perfect wire antenna solution for 22-HD ....22m long •2/0m collapsed HF-10FX .....10m whip 1.1m long..£58.95
£119.95 • Diam. 95m to 4mm • Weight 13kg...£379.95
many. End fed makes installation easy. HF-12FX .....12m whip 1.1m long..£58.95
No ATU is a big plus. I use one myself 26-HD ....26m long • 2.0m collapsed
• Diam. 108m to 4mm • Weight 18kg.£499.95 HF-15FX .....15m whip 1.2m long..£56.95
and it beats the pants of the old G5RV.
AOR AR-8200 Mk III CS-12m..Clamp set for 12-HD ..............£19.95 HF-16FX.....17m whip 1.2m long..£40.95
MyAntenna EFHW-4010 .....£149.95 GB-12m .Guy belt for 12-HD.................£12.95 HF-20FX .....20m whip 1.2m long..£63.95
The amazing All-Mode
Wide Band Scanner MyAntenna EFHW-8010 .....£159.95 GB-18m .Guy belt for 18-HD.................£19.95 HF-30FX .....30m whip 1.4m long..£63.95
• 100kHz - 3GHz HF-40FXW..40m whip 1.4m long..£64.95
• SSB FM AM HF-80FX .....80m whip 1,4m long..£71.95
Coax Switches Ameritrons
•Airband 8.33kHz Remote Switches
•1000 Memories Diamond CX-210A ......2 Way PL ......£49.95 W-300S Magnetic Mount
Diamond CX-210N......2 Way N........£79.95
•Noise Limiter Diamond CX-310A ......3 Way PL ......£88.95 RCS-4LX .....4 Way with static protect ..£216.95
•Attenuator Diamond CX-310V ......3 Way N .....£116.95 RCS-4X.......4 Way standard.................£179.95
•Band Scoper Watson CX-SW2N .......2 Way N........£41.94 RCS-10LX...8 Way with static protect ..£237.95
•MW Bar Antenna Watson CX-SW2PL ......2 Way PL ......£34.95 RCS-10L .....8 Way standard.................£229.95
•Signal Meter Watson CX-SW3N .......3 Way N........£59.95 RCS-8VX.....5 Way standard VHF..........£183.95 This is a 3-way mount that is great for HF
• Lots More! Watson CX-SW3PL ......3 Way PL ......£54.95 RCS-8VNX..5 Way standard VHF N ......£193.95 operation. SO-239 socket and 4.5m cable
Watson CX-SW4N .......4 Way N........£79.95 RCS-12X.....8 Way auto band sensor....£334.95 terminated in PL-259
£459.95 Watson CX-SW4PL ......4 Way PL ......£69.95 RCS-12LX...As above + static protect..£377.95 £39.95

www.hamradiostore.co.uk
Pay us a visit and check out our amazing demo facility
Sign up to our WEEKLY DEALS at hamradiostore.co.uk for exclusive deals and latest news
 BEAT THE
PRICE RISE
SAVE £1.17 EVERY ISSUE
The cover price has increased to £4.50
BUT YOU DON’T HAVE TO PAY THAT!
You can pay just £3.33 an issue,
and have it delivered to your door for free.
Pay £3.33 every month by Direct Debit – you can cancel at any time with no
penalty. There are no strings attached and no lump sums payable upfront.

Review by Tim Kirby G4VXE

● E-mail: [email protected] ● Twitter: g4vxe

The Yaesu FTM-7250DE 144/432MHz

coming through the radio. My first contact,
as a quick test, was actually with Scott
KH6AGL in Hawaii! Although, of course, it’s
not the same as working Hawaii directly,

C4FM/FM Dual-Band Transceiver

it still makes for an interesting contact.
Scott kindly confirmed that the rig’s audio
sounded good.

Programming the FTM-7250DE

Because I wanted to take the FTM-7250DE
Continuing his look at Yaesu’s System Fusion, Tim Kirby

A
s part of our short se- mobile, I thought I would program up some
ries of articles revisiting memory channels to keep an ear on while I
the Yaesu digital voice G4VXE reviews the FTM-7250DE Fusion Transceiver. was out and about. The first nice discovery
system, System Fusion was that programming the memories was
II, we thought we would pretty intuitive and I didn’t have to resort to
review the new FTM-7250DE dual- the instruction manual. Having said all that,
band transceiver. It was introduced about the Operating Manual is simple and concise The rear panel of the FTM-7250 is simple, with antenna, speaker, power and data connectors.
a year ago as an addition to the range of – and written in straightforward and clear
System Fusion transceivers. This, along English. It runs to a modest 47 pages. There With 50W available from the FTM-7250, the value as required, should this be used
with the FTM-3200DE (144MHz single is also an Advanced Manual that covers less transmitter performance was good with on your local Fusion repeater. Similarly,
band) and FTM-3207DE (432MHz single frequently used but useful features. This is distant repeaters, or indifferent locations. DPID is available and could be used, for ex-
band) was introduced as a lower-cost entry not supplied but you can download it from The three power levels are quite sensible, al- ample, to identify you as a control channel
point, allowing people the option of a digital the Yaesu website (click on the Files tab) at: though perhaps Foundation licensees would operator for a Fusion repeater.
capable rig, without features that they may https://tinyurl.com/y7afx5ux have appreciated a 10W power setting as If you are connected to a Wires-X node
not necessarily want, such as GPS or APRS. Anyway, back to programming the well. When running the rig on 50W, the heat- or Wires-X enabled repeater, you can use
Here, we are looking at the FTM-7250DE, memories. I programmed a variety of 145 sink gets warm, but not super hot, so the the FTM-7250DE to select another node
but Karl Brazier from Yaesu tells me that and 433MHz repeaters that I thought I was cooling system seems to work very well. to connect to. Unlike the FTM-100DE and
the features on the FTM-3200DE and FTM- likely to hear on my travels. Unfortunately With conditions slightly up one day, FTM-400XDE models, you cannot press
3207DE are identical – the only difference for testing, the area around West Oxford- I noticed the rig stop in digital mode on the Dx button and scroll down a list. On the
being that they are single-band radios, shire where we are currently living does not 145.600MHz, where both GB3CF and GB- FTM-7250, you’ll need to enter the Wires-
rather than dual-band like the FTM-7250DE. have any nearby Fusion repeaters. Never- 3WR can be heard (I’m located on the fringe X number of the node you want to con-
The features and specification, from theless, I programmed up some, optimisti- of both of their coverage areas, somewhere nect to (for example GB3SP in Pembroke
Yaesu, are set out in the sidebar. cally, which I thought I might hear. I decided in the middle of them) but I only got the odd Dock is number 43417). You can look up
to program up the digital simplex calling word. It was promising though. whatever nodes you want to connect to at
First Impressions frequencies on both 144 and 438MHz I didn’t get the chance to try a digital the URL below and obtain the appropriate
I first encountered the FTM-7250DE when (144.6125 and 438.6125MHz) in the hope Fusion repeater until Julie and I drove up node number. If you connect to a particular
I visited Yaesu UK to meet Karl Brazier to of making a simplex contact or two. Finally, to Warwickshire for an appointment. While node regularly, then you can save the node
have a demonstration of the new System to take advantage of the FTM-7250DE’s I waited for Julie to return, I tuned the rig number for regular use. Once you’re done
Fusion II features. The FTM-7250DE has a wideband receive coverage, I set up a few to the GB3CF frequency to find that the with having connected to the node, you
solid, simple look to it, with a nice display. memories with airband and marine frequen- repeater was an excellent S7 or S8. I waited can hit the ‘*’ button and it will disconnect
I asked Karl if I could borrow one to review cies of interest. for the QSO to end and put a call through. I you. Note that you don’t have to do this
and he very kindly agreed. With all that done, I connected the rig to was delighted to find that it all worked very each time you connect to a Fusion repeater.
Pretty much the first thing I do with the V-2000 triband vertical at home to check well and I had a series of excellent con- If the repeater you connect to is already
any digital transceiver these days is to try that everything was working as it should. It tacts, including Colin MU0FAL and Peter connected to a Wires-X room, then you’ll
it out on my digital hotspot at home and all sounded promising. G7RPG.. I discovered that GB3CF was often be content to leave it as it is, but this
this is exactly what I did with the FTM- Fitting any rig into modern cars is always not hooked up to the Wires-X system, but feature gives you the option to disconnect
7250DE. When you first switch on, you a challenge and the FTM-7250DE is too instead connected to the Hubnet system, and connect somewhere else if you want
have the option to set your callsign into large to fit in the centre console of my car – which seemed busy with lots of interesting to (and have permission to do so). Karl
the radio. This is what will be displayed most radios are! However, I found a way of contacts. I found that with a strong signal and I tried this feature at Yaesu HQ and it
on other people’s radios, when you are in safely mounting it and then connected it up from GB3CF, I was able to drop power to worked just fine and although it sounds a bit
Digital (C4FM) mode. You can enter up to to the 144/432MHz mobile antenna. 5W without any detrimental effect on my cumbersome, was actually pretty easy to do
ten characters so if you have a short name Setting the rig scanning as I drove outgoing transmission quality. in practice.
such as Tim, you can set your callsign and around suggested a couple of things. Firstly, https://tinyurl.com/ydfdoc3b
name, in my case as G4VXE-Tim. Also, I that it was nice and sensitive – I noticed Digital and Wires-X Features Like all System Fusion capable rigs, the
set the power to 5W (there are three power one or two weak signals that I hadn’t heard The FTM-7250DE firmware includes support FTM-7250DE has Automatic Mode Select
levels – 50W/25W/5W), popped a dummy since using one of the cheaper (and great for the Digital Group ID (DGID) and Digital (AMS), such that when it receives a Digital
load in the antenna socket and set the value) Chinese mobile sets. Secondly, the Personal ID (DPID) capabilities that I men- Fusion signal, it will automatically change to
frequency to that of my digital hotspot. With receiver was pretty bomb-proof and there tioned in last month’s Reintroducing System the appropriate narrow or wide digital mode
the hotspot connected to one of the Yaesu were fewer funny noises when I passed Fusion article. The default DGID is set to 00, or, of course, analogue FM.
System Fusion reflectors, America Link, I shops, buses and other well-known noise meaning that everyone hears everyone but, In case you’re wondering, you can’t use
soon started to see traffic and hear voices The FTM-7250 in digital mode, receiving the GB3CF repeater. sources. as I mentioned last month, you can change the FTM-7250DE in conjunction with an

12 Practical Wireless February 2019 February 2019 Practical Wireless 13

66-67

Call us today on 01778 395161 and quote PAWI/SAVE

or go to www.radioenthusiast.co.uk/store to join today
Telephone lines are open Monday to Friday 8am-6pm and Saturdays 9am-5pm.
Prices above are applicable to UK Direct Debit only. Please see website for EU and Rest of World subscription offers.

4 Practical Wireless April 2019

Contents
On Sale
14th
March
2019
Practical Wireless April 2019 ● Volume 95 ● Number 4 ● Issue 1343

12
60
10

36 HF Highlights
Steve Telenius-Lowe PJ4DX reports on 60 Data Modes
6 Keylines some recent DXpeditions, one of which Es’Hail-2 marks a whole new opportunity
Don reflects on feedback on some recent brought some welcome visitors to his for amateur radio. Mike Richards
PW content and tries to predict the Caribbean island. G4WNC offers advice on how to take
impact of amateur radio’s new toy – our advantage.
very own geostationary satellite. 42 Kits & Modules
Geoff Theasby G8BMI has two more 63 Rallies
7 News low-price projects for the shack – a noise Locate a rally or event near you; we have
monthly roundup of news from the generator and a component identifier. our usual comprehensive list.
UK and internationally, including new
products, club news and recent events. 43 Radio Bookstore 64 Starting Over
Your one-stop shop for hobby-related Lee Aldridge G4EJB continues his
10 Review − MMDVM Nano Hotspot. titles, biographies, reference titles, self-learning while dealing with antenna
Tim Kirby G4VXE looks at another useful historical accounts, technical advice and matching issues.
and cost-effective digital voice hotspot. successful building projects.
66 In the Footsteps of Marconi
12 Build Your Own Satellite Antenna 44 The World of VHF Having wrestled with portable operating,
John Hemming G0UYT describes Tim Kirby G4VXE has his usual selection Joe Chester MW1MWD uses his new-
an experimental satellite antenna for of news on the VHF bands and above but found skills to retrace the footsteps of
2m/70cm. starts with a spotlight on 70cm FT8. Marconi.
16 The New Advanced Licence 47 In the Shop 68 23cm, The Next Band Up? (Part 1)
Tony Jones G7ETW completes his Harry Leeming G3LLL is back with his Sam Jewell G4DDK makes a welcome
overview of the new examinations by usual diet of sage advice and intriguing return to , explaining how to get started
covering the revised Advanced syllabus. anecdotes. on the 23cm band, the ‘Next Band Up’.
24 Carrying on the Practical Way 50 Valve & Vintage 71 The Curse of Bouvet Island
Daimon Tilley G4USI introduces 3D John Sones M0AAO looks at some Tom Morgan ZS1AFS reflects on recent
printing, a handy way of fabricating examples of how Australian radio attempts to activate remote Bouvet
boxes, knobs, insulators and much else. amateurs served their country during Island and wonders whether the Curse of
26 QRP Travel & Operating in WW1, WW2 and in peacetime. Bouvet is at work!
Australia 53 Technical for the Terrified 72 Readers’ Letters
Paul Morrison G0VHT describes his QRP Don G3XTT guides readers through the Museums, multimeters and multiple-
efforts from Australia and manages a alphabet soup that is the current state of choice are among this month’s missives.
fascinating interview with QRP specialist digital voice on the VHF/UHF bands.
VK3YE.
56 What Next
34 The Morse Mode Colin Redwood G6MXL looks at a
Roger Cooke G3LDI looks at American relatively new award scheme that covers
(and Japanese!) Morse before turning to hilltops that don’t quite qualify as summits
other CW-related topics. for Summits on the Air.

Copyright © Warners Group Publications plc 2019. Copyright in all drawings, logos, photographs and articles published in Practical Wireless is fully protected
and reproduction in whole or part is expressly forbidden. All reasonable precautions are taken by Practical Wireless to ensure that the advice and data given to
our readers are reliable. We cannot however guarantee it and we cannot accept legal responsibility for it. Prices are those current as we go to press. Published on
the second Thursday of each month by Warners Group Publications plc Printed in England by Warners Midlands plc. Tel: 01778 395100. Distributed by Warners
Distribution, West Street, Bourne, Lincs, PE10 9PH. Tel: 01778 391000, Web: www.warnersgroup.co.uk
Practical Wireless is sold subject to the following conditions, namely that it shall not, without written consent of the publishers first having been given, be lent,
re-sold, hired out or otherwise disposed of by way of trade at more than the recommended selling price shown on the cover, and that it shall not be lent, re-sold,
hired out or otherwise disposed of in a mutilated condition or in any unauthorised cover by way of Trade, or affixed to or as part of any publication or advertising,
literary or pictorial matter whatsoever.

April 2019 Practical Wireless 5

Keylines
Practical Wireless
Warners Group Publications plc
The Maltings
West Street
Bourne
Lincs PE10 9PH
www.warnersgroup.co.uk
Tel 01778 391000

Editor (c/o Warners Group Publications plc)

Don reflects on feedback on some recent

I
Don Field G3XTT
I’ve had a number [email protected]
of responses to
my request for
PW content and tries to predict the impact Designer
Mike Edwards
information about of amateur radio’s new toy – our very own [email protected]
Advertisement Manager
museums of interest geostationary satellite. Claire Ingram
to radio enthusiasts, as [email protected]

you’ll see on the Letters wavelengths, simply thought for a while there was no activity. Advertising Sales
Kristina Green
pages. We’ve also had that bigger was better so every No doubt radio amateurs will 01778 392096
positive feedback on Tony time he wanted to extend his devise some experiments. I [email protected]

Jones G7ETW’s features on range, he built a bigger anten- don’t think there is much left Advertising Production
Nicola Lock
the revised licence syllabi. I’m na. We now know that this was to learn about earth-space [email protected]
aware that some individuals counterproductive because he propagation on 2.4 and Publisher
Rob McDonnell
and clubs are concerned about kept getting lower and lower in 10GHz. Maybe there are some [email protected]
the impact of the changes and frequency, even down to 80kHz interesting experiments using
Tony addresses these concerns or so (by 1906) with his 420ft narrow-band modes on the Subscriptions
Subscriptions are available as little as £11.
head-on this month. The intent, umbrella top-loaded antenna very fringes of the footprint. Turn to our subscriptions page for full details.
though, and we can only hope – far from ideal for long-haul It’s possible that the wideband Subscription Administration
Practical Wireless Subscriptions,
it works out in practice, is to propagation as we now know. transponder will lend itself to Warners Group Publications plc
encourage more entrants to Fascinating stuff. some interesting experiments The Maltings, West Street
Bourne, Lincs PE10 9PH
the hobby to progress through and applications. Tel: 01778 395 161
to the Advanced licence. This, Es’Hail-2 The footprint misses the USA [email protected]
as Tony says, is important for Our new geostationary satellite, and Oceania – it’s a commercial Components for PW projects
In general, all components used in constructing
the future of amateur radio in Es’Hail 2, marks a significant payload so it was positioned PW projects are available from a variety of
this country. Only time will tell step for the hobby and Mike for the main application (TV component suppliers. Where special, or difficult
to obtain, components are specified a supplier
whether the changes have that Richards G4WNC explains broadcasting to the Middle will be quoted in the article.
effect. this month how to get started. East and North Africa).
Photocopies & Back Issues
He also has a link to the online Once everyone has said We can supply back issues, but we only keep
Marconi SDR where you can hear live hello, what will it be used for? them for one year. If you are looking for an article
or review that you missed first time around, we
Joe Chester MW1MWD’s audio from the satellite. An EMCOMMS role? Maybe can still help. If we don’t have the actual issue
recent writings have also gen- It will be interesting, though, SOTA people will develop light we can always supply a photocopy or PDF file of
the article. See the Book Store pages for details.
erated quite a bit of interest. to see how usage of Es’Hail transportable terminals for
This month he turns to a new 2 develops over time, a topic hilltopping? Whatever happens Technical Help
We regret that due to Editorial timescales,
quest, to follow in the footsteps which Richard Newstead it’s the culmination of a hugely replies to technical queries cannot be given
over the telephone. Any technical queries are
of Marconi. I looked up some G3CWI of SOTABEAMS complex project and something unlikely to receive immediate attention so,
of the references in Joe’s article addresses in his online blog that has been dreamt about in if you require help with problems relating to
topics covered in PW, please either contact
and found myself learning more and which he has kindly amateur radio satellite circles the author of the article directly or write or
about those early experiments. allowed me to quote from. Here since the late 1970s. We should send an email to the Editor and we’ll do our
best to reply as soon as we can.
I hadn’t fully appreciated how are some extracts: be grateful to those who have
much in the dark Marconi was. Es’Hail-2 officially allowed delivered it but now it’s down 2
Marconi ● Starting with Es'hail
WITH
ALL YOUR
● A Guide to Digital Voice
Modes ● In the Footsteps of FAVOURITE

He wasn’t even an engineer access to its amateur radio to the rest of us to think of COLUMNS

although he surrounded himself transponders on February some uses. Will it be “All hail
with some of the ‘experts’ of 12th. It’s a decision that the emperor”, or the emperor’s
the day. But he was a great was likely forced upon the new clothes? It’s up to us. ,
The UK s Number One Amateur Radio
Magazine
ATING FROM AUSTRALIND A,
businessman and self-publicist. Qataris because despite radio Indeed. Let’s hope that good FEATURES INCLUDE OPER AND BOUVET ISLA
GETTING STARTED ON 23CM
I hadn’t though, realised that amateurs being asked not use can be made of it.
his early experiments were to use them until the official You can find more on the
somewhat self-defeating. switch-on date of February internet and advice was also
Heinrich Hertz started his 14th, several could not obey offered by Noel Matthews Carrying on the Practical Way
3D Printing for amateur radio

early laboratory experiments (in this simple request. G8GTZ in the January 2019
1887) at VHF, simply because Users were asked to keep issue of the RSGB’s RadCom. REVIEW: MMDVM
NANO HOSPOT FOR
the frequency of transmis- their power low because the A COST-EFFECTIVE HOTSPOT
P25
D-STAR, C4FM, DMR, NXDN &
sion of a spark transmitter is transponder shares the power Homebrew Satellite Antenna
A useful weekend project
APRIL 2019 £4.50
ISSN 0141-0857

E IN DETAIL
determined by the antenna between all users. … this THE NEW ADVANCED LICENC Display until 11th April 2019

resonance and Hertz had a request also fell on (some) deaf

small antenna because he was ears. After the initial rush of Subscribe to
working indoors. In contrast, contacts there was something
Marconi, presumably having of a “what next?” moment and Don Field
Practical Wireless
no concept of frequencies and when I checked this morning, G3XTT [email protected]

6 Practical Wireless April 2019

Newsdesk
Send your information to:
Practical Wireless Letters, Warners Group Publications plc
West Street, Bourne, Lincs PE10 9PH
E-mail: [email protected]

Special Event Station Chain

June 6th marks the 75th anniversary of GB##JF Juno Beach: Itchen Valley ARC &
the launching of Operation Overlord with Waterside New Forest ARC.
the D-Day Landings in Normandy. In GB##SF Sword Beach: Fort Purbrook
order to commemorate all those who took ARC.
part in this momentous historical event, Note: ## designates a number – the
a small team from the Torbay Amateur organisers are awaiting confirmation
Radio Society in Newton Abbot (TARS) are regarding ‘75’ from Ofcom.
organising a chain of five special event Further to the five SE Stations in the
stations along the south coast of the UK. UK, they hope to have two club stations
Each special event station will be based in from the Normandy area in France activat-
the geographical area of a ‘Beach Landing ing sites on the beaches, making a total
Force’ point of departure and will use a of seven special event stations on the air
callsign relevant to that Landing Force. working predominantly HF (other bands
TARS will be activating a site above and modes are at the discretion of the sta-
Brixham Harbour in Devon, which was a tion coordinators).
departure point for many of the US forces Logging is being co-ordinated cen-
who later landed on Utah Beach. They will trally, and stations who contact two or
be using the call ‘GB##UF’. more of the stations within the chain will
Other clubs will be activating similar be able to download a suitable certificate
New Midland relevant locations and using one of the
following callsigns (see map, which shows
to commemorate their achievements.
Details of logging, certificates and operat-
Dual-Band Handheld D-Day Force Departure Points and Land-
ing Beaches):
ing frequencies will be available on the
TARS website (below) and other partici-
Nevada are pleased to announce the release GB##OF Omaha Beach: South Dorset pating club sites. The organising team for
of the CT-590s Midland low-cost Dual-Band Radio Society. this event can be contacted via email at
Handheld transceiver. GB##GF Gold Beach: Southampton ARC [email protected]
Despite its entry-level price, the CT-590s & Soton University Wireless Society. www.torbayars.org.uk
is packed with features, including a three-co-
lour LCD display, keypad control, FM broad-
cast receive capability, scan and dual-watch,
CTCSS, emergency SOS function, VOX
control and lots more. The radio is program-
Upcoming Activity
Andy VK5MAV and Vlad ER1OO plan to sign make a side trip to Moucha Island (AF-053).
mable from a PC with optional software and VK5MAV/6 from April 15th to 25th, activating https://j20dx.com
lead. It sells for £69.95 and is supplied with a two island groups: Houtman Abrolhos (IOTA And there are a couple of special event
1,500mAh Li-Ion battery pack, Desktop fast reference OC-211) and Favorite (OC-183). callsigns to look out for during the month:
charger, wall adaptor and belt clip. They will have amplifiers and beam antennas. II4SLR (Luigi Solari) as part of the ARI Fidenza
The Midland CT-590S is available direct MM0NDX, MM0OKG and EA3NT plan clubs year of celebrating radio pioneers and
from Midland distributors Nevada radio, or to activate the rare Sept Freres (AF-059) off LZ117ML by Radio Club Blagovestnik who, as
Nevada’s UK dealers. Djibouti from April 16th to 20th approximately. previously, are honouring a different Orthodox
www.nevadaradio.co.uk At the end of this operation, they hope to saint each month.

April 2019 Practical Wireless 7

 Newsdesk

Cornish Radio Amateur

Club Exam Passes
The Cornish Radio Amateur Club reports 11
successful Foundation licence passes on
February 3rd. They are particularly proud
that 10-year-old Anne Marie was one of the
successful candidates. She can be seen
in the photo wearing a hat standing on
the stage above the other ten new licence
holders and to the far left in the photo hold-
ing the banner is one of the trainers, Rick
G4PGD. Peterborough Club News
2019 started with a Natter Night and a The meetings begin at 09:30 (local) so

Moonraker acquires discussion about what ‘radio goodies’ Santa

had given members. Alan G8XLH, club secre-
please be sure to arrive in plenty of time. The
day inishes at approximately 16:30.
Sharman MultiCOM tary, brought along his Christmas present to
himself, a four-band HF loop manufactured
Your main decision is to decide which
group you want to work with: under 12WPM,
Moonraker has acquired the Sharman brand, by 2E0ERO in Northampton. The bands cov- up to 20WPM, and 20WPM up. Within each
website, goodwill and stock. Sharman’s, ered by the magnetic loop are40/30/20/17m group, the aim is to develop your practical
which has traded since 1971, was one of and it is approximately 60cm in diameter. CW skills. Note that at times all groups are
the irst companies selling CB radios and Alan bought the loop, new, on eBay for £175. combined for talks and group CW activities.
accessories in the UK. Since its inception Most of the components were manu- You can participate and drop out as you
it has evolved and now distributes a full factured by Adrian 2E0ERO using 3D laser wish, meeting others with a common inter-
and complete range of two-way radio printing for spacers and mounts and a CNC ests and different levels of proiciency. There
products and accessories to the hobby and milling machine for the tuning capacitor, will be an opportunity to listen or to operate
professional markets. assembly being a family affair. The loop is the well-equipped GM6NX station on CW
Justin Godefroy of Moonraker, designed for QRP use only and is not suitable under supervision. Perhaps you will make
which is already established as one of for wet weather operation. See the pictures your irst CW QSO?
the largest retailers and wholesalers of on Adrian’s qrz.com page. GMDX hope to offer an opportunity to
radio communication products in the UK Alan Demonstrated the performance of take the RSGB Morse test, if there is suf-
and Europe, commented: “Sharman’s the loop with it fed from his Elecraft KX3. The icient interest. Please indicate if you wish
is a great business with some superb loop’s motorised tuning capacitor worked to do this when you e-mail your interest in
products and we are looking forward well and the internal ATU on the KX3 tuned it attending.
to continuing the Sharman MultiCOM to perfection. On a test a few days before the Finally, what to bring? All of the following:
brand and product range. Together, the meeting, at a friend’s QTH, the loop mounted • Morse key with 3.5mm jack and 3.5/6.0mm
Moonraker and Sharman brands now deliver near the ground compared well on receive adaptor.
one of the largest ranges of hobby radio with a 40m wire antenna. Receive signals • High impedance headphones, same jack
communication equipment in the market. were only 1 to 2 S points down with much requirements.
“We intend to maintain the ethos of both less noise on the signal. • Writing pad and pencil/pen.
companies of delivering competitive pricing, The second meeting saw another presen- • Name badge with callsign.
quality ‘in stock’ products and excellent tation by Alan about a new piece of kit pur- • Registration Fee £10.00; please bring cor-
customer service from a fun and friendly chased by the club, the Metronova 180 VNA rect amount (cash only).
team”. analyser. He explained that this is Bluetooth- • Mug and your lunch.
enabled and measures SWR, R, Z, X and L GMDX will provide drinks and biscuits

Mull in May plus forward and transmission loss and much

more. The touch-screen also allows for mul-
but please bring your own lunch. Bear in
mind that there will be just a 30-minute lunch
Members of Tynemouth Amateur Radio tiple band viewing when cutting and setting break.
Club, G0NWM, are travelling to Mull up antennas. The versatile analyser measures You will be able to put faces to names and
from May 17th to 24th where they will be anything that the antenna builder needs plus callsigns and meet new fellow-enthusiasts.
operating using the callsign GS0NWM. more. It can be plugged into a computer and Get advice on how to develop your CW skills.
Subject to conditions the group will be accepts irmware upgrades. At a cost of £259 Find new ways to learn and get you past your
operating up to four stations across the HF from most dealers, the club believes it’s good blocks. Try different keys. Find yourself a CW
bands on SSB, CW, RTTY and FT8 (Fox/ value for money. mentor.
Hound mode) and they hope to have a go at Gavin GM0GAV has let us know that the This event is open to all but places are
VHF/UHF Satellite operation. GMDX Group are running a CW Boot Camp limited, so it is important that you pre-register
QSL is via m0urx.com. GS0NWM can on Sunday March 10th. The venue is Stirling your interest in attending to gmdxgroup@
be followed on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and District Amateur Radio Society, Unit 68, gmail.com
and the club website: Bandeath Industrial Estate, Throsk FK7 7NP www.gmdx.org.uk
http://tynemouthradioclub.com

8 Practical Wireless April 2019

 Newsdesk

ANZAC Day
Peter Wolfenden VK3RV, WIA (Wireless Institute
of Australia) Historian, has kindly provided the
following: ANZAC Day, named after the Austra-
lian and New Zealand Army Corps, was estab-
lished initially as a consequence of WWI and
in particular the Gallipoli Campaign, which saw
so many young men from that part of the world
sacriiced or badly maimed. Now Australia’s and
New Zealand’s foremost Day of Remembrance,
it is a day entirely dedicated to those who fell,
suffered or served in all wars and conlicts,
including peace-keeping operations.
ANZAC Day ceremonies are held on April 25th
each year, a public holiday, and are multi-facet-
ed, usually commencing with a Dawn Service,
an ANZAC Day Breakfast (also referred to by
some as the Gun-ire Breakfast), followed by

Repeater Timeout Detector

Parades, Wreath Laying, a Period of Silence and
the Sounding of The Last Post. April 25th was
the day on which, in 1915, Australian and New
A brand-new project kit has been handy for repeater users. The kit can Zealand soldiers, as part of an Allied expedition,
released by HAMtronics in the UK − a also be used as a low-price club con- landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula in an attempt
repeater timeout detector. struction project or at a buildathon. to open the way to the Black Sea for the Allied
The kit makes use of an Arduino Two versions are available, one navies.
Nano board and some basic com- of which is a Special Edition version The Commonwealth of Australia was formed
ponents to detect local RF when you branded with the name ‘Essex Ham’ in 1901 from the six former British colonies that
start transmitting. It provides a visual because the idea stemmed from the made up the land mass of Australia, and it is
and audible warning when the timeout group’s weekly Monday Night Net, generally accepted that the Gallipoli battle in
is approaching and when it has been where overs are limited to two minutes. 1915 enduringly deined Australia as a nation.
exceeded. The kit can be set to For Essex Ham’s video review, go Both Australia and New Zealand entered WWI
timeout intervals between one and four to the Essex Ham website (below) or to when on August 4th 1914, the mother country
minutes. the HAMtronics site to purchase a kit. declared war on Imperial Germany and Austro-
The kit is easy to construct and Current UK price is £10 plus P&P. Hungary. That costly ight, resulting in some
supplied with full instructions. It makes www.essexham.co.uk/kits 11,430 deaths of Australian and NZ soldiers,
for an ideal beginner’s project and is www.hamtronics.uk and defeat, is now part of Australia’s and New
Zealand’s psyche and heritage.
Australia was quick to react to the declaration
trouble with hearing loss. of war. Less than four hours after its proclama-
Isle of Wight Awards You can also run it on a windows PC tion in London, a German cargo ship, the SS
The Isle of Wight Radio Society is using an android emulator. See here for Pfalz, was stopped from escaping Australian
celebrating its 50th Anniversary with an the minimum requirements: waters by a shot ired across her bow, at the Port
awards scheme in which all amateurs and https://tinyurl.com/y2fx2x2c Phillip Bay Heads (Victoria) This action has been
SWLs can take part. Certiicates will be Ian says peanut is busy with amateur described as the ‘irst shot ired in anger in WWI’.
awarded for working IWRS members, the radio chats and is ideal for amateurs who So, it is quite appropriate that PW has chosen
society’s callsign G3SKY and any special like to have a long conversation and not April to publish John Sones’ article about the
event stations during the anniversary year. ten-second QSOs. Its use is limited to ra- WIA’s Wireless Men and Women at War anthol-
This will include working IWRS members dio amateurs and you need to get a code ogy. The book contains many stories about ama-
through the Isle of Wight Repeater GB3IW. from PA7LIM to participate: teur radio operators – ordinary, but simultane-
The type of certiicate awarded, Gold, Sil- www.pa7lim.nl/peanut ously, unusual people, who in dificult situations
ver or Bronze, will depend on the number served us all well during those times of conlict.
of IWRS stations worked. The scheme Australia’s regulating authority, the ACMA,
will run from April 1st 2019 to March 30th Maritime Radio Day automatically allows all Australian radio ama-
2020. Full details of the rules, etc, can be Regular correspondent Ross G4DTD teurs to substitute their normal callsign preix VK
found on the Society’s Facebook page: draws readers’ attention to this year’s with the preix AX on ANZAC Day as an amateur
www.facebook.com/groups/IOWRS Maritime Radio Day, which will be held radio salute to the servicemen and women who
The point of contact for this awards from April 14th (1200UTC) to 15th served.
scheme is Paul G0GMY, e-mail: (2200UTC). It is primarily aimed at what Please note: The use of the AX callsign preix
[email protected] Ross describes as ‘all those ex-seagoing for the 24-hour period on Anzac Day April 25th,
types and those who worked in Coast is based on local time in each State, not UTC
Stations’. Details can be found on: time.
Android Peanut http://www.trafficlist.net/mrd
Ian G3ZHI advises that peanut is an
android VoIP (Voice over Internet) applica- Choke Cookbook
tion that allows radio amateurs to talk on ICQ Podcast Jim K9YC has published A New Choke Cook-
analogue and over-the-air gateways to The February 17th episode features the book for the 160-10m Bands on his website. Jim
D-STAR, DMR, Fusion, Wires-X and so on latest worldwide amateur radio news concentrates on two sizes of type-31 Fair-rite
using a cellphone or other android device. while Colin M6BOY rounds up the news magnetic cores, covering theory and practice for
When using it in analogue, peanut-to- in brief and the main feature is 50 years of controlling RF current on the outside of transmit-
peanut the audio quality is excellent so it Worked All Britain. ter feedlines:
is ideal for older amateurs who are having www.icqpodcast.com http://k9yc.com/2018Cookbook.pdf

April 2019 Practical Wireless 9

 Review with Tim Kirby G4VXE
● E-mail: [email protected] ● Twitter: g4vxe

MMDVM Nano hotspot for DMR,

D-STAR, C4FM, NXDN and P25
Tim Kirby G4VXE looks at another useful and cost-effective digital voice hotspot.

W
hen Moonraker
were looking to
stock a Multimode
Digital Voice Modem
(MMDVM) hotspot,
there are so many to choose
from that Chris Taylor G0WTZ
decided to ask a real expert in the
subject, Jonathan Naylor G4KLX
for his recommendation. Jonathan
recommended that Chris take a look at the
BI7JTA models and this is what they have
done.
Here at PW, we have already reviewed
a very similar MMDVM device in the shape
of the Zumspot-RPi. The MMDVM Nano
should have the same capabilities as the
Zumspot but we wanted to see how, if at
all, the performance differed. If you would
like a detailed description of what an
MMDVM device can do, please refer to the
Zumspot review (PW December 2018).
However, as a reminder the MMDVM
devices are digital radio hotspots, with a
transmitter power of around 10mW. They
act as personal repeaters, so that you
can connect to a variety of digital radio The Nano is small enough to use in a car – supplied from USB power and tethered to your mobile phone
networks (D-STAR, DMR, C4FM, P25, for an internet connection.
NXDN) using a digital handheld. Excitingly,
some cross-mode capabilities exist, from sented in a 3D printed case that has a Later, I discovered in the instructions
DMR to C4FM and NXDN, for example, slightly rough look to it but is robust and (URL below) that if I had created a WiFi
and from C4FM to DMR, P25 and NXDN. well-itting. There’s a small window in the network on my phone called 888888-
Please note that the MMDVM doesn’t case for an OLED display as well as an 2G with a password of 0123456789, the
allow cross-mode contacts to and from RJ-45 network port, micro-USB connector hotspot would have connected to it!
D-STAR, although there are some relec- for power, a port where the WiFi adapter is https://tinyurl.com/y7z25al2
tors that do allow this functionality. The connected and an aperture for the micro- What I decided to do, however, was to
Nano has the MMDVM board attached to SD card containing the ile system for the connect the Nano into my router, using a
a NanoPi single-board computer, which NanoPi computer. networking cable and the RJ-45 connector
has WiFi built in. This means that you can Thinking that the Nano would be like on the Nano. I was then able to use Fing,
power the hotspot from a USB port or the Zumspot, I powered up the device on a network scanner running on my smart-
power supply and pick internet connectiv- USB and hopefully scanned the WiFi for phone, to ind the IP address of the Nano.
ity from your home WiFi, or perhaps from a ‘Pi-Star-Setup’ WiFi network to appear. Then I was able to start to conigure it from
your mobile phone acting as a Personal It didn’t and no new WiFi networks ap- a web browser, using the IP address I had
Hotspot. peared. I have subsequently discovered just discovered. In fact, the irst thing I did
that there were some bugs in the versions was to edit the WiFi parameters so that
First Impressions of Pi-Star that were current at the time, it could connect to the house WiFi rather
The Nano is surprisingly small! It’s pre- which may have prevented this happening. than being hardwired from the router.

10 Practical Wireless April 2019

 It was at this stage that I discovered
that the WiFi capabilities of the unit were
not as I had expected. If I moved the Nano
out of the room where the WiFi router
is situated, the connection dropped. I
asked Chris Taylor to check another unit
to see whether this was standard across
other models. He said no and that he had
successfully connected to a WiFi router
around 30m away. However, if you want to
use a Nano somewhere that you feel the
WiFi signal is weak, it may be worth you
checking that you can return the unit if it
doesn’t work as planned.
Once I’d worked through the network-
ing setup wrinkles, Pi-Star setup itself was
very easy, although I found the BI7JTA
instructions rather less clear than the
general Pi-Star setup instructions at the
link below, which I would probably recom-
mend as an alternative. By the way, Chris
G0WTZ recommends the Nano.MMDVM
support group on Facebook. The Nano has low enough power consumption that you can use a USB power bank to provide its power. I
https://tinyurl.com/yyhuxnga found this was more than adequate for several hours use.
Something I did notice was that the
NanoPi board was faster to restart than a D-STAR contact, say, you can ‘anchor’ when I was parked up at a local hilltop,
the Pi Zero W that I use with my Zumspot. it to the D-STAR system by waiting for a being able to make contacts into the USA
This will be because it is a slightly faster quick break in transmissions and transmit- using the Fusion systems.
processor. ting a D-STAR signal with your handheld Updates of Pi-Star software are pos-
so that the MMDVM will not move over to, sible through the coniguration dashboard
Getting on the Air for example, Fusion in the middle of an menus and I successfully upgraded to the
With the hotspot conigured with its fre- interesting D-STAR QSO! latest version of Pi-Star on the Nano.
quency, I was able to try it on the air and I was also pleased to ind that I could
quickly put it into DMR mode, connected use the cross-mode capabilities of the Conclusion
to the Worldwide Brandmeister relec- hotspot to go from YSF to DMR, NXDN The MMDVM Nano worked well as a
tor 4639 and listened on the appropriate and P25 systems as well as from DMR to hotspot and did everything I asked of it.
frequency with a DMR radio (I used an YSF and NXDN systems. The setup was a little more quirky than
Anytone AT-868 for testing). Sure enough, One of the nice things about the OLED other MMDVM models I have used but
I was able to make some test contacts. display on the Nano is that it shows you once done, it worked ine. It may be that
D-STAR was the same and I was able to which mode is active and if there is a sta- those problems were more a product of
connect the Nano hotspot to the world- tion transmitting, what their callsign is. You the Pi-Star software than the Nano itself.
wide relector REF001C and connect using can also see the IP address of the hotspot, The WiFi performance was notably less
my Icom IC-E92 handheld. (Note that you which can be useful at times. than I would have expected but that was
must put your rig in repeater mode on D- hopefully just the WiFi adapter on the
STAR, albeit with a repeater shift of 0kHz, Out and About review model. Apart from those reserva-
otherwise it will not work). Finally, I put the One of the very adaptable things about tions, I was happy with the performance
Nano into YSF (Yaesu System Fusion or the MMDVM-type hotspots is that you of the Nano. If you are a digital radio
C4FM) mode and connected the hotspot can take them out and about with you, enthusiast, you will almost certainly want
to the America Link ‘room’ or relector, perhaps in the car (or even in a rucksack to own an MMDVM-type hotspot because
which worked well. if you are walking), so that you can tether they provide a very lexible approach to
The nice thing about MMDVM-type the WiFi to your mobile phone’s hotspot digital radio, especially with the possibility
hotspots is that you can be connected and listen to whatever digital network you of cross-mode connections.
to, say, D-STAR, DMR and YSF networks wish. I used the WiFi coniguration to add Many thanks to Chris Taylor of Moon-
all at the same time and the hotspot in the SSID and password for my iPhone’s raker for the kind loan of the hotspot
will change into the appropriate mode hotspot, so that if I wanted to use the and for answering all my questions. The
automatically as trafic comes up on the Nano in the car, I could. Sure enough, that MMDVM Nano is available from Moon-
different networks. If you start listening to worked ine and I enjoyed using the Nano raker Ltd and costs £134.99.

April 2019 Practical Wireless 11

 Feature with John Hemming G0UYT
l E-mail: [email protected]

L Build Your Own

ast summer I was
recovering from surgery
on the brevis tendon
in my ankle so I was
housebound for around

satellite Antenna
eight weeks. As luck would have it the
World Cup was on so I was enjoying my
recovery with a beer in hand, football and
the wonderful weather.
But of course, as a radio amateur, I
wanted to operate outside in the sun. Be-
ing unable to travel I decided to work the John Hemming G0UYT describes an experimental satellite
FM satellites with my dual-band hand- antenna for 2m/70cm.
helds. Positioning myself in the centre of
the garden I was able to hear a few passes
of AO-91/2 from my garden chair while my
leg was in plaster. I managed, by swinging
around my handheld, to make a couple of
contacts via AO-91 so the bug had bitten
and plans were formed to construct a bet-
ter antenna.

Time for Research

I researched some designs and decided
on a dual-band Yagi using ive elements
on 70cm coupled with a Moxon two-
element for 2m. Of course, this antenna
was very good and I was able to make
contacts by tracking the satellites across
the sky at different elevations. I was able
to work through all of the popular FM
satellites, including AO-85, AO-91, AO-92
and SO-50. It was a struggle being in a
plaster cast and often I would wait for the
XYL to return from work and she would
hold the antenna under my instructions as
to where to point it. This was not ideal so I
started working on plans for an omnidirec-
tional antenna to work the birds (satellites)
from the comfort of my garden chair while
resting my leg!
I had time to research many satellite
omnidirectional antennas. These included
the ‘Eggbeater’ versions 1 and 2, Lin-
denblad dipole array, different vertical
antennas, phased crossed dipoles, lazy-H,
AWX, cloverleaf and double quads.
I managed to make a number of these
antennas and some were better than oth-
ers while attached to a vertical support on
a tripod in the garden.
Although I was able to make some con-
tacts with these antennas, I was still not
happy because there was lots of fading
and loss of signal if the satellite had a high
elevation angle. I was sure I could improve
on them or design my own antenna.
The design brief I set myself was:

• A single feed dual-band antenna for 2m

and 70cm A view of the basic assembly with no housing.

12 Practical Wireless April 2019

 View from above
Assembly 2 Meter loops in blue
(some items and views have been
omitted see supporting text for full details)

70cm loops in red

Weather proof
box to house feed point
and trimmer

Mini RG8

2 meter dipole

Ferrite beads

Fig. 1: Plan view and side elevation of the antenna. The prototype mounted outdoors. The author’s wife lending a hand!

• No need to use a diplexer that signals reach your antenna at different I used PVC-covered steel garden wire
• Gain over a dipole times, leading to multiple out-of-phase approximately 3mm in diameter but any
• Mixed polarisation signals rather than one clean signal. hard-drawn steel or copper wire could be
• Omnidirectional Many successful satellite antennas use used.
The antennas that most impressed circular polarisation but it doesn’t guaran- The irst job was to mount a 2m dipole
me in my research were the Eggbeater tee a perfect fade-free pass and usually on one of the sides, ixed in place with
and a version of the Lindenblad parasitic has some loss of signal when compared electrical tape and tie wraps. The next
antenna for 70cm. I therefore looked more to an antenna with the correct polarisation stage was to mount the 70cm radiator at
closely at how they worked and tried to (bear in mind that as the signal polarisa- 180° to the 2m dipole so on the opposite
incorporate their success into my design. tion changes, it will have both horizontal side of the tubing.
Because I had previously made a dual- and vertical components so to get the
band single-feed Yagi using the open- best results, it’s necessary to be able to Measurements
sleeve method of energising a 70cm radia- copy both simultaneously). I used the formula 143/frequency to give
tor from the 2m feed, I decided this would me the length of a half wave and simply
be the heart of my design. I also took note Design and Construction divided this by two for each leg of the 2m
from the parasitic Lindenblad, which uses Let me, then, explain the design and dipole. Thus 143/145 = 92.8cm, divide by
a single vertical dipole with a number of construction. The basic coniguration is 2 = 46.4cm for each leg. However, I would
horizontal dipoles at different angles to shown in Fig. 1 – a vertical dipole, with advise starting slightly longer (such as
achieve close to circular polarisation. crossed full-wave loops for both 2m and 49.6cm for each leg) and then trimming for
I wondered whether, if I combined 70cm. The various photos should also give best match/SWR once the 70cm radiator
some of these techniques but swapped an idea of how it is put together. My shop- is ixed in place. The calculated length of
parasitic dipoles with crossed quads simi- ping list for this antenna comprised: the 70cm radiator is 143/435 = 32.8cm so
lar to the Eggbeater (doing this for both • 22mm PVC pipe (white) cut approx. 1m either cut at 33cm or 32cm − it will make
bands but on a single support), would this long little difference.
possibly work? I set about designing and • Reel of PVC coated steel garden wire or The centre feedpoint I originally made
thinking about how I could mount a cen- hard drawn copper from electrical choc-bloc connectors but
tre-fed open-sleeve dipole for 2m/70cm • Mini RG8 then used a plastic dipole centre piece to
with parasitic crossed quads for extra gain • Trimmer 5-50pF (see what you have in make this weatherproof and to house a
and multi-polarisation radiation. your scrap box) trimmer. I found I needed the trimmer to
I mention multi-polarisation – both • 6 ferrite beads tune out any reactance once everything
vertical and horizontal radiation because • Electrical tape was assembled (more on this later).
the signal from the satellite changes as it • Tie wraps I then used the same formula to mea-
crosses the sky. Fading is often caused by • Plastic mounting pole sure the quad loop lengths, which is 143/
the satellite changing its polarisation along I used 22mm white plastic/PVC tubing Frequency x 2 (for a full wavelength loop),
with the addition of multipath distortion found at most DIY stores for the main sup- giving the length of wire I needed to trim. I
where the received signal is bouncing off port of every element. (Black tubing has a actually rounded this up to make life easier
other objects such as rooftops, trees and higher carbon content and could affect the because these measurements were not
the ground. These multipath effects mean antenna.) that critical and I wanted to use the an-

April 2019 Practical Wireless 13

 Feature

tenna wideband from 144 to146MHz and have built the antenna didn’t need to and
432 to 436MHz. I rounded up the igures just trimmed the dipole lengths towards
from the same formulas as above, to give the end of the build instead. As long as
me a quad loop length for the 70cm band you have a good match of 70cm and 2m,
of 66cm and for the 2m band a length of you should be in business whatever your
196cm. method.
You will need to cut two lengths of wire After trimming, I managed to achieve a
for each band because you will be making 1:1 match on 70 cm and 1.2 on 2m, both
crossed loops. Once cut, I simply divided of which are perfectly acceptable.
by four for each side of the quad and bent You will also need to use around ive or
into a square shape with roughly equal six ferrite beads to slip over the coax feed
sides. and ix them in place just below the point
where the lower 2m dipole element ends.
Assembling the Loops This is to stop your coax ly-lead becom-
The dificult bit is assembling the loops ing part of the antenna and radiating.
onto the PVC tubing. Use the centre of the Finally, ix the antenna to a suitable
dipole as a reference/datum point. First plastic mounting pole before using any
measure for the holes where the 70cm steel or aluminium mast. The antenna is
loops will it. (I used the tip of my soldering now complete.
iron to make the holes but you can use a
drill if needed.) So, for example, 8.25cm Testing
above and below this point but 90° from I checked out the antenna with it mounted
the dipole elements. The second loop around 7ft above ground. The ultimate test
needs to be crossed so turn the tubing 90° for me would be to see if I could hear SO-
and make the second set of holes for the 50 on a high elevation pass without mov-
second loop. You will need to make these ing the antenna or aiming it at the satellite.
holes just above the measurement of the I mention SO-50 because this satellite has
irst loop by about 5cm or less. a 70cm downlink and is quite dificult to
I pushed the partially-formed loop hear without a beam.
through the wire, turning the tube until it So, at 75° I waited for the bird to A version built by Craig N8PWM.
was itted. I used a small choc-bloc con- come over. Fully quieting signals from
nector to complete the loop. You can, of the satellite were heard! Compared to a stations both horizontally and vertically
course, use different methods to complete single vertical dipole it certainly showed polarised.
the loop such as soldering or crimping. huge promise. (A vertical dipole has a The next test was to try to work
Then it’s the turn of the 2m loops, again doughnut-shaped radiation pattern and FO-29 semi duplex from my Yaesu FT-
using the centre of the dipole for a refer- although good on lower elevation passes 100D. Using around 20W I managed to
ence point and making holes above and fails miserably with a high elevation pass work YO5TP, HA6NM, F4DXV, PE1NIL,
below this point to insert the loops but, because of the ‘hole’ in the doughnut.) EA2AZW, UX0FF, OH5LK, UT9NA and
importantly, these loops will be turned 45° Next was to test the antenna on trans- R7MU. I also used the antenna with the
degrees from the 70cm loops, as can be mit. I managed to work through a number FM satellites with similar results.
seen in the plan view in Fig. 1. of satellites with the antenna still just 7ft In conclusion, I feel that this antenna,
Hopefully now you have completed from the ground, with good signals across although not perfect and having room
the dipole centre and ixed the loops in Europe. I’m guessing that the ground for development and tweaks, has a great
place. To feed the antenna you will need acted as a relector or a large dish to help place in my antenna systems. I am now
to use a small ly lead (3m) of high-quality with the signals. developing Stage 2 with an added ground-
coaxial cable. I recommend Mini RG8. I do I then wanted to test the antenna higher plane system, loops 90° out phase from
advise using the best quality and lowest up above my rooline, so I could try to each other and more parasitic elements.
loss coax as possible both for the ly lead work some linear satellites such as AO-73 Although the design may seem a little
and for the feeder to the shack because and FO-29. My son helped with the instal- unorthodox and breaks some rules of
with satellite work it can be the difference lation and the experimental antenna was antenna building, it was a fun solution that
in making a contact or not even hearing ixed in place just above the guttering on happened to work compared with other
them due to the weak signals and feeder an 8ft mast. simple satellite antennas.
losses. The ly-lead is taken to the feed- I used around 15m of RG213 to con- Since building the antenna I was
point of the 2m dipole. nect to the ly-lead and fed back into my requested to submit my papers to the
shack – as I said earlier, good quality low- American AMSAT organisation and was
Trimming loss feeder is essential. bowled over that it was included in talks at
I mentioned earlier that I used a small To my surprise I tuned around and the the Space Symposium and has been built
trimmer to tune out reactance because antenna also worked quite well across by some of our American cousins with
I found that, once assembled, I had the SSB and FM sections of the bands. good results.
introduced some reactance. I tuned the Compared with my collinear, this antenna Why not have a go? It’s an afternoon’s
trimmer for the best match. Others who certainly sounded different and pulled in work. I’m sure you will be impressed.

14 Practical Wireless April 2019

 Feature with Tony Jones G7ETW
● E-mail: [email protected]

T The New
his is my third article about
the new amateur radio ex-
aminations and before I get
started on the detail of the
new Advanced syllabus, I

Advanced Licence
need to say something. These updates
have been a controversial subject and
some people are very critical of the syllabus
changes. Their main reasons seem to be:
• A more dificult Foundation syllabus is a
barrier to getting people into the hobby.
• A more dificult Intermediate syllabus Tony Jones G7ETW completes his overview of the new
discourages Foundation licensees from examinations by covering the revised Advanced syllabus.
progressing.
• Everything was ine as it was.
• There is a lot of work to do in migrating to
the new syllabi.
• The new syllabus elements, primarily
Digital Signals, are not necessary.
Well, there is some truth in some of that.
But anyone would think, reading this, that
an Intermediate licence was the pinnacle
of being a radio amateur. It isn’t, and the Fig. 2: Block diagrams of 2(s) SDR receiver and
licence names make my point for me.
‘Foundation’ is the beginning and ‘Inter- Fig. 1: Exam pass statistics.
mediate’ is a waypoint on the journey to
a ‘Full’ licence, awarded for ‘Advanced’ are better prepared for the inal jump.
knowledge. In what follows I’ve used ‘Founda-
The driver for change was that too few tion’, ‘Intermediate’, ‘Advanced’ and ‘Full’
amateurs currently progress to Full. See as shorthand to mean both licence and
Fig. 1, for which I thank Steve Thomas syllabus levels. By ‘lower’ levels I mean 2(b) SDR transmitter.
M1ACB, RSGB General Manager. This Foundation and Intermediate.
shows that only about 300 new licences is human nature to ignore it.
are issued annually but in 2017 1500 Full Hurdle number 1: All that Electronics Digital Signals is important though. This
licensees died. Extrapolate this over not One of the reasons many Intermediate fusion of radio and IT technology is ev-
very long and a picture emerges in which amateurs have been put off from taking erywhere and it’s worth remembering that
Full licensees are rare, Intermediates are their Full is the large amount of electronics radio amateurs have had a lot to do with it.
uncommon and Foundation licences make in the syllabus. Nowadays, with fewer ama- In these days of internet-connected every-
up the great majority of UK radio amateurs. teurs doing signiicant construction, having thing, Joe Average sees us as dinosaurs
I mean no disrespect to Foundation and to know about electronics to component because we do not use what he would
Intermediate licensees, let me make that level is (for some) controversial but I return even regard as Technology. SDR is, in this
clear. The bands, the clubs and the hobby to my basic argument: this is an Advanced context, ‘sexy’ (not a word I ever expected
need you. But amateurs stopping before qualiication, which distances us from mere to type for PW. ‘Cute’ was the closest I got
Full has become a problem. If Full licensees users or consumers of technology. before) and it will enthuse and motivate
continue to decline in number, who will hold Table 1 details the electronics content new dare-I say-it younger amateurs.
club, special event and repeater calls? Who referenced to the old syllabus and shows At Foundation, students learn the abso-
will sign off practical sheets for courses? where it is now. As you can see, much lute basics, as recall points:
Who – to be blunt – will have the necessar- of the electronics learning has migrated • Analogue to Digital converters (ADCs).
ily deeper knowledge required to deliver the downwards. In taking their Foundation and • Digital to Analogue converters (DACs).
courses? And if those things don’t alarm Intermediate, amateurs get progressively • Special software that does all the modu-
you, consider this: how long can we expect exposed to many of what were considered lating and demodulating using maths.
HM Government to leave us alone with all Advanced technical topics. Advanced At Intermediate we get a little nearer to
those priceless chunks of spectrum and requires understanding of these points, for how things work. Students learn about:
all our other privileges if fewer and fewer sure, but I don’t think students will ind this • Sampling rates and Nyquist’s Law.
amateurs are licensed to use them? the mountain to be climbed that it once • Look-up table to generate sinewave
This is where the new Advanced syl- was. • Fourier Transform analysis (name of, as a
labus comes in − Intermediate licensees Hurdle number 2: Digital Signals recall point).
will ind it easier to progress. Not because Digital signals are, I suspect, more of an Only at Advanced do we get to the engi-
the standard has dropped (or risen), please issue for teachers than students. We all neering realities of digital signal processing:
note – it hasn’t – but because the new syl- have our favourite activities in the hobby, • I and Q components.
labus structure will produce students who and if something ‘new’ falls outside that, it • Image frequencies and ilters.

16 Practical Wireless April 2019

• Undersampling.
• Fourier Transform analysis – what it does
(but still a recall point).
• Distortion caused by sampling above Wire with 1A flowing
Nyquist rate.
6,242,000,000,000,000,000
See Figs. 2a and 2b for SDR block dia-
electrons per second
grams. These are the same ones I used for
the Intermediate article – I have not seen ...and if I drill a hole...
any of the ‘oficial’ ones yet.
I will be writing a from-irst-principles
article on this but looking at these teaching
points, all I see is some new names and
related facts for students to remember, and
some simple maths. There is bound to be
someone in your club for whom this is their
bread and butter so why not bring them
into the teaching team just for these items?

Hurdle 3: The Maths

A lot of people ind any maths dificult,
never mind technical maths using scientiic
notation. On Foundation courses I have Fig. 3: A Coulomb is a measure of electrical charge (quantity).
met people unsure of the meaning of multi-
plication and division, which makes teach-
ing the Ohm’s Law and Power triangles
dificult! Understanding units, for example Mains in DC
Inverter output
that 1mA is one thousandth of an Amp, Input rectification Output Output rectification
also written as 0.001A, is a lot to handle for and filtering transformer and filtering
some students.
It’s the same at Intermediate but fortu-
nately there was (and still is) no extra maths
to speak of. Being ‘hopeless at maths’ has
never been a barrier to the lower levels,
because the radio fundamentals such as Voltage and
frequency and wavelength, and resonant current control
frequency and capacitance and induc-
tance, are taught graphically. Fig. 4: Block diagram of typical switch-mode power supply.
At Full, some mathematical skill is es-
sential and nothing can be or has been negative, the whole licence (supplied in the Coulomb of electrical charge (symbol Q,
done about that. It’s Advanced radio, as I exam) was examinable. This is still true – unit C) is lowing per second everywhere. I
said, and students cannot guess the an- any question could have its root anywhere remember a physics teacher illustrating this
swers to those questions and safely pass. in the licence, not just in Section 1. by drawing a wire and a bucket, Fig. 3. I
I think we should ask students what their 1A5 – Circumstances under which an ama- never forgot it (evidently!).
highest qualiication in maths is, looking teur must transmit a callsign on air. (Same Students meet the Ampere early in their
for GCSE Grade C or above as an absolute as Foundation). Foundation, as a fundamental ‘thing’. Add-
minimum. If necessary, we can put on re- 1C1 – Rules regarding encrypted trans- ing the Coulomb allows current and capaci-
medial sessions. And if club teachers don’t missions (not allowed at lower levels). tance to be seen as to do with electrical
have good enough maths (to teach Full) – 1D4 – This contains a need to have charge quantiiably. The Volt could have
well it’s never too late to learn! equipment for ‘the reception of messages been further deined as well, as the Joule
Computer maths is no help by the way. on all frequencies and modes in use for per Coulomb, but this was not done. This
In IT we have giga-things (and micro-pro- transmissions.’ I think this must mean our is a pity – it would have allowed Potential
cessors) but we never process numbers in transmissions – i.e. we must be able to re- Difference to be properly explained in terms
units of less than one. That’s Binary for you. ceive messages akin to those we transmit. of energy and work.
2H2 – Crystals. Crystals, called ‘me-
Selected New Syllabus Points to Note Section 2: Technical Aspects chanical resonators’ at Intermediate but in-
Section 1: Licensing Conditions 2A1 − Effect of component tolerances (Tol- troduced at Foundation, are manufactured
The old syllabus says (Section 1a) ‘Licence erances feature at the lower levels). for series or parallel use, and the stability of
clause numbers below are for ease of 2D1 – Introduction of the Coulomb. The their applications – chiely oscillators and
reference and do not necessarily indicate Coulomb is the scientiic unit of electri- ilters − will suffer if they are not used as
that the clauses not quoted are outside the cal charge. Students need to know that intended.
scope of the syllabus’. Decoding this triple a current of 1A in a circuit means that 1 2H6 – Understand feedback in an oscil-

April 2019 Practical Wireless 17

 Feature

lator. This is a recall point at Intermediate.

2J4 – Switch-Mode Power Supply func-
tions. Students are required to understand
the basic workings of a switch-mode power
supply and to know the elements of a block
diagram, Fig. 4. With so many switch-mode
power supplies in use nowadays, this is a
very useful inclusion.

Section 3: Transmitters and Receivers

3A2 – Modulation Index. This was intro-
duced, but not by name, back at Founda-
tion. At Full, students must understand how Transmitter
this affects sidebands. site
3G1 – Students must understand that
overdriving an RF PA leads to excessive
bandwidth. This is irst encountered at
Foundation. Fig. 5: NVIS (Near Vertical Incidence Skywave) propagation.
3H3 – Intermodulation distortion.
Intermodulation distortion is introduced.
Overdriving a receiver leads to this undesir-
able effect and reduces the ability to isolate
weak signals, students learn. Dynamic
range is also deined, measured in decibels Moon
(dB).

Section 4: Feeders and Antennas

There was no change in this section other
than being renumbered.

Section 5: Propagation
5B2 – Critical frequency. At Intermediate
we had MUF and LUF, but Full students
240,000miles

must recall the ‘critical’ frequency and its

effects.
5B3 – NVIS propagation. Near-Vertical
Incident Skywave is a method of HF Only a tiny
communication used by the military (and signal gets back
Earth
)
(CW

RAYNET). Unlike DX, for which we want

a very low angle of take-off, NVIS uses a
000W

very high one with a frequency below the

10-1

LUF – usually 5MHz or lower. Think of an

umbrella above with RF going up and being
relected almost back on itself. This gives
reliable communication over a few hundred
square miles with the terrain having little
effect. The transmitting antenna needs to
be horizontally polarised (i.e. transmitting
upwards – think of a dipole) and very close
to the ground, Fig. 5. Fig. 6: Moonbounce propagation.
5C3 – Earth-Moon-Earth Propagation,
otherwise called Moonbounce. This relies ber this from 1989! This is extra-terrestrial learn that installing a piece of equipment
on using the Moon as a relector for VHF. QRN. badly can reduce immunity.
Because the path loss is very high, and the 5D2 – Link Budget factors. Link Budget 6A4 – Imported or home-brewed
Moon is not a good relector of RF, a high- factors are transmitter power, feeder loss, equipment may not pass relevant EMC
power VHF transmitter (ask students why antenna gain and path loss (which incorpo- standards but radio amateurs’ homebrew
it can’t be HF), a high gain antenna, and a rates spreader and obstruction loss). What kit is not required to. Provided we adhere
low noise receiver are required. This is likely this has to do with amateur radio beats me. to our licence, we are acting lawfully. This
to be one of those ‘what of the following is Section 6: EMC is important to know if a ‘situation’ should
not required’ questions, Fig. 6. 6A2 – Immunity at Full has a factor besides arise with a disgruntled neighbour!
5D1 – Galactic noise. I do not remem- the RF and the equipment itself. Students 6B1 carries on from 6A4. Cordless

18 Practical Wireless April 2019

 is not permitted so this is a likely topic for
questions.

Section 8: Safety
8F4 – This teaches that mains electricity in
other countries may be of different voltages
and frequencies. Wikipedia lists no coun-
tries with mains voltages greater than ours
(well, a few still have 240V) or frequencies
greater than 60Hz, so it is hard to imagine,
as the syllabus says, that connecting UK
appliances abroad could be ‘hazardous’.
But it is possible, I suppose.
8F6 − Risk Assessments, first met at
Foundation, are revisited. Students must
understand how to identify hazards but
only to recall the nature and severity of
harm they may hold. Given the litigious
nature of modern life, and that this is Ad-
vanced, I would have expected the whole
Fig. 7: Output of a signal generator being displayed on an oscilloscope. thing to be an ‘understand’ requirement.
8F7 – Mains Generator safety. Having
phones and some IT products, confus- bandplans, which are on 50MHz and once had to prevent a teenage boy refuel-
ingly, may generate some interference but 472kHz (not the same bands as the sched- ling a petrol generator (and spilling some!)
this is ‘satisfactory’, the syllabus says! And ule questions). These may not be the real while it was running, I was pleased to see
imported toys may not be compliant with bandplans but few students are likely to this covered.
relevant regulations. I have no idea what have experience on LF so there should be
this means in practice. no confusion there! Section 9: Measurements and
6F1 – Mobile Installations. The ‘Federa- 7B2 – Students need to recall that Construction
tion of Commercial Services UK Code of foreign bandplans can be different to ours 9A4 – Signal Generator basics. This section
Practice for use of radio and other ancillary – for example, the US 40m band goes to concerns the use of signal generators.
equipment’ – who could forget that? – is 7.3MHz. This is actually quite serious, since Students learn, for example, that not all
named as the standard for installing radio operating using the wrong mode but in (UK) systems have 50Ω impedance, and this
equipment in motor vehicles. This phrase band is inconsiderate, and to be avoided, could make a big difference when connect-
is one to simply recognise as the correct but operating (any mode) out of band is ing kit up or making measurements.
answer in EMC questions. an offence, and any Full licensee should 9A9 – Spectrum Analysers. There is
certainly know better. an Intermediate practical that requires
Section 7: Operating Procedures 7H1 – Special Event Calls. Students students to recognise a signal’s funda-
7B1 – Use of bandplans. Students must should know the process for applying for a mental and harmonics using a receiver
identify various items on the supplied Special Event call. At the lower levels this or a Spectrum Analyser. At Full, students
must be able to ‘identify’ these things,
presumably from a Spectrum Analyser
3a Potential Difference and EMF Intermediate
image. These tie in very well. See Fig.
3b Resistance (series and parallel) Foundation and Intermediate
7 for an example of a signal generator
3c Power in DC circuits Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced (section 2B)
feeding a spectrum analyser. This shows
3d Potential Dividers Intermediate
a 500kHz signal.
3e Capacitance Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced (section 2D)
3f Inductance Intermediate and Advanced (section 2D)
3g AC circuits Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced (section 2E) Conclusion
3h Didn’t exist When the new syllabi are operational, clubs
3i Tuned Circuits Advanced (section 2H). Q introduced at Intermediate will – I hope and believe − be turning out
3j Transformers Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced (section 2G) greater numbers of more knowledgeable
3k Filters Intermediate radio amateurs. By the time students get to
3l Screening Intermediate Intermediate they will be closer to Full than
3mTemperature effects Intermediate (including practical exercise) before and more of them will see this and
3n Semiconductor Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced want to progress.
Depletion layer (‘holes and electrons’) NOW REMOVED Please, take a new look at the Advanced
Thermionic Valves NOW REMOVED syllabus. Don’t be put off by it! Can you find
3o Decibels Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced a way, either by formal teaching or tutorial
3p Mains Power supplies Intermediate (but Switch Mode PSUs added) sessions, or by doing something online, or
by acting as mentors, to support Intermedi-
Table 1: Summary of changes between Licence levels. ates in that final step?

April 2019 Practical Wireless 19

 Sales line 01908 281705
E-mail [email protected]
Postage (UK Mainland Only): Small items just £2.99Follow
Medium items just £4.99 Maximum charge just £8.99 us on

Radio Communication Manufacturer & Reseller www.moonraker.eu

Moonraker UK Limited, Cranfield Road, Woburn Sands, Bucks MK17 8UR Open Monday-Friday 9:00-5:30pm
2 year
warranty
Power Supplies on all QrJE
powe
Amplifiers
PS30SWIII 30A peak switching power
supply provides 13.8 VDC at 20 Amps
supplies
The BLA 600 is a wideband Antenna Tuners continuous, 30 Amps surge. The output
compact linear amplifier for the HF See our website for full details. voltage is adjustable from 9 to 15 VDC.
bands and 6m, from 1.8 to 54 MHz Automatic Tuners Red and black terminals on are the rear
Using Freescale MRFE6VP5600, MFJ-926B remote Mobile ATU 1.6-30MHz 200W.................................. £329.95 panel (30A)
Output 500W. Dual MCU Control, Fast SPECIAL OFFER £79.95 £69.95
MFJ-929 Compact with Random Wire Option 1.8-30MHz 200W .......... £249.95
PIN Diode RX-TX TX-RX switching
MFJ-991B 1.8-30MHz 150W SSB/100W CW ATU ................................. £249.95
enables QSK operation, 2x16 LCD Display for Amplifier Status, Separate PS30SWIV switching power supply
LED displays for power and antenna VSWR, Input drive from 1W to maxi- MFJ-993B 1.8-30MHz 300W SSB/150W CW ATU ................................. £299.95
MFJ-994B 1.8-30MHz 600W SSB/300W CW ATU ................................. £399.95 provides 13.8 VDC at 20 Amps continu-
mum of 40W, 3 user configurable Antenna Output connectors, Dual large ous, 30 Amps surge. The LCD digital
diameter MCU controlled, multispeed cooling fans for efficient cooling MFJ-998 1.8-30MHz 1.5kW ................................................................... £769.95
panel meter simultaneously displays
.................................................................................................£1999.95 voltage and current. There is a Noise
BLA350 1.5-30MHz 300w mains Manual Tuners Off-Set control that can be adjusted to
powered solid state amplifier MFJ-16010 1.8-30MHz 20W random wire tuner .....................................£79.95 eliminate pulse noise from the power
.............................................£699.95 MFJ-902B 3.5-30MHz 150W mini travel tuner ...................................... £124.95 supply.
HLA305V 1.8-30MHz 250W MFJ-902H 3.5-30MHz 150W mini travel tuner with 4:1 balun.............. £134.95 SPECIAL OFFER £79.95 £69.95
professional amplifier with LCD..£649.95 £649.95 MFJ-904 3.5-30MHz 150W mini travel tuner with SWR/PWR ............... £144.95
HLA300V+ 1.8-30MHz 300W all mode PS30SWII 25A continuous switch
MFJ-904H 3.5-30MHz 150W mini travel tuner with SWR/PWR 4:1 balun........£169.95
amplifier with fans ................£499.95 mode PSU with variable output voltage
MFJ-901B 1.8-30MHz 200W Versa tuner .............................................. £109.95
HLA150V+ 1.8-30MHz 150W all mode and cigar socket also includes noise
amplifier with fans ......................................................................£399.95 MFJ-971 1.8-30MHz 300W portable tuner ............................................ £139.95
offset function
LA250V 140-150MHz 200W professional amplifier with LCD .....£549.95 MFJ-945E 1.8-54MHz 300W tuner with meter...................................... £149.95
SPECIAL OFFER £99.95 £89.95
ULA100 420-440MHz 100W compact linear for 70cms ..............£449.95 MFJ-941E 1.8-30MHz 300W Versa tuner 2 ........................................... £164.95
MFJ-948 1.8-30MHz 300W deluxe Versa tuner ..................................... £189.95 QJ1830SB 30 AMP Linear PSU,
MFJ-949E 1.8-30MHz 300W deluxe Versa tuner with DL ..................... £209.95 no noise issues with the great old school
MFJ-934 1.8-30MHz 300W tuner complete with artificial GND ............ £229.95 power supply unit, nice digital display and
MFJ-974B 3.6-54MHz 300W tuner with X-needle SWR/WATT ............. £229.95 heavy as you like, so you feel like you
MFJ-969 1.8-54MHz 300W all band tuner............................................. £249.95 bought something and on offer this month.
MFJ-962D 1.8-30MHz 1500W high power tuner................................... £349.95 SPECIAL OFFER £129.95 £119.95
Tuners MFJ-986 1.8-30MHz 300W high power differential tuner ..................... £399.95
QJE QJPS30II 30 AMP Switch Mode
LDG Z-817 1.8-54MHz ideal for the Yaesu FT-817 ...................... £129.95 MFJ-989D 1.8-30MHz 1500W high power roller tuner ......................... £439.95
LDG Z-100 Plus 1.8-54MHz the most popular LDG tuner............ £159.95 Power Supply Unit
MFJ-976 1.8-30MHz 1500W balanced line tuner with
LDG IT-100 1.8-54MHz ideal for IC-7000 .................................... £159.95 Includes noise offset control to elimi-
X-Needle SWR/WATT ................................................................................ £549.95
LDG Z-11 Pro 1.8-54MHz great portable tuner ........................... £179.95 nate the pulse noise of the switching
LDG KT-100 1.8-54MHz ideal for most Kenwood radios .............. £199.95 circuit. This patent pending function is
LDG AT-100 Pro II 1.8-54MHz .................................................... £239.95 Analysers specially designed for communica-
LDG AT-200 Pro II 1.8-54MHz .................................................... £269.95 MFJ-259C 530 KHz to 230MHz ....................... £329.95 tion equipment use. Its effectiveness
LDG AT-1000 Pro II 1.8-54MHz continuously ............................. £519.95 World’s most popular SWR analyser is super easy-to- may vary depending on the frequency
LDG AT-600 Pro II 1.8-54MHz with up to 600W SSB .................. £384.95 and mode.
use. It gives you a complete picture of your antenna’s
LDG YT-1200 1.8-54MHz 100W for FT-450D, FT-DX1200 & FT-DX3000.....£244.95 SPECIAL OFFER £79.95 £69.95
LDG YT-100 ideal for your Yaesu FT-857D .......................................................£199.95 performance. You can read your antenna’s SWR and
LDG RT-600 1.8-54MHz 5-600W external ATU ....................................................£439.95 Complex Impedance 530 KHz to 230 MHz continuously QJE QJPS50II 50 AMP Switch Mode Power Supply Unit
LDG RBA-1 Balun 1:1 high quality .............................................................................£34.99 with no gaps. Same as above but in a 50amp version
LDG RBA-4 Balun 4:1 high quality .............................................................................£34.99 SPECIAL OFFER £129.95 £119.95

Official Distributers

INRICO T320 4G/WIFI Network Handheld Radio .................................. £229.99 £169.99 SenHaiX SPTT-N60 3G Network
This radio is cellular so works like a walkie talkie but uses the cellular network as a repeater! Mobile Radio ...................£249.95
This means hand held to hand held or handheld to mobile comms around the world. SenHaiX SPTT-N60 is a 3G network an-
Companies like ID offer a suitable sim with EU roaming from £3.99 a month or if you are in the droid mobile radio with wifi, bluetooth,
UK Freedompop is available otherwise you can use it on Wifi Using Apps like Zello & Teamspeak zello, sos, phone function, gps function,
you can talk privately for just the cost of your sim! with touch screen and large LCD.
Key Features: Intelligent Global Intercom ■ More than 80 Hours standby time ■ Dual chamber Key Features: 100% Compatible with
speaker to give Enhanced audio ■ GPS built in ■ Micro 5 pin data line ■ Supports MP3 & MP4 PTT4U and Zello ■ Palm Size Mini
■ 2.4 inch High Quality Screen ■ Extended memory up to 32GB ■ Waterproof IP54 Mobile Radio ■ Support 3G:WCDMA
2G:GSM network ■ Support Group
Call, Single Call, Intelligent selective call ■ 180 Degrees Rotatable Screen ■ LCD Display ■ GPS Built in
INRICO T199 Network Handheld Radio ................................................£109.99 £99.95 ■ 50ohm 1W loudspeaker ■ Mobile Phone Call /SMS function ■ Requires a 13.8V Power Supply
The Inrico T199 network radio transceiver is a hand held portable ‘screenless’ network radio 4G Version ......................................................................................................................£299.95
device with programmable rotary channel selection knob, side mounted PTT button, two pro-
grammable function buttons, ‘dual port socket’ for external speaker-mic or separate external
headphone & mic. The external GSM/3G antenna works well but can be replaced with a high gain
antenna to extend operating range.

INRICO TM-7PLUS 4G/WIFI Network BOXCHIP S700B 4G/WIFI

Mobile Radio .............................£159.95 Network handheld Radio ........................................ £369.95
The Inrico TM-7plus is the first 4G mobile net- Boxchip S700B is an advanced professional handheld 4G LTE radio.
work Radio. Great for amateur radio use with All-round means of communication, real-time control for the industry
the new IRN platform, for Zello, Team Speak 3 customers to bring a strong business ability, stable and reliable real
and Echolink via 3G or WiFi. And it works as time communication response, and more excellent integration expe-
WiFi hotspot too! rience is the best communications partners for industry customers!

Join our new loyalty programme

and start earning WATTS now
now!
All registered retail customers can now earn and redeem free product credits known as WATTS.
It’s simple the more you spend the more WATTS you receive. You will also receive bonus WATTS
when you refer a ‘New Customer’, ‘Write a Product Review’, ‘Share’ a product’ or ‘Refer a Friend’
Don’t miss out – Register now and start enjoying free WATTS
 Mobile Antenna Mounts
Yagi Antennas TRIMAG-S Triple magnetic mount with SO239 antenna fitting with 4m GRP Fibreglass Base Antennas
All Yagis have high quality gamma match fittings RG58 and PL259 fitted – ideal for those larger antennas ........just £39.95 Diamond quality –
with stainless steel fixings! (excluding YG4-2C) TURBO-S single 170mm magnetic mount with SO239 antenna fitting with Moonraker pricing
4m RG58 and PL259 fitted – will suit most antennas upto 5ft. .......£19.95
YG27-35 Dual band 3/5 element 3.5/12.5 dBd gain with Diamond quality – Moonraker prices ! These
HKITHD-SO Heavy duty hatch back mount with SO239 antenna fitting
one feed! .................................................................................... £79.95 high gain antennas have been pre-tuned for your
with 4m RG58 and PL259 fitted .....................................................£32.95
YG4-2C 2 metre 4 Element (Boom 48”) (Gain 7dBd) ................... £29.95 convenience, easy to use, easy to install, and a
HKITM-S Mini hatch back mount with SO239 antenna fitting with 4m
YG5-2 2 metre 5 Element (Boom 63”) (Gain 10dBd) ................... £69.95 choice of connection … look no further
RG58 and PL259 fitted ...................................................................£32.95
YG8-2 2 metre 8 Element (Boom 125”) (Gain 12dBd) ................. £99.95
SQBM100P 2/70cm 3.00/6.00dBd, RX 25-2000MHz,
YG3-4 4 metre 3 Element (Boom 45”) (Gain 8dBd) ..................... £79.95
YG5-4 4 metre 5 Element (Boom 104”) (Gain 10dBd) ................. £99.95 Length 100cm SO239. ........................................................
YG3-6 6 metre 3 Element (Boom 72”) (Gain 7.5dBd) .................. £99.95 ............................................£49.95 special offer £39.95
YG5-6 6 metre 5 Element (Boom 142”) (Gain 9.5dBd) .............. £119.95 SQBM200P 2/70cm, Gain 4.5/7.5dBd, RX 25-2000MHz,
Length 155cm, SO239 .................................£54.95 special offer £44.95
SQBM500P 2/70cm, Gain 6.8/9.2dBd, RX 25-2000MHz,
ZL Special Yagi Antennas Length 250cm, SO239 .................................£74.95 special offer £69.95
The ZL special gives you a massive gain for the smallest boom
SQBM1000P 6/2/70cm, Gain 3.0/6.2/8.4dBd, RX 25-2000MHz,
length … no wonder they are our best selling Yagis!
ZL5-2 2 Metre 5 Ele, Boom 95cm, Gain 9.5dBd ......................... £69.95 Multiband Mobile Length 250cm, SO239 ................................................................... £84.95
ZL7-2 2 Metre 7 Ele, Boom 150cm, Gain 11.5dBd .................... £79.95 Why buy loads of different antennas when Moonraker SQBM223N 2/70/23cm, Gain 4.5/7.5/12.5dBd, RX 25-2000MHz,
ZL7-70 70cm 7 Ele, Boom 70cm, Gain 11.5dBd ........................ £49.95 has one to cover all! SPX series has a unique fly lead and Length 155cm, N-Type .................................................................. £79.95
ZL12-70 70cm 12 Ele, Boom 120cm, Gain 14dBd .................... £59.95 socket for quick band changing SQBM4010P Quadband 10/4/2/70cm Gain 2.5/3.2/3.6/5.5dBi
SPX-100 9 Band plug n’ go portable, Length 120cm...............................................................................£69.95
6/10/12/15/17/20/30/40/80m, Length 165cm retracted just
SQBM6010P Quadband 10/6/2/70cm Gain 2.5/3.0/3.6/5.5dBi
HB9CV 0.5m, Power 50W complete with 38th PL259 or BNC fitting to
Length 120cm...............................................................................£69.95
Brilliant 2 element beams … suit all applications, mobile portable or base - brilliant!
ideal for portable use ..............................................................................£44.95 SQBM4060P Quadband 6/4/2/70 Gain: 2.5/3.0/3.6/5.5dbi Length 120cm
SPX-200S 6 Band plug n’ go mobile, 6/10/15/20/40/80m, ...................................................................................................... £69.95
HB9-2 ........................................................................................ £34.95
Length 130cm, Power 120W, PL259 fitting.................................... £44.95
HB9-4 ........................................................................................ £49.95
SPX-300S 9 Band plug n’ go mobile, 6/10/12/15/17/20/30/40/80m,
HB9-6 ........................................................................................ £59.95
Length 165cm, High Power 200W,PL259 fitting ............................ £59.95

Halo Loops
Our most popular compact antennas, great HF Wire Antennas
base, mobile, portable, or wherever!
All our HF wire antennas are made with complete waterproof potted
HLP-4 4 mtr (size approx 600mm square ) ................................ £44. 95 baluns and high quality “original” flexweave antenna wire.
HLP-6 6 mtr (size approx 800mm square) .................................. £49.95 VHF/UHF Mobiles MDHF-80 3.5MHz balun matched mono dipole, length 40m ..........£59.95
GF151 Glass Mount 2/70cm, Gain 2.9/4.3dBd, Length 78cm complete
with 4m cable and PL259 .............................................................. £29.95 MDHF-40 7.0MHz balun matched mono dipole, length 20m ..........£44.95
MRM-100 MICRO MAG 2/70cm, Gain 0.5/3.0dBd, Length 55cm, 1” MDHF-20 14MHz balun matched mono dipole, length 10m ...........£39.95
magnetic base with 4m coax and BNC .......................................... £19.95 OSHF-80 3.5-30MHz balun matched off set dipole, length 40m ....£59.95
MR700 2/70cm, Gain 0/3.0dBd, Length 50cm, 3/8 fitting................ £9.95 OSHF-40 7.0-30MHz balun matched off set dipole, length 22m ......£44.95
MR777 2/70cm, Gain 2.8/4.8dBd, Length 150cm,
OSHF-20 14-30MHz balun matched off set dipole, length 11m .......£39.95
QRP Antennas 3/8 fitting....................................................................................... £19.95
MRQ525 2/70cm, Gain 0.5/3.2dBd, Length 43cm, PL259 fitting LWHF-160 1.8-50MHz unun match end fed antenna, length 42m ...£49.95
The Moonraker Whizz range are great for getting on HF in a neat
compact and totally portable way (high quality) .................................................................................. £19.95 LWHF-80 3.5-50MHz unun match end fed antenna, length 20m ...£44.95
MRQ500 2/70cm, Gain 3.2/5.8dBd, Length 95cm, PL259 fitting LWHF-40 7.0-50MHz unun match end fed antenna, length 10m ...£39.95
Whizz Whip HF/VHF/UHF portable antenna with telescopic (high quality) .................................................................................. £26.95
whip - ideal for any situation where a long wore or vertical MRQ750 2/70cm, Gain 5.5/8.0dBd, Length 150cm, PL259 fitting
(high quality) .................................................................................. £36.95 Get great results with the Moonraker range
antenna is just not an option - get on air today for just £99.95 of HF mobiles! From as little as £22.95!
MRQ800 6/2/70cm Gain 3.0dBi/5.0/7.5dBdBd, Length 150cm, PL259
Whizz Loop 20-60m compact loop is fitting (high quality) ....................................................................... .£39.95 HF Mobiles
ideal for QRP Transceivers when space is MRQ273 2/70/23cm Gain 3.5/5.5/7.5dBdBd, Length 85cm, PL259 fitting
limited or using portable with a Yaesu FT- (high quality) .................................................................................. £49.95
817ND or similar. Can be used indoors with MRQ900 10/6/2/70cm Gain 10m (2.15dB) 6m(2.5dB) 2m (2.8dB) 70cm
surprising results and handy for travelling (5.5dB) Length: 125cm PL259 fitting ............................................ £49.95 AMPRO-10 Slim line design 28MHz 2m approx. 3/8th fitting........£22.95
due to its “pocket” size antenna ideal for AMPRO-11 Slim line design 27MHz 2m approx. 3/8th fitting........£22.95
indoor or out and can be packed away and AMPRO-12 Slim line design 24MHz 2m approx. 3/8th fitting........£22.95
all for just £69.95 AMPRO-15 Slim line design 21MHz 2m approx. 3/8th fitting........£22.95
AMPRO-17 Slim line design 18MHz 2m approx. 3/8th fitting........£22.95
Whizz Loop V2 (right) same as above AMPRO-20 Slim line design 14MHz 2m approx. 3/8th fitting........£22.95
AMPRO-30 Slim line design 10MHz 2m approx. 3/8th fitting........£22.95
but with a frequency range from 40- Coax Switches AMPRO-40 Slim line design 7MHz 2m approx. 3/8th fitting..........£22.95
10m.............................£79.95 CS201 2 Way Switch 3 X SO239, 2500W 1-1000MHz .
AMPRO-60 Slim line design 5MHz 2m approx. 3/8th fitting..........£24.95
........................................................................ £19.95
AMPRO-80 Slim line design 3.5MHz 2m approx. 3/8th fitting.......£27.95
CS201N 2 Way Switch 3 X N-Type, 2500W
1-1000MHz ..................................................... £24.95 AMPRO-160 Slim line design 1.8MHz 2m approx. 3/8th fitting.....£59.95
Other frequencies available. Call or see online for more details.
Base Antennas Lightning Arrestors
Simple plug and play HF antennas radial free and at ST-1 SO239 to PL259 adapter with earth wire
a great price connection ..........................................................£4.95
CDX-1 Lightning Arrestor 2 X SO239 sockets 400W ....
GP2500 All Band 80-6M Vertical TX 80-6M RX 2-90MHz, ........................................................................ £19.99 Baluns & Ununs
Power 250W Length 7.13M .............................. £199.95 High quality TX, RX baluns, and Ununs all fully potted and
GPA-80 budget version of GP2500 80-6M Dummy Loads weather protected with SO239 socket
Length 6.0M ...................................................... £99.95 DL-15 PL259 DC-800MHz 15W CW 20W 50 Ohms
........................................................................ £24.95 MB-1 1-30MHz 1:1 Current Balun 400W 50 Ohms ........................£29.95
DL-15N N-Type DC-800MHz 15W CW 20W 50 Ohms MB-4 1-30MHz 4:1 Current Balun 400W 50 Ohms ........................£29.95
........................................................................ £29.95 MB-6 1-30MHz 6:1 Current Balun 400W 50 Ohms ........................£29.95
MB-1X 1-30MHz 1:1 Current Balun 1000W 50 Ohms ....................£39.95
Portable HF Kits SWR Meters MB-4X 1-30MHz 4:1 Current Balun 1000W 50 Ohms ....................£39.95
SWR-100 Frequency 26-30MHz 100W 50 MB-6X 1-30MHz 6:1 Current Balun 1000W 50 Ohms ....................£39.95
Great dual band kits for portable use, MU-9 1-50MHz 9:1 Unun 500W 50 Ohms .....................................£29.95
two compact dipoles on an upto 14ft Ohms............................................................... £16.95
SWR-270 Frequency 120-500MHz 100W 50 Ohms LWB-1 0-40MHz Receive only 50 Ohms ........................................£24.95
mast just requires coax
........................................................................ £29.95
PK1217 HF Kit for 12/17M ..... £149.95
PK1520 HF Kit for 15/20M ..... £149.95 Ferrites
PK3060 HF Kit for 30/60M .... £154.95 High quality ferrites to suit all the popular cables
PK4080 HF Kit for 40/80M ..... £159.95 FCS-S to suit 6mm cable such as RG58 ............£1.95
(please note each kit requires two feeds) FCS-M to suit 7mm cable such as MINI8 ...........£2.95
FCS-L to suit 9mm cable such as RG213.......... £3.95

OPEN M
COME AND VISIT US FOR A BROWSE, FRIENDLY IMPARTIAL ADVICE AND EXTRA INSTORE DISCOUNTS 9:00AM-5:30P
MON-F RI

The largest stockist of Amateur,

Scanner, CB and Hobby Radio
products for 60 miles around.
Plenty of parking and easy
access from the M1 –
come for a visit soon.
 Sales line 01908 281705
E-mail [email protected]
Postage (UK Mainland Only): Small items just £2.99Follow
Medium items just £4.99 Maximum charge just £8.99 us on

Radio Communication Manufacturer & Reseller www.moonraker.eu

Moonraker UK Limited, Cranfield Road, Woburn Sands, Bucks MK17 8UR Open Monday-
DMR Dual Band
Transceiver
Base Dual Band DMR has arrived with twice the fun with the
FT-DX3000 HF/50MHz 100W Transceiver .........................£1449.00 Now £1299.00 MOONRAKER HT-500D Dual Band DMR Digital & Analogue
FT-DX1200 HF/50MHz 100W Transceiver ............................. £929.00 Now £919.00 hand held Radio! Base
FT-991A HF/50/144/430 MHz All mode field transceiver ..£1199.00 Now £1150.00 The HT-500D takes the experience of DMR to a new level
FT-450D HF/50MHz entry level transceiver .................................................... £599.99 with features designed for the amateur radio user.
Now just £199.99 £150.00!
Mobile/Portable
FT-857D HF/VHF/UHF 160-70cm 100W SSB/AM/CW/FM Transceiver ........... £699.95
FT-891 HF/50MHz 160-6m 100W all mode transceiver................................. £589.00
MT-270M
FT-818 HF/VHF/UHF 160-70cm 5W backpack transceiver ............................ £574.99 Dual band mobile transceiver IC-7610 HF/50MHz SDR base transceiver .....................................£3499.95
136-174/400-450MHz 25W Following on from the technology incorporated into the IC-7300, the IC-7610
FTM-400XDE Dual band 2/70cm digital mobile transceiver . £479.00 Now £379.00
Amazing value £79.95! adopts the same RF direct sampling system for signal processing. By converting
FTM-100DE Dual band 2/70cm digital mobile transceiver ............................ £299.00 the analogue signal directly to a digital signal and processing it within the FPGA
FT-8900 Quad band 10/6/2/70cm mobile transceiver ................................... £269.00 (Field Programmable Gate Array), it provides improved transmission phase noise
FT-7900 Dual band 2/70cm mobile transceiver ............................................. £249.00 and excellent RMDR of 105 dB (at 1 kHz detuning).
MT-SC Software cable ..................................................................................£9.95
FTM-3200DE 2m digital mobile transceiver................................................... £179.00 MT-DC Cigarette lighter and power cable .....................................................£9.95 FREE SP38
FT-2980E 2m FM 80W mobile transceiver..................................................... £149.00 MT-RM Replacement microphone ............................................................. £12.95 speaker
worth
FTM-3100DE 2m analogue transceiver ................................ £129.00 Now £124.99 £149.00
Handheld
FT-2DE Digital dual band 2/70cm handheld transceiver........ £379.00 Now £299.00
FT-70DE Digital dual band 2/70cm handheld transceiver ..... £189.00 Now £159.00
VX-6E Dual band 2/70cm handheld transceiver .................... £189.00 Now £150.00 Ronald
FT-65E Dual band 2/70cm entry level handheld transceiver .............................£89.95 10/12m mobile transceiver
AM/FM 50W+ PEP
FT-25E Single band 2m band transceiver..........................................................£69.00
Amazing value £169.95! IC-7300 HF/50/70MHz base transceiver .......................................£1199.00
‘NEW’ FT-4X Dual band FM handie great value .......................................£62.95 The IC-7300 is a revolutionary compact radio that will excite HF operators from
Lincoln II Plus 10/12m mobile transceiver AM/FM/LSB/USB/CW 35W ... £239.95 beginners to experts. This new model has a high-performance real-time spectrum
New scope and employs a new RF direct sampling system.
GPS
Version Mobile

AT-D868UV
VHF/UHF DMR Handheld
Now you can go digital on the road with the TYT MD-9600GPS
Digital Mobile Two-Way Radio! The MD-9600 gives you crystal clear, £139.95
noise-free audio of over-the-air digital communications in your vehicle, full The AnyTone D868UV radio was
analogue transceiver capabilities, and bundles it all together at a price you can developed to conform to the DMR
afford!. ............................................... .........................................£299.95 Tier I and II requirements. The radio IC-2730E Dual band mobile transceiver ................................................. £289.00
offers 4,000 Channels, 10,000 Digital This stunning new dual band mobile transceiver features a large high-contrast LCD
Talk Groups with 150,000 Contacts. screen with backlight, V/V and U/U simultaneous receive capability and optional
The large colour display offers clear Bluetooth® connectivity for hands-free and remote control communications.
information about the radio operation
AT-D878UV and function, including displaying
who you are connected to. The
DMR & Analogue powerful transmitter is very reliable VV-898 £59.95
Handheld Transceiver and offers up to 7 Watts of power for Dual Band 136-174/400-470MHz 10W mobile transceiver
a hand-held. VV-898S Dual Band 136-174/400-470MHz 25W mobile transceiver....... £69.95
£199.99 The Anytone AT-D868UV has been VV-898SP Dual Band 136-174/400-470MHz 25W mobile backpack transceiver,
The AnyTone D878UV radio is a VHF designed for radio amateurs and has this mobile backpack transceiver you can take virtually anywhere you need it!
and UHF radio with both Digital DMR the ability to take the radio outside Leixen combined their micro-compact, 25 watt Dual Band UHF/VHF Mobile Radio
(Tier I and II) and Analog capabilities. All of the code plug in VFO mode (Single with a powerful 12A Li-ion rechargeable battery and put it all in a sturdy chassis
button press) So it is a dual band you can fit in your pack or emergency bag for use anytime, anywhere! .. £149.95
the features of the excellent Anytone
868 with the addition of Roaming &
Analogue APRS support (Includes GPS
Hand held with DMR rather than a
DMR radio with a dual band handy!
£139.95 VV-8SC software and cable for all Leixen transceivers

as standard) Offering a total of 4,000

channels (Analog and Digital), 10,000
Digital Talk Groups, and up to 150,000 New version of this ever popular handie - and now with
contacts, as well as multiple DMR ID a 4.5W on 2m - Comes complete with desktop charger,
numbers (Radio ID’s) for a single radio. antenna, belt clip & high power 1800mAh battery and
This enables Moonraker to supply it now with FREE earpiece all for less than £30!
pre-programmed with all UK DMR and
UV-5RC+ Dual band 136-174/400-480MHz
£199.99 analogue vhf/uhf repeaters Supplied
with a 3100 mAh battery the radio will
give a good working days performance.
4.5W handheld transceiver ............................ £29.95
BL-5 Replacement 1800mAh battery ........... £12.95
UV-5SM Fist speaker microphone ...................£9.95
Includes: • Latest Moonraker Code Plug • Antenna • Charger UV-5BE Battery eliminator ...............................£9.95
• AC Adaptor • Li-ion Battery Pack (3100mAh) • Belt Clip
• Instruction Manual • Programming Cable • Software (download) AT-778UV Dual band 136-174/400-490MHz 30W FM
mobile transceiver Amazing value £99.95!
UV-5SC Soft case ............................................£9.95
UV-5PC Software cable ...................................£9.95

Baofeng DM-9HX DMR Digital & Analogue

Transceiver ............................£89.95 Now £69.95

Another great product from Baofeng making DMR

affordable to everyone. Comes complete with high gain
antenna, belt clip, hand strap, desktop charger, 3800mAh
Moonraker have worked with Whistler to customise a UK battery, user manual and earpiece
band plan for the scanners! This ensures the radios cover
UK bands in the correct steps and the correct mode. When • Text receiving and sending with at most 64 characters.
a user does a service scan it will search in the correct steps • Frequency editing under Channel mode
for the selected band ensuring maximum received stations. • Digital Monitor Mode: support communication when
frequency, time slot and colour code is paired, regardless
The radios will receive both amateur and commercial DMR of Contact ID, RX Group list
transmissions, as (apart from the frequency) they are Customize shortcut keys: including long-press and
fundamentally the same mode. The radio is supplied with short-press with Side Keys. Edit shortcut keys with
software and users can select mode when writing memories Programming Software.
or select auto and it will work out the mode itself! • Support analog repeaters and digital ones
TRX-1 25-1300MHz Digital Handheld Scanner (left) £419.95 • Dual-standby and dual display
• Driver-free programming cable, plug and play
TRX-2 25-1300MHz Digital Base Scanner (right) ..... £479.95

Are you a Retailer or an E-tailer looking for a better

deal to compete online? - then contact us NOW! www.moonraker.eu
 IC-9700
VHF/UHF/23CM ALL-MODE SDR TRANSCEIVER

Be one of the first to get this exciting

new rig with a retail price of

£1795.95 INC.VAT
We are taking deposits now,
for this long-anticipated transceiver!

PLANNED FEATURES FOR THE IC-9700 INCLUDE:

■ ALL MODE, TRI-BAND TRANSCEIVER COVERING 144 MHZ, 430 MHZ AS WELL AS 1.2GHZ
■ SUPPORTS CW/AM/SSB/FM/RTTY AND D-STAR DIGITAL VOICE AND DIGITAL DATA MODES
■ 144MHZ AND 430MHZ BAND IS DIRECT SAMPLING. THE 1.2GHZ ALSO USES DOWN CONVERSIONS
■ FULL DUPLEX OPERATION/DUAL WATCH (NO VHF/VHF OR UHF/UHF CAPABILITY)
■ PA WILL PROVIDE POWERFUL 100 W (144 MHZ), 75 W (430 MHZ) AND 10 W (1200 MHZ) OUTPUT
■ SMOOTH SATELLITE OPERATION WITH NORMAL/REVERSE TRACKING AND 99 SATELLITE CHANNELS
■ 4.3” TOUCHSCREEN COLOUR TFT LCD
■ AUDIO SCOPE

Moonraker UK Limited
Deethe Farm Estate, Cranfield Road, Woburn Sands, Bucks. MK17 8UR
Tel: 01908 281705. Email: [email protected] Web: www.moonraker.eu
 Carrying on the Practical Way by Daimon Tilley G4USI
• E-mail: [email protected]

R 3D Printing for
adio amateurs are
often people who like
to tinker. Whether that
is messing around with
antennas, building rigs and
equipment, or just exploring some of
the maze of menus on modern rigs, the
tinkering spirit is often present.
One of the recent avenues of my own
tinkering is 3D printing and in this article
Amateur Radio
I intend to explain what 3D printing is,
outline the equipment needed and costs, Daimon Tilley G4USI introduces 3D printing, a handy way of
describe the basic process and consider
how you might use 3D printing in pursuit
fabricating boxes, knobs, insulators and much else.
of amateur radio.
My own journey in 3D printing started
at about the same time as my return to a different material because PLA degrades
amateur radio after a 30 year or more ab- under long-term exposure to ultraviolet
sence, in Spring 2018. I wanted something light and has a lower melting point than
stimulating to help occupy my time as well ABS, for example. It’s a question of de-
as encouraging my young children in the sign, experimentation and thinking about
art of tinkering. the end use. A great place to take a look
at what is possible is this website:
What is 3D Printing? www.thingiverse.com
In 3D printing, the printer is a device that Many people design and post 3D
is computer controlled and can move in designs there, although beware, some
all three axes, side to side, backwards people post designs that are not feasible
and forwards and up and down. Typically, to print! Mostly, though, what you see is
there is a base plate that takes care of the printable. A look at the comments and
backwards and forwards movement while a little experience will soon help you A callsign coaster.
the printer head moves up and down and determine this. In the website you can
from side to side. A series of stepper mo- search on a term and see what comes
tors and belts control these movements to back – ‘amateur radio’, for example. It is
a high degree of precision − fractions of a perfectly possible to download iles from
millimetre. Similar construction is used in Thingiverse and then print them yourself.
technology such as CNC routers, milling Alternatively, you might want to get cre-
machines and laser cutters. ative and design your own projects. Again,
Printing takes place by the interpreta- there are many different pieces of CAD
tion of a digital design ile from Computer software available and a good number are
Aided Design (CAD) software and then free. I personally use the free online CAD
by heating and extruding a thin ilament, tool at:
similar to plastic strimming line, onto the www.tinkercad.com
baseplate in the desired shape and size. This CAD software also allows you to
These ilaments are available in a number design circuit diagrams!
of materials, including PLA (bio-degrad- Microphone.
able), ABS, PET and other materials. How Much Does it Cost?
In terms of inancial outlay, 3D printing is I bought my printer from Prusa Printers
What can you Print? pretty much like amateur radio − it can be (website below), a Czech company that
You can print pretty much anything that done very simply and cheaply, you can has a fantastic reputation and following.
you have the design ile for! The main limi- build your own device or buy low-end The design is open-source and you will
tation is size (each printer has a maximum equipment for around £100, or you can ind many cheap copies online but, of
size it can print) but if you break a design spend many thousands of pounds on pro- course, cheaper price often means cheap-
down into multiple pieces, you can join fessional quality equipment. I spent many er components. You pay your money and
them together later. Other considerations hours researching this and came to the you take your chances.
include the strength and design of the ob- conclusion that if you buy cheap, you buy www.prusaprinters.org
ject and the material you are printing with. twice. So, I opted for a mid-range printer, There are also some ongoing costs.
For example, I currently use a type of plas- which I brought in kit form. This had the As well as your electricity supply, you
tic called PLA for my printing. However, advantage of reducing the overall price by will need ilament and this varies in price.
if I was printing something that would be over £100 and allowing me to learn about However, I am getting good reliable results
permanently outside, or in a hot environ- its construction while building it (I told you with ilament on 1kg spools for £15,
ment, like a car in summer, I would choose it was good tinkering!). enough for many projects. Each ilament

24 Practical Wireless April 2019

comes in a single colour and it’s possible
to print in more than one colour by chang-
ing ilament during printing. Alternatively,
some of the latest models now hold two
or three different colours at once and will
automate this colour change for you.

The Printing Process

Actually, carrying out the printing process
is not dificult but can be a little daunting
the irst time. Basically, you need to design
or download the CAD ile for your object
in a speciic format. Often this is a .stl
ile. This ile is then uploaded into a piece
of software called a Slicer. The slicing
software does what it says on the tin − it
‘slices’ the model into layers and allows
you to amend things like print quality,
speed, the density of the object, colour
changes and so on.
The slicing software I use came free Guying and antenna supports for use with a fishing pole portable antenna.
with the printer and the iles from this are
then output in a .gcode format that the
printer can understand. On my printer, I
then upload the .gcode ile onto an SD
card, which I insert into the printer, and
press ‘print’.
It really is quite simple to download and
print an existing design. It’s just a matter
of moving iles around on your machine
between software and the SD card. My
printer came with excellent build and irst-
use instructions and there are many high- Raspberry Pi case.
quality tutorial videos on the internet.
Depending on the complexity and size
of the print, printing can take anything
from a few minutes to many hours. My
longest single print so far were the parts of
a case for a homebrew transceiver at 14
hours for a single part. It probably took 24
hours of total printing to inish the project.

Printing for Amateur Radio

The sky really is the limit where amateur
radio is concerned or, rather, your imagina- A homebrew transceiver ‘go-box’ case. The author’s Prusa i3 Mk3 printer.
tion. If you have taken a look at thingi-
verse.com you will get a bit of an idea of and printed, some I have designed myself, initial outlay, the time it consumes
what is possible but here I will just give and in some cases I have downloaded designing and printing and the fact
you a flavour of what I have printed for someone else’s design and then heavily that it can be addictive! You need to
radio, although I am often printing other modiied it for my own needs. Anything is be aware that sometimes it might just
things too, for the kitchen or children, for possible, particularly as your experience be simpler and easier to buy what you
example. grows. need, if it exists, than to print it, but the
I have printed a callsign plaque for my There are both advantages and dis- satisfaction of doing it yourself is not to be
shack, a handheld microphone, a paddle advantages to the 3D printing process. underestimated.
type CW keyer, a case with cooling fan for Advantages include the ability to design A selection of my printing for radio is
my Raspberry Pi, a callsign coaster, guy- products yourself or use other people’s shown in the accompanying photographs
ing and antenna supports for portable ver- designs, designs that might not exist for and I hope you will be inspired to consider
tical antennas, and my largest project to sale, to learn a new skill and have fun, 3D printing for yourself. Perhaps, instead
date, a case for my home-brew uBitx QRP and to enhance your radio hobby through of researching and ordering that new
transceiver. Some of these are the design bespoke gear to support your operating. dipole centre and insulators you need, you
of others that I have simply downloaded Disadvantages might include the might print it instead.

April 2019 Practical Wireless 25

 Feature by Paul Morrison G0VHT
● E-mail: [email protected]

I QRP Travel &

had been planning a trip to
Singapore, Australia and New
Zealand for some time. This
four-week extended holiday was

Operating in Australia
timed to coincide with my wife’s 50th
birthday and to celebrate our recent our
25th wedding anniversary. Of course, as
well as my XYL, I had also arranged to take
my amateur radio equipment along – after
all, we’ve ‘been together’ longer than my
wife and I! Paul Morrison G0VHT describes his QRP efforts from
Australia and manages a fascinating interview with QRP
Equipment Selection
Before leaving the UK, the first priority was specialist VK3YE.
(naturally) deciding what equipment would
accompany me. While this trip was first
and foremost a holiday, I still wanted to
operate from portable locations whenever
possible. Given that we are somewhere
around the bottom of the current solar
cycle, my first thoughts turned to my 100W
Yaesu FT-891 mobile transceiver. However,
this would necessitate transporting my
usual 22Ah lithium battery on the aircraft,
which, it transpired, was quite out of the
question. The reason was very simple −
most carriers restrict batteries to carry-on
hand luggage and typically they must
be less than 100Watt-hour (expressed
as ‘Wh’) to comply with airline regula-
tions. Individual carriers may permit up to
160Wh but you must have formal permis-
sion before boarding. A quick calculation
helped me determine what battery I could
legitimately take with me: (Wh) = Volts (V)
x Amp hour (Ah), so clearly my 12V, 22Ah
battery would have been well over the
acceptable limit at 264Wh. A QRP radio Fig. 1: Apartment location on the Gold Coast.
would, however, happily operate from a
much smaller capacity 8A, 12V battery Licensing ‘stroke’ and away you go! One of the many
(do the calculation). Therefore, this is the There were no automatic or reciprocal benefits of a Commonwealth state.
battery I ended up taking. I did learn later type licensing arrangements in our first I used the downtime in Sydney (our
that passengers are able to take up to two stay-over location, Singapore, albeit it was first port of call) to familiarise myself with
separate batteries of up to 100Wh each if entirely possible to apply in advance for a the regional locators and a wealth of other
appropriately packaged but I felt the extra temporary licence. I was far too busy with information found on the Wireless Insti-
bulk and weight wasn’t necessary for my work commitments prior to my trip to sort tute of Australia (WIA) website. This is the
own purposes. this out and, besides, the inevitable jet lag national radio society equivalent to our
Where possible I tend to use resonant meant I really wasn’t feeling up to operat- own RSGB representing radio amateurs
wire antennas for portable work because ing even if I had a licence in place. So, I in Australia, with its origins dating back to
of their simplicity and overall efficiency. On waited until we travelled on to Australia 1910. According to various reports, there
this trip, in addition to my normal home- three days later before unpacking the FT- are around 14,500 Australian amateur radio
made linked dipole for 20 and 40m, I also 817. Usefully, Australia welcomes licence licences in existence. Interestingly, here in
took a new G-Whip 421 end-fed antenna holders from the UK (and many other parts the UK we have around 74,000 licences in
covering the 40/20 and 10m bands, which of the world). Under its ‘Class licence’ circulation – a significant difference given
was less than 12m in length overall. With scheme, a UK amateur is authorised to the disparate geography of our respective
the basics decided upon, I packed my use the same bands and conditions as countries.
trusty old FT-817, 7m telescopic travel back home (excluding 60m) for up to 90
mast and a few useful accessories for the days. No licence fees are payable and no Getting Set Up
very long flight. Although it was never for- application need be made. You simply After a brief three-day city break in Sydney
mally requested, I also took a printed copy insert the respective regional (state) locator (and having made the schoolboy error of
of my licence, just in case. in front of your own callsign followed by a getting rather sunburned on Bondi beach),

26 Practical Wireless April 2019

Fig. 2: St Kilda Pier.

we took a short internal flight up to the post’. It was still fascinating to hear several for Melbourne, I contacted Peter Parker
Gold Coast. Our accommodation was a loud Japanese and New Zealand stations VK3YE (well-known QRP enthusiast,
modern high-rise apartment, 17 floors up ragchewing on 20m. Interestingly, out- home brewer, YouTuber and author of
directly overlooking white, sandy beaches side of contests, I noted very few ‘rubber several QRP/antenna-related books) to see
and the beautiful Coral Sea. After unpack- stamp’ type QSOs. Everyone seemed to whether he wanted to meet up so I could
ing, and appreciating my new surround- hold ‘proper’ conversations rather than get his take on the Australian amateur ra-
ings, I quickly worked out how best to rushed contacts − now that was refreshing! dio scene. Peter was very gracious and re-
erect my end-fed antenna, making use of Notwithstanding the above, over the sponded positively to my suggestion. After
our elevated ‘wrap around’ balcony, Fig. next week or so I was struck by the rela- establishing which part of Melbourne we
1. The antenna was erected in a makeshift tively low level of activity on both the 40 were staying in, he recommended meeting
inverted-V arrangement improvising a and 20m bands. I can’t comment on the on St Kilda pier late afternoon because
heightened centre section with a broom, a other bands due to my antenna limitations. 40m usually opened up around that time.
short length of dowel from a nearby hard- I did have to check my radio’s RF gain When the agreed day and time arrived, I
ware store and some duct tape securing setting and antenna connections on more left my XYL behind shopping in the quaint
everything to the balcony. I had hoped the than one occasion because I thought there nearby holiday town of Kilda. That gave me
significant height and relative closeness must have been a problem at my end. It around two hours free time – I’m 51 years
to the sea would transform my 5W QRP wasn’t until a loud station would ‘boom of age but still find the need to seek XYL
station into a DX pile-up busting station. through’ out of the quietness that I realised permission to disappear and ‘play radios’!
However, this proved to be a pipedream. it wasn’t my radio or a lack of propagation. It’s worth pointing out that at the time this
Bearing in mind we were on the very edge Quite a contrast compared to the many article was written (early November) Mel-
of the east coast, it appears the building European stations I’m used to hearing on bourne was much colder than I expected.
effectively screened my antenna, cocoon- the same bands day and night back in the Although just a couple of hours flying time
ing it from the rest of Australia, mean- UK! south of our previous location, 14°C and
ing that VK4/G0VHT/P didn’t make any heavy rain felt decidedly chilly compared to
contacts despite plenty of efforts! To make Getting Acquainted the beautiful sunshine and 30°C we experi-
matters worse, my sunburn frustratingly I was interested to find out more about enced on the Gold Coast. Ah well, at least
prevented me from any kind of beach amateur radio in ‘Oz’ so after a period of I didn’t have to worry about sunburn here!
operating, so I resigned myself to monitor- enforced SWLing on the Gold Coast and Despite this, I still optimistically under-
ing the bands using my elevated ‘listening with the next leg of our journey scheduled dressed for the portable operating period

April 2019 Practical Wireless 27

 Feature

from St Kilda pier. My jeans and polo shirt

proved altogether inadequate for the chilly
sea breeze and darkening storm clouds!
St Kilda pier, Fig. 2, extends out into
the sea some 450m before shifting parallel
to the beach, creating a pretty man-made
harbour for small boats and yachts. The
location itself was not too busy in terms of
passers-by and there was plenty of space
to set up my antenna. There was also a
very convenient café nearby and I chose
this for our Q&A session but first it was
time make some contacts!
Peter, Fig. 3, was an excellent host.
Friendly, down to earth and clearly an
experienced QRP operator. Once my
mast was securely fixed to the pier rail-
ings and the end-fed antenna erected
in an inverted-V configuration, Fig. 4,
we were scanning the 40m band. After
making some brief CQ calls using the
VK3 regional prefix, Peter explained that Fig. 3: Peter VK3YE with the author.
my transmissions needed to be longer
in duration to increase my chances of time or as just another geeky, fringe type of UHF CB repeaters, particularly in our
being heard − not just because of the hobby? countryside areas. UHF CB is used a lot by
low output power but also to take into Peter: I think it’s pretty much regarded 4x4 drivers, farmers and truck drivers, less
account the generally lower levels of as an obscure, fringe type activity. I sup- so in the cities.
activity in Australia. Over the next few pose people’s lives are moving further Paul: Do you think the relatively large
hours we made a number of interesting away from the type of radios we still play numbers of CB users offers a natural way
QSOs, Fig. 5, mostly with special event around with. In the past, non-hams tuned for progression into ham radio?
stations commemorating 100 years since into far off AM radio stations to learn what Peter: It did a lot in the 70s and 80s but
Armistice day. Band conditions were, is going on in the world but with the advent these days CB is not seen as a hobby, it’s
however, marginal and the going proved of local FM radio, the proliferation of the more of a ‘tool’ so very few now want or
tough a lot of the time. Without a doubt, internet and everyday digital services, need to progress into amateur radio.
‘tailgating’ proved to be most effective ham radio is definitely considered a fringe Paul: How would you describe the
means of making contacts. Peter used hobby in Australia. diversity of amateur radio in Australia? Are
this ‘pouncing’ technique at the end of Paul: Is emergency communications there many female operators and does
QSOs to good effect. Midway through and its connection with amateur radio a the hobby attract sufficient numbers of
the proceedings, we changed to 20m strong focus here in Australia? younger people?
and Peter used an App on his phone to Peter: Not as much nowadays as Peter: I think probably like the UK, the
send WSPR audio tones by placing his it used to be. In Australia we have an demographic of amateur radio opera-
mobile handset next to my microphone. organisation called the Wireless Institute tors is skewed towards older men typi-
This was all new to me and it was fasci- Civil Emergency Network who provide cally although I’m not aware of any recent
nating to see how many stations rapidly assistance in bushfires and other regional surveys or publications to confirm this.
picked up our beacon in just a couple of emergencies. However, generally speak- That said, there was a bit of an influx with
minutes using this impressive mode. ing our emergency authorities are quite our Foundation licence, which we brought
The next hour flew by and while I was well organised and it’s much easier for the in more than 10 years ago. Some of these
thoroughly enjoying the operating session, official services to manage with their own were younger operators and moved on to
the wind chill and setting sun signalled radio equipment without having to rely so their Advanced ticket but there is definitely
it was time to pack up and head over to much on amateur radio support. an attrition rate among Foundation licence
the café. With coffee and cake gratefully Paul: I’ve observed lots of whip anten- holders. The more mainstream amateur
consumed in a much warmer setting, Peter nas on 4x4 type vehicles here in Australia, population have not been great at encour-
and I discussed broader amateur radio more so than in the UK. Are these CB aging Foundation holders to progress. So,
issues and some of the various related antennas? for example, the amateur radio press can
challenges we both have in our respective Peter: Yes they are. One thing we only publish what is submitted to them and
countries. What follows is a brief sum- have in Australia that is different to other that normally reflects Full licence holders.
mary of our conversation in a simple Q&A countries is in addition to AM and SSB Paul: We are here now on a public
format: CB on 27MHz, we have also got UHF CB. pier near central Melbourne. How do you
Paul: Peter, thanks for taking time out This allows 5W RF output and you can use describe amateur radio to passers-by who
to meet with me. How is amateur radio gain antennas such as beams and the like stop ask what you’re doing?
regarded in Australia, is it a popular pas- without any restrictions. We have hundreds Peter: Some people think you are track-

28 Practical Wireless April 2019

Fig. 4: Antenna setup at St Kilda Pier.

ing birds, prospecting for gold or talking to parts I needed. You might have to step brewed, crystal-controlled CW QRP station
a spaceman (which we can do, of course). over dead sheep but I always found what I for 80m. I did try using transistors in the
To be honest, a lot probably depends on was looking for! early days but my projects didn’t work! I
the antennas you are using at the time. In Paul: Are you a member of the WIA and suppose QRP gives you immense satisfac-
my case I sometimes carry contraptions if so, why? tion making contacts with small amounts
such as one-metre diameter loops or a Peter: Yes, I am a member and have of power, especially small lightweight
five-metre pole, which I carry on my back- been for most of my time as a licensed portable gear. I have lived by the beach for
pack pedestrian mobile style and these amateur. I have written various articles for the last ten years so low power operation
obviously attract a lot more questions from them. They now produce the only maga- from there is particularly attractive. Your
the public. I get the same level of queries zine for amateur radio in Australia. There beaches in the UK look very different, don’t
when tracking fast-moving satellites. Some used to be a commercial publication, they? Rocky and stony – then you look at
people have relatives who once were hams which has an interesting history but the your weather and you wonder if operating
or they might know someone and some bottom line is it’s no longer published. Until from the beach there is quite so appealing!
may have some familiarity with it. Some- recently the WIA magazine was circulated Paul: I see from your YouTube videos
times the questions you get off the air are monthly but now it’s a bi-monthly publica- that you make use of CW and SSB. Which
much more interesting than those on air. tion. WIA does run weekly news broad- mode do you prefer using most and why?
I often carry a little business card, which casts, looks after the examination systems Peter: I used to exclusively use CW
directs them to my YouTube channel and and represents us internationally and na- because it’s much easier to build a CW
website so they can find further informa- tionally. There was some past controversy rig but while I can still read Morse in my
tion. over the WIA in relation to corporate gov- head at a reasonable speed I’ve maybe lost
Paul: What got you interested in ama- ernance, resourcing, conflicts of interests patience with it now. It’s not a huge interest
teur radio in the first place? etc. Several Directors resigned a number for me anymore and I probably only use it
Peter: I suppose it was fiddling about of years ago. One of those ex-directors set about 10% of my operating time.
with electronic junk when I was seven or up a rival organisation but it doesn’t have Paul: Have you tried FT8? Is it as
eight years old that got me interested in the same foothold as the WIA. I believe the popular here in Australia as it is in the UK
electronics and radio later. It was dur- WIA has around 4,000 members but it used and the rest of the world? Same question
ing a time people were always throwing to have over half the licensed amateurs. for network radios – have these taken off in
out old radios or TV’s. This was typically That said, I reckon only 50% of those were Australia?
first-generation transistor radios and valved active at that time which skews the figures. Peter: I think FT8 is equally popular
equipment. Living in a small town about Paul: Why do you focus on QRP? What over here, I’ve downloaded the software
300km from the nearest electronic shops is the main attraction for you? but I think there’s a new version that allows
such as Tandy Electronics, meant scaveng- Peter: Most of my life I have built equip- you to add more data to your contacts, to
ing in open-pit rubbish dumps to find the ment. My first rig was a valved, home- personalise your QSOs − I haven’t gone

April 2019 Practical Wireless 29

 Feature

Fig. 5: Peter takes over the microphone to show how it’s done!

into any of that just yet. I quite enjoy using site. It wasn’t the first ham radio website Peter: Ah yes, now I have watched that
‘Whisper’ (WSPR) when the bands are but I did start this fairly early on. There are and it’s very professionally done, probably
quiet or you don’t feel like talking. It’s not somethings probably better demonstrated the best of the amateur radio shows out
direct communications as such but you and shown visually through video media there in my opinion. It’s also watchable for
can see how far you’re getting out and the and that’s when YouTube became useful a non-amateur whereas many others are
benefits of being able to do that with very for me. not. It’s really good.
small amounts of power. I built my own Paul: How do you decide on YouTube Paul: I see you have authored a number
WSPR transmitter with just a few milliwatts content given QRP is a relatively ‘niche’ of books related to the subject of low
into a balanced mixer. It worked really well. market? Do you feel under pressure to power operating. Any future publications
I’ve never heard of Network Radios. Is it keep uploading content? planned?
like a more sophisticated form of CB? I’ve Peter: No, I don’t feel any pressure. I Peter: I have published four books to
heard about smartphones being used with may go a month or so between videos. date and there will be more. I won’t say
a software PTT button. I assume it’s similar I’ve learned there are certain topics or key what they are just yet but I’m working on
to that but no, it’s not really something I’m words that really get people excited. You ideas right now. I have one book 99%
aware of that’s being made use of here in know I looked at my channel and compared completed and I do work on it most days.
Australia. that with the number of subscribers of the Then I realise it’s still 99% completed but it
Paul: What is the most satisfying aspect former Prime Minster and I had more! Niche will be a good one when eventually finished
of amateur radio for you personally and websites and YouTube channels can get and of general interest to amateur radio. I
why? large numbers of views. If you want guaran- am tempted to write another antenna book
Peter: I like the fact you can try out lots teed large views, make a video about mag- too.
of different facets of the hobby. You can go netic loops! There seems to be an insatiable Time literally whizzed by on St Kilda
into antennas, then drift away, come back appetite for people to watch these. Maybe pier and soon it was almost dark − time to
and try 160m AM for a while, have a go at it’s selling the dream of this tiny miracle finish the interview and head back to the
contests, both HF and VHF. You think of antenna − even though its performance is XYL. Peter joined us for dinner and was
other hobbies such as horse riding, you’ve not that great, it will radiate a signal. very entertaining. He was also interested
always got to feed and look after your I do try to be a little bit different with my to learn more about UK amateur radio and
horse whereas with our hobby you can be channel. There are other types of YouTube British politics in particular!
more sporadic and come back to things programmes (some in the USA go for sev- I was glad to have spent the evening
when you want. I like the flexibility amateur eral hours) but personally I find these rather with Peter. He provided a fascinating
radio offers. boring. It’s better to have lots of topics and insight into the world of amateur radio
Paul: How did your YouTube channel spread them out over a number of short and QRP operating and freely gave up
start out, what was the main driver for you videos. I know I should do better with my his time to meet a visiting ‘pommy’. The
to start it? audio, microphones and video effects but following day, we were back on a plane,
Peter: Well, it was a logical extension to I think it’s the subject matter content that this time flying to New Zealand where
my website. I’ve been writing magazine ar- people really want to see. I really wanted to make up for some
ticles since the 1980s and made use of the Paul: In the UK we produce something lost operating time but that is a tale for
web in 1997 when I built my VK3YE.com called TX Factor, have you seen this? another time!

30 Practical Wireless April 2019

 Gemma
from Sales

BIGGER CHOICE • BETTER SERVICE • FAST DELIVERY • BEST UK PRICES

EA
CO SO

RE
Icom 9700 Yaesu FTdx-101D Kenwood TS-890S

PR UCT
DUY A
RL

D
M ON

IC IO
E PR
IN

E
G

NEW

N
IL

Latest Technology • 2/70/23cms Transceiver New SDR HF/50/70MHz 100W Transceiver HF/50/70MHz 100W Transceiver
All Mode • Direct sampling • D star • 100/75/10W Touchscreen Display • Outstanding RX performance Down conversion + Filters gives breath-taking
RX performance!
£1795.95 £3149.95 £3995.95 now £3499.95

Icom 7610 Yaesu FTdx-5000 Kenwood TS-590SG

NEW

SDR HF+6m 100W transceiver 200W Classic HF/50MHz Transceiver Classic 100W HF/50MHz Transceiver
Widescreen Display • Dual receiver • Auto Tuner Razor sharp roofing filters • CW Peak Filter • Auto Tuner Still a top seller – great value for money!

£3499.95 £3199.95 £1299.95

Icom 7300 Yaesu FTdx-3000 Kenwood TS-2000 Plus

Top selling HF/50/70MHz 100W SDR Transceiver 100W Classic HF/50MHz Transceiver All-mode HF/50/144/430MHz 100W Transceiver
Touchscreen TFT display • Auto ATU • All Mode DSP noise reduction • Built-in keyer • Auto Tuner A complete ‘shack in a box’ – still popular!

£1199.95 £1399.95 £1499.95

SHOWROOM OPENING HOURS: MONDAY - FRIDAY 9am - 5:30pm, CLOSED SATURDAY

nevada
®

Serving our customers for 50 years

023 9231 3090
• Unit 1 • Fitzherbert Spur • Farlington • Portsmouth • Hampshire • PO6 1TT
 Generous Part Exchange or CASH waiting for your used Gear!

S P OF F £ 1
Flex Apache Labs SKY SDR

AP DE
N O PPI
SH

EC E R 5 0
SA
UK INT R
PO AL
World Class SDR Transceivers Anan 8000DLE 5W QRP Transceiver

IA
I
W N

VE

L
ED
E
G
Flex
6600M

Popular models on display in our showrooms HF & 6m 200W SDR Transceiver

Finance or Part X available • Astounding IMD performance
Flex-6600M Top of the range 4 slice RX.............£4999.95 • Pure Signal (Predistortion) for clean TX • Modes: LSB, USB, CW, AM, FM, DIGI
Flex-6600 Without the Maestro front panel...£3999.95 • Diversity reception with 2 x DDC • Covers 160m - 6m (including 60m)
Flex-6400 Remote control from Maestro, PC etc.£1999.95 • 7 Low Pass Filters and 7 Bandpass Filters
Flex-6400M With the Maestro front ...................£2999.00 Finance or Part X available £3799.95 £3599.95 NOW ONLY £549

Acom Amplifiers AOR DV-1 NEW SteppIR UrbanBeam

Acom
A1200S
• 2 element beam on 20m-6m
• Rotary Dipole on 40/30m £1869
SOLID-STATE AMPLIFIERS - NEW! Digital Scanner - decodes DMR, D-STAR, Yaesu Fusion
Acom A1200S.........1.2kW (1.8-54)MHz......................£2895.00 and lots more! VERTICALS
Acom A600S ...........600W (1.8-54) MHz .....................£2399.95 • 100kHz-1300MHz Wide band reception Big IR Mk IV CRANK IR
VALVE AMPLIFIERS • Multi-mode digital demodulation 40m-6m cont coverage 40m-6m cont coverage
Acom 1500S..............1.5kW PEP (1.8-54)MHz ................£2999.95 Length: 10.05m Power: 1.5kW,
Acom 1000S ............1kW PEP (1.8 -50MHz) ................£2299.95 £1289.95 Power: 3kW £1249.95 16 ft fiberglass pole
Acom 1010 ..............700W Single tube (1.8-54) MHz £1749.95 DV-10.........................Latest Digital Handheld scanner ........£899.95 Optional 80m Coil £459.95 £429.95
Full range available - see web! AR-8600 MkII...........Analogue .Handheld .........................£459.95 Visit our web site for more SteppIR

Professional quality DMR Alinco

Digital/Analogue Handhelds Alinco DX-SR9 Alinco DR-735E
SPECIAL Communications Grade Power Supplies
PRICE!
Alinco DJ-MD5-GPS DM-330MW MkII
GPS version with Automatic
date/time calibration by GPS
Both models have:
• Vox built in • Selective call
• Auto Repeater Shift
• Software & lead supplied

HF Transceiver + SDR feature Twin Band Mobile ‘Rainbow’ display, 30A Deluxe Supply
£159.95 VHF/UHF transceiver Variable voltage, low noise, extra filtering
• Built-in CW Keyer, Filters
DJ-MD5 Standard version ...........£139.95 • CTCSS for FM repeaters • Extended RX 108-174MHz, 400-479MHz £129.95
• Sensitive RX • Power 50/20/5W output
Note: These radios require • Easy to use! DM-330FXE ..30A standard filtered supply..£119.95
programming for DMR operation. £599 £549 £299.95 DM-30E.........30A (peak) w/digital display ....£89.95

NEW MIDLAND HANDHELDS Icom R30 Kenwood

CT-590S 5W Dual Band Yaesu FT-2DE Digital Scanner TH-D74E
• 2m/70cms TX with FM radio RX Dual Band Handheld Dual Band
• Colour LCD display with new Firmware update! • 100kHz - 3.3GHz
• Fully featured C4FM & FM modes • All modes: AM/FM/WFM Handheld
• Affordable price! • Plus NXDN, dPMR, Transceiver
D star
£59.95 £299.95 • Dual-watch Operation • With APRS & D star
CT-990 • Dual Band Recording • Covers HF SSB on RX
High Power 10W Dual Band • Integrated GPS Receiver • Built-in GPS
• 2m/70cms colour Yaesu FT-4VXE • Up to 8.3 hours • Colour TFT Display
• IP67 Rated - fully featured Dual Band FM Handheld battery Life • Weatherproof to
• Colour LCD display Plus FM Broadcast RX • USB Charging and PC IP54/55
• Fully featured connection • Bluetooth connectivity
• Affordable price!
£99.95 £62.95 £569.95 £499.95

SGC Palstar AT-2K Nevada Quality Power Supplies

2 YEAR WARRANTY!
Spiderbeam
Auto Tuners - commercial grade! Telescopic Masts
Tune: Long wires, Backstays, Loops,
Inverted L, Mobile Whips
PS-40M Fibreglass Telescopic Poles
Linear 12mtr Heavy Duty....................................... £99.95
18mtr Standard .........................................£199.95
22m ‘Long John’ NEW ..............................£399.95
• Covers 6-160m • 40A (max) with meter • 1.5-15V DC 26mtr Standard .........................................£499.95
• Output: 2000W PEP • Cigar adaptor output £129.95 Base Plate for Fibreglass Poles .....................£28.95
• Optional 4:1 Balun for balanced Aluminium Telescopic masts
wire feeders PS-08.........Linear 8A (max) 13.8V DC ................£34.95
SG-230 PS-30M......Linear 30A (max) 3-15V DC..............£99.95 10 metre Standard (1.35m retracted) .........£299.95
£599.95 PSW-50 .....Switch mode 50A (max) 9-15V DC.£129.95
Rugged weatherproof Auto Tuner 10 metre Heavy Duty (1.7m retracted) .......£325.00
PSW-30 .....Switch mode 30A (max) 9-15V DC ...£79.95
• Covers: 1.6-30MHz AT-4K..............4kW PEP HF Tuner.................£999.95 PSW-30H...Switch mode 30A (max) 9-15V DC ...£69.95 12.5 metre (1.65m retracted).....................£329.95
• Power: 200W PEP £599.99 DL-1500 .........1500W dummy load..............£199.95 PS23-SW1..Switch mode 23A (max) 13.8V DC ...£59.95 14.5 metre Heavy Duty (2m retracted) .......£425.00
BK4C/1:1 ........4kW 1:1 current balun ............£99.95 PSW-07 .....Switch mode 7A (max) 13.8V DC .....£29.95 15 metre standard (2m retracted) ..............£399.95
SG-239 .....200W Auto Tuner. 1.6 - 30MHz ...£299.95 BK4C/4:1 ........4kW 4:1 current balun ............£99.95 PSW-04 .....Switch mode 5A (max) 13.8V DC .....£24.95

MUCH MORE ON OUR WEBSITE 24/7........We offer ‘BUY NOW - PAY LATER’ finance on all our ranges

023 9231 3090

OPEN: Mon to Fri 9.00am - 5.30pm
Unit 1 Fitzherbert Spur Farlington
Portsmouth Hampshire PO6 1TT
 nevada
®

Tim Kirby
G4VXE visiting
recently

Visit our showrooms! For live displays & friendly service!

BIGGER CHOICE • BETTER SERVICE • FAST DELIVERY • BEST UK PRICES

Va

Va

Va
CA DE l 30

CA DE l 30

CA DE l 30
YA B S! ril

YA B S! ril

YA B S! ril
Yaesu FT-818ND Yaesu FT-991A Yaesu FT-891
lid

lid

lid
SH AL Ap
ES AC

SH AL Ap
ES AC

SH AL Ap
ES AC
un

un

un
U K

U K

U K
t

t
i

i
20

20

20
19

19
9
• 6W Portable transceiver • All mode ALL band transceiver • HF/6m Base & mobile transceiver
• Latest version 160m - 70cm • Large touch screen • Ideal portable or mobile rig

Price: £574.95 plus £40 CASHBACK! Price: £1199.95 plus £90 CASHBACK! Price: £579.95 plus £70 CASHBACK!
Price after Yaesu Cashback £534.95 Price after Yaesu Cashback £1109.95 Price after Yaesu Cashback £509.95

Yaesu FTdx1200 Yaesu FT450D SDRplay RSP-Duo SDR Receivers

NEW AIRSPY HF+
HF/VHF SDR Receiver
NEW One of the very best for
weak signal reception
• 9kHz- 13MHz
• 60 MHz - 260MHz
Dual Tuner Wideband SDR £229.95
Receives: 1kHz to 2GHz, with no gaps AIRSPY Mini
• Top selling 100W HF/6m Base Station • Most popular low cost £239.00 High performance miniature
• TFT full colour display HF Transceiver SDR Dongle
SDRplay RSP1A ..F/VHF SDR receiver............£89.95 • Covers: 24-1800MHz
• 32 Bit DSP Processor • Covers HF & 6m with built in ATU SDRplay RSP2.....1kHz - 2GHz 2 antennas .....£156
SDRplay RSP2.....Pro as above w/steel case.£189.95 £119.99
£919.95 PRICE £659.95 OUR PRICE £599.95 Free Delivery (UK Mainland) Free Delivery (UK Mainland)

Hy-Gain Antennas from the USA Comet MFJ

Up to 20% DISCOUNT this month! MFJ-998RT
Using T-6061 Aluminium - built to last! H-422 1.5kW remote
Trap Vee Dipole 7/14/21/28MHz
Compact 4/6m Yagi weatherproof £848.95
4 elements per band £289.95 Auto ATU
Gain: 8.52dBi 6m/7.86 dBi 4m 225..............1-180MHz graphic analyser .....................................£349.95
HF BASE ANTENNAS 226..............Graphic analyser (1-230) MHz .................................£399.95
£299.95 £239.95 CHA-250BX11 ....3.5 - 57MHz (RX: 2.0 - 90MHz).......................£349.00 259C ...........HF/VHF portable antenna analyser...........................£329.95
CWA-1000..........Multi Band dipole 3.5/7/14/21/28MHz..............£124.95 266C ...........New style HF/VHF/UHF analyser...............................£424.95
6 metre LFA Yagi’s designed by G0KSC VHF/UHF FIBREGLASS BASE ANTENNAS 269C ...........HF/VHF Digital Analyser ...........................................£399.95
LFA-6M4EL ..4 el, 10.7dBi, 3.9m.......£379.95 £299.95 GP-15N...............50/144/430MHz, length 2.4m N Type .................£99.95 941E............300 Watts max Versa Tuner II...................................£159.95
LFA-6M5EL ..6 el, 11.8dBi, 6.2m.......£499.95 £399.95 GP-1M ................144/430MHz length 1.2m (SO239).....................£49.95 949E............300W tuner + Dummy load.....................................£199.95
GP-3M ................144/430MHz, SO-239 Lgth 1.78m (SO239)...........£59.95 969..............300W tuner 160-6m ...............................................£253.95
GP-6M ................144/430MHz, SO-239 Lgth 3.07m (SO239)...........£99.95 986...............5kW HF tuner.........................................................£399.95
2 metre LFA Yagis - 3Kw rated! GP-93N...............144/430/1200MHz, Length 1.78m N Type............£99.99 989D ...........1.5kW HF tuner. ......................................................£451.95
LFA-2M9L....9 el 4.dBi 4.4m..............£279.95 £229.95 GP-9M ................144/430MHz SO-239 Lgth 5.15m (SO239) .........£149.95
993B ............Auto Tuner 150W/300W.........................................£297.95
LFA-2M12L..12 el 15.79dBi 7m ........£359.95 £299.95 VHF/UHF BEAMS 994BRT .......600W remote Auto Tuner.........................................£440.95
CYA-1216E .........6 Element 1200MHz, N Type...............................£99.95
LFA-2m16L..16 el 17.25 dBi 10.77m..£449.95 £399.95 CA-52HB.............2 Element HB9CV for 50MHz..............................£79.95 We have huge stocks of MFJ - visit our web site

SIRIO Antennas 1kW End Fed Antennas Yaesu Rotators Heil

MyAnt EFW 80-10
SY50-5 Pro-Set 7
5 element Extreme comfort
50MHz 10.5 dBi with passive sound
reduction
£129.95 £229.95
Resonant on 80/40/ 30/20/17/15/10m
NO ANTENNA TUNER REQUIRED! PR-40
HF/VHF/UHF Beams Length: 130ft We carry the full range of Yaesu rotators Commercial broadcast Mic with
SY50-3.....3 el 50MHz 8.5dBi ..........................£99.95 £159.95 G-2800DXC..........Extra heavy duty ................£929.95 wide frequency range
SY68-3.....3 el 70MHz 7dB..............................£79.95 MyAnt EFW 40-10 G-5500.................Azimuth/Elevation..............£654.95 PR-40G
SY27-3.....3 el (26-28)MHz 10.65 dBi .............£84.95 Resonant on 40/20/15/10 + WARC G-1000DCX..........Heavy duty.........................£499.95 Gold version....£399.95 £289.95
SY27-4.....3 el (26-28)MHz 13.15 dBi .............£99.95 with tuner. Length: 63ft G-450C ................Standard duty ....................£339.95
SY-400 .....6 el 70cms (wide band) 11.0 dBi.....£79.95
£149.95
WY-140....3 el 144MHz (wide band) 10.5 dBi..£89.95 Both 1kW power rated! Full range Cables, Bearings - call! Full range on our web site

PRICE PLEDGE WE ALWAYS AIM TO BE COMPETITIVE - SEEN IT CHEAPER? LET US KNOW!

www.nevadaradio.co.uk
 The Morse Mode with Roger J. Cooke G3LDI
l E-mail: [email protected]

Landline Telegraphy
M
orse code has not Roger Cooke G3LDI looks at American (and Japanese!)
always been the
code that radio Morse before turning to other CW-related topics.
amateurs learn and
use today. American
Morse Code (also known as Railroad
Morse) is the latter-day name for the
original version of the Morse Code
developed in the mid-1840s by Samuel
Morse and Alfred Vail for their electric
telegraph. The ‘American’ qualiier was
added because, after most of the rest of
the world adopted International Morse
Code, the companies that continued to
use the original Morse Code were mainly
located in the United States.
American Morse Code was irst used
on the Baltimore-Washington telegraph
line between Baltimore, Maryland, and the
old Supreme Court chamber in the Capitol
building in Washington, D.C. The irst public
message “What hath God wrought” was
sent on May 24th 1844, by Morse in Wash- Fig. 1: Bunnell American Morse sounder.
ington to Alfred Vail at the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad (B&O) ‘outer depot’ (now the lid on the top of the sounder to make it eas- To see how dificult it is to copy from a
B&O Railroad Museum) in Baltimore. ier to copy. They were referred to as LIDS, a sounder, take a look at this YouTube video:
American Morse is now nearly extinct. It term which has become synonymous with www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID6r4-2_0bc
is most frequently seen in American railroad poor operators on the air today.
museums and American Civil War re-enact- American Morse differed from the more Japanese Morse
ments. Morse Code today virtually always modern International Code in its construc- Working Japanese stations is ine when
means the International Morse, which sup- tion. In its original implementation, the using International Morse Code but if you
planted American Morse. Morse Code speciication included the speak Japanese and wish to converse using
The railroad operators were extremely following: Japanese Morse, then you will have some
skilled at reading Railroad or American • short mark or dot (•) more learning and more practice to do! Their
Morse, using a sounder. Each relay station • longer mark or dash (-) code is shown in Fig. 3.
had these installed and the click-clack noise • intra-character gap (standard gap between
from the sounder was the only sound the the dots and dashes in a character) Bootcamps – again!
operator had to decode messages. This • short gap (between letters) There are now three Bootcamps scheduled
may sound easy but only when you actually • medium gap (between words) for the remainder of this year as below.
try it, and try to copy a whole message, is • long gap (between sentences) Norfolk ARC will be adding another in the
the dificulty realised. Slow speeds are not • long intra-character gap (longer internal autumn, but no date has been set as yet.
too bad but anything over about 15WPM gap used in C, O, R, Y, Z and &) • Sunday, April 28th, Norwich ARC, G3LDI.
and it takes consummate skill to decode. • ‘long dash’ (-, the letter L) • Saturday, May 4th, Hereford area, G4FAD.
Sounders are still around. Indeed, there • even longer dash (-, the numeral 0) • Saturday, October 19th, Essex CW ARC,
will be an evening at the Norfolk ARC in July American Morse code is shown in Fig. 2. G0IBN.
when we shall be showing and operating I had a lifelong friend in Seattle, Dick Ben- If your club is starting a Bootcamp,
the sounders, courtesy of Roy G3ZIG who dicksen N7ZL. He was originally licensed please let me know and I will add it to the
has a few in his collection. It will be fun to as W7LPM and was a real expert in code. list. I don’t think you will regret running one
see who can actually use them to decode a He operated in WW2 in the Philippines and at your club; it really is both beneicial and a
message, Fig. 1. was luent in both American and Interna- lot of fun.
Needless to say, we will not be using tional Morse Code. He is a Silent Key now, The Essex Club was fortunate to receive
American Morse, only the International unfortunately, passing away some years sponsorship from FOC in order to run their
variety. Those railroad operators who had a ago, at the age of 87. We had regular skeds Bootcamp at a local village hall. They used
problem copying the distinct clickety-clack almost every day for years and visited with the money to acquire some training equip-
of the sounder used to place a tobacco-tin each other several times too. ment and are happy to offer it for loan to

34 Practical Wireless April 2019

Fig. 2: American Morse code. Fig. 3: Japanese Morse code.

other clubs running a Bootcamp. If you waiting for the silicone sealant to dry, it took
would like to borrow it, please contact Andy about two hours to build so could be a use-
G0IBN at: [email protected] ful club night project, Fig. 4. Source:
www.kent-engineers.com
M0AGA Chevron Paddle
If any of you are lucky enough to own a Adjusting Paddles
Rolls Royce paddle, the Chevron, made by I recently took my Begali HST apart, disas-
Kevin Gunstone M0AGA, you might be sembled the contacts and so on and gave it
interested in protecting it with a dust cover. a thoroughly good clean. I was surprised at
There are two people that I know of who just how much dust and accumulated luff
make these. One is Tom Kelly AB6Z (web- there was. I suppose I should have a dust Fig. 4: Kent Morse practice oscillator.
site below), who now has the dimensions cover to protect it, like those with the Chev-
for making a dust cover for Kevin’s Chevron ron probably have! After reassembly I spent pean propagation, say, on 40m, I get called
paddle. He can add your callsign (and FOC 20 minutes setting it up and adjusting the by stations only after my GW prefix, which
emblem where applicable) if you like. contacts. Again, surprisingly, it did make a means lots of 599/73 type contacts but that
gifts4hams.com difference to my keying accuracy. I thought can be fun too.
The other, in the UK but who sells world- my age was causing some mis-keys and “I don’t know if you use a panadapter
wide, is Pete Sobye G0PNM, who also has mistakes but I deinitely noticed an improve- but if you do, take a look on 20m a few
the dimensions for Kevin’s key. ment. It obviously pays to take a regular minutes before 1300UTC on a Wednesday
www.g0pnm.uk look at our paddles. [the CWops CW Test events, as Roger has
Pete featured on the last episode of TX If you have an MFJ-564B twin lever mentioned previously, run over three operat-
Factor when he was the winner of the prize paddle, there is a YouTube video regarding ing periods each Wednesday, the irst being
draw. He also makes other shack accesso- maintenance that’s worth a look: 1300 to 1400UTC – ed.]. Barring DXpedi-
ries, so it’s worth taking a look at his range https://youtu.be/uIXz-AZdDPM tions, the middle part of the CW section has
of products. When I am lucky enough to lately been flat as a snooker table. Then as
own a Chevron, I shall be in touch Pete! Rag Chewing the seconds approach 1300 and beyond,
There are so many 5nn73 QSOs now, that a forest of mid-height signals springs up
Morse Practice Oscillator some people have resorted to forcing the and lasts until 1400UTC when the forest
The following was sent to me by regular PW other station to actually say something in becomes a desert again. Post-CWT there
reader and correspondent Bob Houlston the way of conversation. This was the theme is clearly propagation – it’s just that nobody
G4PVB: KMK (Kent Morse Keys) offer a of Ray G4FON’s talk at the RSGB Conven- is on. Most CWTers, including me, want (or
ready-built Morse practice oscillator but tion this year. need) to upload their scores and get away
for just a fraction of the price you can build Stew GW0ETF/GW4J had this to say but maybe I’ll try hanging on with a few CQs
it if you supply the case. So, for use in my about it: “I find contesting immense fun but with my official CWops call (G(W)2CWO) in
GB2CW broadcasts I did. The instructions it doesn’t do much for my conversational case there may be some lingerers happy to
were clear and well presented. It worked skills. So, I do try to CQ outside of contests chew some rag. And there’s always 40m and
irst time. The pitch (quite pleasant) and when I can to try to rebalance things. At the 80m for us locals (80 is usually a graveyard
volume are variable. Silicone sealant (wear moment I try to spend some time around in the day). If this becomes a regular thing,
eye protection in use) secures most loose dusk here on 20m and regularly have some we could think about advertising it as a time
things. I itted 3.5mm and 6.35mm jack nice QSOs with West Coast/Rockies area for potential new members to look for those
sockets. Total cost, including the supplied but conditions usually keep them fairly short conversational QSOs”.
kit, about £30, though this will vary accord- plus sometimes if I’m lucky, there will be Please keep the input coming. 73 and
ing to what you have to hand. Apart from others waiting. Often when there’s Euro- May the Morse be with you. Roger G3LDI.

April 2019 Practical Wireless 35

 HF Highlights with Steve Telenius-Lowe PJ4DX
● E-mail: [email protected]

DXpeditions and Visitors

Steve Telenius-Lowe PJ4DX reports on some recent DXpeditions, one of which
brought some welcome visitors to his Caribbean island.

I
t’s well known that we’re now at Look Out for...
the bottom of the solar cycle and In last month’s column I suggested
waiting for some sunspots to re- looking out for TT8RR and TT8XX from
turn to enliven HF propagation. It’s Chad in March but added that I hoped
therefore not surprising that conditions “this group has more luck than Kenneth
during the period under review (second half LA7GIA, who... was closed down by the
of January and first half of February) were security police after only one day” when
less than stellar. But, while poor conditions he operated as TT8KO last October. It
on 15, 12 and 10m are to be expected at the seems the Italian DX Team also faced such
bottom of a solar cycle, at least in November difficulties because “The IDT DXpedition to
and December they were balanced by good Chad, initially planned for March 2019, has
– and occasionally spectacular – propagation been put on hold for security reasons. As
on 40, 80 and 160m. Unfortunately, by the a consequence, the activity from Uganda,
second half of January those days seemed originally planned for September – October
to be behind us, as propagation on the low this year, has been rescheduled from 13 to Fig. 1: The 9LY1JM DXpedition logo.
bands returned to normal and the higher 25 March 2019.” So, look out instead for
bands seemed to deteriorate further. 5X3C on SSB, CW and RTTY, and 5X3E
Nevertheless, there was at least one on FT8.
highlight worth reporting. The Radio Club de www.i2ysb.com/idt
Provins (F6KOP) team travelled to Banana
Island (AF-037) off the coast of Sierra Leone Readers’ News
and operated as 9LY1JM, Fig. 1, from Reg Williams G0OOF wrote that “For me
January 9th to 21st. With a group of ten it has not been too exciting on SSB during
experienced operators and an ocean-front January so I decided to take the plunge
location, 9LY1JM put out excellent signals and give WSJT-X v2 a go using FT8 mode. I
and made over 50,000 QSOs. I worked purchased a suitable USB CAT control and
them on all bands from 12m to 160m and on audio interface with leads suitable to use
both CW and SSB for a total of 13 band- with a second radio, a Kenwood TS-870.
mode slots. The group was also active on It took some time to get the configuration Fig. 2: The PJ4P operators, l to r Heye DJ9RR,
FT8, RTTY and PSK and the majority of this correct. Internet was useful to sort the Norbert DJ7JC and Emil DL8JJ.
month’s contributors to the column made at problem out. Pleased to say all is work-
least one contact with them. ing well with the software and radio. The The 2019 log of Victor Brand G3JNB
It was impressive to see that the 9LY1JM radio is set up for approximately 40W was opened by 9G2HO, the Ho City Univer-
log was uploaded to Logbook of the World maximum with no ALC. I have concentrated sity Technical Club’s station in Ghana, on
(LoTW) very soon after the end of the expe- mainly working on 17m with some excur- 17m followed by RT9X on 20m. Conditions
dition too. sions to 20m and 40m. 17m has provided were “infinitely variable on HF, from zilch to
a good number of USA stations, which I good copy” until the 11th when the effects
Bonaire Visitors am pleased about because I am collecting of a CME hit Earth. “The HF bands were so
In January we had the pleasure of welcom- states and counties on that band. These quiet until I noticed a faint signal that slipped
ing three well-known DXpeditioners to can be worked generally in the early after- in and out of audibility and eventually copied
Bonaire: Heye DJ9RR, Norbert DJ7JC and noon to evening time. My best contact so a weak CQ on 17m from 9LY1JM... which at
Emil DL8JJ, Fig. 2. They operated for eight far is RI1ANL, which was worked on 20m that moment seemed to be the only show
days as PJ4P using CW, SSB and FT8, and recently in the evening.” Reg also uses in town for the ‘Deserving’. I spent ages
made an entry in the CQ 160m CW contest. JTALERT-X and GridTracker and com- trying up and down the apparent split and,
All three operators have taken part in mented that GT is an interesting program eventually, got through after they kindly per-
numerous DXpeditions, many of which I’m but really needs a second screen on which severed with my callsign... On 40m Richard
sure HF Highlights readers will have worked. to show it. He concludes by saying “When 9M2MRS, Fig. 3, located over 6,500 miles
Take a look at their impressive CVs on the conditions improve, I will be returning to away in West Malaysia, was spotted on the
PJ4P QRZ.com page: SSB. In the meantime, FT8 is nicely filling Cluster calling CQ and was just audible
www.qrz.com/db/pj4p the gap.” here late afternoon on the 14th. With my

36 Practical Wireless April 2019

Fig. 3: Richard 9M2MRS (PA0RRS) in his shack in Fig. 4: The 9M2MRS antenna overlooking the sea from Penang, Malaysia.
West Malaysia.

50W to my half-sloper/doublet, I called and

called for 50 minutes and could faintly hear
Richard’s occasional reply despite fast and
deep QSB but it was not until dusk ap-
proached that we actually worked on a short
peak, followed by a delightful comparing
of notes over Cluster’s personal messaging
link. He was running an FT-450D with 100W
to a G5RV propped up on his balcony. Fig.
4. The magic of ham radio!” Back on 20m,
HH2AA, the Haiti Radio Club, was running a
pile-up from Port-au-Prince and, despite a
wide split, replied to Victor’s first call, as did
9M2YDX and then PJ4P on Bonaire. Finally,
P4/DL4MM on Aruba eventually obliged on
40m, Victor reports.
Martin Evans GW4TPG reckoned it was
a “bit of a mixed bag this time around, due
mainly to other duties keeping me out of the Fig. 5: Screenshot of 60m FT8 operation by Kevin ZB2GI.
shack and away from the good stuff, giving
me limited DX chasing time. Still I managed should have some news reports on 160m morning with evidence of polar flutter on
to achieve 101 worked on 80m to complete because I am in the process of putting up a his audio. ET3AA was heard two afternoons
5BDXCC worked plus DXCC on 12, 17 tree-mounted inverted-L. The Battle Creek running at the end of the month. I spent a
and 30m as well. I just need another 19 to Special is working so well on 40m and 80m few afternoons trying to work RI1ANM at
confirm on 80m to get the full award. Santa I want to try to leave it alone if possible and the Vostok base in Antarctica. I heard him
brought me a couple of good books, The have a totally separate topband antenna.” calling CQ but his signal was just above the
RSGB Amateur Radio Operating Manual and Owen Williams G0PHY said there was noise and suffering from QSB. So, there’s
DXing On the Edge: The Thrill of 160 Meters “not much activity this month with more definitely DX about. On 7MHz the best DX
[by Jeff Briggs K1ZM – PJ4DX]. The Oper- time spent listening than making contacts... was UA6BQU near the Sea of Azov. Stations
ating Manual is always a good book to keep The month got off to a slow start; the first in Kuwait and Indonesia were heard but not
in the shack as it’s packed to the rafters with contact being on the 15th with the French worked.”
good information, edited by a certain PJ4DX team in Sierra Leone, 9LY1JM, on 14MHz. Etienne Vrebos ON8DN/OS8D said he
I think [Thanks for the ‘flowers’ Martin, but I Next was the German team on Bonaire, had “Some activity this month of January
can’t take all the credit: it was a joint effort PJ4P, again on 14MHz. The only other but disappointed by the poor activity in gen-
with Mike G3XDV – PJ4DX]. It’s interesting station of any note worked on 14MHz was eral and really poor propagation.” He used
to compare the latest edition with the first 7X2VFK from, according to their QRZ. an Icom IC-7851 and Acom 1500 amplifier
one I bought way back in 1983 and see just com page, the Sahara Desert. There were, with 1000W output to a Hexbeam 8m above
how much the hobby has changed. For ex- however, quite a few stations to chase on ground and a Butternut HF2V at ground
ample, the older edition has a way of cutting 14MHz. On most days there were some east level with 40 radials for 40m and 80m. On
noise from a Creed Teleprinter by placing coast USA stations audible and I heard one 80m he worked “mostly Europeans” but
it on a paving slab (!), the new edition in station just west of Chicago giving his local managed a QSO with yours truly PJ4DX
contrast not surprisingly has no mention temperature as –29 centigrade! RD0B/P on 20m SSB and on 17m Etienne worked
of a teleprinter whatsoever. Next month I on Dickson Island was a strong signal one an ATNO (All Time New One) in the form of

April 2019 Practical Wireless 37

 HF Highlights

5X2B (Uganda). Despite his complaint of

really poor propagation, Etienne’s 20m log
in particular would be the envy of many HF
operators (see band reports).
Despite being at the bottom of the solar
cycle, Tony Usher G4HZW says he hasn’t
given up on 10m. He “called CQ most days
(FT8, Yaesu FT-450, 50W, 4-element Sirio
CB antenna) but conditions have been dire
even on FT8... More on offer on 40m (FT8,
Yaesu FT-450, 50W, quarter-wave vertical
with 16 radials): east coast Ws, loads of EUs
and a couple of JAs. I did listen on 20m
using the FT-450 plus my Wellbrook loop
and saw plenty of DX there with west coast
Ws, JA, VK and ZL. I have an appropriate
fibreglass pole and I’ll perhaps give 20m a
go some time, although by then it’ll be the
Sporadic E season and I’ll be thinking 10m
is not a bad band after all!”
Terry Martin M0CLH again offers “a
smallish log as painting and decorating takes
over from actual building work! Also, more
experiments with WSPRlite – it’s amazing
how far 20mW signals go (at least on the
lower bands). Good to catch a VK on 40m
and fill a slot with the slightly unusual call-
sign of 9LY1JM.”
When Kevin Hewitt ZB2GI was operat-
ing portable from the top of the Rock of
Gibraltar in January, “the rock apes pulled
the 10m wire off the balun. After recon-
necting the wire with John King ZB2JK, Fig. 6: The 2E0HPI/P set-up on the North Sea coast.
20m was open across the pond into the US
and Canada with S9 reports in both direc- 80m CW: 7X4AN. 80m FT8: GD3YUM
tions.” Kevin added that on 60m FT8, Fig. (Martin’s 100th DXCC on 80m), K0TT, PJ4P, OD5ZZ, TF2MSN, Z68M. 20m SSB:
5, he worked into Brazil, Italy, Sweden and S01WS, YV5JLO. 40m CW: TZ4AM. 30m KA2HTV. 20m CW: 9LY1JM, LZ1354PM,
Turkey: “all countries awarded full-time 60m CW: 9LY1JM, J68GD. 30m FT8: A41ZZ, PJ4P. 20m RTTY: P4/S50N. 20m FT8:
allocations at the end of 2018.” A92GE, C5YK, CU2AP, FG/F6ITD, HS0ZGV, 3B9FR, 9G5ZS, FG8OJ, PY2VA, RV9DC.
Carl Gorse 2E0HPI/P says that he had J73HGL, JR1LJZ, XP3A (Greenland), 17m CW: EA9/DL2JRM. 17m FT8: N5WA,
a sore throat for a few weeks so had not YE1AR. 20m CW: 9LY1JM. 20m RTTY: VE1JBC.
done much radio but, “feeling much better 9LY1JM. 20m FT8: 7X3WPL, 9G2HO, Kevin ZB2GI, operating both from home
this morning, I took the Elecraft KX2 and A41ZZ, HH2AA, TR8CA. and /P from the Top of the Rock, reports:
MFJ-1979 vertical to the beach at Crimdon, Owen G0PHY used SSB only to work, on 60m FT8: 5B4ALX, EA8OM, HB0WR,
Fig. 6. Only using the internal battery pack, 40m: OL120AB, UA6BQU. 20m: 7X2VFK, K1CF, K2JL, K4CIA, N6AR, N9US, PY7DJ,
I set the power to 2W. I did quite well [see 9LY1JM, PJ4P. TA4RC, VE1YX, ZP4KFX, W3WTE. 20m
band reports]. It just shows what can be Etienne ON8DN / OS8D also used SSB SSB: DQ1200ASP (1200yrs city of Asperg),
achieved under the current conditions and only to work, on 40m: HI1LT, OY1OF, T77LA. GD1JNB, K1BZ, K4WMS, K0TRL, KB2DMD,
the recent solar storm using the North Sea 20m: 3B9VB, 9LY1JM, 9X9PJ, CX1AV, KE5EE, N2BJ, N8ZDE, R900BL, VE1BEJ,
and low power. Next month I am planning ET3AA, EY7AD, FG4NN, FM8QR, HS0ZNR, VE2N, VE3ZZ, W3FOX, W4UW, WA6AEE.
on more activity – just hoping the snow does JI1ICF, JY5MM, PJ2DD, PJ4P, RI1ANM 15m FT8: EW7A.
not return any time soon!” (Antarctica), ST2ND, TO7D (Guadeloupe), Carl 2E0HPI/P used 20m SSB: 4Z4DX,
UK8FAI, UN0LM, VK4SX, VU2VID, YF9CDL, EB7HQE, LY3A, OG5T, RA1QGN, SP8GEW,
Band Reports ZD7FT, ZL2BAQ, ZS1AFS. 17m: 5X2B, SY2BEW, YU7SMA.
Reg G0OOF used FT8 exclusively to work, 6Y6Y, 9LY1JM, TI8II.
on 40m: EA9ABC, TF5B, WW1WW. 20m: Tony G4HZW used FT8 only: 40m: Signing Off
A45XR, LU5DT, PY2BL, RI1ANL, TF8V, JF2XGF, JR1XGF. 10m: PU1JSV, PY2CP, Thanks to all contributors. Please send all
VE3ODR. 17m: 7Z1IS, A45XR, CO8LY, PY5KD, ZP4KD. input for this column to teleniuslowe@
CU2AP, FG8OJ, KW4SP, PY1SX, SV9BMG, Terry M0CLH offers these: 40m CW: gmail.com by the 11th of each month. For
ZS6HON. DL70AFUG, PJ4P. 40m FT8: LZ1354PM, the June issue the deadline is April 11th. 73,
Martin GW4TPG worked the following: VK3OD. 30m FT8: 4Z5AV, EA9CD, K1GUY, Steve PJ4DX.

38 Practical Wireless April 2019

 ML&S No. 1 FOR SDR RADIO Click www.HamRadio.co.uk for our full range of SDR products
Wessex House,

0345 2300 599 Drake Avenue, Staines,

Middlesex TW18 2AP
E-mail: [email protected]
www.HamRadio.co.uk Opening Hours:
SAFE ONLINE SHOPPING Mon - Fri: 8.30am to 5pm.
Martin Lynch & Sons Ltd
Ltd. Shopping online with ML&S is safe
and secure. E&OE Sat: 9am to 4.30pm.
International Tel:
THE WORLD FAMOUS HAM RADIO STORE FOLLOW US ON TWITTER AND FACEBOOK HamRadioUK
+44 1932 567 333

GEOCHRON 4K UHD DIGITAL www.HamRadio.co.uk/geochron FLEXRADIO SYSTEMS

GEOGRAPHICAL CHRONOMETER The next generation of transceivers
The Geochron Digital 4k UHD displays a full-
featured Geochron World Clock on any 4k TV,
from FlexRadio are finally here.
with every mapset and lighting option available
in our famous mechanical clock but at a fraction
of the cost. Now in the digital format, users
customize markers on the map, and recieve (with
internet) real time updates.
• High performance 32-bit ARM processor
ML&S are the sole UK distributors for • The board is fully assembled and tested
the new ZUMspot RPi, an advanced • Supports DMR, P-25, D-Star, System
radio module board. Fusion and NXDN Click www.HamRadio.co.uk/flex
• Onboard LEDs to show status (Tx, Rx,
COME AND SEE OUR DISPLAY UNIT FOR THE FLEX RANGE
Featuring DMR, D-Star, C4FM, PTT, Mode)
Only £144.94 • Up to 10mW RF power OF SDR TRANSCEIVERS
P25 & NXDN Hotspot. Advanced SDR available with or without front panels.
All ZUMspot • SMA antenna connector, UHF antenna
Packages supplied includedMounts cleanly on all current Following on from the previous range, the new 64/6600 series offer the latest
Raspberry Piís including the Pi Zero SDR technology housed in a stylish cabinet with or without the inbuilt colour
by ML&S Include:
• Works on ODROID boards screen and control functions. The ultimate performance direct sampling SDR
ZUMspot Pi UHF
• The firmware is pre-loaded and is easily
Board, UHF technology and the best value for the serious HF/6m operator. Designed for the
upgraded via software.
Antenna, Raspberry • Built-in 1.3” OLED display
Ham who wants to operate the radio exclusively as a server from PC, laptop,
Pi Zero WH, • Connection for Nextion LCD display Maestro, Mac, or iOS clients – whether local or remote.
MMDVM software For more info see HamRadio. • Open source firmware (MMDVM) and
and Plastic Case co.uk/ZUMspot board design
FLEX 6400: £1999.00.
FLEX 6400M: £2999.00.
NEW ANAN-7000DLE MkII i7 100W HF+6M TRANSCEIVER FLEX 6600: £3999.
FLEX 6600M: £4999.

SotaBeams ContestConsole
ML&S: £3899.95 Switching unit for ICOM transceivers. Gain full
control of your ICOM radio with the SOTABEAMS
See: www.HamRadio.co.uk/7000DLE MkII
ContestConsole. Easy to use - connects between
The NEW ANAN-7000DLE MKII monoblock • Integrated i7 Windows 10 computer with SDR your radio and microphone. ML&S ONLY: £69.95
SDR transceiver incorporates an Intel 8th client preloaded and calibrated at the factory see www.hamradio.co.uk/contestconsole
making the radio completely plug and play. (NO
Generation i5/i7 core computer, the SDR EXTERNAL PC Required)
client software is pre-loaded and calibrated
making the unit completely Plug & Play!
• Capable of driving three full HD monitors, ideal for
digital modes.
SDRplay RSPduo
• Stainless steel chassis and large aluminum
Unlike other Software Defined Radios which
incorporate embedded processing with
heatsink for excellent thermal dissipation and Rx/
Tx isolation.
DUAL TUNER 14-BIT SDR
limited capabilities and no upgrade path, the • PA board improvements for higher duty cycle, Dual-Tuner wideband full
ANAN-7000DLE MKII uses a powerful Intel 100% ICAS duty cycle supported. feature 14-bit SDR, 1kHz to
• Tx Signal generation redesigned to improve SNR 2GHz, 10MHz of spectrum
8th Generation Quad core SoC and Windows at low power levels.
10, this allows for digital transmission such as • Intel i7 Quad core CPU with 128GB SSD, 8 GB
visibility. Simultaneously
FT8 and others out of the box. DDR4 RAM and Windows 10 OEM Home monitor 2 separate 2MHz
bands of spectrum between
1kHz and 2GHz. 3 software
ANAN-8000DLE ML&S: £3899.95 selectable antenna inputs,
& clocking features
HF & 6M 200W SDR ideally suited to industrial,
Available from stock and it’s on demonstration at our scientific, Ham & educational
London Showroom. www.HamRadio.co.uk/8000DLE applications. Windows 10. ML&S ONLY: £239.95
See www.HamRadio.co.uk/RSPDUO
ELAD FDM-DUO ML&S: £899.95

The FDM-DUO is a game-changer - a top-end SDR SDRplay RSP-1a 1kHz-2GHz & 10MHz BW.
with dials and knobs! ML&S ONLY: £89.95 Brand new design, the RSP1A is a major
upgrade to the popular RSP1 offering a
This transceiver has a 5W output that can operate as
powerful wideband full featured SDR covering
a stand-alone unit, without a PC! The small transceiver Also available Receive only 1kHz to 2GHz & up to 10MHz visible
is equipped with the latest SDR technology. in special version also bandwidth. Better still, it’s “Built & Designed
www.HamRadio.co.uk/fdmduoR red edition: available: in Britain”!!
£939.95 £699.95.
SDRplay RSP2
ELAD AMPLIFIER DUO-ART
as RSP1a plus 3 SW inputs. ML&S ONLY: £154.95
60W / 120W HF/50MHz Linear Amplifier & Auto ATU
with built-in PSU.
SDRplay RSPPro
ML&S: 60W VERSION 120W VERSION
£1099.95 £829.95 £999.95 as RSP2 but in steel case. ML&S ONLY: £189.95

ML&S - the World’s largest independent Flex dealer

 Click www.HamRadio.co.uk for our full range of YAESU products
Wessex House,

0345 2300 599 Drake Avenue, Staines,

Middlesex TW18 2AP
E-mail: [email protected]
www.HamRadio.co.uk Opening Hours:
SAFE ONLINE SHOPPING Mon - Fri: 8.30am to 5pm.
Martin Lynch & Sons Ltd
Ltd. Shopping online with ML&S is safe
and secure. E&OE Sat: 9am to 4.30pm.
International Tel:
THE WORLD FAMOUS HAM RADIO STORE FOLLOW US ON TWITTER AND FACEBOOK HamRadioUK
+44 1932 567 333

YAESU FTDX101D SDR HF/50MHZ

YAESU is excited to introduce a new High-Class HF/50MHz 100W NEW!! FT-4XE
Transceiver. The new FTdx101D utilises the latest SDR Technology
and classified as our High-End HF line, the FTDX series, which Ultra-compact 5W
amateurs have come to know represents quality. handie with base-
The new Yaesu FTdx101D (100W) and FTdx101MP charger.

POP IN TO THE STORE & USE OUR (200W) first shipment due early 2019. ML&S ONLY : £62.95
DEMONSTRATOR TODAY!
DEPOSIT ONLY £100 - FINAL PRICE AND AVAILABILITY TBA. FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK
WWW.HAMRADIO.CO.UK/FT4XE

SEE OUR WEB SITE FOR ITS REMARKABLE FEATURES.

YAESU FT-857D
YAESU EARLY
YAESU FT-818ND SPRING CASHBACK YAESU FTDX3000D
6W 160m-70cm Handie Expires 30th April. HF/6m Base Station
MkII version of the ever
popular FT-817, 6W, Larger
£40 Looking for a HF/6m Base Station
sized radio at a VERY LOW PRICE?
Battery, TCXO as standard, FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK
5MHz. ML&S: £1399.95 WWW.HAMRADIO.CO.UK/FTDX3000D

Want to work HF mobile? Thousands of Hams

YAESU FT-DX5000MP LTD around the world use the FT-857D. 160m-70cm, add
• Increased power output 6W(SSB, CW, FM) • Operates on 160-10m , HF, 6m, 2m and the optional ATAS-120D to your car and you have an
2.0W(AM Carrier) *NEW! 70cm Bands HF/50MHz 200W Transceiver instant HF station on 4 wheels. We even include the
• Improved frequency stability ±0.5 ppm : • Ultra Compact and Portable Twin RX YSK-857 remote kit for mounting FREE.
Built-in TCXO-9 *NEW! • Two Antenna Connectors
• Larger battery capacity : 9.6V/1,900mAh • IF Shift, IF Noise Blanker, IPO, ATT ML&S NOW ONLY : £729.95
(SBR-32) *NEW! • CW “Semi-Break-in”, CW Reverse, CW ML&S NOW ONLY : £3199.95 or with an ATAS-120A Auto-tune
FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK
• 5MHz band (WRC-15 + UK frequency) Pitch Control ADD SM-5000: £3499.95 WWW.HAMRADIO.CO.UK/FTDX5000MP antenna only £969.95
Operation available *NEW! • Built-in Electronic Keyer
FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK
• 208 Memory Channels / 10 Memory Groups • Multi-Colour Easy to see LCD WWW.HAMRADIO.CO.UK/FT857D
• Internal Battery Operation Capability YAESU FTDX1200
• ARS Automatic Repeater Shift
ML&S: £574.95 IN STOCK • APO Automatic Power Off
HF/6m Base. Sister Rig YAESU FT-8900R
FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK • Front Panel Key Lock Mode to FTdx3000 FREE
WWW.HAMRADIO.CO.UK/FT818
YSK-8900
Can’t quite stretch to the FTdx3k? Remote Kit
No worries! The ever dependable
YAESU FTM-7250DE FTdx1200 is available at a special
2/70 50W C4FM Mobile price still less than £1000. See ML&S video review
FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK
ML&S NOW ONLY : £919.95 www.HamRadio.co.uk/ftdx1200video
WWW.HAMRADIO.CO.UK/FTD1200
ML&S: £229.95
FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK YAESU EARLY High-power FM on 10m, 6m, 2m & 70cm. When your
WWW.HAMRADIO.CO.UK/FTM7250DE
YAESU FT-891 SPRING CASHBACK local repeater is busy, slip onto 10m & work DX!
Expires 30th April.
HF/6m Base/Mobile ML&S NOW ONLY : £269.95
YAESU FT-991A
Compact base station radio
YAESU EARLY
SPRING CASHBACK A modern day FT-857 without 2&70. Bang
£70 FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK
WWW.HAMRADIO.CO.UK/FT8900E
Expires 30th April. up to date in looks and smaller than a 2m
with beautiful touch-screen
display & 160-70cm coverage.
HF/50/144/430MHz. All-Mode
£90 only FM rig of 25 years ago!
YAESU FTM-400XDE
ML&S NOW ONLY : £579.95
“Field Gear” Transceiver
FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK WWW.HAMRADIO.CO.UK/FT891

ML&S NOW ONLY: £1199.95 Offering superb performance from Top Band to 70cm, the
Large
FT-991a is compact without being too small, easy to use without
FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK
WWW.HAMRADIO.CO.UK/FT991A missing out on features and above all great value for money.
YAESU FT-450D Colour
The best value HF/6m Base with Touch
ATU on the planet Screen
YAESU FT-70DE Display
£659.95 ML&S NOW ONLY : £369.95
5W Rugged Designed (meets IP54) Handie.
Covering 108-137MHz Airband AM and 2/70 transceive on FM/C4FM ML&S NOW ONLY : £599.95 FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK
WWW.HAMRADIO.CO.UK/FT450D
FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK
WWW.HAMRADIO.CO.UK/FT400DXE
Digital. A massive 700mW of audio ensures extra-loud volume with Clear
Voice technology.
YAESU FT-2980D YAESU FTM-3207DE YAESU FTM-3200E
ML&S NOW ONLY: £169.95 C4FM 430MHz 55W Transceiver C4FM 2m Transceiver
YAESU FT-65E YAESU With new
FT-2DE digital C4FM
VHF/UHF 2m/70cm Dual (Fusion).
Band FM Handheld Handheld
The Yaesu FT-65e dual-band 2 with Large
metre/440MHz has three output power LCD Display
levels: 5, 2.5 or 0.5 watts. Receive
coverage is 65-108 (FM broadcast
Advanced FT- ML&S £149.95 ML&S £189.95 65Watt 144MHz with AMS 2m Mobile.
band), 136-174 and 400-500MHz. The
2DE C4FM/FM FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK ML&S £189.95
144/430MHz www.HamRadio.co.uk/ft2980 www.HamRadio.co.uk/ftm3207 www.HamRadio.co.uk/ftm3200
FT-65e is compact and light, yet ruggedly
Dual Band Digital
constructed. The speaker provides a full 1
Handie.
Watt of powerful, clear audio. ML&S - THE UK’S NO.1
ML&S: £89.95 ML&S NOW ONLY: £299.95
YAESU DISTRIBUTOR
For full terms & conditions of Yaesu Cashback offers please see: www.HamRadio.co.uk/cashback

You can now order from ML&S Web purchases: Just select
for delivery on a Saturday or Saturday or Sunday at the
Sunday! check-out.
Order before 3pm as late as Friday of Or call to place your order for
each week and see it delivered at the Saturday or Sunday delivery on
weekend. 0345 2300 599
 ML&S STOCK THE FULL RANGE OF NEW ICOM PRODUCTS

NEW!! ICOM IC-9700 2/70/23 BASE STATION ONLY £1795.95 ICOM IC-7300
100 Watt - HF/50/70MHz TRANSCEIVER with SSB / CW / RTTY / AM / FM
Deposits being taken now HamRadio.co.uk/ic9700

Get your deposit down now with

an ICOM IC-9700 VHF/UHF/1.2GHz
Transceiver Reservation.
ML&S is pleased to announce our
reservation program for the exciting
new ICOM IC-9700.
These VHF/UHF All-Mode Direct
Sampling transceivers sport the
absolute latest technology.
• All mode, tri-band transceiver • Full duplex operation/ Dual Watch (no • D-STAR provides clear digital audio The IC7300 sports HF+6m+4m coverage, it’s 100W, houses an eye-catching
covering 144 MHz, 430MHz as well VHF/VHF or UHF/UHF capability.) • Voice recording/playback function touchscreen TFT display and includes an internal antenna tuner.
as 1.2GHz • PA will provide a powerful 100 W (SD memory card)
• Supports CW/AM/SSB/FM/RTTY (144MHz), 75W (430MHz) and 10W • Audio scope
ML&S ONLY : £1199.95
and D-STAR Digital Voice and Digital (1200MHz) output • CW full break-in FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK WWW.HAMRADIO.CO.UK/IC7300

Data modes • 4.3” touchscreen colour TFT LCD

• 144MHz and 430MHz band is direct • Smooth satellite operation with NEW ICOM IC-R8600
sampling. The 1.2GHz uses down normal/reverse tracking and 99 New 100kHz-3GHz Receiver with SDR technology from IC-7300.
conversions as well. satellite channels
ARRIVING APRIL 2019! CLICK HAMRADIO.CO.UK/IC9700

ICOM IC-7610 ICOM IC-R30 SCANNER

CALL FOR BEST OFFER

100KHz-
3.3GHz, ML&S ONLY : £2499.95
AM/FM/WFM/ FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK WWW.HAMRADIO.CO.UK/ICR8600
SSB/CW.
Digi-Modes
P25/NXDN/ ICOM IC-7100 ICOM IC-2730
dPMR & HF/6/4/70 Base & Mobile DUAL BAND
The Icom IC-7610 is a complete redesign of the former IC- D-Star. Transceiver with remote control MOBILE
7600 following on from the huge success of the IC-7300. head unit.
100W, Dual band receive and a huge widescreen display.
• Further evolved RF direct • DIGI-SEL unit that eliminates
sampling method. excessively strong signals is FREE
• Excellent RMDR: 105dB installed in the main and sub A practical easy to use Dual MBF-4
realised. of the receiving section. Bander with remote head.
• Dual watch function can • High-speed real-time spectrum
receive simultaneously in scope and waterfall display ML&S ONLY : £289.95
different bands and different function. FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK
modes. • 7-inch full-colour touch panel. ML&S ONLY : £569.95 ML&S ONLY : £999.95 WWW.HAMRADIO.CO.UK/IC2730

FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK

FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK WWW.HAMRADIO.CO.UK/IC7610 WWW.HAMRADIO.CO.UK/IC7100
WWW.HAMRADIO.CO.UK/ICR30
ICOM ID-5100
Full Down Conversion and ICOM IC-7851
Roofing Filters Promise the Best
Performance of Your DX Life. HF/50MHz Base Station
Transceiver
FULL operation on HF/6m/4m
NEW KENWOOD TS-890S (yes, it really has 70MHz!)
Full Down Conversion RX
Latest 2/70 D-Star Touch Screen
Transceiver from Icom. Bluetooth
HF/50MHz/70MHz Base Station ✓ H-mode Mixer
✓ High C/N 1st LO
connectivity and second station control
through an Android device.
Built-in Roofing Filters ML&S ONLY : £574.95
✓ 500Hz / 2.7kHz / 6kHz /
15kHz Built to order like its predecessor, the FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK
WWW.HAMRADIO.CO.UK/ID5100
new IC-7851 is set to be a master-class
7-inch Colour Display transceiver of the highest order. Based
✓ Roofing Frequency Sampling on the Limited production run and
Band Scope very exclusive IC-7850, the IC-7851 is
LOOKING FOR COMMERCIAL
✓ Auto Scroll Mode available today to order. Top prices paid GRADE DMR FROM YOUR
TRADE IN’S TAKEN! ✓ Multi Information Screen on all trade-ins.
FAVOURITE STORE?
✓ 100W Heavy Duty Built-in
ML&S NEW PRICE : £3499.95 Antenna Tuner CALL FOR BEST OFFER
FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK
TYT MD-UV380
AVAILABLE NOW, SEE WWW.HAMRADIO.CO.UK/TS890S WWW.HAMRADIO.CO.UK/IC7851
Enter the new digital age in style
with the TYT MD-UV380 DMR
KENWOOD TH-D74E KENWOOD TS-590SG KENWOOD TS-990S AOR AR-DV10 Digital Portable Two Way Radio!
Dual Band Handie with unique APRS, 160-6m Base with ATU. 200W HF/50MHz Base Station ALL MODE DUAL BAND
D-Star & HF SSB receive coverage. Upgraded version HF & 6M FULL Transceiver with Dual TFT Display 100kHz-1.3GHz Digital VHF/UHF DMR
DSP Base Transceiver and Dual Receiver. Receiver HANDHELD
APRS communication
protocol that provides “The most Advanced 137-174/400-
real-time data
communication in Hand Held Receiver 480MHz DMR
both directions by
available today” Handie 5W.
applying the packet
communication, RRP £999.95 RRP: £139.95
corresponding to
the APRS. Share of ML&S ONLY : £1299.95 CALL FOR PRICE ML&S Only £799.95 ML&S: £89.95
position information
and local information FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK
using a GPS, such as
FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK
WWW.HAMRADIO.CO.UK/TS590SG
FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK
WWW.HAMRADIO.CO.UK/TS990S WWW.HAMRADIO.CO.UK/ARDV10 TYT MD-9600
a message exchange,
communication using New improved model
now in stock.
a variety of functions
can be enjoyed in this ML&S AWARDED KENWOOD £279.95
unit alone.
ML&S ONLY : £499.95 “DEALER OF THE YEAR” including free
programming
FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK
WWW.HAMRADIO.CO.UK/THD74E 2018-2019 cable.

HAM RADIO TRAINING ACADEMY NOW OPEN BOOK NOW! FOR FURTHER INFORMATION Click www.HamRadio.co.uk/training
£99.95 including programming cable.
 Kits & Modules with Geoff Theasby G8BMI
l E-mail: [email protected]

Noise Generator &

Component Identiier
Geoff Theasby G8BMI has two more low-price projects for the shack.

D
esigned by K7QO and
bought from QRP Guys
in the USA for £14,
this noise generator
is very simple but
useful, nevertheless. I built it in an
hour and it worked irst time. It is quite
straightforward, an avalanche or Zener
diode followed by three stages of Fig. 1: CW ilter shape, using the noise generator Fig. 2: As Fig. 1 but for the RTTY iltering.
ampliication. It contains its own on-board and smartphone App.
battery so it will be of use ‘in the ield’. It
generates 40dB of noise at 7MHz, 30dB
at 14MHz and 1dB at 28MHz. Use it
with an ATU to tune for lowest SWR by
adjusting for minimum noise. I ind that
the peaks on my ATU are much sharper
and more pronounced than when tuning
an antenna by ear on the receiver. Also,
receiver ilters can be checked using a
software spectrum analyser ‘app’ on a
smartphone or PC. (Such as ‘Frequensee’
for Android smartphones, or DL4YHF’s
audio analyser on the PC) No electrical
connection to the smartphone is required.
Using my Icom R-70 receiver tuned to
7MHz, I can see the shape of its ilters,
SSB to 3kHz, CW 500Hz and RTTY
200Hz. The photos, Figs. 1 and 2, show
the CW and RTTY ilter characteristics.
https://qrpguys.com/k7qo-noise-bridge

Component Identiier
Known as M328 Mr4, this module, Fig. 3,
available on eBay, will test and measure
semiconductors, resistors, capacitors,
inductors and so on. Using a ‘zero
insertion force’ IC socket for items under
test, it is not so sophisticated as those
from Peak Electronics, for example,
but it only costs £5! Readout is on a
monochrome LCD display, 55 x 30mm.
The unboxed PCB had a tendency to Fig. 3: The component identiier.
rock in use on the bench, so I itted
self-adhesive rubber feet, after which it was 9.8Ω and 94mH; a 2N3702 as a as Vfwd 1.82. Semiconductor leads are
was happy. In practical tests, a toroid PNP transistor, hFE 82 (Speciication also identiied. This device does not like
wound for a QRP ATU was measured as is 60-300); a 10kΩ resistor as 10.09kΩ; voltage regulators, power transistors,
0.3Ω and 0.02mH; a transmitting choke a 33pF capacitor as 32pF and an LED power MOSFETs or power Darlingtons.

42 Practical Wireless April 2019

Visit our new Book Store at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk

TOP TITLES
Auntie’s War World Radio TV
A curated collection of articles
gleaned from the BBC archives Handbook 2019
in this 422 page hardback book. This book continues to offer the
Reviewed as “a good read”. most comprehensive guide to
broadcasting. Itagain provide the
most up-to-date information on
mediumwave, shortwave and FM
broadcasts and broadcasters.
Book of the Month £20.00 plus p&p £35 plus p&p
Subscriber price £19.00 plus p&p Subscriber price £34 plus p&p
The Full Licence Manual
£11.99 plus p&p Radio Caroline: Wartime
Subscriber price £10.99 plus p&p The Pirate Years Broadcasting
Revised since its first publication During the wartime years, the BBC
This new and updated edition covers the 2019 syllabus in 2003, this title details a history was the sole radio broadcaster in
for exams July 2019 onwards and contains all of the of offshore radio from 1958 to Britain, boosting morale through
information required to move to the final stage of 1980, providing accounts of ship – programmes. Reviewed as “a
and fort-based radio stations and fascinating read”.
amateur radio licensing. a history of Radio Caroline.

UNFORTUNATELY SUBSCRIBER PRICES ARE REDEEMABLE £18.95 plus p&p £7.99 plus p&p
BY PRINTED MAGAZINE SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscriber price £17.95 plus p&p Subscriber price £6.99 plus p&p

RSGB Deluxe Log Book RSGB Yearbook 2019 Callseeker Plus Radio Listener’s
and Diary 2019 528 pages of around 88,000
callsigns, the latest information
2019 CD Guide 2019
A generous log section with plenty about the RSGB, the committees This electronic version of the RSGB The 31st edition of the annual
of space for you to record a whole and services, local information Yearbook 2019 has been produced guide for UK radio listeners is
years’ worth of activity but also about regional representation, on a handy CD Rom disk. Search- now available. Providing news
the latest UK Band plans, RSGB affiliated clubs, contest groups ing is quick and easy with search and information for listener’s,
contest calendar, DXCC prefix list, and repeater groups. options for callsign, name or loca- with coverage of all the key
RSGB QSL Bureau information, tion. You can even print the results developments in analogue, digital
plus much more. in a variety of formats. and internet radio.

£4.99 plus p&p £17.99 plus p&p £15.99 plus p&p £6.95 plus p&p
Subscriber price £3.99 plus p&p Subscriber price £16.99 plus p&p Subscriber price £14.99 plus p&p Subscriber price £5.95 plus p&p

Getting Started in The Voices – Spying Scanners 7 x Practical Wireless

and Radio Warfare
ns, The Maltings, West St

Amateur Radio Includes details of an increasing

catio re e t
ubli

A curated collection of articles

, Bo
pP

2018fromArchive CD in
ou ur n
Gr e,
rs Lin
ne cs
ar

number of “apps” for smartphones gleaned the BBC archives

W .P

by

E1
during the Cold War

0
ed
If you want to know something

9P
sh

H
bli
specifically for radio data decod- this
All422 pageofhardback
Practicalbook.

Pu
issues
about the hobby, or are newly ing, including programs for digital Reviewed
Wirelessaspublished
“a good read”.
photographs and
Copyright in all drawings, on this CD is fully
information published

Based on the series of RadCom

in whole or

in 2018
protected and reproduction All reasonable

licensed or are even just looking

part is expressly forbidden.
by Practical Wireless
precautions are taken

scanner communications decod-

advice and data given

articles published in 2000-2001,

to ensure that the We cannot,
to our readers is reliable. we cannot

now available in a handy

it and
however, guarantee
for it. Prices and

for something different, Getting

accept legal responsibility current in 2018.
information are those

ing for which a smartphone can be

Practic
d
this book has been edited from CD ROM.

ende

al W
Started in Amateur Radio provides
2018 ARCHIVE

omm
linked to an existing scanner radio

i re l e
those articles and expanded with

re c

ss
-B
the answers.

ve
NOW AVAILABLE

bo

rita
to decode.

da
new pictures.
A complete PDF Archive

in’
sb
an
2018

es
.0
of Practical Wireless
7 ts
er ing
ell
ad
Re am
at ate
ob
Acr adio
ur r
be
Ado maga

£14.99plus p&p
zine since 1932

£8.99 plus p&p £9.99 plus p&p £9.95 plus p&p £20.00 05/02/2019 13:10

Subscriber price £7.99 plus p&p Subscriber price £8.99 plus p&p Subscriber price £8.95 plus p&p Subscriberprice
Subscriber price£19.00
£13.99plus
plusp&p
p&p

60 Antennas You 50 projects for Point to Point Point

RadiotoUser
Point
2018 catio
ns, The Maltings, West St

Radio Amateurs
re e t
ubli

Will Want to Build Archive CD

, Bo
pP ur n
ou
Gr

This volume looks back at a time This volume looks back at a time
e,
rs Lin
ne cs
ar .P
W

when short wave technology was when short wave technology 2018 ARCHIVE

by

E1
0
ed

9P
sh
Drawn together from a wide array

H
Setting out a huge array of de-

bli
Pu
of RadioUser 2018
exploited for international com- wasAllexploited
issues offor
Radio User
international A complete PDF Archive

signs, from the simple to the more

photographs and

of projects that the RSGB has published in 2018

Copyright in all drawings, on this CD is fully
information published
protected and reproduction
in whole or

munications, after the use of VLF communications, after the

All reasonable
part is expressly forbidden.

published, you will find projects as

by RadioUser to

complex, that the home construc-

precautions are taken
and data given
ensure that the advice We cannot,

usenow available in a
to our readers is reliable. we cannot

long-distance communications of VLF long-distance

it and
however, guarantee
for it. Prices and
accept legal responsibility current in 2017.
information are those

tor can attempt, and will want to diverse as antennas, simple test handy CD ROM.and before
and before the arrival of cable. communications
build. Many are novel, some are equipment to 70cm handhelds

Rad
There are 15 pages listing all radio theNOW
arrival of cable. There are
ded

ioU
AVAILABLE

ser
en
mm
and much more! There is a project

-B
classic but we are certain that you
co

rit
services and stations referred to. 15 pages listing all radio se

ain
re
e

’s
ov be

will find plenty to build.

ab st

for everyone in this book!

d se
an llin
7.0 iste
gl
der ning
Rea

£14.99
obat maga
Adobe Acr zine

£14.99 plus p&p £14.99 plus p&p £9.99 plus p&p £9.99
05/02/2019 13:08

plus p&p
Subscriber price £13.99 plus p&p
Subscriber price £13.99 plus p&p Subscriber price £13.99 plus p&p Subscriber price £8.99 plus p&p Subscriber price £8.99 plus p&p

ORDER YOUR BOOKS AND CDS TODAY!

Ordering is easy – either complete the form below and return to us, order online at www.radioenthusiast.co.uk or call 01778 395161

Please note: For security purposes, you must include your house number & postcode.
Name .....................................................................................................................................
Payment by: ■ Cheque payable to Address..................................................................................................................................
Warners Group Publications plc OR ......................................................................................Postcode .........................................
■ Please charge my credit/debit card: ■ Yes, I am happy to receive special offers by post
Name on Card .............................................................................. Email Address .......................................................................................................................
Card Number: ............................................................................... ■ Yes, I would like to receive the FREE Radio Enthusiast email newsletter
Security code ................................................................................
......................................................................................Price (£) ...........................................
Start Date............................................. Exp date ........................
Issue Number ............................................................................... ......................................................................................Price (£) ...........................................
Signature ............................................. Date ................................ ......................................................................................Price (£) ...........................................

Please return this order form to: Subscriptions, Practical Postage & Packing charges: Please remember to add P&P to your order.
Wireless, Warners Group Publications plc, The Maltings UK: £1.50 Europe: £7.00 Rest of World: £11.00
West Street, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH. Please note
that all payments must be made in Sterling. Cash not accepted. Total cost of order including postage Price (£) ...........................................

For information on how your personal data is processed, secured and your rights, our Private Policy can be viewed here: warners.gr/privacy or available in hard copy on request.
Your order will be processed in accordance with our Terms of Sale which can be viewed here: warners.gr/termssale or available in hard copy on request.

April 2019 Practical Wireless 43

 World of VHF with Tim Kirby G4VXE
● E-mail: [email protected] ● Twitter: g4vxe

I Time to try FT8

t’s around a year ago that
I read a tweet from Jason
G4KVT about FT8 on 2m and
decided to give it a go, just
using the antenna I had up,

on 70cm?
a V2000 vertical. Twelve months later
there are a lot of contacts in the log and
I have been amazed how well a simple
vertical has performed. I am, admittedly,
in a great location. I have been intrigued,
though, that using vertical polarisation
doesn’t seem to have been the barrier that Tim Kirby G4VXE has his usual selection of news on the VHF
I expected. Although a goodly number of bands and above but starts with a spotlight on 70cm FT8.
the stations I work regularly use verticals,
I also work plenty of people using
horizontal polarisation. I have wondered
whether because there’s a fair amount of
scatter involved, such that polarisation is
potentially mixed, that having a vertically
polarised antenna is less of a barrier.
Over the last month or two, I’ve had a
lot more people asking me about trying
FT8 on 70cm and to date, I haven’t had
a huge amount of success. I know that
dispersion and other effects potentially
make FT8 less successful on 70cm than
2m. I reasoned that I should still see some
signals and that aircraft scatter ought to
be successful. It may very well be but
perhaps we have to use data modes such
as the wider JT4 to cope with the scatter-
ing and dispersion effects.
All of which is leading into saying that
this is a really interesting area for us to
try. If you are one of those who have been
trying 2m FT8 using a vertical, why not try A screenshot from the record-breaking 71MHz DATV contact between G4FRE/P and G8GKZ/P
some 70cm paths? If there is someone
that you work easily on 2m FT8, then why both 2m and 70cm. See how your tests International 1919, a tower with a rotating
not try on 70cm and see what happens? compare to 2m and please let me know radio station at the top.
It will be interesting to explore. I was what you ind out. Most people seem to The title of this work, Ten Minute Trans-
delighted, on February 10th, to make my be using 432.174MHz for FT8 now, so mission, refers to the period of time when
irst contact on 70cm FT8 with Malcolm that’s probably a good place to keep an the International Space Station (ISS) can be
G3ZNU, over a distance of around 50km. eye on. It would be great to see the level contacted via radio as it flies past. The ISS
Vertical to vertical it worked ine. We had of 70cm FT8 activity increase to the point orbits the Earth once every 90 minutes but
previously tried cross-polarised, which where random contacts (as opposed to passes close enough to the antenna just
saw some signals but less effective skeds) are an everyday occurrence. twice a day. Usually the radio only picks up
than I would have expected, compared sounds of encrypted data packets sent back
with what happens on 2m. This may be Amateur Radio Satellite Meets Art to Earth from the station. Two-way voice
because beamwidths tend to be narrower Richard Brooks GW1JFV recently visited communication with the astronauts is now
on 70cm, with longer Yagis generally being the Tate Modern Art Gallery in London and rare and needs to be requested in advance.’
the order of the day. was intrigued to ind an exhibit called ‘Ten The exhibit itself consists of a sculpture
And, of course, if you have a beam Minute Transmission’ by Jennifer Allora representing the International Space Sta-
up for 70cm, then it should be possible and Guillermo Calzadilla, as part of the tion (ISS), which acts as the ‘antenna’, and
to make some very interesting contacts. ‘Media Networks’ collection, which is part a Kenwood TS-2000, which is powered
I was excited, for example, to learn that of the permanent collection. up, albeit tuned to 148.495MHz. I did won-
Captain Yuri UT1FG/MM was operat- The description of the exhibit reads, der whether we should contact the curator
ing on both 2m and 70cm FT8 during his ‘This work was inspired by artist Alexan- of the exhibition and suggest that the rig
recent passage through the North Sea, der Calder’s suspended sculptures, or should be re-tuned to 145.825MHz, where,
English Channel and into the Atlantic on mobiles. Another influence was Russian if the antenna is any good (I don’t think it is
the way to Brazil. That gives the opportu- artist and architect Vladimir Tatlin’s resonant on 2m), may cause data signals
nity for some very useful ‘wet squares’ on unrealised design, Monument to the Third to be received!

44 Practical Wireless April 2019

 Is this the irst time, I wonder, that an
amateur radio transceiver has been part
of an art installation? Very many thanks to
Richard for bringing this to my attention. If
this intrigues you, why not pay a visit?

The 6m Band
John Wood G3YQC (Hereford) is the only
correspondent to mention the 6m (50MHz)
band this month. On January 24th, John
worked EI7BMB. He’s seen the odd signal
from Spain, which seems to happen
mostly in the afternoons, perhaps just
popping up for a single period.

The 4m Band
Dave Robinson G4FRE reports a 71MHz
digital TV contact from Clee Hill (IO82QJ)
with G8GTZ/P at Win Green (IO80WX) for WD9EWK demonstrating portable satellite operation from an Arizona hamfest – note the winter weather!
a new UK distance record of 160km. Dave
writes, “I am using the Minitoune receiver ampliier, has some nice entries: F0GOW Here at G4VXE there have been plenty
that only goes down to 145MHz so I have (IN96), GM0EWX (IO67), GI6ATZ (IO74), of enjoyable regular contacts around the
to use an external transverter to receive GW6TEO (IO71), F6DBI (IN88), EI3KD UK and near continent. It was also good
4m. I use the same process for 6m DATV. (IO51), EI19RE (IO51), F1NZC (JN15) , to work UT1FG/MM (in JO11 and JO00
I modified a G4DDK Nacton 70/28MHz G4RRA (IO80) and DL3TW (JO44). The squares).
transverter for 437/71MHz and another GM0EWX contact at 948km is a particu-
one for 437/50MHz. On transmit, I use the larly satisfying one. The 70cm Band
BATC Portsdown transmitter at 437MHz In addition, Jef heard, but did not work, John G3YQC says that he has often been
into the same transverter to an amplifier. EA5DF (IM99) at a distance of around trying 432.174MHz but has yet to make a
The antenna on 4m is a PowAbeam 5-ele- 1300km. The signals were very strong but contact on FT8 and suspects he may need
ment”. only for a short time. This must almost to get a beam. However, John’s e-mail
certainly have been meteor scatter. prompted us to try the band and we were
The 2m Band Malcolm Appleby G3ZNU (Great Mis- able to work over a distance of around
Jef Van Raepenbusch ON8NT had a senden) also mentions a meteor burst and 100km, vertical to vertical.
couple of equipment problems during that he was reported by R1AO (KP40) on At G4VXE, as I said earlier, I was
the month. First of all, he had to take his February 2nd, while Malcolm was trying to delighted to make my irst FT8 contact
FT-736R in for repair, having had some work G0NNF in IO92. Malcolm is running on the band, with G3ZNU (IO91) and then
reports of distorted modulation on SSB 50W to a 5-element Yagi. shortly after, with G3YQC (IO82).
as well as some interference on receive, Derek Brown G8ECI (Louth) says that
which proved to be self-generated within he has worked the odd DX station on FT8 The 23cm Band
the receiver. However, Jef was determined and that, because he tends to leave his Derek G8ECI writes, “I have been monitor-
to remain active and decided to try a Yae- system running 24/7, people see that from ing the GB3NGI beacon [on 1296.905MHz]
su FT-290 MkII on the 2m (144MHz) band. the PSK Reporter website that he is re- and I can pretty much guarantee some
The transceiver drifts but Jef says that ceiving them and try a call just in case he’s aircraft reflections on an hourly basis. This
FT8 is still decoding and wonders whether in the shack. It’s always worth a try! As is because the flight path bisects the direct
anyone has tried FT8 through amateur Derek says, most of the time, he doesn’t path from JO03 to IO65 and I copy a lot
satellites. I suspect that the drift as a result see the call until a few hours later. of trails on the waterfall display and also
of Doppler shift would be rather more sub- Pete Walker G4RRM (Crewe) says a few decodes on JT4G, so even with my
stantial, unless automatically controlled, not a lot to report this month, although he preamp in the shack I am quite pleased
than the software could cope with. has made two new irst time contacts on with the results care of various large jets
Additionally, Jef had some problems 2m FT8 with G0NNF (IO92) and M1AEC flying up over Cumbria and near regions. I
with his Linux desktop PC, which was (IO82). did purchase a 25W PA/Preamp from SG-
nearly ten years old. However, after a John G3YQC says that he has seen a Labs in Bulgaria and am making plans to
clean-up of dust, some more memory and fair amount of activity, mostly from G sta- put that on the pole just under the Wimo
an upgrade of the operating system to tions with a few near continental stations Yagi. It has a preamp built in so will en-
Linuxmint 19.01 Tessa, everything is now also being worked. hance the receive side as well. I just need
running again although some ine tuning Dave Thorpe G4FKI (Ampthill) some decent weather to do it all!”
and reinstallations have been required for says that he hears CW signals on
some of the radio software that Jef uses. 144.050MHz most days and wonders Satellites
Jef’s log listing only contacts over whether this is the same around the rest Jef ON8NT received some SSTV pictures
500km, using the FT-290 Mk II and a 20W of the UK? from the ISS on January 30th/31st and

April 2019 Practical Wireless 45

 World of VHF

February 1st. Jef also mentions that the

D-STAR ONE satellite was successfully
launched and seems to be active from
time to time. For more information, see:
www.d-star.one
Kevin Hewitt ZB2GI (Gibraltar) sent
an interesting log. Through AO-91, Kevin
worked: EA4GPZ (IN80), SV3DVO (KM59),
F4DXV (JN04), EA4GQS (IN80), IU1LBM
(JN61), OE6MDF (JN77), G3PGA (IN70),
EA5WA (IM99), DC3ZB (JO40), EA5DF
(IM99), DJ5MN (JN58), DK5MV (JO40),
EA1NF (IN80), G0IIQ (IO93), G7SVF (IO92),
9H1TT (JM75), IW3HRT (JN61), IZ5ILX
(JN54), EB5YF (IM98) and DJ8MS (JO54).
Malta and Greece were two new satellite
countries in the log. In addition, during a
64° westerly pass, Kevin heard VO2AAA Operating from the desert is something we don’t do a lot of in the UK, here’s WD9EWK operating from the
calling but was unable to complete a QSO. Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona.
Via AO-92, Kevin worked 7X3WPL (JM13),
EA1SS (IN70), DJ5MN (JN58) and DK5MV air again last Saturday (February 2nd) was passes and to get DM31 into their logs. I
(JO40). Kevin says that he tried three SO- a good thing. As others have reported worked more than FM from DM31. There
50 passes but found no activity. since then, the system appears to be hard were many passes on SSB satellites, along
Kevin also writes, “Moscow Aviation of hearing. Passes where I would nor- with packet from FalconSat-3 and the
Institute hosted the Inter MAI 75 SSTV mally be able to see the ISS retransmit my newly-reactivated ISS digipeater. Being in
event on January 30th to February 1st. packets are now difficult to impossible for a national monument, I had a few visits by
The 1300-1900 UTC activation peri- me to work. Even from a location that had park rangers − initially checking to see if
ods coincided with orbits that overflew no noise or interference, I could only get a I was OK, then some questions about my
Moscow. ARISS transmitted the PD120 message through on one high ISS pass. radio equipment, and later just for a chat.
images on 145.800MHz FM. I received six “With the start of 2019, I attended a These park rangers are essentially the po-
full images with no duplicates during three hamfest and hosted an AMSAT booth on lice officers for the national monument, an
passes varying from 32˚ to 62˚. My setup January 12th. A nice morning here in the area covering over 500 square miles next
comprised a Yaesu FT-817 connected via Phoenix area, the hamfest was like many I to the USA/Mexico border.
a data interface to a Win7 Notebook PC attend − starts early, ends around midday, “At sunset, I packed up for the drive
running MMSSTV and a manually tracked with demonstrations on satellite passes home. I had worked 27 passes from DM31,
2m/70cm log periodic. throughout the morning. The demonstra- logging at least one QSO on 23 of those
“I also monitored the ARISS contact tions had nice crowds, especially the passes. I logged a total of 103 QSOs with
with the Colégio Campo de Flores, Almada AO-91 and AO-92 passes that can easily stations across the continental USA, Can-
in Portugal on February 2nd. ARISS used be heard on HTs with standard duckie ada, Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador and
OR4ISS and the Colégio Campo de Flores antennas. More Hamfests are coming up, Panama and through each of the four FM
used CS5SS with the contact conducted over the next few months, before the hot satellites (AO-85, AO-91, AO-92, SO-50),
in English. I heard the stations make first summertime arrives here. 11 passes on five different SSB satellites
contact and astronaut David St-Jacques “On February 2nd I made a day-trip out (AO-7, CAS-4A, CAS-4B, FO-29, XW-
KG5FYI reply to 15 questions during a 25˚ to the rare grid DM31 in southern Arizona, 2A), and four passes through the orbiting
westerly pass over the Rock”. near the USA/Mexico border. I had not digipeaters on FalconSat-3 and the ISS.
Peter Atkins G4DOL (Dorset) reports been to DM31 in almost a year and I don’t This was, by far, the busiest I have been
a nice contact through AO-7 in Mode think anyone else had put DM31 on the from DM31, over many trips going back to
B with Alexandre PT2AP who was on satellites in that time. Operators who had my first DM31 road trip in 2009. With good
holiday in the north west region of Brazil started working satellites in the past year mid-winter weather in the Arizona desert, it
in HI22 square. Alexandre was using a were hoping to work DM31 and I looked was a great way to spend a Saturday”.
home-made handheld antenna and a forward to a day of radio time from the At G4VXE it was good to work G7HCE
TS-2000. At 1628 on January 28th Peter Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. (IO80) using the ISS digipeater. As Patrick
and Alexandre completed a contact. They “After leaving home early that morning, WD9EWK mentioned, the digipeater is
had a mutual footprint for 90 seconds at it was a two and a half hour drive to reach much harder to get into than before.
around 2° of elevation. F4DXV and F0DIH DM31. I arrived a few minutes before an Hopefully the problem can be found and
were also able to complete contacts with SO-50 pass that covered most of the corrected but in the meantime, it’s good to
PT2AP. Peter also reports working AB1OC continental USA, and made a few QSOs hear the digipeater beaconing again.
(FN42), AA8CH (EN62) and WB8RJY to start the day. The AO-91 and AO-92 That’s it for this month. Thanks for all
(EN72) all via AO-7 in Mode B. passes were the busiest, logging 10 to your news. And if you have been thinking
Patrick Stoddard WD9EWK (Phoenix) 12 QSOs on each pass. It was nice to of getting in touch, please do! See you
writes, “Seeing the ISS digipeater on the hear stations in Central America on those next month.

46 Practical Wireless April 2019

 In the Shop with Harry Leeming G3LLL
l E-mail: [email protected]

‘‘
W Hints & Hazards
hile you are up there,
perhaps you could
stop playing with
your aerial for a few
minutes and check
that the gutters are clear”; sound familiar?
A few years ago I had the ladders up to
Harry Leeming G3LLL is back with his usual diet of sage
adjust my antenna system, when I noticed advice and intriguing anecdotes.
that the trough was half-full of debris and
bird droppings so I grabbed a trowel, dug
out the mess and thought no more of it, low because I was buying these devices when you need to warm up, or cool down
until a inger started to swell and was by the hundred, but it was annoying and equipment quickly to try to chase elusive
turning red. I went to see my doctor, who time consuming replacing them. temperature sensitive intermittent faults
put me on a course of antibiotics and There has always been great emphasis
advised me if this did not do the trick, to on the risk of damaging new transistors TVs, Hi-Fi and Street Lights
go promptly to A&E. Fortunately it did. and FETs with static but I learned that A few months ago I was commenting on
I happened to mention this to a builder, this was not the only danger, and over how the AC/DC TVs were rather dicey
who seemed to be going to a lot of the years found that there are other ways from a safety point of view. They created
trouble cleaning everything with bleach. of doing damage. As a result, I now other problems too.
After doing some work for me, he told me recommend, and try to follow, these rules: In the 1960s I was running the hi-i
that I had been very lucky. Apparently, 1. Make sure that the equipment you are department of the family business and
bird droppings, particularly those from working on, and any test equipment you had quite a few complaints that some hi-i
pigeons, carry some nasty bugs and he have attached to it, is not plugged into the equipment had mains transformers that
had a friend who ended up seriously ill mains. Even when equipment is switched emitted a mechanical hum. They were
in hospital after coming into contact with off, there can be enough leakage by the perfectly ine when we tried them in the
them. I took this as a warning and now internal capacity of a mains transformer, shop. It only later came to light that the
always were rubber gloves if I handle an or via mains suppressor capacitors, to hum occurred in the evenings and got
antenna or anything else that birds may wreck delicate devices. worse if there was a popular programme
have contaminated. 2. Be sure that your soldering iron is at on the TV. Many of our customers lived in
the same potential as the equipment you terraced houses and it was common for
Protect Your Signal Generator. are working on by either earthing them a whole row to be connected to the same
Last time I mentioned that it is possible both or linking them together. phase of the mains.
to get hold of some old but very useful 3. Disconnect any antennas. With half-wave rectiication and
signal generators at rallies. One thing 4. Avoid Nylon carpets or if you can’t correctly wired AC/DC TVs, this ensured
I forgot to mention, however, is how avoid them, get a scent spray illed with that they were all taking a ‘gulp’ of current
easily these can be damaged when water and slightly dampen the area on the same half of the mains cycle. This
testing transceivers. We all get distracted around where you stand. resulted in the positive half of the cycle
and in a moment of carelessness, can 5.Grip the leads with long-nose pliers to becoming slightly less than the negative
accidently key a microphone or lick the act as a heat sink when soldering. This one. Presumably this distortion of the
wrong switch, transmit with the generator is more easily done if you wrap a rubber mains supply produced many harmonics
connected, and burn the attenuator out. band around the handles of the pliers. of 50Hz and it was these that the mains
To protect myself from this, I made an (Note also that a pair of pliers plus a transformers objected to.
in-line fuse unit, which I had permanently rubber band makes a very useful ‘third The ‘work around’ was to mount the
in circuit. hand’ when struggling to hold something.) mains transformers on rubber grommets,
I constructed this from a scrap CB Finally, if you have to it a small and to advise the customers not to mount
SWR meter similar to that shown in Fig. 1 expensive FET that is dificult to obtain, their equipment on anything that could
and modiied it by cutting a small gap in or for some reason you cannot comply act as a sounding board.
the PCB strip that ran between the input with the above, play it safe. Take a small Another problem caused by TVs was
and output PL259 sockets. I then bridged piece of cotton wool, soak it in water and that in some areas the streetlights would
the gap with a low voltage, low current jamb it between the device’s leads before mysteriously be switched on or off at
lamp and connected this permanently to attempting to solder it in place. This will odd times. Eventually someone twigged
the signal generator. The loss was about short out any stray voltages and also that this tended to occur either at the
4dB and I allowed for this when making act as a heatsink. Be sure to remove the beginning or the end of a popular TV
measurements. cotton wool and dry the area around the programme and put two and two together.
device with a hair dryer before switching In these areas the street lights were
Soldering Sensitive Parts on the equipment after repair! controlled by sending DC pulses along
When building our G3LLL RF clippers the mains supply, and somehow switching
and FM units for the early FT-101s in the And Talking about Hair Dryers on or off of hundreds of TVs at the same
1970s, a few were found to be faulty when Hair dryers can be a most useful tool time duplicated the pulses. The control
tested due to the failure of the dual-gate in a workshop. Apart from using them system had to be redesigned and made
FET. The cost of replacements was very to remove moisture, they are invaluable ‘TVI proof’.

April 2019 Practical Wireless 47

 In the Shop

Modern Electronic Devices

Are you ever embarrassed to ind that
your grandchildren know more about the
latest electronic devices than you do?
There is nothing new about that and a
customer, a retired police oficer, told me
about his embarrassing moment.
He was a young trainee constable in
the 1960s and because he always had
plenty to say, he was told to read up on
personal and home security and visit a
local school in a rough area, where he
had been ‘volunteered’ to give the kids a
lecture. Soon he found himself stood in
front of a class of young lads and had just
made the point that even a dummy alarm
box was quite a good deterrent, when
Jimmy, a 13-year old, stuck his hand up.
“They’re no use”, he said, “Anyone can
tell that there is no bell in the box”. When
asked how, he volunteered, “you just fire
a catapult at them, and if it doesn’t ‘ding’,
it’s a dummy”.
My customer said that he was left
wondering whether it was Jimmy who
should have been invited to give a lecture Fig. 1: A CB SWR meter similar to that used by Harry to construct an in-line fuse unit.
on security, to the local police.
willing to show someone your transmitting any ilter capacitors connected between
Another Odd Customer licence, surely you can expect them show the mains and chassis should not be
As you might expect, over the years I had you their TV licence? larger than 0.005µF and should be of a
quite a collection of oddball customers in super safe type intended for use in such
the shop, some of them not very bright. Shocks from Amateur Radio Equipment a position.
If you wanted to ind out how to stop Several customers came to me I’m not sure when the regulations
youngsters letting off ireworks, would you complaining that when they held the were instituted but in the 1960s and 70s
expect a warm welcome in a shop that rig with one hand and plugged the a lot of non-compliant equipment was
made their living by selling them? No? PL259 plug feeding an earthed antenna around. Many amateur radio transmitters
A rather rough looking guy called in system with the other, they got quite and receivers had normal type 0.01µF
and demanded to know, “How can I get a a shock. Now holding two separate mains ilter capacitors from the mains to
radio ham closed down; he is interfering conductors tightly at the same time is chassis, had only single insulation, and
with my TV?” I explained the position with not a particularly clever idea because if were itted with a two-core mains lead.
regard to the Amateur Radio Licence, and something really is live, you are all set If the chassis was not earthed, and ilter
Ofcom, and suggested that co-operation up to get a very nasty shock across your capacitors were itted as per Fig. 2, then
with the amateur, and trying out of various chest and heart (or even be condemned the chassis was held at half the mains
ilters, was the best course. as beyond local repair and returned potential, 120V, above ground, hence
He certainly had no intention of wast- to your maker). Remember the golden the shock. When I became aware of the
ing his money on ferrite rings or ilters. He rule when dealing with mains operated situation, to cover myself against being
wanted to take more aggressive action, equipment: Never tightly grip two sued for selling dangerous equipment, I
call in Ofcom and simply have the radio exposed conducting objects that have the started itting three-core mains leads to
amateur closed down, but then he had slightest chance of being earthed or live, any such equipment that I sold.
second thoughts. As he was leaving the at the same time. So, what is happening when someone
shop he volunteered, “Actually I haven’t Actually, in those cases where equip- says, “But my rig (or hi-fi equipment) is
got a TV licence, will that make any dif- ment was brought to me for testing, I properly earthed and I still get a shock
ference?” No prizes for answers to that never found an actual fault, only that when I plug the antenna in”. In these
one − I doubt if the editor would dare print sometimes the equipment in question circumstances check if there is an AC
them! did not comply with current UK safety voltage on your antenna. Do this by con-
Come to think of it; surely if I assist regulations. If equipment doesn’t have necting one lead of a test meter to earth
someone to obtain good TV recep- the double insulation symbol on it, when and the other to the antenna lead. This
tion knowing, or having good reason used in the UK, it should be itted with a fault is not as common now but I had this
to believe that they have not got a TV three-core mains lead and be earthed at complaint from my hi-i customers quite a
licence, then possibly I have committed the mains plug. number of times in the 1970s and it usu-
an offence? If you have problems and are There is also a UK requirement that ally arose because of faulty TV sets.

48 Practical Wireless April 2019

 to ground via your house wiring. Less
serious is the fact that by having two
L earth paths you have formed an earth
loop, which as any hi-i enthusiast will tell
10n you, can be the cause of various kinds of
Chassis mysterious hum or feedback.
Mains in Out
You could, of course, get over these
240V AC dificulties by removing your rig’s earth
10n connection from the third pin of the plug
N but this then would mean that you were
not complying with wiring regulations, and
other safety problems raise their head
too.
Fig. 2: A potentially hazardous mains circuit (see text). The simplest solution is to leave the
equipment earthed to the mains by the
If your antenna is on the same chimney Quite a lot of house wiring is earthed via three-pin plug but wire a 0.01µF disc
stack as your neighbour’s TV, the lashing the incoming cable from the electricity ceramic capacitor in series with the lead
wires can touch and then if their TV, or substation, which might be some distance from your ATU or your rig to your buried
any other equipment they are using, be- away. If you have made a valiant attempt earth rod system, and then it a couple of
comes live, so will your antenna lead. to connect a really good buried earth to ferrite rings on the mains lead of your rig.
your antenna, the resistance to earth via This will ensure that your equipment is
You Can Have Too Many Earths your house wiring and your buried earth earthed from a safety point of view to the
If to comply with safety regulations your could be less than that via the substation. mains, yet radio-wise it is isolated from
rig is itted with a three-pin mains plug, In this case a serious short to earth in the mains earth and gets its ground via
and you have an antenna system that is a nearby house, or on the utility com- your antenna’s earthing system. “Better to
well earthed, you could run into trouble. pany’s cable, could send a large current be safe than sorry”.

Hear those weak stations with a

DESKTOP
bhi
bhi DSP noise cancelling product!
ParaPro EQ20 Audio DSP Range
20W audio power with parametric equalisation
- bhi DSP noise cancelling and Bluetooth versions
- Two separate channels or stereo input
- 4 models: EQ20, EQ20B, EQ20DSP, EQ20BDSP
- User manual and accessory kit supplied
Give your receive audio the boost it deserves!
DSPKR Check out
Dual In-Line the new bhi 10W Ampliied DSP noise
Dual Channel ampliied DSP
HP-1 cancelling base station speaker
noise eliminating module
stereo - Volume and ilter level controls
- Suitable for all radios,
headphones - 8 ilter levels 9 to 40dB
receivers and SDR - Mono or
on our - Speaker and line level audio inputs
stereo input & output options
website - Sleep mode - Size 200x150x160mm
- 7W mono audio output, line - Suitable for all radios incl’ SDR
level & headphone o/p sockets
- Ideal for DXing - Includes Compact In-Line
latest bhi DSP noise cancelling!
10W ampliied DSP noise
cancelling speaker
- Easy control of DSP ilter
- Filter select & store
- Sleep mode - Volume control
- Input overload LED
- Headphone socket
bhi Ltd, 22 Woolven Close, - Supplied with manual and
Burgess Hill RH15 9RR, UK fused DC power lead 70x33mm
Tel: 01444 870333 www.bhi-ltd.com

April 2019 Practical Wireless 49

 Valve & Vintage with John Sones M0AAO
● E-mail: [email protected]

I
grew up with Jennifer who
later emigrated to Australia,
obtaining the callsigns
VK5ANW and VK3WQ and Where there’s a Ham,
There’s a Way
becoming a historian for the
Australian Ladies Amateur Radio
Association (ALARA). Her partner Peter
VK3RV is also a historian for the Wireless
Institute of Australia (WIA). We have kept
in touch over the years and recently they John Sones M0AAO looks at some examples of how
sent me the book Wireless – Men and
Women at War, Fig. 1, size A4 with180 Australian radio amateurs served their country during WW1,
pages, published in 2017 by the WIA.
Peter played a large part in putting the
WW2 and in peacetime.
book together and has also written some
of the articles. 
It contains a series of 42 pieces by 19 the ground. Ground to air was by ground
authors, including Jennifer, about Austra- strips of white sheet, lamp signals or Pop-
lian radio amateurs who played a part in pet Panels – a canvas shutter arrangement
various wars, in particular WW1 and WW2, that showed either black or white patches
by using their special skills in such a way to the pilot. Bert Billings, callsign XJP, is
as to make a difference. Wartime radio was possibly the first and last ANZAC (Austra-
often driven by the circumstances that ser- lian and New Zealand Army Corp) Wireless
vice personnel found themselves in, which I Operator having served in many places in
am sure will interest those who are involved both World Wars. Having been interested
with vintage equipment. In this article I can in experimental wireless telegraphy from
only touch briefly on the detail in the book 1912, he was the first operator to com-
and hope that by giving a few examples of municate from the Gallipoli Peninsular with
the equipment used, mentioning some of British warships, went on to transfer to
the ground-breaking achievements by Aus- the Australian Flying Corps servicing the
tralian amateurs over the years along with earliest aircraft transmitters and with other
examples of what their service personnel instructors devised a special pilot training
went through, I can give PW readers a feel course whereby the pilot had to feed out
of what the book is about. the antenna, plug in the 6V transmitter and
commence sending via a half-inch spark
First World War and tuning coils precisely in that order
During WW1, Royal Australian Navy (RAN) Fig. 1: Front cover of book showing the Marconi because otherwise they believed that there
ships were equipped with Marconi equip- Pack set in the field (cover photo copyright WIA). was a risk of setting the aircraft on fire!
ment that would have been receivable over
considerable distances, which made them a range of 35 miles in daylight and the Between the Wars
more vulnerable to being found by the receivers used a battery-biased carbo- Between the two World Wars, the Royal
enemy. Walter King Witt , callsign XKW, rundum crystal detector, all operating on Australian Air Force (RAAF) was experi-
had enlisted in the RAN and was a CTW a wavelength of about 700m. There was menting with shortwave transmissions.
Operator. On January 15th 1915 his service also a 1.5kW ‘Wagon Set’, which usually In 1924, Gilbert Thomas Miles, then 3II
record shows ‘Naval Board expresses operated as a base station and used two and later VK2KI, while serving in the RAAF
appreciation for services rendered in con- limbered horse-drawn wagons to move worked on a transmitter which was to be
nection with 1st Australian convoy’. He had around. Each type came with fuel supplies, the first in the service. Using a Marconi
used his ‘little Ford spark coil’ to transmit earth mats and collapsible masts, 30ft for ‘football’ type valve as a keyed 100W input
between the leading and last ships, a the ‘Pack Set’ and 70ft for the ‘Wagon Set’. oscillator with 1200V on the anode, two
distance of about ten miles, ‘in preference This type of equipment saw service in edge-wound helix coils screwed to the
to the more powerful spark provided by 1916 with the squadron of the Australian wall and coupled to a vertical copper tube
the Marconi Company, which had a note Imperial Force (AIF) who became known antenna, they made contact with the Royal
something like a boy with a stick on a as the ‘The Anzac Wireless’ in the harsh Air Force in England on 32m using the
picket fence.’ conditions of Mesopotamia. callsign V1S (Victoria One Squadron). He
When you see what the modern army Wireless in the air was also in its infancy went on to be involved in a series of survey
uses today, it’s hard to imagine radio and Morse code was essential for commu- and army co-operation flights from Point
equipment that might require several nication by pilots. In particular they were Cook in the mid-1920s. One such flight
horses to transport it and still had to be as- taught how to report the fall of shot from involved a quenched spark-gap transmit-
sembled by several men in eight minutes! the artillery and the location of suitable ter on 1500m and a receiver with three
These were 500W so-called ‘Pack Sets’, targets. Communication by radio was one valves powered by a wind driven generator
Fig. 2. The rotary spark transmitters had way, Fig. 3, from the pilot to the station on mounted on the outside of the fuselage.

50 Practical Wireless April 2019

 The RAAF went on to recognise the
importance of wireless communications,
establishing a ‘Wireless Reserve’ in 1929
initiated by Flight Lieutenant H K Love
A3BM/VK3KU. This was restructured
in 1933 in part organised by Bob Cun-
ningham VK3ML and Vaughan Marshall
VK3UK. There was a later reorganisa-
tion into districts and sections, many of
which were headed by radio amateurs.
Interestingly, the RAF didn’t start a similar
reserve until 1936. By 1939 there were 155
amateur members of the Australian reserve
who were all called up for WW2.
The Australian Army were also seeking
to improve their radio communications
and their first shortwave station was built
by servicemen, including radio ama-
teurs. In 1930, a small group met at the
3rd Divisional Signals in Melbourne to
design a shortwave wireless set, Fig. 4.
The design was sent for official approval,
which after modification was given the
go-ahead providing it was mobile and as
far as possible constructed using army
apparatus. It was built by a group of army
personnel, including Lieutenant Stewart
Embling VK3DC. Full technical details
are in the book.
A need had been identified to link the
various states of the Commonwealth (of Fig. 2: Marconi Pack set (copyright Jim Gordon VK3ZKK), Australian Army Signals Museum Macleod,
Australia) and the extraordinary develop- Victoria.
ments that there had been in shortwave
wireless communication were seen to offer Second World War need boots, money, quinine (for malaria),
a possible solution. During WW2 there were examples of how tommy-gun ammunition” was sent by the
The way that women were treated with ‘cobbled together’ radios made a huge crazy contraption built after three attempts
regard to war service was very different in difference and, in some cases, saved lives. from salvaged parts with inadequate tools
Australia to the UK. Despite the formation ‘Snow’ Campbell VK3MR was a Prisoner by a group led by Signaller Max Love-
of the Australian Women’s Service Corps of War (PoW) in Italy and describes the less VK7ML. After a verification procedure
during WW1, the only roles that they were harsh conditions that they lived in with because it was believed that all their force
allowed to carry out were those of Army shaved hair and only shorts being the had surrendered, RAAF bombers dropped
Nursing or Wardsmaids. At the start of general state of dress. He was later moved supplies and this was followed by supplies
WW2 things were not much better with to Germany where they managed to find from the RAN, enabling them to continue
the question of admitting women to the odd radio bits and to construct a receiver their guerrilla action.
Services still being ignored until October from various materials, for example mak- Contact with the outside world was also
1941. One of the lady amateurs who made ing the condenser from aluminium plates important to PoWs. Bill Moore VK2HZ was
a difference was Florence Violet McKen- from their food dishes using nail files and detained in the PoW camp at Batavia. He
zie OBE A2GA/VK2FV/VK2GA. Having scissors and the insulators from toothbrush had made a receiver from ‘salvaged’ parts
realised that war was imminent, she set up handles, all of course being done secretly. and being the camp’s optician, was allowed
a free Morse code training school for her This enabled them to hear the London and certain tools, which made construction
pupils who were mainly women and the European stations. The antenna was the easier. His first receiver had a radio fre-
school became known as the Women’s hardest thing to hide and they sometimes quency amplifier, a detector and an audio
Emergency Signalling Corps. The WRANS laid false trails for their German guards, amplifier, all operating from torch batteries.
(Women’s Royal Australian Naval Ser- much to the latter’s annoyance. During the day everything was hidden but
vice) started with 14 of her trainees at the ‘Winnie the war winner’, Fig. 5, is one of came out at night to monitor 49m for news
Harman Wireless Station. This grew to a the important iconic items from Australia’s broadcasts from the Australian Broadcast-
wartime peak of 105 officers and 2,518 involvement in WW2. This relates to a ‘lost’ ing Commission and the BBC, which gave
ratings. Florence trained the trainers. Over group of Australian commandos on the those interned hope. He had at least one
the years, personally and via her lady train- island of Timor in 1942 in an area con- close shave, however, having to bow to the
ers, she was attributed as teaching some trolled by the Japanese. On April 19th, the Japanese Camp Commandant with a set
12,000 servicemen Morse code. message “Force intact. Still fighting. Badly under his arm!

April 2019 Practical Wireless 51

 Valve & Vintage

Fig. 3: Aircraft Spark Gap transmitter (copyright as Fig. 2). Fig. 4: First Army shortwave transceiver (copyright as Fig. 2).

George Basil Lance VK3DS recalls Air

Warning and Coast Watching in New Guin-
ea. Equipment and buildings were subject
to very adverse conditions with the control
room, which was a native hut, having a life
expectancy of six weeks before the white
ants caused too much damage and it had
to be burned to the ground and a new one
built. Tropic proofing was by using sealed
power transformers and burning two 100W
light globes inside the transmitters to keep
them constantly warm and dry. The biggest
blowouts were caused by large praying
mantis insects crawling on the caps of the
866 rectifiers.
Radio systems were also being devel-
oped to help protect essential services.
John Bulling VK5KX was an electrical
engineer with the Adelaide Electric Sup-
ply Company (AESC) before being called
up and was tasked to develop two-way
communications to AESC mobile vehicles
because there was a concern that the
power distribution system might get at-
tacked. The base station transmitter on
31.1MHz used a pair of 805 valves for the
RF power amplifier and a second pair for
modulators with an output of 200W fed to
a dipole on the roof of a building. The mo- Fig. 5: Winnie the War Winner (copyright Bill Roper VK3BR).
bile transmitter had a three-stage unit with
a crystal oscillator, multiplier and an 807 reliable warning ranges of 80 to 100 miles the personal lives of those featured. It
final amplifier. The receivers were super- (and more). To make it easy to deploy, the gives a feel from an Australian perspective
regenerative, giving a typical background equipment and operator were housed in for what many endured to keep us free so
hiss, but worked well. a tent, using a rotating platform turned by has a very important historical aspect as
Phil Williams VK5NN was also an hand. well and will, I am sure, also interest read-
AESC employee, later joining the RAAF to The last section of the book is about the ers outside Australia.
work on developing a radar screen around ANZACs and the special amateur radio re- (All photos in this article are taken from
Australia and New Guinea. This included membrance in 2015 of their fated Gallipoli the Wireless Institute of Australia publica-
a transportable Light Weight Air Warning landings 100 years previously. tion Wireless Men and Women at War, who
Radar system, later supplied to the RAAF, While I have given examples of the retain copyright as shown but have kindly
the British in Burma and the Americans in some of the technical descriptions in the given permission for the photos to be
the Pacific where it gave consistent and book, it also includes a lot of detail about reproduced here.)

52 Practical Wireless April 2019

 Technical for the Terrified by Don Field G3XTT
l E-mail: [email protected]

Digital Voice Technologies

Don G3XTT guides readers through the alphabet soup that is the current state of digital
voice on the VHF/UHF bands.

E
lsewhere in this issue a number of ways that the data can then
you’ll find Tim Kirby be applied to the carrier. Which means
G4VXE’s review of that there are potentially hundreds, if not
another digital voice thousands, of combinations that could be
hotspot. He refers to DMR, used to make it happen. The choice de-
D-STAR, C4FM, NXDN and P25 as modes pends on many factors such as the quality
that it will handle. But have you ever of voice transmission required, the type
stopped to wonder what the differences of propagation that is likely to be encoun-
are between the various digital voice tered during the radio part of the connec-
modes, why they don’t intercommunicate, tion and so on. It also matters whether the
and what, if any, the advantages are of system is only intended to carry speech
one versus another? or whether data transmission is also a
requirement. Speech can afford transmis-
Why Digital? sion errors and still be perfectly readable
Perhaps one of the irst questions to ad- whereas data transmission must be more
dress is why we want to send voice digi- robust because while the human ear can
tally at all. After all, AM, SSB and FM seem cope with occasional transmission errors,
to have worked pretty well for most of computers tend to be less sympathetic!
the history of amateur radio. They can be Communications theory tells us that an
generated relatively easily and be received audio waveform has to be sampled at, as
on most radios, while on VHF and UHF a minimum, twice the highest frequency
(and even on the 10m HF band) we have a likely to be encountered. If we want to
well-established network of FM repeaters. send speech of up to 3kHz, say, then we
We are also probably well aware that need to sample at 6,000 samples/second
the broadcast world are having trouble or better. The samples will then have to
persuading us that digital is the way to go be encoded and the number of bits we
for radio (although digital TV is now well use to encode each one will depend on
established). It’s partly because a num- how accurately we want to reproduce the
ber of ‘standards’ are competing (DAB is speech at the other end. All this means
primarily a UK-led standard, while Radio that transmitting high-idelity classical mu-
Mondiale, used on HF, has its limitations). sic, for example, will require a very high bit
And a digital receiver is an extra expense if Fig. 1: The Kenwood TH-74E, one of the irst non- rate. Fortunately, communication quality
you already have a house full of transistor Icom radios to include D-STAR capability. speech is much less demanding. What’s
radios from years gone by (and ditto in more, there is quite a lot of ‘redundancy’
your car), while for ixed use you probably connection, ideal if your location is one in speech so a number of methods have
just want to plug into the internet. where it is impossible or challenging to been developed to make the whole pro-
For radio amateurs, the main attraction erect HF or VHF antennas. cess more eficient.
of digital, so far as I can see, is that it al-
lows straightforward networking, enabling How is it Done? Genesis of Systems
calls to be set up across the globe, using Most of you will realise, particularly if you It’s important to be aware that some of the
the existing internet as the backbone. are regular readers of this magazine, that systems being used in the amateur radio
The necessary routing information can the underlying principles of digital trans- world had their origins in the commercial
be embedded into the digital bitstream mission of voice are easy to understand. world while some were developed specii-
alongside voice and there is scope for The analogue voice waveform is sampled cally for the amateur market. Why does
coding and carrying other sorts of trafic in an analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) this matter? D-STAR is essentially an Icom
too, such as APRS, images or other types and the digital bitstream can then be initiative although the standard is open to
of data. Another attraction might be that, modulated onto an RF carrier. But there’s others to use (as Kenwood have done in,
using hotspot technology, a station can be the rub. There are many ways in which for example, the TH-D74 handheld, Fig.
established anywhere you have an internet the sampling can be done and there are 1). Yaesu have chosen to go their own way

April 2019 Practical Wireless 53

 Technical for the Terrified

with System Fusion, which Tim G4VXE

has been covering in recent months. What
both have in common is that the radios
manufactured for these systems generally
offer FM capability too and, indeed, the
System Fusion repeaters are also capable
of FM as well as Fusion operation. These
two systems have also been developed
with amateur radio callsigns and require-
ments (such as APRS) in mind.
In contrast, P25 (an older technology
used by Motorola and other commercial
manufacturers, Fig. 2), NXDN (another
commercial system, albeit in limited use
in the amateur radio world, Fig. 3) and
DMR (increasingly used in amateur radio)
were all developed for commercial use
and transceivers employing them relected
this. For example, there would normally Fig. 2: An Icom P25 commercial set.
be no straightforward way for the user
to change frequency (unless required for see some DMR transceivers that can be understand the fun of this, I’d love to see
day to day use). A group of radios would programmed from the keypad without those folk move on to other aspects of
normally be programmed to a speciic needing a computer and many include FM the hobby – hopefully many do so in the
channel (or channels) for company use capability too (The Anytone AT-D868UV, fullness of time. But there’s no denying
and the last thing the company wants Fig. 4, reviewed in last October’s issue, is the magic, even in this day and age, of
is for employees to start changing the a good example of both aspects). enjoying global communication with fellow
programming! Similarly, the radios were What it all means is that your choice of enthusiasts in a simple and, effectively,
purely DMR and even this comes in more which option to take, should you decide cost-free way.
than one guise, not so much in the actual that digital voice is for you, will depend
encoding of the speech but in the way on several factors. An obvious consid- Technologies
they network. Motorola’s name for DMR eration is which system is in use in your Anyway, given that I am running this article
is MOTOTRBO while, for example, Hytera locality, particularly if you belong to a club under the Technical for the Terrified ban-
refers to it as Hytera DMA. Each company that has made a choice and/or if there ner, let’s end with a few of the technical
has its own take on the implementation is a digital repeater accessible close by. bits. Traditional amplitude modulation
of the ‘standard’. The following link gives Another factor is whether you want to be is based, as you will all know, on vary-
more information, including an explanation able to travel with your digital radio and ing the amplitude of an RF carrier in time
of Tier 1, Tier 2 (as used in the amateur easily reprogram it for the repeater(s) you with the audio (voice) signal. This process
radio world) and Tier 3 DMR architectures. run across along the way. A third might results in (and the maths shows this too) a
https://tinyurl.com/yxzpqv6n be the speciic use(s) that you want to put carrier and two sidebands, both carrying
the radio to, such as APRS beaconing. A identical information. For example, a 1kHz
Consequences fourth will be your wishes for international tone applied to a 1MHz carrier will result
The consequence is that DMR radios that networking. in carrier plus two new signals, one 1kHz
come to the amateur market second-hand Having said all that, and having ex- above the carrier in frequency and one
from the commercial world, while usually plained that the various encoding methods that is 1kHz below. SSB, then, is simply
competitively priced, are likely to require are mutually incompatible, if you read this but with the carrier and one of those
specialist programming tools and lack the PW regularly you will have come across sidebands removed, given that the carrier
lexibility of transceivers made specially reviews of hotspots. As I said right at the bears no information content and both
for the amateur radio market. Thus, for start, we review one in this very issue. sidebands have identical information. In
example, it might make sense for a club Most of these will accept any of the digital contrast, FM involves changing not the
with the necessary expertise to bulk buy standards and allow you to connect to the amplitude but the frequency of the RF
ex-commercial DMR sets and program relevant global network, so that, for ex- carrier in synch with the modulating audio.
for the local DMR repeater for members’ ample, you can use your DMR or D-STAR This offers a number of advantages over
use. But those sets won’t help a member handheld to chat with a DMR or D-STAR AM or SSB, particularly for high quality
who travels the country and wants to use user in the USA or Australia. I gather from broadcasting, because the carrier can be
it elsewhere. The good news, though, is one of the leading UK vendors that there is allowed to swing a long way either side of
that some amateur radio manufacturers quite a community of ‘hotspotters’ nowa- its nominal frequency, allowing more ac-
are now offering DMR sets at attractive days, including Foundation licensees, who curate reproduction of, say, music with its
prices – we have reviewed some of them simply use their amateur radio licence as large dynamic range and covering several
here in PW – and those are generally more a way of linking across the living room to octaves. In amateur radio practice, FM
geared to amateur radio requirements. a hotspot but enjoying global communi- channel spacing started at 25kHz (as used
So it’s not clear cut – we are starting to cation, nevertheless. Personally, while I back then in the commercial world) and

54 Practical Wireless April 2019

Fig. 3: A Kenwood ad for NXDN transceivers.

has now settled on 12.5kHz, given better as the manufacturers would like us to
and more stable equipment. believe.
A third method is phase modulation, The data stream from the Codec then
where neither the amplitude nor the fre- needs to be applied to the RF carrier.
quency is shifted in synch with the modu- 4-FSK means, as you might guess, that
lation, but rather the phase of the carrier. the method employed is 4-tone frequency-
This is not used for voice transmission shift keying, while 2-GMSK is a two-tone
but you will often ind it as the modulation Gaussian minimum shift keying, a variation
method of choice for data transmissions that is claimed to occupy less bandwidth.
– QPSK (Quadrature Phase Shift Keying) The Sharing column refers to the way in
and PSK (as in, say, PSK31 and PSK63) which the common bandwidth is shared. Fig. 4: The Anytone AT-D-868UV has both DMR
being terms that you will have seen, even FDMA (Frequency Division Multiple Ac- and FM capability.
if you haven’t operated those modes. cess) indicates that different transmitters
Table 1 summarises the key aspects operate on different frequencies (yes, a The Bottom Line
of the various systems I have discussed. fancy name for what happens on most I hopethis overview helps you to un-
I have taken it from an article in the April of our bands!) while TDMA (Time Division derstand the key differences between
2015 issue of QST. While digital voice has Multiple Access) has different transmitters the various digital voice systems. Each
moved on in some ways since then, the sharing a carrier frequency but interleaving system, as you’ll have seen, has its pros
underlying technologies of each system their transmissions which, as you’ll under- and cons so you have some thinking to do
are the same. The codec (Coder/Decoder) stand, requires accurate timing but does, before taking the plunge. Unfortunately,
is the method for turning the digital stream for example, allow DMR repeaters to carry the sheer variety of systems has also di-
from the ADC into the particular coding two voice channels on the same frequency luted VHF/UHF activity in that, while there
system in use (and doing the opposite for (you’ll hear this referred to as Timeslot 1 may still be as many amateurs using VHF
received data). I won’t go into detail here and Timeslot 2). and UHF repeaters and simplex as before,
but AMBE stands for Advanced Multiband The last column, headed Access, is they can’t now all intercommunicate. In
Excitation while IMBE is Improved Mul- the digital voice equivalent of CTCSS or fairness, other factors are at play too,
tiband Excitation. You can ind out more DCS tones that you’ll be familiar with in such as the large-scale migration to FT8
from Wikipedia and other sources where the analogue world of FM repeaters. As I operation at VHF. How it will all pan out
you will learn, for example, that AMBE explained earlier, D-STAR and Fusion use remains to be seen. Will one system come
was developed for use by the Inmarsat amateur radio callsigns as the basis, for to predominate (as VHS did over Betamax
(maritime satellite) and Iridium commercial obvious reasons, but the other systems, for those of you old enough to remember)
satellite systems. Its use requires a licence having originated outside the world of or will they simply continue to coexist on
from Digital Voice Systems Inc, so there amateur radio, use a variety of other iden- our bands? This latter may well be the
has been criticism in some amateur radio tiication and routing protocols. case because we are starting to see the
circles that D-STAR isn’t actually as ‘open’ emergence of multi-protocol relectors, en-
abling someone with, say, a D-STAR radio
Type Codec Modulation Sharing Access
to connect and speak to someone using
D-STAR AMBE 2-GMSK FDMA Callsigns
a Fusion radio connected to the same
DMR AMBE+2 4-FSK TDMA Colour codes
relector. In other words, although the pro-
System Fusion AMBE+2 4-FSK FDMA Callsigns
tocols are different, the huge processing
NXDN AMBE+2 4-FSK FDMA 6-bit RAN
power of modern PCs means that protocol
P25 Phase 1 IMBE 4-FSK FDMA 12-bit NAC
conversion can be cost-effective and may
P25 Phase 2 AMBE+2 4-FSK TDMA 12-bit NAC
serve to bring those disparate groups
Table 1: Digital Voice Systems Compared together after all. Watch this space!

April 2019 Practical Wireless 55

 What Next with Colin Redwood G6MXL
● E-mail: [email protected]

T HEMA
here’s no doubt that
amateur radio can be a
pretty sedentary hobby,
although it doesn’t have
to be. This month I am intro-
ducing readers to a relatively new award
scheme for operating from hilltops. As Colin Redwood G6MXL looks at a relatively new award
you will discover, the HEMA scheme is an
alternative to Summits on the Air (SOTA) scheme covering hilltops that don’t quite qualify as
for some hilltops that don’t quite qualify
for SOTA, which I last discussed in the summits for Summits on the Air. He concludes with a
August 2015 What Next column. With the
weather hopefully improving over the next
request to readers who use Facebook.
few months, I want to encourage readers
out of their cosy shacks and to get on the
air from hilltops.

Jargon
You could be forgiven for thinking that the
jargon and terminology associated with
the operation and technology of amateur
radio is more than enough for a lifetime.
HEMA stands for HuMPs Excluding Mari-
lyns Award. “What is a HuMP and what is
a Marilyn?” I hear you ask.
SOTA in the UK confines its attention
to summits that are at least 150m above
the surrounding land (termed a 150m
prominence). Such summits are called
Marilyns, Fig. 1, Hill A. HuMPs Excluding
Marilyns Award (HEMA) concerns itself
with the summits that are at least 100m
above surrounding land (Hundred Meter
Prominence) but less than 150m above
surrounding land required for SOTA, see
Fig. 1, Hill B. Fig. 1: The difference between a Marilyn (Hill A) that qualifies for SOTA and a HuMP (Hill B) that qualifies for HEMA.
If I use a football analogy, summits
that are 150m above the surrounding land tops, Swyre Head in Dorset, was relegated categories of summits. Likewise, amateur
might be considered the Premier league a few years ago from SOTA when recent radio equipment and operating techniques
and are covered by the SOTA programme. re-surveying revealed that it didn’t, in fact, will be broadly identical.
Summits between 100m and 150m above quite have the 150m prominence required As with SOTA, the challenges involved
surrounding land (prominence) might be to be a Marilyn. Fortunately for me, Swyre in getting to the activation zone of a HuMP
considered in the Championship league Head is well within the 100m to 150m vary from a gentle stroll from a nearby car
and are covered by HEMA. prominence required for HEMA so I can park to a significant climb needing suit-
continue to operate and claim contacts able equipment. If you are new to SOTA
Why HEMA Is Needed from it towards HEMA instead of SOTA. or HEMA, then I would suggest tackling a
Having covered the essential difference summit that is easily accessible. That way
between SOTA and HEMA, I think the Operating from Hilltops you’ll get a feel of the radio side of activat-
next question that needs an answer is, If you’ve operated from a popular hilltop, ing a hilltop. As your enthusiasm grows,
“Do we really need a second hilltop award you’ll know how crowded some Marilyn then you might feel more confident to
scheme”? A lot will depend on where you summits can get, Fig. 2. Many HuMPs are tackle a more challenging summit. There’s
are located geographically. In parts of the less popular with visitors, enabling operat- no reason why HEMA activations can-
country where there are no or very few ing at, or close to, the summit with reason- not be combined with Worked All Britain
Marilyns, then hills that fall into the HEMA able ease and without being disturbed by activities!
category may be all that are available. If other visitors.
for example, you live on Jersey or Guern- I’ll come to the awards themselves HEMA Rules
sey − neither of which have any Marilyns shortly but I think the approach you take The rules for operations that count
− then the fact that there are summits that to operating from a hilltop will be broadly towards HEMA are very straightforward.
meet HEMA criteria will no doubt be very the same regardless of its prominence. You don’t have to operate from the actual
welcome. You’ll certainly be able to use all the same top of the hill. As long as you are no lower
Locally to me, one of my favourite hill- equipment and techniques to get to both than 25m vertically from the summit, that’s

56 Practical Wireless April 2019

fine. This area is known as the Activation
Zone (AZ) in the rules.
You are expected to operate using
portable power (such as batteries or solar
panels) and arrive in the activation zone by
walking or cycling. Operation must not use
any form of repeater, satellite, internet link
or similar.

Chasers and Activators

An activator is someone making contacts
from a HEMA activation zone. A chaser
is anyone who makes contacts with an
activator (unless, of course, they are also
operating from an HEMA activation zone
at the time of the contact).
There are awards available to both
activators and chasers. The full rules can
be found at:
www.hema.org.uk/rulesWebsite.jsp
Fig. 2: The author operating from the crowded summit Fig. 3: The SOTA explained book, published by the
Book of Snowdon (SOTA) in North Wales. RSGB.
In 2017, the RSGB published a useful
book entitled SOTA explained written by All activity in the HEMA scheme is through a local repeater and then move to
Jamie Davies MM0JMI, Fig. 3. While the undertaken entirely at the activator’s or a simplex channel to make a valid contact.
book’s focus is on SOTA, almost all the chaser’s own risk. You are also responsible For the HF bands, a lightweight battery-
content will be relevant to anyone who for ensuring that you have the necessary powered transceiver such as Yaesu’s
enjoys operating in the countryside and permission to visit relevant hilltops. Note FT-817, Elecraft’s KX3 or a home-built
hilltops in particular. The book includes that land-access laws and regulations vary QRP transceiver would all be suitable.
chapters on amateur radio for hill-walkers between different parts of the British Isles You’ll need a suitable power source to
and hill-walking for radio amateurs. It is full and are no doubt different in other DXCC allow operation for an hour or two. For an
of practical hints and tips that I am sure entities beyond the British Isles. Yes, antenna, there are plenty of choices, in-
readers intending to operate from hilltops like SOTA, the HEMA scheme is slowly cluding various designs and supports from
will find invaluable. extending to other parts of the world – SOTABEAMS. I’d suggest the 40m, 30m
currently Eire, parts of mainland Spain, and 20m bands would be a good choice
Clothing parts of northern France, the Netherlands during the sunspot minimum.
While some HuMPs may be a little less and parts of Australia.
exposed than Marilyns, you’ll still need to Logbook
think about suitable clothing to take. Even Radio Equipment You’ll need to keep a log of your contacts.
in good weather, you’ll find that it is gener- Because you’ll be carrying a complete sta- For activators, a small paper notebook is
ally cooler on the top of hills. You’ll be tion to the activation zone near, or at, the likely to be the lightest option. There is a
burning plenty of calories on the way up, summit, you’ll need to consider its weight. range of ‘rite in the rain’ notebooks, which
which help to keep you warm. Once you To start with, a lightweight VHF/UHF are ideal for use in inclement weather.
are sat down for an hour or two on a cold handheld can be a good choice. However, Alternatively, an ‘App’ on a mobile phone
and draughty summit, a warm body will these days, so few people listen on the could be used. Be careful to write down
quickly cool. Clothing with plenty of pock- FM calling frequencies that you might be callsigns clearly because when you return
ets can help with carrying some smaller disappointed. The award rules are clear home you’ll need to transcribe your log to
items such as a microphone, leads, con- that contacts via any form of relay are not the HEMA online database.
nectors and adaptors, batteries, Morse permitted, as I mentioned earlier. However,
keys and other pocket-sized items. there’s no reason why you couldn’t call Registering
Before you can register your activations,
Hilltops Unactivated
you’ll need to register on the HEMA web-
England 269 18
site. This just requires your callsign, name
Wales 208 24
and e-mail address, Fig. 4.
Scotland 943 894
IOM 6 1
Notifying Activations
N. Ireland 49 40
Once you have activated a HEMA hilltop,
Jersey 1 1
you can enter details of your contacts
Guernsey 2 2
on the HEMA database by selecting the
Rep. of Ireland 330 329
New Activation option and the relevant
The number of HuMPs in each of the DXCC in the British Isles. DXCC, HEMA Regions and Summit. You’ll

April 2019 Practical Wireless 57

 What Next

be asked for some information regarding

your activation, including the date and the
callsign you used, Fig. 5. You can then go
ahead and enter the QSO details.

Notifying Chasing Contacts

When you make contacts with a station on
a HEMA hilltop, you can enter details on
the HEMA database by selecting the New
Chase tab.

The Awards
The awards for activators in the scheme Fig. 4: Registering for HEMA is straightforward.
are based around the number of unique
HEMAs you activate and the number of
qualifying activations you make. While you
can activate the same hilltop many times,
only your first ever activation of each
hilltop counts towards your unique total,
and your first activation of each hilltop
per year counts towards your qualifying
activations.
For activators, there is a starter award
for the first ten unique activations you
make. Thereafter, there are awards for
25 unique activations, 50 unique activa-
tions and so on. For chasers, there are
the equivalent awards for contacts with
stations activating a hilltop, where you can
claim a point per different summit per day.
In addition to the ‘Unique Summit’
award, there are also the ‘Qualifying
Points’ awards available for qualifying con-
tacts. These are for contacts made from a
hilltop that you have previously operated
from (so not unique). The starter Qualify-
ing points awards can be obtained for 25
points, and then in multiples of 100 points
from 100 upwards. Fig. 5: Entering details of contacts made during an activation.
There is no fee for any of the awards,
which are sent by e-mail so that you can hilltop operations alongside the more number of the groups. If readers have
print them at home. The HEMA awards established SOTA scheme. favourite amateur radio Facebook groups
manager must be able to verify that they would like to recommend to others,
claimed contacts took place. Facebook I would be pleased to receive details so
Those readers who use Facebook will that I can include a good range of them.
Conclusions probably have come across various Incidentally, HEMA has a useful Facebook
I hope I have shown that there is indeed amateur radio groups. In a future What group, called ‘HEMA or HuMPS Amateur
a place for a second award scheme for Next column, I am planning to look at a Radio’.

MORE RALLIES & EV

ENTS!

In this month’s March 2019 £4.50

CLUB PROFILES:
www.radioenth
usia
st.co.uk
The Radio Amate
Old Timers’ Assoc
iation & the BATCur

A review of the Telo TE590 ■ How open-source software has

Telo
been a godsend for developers ■ The annual review of Frequency TE590
Guides UK Airspace news and updates us on digital flight strips Review
We take a look at
this

www.radioenthusiast.co.uk new network rad

Radio in Histor
The Volksempfän
io

ger’s
y
role in Nazi rad
io
propaganda
58 Practical Wireless April 2019
Frequency Listin
Your Guides to thegs Review:
ISSN 1748-8117

Bands
Active Aerials | Cardi
ff Airport | Non-Linea
Open-Source Softw r Radio
are and SDR |
 www.sotabeams.co.
uk
All items shipped from our UK factory. Prices exclude p&p.

✓ Plug and play

✓ Direct access to voice and cw memories
✓ Low-power tune (with optional lead)
✓ Memory and frequency control
✓ External PTT
✓ Styled to match your radio

Shortwave Shop SECONDHAND

PRODUCTS
AVAILABLE

Amateur Airband Antennas

Low voltage electrical components

Marine Shortwave Security and accessories for amateur radio
builds and installations
• Comprehensive range of cable, fusing, terminals
and connectors
• Anderson SBs, Powerpoles and accessories

WE HAVE MOVED
• High quality battery chargers and inverters
• Free delivery on UK orders over £100
• Order by phone or online

Suppliers of Alinco, AOR, bhi, Butternut, Comet, Cushcraft, Diamond,

GRE, Hustler, Hi-Gain, ICOM, Kent, KENWOOD, JRC, MAXON, MFJ, Mirage,
MOTOROLA, Opto, Pro-Am, Radio Works, SSB Electronics, SGC, Tokyo,
Tonna, Vectronics, Watson, YAESU, Yupiteru.

Call the Shortwave Shop on 01202 490099

or e-mail [email protected] to order
Zeacombe House, Blackerton Cross, East Anstey, Tiverton, Devon, EX16 9JU
Phone/Fax: 01202 490099
Web: http://www.shortwave.co.uk
www.12voltplanet.co.uk
Ample parking. Tel: 01865 236446 Email: [email protected]

April 2019 Practical Wireless 59

 Data Modes with Mike Richards G4WNC
● E-Mail: [email protected]

Data Modes with Es’Hail-2

Es’Hail-2 marks a whole new opportunity for amateur

B
y the time you read
this, the Es’Hail-2
geostationary amateur radio. Mike Richards G4WNC offers advice on how to take
satellite will be fully
active and in service.
advantage.
This is a great opportunity to experiment
with something new. I’ve shown a
summary of the Es’Hail-2 transponders in oscillator frequencies. Antenna polarity
Table 1. The narrow band transponder is is controlled by the supply voltage, with
the simplest to use and employs a 2.4GHz 12-14V used for vertical polarity and 18V
uplink and a 10GHz downlink. To achieve to switch to horizontal. Local oscillator
a geostationary orbit, the satellite is switching is done by injecting a 22kHz au-
located at 22° longitude and 22,000 miles dio tone of about 0.5V pk-pk into the coax
above the equator. While its geostationary feed. However, for Es’Hail-2 operation, we
orbit means we can use ixed antennas, don’t need to worry about switching be-
the signal levels will much weaker than cause the settings we require can be met
with closer (low earth orbit) orbiting with a simple 12V DC bias-tee. The easiest
satellites. This is a good case for utilising way to receive the 618MHz IF signal is
Joe Taylor K1JT’s weak signals modes! with one of the popular, USB connected,
SDR receivers such as the Airspy, SDR-
Receive Antenna play RSPs, ADALM-Pluto or Lime SDR
Let’s start by looking at the equipment while even a simple RTL-SDR Dongle will
required to receive the downlink. This uses do the job. As is always the case at very
the 10GHz (3cm) band and the standard high frequencies, the very irst RF Stage
receive technique is to use an LNB (Low (the LNB) has the greatest impact on the
Noise Block) located at the feedpoint of a overall performance.
dish antenna. Remarkably similar to satel-
lite TV! In fact, it is so similar we can make Uplink
use of readily available satellite TV kit for Fig. 1: ADALAM Pluto SDR. For the 2.4GHz Es’Hail-2 uplink, the
the irst part of the receive chain. For the recommendation is for 10W into a 75cm
UK’s latitude, we probably need a 0.65m Andy’s work shows that the Octagon dish. This may initially be a problem for
or larger dish so I would go for the largest Optima Twin is a strong contender and is many but there are a couple of easy solu-
you can tolerate. There are lots of TV dish often available for under £20. An impor- tions available. Simon Brown G4ELI has
suppliers out there and you may even have tant feature of the Octagon unit is its use been doing some great work to add full
a suitable old dish hanging around! For of PLL (Phase Locked Loop) techniques transceive facilities to his SDR Console
my setup, I’ve ordered an 80cm unit from for the local oscillator chain. Even with software. The latest public release, 3.0.5
SystemSat for £34 with free carriage. the standard 27MHz crystal, it provides includes full transceive for the Analog
a stability and phase noise performance Devices ADALAM-Pluto SDR transceiver,
LNB that may well be adequate for narrow- Fig. 1. With the aid of a simple irmware
In addition to the dish, you will need a suit- band data modes operation. For improved hack, this has continuous transceive
able LNB. This choice requires some care stability, the crystal can be replaced with coverage from 70MHz to 6GHz so is ideal
because the LNB is a critical performance a feed from an external, GPS disciplined for 2.4GHz. Simon is currently inalising
element. In addition to a low-noise front- oscillator. If using this latter technique, you full transceive for the Lime SDR boards
end, we need a unit that has the frequency could also change the reference frequency and this should be incorporated into the
stability to support narrow-band modes. to 27.515076MHz, thus moving the LNB 3.0.6 release that will probably be available
Most standard TV LNBs are only used IF output conveniently into the 432MHz by the time you read this. Just to make
for wideband TV reception so frequency amateur band, instead of 618MHz. life even more interesting Analog Devices
stability is not a major concern. However, The LNB has plenty of gain, so you will have released a small 2.4GHz, iltered PA
once you get to narrow-band data modes, also need an attenuator at the shack end for the Pluto to boost its output to 1W.
where a 3kHz wide channel can contain all of the feed to prevent receiver overload. Part number is EVAL-CN0417-EBZ, Fig. 2.
the trafic, the stability becomes critical. The LNB is powered over the coax feed While Analog Devices evaluation boards
Fortunately for us, Andy Talbot G4JNT using a standard bias-tee arrangement are often very expensive, the Pluto 1W PA
has done some excellent investigative and requires 12V and about 125mA. These costs just £28.54 plus VAT and carriage
work that he has generously published: TV LNB’s also include antenna polarity from DigiKey. If you buy two or more, you
www.g4jnt.com/pll_lnb_tests.pdf switching as well as a choice of two local get free express shipping from the US so

60 Practical Wireless April 2019

Fig. 2: Analog Devices 1 watt, 2.4GHz PA. Fig. 3: Hakko style replacement elements/bits.

it would be worth partnering with a fellow • Isopropyl alcohol wipes.

amateur. The Pluto PA operates from a 5V • Small hot-air gun.
USB supply and provides 20dB gain so • Small clamp or vice to hold the PCB
could also be used with the Lime SDRs. steady.
However, the Pluto SDR has an added • Fine-gauge solder, 0.6mm.
attraction because it’s possible to run it • Solder wick braid 2.5mm.
via an Ethernet link by adding a simple • Magnifying desk lamp.
USB-to-Ethernet converter. This connec- I started by using my old Weller
tivity is not yet supported in SDR-Console temperature-controlled iron but was hav-
but is likely to be added soon. By using ing problems getting enough heat to the
an Ethernet link for the Pluto, it could be board when using a very ine tip. Following
located close to the antenna feed thus a few web searches and YouTube videos, I
minimising the transmit feeder loss. Given noticed that a lot of people use the Hakko
that we’ll be using eficient data modes range of irons. Rather than use a replace-
for the contacts, 1W should be enough. I’ll able tip, these irons have a combined tip
have more on this next month but in the and heater assembly that’s replaceable,
meantime, you can start by listening to the Fig. 3. This seems to give better heat
satellite’s narrow-band trafic at: transfer when using very small bits. Being
https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb a bit mean, I went for one of the Hakko
clones on eBay and bought a 75W FX-951
RadioBerry Update for just under £50 from a UK supplier, Fig.
My RadioBerry DDS transceiver is now 4. I also bought a pack of ten assorted bits
complete and working well. There were from another eBay supplier for £20. This Fig. 4: Hakko clone soldering station.
quite a few challenges in the construction, proved to be a much more effective com-
with 0603 size components, a 144-pin bination for SMD (surface-mount) work. As similar effect using a cocktail stick and Blu
FPGA and a tiny 6-pad TCXO all to hand you might expect, it’s important to keep Tack. Getting the 144, 0.5mm spaced pins
solder. Before I started, I found a few old the PCB clean and I used the Isopropyl accurately aligned was quite tricky but I
PCBs with similar size (0603) components wipes for that job. got there in the end and soldered a single
and chips and started removing and re- Because the large ICs were the hardest pin on each side to hold it in place. I then
soldering until a I found a technique that to it I, that’s where I started. The 144-pin applied lux to all the pins and soldered
worked for me. The essential tools turned FPGA was the trickiest because I had to each pin with a very ine bit using a wip-
out to be: be very careful not to bend any of the pins. ing action where I dragged the iron along
• A set of tweezers (angled and straight) − To help with this, I bought an Aoyue 932 the pin and away from chip. I created a
cheap ones are ine. vacuum pick-up unit from PCB.soldering. few solder bridges, but these were easily
• Good quality ine-point temperature- co.uk (about £30). This was not essential removed with the solder wick.
controlled soldering iron and bits. but I found it very useful for picking and Most of the resistors and capacitors
• A syringe of ‘no-clean’ solder lux. placing large chips. You could achieve a were 0603 devices and I soldered these by
irst applying lux to both pads and then
adding some extra solder to one of the
Narrowband Linear Transponder
pads. The component was then held in
2400.050 to 2400.300MHz .............................................................. Uplink
position with tweezers while I heated the
10,489.550 to 10,489.800MHz ........................................................ Downlink
joint to complete the attachment at one
Wideband Digital Transponder end. I then moved on to solder the other
2401.500 to 2409.500MHz .............................................................. Uplink end of the component. I inserted all the
10,491.000 to 10,499.000MHz ........................................................ Downlink components in place using this technique
but the end-result looked a bit untidy. The
Table 1: Es’Hail transponders. joints were electrically ine but not neatly

April 2019 Practical Wireless 61

 Data Modes

aligned with the pads. The solution was to powering the Raspberry Pi. Once I began
run over the board with the hot-air gun set experimenting with the RadioBerry and
to a moderate air-low and a temperature associated software, I started to get low
of around 300°C. As the board and com- voltage warnings from the Pi. That’s sig-
ponents heated-up, the solder melted and nalled by a lightning bolt appearing in the
the surface tension of the solder caused top right-hand corner of the display. When
the components to loat to their correct I measured the 5V line on the Pi GPIO
orientation, like magic! The inal task was pins, it was reading 4.8V, which is too
to clear any surplus lux residue using low for reliable operation. The 5V supply
a lux cleaner. As you can see from my appeared to be ine so the problem was
photo of the completed RadioBerry, Fig. 5, soon narrowed-down to the voltage-drop
it worked quite well. in the USB cable. I was aware of this as a
I was pleased to ind that the RadioBer- potential problem but it was the combined
ry sprang into to life irst time but my initial power draw of the Pi and RadioBerry that
euphoria evaporated when I realised it was brought it to light. If you’re a regular Pi
completely deaf! After some investigation, user, you may have noticed that most Pi
I tracked it down to a capacitor across the power supplies are now sold with a 5.2V
differential input to the transceiver chip. output voltage to help negate the prob-
This should have been 8.2pF but Digi-Key lem. I also set about inding a decent USB
had accidentally supplied 10µF capacitors cable. From my tests so far, the Anker
in the pack marked as 8.2p! Moral of the PowerLine USB cables seem to be a very
story, check all component values before good choice because they use 21AWG for
installing. the positive 5V feed and a 20AWG wire
plus a conductive sheathing for the return.
Pi Power I’m planning to do some tests on several Fig. 5: Completed RadioBerry DDS transceiver
My inal item for this month concerns cables so will report back here later. mounted on a Raspberry Pi.

Come and join us for the largest single day radio rally in the UK


at the NORBRECK CASTLE HOTEL, BLACKPOOL, FY2 9AA
on Sunday 28th April 2019 - Doors open at 10:30
 FREE PARKING 
Park in the hotel car park for FREE on the day of the rally

 Over 50 traders  Over 40 club stands

 Bring and Buy  Construction Competition
 RSGB book stand  Facilities for the disabled
 Food and beverages available  Admission £5 (under 14s free)

For the latest information on the rally visit the NARSA website – www.narsa.org.uk

Exhibition Manager: Dave Wilson, M0OBW T: 01270 761608 / 07720 656542 E: [email protected]

62 Practical Wireless April 2019

Rallies Send all your rally info to Georg Wiessala at: [email protected]

Plan your rally visits with our comprehensive list of forthcoming events. RadioUser will be attending events marked with an asterisk* –
come along to our stand for great deals on subscriptions to Practical Wireless and RadioUser. Club Secretaries and Event Organisers: please
send us details of your events if you would like them to be mentioned here.

March 16th (Saturday) Co. Antrim BT57 8QG. Doors are – Scotland’s only annual DX April 14th (Sunday)
LAUGHARNE RALLY open from 11am. Admittance is £3. Convention – will take place at HACK GREEN BUNKER RALLY
The Laugharne Rally of the UK [email protected] the King Robert Hotel in Stirling. The Hack Green Bunker Rally
Microwave Group will take place, Booking/ payment details and will take place at the Hack Green
from 10 am to 1 pm, at Laugharne March 24th (Sunday) information about the conference Nuclear Bunker, French Lane, Hack
Millennium Memorial Hall, Clifton HAMZILLA RADIO FEST AND programme and the DX Dinner can Green, Nr Nantwich, Baddington,
Street, Laugharne, Wales ELECTRONICS FAIR be found on the website. Don Field, Cheshire CW5 8AL. There will be
SA33 4QG. The Hamzilla Radio Fest and editor of Practical Wireless, will be sales of electronic equipment,
Matthew Electronics Fair, hosted by the one of the guest speakers. amateur gear, components, military
https://tinyurl.com/y9jwxgz3 Dover ARC, will take place at the www.gmdx.org.uk radio items and vehicle spares.
Discovery Science Park, Gateway Doors are open from 10 am, and
March 16th (Saturday) House, Ramsgate Road, Sandwich, April 7th (Sunday) refreshments are available on site.
MICROWAVE ROUNDTABLE Kent, CT13 9FF. Open 10am to CAMBRIDGESHIRE REPEATER Contact 01270 623 353
The Cardiff University ARS will 4pm. Online ticket entrance £3; GROUP RALLY [email protected]
be hosting a meeting of the UK Limited early bird tickets £5. The CRG Rally is taking place at
Microwave Group at its campus Tables cost £10. Online purchase/ the Foxton Village Hall, Hardman April 14th (Sunday)
in Cardiff. This one-day event is a bookings are now available; bring- Road, Foxton, Cambridge CB22 RIPON RADIO RALLY
mix of talks, measurements, and and-buy sale, catering, lectures/ 6RN. Car parking is free. Doors The rally takes place at Hugh Ripley
socializing about activities in the seminars, RSGB bookstall, special open 9.30am for public entry and Hall, Ripon, HG4 2PT. Doors are
GHz frequencies. interest groups, trade stands, guest 7.30am for traders. Entry is £2. open at 10am. Refreshments will be
https://tinyurl.com/yysbclwo speakers, digital village, demos. There will also be a talk-in station, available on site. Information and
http://www.sbarc.co.uk Icom, SDRPlay and many more traders, a bring-and-buy table, and table booking form on the website.
http://twitter.com/G4WAW exhibitors. Disabled facilities. Plenty an RSGB bookstall. Catering is www.ripon.org.uk
https://tinyurl.com/y6ap5w4f of free parking. RSGB examinations available on site – the burger van
will be held. has been booked. April 14th (Sunday)
March 17th (Sunday) Aaron Coote M0IER Lawrence, M0LCM WEST LONDON RADIO &
WHYTHALL RADIO CLUB [email protected] www.cambridgerepeaters.net ELECTRONICS SHOW
HAMFEST [email protected] (Kempton Rally)
The 34th Wythall Radio Club April 7th (Sunday) The Kempton Rally will take place
Hamfest will be held at The Club March 31st (Sunday) YEOVIL ARC 35TH QRP at the Kempton Park Racecourse,
HQ, Wythall House, Silver Street, BATC REGIONAL CONVENTION CONVENTION Staines Road East, Sunbury on
Wythall B47 6LZ. Doors will open The British Amateur Television The 35th Yeovil ARC QRP Thames, TW16 5AQ. A talk-in
at 9.45am, with access for disabled Club (BATC, see RadioUser, March Convention will take place at station will be on the air.
visitors from approximately 2019) will hold a number of “mini- Digby Hall, Sherborne, Dorset Car parking is free, and the doors
9.30am. Free on-site parking will conventions” in various regions DT9 3AA. Doors are open 9.30am open at 10 am; disabled visitors
be available. Admission costs £4. of the country during 2019. The to 3.30pm. Admission is £3. The will gain access 10 minutes earlier.
There will be four halls of traders, Club is pleased to announce the venue is wheelchair-friendly. There will be trade stands and a
including a bring-and-buy, and irst of these in Bristol on 31st The rally is supported by RSGB bring-and-buy, as well as special
the club stand. A  selection of March 2019. The event will take RAFARS and BYLARA. There will interest groups and lectures.
refreshments will be available all place from 10 am to 4 pm at the be refreshments and parking, club Catering is available on site.
day, and bar facilities are open premises of the North Bristol ARC, stands, and new and second-hand Paul, M0CJX
within Wythall House from noon SHE7 building, Braemar Crescent, stalls. The talks on the day will [email protected]
onwards. Filton, Bristol BS7 0TD. These are be about (1) A Remarkable Very www.radiofairs.co.uk
Ian Reeve M0IDR not regular rallies involving traders Young Lady Radio Amateur, and
Tel: 01386 839 655 but technical meetings for ATV (2) An introduction to MAP Loops. April 28th (Sunday)
www.wythallradioclub.co.uk enthusiasts, and for those thinking Regrettably only guide dogs can be NARSA – NORTHERN AMATEUR
of making a start in this aspect of admitted. RADIO SOCIETIES ASSOCIATION
March 24th (Sunday) the hobby. There will be a full day Bob Harris, G8UED EXHIBITION (Blackpool Rally)
CALLINGTON RADIO RALLY of talks and demonstrations, and [email protected] The 2019 Northern Amateur Radio
The Callington Radio Rally is the opportunity to meet some of Society Association’s Blackpool
organised jointly by the Devon and the most active ATV enthusiasts. April 12th to 14th Rally will take place at the Norbreck
Cornwall Repeater Group and the There will also be test equipment (Friday to Sunday) Castle Exhibition Centre, Blackpool
Callington ARS. It will be held at on hand to test and align visitors’ INTERNATIONAL DX FY2 9AA. There will be a talk-in
Callington Town Hall, New Road, projects. Full details are on the CONVENTION (IDXC) station, plenty of car parking,
Callington, Cornwall PL17 7BD. BATC Forum before the event. The 70th International DX trade stands, a bring-and-buy
The doors will open at 10am, and Shaun O’Sullivan, G8VPG Convention, sponsored by the stall, special interest groups, and
admission is £2; those under 14 Tel: 01225 873 098, Northern California DX Club, will an RSGB bookstall. Doors open
years of age are going free. There [email protected] be held at the Visalia Conference at 10.30am (10.15am for disabled
is ample free car parking adjacent Center in downtown Visalia, visitors). Catering is available on
to the venue, trade stands, amateur March 31st (Sunday) California, USA. site.
radio sellers, a bring-and-buy, and PENCOED RADIO CLUB TABLE If you are a DXer, or interested in Dave, M0OBW
on-site catering. TOP SALE any aspect of amateur radio, then www.narsa.org.uk
Roger, 2E0RPH Doors are open 9.30am, and stall IDXC is the place to be.
[email protected] holders have admittance from 8am. Top DX operators and contesters May 5th
Refreshments are available on site. from around the world will be there. THORPE CAMP HAMFEST
March 24th (Sunday) Madeline Roberts You’ll match those familiar callsigns The Thorpe Camp Hamfest is
CAUSEWAY COAST GLENS ARC Tel: 0773 837 5775 with new faces and shake hands open for traders who camp over
RADIO RALLY with the person you have had a to set up from 29th April. For more
The rally takes place at the April 6th (Saturday) sched with for the past 10 years, information:
Bushmills Community Centre, 14 GMDX Convention but whom you have never met. Sylvia or Ant
Dunluce Road, Bushmills, The GMDX Convention 2019 https://tinyurl.com/ybudjrbz Tel: 0795 665 4481

April 2019 Practical Wireless 63

 Starting Over with Lee Aldridge G4EJB
l E-mail: [email protected]

A Advantages to
s you may have noticed,
I have kept costs to a
minimum in returning to
this hobby, one reason

Building rather
being to show it’s still
possible. Wrestling with the basics this
time around has taught me far more than I
knew previously. I think 40 years or so ago
it was a case of inding how to make things
work and then operate. This time I appreci-
ate the subtlety of how things work, when
they work!
For example, the high VSWR reading
than Buying
from my 20m antenna was not as originally
suspected the water damaged coax but the Lee Aldridge G4EJB continues his self-learning while
addition of an extension coax cable. When dealing with antenna matching issues.
I built my SWR bridge, I did so with 50Ω
impedance in mind. I mentioned ages back
that the old coax was 75Ω but had shown
a VSWR of 1.3:1 so I hadn’t really appreci-
ated how lucky I was to have used a piece
of coax of the ‘right length’ to get up and
working. There’s more. To save money on
RF connectors, I have been using F-type
coaxial connectors and adaptors with
QRP (I thought they might be ine with low
power HF).
Knowing RF connectors will introduce
some losses and there could be SWR is-
sues with adaptors, it even brought back
memories of an informative club talk given
by Dave Yates G3PGQ in the seventies Fig. 1: Antenna Matching Unit.
(1970s, that is), which included an insight
into adaptors and SWR issues. (I will
always be indebted to Dave for his help
and advice in my early years in the hobby.)
So, prior to dismantling the coax off my
20m antenna, I connected my portable
20m transmitter/receiver directly to the
original piece of coax to check the VSWR.
As expected, it still showed 1.3:1. I then
measured my extension coax cable into a
50Ω load and, sure enough, this was giving
something around 2.5:1. Slightly puzzled,
I made a longer lead with similar results.
At that point the shed was locked up and I
went for a sulk.

Solving the Puzzle

The upshot was, I decided to build a simple Fig. 2: 50Ω load with built-on RF probe prior to being encased.
antenna matching unit so the radio and
20m CWAZ LP ilter would see something around the paper and wound on 11 turns probe to the same design (courtesy of
like a 1:1 match. It started out as an L of 18SWG enamelled copper wire. Why Adam Farson VA7OJ/AB4OJ), Fig. 2, as
match but because I had two identi- the heavy gauge wire with QRP? It stays in my existing RF probe.
cal old variable capacitors, it became a place around the former and the ferrite rod This meant I could measure losses
Pi matching unit along the lines of Tony can be moved as required. Rather than it in the antenna system without having to
Haas G4LDY’s design in the G-QRP Club any terminations, I opted for coaxial tails. perch my existing probe on the RF output
Antenna Handbook, see Fig. 1. Does it work? Yes, very reasonably, but it contact on my dummy load. I hoped the
Instead of a tapped coil and associated will only be used with low power. screening would aid consistent readings
switch, I wrapped a piece of paper over This spurred me on to modify my 50Ω and further limit radiation. I could then work
an old ferrite rod, put some fabric tape load to incorporate an RMS-reading RF out the RF power using V2/R with a calcula-

64 Practical Wireless April 2019

tor and hopefully have more meaningful
measurements. A Post-it was even put on
the cupboard door showing power and
voltages ranging from 500mW to 1W –
that’s getting serious.
Using my portable 20m transmitter/
receiver with a flat battery, I took mea-
surements at the transmitter output, the
20m CWAZ lowpass ilter output and the
antenna matching unit with the dummy
load/RF probe. Then I used an online dB
calculator to work out losses:
https://tinyurl.com/yddbsp25
For example, with 0.405W at the ilter
output and 0.375W at the matching unit
antenna connector, the calculator showed
a loss of 0.33dB. Now I don’t expect my Fig. 3: FET Dip Oscillator.
homemade probe and £8 DVM are that
accurate but I’m happy enough to see a The rest of the oscillator was built Manhat- My thinking was I could use it on any band
relative low loss across my matching unit. tan style then tested before being encased with a basic matching unit and the correct
So, the old coax has a reprieve − for now! with some pieces of PCB, Fig. 3. counterpoise. It would give me experience
The 20m dipole is still conigured as It didn’t function at irst. I checked DC with a long-wire antenna that would then
a CFR dipole but the RF choke has been voltages with my DVM − all was well − then be pressed into portable operation in a few
moved to a calculated 0.275 wavelength used the DVM on continuity to check from weeks. What really amused me was, I was
from the dipole feedpoint, as I’m using an the 100pF coupling capacitors through the returning to where I had started just over a
untuned choke. Does it improve anything? ixed vanes of the variable to the coil. I’d year ago − a long-wire antenna − but this
I’d like to say ‘yes’ but based on reception failed to solder one end of the coil to the time with an antenna that has stood the
alone (operating time has been at a mini- variable capacitor so got that sorted. With test of time, since 1936 to be precise. And
mum), it’s very easy to let over-optimism the larger than speciied variable capaci- it wasn’t steel wire. I had bought 100m of
get the better of you with the variance of tor, I took one turn off the coil. Coverage is lightweight PVC-covered tinned copper
20m band conditions. I shall be experi- from about 5MHz to 21MHz − very useful. wire for antenna, radial and counterpoise
menting further with the antenna and coax The oscillator is far more stable than I ex- work.
shortly. Meantime the soldering iron has pected and I’ve used it with my frequency The W3EDP wire antenna isn’t very high,
been put to further use. counter to roughly calibrate a couple of even though I had inched my way up one
my simple receivers (I call these ‘Rubidium of my wooden antenna masts to get a little
Dip Oscillator Pencil Marks’ because pencil marks rarely more height. Just don’t ask how but it’s
Remember me saying I must build a FET move). Even my 40m Pixie has frequencies good that I learned some ladder skills with
Dip Oscillator? Well, I inally built the FET marked on it. trees. Anyway, having survived that and the
Dip Oscillator described in Peter Dobbs I had planned to sort the 30/40m invert- freezing temperatures (there was ice on the
G3LDO’s book Building Successful HF ed-V dipole but the weather went against guy ropes), I set about building something
Antennas, because it looked really useful me. Instead, as a pragmatic solution to similar to the simple matching unit that
for antennas. (Really, I just wanted to see further antenna development, I followed George had included in his book. I can’t
what happened with a large coil wound George Dobbs G3RJV’s advice in his book wait to see how this works and I will make a
around a piece of laminated floor panel.) QRP Basics about the W3EDP antenna. few contacts with it, ready for The Peaks!

J. BIRKETT. 25 The Strait.

ELECTRONIC COMPONENT SUPPLIERS Lincoln LN2 1JF.
Tel: 01522 520767.
Partners J.H.Birkett.
POLYESTER CAPACITORS P.C. TYPE 1000PF 2KV @ 20 FOR Partners J.L.Birkett.
SUPPLIERS OF ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS £1.00, 0.01UF 1600VW @ 20 FOR £1.00, 0.047UF 400VW @ 20
FOR £1.00, 0.1UF 250VW @ 20 FOR £1.00
ELECTROLYTIC CAPACITORS 50+50UF 275VW @ 3 FOR £2.00
www.zyra.org.uk/birkett.htm
CENTRE OFF TOGGLE SWITCHES 10 AMP @ £2.00 EACH GERMANIUM DIODES CV7049 @ 5 FOR £1.00
Visit our website and order on-line at PACK OF 8BA NUTS AND BOLTS FOR £1.00 ROTARY SWITCHES 4 POLE 2 WAY @ £1.50, 3 POLE 4 WAY @
£1.50, 1 POLE 11 WAY @ £1.50
SMALL FERRITE TWO HOLE BLOCK @ 8 FOR £1.00
Web: www.bowood-electronics.co.uk COLVERN WIRE WOUND POTENTIOMETERS 5K @ £2.00, 10K POLYESTER CAPACITORS 0.68UF 230VAC 600VDC @ 8
FOR £1.00
@ £2.00, 50K @ £2.00, 100K @ £2.00
or send large letter stamp for catalogue POTENTIOMETERS 100K LIN @ £1.50, 1MEG LOG @ £1.50, 5K
LOG SWITCHED @ £1.50, 50K LOG SWITCHED @ £1.50, 5K+5K
OLD ELECTROLYTIC CAPACITORS 8UF 300VW @ 8 FOR £1.00
MULLARD C280 CAPACITORS 0.1UF 250VW @ 20 FOR £1.00
E-mail: [email protected] LIN @ £1.50, 100K+100K LIN @ £1.50, 250K+250K LIN @ £1.50
NEWMARKET TRANSISTORS NKT215 @ 5 FOR £1.00, NKT216
TRANSISTORS LIKE MAT121 CV4451 @ 4 FOR £1.00
SMALL ROUND AMMETER 0 TO 5 AMP @ £3.00
Contact: Will Outram @ 5 FOR £1.00
MULLARD TRANSISTORS OC75 @ 5 FOR £1.00, OC76 @ 5
CRYSTALS 10X TYPE 500KHz @ £1.00, 10XAJ TYPE 1MHz @
£1.50, HC6U TYPE 1MHz @ £1.50, 10MHz HC18U @ £1.00, 1945
Unit 10, Boythorpe Business Park, Dock Walk FOR £1.00
TRANSISTORS BC183 @ 20 FOR £1.00
10X TYPE 8010KHz @ £1.00
PACK OF 4BA SOLDER TAGS @ £1.00
Boythorpe, Chesterfield S40 2QR GERMANIUM TRANSISTORS AC142 @ 5 FOR £1.00, AC138
@ 5 FOR £1.00
MIDGET PRESET POTENTIOMETERS 1K, 5K, 25K, 47K, 220K,
1MEG @ ANY 6 FOR 50P
Telephone: 01246 200222 MASTERCARD, ACCESS, SWITCH, BARCLAYCARD
accepted. P&P £3 under £15. Over Free, unless otherwise stated. Please make cheques payable to J. Birkett

April 2019 Practical Wireless 65

 In the Footsteps of Marconi with Joe Chester MW1MWD
l E-mail: [email protected]

Retrying some of Marconi’s

early Radio Experiments
Having wrestled with portable operating, Joe Chester

O
ver several years, from
the late 1890s onwards, MW1MWD sets out to to retrace the footsteps of Marconi.
Signore G G Marconi
reported the results of
experiments with what
were then called Hertzian waves, ship-to-shore from out in the Atlantic?
after the great German physicist Or were the results he announced
Heinrich Hertz who discovered them. a bit fortuitous, perhaps somewhat
One of the things he reported was that exaggerated, and the result of faulty
he succeeded in sending a Morse code experimental design – his listeners knew
signal by radio across the Atlantic. exactly when to listen and at what times,
They gave him a Nobel Prize for this. Of even exactly what was being sent.
course, he knew almost nothing about Because 2019 is the 120th anniversary
radio theory, propagation or antennas. of some of these experiments, I’m going
He was a businessman, interested in to try to replicate what he did, from the
the commercial possibilities of wireless same locations. I’ll be using modern
transmission, and in this endeavour he equipment but sticking as closely as I can
succeeded. to his experimental designs.
Marconi built all the equipment he The irst step is to sort out an antenna.
used. Apart from the odd input from some Marconi used very low frequencies, so I’ve
more scientiically learned friends, it was decided to operate on 80m – I’ll say why
a case of trial and error, of get some wire I picked this later. He used verticals and
in the air, attach a spark gap to it, and sometimes long wires suspended from
listen to see whether anything could be kites. We’re a small team, just two of us.
heard some distance away. He started at So, setting up a transmitter and lying a
distances of a metre or less, and quickly kite at the same time is probably asking
moved on to hundreds of metres, and too much of the rest of the team!
eventually a few thousand kilometres I rang my friend M for guidance. Now
across the Atlantic. Or so he claimed. understand, he’s a QRO (high power) and
full-sized antenna type of guy. “Short
But did He? verticals on the low bands are notoriously
The problem is that he almost certainly inefficient, difficult to tune, and noisy”,
didn’t achieve all that he claimed he had. he volunteered. “You’ll also need a big
As a businessman, he needed results to amplifier but the Isle of Wight is nice”, The author’s version of a Marconi vertical – a
get the investment he needed. It is well he said. Talk about stating the obvious! SOTABEAMS 7m pole, with 300Ω ladder line,
known today (see URL below) that the Asking around on the web generated a shorted at the top, as radiator, and a matching coil
transatlantic transmissions he said he few interesting responses. Bruce W2SE (the blue box) a metre off the ground.
heard were probably just atmospheric suggested I try horizontal polarisation,
noise. Transatlantic radio transmissions, like an NVIS antenna, and Ken K5DNL feedpoint is 3m off the ground, and I use
on the LF frequencies he used, are, suggested trying a T. But Marconi used a 20m counterpoise, stretched along the
even with today’s advanced equipment, verticals. So, a vertical it has to be. wooden garden fence, and at no point
very dificult, requiring careful design of closer than 2m to the ground. Scott says
appropriate antennas. He knew nothing of A Short Vertical for 80m this antenna has a gain of −3.82dBi so
this, and his equipment was rudimentary. I started working on the antenna on it’s putting out less than half the power
https://tinyurl.com/6w6qz5t ine days during the Winter. M dropped of an isotropic radiator. A longer radiator
So, if his transatlantic results are today by occasionally, to gawk at my efforts. increases gain slightly but this is still
seen as somewhat doubtful, what of My irst attempt was to follow the a poor antenna. However, it worked,
his other experiments? Did he actually recommendations in Scott Andersen’s and one Sunday morning, I made a few
succeed in sending LF signals across to Buddipole cookbook. This has a radiator contacts. Nevertheless, I suspected that a
France reliably when he said he did? And of just 1.77m, very short for 80m use. The light bulb might work just as well!

66 Practical Wireless April 2019

 Frank N4SPP has also done some
work on this type of antenna (link below).
He made several versions, with various
homemade coils. He got good results with
a 5.5m radiator on a 6m ibreglass pole, a
homemade coil, and a 7m counterpoise.
Clearly, the longer the radiator the better
the performance, and ultimately a well-
grounded quarter-wave at 20m would be
ideal.
https://tinyurl.com/yc2dcxqx
Obvious, says M, and of course he’s
right, as usual. “I told you to get as much
wire as you can up as high as possible”,
he said. Yes, indeed, but I live in a
bungalow, with a postage-stamp back
garden, in a quiet neighbourhood. Taking
on the planning issues involved in a 20m
mast was not going to happen. And such
a monster would not be very portable
either.

A Better Solution
For my second attempt, I attached a The BP Low Band coil attached to one side of a ladder line radiator – the two taps are the resonant
6m length of wire to a SOTABEAMS 7m points for 80m and 40m; there are two brown counterpoise wires, one for each band.
portable pole. This radiator is three times
the length of the previous one with the head height. His VSWR and impedance (Phil AD5X again). The long counterpoise
same feedpoint and counterpoise. My numbers for the low end of 80m underline I’m using out portable will go some way
antenna analyser was used to get the the dificulties of low band verticals. But to reducing ground losses. At the QTH,
best position for the tap on the coil. I I have an advantage over the antenna he I’m looking at trying a folded counterpoise
got a match at 3.710MHz, and a 140kHz was testing – the BP coil at the feedpoint, FCP (URL below) to reduce ground
bandwidth with an SWR under 2:1. and the ‘tunable’ counterpoise. This losses. But the Footsteps project is about
Moving the tap up the coil, away from the allows me to ind the resonant frequency portable work. My modiied BP, with the
feedpoint, raised the resonant frequency, of the vertical element and drop the SWR SOTABEAMS pole, is the best I can do,
and vice versa. I added length to the right down to a usable level. and it will have to serve.
counterpoise, by unwinding more wire k2av.com
from its spool, and, although it did move A Final Tweak One of the nice features of the solution
the resonant frequency (longer lowers it), There are several other things I can do I’ve settled on is that it’s a good match
it worked ine at its original length. This is to improve eficiency. Obviously, a longer to what Marconi used in Poole 120 years
beginning to feel a bit Marconi-like, but radiator would help. But getting beyond ago. The coil is the key. I’ve even found
even this failed to impress M! the 7m ibreglass pole starts creating the coil he used. It’s in the Museum of the
I calculated the eficiency of this mounting dificulties. An inverted-L would History of Science in Oxford. You can see
system, using Phil AD5X’s equations possibly be even better at the QTH, but an image of it online:
(URL below), at about 25%, very much that’s not what this series is about. I https://tinyurl.com/ycsqcyyh
better than the previous attempt. Over also found designs for longer radiators
the week or so that followed, I used my wrapped carefully in a spiral around very Summary
IC-7300, at 100W, with this antenna. I got expensive poles. A inal tweak came from Marconi used very ineficient equipment
mostly 59 reports, and a 57 from John in Brian G0IER. He tried using ladder-line, and trial and error way back then. I’m not
Clacton. So, it’s getting better. One of the shorted at the top to, in effect, double the really, therefore, chasing down ‘the’ most
nice things about this antenna is that it length of the radiating element. I tried this eficient and effective equipment solution.
can be put up and taken down in less than too and got a 56-57 from Geoff GM0OFQ My modiied Buddipole will do the
a minute. Which also means less chance one lunchtime. Signiicantly, this was on antenna job, matching that of Marconi’s
of curious neighbours complaining. And the KX3, using only 10W (Geoff was also efforts, and my KX3 is a good match
it’s portable! using a KX3 but with an ampliier). for his transmitter (I’ll discuss why next
ad5x.com/presentations.htm The real problem here is the grounding. month). I’ve got an NoV from Ofcom for
While I was writing this piece, the In the days of AM shortwave commercial this work – GB9GGM − and set up a web
postman arrived to deliver February’s transmitters, groundplanes consisted of page on QRZ.com under that callsign.
PW. And what do I ind on page 24? Only miles of wire radials, and even acres of Please check there regularly for operating
our esteemed Editor tackling the same buried steel mesh. The ground losses times and frequencies. Let’s know what
issue – the eficiency of vertical antennas. with short verticals overpower the limited you hear, if anything! I will, of course,
His radiator is 5.5m, mounted just over radiation resistance of the short radiator report back my results (if any!) via PW.

April 2019 Practical Wireless 67

 Feature with Sam Jewell G4DDK
l E-mail: [email protected]

A 23cm, The Next

lthough most radio
amateurs will be aware
of the amateur radio
spectrum allocations
between 137kHz and

Band Up? (Part 1)

440MHz, it is likely that many will
not have ventured any higher. Why
is that? One reason is that there are
relatively few commercial transceivers
that include any of these bands and those
that do tend to be expensive compared to
equipment for the lower bands. In many Sam Jewell G4DDK makes a welcome return to PW, explaining
cases coverage of ‘the next band up’ is how to get started on the 23cm band, the ‘Next Band Up’.
often as an optional add-on. With few
exceptions, the only higher band offered
is 1240 to 1300MHz (the 23cm band). In
the UK we are fortunate to have the wider
band covering 1240 to 1325MHz but the
vast majority of amateur 23cm allocations
in other countries stop at 1300MHz so
that has become the normal limit for any
commercial amateur transceiver offering.
In this short introduction, including
a second part next month, I hope to
encourage you to explore the interesting
characteristics of ‘23cm, the next band up’.

What’s There?
A UK bandplan for 23cm has been
produced by the RSGB and can be viewed
online at: Fig. 1: Tropo scattering (TrS) from common-volume troposphere dust particles, cloud droplets and
https://tinyurl.com/ycntdkkc irregularities in the refractive index, causing VHF/UHF radio signals to bend round the Earth’s curvature.
Since the bandplan may be subject to
change from time to time, it has not been one to watch in the future. a few and maybe little further than a few
reproduced in this article. Reference to the RSGB web page is tens of kilometres. However, as I’ll discuss,
What is immediately obvious is that the best way to ensure that you do not other propagation mechanisms exist while
the bandplan supports a great many operate where it might not be appreciated EME (Earth Moon Earth, also known as
communications modes, including by current users. moonbounce or moon relection) can
amateur TV (ATV, both FM and digital), It should be noted that adherence to give global coverage and amateur radio
voice simplex and voice repeater, digital the bandplan is not mandatory but doing satellites can allow transatlantic coverage.
voice (DV), digital data (DD), satellite so will likely result in the greatest number Increasing levels of man-made
uplinks, traditional CW and SSB and of successful radio contacts. For those noise (QRM), due to the proliferation of
digital modes (MGM). who prefer to experiment, it may be electronic devices now in common use,
It would be unreasonable, for most preferable to move to some of the lesser- may cover up many weak and sought-
of us, to try to remember the whole used parts of the band. This is entirely after HF stations, making it harder for
bandplan. Possibly remembering acceptable if it doesn’t cause interference the average HF amateur to work those
that most narrowband DX operation to the primary band users or intentional stations with the usual 100W and a length
takes place in the sub-band between interference to other amateur band users. of wire. Add to this poor HF propagation
1296.000MHz and 1296.200MHz and There are some geographical limitations at this part of the solar cycle and HF can
the satellite uplinks are in the sub-band on operation, imposed by Ofcom. become a frustrating experience.
between 1260 and 1270MHz is enough. Mostly minor changes to the The noise problem is now beginning to
The introduction of more direct, recommended bandplan may be needed, affect the VHF and lower UHF bands too.
simplex, DV in the future seems possible in the future, as some primary user Above about 500MHz much of this QRM
with the introduction of the new Icom services expand and make it more dificult noise disappears and above about 1GHz
IC-9700, although this is D-STAR only. to operate in all the present allocations. the natural noise (QRN) drops to very low
To date, there seems to be little interest levels. Up to around 20GHz QRN remains
in DMR and Fusion digital simplex in Why Higher? low giving rise to this part of the radio
this band. Other DV modes may also While the HF bands offer the opportunity spectrum being known as the ‘low noise
appear, in due course. The IARU Region to work stations across the globe, to the window’. What happens above about
1 recommended DV simplex calling average radio amateur the VHF and above 20GHz is a little more complicated and
frequency is 1297.725MHz. This will be bands seem to be limited to working just beyond the scope of this article.

68 Practical Wireless April 2019

 The low noise window is favoured
by radio astronomers and for space
communications. It offers an opportunity
to see what lies beyond the noise
‘smog’ that can cover up signals at
lower frequencies. Amateur microwave
enthusiasts use and enjoy our allocations
in the low noise window because it
opens opportunities to receive weak
signals that would otherwise be masked
by QRM and QRN. We can receive low Fig. 2: Surface ducting.
level signals from satellites and extremely
weak signals from other radio amateurs Troposcatter is a weak signal mode. evaporation ducts form readily across
relected off the surface of the moon. Long Don’t expect strong signals in this the North Sea and probably the Irish Sea
distance terrestrial contacts are possible propagation mode. Weak signals work in early spring, leading to strong signals
using a variety of scatter and relection best with narrow band modes such between near coastal locations, maybe
propagation modes. as CW, SSB or (increasingly) digital reaching as much as 30km inland, on
A whole new area of technology is modulation. Because signals are opposite sides of the area of water. It may
opened in the form of low noise receivers generally weak, higher gain antennas, also allow strong signals to propagate
and low noise antennas. It is possible to such as long Yagis, are a good idea. along the length of the sea or lake coast.
‘hear’ the presence of natural moon noise, Higher power is also very desirable. Ducting of this type is common from
even with small antennas, on the 2.3, 3.4, 10W RF output transceivers are soon around mid-April until late summer in the
5.7 and 10GHz amateur bands found to be very range limited on northern hemisphere.
troposcatter, covering perhaps 100km, A second form of surface ducting
What about the 23cm Band? unless supplemented by high gain is due to thermal inversion and occurs
VHF radio amateurs will be familiar with antennas systems. Another characteristic when the ground cools rapidly after a
the need for antennas with gain. This is of troposcatter is scintillation and this warm day. A duct may form between the
important as the frequency of operation may make weak SSB signals dificult to cool air immediately above the ground
increases. A single- or dual-band vertical understand. CW usually works, however. and warm air above, as illustrated in Fig.
antenna is often used at 144MHz and With troposcatter, the two partner 2. (Tropospheric propagation was also
432MHz but tends to limit the distance stations beam at a common volume of covered in the November 2018 instalment
over which the DX can be worked unless the troposphere where small changes in of Making Waves – ed.) Signals are
there is ‘a bit of a lift on’. The ability to the refractive index of the troposphere trapped by refraction within the duct that
point a high-gain antenna at the station cause the radio wave to be refracted is formed. Often the duct is quite thin and
you want to work increases signal level back towards the earth and the partner will therefore only support frequencies
at the other station’s receiver and makes station. These changes in refractive index above 1GHz, such as within our 23cm
distant contacts more likely. It’s possible are caused by turbulence in the upper air, band.
to work stations on the 23cm band using temperature changes and water vapour Even longer paths may appear due
just a vertical antenna but unless that lift content. Side scatter can also occur but to elevated ducts that form when, for
in conditions is present or the antenna is usually leads to much weaker signals. The example, high pressure systems persist
sited on a mountain, range will be severely effect is shown in Fig. 1, a diagram that for a period of time, when the air within
limited. The following section describes irst appeared in the July 2014 issue of PW the high pressure system descends in the
some of the propagation modes that where the author, the late Colin Bayliss central area. As it descends it becomes
enable long distances to be covered on G3WKZ, discussed troposcatter in more warmer and may form a layer over the
‘the next band up’. detail. much colder air beneath, forming an
At certain times of the year strong inversion duct, but unlike surface ducts
Propagation at 23cm signals can propagate over the surface it appears at many hundreds to several
Most contacts on 23cm, under about 30 of large areas of water, such as sea or thousands of metres. The thickness of
to 50km, are made by a combination of large lakes. This is called an evaporation the duct layer determines what range
relection from buildings and other large, duct and it can be an interesting and of wavelength of signal will propagate.
solid objects and by diffraction over and often a long-distance propagation mode. Elevated ducting may extend for
around buildings and trees. Because these Evaporation ducting can also extend over thousands of kilometres, leading to very
propagation-enhancing objects are not low-lying land areas. long-distance propagation. This type
usually moving, the signal level between With an evaporation duct warm air of propagation is often referred to as a
two stations is often quite stable. Signal is advected from over land to lay over ‘large area of interference’ in TV weather
strength can be anything from very strong (usually) colder water. The change in forecasts.
to quite weak. temperature and humidity of the air above In recent years another propagation
Most terrestrial contacts on the the cold-water surface may then lead to mode has become very popular. Aircraft
23cm band, beyond this distance, are signals being refracted or relected within lying at heights of a few thousand metres
accomplished mainly by tropospheric the duct formed between the water and to about 10km (39,000 feet) have a long
scatter (troposcatter) propagation. the overlaying warm and humid air. Such horizon range of up to about 400km, to

April 2019 Practical Wireless 69

 Feature

sea level. Conversely, a station at sea level

can ‘see’ an aircraft at that height. If two
suitably equipped 23cm stations beam
their antennas towards the same aircraft, it
is possible to relect signals off the aircraft.
These signals relect in all directions,
including forward, so a station 400km
beyond the aircraft can be worked, for a
total range up to about 800km. In some
circumstances the range can be as much
as 1000km but this is generally when a
second propagation mode is also present
to extend the relection range at one end
of the contact. This mode of propagation
is known as Aircraft Relection (AR) or
sometimes as Aircraft Scatter (AS).
AR has been known and used by
radio amateurs for many years and is like
en-route air trafic control radar. Indeed,
radio amateurs share the same band as
these long-distance radars. Thankfully,
we don’t cause the radars any problem
and they only occasionally cause us any Fig. 3: The moon can be used as a passive relector of signals (photo by G3ZVW).
interference.
We need to know two things to use proposals (sked) is allowed in many scatter, Ionoscatter, aurora scatter and
AR effectively. One is that there is a contests. rain scatter are rare at 23cm, so are not
suitably placed aircraft for a path to work www.airscout.eu mentioned further in this short article.
and second that there is someone to www.on4kst.com/chat Transequatorial propagation (TEP) is not
work at the end of the path. Mainly due For very long distances you need to possible. Space objects such as the ISS
to the appearance of several computer use EME, Fig. 3 (see also last month’s and some larger satellites can provide
programs that make it easy to see where Making Waves). Here signals are relected useful long-distance contacts by acting as
aircraft are in real time, AR has become a off the surface of the moon and back to passive relectors but do require EME-
very practical way to make long distance the earth. If the moon is simultaneously capable stations at either end of the path.
contacts around Europe. These programs visible at any two points on the earth’s Finally, several amateur satellites
take available light information and surface, these points can be in radio carry transponders with a 23cm (L band)
overlay the position of aircraft onto a map contact by EME. Because the moon is receiver and downlinks on another band.
of the region, such as northwest Europe. simultaneously visible at any two points on Currently only AO-92 has an active 23cm
They also add other useful information the earth’s surface during the lunar month uplink and then it is only switched on at
such as type (size) of the aircraft, (28 days), worldwide communications are weekends. ESEO also carries a 23cm
headings, and height. To work a known possible. Obviously, at the most distant uplink receiver, but it is currently not
station you enter their locator, such as points, this will not be every day, but for active. My thanks to Pete 2M0SQL for his
IO84XX, and because you have already example, the UK to the USA is possible update on these satellites.
entered your location into the program, it every single day and for many hours at a Next month I’ll talk about equipment
will draw a circle around the actual path time. and antennas for the band, including a
mid-point where a relection is most likely. After 2m, 23cm is possibly the most discussion of the use of SDR technologies.
This works well and because larger popular EME band. It offers the possibility
aircraft can give useable relections of small ‘backyard’ antenna systems that
for over a minute, but more often less, are acceptable to both neighbours and The 1240MHz to 1300MHz band
there is time to make a CW or fast mode partner. These antennas may be a dish primary users are Radiolocation,
digital QSO before the signal again fades relector and feed arrangement or a single Radionavigation, Radionavigation –
away. SSB can be used but is much less or multiple Yagi antennas. CW is popular satellite, Earth Exploration – satellite
common. Aircraft relection, using an but probably eclipsed by the number and Space Research. Amateur and
application such as Airscout by DL2ALF of digital signals now being seen and Amateur – satellite are secondary
(URL below) can be very reliable and is decoded. JT65C is the preferred mode on users. Between 1300 and 1325MHz
used a lot in contests. However, in most 23cm and with 100W at the antenna and a there is no space related allocation;
cases it presupposes that you know the small dish or single long Yagi, hundreds of primary or amateur. It should be
location of the other station and that they stations around the world can be worked. clear that we are very much depen-
are willing to make a QSO with you. Chat EME is probably the ultimate weak signal dent on the primary users for access
facilities such as ON4KST chat (second mode, that is until we have radio amateurs to the band and should never cause
URL below) is usually used for this on Mars or beyond! them any deliberate interference.
purpose and the use of chat to exchange Propagation modes such as meteor

70 Practical Wireless April 2019

 Feature with Tom Morgan ZS1AFS
l E-mail: [email protected]

M The Curse of
ost people have never
heard of Bouvet
Island. It’s a little speck
in the South Atlantic
Ocean about 3km x

Bouvet Island
5km that has little signiicance except
for Norwegian naturalists, scientists and
amateur radio operators. It’s the second
most sought after place to contact after
North Korea. No one lives there and the
last radio expedition (DXpedition) was by
the astronaut, the late Dr Chuck Brady Tom Morgan ZS1AFS reflects on recent attempts to activate
N4BQW from December 16th 2000 to remote Bouvet Island and wonders whether the Curse of
March 5th 2001.
He was the medic for a Norwegian-led Bouvet is at work!
ive-person scientiic expedition. So, the
said government covered all of the logistics
and planning – and costs! Before leaving backward glances, they bore away. Was
Cape Town, Brady visited Dennis ZS1AU, this the Curse of Bouvet?
made sked arrangements and told him to The voyage to Cape Town was slow and
keep quiet until 3Y0C was established. the DXpeditioners had plenty of time to
Judging by the size of the group of Cape relect – on what could have been. It was a
Town amateurs assembled who heard very sad end to such a promising eficiently
THREE-YANKEE-ZERO-CHARLIE calling at organised DXpedition. Almost as an echo,
0700UTC on December 16th 2000, it was January 2019 saw notices on the amateur
an open secret. radio websites that donations were being
According to ZS1AU the generator returned to those who had contributed to
was running out of oil so fast it would be what some say was the most expensive
inished before the pick up. 3Y0C went off amateur radio operation, ever.
the air but with only a few battery hours to
go the problem was ixed and shortly after- Rebel Group
wards the amateur radio world started the At that time, another DXpedition group, the
Nth pileup. But problems continued when Rebel Group, 3Y0I was in Cape Town. The
the ampliier failed to function well – and Chart of Bouvet from the author’s collection. group that was to embark for Bouvet Island
it remained so. The weather attacked the received a blow without getting in sight of
antennas. The 160m dipole had 25 joints, the island, hang about while they set up the island. They’d been waiting for weeks
with the Hexbeam needing to be patched their radio station and talked to the world, for the vessel to leave. However, Atlantic
up. Chuck was determined to beat the and then take them home again. Tuna, chartered by this European group,
conditions and worked many LF contacts In 2018 the 3Y0Z DXpedition, led by was restricted to port for non-payment just
when not repairing antennas. Ralph K0IR, was a very well-planned ef- a few days before it was due to sail! There
fort. When Bouvet Island hove into view was a mad dash to remove items belong-
Bad Luck Strikes Again at 0600GMT on January 31st 2018 the ing to the DXpedition before the ship could
When it came to leave, the bogey struck team were delighted. The ship Betanzos be formally ‘arrested’. Much of this was
again. They were due to depart on March anchored to the east of the island in 25m cloaked in a veil of silence and inquiries
2nd but the weather worsened. The relief of water. When they arrived at Bouvet went unanswered.
ship The Lance encountered high seas and the weather should have been at its most Before that unfortunate event there were
her late arrival was a relief. Although the benign. several blogs, including photographs on the
camp had packed up, Chuck continued Unfortunately, high winds, low cloud internet of the Bouvet Island DXpedition-
limited battery operation until the morning and very rough seas had plagued them for ers enjoying the delights of the Royal Cape
of March 5th 2001. The ship pulled away a large part of the voyage from Punta Del Yacht Club. But time was ticking away.
the next day. Chuck and the team defeated Este. The cloud ceiling at 500ft and visibility After well over a month waiting, the dozen
all that was thrown at them. Later attempts of one mile meant the helicopters could not or so members of the team learned that the
did not fair so well. take off, also because of the 10m swell. ship was restricted to port.
And then the ship developed an engine How long this will take to sort out is
3Y0Z problem that could not be repaired! The anyone’s guess. If a ship is impounded it is
So, what’s the Curse? Several groups have vessel has two engines for double redun- a maritime matter and is heard in the High
considered the ultimate DXpedition. But dancy. But if the remaining one developed Court. So, this dispute could rule out any
rather than test Bouvet, they had logistic a fault that could not be ixed, it would be trip soon. The Curse of Bouvet had struck
and inancial reasons not to go. Finally, in fatal. The vessel had to return to a port. again. No wonder the Rebel Group called
2018 a group of Americans raised millions Cape Town was the nearest that had repair Bouvet “The Everest of amateur radio”, or
of dollars to charter a ship to take them to facilities. On February 5th 2018, with long- is it just cursed?

April 2019 Practical Wireless 71

Letters
Send your letters to:
Practical Wireless Letters, Warners Group Publications plc
West Street, Bourne, Lincs PE10 9PH
E-mail: [email protected]

As well as some interesting

£20 ST R LETTER
the air if licensed. Seriously
displays about the Pathinders,
impressive bit of kit and
there are some radio related
astonishing that they were
exhibits – when I went, they had
given to cadet units with the
a console from a Nimrod AEW.
lethal (in the wrong hands) PA
Again, booking required.
Dear Don, 1950s radar terminals using anodes readily accessible to
http://tinyurl.com/yxcsnorf
I am just picking up on your electromechanical devices iddling ingers in the open
Finally, the Military Intelligence
request for suggestions of and software to depict radar drawers. Modern day H&S
Museum is also worthy of a
Museums where interesting returns from an attack by inspectors would have a it! I
visit. This museum displays the
radio equipment can, in Russian Bear bombers off the loved it.
activities of the SOE and has
this case, not only be seen east coast being taken out by I’d better mention the
some interesting spy sets on
but be seen working. I have F4 Phantoms. The azimuth comprehensive range of
display. Also booking required.
an extensive collection of and elevation consoles are airborne radio kit, the working
http://tinyurl.com/y27n8q6p
vintage gear, work on board authentically linked for a very gee set, the fully functioning
David J Howlett M0VTG
HMS Belfast and have visited real Cold War radar operator’s diversity sets and so on and
Peterborough
many museums with radio experience. Gripping stuff I can so forth. I’ve taken fellow club
equipment. I’m not easily tell you. And should there be members up there perhaps a
Dear Don,
impressed but my absolute maintenance required during little puzzled by my enthusiasm
Being an avid reader of PW I see
favourite radio museum is the your visit, you can even help for the place. They’ve all
that you are asking if anywhere
RAF Signals Museum at RAF out. On my last visit I was returned for a repeat visit
has the old valve sets.
Henlow run by Alf and team: fault-inding on one of azimuth because there’s so much
The Wings Museum is a WWII
http://tinyurl.com/nbkgmse radar consoles with one of the to see for the vintage radio
memorial museum that displays
So why is it so special? team. Makes a change from a enthusiast. Their tip is don’t
not only recovered wreckage but
Simply, the kit works. The 19 set. expect to just pop in for a
also the poignant information
staff really know their stuff and I could mention the array couple of hours, It’s not long
about the crews who were lying
there’s a wonderfully relaxed of teleprinter equipment – enough. Give yourself time to
at the time. Re,ains of aircraft
atmosphere where visitors can all working, of course, and ask questions and play with
and other artefacts, parts of
ask as many questions as they regularly used to produce the kit. I’d reckon on four hours
which have been restored by
like and get them answered by material for the ilm industry. I for a comfortable visit. It’ll ly
volunteers, really show the result
guys who know the equipment took a 7B along on one visit for by, if you can pardon the pun.
of war and serve as a reminder
intimately and then operate the Alf to ix. To test it we printed I hasten to add I’ve no
of the sugffering that the
equipment (once the chaps off the message written by Alf connection to the place …
participants went through.
are happy you know what for the Netlix production of other than a profound spiritual
In 2010 the museum moved
you’re doing!). If you want to The Queen announcing the need to return at least twice
to its present location, about six
sit down in a recreation of a start of the Korean War. Just a year to get my ix of that
miles south of Gatwick, and a
Y station and have a listen brilliant. T1509.
couple of us who are volunteers
on an AR88, an HRO or S27, Saving the best until last, On a serious note, RAF
started to restore some old
you can do so for as long as my absolute favourite bit of kit Henlow’s future is uncertain,
WWII radios. Since then more
you like. Or perhaps tune up is the fully operational T1509 meaning the Museum may
have been donated and as part
a T1154/R1155 combination transmitter complete with the also be at risk. See it while you
of the museum, we have a ‘radio
taken from an Air Sea Rescue operator’s table. 300W of CW can. The more visitors they
shack’ in which we display up to
Launch (the launch is at the and 250W of AM put my KW hav,e the greater the chance
20 receivers/transmitters, about
Hendon Museum) into a Vanguard somewhat in the of preserving this very unique
ten of which are now working.
dummy load and bang out shade. If you ask nicely, you establishment.
One corner hass the story of
some CW. You could gaze can have a go sending CW… David Coles M0IDF
the Voluntary Interceptors plus
in wonder at the operating to the dummy load or over Loughton
two of the radios used, although
initially Vis did use their own
The Star Letter will receive a voucher worth £20 to spend on items from our Book Store or other services offered by Practical Wireless. receivers.
Guests, including school
and Scout/Beavers, etc can
Museums seen. I suggest The RAF Signals
Museum, Henlow, where not
the museum is ‘inside the wire’
but details are on the website
learn a little about the old
valve sets with all their strange
Dear Don, only such gear can be viewed, below. idiosyncrasies. There are also
You asked in Keylines but there is a working amateur http://tinyurl.com/nbkgmse two Morse keys on which, if
(PW March) for ideas for radio station. I have been on Readers might also be they send their name, they are
recommendations for radio several occasions where we interested in the Pathinder given a certiicate.
museums where radio were made most welcome. It Museum located at RAF Wyton We do have an amateur radio
equipment of old can been is necessary to book because near Huntingdon, Cambs. station with HF, 2, 4 and 70cm,

72 Practical Wireless April 2019

which we also demonstrate, they are. We make them safe mentioned our own Bernard over emphasised.
along with information on how with new wiring, capacitors Nock G4BXD’s Military Wireless When making measurements
to become involved in amareyr and the like, rather than a full Museum. All good stuff.) that involve high voltages and/or
radio and the RSGB, with a list restoration, get them working currents it is advisable to try to
of local clubs.
The Museum, which is
so people can hear what they
sounded like.
Multimeters again connect the test leads by means
of crocodile clips or similar
manned by volunteers, is open One young lad asked me if it Dear Don, before power is applied to the
every Saturday and Sunday was the “old BBC” that he could In his letter which appeared circuit under test. Inserting
from the beginning of March hear! I had to think about that. in the February issue of PW a multimeter set to measure
until Remembrance Sunday in For more information, please about the article that I wrote current into a circuit that
November and arrangement look at: about selecting a multimeter, draws several amps by merely
can also be made to open at wingsmuseum.co.uk Bill Tracey GM4UBJ makes touching the probes across
other times for groups. The Barrie Bloomfield G4OKB some very valid points about two points is likely to results in
radio shack is manned on Lindfield, W Sussex test leads, some of which were sparking – especially if a good
Saturdays and other times covered in my article and others contact isn’t made. Far better
when the museum is open, by (Editor’s comment: My thanks which weren’t. to have the meter as part of the
arrangements. for all the suggestions. It’s As Bill says, it is advisable circuit before power is applied.
There are two of us who good to know that some much where possible to use probes Bill advises the use of fused
operate there on a regular basis. of our radio heritage is being with inger guards to help test leads and these are indeed
Myself and Bernie G0DDE. We preserved. I just noticed, too, prevent ingers slipping down a good idea. However, a word
use a club call MX0WGS when that Peter Waters (of Waters the probes and making contact of warning might not go amiss
operating at the museum. & Stanton) has posted on with the circuit under test. This, inasmuch that if fused test leads
The sets that we have are Facebook regarding his visit to along with the need to use good are used, it’s a good idea to
donated and have usually been the Orkney Wireless Museum quality, well insulated leads get into the habit of checking
sitting in a loft, garage etc and – a bit off the beaten track but that are free from damage, was the leads for continuity before
sometimes the relations that clearly worth a visit if you’re in mentioned in the original text and after carrying out the test.
donate them have no idea what the area. And we haven’t even and its importance cannot be A meter reading of zero volts

Engaging young people in radio technology

At the RCF we want to encourage more youngsters
into radio and electronic engineering.

We award scholarships
and donate to clubs
and projects with similar
aims. To be able to
continue with this we
need your help.

Go to: www.commsfoundation.org for more information and to make a donation

April 2019 Practical Wireless 73

Letters
Send your letters to:
Practical Wireless Letters, Warners Group Publications plc
West Street, Bourne, Lincs PE10 9PH
E-mail: [email protected]

or amps may mean that there at 1000V and the high rupture
is no voltage or current present current fuse can handle up to
but it could also mean that the 50, 000A while breaking. Yes,
test lead fuse has blown or that read that igure again, it is not
the test leads or even the meter exaggerated. A cartridge fuse
itself is faulty. In fact, checking blows faster than a miniature
the continuity of the leads is circuit breaker can trip (old-
good practice whether or not fashioned open fuse wire is
fused leads are used. slower still). As the internal
If it is anticipated that wire melts/explodes, the
measuring mains current will be resulting vapour can maintain
a regular occurrence, it’s worth the conduction path unless
building a simple test rig with quenched. That’s why these
a mains lead and socket with fuses are expensive − but worth
terminals that the meter can be it. The illustrated example is of questions my recollections of multi-page A4 booklets (the
connected to. 1.25in format. the simplicity of the RAE 50 1969 syllabus was contained on
Chris Murphy M0HLS You have been warned! years ago. No, I was not taking two A5 sides), then I don’t know
Derby Godfrey Manning G4GLM the mickey and I have no need what is.
Edgware to ‘recollect’ anything because David Hall G8CLI
Dear Don, I have my original City & Guilds Warwick
That fused test leads are PW Metal Box December 1968 RAE paper in
required for connecting
multimeters to the mains is a Dear Don,
front of me as I write. It’s A5 size
and there are ten questions. The
CW Elitist
timely warning by Bill GM4UBJ I have purchased on eBay a irst two, covering Licensing Snobbery?
(Letters, February). It is little metal box on the front of which Conditions and Interference Dear Don,
appreciated just how much is pressed the words Practical Reduction, are compulsory. I think it’s time to defend
energy can be dissipated if a Wireless (see photo). The box Out of the remaining eight, CWops and the FOC from all the
meter fails while directly on the is approximately 6 x 4 x half an only six have to be answered. negative comments in recent
mains (not through a BS1362 inch. The seller thought it came As an example, Q3 asks the Letters pages. As a charter
plug fuse). Short-term energy is free in PW in the 1950s. difference between a permanent member of CWops I would
proportional to current-squared I have taken PW since the magnet and an electromagnet like to point out that they have
multiplied by the time for which early 1960s and have a number and asks, with the aid of a taught over 2,000 students
it lows (‘I-squared-t’ law). The of copies of PW up to that date diagram, for an explanation Morse code, most of whom
time for a fuse to break might but cannot remember it being of the working of either an knew nothing of the code before
be a fraction of a second, but contained in the pages? electromagnetic relay or a joining the CW Academy. The
while this is happening the Can any readers shed light on moving coil loudspeaker. The Academy is run on a voluntary
prospective short-circuit current its provenance? other seven being in a similar basis and takes students from
Andrew Humphriss 2E0NDZ vein, a time of three hours being
is very large and, squared, that all over the world at speeds from
Stratford upon Avon allowed to complete the paper,
igure is enormous. Multiply the 8 to 25WPM and above and is
short time by the huge I-squared and that was it. I would be quite free to anybody who wants to
to get an almost pyrotechnic RAE vs. happy to forward a copy to Ray learn Morse code. They also run
release of energy that gives rise
to reports of meters exploding
Multiple Choice if he wishes. (A copy of it was
recently added to the RSGB
a contest each Wednesday in
three one-hour periods and have
into ireballs. Dear Don, Heritage pages). special slow sessions in order to
Illustrated (see photo) I’ve just spotted that in the If that isn’t simple compared encourage new entrants. They
is the fused test lead that February Letters pages Ray to today’s Foundation, present a prestigious award
I keep specially for such Howes G4OWY asks if I Intermediate and Full Licences, each year to recognise people
measurements. It is Cat III rated was taking the mickey and with syllabuses contained in who have given freely to help

Please note: The opinions expressed in any letter published in PW are those of the named correspondent whose letter has been published and they don’t necessarily reflect the opinions of the editorial staff or Warners Group. Editor

74 Practical Wireless April 2019

with Morse Code and our own
Roger G3LDI won it last year!
In the FOC handbook it states
the following: Rule 4.A. “FOC
operators should send at a
speed that is considerate of the
other station’s ability”. Rule 5.B.
“FOC members should give
Operators Club (SOB) at a mere photo) where the two channels
encouragement to newcomers”.
80WPM. They all are on the are joined for mono. Thank
These rules are not negotiable −
bands at those sort of speeds you to Norman G8ATO of
it is the FOC code of Conduct.
and nobody died, they just do it Verulam ARC for introducing
It may interest readers to know
for fun. me to L pads. By the way, radio
that the FOC has just donated
Surely as Morse operators we enthusiasts have always been
£1000 to buy equipment for
should be working together and the friend of electric guitarists,
the Morse Code Bootcamps
making sure that we operate for example the legendary (Leo)
that are taking place around
to the best of our ability and ‘Fender Radio Service’:
the country. So hardly elitist if
help each other. I look forward tinyurl.com/leoradio
we do all we can to encourage
to meeting fellow Morse Bob Houlston G4PVB
newcomers to take up Morse antennas, “As much wire up as
enthusiasts at our local Hereford St Albans
code. you can”, it is probably good to
I was interested in the Bootcamp on May 4th. It is add “As high as possible”. The
comments regarding Morse going to be good fun...the irst
of many I hope,
Igranic Coils mention of commercial antennas
speeds. “At sea we would
copy at 18-20WPM”. This is Rich Langford G4FAD and More brought to mind that the only
one I ever used (second-hand,
because the operators were Hereford Dear Don, of course) was in the 1960s, an
writing or typing out the copy. With regard to the Igranic coils 8-over-8 skeleton slot for 2m,
When amateur operators are
running at 25WPM and above
Passive Preamp marked “What are the wild
waves saying” (G4GLM, March
which I rotated using a cowl-gill
motor and gearbox originally
we are not copying it down, just Dear Don, Letters), in 1947 I bought one used on a WW2 Wellington
reading it in our heads. If you Wherever your journey in radio of the radio sets in a junk shop bomber. It was an excellent
had a telephone or SSB contact takes you, the time will likely in Tunbridge Wells for about 5 antenna but one day a very
do you write it all down? No of come when you want to match shillings (25p). What did I do pleasant elderly neighbour
course not so why do it for CW a high output line audio to with it? Stripped it down for accosted me and said she could
conversation? high sensitivity input. In my parts! hear me when I transmitted.
I hate to tell you all but there case it was the 2V output of a It would be interesting to see a This bafled me until I found
are many clubs who have CD player to the 250mV input photo of the inside of Godfrey’s out it was only when she was
higher than 25WPM to join, for of a guitar ampliier for my set because the wiring was laid wearing her hearing aid! We did
example, the excellent German teenage student. I use an L pad out very neatly, all with right- a few tests, and the signal was
High Speed Club which starts attenuator to balance things angle bends. only breaking through when the
at 25WPM and goes up to the out and minimise overload About the same time, I antenna was pointing directly
EHSC (European High Speed distortion. It also seemingly acquired one of the spy towards her detached house.
CW Club) who need 60WPM improves the timbre. Two 10kΩ receivers MCR1, which I think Marking a red sector on the
to join. The legendary Chicken resistors, one in series the other inally gave up working, so I direction indicator where the
Fat Operators club at 45WPM, parallel, see graphic. I install the threw it away. I have regretted antenna pointed to her house
all on a keyboard by the way. pad in the shell of a wide body what I did with both those units. solved the problem, and we
Fast Operators Club (FOG) jack plug (to accommodate With respect to Andy Cox continued to be good friends.
60WPM and, inally, Speed the thick CD phono leads, see M0HLT’s mention of wire Robert Dancy G3JRD

HAVE YOU TRIED THE ● Data Modes - the latest FT8 developments ● What Next - a selection of hints and tips WITH
ALL YOUR
FAVOURITE
COLUMNS

DIGITAL EDITION?
Get your favourite magazine on your
mobile, tablet or PC quickly & easily The UK ,s Number One Amateur Radio Magazine
● Data Modes - the latest FT8 developments ● What Next - a selection of hints and tips WITH

REVIEW
ALL YOUR
FAVOURITE
COLUMNS

WIN THE IN THIS

ISSUE

144MHz QRP Contest Results RETEVIS The UK ,s Number One Amateur Radio Magazine

WIN THE
VIEW

2019Practical
March2019
April PracticalWireless
Wireless
RT3S 75
COMPETITION

COMPETITION
Classiied Adverts
DISCLAIMER Some of the products offered for sale in advertisements in this magazine may have been obtained from abroad or from
unauthorised sources. Practical Wireless advises readers contemplating mail order to enquire whether the products are suitable for use in the UK
and have full after-sales back-up available. The publishers of Practical Wireless wish to point out that it is the responsibility of readers to ascertain
the legality or otherwise of items offered for sale by advertisers in this magazine.

Antennas For Sale Valves

G4TPH MAGLOOPS Remote tune and manual MICROPHONES & ACCESSORIES. VALVES AND ALLIED COMPONENTS IN
tune models. 40m through 10m, 100 Watts, Replacement microphones for a wide range STOCK Ring for free list. Valves/ books/
SSB. See PW review on website. Details at of transceivers. Cables for Heil and studio magazines wanted. Geoff Davies (Radio).
www.g4tph.com microphones, headsets and mixers, PC headset Tel: 01788 574774.
adapters, PTT switches, replacement curly
cords and microphone extension cables. DTMF
microphones for echolink. For these and more
great items go to www.technoix.co.uk or
TOP PRICES PAID
FOR ALL YOUR VALVES, TUBES, SEMI-CONDUCTORS AND ICS.
technoix.uk
 CTCSS ENCODER AND DECODER KITS.
 DTMF kits and modules. Pic development kits.
 https://cstech.co.uk


Wanted Unit 4, Daux Road, Billingshurst, W. Sussex RH14 9SJ
Tel: 01403 785600 Fax: 01403 785656
VINTAGE FIREWORK COLLECTOR – do
 not light the blue touch paper and burn British www.langrex.co.uk
Heritage, private collector will pay cash and
Repairs collect from anywhere, licensed explosive
storage. Call Tony on 07956 506300
Would you like to advertise in PW?
REPAIRS TO RECEIVERS, TRANSMITTERS Please Contact Kristina Green for all your
ETC. New/old, valve/transistor. While prices of goods shown in advertisements are correct at the
time of going to press, readers are advised to check both prices advertising enquiries Tel: 01778 392096
Call 07903 023437 for details. and availability of goods with the advertiser before ordering from E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.kent-rigs.co.uk non-current issues of the magazine.

Order form for Classiied Adverts

PLEASE WRITE IN BLOCK CAPITALS

The prepaid rate for classified advertisements is 42 pence per word (minimum 12 words), box number 70p extra. Semi-display setting
£13.90 per single column centimetre (minimum 3cm). Please add 20% VAT to the total. All cheques, postal orders, etc., to be made payable
to Warners Group Publications. Advertisements, together with remittance, should be sent to the Practical Wireless Classified Adverts,
Warners Group Publications, West Street, Bourne, Lincs PE10 9PH.

Please insert this advertisement in the …………………… issue of Practical Wireless (if you do not specify an issue we will insert it in the
next available issue of PW) for …… insertion/s. I enclose Cheque/P.O. for £ ……(42p per word, 12 minimum, please add 20% VAT to total).

Please photocopy this form or write on a separate sheet if you prefer

Category heading: .............................................

Name: ................................................................
Address: ............................................................
...........................................................................
...........................................................................
...........................................................................
...........................................................................
Telephone number:
...........................................................................

76 Practical Wireless April 2019

Bargain Basement
Bargain Basement adverts now cost £5 per advert (subscribers still free) and will
also be published in RadioUser, our sister magazine, unless requested otherwise.

WANTED FOR SALE

LOWE PR150 preselector wanted. ZLP ELECTRONICS DIGIMASTER PRO3, top of the range digital
Tel: Stephen on 01582 503806 Luton interface. Complete with interface cables for Kenwood TS-2000. Other
interface cable sets are available for most popular transceivers. £80 inc
OLD HALF INCH FERRITE RODS. Must be half inch 12.7mm in diameter p&p, buyer collect or meet halfway. Tel: Tim, G7JYQ. 020 8241 9396
and be six inches long or more. Will pay good money for the rods. [email protected] (Kingston-upon-Thames)
Tel: Peter Tankard on 0114 2316321 between 9AM and 9PM Monday
to Saturday ICOM 718 HF TRANSCEIVER with hand mic, full working condition,
with manual. Clean, no marks or scratches. Selling due to upgrade £350
TECSUN S2000 or Grundig version, in good condition. including p&p. Tel: Gordon 01724 734742 (M0GIQ)
Tel: John 01933 674056 (Northants)
80M MINI DIPOLE comprising of two Ampro Mobiles and Dipole Centre
TRANSISTOR T 165/6, Possibly by RCA. Even better if working. 4m length 250w. Has only been used indoors. Prefer buyer collects or
Godfrey G4GLM. (020) 8958 5113. [email protected] arranges collection. £30. Email only: [email protected]

Bargain Basement adverts

cost £5.00 per advert
(SUBSCRIBERS STILL FREE) and will also be published
in Radio User unless requested otherwise.
BY EMAIL can place their advert free of charge as long as they provide their
Firstly email your advert’s wording to subs number or mailing label). Cheques should be made payable to
[email protected] Warners Group Publications plc, credit card payments also accepted.
and then call 01778 392096 to make your payment. Please help us to help you by preparing your advert carefully. Any
advert which contains ?? marks indicates that the advertising dept.
BY POST could not read/interpret the wording. Advertisements from traders or for
Send your advert to: equipment that it is illegal to possess, use or which cannot be licensed
Bargain Basement, Practical Wireless, in the UK, will not be accepted. No responsibility will be taken for errors
Warners Group Publications plc, and no correspondence will be entered into on any decision taken by the
West Street, Bourne, Lincs. PE10 9PH Editor on any of these conditions.
You should state clearly in your advert whether equipment is
Please write your advert clearly in BLOCK CAPITALS up to a maximum professionally built, home-brewed or modified. The Publishers of
of 30 words, plus 12 words for your contact details on the form Practical wireless also wish to point out that it is the responsibility of
provided and send it together with your payment of £5 (subscribers the buyer to ascertain the suitability of goods offered for purchase.

er propagation
WITH
ALL YOURE
Waves: backscatt
portable ● Making
FAVOURIT
for HF COLUMNS
● Antennas: two
compact designs amplifiers
WITH
ALL YOURE
● G3LLL's mast
erclass in valve FAVOURIT
tmas COLUMNS
● A Quiz and a
Brainteaser for Chris
WITH
y in the code
- Gaining proficienc
ALL YOURE
Mode FAVOURIT
receiver ● Morse COLUMNS
- A regenerative

To advertise your
● Practical Way

e
, Amateur Radio Magazin
The UK s Number One ,s Number One Amateur Radio Magazine

INTRODUCING OTheO
The UK

business or event... SPECTRE CH

,
S ber OneGAmateurARadio
UK s NumIN
Magazine
OAD
DOWNLILED
HA OF TH

MUINGLTTHEIMETER
HE S

DETARAMS
ND THI
LD
LID W EP

DIAG OUR
SO EVIE IN-D

FROM SITE
ERSE WEB
A PROJECT TO REV
R AN

YOUR TRANSMIT
e The age and
Valve & Vintag
rhombic antenna
heroes of the
rk
SIDEBAND Pictures from NewaHamfe SELECT
Contact Kristina Green
st
Reporting the RSGB BEST DEVICEVintage
R SH & ACK
FOR YOUValve
A look back to Pye equipm
ent

Telephone 01778 392096 Fusion An

Product Review: i
The Zumspot-RP
Yaesu's Systemdevelo
or E-mail: [email protected] update on recent
pments
e Part
Valve & VintagPye
our history of
2 of
PMR sets
We put this hotspot for
, NXDN
D-STAR, DMR, C4FMspotli
and P25 under the
ght
Early Transistors AT THE
Invention and development WE TAKE A LOOK

April 2019 Practical Wireless News of recent

DXpeditions and band
activity 77
rance
Amateur Radio Insu
Special Feature on
Specialist Dealers
Mid Glamorgan Scotland Somerset Suffolk
SANDPIPER LINDARS RADIOS
AERIAL ʻA Modern Company With
www.itender.co
TECHNOLOGY Old Fashioned Valuesʼ Monthly communications tenders!
Unit 5, Enterprise House
Cwmbach Industrial Estate, Aberdare USED AMATEUR Ex Police Service
Mid Glamorgan CF44 0AE RADIO EQUIPMENT
Tel: (01685) 870425 Fax:(01685) 876104 PURCHASED AND SOLD General comms company stock
A full range of transmitting & receiving antennas
available for the amateur commercial market. www.AmateurRadioSales.co.uk
www.sandpiperaerials.co.uk
e-mail: [email protected] 01935 474265 Contact: 07788 498962

JU
To advertise World Radio TV

S
£3
T
P
L
Handbook 2019

U
S
your business

5 P
&
P
This is the 72nd edition of World Radio TV Handbook, continuing to

or event... offer the most comprehensive guide to broadcasting. With the help
of an international network of contributors they again provide the
most up-to-date information on mediumwave, shortwave and FM
Please Contact Kristina Green broadcasts and broadcasters available in any publication.
Tel: 01778 392096 MANY MORE BOOKS NEW IN STOCK AT THE PW BOOK STORE ON PAGE 43
E-mail: [email protected]

Bowood Electronics ........................ 65 Lindars Radios ................................ 78 Short Wave UK ................................ 59

Advertisers’ Index CS Tech .......................................... 76 Martin Lynch........................ 39-41, 79 Sotabeams ..................................... 76
G4TPH ............................................ 76 Moonraker .................................20-23 Technofix ........................................ 76
12 Volt Planet.................................. 59 Geoff Davies ................................... 76 Nevada ......................................31-33 RSGB .............................................. 73
Allport Communications .................. 78 Kent Rigs ........................................ 76 Northern ARS .................................. 62 Tennamast ...................................... 78
BHI ................................................. 49 Lam Communications ..................... 15 RadioJackie .................................... 76 Waters & Stanton ........................ 2 & 3
Birkett, J ......................................... 65 Langrex .......................................... 76 Sandpiper ....................................... 78 Yaesu UK Ltd................................... 80
● Moonr
aker GPA-80F Ant
enna Reviewed ● Data
Modes - The late
st

Coming next month

on WSJT-X
WITH
ALL YOUR
FAVOURITE
COLUMNS

in the UK’s
’s best & only independent amateur radio magazine...
The UK ,s Number One
Amateur Radio Magaz
ine

THE YAESU
FTM-7250DE
A44A Oman
A contest trip for CQW
W CW REVIEWED
THE SECOND PA
RTIN OUR
SERIES ON YAES
U’S
SYSTEM FUSION
REVIEW: KENWOOD TS-890 Ron Stone GW3YDX gets his hands on the new flagship HF/6m
transceiver from Kenwood. Find out how he rates it.
REVIEW: BAOFENG UV-5RC PLUS Tim Kirby G4VXE looks at the Baofeng UV-5RC Plus, the latest PW 70MHz Con
The complete resutest
lts
2018
version of the well-known value handheld. At a price of under £30 from a UK retailer, he asks, should
everyone have one of these in their shack?
BREXIT AND AMATEUR RADIO Just in case you were wondering … Steve Telenius-Lowe PJ4DX
AG OO IL 2 UE

explains what, if any, impact Brexit will have on operating from Europe.
9
WS L G PR S
01
NE AL A IS

VALVE & VINTAGE Michael Jones GW7BBY returns with the latest from Internal Fire − Museum of
AT E 11 19

Power. Last summer’s season went very well, the new Steam Hall is open and the museum improves
EN D

day by day. Meve

Val teo&r Wa
Vintch
tag
ing
e The
L 0

Deteagectinand
TH

meteors
hero g
TS

es ofthro
theugh
rhom
radi
SA Y 2

bico ante
echoes
nna
SECOND-HAND Don G3XTT steps into the second-hand slot to look at the classic FT-1000 series The New Foundatio FEBRUARY 2019
MA

from Yaesu. n Licence: What’s Ch £3.99 ISSN 0141-

0857
anged
There are all your other regular columns too, including What Next, Morse Mode, HF Highlights, World
ON

Display until 14th

February 2019
The publishers reserve the right to
of VHF, Data Modes, In the Shop, Technical for the Terrified, Starting Over and Exploring New Fields. change content according to circumstances.

78 Practical Wireless April 2019

 Martin Lynch & Sons Ltd. THE WORLD FAMOUS HAM RADIO STORE

0345 2300 599

SAFE ONLINE SHOPPING
Shopping online with ML&S is safe
and secure. E&OE

Web: www.HamRadio.co.uk
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER AND
FACEBOOK HamRadioUK

Martin Lynch & Sons Ltd. Wessex House, Drake Avenue, Staines, Middlesex TW18 2AP. E-mail: [email protected]
Opening Hours: Mon - Fri: 8.30am to 5pm. Sat: 9am to 4.30pm. International Tel: +44 1932 567 333

Full Down Conversion

and Roofing Filters
Promise the Best
TS-890S
Performance of Your HF/50MHz/70MHz Base Station
DX Life. Full Down Conversion RX 7-inch Colour Display
H-mode Mixer Roofing Frequency Sampling Band Scope
FULL operation on High C/N 1st LO Auto Scroll Mode
HF/6m/4m (yes, it Built-in Roofing Filters Multi Information Screen
really has 70MHz!) 500Hz / 2.7kHz / 6kHz / 15kHz 100W Heavy Duty Built-in Antenna Tuner

Peter Hart says in RadCom, April 2019...

“ The TS-890S is an impressive radio. Its performance is excellent
and the level of built-in features and functions is second to none
Available from stock at the NEW LOW PRICE OF £3499.95
”
Authorised UK Dealers
LAM Communications [email protected]
SEE WWW.HAMRADIO. Moonraker
Nevada
[email protected]
[email protected]
CO.UK/TS890S Radio World
Waters & Stanton
[email protected]
[email protected]