Amateur Radio Business Deathwatch

Posted on August 5, 2014 by VE3TG

Amateur radio is a tough business at the best of times – hams are a cheap bunch, the market is small, there’s a fair amount of competition -it’s hard to survive. And it can’t be getting any easier, with an aging amateur population, a changing hobby…

One of the things that got me into amateur radio was CQ Magazine. I started reading CQ in the early 70’s, have subscribed for close to forty years, and I still have all those issues. It pains me tremendously to see them struggling for survival. For better than 6 months now, I haven’t seen an issue from them, and I suspect no one in Canada has either. When asked about it, they started out saying that they had a new distributor in Canada. Then it turned out they were also missing deliveries in the States. They blamed it on “distribution problems”. They kept promising that things were turning around. I gave them lots of slack.

I sent them an e-mail a couple of months ago asking when I might expect to see another issue. “Distribution problems”, they said. Well, yes, technically they have distribution problems – if they can’t pay the bills, they aren’t going to have anything to distribute.

Then, I see them in the smallest space they could get at the ARRL Convention – selling copies of May, June and July CQ. I bought a copy of each for $2, although technically they owed me those issues and I should have asked for them free. So what gives – there they are with issues they could be sending me, and they aren’t. Everyone wants them to succeed and survive, but a little more openness and honesty would probably be appreciated by the amateur community.

They are clearly in trouble, and most likely losing subscribers due to their lack of communication with the amateur community.

Sadly, I give them one more year and I am afraid they won’t be with us any more – at least, not in their present form.

I don’t even look for the magazine in the mailbox any more. Very, very sad.

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ARRL Centennial Convention – A First Rate Fun Fest

Posted on August 5, 2014 by VE3TG

Being a long time life member of the ARRL, I had to make the pilgrimage to Hartford for the ARRL Centennial Convention. And am I glad I went. Had a terrific time, the League put on a first-rate show.

The trip started out a little rocky when we got to the hotel and they didn’t have the reservation I had made with Expedia. I had to get on the phone to Expedia and have them call the hotel to sort things out. Normally I wouldn’t care too much about this kind of thing, but with the Convention in town I thought finding a room at the last minute might be kind of tough.

Anyway, Expedia and the hotel sorted things out between them. And then, the hotel, to “make up for the inconvenience” (which was entirely due to Expedia and had nothing to do with the hotel) upgraded us to the Club level. Well…free Internet, free breakfast in the lounge, and free evening “hors d’ouevres” – which amounted to more than enough for a meal. We didn’t spend a cent in the hotel the whole time we were there. And to top it off, the food was delicious. And all the staff were extra nice. One of the best hotel experiences I have ever had.

And what hotel was this, you ask – my new favourite hotel – the Sheraton.

But I digress – back to the convention. I attended Contest University Thursday morning, because it was that or DX University, and I didn’t really care much either way. However, I got to hear a very interesting presentation from Frank W3LPL on small receiving antennas for 160M and 80M.

Lunch Thursday was ok, and the talk by K5UR was interesting.

Not a lot of Canadians in attendance – probably only about 10 – but a good contingent from RAC.

Interesting talk by AB1OC on his station building efforts (https://stationproject.wordpress.com).

Got to chat with the inimitable Gordon West for a bit.

And what was effectively the keynote presentation by K1JT, Joe Taylor, recounting his history in amateur radio and how it led him into physics and developing the WSJT software. It’s not that often that you get to hear someone say “according to another Nobel prize winner” (quoting Richard Feynman) in a talk! Gee, I miss physics – but that’s a topic for another day.

So – great talks, the likes of K1ZZ, K3LR, W3LPL, N6AA, K7JA, VE6JY, OH2BH, W3AZD, K1DG, K1JT, and so on wandering around, and to top it all off – a trip to W1AW. Really, what more could you ask for!!

IMG 0169

IMG 0199

IMG 0195

As K1ZZ put it, after the convention, the world will be divided into two classes of people – those who were in Hartford for the convention, and those who wish they had been.

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CQ WW CW

Posted on November 25, 2013 by VE3TG

With the recent increase in sunspot numbers (apparently we are having a double maximum in this cycle – woo-hoo!), I decided to have a go at 10M in the CQ WW CW, with the prime aim of chasing some new countries. And conditions were good, although probably not as good as 2011.

Actually, conditions were kind of strange at times. Not only were there JAs on 10M, I also worked W1VE in New Hampshire. In the Caribbean, Fy5KE had a huge signal most of the time. But PJ4A, PJ2T and P40L were super weak for me all weekend. And some signals seemed to have odd echo-y multipath stuff going on.

I heard some good stuff that I couldn’t work – 5R8IC and Z81R to name two. But I did pick up a couple of new countries – was nice to find XT2FCJ all by himself calling CQ! There was an insane pileup on GJ2A, so I left him thinking “I’ll work him on Sunday”…of course, never heard a sign of him on Sunday. Serves me right.

The best thing about 10m is you get to keep a fairly normal schedule, and it’s pretty low stress.

This might be it for 10M too – depending on what the next cycle looks like, 10M may turn into almost a VHF band.

Anyway, bottom line was 352 QSOS, 21 zones and 81 countries for 102,204 points.

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CW SS

Posted on November 25, 2013 by VE3TG

Had a good time in SS. With the split of Ontario into four sections, Ontario East (ONE) is certainly rarer than Ontario ever was, which does add to the fun in some ways. Lots of activity this year, good conditions, and the result seems to have been lots of big scores and clean sweeps.

Anyway, here’s what I ended up with:

Band    QSOs    Pts  Sec
3.5     139     278    15
7      212     424   22
14     230     460    30
21      119      238    16
28        9        18      0
Total     709    1418   83

Score : 117,694

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WAE 2013

Posted on August 12, 2013 by VE3TG

Conditions seemed not so good for the WAE this year. I had trouble getting motivated, and with frequent breaks and noodling around in the shack, managed about 210 QSOs for 50,000 points. Not my best performance.

But still lots of fun – gotta love those QTCs.

Big signals: DF9ZP, F8DGY (with a Spiderbeam!?), SN7Q, UU7J, HG7T, LX7I

Weird calls: 9A282TN, Z320R – great fun sending those in QTCs!

 

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VP6TC silent key

Posted on July 31, 2013 by VE3TG

Sad news indeed that Tom VP6TC is a Silent Key.

I worked Tom back when I was in university – one of my most memorable QSOs. Having worked Tom and knowing the whole Pitcairn back story is just another example of the unique window into the world that amateur radio can provide.

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Asking Questions

Posted on July 24, 2013 by VE3TG

In the category of random thoughts…

I came across a statement on a completely unrelated Web site yesterday to the effect that the success of science is due to asking questions of Nature rather than asking questions of people. If you ask people a question about Nature (“does a heavier body fall faster than a light one?”), you’ll get a variety of changeable answers. But if you ask the question of Nature, you will get a consistent answer (in this case, “No”).

People had asked each other this question for thousands of years, with all kinds of answers (mostly wrong). When Galileo finally asked Nature, the question was answered once and for all.

Once you start asking questions like that, one question leads to another, and before you know it, you end up with modern science.

So a good definition of what science is might be “a systematic method of asking questions  of Nature”.

 

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Book Review

Posted on April 22, 2013 by VE3TG

I recently picked up a copy of a new book from the League – Ham Radio for Arduino and PICAXE.

The book is reasonably interesting. It’s essentially a compilation of projects using the Arduino and PICAXE in a Ham Radio setting. The projects are well described, and run the range from simple to complex. About half the projects use the Arduino and the other half use the PICAXE.

As with most recent ARRL publications, the proof-reading could use some work. Am I the only one that finds obvious errors in a book kind of annoying? (Of course, that comment pretty much guarantees that I’ve made some dumb mistake in this post!)

If you are a complete novice in the world of micro-controllers, this is probably not the book to start with. It assumes a fair degree of previous understanding of what the micro-controller world is all about. But if you have some experience with these little goodies, and are looking for some ideas, the book is probably worth the $30.

Will I actually build any of the projects described in the book? Ummm…probably not. They don’t really fall into my interests, with the possible exception of the G0UPL QRSS beacon. But that’s pretty far down my project list.

What’s an Arduino, you ask? Have a look at the Arduino home page.

Or if the PICAXE is more to your taste…here’s their home page

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Meanwhile, on the WARC bands

Posted on March 12, 2013 by VE3TG

What do you do during your off times in the BERU contest? How about looking for DX on the WARC bands. That yielded ZP6CW on 12M and SU9VB on 17M this weekend. Woo-hoo.

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BERU 2013

Posted on March 12, 2013 by VE3TG

This past weeked was the RSGB Commonwealth contest, also known as the BERU Contest (BERU stands for British Empire Radio Union). This is a fun contest from Canada as lots and lots of good DX shows up from the far flung corners of the Commonwealth. The fun part is, thanks to a small disagreement with the crown back around 1776, our friends in the US don’t get to play in this contest. That really cuts down on the competition for all that juicy DX, making it a lot easier to work.

The contest is only 24 hours long, but generally the last few hours are kind of slow, after everyone in the UK has gone to bed. There is an interesting 12 hour category in the contest, which introduces an element of strategy in picking your off times if you choose to enter in that class. As well, there is the so-called restricted category, where you essentially can use only simple wire antennas – no beams.

I decided to play in the 12-hr restricted section.

Unfortunately, I think this year I picked the wrong off times. On the one hand, I needed to spend some time on the low bands to pick up some multipliers. But the tradeoff was being off the high bands while propagation was still pretty good. As a result, I don’t think my score was as good as it could have been.

The local competition seems to have shaped up like this in terms of QSOs:

Call 80 40 20 15 10 Total Score
VE3KI 39 90 129 86 24 368 4,680
VE3OSZ 48 71 80 33 2 234 3,570
VE3TG 25 70 89 44 6 234 3,330
VE3IAE 2 57 139 20 8 226 3,010

Rich, VE3KI is a tough guy to beat.

Well, I may have got the strategy wrong, but at least I was rewarded with some good DX – 9J2BO (a BERU regular), 5X1NA, 5H3EE, VU2PTT and 7Q7BP were among the best that showed up. And of course all the familiar participants from G-land.

Always a fun contest, and looking forward to next year already.

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