Author Archives: Bob K0NR

Grumpy about QSL Cards

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I tend to let my incoming QSL cards pile up for a while and then fill them out in a batch. I don’t actually get all that many QSLs unless I am doing something special like a mini-DXpedition or activating a rare VHF grid.

Last week, I decided it was time to catch up on my QSL responses, so I fetched the small pile of cards and starting working on them. The first one came with an Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope (SASE) and I was able to find it in the log right away. A minute later, my QSL was filled out and ready to mail. Now that is the way it is supposed to work!

The next card in the pile was just a bare QSL card sent as a postcard, with no SASE included. This always makes me a little grumpy. My general policy is to respond to cards sent via the QSL bureau and cards sent direct that include an SASE. Everything else gets ignored. I’ve had to take a hard line on this when doing DXpeditions, otherwise the work just gets way out of hand. Everyone else needs your card but you probably don’t need any of theirs.

So I looked at the second card and thought “sorry, guy, but if you need my card you need to include an SASE” and I set it aside. I picked up the next card and it came inside an envelope but without an SASE. But this one was a grid on 6M that I needed, so I am looking at it a bit more graciously. Should I send my card back to this guy? Wouldn’t I just be encouraging bad QSL habits on his part? Judging by the information included on the card, this ham has probably been licensed for at least 10 years…he should know better. OK, maybe I’ll make an exception on this one since I really need his grid.

Here’s another card with no SASE. This time it is obviously a new callsign, so I am tempted to have pity on him. Didn’t anyone teach him to QSL properly? Perhaps I should ignore the lack of SASE and just send him a card. Is it my job to teach every ham QSL courtesy? Or maybe I need to lighten up?

Mostly, this just makes me grumpy. I am probably thinking about it too hard.

73, Bob K0NR

How Many Amateur Radio Operators are there in Japan?

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I recently came across a web page maintained by Ryota “Roy” Motobayashi, JJ1WTL / AC6IM that explains the Japanese amateur radio callsign system. I used to hold a Japan amateur radio license (reciprocal, based on my US license) with callsign 7J1AUE. I was traveling to Japan on business at the time, so I wanted to do some radio operating while I was there. I have since let the license lapse as it is expensive and a hassle to renew each year.

This web page had an interesting chart of Japanese amateur radio station licenses by year, showing a steep decline starting in 1995. (Click on the graphic to the left to make it larger.) Historically, Japan had more amateur radio licensees than the US but this appears to have changed. According to this chart, the number of station licenses in Japan has dropped to less that 534k last year while the number of US licensees is around 655k (according to the AH0A web site).

This is a bit of an apples-to-sushi comparison since the Japan system includes a station license and an operator license. However, the simplest reasonable comparision is to compare Japan station licenses to US operator licenses. Japan station licenses have a 5 year renewal term while the US licensees are valid for ten years. This increases the difficulty of a comparison as it affects the statistics in an environment where radio licenses are not being renewed. Actually, there are other issues identified by AH0A that need to be considered when making these comparisons.

Of course, most of the major amateur radio equipment manufacturers are located in Japan, so the Japanese ham market has an effect worldwide. Some examples: There has never been much 222 MHz radio equipment available, because there is no 222 MHz band in Japan. Ever notice that the CTCSS tone defaults to 88.5 Hz on Japanese radios? That’s the de facto standard for CTCSS in Japan. The “call” button on most Japanese FM rigs comes from the fact that in Japan there really is a calling frequency that you call on and announce that you’ll be listening on another frequency. (So you want to be able to QSY quickly on/off the call frequency.)

Anyway, the decline in Japan ham licenses is probably a leading indicator for the rest of the world, including the US. It also seems in line with general indications that the R&D investment into ham radio gear is slowing, with fewer rigs with fewer innovations being introduced each year. In the business world, they call that “a mature market.”

73, Bob K0NR

Colorado 14er Event – August 12, 2007

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The Colorado 14er Event is coming on August 12th, in the morning local time in Colorado.

Amateur Radio operators from around Colorado will be climbing many of Colorado’s 14,000-foot mountains to set up amateur radio stations in an effort to communicate with other radio amateurs across the state and around the world. Join in on the fun Sunday, August 12th 2007 and see how many of the mountaintop stations you can contact. The prime operating hours are from approximately 9 AM to noon local time (1500 to 1800 UTC), but activity may occur at other times during the day.

Two awards to encourage mountaintop operating throughout the year are available. The Summit Award is given to radio amateurs that contact 10 or more peaks and the Pinnacle Award is for operating from 5 or more peaks. Radio operators with 14er climbing experience who plan to climb a 14er should log their name and intended peak at the HAM 14er Yahoo group.

I will be operating from the summit of Pikes Peak with a crew of other ham radio operators, using club callsign K0YB.

73, Bob K0NR

The FCC and Automatic Control

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In several recent FCC actions, the regulatory agency removed the privilege of automatic control from a licensed amateur radio operator. For example, this FCC letter to John Kimbraugh WR3S says:

“…on various dates in March 2007, your repeater stations operated without proper control and re-broadcast portions of commercial TV programming and music, contrary to the Commission’s rules regarding the Amateur Radio Service. The monitoring information also shows that operators on your system failed to identify properly and used false call signs.”

The FCC letter also says that WR3S will lose the privilege of operating under automatic control. Without automatic control, a control operator must be present at the control point of the repeater whenever the repeater is in use. This pretty much forces the repeater system to go off the air, unless a repeater operator or a team of control operators can manage to monitor the repeater most of the day.

I see this as the FCC saying that the use of automatic control can be a problem on a repeater. If station operation remains within reasonable limits, then go for it. If you can’t get your act together as the repeater operator, then the FCC will take away this privilege.

– 73, Bob K0NR

Model 400 Mini Volt Voltmeter

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I’ve worked in the electronic test and measurement business for over a quarter of a century, so I have a keen interest in test equipment. My friend Steve K0SRW came across an interesting “classic” voltmeter and decided that I needed it in my collection of electronic treasures. Thanks, Steve!

This measuring device is a clever design with a neon bulb used as the voltage detector. A potentiometer varies the voltage to the neon detector, with the potentiometer knob calibrated to read out in volts. You adjust the dial until the light just turns on. This meter works for both AC and DC voltages, from a range of 65 to 660 volts. Click on the pictures to take a closer look.

The original box came with the voltmeter and it says that it was manufactured by Industrial Devices, Inc. of Edgewater, NJ. The device is marked with US Patent Number 2,644,134, which I looked up one of the free online patent databases. The patent was applied for by Nathan Schnoll on July 20, 1949 and was issued on June 30, 1953. As expected, the circuit diagram uses the potentiometer as a simple voltage divider, varying the voltage to the neon bulb.

I’ve done some searching on the web but have not found anything beyond the patent document. Does anyone have any additional information on this voltmeter?

73, Bob K0NR

Colorado QSO Party – This Weekend

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It is coming to your favorite frequency band this weekend…The Colorado QSO Party. This ham radio contest….er, party….is sponsored by the Pikes Peak Radio Amateur Assocation. These guys have gotten sponsors for over 50 plaques to be given out, which is an amazing accomplishment. If you don’t win a plaque, there are plenty of certificates, too.

There has also been a major push to get all of the Colorado counties activated. If you are interested in operating mobile, this will be a great opportunity to go activate a rare county. Frequency coverage includes all HF, VHF and UHF bands except 60 meters and WARC bands.

Turn on the radio, get on the air and work someone this weekend.

73, Bob K0NR

Cool New Dualband Rig

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I picked up a new rig the other day. It is a dualband handheld radio that supports the latest digital formats. It has a number of innovative features that are not very common in ham radio equipment. The text messaging feature allows you to send simple ASCII messages to other radio users. The built-in MP3 player can play tunes via the built-in speakers or a stereo headset. The microSD memory slot allows for easy change out of stored tunes and expansion of memory. This rig is compatible with Bluetooth headsets which puts the “wireless” back in wireless. It has a really nice color display that can display “wallpaper” to personalize the device.

The rig includes some very handy features such as a world clock, calendar and calculator. You never know when you might need to calculate the length of a dipole antenna or the resonant frequency of an LC circuit. The battery life on standby is an amazing 16 days. A 1.3 Megapixel camera allows you to take photos and store them to the memory card slot. The two frequency bands are 800 MHz and 1900 MHz.

Yeah, that’s right, it is a Verizon cell phone (LG VX-8300).

Work All Colorado on VHF

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The ARRL June VHF QSO Party is next weekend June 9-11. Complete rules are at http://www.arrl.org/contests/rules/2007/june-vhf.html

The Rocky Mt VHF Plus group is doing a number of things to promote VHF activity during the June VHF QSO Party this year. Since parts of Colorado have more cows than ham operators, we often have grids that are not activated during the contest. This year we created a special focus on grid activation which we call the Great Colorado Grid Run. See http://www.k0nr.com/blog/2007/04/great-colorado-grid-run.html

We’ve had a great response from the Colorado VHF ham community and we
will have all 16 grids activated. Thanks to the rovers and portable
operators that have signed up to make this happen! For the latest
operating plans, see http://www.k0nr.com/coloradojunegrids.html

There are a series of awards that are available to encourage operation.

WORKED COLORADO AWARD
The Worked Colorado Award is available for all bands above 50 MHz, and
is awarded if you work any 6 of the 16 Colorado Grid Squares on any One
(1) VHF/UHF band. See http://www.rmvhf.org/coloaward.html

WORKED ALL COLORADO AWARD
The Worked All Colorado Award is available for all bands above 50 MHz,
and is awarded if you work all of Colorado’s 16 Grid Squares on any One
(1) VHF/UHF band. See http://www.rmvhf.org/coloaward.html

THE GREAT COLORADO GRID RUN CERTIFICATE
This award is to encourage operating portable from the less populated
grids in Colorado during the 2007 June QSO Party. Activate any Colorado
grid or a grid adjacent to Colorado, excluding DM78, DM79 and DN70
(highly populated grids). See http://www.rmvhf.org/Great_Grid.html

RMVHF+ PARTICIPATION CERTIFICATE – JUNE VHF CONTEST
For Rocky Mt VHF Plus Net members only. First time Certificate
applicants need 10 contacts, with a minimum of 5 on 2 meter or above.
Second time applicants need a minimum of 20 contacts with 10 on 2 meters
or above. Third time applicants need 50 contacts with a minimum of 25 on
2 meters or above. Forth time and above need a minimum of 100 contacts
with a minimum of 25 on 2 meters and above. See http://www.rmvhf.org/

We are seeing a positive response from this effort in the state of
Colorado. Hopefully, some good 6M propagation will facilitate contacts
across North America.

GL in the contest,
73, Bob K0NR

ARRL Files Appeal of FCC BPL Rules in Federal Court

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The ARRL has taken the next step on challenging the FCC’s sloppy rule making concerning Broadband over Power Line (BPL):

NEWINGTON, CT, May 24, 2007 — The ARRL has filed a federal appeals court brief outlining its case and requesting oral arguments in its petition for review of the FCC’s broadband over power line (BPL) rules. The League has petitioned the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit to review the FCC’s October 2004 Report and Order (R&O) in ET Docket 04-37 and its 2006 Memorandum Opinion and Order. In its brief filed May 17, the ARRL contends, among other things, that the FCC’s actions in adopting rules to govern unlicensed BPL systems fundamentally alter the longstanding rights of radio spectrum licensees, including Amateur Radio operators.

Bill McArthur KC5ACR at Dayton Hamvention®

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I had previously reported that Bill McArthur KC5ACR was very active on 2M FM from the International Space Station (ISS) using the ISS callsign NA1SS. Bill took up the challenge of completing WAS and WAC (and accomplished it). The high point for me was working NA1SS on Dec 5, 2005.

Bill was at the Dayton Hamvention this year and did a presentation on his experience with ham radio on the ISS. I also had the opportunity to meet Bill later in the day and thank him for energizing the ham radio community via his ARISS radio operating. We chatted briefly and I managed to get a photo of the two of us together.

73, Bob K0NR

Regulation by Bandwidth Goes Down in Flames

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The ARRL has withdrawn the petition to the FCC which calls for “Regulation by Bandwidth” (RM-11306) in the Amateur Radio Service.

NEWINGTON, CT, Apr 27, 2007 — The ARRL has announced it’s withdrawing its controversial November 2005 Petition for Rule Making (RM-11306) calling on the FCC to establish a regulatory regime to segment bands by necessary bandwidth rather than by emission mode. The League cited “widespread misconceptions” surrounding the petition as a primary reason for deciding to remove it from FCC consideration. The ARRL left open the option of refiling the same or a similar petition in the future, however.

I think the ARRL was on the right path. The FCC rules concerning emissions are stuck in the 1950’s and need to be updated. The basic idea is that modulation formats will change over time and the key parameter that needs to be managed by band segment is the bandwidth of the transmitted signal. That way, we don’t want to go back to the FCC for rule changes everytime some new technology emerges. Makes sense to me.

Unfortunately, the controversy around automated digital stations (read: Winlink) dominated the debate. Some hams concluded that Regulation by Bandwidth was just a conspiracy to allow automated Winlink stations all over the band. I do believe that the ARRL proposal needed to be changed to have tighter restrictions on automated digital operation…we don’t want digital stations firing up randomly on top of ongoing QSOs. But the basic concept of regulating via bandwidth is sound.

73, Bob K0NR

The Great Colorado Grid Run

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The ARRL June VHF QSO Party (June 9-11) is a great opportunity to try out your gear for the VHF and higher bands. See the complete information on the contest here.

Under the theory that activity breeds more activity on the VHF bands, I am proposing a coordinated effort to activate all Colorado grids during the ARRL June VHF contest. This effort would collectively raise the scores of everyone in the Rocky Mountain region as we all have more grids to work locally. More importantly, this would be a lot of fun!

How difficult is this to pull off? There are 16 VHF grids in Colorado. If you are not familiar with the grid system, take a look at the Colorado vhf grid map on my web site.

The usual front range VHF stations would have DN70, DM79 and DM78 covered. There are a couple of rover stations already planning to head out east and hit DN80, DM89, DM88, DM87. DM77 will also be activated by one of the rovers. On the Western slope, N0KE is usually on the air from DM69. With a little encouragement, we could probably get a Grand Junction station or two on in DM58. This would still leave DM57, DM67, DM68, DN50 and DN60 open. There may be a local or two we could get on the air or maybe we need another rover to cover those grids. This idea seems to be within capture range.

I think the minimum station should be active on 2M and 6M, with decent Yagi antennas and running 100W or more. This would help facilitate QSOs across the state. Also, a good 6M opening would be a nice addition (not sure who is in charge of propagation this year 🙂 More bands would be better, of course, especially from the rare grids.

We especially need stations to participate from the western grids in Colorado (DM57, DM58, DM59, DN50) near Cortez, Delta, Grand Junction and Rangely. These can be fixed stations, portable or rovers.

If you are interested in participating in this effort and can operate from one of the more rare grids, contact Bob K0NR (bob@k0nr.com). To keep up to date on the status of this effort, monitor The Great Colorado Grid Run summary page.

If you are new to VHF contests, check out “How to Work a VHF Contest” at http://www.k0nr.com/rwitte/vhf_contest.html

73, Bob K0NR

USB and Power Adapters

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We love our electronic gizmos and gadgets, but sometimes they seem to frustrate us more than they should. John C. Dvorak recently wrote about the things that frustrate him with PCs: the proliferation of USB cables and power adapters.

He writes:

Why, for example, do we have so many variations of USB cables? One side is always the same—the side that attaches to the PC. It’s always a standard rectangular USB connector, and it plugs into any computer you like. But on the other end, the connector is always different.

I had previously asked why don’t we have USB ports on ham gear? The amateur radio equipment manufacturers have been slow to adopt USB (that is putting it mildly). USB has really helped drive standardization of PC interconnect and should be expanded to most things electronic. This is already happening but now we have the potential of too much “innovation” on the non-PC end of the cable. Apple has their own proprietary connector on the iPod, some digital camera manufacturers go their own way….mobile phones often have proprietary connectors, too.

The other problem that Dvorak mentions is the proliferation of AC power adapters (“Wall Warts”), all with different secondary plugs and many of them missing labeling on what electronic gizmo they will power.


Is it asking too much to label power supplies with the name of the device
they work with? I have a box full of generic-looking power supplies, and
they’re all labeled with the name of the random electrical company that made
them. I have no clue what devices they actually belong to.


Interestingly, the USB standard may be the answer to much of the wall wart problem. You may have noticed many devices that use USB for data interchange also charge their internal battery via the USB port. In fact, you can now buy wall warts with a USB port on them so that power can be supplied to these devices. (I bought one of these to charge my iPod when on the road.) Of course, the same concept can be applied to a car charger that uses the 12V cigarette lighter plug to drive USB-powered devices.

According to Wikipedia, the USB specification provides for a 5V power supply with of 100 mA current, initially. A USB device can request more current in steps of 100 mA, up to a maximum of 500 mA. Many USB host devices will always have 500 mA available. With half of an ampere of current at 5 Volts, 2.5 Watts can be delivered via the USB port. This is not a huge about of power, but it will handle many portable electronic devices.

The end of the USB cable that connects to a computer is called the “Type A” connector, while the other end is “Type B”. There is a smaller version of the B connector, called “Mini-B’, which is being deployed on small devices such as mobile phones and digital cameras. (The regular B connector is too large for micro-sized electronic gadgets.) The figure at the top of this article shows a cable with a Mini-B plug.

So there you have it…imagine a world where the mobile phones, MP3 players, handheld transceivers and digital cameras all used the Mini-B USB plug for data and power. You could go on a trip with only one power adapter that fit all of them.

Nah, that would make too much sense.

73, Bob K0NR

Update: Results of The Free Software Experiment

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Back in October of 2006, I wrote about my attempt to use only free software on my newly acquired notebook computer. At the time, I gave out these grades:

OpenOffice: B- [Works well but not completely compatible with MS Word, I have pretty much stopped using it]

Firefox: A [Seemed to work very reliably ]

Thunderbird: A [Works great ]

Since then, I have become very disillusioned with Firefox. First, my bookmarks disappeared without warning. OK, this might be caused by my harddrive. Then the download manager (which I thought worked really sweetly) started acting up such that it didn’t tell me when the download was complete. Then there was the funky blank menu bar across the top…probably due to some option I had set or a software plug-in. But I tried for days to get it to go away and it never did. I even did a fresh install of Firefox to get things back to normal…didn’t work. The final straw was when I kept running into web pages that didn’t display properly on Firefox. OK, you are going to say that this is the webmaster’s problem in that they didn’t check compatiblity with all major web browsers.

Well, I give up. I switched back to (ack) Internet Explorer and everything works much better. My life just got simpler, which is the ultimate test. (I am starting to sound like a Mac user 🙂

I am still using Thunderbird as it gets the job done. OK, its spam filter could be better but I doubt that Outlook Express is any better.

My conclusion: the standard Microsoft stuff works, and, well, it is the standard on the PC, whether we like it or not.

73, Bob K0NR

QRP Power Levels Redefined

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After decades of QRP power levels being defined by a simple “RF output” standard, the QRP Amateur Radio Club International adopted a new QRP power level standard. This new standard takes into account the total power consumed in the ham shack at the time of the QRP contact. This is thought to provide a “purer” approach to the ethics of low power operating.

It is not clear if other QRP organizations or the ARRL will adopt this new method. I expect this approach to be hotly debated on QRZ.com and eham.net…unless they check the date on the QRPARCI announcement.

73, Bob K0NR

Announcing the 2010 (56th Annual) Poisson d’Avril Contest

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56th Annual Poisson d’Avril Contest
0000 – 2359Z April 1, 2010

I. DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVE:

Since K1DG has won this contest every year since its inception, and is expected to win for at least the next three years, we are announcing the 2010 rules in 2007 to give everyone a chance to install the necessary hardware and software to compete.

II. BANDS/MODES:

All bands, all modes. If we get new bands or modes between now and 2010, they will count. There will be two types of competition in the 2010 event: Traditional and Modern. Detailed descriptions are included below. Please note that the Modern category does not require the actual transmission of a radio signal (it is permitted, but optional).

See complete rules at http://www.freewebs.com/poissondavril/2010rules.htm

73, Bob K0NR

Colorado QSO Party Announced

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The Pikes Peak Radio Amateur Association has announced the date and rules for the Colorado QSO Party. The contest runs from 1200 UTC 15 July, 2007 until 0400 UTC 16 July 2007. For Colorado, this is 6AM to 10PM MDT on Sunday July 15th.

This should be a fun event on the ham bands from 160 Meters to 10 Meters (excluding WARC bands) and the VHF bands of 6 Meters, 2 Meters, and 70 cm. Operating categories include Single Operator, Multioperator, Mobile and Schools. The contest exchange is Signal Report and County (3-letter abbreviation). Stations outside of Colorado send Signal Report and State, Province or DXCC prefix.
Complete rules are available here.
73, Bob K0NR

ARRL: Always Getting Bashed

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Jeff, KE9V, had a great post on his blog “Gutless ARRL Bashers“. Jeff basically says it is easy to criticize a large organization such as the ARRL but it takes real work to contribute and make it better. I agree completely.

I see the ARRL in the same way I see the US government….I don’t like everything it does but it is the only one we have, so we better try to make it work.

I don’t see any other amateur radio organization that has a credible voice with the FCC.

73, Bob K0NR

Donate for Microwave Antennas for ISS

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The ARISS-Europe team is working to establish L-band and S-band antennas on the Columbus module, which will be added to the International Space Station.

From the ARISS-Europe web site:

With the Columbus module being located at some considerable distance from the other two ARISS stations, this will permit parallel operations on the new bands at the same time as the existing operations. The availability of these new frequencies will enable us to establish wideband and video operations for the first time. This facility will provide ATV facilities for School contacts and, additionally, continuous transponder operation.

The only problem is that ARISS-Europe still needs additional funds to pay for the antennas. They are asking for donations from radio amateurs worldwide. See http://www.ariss-eu.org/columbus.htm Time is running out, so if you can donate to this cause, do it now.

73, Bob K0NR

FCC Fines CB Shop for Selling "10 Meter Ham Rigs"

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From the ARRL web site:

FCC fines shop selling non-certified CB transceivers as ham gear (Mar 6, 2007) — In a Forfeiture Order released March 2, the FCC has affirmed a $7000 fine it levied on Ben Metzger of Titusville, Florida, doing business as 1 Stop Communications / 1 Stop CB Shop, for marketing non-certified Citizens Band transceivers.

The 1 Stop CB Shop is just one of many companies selling radios on the internet that are 10-Meter ham transceivers that just happen to be set up for 40-channels of operation. A quick snip of a wire or component and these rigs just happen to land right on the Citizen Band channels. Oh, did I mention that these radios run a lot more output power than the 4W that is legal on CB?

Well, the FCC apparently takes a dim view of this. The FCC’s Forfeiture Order makes for interesting reading. It seems than a FCC agents bought a Connex CX 3300HP amateur transceiver that Mr. Metzger modified for them (in less than 15 minutes) to operate on CB frequencies. This sort of messed up his argument that he was just selling a ham transceiver, which does not require FCC certification.

It is good to see the FCC go after these guys. On the other hand, it seems that the manufacturers (Cobra, Connex, Galaxy, etc.) are just as blameworthy. Take a look at any of these 10-meter mobile radios on the The 1 Stop CB Shop web site. They are clearly not intended for the ham market. How do I know? The roger beep and echo control are the main tipoffs!!!!

73, Bob K0NR