Radio Habana Cuba: Dxers Unlimited mid-week edition for December 19, 2000
By Arnie Coro, radio amateur CO2KK
Hi amigos! Welcome to the mid-week edition of Dxers Unlimited, your favorite radio hobby program! I am Arnie Coro, radio amateur CO2KK, your friend here in Havana and host of this twice-weekly program devoted entirely to the promotion and development of this wonderful hobby you and I enjoy so much... RADIO!!!
Here are the headlines: NOTHING HEARD FROM OSCAR 40... the most complex-ever amateur satellite that was supposed to use 9 bands to relay ham signals from space is now orbiting the Earth without any link to the control stations... Latest reports say that the satellite was detected in one piece by long range space radar.... so, apparently, from the text of the bulletin providing that information, OSCAR 40 designers and controllers thought that the satellite had actually exploded during one of the orbit changing maneuvers which required igniting the rocket engines... YES, amateur radio operators worldwide are now ansiously awaiting any further news about OSCAR 40, due to the fact that the expected computer reset during the weekend apparently did not bring the telemetry transmitter back on the air.
Now here is our number two headline: Although there is already a candidate month for Solar cycle number 23 peak, and that is APRIL of the year 2000, many scientists continue to look forward to a peak during sometime next year... In the meantime, we are all enjoying the most interesting propagation conditions on the higher frequency bands seen in the last nine years... AND this specific solar rotation has already produced nice activity, with the daily solar flux index reaching near 200 for several days in a row.
Headline number three: A higher than usual number of meteors will be entering the upper atmosphere during the next few days and this could further enhance the chances of Sporadic E openings on the VHF bands!
And after the headlines, here is more of our menu for today: A very interesting question from a long time short wave listener that has just obtained his amateur radio license... Listen to the question: Arnie, I am on a very tight budget, and want to get on the air on the HF bands as soon as possible... please give me an idea of what transceiver I could try to buy!!! I'll answer this question in just a few seconds, after a brief musical interval and station ID... My sound engineer and producer here today at Radio Havana Cuba's studio number 7 is Ricardo Queral, who is replacing vacationing Margarita Delgado, I am Arnie Coro back with you in a moment...
This is Radio Havana Cuba, the name of the show is Dxers Unlimited, our listener oriented radio hobby program...
Here now is item one in detail... The question again... What type of transceiver will be the most inexpensive and yet effective to start an amateur radio station on the HF bands? ANSWER: Amigo, you have so many options that it will be difficult to list them all here... BUT, here are a few guidelines that may help you choose a ham rig that will certainly let you enjoy the hobby. First of all, if you are familiar with electronics and enjoy building kits, there are several rather simple one-band or two-band kits that are worth looking at them. The only problem I see with those kits is that they are usually QRP,that means that they run low power, usually between 2 and 5 watts, and with 2 to 5 watts into even a very efficient antenna, your chances of making many contacts under not too good; propagation conditions are slim to say the least. My advice is to try to obtain a transceiver that will run at least 10 watts minimum output, or better yet, 20 or 50 watts. There is nothing more frustrating for a beginner than calling and calling stations and not receiving a reply.
After reading the latest amateur radio magazines from about 10 different nations, and scanning the World Wide Web for information, I have not found anything that could be described as today's ideal novice amateur radio equipment. Way back in the nineteen-fifties and 'sixties, manufacturers produced several beginners' radios that were quite effective... they were all in the 20 to 60 watt power range, and usually worked on the 5 more popular ham bands. Nowadays there seems to be no replacement for that type of "starter" radio.... So, you either homebrew yours totally or in kit form, or shop around a lot for a real bargain!!! By the way, amigo from Canada asking this question, it seems like you have hit a very interesting topic... there is a very definite need for a simple, no-frills, low-cost ham radio transceiver in the 20 to 50 watt output class!
Item two: High latitude medium wave Dxing is, according to those who enjoy it, a very interesting aspect of the hobby. Every time there is a geomagnetic disturbance at higher than about 40 degrees North, propagation conditions on the AM medium wave band change dramatically, allowing reception of some really nice DX when nearby stations simply disappear due to the geomagnetic event affecting the E layer. And this is something I must mention: the typical AM medium wave band DX is via the E layer, which limits the range of each hop to about 2000 kilometers. Of course, there are other propagation modes for the frequency range between 500 and 2000 kiloHertz that make possible fantastic long range DX, but again, and also answering a question from a Canadian listener, AM medium wave band signals most of the time will reach you via skywave refracting from the E layer, so the path geometry allows only about 2000 kilometers for each hop!
This is the mid week edition of Dxers Unlimited, you are tuned to Radio Havana Cuba, and YES, we do QSL one hundred percent here. Send your AIR MAIL postcard or letter with your signal reports and comments about the show to Arnie Coro, Radio Havana Cuba, Havana, Cuba. Here now is item four: Digital short wave broadcasting, using the same bandwidth as analog radio, is something to look at... but my personal opinion is that it won't appeal to broadcasters and listeners much until a really low-cost, rugged, reliable and low-battery-drain digital receiver is available. Present-day high power transmitters can handle the digital audio very easily; as a matter of fact, their most critical components will actually last a lot longer. but so far manufacturers don't seem to be motivated to produce a receiver that will decode digital transmissions. For those of you not familiar with radio technology, the digital short wave receiver must still have all the radio frequency amplification and mixing systems, like any conventional analog receiver. The difference between the two types, digital and analog, is that the digital receiver will require a custom chipset designed to decode whatever digital short wave broadcast standard is finally adopted. At this moment several stations are either testing or about to start testing digital audio broadcasts on the standard international short wave broadcast bands. But receivers to pick those broadcasts are only in the hands of the engineers and technicians who are developing the system. In the meantime, analog audio short wave broadcasting will continue well into the 21st century, as there are many areas of the world that will continue to rely on standard analog broadcasts for years to come.
Item five: Yes, this is Dxers Unlimited's Antennas Section, and today I will provide you with more information about my latest antenna experiment here at CO2KK, my ham radio station. It is an easy-to-build, low-cost two-band wire antenna, yet another variation of the Asymmetric Sloping Dipole or ASD antenna. This one is for the 20 and 10 meter bands and seems to work quite well, although it does require not the standard 2 wires, but 4. In other words, what I did was to feed two ASD antennas, one for 20 meters and one for 10 meters from the same coaxial cable. And this seems to work quite well. The ASD for 20 meters is of course one quarter wavelength long on the short leg and three quarters of a wavelength on the long and nearer to ground wire. The ASD for 10 meters is exactly the same design, except it is cut for 10 meters. The two antennas are fed using the same coaxial cable and decoupling choke. Results so far are really encouraging. This is a very versatile combination, as 10 meters is a daytime band, while 20 meters provides communications during the peak of the sunspot cycle for many hours every day, including some nice propagation enhancements around local sunrise and sunset.
And talking about antennas... I have sent several 2 meter antenna info packages, but could not complete sending them all, as some kind of gremlin got inside my e-mail software and erased several of the 2 meter antennas info package requests. So, if you sent an e-mail asking for the info package on 2 meter band simple low-cost range-extending antennas for handie talkies and have not received yours yet via e-mail, please send me another request, as yours might have disappeared when the computer glitch happened here! Send your e-mail to arnie@radiohc.org, and Via Air Mail to Arnie Coro, Radio Havana Cuba, Havana, Cuba.
And now amigos, as always at the end of the show, here is Arnie Coro's Dxers Unlimited HF plus 6 meters propagation update and forecast. HF band conditions are pretty good; solar flux is still very near 200 units, and the A index or geomagnetic disturbance indicator, was 8 on Monday. But expect the A index to go higher on Wednesday, due to the possible impact of a stream of particles coming from a flare that erupted from solar active region 9269 early morning Monday my local time here in Havana, at 11:12 UTC. We may see more flare activity from two active solar regions during the next 48 to 72 hours. Expect some really good DX on 15 meters just around your local sunset; also nice propagation on the 19 meter international short wave broadcast band and the 20 meter amateur band. Six meter band operators should continue to watch the band carefully for some possible openings, especially North to South propagation. There are also good chances for Sporadic E short skip openings on 6 and 10 meters during the next several days. Keep those radios on -- HF propagation conditions in the frequency range from 10 to 50 megaHertz are really worthwhile postponing any homebrewing of radio gear until the bands are not so good anymore!
See you on the ham bands amigos, 28.5 megaHertz when 10 meters is open and during the evenings my local time, either on 20 or 40 meters. Enjoy the peak of this solar rotation, and do not forget to send your QSL requests via Air Mail to Arnie Coro, Radio Havana Cuba, Havana, Cuba or by e-mail to arnie@radiohc.org!
Arnie Coro CO2KK
Havana, Cuba
December 19, 2000Postal address:
Arnie Coro, "Dxers Unlimited"
Radio Havana Cuba, Havana, CUBA
e-mail: arnie@radiohc.org
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