Radio Habana Cuba: Dxers Unlimited weekend edition for January 6, 2001
By Arnie Coro, radio amateur CO2KK
Hi amigos, welcome to the weekend edition of Dxers Unlimited, your favorite radio hobby show now on the air from Radio Havana Cuba transmitters. I am Arnaldo, Arnie, Coro, your friend here in Havana, now ready to provide you with the most up to date shortwave propagation information, technical topics, and this year's new section of the show... Dxers Unlimited INTERACTIVE, especially targeted for those of you who are just starting to enjoy our wonderful hobby: RADIO...
Here are the headlines for today: Ever heard about a leaking satellite? It has happened a number of times in space... once even a crewed spaceship was on the brink of disaster due to a leaking tank. The satellite that is now apparently losing pressurized fuel of some kind is amateur's radio most-sophisticated-ever spacecraft, OSCAR 40, which is now spinning at a faster rate than expected, very possible due to the fuel leak. OSCAR 40 is back with its controllers, but now they are practically sure that something is really wrong, an unforeseen event did damage the satellite. Recovery efforts are in progress, and what may happen is that this ham satellite will end up in a different orbit and with limited capability, which is anyway much better than no satellite at all!!!
Headline number two: As the new year started, experts from all over the world have decided to reveal their thoughts about solar cycle 23, and now most of them agree that the peak of the cycle did happen some time between July and September of last year, while another smaller group still insist that it is just too early to provide accurate information about the peak, and that even now, the solar cycle may surprise everyone and show a 2001 peak. Whichever way it goes, this cycle was certainly not as powerful as the previous one....
Headline number three: Next meeting of the HFCC high frequency coordinating committee will take place in Geneva to analyze the use of the bands assigned for international broadcasting during the next 6-month period. The old system of two 4-month periods and two 2-month periods, which caused so much trouble to station engineers, is now a thing of the past. Life is simpler with just two frequency changes during the year, and perhaps one or two minor corrections which almost every station finds necessary to optimize coverage of the target areas....
Stay tuned for more radio hobby related information, coming to you from Havana. I am Arnie Coro and today's show was taped earlier than usual because I am participating in the National Science and Technology Forum that is taking place this weekend here in the capital city of Cuba....
You are listening to the weekend edition of your favorite radio hobby program, Dxers Unlimited from Radio Havana Cuba, and here is item one: Small antennas and high performance... listen again... Small antennas and high performance... are they both possible at the same time? Well, yes and no. Yes, when you are operating on the higher frequencies, and no if you are trying to work lower frequencies. That's why my KK-6 just two-meter-high, large-diameter antenna works so well on the 10, 12 and 15 meter bands, providing radio amateurs and short wave listeners who live at locations where no other antennas can be installed with a nice alternative... My KK-6 six-feet-high, large-diameter system can even be fitted with a capacity hat and will provide fairly good efficiency on the 17 and 20 meter bands.... BUT, BEWARE, don't try to tune it up on the 30 meters or 40 meters bands. There, efficiency will be terribly poor.... At the request of several Dxers Unlimited's fans, here again is a brief description of the KK-6 vertical large diameter top capacity hat loaded antenna system:
The antenna itself is just a 2-meter length of aluminium or copper tubing of a diameter of no less than 50 millimeters, or about 2 inches. The antenna is supported by an easy-to-build-yourself insulator, and it is provided with at least 4 ground radials of no less than 3 meters or 10 feet long... This is the bare minimum system that will provide good results on the 10,12 and 15 meter bands when they are open for DX, and will also give you good coverage of local 10 meter band repeaters. Before I forget, the KK-6 is fed using 50 ohm coaxial cable, and via an antenna tuner, which is essential with this type of broadbanded antenna system. One of Dxers Unlimited's most faithful listeners asked the following question: Arnie, why build such a small antenna? And my answer, via e-mail to him the very same day I received his question, was: Well amigo Bill, because there are many radio hobby enthusiasts around the world who cannot install larger antenna systems. With the KK-6, anyone can really enjoy working even some DX stations on 10 meters when conditions are good, and as more and more 10 meter band FM repeaters are becoming available, a KK-6 installed atop a highrise apartment building, attached to a balcony rail, can provide very nice access to even rather distant repeaters, and do remember that 10 meter FM band repeaters use vertical polarized antennas, so there is no cross polarization loss when you are using the KK-6 to work the 10 meter band FM repeaters. And the KK-6 antenna is fed using an antenna tuner, so you can work all the way from the low end of the band CW segment starting at 28.000 all the way up to 29.7 megaHertz... Yes amigos, si my friends, oui mes amis... the KK-6 is a simple, low-cost, compact and even portable antenna system for amateur radio operators who cannot install larger antennas at their locations. Just a 2-meter or about 6-foot length of 2-inch or 50 millimeter diameter aluminium or copper pipe, a roll of number 12 copper wire, a few short lengths of PVC heavy wall pipe and your homebrew KK-6 will put you on the air on no less than three amateur bands, 10, 12 and 15 meters... and with a little extra work, your transceiver will also be able to operate on the 17 and 20 meter bands with reduced efficiency, which is better of course, than no antenna at all!!!
Want to know more about the KK-6 low-cost, practical, easy-to-build-yourself ham radio antenna? Then just e-mail me at arnie@radiohc.org, or send a postcard to Arnie Coro, Radio Havana Cuba, Havana, Cuba, and I will send you a text file with the complete description of the KK-6, and a graphic .jpg file with an illustration of the antenna... And soon I will be taking some digital photos of the prototype KK-6 to include it in the KK-6 ANTENNA INFO PACKAGE TOO.... Yes, the KK-6 antenna is fun to build and operate, it won't cost a lot of money, and although you won't deliver a signal as loud as the local DX guru using a 5-element monoband beam and a kilowatt, I can assure you that you will certainly enjoy operating with this simple antenna system!
We do QSL here one hundred percent, this year 2001 is our year number forty on the air -- yes, four decades of QSLing back to every single request received from the world's short wave listeners, amigos!!! And we do appreciate very much your signal reports and comments about our programming that you provide with the QSL requests to Radio Havana Cuba. So send your signal reports, comments about this show and other programs, your radio hobby-related questions, and ideas on how to improve Dxers Unlimited directly to me via AIR MAIL... Arnie Coro, Radio Havana Cuba, Havana, Cuba.... or use the faster e-mail, to arnie@radiohc.org, and we will send you our nice QSL card and a verification letter too.
Now item two: Dxers Interactive.... a new section of the show that will be exclusively devoted to answering questions from those of you who have just started to listen to short wave radio. Here is today's question: Arnie Coro, why can I pick up practically no signals on my new radio when I tune it slowly from 100 kiloHertz all the way up to the first near-local AM broadcast station which operates on 550 kiloHertz? Well amigo, you may perhaps pick up some aviation navigational aids, non-directional beacons that still operate using the Low Frequency band, and because you are located in North America, picking up Low Frequency AM broadcast stations will be rather difficult, as those are located across the Atlantic, in Europe and Africa. The LF band from 100 kilohertz all the way up to 530 kiloHertz is now also available to radio amateurs in some countries and they are achieving some very interesting results using sophisticated signal processing systems with specially designed software. I hope that this answers your question. LF reception does require very special antennas and very quiet locations, as artificial and atmospheric noise are the LF band's worst enemies....
And now just before going QRT, here is Dxers Unlimited's HF plus 6 meters propagation update and forecast: Solar activity will be moving slowly down, until a minimum for this solar rotation will happen between January 8th and 11th... The next maximum for the upcoming rotation should happen starting around January 18th and last for about three days or so... Solar flux is now near 170 units, and the A index, or geomagnetic disturbance indicator, will be at a not-so-nice 15 or so for the next day or two. The best bands for daytime DXing will continue to be the ones from 15 to 30 megaHertz, and nighttime reception will be nice and clear at most locations in the segment from 5 to 10 megaHertz during most of your local hours of darkness. Radio amateurs will certainly have a nice time on the 10, 12 and 15 meter bands, but conditions will not be so good as during the past two weeks...
I'll be hanging around 28.5 megaHertz when at my home QTH during the hours that 10 is open, and will start monitoring the 20 meter band 14.2 megaHertz frequency later in the evening, too... For six meter operators, the winter DX season is now almost over, but we may see some sporadic E openings.
See you on 28.5 megaHertz for a nice two-way ham QSO amigos, and don't forget to e-mail your signal reports to arnie@radiohc.org!
prepared 01-06-2001; transmitted 01-09-2001
Arnie Coro CO2KK
Havana, Cuba
January 6, 2001Postal address:
Arnie Coro, "Dxers Unlimited"
Radio Havana Cuba, Havana, CUBA
e-mail: arnie@radiohc.org
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