Radio Habana Cuba: Dxers Unlimited mid-week edition for March 27, 2001
By Arnie Coro, radio amateur CO2KK
Hi amigos... welcome to the mid-week edition of your favorite, listener-oriented, radio hobby program on the air and on the Dxers Unlimited's site on the World Wide Web.
BANNER HEADLINE: Optical observations of the solar disk show a tremendous increase in the number of sunspots, and Tuesday, observers counted 339 sunspots, while the 10.7 centimeter solar flux was at its highest level EVER during solar cycle number 23... NOW, you can imagine what's going on among solar scientists... most, if not all of them, are puzzled by this sudden and certainly unexpected increase in solar activity, which will have a tremendous impact on short wave propagation during the next several days.... More about Cycle 23'd BIG SURPRISE later...
Item two: If you already happen to own a computer with a sound card, and have access to the INTERNET, then you are just a few hours away from starting to receive several of the most effective digital communication modes now used by amateur radio operators worldwide, as the connections between the radio receiver and the computer's sound card is easy to implement, and downloading the digital modes communications freeware is also a very easy-to-do job... More about the new frontier that is opening to amateur radio with the implementation of freeware digital communications modes later in today's edition of your favorite radio hobby program.
Margarita Delgado is my sound engineer and producer, now with a new mark at the stopwatch, because, YES, now Dxers Unlimited is a full 18 minutes long, full of all radio hobby-related information. I am Arnie Coro, radio amateur CO2KK here in Havana, back with you in a few seconds, amigos!
The name of the show is Dxers Unlimited, you are tuned to Radio Havana Cuba, and the daily solar flux is at an all-time high for cycle 23 -- 264 solar flux units, which are already having a tremendous impact on the 10 meter amateur band... something I can tell, because 10 meters was open to Europe from here in Havana well after the Europeans had seen their sunset. In other words, while here in Havana it was very near noon local time, which is now at 16 hours UTC, stations from Russia could be worked with excellent signals on 28.5 megaHertz, and the band is still wide open as I am typing the script of the show at 17 hours UTC...
Now item three: Homebrewing radio equipment is a lot of fun... and you don't really need a huge workshop to build your own radios... a few hand tools, a digital multimeter, an easy to build yourself radio frequency detector probe, and of course, the soldering iron, will put you right into the homebrewing of radio gear. Of course, you will need electronic components for your projects, but as I have said here many times, the same way you solder new components to circuit boards, you can desolder components from junked electronic gear!!! And lots of high-quality electronic devices can be recycled by simply desoldering them from a defunct fax machine, an old broken VCR, a TV set or an ancient computer. But you will always will need to buy a few parts to complete a particular project, or otherwise be prepared to experiment with different parts values!!! It is amazing to learn, in actual practice, the wide tolerance of many electronic circuits regarding the actual values of components... As a matter of fact, many designers specify 20 percent or 10 percent value tolerance components for their electronic designs, something that helps a lot, when you don't have the specified value at hand.... Remember, experimenting with your homebrew radio gear is a lot of fun, and there is nothing that can be compared with listening to a DX station with a radio you have just built.
Dxers Unlimited's mid-week edition coming to you from Havana... Now here is item two in detail: Digital communications modes are so far mostly limited to keyboard-to-keyboard contacts... but more recent work is making possible actual digital voice communications that can be made compatible with a standard 3 kiloHertz bandwidth amateur phone SSB channel. Yes, that's almost here, and as soon as it becomes popular, DIGITAL VOICE will become, in my opinion, very popular among amateurs who already are familiar with other digital communications systems. Today, I'll show you some examples -- actual audio -- of how two of the most popular new digital communications keyboard-to-keyboard modes sound when you receive them over the air, while placing the BFO, or Beat Frequency Oscillator, of your radio receiver at the right frequency to detect both the PSK31 and the MFSK16 modes. PSK31 was created by British radio amateur Peter Martinez, G3PLX, and he is to be commended for donating all his time, and the actual results, which materialized in a new communications mode to the world's radio amateur community... Yes, Peters G3PLX, PSK31 digital mode is freely available, and several computer programs make possible receiving PSK31 with a very simple hookup between a computer with sound card, a receiver, and the PSK31 software installed. And the PSK31 program is available right here on Dxers Unlimited!
Here is how PSK31 actually sounds. This was recorded at my ham radio station, while I was calling CQ on PSK31. Here we go with the tape...
For those of you familiar with the classical Radio teletype, PSK31 will sound completely different, because PSK31's use of the radio frequency spectrum is completely different from the classical BAUDOT radioteletype. as a matter of fact, PSK31 is a very narrow bandwidth mode, something that makes it very useful when radio propagation is not good.
But PSK31 is not the only new mode; recently radio amateurs developed a still more sophisticated keyboard-to-keyboard mode, MFSK16, which is even better for communicating when propagation conditions are really bad. Here is how MFSK16 sounds on the air, when you tune it properly -- again, something that requires, as with all digital modes, much more skill than what is required to tune to CW or SSB voice signals.
Listen now to MFSK16, as generated by a very popular freeware program that goes by the name of STREAM, available for download right here on Dxers Unlimited. This is version 0.9, an implementation by IZ8BLY, for Windows machines with sound cards. You can learn more about MFSK16 from the official MFSK16 website, where you will find all the technical specifications and documentation.
Here we go with CO2KK's CQ call using MFSK16 ...
Well, now, let's compare PSK31 and MFSK16; first a shortburst of PSK31, followed by a short burst of MFSK16....
Now, I am sure that you will beinterested in monitoring the new digital modes, something that can be done by listening on the digital segments of the amateur bands... PSK31 has a stronghold centered on 14.070 kilohertz on the 20 meter band, while MFSK16 signals are usually heard a bit higher on the band... By typing PSK31 on any of the popular INTERNET searchengines, you will be able to find several of the most popular websites related to digital amateur radio communications systems, which provide a lot of know-how, and the how-to basics that will help you start exploring this fascinating aspect of the radio hobby, another one of the more than 50 ways that you and I can have a nice time playing with our radios!!!
Now QSL on the air... to Colchester, England: thank you, Robertas Pogorelis, for your nice e-mail report of our 11705 kiloHertz SSB broadcasts last March 12th between 0104 and 0124 UTC; thanks for a very detailed report also of our 9820 kiloHertz frequency that was running the same program at that time too... QSL on the air to North Vancouver: Klaus Rieckhoff sent a nice e-mail report of our 9820 kHz frequency, where he heard Dxers Unlimited last Sunday March 25th UTC day... Congratulations, Klaus for passing your basic amateur radio license, and I hope that you enjoy today's show, which is devoted in part to the digital communications modes, something you tell me in your e-mail is one of your interests, too.... And QSL on the air to Phoenix, Arizona, to Mike Shearer, who is not only a Short Wave Listener, but also enjoys building radio equipment. Congratulations, Mike, on your homebrew regenerative receiver using 12 volts on the plate vacuum tubes... and what a happy coincidence, that the first station and first program that you picked up after finishing your tube regenerative receiver were Radio Havana Cuba, and Dxers Unlimited! I hope that you have already received my reply to your e-mail and will be sending soon the circuit diagram and all details of your very original regenerative receiver, amigo!!!
And now, as always, at the end of the show, here is Arnie Coro's Dxers Unlimited exclusive and not copyrighted HF propagation update and forecast: Solar activity is now MODERATE, but we may see it switching to HIGH during the next 24 to 48 hours. The probability of X class solar flares, the really BIG ONES, is very high, due to the magnetic structure of solar active region 9393... No less than 300 sunspots are now in sight, and this unexpected increase in solar activity has kept scientists busy -- really busy -- for the last three days now. Expect possible geomagnetic disturbances associated with M type solar flares, and if an M9 or an X type solar flare occurs, then we may witness one of those equinoctial season geomagnetic storms to be remembered...
Six-meter band operators should be very alert, as the peak in solar flux may generate some outstanding 6 meter band openings during the next 24 to 72 hours, especially if the K index goes above 5 at any time. Who said that solar cycle 23 was over? I am sure that many solar scientists will now have to review their analysis of this present cycle, and just wait and see what is going to happen during the next three to five solar rotations, as cycle 22 had two peaks, and there is no reason to think that this may not happen again...
See you on 6 meters, 50.110, and on 10 meters28.5 or 28.495... enjoy radio amigos, keep those receivers and transceivers ON... and do the homebrewing of your radio gear later!!!
prepared 27-Mar-2001; transmitted 30-Mar-2001 16:48 EST
Arnie Coro CO2KK
Havana, Cuba
March 27, 2001Postal address:
Arnie Coro, "Dxers Unlimited"
Radio Havana Cuba, Havana, CUBA
e-mail: arnie@radiohc.org
To Arnie Coro's Dxers Unlimited
Back to NY Transfer's RHC main page