Radio Habana Cuba: Dxers Unlimited Midweek edition for 21 December, 1999
By Arnie Coro, radio amateur CO2KK
Hi amigos! SEASON'S GREETINGS from Havana. I am Arnie Coro, radio amateur CO2KK your host here at RHC's Dxers Unlimited, the radio hobby show on shortwave with that extra emphasis on HF propagation updates and forecasts, technical topics, and of course our unique, exclusive question and answers section... This is the one and only radio hobby show that provides you with two complete HF short wave propagation bulletins!!!
Here is now item one for today: Solar flux around 209 units, and it is now at the threshold of class C X Ray background... that meaning that some very interesting things may be happening in a few hours time from two solar active regions. The 90 day average solar flux has now climbed to 171 units and the daytime maximum useable frequencies on some paths are going up as high as 55 megaHertz and even higher!!! More about propagation, as always, at the end of the show...
Item two: How many FM broadcast stations do you have in your log book ? Do you enjoy FM broadcast DX ? Well that's one of the more than 50 ways of enjoying the radio hobby... More about FM broadcast band DXing later, here at the mid-week edition of your favorite radio hobby show on shortwave: Dxers Unlimited with Arnie Coro... now stay tuned, and get a pen or pencil ready to write down our both our postal and e-mail address... My sound engineer and producer today is Jose Manuel Izquierdo, Margarita Delgado is enjoying her winter vacation.
You are listening to Radio Havana Cuba, the name of the show is Dxers Unlimited, and YES, you can send you radio hobby related questions directly to me via INTERNET e-mail to: arnie@radiohc.org and via AIR MAIL to Arnie Coro, Radio Havana Cuba, Havana, Cuba.
Now here is item three, a nice question, already answered in a direct e-mail to the listener, but that nevertheless I think merits an on the air answer too, for the benefit of those who may experience a similar problem: Here is the question.. "Arnie, my digital synthetized receiver went absolutely dead, it won't power up... I checked the power cord with my digital volt ohm meter and it is OK... Any ideas??? ...From a very concerned listener in California. ANSWER: Well, did you check if your radio uses a battery to provide operating voltage to its microprocessor, the CPU?" When the answer to my question came back via e-mail, I learned that our California listener's receiver did used a lithium cell to keep the CPU or microprocessor, the heart of the radio, beating... All it took was to find a proper replacement, install it and... everything went back to normal.
Now, this is a problem that I am afraid will become more and more frequent, as factory installed lithium batteries die after say 3, 5 or in some cases up to six or even seven years of service. That's why I always advice Dxers Unlimited's listeners that ask about buying a new receiver, to try to obtain, as soon as possible the technical manual for the radio. In this case, our California friend had the manual with him, so it was fairly easy to locate the lithium battery's position, and the manual even included a step by step procedure to replace it. NOW... the radio is working perfectly well... and the repair job took about an hour, and costed him just the price of the lithium battery.
SO... here is Arnie Coro's advice to ALL DXERS UNLIMITED'S LISTENERS who own digital synthetized receivers that use microprocessors: IT IS A VERY GOOD IDEA TO CHECK THE MEMORY BACKUP BATTERY!!! Yes indeed, it is certainly a very good idea, not only because of low voltage and all the problems associated from running the CPU from a battery that is not in a very good condition, but also, because after several years, batteries may LEAK, causing a lot of damage to the receiver's circuit boards... Most recent example of almost dead CPU backup battery I have seen was on an ICOM R71 receiver, which was acting strangely... I thought it was due to a poor contact and to be honest with all of you, I forgot about the memory backup battery, and so bypassed checking it... Two days later... while at a meeting, the idea came to my mind... maybe it was the lithium cell that had gone too far down in voltage after six years of service, and sure enough... changing the lithium cell by carefully following the receiver's service manual instruction cleared up the problem...
BY THE WAY, for all of you that use PC's, personal computers of any make and model, the CPU backup batteries are a frequent cause of lots of hard to explain problems and erratic operation of computers, once they are say two or three year old, so, although not strictly radio hobby related in a sense, I wanted to pass along this bit of electronic wisdom too... as a matter of fact you know, I think, it is a very good idea to check ALL THE EQUIPMENT that you own and operate RIGHT NOW, and as a preventive maintenance measure, just before Y2K, replace the CPU's memory backup batteries with BRAND NEW FRESH ones, and when I say fresh, I mean that you must check the battery's date of manufacturing, or its expiration date before installing it...
HEY! HERE WE HAVE A NICE LITTLE YEARS END PROJECT... check all your equipment that uses backup batteries and just REPLACE THEM WITH NEW ONES... that's a nice way to start the next century... it will not be too costly and you can be sure that all your equipment will not fail or operate erratically due to memory backup batteries with low voltage!!!
This is Dxers Unlimited's midweek edition. You can listen to our weekend edition on Saturdays and Sundays UTC days, at 2300 UTC Saturdays on 9550 kiloHertz, a frequency which is beamed to the Caribbean and the SouthEastern United States, yes, Dxers Unlimited is also available at an earlier late afternoon release for the Caribbean and the South Eastern United States on 9550 kilohertz starting just after 2300 hours UTC...
Now item five: Six meter band opened from Europe to North America on Tuesday morning our local time here. According to a report from Geerd ON4GG in Belgium, no less that two full hours of transatlantic propagation on the 50 megaHertz band made possible lot of QSO's or amateur radio two way contacts, and it was not only the nice propagation, but the fact that many ham operators are now enjoying their winter vacations and spending some time trying to work DX on 6 meters...
Item six: QSL on the air to the many Dxers Unlimited listeners that have sent e-mail messages to arnie@radiohc.org telling me about their success and of course a few failures too, with regenerative receivers... there are some radio clubs that are now promoting group buys of regenerative receiver kits, so that many of their members can learn more about radio and electronics by building their own receivers... this has proven to be very succesful, as it promotes a lot of exchanges among club members and may eventually lead to more sophisticated kits bought also... Assembling a regenerative solid state receiver kit of nowadays is quite different from building a home brew radio, or assembling a vacuum tube kit of the nineteen forties or fifties, but it does have something in common, and that is, of course, that very special feeling that one gets picking up even a local station on a receiver that you have assembled yourself!!!
Item 7 here at Dxers Unlimited's mid week edition: URSIDS meteor shower... the radiant, or apparent part of the sky from which the meteors will come is the Little Dipper or URSA MINOR... The URSIDS will provide FM broadcast band DXERS with many pings starting as early as 4 o'clock in the morning local time Wednesday... for our listeners located in the North America East Coast, the peak number of meteors per hour will happen from around 5 am local time to about 7 am local time. If you want to learn about this unusual propagation mode, set your alarm clock for an early wake up, say three o'clock in the morning, connect your FM tuner or receiver to a good external antenna, and then tune the FM tuner or receiver to an empty channel... Then, let your tape recorder do the job... any meteor entering the ionosphere will produce a sudden enhancement of the radio stations on that channel... that's why its known as a ping... it may last from one second to even a minute or more on a big rock... and of course, the tape recording will give you either a positive identification if you are really lucky during the first meteor... Thanks to ONTARIO DX Association INTERNET reflector for this information about the URSIDS meteor shower, posted by Mike Csorbay, VE3YMC from York, in Ontario Canada...
And now amigos, as always, at the end of the show, here is Arnie Coro's Dxers Unlimited HF propagation update and forecast... Solar activity is hovering near 210 units, and in the next few hours it is really hard to tell what's going to happen, as they are two very interesting active regions that may or may not produce some above average flares. The fact is that for the past three days many class C solar flares have kept the solar flux at the very near 200 mark, something that in turn keeps the 10 meter amateur band OPEN PRACTICALLY ALL ALONG THE LOCAL DAYLIGHT HOURS, plus the high probability of 6 meter band F2 openings...
For short wave listeners, nightime propagation should be nice on the 19 and 21 meter bands until about midnight, then later 25, 31 and 41 meters will be your best choice, the winter solstice is here, and I expect some nice sporadic E openings to start happening by the end of the week, so be on the lookout for short skip DX too...
See you at the weekend edition of the show amigos, and don't forget to send your signal reports and comments to arnie@radiohc.org via INTERNET and to Arnie Coro, Radio Havana Cuba, Havana Cuba via Air Mail, Have a happy 2000, amigos!!! and nice holidays!!!
Arnie Coro CO2KK
Havana, Cuba
21 December, 1999Postal address:
Arnie Coro, "Dxers Unlimited"
Radio Havana Cuba
PO Box 6240, Havana, CUBA 10600
phone: 53-7-814243
phone res: 53-7-301794
e-mail: arnie@radiohc.org
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