RADIO HABANA CUBA
DXERS UNLIMITED
WEEKEND EDITION
SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 2002
By Arnie Coro CO2KKSend your comments, questions and ideas to: arnie@radiohc.org
Hi, amigos radioaficionados, welcome to the weekend edition of your favorite radio program, reaching you via shortwave and our Dxers Unlimited website. I am Arnie Coro, radio amateur CO2KK, now ready to share with you about seventeen minutes of all radio hobby related information...
Here is item one: No solar flares for the past several days, but the solar flux continues to be very near 250 units, and the number of sunspots was Friday very near 200, having reached almost 275 quite recently, something that confirms that the peak of solar cycle 23 is happening just now!!! And this, as you already are aware, is the third solar cycle in a row that shows not one but two peaks of activity with a valley in between....
ITEM TWO: Had a very nice time on the 30 meter band Friday late evening here in Havana, while running one of my glowbugs QRP or low power transmitters. I was running about 2 watts, and a simple wire antenna... I'll tell you more about QRP or low power amateur radio stations later in the show...
ITEM THREE: A second short wave radio is essential if you want to closely monitor propagation conditions... Keeping a receiver tuned to a station that you know well how it comes in usually at your QTH is a very good indicator of propagation conditions in that particular direction...
More about DXING with TWO radios later, right here on this Radio Havana Cuba frequency, and as always at the end of the show, you will receive the most up-to-date HF plus 6 meters propagation update and forecast, never more than 10 to 12 hours old, even if you listen to my show's late late night edition at just after 0530 UTC amigos!!!
Stay tuned, Margarita Delgado is my sound engineer and producer at RHC studio 7, I am Arnie Coro in Havana... You are listening to Havana, Cuba via short wave or via the Web, this is the weekend edition of Dxers Unlimited.
And here is ITEM TWO two in detail: The 30 meter amateur band is one of the most interesting segments of the HF or short wave spectrum... Someone described it as the propagation wizard's challenge, as the 10.1 to 10.150 megaHertz band, just 50 kiloHertz wide, is capable of providing from Near Vertical Incidence Skywave contacts during periods of high solar activity, to extreme F2 DX when the Maximum Useable Frequency curve takes a dip and leaves the ever popular 20 meter DX band absolutely dead... 30 meters is a joy to operate because stations there do not run high power, and as a matter of fact, power is limited in many countries on that band, in order to avoid compatibility problems with other users that have a priority over the amateur radio service. 30 meters, the 50 kiloHertz wide wonder band, was part of the package approved by the 1979 World Administrative Radio Conference and radio amateurs around the world have make really very good use of it, not only for everyday two way contacts, but also for running some very interesting very low power experiments. QRP or low power amateur radio operators like 30 meters a lot, and they continuosly challenge scientists by making two way contacts even using extremely low power or QRPP as it is known...
But let's go back to QRP on 30 meters... all the work is done using CW, well almost all, as some QRP operators are now also experimenting with very low power PSK31 digital communications there too... Anyway, simple stations, easy to build homebrew gear that do not require a computer like the digital modes do, are very popular on 30 meters, and there you will find amateurs using 1, 2, and 5 watt rigs quite often, with some even running rigs in the milliwatts power range...
Friday evening, I fired up my 2 watt one single vacuum tube rig, a crystal controlled transmitter that can be moved around just plus or minus about one kiloHertz by using a circuit known as a VXO or variable crystal oscillator... Now imagine how happy I was when a station from Bulgaria came back to my CQ call on 10.116 kiloHertz, while running a little less than 2 watts to a 6AG7 vacuum tube... LZ1GC Stanislav from Karlovo, Bulgaria game me a 559 report, just a few minutes after midnight local time here in Havana, at 0512 hours UTC, when at his QTH the Sun was about to come above the horizon... So we actually had a QRP or low power contact making very good use of the propagation enhancement mode known as grey line or terminator line propagation, a mode that is particularly nice on the 30 meter band... A while later a station from Pensacola, Florida gave me a call, and I had a nice QSO with N4ZMP, at a much shorter distance, showing that the 10 megaHertz or 30 meter band can provide both short skip and long range contacts at the same time, when the daily solar flux has stayed way above the 200 units mark for several days...
OH, before I forget, the receiver I was using for the 30 meter band QRP contacts was no other than the REGENERODYNE, by advancing the regenerative detector gain past the point of oscillation, the CW Morse Code signals came in with a very nice and stable beat note... SI AMIGOS, OUI MES AMIS, YES MY FRIENDS, as I have always said here, amateur radio need not be an expensive hobby... when propagation conditions are right, and there is little or no interference, even very low power rigs, homebrew receivers and simple antennas may help you even achieve DXCC, and that's the "worked one hundred countries" award!!!
Before I finish talking about the 30 meter band activity from CO2KK early UTC Saturday, let me tell you that the antenna used was also a very low cost skywire, just a sloping wire, working against 4 ground radials!!! If your radio receiver has a BFO, or beat frequency oscillator, and you already have mastered the Morse Code at about 10 words per minute, I am sure that you can start monitoring DX contacts on the 30 meter band during your local evening hours, as most DX QSO's take place at rather low CW speeds!!! Of course that I plan to do a lot more 30 meter band late evening local time DX here, so listen for CO2KK around 10.116 kiloHertz, my favorite spot for QRP or low power operation!!!
Feedback wanted.... sure, feedback from you all Dxers Unlimited's listeners around the world is what keeps this show up and running, so, make it a point at sending an e-mail to arnie@radiohc.org with your valuable comments about the program amigos, and your radio hobby related questions directly to me... and if not yet in cyberspace, send me a postcard to Arnie Coro, Radio Havana Cuba, Havana, Cuba, as simple as that, no need for a PO BOX number or zip code!
And now here is item three..... it's titled "YES, BUY A SECOND SHORT WAVE RADIO"... and you can be sure that a second receiver is going to help you a lot finding new stations, monitoring propagation conditions, and of course, taping my show for future listening when propagation conditions are very good and you are using your best receiver to pick up some DX, right at the same time that your good old friend Arnie happens to be on the air... Your second radio receiver need not be a very expensive one, but be sure of two things: that it has an earphone jack, and that it has an antenna input jack.... Again, don't buy a second radio that has no earphone jack and no antenna input jack, as you will need both in order to make good use of having a second radio in the shack...
Your second receiver can be a modern digital readout set, or you can hunt around for an older analog model, but beware when buying second hand sets, as some may have defects that won't show up easily... Of course that if yo want to restore an older receiver, that's also a very nice project that will provide you with a second radio to hunt for DX or check propagation...
A good friend of mine recently restored a Hallicrafters S40A receiver, and now uses it to check propagation, while his much more modern Russian-built R250M is the radio that he uses both for his amateur radio station and for hunting for Tropical Band DX, one of Abilio's favorite ways of enjoying the radio hobby. By the way, the R250M is a professional double conversion receiver that has excellent sensitivity and selectivity, making possible reception of very weak stations under really difficult conditions... SI AMIGOS, a second radio receiver should be your next upgrade!!! And don't forget to add to your wish list a pair of communications type headphones... as the typical audio HI FI fans headphones are less than ideal for short wave listening, amateur radio operation and medium wave band Dxing, due to the fact that they are just too good... Yes, the typical HI FI headphones respond to very high audio frequencies that provide no useful information for the radio enthusiast, and as a matter of fact cause a lot of ear fatigue...
If you do want to make an almost lifetime investment, go to an aircraft pilots' supply store and buy yourself a pair of aviation communications earphones, that usually come with a high quality microphone attachment too... Those will cost even more than a low priced short wave radio, but they will certainly improve your operating pleasure a lot, with their confortable ear pads, and above all the audio frequency response curve that is optimized for the voice frequencies,thus making your reception much better than when you use HI FI type earphones!!! Follow Arnie Coro's advice and invest a little more into this nice hobby, buy yourself a second short wave radio and a pair of aviation type high quality headphones... You will always remember my advice when working an amateur radio contest, or trying to dig out a very weak signal from a DX expedition!!!
Now, another little piece of auxiliary equipment you may want to add to your listening post or beginner's amateur radio station... an antenna tuner... the antenna tuner is in my humble opinion the single piece of equipment that anyone really interested in this hobby should add betweent he antenna and the receiver as soon as possible... Even very inexpensive radio receivers show an outstanding improvement in performance when a simple antenna tuner is installed between the antenna and the radio!!!
And now amigos, just before going QRT here, ready to copy!!! This is Arnie Coro's HF plus 6 meters propagation update and forecast: Solar cycle 23 still very active, with solar flux reaching very near 250 units, and this amigos is keeping the 6, 10, 12 and 15 meters amateur bands open as much as anyone may want... 10 meter band openings are making possible record-breaking ultra-low-power two-way contacts, and many radio amateurs in North America and Europe have now reached the 100 countries worked mark on the 6 meters or 50 megaHertz MAGIC BAND, thanks to the second peak of cycle 23 that started as early as September of last year...
YES... propagation conditions are going to continue to be EXCELLENT for the next 48 to 96 hours... and chances for solar flares are not so high now, so leave the soldering iron aside, and concentrate on enjoying the peak propagation conditions that this 2002 winter DX season is providing to us!!!
Arnie Coro CO2KK
Havana, Cuba
January 26, 2002Postal address:
Arnie Coro, "Dxers Unlimited"
Radio Havana Cuba, Havana, CUBA
e-mail: arnie@radiohc.org
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