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Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Ubuntu Hams T-shirt Artwork From 9M2PJU

This is the first design of Ubuntu Ham Radio tshirt from me,

Give me your comments or email me for further info.




Special thanks to Kamal for the logo.

i like collared tshirt more than round neck, but i cant find any collared t-shirt template.

ARISS - Amateur Radio on the International Space Station

The ARISS program is a cooperative venture of NASA, the ARRL and AMSAT and other international space agencies that organizes scheduled contacts via Amateur Radio between astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the ISS and classrooms and communities. With the help of experienced Amateur Radio volunteers
from Amateur Radio clubs, and coordination from the ARISS Team, the ISS



crew members speak directly with large group audiences in a variety of public forums such as school assemblies or at science museums, Scout camporees and jamborees and space camps, where students, teachers, parents, and communities learn about space and space technologies and  Amateur Radio.
Goals of the ARISS program include:
  • inspiring an interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) subjects and in STEM careers among young people;
  • providing an educational opportunity for students, teachers and the general public to learn about space exploration, space technologies and Amateur Radio as preparation for the event;
  • providing an opportunity for Amateur Radio experimentation and evaluation of new technologies;
  • offering a stress release outlet and opportunity for astronauts aboard the ISS to do public outreach, as well as providing a contingency communications network for NASA and the ISS crew.
Scheduled ARISS Amateur Radio contacts with the ISS are conducted either by direct contact, or by telebridge contact. The method used will depend on the radio station equipment and experienced radio amateur volunteers available to support the contact as well as technical issues related to the orbit of the ISS over the contact location.



Because the ARISS program supports the testing and installation of amateur radio stations aboard the ISS, astronauts have the equipment available to also make unscheduled ham radio contacts with radio amateurs all around the world on a one-to-one basis during their personal time. With a very limited investment in amateur radio equipment, licensed hams, including students who have access to amateur radio stations in a classroom, can make iindividual contact with astronauts aboard the ISS by learning to follow the published orbital schedule and practice some basic amateur radio contact techniques.



ISS Information on the AMSAT website includes:

ISS Amateur Radio Frequencies:

Mode V APRS (Worldwide APRS Digipeater): Operational
Simplex: 145.8250 MHz FM 1200 BPS
Downlink 145.8250 MHz FM 1200 BPS
Mode V/V Crew Contact (Region 1): Operational
Uplink: 145.2000 MHz FM
Downlink 145.8000 MHz FM
Mode V/V Crew Contact (Regions 2 & 3): Operational
Uplink: 144.4900 MHz FM
Downlink 145.8000 MHz FM
Mode U/V (B) FM Voice Repeater (Worldwide): Operational
Uplink: 437.8000 MHz FM
Downlink 145.8000 MHz FM
Mode V/U (J) FM Voice Repeater (Worldwide): Operational
Uplink: 145.8000 MHz FM
Downlink 437.8000 MHz FM
Mode V Imaging: Operational
Downlink 145.8000 MHz SSTV
Mode V/V Packet (Worldwide): Operational
Uplink: 145.9900 MHz AFSK 1200 BPS
Downlink 145.8000 MHz AFSK 1200 BPS


Links:





p/s: For your info, Malaysian Class B Amateur Radio (9W2, 9W6 or 9W8) operator can transmit to amateur satellites

Amateur Radio Satellite



AMSAT is a name for amateur radio satellite organizations worldwide, but in particular the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT-NA) with headquarters at Silver Spring, Maryland, near Washington DC. AMSAT organizations design, build, arrange launches for, and then operate (command) satellites carrying amateur radio payloads, including the OSCAR series of satellites. Other informally affiliated national organizations exist, such as AMSAT Germany (AMSAT-DL) and AMSAT Japan (JAMSAT).


AMSAT-NA was founded in 1969 in Washington DC to continue the efforts begun by Project OSCAR. Its first project was to coordinate the launch of OSCAR 5, constructed by students at the University of Melbourne. Some design modifications were needed and were made by AMSAT members, and the satellite was successfully launched on January 30, 1970 on a NASA Thor Delta launch vehicle.

AMSAT's next launch was AMSAT-OSCAR 6 (AO-6) on October 15, 1972. AO-6 was AMSAT's first long-life satellite, and was built with participants from Australia and West Germany. Command stations in Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Hungary, Morocco, New Zealand, the United States and West Germany controlled the satellite, contributing greatly to its 4½ years of service. Further launches continued to emphasize international cooperation, with AMSAT-OSCAR 7 (AO-7) launching with a new transponder developed and built by Karl Meinzer and AMSAT Germany (AMSAT-DL). AMSAT Japan (JAMSAT) contributed a transponder to AMSAT-OSCAR 8 (AO-8).

In order to launch its satellites, AMSAT has worked with space agencies and commercial launch contractors to develop new ways to take advantage of unused areas of launch vehicles. In return, AMSAT sometimes can negotiate a reduction or waiver of launch costs. One of the most significant is the Ariane Structure for Auxiliary Payloads (ASAP), developed and manufactured in partnership with the European Space Agency in 1990 for use on its Ariane IV launch vehicle. AMSAT was again able to take advantage of unused space with the launch of AMSAT-OSCAR 40 (AO-40), occupying unused space on an Ariane V.

The IPS (Interpreter for Process Structures) programming language was specifically written for the RCA 1802 AMSAT Phase III satellite.



AMSAT satellites operating frequencies: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/satellites/frequencies.php



Downloads:

 


p/s: For your info, Malaysian Class B Amateur Radio (9W2, 9W6 or 9W8) operator can transmit to amateur satellites

Monday, May 17, 2010

12 Years Old YL Ham Radio In WW WPX Contest



Newly-licenced radio amateur Angel Armstrong, M6APA was the operator, along with her father Eric, M6EKA as her logger, in the recent WW WPX Contest held on March 27-28 2010.

Angel was very nervous as she had only passed her Amateur Radio Foundation licence exam one week before the contest.

After a slow start to the contest, Angel was soon up to speed, keeping her father busy. At times, he was even having difficulty keeping the log up to date.

Angel kept pace with the incoming calls with the confidence of someone with more experience and years.

Their equipment was not at all sophisticated, a TS440 with 10w into a G5RV with a North/ South orientation. But the results for this new radio amateur, operating from her home QTH in Hull E,Yorks, where outstanding.

Results in the WW CPX were:

World 517th out of 1464
Europe 322th out of 738
And in the UK 10th out of 28.
With a total score of 92,700 points

All the members at her local club HADARS - Hull and District Amateur Radio Society are very proud of her achievement. The club meet on a Friday evening 7:30, at the Walton St Leisure Centre in Hull.

Her details at QRZ.com

"hi , my name is angel I have being licensed since the 21st of March 2010. I am 12 years old and i live in Hull in the UK . I have only just come into the hobby of radio and I am willing to take on the hobby and explore even further, I got into the hobby through my dad (M6EKA.) Our working conditions this end are kenwood TS440S. The Antenna is 102 feet G5RV. We also have an ALINCO duel band Radio for two meters and 70cm, for this radio we use a Watson 2,000 duel band antenna. I am also a member of H.A.D.A.R.S. I really enjoy contesting ,Me and my dad are QRP stations and we only work on 10w. I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you for the look up and hope to catch you again on the airwaves. 73s. M6APA"

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Helical Antenna

A helical antenna is an antenna consisting of a conducting wire wound in the form of a helix. In most cases, helical antennas are mounted over a ground plane. Helical antennas can operate in one of two principal modes: normal (broadside) mode or axial (or end-fire) mode.


B: Central Support,
C: Coaxial Cable,
E: Spacers/Supports for the Helix,
R: Reflector/Base,
S: Helical Aerial Element
In the normal mode, the dimensions of the helix are small compared with the wavelength. The far field radiation pattern is similar to an electrically short dipole or monopole.



More information about this type of antenna:

http://www.educypedia.be/electronics/antennahelical.htm
http://www.vk2zay.net/calculators/?body=helical.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helical_antenna
http://helix.remco.tk/
http://www.dxzone.com/catalog/Antennas/Helical/
http://hastingswireless.homeip.net/index.php?page=antennas&type=helical
http://www.tuc.nrao.edu/~demerson/helixgain/helix.htm
http://www.rac.ca/tca/2005-11-Article%20by%20Clare%20Fowler.pdf
http://www.w6nbc.com/articles/QST1009QFH.pdf




p/s: i am thinking to make a helical antenna for 2m and 10m bands.




Ubuntu-hams Session Notes On Ubuntu Developer Summit

[Ubuntu-hams] UDS session notes for the Ubuntu-hams meeting

Here is a copy of the notes from the BOF we just completed at the Ubuntu
Developer Summit. Over the next few days/weeks you should see these
moving into implementation on the wiki and on the mailing list. If you
see anything that interests you personally, please speak up here or
contact any of the people who took the action items on this list.

Thanks,

Steve AI4QR


ubuntu-hams bof at UDS-M
========================

https://blueprints.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/community-m-ubuntu-hams
#ubuntu-hams

Attending
=========
AI4QR - sconklin - Steve Conklin (Belgium)
KA6MAL - kamal - Kamal Mostafa (Belgium)
W4KDH - bladernr - Jeff Lane (Belgium)
VK2YYZ / AD5RV - hughhalf - Hugh Blemings (Belgium)
NV0N / M0GLF - joey - Joey Stanford (Belgium)
LA6YKA - ryeng - Norvald H. Ryeng (IRC)
BV4WL - paulliu - Ying-Chun (Paul) Liu (Belgium) - Debian Developer

THANK YOU UBUNTU-HAMS!

* #ubuntu-hams IRC channel is "official" (ChanServ, etc.)
* Registry owners freed up the ham packages so we can take ownership of
them
* Lets continue to work closely with debian-hams -- upstream everything
to debian and past
* Ham radio evangelism - information about how to become a ham in
various countries
* blogging - who will write a regular blog? (Piju) who will read it?
do we need it at this point?
* use #ubuntu-hams to coordinate HF contacts - always welcome to use
the IRC channel for this purpose.
* would like to have a list of packages that are not currently in
Ubuntu/Debian. e.g. radio.linux.org.au
* could put some upstream items in an ubuntu-hams ppa so they can be
updated outside of Ubuntu release cycle
* Joop Stakenborg's packages - Joop has retired - we need new debian
maintainers for these packages, we can help.
* modernization of ham packages (i.e. upstart)
* a recommendation section for "most common ham packages" - give new
ham users a place to start
* tutorial page(s) for the most common packages (fldigi)



ACTIONS:
* Kamal: ubuntu-hams setup as official maintainers of ham packages
* Steve: setup a wiki page to invite upstreams into the ubuntu-hams
process (where we can help them stay connected with debian-hams)
* joey: work with Jorge Castro re: getting the ham packages into the
upstream report
* Steve: talk to Jorge about blogging
* Kamal: produce more of the ubuntu-hams pin badges and distribute to
all ubuntu-hams members
* Kamal: setup wiki pages with marketing stuff (svg images of
ubuntu-hams logo, etc.)
* Steve: setup monthly IRC meeting
* Kamal: general call for help on IRC to create a wiki with all the
descriptions and screenshots of the ham radio packages. Sent call to
help to Joey who will try to get it into UWN so non-hams can help us
* Kamal / Steve: "Ham radio with Linux overview" page
* Steve: figure out how we can get started with translations
* Jeff Lane: copy/freshen mission statement from LP ubuntu-hams &
ubuntu-hams-devel pages to new wiki page
* Steve: check on XDG Ham Radio menu. Joey: UWN call for help. ham
radio menus - what is the status of this? becoming deprecated or not?
if not, lets support it for all packages. Good starter for
motu-wannabes. Creation of .desktop and adding to xdg menu. Need to
check to see if xdg menu is going away. If not, we can send out to
community to ask for help.
* Kamal: debian-hams ambassador: Paul, Kamal, Steve
* Steve: Mail this text doc out to the ubuntu-hams list

https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-hams

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuHams


p/s: Good work guys. Shows the world who we are, what we see and what we do. 73 de 9w2pju, Malaysian Ubuntu ham radio operator

IARU's Ethics And Operating Procedures For The Radio Amateurs





IARU's Ethics And Operating Procedures For The Radio Amateurs.What we should and should not do in amateur radio, voice operation, cw operation, SOP, guidelines, correct uses of Q codes, etc. Are you doing of what people do or told you to do, your are right or wrong ? stopping your transmission with over or clear ? how to break a conversation ? "contact contact" or "break break" ? what is "?QRQ" and "QRQ?" what is CQ and CQ DX ? 9W2PJU or just PJU ? standby or standing by ? how to spell your handle operators ? choices are yours, but please read this manual first.

Download link

VU2MGS - 30 Years Of Ham Radio

Vu2mgs is the callsign of Manorita Singh, an amateur radio "ham" enthusiast. She is from a service background and has done all sorts of things from farming to tractor driving; ham operating to making radio antennas, oil painting to editing magazines and lots more. Although, her father was also an amateur radio operator, Manorita Singh took to this hobby after she married Lt. Gobind Singh of the Indian Navy, in February 1972, who eventually retired as a Rear Admiral.

“Ham operation is a very interesting hobby, which I have indulged in for the last 25 years,” she informed. Ham operation is basically two-way communication on the radio. All you need is a radio set, a microphone and a set of earphones. One would, however, be required to register with the appropriate department in the government and be provided with a personal license and code to operate on certain frequencies. One can then talk to anyone in the world.

Once, when she was on air, she suddenly received a message from an Australian ‘ham’ about an Israeli youngster, who was lost somewhere in the hills of Manali. Whilst she succeeded in informing the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi. A search was initiated, unfortunately, the boy could not be saved.

“The other incident is quite interesting,” she narrated to Salute. She had been chatting on the radio with a person from Switzerland for the past 15 years. He used to live and operate the radio from off a ‘dhow’ boat in South East Asia waters till he retired from the sea, and shifted to Goa. Last year in March they eventually met.

“My life has been a kaleidoscope of interesting experiences and incidents. Now I’m learning to play the piano, something I’ve always wanted to do.” I could not resist pointing to her age for such a venture. She disarmed me when she said, “62 is just a number, not my age!”

She is also working with an NGO, GOONJ. They collect and donate clothes to the needy throughout the country.

VU2MGS on CNN IBN-live video

Monday, May 10, 2010

Amateur Radio Net

An amateur radio net is an “on-the-air” gathering of amateur radio operators. Most nets convene on a regular schedule and specific frequency, and are organized for a particular purpose, such as relaying messages, discussing a common topic of interest, or simply as a regular gathering of friends for conversation. Nets operate more or less formally depending on their purpose and organization. Groups of nets may organize and operate in collaboration for a common purpose, such as to pass along emergency messages in time of disaster.



Formal operation

A formal, or directed net has a single net control station (NCS) that manages its operation for a given session. The NCS operator calls the net to order at its designated start time, periodically calls for participants to join, listens for them to answer (or check in ) keeps track of the roster of stations for that particular net session, and generally orchestrates the operation of the net.

A different station might be designated NCS for each net session. Overall operation and scheduling of NCS assignments and net sessions is managed by the net manager .

When a net covers a large geographic area, such as a continent or even the world, it becomes impractical for a single NCS to control. To cover a large scale area a net must operate on a frequency where signals can propagate long distances. Ironically, the same ability for long distance propagation leads to a situation where stations that are too close in proximity can not hear each other. In this case two or more NCSs spaced geographically from one another can effectively collaborate to maintain contact with all possible participants.


Informal operation

An informal net may also have a net control station, but lack some or all of the formalities and protocols other than those used in non-net on-the-air operation. Or, it could begin at the designated time and frequency in an ad hoc fashion by whoever arrives first. Club nets, such as ones for discussing equipment or other topics, use a NCS simply to control the order in which participants transmit their comments to the group in round-robin style.


Types of nets

Traffic

Traffic nets operate primarily to relay written messages. For decades, amateur radio operators passed both routine and emergency messages on behalf others, as part of its public service mission.

Today, with inexpensive communication capability available to anyone, routine message handling has dwindled, and is largely used for training purposes. But during emergencies, such as natural disasters, especially when normal communications channels are disabled or compromised, traffic nets involving emergency powered stations are used to pass information into and out of affected areas.


DX

DX nets are organized to help amateur radio operators make contact with stations in distant locations or regions where amateur radio operators are scarce. By checking into a DX net, a ham could have a chance to contact another station he or she might otherwise not be likely to hear by randomly tuning across the amateur bands.


Club or Topic

Amateur radio clubs often organize nets to foster communication between members on a regular basis. These can be clubs based on geographic location or clubs formed around a special interest.

Special interest clubs or non-club groups often organize nets to enable discussions on a particular topic. A wide variety of such nets are in operation. One such example is nets that meet to discuss vintage or antique radio equipment. Another example is nets for using and discussing the AM mode of voice transmission.


Priority

1. emergency station
2. battery powered station
3. mobile station
4. base station


Net Control

1. must have a commanding signal
2. is in charge of the net
3. activates and assigns resources
4. must keep track of resources
5. assigns tactical calls
6. keeps a good log
7. has a clear speaking voice
8. controls his or her tone of voice
9. has good command
10. can handle physical and mental stress for long periods
11. can listen and respond in a noisy/chaotic environment
12. has good hearing
13. writes legibly
14. enforces net discipline
15. RST information, etc.

Sunday, May 09, 2010

9W (Class B) Malaysian Ham Radio HF Communication



Mai Hss 9W6SYG



Norliah Amat 9W6LIA

Both video shows two YL from East Malaysia trying to make a conversation on HF band. At the time i write this post, the only privilege for 9W (Class B) Malaysian amateur radio on HF is only 10m band which is 28.0 - 29.7 Mhz.

About Malaysian Communications And Multimedia Commission's mySpectrum Plan 2010 draft, shows that 9W can operate on 40m band.



this is soo great, Congratulations, please make this dream comes true. We are waiting too long for this moment. Thanks to all men behind this. I know some of you, God Bless you all. To all my amateur radio friends, theoretically i like 40m band but if they put both 40m and 20m (another popular DXing band), there will be more spaces and reasons for us to work on HF, experimenting more, making new contacts, learning new stuff like HF antennas, ATU, etc and new ways to communicate since HF and VHF and two different frequencies.

We can suggest, but they will decide. Comment template included on their website. You can download the form and post it to their office or just email to spreview@cmc.gov.my . Guys, time to make a change, keep moving forward. Find out all dos and donts on HF. Prepare yourself, read, do, change, make, ask, learn, respect each others and dont forget to teach me too.

Correct me if im wrong.
ham radio newbie - Faizul 9W2PJU

p/s: amateur radio means a radio communication service for the purpose of self training, intercommunication and technical investigations carried out by amateurs, that is, by duty authorized persons interested in radio technique solely with a personal aim and without pecuniary interest.

Thursday, May 06, 2010

Get Free Ham Radio Domain From Dyndns Now

Dyndns.com provides free DNS, email, domain registration and virtual servers since 1998. Dynamic DNS Free service or a domain registration with Dyndns.com premier Custom DNS service, DynDNS.com provides an easy way for visitors to reach your content hosted at home or the office. This gives you the opportunity to become a self-reliant author, affording you complete control to offer whatever content you wish to the world at large. They also have interesting domain name for ham radio which is ham-radio-op.net




Dyndns allows users to have a subdomain that points to a computer with regularly-changing IP addresses, such as those served by many consumer-level Internet service providers. An update client installed on the user's computer, or built into a networked device such as a router or webcam, keeps the hostname up to date with its current IP address. DynDNS also offers paid domain registrations, recursive DNS, e-mail forwarding and redirection, SSL certificates, network monitoring, URL redirection, and Virtual private server hosting. For more information about Dyndns, please go to http://dyndns.com

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

ADIF (Amateur Data Interchange Format) To KML (Keyhole Markup Language) Converter




Andrew ZL3DW build an application which converts ADIF to Excel and then Excel to KML file. This plots your worked Callsigns (if the Maidenhead grid or field is known) on to Google Earth.

In Google Earth, you get a yellow pin showing the callsign. If you click on the pin you get QSO details and zoom into the grid square.

What the Program Does:
What it does is take a ham radio log in standard ADIF (Amateur Data Interchange Format) that most electronic logs support and turns it into a Microsoft Excel File. Then it turns the Excel file into a Google Earth .kml file. When you load the KML by double clicking the file, it will automatically start Google Earth.

The KML file will display all log entries that include a Maidenhead Grid reference as a yellow pin on the Earth. Each yellow pin displays the callsign of the station and is centred in the centre of the grid square. If you click the yellow pin, you get a text box showing the QSO details. A double click zooms in so that the grid square fills the screen view. If you are very lucky you might even spot the station's Yagi antenna!

The Excel file can also be used for analysing your log using Excel's math and chart functions. For example a plot of the beam heading for each QSO. The program calculates the latitude and longitude of each station that has a Maidenhead grid square listed in the log entry.

Harald DL1HW wrote the original ADIF to Excel code but  Andrew modified it a lot. He was very pleased with Andrew's additions and listed the resulting program on his club website. He is happy for Andrew to list it on Andrew's club website as well.

If you list the software, Andrew only request is that you include a note on the download page crediting himself (Andrew Barron ZL3DW) and Harald DL1HW for the work. Please also state "License: GNU GPL The code is free. If you want to use the code in your project it should be free as well".
Notes

You must have MS Excel to use the program. It has not been tested using any other spreadsheets.
You need to have or download Google Earth (It is free)
Your log must support ADIF format (or you could enter the data into Excel by hand)
Your log must have Maidenhead grid squares in 2, 4 or 6 digit format. eg, RE or RE66 or RE66hm (preferably 6 digits). Again these can be looked up on QRZ.com or the Internet and added manually to the Excel file.
QSOs without grid references are ignored as there is no way to calculate the location.

License: GNU GPL
The code is free. If you want to use the code in your project it should be free as well.

Download

SECOND SERIES OF THE RADIO AMATEUR EXAMINATION YEAR 2010




RAE 2/2010

Application Form

Sample Questions

1. RAE 1
2. RAE 2

Good luck!


Tuesday, May 04, 2010

Hamvention 2010


anyone going to hamvention 2010 ?

KC2UHB's Collapsible Fabric Yagi Antenna

Congratulations to Miss Diana Eng KC2UHB for her new Collapsible Fabric Yagi Antenna. Combination between fashion, sewing skills and ham radio skills make it possible. Her favorite ham radio activities is making contacts on satellites, so she needs an antenna which is easy to bring along. These photo explain everything.


This antenna design is based on one by Kent Britain WA5VJB

Materials:

  1. Brass rod (6') (1/8" diameter)
  2. Hollow large brass/bronze rod (9') (1/4" diameter)
  3. Hollow small brass/bronze rod (1' ) (3/16" diameter) Make sure the small brass rod slides snuggly into the large brass rod.
  4. Elastic string (3 yards)
  5. Buckles (2) That fit narrow strapping
  6. Round buttons with thread shanks (4) You can also use a pony bead, or a button with a big shank but these will not look as nice.
  7. Velcro ties (2)
  8. Thread To match strapping and fabric
  9. Narrow strapping (1 yard ) (3/4" wide)
  10. Wide strapping (2 Yards ) (1-1/4" - 1" wide) Like the bottom adjustable parts of straps on a backpack.
  11. Heavy fabric (1 Yard ) She is using a heavy nylon canvas, a fabric used to make bags. You could also use oil cloth or vinyl. Choose a heavy and durable fabric. Like the type that laptop bags or suitcases are made out of.
  12. RG-58 coaxial (10') With BNC or UHF connectors.
  13. Wooden meter stick (1) Or a 1/4" x 1 x 2ft. piece of wood
  14. Adhesive Velcro (1')
  15. Masking tape

For instructions, go to http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/05/collapsible_fabric_yagi_antenna.html