A Modest Proposal
By Victor Rosenthal, 4X6GP
While waiting for VP6R to operate CW instead of FT-8 on 20 or 15 meters during the very short openings to the Middle East, I began to think that FT-8 might not be as bad as I’d believed. My thoughts turned to ways that it could be improved. And suddenly I got an idea that I think will revolutionize digital mode operation, amateur radio in general, and maybe even pay for my beer.
FT-8 is so much less labour and operator skill-intensive than CW/SSB that it has a fatal attraction for DXpeditions – more people can be worked more easily and more quickly. Added to this, “He who holds the gold makes the rules” and DXpeditions mostly hold the gold as we want […]
of the DXCC Rules now will include a new Subsection (d): The entity has a separate IARU member society and is included on the US State Department Independent States in the World. In fact, the Republic of Kosovo (Z6) has been added to the DXCC List of current entities, increasing […]
Prefix County County code OM1 Bratislava I BAA Bratislava II BAB Bratislava III BAC Bratislava IV BAD Bratislava V BAE Malacky MAL Pezinok PEZ Senec SEN OM2 Trnava TRN Dunajská Streda DST Galanta GAL Hlohovec HLO Piešťany PIE Senica SEA Skalica SKA OM3 old calls from Czechoslovakia, prefix moved from […]
Small, cheap and widely available chinese transformers are frequently used in digimode interfaces, however the documentation is very poor. Both primary and secondary consists of 800 turns of enameled 0.06 mm copper wire wound with double wire. It has DC resistance of 135 ohms +/- 20% and inductance of 290 […]
The TinyKeyer
the (possibly) World's Smallest Fully-Featured CW Keyer with Computer Support
Introduction
This keyer, based on Arduino design, employs the famous K3NG code. It can be used with any Windows/Linux/Mac logging or contesting software with Winkeyer USB (K1EL) support. The credit & big kudos goes to Anthony Good (Goody), K3NG, who did the tremendous work. It is a very small unit (outer dimensions 45 x 45 x 18.6 mm, appx. 1.8 x 1.8 x 0.73 in) which does not have any fancy options (a zillion of buttons, psychedelic flashing LED lights or cockatoo colored displays). It is intended for regular CW work and contesting with computer support, most of functions should be adjusted and operated via the computer. For standalone work an acoustic menu in command mode is used. Otherwise, only speed control knob and a mini LED indicating the command mode is on the front panel, nothing more.
The Arduino Nano Rev. 3 board (initially a product of US company Gravitech) with FT232RL FTDI USB to Serial communication chip may have a significant issue that makes some Arduino boards not readable from the computer. The reason? The FTDI chip has ungrounded pin 26 which turns the FT232 into […]
Many friends asking me to comment the new ZACH Iambic Magnetic paddle which I am now using. So, my trusty N2DAN Mercury has now a longer vacation and the new ZACH became my daily-paddle. It is very easy to adjust, much easier then the Merc. And once adjusted, I can forget what, where and why...
Many well respected operators offered their opinions on call/QRP. It is considered sometimes as trying to gain unfair advantage, sometimes as deliberate altering of an official callsign but the majority considered it as counter-productive practice hurting both the user and his QSO partner. There is a significant number of high-profile DXpeditioners and contesters avoiding working, logging and QSLing call/QRP users.
