NAQCC Slow Speed Net

This is from NAQCC - North American QRP CW Club


Just a quick reminder of our NAQCC QRS Net (NQN) this (Sunday) evening USA
local time which is Monday at 0000Z on 3562.5 kHz +/- QRM. Note that's a new
experimental time that worked fairly well last week.

NCS is WY3H using the NAQCC club call N3AQC.

We are doing our best to expand our list of NCS for the net. We are slowly
starting to get responses from members. Tom WY3H is keeping track of all the
info, and as soon as he gets anything to me, I publish it in the latest
newsletter and on the club web site Elmer page. If you are interested in
helping out, please let Tom WY3H know at wy3h@windstream.net. Thanks.

We are also trying to establish additional regional nets. Tom has reported
one volunteer so far. That's KE7LKW is going to set up a net for the Pacific
Northwest region. More details as they become available will follow in the
upcoming newsletters and in the Elmer section of the web site as I get the
info from Tom.

For those new to the net, here is a brief description of the informal net
procedure.

The call-up is CQ NQN DE N3AQC QNI.

After the NCS sends QNI, send your call once. PLEASE BE SURE to ZERO BEAT
the NCS. Having stations spread out on the band makes it very difficult to
run a net efficiently. When the NCS acknowledges you, just follow his
instructions. All those who check-in will then be given a turn or two to
make comments. That's pretty much it. We're NOT a traffic net nor even all
that formal. You don't even have to learn the special QN signals, as the
only one we use is QNI which basically means check-in. We exist just as a
means of some actual on-the-air slow speed code practice which is different
to a certain extent from computer or tape practice.

Since code practice is so important in becoming a proficient QRP operator,
this is the ONE and ONLY NAQCC activity where we allow use of QRO if
necessary in poor conditions.

I'll be there this evening. Will you?

Finally a note on the NAQCC web site. Hopefully most all of you know now
that the site has moved and we have our own domain name now - naqcc.info. We
now have 1,000 times the web space we had before the move, and will be able
to do a lot more now on the site to help promote CW. The first two things we
have already done is to re-post all our past newsletters in .html format.
That goes back to issue #042 when we switched from an email newsletter to an
on-line one. We've also re-posted all our past featured member pages. Now we
have a great membership database search feature, and in a day or two you can
search ALL results from our 74 sprints we've held. See how many sprints
you've entered with a list of all your scores, look at the results from one
particular sprint, and much more.

* John K3WWP - 100% CW / QRP - Proudly promoting Morse Code:

* As NAQCC VP - # 0002 FC # 1 - http://naqcc.info/

* As FISTS Keynote QRP Columnist - # 2002 - http://www.fists.org/

* With my CW-QRP site - http://home.windstream.net/johnshan/

December 14, 2010

The last few days have been good - as I have worked numerous stations 10 stations since 12/9 all on CW

W5GXV Gene on 80m - Spring Branch, Texas

N2FJ Fred on 40m on the FISTS calling frequency - Ogdensburg NY

WB4PMQ Macon on 40m frm Greenville NC was a very interesting contact. He operated a Small Wonder Labs XCVR putting out 3 watts into a 40m dipole and got a 599 signal report from me. He has an interesting Bio on QRZ

WG0K David from Lincoln NE was a short QSO on 20m band exchanging WX reports. It is cold in Nebraska

N4UEB Paul from Canada KY in 40m band is interested in old gear - operated an old Yaesu FT100 tube radio into a G5RV

WA0USA Victor from Palm Beach Gardens was a long ragchew on 40m

W6DDB Bill Welsh from Lancaster CA on 40m

KC8MFF Bob Cole from Buckhannon WV is a straight key operator and one of the cleanest CW i have seen (not coming from a keyboard) on the FISTS calling frequency on 40m

K3RLL Bob from Bethlehem PA was operating a K2 portable in Florida and gave one of the cleanest signals I have seen from 5 watts - gave him a 579 report

W2XU Steve from East Lyme CT on 80m

K1YS Mike from Barre CT on 80m

N0EK Ed from Bergen ND - is my prize for the week. I have been looking for ND for months now and just fell into my lap on 40m FISTS calling frequency. Now that ND is in the bag, only SD and AK remain for WAS.

Saturday CW Net December 11, 2010

Dave Watson is NCS

Band is 40m and Frequency Is 7.090

latest update

rain all around my vertical portable antenna don't want to risk the coils getting wet

I will not dial in

I will monitor your www.livestream.com/w4djw

so please feel free to choose whatever band works for you

Ariel

Sunrise in Myrtle Beach

Instead of ham and eggs - 20 meter ham

I only had a few seconds to take this picture before the sun peeked out of the clouds at full blast which would have made it impossible to take this picture.

Vacation in Myrtle Beach

We'll I guess this is what a ham does on vacation. Here I am listening to a couple of hams yakking it up on 40m N4QR and AB8EL in my PJs. It was actually warm in the heat of the sun although ambient temperature is about 47F. I had a Buddistick on the railing and the FT817 on my lap. I threw out a couple of CQs but no takers. Better luck next time. The paddle is a Palm Mini Paddle from Palm Radio. The netbook computer is great for PSK QSOs.

December 8, 2010 First QRP CW QSO

Today, I made contacts as far away as Arizona on 50W W8FDV and Saint Mary's PA NM3B on the FT897. The RIT and DSP Passband tuning is great on this rig.

Later on in the evening - I tried the FT817 and worked a station in Michigan K9AAA - Dave in Delton, FISTS member 11347 and SKCC 654T. Immediately after the QSO - I was called by W5GXV - Gene from Spring Branch TX - through a process called tailending. Gene is also a FISTS member 11347 and SKCC 654T. The QRN was heavy. They had a strong enough signal that they could punch through my squelch. On the other end, they had to dig me out of the QRN (static) with my 5 watts. It was really exciting being able to make a contact with 5 watts, I wish I had a narrow filter. These operators had experience -as they were able to get me to zero beat in no time flat - as their signal directly matches mine in tone and on the spectrum. It is great being on vacation.

December 7, 2010 Activities

It is nice being on vacation - I can fool around with radio stuff.

I spent a few hours trying to salvage the dummy load I built a while back which could not get to work. Having given up, I purchased a kit from OHR (Oak Hills Research) for an air cooled dummy load. I tried originally to solder a set of 20 1K-ohm resistors in parallel between two copper plates but the plates act too much as a heat sink for my 60w soldering iron. I got the plans originally from K4EAA who sold me the resistors. At any rate, I could not get the impedance to stabilize to an acceptable value - too many cold solder joints. I decided to take it apart today and start from scratch. First I tried de-soldering and that did not work too well. I just ended up clipping them to salvage the resistors. So now I ask myself - what do I do with a bunch of stub wire resistors. I checked all the resistors for resistance value and they mostly came 1000 ohms +/- 2 until with a couple that were off as much as 10 ohms - good enough for a dummy load.

I dug out some old 14-3 Romex and pulled out the bare copper ground. I hammered a hardwood nail into a sawhorse and wrapped the wire around the nail head making a tight loop. I pulled the loop taut until the hole is just big enough to pass the resistor leads. I repeated this twenty times x 2 wires spaced 5/8 inch apart. I then soldered the resistors to these loops. I tested the impedance with a VOM as I soldered each resistor making sure I have a stable resistance value. I then coiled the assembled resistor assembly into a tight spiral making sure none of the wires touch. I then soldered the ends to the SO239 on the lid of the quart can. Checked the impedance again and it registers 50.5 ohms. I poured a quart of mineral oil into the quart can and the put the cover with the resistor assembly and voila - a nice accurate dummy load for the shack.

Anyway, this is a gift for the young Stephen Belknap - 12 yr old general class operator and part of the talented Belknap family of hams. I visited with them and they are such great people to be around - plenty of stories to share about all things radio.

Before bedtime I worked a station in Dover PA - W3OKC on the low bands - 80m at 3.560Mhz. It turns out he is a FISTS member as well and his number is the one after mine 15356 (mine is 15355) . He instantly sent me an e-QSL which I confirmed straightaway. There has been a lot of QRN of late and so W3OKC had power up to 200w. I was at 75W. We both exchanged 599 RSTs. Nice QSO - short and sweet.

I learned something else new today - there is an LED indicator on my radio that blinks green when I am at zero beat - between listening to the tone as a I turn the VFO - looking for the green LED to flash makes zero beating a cinch.

How to Zero Beat?

ZERO BEAT

By Dick Arnold, AF8X

Not having much success when answering a CQ? It maybe the station calling CQ can’t hear you because you are not zero beat with his frequency. Every CW radio transmits on a different frequency that it receives on. This is called the TX offset.

A receiver tuned to the exact transmit frequency of a signal is said to be nulled. For the tone of the CW signal to be heard, the receiver would have to be tuned off of the center frequency. The most common offset is 600 Hz although as high as 800 hz is still in use in some rigs. In some newer rigs this offset is adjustable.

Many rigs have a spotting tone that can be matched with the incoming signal. When the tones merge, you are zero beat with the incoming signal. Some other radios are adjusted to have matching side tone and offset so that when the incoming signal pitch matches the side tone, you are zero beat.

The less expensive direct conversion rigs have the advantage of being able to hear signals on either side of the carrier frequency. However you must be tuned on the correct side so your offset frequency matches the receiver of your contact. You may use the RIT if available to tune out QRM and listen to the other sideband.

If you have a problem discerning the proper tone to tune to, there are a couple Zero Beat Indicators on the market which use LEDs to show a zero beat condition.

Another method is to tune through a signal from high pitch to null putting your receiver zero beat with the transmitted signal. Note the frequency ¹ and then tune from null to that frequency plus 600hz ². That should put your transmit frequency exactly on the incoming signal transmit frequency, e.g. ¹ 14.030.10 ² 14.030.70.

Normally, unless the other station is using a very narrow filter, you will be heard if properly zero beat, even if the offsets are opposite and of different tones. The pass band allows for some difference in tuning.

CW Training December 4

It was the usual cast W4DJW (Dave), KJ4RXY (Stephen), N4BDR (Tony) and myself NY4G. i started it out over-ambitiously trying to check every one in using the usual CW net protocol. We ended up scaling it back a bit and took turns transmitting and copying selected letters.

This week it was ABCD.

Next week it will be ABCDEF. For homework try to make as many words out of these 6 letters and we will take turns transmitting over the air like this week.

Dave W4DJW will be the NCS as I will be away. However I will try to check in.

Lets use 7.090 as the frequency on the 40m band. Hopefully we will have good propagation. I doubt I will be able to key up the repeater from Myrtle Beach - so I will try to communicate with the NCS on HF on CW as well.

Dave check your email Saturday morning to see if I will try to check in or not. I trust your email address in QRZ is up to date.

Good luck and see you next time.

CW Training Net Nov 27

In Attendance
KJ4RXY - Stephen
W4DJW - Dave
KJ4SVH - Justin
NY4G - Ariel


Dave W4DJW had a treat in that he was able to stream the activity on his Flex radio monitor through livestream.com/w4djw

It was a sparsely attended net perhaps due to the holiday. We did not go through any of the extra class questions and may cover it next week.

Found a great club - specially for new CW ops - SKCC which meets on various bands.

Check out http://www.skccgroup.com/opfreq.htm

They are mostly straight key operators so they are great for copy practice if nothing else - since they don't send very fast. Made a few QSOs with people in the group on 40 meters at 7.110 and they are very nice mostly older gentlemen.

Till next week

Ariel

CW Training Net for Nov 27 Agenda

Check In to the 146.820 Repeater at 0800 EST

Tune HF Rig to 3.540 MHz or as otherwise directed by netcontrol

Round 1:
Each person checking in sends their own call sign 5 times: e.g. K4EV K4EV K4EV K4EV K4EV
Net control provides acknowledgment and signal report for every call sign heard
e.g. K4EV DE NY4G TNX FER CK IN UR RST 599 599 599 K

Round 2:
Stations copy net control signal reports and then sends both the copied RST and report to net control
e.g. NY4G DE K4EV R MY RST 599 UR RST 579 AR KN

Net Control asks for name and location
e.g. K4EV DE NY4G R PSE NAME? QTH? AR K

Round 3:
Stations send their names and locations
e.g. NY4G DE K4EV R NAME BRUCE BRUCE QTH GREER, SC GREER SC AR KN

Round 4:
Net Control Station Acknowledges and Initiates QSO Closing
e.g. K4EV DE NY4G R FB GUD TO MEET YOU BRUCE TNX FER QSO HPE CUL 73 SK K4EV DE NY4G K
Station send closing remarks
e.g. NY4G DE K4EV R CU AGN NXT WEEK TNX FER QSO 73 SK NY4G DE K4EV CL

QSY to FM 146.820 for Critique/Review by the Group and the Extra Class Question Review Portion

Helpful Cheat Sheet

A Cheat Sheet

You might find it helpful to use a cheat sheet that you can refer to when your mind suddenly goes blank. So here it is. Just fill in the blanks and replace NY4G with YOUR CALL and the other station’s call sign in the ______________.

Is this frequency in use?

QRL? (then LISTEN)

Calling CQ

CQ CQ CQ DE NY4G NY4G K

Answering another station’s CQ with Signal Report

___________ DE NY4G NY4G UR RST (599 or 579 etc.) AR KN

After another station answer’s your CQ

__________ DE NY4G NY4G GM (GA, GE, GN) TNX CALL UR 559 (or 579, 549, etc) 559 QTH TRAVELERS REST, SC NAME ARIEL ARIEL HW? AR _____ DE NY4G KN

Ragchew

________ DE NY4G NY4G HI (HIS NAME) (RAGCHEW DISCUSSION) AR _______ DE NY4G KN

To end the QSO

____________ DE NY4G NY4G R _____________________________________________, OK TNX NICE QSO HPE CU AGN 73 GM SK _____________ DE NY4G K

If the other station initiates ending the QSO

____________DE NY4G R OK TNX NICE QSO HPE CUL VY 73 SK _________DE NY4G CL

Extra Class Questions - For November 27 Net

E1A11 (A) [97.219]
What is the first action you should take if your digital message forwarding station
inadvertently forwards a communication that violates FCC rules?
A. Discontinue forwarding the communication as soon as you become aware of it
B. Notify the originating station that the communication does not comply with FCC
rules
C. Notify the nearest FCC Field Engineer’s office
D. Discontinue forwarding all messages
~~
E1A12 (A) [97.11]
If an amateur station is installed on board a ship or aircraft, what condition must
be met before the station is operated?
A. Its operation must be approved by the master of the ship or the pilot in command
of the aircraft
B. The amateur station operator must agree to not transmit when the main ship or
aircraft radios are in use
C. It must have a power supply that is completely independent of the main ship or
aircraft power supply
D. Its operator must have an FCC Marine or Aircraft endorsement on his or her amateur
license
~~
E1A13 (B) [97.5]
When a US-registered vessel is in international waters, what type of FCC-issued
license or permit is required to transmit amateur communications from an on-board
amateur transmitter?
A. Any amateur license with an FCC Marine or Aircraft endorsement
B. Any amateur license or reciprocal permit for alien amateur licensee
C. Only General class or higher amateur licenses
D. An unrestricted Radiotelephone Operator Permit
~~
E1B Station restrictions and special operations: restrictions on station location;
general operating restrictions, spurious emissions, control operator reimbursement;
antenna structure restrictions; RACES operations
E1B01 (D) [97.3]
Which of the following constitutes a spurious emission?
A. An amateur station transmission made at random without the proper call sign
identification
B. A signal transmitted in a way that prevents its detection by any station other
than the intended recipient
C. Any transmitted bogus signal that interferes with another licensed radio station
D. An emission outside its necessary bandwidth that can be reduced or eliminated
without affecting the information transmitted
~~
E1B02 (D) [97.13]
Which of the following factors might cause the physical location of an amateur
station apparatus or antenna structure to be restricted?
A. The location is in or near an area of political conflict, military maneuvers or
major construction
B. The location's geographical or horticultural importance
C. The location is in an ITU zone designated for coordination with one or more
foreign governments
D. The location is significant to our environment, American history, architecture, or
culture.
~~
E1B03 (A) [97.13]
Within what distance must an amateur station protect an FCC monitoring facility from
harmful interference?
A. 1 mile
B. 3 miles
C. 10 miles
D. 30 miles
~~
E1B04 (C) [97.13, 1.1305-1.1319]
What must be done before placing an amateur station within an officially designated
wilderness area or wildlife preserve, or an area listed in the National Register of
Historical Places?
A. A proposal must be submitted to the National Park Service
B. A letter of intent must be filed with the National Audubon Society
C. An Environmental Assessment must be submitted to the FCC
D. A form FSD-15 must be submitted to the Department of the Interior
~~
E1B05 (B) [97.15]
What height restrictions apply to an amateur station antenna structure not close to a
public use airport unless the FAA is notified and it is registered with the FCC?
A. It must not extend more than 300 feet above average height of terrain surrounding
the site
B. It must be no higher than 200 feet above ground level at its site
C. There are no height restrictions because the structure obviously would not be a
hazard to aircraft in flight
D. It must not extend more than 100 feet above sea level or the rim of the nearest
valley or canyon
~~
E1B06 (A) [97.15]
Which of the following additional rules apply if you are installing an amateur
station antenna at a site within 20,000 feet of a public use airport?
A. You may have to notify the Federal Aviation Administration and register it with
the FCC
B. No special rules apply if your antenna structure will be less than 300 feet in
height
C. You must file an Environmental Impact Statement with the EPA before construction
begins
D. You must obtain a construction permit from the airport zoning authority
~~
E1B07 (A) [97.15]
Whose approval is required before erecting an amateur station antenna located at or
near a public use airport if the antenna would exceed a certain height depending upon
the antenna’s distance from the nearest active runway?
A. The FAA must be notified and it must be registered with the FCC
B. Approval must be obtained from the airport manager
C. Approval must be obtained from the local zoning authorities
D. The FAA must approve any antenna structure that is higher than 20 feet
~~
E1B08 (D) [97.121]
On what frequencies may the operation of an amateur station be restricted if its
emissions cause interference to the reception of a domestic broadcast station on a
receiver of good engineering design?
A. On the frequency used by the domestic broadcast station
B. On all frequencies below 30 MHz
C. On all frequencies above 30 MHz
D. On the interfering amateur service transmitting frequencies
~~

Our First CW and Extra Class Training Net - November 20

Thanks to all who joined and made it worthwhile. Needless to say, I was very nervous but the participants were very accommodating.

Those who checked in

W4DJW - Dave
W5MFC - Mike
W4KA - Dave
KJ4RXY - Stephen
KJ4UHE - Laure
N4BDR - Tony
KG4FQG - Phil

Afterwards W4DJW and I had a short QSO and had some practice. Till next time.

Be ready to transmit your call signs and get your keys ready!!

Answers to Extra Class Posted

See the previous post - the answers have been added