MW0MWZ Blog Roll

Heinrich Hertz's Birthday Today

2012-02-22T08:57:00.001Z

Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (22 February 1857 – 1 January 1894) was a German
physicist who clarified and expanded the electromagnetic theory of
light that had been put forth by Maxwell. He was the first to
conclusively prove the existence of electromagnetic waves by
engineering instruments to transmit and receive radio pulses using
experimental procedures that ruled out all other known wireless
phenomena.

You could say he is one of the godfathers of modern radio. For more
information check out the Wikipedia article here: http://goo.gl/bwcjm

Robot Updates

2012-02-02T18:15:00.001Z

OK I know, its starting to sound a little like a stuck robot but hey
its what I am working on right now, more breakthroughs on the robot,
its now doing a bunch of checking on the submitted log, works out the
total time frame that the log contains (this could be a very handy
step later on for scoring in a tie break situation, most calls logged
in the smallest time frame could take a decider etc). Also checks your
callsign against the one you want to submit the score for, so that
should help for miss-logs.

One thing I do want to do for the sake of clarity is to save every log
file uploaded, so that if there is any issue later with a score not
matching up etc I will be able to see what exactly happened, I should
also track the IP address the upload came from too I guess, I am sure
I will find a way to work that in there somewhere.

So in short the basics are coming along well, there is plenty to do,
sadly so far the process doesn't do anything exiting, just allows you
to upload a log, checks the content and thats about it - from this
point on it should get more exciting!

More contest robot goodness

2012-01-26T15:16:00.001Z

Well after some mucking about, the robot is now able to take the
uploaded file, do some checks to make sure its the right file of the
right kind, store it according to contest and callsign, make sure it
really is cabrillo format and then output some of the data from the
file to prove that it arrived intact and also give you a QSO count
too.

Well its not time to party yet - there is still LOADS to do, firstly I
need an SQL database to load all of the logs into, write the code to
handle pushing the data I want into SQL in the first place and then
there is a load of work to do creating a leader board based on claimed
score and then the actual scoring. Plenty to do then...

Log Robot Update

2012-01-25T12:45:00.000Z

So the first part of the robot system works, it will collect logs and
store them by contest and by call sign - great, but that's only part
of the first part, I also need it to read the logs - confirm some of
the data from the cabrillo header and then read that back to the
person who uploaded their log for confirmation - interesting -
shouldn't be too hard, with luck I will have some time to look at that
soon - those confirmations have to happen before the log is committed
to the database.

Not that I want to run before I can walk but once the logs are
collected, it would be possible to do more data processing on them
afterwards - QSO/hour rates as a chart maybe, even a single chart with
all the logs on it so you can see how you compared - so many options -
I should really get step one done first...

Log Robot

2012-01-06T13:42:00.001Z

Have you ever wondered how those log robots work - yes me too, I have
some ideas forming in my head about some local contests I'd like to
setup, but I don't fancy the paperwork afterwards to work out who won,
by how much etc and so on. What would really help is a log robot - but
how do they do it, are there any available online? Well how they do it
could be reasonably simple, are there any available online - doesn't
look like it.

So there are two parts to the problem, log submission, the robot must
collect (and store) the logs. It should also do some basic data
collection to make sure the log is complete and post a winners table
based on claimed score. This part isn't too hard (I don't think).

Now the tough part, log analysis, this cannot start until all the logs
are in, so there must be a deadline, the robot needs to check all the
QSO's against both stations where both logs are available (so you also
need check log submission) - UBN flagging for no match QSO's must also
be done - the logic for that lot sounds like its going to be all kinds
of fun.

The two main challenges here are going to be getting the data ordered
so that processing is simple, then getting the processing done and
forming some kind of output. Its a good think I like a challenge this
looks like it will certainly be an interesting ride.

AFS approaches

2012-01-04T15:12:00.001Z

Well would you look at that, its AFS time again. I had planned to use
the antenna at Gelligroes Mill for AFS and operate as MW0MWZ/A - at
least that way I might have been copied on 80m, but sadly the antenna
is in need of repair - so it looks like I'm out of luck. I can't use
the FT-2000D without mains, unless I can find a 50v source, so using
that /M is not an option - its not looking good! The "hybrid slinky"
antenna was proved to be usless for working anyone outside the street
on 80m so thats out too.

There is a chance that the wire for the 80m "L" will be here in time,
the tuner is there but without some sky hooks there is nothing to hold
it up. It needs to be 10m from the ground to work with even reduced
efficiency - what to do...

GB100GGM

2011-12-22T13:30:00.001Z

The group at GW6GW (Blackwood & District Amateur Radio Society) are
pleased to announce their intention to operate from Gelligroes Mill
during the weekend of 13th-15th April 2011, they have reserved the
special call of GB100GGM to celebrate the centenary (100 years) since
the reception of the Titanic Distress call at the very same location
by the mill owner's son at the time, one Arthur Moore. For more on Mr
Moore (couldn't help that) have a look at the website here;
http://www.GB100GGM.co.uk

The GW6GW team also plan to have some additional features on the
website for the event, live web cam / audio feed and possibly an audio
logbook too, just have to see if their web guru is up to the
challenge!

ARRL 10M

2011-12-16T15:37:00.001Z

Well now, I didn't advertise this before the contest but I had an
invite I couldn't turn down recently, a good friend of mine asked if I
would like to guest op at his station for part of the ARRL 10M contest
this month, how could I turn down the opportunity to spend some time
racking up calls from the US with a 4 ele beam and an amp at my
disposal too - great.

Well what a difference that makes, a contest where Americans really
want to work you, plus a 4 ele mono band beam pointed right at them
AND 400w output power too - all add up to a wonderful experience. The
rate was great (for me) but I quickly realised that for the 10m ARRL
you really should know your states - not knowing them was costing me
time. Thankfully it wasn't a *serious* entry or that really would have
been trouble.

It was all going to well that you knew something had to give - sadly
it did, after a few hours on and some 500 or so QSO's I had to leave -
too many plans and too little time - however the next day I awoke with
full on flu and had to cry off, I'm *STILL* suffering with it, how
annoying is that. Looking forward to the next one now!

Additional News Feed

2011-11-24T09:42:00.001Z

Still attempting to make this site the only place I need to come to
get a handle on the news, I have now added the Radio News feed from
the RSGB, not sure how I missed this the first time around, this is
the generic news feed from the RSGB site that contains not only the
current RSGB news but also other topics of interest too, feel free to
check it out here: http://goo.gl/3hV7q

CQWW Win!

2011-11-24T08:12:00.001Z

As you may already know, it was my intention to achieve some kind of
win in CQWW SSB 2011, well the log submission date has passed, I've
checked out the opposition and...

I was the only entrant in 40m, Non-Assisted High Power for Wales,
winning by default is a hollow victory, but on the other hand provided
my logging was reasonably accurate I should also have taken a new
record for Wales and that will be very nice indeed. All in all I am
very pleased, already looking forward to next year too!

I placed 2nd for the UK in my category, but nowhere special in Europe
- 30th maybe? I think I will just wait for the results to come out
before I do a song and dance!

Log Submission data is here: http://goo.gl/y1YWv

RSGB EGM

2011-11-24T08:06:00.001Z

So the RSGB EGM went ahead as planned, the good news (or at least we
think its good news) is that the interim board were voted in, there
have been a lot of discussions about just how democratic this whole
process is. Many people don't agree with the process and I have to say
that I don't entirely agree with it either, however and this is a big
however, those reservations have had to go on hold for a while to give
the team a chance to sort out the fine mess they have been left with.

At least the interim board have made a good job of making sure that
they can't just stay put at the top with no future changes, that is a
good measure and I am sure helped people understand that they really
do want to help.

On a personal note, I wish them all the best, I have faith that they
will do the jobs and make the tough decisions that nobody before them
wanted to make. I also hope that the sweeping reform want stop at the
top either. Best of luck to the new board, we all expect to see great
things from you!

You can check out the article here: http://goo.gl/kTtky

Holo Projector's!

2011-11-16T21:44:00.001Z

Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope... Yes that's right, 3D
holographic projectors are no longer a thing of star wars style
science fiction, finally they are here!
OK well not actually here but they exist. I guess that means there
will be a new version of the best trilogy ever made to buy... AGAIN...

For a closer look, take a look here: http://goo.gl/2F5Pg

Band Conditions, What gives?

2011-11-10T11:46:00.001Z

So looking at the solar weather last night, band conditions should
have been superb, however in reality 40m was flat with contacts in
Germany and Spain the only two for the evening. Sadly I missed the
boat for 10m, apparently that really was open well earlier in the day.
This working for a living really gets in the way of playing radio, it
shouldn't be allowed when the openings are as good as this in the
daylight hours.

In other news, I didn't participate in the 80m Sprint, I'm not too
annoyed about it really, the reality is that I really do need to pull
my finger out and get the wire up for 80m, I've been saying this for
almost 2 years, its about time I changed the record I think!

Solar Flux

2011-11-09T09:27:00.001Z

As you may or may not be aware there was a large solar flair in the
last few days of X1.9 class, that rather large! On the good news front
the band conditions have sustained there un-usually good performance
for days! A:8 K:0 SFI:181, and where am I - at work of course not at
home working the DX, how annoyed am I. Still with any luck it will
hold out a little longer and I may even get the radio turned on during
all of this excellent radio weather. See here for a rather humorous
account of the flair: http://goo.gl/bQzf1

What a weird night...

2011-11-03T14:32:00.001Z

Last night I decided to see if I could top Tuesday's incredible run on
40m, where I held a pile up for a solid hour, alas I was home far too
late for the high bands to be much fun, 10m was closed, 15m was quiet
so I decided to have a go on 20m instead. Not sure what had happened,
the band conditions looked OK but it was very hard to make any QSO's
at all. I did take one stateside and one Canadian (QRP) call in, but
that was as rare as the DX got :( I moved down to 40m to see if I
could russle up some more contacts but it was much the same there too,
very odd indeed - better luck next time!

CQ Contest...

2011-11-03T14:28:00.001Z

So much has been happening, and still no news posted, sorry about
that. Last weekend was CQ WW, one of the two largest HF contests in
the world. A great opertunity to have some fun, work some DX or maybe
if you have a specifit target or goal, try to forfill it. My goal was
to take the Welsh record for single band (40M) High Power. It looks
promising but I wont know for some time if I indeed have taken the
record or not... Fingers Crossed!

Vintage II

2011-10-24T07:54:00.001+01:00

So far we know the TS-530S powers up but there is no signs of life
from the RF deck - well there is always the chance that I could be
wrong so I decided to plug it into the antenna and attempt a tune up,
if nothing came out I could always go back and pull the casings off to
see whats going on.

Well wouldn't you know it, I was wrong, the tune up went fine, 107W on
40m, 93.5W on 10m both at 225mA (why this is important in a moment),
the ALC certainly works on the low bands but I need to test it on 10m
too, struggling to make the ALC work means the processor wont work
properly either, that is often a sign that the driver valve has gone
soft. The other thing I've just realised I need to check is the
current at dead key on SSB, that is also a handy indicator of PA
health, no idea why I didnt look sooner - ahh well we'll check all
that soon enough!

So whats the deal with the 225mA at full power - simply put, Kenwood
designed the set for 100w output, 180w input at 800v into an ideal
50ohms (remember Ohms Law here) is 180 / 800 = 0.225, so the fact that
I do slighly better than that on the low bands and dont quite get
there on 10m suggests the PA stage is working to factory spec, not bad
after 30yrs really.

So over all I am very happy with it, it does all the things it should
and its in great condition, certainly a keeper untill I can get my
hands on a TS-830 or Yaesu FT-102 at what I concider a reasonable
amount!

Vintage

2011-10-24T07:43:00.001+01:00

Well the weekend has come and gone, so did I *evaluate* the TS-530S,
oh yes. I'm really impressed, at first power up I didn't think the
tubes were working - I have to point out the initial smoke test is
just that, put it on the bench out of the way from everything else,
plug it into the mains, check all of the knobs and switches to make
sure that it wont try and transmit and also to make sure everything is
where it should be, leave the mic un-plugged and flip the main power
switch.... I always semi expect a tremendous bang and sparks, at the
same time I am always hugely relieved when that doesn't happen!
Thankfully this was one of those times, nothing un-usual happened, so
I left it warm up a little while I check things like the display / vfo
/ knobs switches etc, after a few mins I flipped the valve heater
switch, the meter and vfo back lights dimmed a little - not sure
that's correct so I do need to look at that, turned the set around but
couldn't see any glow from the valves - oh dear. At that point I had
to break and go out, I powered the set down.... To be continued...

RSGB EGM

2011-10-21T11:49:00.001+01:00

There are some unusual things afoot with the RSGB at the moment, they
would like us to vote in (on mass) a group of staff to run the RSGB
without the option to propose our own staff.
Is this the way of democracy?

Have your say here: http://www.rsgb.org/EGM

Hybrid Radio's (Cont)

2011-10-21T11:31:00.001+01:00

So I was on the search for something old and yet new (to me), ahh the
FT-102, I still want one, but they are rare on the 2nd hand market,
when they do show up they are not usually good examples either, so
trying to find one that is affordable and not a mammoth restoration
project isn't easy! A change of tack was in order, how about the
Kenwood radios? I'd just love a TS-830S, they do come up from time to
time but wow they hold high prices, this along with the FT-102 are to
my mind right at the top of their game - first class receivers, very
rugged PA's, but alas always too expensive, this isnt going to be the
primary radio and as such I begrudge paying £300 for old times sake! -
moving on... Whats this, a TS-530S in reasonable condition for
reasonable money - I didn't even think twice, the deal was struck on
the spot. I've yet to power it up so its too early to tell if I had a
good deal or not!

Whats the plan I hear you ask - simply that I first need to evaluate
what I have, if it needs work I will assess what I can do myself and
what needs more practised hands and we'll go from there. Its not as
feature rich as either the FT-102 or the TS-830 but it will be nice to
be on air with a 30yr old radio with valve PA.

One interesting bit of trivia is that the TS-530S is a single
conversion receiver while all of the rest of the valve machines I have
been looking at are all double conversion (including the TS-830S),
apparently the TS-530S has a very quiet receiver, well we shall see
how it compares to the other young upstarts we have in the shack.

Yes I still yearn for the mighty FT-102, but there is always tomorrow!

Hybrid Radio's

2011-10-21T11:21:00.001+01:00

Some time back I was the proud owner of a mint Yaesu FT-101ZD MKIII,
this was one of a few radio's that really were at the top of their
game. Transistor based machines with a *REAL* VFO and valve PA
section. To me they tick all the right boxes. To this day I don't know
why I sold it, I guess because it edged me a little closer to the
Yaesu FT-2000 of my dreams, at least that combined with the fact that
it really wasn't getting much use.

The thing is, I had bought that radio with the intention of making is
a winter project, it was really dirty and while everything worked
(this was a surprise really) I had intended to replace all of the caps
inside for modern replacements, clean / lube everything and finally
replace any blown bulbs and give it an alignment. What actually
happened is I took it home (from our very own rally some years ago in
fact) and was amazed that despite its dirty appearance it was a very
late model MKIII (didnt even know what I was looking at when I bought
it), with an original box, original mic (with its own original box)
and original manual! Not only that but it wanted for almost nothing,
everything worked as it should, all it required was a bally good
clean, once cleaned it was immaculate underneath. The simple fact dear
reader is that I never knew what I had, I shouldn't have let it go,
but we live and learn, at least I know where it is, it has a good new
home and will be well loved, what more can I ask for!

Ever since I have been looking for a new boat anchor... er I mean
hybrid radio, this class of radio is built like a tank... no kidding!

The shortlist was set; FT-102, TS-830, TS-530, FT-902DM, FT-101ZDMKIII
in that order too.... (to be continued)

What an evening

2011-10-07T13:44:00.001+01:00

Well what can I say, what an evening!, 40m was in tremendous shape
last night, my good friend Mark (MW0MAU) sent me a message to let me
know he was going to give up, "Wall to wall G and Europe, no space to
play on 40" - I was lucky, late home and by the time I managed to get
on air (21:00 local time ish) the band was starting to open up a
little, I had a few polite slow rag chew QSO's with some fellow hams
in the UK, a few nice short hops into Europe and then the QSB started,
worth a few S points most of the time, the background hash changed a
little and then it happened, two new countries back to back, Saudi
Arabia and Israel one after another, I almost fell out of the
operating chair with shock to be called by those two one after
another! Both countries I struggle to work on any band from my
location with the antenna in its current position - Fantastic.

As the evening wore on I was being called from stateside and Canada
too - there was also a very weak Australian calling me too but I just
couldn't complete his call through the noise, a real shame that, but
there is always next time. Now if someone ever tells you that a 51
foot wire antenna isn't as good as a yagi, well they are quite right
but if the 51 foot wire is all you can have, its the best thing in the
world!

Finally, as always a huge thankyou to everyone who called in, it
wouldnt be any fun without you all, 73 from South Wales de MW0MWZ...

Suffering

2011-10-03T19:37:00.001+01:00

No not some un-usual QRM, suffering with man flu, I feel very rough,
giving the radio a miss at the moment, shame really conditions look
and sound good!

40m Wash out!

2011-09-29T19:04:00.001+01:00

Tried to repeat the recent successes on 40m last night, wow what a
wash out, I can only hope for better soon!

40m Madness!

2011-09-28T08:03:00.001+01:00

Conditions have been up and down a lot in the last few days, from
having 10m wide open to everywhere with aurora activity kicking off on
the high bands to the other end of the scale where 21:00Z sees 40m
close on us instead of opening for DX. Last night I decided to have a
little run on 40m, nice and steady to see how things were progressing
- that's not quite how it went...
The second person I worked spotted me on the cluster and kicked off an
hour and a half pile up, fantastic. 192 calls in just under 2 hours,
hard work indeed being unable to hear one call out of the tremendous
euro pileup but fantastic fun, long may it continue!