Re: Topband: Solar eclipse and 160m propagation.

[Larry Gauthier (K8UT)]

Bob,

For your constituents who plan to operate the Eclipse event as a QSO party 
(August QST, pg 94, Ward Silver), N1MM+ has a contest definition in its 
>File >New Log in Database... dialog window. Select "eclipse."


-larry (K8UT)
-Original Message- 
From: Robert McGwier

Sent: Friday, July 14, 2017 11:21 PM
To: Tom Frenaye ; topband
Subject: Re: Topband: Solar eclipse and 160m propagation.

Virginia Tech, New Jersey Institute of Techology and others are putting
teams into field to do measurements of several sorts during the eclipse.

A student of mine is building low power, inexpensive ionosondes to measure
the height of the F layer using radar pulses on HF and measuring the round
trip time in the 3-6 MHz region before during and after the eclipse from
the West coast to the East coast along the path of totality.

A student of mine designed an SDR to measure scintillation on satellite
signals as it passes through the ionosphere before, during, and after the
eclipse. This was her master's thesis. She just graduated and was a
recipient of "Future Leadership" position with Northrup Grumman.

Most of the students involved at VT are members of the VT amateur radio
association (K4KDJ).

Current and former students of VT were the genesis of HAMSCI.  They reached
out to Ward Silver and Dave Pascoe who met with the students and me at
Dayton two years ago and here we are.

Dr Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF and Magda Moses KM4EGE were both members of
VTARA which I am honored to serve as faculty adviser.

Nathaniel has moved on to NJIT and is taking RBN data during the Solar
Eclipse QSO Party to try and observe shifting propagation.

HAMSCI.org is something we hope leads to lots of "citizen science" by hand.

Our science investigator is Dr Greg Earle, w4gde and he and this activity
are supported by the national science foundation.  I'm playing SDR and
radio consultant to the VT team.

73s
Bob N4HY

On Wed, Jul 5, 2017 at 8:17 AM Tom Frenaye  wrote:


At 06:48 AM 7/5/2017, CT1EKD wrote:
>Hi Topbanders
>In 21th August we will have a solar  eclipse... Do you know any
>studies about propagation at eclipses, before, during and after ?

Pedro -

Here's a place to start.   http://hamsci.org/

 -- Tom




e-mail: fren...@pcnet.comYCCC  --> http://www.yccc.org/
Tom Frenaye, K1KI, P O Box J, West Suffield CT 06093 Phone: 860-668-5444

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--
Bob McGwier
Founder, Federated Wireless, Inc
Founder and Technical Advisor, HawkEye 360, Inc
Research Professor Virginia Tech
Chief Scientist:  The Ted and Karyn Hume Center for National Security and
Technology
Senior Member IEEE, Facebook: N4HYBob, ARS: N4HY
Faculty Advisor Virginia Tech Amateur Radio Assn. (K4KDJ)
Director of AMSAT
Member of PVRC (Roanoke-Blacksburg), TAPR,  life member of ARRL and AMSAT,
NRVR.ORG (Rocketry)
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Re: Topband: K1N On Line Log

[Larry Gauthier (K8UT)]

Jim,

Just a minor adjustment to your statement - some might misinterpret the term 
got logged.



...some Qs that got logged on the wrong band


Your Qs are in the log correctly - on the right bands. The problem involved 
the ClubLog extract/upload.


-larry (K8UT)
-Original Message- 
From: Jim Brown

Sent: Friday, February 06, 2015 12:40 AM
To: topband@contesting.com
Subject: Re: Topband: K1N On Line Log

On Thu,2/5/2015 8:24 PM, Tom Haavisto wrote:

The way I look at it, I got them on 80/160, so anything else is a bonus.


Chiil -- there were some Qs that got logged on the wrong band, so they
started from scratch, reloading to ClubLog. My 160 and 40 Q went away,
now all six are there.

73, Jim K9YC
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Topband: TX relay assemblies

[Larry Gauthier (K8UT)]

A few weeks ago there was a helpful, spirited discussion of antenna relays 
here on the reflector. Can we extend that conversation to pre-built relay 
assemblies?


As background: I have recently become involved in writing software for these 
new SBCs (single board computers) like the Arduino and Raspberry Pi. My 
latest project is a band decoder - a UDP-based CAT decoder that interprets 
rig-to-logging-program frequency traffic and selects relays to drive my 
remote antenna switches. The band decoder collects UDP CAT data via wi-fi, 
which means that it could be anywhere within wi-fi range - including 
outdoors at the location of the remote antenna switches. Hmmm... what if the 
Band Decoder and Remote Antenna Switches were consolidated and the Raspberry 
Pi were to directly drive the antenna selection? Then the question becomes 
whether these relay assemblies are capable of handling 1 KW RF.


These relays assemblies are: inexpensive, SPDT, opto-isolated from the CPU, 
include reverse diode protection on the coils, rated for 220VAC at 10 amps, 
and the PCBs have been notched to physically isolate the relay common from 
the two outputs (hard to see that from the photos).


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0057OC5WK

Will these work? How would I test them?

-larry (K8UT)

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Re: Topband: REVERSE BEACON

[Larry Gauthier (K8UT)]

Last month, W8NN and I delivered a presentation to the SouthEast Michigan DX 
Association (SEMDXA) titled Using the RBN as an Antenna Performance Tool. 
You can download the presentation from:

http://www.k8ut.com/tiki-list_file_gallery.php?galleryId=2

Among the topics is a description of our testing protocol, which we found 
required strict compliance to permit valid comparison of antenna A to 
antenna B to antenna C.


Not included in the results are more recent tests that three of us, K8YTO, 
VE3CFK, K8UT have been performing on a variety of 160 meter antennas 
(inverted-L, sloper, Battle Creek special, vertical ground plane, 1/2 wave 
dipole). Although the results could be described as interesting, the poor 
band conditions on 160 only delivered spots from local stations - most 
within 500 miles, only one from as far away as 1200 miles. Since the three 
of us are more interested in 160m DX, we don't think we encountered the 
right conditions yet to allow us to classify anything as good, bad, or ugly. 
Especially on 160 meters, results varied widely from day-to-day; even from 
hour-to-hour. You may find the same is true by looking back through the 
history of spots for your old antenna as you compare it to your new antenna.


My Advice (FWIW) -- You can: predict antenna performance with a modeling 
tool; measure actual performance under laboratory conditions; or try to 
gauge in the wild performance  with something like the RBN. Proceed 
carefully if you decide to use the latter to make antenna decisions.


-larry (K8UT)
-Original Message- 
From: wa3...@comcast.net

Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2012 11:16 PM
To: topband@contesting.com
Subject: Topband: REVERSE BEACON



I am planning a new 160m transmit antenna to be erected in the next few 
weeks.  Before I install it however I want to get a good history (over a few 
weeks) of spots from the reverse beacon network.  My problem is that instead 
of going to WWW.DXMAPS.COM   I would like to get the spots from the source. 
Is this possible?  Is there a utility/program out there that will allow me 
to plug my call into it and collect all of my spots for me... displaying 
them on my computer ready to be archived/plotted.. whatever?




My new antenna will be a 75 ft Vertical elevated about 8 ft above the ground 
to include 20 1/4 wave radials.  This should be superior to my current 
Inverted L with 4 radials 6 ft above the ground that the deer keep getting 
into.




WA3MEJ


Long Live Seal Team VI

http://www.qsl.net/wa3mej/index.htm
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Re: Topband: VK0M on 160m

[Larry Gauthier (K8UT)]

But as far as I know, nobody has worked Macca from Europe
on 160m during the last 30 years? I hope I'm wrong.


[CAUTION: Shameless plug follows]

In the 2012 Topband Most Wanted Survey (which ends today!) includes 
responses from 154 Europeans. Of those, 21 indicated that they do not need 
VK0/M on 160m.


Not filled out a survey yet?  http://survey.hamdocs.com/index.php?sid=11389

-larry (K8UT)

-Original Message- 
From: Jari Jussila

Sent: Friday, August 31, 2012 5:03 AM
To: Steve Ireland ; topband@contesting.com ; vk...@vk3pa.com
Subject: Re: Topband: VK0M on 160m


Steve ...

I'm don't know the full history of VK0M 160m activity. But as far as I
know, nobody has worked Macca from Europe on 160m during the last 30
years? I hope I'm wrong.

I was in an active contact with the last operator on the island, Trevor,
VK0TH. He didn't mention anything about any HF rhombic antenna and he
would surely have used it if it would have been possible. I remember him
saying that most of the big antennas had been removed for environmental
reasons. He, in fact, even had some problems to keep the old vertical
that was left behind by earlier operators not speaking about erecting
any temporary new antennas. The situation reminds the situation on
Prince Edward  Marion Is., ZS8, were the big rhombic antennas have been
removed for same reason.

The old multiband vertical that Trevor used broke at the end of his
operation and can not be repaired. Trevor used a long wire the last
weeks and we could work him even on 80m CW.

Trevor used the longwire also on 160m and worked a couple of VK's and
ZL. He was heard even in KL7 and in Scandinavia but no QSO's were made
outside VK/ZL.

As far as I understand, there's absolutely no amateur antenna on the
island at the moment.

I would suggest that VK3PA or his friend contacts Trevor, VK0TH; to get
good advise for the antennas. If you want, I can provide you with his
new VK-email address.

Cu no 160m

Jari, OH2BU








On 26.8.2012 13:24, Steve Ireland wrote:

Hi Allan

In the past I am pretty sure the radio amateurs who have taken up the 
radio

technician position on Macquarie Island have had some access to the
commercial antennas used on the island and used them on 160m.  My memory
(which isn't always good) is that there is an HF rhombic, which has been
loaded up on 160m as an end-fed wire type antenna.

In the past, the problem seems to have been for the operator to find time 
to

actually operate ham radio much.  My impression is that the job is really
full-on.

If your friend can get hold of a Spiderbeam 17m fiberglass telescoping 
pole

to take with him, then that could support an quarter wave inverted-L
antenna, with a sloping top.  If someone could make up a K2AV folded
counterpoise (and matching transformer) that could be rolled up and also
taken with him, then the operator would have a fair 160m signal.  As the 
FCP

would only be 33 feet long, ANARE may let him put this up?

I guess if there are enough amateurs who were interested in 160m operation
from VK0M and everyone put in a few dollars each, so these items could be
purchased for your friend to take with him, that may be worth a go.



Vy 73



Steve, VK6VZ



--

Message: 4

Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2012 17:50:09 -0500

From: vk...@vk3pa.com

Subject: Topband: VK0M

To: topband@contesting.com

Message-ID:20120824175009.ivu1k3pvtccso...@webmail.opentransfer.com

Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; DelSp=Yes;

   format=flowed



Hi all, hve a ham friend going to VK0M.He will be mainly cw, es he is a
gud op can handle dog piles hi hi.. his main Q is wot type of Ant is 
best

? he can not hve radials or wires up in the air







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