Category Archives: Education

SCARC Roadtrip – Greenbank Observatory

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Tour Guide:
Richard F. Bradley, Ph.D. — W4DZC
—Former Steel City ARC Member
—Scientist / Senior Research Engineer (NRAO)
—Research Professor of Astronomy (U. Virginia)
—Visiting Assistant Professor of EE (U. Virginia)
—Radio Science: Associate Editor

THE DATE AND RESERVATIONS ARE NOW CONFIRM

NOW OPEN FOR ALL LOCAL HAM RADIO OPERATORS

Please send an email to me at n3lrg -at- w3kwh -dit- com if you would like to go with the SCARC group as we tour the Green Bank Telescope.  Who know you might make the biggest DX contact in your life.   We are allow 20 people so currently we have 9 open spots left.

The Steel City behind the scenes tour of the Greenbank Observatory is on for September 29 & 30.  This will be an overnight trip to the telescope leaving early Friday morning.   Not only are we going to see the big 300 foot diameter dish antenna but all the other dish antennas on the property. We will even get access to the control room to see how they receive signals from million of light years away.  After the tour we will be staying overnight at the telescope bunkhouse. Getting up early the next morning to head over to the CASS Railroad to take the train to the top of the mountain.  If we have enough people interested we can split the group in two and the other group head to the top of Spruce Knob {High point in WV, 4863 FT} were there is an POTA & SOTA site so you might want to bring along your portable gear.

Rich Bradley has done a great job of arranging our tour with the people at the telescope and  getting them to waived the $25 fee for the tour and getting them to moved it to a Friday so more people would be able to get the day off.  There will be a charge of $10/person  to sleep in the bunk house.  Currently the charge for the train trip will be around $79 but we will try to get a discount once we have a proper head count.  This tour will be limited to 20 people at the max so sign up early to reserve your spot.  It will be also required to fill out a :”Visitor Registration Form” {a basic background check} to go on this behind the scene tour.  Make sure you attend the June business meeting to reserve your spot on the trip.

UPDATE:
Those that have sign up for the tour.  The $10 Bunkhouse fee is due by the July 18th Business meeting to reserve your spot.  Please give the money to Walt or Joe M. and make sure Christine knows you paid.

Information on the Green Bank Telescope
Information about the behind the scene tour
Information on the Green Bank Bunkhouse
Click Here For CASS Scenic Bald Knob Tour
Information on the Spruce Knob Summit 

Parks On The Air – Cass Scenic Railroad K1809 { Iffy site – quite zone }
Parks On The Air – K-0632 Monongahela National Forest
Summits On The Air – Bald Knob W8V/PH-002{ Iffy site – quite zone }
Summits On The Air – Spruce Knob W8V/PH-001 { QRP }

Starlink Earth Station

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Click image for full size photo

By now everyone heard of Starlink the Internet Service Provider from space.  Ever wonder what is at the other end after all you cant run a fiber into space. Around the world SpaceX has downlink Earth station that take the signal from the satellites and puts them onto the Internet backbone.  On a resent trip to Erie on the way home I took the sceinic way home near the town of Greenville, PA  SpaceX has a Starlink Earthstation.

In the fence in area in the back are 8 small satellite dishes that talk with the Startlink satellite as the pass over head.  On the truck bed you can see some spares waiting to be install.  The google map photo below give you an aerial view  of the dishes.  This is just one of hundreds around the country and the world.  Most are out in the middle of no where the only thing the Earth station needs is an Internet Backbone close by. Click the link below to see where the satellites and Earth station are currently at.

https://satellitemap.space/

Sun Spot & Space Weather

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HF RADIO COMMUNICATIONS

Space weather impacts radio communication in a number of ways. At frequencies in the 1 to 30 mega Hertz range (known as “High Frequency” or HF radio), the changes in ionospheric density and structure modify the transmission path and even block transmission of HF radio signals completely. These frequencies are used by amateur (ham) radio operators and many industries such as commercial airlines. They are also used by a number of government agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Defense.

There are several types of space weather that can impact HF radio communication. In a typical sequence of space weather storms, the first impacts are felt during the solar flare itself. The solar x-rays from the sun penetrate to the bottom of the ionosphere (to around 80 km). There the x-ray photons ionize the atmosphere and create an enhancement of the D layer of the ionosphere. This enhanced D-layer acts both as a reflector of radio waves at some frequencies and an absorber of waves at other frequencies. The Radio Blackout associated with solar flares occurs on the dayside region of Earth and is most intense when the sun is directly overhead.

Another type of space weather, the Radiation Storm caused by energetic solar protons, can also disrupt HF radio communication. The protons are guided by Earth’s magnetic field such that they collide with the upper atmosphere near the north and south poles. The fast-moving protons have an affect similar to the x-ray photons and create an enhanced D-Layer thus blocking HF radio communication at high latitudes. During auroral displays, the precipitating electrons can enhance other layers of the ionosphere and have similar disrupting and blocking effects on radio communication. This occurs mostly on the night side of the polar regions of Earth where the aurora is most intense and most frequent.

More information on solar activity from an amateur radio operator’s perspective is available at https://www.qrparci.org/resource/FDIM81.pdf

CNN Article:
Sun’s activity is peaking sooner than expected

Signal Reports SSB/ CW/ FT-8

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From: vk5pas.com

The RST system.
The R-S-T system is used by amateur radio operators, shortwave listeners, and other radio hobbyists to exchange information about the quality of a radio signal being received. The RST system is a three digit number, with one digit each for conveying an assessment of the signal’s readability, strength, and tone.

R – Readability
S – Signal Strength
T – Tone

The first number in the RST report is the readability of the signal or how understandable a signal is. This ranges on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being ‘unreadable’ and 5 being ‘perfectly readable’. Factors which impact on readability include QRN (atmospheric noise, static crashes, QSB (fading), and QRM (man made noise, e.g. plasma TV noise).

The second number in the RST report is the strength of the signal. Remember, that the RST reporting system was created prior to introduction of S meters in transceivers. A signal strength of 1 is ‘faint signals, barely perceptible’, whilst a signal strength of 9 is an ‘extremely strong signal.’

The third number refers to Tone and applies to CW (Morse Code).


By: n3lrg

FT-8 Signal Reports
With FT-8 your PC clock is very important.  Please make sure you sync your PC clock with an time standard before operating FT-8.  Useful programs like Dimension 4 that will do it for you or manually you can do it by following this link. But what would happen if your out at a POTA site away from the internet well if you had a little USB GPS device you can use a program like GPStime to sync your clock.   If your looking at your receive window in WJST and see the “DT” column of is more than 0.3 +/- seconds off then your clock is in need a a resync.  If there just one station that has a time offset of more than 0.3 off don’t bother trying to connect to that station since there clock is way off. Time over 1.0 seconds will show in red.

Signal strength is also import for picking up stations.  With a minimum signal range between -21 dB and -24 dB  anything below -19 dB would be a hard station to work.  While a signal strength of 0 dB is a prefect level for an SSB signal.

On picking your transmit frequency in the water fall window try to find an clear frequency.  You can shift you transmit frequency by using your mouse on the WSJT-X waterfall to select a spot to transmit by right-clicking or shift-left-clicking. Also make sure your check mark “Hold Tx Freq.” is checked so that it stays at that frequency.  While your at it make sure “Auto Seq” and “Call 1st” are checked too.  So that it will handle automatically replying to their responds and it will automatically respond to other station answering your CQ’s.

THE LA6NCA TRANSCEIVER

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LA6NCA
THE LA6NCA TRANSCEIVER

I have designed a new 2 tube tranceiver. I think the way it is made is innovative. Both tubes are used in both receiver and transmitter. The sensitivity of the receiver is 5uV. Power output on the transmitter is 1-2 Watts.

This is something you can make yourself. It is very fun and easy to use. Only one setting. Volume. The frequency is exactly correct both on the transmitter and receiver with the help of a crystal.

LA6NCA Website
Hack A Day Article 

National Hurricane Center Amateur Radio Station Annual Test

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From The ARRL News Website

The amateur radio station of the National Hurricane Center, WX4NHC (NHC), located on the campus of Florida International University in Miami, will conduct their on-the-air Annual Communications Test on Saturday, May 27, 2023, from 9 AM – 5 PM EDT (1300z- 2100z).

This is the NHC’s 43rd year of public service. NHC Amateur Radio Assistant Coordinator Julio Ripoll, WD4R/WX4NHC, reports that the purpose of this event is to test amateur radio equipment and antennas at the NHC as well as operators’ home equipment, antennas, and computers prior to this year’s hurricane season. The 2023 hurricane season begins June 1 and runs through November 30.

This event is good practice for amateur radio operators worldwide to practice amateur radio communications during times of severe weather.

Ripoll said WX4NHC will be on HF, VHF, UHF, 2- and 30-meter APRS, and Winlink, To contact the NHC’s amateur radio station send an email to wx4nhc@winlink.org. The subject of the email must contain //WL2K.

WX4NHC will try to stay on the Hurricane Watch Net frequency, 14.325 MHz, for most of the time, as well as 7.268 MHz depending on propagation. They may also change frequencies due to potential QRM.

You may be able to find WX4NHC on HF by using one of the DX spotting networks, such as the DX Summit website at http://www.dxsummit.fi.

The VoIP Hurricane Net will also be active from 4 PM – 5 PM EDT (2000-2100z), RLP node 9219/EchoLink WX-TALK Conference node 7203. Visit their website for more information.

WX4NHC will also make a few contacts on local VHF and UHF repeaters, as well as the Florida Statewide Amateur Radio Network (SARnet) system to test station equipment.

QSL cards are available via WD4R with a self-addressed stamped envelope. More information about the NHC is available at their website.

ACTION NEEDED TO PROTECT OUR BANDS

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ARRL Advocates for Radio Amateurs as FCC Proposes Changes to 60-Meter Band

04/28/2023The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is seeking comments about changing the secondary allocation available to radio amateurs on 60 meters. The FCC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on April 21, 2023, that deals with the band. In a prior petition, ARRL The National Association for Amateur Radio® urged protecting the existing use of the band by amateurs when adding a new allocation adopted internationally.

Currently, radio amateurs in the US have access to five discrete channels on a secondary basis: 5332 kHz, 5348 kHz, 5358.5 kHz, 5373 kHz, and 5405 kHz. Users of these channels are limited to an effective radiated power (ERP) of 100 W PEP.

The FCC proposes to allocate 15 kHz of contiguous bandwidth between 5351.5 – 5366.5 kHz on a secondary basis with a maximum power of 15 W EIRP (equivalent to 9.15 W ERP). This allocation was adopted at the 2015 World Radio Communication Conference (WRC-15).

READ THE FULL ARTICLE ON THE ARRL WEBSITE:
http://arrl.org/news/

Track a Weather Balloon

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Want to track a weather balloon here is a very neat website that tracks all the weather balloon across the country.  Here in Pittsburgh the NWS launch balloons at  7:00 AM and 7:00 PM. Some times at other times like during storms.

https://tracker.sondehub.org

The SondeHub Tracker provides live and historical view of the data contained within the SondeHub Radiosonde telemetry database. This data is openly available, and licensed under Creative Commons By-SA 2.0. While primarily designed to assist with the tracking, recovery and re-use of meteorological radiosondes, it also provides a view of the meteorological data gathered by these devices.

So who wants to go on a fox hunt?

NASA Need Ham Radio Operators

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The HamSCI Festivals of Eclipse Ionospheric Science will occur October 14, 2023 and April 8, 2024 during spectacular North American solar eclipses.

​The Festivals will consist of multiple events, each with a goal of increasing our understanding of sun-ionosphere-earth relationships. ​Participants will include volunteer amateur radio operators, short wave listeners and science researchers from multiple US universities.

HamSCI FoEIS Events in which you can participate

  • The Solar Eclipse QSO Party (SEQP)
  • The Gladstone Signal Spotting Challenge (GSSC)
  • Learn how to participate by visiting the HamSCI FoEIS Contest Info Page
Planned Events – Details To Be Announced at a Future Time
  • Doppler Effects on the Reception of WWV and CHU Utilizing the Grape 2 Low-IF Receiver
  • The Use of Time Delay of Arrival (TDOA) Measurements to Profile Ionospheric Layer Height Changes During Solar Eclipses
  • Tracking Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances Using Doppler-shifts of AM Broadcast Stations
  • ​VLF Reception Exercise

Read More about this here:
https://science.nasa.gov
https://hamsci.org/eclipse