Foundations of Amateur Radio

Foundations of Amateur Radio In every new technology there is an ah-ha moment, the single one insight that defines for you personally what this technology is all about. No doubt this happened when Amateurs first used valves, when they started using transistors and so on. For me that moment happened during the week. You've heard me talk about the absurd noise floor, that is, the incredible amount of local radio noise that I experience at my shack. I've been working my station portable to get away from the racket. During the week I came across something that is likely to change that. You've no doubt heard about diversity reception. You can use two different antennas, do some fancy phase switching and make the noise go away. Now I should clarify, at least briefly what that looks like. Imagine throwing a stone into a lake, it makes waves. If you throw two stones into the lake at the same time, the waves get bigger, but if you were to time it just right, you could throw in one stone, then the next. If you timed it just so the first stone would make a wave top whilst the other stone made a wave trough, the two would cancel each other out. You can do the same with light, shine a torch onto a piece of cardboard with two slits cut into it. Behind the cardboard you'll see light and dark patches where the frequencies line up and cancel each other out. Light and radio waves are part of the same spectrum, so you can do the same with radio waves. You could use this technique to cancel out, or rather filter, local noise. So far I've not said anything particular worthy of ah-ha, but stick around. There are devices made that you can use to create the equivalent of two slits, by changing inductance and capacitance within a specific circuit, you can align two signals from two antennas and make them cancel each other out. The way that works best is if one of the antennas is really good at hearing noise and the other is responsible for hearing the required station. You can then mix the two signals, I don't have such a device, but I'm told there is an art to making this work, and out pops the station you care about. In software defined radio or SDR, you can do this exact same thing. Only you don't need a circuit to do it, you can show the results in real-time and you can create a user interface that makes it really easy to try different things. The example I saw is PowerSDR, an open source project that allows you to control many different radios. Picture a circle with a line that is attached to the centre of the circle and the end is attached to your mouse pointer. You can move the mouse anywhere in the circle and as you do this, you're controlling two parameters, the phasing angle and the gain. The gain is the length of the line, the angle is the direction in which the line is pointed. While you're moving your mouse about, the signals from both antennas are mixed together according to the position of the mouse at the time. The end result is a completely interactive direct feedback loop where you can see and hear the effect of the mouse location. You can move it around very simply, and immediately, continuously see the result. The outcome of all this is that you can bring your noise floor down by 30dB or more, and hear stations that were completely inaudible within the racket. I'd heard it being described, but seeing it in action was a show stopping moment for me and right there and then I knew that the landscape in radio has changed forever. I'm Onno VK6FLAB This and other episodes of Foundations of Amateur Radio can be heard via podcast or download at podcasts.itmaze.com.au.

Foundations of Amateur Radio On a regular basis I receive emails from fellow amateurs and shortwave listeners who provide feedback and ideas about this weekly segment of Amateur Radio. It's a joy to read how they feel that my little contribution encourages them to continue in the hobby, or come back to the hobby, or to build something, or to do something, to participate, to experiment. Yesterday I received an email from an amateur who came up with an idea that's worth sharing. The idea was pretty simple. Encourage every new entrant into our hobby to build a crystal radio. I know that this might sound like a trivial thing, even silly, but for me it makes complete sense. Imagine that, building a receiver and understanding how it actually works. I know I've never actually done that and I suspect I'm not alone. So, here's a thing. Next time you're looking for a project to do, for a thing to make, for some soldering practice, try making a crystal radio. There's opportunity to make it work for CW and SSB - think of it as an upgrade - and from an electronics perspective, this can be as complex or simple as you like. Dovetail that with the notion of harmonics, how resonant circuits work and you're well on the way to making your first transceiver. So, the real takeaway from this idea, not only the idea you can build a crystal radio, but that there are electronics project to be found that enhance your understanding of how radio works and are easy to build. Now I should hasten to add, that I'm not advocating that we all become electronics experts. I know this isn't going to sit well with everyone, but let me say it again. I'm not advocating that we all become electronics experts. I know that the Standard and Advanced licenses in Australia require a fair bit of electronics, but I have to say that I think this is unhelpful. It's taken me a long time to get to this point, so before you sharpen your pitchfork and heat up the tar and feathers, hear me out. In Computing, which is a topic I know a lot about, having been intimate with it for nearly 45 years, there's a similar analogy. The notion that you need to know about memory, registers, about CPU clock cycles and a stack, accumulator and all manner of esoteric detail. I know all of this because 45 years ago, that defined what computing consists of. It stands me in good stead today, it makes it possible for me to conceptualise a super computer with little effort, but it's not required for someone coming into the field, learning to program and make the tools useful. It helps, but it's not required. We abstract things more and more in computing and we do the same in amateur radio. If you think back, a spark-gap transmitter, valve based radios, transistor based radios, integrated circuit based radios and now software defined radios went through the same progression. Today an amateur doesn't learn how to build a spark-gap transmitter, though if you did, it would help your understanding of high-voltage electronics, harmonics and all manner of flow on. It's not required. A similar thing is true for building a valve based radio and over time the same will be true for transistors, integrated circuits and software. You might think of this as a dumbing down, and to be fair, I thought the same thing for many years. In reality, it's not dumbing down at all, it's focusing on what's important, on what makes progress, on what grows a field. There will be always room for people who understand the difference between an NPN and a PNP transistor, but it's not required to be an amateur, even if today's amateur education system still requires it. So what I'm saying is that, you should build a circuit, build a radio, go on to build a transceiver. You should understand what goes on under the hood because it helps you understand the implications of things when you make changes. Just like a racing car driver has no understanding of the chemistry of the fuel that is put in his car, there should be no need for you to be forced to do electronics, but it can be loads of fun and you might surprise yourself and learn something. I'm going back to my Morse, another one of those skills which is immensely helpful, but no longer required. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio Today I started doing some research on Baluns. It was prompted by a message from a fellow amateur who asked about how they work and what they do and what the difference was between a 1:1, a 1:4 and a 1:9 balun. While doing that, I thought I'd look up what the definition was of a balun. It says right here on Google - so it must be true - that it's a type of electrical transformer used to connect an unbalanced circuit to a balanced one. I clicked on the link that said "Translations, word origin and more definitions", which showed me a history of the use of the word balun and I was hooked. The explanation of a balun will have to wait for another day. I started looking at the use of the word going back to the 1800's, based on Google's Ngram Viewer. Looks like it was used a bit between 1800 and 1910, but steadily declining in use, until it started picking up in popularity around 1930. Today the word balun is more popular than the phrase "radio amateur", but less popular than either "amateur radio" or "ham radio". Radio Amateur hit its peak in 1950 and Amateur Radio in 1990, when electronics also hit its peak. Ham radio hit its peak around 2000. All of these terms pale into insignificance when compared with either the word Software or Hardware. Hardware being about 200 times more popular than any of the radio terms, but software being 700 times more popular. So, what does this have to do with us, more specifically, what does this mean for you? Well, if you want this amazing hobby to relate to the people around you, there might be a benefit to use language that is increasing in popularity, while still related to us, it might pull us along with the tide. So, "Software Defined Radio" is on the rise, SDR likely means something else in 1985 when it hits peak popularity, but use is increasing. Interestingly, Icom makes more noise in literature than Yeasu, by about 9 times. The ARRL makes more noise than the RSGB and WIA put together and balanced is 8 times more popular than unbalanced, though I won't vouch for that relating only to amateur radio. Transistors hit their peak in 1967, capacitors did so a decade earlier, resistors even earlier in 1952. I think this means that we need to spend some time investigating the language we use to communicate about our hobby and use it wisely to increase awareness about the things we think are amazing. GPS is a term on the rise, antenna is pretty stable since 1965, emergency response is on the increase, communication is at an all-time-high, steadily increasing from 1900 on-wards. Radio is staying pretty stable, but hit its peak in 1950. Television is on the decline and the Internet is more popular than either. So, pick some words, look at the Google Ngram Viewer [https://books.google.com/ngrams] and learn some things about the words you might use to communicate about this wonderful hobby. Can you guess, what's more popular, a dipole, a vertical or a Yagi? I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio Today we have a world where radios are more and more like appliances. We can buy them at a store, ship them to our location, open the box, plug in the radio to an antenna and start operating. I said, "like" an appliance, because a transceiver is not like a toaster in all aspects and it's those little gaps between the toaster as an appliance and a transceiver as an appliance that I want to highlight. I was with a farmer recently who had a CB radio in his troopie, or if you're not familiar with that, a Toyota Land Cruiser, this one had 400.000km on the clock and was just getting run in. According to the farmer, the CB had never worked right. He joked that it was often easier to yell across the paddock than to use the radio. On a farm there are lots of things happening, during harvesting, heavy equipment is moving everywhere and communications are vital. I was with a friend and the first thing that we noticed about this CB is that it was a UHF CB, that is, it was using 70cm, or 470-odd MHz. The antenna however was a HF CB antenna, 27 MHz. As a radio amateur you know that this is never going to work well. In fact it's amazing that there was any contact using this particular CB at all. Another thing we noticed was that the connector between the radio and the antenna was loose, so it's entirely possible that the actual communication was happening around the connector on the back of the radio, rather than the antenna on the bull-bar. You might be listening to this and shaking your head. If you're uncharitable, you might even scoff at those silly CB'ers. I think that's both unhelpful and wrong. Precisely this is the difference between a toaster as an appliance and a transceiver as an appliance. It means that any radio training, any license at all, even a foundation call, is sufficient to learn enough to be able to diagnose such issues. You might think that this means that I think CB'ers are stupid. Far from it. I think this means that radios are not appliances and that there is ample opportunity for the skills we take for granted as amateurs to propagate through the community. If you're a CB'er yourself and you're not a radio amateur. Perhaps you might consider spending a weekend and getting your introduction to Amateur Radio. You are likely to learn lots of things you've never heard or understood, or more likely have been told incorrectly. If learning how to use your transceiver, be it CB, HF club or otherwise, is important to you, have a look at Amateur Radio. I think it's important. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio Yesterday during dinner I heard an interesting story. Apparently there was a farmer who had a chicken coop that he kept warm at night by using a 240 Volt light bulb hooked up to the chicken wire surrounding his chickens. The farmer's property was in the vicinity of a local AM broadcast transmitter. They only found him because the people in the shadow of the chicken coop had bad reception. I'm sitting at the dining table, listening to this tale and wondering, could it be true? My gut feeling was no, but surrounded by food and friends it was hard to put my finger on precisely where this doesn't add up. A little digging revealed that the transmitter in question was the local ABC 6WF transmitter at Hamersley. So, what do we know about this transmitter? First of all, it's a 50 kW AM transmitter. I must confess, I have operated this station. Imagine that, 50 kW AM, with an introductory Foundation License. Anyway, back to the 6WF transmitter. It's located on a block of land, roughly 500 meters wide, 1000 meters long. Thanks to the ACMA we have a map that shows a contour line where the field strength of this transmitter is 1 Volt per meter. That means that there is 1 Volt difference between two points a meter apart. This contour varies in distance from the antenna from 2.1 km to 1.8 km. So in a sort-of-circle around this transmitter there is a circle of points at which you can step 1 m further away and measure a field strength decrease of 1 Volt. We also know that electric fields decrease by the inverse square of the distance, or said in another way, if you double the distance, you decrease the field strength by 4, if you increase distance by 3, you decrease strength by 9. Of course, the opposite is also true. If you halve the distance, from 2 km to 1 km, you increase the field strength to 4 V/m. If you have it again to 500 m, the field strength becomes 16 V/m. To power a 240 V lamp, we'd need to get within 100 meters or so of the transmitter. Of course, the block is 500 m wide, the closest you can get without going onto the property is about 250 m, where the field strength is about 64 V/m. So, unless the farmer had a chicken coop on the transmission site itself, this is unlikely to have happened. Before you ask, how can an f-call operate a 50 kW AM transmitter, on 720 kHz, easy, get invited to talk about Amateur Radio with Gillian O'Shaughnessy on ABC breakfast radio. Did you know, her grand-dad was an amateur? Anyway, if you know the farmer in question, or if you're sure it's happened, I'd love to hear about it. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio Whenever I go out to play radio, which is whenever I actually want to operate, I try new things. For example I've experimented with different clocks, to keep track of what time I made a contact, I've experimented with different ways of logging, with different locations, different antennas, with different bands, times of day, methods of calling CQ, methods of making a contact with a DX station, different methods of looking at propagation, different distances from interference. As I said, every time I try something else different. One thing I do, that might not seem obvious. I try to only change one thing. The reason I do that, is so I have a better understanding on what the change actually did. Of course this isn't entirely possible, you often cannot park in exactly the same spot, at the same time with the same propagation, but if you go out often enough, things start coming together. So, for a clock, I use a $20 digital watch that has two time-zones. I set it to show local and UTC at the same time. For logging I use a spiral notepad. I write the date on a new page, the location, the radio, the antenna, the maidenhead locator and anything new I'm trialling. When I listen up and down the band, I'll write down each callsign I hear, their frequency and a signal report. If I manage to make contact, which as a QRP station can be a rewarding challenge, I'll add the time, their signal report and some other information they share, like their name and location. I'll also add two exclamation marks in the margin, so I know that I need to log this contact in my logging software. I tried using my phone, but logging software is not that good, a computer runs out of battery before you make your first contact, or just goes to sleep when you get a signal report and nothing beats looking at your wrist for seeing what time it is right now. Antenna wise, I'm still fooling around with my mono-band verticals, it's been over a year now and while frustrating, I'm still learning about what they do and don't do. I ask most amateurs I come across about their opinion and have been given lots of great and some dud information along the way. All in all, most of my activity is about learning. Every now and then I manage a DX contact and that's very rewarding. Meanwhile, the hunt for Morse continues. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio There are times when you'll find yourself being encouraged to participate in a contest. You might receive an email, a Facebook encouragement, or even hear an item on the local news about a contest. Where do you start if that's what you're interested in? Well, first things first. You need to find out when this contest is exactly. The reason this is important is because you might go though all the preparation, only to find yourself sitting at a family BBQ listening to your favourite family member sharing the story about the dog and the lake, rather than being in the contest. Once you've determined that you are in fact able to participate in the contest, put it in your diary. This seems obvious, but I can guarantee you that there will come a day when you're happily sitting in the sun having lunch when that sinking feeling appears and you realise that the contest you were going to play in started 8 hours ago. Now that you've got the basics out of the way, what's next? Find the contest website, most contests have one, in fact I can't think of one that doesn't, and look at what the aims and objectives of the contest are. Download a copy of the rules and see if there are things that exclude you from operating. The contest might be on bands you're not allowed on, or modes you're not licensed for, so make sure that you're actually allowed to participate. Then read the rules of the contest for understanding. Most contests define who is allowed to contact whom at what time, on what frequency and how often. The rules will outline how points are calculated and how the log needs to be submitted. Other things you'll find are the deadline for log submission, the exclusions, power requirements, bonus points for low power operation, things like operating more than one radio, or having more than one operator. Terms you'll come across are SO2R, or Single Operator Two Radios. Or Multi-Multi which means Multiple Operators with Multiple Radios, or Multi-Single, meaning Multiple Operators, One Radio and all manner of special classes as defined by the contest manager. Previously I've talked about getting logging software together, setting up your station and testing it, but those things all need to be covered off. Make sure your computer doesn't need a Windows Update in the middle of the contest, get enough sleep before the festivities and plan for some recovery time after the contest. This of course doesn't cover all of what you need, but it's a really good start. Get on air and make some noise. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio Today I was looking around my shack and noticed that I have lots of different amateur radio tools that go beyond the simple bits and pieces that I started with, namely a radio, battery, power supply, coax and antenna. While I have no illusion that my gear is complete, or even representative of all of the stuff that you might need or come across, I think that it's worth while to mention a few bits and pieces that you may not have considered. I think the first thing I got that wasn't part of the basic kit, was a dummy load. It's only a little one, rated at 50 Watts or so, but seeing that I'm only using 5, that's more than enough. I use it to check things like VOX sensitivity, that is, I want to set-up a way to talk into my radio without having to push a button - for when I'm doing a contest, and I don't actually want to transmit any signal while testing, so I plug in the dummy load and test with that. I also use it to plug into the end of a piece of coax that I'm testing. I can tell you, it's helped me find some dodgy coax over the years. I have a range of adaptors, from PL259, SO239, N-type, SMA, BNC, male-to-male, male-to-female, female-to-female, all different permutations. They're all in one box and I have that with me whenever I go portable, it's saved my bacon more times than I can remember. I have a multi-meter, the most often used part of it is the continuity beep. You can set it to beep if there is a short, which is great for testing power leads, coax shorts and the like. I splurged and purchased an antenna analyser. It's helping me understand the errors of my ways while building antennas, though I confess that on more than one occasion it added to the confusion. I have a coax cutter, a pair of high quality pliers, though one of my so called friends left it in the rain one day, so they're less quality than they were, an Anderson Powerpole crimper, a gas soldering iron - so you can solder in the field, a third-hand, since holding something while soldering is an excellent way to get a scar to impress your friends. On my workbench I have a lighted magnifying glass, since the older I get the harder it is to focus on small things. I have a bag of clip-on torroids which I use in places where operating surprises me with bonus RF interference. I also have stuff like cable-ties, electrical tape, self-amalgamating tape and a fair bit of rope. You'll notice that I don't have an SWR meter, I figured that the one in my radio and the antenna analyser combined were enough. I'm sure there are other things that I take for granted, but the items I've outlined are in regular use. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio Today I had the pleasure of talking to a group of freshly minted Amateurs. It's a semi-regular occurrence where I visit a local club that offers training to obtain an Amateur License. I should mention that you'll find clubs like this all over the place and there are often opportunities to do remote examinations if you're too far from an assessor. This however isn't about becoming an Amateur, that's something that I'll leave entirely up to you, even if I think that being an Amateur is a wonderful thing. One of the things I like about this hobby is that it's different things to different people. There is a huge variety of aspects to this pursuit of Amateur Radio and as I've said in the past, it's really a thousand hobbies rolled into one. In Australia there are three so-called classes of license, think of it as a moped licence, a car license and a truck license. If you want to drive a truck you need that one, but if you're on a moped, there's no need to spend your efforts on learning to double-de-clutch a Ranger gearbox - something I can assure you from personal experience is hard to master, but fun to get right. The three licenses in Australia, Foundation, Standard and Advanced each have different privileges, access to different but overlapping aspects of the hobby. One privilege within the class of license that I hold, the Foundation or F-call, is that I'm limited to using 10 Watts. I've spoken about this restriction many times, in fact, the very first time I shared my opinion about this hobby in this forum was exactly about those pesky 10 Watts and what is possible with them. Back to the freshly minted Amateurs. It occurred to me that while I was explaining the amazing width and breadth of our hobby, that the 10 Watts, while completely arbitrary, and often lambasted for being so, is actually a blessing in disguise. When you get on air, or if you already have the privilege to do so, you'll learn or already know that making contacts with a wet piece of string is pretty hard, nigh on impossible with 10 Watts. One solution is to add more power. A better, more elegant solution, is to get a better antenna. So, the blessing in disguise that 10 Watts represents is really all about forcing a Foundation Licensee to spend considerable effort in their antenna system. Something which we might all agree on is a good thing, if only to clear the air of alligators, big mouth, no ears. I'll take the risk of repeating myself. It's not how much power, but what you do with it that matters. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio A recurring topic of conversation is propagation. There is learned discussion about sun-spots, A and K indices, forecasts, ionospheric probing, not to mention half-baked guess work from less scientific perspectives. It's been my experience that all these tools are wonderful, but none of them beat turning on your radio and having a listen, or better still putting out a call. So when do you listen and where do you listen? The trivial response would be everywhere, all the time, but none of us has enough time for that. In general, 20m, 14 MHz works most of the time. At night, frequencies lower than 20m, that is 40m, 7 MHz and 80m 3.5 MHz work better. During the day, higher frequencies, 15m, 21 MHz and 10m, 28 MHz work better. Of course this is not a hard and fast rule. As I said previously, there is no such thing as a perfect antenna, in fact we can prove that it cannot actually exist. Similarly, there is no such thing as perfect propagation. We tend to think of propagation in terms of layers in the ionosphere, the D, E and F layers. We might think of them as specific, distinct things, but the reality is that they're more like clouds. Clouds are not uniform in cover, sometimes fluffy, other times dense thunderclouds and an infinite variety in between. Coverage is variable and forecasting is a real challenge. And that's for something we can see. The ionosphere is no different. It's not uniform, it's not predictable and forecasting is hard. Back to the clouds for a moment; you might have a forecast for rain, but it's perfectly dry where you are. Similarly, you might have a forecast of poor propagation, but it's perfectly fine where you are. So, best tip is to use the forecasts you have access to, but stick your head out of the window to see if it's raining right now. If that was too obscure, turn on your radio and make some noise, even if the sunspot count is rubbish and the Ionospheric Prediction Service tells you that nothing is going to work. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio Today I'm operating portable, in fact I'm operating portable every day. Though I'd have to confess, some days more than others. I have to do this by necessity. There is lots of RF noise at home, so I'm forced to physically move away from the interference and set up elsewhere. You can do this as simply or as complex as you like. I've done it with a bag that contained my radio, a battery and a wire antenna that I strung between two trees. I've also gone portable with my car, camping gear, a trailer full of radio gear, a wind up mast and a rotatable dipole with a generator to provide power. And everything in between. My point is that for every circumstance there is a different set of tools that will solve your problem. Several amateurs I've spoken to are quite unsure about this portable adventure and are not really geared up for such shenanigans even if they're interested to get out and about. So what is involved with going portable? The essence of any station is the antenna. If you know where you're going to operate and why, you can figure out what kind and how much of an antenna you need to bring. Likely a mast and rotator are not part of the deal, but I have set up a yagi on mast in a park for a contest. If you don't know where you're going to be, you need to come up with a solution that is more flexible. Either a self supporting vertical with something like a squid pole or a wire antenna that you can throw into a tree. The next challenge is power. Are you going to operate for a little while or are you going to set up for 48 hours to participate in a contest. Are you going to be using low power, 5 watts, or are you in a position where you can give an amplifier a workout? Batteries, generators, your car or a solar panel, all of these can power your radio in different situations. Are you planning to make a few contacts, or are you expecting a huge pileup to get your blood pumping? Logging for either requires a different solution. You should always, always consider the weather when you're operating portable. Sun, wind, rain, storm, hot and cold all have different implications for you personally and the wear and tear of your equipment. So prepare yourself. Just like when you started your shack, you had to figure out what goes where and how will I use it? Portable operation is no different. A tip for new players, less is more. You have to carry all this stuff, so expect to make compromises. You won't be able to take everything in your shack, unless you already built it in the back of your vehicle, in which case I'd like an invite to come and visit. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio Recently I was asked about finding the best antenna calculator. It's a tool that helps you determine what the length of an antenna should be for a particular frequency. Picture a dipole antenna, two wires, end to end, strung out horizontally, joined in the middle by a feed point. A dipole is most effective if its total length is half of the wavelength of the frequency it's intended for. To calculate what that is, you divide the speed of light by the frequency. So, for argument sake, the wavelength for 28.5 MHz is roughly 10 m, which makes sense, since 28.5 MHz is in the 10 m band. If you use your favourite search engine to find a dipole calculator, you'll find many different ones. If you try a few, you'll find that the answers that each calculator gives is slightly different. For a half-wave dipole on 28.5 MHz, you'll find that there is a half meter variation among the calculated answers. If you do this for a dipole for 3.5 MHz, you'll find the variation is just over 4 m between the shortest calculated dipole and the longest one. That's a 5% variation across a calculated response. That's strange, since the calculation should be the same across all different calculators. So what's going on? Let's start with the wave length. If you use the speed of light as 300.000 km per second, then a frequency of 28.5 MHz is 10.526 m, but if you use the actual speed of light, there's a 7mm difference. Right, simple, so there should be two types of answers, those that use 300.000 km per second and those that use the actual speed. Unfortunately, no. You could use "majority rules" and pick the calculated answer that turns up most often, but science isn't a democracy. It's either correct or it ain't and you have no way of knowing which is which. What you're actually witnessing when you see all these answers with the overall 5% spread is different approximations of the answer. Calculator is a word that implies precision and accuracy, but what's actually happening is that each calculator uses their own fudge factor to get closer to the starting point. It's all in an attempt to get to an actual answer quicker, since hoisting an antenna, measuring, lowering it, trimming it, hoisting it again and so-on, is not fun with a 10m antenna, let alone an 80m antenna. Some of the fudge is related to how high the antenna is off the ground, the thickness of the wire used, if the wire has insulation on it and how thick that insulation is, what the soil type is and what angle it's actually hanging at and how far it's from other things. What this really means is that you need to experiment. When you buy wire, buy long, cut in little bits, measure lots and try it. A calculator will get you in the ball-park, but you already know the nominal length for a dipole as it is, it's right there, in the band name. So, just because you've found a fancy calculator online, doesn't make it right for your circumstance. One tip, plot all the antenna length results from the various calculators and see what the curve looks like, you'll see a wonderful distribution curve that just begs to be used. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio In your travels around the sun it's likely you've heard the phrase: "Use it or lose it." Within the ranks of our hobby, that refers to making noise on air and using the bands we've been allocated. It's easy to sit in your shack - in what ever form that might take - turn on your radio and scan up and down the bands to see what's going on. If something interesting catches your fancy, you might even plug your microphone or key in, and actually call the other station. Unfortunately, that's not using the bands, that's sitting on the side and listening. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it's no way to ensure that the bands and privileges we enjoy today are going to be here tomorrow. Over the past few years I've come across several ideas to change that. I've seen blogs and posts from individuals who attempt to make a contact every day, in what ever form they prefer. Some don't distinguish between local or DX contacts, portable or QRP, whatever takes their fancy. In New Zealand there's the ZL2AL Memorial Activity Marathon. You get recognition for making 4 or more contacts on a specific number of days during the year. Some amateurs are working on a single contact per day, others are attempting a QRP QSO every day. Imagine if all the amateurs in the world made one contact every week. In Australia alone that would generate 2000 extra contacts every day. You can limit your activity to making contacts when it suits, or during a contest, or on the way to work on the local repeater, or you can spread your wings and make contacts more often than that. I know for a while - until my antenna circumstances changed - I was making at least one contact a day. I kept that up for nearly a year. I'm still getting the QSL cards coming in the mail. So, don't wait for permission to get on-air. Don't wait for "just the right conditions", turn on your radio, plug in your microphone and make a contact. Why not do it right now? I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio Today propagation is what it is, yesterday it was different and tomorrow it will be different again. It's one of the fundamental aspects of amateur radio. We talk about propagation on air, like we do the weather. Rain, sun, snow or storm, there's always something. Of course most of those weather events have no impact on radio. A rain drop isn't going to make a great deal of difference to a HF signal, other than potentially making the operator wet, or creating a short-circuit in an unexpected way. Propagation on the other hand has little or no effect in day-to-day life, other than your GPS, mobile phone or other electronic device. In radio however, propagation makes the difference between only hearing your neighbours and speaking to another station on the other side of the globe. In the past I've mentioned that if you skip a stone across a lake, you get a good idea about how radio waves bounce off the ionosphere and in doing so, make it possible to hear and be heard beyond the line of sight of your antenna. A stone is a fixed object and water has a pretty uniform density, so you get mostly predictable results. The ionosphere is not uniform and radio waves are not fixed, so the result is anything but predictable. That said, a great number of people are working on providing propagation prediction tools in an attempt to provide us with somewhat more of a reliable outcome. Once you step into this area, you'll come across the A and K indices, the Solar Flux and Geomagnetic and Solar Flare numbers. You'll find websites like solarham.com, bandconditions.com, spaceweather.tv and many others. Sometimes they'll even agree with each other - which is interesting in itself, since the source of actual data is pretty limited. We have the Ionospheric Prediction Service or IPS in Australia, in the US there's the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA. All this is to attempt to quantify what the sun is doing and how this affects the ionosphere and in turn our experience as radio operators. If you know anything about predicting the weather, that is, what is the temperature going to be today and is it going to rain, you'll understand that predicting solar activity and its impact on us is a less than perfect experience. In 1959 we managed to snap the first images of the far side of the Moon, it took until 2011 for us to do the same with the sun. Many of our predictions are really observations and imperfect ones at that, coming from the two STEREO spacecraft, one orbiting the sun ahead of the earth, the other behind the earth, combined they manage to cover the back of the sun. In the end, the predictions on carrying an umbrella or not are like predicting whether to operate or not. It's a prediction. Nothing beats turning on your radio and having a go. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio Recently I read a comment a fellow amateur made about an antenna. He said: "Of course, that antenna is a compromise..." Let me say that again: "That antenna is a compromise ..." It was the funniest thing I'd seen all week and the person making the statement wasn't even trying to be funny. Unless you're looking at the Sun from a distance, or checking out the propagation associated with the Big Bang, All Antennas are a compromise. We can prove that an isotropic antenna, one that is a theoretical point source of radio waves, cannot actually exist, so that basically means that you cannot have it all, ever. Once you've got your head around the notion that no such thing as a perfect antenna actually exists, or can exist, it makes sense that amateurs around the world spend so much time discussing and trialling antennas. As you get involved in Amateur Radio, you'll soon realise that the number of variables to construct an antenna is large. The more you learn, the more variables you unearth. Initially, you'll learn that the length of the radiator will determine the resonant frequency, then you'll learn that the thickness affects this, then whether or not there is insulation, what material it's made from, how high it's off the ground, what soil type there is, what's nearby, how it's fed, where it's fed, if it's stranded or solid, not to mention shape, orientation, frequency and other variables you'll unearth along the discovery process. The take-away should be that playing with antennas, while not immediately satisfying, is a fundamental part of this hobby. It's the final link in the chain and the single largest influence on the effectiveness of our station. In all this, I've just looked at the physics of the antenna, but other variables also come into play. The amount of actual space you have available, the depth of your wallet, the availability of materials, the feedback from your neighbours or your local council, your family and their acceptance of your crazy pursuit. Patience and propagation also take a large chunk of the pie. Is there the ultimate antenna? Yup. It's an isotropic antenna and it cannot exist. Everything else is up for grabs. So what ever works for you is good. Compare your efforts with your fellow amateurs and ask questions. Duplicate other efforts, trial stuff, make noise, get on air and see what happens. A popular metaphor, that an infinite number of monkeys, banging on an infinite number of typewriters, left to their own devices, sooner or later will reproduce the works of William Shakespeare. It's like that with amateur radio. We just evolved to play with antennas, rather than typewriters. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio Today we have a standard for our on-air phonetic alphabet - technically it's called a spelling alphabet, but I digress. As you should be aware if you're a licensed Amateur, we use the so-called standard phonetic alphabet. It's used and defined by several organisations, including the International Telecommunications Union, the International Civil Aviation Organisation and NATO. It should come as no surprise that each of those organisations defines their own alphabet. It just so happens that today each of these definitions is the same, but that hasn't always been the case. In the United Kingdom, Alpha went through Apples, Ack, Ace, Able an Affirm. In the United States, Alpha has been Able, Affirmative, Afirm, Able, Alfa. In Amateur Radio we've heard America, Amsterdam and even Australia. All that for just the letter that we spell as Alpha. If that's not enough, try on Adams, Adam, Anatole, Anton, Ancona, Antonio, Anna, Aarne, Adana, Aveiro, Amor, Ana and Avala. No wonder we have a few different spellings that we hear on air when we're busy spelling our callsign to the other station. Where does that leave you? Well, the ACMA specifies in their amateur operating procedures the International Phonetic Alphabet and it is recommended for use by amateur station licensees. Note that it's recommended, not mandated. My best advice is to learn and love the standard phonetic alphabet. It's been almost standard since 1956. That's not to say you won't hear me call Victor King Six Florida London America Boston on occasion, when I'm trying to talk to some station that hasn't a clue that I have a legitimate callsign with a four letter suffix and they need to be sure that I know that it's real. The recommended procedure when dealing with a Pirate is to go silent. You won't believe how many stations went quiet whilst I was working my latest contest. Those four letters do cause some grief, but I understand, it was only introduced recently, as close as 2005, so it's understandable that not everyone has heard of an Australian Foundation call, let alone get their head around the standard phonetic alphabet. I'm Onno Vice Kilogramme, Soxisix, Frank Loves Amsterdam Beer

Foundations of Amateur Radio Today I want to talk about things to say and do in a contest. Before I begin, I must point out that there are many views on this and depending on your aim for the contest, what I'm going to talk about will be different. First of all, a contest is an Amateur Radio activity that starts and stops at a particular time. Often this time is expressed as UTC, or Universal Time. Since there are several official time-zones and more unofficial time-zones here in VK alone, you'll need to check your own location to determine what the actual local time is, but for my money, I have a watch that is set to UTC and during a contest I put it on my wrist. Apart from the rules for each contest, often described in mind-numbing detail with particular exceptions for different issues, often grown over time, there is a basic aim to get on air, make contact with other stations and exchange a salient piece of information. This information of course varies with the contest, but the most common exchange is a serial number. What that means is that your first contact is 001, your second 002 and so-on. I mention the double zero, since they are often expected and leaving them out is a source of confusion for the other station. Especially if their first language isn't English. So, you give out a signal report, followed by the serial number which often will be something like 59001, 59002 and so on. The very first thing people say about a contest is that signal reports are bogus. The reason they're bogus, always 5/9, is because it reduces the time it takes to say them, and more importantly, to log them. Most contesting software doesn't require you to enter the signal report and you need to spend extra effort to change them, often much more than just typing in the correct digits. So, despite your misgivings, if you're in a contest and you're talking to another contester and you're playing to win, then 5/9 is the signal report. If you make many contacts you'll learn that there is a rhythm to making a contest contact. The more rhythmic you can make it, the more likely you'll succeed in getting through the contact quicker. And that really is the point, less words, more contacts, saving your voice, less misunderstanding, better contest result. This is not the conduct you'd do on a rainy Tuesday afternoon when you're chewing the fat, or on air also known as rag-chewing, this is specifically during a contest or pile-up. In the local contests it's fine to say "Hi", use the words "My number to you is", but in the rest of the world these are just not helping. During a contest there is no discussion about your radio, your antenna, your dog or what you'd like to buy when you win LOTTO, it's about the quickest, most accurate contact you can make. Let's imagine I'm searching and pouncing; that means I'm moving around the band looking for contacts. Let's imagine that K1DG is running; which means they're on a single frequency calling CQ Contest. The bare bones of a contest contact between K1DG and VK6FLAB during an SSB contest contact would be like this: K1DG contest VK6FLAB VK6FLAB 59667 QSL 59667 59001 QSL 59001 K1DG contest Now in that exchange I've said a grand total of 18 words. K1DG has said 23. The whole thing is 41 words, no more, no less. Of course, callsign length increases or decreases that count. Some things to observe. I never say their callsign. There is an assumption that if you're calling someone who is running you'll spend a few moments listening for their callsign, either before or after the contact, no need to tell them what it is, they already know it and it's 4 words extra, plus the pause between the two callsigns, it breaks the rhythm of the contact. K1DG when he's running a pile-up is not going to call CQ, but not saying his callsign at all is worse than not saying CQ. There are people who are tuning up and down the band like I was, who want to know who the station is because they may or may not want to work the station. And the opposite is also true, the station might want to work you. So if you're the running station, say your callsign at the end of every contact. Note that the rhythm continues. In the example, after confirming my number, K1DG has already called "contest" and is ready for the next contact. Note that there is no discussion about anything other than the exchange. It's over before it began and in a contest or a pile-up, that's a really good thing. Less transmission means less noise, means faster contacts, means more stations getting an exchange, everybody wins. Finally, this is about a contest or pile-up exchange. It isn't about a day-to-day contact, but it pays to know and practice it. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio The hobby we call Amateur Radio is hard to explain to anyone outside. I was recently asked about what it was about the experience that had me hooked. I talked about Summits on the Air, SOTA, Islands on the Air, IOTA, World Wide Flora and Fauna, WWFF and satellite communications. DX hunting and competitions, but I never quite managed to capture what it all really means. Since then I came across a really wonderful explanation about what it is that we have here. Said simply, Amateur Radio is a thousand hobbies in one place, each with their own community, their own skills, their own gear, pursuits and club-songs. For some it's the pursuit of making a contact using low power and Morse-code, for the next it's building the key to make that happen, the next person wants to build the radio, the amplifier, the twin-feed, the mast, go camping, etc. etc. The characterisation of 1000 hobbies in one place under the umbrella also helps in other ways. It highlights that we're all different, with experiences that are both shared and unique. All coming together under the single, almost trivial moniker of: "I am a radio amateur." The take-away from this is of course that you can do inside our hobby what interests you. Find people with the same outlook, or people who are smarter than you, or people who push you, or make you laugh, or make fun of you. All these things are within our hobby. Your job is simple. Find your own place among us. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio The origins of names of things in Amateur Radio has a long and internet riddled history, with hear-say and false memories added. The humble BNC connector was patented in 1951. BNC doesn't stand for Baby N-Connector, Bayonet N-connector, British Naval Connector, Berry Nice Connector, Berkeley Neucleonics Corporation or any such name. Apparently, it's named after it's inventors Paul Neill and Carl Concelman, the Bayonet Neill-Concelman connector. They went on to invent the Threaded Neill-Concelman connector, the TNC. A sub-miniature version of these connectors came in three types, A, B and C, called SMA, SMB and SMC. Also, the N-type connector was invented by the very same Paul Neill at Bell Labs, and the C connector came from Carl. The Yagi antenna, was invented in 1926 by Shintaro Uda in collaboration with Hidetsugu Yagi, both of Tohoku Imperial University in Japan. It's actually called an Yagi-Uda antenna. Yagi described the antenna in English in 1928 and his name became associated with the antenna. The PL-259 and SO-239 connectors are not so clear-cut. The PL for plug and SO for socket seems to be agreed on. There are several explanations on the numbers, but the most persistent one seems to be that it was a US army part number. They're also referred to as UHF connectors and if you know that they were invented in the 1930s, you'll understand that UHF frequencies started at 30MHz and "above", which in practical terms meant 300MHz. An interesting thing to note is that a standard banana plug mates properly with an SO239, so you can just plug your long-wire straight into the socket. Of course we have the Volt, the Ohm, the Ampere and the Farad, named after Italian physicist Alessandro Volta, German physicist Georg Simon Ohm, French physicist and mathematician André-Marie Ampère and English physicist Michael Faraday. Everything is named after something. Sometimes we even remember what that was and where it came from. What things have you learned about names in Amateur Radio? I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio Today in Amateur Radio is no different from yesterday, last year, last decade or longer. The hobby today is filled with people who are here to have fun, learn stuff and experiment. This hasn't changed since our hobby came into being. You can argue that the hobby has seen a great many changes. We have seen spark-gap transmitters, valves, transistors, miniaturisation, chips and now software defined radios. The experimental nature of our pursuit has not changed. We still spend time looking for cool stuff to do and people to do it with. And that's the single point I'd like to make. Finding people "to do it with". If you're a new amateur you might look to a club or your fellow classmates to combine your efforts. This can be a great way to forge life-long friendships and it's a sure fire way to find exposure to other ideas and activities. There might come a time when you find yourself at a loss what to do next, or who to do it with. You might lament that the group you're hanging out with are not doing fun stuff anymore, or that activities never quite happen or any number of observations that make it less fun to be part of amateur radio. I've now been here for a little while and I've noticed that some of my fellow amateurs have fallen by the way-side. Of course family and changing interests will account for some of that, but often it's a lack of something to do that makes people fade away. There is nothing stopping you from organising your own event. You can plan a camp-out, or an antenna testing day, or a DX activity, a contest, an activation, some software hacking, or hardware building, soldering training, learning how to log, how to do a QSO, or any number of other things. If you tell the community about it, you're likely to be surprised by some other amateur who was just thinking to do the same thing. So, don't wait for someone else to do your fun activity. If you focus on doing things that you enjoy, you might find a few like-minded friends who will participate. I'm keen to hear your ideas and activities, so drop me a line. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio There are things that surprise me about this amazing hobby of Amateur Radio every day. One thing that is not a surprise is that some part of the general public thinks that I'm crazy, a lunatic, or worse, someone or something to be feared. Picture this. My car is parked in a car-park, next to some bush-land. Behind the car is a 12m fibre-glass squid-pole with a delta-loop hanging off it. The car-doors are open, it's a warm day, and I'm sitting in the driver's seat with a good friend coaching from the passenger side. I'm calling CQ and trying to figure out if this antenna works. Cue, Isobelle, she's the local ranger for the park we're in. She pulls up in her truck and comes out with "So, what's going on here then?" We explain that we're radio amateurs and that we're testing an antenna. She tells us that someone has seen us, phoned it into the ranger and she's been tasked to come out and check. We'd been set-up for all of 15 minutes. Two days later, I'm in my local park, 2 minutes walk from my home, trying to see if the delta-loop will reduce some of the RF noise I get at home. I've brought along a fishing rod, some guy wires, walked around the park, found a suitable tree, unpacked my stuff, cast a sinker across the tree, hoisted up the delta-loop, secured it to a nearby fence and strapped the feed point to the tree with some webbing. I'm sitting on the ground with my radio, having a fine chat with a fellow amateur when two likely lads walk up in ranger uniforms. I tell my fellow amateur that I've got to go, as I have two visitors. We finish up and I ask, "Hello, how can I help you?" One ranger tells me that they have had a report from a neighbour who told them that there was this lunatic putting ropes in trees and doing weird stuff. He goes on to tell me that he's quite disappointed to see the actuality of a radio amateur setting up an antenna. Seems our ranger was in the emergency services in a prior life and has some experience with HF wire antennae. They have a look around to make sure that it's not unsafe and that I've not damaged any trees and finish off with wishing me a great day. I learned two things from this. Expect to be noticed and think about how the public might interact with what you're doing. Also, be mindful of public safety, ensure that your setup isn't a health hazard to someone. So, those are my lunatic amateur stories, what stories do you have to tell? Drop me a line and let me know. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio Today I learned something new. A good antenna makes a big difference and you can hear it. Of late, I've been using the antennas on the boot of my car and have for some time all but abandoned my 12m spider-beam squid pole. As you might recall, the very first antenna I ever built was a quasi-random length vertical with 16 radials. Each of the 17 wires is about 12.5 meters long, so there is a lot of wire, wound onto a garden hose reel for transport, lots of effort in setting up, lining up and stuff to do before I can actually get on air. In a HF quiet area it works pretty well but it's too big for most back yards; it takes up a circle of 25m diameter and needs either guy wires or a car at the base. I went back to the drawing board. Using my trusty SG237 antenna coupler, I found a design online for a delta-loop. It's 120 foot or just over 36.5 meters of wire, setup in a triangle with the SGC coupler at the middle of the base. Yes, I know, the take-off angle isn't optimal, but oh my, what a difference in signal strength. Of course, from a setting up perspective, strap the squid pole to a vertical structure of some sort, roll out the wire, stick it to the top of the pole, erect the pole, click the antenna coupler in place and you're good to go. Call it 5 minutes. Perhaps an analogy that will help is that the difference between the HF antenna in my car and the delta-loop suspended from the 12m pole is like cleaning your glasses, you can see perfectly well through them, but when you clean them, you can see more than you thought was there. For my portable contest and QRP operation I'm going to have a look-see at a set of delta-loops, still suspended from my squid-pole, but this time cut to resonant length with no tuner at the base at all - and I can feed it at the bottom corner where it makes for a better take-off angle. Before I forget, a take-off angle is like the angle at which you skip a stone across a lake. If you do it too steep, you get bloop, rather than a skipping stone; the better the angle, the more skips. The same is true for HF radio signals. Make the angle too high and you get bloop, make it low and you can hear stuff on the other side of the planet. The experimentation with antennas continues, and I'm beginning to learn, it will for the rest of my life. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio There is a persistent perception among a small part of the amateur community that you need to build, buy or use antennas with a perfect 1:1 SWR to get the best results. Sometimes a contest erupts with who can get the lowest SWR. Without getting technical, since that could take hours and you have better things to do. A 50 Ohm dummy load has a perfect SWR of 1:1 and you should already know that a proper dummy load doesn't radiate, so while it has a perfect SWR it's not a perfect antenna. If your SWR meter reads 1.5:1, you're losing 3% of your signal, at 2:1 it's 11%, so just because the SWR is 2, doesn't mean you've got a dud antenna. Now I should point out that this can be a particularly dense topic if you get into the finer detail and if you do a search for "Understanding SWR by Example", you'll come across a delightful and very detailed document written by Darrin K5DVW and published in QST magazine that goes into pictures, graphs and explanations and also discusses ladder line. So, you can now stop hunting for the perfect 1:1 SWR and learn what your SWR meter is telling you. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio This week I spent several hours in a park with a mast, guy wires, some coax, an antenna analyser, copper wire, a balun, cable ties and a pair of pliers, not to mention a tape measure, a calculator and several experienced amateurs. We set out to create a linked dipole antenna for a portable activation that we're working on. If you're unfamiliar with the concept of a linked dipole, it's simple. Imagine a dipole for 10m. It's about 5m long with a connection to the feed in the middle. At each end of the dipole is a connector of some sort - in our case, just some bare wire while we were building the contraption - and then some method of joining a piece of wire, in such a way that you can either opt to have the bits electrically connected, or just physically. If you repeat this, then you end up with a normal dipole that's made up of segments that you can either connect or not. This means that when a segment is connected, the dipole becomes resonant on a lower frequency, since the electrical length increases, and if you disconnect it, it becomes resonant on a higher frequency. The purpose of this contraption is to have a single antenna that you can simply lift up in the middle and use. To change bands, you lower the thing, then you either disconnect or connect a segment, and then you raise it again. The internet is full of calculators that will give you the length of a dipole for a given frequency. You'll find some that account for the thickness of the wire, the thickness of any insulation and the angle at which the dipole is hanging from the centre and the height above ground. Unfortunately my experience thus far is that none of these actually give you the real length, just the theoretical one. The actual length could be longer or shorter, so this means that for any given calculator, you need to cut the wire long and then trim as required. While you're doing this, the length of the antenna changes, the angle at which your antenna hangs changes and the height of the antenna above ground also changes. If that's not enough, the soil on which your antenna is being built will change the characteristics of the antenna as well. Most of this wasn't a surprise to me and as soon as you start playing with this, you'll observe the very same phenomenon. What took me by surprise is that the method of tuning, cut, measure, cut, measure, cut, measure, cut, that I'd been using with much frustration is still the very same method if you're an experienced amateur. The only difference that I could discern in the shared activity was that it came with jokes, laughter, arguments and assistance, which when you're doing something as frustrating as tuning a wire dipole, is a great benefit. So, thank you to my friends for starting this caper. And if you're off on a dipole building party, bring some friends. It won't make it any easier, but it will be more rewarding. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio Amateur Radio is as much about having fun as it is about learning. Sometimes they go hand-in-hand, sometimes not so much. The 7Ps of Amateur Radio are as valid today as they were 100 years ago, Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance. Amateur Radio Planning can take many forms, but the basics include creating a permanent checklist. The notion of creating one every time means that you forget every time what you learned last time, so if you create a permanent one and then revise it from time-to-time, you'll be able to incorporate lessons learned, like "bring the radio face-plate control cable", and "bring the quarter inch jack adaptor", so you don't end up repeating the same lesson over and over. Test your gear at home. Not just turn it on, but set up the mast, check that you have guy wires and anchors. Check that you have enough coax to connect your antenna to your radio, spare batteries, etc. One trick I learned recently is to have a red and green label or elastic band. Attach the appropriate colour to your batteries, so you can instantly see if the battery you're lifting up is charged or not. Look at maps, bring instructions to get to places, look at Google Earth and remember that power lines might not show up on a satellite map, but they're sure going to annoy you when you get on air. Street view is handy to check out power-lines. Try different antennas. Verticals are easy to setup, but sometimes depending on your location they can be noisy. Dipoles need two supports, but an inverted V only needs one. Wire antennas can be simple to make and cheap to get bits for and repair, but they're not like the yagi you left at home. A really helpful comment I read from Julie VK3FOWL and Joe VK3YSP is that you shouldn't be embarrassed by your hobby. Be seen, be visible, talk to people. You'll be amazed at the amount of interest you get, people are curious, they'll sticky-beak whenever they can. Amateur Radio is not the only thing you can do when you're out and about. Go for walks, go hiking, fishing or drink beer around the campfire, whatever floats your boat. Just like you can see stars at night in the bush, you can hear radio when you're away from interference. You'll hear stuff you never heard before and likely you'll get hooked into either astronomy or radio in the bush, or both. There is much more to discuss about planning, but the basic premise is that it pays to think through the activity, the process of packing, driving, setting up, operating, living on-site, packing up and driving back. Think about food, safety, emergencies, fuel, and remember, Amateur Radio is not worth dying over, this is a hobby. Laugh, have fun, be merry. Yes, in case you're wondering, the 7Ps don't come from Amateur Radio, but just like the US Marine Corps Antenna Handbook, search for "r3403c", we can learn lots from them about both antennas and planning. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio Cabrillo and ADIF are likely two terms you've heard if you've done anything with logging or contesting. So what are they, how do they work and why does it matter? Let's start with Cabrillo. It's a file format used for submitting an electronic log to a contest manager. It was developed by Trey N5KO in 1999 for the ARRL. It's up to version 3.0, but the intent is that the older v2 files are still readable by todays programmes. The aim of the Cabrillo format is to provide some meta information, like the contest name, the person who did the contest, what club they're part of, where they live, what category, etc. After that, each contact is shown as a single line with a fixed format that shows the frequency, the mode, time-stamp, exchange and other pertinent details. Significantly it does not contain any point information, because the intent is that the contest manager imports each log and their software calculates the actual score, dealing with the rules as defined by the contest, duplicates, multipliers etc. The format for all of this is precisely defined and all the fields for a contact are required. The only other comment about Cabrillo is that it was developed to allow both humans and computers to read it easily. At first glance, the ADIF format is all but the same. It deals with amateur radio stuff, contacts and the like. But at second glance, ADIF, or Amateur Data Interchange Format is really not the same. For starters, if you open up an ADIF file in a text editor you'll immediately notice that it's all but unreadable by a human. If you know what you're looking at you have a good chance to glean meaning, but at the first look it will appear as gobble-de-gook. The ADIF file format is intended to be a way of exchanging any amateur information, such as awards multipliers, packet spot data, contest rules and it is intended to be expandable to include and incorporate any new kind of information as our hobby evolves. There are countless ADIF fields, things like the reporting a short wave listener report, or an encryption key, or the grid square of the station, or the propagation mode, or any number of other values. So, if you think of Cabrillo as the bare-bones of a contest contact log and ADIF as all the information you ever wanted to log and hadn't thought of logging, you'll have the right idea. I should point out that both file formats are text. That means that if you open them up in a text editor you can look at them. Word of warning for the unwary, you can really break an ADIF file by editing it in a text editor. If you want to exchange amateur radio information with another amateur, use ADIF. If you want to submit a contest log, use Cabrillo. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio There are questions that happen, over and over again. In computing they're called FAQ's, or Frequently Asked Questions. Here are some that happen in Amateur Radio. What radio should I buy? It depends on your budget. Where are you going to be using this radio, at home, in the car, in a park or on a mountain? Will you have power where you are, will you be using HF, or will you be using VHF, UHF and above? Ask other amateurs around you, use their radios and have a play. What is the best antenna? The one that works. You can buy, build or borrow. Try out several ones, trade off size, space, cost, functionality and simplicity. It can be as simple as a single piece of wire, or as complex as a remote controlled and adjustable multi-band antenna. When should I be trying to make a contact, or what is the best frequency to be on? The one that works. If you're tuning up and down the band and you hear nothing, and you've checked that the squelch isn't closed and your antenna is connected, change bands and have a look elsewhere. You might think that there are specific times for specific bands, but that just isn't true. There are too many variables to make a hard and fast rule. You'll get pleasant surprises at sun-rise and sun-set. Look up the grey-line. How much power do I need? Just enough to make the contact. Sometimes that's 5 Watts or less, sometimes 100 Watts isn't enough. Conditions vary greatly and every time you turn on your radio is a new adventure. Can I use my radio in the car legally? Yes. Your hand microphone is permitted in a vehicle, it's not classed as a mobile phone and you cannot be booked for using it, BUT, you can still be charged for dangerous driving, so don't be an idiot on the road. If in doubt, don't. Life is not worth a DX entity, even if you've been trying for 38 years. Why should I care about contesting, it's not my style. It exposes you to working on-air in adverse situations. There is lots of activity, lots of interference and making contacts can be hard if you've never done it. If you learn how to operate in a contest, then when the time comes and an emergency of some-sort occurs, you'll be well practised in the art of making a contact when the going is tough. Think of a contest as a perfect excuse to learn how to use your radio. Why do I keep hearing Sugar and Washington, instead of Sierra and Whisky? Because the Americans think that the NATO alphabet doesn't apply to them. You will find that some stations just cannot hear "Sierra", but respond immediately to "Sugar" which may tempt you to use that by default. Opinion is divided on the best practice, but the ACMA specifies that you use the NATO alphabet and they are the people who grant you your license. Should I always use phonetics in my callsign? Yes. There are some who think that it's a waste of air-time on VHF and UHF, but it depends entirely on the conditions. If you're operating with a station that you know well, then you might be able to go with the non-phonetic version, but if in doubt, use phonetics. On an international conversation, it's good practice to use phonetics, since not everyone around you will be listening to a 5 and 9 signal. What's the best wire to use for an antenna? There are only two types of wire, cheap wire and free wire. When in doubt, go with the free wire. Should I upgrade my license? That depends entirely on why you're in Amateur Radio. If you're here to have a yarn and your current license suits you, then leave well enough alone. If you want a structured environment to learn more stuff, do an upgrade. If you want more privileges, more bands, more modes, more power, do an upgrade. If you're happy as you are, read, talk and learn. One day you might want to upgrade. Don't ever upgrade because someone tells you that you must. This is your hobby. If you stay within your license conditions, then carry on and have fun. If you have other questions, or if you didn't like my answers, drop me a line. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio A regular question that I hear from amateurs, both new and experienced ones, is "What radio should I purchase?". It's a simple question that doesn't have a simple answer. The obvious variables, budget, size, frequency and modes are one side of the coin, and when you start looking, you'll learn that there is a lot of information on the subject. You'll learn that you can get amateur radios from $15 to $20,000 and everything in between. To be clear, I'm just talking about the radio, not the power supply, the amplifier, microphone, computer, antenna, interfaces, Morse key and the like. Unless you won LOTTO yesterday, and not even then, you should probably not buy a $20,000 radio first up, but if you do, make sure you give me a call and I'll help you test it. The question that often happens is, should I buy a Yaesu or Icom, which is like asking, should I buy a Mac or PC, or a Holden or a Ford. As you know, there are many different options and the same is true for your radio. The reality is that unless you have specialised measuring equipment, most modern radios are pretty similar. That's not to say that they are the same, far from it, it's just that you are unlikely to come across a situation where you'd actually notice, since the variables that make up our hobby are so vast, propagation, antennas, local environment and the like, that any slight differences in radio performance are likely to be completely masked by other factors. Again, I'm not saying that there are no differences. If you have a shack where you have 10 radios side-by-side, all connected to the same antenna, you'll be able to notice differences, sometimes they'll even be significant, but overall, in day-to-day operation, other variables beyond the simple metric of "performance" are more important. The budget you have is a big factor when you get your radio, and don't spend more than 50% of your total budget on the radio, since you'll need a whole lot of other stuff that simply isn't in the box. Antennas, power supplies, coax, headphones, microphones, etc. are just the basics. When you've narrowed it down to a couple of radios, go and visit some shacks and see them in operation. Try to work like you would work on one of those radios. If you're a contester, try a contest on a friend's radio, if you like working portable, go out with your friend and see how the radio performs. There's nothing wrong with picking the radio that your friend has, since it will help you learn more about your own gear. Since my first purchase I've learned lots about radios. I have no regrets that my first radio was a Yeasu 857d, but I picked it because it suited me. I can tell you that I don't think that my next radio will be the same. There is lots that I like, and some things I don't. Even the most experienced ham asks their friends for their opinion. My current one is to recommend an open source software defined radio, but I've not actually used one yet and I already know I dislike the software that it ships with, so there's that. I'm Onno VK6FLAB.

Foundations of Amateur Radio Recently I had the opportunity to operate mobile in 30 different locations within a 24 hour period. I'd done some preparatory work, in the way of looking closely at maps and plotting my expected route to know where I was and how far it was to the next location. One of the things I noticed while operating was that my signal reports varied greatly. I also noticed that the local noise floor was quite variable, power lines don't realy show up on a map and I can tell you that they are not your friend. One aspect of operation that took me a little by surprise, though it probably shouldn't have, was that different soil types made a big difference. I know that when I'm playing with antenna modeling software you have the opportunity to specify the soil type, but that doesn't really translate into anything that you can personally experience. The way I mainly noticed the effect is that for any given frequency, my ATU was unable to tune for some soil types, wet was good, rock wasn't. This was the first time that I'd actually experienced that in such a way that I managed to notice what was going on, rather than a theoretical experiment, this was a practical exercise and well worth the effort of moving around. Next time you go out portable, or mobile, have a look at what is happening around you, one of the actual variables is the ground beneath your antenna. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio This podcast started life in 2011 when I was asked to record a story I shared during the production of the weekly amateur radio news in Western Australia. I'd been a licensed radio amateur, or ham, for a few months and found myself surrounded by people who perceived the basic Australian foundation amateur licence wasn't worth anything. What use is an F-call? is my response to that sentiment. It's produced weekly. In 2015 after long deliberation it was renamed to Foundations of Amateur Radio so people outside Australia might also enjoy the experience. Although most of the items stand alone, I'd recommend that you start at the beginning in 2011 and listen in sequence. Enjoy. I'm Onno VK6FLAB