VE2DPE's Ham Radio Blog
This ham radio blog is not a "traditional" blog. What gets posted here is permanent in nature, rarely "time sensitive".
You will find here, in addition to amateur-radio-related news and events, posts about ham radio equipment such as: transceivers, receivers, antennas, software and more.
In other words, anything I find worthy of note about amateur radio.
HamRadioSecrets.com
Blog
CubeSats
These tiny spacecrafts revolutionized the Space Age. Their 15 years in space are being celebrated. Cubesat XI-IV (Oscar 57) is still operational! Simply amazing!
https://medium.com/@myfirstsatellit/fifteen-years-of-cubesats-in-space-1dffde12325b
Is The Ten Meter Band Still Open?
A newly licensed technician ham radio operator in the US emailed us recently to ask if it was worthwhile buying a ten meter transceiver.
We answered: not much. Here is why.
Solar cycle #24 is ending.
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/solar-cycle-progression
Therefore, propagation conditions via the ionosphere are at their lowest - and long distance communication openings on the 10 meter band are scarce.
That leaves "local" - short distances, a bit beyond line-of-sight - communications (SSB and data) mostly.
There is still some long-distance activity, especially in the data mode. Some data modes are especially designed to enable low-power/weak-signal communications. CW used to be the only mode still useful when conditions were poor.
Now we have much better data modes to work with: the WSJT-X.
Listen for ten meter beacons for a few weeks, before deciding if there is enough long distance propagation available to make it worthwhile buying a ten meter transceiver.http://www.qsl.net/wj5o/bcn.htm
However - The problem with the ten meter beacons is that they are mostly using vertical antennas. If you have a horizontally polarized antenna - such as a dipole or or even a beam - then the beacon signals will be considerably weakened by the cross-polarization of emitting vs receiving antennas.
In other words, if you are using a horizontally polarized ten meter antenna, you may seldom hear the ten meter beacons!
In any event, you need a good antenna. Preferably horizontally polarized (dipole or beam). But, if you choose to do mostly local comms in SSB, then a quarter wave vertical antenna could serve you well, while we are waiting for sunspot cycle 25 to begin slowly improving long-distance propagation in in a couple of years.
Hope that helps,
73 de Claude VE2DPE
www.HamRadioSecrets.com
eBook Price Cut
Amateur Radio HF Antennas - eBook One of four-book series: price cut from $2.99 to $0.99 for a limited time only!
Antenna Basics (HF)
HF Antenna basics are not hard to grasp when explained in simple terms as they are in these e-books.
Z6 Prefix Declared Illegal
The utilization of call signs series Z6 by any entity without a formal allocation and consent of the ITU represents an unauthorized and illegal usage of this international numbering resource. Source: https://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-t/opb/sp/T-SP-OB.1149-2018-OAS-PDF-E.pdf
Iron powder toroids supplier
Received my order of iron powder toroids from NettyElectronics.net today. Very impressed with his postal-system-proof packaging! :D Also have to mention his competitive prices. Good job, Earl.
Listen To Ham Radio Online Live
Want to listen to ham radio online? Frustrated by dead links? You will only find live links here!
GDPR
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is coming into force on May 25. Our website is compliant. Is yours? See https://bit.ly/2rRULHk
This Ham Radio Blog
Is Yours Too!
For those of you who like to be able to intervene and share something of significance with the other ham radio enthusiasts who visit this Web site by the hundreds each day, there is a very unique way of doing that here!
See the instructions and entry form on this page.
A blog post and a Web page! Yes. You get double and permanent exposure to our hundreds of visitors daily! Free of charge, of course.
After your text has been approved the "nutshell" version of your text will be posted in this blog. It will consist of your title and a short description. Your complete text will be posted on its own permanent page on this Web site. Your blog post will have a live link to it.
All our readers who subscribe to our RSS feed will be instantly alerted of your post.
Make your intervention significant and it will be noticed! It will never get buried under hundreds of other posts. I guarantee it!
This Amateur Radio Blog's
Role
This ham radio blog plays an essential role in my "triple action" communication strategy.
This Web site is especially designed to assert itself among amateur radio related Web sites. (How? See the "Powered by..." at the bottom of each page).
This blog, on the other hand, is designed to offer an extra access to the Web site's content (through RSS feeds), thus augmenting its "visibility" on the Web.
Last, but not least, this blog also enables me to publish special timely posts containing my comments on amateur radio related news and events, as they happen.
In other words, I am using every available channel of communication, on the Web, to make my information accessible to the largest audience possible.
A Proven
Infopublishing Technique
This blog is part of a unique "infopublishing" process that I use to give widespread access to my website's content.
Why use both a Web site and a ham radio blog to reach essentially the same audience?
Why not? It works!
Like so many other things in this world, amateur radio is changing.
This blog's mission is to help you stay tuned to the frequency of exciting changes that are occurring in amateur radio!
73 de VE2DPE
Claude Jollet
7, Rue de la Rive, Notre-Dame-des-Prairies, Québec, Canada J6E 1M9
QTH Locator: FN36gb
eBook One
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Recent Articles
-
CubeSats
Jun 28, 18 02:01 PM
These tiny spacecrafts revolutionized the Space Age. Their 15 years in space are being celebrated. Cubesat XI-IV (Oscar 57) is still operational! Simply amazing! https://medium.com/@myfirstsatellit/fi…
-
Is The Ten Meter Band Still Open?
Jun 27, 18 10:53 AM
A newly licensed technician ham radio operator in the US emailed us recently to ask if it was worthwhile buying a ten meter transceiver. We answered: not much. Here is why. Solar cycle #24 is ending…
-
eBook Price Cut
Jun 24, 18 11:03 AM
Amateur Radio HF Antennas - eBook One of four-book series: price cut from $2.99 to $0.99 for a limited time only!
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