NEW VHF PROPAGATION BOOK FROM CQ

CQ Communications has announced the publication of a new resource book for hams active on VHF and UHF bands. Its a book for those who want to learn more about long-distance propagation possibilities available to them.

Titled "VHF Propagation - A Practical Guide for Radio Amateurs" the book examine each of the most common long-distance propagation "modes" found on these bands. Topics covered include tropospheric scatter and ducting, Sporadic-E, Aurora, 6-meters and the F-layer, transequatorial and more. The book then explains how each mode occurs and offer tips on making the most of these band openings.

"VHF Propagation - A Practical Guide for Radio Amateurs" was written by Ken Neubeck, WB2AMU, and Gordon West, WB6NOA. It is available from many ham radio dealers or direct from CQ anytime through the CQ online bookstore. To find it take your web browser to http://www.cq-amateur-radio.com/ and then click on "Visit the CQ Store."

(CQ)

Unsung Hero of our VU HAMDOM

VU3GFD OM S.Ahmed was the hero during the mishap of Hyderabad-bangalore, Kacheguda Express on 21st December, 2002. Being a Ham who had volunteered during the Orissa Cyclone Relief Work through Bangalore Amateur Radio Club, he used his skill and experience to save lives and limbs of many co-passengers on the ill-fated train. A first hand account of his experience is given below in his own words: -

I was in the ill-fated train coming from Kacheguda to Bangalore on 21st December, 2002 in coach S4 sleeping on the upper berth. There was a massive jerk and heavy sound at about 12:45 AM and the train started rocking back and forth with heavy noise and leaning towards the left side, I immediately jumped from my berth put on my shoes and the first instinct was to open the door, I manage to open the door and the train was violently vibrating there was a lady sleeping at the lower berth with a baby of may be one year and due to the jerks and moments the lady fell down. I was able to keep my leg to support and stop the kid from falling down after the train came to halt was not able to see anything outside due to heavy smoke and dust my compartment had inclined towards the left by about 45 degree roughly.

There was lot of commotion, shouting and screaming in the compartment. I had to shout with all my capacity to tell people that we are safe there is no problem and they can first get down from the compartment later we can pickup the luggage.

I got down from the compartment and saw that all bogies ahead of us had derailed only engine was standing and the driver had put on the front light and continues horn. I checked on my mobile for signal which was very weak but able to connect to my brother Saleem informing him about the derailment after telling him that I was safe. I also told him that I am going in for relief as there was massive commotion screaming, shouting, yelling and crying from the compartment which had turned turtle, upside down, climbed on one and another etc.

First I went to see the Engine Driver who was in the state of shock and could not speak at all, and then I took a bird eye view of destruction. The train had actually fallen in a gradient just before a bridge, which was 12.6 Meters (very sure since there was a board mentioning the height).

Two compartments S1 & S2 had rammed into each other and S1 has rammed S14 in the back pushing S14 above the luggage Van and had flipped to one side. S14 was badly jammed from the backside and hanging or rather dangling at a height of about 10 to 12 feet above ground level. Both the doors were jammed and people trying to move backwards as they feared that the bogie will take a nose dive if they come forward. There was no way to actually open the door, only possible way was to climb on top of the wreckage and get on S14 and open the door which was not only difficult but dangerous too.

I climbed back on my compartment was jumping through the wreckage when I saw that S3 doors were also sealed and people inside were in panic. I happen to notice that the vestibule opening was open and people could glide through the opening. I screamed to inform the people inside that they can get out through the vestibule later realizing that they did not understand what I said. I pointed out to them the opening and people started sliding out of that.

When I reached S14 compartment, my mobile was ringing and there was a call from South Central Railway Control Room asking for the details about the accident.

I was able to kick open the door and open from the top and get into the compartment. When I opened the other door, and was wondering how we could vacate the compartment a few Malyalee boys were standing and watching the proceedings. I called those boys and told them to hold people below but in the panic two middle aged women jumped from the door and got fractured legs, was able to vacate total compartment and throw all the luggage down.

There were some very seriously injured persons in the compartment was able to vacate all of them barring the last 6 people in the compartment as it was fully stuck from all sides after I got down from that compartment was wondering how I will be able to rescue there six people trapped on all sides by metal but was able to see that all were alive in pain through the window grills. I searched for a stone and started hitting one end of the frill and was sure it will give away as it was only welded after about 5 to 10 min the single grill gave way and with help of the others was able to pull away that window but the new challenge facing us was how to remove people who were stuck inside as there was no support from the other end. Three people and three berth sandwiched on one end and the other side three people and three berth. It was not possible to pull person as we didi not know how seriously they were injured, but after about 15 minutes was able to get them out. Only 2 were alive, 4 died after taking them out.

When we saw that all compartments had been vacated other then the General Compartment which was badly mangled up and not possible to open the same. It had to be cut open was able to only console and tell that we are opening up the carriage and will take same time.

In meantime had asked those sports girls to take down the telephone numbers and names of the seriously injured passengers separately for Bangalore & Hyderabad. I call my brother and gave him the list and inform their relatives to start immediately to the accident site.

Also look numbers of people who were safe and informed there families, managed to arrange for a couple of doctors form the other coaches who were of great help, bedsheets from the A.C. coach were used as bandages and blankets made as stretchers to transport grievously injured people.

There was lot of help from the co-passengers, who were listening and doing what was told to them. It was truly “A trump of Humanism in tragedy”.

From Father to Son

If I was a little older at the time, I might have guessed what my dad was up to. The signs were there: a Knight-Kit Span Master shortwave radio for Christmas in 1962, followed by a pair of Knight-Kit walkie talkies the following year and a CB radio--yes, another Knight-Kit--as a Christmas gift in 1964. To this day I can still remember my CB call sign, KKB1757.

It was early in 1966 that my dad had something else to share with me--a Morse code practice oscillator he had built. That's when things started to become a little clearer and make sense. He suggested that if I learned both the code and some basic technical information that I could take a test to move up from my CB radio status to obtaining a ham "ticket," just like he had.

Growing up, I can remember all kinds of radio equipment around the house. My dad's ham gear was set up in an attic loft, along with many years' worth of QST magazines neatly organized by year. And how could I forget his framed Amateur Radio license, which he'd had as long as I could remember?

I studied the ARRL How to Become a Radio Amateur handbook, learned the required 5 WPM code requirement, took my test and received my Novice license, WN1GLS, in the spring of 1966. Even before my license arrived, Dad excitedly began to assemble and set up the necessary Novice equipment in my bedroom. It included his Heathkit HR-20 receiver, a DX-40 transmitter that he brought home from work one day and a matching Heathkit AM-2 SWR bridge. We re-routed the Lattin Radio Labs 5-band dipole lead into my "shack" and now I was ready to operate. All I needed was my license.

Two Hams for the Price of One

For me, one of the great byproducts of becoming a ham was that it renewed my father's interest in the hobby. My dad, who was a long time engineer at radio station WELI in Hamden, Connecticut, even started a local ham radio club that was sponsored by the station and he was trustee of the club's license, WA1HRC.

During the next few years we held our club meetings in the radio station's remote building, where the emergency on-air studio was housed. It was there that we built and operated our club station of Heathkit equipment. I recall how we built other equipment, including a 15 meter Yagi one Saturday at the radio station after my dad convinced the broadcast station to purchase and erect a 50-foot crank-up tower. We participated in several Field Day adventures and even made a few trips to ARRL Headquarters.

My interest in Amateur Radio faded when I went to college in 1972 and my dad lost interest soon thereafter. He soon left his position with the radio station to start a two-way radio sales and service company that eventually led to a very successful commercial mobile/cellular telephone business.

In 1981 I returned to the air and was active for a few years, and again this renewed my father's interest in returning to the hobby. As a birthday gift in 1982, I presented him with the exact same equipment I was using at the time: a Kenwood TS-520SE transceiver and matching AT200 antenna tuner.

By 1983 my level of activity waned once again and I sold my equipment. My father kept his gear and was active until around 1988. During his "active" period I helped him put up a 160-meter long wire. Dad constructed some RTTY equipment and wrote an article about the experience that appeared in the June 1985 issue of 73 magazine.

QST--Calling All Amateurs

After my dad retired and he and Mom moved to Sarasota, Florida in 1991, I always assumed that he sold his equipment, among other things, prior to the move. My father passed away in August 2002. Shortly after, I made it a point to notify the ARRL and requested that he be remembered among other silent keys in QST.

Later that year I received in the mail the December 2002 issue of QST, which surprised me because I hadn't been a member of the ARRL in well over 30 years and I hadn't seen a copy of QST since the early 1980s. But in that issue my father's listing appeared in the silent keys column. To this day I am not sure who sent me that issue of QST.

For several weeks I found myself going through that issue of QST over and over again, looking at the advertisements, reading articles and trying to understand some of the unfamiliar terms that were nonexistent 20 years earlier. All the while I asked myself, "Why was it that I hadn't thought about getting back into the hobby again? If I had done so earlier, maybe I could have renewed my father's interest for a third time." We could have scheduled contacts and my children would have loved the opportunity of "getting on the radio" with their grandfather.

In early December 2002 my mom came to stay with us for a few weeks. One day she noticed the issue of QST that I had been thumbing through and said something to me that seemed to make time stand still. She said that my father had kept a lot of his ham equipment and asked if I wanted what he saved. When I asked why he kept the equipment, her reply was simply, "He wanted you to have all of it because he had hoped someday you would become interested in ham radio again."

Because of that December 2002 issue of QST, my interest in returning to the air was already there. But now, learning that I had access to some equipment and that it was kept with the hope that I might someday want to return to the hobby, well, the timing was right. Arrangements were made to have the equipment shipped to me in January 2003 and I was back on the air by early February.

The Final Courtesy

Not only did my father keep the Kenwood equipment I had given him as a birthday gift 20 years earlier, but to my surprise the packages of equipment that arrived that day included more than I ever could have imagined.

That shipment also included nearly all of the original equipment that my dad had set up for me when I first received my Novice ticket: the Heathkit HR-20 receiver, my DX-40 transmitter, matching SWR bridge, my first code key--with his call sign and mine still on the mounting board--and even the SB-600 Heathkit speaker that I bought while still a novice. Also included were QSL cards my dad received over the years, all of his logbooks, his original Vibroplex bug from 1947 and a handful of his own original QSL cards from 1946. What a treasure.

Life is full of odd circumstances. If it were not for the unexpected December 2002 QST showing up in the mail, plus the fact that unknown to me Dad had kept his ham equipment, I seriously doubt that I would be back on the air today enjoying Amateur Radio like it was 1966 all over again. Well, maybe not exactly like 1966, since Amateur Radio certainly has changed since then.

As a way to remember my dad, in April 2003 I applied for and was granted the amateur call he held from 1946 to 2002, W1PDI. I just had to keep my dad's call sign in the family. It's good to be back in ham radio, but I just wish I had the chance to once again renew my dad's interest in the hobby that he first introduced to me nearly 40 years ago.

Tom Miller, W1PDI, was first licensed in 1966 as WN1GLS, and upgraded to General a year later at the age of 13 with WA1GLS. He continues to operate the equipment he inherited from his father and is very active on a number of nets, including the 3905 Century Club and OMISS. He enjoys contesting, QSO parties and paper chasing. Miller's other interests include spending time with his children, sports car racing and baseball. He lives in Bay Village, Ohio, and can be reached via e-mail at w1pdi@arrl.net

http://www.arrl.org/news/features/2004/04/15/1/

Upgrade at QRZ.COM

The servers that provide you the QRZ.com website have been relocated to the company's hosting facility in Phoenix, Arizona. The new location affords QRZ.com with 24 hour a day, 7 days a week backup power and a very fast 10 Megabit connection directly to the Internet backbone. QRZ.com owner and administrator Fred Lloyd, AA7BQ, gave special thanks to Chris Radicke, N7TWW and Mark Krotz, N7MK, who assisted him in transporting the computers, building the cabinet shelves, pulling cables, and in generally making the transition go as smooth as silk. Lloyd says that thanks to some great prepatory work QRZ.com was out for no more than 2 hours during the location changeover.

(QRZ.com)

Upgrade at QRZ.COM

The servers that provide you the QRZ.com website have been relocated to the company's hosting facility in Phoenix, Arizona. The new location affords QRZ.com with 24 hour a day, 7 days a week backup power and a very fast 10 Megabit connection directly to the Internet backbone. QRZ.com owner and administrator Fred Lloyd, AA7BQ, gave special thanks to Chris Radicke, N7TWW and Mark Krotz, N7MK, who assisted him in transporting the computers, building the cabinet shelves, pulling cables, and in generally making the transition go as smooth as silk. Lloyd says that thanks to some great prepatory work QRZ.com was out for no more than 2 hours during the location changeover.

(QRZ.com)

7 MHz Spectrum

Two more European countries have gained access to the 7100 to 7200kHz segment of the 40-metre band. San Marino, T7, has authorised amateur radio operation in the 7100 - 7200kHz band on a Secondary non-interference basis, with effect from the 25th of February. The Norwegian Post and Telecommunications Authority has also announced that Norwegian radio amateurs can use frequencies in the segment 7100 - 7200kHz with secondary status starting from the 1st of April. This is in addition to the existing segment 7000 - 7100 KHz where radio amateurs have primary status. The maximum transmitter output power in the 7100 - 7200 segment will be 100 watts in Norway, and the maximum bandwidth 6 KHz. Croatia, 9A, was the first European country to expand its 40-metre band in December last year.

SIMPLE WIRE ANTENNAS - A FEW THOUGHTS AND IDEAS

By Ron - 6Y5/4S7RO

During these hi tech days of Amateur Radio, some of us may feel a sense of inferiority that we do not contribute enough technically, to safeguard our identity as true Radiomen. It is also no secret that in recent times our hobby has evolved more into a talking hobby than a technical hobby. Although in comparison, the older hams did a lot of home-brewing, standards those days were different. In the good old days one could air a homebrew TX with a little drift, chirp, squeak and spectral impurity, and still be tolerated. Those were also the days when HF transmitters were commonly built on breadboards, and were heard on every neighbors radio and television set! Over the years, we allowed our hobby to be commercialized, and now the commercial equipment manufacturers have set new and high standards. No longer is it possible for the average Ham to build and air a home made transmitter without drawing cynical remarks or even be reprimand by the authorities

The good news is that even if we are not technically versed to build transmitters, we can all have fun building antennas, and still avoid being called push button operators or mere talkers over the airwaves! It is a nice feeling to get a flattering signal report from a DX station even when we run a Japanese rig because the rig would be useless if the antenna was bad! This enables us to claim some of the credit for a good, strong signal and for the great distances our signals are reported to have reached.

Getting Started:
A dipole fed with 75 ohm coax is about the easiest and most efficient out of simple antennae to build. However, like the commercial rig and the commercial antenna, one could quickly feel monotonous using a dipole. This is partly because we quickly begin to realize the performance limitations of the "no gain" dipole. Thus, begins the quest for a better antenna. This often is within the many constraints involved, as well as a hesitancy to build rotatable antennas with intelligent aluminum! Some fear seemingly elaborate matching networks and the monstrous sizes of monoband antennas. There is also the all important worry about towers and heavy-duty masts. So, why not a simpler and a cheaper (but effective) approach to "gain antennas"?

Many are the antenna handbooks, articles and websites covering antenna theory and specific practical designs. So, I shall make this a very informal discussion about the first steps involving the basic of basics!

The Wire YAGI:
The best and the easiest upgrade is to add a reflector or a director to an existing dipole, to make it a simple 2 element wire Yagi. To do this you will need either suitably spaced trees or in the case of upper HF band antennas, spreaders out of bamboo, wood or similar non-conducting material (it is a good idea to weatherproof them with common varnish or the more fashionable "polyurethane" sold in handy spray cans). Even though it is only a start, to avoid going deep into antenna theory, we shall stick to parasitic elements which are typically 5% longer (reflector) and 5% shorter (director) than the driven element. Usually, all you need to do is to space a director around .1 wavelengths in front of the driven element and/or a reflector .15 wavelengths behind the driven element. Once again, to the rocket scientist, these figures vary according to the design objective. However, I shall keep such finer points for another write up at a higher level!

The Influence of the Parasitic Element:
We need to understand that placing a director or a reflector on the same boom as the driven element will always LOWER the typical 75 ohms impedance of our existing dipole. Even though this can typically be anywhere from 50-25 ohms - depending on the spacing and tuning of the elements, a 2 element array with either a director at .1 or a reflector at .15 wave spacing will usually yield a good enough match into a 50 ohm coax cable. With the above arrangement even in the crudest form, one should easily be able to achieve 3-4 db of gain over a dipole. This is not only as good as increasing your power from 100 to 200 watts, but also concentrates that power within a narrower beamwith. It helps reduce fading and also RECEIVE better. A popular saying in ham radio is "if you cant hear them you cant work them!" If you wish to optimize forward gain by tuning the parasitic element or varying the spacing between the two elements, you may do so, but this will lower the impedance at the feed point (It also will not permit direct feed with 50 ohm coaxial cable).

Matching: (if you decide to optimize)
Matching problems can be overcome by using many well known techniques, but a simple hairpin match is recommend (see any good antenna handbook or email me at sparkrohan@yahoo.com if you need more details on hairpin matches). Hairpin matching a wire beam, also makes the antenna less clumsy than if you were to try a gamma match (which will also add a lot of downward strain on a wire element). As tuning of the driven element will have little or no effect on the gain of the array, do not be afraid to trim the driven element a few inches plus or minus from the formulae, to facilitate a good match. However, always remember that tuning the parasitic element has everything to do with the gain, directivity and the feed point impedance of the array.

The influence of spacing and element lengths on gain, front to back, impedance etc., is a vast topic that I do not have space to cover here. However, briefly, spacing elements close to each other reduces the feed impedance and increases the Q (reduced bandwidth) of the beam. Wide spacing reduces front to back, but provides good gain and lowers the Q resulting in greater SWR and gain bandwidths. One other point to remember is that maximum front to back does NOT mean maximum gain and is not always a good way to evaluate a beam. Maximum front to back and maximum gain also does not occur on the same frequency. The normal practice is to strike a compromise. When using modest levels of power, what is most important is forward gain.

LOOPS: (Deltas & Quads)
Another easy upgrade from a dipole is a single element delta or a quad loop. For those using an inverted vee, this becomes an easier task as it only involves introducing an additional half wave of wire and a base wire to the existing vee (imagine a wire pyramid). The existing feedpoint at the apex is better shifted to the center of the base or to one of its corners. It is said that a single element loop has a gain of a little over a db over a dipole. Since loops are said to radiate at a low angle, they work better at low heights compared to a dipole (although for ANY antenna the higher the better). Loops are also quieter antennas in that they pick up less man made interference.

As 4S7RO, the author worked pileups of Ws on 40m, running 100w into a loop, which had the base only 6 off the ground. From Jamaica, a single element sloping loop (which was sloping from 20 at the apex to 5 at the base) and a small IC718, brought the author 20m DXCC in just 2 months!

The formula for calculating a resonant loop is 1005/F (in MHz). I.e. 1005/14.2 = 70.77 One interesting point to remember is if you are using insulated wire, to further multiply the answer by a factor of .95. The formula for calculating the length of a director is 975/f and a reflector is around 1030/f.

The 2el Loop:
As with the 2 el Yagi above, an easy way of achieving excellent directivity and gain is to make a 2 element delta loop array, by suspending the elements off a nylon cord strung between two trees or other anchor points. You could also have one support and use a cross boom at the top. The many Coconut trees in Kerala (I call them Organic towers!) should provide ideal supports for making fine loop arrays. The author is reminded of a very successful 2 element 40m delta loop, where the loops were suspended off a bamboo pole placed horizontally and tied just below the "crown' of a coconut tree back in 4S7!

If the bottom of the loop is reachable from ground level one could easily switch directions manually by adding or reducing wire from the parasitic element. To do this you will need to use a driven element and a director slightly shorter than normal. At the middle of this director is a stub of wire with a shorting bar, where by you could change the length of the parasitic element to make it either a director or a reflector the length of the stub determines the tuning of the element as a director or a reflector- by making the element shorter or longer than the driven element. The technically inclined ham can also incorporate remote relay switching to achieve the above if you use pulleys to haul up the loops, you can easily make predetermined element length changes even if the bottom is not reachable from ground level. However, as propagation to different parts of the globe is seasonal, one could even keep things simple by having a well tuned fixed direction loop array aimed in the direction of interest. Take a walk out to the yard, have a good look at your wire antennas and the trees around them - you might be surprised at the many possibilities that suddenly dawn on you. With a bit of ingenuity the possibilities are numerous.

Matching Loops:
Direct matching a delta loop into a coax cable is not always as easily done as with a wire Yagi. Practical measurements indicate impedances between 90-120- ohms, depending on height above ground and enclosed angles. If you are lucky, you will get a decent match into a 75 ohm cable, or else have to live with an SWR of over 1.5, using our standard 50 ohm coax. With single and two element loop antennas, I prefer to use a simple wave coaxial stub/transformer to match the array for 50 ohm feed. This is easily done by measuring a wavelength of 75-ohm coaxial cable at the operating freq and multiplying it by .66 (a typical velocity factor for commonly available 50 and 75 ohm coax cable). Connect one end of the 75-ohm cable to the feedpoint and the other end to a 50-ohm cable (any convenient length) that feeds the TX. This method will always result in a very good SWR when using a single or a 2-element loop array. In conclusion, I also wish to make a brief mention of the wire Moxons rectangle. This is an interesting variation of the wire Yagi antenna with folded back elements. Practical tests and computer simulations have indicated that it has gain only a fraction less gain than that of a conventional full sized Yagi. It uses shorter horizontal element lengths, yields a high front to back ratio and provides a PERFECT direct match into a 50 ohm coaxial cable. To the active hams who have heard/worked me, it should suffice to mention that I use a Moxon on 40m! The Moxons rectangle was originally designed by Moxon/G6XN, but greatly improved, remodeled and popularized by L.B.Cebik/W4RNL.

I hope this has given you a simple insight into antennas in the real world. Much can be written, but this is a start. If sufficient interest is shown, I shall be glad to write a series on practical design and construction of HF and VHF antennas. In the past few years my focus has been on compressed antennas for the apartment dweller. However, my antenna interests range from 160m-VHF! I also enjoy computer design, simulation and optimizing of all forms of antennas. If any of you would like to carry this discussion further or add to this, please feel free to email me at sparkrohan@yahoo.com and share your real world antenna experiments and experiences!
In conclusion, I wish to remind the Gurus and the enlightened that the objective of this article was to provide the beginner with ideas for a few effective, but simple upgrades, whilst keeping language and theory as simple as possible. As there are many good antenna books out there, I figured that sharing my practical experience and knowledge would be a better way of getting the average Indian ham with a simple wire antenna, get started on the road to greater things!