CQ Chatter APRIL 2018 VOLUME B18 •ISSUE 2 WOOD COUNTY AMATEUR CLUB President WB8NQW Bob Willman Vice President KD8VWU Doug Perez Secretary N1RB Bob Boughton Treasurer KD8NJW Jim Barnhouse Board Member KE8CVA Terry Halliwill http://wcarc.bgsu.edu Solar Maximum Chinese OTH Radar and Minimum 2009- on 40 Meters from ARRL News 2020 The International Amateur Radio from auroraborealis blog Union Region 1 (IARU-R1) Monitoring On a roughly 11-year basis the Sun’s System (IARUMS) reports that one of radiative output goes through a China’s over-the-horizon radar (OTHR) repetitive cycle. We call these installations has been causing interfer- changes the solar cycle. We are now ence in the Amateur Radio 7 MHz band. at the ending point of solar maximum The IARUMS February newsletter re- period number 24. During the last solar ports on that intruder and others. minimum, there were few magnetic Other top 5 intruders include a “sin- storms on the sun, sunspots were rare, gle-letter beacon” transmitting either and geomagnetic disturbances here the letter “K” or the letter “T” on on Earth were nearly nonexistent. 7039.3 kHz. The source is believed to Obviously, hf radio propagation is af- be the Russian Pacific in fected because of the close connec- Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. A Russian tion between the Ionosphere and so- F1B teleprinter signal (RDL) has ap- lar radiation. Aurora watchers have peared on 7193 kHz, with an en- had to travel to the polar regions to crypted frequency-shift-keyed (50- see the Northern Lights. baud) signal, originating in Kalin- 2016 and 2017 brought us decreas- ingrad. Authorities in Germany and ing sunspot numbers, lower solar out- Switzerland have filed official com- put, and the return to solar minimum plaints. conditions: "What does this mean? continued---on p. 7 Net Check Ins Brain Teasers Mar 6 Traffic: 0 1. What spread-spectrum communications technique alters the center frequency of a conventional carrier N1RB (NCS) many times per second in accordance with a pseu- KE8CVA/M do-random list of channels? K8JU K8BBK WD8JWJ a.) frequency hopping KD8NJW b.) direct sequence KD8RNO WB8NQW c.) time domain frequency modulation NC8A d.) frequency compandored spread spectrum N8VNT KD5GUU KC8EKT 2. If the boom of a Yagi antenna is lengthened and the KD8VWU elements are properly retuned, what usually oc- KC8IFW curs? WD8LEI/M (15)

a.) the gain increases Mar 13 Traffic: 0 b.) the SWR decreases c.) the front-to-back ratio increases KD8VWU (NCS) KD8RNO d.) the gain bandwidth decreases rapidly KG8FH WD8JWJ Which famous Hollywood actress obtained a patent WD8LEI 3. WB8NQW for the invention of spread-spectrum transmission? KD8NJW N1RB a.) Marilyn Monroe KE8CVA WD8ICP b.) Hedy Lamarr KE8CUZ (11) c.) Fay Wray d.) Gina Lollobrigida

!2 April Contests

The contest lineup for the month of April is given below. Please note that the WARC bands (60, 30, 17 and 12 m) are never open to contesting. Apr 7-8 1400 to 0200 Z 80 m to 10 m Mississippi QSO Party all modes Apr 7-8 1400 to 2000 Z 80 m to 10 m Missouri QSO Party all modes Apr 7-8 1500 to 1500 Z 160 m to 10 m SP (Poland) DX ‘test CW SSB Apr 14-15 1400 to 0200 Z 160 m to 6 m New Mexico QSO Party all modes Apr 14-15 1800 to 1800 Z 160 m to 10 m North Dakota QSO Party all modes Apr 14-15 1800 to 2359 Z 160 m to 10 m Georgia QSO Party all modes Apr 15 1800 to 2359 Z 80 m to 10 m ARRL Rookie Roundup SSB Apr 21-22 1300 to 2200 Z 160 m to 10 m Nebraska QSO Party all modes Apr 21-22 1600 to 0400 Z 80 m to 10 m Michigan QSO Party all modes Apr 21-22 1800 to 1800 Z 160 m to 10 m Ontario QSO Party all modes Apr 28-29 1300 to 1259 Z 160 m to 10 m Helvetia (Switzerland) DX ‘test all modes Apr 28-29 1600 to 2159 Z 40 m to 10 m Florida QSO Party all modes

3 building equipment around VHF ra- The Most Exciting dios and GPS receivers for this pur- pose but recently the major radio Era in amateur equipment companies have offered with this application Amateur Radio built in. Computer digital modes have been from e-ham.net— by Reg, VE7IG around for quite a while but recently We are now in one of the most ex- WSJT-X with its array of new weak sig- citing, if not the most exciting, eras in nal modes has been developed by ra- amateur radio. This is due to the suc- dio amateur PHDs at Princeton Universi- cessful merging of radio with com- ty physics department, and offered free puter technology (including internet). to the amateur community. One of So many new things are happening these, FT8 mode, has become extreme- all at the same time. Some have been ly popular almost overnight. Much has around for a while but are just now been written about FT8 recently but all seeing usage peaking way up. One of that is required is a computer with a these is IRLP. Most repeater systems sound card interface to a ham radio have a standalone IRLP node where, transceiver. With the sun-spot cycle in as long as the internet is up, you can decline this mode will become increas- talk to hams around the world ingly popular. through your local repeater. Then we have the Arduino micro- controller board with a host of amateur Another fairly recent addition is radio projects you can easily build and APRS-GPS tracking. Imagine having program. Books are available on ama- your mobile location tracked on a teur radio projects using this board map on the internet. This is a lot of fun and the internet has a lot of others, but also a safety measure for ama- just Google to see. You can also learn teurs who routinely travel in wilderness some programming working with this areas, such as repeater technicians. board. For some time amateurs have been continued---on p. 6 April Hamfests

Apr 29 General Motors ARC. Annual Swap and Shop. UFCW Local 876 Union Hall, Madison Hts., MI . web: http://www.gmarc.org/swapinfo

4 WCARC Weekly Net NEXT MEETING Tuesdays at 2100 all year Business Meeting 147.18 MHz 67 Hz PL Net Control Roster Monday, April 9th Apr 3 WB8NQW TIME: 7:30pm Apr 10 N1RB 7:00EB Apr 17 KD8VWU PLACE: Apr 24 KD8NJW Sheriff’s Training Rm May 1 K8OVO Dunbridge Rd. and May 8 WB8NQW E. Gypsy Lane Bowling Green, OH

10 meter Net Fusion Net informal group Thursday

meets @ 19:30 on 442.125 MHz Sunday 67 Hz PL on FM @ 20:30 discussion of all on 28.335 MHz things digital

5 exciting—from p. 5 Net Check Ins One of the greatest and most exciting recent developments is the building and programming of remote amateur radio stations, controlled over the internet. Basically there are three kinds of these Mar 20 Traffic: 0 remotes. One is where you remote your home sta- tion so you can operate it away from home. The KD8NJW (NCS) other is where you establish another station at a WD8LEI different location and operate it remotely. There K8BBK are also club stations and commercially available KG8FH remote stations you can pay to use. These are in- WD8JWJ creasingly important for hams who live in antenna K8JU restricted areas or older hams living in retirement WB8NQW centers. Building a remote station and program- KD8RNO ming the controllers and internet routers is not a N1RB simple exercise. Some have used computers at KE8CVA the remote location and internet programs such KE8CUZ as Ham Radio Deluxe and Skype to facilitate KC8NKC (12) voice transmission and control but there is relative- ly inexpensive specialized equipment available which does this without needing computers at the remote site or Skype or other third party equip- Mar 27 Traffic: 0 ment. Since the internet only serves as control lines

and all RF is received and transmitted at the re- N1RB (NCS) mote site, operating these remote stations is little KE8CUZ/M different from operating right at the remote station KG8FH itself. For a great example, enter VE6WZ in QRZ.- K8JU com and take some virtual trips around Steve’s KD8NJW fantastic remote station on the videos he has pro- KD8RNO vided. KE8CVA DXCC, IOTA and other amateur radio awards KC8IFW have developed internet data bases for recording KD8VWU and application of QSOs/QSLs for these awards. W8PSK With LoTW you can confirm DXCC and some other K8OVO award applications quickly and inexpensively if WB8NQW/M desired without the need to mail envelopes WD8LEI (13) through the postal system. IOTA has recently de- veloped such a system as well. With ever increas- ing postal costs this amateur radio internet tech- Brain Teaser answers: (E) 1-a, 2-a, 3-b continued---on p. 7 6 exciting—from p. 6 OFDM 60 signals were active at the nology makes it easier for amateurs to same time on February 13. A Russian pursue their favorite awards. FT8 users F1B signal has been observed on are increasingly jumping on the LoTW 14.308 MHz, 50 baud, 500 Hz shift, also bandwagon since FT8 includes an au- reported to be in . tomatic log of the type suited for Broadcaster Radio Hargeisa in So- LoTW uploads, making it so easy! maliland continued to be reported on The last recent addition I will men- 7.120 MHz (AM) daily. On 7.175 MHz, tion here is the tiny inexpensive Rasp- Radio Eritrea continues to be jammed berry Pi computer with its comple- daily with white noise transmissions at- ment of amateur radio applications. tributed to Radio Ethiopia is still being You only have to google “Raspberry Pi heard on 14.295 MHz. ◼ amateur radio” to come up with a ton of stuff! ’s a Shoe-in There are of course a lot more ex- from ARNewsline amples of the recent growth in the Never mind having a good fist to merging of radio and computer/inter- send CW; sometimes what's really net technology but this is enough to needed is a great set of toes. Yes, show what it is and what it means for toes. At the recent Mobile World amateur radio. For one thing it makes Congress showcase in Barcelona, amateur radio far more attractive to Spain, Sierra Wireless unveiled safety young people and we sure need boots that are also two-way commu- more of them in the hobby. Further, it nications devices. They allow industri- is well known that learning a host of al workers who wear them to transmit new things as people grow older helps distress calls by tapping out Morse-like stave off dementia. Retired amateurs Code with their feet. The footwear, should have the time or maybe should which is outfitted with a SIM card and make the time to involve themselves a wireless module, can also receive in this new technology. It is fun and messages or reminders sent by the very rewarding. Many will be boss. These so-called "smart shoes" prompted to ask, “OK, but is this really emit 80 decibels of sound -- and while ham radio?” Of course it is, and it is they're not the latest in fashion, amateur radio at its best and finest. they're definitely the latest in tech- Jump in and enjoy the fun. ◼ nology. What that means to the safe- chinese—from p. 1 ty-minded wearer is that they do A Russian orthogonal frequency-divi- have to gain some fluency in their sion multiplex OFDM 60 signal has dots and dashes to make it work. Af- been showing up on 14.235 MHz, ter that, operation is entirely hands- covering 2.76 kHz. It’s said to be lo- free - except, of course, for putting cated in Moscow. Three Russian them on and lacing them up. ◼

7 solar—from p. 1 The solar cycle is like a pendulum, swinging back and forth between pe- riods of high and low sunspot number every 11 years. A blank sun is a sign that the pendulum is swinging toward low sunspot numbers. In other words, the Solar Minimum is coming. "Forecasters expect the next Solar Minimum to arrive in 2019-2020. Be- tween now and then, there will be lots of spotless suns. At first, the blank versity of Delaware's Bartol Research stretches will be measured in days; Institute: This is a sign of changing later in weeks and months. When the times on the sun. The solar cycle is sunspot cycle reaches its nadir, a shifting from Solar Maximum to Solar whole year could go by without Minimum. As the sun's magnetic field sunspots. weakens, cosmic rays are having an "Solar Minimum is widely misunder- easier time penetrating the inner solar stood. Many people think it brings a system. The Earth is in the cross-hairs period of dull quiet. In fact, space of these high-energy particles. weather changes in interesting ways. The plot below shows the total solar For instance, as the extreme ultravio- irradiance (TSI) since 1978 as ob- let output of the sun decreases, the served by NASA and European satel- upper atmosphere of Earth cools and lites. The sun's electromagnetic output collapses. This allows space junk to (top frame) waxes and wanes with accumulate around our planet. Also, the sunspot cycle (bottom frame). the heliosphere shrinks, bringing inter- From these data the Solar minimum is stellar space closer to Earth; galactic predicted to be in mid-2019. ◼ cosmic rays penetrate the inner solar system and our atmosphere with rela- tive ease. Meanwhile, geomagnetic storms and auroras will continue -- caused mainly by solar wind streams instead of CMEs. Indeed, the Solar Minimum is coming, but it won't be dull." A neutron monitor at the South Pole is detecting an upswing in cosmic rays penetrating Earth's atmosphere. Be- low are the data, courtesy of the Uni-

8 WOOD COUNTY ARC P.O.BOX 534 BOWLING GREEN, OH 43402