Radio Havana CubaDxers Unlimited's mid week edition for 1 – 2 December 2009
By Arnie Coro, C02KK
Hi amigos radioaficionados ! Welcome to the mid week edition of Dxers Unlimited, the one and only radio hobby program that provides you with the most up to date short wave propagation updates and forecasts, as well as the opportunity to learn about the more than 85 ways that you and I enjoy this wonderful hobby, that include from ultra low power amateur radio communications experimenting to daily monitoring of short wave broadcasts that provide listeners with news and current affairs information from many nations around the world. Yes amigos, you have chosen a hobby that is quite challenging and always amazing... just to give you an example, the most recent ultra low power amateur radio communications experiments have achieved record breaking distances while the transmitters were running the lowest power outputs ever used to communicate via the ionosphere !.
Now here is our beginning of the program propagation update... the Sun is once again totally quiet, and for a week now it has been spotless.... But , this ultra-quiet solar activity conditions may change in about five to six days, if a new region spotted by the satellites that look behind the Sun becomes active enough to develop sunspots... solar flux is very near 70 units and will continue around that figure for at least the next three days....
QSL on the air, QSL on the air to listeners that have sent their signal reports and comments to our e-mail address : inforhc at enet dot cu, again, a reminder, the e-mail address is inforhc at enet dot cu... where I am able to read everyday some very interesting messages from listeners all around the world... It is nice to be able to fulfill listeners interests, reply to questions and follow up the results... Just to give you an example... the radio hobby is enjoying now a revival of home construction and the assembling of the many nice kits now available at quite reasonable prices... Home brewing of receivers, transmitters, transceivers, antennas and accessories provides radio hobby enthusiasts with the unique opportunity of operating equipment that they have assembled or even designed and built all by themselves... something that adds a special pride to whatever DX you may work if you are a ham radio operator, or whatever DX stations you can pick up if you enjoy short wave listening, medium wave or long wave broadcast bands Dxing or if you are a fan of utility station's monitoring. Using equipment built by yourself is a source of unique pride amigos !
Item three: If listeners like it, and they keep saying it constantly... then a radio station's program will be kept on the air for a long time... but that is not always the way things evolve... and we often see nice radio shows going off the air, especially when station's introduce budget cuts, and the managers decide to apply the ax to the wrong programs... It is quite clear to me that listener's feedback should be taken more into account, and that station managers should act accordingly... It is also quite clear that the constant exchange of information between listeners and those who actually make the programs for them, provides the best possible scenario for better programming.
Standby for more radio hobby related information, coming to you from Havana... I will be back in a few seconds, after a short break for a station ID...Yes, I am Arnie Coro radio amateur CO2KK , and as always it is my pleasure to share with you about seventeen minutes of on the air and on the web time...
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This is Radio Havana Cuba, the name of the show is Dxers Unlimited, and here is item four of our mid week edition... Several e-mail messages received during the past week confirm that there is a lot of interest in experimenting with antennas.... especially with low cost, easy to assemble and also easy to install antennas.... Just to give you an example , a large group of Dxers Unlimited's fans have told me that they decided to homebrew different versions of the two elements closed spaced wire Yagi antennas recently described here. The most popular version of that antenna mentioned in the e-mails is the one for the 20 meters band... and there is a very powerful reason for that well thought decision on the part of ham radio operators, because the 14 megaHertz amateur band is, at this early phase of solar cycle 24, the one capable of providing the best DX opportunities during your local daylight hours.
But, listeners have also told me about homebrewing the low cost closed spaced wire Yagi antennas for the six meters band, as many of today's transceivers include the 50 megaHertz band, and very often it is a feature that is not used because of the lack of an adequate antenna system. The two elements closed spaced wire Yagi for the six meters band can be assembled and installed in a few hours, and will allow enjoying the upcoming winter sporadic E season, about to start at any moment now...
Item five: Long wave propagation conditions during the extended period of very low solar activity have introduced many radio enthusiasts into this rather challenging aspect of our favorite hobby... Even small portable radios with their built in ferrite rod antennas have proven to be able to pick up long wave broadcast stations from Europe and Northern Africa in North America and the Caribbean. The long wave signals propagate in a very special way ... in a waveguide fashion , with the Earth surface and the lower side of the ionosphere acting like a giant waveguide .... As I have just told you, portable radios capable of picking up the long wave broadcast band used in ITU Regions I and III, can pick up the more powerful ones with the built in ferrite rod antenna, but much better results are obtained by using large wire loop antennas . Si amigos , yes my friends, oui mes amis... Long wave broadcast band Dxing, one of the more than 85 ways that you and I enjoy this wonderful and fascinating hobby ... RADIO...
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Let me ask you a question amigos.... listen carefully.... here is my question... How many radio hobby programs do you listen to regularly.... again How many radio hobby program do you listen to regularly, and here is now a second question... Why do you listen to each of them, in case that you listen to more than one radio hobby show.... again the follow up question, Why do you listen to each of them, in case that you do listen to more than one radio hobby show ..... Send your answers to inforhc at enet dot cu, again, inforhc at enet dot cu or VIA AIR MAIL to Arnie Coro, Radio Havana Cuba, Havana, Cuba.
And now here is item seven of the mid week edition of Dxers Unlimited, coming to you via shortwave and also from our website streaming audio, found at www.radiohc.cu ...
The weekend CQ RADIO AMATEUR MAGAZINE , Worldwide CW Contest, once again provided ham radio operators around the world with unique opportunities to work new Dx entities, and for propagation experts , it did provide an excellent chance to watch how an increase in amateur radio activities on the higher frequency bands used for the contests, the 15 and 10 meter bands show that those two bands are open for DX much more frequently that what is expected during periods of very low solar activity...
I worked a few stations on the 15 meters band , and was pleasently surprised with an opening to Africa !
It is really amazing what can happen during one of the BIG AMATEUR CONTESTS.... because the large number of stations that do go on the air from so many different parts of the world make possible unique two way contacts....
Item eight : Have a nice kite.... have a nice place with good prevailing winds and no obstructions so that your nice kite may fly without any worries ?... Well, if you answer yes to the three questions, then you are a likely candidate to enjoy two hobbies at the same time... kite flying and radio !!!
Even a small kite can raise a thin wire antenna that will be able to bring in nice signals ! But heavier kites by themselves or combined in pairs can raise big ham radio antennas that will make a lot of difference during a contest. The favorite bands used by hams that are also kite enthusiasts are 160 and 80 meters, but you can also enjoy the benefits of a pair of phased dipoles for the 40 meters band kept up high in the air with two big kites. The big problem when using kite elevated antennas shows up when the wind stops blowing, or makes a sudden shift in heading !!! Expert low band contest operators that use kites to raise 160 meters band antennas carefully choose the location from where to operate portable, after they have done a lot of exploring to find spots where winds blow constantly. A good spot for flying kites, is also a good spot for hang gliding, so contacting the local hang gliders or regular gliders pilots is a good idea if you want to start experimenting with kites and antennas at the same time.... I warn you... it's a lot of fun, and as many of the more than 85 ways you and I enjoy this hobby, it's also fascinating.
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You are listening to the mid week edition of Dxers Unlimited amigos... and here is now our ninth item of this program....here is ASK ARNIE, the most popular section of Dxers Unlimited, answering the radio hobby related questions that you send to me... Today's question came from listeners in eleven countries, and they all want to know more about a very special low power radio transceiver that I mentioned here some time ago. The radio is known as the PARASET, but that was not the way it was.
That vacuum tubes transceiver was designed and built in England for behind the enemy lines use , and was capable of running between 3 and 7 Watts. It used a very simple two tubes regenerative receiver, and power came from a 6 volts storage battery for the tube's filaments and a vibrator power supply provided the plate voltage. Later into the war, a mains power supply was also built, but it was very rarely used because of the great risk for the operators that it involved, as the German radio direction finding teams would switch off the power lines in order to isolate the area from where the Paraset was been used. Nowadays, more than 65 years after the first PARASET was used, there is a new interest in HOMEBREWING replicas of those transceivers , and communicating with them on the 80 and 40 meters amateur bands...
And now amigos, at the end of the show here is Arnie Coro's Dxers Unlimited HF propagation update and forecast... Sunspot count is ZERO, a blank solar disc for the past six days... solar flux 71 units and the A index a nice and very low zero two... Expect nice transatlantic and transpacific AM and Long Wave broadcast band conditions, as well as very good propagation on 160 and 80 meters. During the local daylight hours we may enjoy brief 17 and 15 meters amateur band openings !!! See you all at the week end edition of the program, and don't forget to send your signal reports and comments to inforhc at enet dot cu and via air mail to Arnie Coro, Radio Havana Cuba, Havana, Cuba...