Beginning last week, the restrictions on our movement in Israel began to loosen up with the opening of malls, outdoor markets, and health clubs.  My wife's schools are saying that a limited number of kids can return to school, no more than 17 per class, and they don't have to wear masks inside the classroom with the teacher, only outside.  Huh? The XYL is not required to return until she is ready and comfortable with the situation.

Being older and perhaps in a higher risk group for the Covid-19 virus, our strategy is to add two weeks to whatever is going on outside.  If nobody is getting sick at school after two weeks, then we can exit our isolation and get on with our lives until the next crisis.  If on the other hand the opening is premature, then we hold for a while. Being unable to see the grandchildren has been the most difficult part of this isolation. Hopefully in a few weeks, that separation will also end.

In the meantime, me and my team are working on the QSO Today Virtual Ham Radio Expo. The dates are set for August 8 and 9th. We are using a virtual reality platform that will give us a full convention experience with exhibit hall, speaker auditoriums, and hospitality rooms. George, KJ6VU, from the Ham Radio Workbench podcast is helping me with the list of speakers, now close to 40 in 5 subject tracks. I’m excited.

I need a small favor. Please complete my survey by clicking on the button on the Expo page of the QSO Today website. This survey will give you a FREE ticket to both days of the event in August. Your registration will also show potential exhibitors that this project has your support. If you have already filled out this survey, then you have your free ticket.  I am truly grateful for this support. In a few weeks I will contact you with your registration.

I wish you a happy and healthy week and that you enjoy this episode 301 with Rick Dubbs, WW9JD. Rick learned to “social distance” while spending four years at sea in a US Navy nuclear submarine. He shares this and the rest of the story in this QSO Today.

73, Eric 4Z1UG

I don't often speak or write about my other lives, outside of the podcast, but this week I felt compelled to speak about my most recent loss.  Windows 7 is now dead, buried, and a fading memory.  

For the last 30 years, every time I was at some transition point in my computer use, to buy a new one, or a change in the operating system, I reluctantly stayed with Microsoft.  I felt that with Windows 7, MS finally got it right.  On January 15, of this month, Microsoft decided to end its support of Windows 7, preferring that all users move up to Windows 10.  I have to run Windows 10 on a laptop to support my clients who still use it. 

For my own use and "my daily driver" , I finally made the decision that I put off for years - to move out of Microsoft Land to Kubuntu, or Ubuntu with KDE Plasma Linux.  My old Dell desktop now has a new 1TB SSD running Linux and it is fast and does not break, so far. Linux takes some getting used to, requires lots of Googling to understand how to add your favorite applications, and what new applications to use instead of Microsoft utilities, like Snipping Tool, that I use all day long.  

I am tweaking it along the way, but so far, so good.  I can do all of the tasks around the QSO Today podcast that I did on Windows, without restarts.  The suite of software that is available on Linux is remarkable. 

As I am a computer and network consultant by day, I have moved all of my clients off of Windows 7 to Windows 10 or Linux. I believe that an un-patched MS operating system is dangerous, and right now is a malware target. Consider upgrading to Windows 10, Apple OS, or Linux. 

My guest this week is Mike Foerster, W0IH, who has contributed many articles to QST and QEX Magazines over the years.  Mike points out that one of the problems with dipoles on 75-80 meters is that they are not broadband enough to cover the entire band.  Mike tunes his dipole in a very clever way that he discusses in the podcast and was the subject of one of his QST articles. 

Thanks for listening. 

73, Eric 4Z1UG

I am back from my trip to the West Coast of the USA, visiting my dad, going to an Internet of Things (IoT) expo, speaking at at the West Valley Amateur Radio Association meeting, day trip to Phoenix, and a final weekend with friends.  Whooo!  

I have a business in Israel and had to wake up at 3:00 AM PST to check messages, speak to the office, support clients, and keep the fires burning low while away.  Combined with jet lag, I am grateful to be home and getting back to normal.  

Really the roughest part was the TSA searches at every airport where I discovered the rules of engagement depend on the airport, the line, and the person on duty.  The only commonality was taking the shoes off.  Not being use to these up close and personal searches, I settled into a very slow and agreeable state of mind.  Slow and methodical to take out all of my things (in some places all electronics), and slow to make sure that all of my gear was recovered out of the machines, in six plastic bins, before moving out of security.  My lesson, if you are in a hurry, you will loose your stuff.    

I am glad that I carried on the electronics everywhere as my checked suitcase went missing on the final leg home.  I will drive to the airport tomorrow to see if it is there while the airline reports that they don't have it yet.  

I had the QSO with Clark Stewart, W8TN, while on the road proving that it is possible to record the show with a portable setup.  Clark is doing moon-bounce, and in our conversation says that the new digital modes make it possible to make moon-bounce contacts without a lot of fancy gear.  The difference is made up by the guy at the other end.  The link budget is the same for all contacts I'm told.  W8TN is an interesting guy and loves to be a mentor to hams. 

Happy Thanksgiving to my listeners in the USA.  

Thanks for listening. 

73, Eric 4Z1UG

​Reprinted with permission from:
Wayne Burdick, N6KR
CTO of Elecraft, Inc. 
and friend for 45 years


I find that CW has many practical and engaging aspects that I just don’t get with computer-mediated modes like FT8. You’d think I’d be burned out on CW by now, over 45 years since I was first licensed, but no, I’m still doin’ it :)

Yes, FT8 (etc.) is a no-brainer when, despite poor conditions, your goal is to log as many contacts as possible with as many states or countries as possible. It’s so streamlined and efficient that the whole process is readily automated. (If you haven’t read enough opinions on that, see "The mother of all FT8 threads” on QRZ.com, for example.)

But back to CW. Here’s why it works for me. YMMV.

CW feels personal and visceral, like driving a sports car rather than taking a cab. As with a sports car, there are risks. You can get clobbered by larger vehicles (QRM). Witness road range (“UP 2!”). Fall into a pothole (QSB). Be forced to drive through rain or snow (QRN).

With CW, like other forms of human conversation, you can affect your own style. Make mistakes. Joke about it.

CW is a skill that bonds operators together across generations and nations. A language, more like pidgin than anything else, with abbreviations and historical constructs and imperialist oddities. A curious club anyone can join. (At age 60 and able to copy 50 WPM on a good day, I may qualify as a Nerd Mason of some modest order, worthless in any other domain but of value in a contest.)

With very simple equipment that anyone can build, such as a high-power single-transistor oscillator, you can transmit a CW signal. I had very little experience with electronics when I was 14 and built an oscillator that put out maybe 100 mW. Just twisted the leads of all those parts together and keyed the collector supply--a 9-volt battery. With this simple circuit on my desk, coupled to one guy wire of our TV antenna mast, I worked a station 150 miles away and was instantly hooked on building things. And on QRP. I’m sure the signal was key-clicky and had lots of harmonics. I’ve spent a lifetime making such things work better, but this is where it started.

Going even further down the techno food chain, you can “send” CW by whistling, flashing a lamp, tapping on someone’s leg under a table in civics class, or pounding a wrench on the inverted hull of an upside-down U.S. war vessel, as happened at Pearl Harbor. Last Saturday at an engineering club my son belongs to, a 9-year-old demonstrated an Arduino Uno flashing HELLO WORLD in Morse on an LED. The other kids were impressed, including my son, who promptly wrote a version that sends three independent Morse streams on three LEDs. A mini-pileup. His first program.

Finally, to do CW you don’t always need a computer, keyboard, mouse, monitor, or software. Such things are invaluable in our daily lives, but for me, shutting down everything but the radio is the high point of my day. The small display glows like a mystic portal into my personal oyster, the RF spectrum. Unless I crank up the power, there’s no fan noise. Tuning the knob slowly from the bottom end of the band segment to the top is a bit like fishing my favorite stream, Taylor Creek, which connects Fallen Leaf Lake to Lake Tahoe. Drag the line across the green, sunlit pool. See what hits. Big trout? DX. Small trout? Hey, it’s still a fish, and a QSO across town is still a QSO. Admire it, then throw it back in.

(BTW: You now know why the Elecraft K3, K3S, KX2, and KX3 all have built-in RTTY and PSK data modes that allow transmit via the keyer paddle and receive on the rig’s display. We decided to make these data modes conversational...like CW.)

Back to 40 meters....

73,

Wayne
N6KR

I like to keep up with my previous QSO Today guests to keep their biographies current.  

Don Keith, N4KC, my guest in Episode 39, has a new book out and available in Amazon called, Dial Dancing. Don says that it is a book of ham radio short stories that are dramatic, funny, and hopefully entertaining.  He has one story about what African American amateurs had to go through in the 50s and 60s, and another about a 75 meter nightly round table in which the group learns a well kept secret about one of its regulars. 

The book is available at Amazon at this link.  I just downloaded it to my Amazon Kindle to get into it.  

​73,  Eric 4Z1UG

​Last week, Karen and I had our day in court as a result of Karen being rear-ended in an accident last year.  There were no witnesses to prove that she hadn’t hit the van in front of her before being hit from behind. The insurance company of the owner of the truck which hit her would not pay for the damage to the front of her car.  According to the insurance company representative it was an “open and shut case”.

Except, that it wasn’t open and shut, because there was no accident until she was hit from behind and we wanted justice.  We waited over a year for our day in court, even though we thought our chances of winning anything were slim. 

Without witnesses, I suggested to Karen that this was really a physics problem. We had to demonstrate that she was hit hard enough to be pushed a few meters into the van in front of her. She enlisted three physics students from the boys’ high school, where she teaches, to work on the problem.  We gave them the vehicles’ weights and speed. They made utilized formulas that they had been studying for four years, filling up three white boards with the all of their calculations. 

After they were finished we both agreed that we could not interpret their results without them going to court with us. With special permission from the school, we had three 12th grade physics students come to small claims court with us.  One of the boys spoke.  He explained the calculations they had made which showed that the truck had pushed Karen’s car approximately 3.8 meters on impact.  His testimony was confident and mature causing the insurance representative to want to settle with us.

We were all changed by this experience, especially the boys.  They came away with the idea that justice was done in this Jerusalem court and that their hard work and study had practical applications. We too were moved by their diligent work and brilliant testimony before the judge.  Of course, with WhatsApp, the entire school knew of their victory in court and what they had done for their teacher. 

What does this have to do with amateur radio, you might ask?  As hams we have a lot of practical knowledge that has far reaching implications. We take our theoretical knowledge and apply it on a daily basis and I owe my amateur radio background to looking at this as a problem to be solved. These physics students had the opportunity to take their knowledge from the white board to the court room to help solve a real life problem.  As hams, we can influence others to dig deeper, to try new things. While we express ourselves through electronics and radio, our approach to problem solving is very practical and far beyond just our hobby.

73, Eric 4Z1UG

When we learn amateur radio in our youth it becomes a prism through which we see the whole world.  This is because we learn some basic electricity, electronics and physics and we use this knowledge to better understand and interpret the physical phenomena around us.  We look at problems differently and often find the solutions quickly.

​This is the case with my guest this week, Brian Clarke, VK2GCE, who caught the amateur radio bug very early in his life in Auckland, New Zealand.  It wasn’t until later that he actually got his license.  He became a talented musician in addition to pursuing a degree in electronics. He then used his combined knowledge to better understand the waveguide properties of a brass trumpet.  Somehow his radio and electronics background made it obvious to Brian that a trumpet has properties similar to waveguide used in microwave communications.  The only work left was to prove these assumptions and to earn his Master’s Degree.

Brian discusses in the podcast the “Subs in Schools” program sponsored by The Re-engineering Australia Foundation.  This program engages students by helping them to understand and apply the technology of submersible vehicles and submarines.  The students do the research, design, build and apply what they learn to control their submarine models in the water.  Imagine what benefits come from this project based learning which they can later apply to solving other complex problems. 

While there is a lot of discussion of STEM programs (Science- Technology-Engineering-Math) in schools which foster these skills in students, it is only when this knowledge is applied to problem solving that it becomes more than an intellectual exercise and bears fruit.  Hands- on projects like Subs in Schools need to be a major part of STEM programs.

Our amateur radio hobby provides a solid foundation to support STEM programs in our schools.  Think about what we as HAMS can do, especially those of us close to or in retirement,  as volunteers to bolster these programs with our hands- on and real world knowledge. The opportunities are endless!

​73, Eric 4Z1UG  

The response from the QSO Today listener survey was terrific. Almost all of you who answered my survey entered the drawing by giving me your call sign.  I assigned each record in the survey that contained a call sign a line number, set the range in an on-line random number generator and pushed the button.  I got this idea from Cale at the HamRadio 360 Podcast.  Great idea Cale!  The winner of the drawing was Mervin Northover, M0MIN, in the UK, who now has his prize.

While the survey was insightful, you were also very generous with your guest suggestions.  Most of your QSO Today guest suggestions were new names and call signs to me, many of whom I had never heard of.  I entered all of your suggested guests into my prospect list.  I go through a few each day, complete the record and send invitations.  I expect that we will have some great future guests on the podcast.

I purchased my plane ticket and made reservations for my first Dayton Hamfest.  I hope to meet many of the QSO Today listeners at the show.  I also plan to attend the FDIM conference.  What I learned is that the Fairborn hotels are the closest hotels to the new Hamvention site in Xenia.  As a result, hotel rooms disappeared quickly right after New Year’s, possibly impacting the folks that would go to FDIM.  So if you are planning Dayton this year, now is the time to make preparations. 

My QSO Today is with Mike Myers, VA3MPM, who is an active ham in the city of Ottawa, Canada.  Mike likes to collect old transceivers, the ones that many of us wanted as kids, in the seventies, but out of our financial reach at the time. He likes the early Drake, Swan, Yaesu, and Kenwood transceivers that he finds at hamfests for very little money.  Mike says that most of these rigs will work with a little clean up and maybe replacement of all of the electrolytic capacitors.  In the end, he has some very interesting rigs where each one gives him a different on-air user experience.  

Some new hams to the QSO Today podcast tell me that the cost of a ham rig can be expensive and a barrier to getting on the air.  These older rigs (under the careful scrutiny of an Elmer) can be a great opportunity to get on the air for a fraction of the cost of a new rig.  With a little more help, you can add some SDR (Software Defined Radio) capability to give these rigs some interesting new capability (See QST Magazine, Jan 2017, Modulation-Demodulation Software Radio, by Alex Schwarz, P. 50). 

For me these QSO Today conversations stimulate some new thinking.  I hope that they do the same for you. 

​73,  Eric 4Z1UG

​Thanks to all of you who completed my listener survey.  As I write this over 300 of you have replied and entered my drawing for the $100.00 DX Engineering Gift Certificate.   Your input is very helpful.  I will post the survey results to the QSO Today website at some point soon.  

I take your comments and suggestions very seriously.  One of your most important contributions is guest suggestions. As I have said before, I send out tens of invitations every month to create a roster of QSO Today guests.  Only about 10% of my invitations result in QSO Today interviews.  I think that this is a very good response.  Your suggestions bring to my attention ham radio operators who have amazing stories that I want to hear and share with you.  As I go through the QSO Today Listener Survey, I am adding your suggestions to my list. Thanks!

I was pleasantly surprised by the response to Episode 127 with Brooke Allen, N2BA.  Our QSO went off the traditional rails of the typical QSO Today conversation and ventured into territory that I found both interesting and compelling. It caused me to question, in my own mind, what it is about amateur radio that should be preserved.  Why is it important for the ham radio service and its licensees to still be here after the old timers are gone?  If I have to make an elevator pitch about ham radio, what could I say in its favor?

Here is my elevator pitch: 

Amateur radio provides hands-on learning experience that encompasses a vast amount of technical knowledge, practical mechanical and social skills.  Its mentors and students often trade places as they research, experiment, construct, and test new circuits, equipment, antennas and other technical contraptions. Ham radio creates a passionate life trajectory into science and technology for its younger members.  It’s the ultimate hands-on STEM classroom.

I appreciate that my QSO with Brooke was discussed on some other podcasts.  I chuckled as I heard comments from other podcasters that I may have squirmed in my chair when, as my mother used to say, the conversation became “adult”.  As a community we should have these discussions that lead us to articulating our positions as a service and hobby for the future.  

​I don’t have answers, but I like asking the questions.

73, Eric 4Z1UG