T h e Spec t ru m Mon i tor Amateur, Shortwave, AM/FM/TV, WiFi, Scanning, Satellites, Vintage Radio and More Volume 1 Number 5 May 2014 Ham Radio Communications Trailer Amateur Radio Digital Voice Operating The Art and Science of Kit Building QRP: Radio Fun without a Fortune The Heathkit “Lunchbox” Secret T h e Spec t ru m Mon i tor Amateur, Shortwave, AM/FM/TV, WiFi, Scanning, Satellites, Vintage Radio and More Dear TSM 4 RF Current 6 Rocky Mountain Ham Radio Communications Trailer 11 By Wayne Heinen N0POH When a ham club decided to build their own communications trailer, they learned more about what they would do differently, if they ever had the chance to do so. That chance came sooner than they might have expected and the result is a well-designed, multi-functional operations platform that serves the club’s diverse needs. Digitally Speaking: Amateur Radio Digital Voice Operating Cory G B Sickles WA3UVV 16 Amateur radio operators have been at the forefront of technology for over 100 years. For the last few years many hams have been exploring the world of digital voice communications. From HF to VHF and UHF, what has been done with analog transmissions is now being done digitally, with a few extra and interesting differences. Radio Hobbyist’s Guide to Kits 22 By Neil Goldstein W2NDG Most readers remember the halcyon days of kit building dominated by Heathkit, Knight-Kit and other long gone kit companies, but whose products continue to be heard on the air and revered. Times have changed and so has kit building, but the essence of kit building remains; a chance to build your own equipment, save money, experiment and learn about electronic fundamentals. Neil Goldstein surveys the terrain of contemporary kit building. QRP – Radio Fun Without A Fortune26 Bob Patterson K5DZE Many hams, particularly new ones, don’t understand the advantages that QRP (low power operating) offers: smaller, more portable and less expensive rigs. Nor do many understand that dropping power output doesn’t necessarily mean disappearing into the ether. Longtime QRP operator Bob Patterson explains how it’s done. It Started with a CB 31 By Rich Post KB8TAD TSM’s resident radio historian, Rich Post, looks at the development of Heathkit’s famous Lunchbox transceivers for 10, 6 and 2-meters that started life as CB radio sets. Find out who was really behind the original design of these extremely popular transceivers. 2 The Spectrum Monitor May 2014 Scanning America 36 Amateur Radio Astronomy By Stan Nelson KB5VL By Dan Veeneman The LWA Antenna for Radio Astronomy NOAA WX, NIST Time Transmissions, Scanning Morgan County West Virginia The Longwave Zone Federal Wavelengths 41 By Kevin O’Hern Carey WB2QMY Amateurs on Longwave By Chris Parris Agency Close-Up: BATFE Adventures in Radio Restoration Utility Planet 45 By Marc Ellis N9EWJ The Crosley Fiver Restoration Continues By Hugh Stegman NV6H Monitoring the Crimea Crisis The Broadcast Tower Digital HF: Intercept and Analyze 48 By Doug Smith W9WI How Many are Too Many? By Mike Chace-Ortiz AB1TZ/G6DHU Monitoring Global Aviation Activity with HF Antenna Connections Datalink By Dan Farber AC0LW Center Post: More Adventures with the Big Dipole HF Utility Logs 51 Hugh Stegman and Mike Chace-Ortiz TSM Bookshelf Amateur Radio Insights 53 Recommended Reading for TSM Readers By Kirk Kleinschmidt NT0Z Radiation, Resonance and SWR: Comparing Apples TSM Writers’ Group to Boomerangs! Radio 101 By Ken Reitz KS4ZR Getting Your Ham Ticket: How Hard can it Be? 57 Radio Propagation By Tomas Hood NW7US The Antenna is the Key! (Part 1) 61 The World of Shortwave Listening By Thomas Witherspoon K4SWL The Amateur/Shortwave Connection 65 The Shortwave Listener By Fred Waterer How SW Covers the News; Christian Music 70 71 74 77 80 85 88 90 Writers for The Spectrum Monitor welcome your comments. To contact any of the writers whose material you find in this issue, use the email address found with each column or feature article. Most writers also write regularly for their own blogs, the locations of which are found in the above “TSM Writers’ Group” section of the magazine. Cover Story: CommTrailer 2011 on display at the PPRAA Megafest in Monument Colorado. The satellite dish is in its deployed position and the custom-built hollow aluminum channels with the vertical antennas are mounted near the edges of the roof. The fiberglass junction box for the antenna feed lines and one of the two heating/AC units are nestled between the two aluminum channels. Photo courtesy of Wayne Heinen N0POH The Spectrum Monitor is published monthly by Ken Reitz KS4ZR at 1403 Holland Creek Road, Louisa, Virginia 23093. The entire contents of The Spectrum Monitor are copyrighted 2014 by Ken Reitz, Publisher. All rights reserved. Copying or distribution of any part of this publication in any manner, electronic or paper, is prohibited without the express written permission of the publisher. Brief quotes used in reviews are permitted, provided that attribution is given. Regular subscriptions to The Spectrum Monitor are $24 for one year (12 issues) and are available from www.thespectrummonitor.com. If you are not satisfied with your purchase you may receive a refund for the remaining issues on your subscription by contacting the publisher: ks4zr1@gmail.com. Your refund will be made in the manner in which the purchase was made. If you would like to write for The Spectrum Monitor please send an email to editor@thespectrummonitor.com and ask for our writer’s guidelines. The Spectrum Monitor makes every effort to ensure that the information it publishes is accurate. It cannot be held liable for the contents. The reader assumes all risk in performing modifications or construction projects published in The Spectrum Monitor. Opinions and conclusions expressed in The Spectrum Monitor are not necessarily those of the publisher. May 2014 The Spectrum Monitor 3 Rocky Mountain Ham Radio Communications Trailer By Wayne Heinen N0POH (All photos Courtesy of Rocky Mountain Ham Radio. Additional photos may be seen at http://rmham.org) I n 2006, a loosely-knit group of amateurs known as Rocky Mountain Ham Radio determined that they had a need for a mobile communications trailer. For years they had been operating in the ARRL June VHF QSO Party from a variety of commercial sites that some of the members were affiliated with. As some of the sites were sold, they lost their privileges and eventually ended up in eastern Colorado at Cedar Point near Limon in grid square DM89. They had a good horizon, access to power, but no real operating venue except their campers. The group decided that an operating trailer was needed. This would be dedicated to the contest operation 24/7 and the campers would serve as sleeping and relaxing quarters for those that we’re not “on duty” operating. They started with a stock Pace hauling trailer, eight feet wide, sixteen feet long and seven feet high. This trailer’s roof was beefed up to allow them to walk on the roof by adding supports in the ceiling. Insulation was added to keep cool air, supplied by an added RV AC unit, in the trailer. The walls were finished with hardboard that was carpeted for sound deadening and three operating positions were created on a Formica counter top surface mounted on the wall opposite the doorway into the trailer. Provisions for an AC power entry, battery charging capability and battery operation, as well as an Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) for the logging computers was incorporated. RF was accommodated using portable towers for the Yagis and the feed lines entered through a bulkhead at the front of the trailer and were routed to the operating positions. The Rocky Mountain Ham Radio contest trailer made its contesting debut in the 2006 ARRL June VHF QSO Party. The trailer made its first public appearance as a public service support venue at the 2006 Denver Marathon and its first showing to the amateur radio community at large at the 2007 Aurora Repeater Association Swapfest. It was quickly sought after by a variety of amateur radio groups on the Front Range looking for a command and communications post for everything from the Arapahoe County Fair to support of a joint exercise with Arapahoe County ARES, City of Aurora, and Buckley Air Force Base. The trailer also served as the communications center for the MS Bike Colorado 2008 Ride. Fast forward, over a period of years: money was spent and upgrades were made that morphed the contest trailer into a full-service communications venue. The computers were upgraded, satellite TV was added as well and satellite Internet connectivity and VoIP telephone service. In the spring of 2009 it was featured at the Rocky Mountain ARRL Convention “HamCon Colorado” and a year later at the Rocky Mountain ARRL Convention in Casper Wyoming. Wyoming’s Homeland Security was so impressed that they made an offer to Rocky Mountain Ham Radio to buy the trailer, after some negotiations a price was agreed upon and a tentative delivery date was set. Now dubbed CommTrailer 2006 the culmination of four years of, “You know, the trailer would be better if…” and “Wouldn’t it be nice to have…” would now begin to become a reality. The investment of time and money into CommTrailer 2006 was over four years, the return of the investment and the amateurs’ labor would be immediate. One purpose of this article is to show everyone that an amateur radio communications project can be put together with more than one purpose in mind and, even though it costs money, those who want to enjoy multiple aspects of our amateur radio hobby can and did create a venue that allows for the full spectrum of amateur radio to flourish in the field. Looking at the initial investment in CommTrailer 2006, in was rather large. However when compared to other expenses that we make in the name of our hobby; it’s all relative. These days high end transceivers cost thousands of dollars and many amateurs are investing in campers and recreational vehicles to spend time away from their covenant controlled communities in order to enjoy their hobby, a May 2014 The Spectrum Monitor 11 CommTrailer 2011 on display at the PPRAA Megafest in Monument Colorado. Mike KØGUR is standing next to the PodComm in the back of the trailer. The satellite dish is in its deployed position and the custom-built hollow aluminum channels with the vertical antennas are mounted near the edges of the roof. The fiberglass junction box for the antenna feed lines and one of the two heating/AC units are nestled between the two aluminum channels. full service amateur radio venue like the Rocky Mountain Ham Radio CommTrailer 2006 becomes a very reasonable alternative. CommTrailer 2006 was a good start. It had been originally designed as a contesting venue, then morphing into a true communications center. There were times when the retrofitting for emergency and public service became difficult and some compromises that had to be made were just barely acceptable to all the types of operating that were undertaken with it. What would it be like to design a new trailer, CommTrailer 2011, to specifications that take in ALL the aspects of amateur radio communications, as well as making it a “full service” unit for on-site work with the served agencies of our ARES partners? At the same time that Wyoming’s office of Homeland Security was acquiring CommTrailer 2006 for use by their amateur radio operators, the Veterans Administration in Salt Lake City Utah was interested as well! As it turned out, Wyoming acquired CommTrailer 2006 and the Utah VA office made a deal with Rocky Mountain Ham Radio to supply the materials required and Rocky Mountain Ham Radio would construct a trailer for them. The proceeds from the sale and the construction project created the opportunity to create CommTrailer 2011. This first thing to be addressed in the creation of CommTrailer 2011 was the new trailer to be ordered from the factory. CommTrailer 2006 was an “off the lot” trailer that was then retrofitted to meet the 12 The Spectrum Monitor May 2014 RM Ham Secretary, John Maxwell WØVG, as the trailer was delivered. needs of the group. Many of the items that were retrofitted into CommTrailer 2006 would be factory installed. The first improvements were easy to name; a larger operations area; a higher ceiling, reinforced roof with two precut and sealed AC holes for more cooling capacity; fully insulated, sheathed walls and ceiling, two side-access doors instead of one, fold down rear access, and an enclosed tongue area are the highlights of CommTrailer 2011’s shell. Adding these items meant a base price increase of a few thousand dollars for the new shell, but saved many weeks of tedious retrofit that had gone into CommTrailer 2006. The front tongue area was enclosed and became the “equipment bay.” One problem with CommTrailer 2006 was that the electrical and auxiliary electronics were all installed under a counter in the front of the trailer. In addition to being unsightly, it was not all that secure. The front tongue enclosure has its own door and an interior wall was built to isolate the unilateral 8-foot by 5-foot area from the main 8-foot by 20-foot operating area. This area houses the electrical power equipment; servers, RF feed lines, exterior coax bulkhead, antenna switching and patching, cleaning supplies and more. Much of the layout was “engineered as you go.” One consideration was to make CommTrailer 2011 capable of having two separate rooms that would allow two operating positions in each space. This also would accommodate activities where a small meeting/conference room could be made available, which could be totally isolated from the main operating position. Each room is approximately 7.5-feet by 9-feet, with a door between them, and a “pass-through” port which is located in the wall separating the operating positions in the Table 1 Communications Equipment ICOM IC-2100H w/KPC-3+ ICOM ID-880H Motorola XPR-4550 Motorola XPR-4550 Yaesu FT-857 w/ SGC MAC-200 Tuner Motorola Astro XTL-5000 ICOM ICA-110 Kenwood TM-D700 ICOM ID-800 ICOM IC-7000 w/ SCS PTC-IIUSB SGC 237 tuner ICOM ID-1 Digital Voice Access Point Usage Packet D-Star/FM VHF/UHF UHF FM/TRBO VHF FM/TRBO HF/VHF/UHF All Mode Statewide Public Safety DTRS Aeronautical VHF/UHF FM D-Star/FM VHF/UHF HF SSB / Pactor 1.2 GHz D-Star/FM/Digital VHF Table 2 PoDCom – Portable on Demand Communications KENWOOD TM-D700 w/KPC3+ YAESU FT857 w/SIGNALINK LDG Z-11PRO Tuner POWERWERX SS-30DV Tarheel Vertical 20 Commercial Analog 5 watt HT’s w/chargers Usage VHF/UHF FM/Packet HF SSB/Digital Power Supply 6 m - HF Antenna UHF two rooms. There is a carpeted hardboard shutter that fits in the pass-through when the rooms are closed off. The door and shutter are removable and are stored in the utility closet when CommTrailer 2011 is opened into a single room. The overhead cupboards extend throughout both rooms and have ample space for storage. An idea that was incorporated from the inspection of many public safety communications vehicles was washable white board doors. These are really handy for notes and temporary labels that can be used to keep all personnel up to date with the activities of an exercise or deployment. They were custom made and utilize recessed locking hardware to ensure that the doors remain closed during transport. The AC power in CommTrailer 2006 was supplied through AC mains or a generator through three 20-amp dedicated outlets as well as a 15-amp UPS outlet for the computers. This was adequate for the three positions when the trailer was conceived and built, but not as more and more functions and equipment were added. CommTrailer 2011 is powered by 50 amps at 120/240VAC, feeding a 20-circuit panel. There is a 20-circuit “sub-panel” that is fed by a MagnaSine true-sine wave inverter, capable of providing 3,000 watts continuous power from 12VDC batteries. The battery plant is made up of four Optima Group 31 batteries capable of delivering 400AH of emergency backup. These batteries are charged by the internal 125-amp charger in the MagnaSine inverter. The DC distribution is a custom-made Alpha Power Products power distribution panel with individual AirPax breakers for each device. Every station is powered by an 80A breaker feeding a RigRunner 8012 80A distribution panel. This arrangement eliminated the UPS and provides very flexible power sources that will allow CommTrailer 2011 to function in the various available configurations that have presented themselves over the years, from generator to available mains to relying on batteries for operation of all aspects of the trailer. CommTrailer 2006 had Motorola Commercial UHF and Commercial VHF units. These radios cover Amateur VHF/ UHF FM along with 150MHz and 450MHz Commercial and LTR trunking bands. An ICOM IC-735 was utilized for HF. There was an Icom IC2100 high-power VHF used with a KPC3 Plus attached to a Magellan GPS unit running APRS and after D-Star became available on the Front Range of Colorado, a UHF and a 1.2 GHz D-Star radio were installed. CommTrailer 2011 has morphed over the years and the compliment of radios has been adjusted for both service usage and performance. A variety of services including aeronautical and the statewide Digital Trunk public safety radio were added when, in deployments with Colorado ARES, it became necessary to have communications with the State EOC. A complete list of the installed radios is in May 2014 The Spectrum Monitor 13 A large portion of the members of Rocky Mountain Ham Radio in front of the CommTrailer 2011, as it was displayed at “The Swapfest” February 9th at the Adams County Fairgrounds in Brighton Colorado; the third anniversary of its first public outing. Table 1. CommTrailer 2011 can also deploy with additional resources including a cache of twenty 5-watt HTs and a Portable on Demand Communications (PodCom) unit. Details of the PoDCom are contained in Table 2. The first trailer had six vertical antennas, two HF and four VHF/UHF antennas that were through-hole mounted on the roof and were pretty much dedicated to the radios mounted in the overhead cabinets. CommTrailer 2011 has antennas for the installed radios mounted on hollow aluminum channels that were custom-designed and built to mount on the roof. NMO mounts and LMR-100 coax lead to a junction box on the roof where the cables are fed to a patch panel in the equipment bay. The patch panel consists of coax from the operations area and the antennas on the roof-terminated with BNC connectors. Coax jumpers allow the antennas can be routed to the appropriate radio in the operations area. In both CommTrailer 2006 and CommTrailer 2011 contesting equipment is brought in and placed on the ample work station desktops. Radios operating in the amateur bands, from 6-meters through 1296 MHz and 10 GHz, are supplied by the operators. Power levels range from close to a kilowatt on six meters and two meters to a few watts on 10 GHz. Antennas are Yagis mounted on temporary towers and a high-gain dish antenna for 10 GHz. There is a bulkhead panel in the equipment bay that allows eight coax connections to the tower-mounted antennas, jumpered to N-Connectors at each of the four operating positions inside. CommTrailer 2006’s PC compliment originally entailed Pentium III units mounted at each of the three workstations; they ran Writelog contesting software, which was networked for the ARRL June VHF QSO Party. They were eventually upgraded to Pentium IVs and wireless Internet provided access to real-time weather monitoring and email service. One drawback of this system was that any software upgrade would, of necessity, have to be 14 The Spectrum Monitor May 2014 Operating Position 2 - left to right: Kenwood TM-D700 Face (radio in cabinet), IC-A100 Aircraft Band transceiver, Astro XTL5000 (Colorado Digital Trunk Radio System unit on loan from OEM), Motorola Converta Com for XTS-2500. RM Ham Vice President, Scott Taylor WØKVA, wiring the DC distribution panel in the equipment bay. AC power on a smaller scale Honda EU6500is 6.5 kW gasoline generator. It is stored under Position 5. Note also the fire extinguisher. There is one in the front section, rear section and equipment bay. installed on three separate PC’s, another is a PC that became corrupted or had a corrupted application would be down until time was available to rebuild it in whole or in part. CommTrailer 2011 computer systems are “Thin Client/ Server” systems that utilize very small computers tasked only with general I/O tasks. These are slaved to a server running the chosen operating system in the rack, mounted in the Utility Closet. This server utilizes Citrix XenDesktop to provide services to the “thin clients.” This gives us the ability to tailor each operating position’s PC as needed for the task at hand and keep a copy of the template for each operating systems PC. In the event that something gets corrupted or we need to change the capability of the PC at a given operating position, we just pull out the appropriate template, quickly copy it to that operating position’s PC and we’re ready to proceed. There is also a second backup server that is a mirror of the main server. If we lose the main server it is a fairly easy task to switch the clients to the backup server. CommTrailer 2011 is equipped with both satellite Internet access and satellite TV. The Internet connection allows VoIP telephones, one at each operating station and access to many on-line services including real-time weather. The TV can serve as a source of local news and weather, as well as international news and entertainment when CommTrailer 2011 becomes the “rest and relaxation” vehicle for deployments, such as the Arapahoe County Fair where the mission includes roving assignments in Colorado’s hot August sun. The members of Rocky Mountain Ham Radio spent upwards of 500 hours in the construction of CommTrailer 2011 and take pride in participating in the various deployments of the trailer for training in exercises, displaying as an attraction at area hamfests or in the original activity that led to the creation of the original trailer; contesting. Using the call sign WØKVA, the Rocky Mountain Ham Radio group placed seventh overall in the 2013 ARRL June QSO Party’s Multi-Operator category. PodComm: Top shelf: Two MFJ speakers. Second shelf: Kenwood TMD700 unit with separated faceplate, Powerwerx SS-30DV power supply. Third shelf: LDG Power Meter, Yaesu FT857, LDG Z-11PRO Tuner. Fourth shelf: Pull out tray. About the Author Wayne Heinen’s introduction to radio came from his dad, Bill W2SIC (SK). He became an avid SWL and BCB DXer, joining numerous clubs including the National Radio Club, where he serves on the Board of Directors. First licensed in 1991, Wayne currently holds an Extra class amateur radio license. He became active in many amateur radio clubs in Colorado, and has served as an officer, repeater trustee and hamfest chairman with the Aurora Repeater Association. He serves as Treasurer for a variety of amateur organizations including Rocky Mountain Ham Radio, Cherry Creek Young Amateur Radio Club, Arapahoe County ARES, and the Colorado Council of Amateur Radio Clubs, Colorado’s frequency coordination body. He’s an avid VHF+ contester and grid chaser, as well as a founding member of Rocky Mountain VHF+ (www.rmvhf.org). Wayne has previously written a variety of feature articles for Monitoring Times the most recent ones being “A Trailer for All Seasons,” about RMHam’s CommTrailer 2006 (December, 2008), and “Frequency Coordination in the Amateur Radio Service” (May, 2009). Wayne can be reached at n0poh@arrl.net. May 2014 The Spectrum Monitor 15 Com-Trailer Server Rack From top to bottom in the server rack (left): 1 – Thermostat 2 – Pico Station 1 w wireless access point to 5db ant on roof 3 – DVAP 4 – Antenna Patch Panel 5 – Satellite Modem 6 – Satellite Tracker 7 – Wi-Fi for inside trailer 8 – Craddlepoint MBR-1200B Auxiliary Internet 9 – Terabyte Network Attached Storage 10 – Back end of 48-port HP Ethernet switch 11 – Ethernet Switch Patch Panel 12 – Monitor 13 – Keyboard 14 – Station 5 Server 15 – Main “Zen” Server 16 – Two 6” Monitors 17 – UHF ATV demodulator 18 – Demodulators for ATV 19 – Dish Network satellite receiver connected to a King Dome Sat dish on roof 20 – Custom DC Power Distribution Panel 21 – 4 Optima Batteries T S M 16 The Spectrum Monitor May 2014 Errata Page – by Wayne Heinen N0POH “Some last minute changes caused a couple of miscues which, as you say, otherwise the article reads very well. Thanks for doing such a great job with the article. I've already heard from several readers who found the story interesting. I'm sure it will inspire other clubs to do likewise.” Ken Reitz KS4ZR Publisher, Managing Editor The Spectrum Monitor Page 12 Upper Left: This is the photo as it should have appeared File: PPRAA_2013.jpg CommTrailer 2011 on display at the PPRAA Megafest in Monument Colorado. Mike KØGUR is standing next to the PodComm in the back of the trailer. The satellite dish is in its deployed position and the custom built hollow aluminum channels with the vertical antennas are mounted near the edges of the roof. The fiberglass junction box for the antenna feed lines and one of the two Heating/AC units are nestled between the two aluminum channels. Page 12 Upper right File: Inside 2011.jpg Should have had this this caption Scott WØKVA looking inside CommTrailer 2011’s shell. Just positioning the server rack to start laying out the equipment bay partition. This photo belongs to the caption “RM Ham Secretary John Maxwell WØVG as the trailer was delivered” Page 15 Left This photo should have ran with the printed caption Caption AC power on a smaller scale Honda EU6500is 6.5 kW gasoline generator. It is Stored under Position 5. Note also the fire extinguisher. There is one in the front section, rear section and equipment bay. Should have had this caption ‐ Full AC power when we need it is supplied by a Whisperwatt 25 kW Diesel Generator