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How to Solder with Allen KC7O

SPARC thanks Allen Wolff, KC7O for the entertaining and informative presentation on soldering that he delivered at our June 7 meeting. Allen has over forty-five years of experience in aerospace manufacturing operations and quality management. He has worked on the Apollo lander, military communications, missile guidance systems, spacecraft deployment, satellites, and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems.

Due to copyright issues, we can’t distribute Allen’s slides, but below is a list of references Allen consulted while creating his presentation.  Use these links to brush up on your soldering skills now as we prepare for our next club activity, creating an antenna for use in a radio “go box.” As Bob, WB6YJJ said in his recent club email, “Antenna connectors are tricky to solder, so come and learn the CORRECT way from an expert.”

Wikipedia on soldering
Crimping vs. Soldering
Instructables on soldering tips and tricks
Hakko brand wick
Science Buddies primer
Adafruit guide to common solder problems
Death by “tin whiskers”

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End of an Era at Voice of America

This post was written by SPARC’s Oliver Dully, K6OLI.

Dr. Kim Andrew Elliott will retire from the Voice of America on June 23, 2017, after thirty-two years as audience research analyst and broadcaster.

Therefore, the last VOA Radiogram will be the weekend of June 17-18. There is no word on a replacement, if any.

VOA Radiogram

As a new ham the VOA Radiogram has been of immeasurable value to my understanding of HF propagation, antenna setups and using SDRs like websdr.org or RTL-SDR. But most importantly VOA Radiogram was my gateway to Fldigi, providing a stable and reliable platform to experiment with, and learn about the many settings and modes.

For hams focused on emergency communications, VOA Radiogram has been a one-of-a-kind training opportunity, increasing our skills and allowing for experimentation, all of which ultimately benefits our served agencies and therefore the communities in which we live and operate.

Moreover, hams without HF capabilities or licensing found VOA Radiogram useful because they had to think out of the box, using SDR dongles, shortwave receivers, or web-based SDRs to access the digital transmissions with Fldigi. By demonstrating capabilities such as fast transmission of text and even image transfers over long distances, Dr. Elliott has inspired many hams to upgrade their license and their stations.

I want to thank Dr. Elliott for his work and dedication. The VOA Radiogram has been one of the most valuable and useful transmissions over the airwaves. I also want to express my hope that VOA will continue a regular schedule of digital transmissions via Fldigi. The benefits for the community and its preparedness are immense.

For those  who want to try VOA Radiogram during the remaining transmissions:

  • set Fldigi to use your computer’s internal soundcard
  • find an SDR that covers the band you want on websdr.org (UTwente SDR will work best for most people)
  • and tune to the frequency at the correct time using AM.

Fldigi will pickup the transmission from your computer speakers and decode the signal through the internal microphone. You can watch and read it as it happens. (Those of you with appropriate HF capability will be able to tune as you normally would and decode acoustically or via your soundcard interface.)

Here is the schedule for the next few weekends in Pacific Time:

Sat 0900-0930 17580 kHz
Sat 1930-2000 5745 kHz
Sun 1230-1300 15670 kHz
Sun 1330-1400 11580 kHz
Sun 1630-1700 11580 kHz

You can find the program, official schedule in UTC and further information on http://voaradiogram.net.

73,
Oliver K6OLI

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Join Us for Field Day 2017

Field Day 2017

Field Day is an annual ham radio event that encourages operating in the great outdoors. It’s “amateur radio’s open house,” a great opportunity to learn about the hobby and meet your neighborhood hams.
There are two local transmission sites we encourage you to visit. Members of SPARC will be on the air with fellow hams from the Pasadena Radio Club, JPL RC and Caltech RC on the campus of Art Center College of Design.

Saturday, June 24, 11:00 a.m. to
Sunday, June 25, 11:00 a.m.

1700 Lida Street
Pasadena, CA 91103
Hillside Campus, South Parking Lot

We will join our friends from Altadena Emergency Radio Team and ARES Northeast at Huntington Hospital.

Saturday, June 24  9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
100 W. California Blvd.
(Outside Research Conference Hall)
Pasadena, CA  91105

 

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Learn Fldigi at Our April 5 Meeting

Fldigi released a major update on March 28, and Oliver K6OLI has updated his online guide to cover the new version.

At our next monthly meeting — Wednesday, April 5, 19:30 at the EOC — Oliver will give a brief hands-on introduction to Fldigi. All are welcome, and you don’t have to bring anything other than your curiosity. But feel free to you bring a laptop and HT and practice with us. Oliver will guide everyone through the set up and demonstrate how to send and receive messages.

You can download and install the software for your operating system here:

  • Windows or Mac
    Download and install fldigi, flmsg and flwrap.
  • Android
    Download and install AndFlmsg. (Detailed instructions for Android are provided here)

For experienced users, the meeting will be a good opportunity to upgrade, test and double check your setup with the new version Fldigi 4.0.1.

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Hams Support the AC 100 Ultramarathon

At our February meeting, representatives from the Angeles Crest  100 Mile Ultramarathon demonstrated the radio gear they use to keep runners safe. The thirtieth annual AC100 will start on August 3, 2017 and continue through August 6 (Thursday through Sunday). Licensed hams are invited to volunteer at checkpoints along the route.

This video shows some amazing scenery that AC100 participants and volunteers can enjoy.
Visit AC100.com for more information.

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Sending Data with Fldigi

Fldigi stands for Fast Light Digital modem application. It’s a free and open-source program that allows an ordinary computer’s sound card to be used as a simple data modem. (I’m paraphrasing Wikipedia here!) ARES Northeast has been spreading the word about Fldigi’s usefulness when other communication systems fail due to natural disaster or power outage. You can use it to transfer small files from your computer when the Internet is down.

SPARC’s own Oliver, K6OLI has created a guide to setting up Fldigi on a Windows PC. His step-by-step instructions, complete with screenshots, will get you up and running.

In addition, the following two videos come recommended by ARES NE director Gary Wong, W6GSW. If you are using Fldigi, consider dropping by an ARES activity day to compare notes with fellow SGV hams!

Fldigi: Learn How to Use It

Basic NBEMS Fldigi Setup

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Winlink: Email Over Radio

At our January 4, 2017 meeting, SPARC president Bob Vanderwall WB6YJJ presented a video on the benefits of Winlink. Here is a simple definition of Winlink taken from its Wikipedia page:

Winlink is a worldwide radio messaging system that uses amateur-band radio frequencies to provide radio interconnection services that include email with attachments, position reporting, weather bulletins, emergency relief communications, and message relay.

The most common use of Winlink is sending email from an area where the Internet is unavailable. During an emergency that knocks out Internet access, Winlink can get a message to loved ones and other contacts. This powerful communication resource is an all-volunteer effort administered by a group called the Amateur Radio Safety Foundation Inc. Our Northeast section of ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) uses Winlink as part of its preparedness plans.

With a relatively small investment in equipment (typically an external sound card and free software such as Winlink Express), amateur radio operators can get up and running. Over the course of 2017, SPARC will continue to discuss how to set up and use Winlink at our monthly meetings .

This video by Rick Frost K4REF is a great introduction to Winlink. Rick has posted a series of videos on various aspects of the system on his YouTube page.

Once you’re ready to give Winlink a try, here are recommended node frequencies for the San Gabriel Valley:
VHF
145.050 MHz, 1200 baud
W6GSW-10 (Alhambra)
KA6ECT-10 (Pasadena)
W6SGB-10 (San Gabriel)

UHF
431.125 MHz, 9600 baud:
W6GSW-10
KA6ECT-10