PRODUCTION ASSIST: TOM KIRK, KA2VAD (908-521-2049).
NETNEWS EDITOR: G4RGK, DAVID DIBLEY
SKEDS CORD & DIRECTORY: DL4EBY/DK0TU, KLAUS TIEDEMANN,
HALSKESTR.35, D-12167 BERLIN, (49-30-7955467), E-Mail:
***E-MAIL LIST CORD: Scott KD4LT***
*** NA EME BBS: 704-284-4854 ***
14.345, 10 AM ET SATURDAYS, AFTER VARO NET SUNDAYS:
Paul (SM0PYP) has passed the US's extra class license exam and has a new US call AD6GD. Paul notes that his SM0PYP call is still valid in most Eur countries. He is still not QRV, but hope to be on 10 GHz for the ARRL EME Contest.
Guenter is now QRV on 23 cm and but not QRV any more on 70 cm -- so
no 432 skeds please. He worked in Aug on 1296
F5PAU, OZ6OL, K9BCT, OH2DG, K5JL, OE5JFL, F1ANH, KD4LT and HB9BBD on SSB.
He experienced some strange
propagation and evidence of Faraday rotation because of a magnetic storm.
On 27 Aug (A3D112) echoes were unstable and sometimes very weak. On 30 Aug
at 1700 echoes were very weak and disappeared completely from 1800 until
1915. Then echoes came slowly back. A view in the "Solar Terestr.
Activity Report" shows that "M-Flare peaked at 1810". Guenter has an
homepage at:
Peter writes about the conference -- We really enjoyed seeing a lot
of old friends again. Herve and his team did a fine job. As I spent a lot
of the 70's working on scanning antennas of one sort or another the visit
to Nancay was particularly interesting. I missed some reports earlier
in the year so to catch up... I worked on 30 May on 432 K7XD for initial
#329 and on 1296 worked N6BQ, PY5ZBU, K2UYH and DF3RU, missed the June SW,
in July on 432 OE5EYM, W7CNK #330, I5CTE, DL4KG, KA0RYT, GW3XYW and KL7HFQ
#331, and in Aug on 432 I5CTE and N7LQ #332, and on 1296 N6BQ, W2UHI,
LA8LF, OH2DG, HA5SHF for initial #139, OZ6OL #140, KB2AH, K5JL, ZS6AXT,
SM2CEW and ON5RR. Activity on 1296 was good with HB9BBD and OZ4MM very good
SSB copy. The 432 condx have had extreme Faraday this summer. It is unusual
for me not to hear ANY echoes at all until I rotate the pol 90 degs (which
I can do in 2 seconds). This has been so on every daylight session.
I wonder if this is due to the increase in solar activity. I think it makes
for lower activity.
Dominique writes -- The 98 EME Conference in Paris was a very nice
gathering. My wife enjoyed the ladies program very much. Thanks to our
French friends! Back home my log on 1296 looks as follows: Worked on 15 Aug
at 2330 JH5LUZ (569/589), on 16 Aug at 0600 ZS6AXT (569/589), 0615 HA5SHF
(529/569) - Csabas' signal jumped several times down about 500 Hz, 0657
ON5RR (559/579), 0714 OH2DG (559/579), 0727 OZ4MM (589/589) and on SSB
(57/56), 0753 ON5RR (55/56) on SSB, 0809 GW3XYW (569/569), 0818 LA8LF
(579/589) and on SSB (57/57), 0836 KB2AH on SSB (58/59) and 0948 K5JL
(599/589) and on SSB (59/59), and on 23 AUG at 1146 SM2CEW (559/579),
1250 SM2CEW (559/57) - one-way SSB, 1314 KD4LT (559/569) and (55/58) on
SSB, 1322 LA8LF (57/58) on SSB, 1330 DF4PV (53/58) on SSB, 1417 K5JL
(57/59) on SSB and 1424 HB9BHU (54/55) on SSB. In the morning of 23 Aug I
measured the heading of the 10m dish with the Sun, and found a mis-heading
of 0.2 deg in the AZ which when corrected, the Sun noise improved by 1 dB.
Sun noise went just above 22 dB today.
Scott had a wonderful time at the Paris Conference. He sends a very
special thanks to the Paris organizational crew for a very good meeting
2E Upon his return, Scott did a few modifications to his 23 cm HPA and is
now QRV at near the 1 kW level on 23 cm. After a total re-calibration of
the tracking system on the 6.7 m 23 cm dish, after having the tracking
box in Paris for show, everything was ready for the SW. The new station
worked on 1296 was W6HD (O/O) for initial #47. Other QSOs were DJ9YW,
K5JL, N2IQU (SSB QSO with his six year old daughter), F2TU, W2UHI, N6BQ,
LA8LF and others. Scott has started working on getting the 70 cm system
functional again and plans to be QRV on both 23 and 70 cm during the next
SW. Scott returned form Paris with the TM8EME QSLs for all US stations that
were not at the conference. All have now been mailed except WA9FWD and W4OP
for which Scott needs to get addresses. EME Totals for KD4LT are on 70
cm Initial #311, WAS 36 and DXCC 47, and on 23 cm Initial #47, WAS 13 and
DXCC 23.
Marc, LU8EDR and LU4DHD have worked
OE9ERC, OE9XXI, OZ4MM and LA8LF
on 1296 thus far. They have only 60 w into a 3.6 m dish, but are working
on a higher power amp. Marc will be attending the Microwave Update
Conference in CO in Oct, and will also be in the NJ area. By the time he
returns he will have a much boosted signal. They are interested in skeds
with stations in NA for the Sept SW, due to moon position and local time.
Their WEB page is still:
Hoppy's Aug 23 cm EME activity report follows -- I worked 02 Aug
W2UHI, 03 Aug W2UHI and W6HD, 04 Aug W2UHI, on 14 Aug Sun Noise was 13.9 dB=
with Solar Flux of 137, on 15 Aug GW3XYW, K5JL, LA8LF, G3LTF, W2UHI and CWNR HA5SHF, and on 16 Aug - very good Condx - ZS6AXT, W2UHI, F2TU, GW3XY=
W, OZ6OL, DJ9YW, OH2DG for initial #127, KD4LT, SM2CEW, ON5RR and LA8LF.
HA5SHF had a good signal, but QRM prevented a QSO. Additionally, my output
power on 15 Aug was only 250 w with a TH308. [Hoppy had planned to attend
the Paris Conference, but health problems flared up which prevented the
trip. He is very serious ill. I know he has our prayers for a recovery
and would appreciate hearing from his EME friends.]
Frank reports on his Paris trip and activities -- Great to see
everyone in Paris. Thanks to the entire group responsible for putting the
conference together. Congratulations to all on a job well done. We had a
great time despite our limited time in Paris (less than three days). We did
break away from the program on Sunday to do some sightseeing and missed
the Nancay trip. The trip home became a real adventure do to severe
thunderstorms in the Washington DC area. We were stuck holding for 1 hour
and 15 min before getting into Dullas International Airport. From that
point things continued to go down hill. After several flight changes and
cancellations we finally ended up driving to Washington National to try
and catch a flight on a different airline. The plane was their and ready
to go but they had no crew. After a long wait and just 15 minutes prior
to an airport curfew a crew arrived and was greeted by loud cheers and a
standing ovation. Our flight lifted off just moments before the curfew
time. This all resulted in a 24 hour return trip. The following weekend I
got on with renewed interest and unfortunately found activity levels to be
extremely low. I got up early figuring it would be prime time for high
activity, but had to call CQ for over an hour before I even heard another
signal. Each time I have gotten on this summer It seemed activity has been
poor. I understand of course the summer months have traditionally been
the slowest, but I believe 432 activity has been on a steady decline over
the last 4 years and is currently about as low as I have seen it. Based
on reports in the NL and conversations at the Paris Conference, it also
appears 1296 activity levels are at or near all time highs. This obviously
is no coincidence. Many long time 432 ops have moved up in freq. Since I
can't change the feed on my array to move bands, I will have to build a
complete new system to get on a different band. I have very little 1296
equipment, but have all the components necessary to put together a very
respectable 144 MHz system, so I guess I will be moving down in frequency
rather than up. [I would not give up on 70 cm yet. Remember many people
were not yet back from the conference or away on holiday. It is true that
1296 activity has grown in resent years, and some of that activity has come
from operators who operated on 70 cm. Most of the stations who have
moved up to 1296 have remained active on 432. There also has been an influx
of new stations to 432 MHz. Many have come by way of 2 m. There is no
reason we can not have good activity on all the EME bands including 2 m.]
Stations worked this month were on 15 Aug at 0910
KL7HFQ (439/529), 0923
UT3LL (569/549), 0935 I5CTE (559/559), 0945 G3HUL (539/549) and 0957
DL7APV (549/539).
Hannes writes via e-mail for the 1st time -- I had a fine time at
the EME conference in Paris, and want to express my thanks to the French
team for the organization. After the conference I visited G4ALH for several
days and enjoyed the hospitality of Rob and his family. Back home I worked
on 1296 MHz on 15 Aug at 0755 DF4PV (559/579) for initial #176, 0802
K5JL (579/579), 0841 OZ6OL (549/559) #177 and 0900 HA5SHF (549/559) #178.
I pleased to report that the ARRL Contest Award for the 1997 EME Contest
has arrived after some delay. It confirms that I am in 1st place again.
I have won the single operator multiband class for 10 times in a row
(1988-97)! My e-mail address is:
Hannes, OE5JFL
Jimmy writes -- Since my last activity report in the April NL I
have worked on 432: HB9SV, DF3RU, JA3IAF, JA4BLC, 9M2BV, JA2TY, JA9BOH,
G3LTF, ON4KNG, OE5EYM, 7M2PDT, K5JL, EA3DXU, EA3UM, S52CW, JA5OVU, W5ZN,
W7CNK, and LX1DB to bring me to initial #47 and DXCC 19. Before the Sept SW
my RX side will be completely restructured with the valuable help of PA3CSG.
A new KA0RYT cavity preamp will be installed - TNX Ron. Bandpass filters
will be added before and after the 1st stage with 10 MHz BW and 0.23 dB
insertion loss, and 500 kHz BW with -45 dB at +/- 5 MHz respectively.
The 2nd stage will have a high IP of >15 dBm using an Advantec transistor
by PA3CSG. Finally a 1 MHz wide 4 pole bandpass filter will be installed
before the Yaesu FT-847. This filter works very well with the CW optional
Collins filter. These changes should lower system' temperature by at least
30 deg K, but more important the high selectivity filters should
significantly decrease IMD. This is the final touch, since I can not bring
the preamp closer to the dipoles because of the heavy weight of the masthead
box which contains the 2 filters. I am awaiting QSLs from N4GJV, K4QI,
SM2CEW, OH2PO, N2IQU, 9M2BV, EA3UM, W5ZN and W7CNK.
Barry had good time at the conference, but says Paris was very warm. He is looking for comments on the use of circular pol on 10 GHz -- I want to go circular. The feed is not difficult to make and others in Europe are ready on circular - SM4DHN, SM6CKU and OK1KIR. The polarization problem is especially bad for polar mounted dishes. And now that other stations are appearing in all areas of the globe, it makes good sense. Rotatable polarity is a poor alternative. Comments please! In my skeds on 3 cm with PA3CSG, I was off frequency by 10 kHz high (based on listening to Greg and CJO previously). I have a 3.456/1152 GHz oscillator that I use as a "calibrator". In the past I have noted that my 10 GHz and 5.7 GHz stations seem to drift from month to month in the same direction (down). From the QSOs last month I had a reference which disagreed with my local reference. This time I believed my reference that I had drifted 10 kHz in a month. I was wrong. I went back to work last night to borrow test equipment for 24 GHz, but forgot to bring a counter. I had very poor WX here with light rain and high gusty winds (40 km/h). I could see some moon noise loss during peak winds and could hear my own echoes (M-O) during the time with Geert. Pol errors bother me. I have to manually adjust pol because of my polar mount and I'm not sure that I am setting for "0" offset correctly. I use the Realtrack program and for PA3CSG it was saying +75 deg and with the H/V difference in settings between EU and NA. I offset by +15 deg to make 90, but am not sure that is right? Should it be -15 deg? I reset the pol for AA5C (-22 deg on program) and found Greg easily - a very nice (O) signal and adjusted my freq so my (M) echoes were very close... but no reply. My echoes were not that much down initially, but as the GHA got around to 50 deg, the smear became very bad. As the Doppler dropped I stopped listening to echoes as during TX I don't mute the separate RX and its too hard on the ears. I will try to have my 50 w PA on next time. I have done a lot of maintenance and have resolved a lot of annoying problems, so hopefully operation in the future will be much better. [Barry later worked AA5C for initial #4 on 3 cm.]
Frank worked in Aug on 23 cm
K5JL, KD4LT and WD5AGO for an initial and heard several others. Later he added OH2DG and a dozen or so others.=
He heard WA4NJP at the 25 w level. During the SW he QSO'd K5JL and KD4LT, and later N6BQ and W6HD. Frank is playing on 10 GHz with a 3'dish. He a=
sks what Sun noise, CS/G and Moon noise he should see. He has a 2 stage LNA
and rcvr running. He is available for 23 cm skeds whenever the Moon is up.
Dave (alias G4FRE) is now living in TX, but working all over the place -- Been working in Florida for the last 3 months, but will return on 15 Aug to Dallas. The good news is that the tower is up. (Thanks to G3WDG for coming over the pond to help. I am the only person who can send out an email asking for help putting up a tower and get a positive response from England. I hope to be back on 432 in time for the ARRL EME Contest. The antennas, amp, preamps, etc have resurfaced after my move from San Antonio. The 220 V feed has been installed, so things are looking good.
Ivo writes -- After my return from Eur I found my dish intact and equipment
working, (7 weeks absence). On Saturday 15 Aug we had heavy winds from a
passing cold front. The 0 deg C temperatures were quite a shock after 36
deg C in Eur. On Sunday 16 Aug the WX improved, and I worked on 23
cm OZ4MM, HB9BBD, HA5SHF (O/O) for
initial #137 (random), OZ6OL, K5JL, KB2AH, GW3XYW, G3LTF, W2UHI and N6BQ.
Heard OH2DG. All signals were good with a
bit of QSB caused by the wind moving my dish. The Paris EME Conference was
good. Thanks to all organizers for their hard work and help! The only
negative comments I have is that there was very little time allocated to
discussions about operating, contests, etc. And that some EMEers I hoped
to meet were missing. Maybe next time.
K3HZO has finished up his new ham shack is again QRV on 23 cm EME and ready
for skeds.
WA4OFS has a K2RIW amp RF deck for sale with tubes for $US325, or without
tubes for $US275. Call Harry at 407-892-5610.
WA8WZG reports that the surplus house that was visited during the last
Microwave Update Conference has been in contact with him. They have
W4HHK picked up
KB2AH has
Tom's 1296 WEB page at:
for more details and pricing info e-mail:
Rein continues to add services to his EME NL WEB page. The latest is a continuous up-date of the NL EME skeds. He is linked up to Joe and Klaus such that any up-dates to the skeds are immediately listed on his page.
Good luck to Ron, KA0RYT on his Neb dxpedition. We need more of these to keep activity up. Please keep the info coming. I hope to see all off the the Moon during the Sept SW. This is one weekend I don't want to miss!
73, Al - K2UYH
SEP 11 Time 432.040 2330z EA3DXU-9M2BV SEP 12 Time 432.035 432.040 432.045 0630z KA0RYT-DK3WG W7CNK -EA3DXU 0700z KA0RYT-PA3CSG WB0GGM-EA3DXU K1OR -DK3FB 0730z KA0RYT-SV1BTR K1OR -DL3EAG 0800z KA0RYT-DF3RU K7XD -KU3T 0830z KA0RYT-G3SEK 0900z W7EME -EA3DXU K7XD -W8MQW 0930z K7XD -W0KJY 1030z KA0RYT-K0RZ N7LQ -EA3DXU 1100z KA0RYT-VE1ALQ PY5ZBU-EA3DXU 1130z KA0RYT-W1ZX 1200z KA0RYT-KB3PD 1230z KA0RYT-W5ZN 1300z KA0RYT-KD4LT 1500z KA0RYT-W0KJY 1530z KA0RYT-K7XD 1600z KA0RYT-N7LQ 1630z KA0RYT-WA8WZG 1700z K7XD -WD5AGO 2330z VK4KAZ-EA3DXU SEP 13 Time 432.035 432.040 1296.050 0700z K3HZO -DF9QX 0730z KA0RYT-SV1BTR K7XD -YO2IS 0800z K7XD -DK3WG 0900z W7KK -DK3WG N6BQ -9H1ES 0930z N6BQ -HA5SHF 1100z KA0RYT-K0RZ 1130z KA0RYT-W1ZX 1200z KA0RYT-KB3PD W6HD -K3HZO 1230z WA8WZG-K3HZO 1300z W7GBI -K3HZO 1400z K9BCT -K3HZO 1500z KA0RYT-W0KJY 1530z KA0RYT-K7XD 1600z KA0RYT-N7LQ 1630z KA0RYT-WA8WZG
by Ian Galpin, G1SMD
The representation of Dates, Times, and Time Zones has always caused much
confusion around the world. This is especially true in an International
activity such as Amateur Radio.
Radio Amateur operators now generally use the 24-hour clock system (rather
than the 12-hour am/pm version) and the UTC time zone (rather than Local
Time) for skeds, logging, QSL cards, band reports and so on. This helps in
the International communication of such data, especially across language
barriers.
The way that we write times is defined in an International Standard called
ISO 8601. It calls for 24-hour clock, colon ':' separators, and the
'hh:mm:ss' ordering of the time elements. Imagine the chaos if some
countries used 'ss:mm:hh' or 'mm:ss:hh' for times! What would a time like
'10:08:04' then mean to different people around the world?
Now consider the situation with dates. The use of the 'dd/mm/yy' date format
in some parts of Europe, and 'mm/dd/yy' in America has always caused
confusion and ambiguity. A date like '04/08/02' means different things to
different people (4th August in UK/Europe, April 8th in the US; in Japan
it means August 2nd).
We are also hearing a lot about the so-called 'Year 2000 Problem', which is
mainly caused by the use of a two-digit shorthand for the year, instead of
using the full four digits. After the end of 1999, there may be confusion
with computer programs and in all sorts of other date-related information.
In fixing the 'Year 2000 Problem' there is a good opportunity to deal with
the other long-standing problems with date formats. Fortunately, a simple
solution to all of these problems already exists in ISO 8601.
The date is written in the order Year-Month-Day. The year is written using
four digits. The month and day are written in two-digit format, with a
leading zero from '01' to '09'. Optional hyphen separators are used between
the various elements.
The ISO format ensures that '2001-02-03' cannot be confused with '03/02/01',
'02/03/01', '03/02/2001' or '02/03/2001' as variously written in some parts
of Europe and in America.
Some people use the Year-Month-Day order but state the month using either a
three-letter English abbreviation or written out in full. The month may even
be written in your local language if there will be no problem for the
intended readers to understand it.
For example, the new date format writes the date of the 1998 REF/DUBUS 432
MHz EME contest using any of the following fully interchangeable ways:
We all understand the time '22:44:59'. There should be no problem with a
date like '2002-04-08', whereas a date like '08/04/02' has at least six
different interpretations around the world.
The ISO 8601 date format has already been officially adopted by most
countries of the world. In Europe, every member state is bound by the CEN
regulations to implement EuroNorm EN 28601, which has the same wording as
ISO 8601. In the USA see the ANSI X3.30 standard. The ANSI standard is also
recommended by NIST and IBM. In Japan refer to the JIS X 0301 document. The
ISO 8601 date format has already been in daily use in Scandinavia, parts of
Eastern Europe, and most of the Far-East (Asia) for many years.
It will find usage in computer programs, log-books, contest entries, QSL
cards, magazine reports, email and many other places. The new format has
already been adopted by many organisations. Astronomers have been using this
method for over 200 years.
In Amateur Radio the proposal is already supported by: G3RZV, G6CGQ, GM4ANB,
DL4EBY, DL8LAQ, G3XWH, G3RUH, G4NJH, G8IQU, HB9MAO, AA7BQ, N3EQF, KP2BL,
WN4AZY, W1UD, W3IS, G8EXV, G0RUR, GM3JZK, G4IFB, N0ED (G3SQX), G3SEK, G0CUZ,
G7LFC, 9M2CR, OH5IY, DL5BCU, G3TZO, G3OAF, G0BAF, VK3UM, G3NKS, G3PHO, K2UYH, W6/PA0ZN,
EA2LU, K7BV, WA1LOU, and many others.
19980308 (all digit, no separator)
1998-03-08 (all digit, hyphen separator)
1998-Mar-08 (short format for month)
1998-March-08 (full name of month)
We are already using the ISO 8601 method for time. The proposal is simply to
write our dates in the same logical way, with the largest units first:
Year-Month-Day and then Hour:Minute:Second.
Notes:
(1) An Introduction to using ISO 8601 in Amateur Radio can be found at: - (1)
(2) A general Proposal Document for Amateur Radio can be found at: - (2)
(3) Intructions on how to set up computers to use the ISO 8601 format: - (3)
(4) A short summary of the ISO 8601 Date Format can be found at: - (4)
(5) A complete description of the ISO 8601 Standard can be found at: - (5)
(6) Background notes on the Year 2000 Problem can be found at: - (6)
(7) A list of the Countries that have adopted the ISO 8601 standard: - (7)
Other Internet Sites of Interest:
- I
- II
- III
- IV
- V
- VI
- VII
- VIII
- IX
- X
- XI
- XII
- XIII
- XIV
My own Web Page with much more Year 2000 and ISO 8601 information is at:
- Year 2000 and ISO 8601
- mirror site:
- G1SMD Mirror Site
Bibliography:
- DUBUS magazine [25/4] (Germany) 1996-Q4 Page 78.
- DUBUS magazine [26/1] (Germany) 1997-Q1 Page 83 to 85: Proposal Doc.
- Communications of the ACM (USA) 1997-May Page 26 to 30.
- The Software Practitioner (USA) 1997-May/Jun Page 1 to 5.
- New Scientist [2107] (IPC, UK) 1997-Nov-08 Page 59: Last Word on Y2K.
- Byte [Vol 22/07] (USA & Europe) 1997-Jul Page 89 to 96: Double Zero.
- QST [Vol 81 No 08] (ARRL, USA) 1997-Aug Page 69 to 70: Software Traps.
- QST [Vol 82 No 08] (ARRL, USA) 1998-Aug Page 92: Digital Dimension.
- CQ-TV [Issue 180] (BATC, UK) 1997-Nov Page 9 to 11.
- CQ-TV [Issue 181] (BATC, UK) 1998-Feb Page 75 to 77.
- CQ-TV [Issue 184] (BATC, UK) 1998-Nov Page .?.
- Oscar News [No 128] (AMSAT-UK) 1997-Dec Page 37 to 40.
- Oscar News [No 129] (AMSAT-UK) 1998-Feb Page 38 to 43.
- Oscar News [No 131] (AMSAT-UK) 1998-Jun Page 3.
- Monitor [Vol 46/12] (ISWL, UK) 1997-Dec Page 493 to 494.
- Datacom (BARTG, UK) 1997-Winter Page 12 to 16.
- Datacom (BARTG, UK) 1998-Summer Page 16 to 20.
- Four Metres News [14](G3NKS UK) 1998-March Page 10.
- Microwave Newsletter (RSGB, UK) 1998-May Page 10 to 11.
- WAB Newsletter [97] (WAB, UK) 1998-Summer Page 8 to 9.
- RIG Journal [RIG 53] (RIG, UK) 1998-Jun Page 37 to 41.
- RIG Journal [RIG 55] (RIG, UK) 1998-Dec Page .?.
- VHF Communications (G6IQM, UK) 1998-Q2 Page 82 to 83.
- CQ-QSO Magazine (UBA, Belgium) 1998-Jun? Page .?.
- RadCom [Vol 74 No 7] (RSGB, UK) 1998-Jul Page 69: QSL.
- The AMSAT Journal (AMSAT-NA) 1998-Jul/Aug Page 16 to 21 [Vol 21 / No 4]
- NCJ (ARRL, USA) 1998-Nov/Dec Page .?.
19980903