Amateur Radio news from Italy

IW5EDI Simone – Ham-Radio

Eco Antenne SK

Posted in Antenna 7 Comments

ECO Antenne Closed

World-wide famous antenna manufacturer has closed it’s business on 1st decembrer 2010.
This is what I’ve learned by some hams, that have been in touch with Mr. Sergio Berutti formerly Eco Antenne owner.

Causes are not public domain, but everyone suspect has been due to economic factors.
Eco Antenne, has affirmed in the market for it’s economic product line, and for a wide range of antenna product line, allowing many hams to buy HF VHF UHF antennas at affordable prices.
Many dealers have still lot’s of antennas in stock, but will be the last ones. Website is down since a couple of weeks.

I’ve never owned an Eco Antenna, but at least here in Italy, Eco Antennas are very popular.

Good Bye Eco Antenne.

RadioAnnunci.it

Posted in Featured, Ham Radio 2.0 Leave a comment

mercatino radioamatoriale

Last night I’ve published my latest ham radio related service on the internet.
It’s a regional classified ads web site, (Mercatino Radioamatoriale) fully in Italian, and dedicated to itailans Radioamatori.

It’s time now to spread the voice, making some direct promotion for the service that I’ve setup in only 3 weeks, using a craig list clone php application I bought last year, but never used anywhere.

So it’s now time to start promoting it for a while, even if I don’t expect a huge number of ads in coming weeks.

So if you are Italian, make a visit and register yourself. http://www.radioannunci.it

Mercatino Scandicci 2010

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Mercato Radioamatori Scandicci

Mercato Radioamatori Scandicci

Today I’ve been at the yearly appointment with the local flea market hold in Scandicci. Thanks to the initiative of Scandicci ARI section, also this year we have been able to exchange second hand and brand new ham radio equipment and meet each other.
This year maybe due to the fact that the Computerfest at stazione Leopolda has been cancelled, there were many more exposers selling and exchanging amateur radio products.

Genesis 3020 SDR vs Yaesu FT-950

Posted in Software Defined Radio 2 Comments
GENESIS SDR - 3020

Genesis 3020 SDR presentation

This evening at our local Club Station, ARI Firenze, we had a special event on SDR technology and in particular a Genesis SDR has been presented and tested with behind our club main radio the Yaesu FT-950.

At the event there were aproximately 20 persons, everyone almost interested and curious.

We were not able to make detailed measurements as happened before for the K2 vs K3, but rather has been a good occasion to play with that radio, switching antenna with the FT-950 and comparing signal reception.

First impression has been that selectivity and sensivity of that SDR receiver looks if not superior, at least equal to the FT-950 receiver.

We have also decided to buy a stock of those SDR kits at Genesis SDR and assemble the kits all together. During the event 8 hams joined the builder group and agreed to buy a full 160-6m Kit.

Furthere SDR events will follow in next months, so I will probably keep this blog updated.

IC-02E Restored

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Icom IC-02e

Icom IC-02E

I’ve recently recovered from my latest house moving boxes, my old IC-02E. After a quick cleaning i’ve decided to use it for local VHF freqency montoring. When I bought it, ten years ago, it was a second hand radio, but was my first VHF transceiver. I decided then to demote it to a cluster dedicated radio, but soon, with the diffusion of broadband connections and telnet cluster software, i relegated this radio to my radio junk box. Tonight I decided that maybe with a larger speaker it may be usefull for evening local repeaters and qso’s listenings… why not.

JOTA 2010 in Florence

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jamboree on the air firenze II5BP

JOTA Firenze

I’ve been visiting the yearly JOTA site in Florence, this saturday.
The full event has been managed by local hams and in particular by IW5EGT Alessio that were on air using the special callsign II5BP.

Antenna farm this year consisted in a rotary dipole for 20 and 40 meters, along to some VHF antennas used for local contacts.

5V7TT DX with the Ghost ?

Posted in DXing, Featured 2 Comments
Ghost in the 5V7TT Team ?

a Ghost in the 5V7TT Team ?

Today I finally had the opportunity to contact the 5V7TT DXPedition to Togo. This activation has been managed by I2YSB, an experienced dxer, who knows all tips and tricks of dxpeditioning, and from what I’m seing looks like are really making a fine job and tons of QSOs.

It is said that the team is able to be present in 8 bands and modes at the same time even if officially the team is composed by 7 operators !!!  Huuuu… how is this possible ?

If you look at their  QRZ.com page http://www.qrz.com/db/5v7tt, you will learn the secret !

Zoom their picture and count legs and foots that appear on the sand… the sum is 16 !!

Well done folks…. hopefully QSL will be a real paper qsl

useless to say… this post is a joke…..but picture is true.. stiamo scherzando gente  🙂

First experience with an SDR

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PMSDR test

Setting up an assembled PMSDR

Tonight I’ve been invited by Franco I5XFD to setup one of his recent toys. A PMSDR Software Defined Radio transceiver.
Franco asked my help to setup the Winrad software, having just finished to assemble the PMSDR Kit.

This SDR comes in a disassembled kit, and is very small as you can see from the picture. It is connected to the PC via USB for remote control and via the PC soundcard for the audio output while Antenna of course use a standard BNC socket.

Well, I’ve been quite surprised of this toy, since it really works with the 5 volts coming from the USB and is capable of nice filtering capabilities and quick tuning.

We have ecountered some troubles on Winrad setup, even if we have opted for the more clean design on WinradHD.

For those of you that do not know, both software are free windows programs that “define… radio”, the first one is provided to the community by an italian ham I2PHD who also released the code for free, while the second is a remake of the original Winrad by DG0JBJ.

There are many SDR Software on the net, and and increasing number of SDR manufacturers offering interesting products

ARI Firenze as ARES in Sesto Fiorentino

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ARI Firenze at Sesto Fiorentino Protezione Civile demonstration

ARI Firenze - ARES

Today in Sesto Fiorentino, a Florence’s surrounding municipality has been taken an Emergency Service demonstration organized by local administration.

ARI Firenze has been invited as representant of emergency service provider.

In front of our stand, there were local Police and Carabinieri exposition as well as a couple of Protezione Civile (ES) stands.

Our Ham colleagues setup the always present mobile home, a homebrewed project by I5KRD, where someone of us took demonstration of amateur radio operations. Equipment included a vertical antenna for 40 meters and an EH antenna for 80 meters.

I made a short visit to colleagues, and in the few minutes I was there, a couple of visitors asked informations on our activity and hobby. Who knows…

This has been certailnly a good opportunity to promote ham radio.