Also this year I’ve been in local Scout Group Headquarter for the annual Jamboree on The Air.
Along to some other hams belonging to the local ARI section of Florence, we helped the AGESCI Scout Group Florence 8 to keep in touch with other scout groups using our radio.
Satation Callsign for this event was II5BP
Tuning GAP Titan DX
I had to remove the antenna last week-end due to maintenance works into the roof, so I took the occasion to play a little bit with the Titan tuing rods.
I Found this schema on the net originally made by CT1EFV based on the GAP picture.
I made some minor changes, expecially to the 10 meter part that based on what I read on manual and on the net, was wrong.
I’m sure this picture can help on tuning your antenna.
Chooe your antenna
DL9KCE released a new version of his ICNIRPcalc software that allows you to calculate safety distances for many know amateur radio antennas with respect to ICNIRP limits.
Calculations are done by considering many depending factors, like your Antenna characteristics, Band, Gain, Power Output, Coax Line, additional attenuation and many more.
By variating any of these values a different Safety Distance is calculated.
You can choose by many popular antennas, and I found even my GAP Titan DX antenna… but if you cant find it, you can always create your own antenna, from the File Menu you can choose “Construct your own antenna” and you will be able to put your custom values.
The software is free to use, and is based on a german version, that is much older but suited for German antenna safety regulation, that looks like to be very strict.
I’ve enjoyed playing with varing Output Power, coax cable and band and noticing the changes in EIRP or Ant. Input power… very interesting.
You can directly downoload the software from here or by visiting the IARU Page where the software is hosted under the EMC section.
The ICNIRPcalc is a MS windows application of aprox 900Kb, I’ve tested under Windows XP (running on a virtual machine under my MacOS) and is Multilingual too, having an English German and French translated interface.
Choose your feed line
Baofeng UV-X4
I’ve just found on the net someone announcing the new Baofeng UV-X4 trasceiver.
Well, at time writng have not found any confirmation at Vero Telecom website but looks like a preview announcement newsletter has been sent to dealers indicating the availability and a brochure that can be downloaded from here.
UV-3R vs UV-X4
Looks like that the main features are identical to the UV-3R mark II version. Including therefore a dual watch frequency display and the dualband antenna instead that two monobands.
I’m just curious to know the differences among the UV-200 UV-100 versions…
UV-3R UV-X4
By the way I believe that the release of this product is not so close and watching to the advertising email, I’ve noticed that the old UV-3R image has been used by replacing the UV-X4 logo on the first black trasnceiver, forgetting to replace it on the one in the down layers. This let me suppose that this should be just a preview / prototype advertising campaing directed towards main distributors to start collecting orders for a new transceiver that shoud be just a rename of current UV-3R version.
Ameritron AL 811 10/12 meter modification.
AL 811 Mod for 10 meters band
ARI Firenze Mercatino 2011
An excellent result on participants, for our first HamFest here in Firenze.
We had to add tables outside the main room to host everyone and during the morning we had a huge numbers of visitors.
Exposers came from many parts of Italy and particularly from Tuscany and Emilia Romanga, but also from Lazio.
Due to the excellent result obtained we have decided to announce the second edition for the next year probably in the same period, end of April.
Stay tuned on my blog or in ARI Firenze web site, during next winter, we will announce dates and a new place, since the current one has been demonstrated to be too small…
THIS POST REFER TO FIRST EDITION 2011
Questo articolo di riferisce alla prima edizione del mercationo avvenuta nel 2011 !
Mercatino Radioamatori Firenze
The next saturday we are going to manage the first edition of the local Ham Fest here in florence.
Address to reach is : VIA GIOVANNI DA MONTORSOLI 1. Firenze.
Will be a local event, but we already know many hams are going to arrive from different of Italy.
All available tables has been booked out in 10 days, and if weather conditions will permit, we will allow to place tables even outside the building.
We will use a large room inside a local school here in Florence. In case you are interested on visiting us please find all directions here http://www.arifirenze.it/mercatino/
Come Arrivare
Scuola Elementare La Montagnola
Via Giovanni da Montorsoli 1, Firenze
View Larger Map
Per informazioni:Â
Frequenza di Avvicinamento: 145.575 MHz
During the event we will activate the special callsign II5ITA, probably on 40 meters AM using a vintage radio !
Wouxon kg uv920r
Looks like UV920R is of the most awaited transceiver since ever !
It is already almost three months that rumors says that a new dual band mobile radio is going to be relased in the market by Chinese Wouxun.
But till now, April 2011 no one can give an price in Euro here in Europe. Same rumors says will be something from 150-200 USD, but probably in the US market, while I believe in europe the price will be higher.
In any case looks very funny, because, is one of the most discussed product on ham forums, but noone knows how much does it cost !
Moreover, in the wouxun.com web site, there is no trace fo this mobile transceiver
Odyssey Dawn operation in Libya can be followed on some of most popular military frequencies, but we know that all important communications are encripted and use satellite. So dont’ expect to hear any interesting communication.
If you are looking for frequencies, there are some Yahoo Groups devoted to this kind of informations, but even some popular blogs and websites.
IW5EDI / HB9
This is what looks like today my QRZ.com web page.
Looks like at QRZ.com have changed the reference to the Italian flag with the one belonging to Switzerland.
http://files.qrz.com/static/flags/248.gif
Well I’ve always dreamed to make some calls from a less popular country, but Switzerland is still too ham-populated.
Well, folks at QRZ.com you can do better, there are a plenty of new prefixes this year..
73
de
IW5EDI / HB9