Re: [HCDX] Dxers Unlimited's mid week edition script for 21-22 Nov

["Prof. Arnaldo Coro Antich" <coro@xxxxxxx>]

Radio Havana Cuba

Dxers Unlimited

Dxers Unlimited's mid week edition for Nov 21-22 2006

By Arnie Coro

Hi amigos radioaficionados ! I am Arnie Coro, radio amateur CO2KK, your 
friend in Havana, enjoying just like you the good HF propagation 
conditions of the past several days, despite the very low solar 
activity... If you happen to know a bit about short wave propagation, 
then you can certainly look for DX right where it's going to be found, 
even during periods of a quiet Sun, as we are going trough and will 
continue to experience until well into 2008... Here is now item one of 
today's program: Lost of e-mail messages commenting about reception on 
6180 kiloHertz,the frequency that we are using now to Central North 
America starting at 00 hours UTC... Yes at 00 hours UTC and until 00 
hours UTC 6180 kiloHertz is on the air with our Spanish language 
magazine show's first broadcast hour... Then at 01 Hours UTC we start 
the first run of our English language program to North America and the 
Caribbean. The first re-run is on the air from 03 to 05 hours UTC, and 
the final English language transmission is on the air from 05 to 07 
hours UTC.

Item two: Also related to our B-06 schedule... More changes will be 
coming up starting on Nov 22 Wednesday UTC day...and they will make 
possible receiving our Spanish language morning show, Despertar con 
Cuba, that is Waking up with Cuba, with much better signals in North 
America after 13 hours UTC, as we will be using frequencies on the 19 
and 22 meters band during the last two hours of our four hours Spanish 
language magazine show. The new frequencies will be 15370 kiloHertz, 
again, slowly for you to be able to write them down, one five three 
seven zero, 15370 kiloHertz on the 19 meters band , starting at 13 hours 
UTC and until 15 hours UTC, and the other frequency after 13 hours UTC 
is going to be 13680 kiloHertz on the 22 meters band, again 13680 
kiloHertz, they will both be broadcasting in Spanish to North America, 
as we have developed a very large and faithful audience in Canada, the 
USA and Northern Mexico for our Despertar con Cuba morning program...

Item three: Will be coming up in a few seconds after a short break for 
station ID.. I am Arnie Coro in Havana, stay tuned or stay connected 
amigos !!!

.........

This is Radio Havana Cuba, broadcasting to North America and the 
Caribbean in English, and you are now listening to our twice weekly 
radio hobby program , Dxers Unlimited, the one and only that covers all 
aspects of this wonderful way of enjoying our spare time... The Havana 
Marathon race is our next item, here...Item FOUR: MaraHabana... the 
Havana Marathon took place on Sunday with the participation of runners 
from many nations, who came to Cuba to enjoy our wonderful winter 
weather, and of course, also to run in the 42 kilometers and a something 
competition that takes place every year here in the capital city of 
Cuba.... Once again MaraHabana, the Havana marathon , and for those with 
less athletic conditions also the shorter half marathon or even shorter 
races, had the help of Cuban radio amateurs who were located all along 
the 42 kilometers course to send back to the race organizers all 
relevant information about what was happening around the city, as 
thousands of runners went to the streets to participate. You could hear 
activity on the 2 meters band metropolitan Havana repeater on 145.190 
kHz going on since about five o'clock in the morning as the city's radio 
club members started to move towards the places where their stations had 
to be installed. At many locations, hams just needed to bring in their 2 
meter band FM Handy talkies, with the small self contained vertical 
antennas... but many preferred to carry a version of the J antenna , a 
vertical half wave dipole made with TV 300 ohm twin lead, that increases 
the radiated power and receiver's pick a lot as compared with the self 
contained rubber duckie antennas... Using the homebrew J pole antennas, 
hams could in many instances run their Handy talkies on low power 
settings, and this saves a lot of battery power... Considered by the 
radio club's emergency coordinators as an excellent emergency drill, 
participation in the MaraHabana marathon race by the City of Havana's 
radio amateurs reached record levels, with many newcomers to the hobby 
who had recently passed the amateur radio tests and obtained their ham 
radio station's licenses participating for the first time in such a big 
event... CO2OJ , my good friend Oscar Morales Jr. the Secretary General 
of the Cuban Federation of Radio Amateurs ran the net control station at 
Havana's Kid Chocolate Sports Arena, where the start and finish line of 
the MaraHabana Marathon was located. Oscar coordinated the operation in 
a very nice way, winning praise from all the amateurs that 
participated... And, the Cuban Institutes of Sports and Recreation gave 
thanks to all radio amateurs that participated and also provided them 
with a beautiful set of sports wear too...

......

You are listening to the mid week edition of Dxers Unlimited coming to 
you from Havana, I am Arnie Coro, your host here, and now item six: 
Encouraging new radio amateurs to homebrew antennas and simple equipment 
is a nice way of helping them learn more about our wonderful hobby... 
and also, its good for their pocketbooks and homebrew antennas can be 
very cost effective indeed... For example, a simple antenna made with 
common household PVC insulated wire and plastic PVC pipes can prove to 
be very effective for apartment dwellers, who due to rules and 
regulations by building owners and also many times by neighborhoods of 
even city councils find themselves in a difficult situation regarding 
the installation of antennas... My old favorite , the BROOMSTICK antenna 
was recently the subject of an engineering student research work... and 
he came out with some very interesting results Iwould like to share with 
Dxers Unlimited's listeners around the world.

Among Julio's findings was that making the Broomstick antenna with 
number 14 PVC insulated wire, and spacing the turns exactly one wire 
diameter gave a higher efficiency when transmitting with the Broomstick.

He asked me about the prototype Broomstick, and I took him to my garage 
where it has been in storage for several years... Julio then asked to 
borrow the antenna to make some comparative measurements with his 
upgraded design ,and I warned him that this prototype was a heritage 
object, so he should take very good care of it, something he promised to 
do...

About two weeks later, he returned my antenna , actually cleaner than 
when he removed it from the garage, and gave me a print out of the 
results...

Among the highlights of the results were the fact that the original 
Broomstick prototype, that was made winding about seventy feet or about 
21.3 meters of number 16 PVC insulated wire , when working against a 
very simple ground system consisting of a  10 meters long single wire 
counterpoise, showed a rather nice impedance that could be matched by a 
PI network antenna tuner on the 40,30, 20,17, and 15 meters amateur 
bands, and he also tested the antenna for receiving , finding out that 
it provided good reception on the short wave broadcast bands from 6 
megaHertz or 49 meters up, although Julio warned me about the fact that 
the vertical antenna was picking up much more noise than the magnetic 
loop he was using as a reference.

Arnie, he said, your Broomstick could be improved a lot by adding more 
radials, a larger size top hat or as it is known by engineers top 
capacity loading, and also by winding the wire with a one wire diameter 
spacing between turns. And the senior electrical engineering student due 
to graduate next year added that a shorter length of wire , exactly half 
of what was wound in the original design of the Broomstick provided nice 
performance on frequencies between 10 and 29 megaHertz transmitting, and 
from 9 to 29 megaHertz when used for receiving.

Now, I will need to write a new article about the Optimized Broomstick 
antenna , and post it on our website... Julio's research on this helical 
wound, top capacity loaded vertical antenna will be the primary source 
of the new article, and I will also include some data about other 
classic short vertical antennas.

The original Broomstick design, more than fifteen years old , was copied 
by many of Dxers Unlimited listeners who were homebrewing their first 
antenna for picking up short wave stations. I received hundreds of 
e-mail messages and letters from people that had built the antenna and 
started to pick up many more stations than the ones they could listen to 
when just using their portable radio's telescopic whip antennas... Later 
I began to receive some very interesting comments about ham radio 
operators using the original Broomstick design for transmitting on the 
30, 20 and 17 meters band by connecting the antenna to their 
transceivers with an antenna tuner.  A Canadian radio amateur who lives 
in a 10th floor apartment was particularly happy with his Broomstick 
because it was the first antenna that allowed him to operate on the HF 
bands . Due to the impossibility of installing a rooftop antenna, he was 
limited to operating on the VHF and UHF bands, but after homebrewing the 
Broomstick and placing it on his balcony, he was able to work many 
stations on the 30, 20 and 17 meters band. Later I sent him the building 
instructions for a smaller version of the antenna that was designed to 
operate on the 15,12 and 10 meters band, and he also built it, sending 
me back via e-mail some nice photos of his installation and also of 
several QSL cards sent by DX stations that he had worked with both 
antennas...

Amigos, if you want to know more about both the traditional , now almost 
classic Arnie Coro's Broomstick Antenna for Short Wave or the up to date 
design that was optimized using antenna modeling software as part of an 
engineering student's experimental work, the BROOMSTICK MARK TWO, just 
send me an e-mail to arnie@xxxxxx, again arnie@xxxxxx, or VIA AIR MAIL 
to Arnie Coro, Radio Havana Cuba, Havana, Cuba...and I will send you the 
BROOMSTICK ANTENNAS INFO PACKAGE... so that you can homebrew this low 
cost , easy to build short wave and ham radio antenna system that has 
proven to be so effective around the world...

Now here is, as always at the end of the program, our exclusive and not 
copyrighted HF plus low band VHF propagation update and forecast 
amigos.. Ready to copy? Here we go:  

 

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