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Re: [HCDX] Dxers Unlimited script for June 9 -10 2007



Radio Havana Cuba

Dxers Unlimited

Dxers Unlimited's weekend edition for June 9-10 2007

By Arnie Coro

radio amateur CO2KK

Hi amigos radioaficionados, welcome to the weekend edition of Dxers 
Unlimited, your favorite radio hobby program. I am Arnaldo, Arnie, Coro 
radio amateur CO2KK, your host here at this twice  weekly radio hobby 
show, dealing with all of the more than 80 different ways that you and I 
enjoy this wonderful way of spending our spare time...RADIO... But some 
times even more, when we take time away from rest to work on a new 
project or participate, as I am doing during this weekend in a radio 
amateur contest. This a very specialized ham radio competition , because 
it is limited to the VHF, UHF and Microwave amateur bands, making it a 
lot more difficult because propagation of the range of frequencies from 
50 to 50,000 megaHertz is quite different from the way short wave 
signals behave. The June, American Radio Relay League VHF QSO Party 
Contest has seen Cuban radio amateurs participating in past editions, 
and winning too, as at least in two occasions Cuban ham teams have won 
the DX station first place position.
I spend the whole day Friday installing the three antennas for the 
contest, the 6 meters HENTENNA, the two meters band 6 element YAGI and 
the 70 centimeters 13 elements YAGI. I will also be using  my vertical 
phased array of three five eighths of a wavelength elements, because at 
the same time the ARRL contest will be in progress, we run a VHF contest 
on two meters FM mode, because this is the most popular band among Cuban 
radio amateurs.
There is also going to be a CUBAN ROVER station that will be traveling 
to different grid square locators , because each square counts as an 
additional multiplier for the contest.
Si amigos, yes my friends, oui mes amis... radio amateur contests are a 
lot of fun, but I warn you, they have two distinctive characteristics, 
one is that once you participate in a ham radio contest, you will find 
yourself getting ready for the next as soon as the last QSO is coming to 
an end, and two, they are simply exhausting, so my advice is that you 
ask for a Monday off work whenever you take part in a weekend long 
contest !!!
Be on the lookout for T49C, that's a special callsign, with the T4 
prefix that Cuban radio amateur stations use during contests.
Also, please look for CO2KK, as I will also be taking part in the 
contest !!!
Now stay tuned , a quick station ID follows, and Dxers Unlimited's 
weekend edition for June 9 and 10 will continue in a few seconds
I am Arnie Coro in Havana
.........
The name of program is Dxers Unlimited, you are listening to Radio 
Havana Cuba and here is our next topic of today's program.
Setting up a ham radio contest station is a lot of fun, and it can be as 
easy as just using your regular home station " just as it is" or as 
sophisticated as creating a VHF, UHF and Microwave ROVER station  using 
a special 4 wheel drive vehicle , like an SUV in order to be able to 
climb to mountaintop locations where your contest station will be able 
to reach really far away stations via ground wave, thanks to the high 
altitude where you have gone with your vehicle.
A ROVER station operation during the June ARRL VHF QSO Party Contest is 
much looked by other contest stations, because a ROVER can move from one 
GRID LOCATOR or GRID SQUARE to another and according to the rules of the 
contest, each GRID SQUARE counts as a new multiplier. In other words, 
each time you work a ROVER station that is located at a new GRID, your 
total contest score is multiplied.
T49C, Cuba's top level entry for this year's VHF contest will be moving 
to several GRID SQUARES during the contest, giving participants the 
unique opportunity not only of obtaining a new multiplier for the 
contest score, but also in many cases, adding a new GRID for the many 
awards like the VUCC that starts with the first 100 grid squares and has 
stickers and endorsements for additional squares that you can work. 
Wall paper, as radio amateurs call the diplomas given for obtaining the 
awards are a way that you can show to your visitors the results of your 
many hours of chasing DX signals amigos ! . A ham radio shack with a lot 
of wall paper, that is a lot of diplomas is always a nice looking room, 
as the wallpaper seems to blend nicely with the radios !
And talking about contests and ROVER stations, let me add that a top 
notch ROVER is not only excellent for working a VHF-UHF and Microwave 
ham radio contest, but is also a very useful mobile unit whenever there 
is need to deploy a highly effective station during a natural or man 
made disaster.
As a matter of fact, as a very good friend of mine that is a full time 
ham radio contests fan likes to say, each contest is not only a lot of 
fun for the participants but also an excellent training exercise to 
develop the communications skills that may help to save lives during an 
emergency .
For example, a ROVER station equipped with radios for working on the 6 
meters, 2 meters and 70 centimeters band, and a set of omnidirectional 
antennas, as well as another set of high gain
  directional antennas, can be deployed to a good location and used as a 
relay for a command post , relaying traffic between handheld radios and 
the ROVER, that then can in turn reroute the traffic on another band to 
the disaster command post.
One of the reasons, and as a matter of fact , one of the main reasons 
why so valuable radio frequency spectrum space is still allocated to the 
amateur radio service is precisely its unique characteristic of 
providing emergency communications links under the most difficult 
circumstances and when many other systems fail due to excessive traffic, 
like in the case of cellular telephones, or due to the loss of big 
towers where antennas are installed.
When disasters strike, amateur radio operators know what to do, and many 
of us have specially prepared emergency kits self contained into boxes 
that are easy to transport, and where you can find everything needed to 
deal with the emergency, from radios, batteries , antennas, cables, 
plugs , spare microphones and tools , to drinking water and some food 
rations to take care of the operators vital needs for a period of no 
less than 48 hours... My advice is that in true amateur radio spirit, 
all ham operators should prepare an emergency operations kit, and keep 
it ready with periodically renewed batteries , and you can even add a 
solar panel or a crank up generator to recharge the batteries.
Si amigos , yes my friends, oui mes amis... the Tropical Hurricane 
Season of the Atlantic Ocean from North of Equator up, the Caribbean Sea 
and the Gulf of Mexico is now in progress and this is certainly a good 
time for those of you living in areas that may be struck by a tropical 
storm or a hurricane to have your amateur stations ready , in case there 
is the need to use it, and remember that trying to organize an emergency 
station when the storm is just a few hours a way is not the best thing 
to do, and I warn you that if you leave your preparations for the last 
minute, when you reach the place where your station is required to 
operate, something important will always be missing... Believe it, It 
has happened to me a couple of times, and that's why I decided to 
prepare the EMERGENCY RADIO BOX, with a complete list of everything that 
the experience drawn from the last SIX, yes you heard it right, the last 
SIX hurricanes have clearly shown that are essential to assure that the 
emergency station will be able to work properly, and that the operator 
will have drinking water and a basic food supply for at least 48 hours 
after deployment.
..............
Si amigos , yes my friends, oui mes Amis in Canada and the Caribbean 
that speak French, but also are able to listen to Dxers Unlimited in 
English... here is now the most popular section of the show... ASK 
ARNIE... with answers to your radio hobby related questions... Today's 
question is coming from several Caribbean islands and South East Mexico 
, more precisely from the Yucatan Peninsula, areas that are frequently 
affected by tropical storms and hurricanes... Dxers Unlimited's 
listeners from Jamaica, Turk and Caicos, Barbados and Dominica, as well 
as from Merida and Cancun want to know if there is a specific type of 
antenna for the 40 meters amateur band that has a high degree of 
survivability when the wind is blowing more than 100 or 120 miles per 
hour.... because they all have seen their 40 meter wire dipoles break 
down in the middle of the storms...
Well amigos, there are good news for you all, we have been working on a 
prototype of a 40 meters band antenna that may be able to survive when 
the wind is blowing constantly to around 100 miles per hour and gusting 
up to 150 miles per hour. It is a short antenna, using the inverted L 
configuration, and it is installed using short masts, of not more than 4 
or 5 meters above the ground. In some cases one end of the antenna can 
be tied to the roof of a building, and the other end to a short , rugged 
and very well guyed mast. This antenna uses a small loading coil and is 
fed with 50 ohms coaxial cable. Antenna modeling software show that its 
gain is about minus 2 decibels or maybe minus 3 decibels  below a full 
size 20 meters or 66 feet long half wave 40 meters dipole, the type of 
antenna that due to its long length and the fact that it is fed at the 
center with a coaxial cable downlead tends to break down as soon as the 
wind speed exceeds 70 or 80 miles per hour... Our new EMERGENCY INVERTED 
L OR, as we have named it EMIL antenna, is easy to build, can be kept 
ready to be installed in your emergency station box, or as I am going to 
do at my home QTH next weekend, after this weekend VHF contest of 
course... you can install one permanently at your home station and have 
it always ready for action, and also test it under actual operating 
conditions and compare its performance with the regular half wave 40 
meters band dipole.
For those of you that may be asking now, why use 40 meters for handling 
  communications emergencies at a local or semi-local level, the answer 
is because a unique propagation mode, known as NVIS, or Near Vertical 
Incidence Skywave , provides excellent coverage of a large area without 
having to install the station at a hill top or high rise building , as 
required when using VHF and UHF frequencies.
And now amigos, ready to copy... as always at the end of the program 
when I am here in Havana, here is Arnie Coro's Dxers Unlimited's 
propagation update and forecast....
Sunspot numbers for May 31 through June 6 were 11, 41, 45, 58, 58, 63 
and 47 with a mean of 46.1.  The 10.7 cm.  microwave solar flux was 
74.6, 79.4, 83.2, 87, 85.7, 88.8, and 87.1, with a mean of 83.7. 
Estimated planetary A indices were 4, 6, 7, 10, 8, 3 and 2 with a mean 
of 5.7. Estimated mid-latitude A indices were 2, 5, 5, 7, 8, 2 and 2, 
with a mean of 4.4. Sporadic E openings are expected to happen 
frequently during the next two weeks, and hopefully during this VHF 
contest weekend... Don't forget to send me your signal reports and 
comments about the program , as well as any radio hobby related 
questions you may have... send mail to arnie@xxxxxx of VIA AIR MAIL to 
Arnie Coro, Radio Havana Cuba, Havana, Cuba...



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