To be or not to be...

...fair!

Today I was in a QSO with a elder ham- YO2UW and some others in 40m band. We all had 100W output.
My signal was reported with a 9+10 db or so and I was reporting a 57, peaking at 59.
Oh My God, what I did!!!
"This is the first time my signal is 57 in Bucharest" he said! And he was a little sad about this and continued as addressing to another ham in frequency:
" I was giving him (to me) 59+10 and my signal is only 57 at his station! I will write this on my log!"
The other station, YO3YX, a "veteran" on 40m said to me that I have poor antenna.

OK, I admit, I have a VERY poor antenna! That's right! But I manage to have a 9+ signal.
Or not?

It is my fault that his signal is only 7 on my S-meter? Should I broke my radio because of that?

I am sick of all this "elders" who have nothing to say that "cincinoua-afaraploua" (fivenine-rainingoutside) and making big ado about nothing!
I cannot catch the importance of having only big RST on my log!
Ham radio is about experimenting not about bragging with unreal facts!

Anyway, from now on, i will give to all YO stations only 59+60 db! IF I will ever have a QSO with that kind of people!
Get a life dude!

73!

MASAT-1 misiune de succes!

MASAT-1, primul satelit lansat de Ungaria a facut, cum se spune, “istorie” cand a transmis primele imagini ale Pamantului, la data de 8 martie 2012.

Pe langa frumusetea intrinseca a imaginilor, acestea demonstreaza ca o planificare si o realizare atenta poate sa furnizeze rezultate deosebite chiar si printr-un proiect atat de limitat in dimensiuni si buget energetic precum este cazul satelitilor CubeSat.

8 martie 2012 - 12:37

MASAT-1 a fost proiectat si realizat de catre studenti si cadre didactice de la Facultatea de Inginerie Electrica de la Universitatea de Tehnologie si Economie din Budapesta, in colaborare cu Agentia Spatiala Ungara si cu diverse companii nationale.

Satelitul masoara 10x10x10 cm, are greutatea de 1 kg si a fost lansat pe orbita de joasa altitudine de vectorul VEGA operat de Agentia Spatiala Europeana (ESA) de la baza de lansare din Kourou in arhipelagul Caraibean.

Inca de la lansarea sa, din data de 13 februarie 2012, satelitul a functionat perfect si a transmis date catre statia de sol din Budapesta.

Sistemul de control al atitudinii asigura pozitionarea optima a camerei video atunci cand satelitul evolueaza deasupra emisferei sudice.

Pe langa cele doua statii (Budapesta si Erd), peste 120 de radioamatori au receptionat transmisiunile satelitului, contribuind prin receptia a mai mult de 200.000 de pachete de date la succesul misiunii.

12 martie 2012 - 05:33

Camera de la bordul satelitului are o rezolutie de 640 x 480 pixeli (1-10 km per pixel) si are dimensiunea aproximativa a unei monede de 2 Eur!

Indicativul radio al satelitului este HA5MASAT iar frecventa pe care transmite telemetria este de 437.345 MHz +/- shift-ul Doppler shift (max. +/- 10 kHz.)

Pentru receptia semnalelor transmise se poate folosi un software pus la dispozitie de catre echipa care a realizat satelitul.

Mai multe imagini si informatii aici:

International HF "Bucuresti" Contest 2012

Period:
March 19, 2012, between 18.00-20.59 UTC (20.00 - 22.59 LT)

Bands / mode:

80 m
CW - between 3510-3560 kHz;
SSB - between 3675-3775 kHz;
PSK31 - 3580-3590 kHz

40 m
CW - between 7010-7035 kHz;
SSB - between 7090-7100 kHz, 7130-7200 kHz between;
PSK31 - 7040-7045 kHz

Under The Romanian Society of Radio Amateur's patronage and organised by YO3KSR, the 35th Edition of the HF International Contest "Bucuresti" will be held on 19th of March, from 18:00 GMT in both 80 m and 40 m band. We invite you to take note about the contest's rules!

A special software (Logger, keyer and PSK engine) is available on the contest's webpage. Check for the latest version!

LED Voltmeter (for portable QRP ops)

As the summer is already here (HI), I plan to spend some time on YOFF and SOTA-YO so I prepare my portable backpack.
A portable and compact voltmeter is often nedeed but the usual multimeters are bulky, impractical and heavy (for portable use).
Therefore, I made a little voltmeter, which shows the SLA battery voltage via a blinking LED.
I made it around a PIC 16F876A microcontroller using the embedded ADC.
All can be made on a perfoboard as a Do It Yourself (DiY) Project for a raini afternoon.

Here is the schematic diagram (CLICK to enlarge):

The LED shows the following voltages;

Ind.	Volt	Collour
LED 1	< 11 V	Bright RED
LED 2	11 V - 12 V	RED
LED 3	12 V - 12,4 V	YELLOW
LED 4	12,4 V - 12,6 V	GREEN
LED 5	12,6 V - 13 V	GREEN
LED 6	13 V - 13,3 V	GREEN
LED 7	13,3 V - 13,8 V	YELLOW
LED 8	>13,8 V	Bright RED

Al the nedeed files are .rar archived and available for download HERE.

Here is a little movie with the voltmeter:



If you found this usefull, please drop a line!

73 de YO3HJV

PS
A explanatory article was published into the QRP Quarterly (Spring 2012) 
-Page 1
-Page 2 

Here is another link to download QRP Quarterly with SLA PIC Voltmeter.

Lustraphone mike, another piece of junk restored...

A few months ago I visit a friend of mine.
In his backyard I found a big stock of junk.
Searhing for some interesting, I found a nice desktop microphone who look a little odd!
I took it for nothing.
Unfortunately, I didn't took any picture before I start to open it. The images here are after some cleaning...
At home, after a little thinking, I opened it and found that the microphone is made by LUSTRAPHONE in England.
A nice transformer was fitted under the transducer. The output is balanced at around 600 Ohm.


I search on the Internet but I found almost nothing about this type. Only this site is exhibit a identical one, only for hire!
I removed the old paint which was horrible and sprayed with a matt-black one.
On the chromed pieces I work witha Dremel brush and restored the shining for a nice contrast.
The front of the transducer was covered with a dense copper mesh which was unrecoverable so I removed it.
The switch is the original one (Labeled also with LUSTRAPHONE). It is a double-section two position but one section was unusable (in shortcircuit) so I had to use only one...

The final result is this (click on photo for larger view):

I used it on a FT-2000 and the audio reports were great!
Nice piece...

Why Lustraphone Ribbon Mike was never at BBC.

Some info about LUSTRAPHONE:

Lustraphone was a contemporary of Grampian and Reslo from the 1950s -- all British microphone manufacturers building ribbon and moving-coil mics mainly for the amateur, semi-pro and PA industries. (http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/mar02/articles/qa0302.asp).

It seems that hey invented the noise cancelling microphone!