V4 ham radio 2018

Greetings ham radio operators, all

Ham radio is alive and well in V4 land. From my ham radio station V44KF in St Kitts at #35, I wish all ham radio operators, supporters, friends and even haters/enemies, continued prosperity and great health for 2018. This is my first post for this year, so permit me a minute to express my thanks to all who helped to carry my ham radio up to another level in 2017, and to express condolences to the family and friends of those ham radio operators who have passed to the great beyond.

Ham radio in St Kitts and Nevis rose to a new level in 2017. Many of us were lucky to be part of the process. Ham radio continue to rise in 2018, but there are a few issue that want to threaten our sanity. Over the years I have seen many issue like this,  so I can tell you that we just have to dig our heels in, maintain our focus and any insanity will find its way out through the door.

The picture of the St Kitts Nevis Anguilla Amateur Radio Society [SKNAARS]  HQ/EOC above was taken a few days ago.  For details and information on the Society one can check out their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ST-KITTS-NEVIS-ANGUILLA-AMATEUR-RADIO-SOCIETY-146131718557/

In a few days the ham Radio Society will have its Annual General Meeting and the new Executive will seek to continue taking the Ham radio Society up to another level. All the ham radio operators in our Federation get the opportunity to be a part of the growth and development of our ham radio society, to make it the best ham radio organisation in the region, and western hemisphere. We are on the move to make this happen and nothing will stop us. All are invited to be a part of this generational and historic move.

Ham radio also has personal components, and we need to be aware how our brothers and sisters are affected by their ham radio, and also the impact of ham radio on all of us. We need to be aware that some folks cannot enjoy their ham radio in their home for various reasons, so we have to see how we can help these hams, personally or as a group. In many countries around the world there are radio clubs that help many ham operators to enjoy their operating by providing the radios and antennas for operating on all ham radio bands at their headquarters. sknaars is still working on this, and I suspect that this year will bring the break through.

sknaars takes on the full responsibility of training ham radio operators to sit the NTRC ham radio license examination.  Ham radio in V4 has evolved to the point where two ham radio organisations manage the affairs of the hams in St Kitts and Nevis. The Nevis Amateur Radio Club  runs the affairs of hams on Nevis and the St Kitts Nevis Anguilla Amateur Radio Society run the affairs of its members on both St Kitts and Nevis.  I hope that in 2018 we could see  the two ham radio organisations working closer together for the benefit of all the ham radio operators and all our communities in the Federation.

I am hopeful that sknaars could update the HQ/EOC with a modern computer. They had to dump the rusty and dead windows 98 computers. The donated CPU I hear about has not shown up yet, and that is keeping back progress and development. This is a hurdle that sknaars will hopefully over come soon. Why am I this interested in sknaars getting this computer?  Because I am of the view that a Flex Radio is the best ham radio transceiver for sknaars right now. It is the latest technology and the cheaper of most ham radio equipment.

Let us take a look at the receiver data table  and see how the Flex Radio models stack up
http://www.sherweng.com/table.html

I believe that all ham radio operators whether in the market for a new receiver or not, should be familiar with this receiver data table. I believe that it can help you to chose a better pre-owned radio.  Of course you can further check out your choice by viewing YouTube videos, but I have found that reading an Eham report has always done far more for me, as it gives me equipment users experience. Once I was getting hooked on a top Yaesu rig until I read an Eham report, and it wise me up.

 http://www.eham.net/ and the reports/reviews are here
 http://www.eham.net/reviews/ and the search box is on the top right of the page.

http://www.flexradio.com

I have a Flex Radio model in my shack since 2016. The little 4x6x2 inch radio is plugged into my windows 7 computer and displays in a chrome tab on my 24-inch screen, so I can always be live on ham radio while I am on Facebook or doing my photography, reading email, etc.  This Flex radio brings a whole new world of ham radio to my shack and my ham radio station. This model is great for me, but it may not be great for you, and what you do. Personally I only buy HF radios that are made in the USA because I can get them repaired without any problems. I have experienced the inability of an Asian radio makers to offer repair service for their HF radios. I hope this has changed over the years, because ham radio operators in this hemisphere deserve better in 2018. 

I also love Flex radio and suggest it for sknaars because it is device compatible for all sknaars members. You can run the Flex radio from your tablet, and remotely too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQl2GXSFEb8
If you can afford the Maestro control, that is the way to go.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVuN8-9y2ZI

I would expect that the other big name radio like Icom, Kenwood and Yaesu can also be run for your devices. Most of these radios have elements of the SDR technology incorporated, but I have not investigated them in detail, because I am biased towards Flex Radio, who can fill all my ham radio needs today and tomorrow.  I see the serious ham radio operators around the world using the top of the line radios, and if you can also climb up there, that is a way to go. But there is always a baby brother running just  a little behind for those of us who cannot climb.  Many of the baby brother rigs are so good that they make the receiver data table . Check it out here.
http://www.sherweng.com/table.html

These days HF radio is not that entertaining because I have to tangle with an "S9" HF radio noise. Some hams claim it is caused by the  electricity people and their smart meters, and more. This is something new, it was not there last year, but I suppose this is the cost of progress. Some things in the country going forward while some other things are going backwards.  The only good thing is that when there is an emergency or disaster and the electricity is shut down, the noise will go away.  But we can't live in that zone, so the ham radio society is investigating and seeing how we can work around this problem. I also hear that other services are also affected by the noise, so I am listening keenly for a response from the culprit[s].

In the meantime in order to minimize the noise received at my radio station, I am in the process of installing a loop antenna. Practically loop antenna are proven to pick up far less noise than vertical antennas. Loop antennas can be fed and oriented to produce low angle signals like vertical antennas. This also calls for installing a balun at the feed point. Experts claim that a balun should be installed at every antenna feed point, irrespective. I do not have the ham radio instruments to scientifically verify the true functioning of baluns, but I do know that the antennas I used with a balun [of some sort] always seem to function very well indeed.

These days hams are investing in antenna analyzers. Gone are the days when a ham puts up an antenna and hope for the best. Checking for low swr is not good enough. Hams need to know more. I guess that after investing a grand or two in a modern HF transceiver, many hams do not wish a piece of improperly tuned wire to blow up their radio. Many hams also invest in an antenna tuner to make sure it is safe. But one also need to buy a good antenna tuner, and it is not about price, but efficiency. This is where https://www.Eham.net/reviews/ comes in handy as we can get practical user equipment reports.

I perceive that there is a move for V4 hams to get organised on HF and to work DX on VHF. Given the noise on the low HF bands I am exploring the 6-meter activity. The Flex has 6-meters and many other modern radios do, so maybe we in V4 can begin our own 6-meter ham radio activity with a little DX action thrown in.  This is something to look forward to for this year. I am contemplating a 6-element 6-meter quad with pvc spreaders. If we can find a reliable and cost effective source for aluminum tubing our ham radio antenna projects can be home free. I believe that in time our Society will be able to make good supplying all these items that would help us take our ham radio to another level. The ball is already rolling with coax cable sales being available from the treasurer.

We are in the market for ham radio duty free concessions, but that is taking some time. The 2018 hurricane season is not waiting and we can only hope that our area does not suffer any hurricane impact. The hurricanes last year devastated all the other islands in our region expect St Kitts and Antigua. We continue to pray for the safety of these two islands for many years to come.  But we need to be prepared and ready for any eventuality. Over the years I have discovered that we can build all the antennas that we need from materials that are readily available in our country.

Glass antenna insulators are probably the ideal, but for years I have been using pieces of pvc pipe for insulators. 3", 6", 9", what ever length of pvc pipe is convenient, and schedule 40 or 80 as necessary.  Recently I stumbled upon a piece of reinforced pvc tubing. I hear it is industrial grade and used for hot water distribution. I can do well with only 3 feet of this material. This is great for making a whole range of antennas which otherwise would be impossible. I am still looking for this product on the Internet.

So how is your ham radio coming on? What difficulties are you experiencing? Certain aspect of ham radio are new to the age. Ham radio in 2018 is significantly different to that of 1973 when sknaars was birthed. We need a new generation of ham radio operators to refashion ham radio for these times. We also have to refashion ham radio organisations to allow these modern day hams to bring and implement new plans and strategies to the organisations. Some old hams have to stop fighting down new hams with new revolutionary ideas. In skn we will need all the new hams, with all their ideas to make our ham radio society the best in the region. I am hopeful that in 2018 we can have all hams attending meetings at the HQ and from their homes via Internet. Everyone around the world is teleconferencing, so what are we waiting for in sknaars?

This year has started out on a good note for V4 ham radio and sknaars . Let us maintain the focus and keep the momentum at an all time high. Help a brother or sister with their ham radio where you can. Remember to touch your ham radio every day.

73
Keeth, V44KF