Johnson's Techworld

 A new weekly amateur radio HF net on 20m was started a few weeks back, with net controls from India and Bangladesh. Earlier the time was announced as 5 pm IST. But I think that it has been moved to 5.30 pm IST, 1200z. Today I started hearing the net only by that time. I had tried live streaming the net using VU3WEW Open WebRX. As it was automatic live streaming using OBS Studio software in my laptop, the Open WebRX timed out after sometime and the live streaming stopped. I could listen to the net fairly well in my FT-710 radio. Though I did try to check in several times, I could not reach the net controls. Here is a short recording of the Akash Bandhan Weekly HF Net on 20m today evening.

  Could work VU2MZT during the live stream. But the audio from the radio was not picked up by the webcam used for live streaming! That part was silent and was deleted from the curated audio. There was also feedback between downlink speaker output and mic in the radio, interfering with contact as the audio volume was set high so that webcam would pick it up, but no luck. Used OBS studio for livestreaming and Argentinian Amsat web page for Doppler information during pass. As it was raining, CP22E VHF omnidirectional antenna was used for RX and TX.

 All the QRP Portable amateur radio operators out there are elated with the announcement of FTX-1F by Yaesu at the Tokyo Ham Fair, which one of the most attended ham fairs globally. Being a Yaesu user myself, I am also happy that a new radio is being announced. That means the amateur radio hobby is very much alive! Unless the company sees a good potential market, they would not have announced a brand new radio for the portable segment after they had withdrawn the 817/818 duo some time back. My portable amateur radio operator friends out there feel that FTX-1F will be a direct competitor for IC-705. When I checked the specks, some aspects are quite similar. FTX-1F provides 6W power output with the internal 5670mAh Lithium-ion battery pack while it can go up to 10W with an external DC power. Corresponding power outputs for IC-705 are 5W and 10W. Like my FT-710 radio, it has 3DSS (3-Dimensional Spectrum Stream) display and runs on software defined radio (SDR) technology. But unlike my...

 During an ongoing discussion on QRZ forum regarding Amateur Radio in Emergency Communications , KJ7LVO from Spokane, Washington, mentioned that major hospitals in their region have radio rooms attached to the Emergency Rooms. Routine use for them is for ambulance dispatch which occurs in the 150 MHz band, which is quite near amateur radio VHF band. Hence it is possible to use same antenna setup in case of an emergency to use amateur radio for VHF band communications. As I was searching the web for more information, I came across Hospital Radio Network on a subdomain page of ARRL . Hospital Radio Network is a group of radio amateurs in Oklahoma, United States, who work to link Oklahoma Hospitals using amateur radio, meant as an emergency support in case of conventional communication failure. In addition to a voice network, they could also use the Winlink email system prevalent in the US among radio amateurs. In the United States, Winlink is a network of amateur radio and authorize...

Inverted V antenna is very popular among radio amateurs, especially the beginners, as it is very easy to put up and has a fairly good performance. As the name implies, it has an inverted V appearance with the two limbs of the antenna forming an inverted V, with the apex at the tip of the non-conducting mast. As the horizontal dimension is lesser than that of a horizontal half wave dipole antenna, it is useful when there are space constraints. Though theoretically the performance of a horizontal dipole and inverted V are similar, practically it can be lower for the inverted V. This is because of proximity to the ground, effect of ground conductivity and end effects. Elevating the antenna higher above the ground can improve the performance of the inverted V, though it may not be always possible in a given location.

  Arduino Nano is a small microprocessor which is breadboard-friendly. It was released in 2008 and has 30 male I/O headers with DIP-30 like configuration. DIP means Dual Inline Package. Arduino Nano can be programmed using Arduino Software. It can be powered through a type-B mini-USB cable or from a 9 V battery. The operating voltage is 5 V and input voltage can vary from 7 to 12 Volts as per the Arduino website . It has a flash memory of 32 KB and a clock speed of 16 MHz. It can communicate with a computer, another Arduino and other microcontrollers. There 8 Analog IN pins and 22 Digital I/O Pins. It weighs only 7 grams and has a size of 18 x 45 mm. Arduino Nano controller has been used in Amateur Radio transceivers in addition to numerous other applications. Arduino Nano is open-source hardware! It is used to control antenna rotators as well. Arduino Nano is the smallest in the group with breadboard friendly design. It has pin headers which allow easy attachment on a breadboard...

 Couple of days back I had noted a lot of seemingly digital signals on the WARC band from 10.100–10.150 MHz. That is the 30m amateur radio band sanctioned by the World Administrative Radio Conference in early 1980s. My End Fed Half Wave antenna for 40-10m with a 49:1 balun at feed point used to tune in to the 30m band with the built-in automatic antenna tuner of my FT-710 radio. After I reduced the wire length of my EFHW for better mounting, from 20m to 10m, the antenna was converted to a 20-10m antenna. It works well for transmission on 20m and I have been able to work a US station with it on SSB during early morning grey line propagation. As the 10m band has been bad recently, I have not been able to work any stations on 10m with the shortened antenna. Though it does not tune to 30m, I could hear a few SSB stations on the band in unknown languages. After sometime, when I checked, I could see a lot of seemingly digital signals on the waterfall. I checked again today evening and I ...

 Here are the measurements for the dual band single feeder Yagi with five VHF and eight UHF elements from the DK7ZB design. Instead of rods which were used in the original design, I am going to try with tape measure which is likely to offset the tuning. Moreover, I am not planning a balun at the feed point. That also is likely to give suboptimal performance.

 There was an Eastern pass of International Space Station with maximum elevation of 10 degrees in this region a few minutes back. I was happy to hear VU2MZT at 7 degrees elevation and copy was much better at 10 degrees elevation. The setup at VU2MZT seems to be working very well. Later I could also copy VU3BGK for a short period. Here is the curated audio recording. I could not hear my signals on the downlink, nor did I hear any replies to my call! Waiting for a better Western pass at 10.39 IST (UTC+5.30).

 Some time back I had read about a VU educational institution offering a course for amateur radio, aimed at passing the ASOC examination and becoming radio amateurs. Hence I was quite intrigued by the thread on QRZ forum mentioning about amateur radio courses at professional engineering institutions in the United States of America. The initial post by W0PV detailed Carnegie Mellon University  offering courses in Amateur Radio with college credit . The post had cited an article from the News and Events Section of College of Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Electrical and Computer Engineering division. The post was titled as "Amateur Radio for Aspiring Professionals". According to the article, the 20 students who enrolled in the 'Introduction to Amateur Radio' course were thrilled when they made their first contact with other amateur radio operators during the field day class. So this is another way of bringing more Youth on the Air in amateur radio ! There are...

 We celebrated our maiden National Space Day on 23rd August 2024, on the first anniversary of Chandrayan 3 soft landing on the South Pole of the Moon. I had watched the official ISRO program on YouTube Live and made several LEO Satellite contacts as my way of participating in the great national celebration. Today evening I was quite happy to work AT2SPACE, special event station celebrating India's National Space Day on amateur radio. AT2SPACE special event callsign is active from 8th to 31st August 2024 and the operator is VU2UUU from Gurugram near New Delhi, in the National Capital Region. VU2ATN and VU3RHJ were also there on the frequency 14.200 MHz at 6.40 pm IST (UTC+5.30). Here is a short audio clip.

 When I started working Low Earth Orbit amateur radio FM satellites, my local Elmers used tell me that LAPAN-A2 (IO-86) satellite with an orbit near the equator is very difficult to access due to the activation of transponder near its entry to Indonesian region. They used to get just about 30 seconds during a pass, which is hardly enough to access. Later some of my friends residing South of my location told me that they could access LAPAN-A2 for short periods using handheld Yagi antennas while operating outdoors. I was also told that when there is a satellite focused DXpedition in Maldives, the satellite used to be activated earlier and longer window was available for access from South India. In any case, access from North India was impossible due to the pass along the equator, with only slightly varying orbits. LAPAN-A2 satellite has a power output of 5W like the amateur radio on international space station. Situation changed recently when at the request of VU satellite operators,...

 Here are my experiments providing different types of indoor ground plane for my magnetic mount quarter wave VHF antenna, which is actually meant to be mounted on the chassis of a car. See the difference in VSWR between different types of mounting: wooden table, steel table and window grill!

 

 I was having a look at the bands to see if I could have a few DX contacts. First I heard a lot CW stations on 21 MHz and could with difficulty make out UN7TX mentioning his callsign several times without CQ or anything else. Then I thought that a DXpedition may be around, but could not copy other rather fast CW stations well. Moved on to 10 MHz and to my surprise, heard a few SSB stations in unknown language. I have never heard anything great on 30m so far. Checked DXWATCH.COM for any possible leads, with the filter set to 30m. Though I could not find anything about the frequencies on which I had heard SSB stations on 30m, I could see several spots for CY9C around 10132 kHz. But all of them were FT8. Moving to QRZ.COM , it told me that it was St. Paul Island DXpedition . The DXpedition website mentions that they are on the air currently and the schedule of activation is from August 26 - September 5, 2024. Interestingly, as it is an island with a lighthouse. St. Paul counts for Pa...

 The Moxon Yagi which I have been using for my LEO Satellite operations had a Moxon rectangle for VHF and five UHF Yagi elements which were passively coupled to the VHF Moxon driven element. The gain was not that high when I thought of working SO-121 QRP satellite. VU2TEK had good success with his Tape Measure Yagi which motivated me to go for one. But I don't expect the same success as he was operating outdoors, pointing the Tape Measure Yagi in the direction of the satellite pass. I am planning to use only in a mast mounted fashion which will limit its usability for satellite passes to a short period of about 4 minutes. I have chosen the DK7ZB design which I have been looking at for a quite a long time. That design has 5 elements for VHF and 8 elements for UHF with a boom length of about 1.5m. First step was to get a wooden reaper to use as the boom. Earlier it used to be available in all electrical wiring accessories shops. But now with the usage of PVC channels for wiring, I w...

  You can hear VU2JEK replying to my call at 6:09 fairly well and VU2ADV calling me soon after that, though the squelch was kept closed on UHF side of IC 2730 radio and audio muted on VHF side. It was an Eastern pass for me, with 54 degrees maximum elevation. I tried opening squelch little bit after that and that would have caused loss of signals on live streaming after that, though I continued hearing both VU2JEK and VU2ADV for several minutes after that. Even my narration has not been picked up well after trying to open the squelch! That was a trial of live streaming of downlink of voice transponder of Amateur Radio on International Space Station on 437.800 MHz with intermittent manual rotation of mast mounted Moxon Yagi and manual Doppler correction in my IC 2730 Radio. ARISS pass was from 5.08 am UTC (10.38 am IST) to 5.18 am UTC (10.48 am IST). Yesterday I tried with squelch open on UHF and the webcam was not picking up any signal except my call which was direct pickup. Not ...

 If you search for AO-27 on N2YO.COM , it is listed as EYESAT-1 and is shown as active, but there is a snag! Uplink is given as 145.850 MHz and downlink as 436.795 MHz. No beacon is listed and the mode is given as 1200bps AFSK FM! That should be telemetry and not an FM transponder. Now why is it listed as EYESAT-1? PE0SAT has mentioned the history in his blog . AO-27 was originally designed as a commercial satellite known as EYESAT-1, but the project was halted on the way. In fact they had an ambitious plan of a constellation of six EYESAT satellites according to Gunter's Space Page . SatNOGS database also mentions that EYESAT-1 as active and operational. The halted project was later completed by the Amateur Radio Research and Development Corporation (AMRAD) at the facilities of Interferometrics in McLean, Virginia. That explains the name for the amateur radio payload which was added by them: AMRAD-OSCAR, AO 27, OSCAR 27. It has a crystal controlled FM transmitter with freque...

 Though we often say that amateur radio is the oldest social media, it has not been engaging the current younger generation like other new age social media. When I was young, amateur radio was very much engaging for me and there were no other social media around! World over, the amateur radio operators are aging, just like the general population in many regions. Some say that the median age of amateur radio operators in some countries is in the seventies while some say that it is even more. If this trend continues, the hobby is going to die off. Fortunately, that is not true for all regions of the globe according to an article in IEEE Spectrum . It says that there is dramatic increase in amateur radio operators in China, mostly due to advancing technology and growing middle class with a disposable income. It also mentions that in Indonesia, subject to natural disasters as an island nation, there is spurring interest in emergency communication. Those of you who have watched the oper...

 AIR NET India, as we have it currently is held at 7150 kHz from 7.30 pm IST (1400z), daily. According to the QSL Net page of VU2JOS , the net controllers are VU2NSL,  VU2RVE, VU2KNT, VU3TBU, VU3LLL, VU3MES - all from South India and 8Q7PR from Maldives. I have had the opportunity to check in to AIR NET India with 8Q7PR as alternate net control a few times. I do hear some YC (Indonesia) stations check in regularly as well. Occasionally A41LD from Oman also turns up at AIR NET India. Noise levels are fairly high on the frequency in the evening, possibly with a lot of LED lights around, compared to the morning 40m nets which I am able to hear better in my FT-710 radio. Having said that, this was not the AIR NET India which I was familiar with when I started in amateur radio way back in 1985. It was held on 14.150 MHz in those days. As I did not have 20m setup in those days, I used to visit the QTH of my Elmer VU2NYR (SK), whenever time permits, to check in to AIR NET India in th...

Solderless Breadboard Solderless breadboard is a convenient way of testing out prototype electronic circuits. It is also a good educational tool. There are sets of 5 clips within the holes on either side of the central notch. They are the active terminals used for mounting electronic components. Each set in a row are connected to each other. Back side of solderless breadboard showing the connections.  One set of 5 terminals has been pulled out for display in the next photograph. Pulled out set of 5 terminals The columns on the left side of the notch are named A, B, C, D, E and those to the right side are named F, G, H, I, J. These are the terminal strips. The notch provides for air circulation and cooling when Dual-in-line pin Package Integrated Circuits (DIP IC) are inserted in such a way that one set of pins go into column E and the other set goes into column F. In a full sized breadboard, the rows are numbered 1 to 65. Breadboards can be connected to each other to form a larger ...

I read about the concept of Amateur Radio while at school in the 1970s from an Astronomy Book. It was on the discovery of radio waves from outer space by Karl G. Jansky a Radio Amateur using his directional 20 m antenna. This discovery later led to the development of Radio Telescope and Radio Astronomy. Just looked up the reference for his original publication now and found it in the Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers, 1932 [ 1 ]! At that time I never knew that there were Radio Amateurs right here in my place as well. It was later when I was at college that an article on Ham Radio in the local news paper which caught my attention and introduced me to Short Wave Listening. At that time I started tuning in to Ham Radio stations in my home radio, at 7 MHz, which I later used as a receiver during my life as a Radio Amateur. Some of the prominent stations were VU2TG (Guhan from Kottayam, Kerala, India) and VU2JN ( Prof. Jayaraman ). There were a few stations on Single Side Ban...

Currently amateur radio satellite activity is on VHF, UHF and SHF. Former two being for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites and SHF for Qatar Oscar 100 Geostationary Amateur Radio Satellite. But there was an era when there was satellite activity on 10m or 28 MHz, though I don't think any such transponder is currently active. AMSAT-OSCAR 7 which was launched on November 15, 1974 and still continues to be partially active, is one of the satellites which was active on 10m band. It had a Mode A transponder with 145.850-950 MHz uplink and 29.400-500 MHz downlink. and Mode B transponder with 432.180-120 MHz uplink and 145.920-980 MHz downlink. These are linear (SSB/CW) inverting transponders. In addition it had 29.500 and 145.700 MHz beacons. There was also a 2304.1 MHz beacon which was never turned on because of international treaty constraints.  In 1981, AO-7 had become non-operational due to battery failure. But surprisingly, in 2002, one of the shorted batteries became an open circuit a...

 Ever since I started using my FT-710 radio in January 2024, 10m has been my favourite band for DX work. Main reason was that the noise level was quite low on 10m and I could work quite a bit of DX on ten meter while I was struggling on 20m and hearing hardly anything on 15m. Of course, I was trying only SSB mode, though I did try CW occasionally. As of now I am not a fan of digital modes, though I do have WSJT-X installed in an old refurbished laptop. I am yet to use any digital modes in ham radio. May be when the HF propagation goes down with the waning of Solar Cycle 25, I may be forced to use digital weak signal modes. That brings us to the reason why I was very happy with 10m again. I started using 10m when solar activity was good and also in winter, both known factors in improving ten meter propagation. Fast forward to June 2024, summer doldrums reversed the excellent propagation noted during winter anomaly. Actual word meaning of doldrums is the low pressure regions in the 1...

  Here is a compilation of top 10 most popular videos on my channel.

 Had a Western pass of AO-91 at around 4.00 UTC in our region. Usually Western passes are better for me as my concrete water tank does not block the satellite signals. Another reasson for AO-91 is that when it comes from the Indian Ocean region without any LEO satellite operators, battery is better. This has been my observation, often ratified by other veteran LEO satellite operators in this region as well. Towards the time of closest approach, I could hear my CQ call partially on the downlink, with my antenna pointed in that direction. Soon I went outside and turned antenna to the North. After that I could hear my voice again on the downlink. All except one were partial copy on downlink in my full duplex radio with uplink frequency speaker muted. I have removed the intervening noise periods to reduce the time needed for you to listen the recording. Actually each of my audio signals were separted by about 2 minutes as I was listening in between for any possible replies.

 I had tried livestreaming of RS-44 Amateur Radio Satellite using VU3ZNG OpenWebRX. But I could not hear much in it, possibly as I was not tracking the Doppler shift in frequency and it was an automatic streaming using OBS software in my laptop. According to VU2TUM, upper half (435.640 to 435.670 MHz) is usually used for SSB voice and the lower half (435.610 to 435.640 MHz) is for CW in the band plan for RS-44 which has an inverting transponder with 60 kHz bandwidth. Here is the nice recording of the RS-44 beacon in CW mentioning di dah dit, di di dit, di di di di dah, di di di di dah.

Yesterday while I was contacting a friend at about 2500 km from here on 21 MHz, he told me that he was using a 20 m  delta loop antenna  and it works on multiple bands even without a tuner and I was quite surprised. Another friend on the other side of the globe told me online that his 40 m delta loop antenna works on higher non- WARC  bands with reasonable  SWR . Wanted to know more about the multi-band capability of delta loop antenna. My Google search immediately brought me to a  40-10m multiband delta loop antenna !   General information is that delta loop antenna is a full wave length antenna in the shape of the Greek alphabet Delta (Δ). It will need a 4:1 balun at the feed point for impedance matching. If the delta loop is mounted vertically, the low take off angle of electromagnetic waves is good for working distant stations. If mounted horizontally, it is useful as Near Vertical Incidence Skywave (NVIS) Propagation for medium range communications in...

  Here is the transcript of the video: J Pole antenna is quite popular among radio amateurs for 2 m and 70 cm bands, that is the VHF and UHF bands. It consists of two segments, one three fourth wavelength segment and a matching stub, which is a parallel shorted matching stub, of quarter wavelength. The portion above that, that is corresponding to the portion beyond the quarter wave, will be a half wave. This is a half wave, and another quarter wave is attached here. And, for this half wave antenna, up to this, when the coax is fed here, it can be considered as a end fed antenna. End fed antennas have high impedance and this requires a matching. So this arrangement of the J pole is mainly for matching. You have connections from the coax on either side, and the connection point has to be adjusted, by sliding up and down, to have the lowest SWR. That is how the J Pole antenna is tuned. J Pole has a gain of around 2 dB, above a ground plane vertical antennna. This region, between the ...

 I participated in the celebration of the maiden Indian National Space Day today morning by watching the official programme of Indian Space Research Organization on YouTube Live. There were a couple of video clips played during the programme on India's achievements in the space program and plans for the coming quarter century which would include India's own low Earth orbit space station and human moon landings. I thought of maximizing my LEO Satellite operations on this auspicious day. Instead of keeping my Moxon Yagi at fixed elevation and azimuth as usual, directed at the maximum elevation azimuth, I decided to rotate it manually in three or four steps to capture as much of the pass as possible. I was also simultaneously live streaming with VU3ZNG OpenWebRX. In spite of it being a mid day pass on a working day and an Eastern pass mostly blocked by my concrete water tank, I could get good results on a high elevation pass of International Space Station. I could hear VU2KOC, VU2...

 Tomorrow, the 23rd of August 2024, the nation is celebrating its first ever Indian National Space Day. There is a near overhead pass of International Space Station tomorrow at around 12.15 pm IST. That corresponds to 6.45 am UTC, usually a waking up time for astronauts on the Space Station who follow a UTC schedule, though the Sun "rises and sets" about 16 times on a usual Earth day, at the Space Station! You are aware that Indian origin astronaut Sunita L Williams KD5PLB is there on the Space Station and has been having unscheduled contacts with amateur radio operators on the Earth during her current stay at the Space Station. If you are lucky you will be able to hear her during the mid-day pass of Space Station. I am planning to be QRV and also tune in using the VU3ZNG OpenWeb RX with the link: http://125.99.242.56:8073/#freq=437800000,mod=nfm,sql=-150 which will tune directly to the ARISS downlink frequency. Best of luck to all for a direct astronaut contact from NA1SS.

 Yesterday evening I heard 9M2AIS calling CQ DX on 20m. I was quite happy as he was coming here 5,9+10dB. Usually I am heard in that region if the received signal is good, indicating that the band is open between us, at a distance of nearly 3000 km. Gave a reply call and was heard in the first instance, though I had to repeat my callsign once again for him. He gave me a 5,7 report and signed off. Here is a short video clip of his CQ call. Incidentally, it was only yesterday that I was told the meaning of a CQ call by a comment on my YouTube channel: "Seek you, I am seeking you, CQ". Looks a very nice explanation, which I had not heard in my four decades of amateur radio.

 I have been hearing a lot about RS-44 satellite which is very popular among LEO satellite operators. Being a linear satellite with a bandwidth of 60 kHz, multiple simultaneous QSOs are possible. As it is located at a higher altitude with perigee of 1182.5 km and apogee of 1516.8 km, it has a much larger footprint than the FM satellites which I am able to access with my IC 2730 FM radio. Many of my friends have reported working a lot of DX on RS-44, while I have been able to work very few DX with my FM only radio. Though I am not planning to upgrade to an all mode radio in near future, I thought of listening to RS-44 on VU3ZNG OpenWebRX, which covers UHF band as well. RS-44 is a V/U satellite with uplink from 145.935-145.995 MHz and downlink from 435.670-435.610 MHz. It has an inverting transponder, meaning that uplink is on LSB and downlink on USB. I have to figure out how to use the WebSDR for listening to RS-44 as I have only tried to listen to FM satellites so far with it. Bein...

 This post is in response to a question by VU3CDK from Mumbai regarding the mechanism of propagation on various amateur radio bands. He also wishes to know the best time of the day, difference between bands etc. I am going to base the discussion on my experience over the years in ham radio as well as the information which I have gained from Elmers and friends from on air and online discussions. These days, when we think of propagation on HF or High Frequency bands, what we usually do is to have a look at QRZ.COM to see the Solar Terrestrial Data by N0NBH . As of now, it shows that 40-80m propagation is poor at day time and good at night. 30-20m is listed as poor at day time and good at night. Luckily, 17-15m is listed as good during day and night. 12-10m is listed as good at day time and poor at night. These may change on a day to day basis and vary with solar activity over varying periods of time. Those who have been operating HF for a long period know that 80m and even 160m are m...

 If you are a high end computer user especially if you are a software developer, you will need more monitors connected to your laptop to view multiple screens simultaneously. That is when this USB-C Hub Dock 7-in-1 from Amazon Basics comes in handy. Most laptops have only a single HDMI or High Definition Multimedia Interface socket for connecting an external monitor. This is a 4K HDCP compliant device. Now what is this HDCP Compliant device? HDCP stands for High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection, a system designed to prevent unauthorized copying of digital video content. 4K is ultra high definition, the level of support of the HDMI port for video content transfer. Both Mac and Windows USB-C devices can be connected. There is a TF (TransFlash)/SD (Secure Digital) Card reader also there. I had bought another USB hub with SD card reader for transferring the audio and screenshot recorded in my FT-710 radio to my laptop. That was a 5-in-1 USB hub.

 Amateur Radio has played a vital role in providing communication links during major natural disasters in the past and recent times as well. In the recent Wyanad Landslide disaster, radio amateurs in Wyanad were called upon to provide an emergency communication link between the Ground Zero and the Wyanad District Headquarters. They could provide it by setting up a base station at the District Headquarters while another team proceeded to Ground Zero with hand held radios, base stations and portable antennas. As there was no direct line of sight communication in view of hilly terrain, they utilized the Phantom Rock Amateur Radio VHF Repeater for establishing emergency communciation link between Ground Zero and District Headquarters quickly. In the 2018 devastating Kerala Floods amateur radio operators across the state had provided vital emergency communication services. Even in the Wyanad Landslide, many amateur radio operators, some even as from Trivandrum rushed to provide emergen...

 VU3CDK has kindly informed me of two International Light House/Light Ship Weekend Amateur Radio Special Activations by VU hams. 1.  Betul Lighthouse Activation (Goa): Special Callsign:  AU2LH Multi-band amateur radio operations have been scheduled for 17th and 18th August, 2024. Confirmed operators are VU2ZMK (Mahendra) who routinely live streams Belgaum Net on YouTube, VU2YQ (Amey), veteran satellite operator and the latest Satellite VUCC from India, VU3FGJ (Sandy) who had a Beaches on the Air Activation some time back and I could work him, and VU3IAG (Vaishabh), VU3FUD, VU2APU, VU2TDT, VU2ROE. They are planning to use multiband  Rabbit Ear Antennas , Yagi , EFHW and Fan Dipole . Looking at the antennas listed on the  Goa Radio Amateur's Society webpage , I presume that it will be from 40 through 6m. VU2YQ being a veteran satellite operator, I expect LEO satellite operations as well.  2. Mahabalipuram Light House Activation: Special Callsi...

 It was recently that I came across a new Open WebRX covering VHF/UHF bands from VU land. The Open WebRX by VU3ZNG is unique in more than one ways. It has a specific section devoted to Amateur Radio on International Space Station (ARISS), which is the amateur radio satellite most likely to be picked by WebSDRs without a directional antenna in view of the power output of 5W. LAPAN A2 or IO 86 is another satellite which is likely to be picked up as it has also 5W output. But LAPAN A2 FM transponder is not activated in all the passes. It has a specific schedule of activation published weekly on their page on X . Usually the satellite voice transponder is activated only on weekends. This week there was a mid week activation as well. Earlier there was special activation for an IOTA. Some of the passes have activation at the time of closest approach in this region, which are likely to be picked up by Open WebRX of VU3ZNG. Usual pattern of activation earlier was when the satellite e...