6 Metres

Caught my first six meter opening of 2015. Some pretty strong signals on the band when I switched on around 1930 UTC. Managed to work a few with just 50 watts from the Icom 7000 to my vertical. Nothing spectacular but it was nice to work Italy, Spain and France on 6 metres.Switching on the "radio" computer to enter the calls in my electronic log I found the computer had died! I havent time at the moment to investigate the problem but this PC is quite old and in fact was given to me for free. Possibly time for an upgrade I think. In the meantime I am glad I still keep a paper log in the shack.

Some Progress

A little while back I posted about the problems I had with remote operation of my CCW SDR4+ SDR receiver.
Originally I had set the receiver up on my main PC, running windows 7 and I (and others) were able to access it over the internet using the SDR-Radio software. All was well until a problem with Win 7 on the PC meant I had to reinstall the OS, after that whatever I tried I could not get the remote access to work. After many fruitless hours I pretty much gave up.

Yesterday I dug out an old Windows XP laptop I have. After a bit of tweaking, to my surprise I was able to connect the SDR receiver to it and operate it remotely

The important part of the screenshot above is the little "OK"  near the bottom of the left hand section. That means the SDR server program is accessible online. I don't think I can use the laptop as a permanent solution. Whilst I am happy enough to leave PC in the shack running for a day or two am I a bit concerned that a laptop would overheat. Maybe I am over cautious? In any event I have at least proved that my router is ok and the settings I am using in the SDR software are correct. Clearly something in my Windows PC is blocking access. Finding out what is the difficulty.

Computer problems

I have been beset by computer problems lately. Firstly the machine I operate my SDR receiver on crashed. No real problem, this is my main pc and the important stuff- files, pictures etc was backed up. I just did a reinstall of Windows 7 and all was well. Actually not quite. I can no longer operate my SDR receiver remotely. I think the problem relates to a port I need to open. Try as I might I cant get it to work. Even with the router and the PC firewalls off, nothing seems to do it. So for now I have given up on it, I just don't have the time to spend on the PC.

My other machine in the shack was running Windows Vista. For some reason this machine decided it didn't like working with the interface I use for PSK etc. This interface uses a USB connection to switch the PTT on the rig. I remember having one or two problems first  setting it up due to driver issues (It needs a cp 2102 USB to UART driver which looking at Google seems to cause problems for some.) but I had it up and running fairly quickly . Now try as I might I cannot get the machine to work with it. My other machine accepts the driver and recognises the interface fine, but that's no use as it is on the wrong side of the shack too far away from the radio!! So far I have spent a few hours on this problem but have got nowhere.
The hobby was a lot simpler before we used computers!!

An Interesting discovery

Following on from my last post it seems I have found the main source of QRM that was caused by one of my PCs at least. In the pic with my previous post you may have noticed  the "Black box" Icom PCR1000 receiver, sitting on top of my little HF linear amp. That receiver is connected to the main pc-the one I have moved onto another desk.Having moved that PC I found that the S9 of noise on 10 metres which was always there when the PC was on had disappeared. Today I decided to reconnect the Icom receiver. Since the Icom uses a serial port connector I use a USB to Serial lead out of the PC which connects to serial lead and then to the Icom.
Plugging the lead into my USB hub, Windows 7 automatically installed the USB to serial driver and then............S9 of noise on 10 meters. Moving the lead directly into a USB on the PC reduced this to S6 but unplugging altogether reduced the noise to nil.
I don't know why this lead should be radiating noise like this, but I will try and move the Icom receiver to be controlled by the other PC. Perhaps winding the lead around a ferrite ring would help? I think I have one here and will give it a try.If that doesn't work I think I will be moving the Icom on.

The Enemy Within!

For some time I have been aware that one of the PCs in the shack does generate a little interference on the HF bands. However I have recently noticed that I have a constant carrier of the 2 metre band on 145.575 Mhz. The carrier is around S4 and always seems to be there.

Using my two metre handheld the other day I tracked down the source. Placing the handheld next to the power supply for my LCD monitor the carrier went up to full scale on the S-Meter. Unplugging the power the supply caused it to disappear.All is not lost as the monitor needs a 12 volt DC supply so if I make up a connector lead it should run quite happily from one of the shack supplies.

HF conditions do seem to be improving. Yesterday I worked several stations on PSK31 on the 18Mhz band which seemed very lively. Let us hope this is a sign of things to come.

I continue to be fairly impressed with the Wellbrook loop. From its temporary location I am able to rotate it using the famous "Armstrong" method. I have found it is possible by careful positioning to almost elimate the PLT i get on some bands. The loop also allows me to reduce a lot of local QRN. It is very directional below about 5Mhz or so. If you have two medium wave stations on the same frequency it is possible to null one out by rotating.