Ham & Turkey

To all you Hams out there celebrating our
Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend...

Go Well Together

GNUradio Workshop

Our thanks to Kevin VE7ZD for an excellent workshop on designing and using SDR receivers and other devices using GNU radio (https://www.gnuradio.org/). Here is a link to the presentation slides.

The GNU Radio software provides the framework and tools to build and run software radio or just general signal-processing applications. The GNU Radio applications themselves are generally known as "flowgraphs", which are a series of signal processing blocks connected together in software, thus describing a data flow. As with all software-defined radio systems, re-configurability is a key feature. Instead of using different radios designed for specific but disparate purposes, a single, general-purpose, radio can be used as the radio front-end, and the signal-processing software, handles the processing specific to the radio application.

We started out by building a simple audio signal generator and moved on to a full featured FM broadcast receiver. The hardware tuner is the inexpensive RTL2832U + R820T dongle available on eBay and other sources. With a frequency range of  24 – 1766 MHz it is fully 100% compatible with GNUradio and permits building devices across the ham bands.

The USB dongle from eBay                                                  Inside the RTL USB dongle

The dongle is actually manufactured for receiving TV broadcasts on Asian computers, but for us it means that a cheap $20 TV tuner USB dongle with the RTL2832U chip can be used as a software defined radio (SDR). This sort of capability would have cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars just a few years ago. The RTL-SDR is also often referred to as RTL2832U, DVB-T SDR, RTL dongle or the “$20 Software Defined Radio”.

Watch for an article in the next Communicator. In the meantime, here are three sites with additional information:

• For general RTL dongle news:  http://rtl-sdr.com
• A signal hacker lady, very smart and she has interesting articles: http://windytan.com 
• A YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nZIvueWDds

2016 Communicator Newsletters

We have the past Communicators on-line. 

Here is the link to 2016:

goo.gl/1AV0x3

The October 2017 Communicator

It's A Busy October Ahead

The blog has been a bit inactive these past few weeks as I have been travelling. That is going to change as we transition the SARC website to this blog and add some additional material.

The October SARC Communicator is now available. There should be something for everyone in this issue from beginners to experienced hams, including a fascinating look at the life and accomplishments of Nikola Tesla.

 You can download this 38-page edition at 

https://goo.gl/iBHyhE

My deadline for the November edition is October 20th. If you have news from your Vancouver area club, events or other items of interest please email them to me at communicator@ve7sar.net

The September 2017 Communicator

We're back!

You’ll probably see a few changes in the Communicator this month. They say a change is as good as a rest, well… we’ll see. This is my 8th year as editor and I need some variety too, to keep me interested. Hopefully it’s getting better. 

 You can download this 40-page edition at 

https://goo.gl/pxehvg

My deadline for the October edition is September 20th. If you have news from your Vancouver area club, events or other items of interest please email them to me at communicator@ve7sar.net

Solar Eclipse and Ham Radio

What Hams can expect on August 21st

On Monday, August 21, 2017, a total solar eclipse will be visible in totality within a band across the entire contiguous United States; it will only be visible in Canada and other countries as a partial eclipse. The last time a total solar eclipse was visible across the entire contiguous United States was during the June 8, 1918 eclipse. In the Vancouver, BC area we can expect about 90% coverage of the sun.

A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the sun for a viewer on Earth. A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon's apparent diameter is larger than the sun's, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness. Totality occurs in a narrow path across Earth's surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of kilometers wide.

This eclipse is the 22nd of the 77 members of Saros series 145, which also produced the solar eclipse of August 11, 1999. Members of this series are increasing in duration. The longest eclipse in this series will occur on June 25, 2522 and last for 7 minutes and 12 seconds.

Not since the February 1979 eclipse has a total eclipse been visible from Canada and the mainland United States. The path of totality will touch 14 states, though a partial eclipse will be visible in Canadian Provinces and many other US states. The event will begin on the Oregon coast as a partial eclipse at 9:06 a.m. PDT on August 21, and will end later that day as a partial eclipse along the South Carolina coast at about 4:06 p.m. EDT.

Ward Silver N0AX writes about the Solar Eclipse and Amateur Radio:

The optical effects of an eclipse are relatively obvious and well-understood. Partial solar eclipses are fairly common and lunar eclipses even more common. Not many of us have witnessed totality, but most people have seen some type of eclipse. What very few people have observed is the effect an eclipse has on radio propagation. In just over 90 minutes there are expected to be dramatic changes in both the ionosphere and HF propagation. 

Read the Nuts and Volts article at 
http://www.nutsvolts.com/magazine/article/the-solar-eclipse-and-ham-radio 

Befitting of our hobby, there will also be a Solar Eclipse QSO Party. The Solar Eclipse QSO Party (SEQP) is a HamSCI-ARRL sponsored operating event to generate data to study ionospheric changes during the eclipse.  Contest logging program N1MM has published a built-in SEQP logging module. Simply select "ECLIPSE" for log type: http://hamsci.org/seqp

I hope you have Monday, August 21st circled on your calendars in bright red ink... It may be a Ham Radio event to remember. 

SEPAR Weekly News

The Surrey Emergency Program Needs YOU!

Many people have said that they want SEPAR to continue to exist, and be successful. If the majority of members truly feel that way, then we need people to step up when we put on an event. There are 3 events coming up over the next couple months. All SEPAR members that are free on those days should be able to at least give SEPAR a little bit of their time. Your executive works to arrange events that are interesting. Your part is to come out. If you want to see us do something that interests you, that we are not doing, then tell us. Also, please show your commitment to SEPAR by checking into the weekly Net. It would be nice to hear from you.

Upcoming SEPAR Events

Saturday, August 26th 11:00 - 14:00 hrs will be SEPAR/RAC Day at the Surrey Amateur Radio Operational Training Centre. John-VE7TI has arranged for us to use the VE7RAC callsign for the day and there will be a couple HF stations set up for members to practice their HF skills. The Trailer will also be onsite and operational. Please join us. This is an event with other SEPAR members, and no public, so it should be a good time to socialize around the radios.


Sunday, September 10th is CN Day 11:00 - 16:00hrs. Please plan on helping out with our display there. Remember, there is always good (and free) food at this event. The location is at the CN Rail Yard at 117th Avenue and 138th Street, in Surrey [Map Link].


Saturday October 21st we will be helping Scouts during their JOTA (Jamboree On The Air). This event was held last year at the OTC. and will be again this year. It will run from 10:00hrs to 16:00hrs.  Here is a link about JOTA.

Training

Surrey Amateur Radio is offering training and licensing for the Basic Amateur Radio Course. The course starts Tuesday September 5th, 2017 and information can be found on the Surrey Amateur Radio Club website.  

Weekly SEPAR Nets

Every Tuesday evening at 1930 hrs (7:30pm PDT) we start a ½ hour NET on a local repeater provided by the Surrey Amateur Radio Club (SARC) on 147.360 MHz +600kHz and a tone of 110.9. There may be a simplex test or a test NTS message transmitted during the NET at the Net controllers discretion. This is an excellent opportunity to practice sending and receiving this form of messaging. Besides, it adds a little spice to the regular check-ins on the net. Please join us. NTS Radiograms can be found on the SEPAR website here, or, if you would like a fillable PDF that you can enter on your computer, you can get it from here.

Thursday nights at 19:30 hours, This Net has changed! We are no longer doing a regular 2 meter simplex Net on this night. Any plans for Thursday night will be announced on the Tuesday before. This night will now be used for optional tests. For example NTS Digital exchanges, 6 meter, 2 meter 60 cm and 220 Nets. If someone wants to do a particular net on a Thursday, then please announce it on the Tuesday before.

Earthquake data for this week:

Last weeks eathquakes: Earthquakes last week
Visit our website for latest news www.separs.net