Many Hawaiian Amateur Radio Operators have communicated with the MIR Space Station between when it was launched by the USSR in 1986, and de-orbited by Russia in March 2001. We in Hawaii were lucky enough to be virtually alone in our own "footprint" under MIR, not full of hundreds of Hams trying all at one time like on the US Mainland, Europe or other parts of the Earth.
Some of us worked MIR's many occupants and various callsigns from our vehicles, homes and even on hand-helds. These memorable contacts ranged from brief voice contacts, keyboard packet exchanges, trading messages on the PMS (BBS) as it orbited 300 miles above, email via MIR in the their own terrestrial packet mailboxes, digipeat messages from one island to another "VIA R0MIR". I was even was lucky enough to digipeat my KH6/WB6FZH APRS beacon 2300 miles to California with N6CO responding during a 20 second window 2 degrees above my N/E horizon.
Many of us decoded the SSTV images direct from MIR as it passed over the islands. I will always treasure those times, you would have thought nobody ever received a picture from space before. As my monitor screen filled with the "blue marble" line by line I can still remember the thrilling feeling that I was actually receiving a picture from a space station looking out the window as it orbited above.Well, it sure brought this "armchair" space traveler about as close as he will ever be to orbit. I am sure none of the Cosmonauts or Astronauts will remember any of us, but we will always remember them and their pioneering achievements for mankind.
Clearly, we would not have the ISS orbiting the planet today in it's present configuration if MIR had not shown that mankind can adapt to long-term space stays. When I think of the reliability of the amazing technology of the many MIR and Supply Rocket remote control and automatic systems involved with just re-supplying or controlling the space station it is just incredible.
The Ham Radio Experiments on MIR were probably the "good old days" of Amateur Radio in Space. On ISS it took years with committees, testing, re-testing on earth, etc. just to get a modified hand held radio with a few fixed channels that can transmit voice or interface with a laptop computer to generate SSTV and Packet. The MIR Ham Radio Pioneers just took a Japanese off-the-shelf transciever, an American TNC, a Canadian RF Filter, a German 28 to 12VDC space qualified inverter power supply, and an American 5/8 wave mobile antenna (exactly like the one that is on my '83 Dodge Van) to their Space Station MIR hooked it all up and used it!
The emense potential value of Ham Radio as a "back-up" was proven more than one time in MIR, most notably during the serious MIR fire emergency in the oxygen system. The ability of amateur radio to bring a greater variety of earth's citizenry in contact with space travelers in the future will go a long way towards mental health onboard "Alpha" as the International Space Station (ISS) is called these days.
The first of many School to ISS/"Alpha" contacts by voice are taking place now, and soon SSTV and Packet will be monitored by amateurs and non-amateurs alike with simple equipment when the software is reloaded to the laptop, and a small battery is replaced. I hope to set up a display at a local High School and Middle School to see if I can interest students in Amateur Radio when the packet beacons and SSTV signals start bouncing into the mountains and valleys of my location in Northern California.
Those of you viewing this article "online" might consider using the MIR-EARTH image as you computer "desktop", I have for years, it was offered to the public a couple years ago by one of the major space information websites.
I would like to leave you with the thought that communicating with ISS or even just decoding SSTV or packet is NOT difficult or expensive. The FREE satellite/space station tracking program PREDICT, is available from the link on the KARC homepage, in the "Hot Topics" section, ISS/"Alpha", information page. I wrote this page during the assembly of this issue to help the transition from MIR to ISS, you will find frequencies, operating hints and internet links for more information.
Sky is not the limit for Amateur Radio. "73", Greg, WB6FZH
www.teleport.com/~nb6z/frame.htm is a website constructed by NB6Z that is dedicated to Digital Ham Radio including AMTOR, RTTY, PACTOR, G-TOR, CLOVER, Hellschreiber Modes, MFSK16, PACKET, PSK31, THROB, MT-63 and more. I would suggest it is a good source for information for digital operation, from learning how they compare to adjusting your equipment. I guess it it about time that I remind you that in it's purest sense, CW is digital radio...even those with tubes that glow in the dark.
FZH said he spent a few hours recently adjusting some pages on the KARC website and removing his direct email links that were provided for updates, feedback and the like. He replaced many of those links with new links to the "KARC Webguys" page where the list of "Webguys" headed by KARC President, Walt, AH6OZ is located. Greg said he was sure that members would come forward to help with the website and newsletter.
The out-going editor reminds us that there are some production notes for KARC News already located on the KARC Website. The information is located on the KARC News Archive Page along with the links to all past issues of the online editions he produced. He hopes the Production Notes will be helpful to future KARC Editors and Officers that will work together to produce the newsletter.
Located there is also a new printable form. A " KARC Newsette", featuring the now familiar Koolau mountain masthead that can be used as a Meeting Notice" form. It can be printed from the web, folded, stamped, sealed and labels applied for a one-page newsletter-meeting notice. There is a 2" x 6" square to write some topical information relating to club activities into prior to duplication.
Greg sends his very best "72's & 73's" to all KARC members and the world-wide internet readers that were kind enough to e-mail him from cyberspace with their comments from time to time. Greg said he was very suprised to know who was reading KARC News from where! He also wanted to be sure to thank all of those that contributed articles and information for the 400 plus pages over the years. If time allows he hopes to contribute an article or two to future KARC News issues.
"30" - Greg Greenwood, WB6FZH, KARC News Editor & "The Staff"
In January of 2000, I began experimenting with a "walking-portable" ham station. Since then, hundreds of stations have been worked on 10, 12, 15, 17, and 20 Meters.
Well over 100 DXCC Countries have been worked, and I had a great day early in January, 2001, when all the continents in the world (except Antarctica) were worked with 50 watts and my hand-held antenna in one day with one battery charge. Super conditions on the 12 and 15 Meter bands. In June of 2000, I traveled to the Baltic States and worked over 55 countries in two weeks from Riga, Latvia, and Vilnius, Lithuania. Worked All States came early last year.
The TS-50 transceiver is snuggled in a small backpack with a 7 amp/hour, 4 pound Yuasa battery. The battery is sealed. It is a lead-acid type. Most contacts in a DX test with one charge is 68, but normally the power output wanes from 50 to 40 watts out in one walk, about 35 minutes of operating. I have two batteries, the other a Yuasa 12 amp/hour, 8 pounder. It gives me a full hour of operating with 50 watts out, but it weighs twice as much. Wires are protected and fused, and all connections are very secure. The power cord comes out of the backpack for easy charging. An automatic charger at home ‘floats’ the battery after the voltage comes up to where I like it. Total weight of the full backpack: 13 pounds.
Vertical antennas worked marginally, mainly because the trailing radials changed the resonance of the antenna as I trekked along, so I have gone exclusively to a hand-held dipole on a telescoping aluminum mast.
I’ve settled on one antenna. It’s a five band HF portable antenna that I describe in another part of my web site. Pictures and a description of how to make one is there for anybody interested. If you have a Radio Shack store and a home improvement store where you can shop, you can get all the parts needed to construct this very small and reasonably efficient dipole. It breaks down to a 21" package, and it, and the whole station, including the battery, will fit easily into a carry-on bag for the airlines. Weight of the antenna and coax is less than 2 pounds.
The mast is important. I have several, but in order to get the radiation up high over above my head, I use a telescoping aluminum handle that is used for roller-painting ceilings. It is 6 feet long, and it goes up to 12’. I run it at about 11 feet above the ground. It weighs 1.5 pounds.
Come on out walking. I am on 18.155 MHZ almost daily, and I go up to 10, 12, and 15 Meters DX’ing, depending on conditions. It would be fun to hear somebody else come back with a ‘walking station’ signal.
If you’d like to chat about it, email me at: w3ff@aol.com . Also, go to the E-Groups on the internet and check out the "Live-Wires" and "Hfpack" groups. You will find lots of portable and manpack people there.
Editor's Note This was taken directly from Budd's website http://www.qsl.net/w3ff/ for your enjoyment. Budd lives in Redding, California at the North end of the Sacramento Valley. He is a tireless promoter of Amateur Radio in the Northstate.
This would involve spending less than 5 minutes to subscribe to the e-mail reflector that will be set-up for KARC members and friends to subscribe to. Greg will be forwarding the e-mail addresses that he has collected, adding his own, to Art.
You are looking at one of my National Company HRO type receivers manufactured for the US Navy 1940-45, the model RAS-5 receiver. This is not be my best example of the radio, but it is the one I listen too the most, sitting in it's 4' floor rack. You are looking at the top of the rack, the radio itself. Under it is a 5 1/4" panel with a homebrew power supply that meets the same electrical specifications as the original 6.3 AC and 235 dc, but is designed to run continiously if required. The AC switch is on the left (a 1940s toggle switch), and the jeweled red pilot lamp (circa 1930s) assembly is clearly visible with it's warm red glow.. Not in view is a special coil container for the coils required to make the receiver cover 150kc to 30 mc. (similar to 150hz to 30mhz). It it has a drop down cover that reveals the 6 stored coils with the frequencies they cover clearly visible. To change bands, you toggle the B+ switch to "off", and un-plug the installed coil, place it in the felt-lined storage box, install the new coil, and turn the B+ back on. The next panel down is for the 8" round speaker opening with dark grill cloth. Tonight the 900 to 1500 kc coil is installed and I am listening to the AM broadcast band as I type this article. I am listenig to a station several hundred miles away, but clearly audible, with slow fading.
This HRO type radio is one of the most famous designs in radio history. It was introduced in 1935 and was manufactured for the next 30 years. The revolutionary part of this radio is that the "plug-in" coil drawers contain 2- RF stage coils, 1- Mixer coil, 1- Oscillator coil and a chart on the front that corresponds to the 0-500 multi-turn dial readings. Your read the number on the dial and check the chart to find your frequency. The gear driven dial and muliple coil calibration was the brain-child of James Millen. This arrangement allowed the coils to be separated from the heat of the tubes and the variable capacitor sections that tuned them, allowing much greater stability and reliability.
Some of the technical features are; Frequency Coverage-150 to 30,000kc, IF frequency- 175kc, Tubes- 9, 2- 6D6 RF AMP, 6C6 MIXER, 6C6 HF OSC, 2-6C6 IF AMP, 6F8 DET/AVC, 6C6 BFO, 6V6 AUDIO AMP. No filters, No "S" meter. This corresponds to the civilian 1935 HRO Jr. It is shown in the ARRL handbook for those years advertised for $198.00 with the 14-30mc coil, other coils were $22 to $33 each. Similar radios have recently sold on Ebay for more than $700 depending on conditon, accessories,etc.
This radio is a direct result of the 1932 US Department of Commerce- Airways Division competition for an aviation ground reciever for airport use for the new-fangled expanding air transport industry (Pan American,etc).The FB-7 was the winner, and quickly was engineered into the configuration you see..the Hell of a Rush Order....HRO series radio.They were in a hurry to construct and sell these revolutionary radio, hence the model name/number.
The person that had the this radio before I did cut a hole in the front panel and put a small milliamp meter behind it an added a one tube miniature "s" meter circuit, and a calibration control. I have a thin magnetic strip painted wrinkle black to cover it if I want, but I never do. If I was a purest, I would fill in the hole, paint it and rip out the poor little 6C4 tube and it's circuitry. Instead I have confessed it's existance.
The controls and jacks on the front panel are as follows; Left side bottom, BFO on/off and BFO TUNING CONTROL, above it is the AVC/MAN toggle switch, above that is the AUDIO GAIN, above it the HEADPHONES (1/4 phone jack). The plug in coil drawer with the "PW DIAL" with it's 0-500 multi-turn calibrated dial that corresponeded to the graph on the coil drawer. The other chart on the coil is a listing for favorite stations, call-letters, frequency, and dial reading. On the right side bottom to top is the RF GAIN control, B+ "on/off" switch, and above that is the Red jeweled pilot lamp. The military information and identification plate was usually above the pilot lamp, but were quickly disgarded by hams so that the radios would be mistaken for there "civilian" counterparts.
This radio was made in models for battery operation with 2.5 volt filiaments, models for Shipboard Operation, for Land Stations and Portable operation. HRO type receivers were used to great advantage by the Allies in WW2, Japanese and German military "knock-offs" were perhaps the best testimony to the superior design. Winston Churchill had several in his bunker, home and alternate "safe houses". The White House had a few and there was one not far from the 1940s Hallicrafters HT-4 Transmitter (later the BC-610) that radioed the Pearl Harbor Bombing from Military and FBI locations in Hawaii to the US Mainland December 7, 1941. Recently declassified military documents show it was used to triangulate German U-Boats off South America from "secret" locations up the Amazon and Navy Ships at Sea and other locations. Other documents show it was dragged around the middle east by the British special operations units (often with guards for the radio not the operators) The radios were very reliable then and now.
The only things I did to this receiver was to replace the bypass and coupling condensors that were slowly decomposing inside with modern capacitors (.05, .10 @ 400v) and check and replace a couple tubes. I checked the alignment, but did not improve it. I cleaned and repainted the front panel with a can of wrinkle black paint, slowly baking it in the oven to make sure the wrinkle actually wrinkled!. It has been working perfectly for the last twenty or so years I have had it. I used a similar Navy model in Kaneohe (HRO-W/1944), with metal tubes, an "S" meter and an IF crystal filter for several years with a Navy Model TCS-12 transmitter(1943) from 1993-99. Some of my plug-in coils still have pencil notations on the station/dial/frequency chart that refer to WW2 station locations/stations (Philipines, Honolulu, San Francisco,etc). It is my goal to keep these HRO sets going while I am alive, and I have made arrangements to see that they and their spare tubes, parts and manuals will be in used for years to come after I am gone. Now you know about the famous National Radio Company HRO series radio.
Yes, real radios truly do glow in the dark... 73- Greg- WB6FZH
Bank Statement as of February 27, 2001 was $2228.24
Deposit on March 12, 2001 was $12.00
Deposit on March 18, 2001 was $198.44
Bank Statement as of March 18, 2001 is $2438.68
Interest has to be added......................................
Next bank statement should be March 27, 2001
MEMBERSHIP & Field Day CHAIRMAN- Jerry Mulherin, WH6BKQ,
235-3042, email:jerham@aloha.net
MAILING ADDRESS- KARC c/o J.Mulherin, 45-145 Mikihilina St., Kaneohe, HI 96744