Portable Ops Mini Key by Larry, NØSA

A few months ago I ordered this beautifully crafted mini paddle from Larry NØSA. Larry is a master craftsman and machinist and his attention to detail is second to none. Despite its size this is one smooth paddle and it comes with its own set of adjustment hex keys. It’s a magnetic paddle made of 7075 aluminium; Aluminium alloy 7075 is an aluminium alloy, with zinc as the primary alloying element and is used in aviation applications. Larry does all of the polishing and finishing by hand. This was one of the last paddles from a short run he did of this model.

The paddle included a wedge base that has a double sided adhesive so application to any base material such as a metal plate is really easy to do without tapping screw holes. I purchased an extra wedge base that is used as a spare.

Have a look at Larry’s website for more info on other paddles he produces. NØSA’s Paddles website is here.

Also have a look at the Eham reviews of Larry’s paddles. There are almost 50 reviews giving a 5/5 rating – superb ratings.

Magnificent Eruption on the Sun

Courtesy of Space Weather News for Sept. 1, 2012

MAGNIFICENT ERUPTION: On August 31st, a magnetic filament on the sun erupted in spectacular fashion, producing a long-duration solar flare, a coronal mass ejection (CME) and one of the most beautiful movies of an explosion ever recorded by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. The CME propelled by the blast might deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field in the days ahead. Check http://spaceweather.com for movies, forecasts and updates.

The bands seem to be in excellent condition today. Have been on digital modes since early this morning and snagged EG9SDC in North Africa on 17m PSK63 using 20 watts to my Cushcraft R6000 vertical. Lots of good signals.

Today I’ve been busy freezing tomatoes for the winter months – an excellent and extremely sweet crop this year due to the hot, dry conditions in Eastern Ontario (FN25fe).

The crops grown here are all organic and the neighbouring farms supply our family with fresh eggs, honey, organic grass fed beef and chicken. During the cold months I bake whole wheat bread from  from locally grown organic wheat that’s ground at a 150 year old mill in Manotick Ontario about 10Kms from my home.

Take A Cool Stand

A few months ago I happened to be at one of the local Dollar Stores. They do have some interesting end of line and overstock items for sale especially in their electrical and electronic aisles.

I have a NUE-PSK modem and compact keyboard combo for QRP portable ops with my trusty FT-817. It was always a pain propping the NUE-PSK modem at the correct angle for viewing the LCD screen until I found this iPad stand for the sum of $2CDN. It was a perfect fit for the modem and I could adjust the angle for best viewing.

I’ve seen these for sale on the internet for well over $20CDN so the Dollarama price is a steal. The stand is very well made – rubber coated steel so it is slip resistant and the locking knobs to a decent job of staying in position once locked. It’s a useful stand and can be used with a variety of QRP radios making it easy to see and adjust the various knobs from a comfortable angle.

You can see the detail close up to the right. Works great and I’ve got a couple of extra for future projects.

The NUE-PSK modem has been great for portable QRP operation. It is field upgradeable via a USB port and can be used in BPSK (PSK-31), QPSK, RTTY and CW. There are regular upgrades of new features and bug fixes from the NUE-PSK Digital modem website.

The modem and keyboard are powered from either and external 9V – 12V supply. A USB dongle is able to log call signs and QSOs so they can be transcribed to regular logs. The new Version 5 firmware adds a CW keyer to the modem. All in all it’s a nice portable package and frees you from lugging a heavy laptop to do digital modes in the field.

Hurricane Isaac, Amateurs Keeping Watch, WX Utilities

By now you’ve all heard that Hurricane Isaac is following the path of Hurricane Katrina, the weather event that devastated New Orleans Louisiana and surrounding states in 2005. In subsequent years of weather watching and tracking these tropical storms I’ve used various web sites and utilities to keep abreast of these impending storms.

I use Earth Alerts to follow any and all disasters to befall mankind short of the Apocalypse. The program is all inclusive in that it tracks earthquakes, volcanoes, tropical storms, hurricanes, tsunamis and wildfires. It does it all. Here’s a screen shot of the program; click on it for a larger view.

The program integrates nicely with Google Earth and provides for automatic download of weather overlays for Google Earth. Make sure you have the latest version of Google Earth installed. Earth Alerts can be downloaded free of charge from here. It requires some configuration but it’s very straightforward. There’s also a web based Earth Alerts available. It uses Google Earth generated maps for displaying disaster information.

The Weather Channel has an excellent graphics driven storm tracker and it’s one of my favourites too. Click here for the latest progress of Hurricane Isaac.

In closing I want to remind all amateurs of the comms and relief efforts in progress on the amateur bands. The ARRL posted some updated information a few hours ago at this link:

Hams in Delta Division Prepare for Hurricane Isaac

And this is from the blog of K5JAW:

Hurricane Watch Net/ 14.325 (www.HWN.org)

The Mississippi Emergency Net will activate at 12:00 Noon

Technorati Tags: Amateur Radio,VE3MPG

CDST on Tuesday, August 28. This is a joint operation between the Magnolia Section Net and the Mississippi Section Phone Net. Daily operation will begin at 6:00 am and continue until 10:00 pm or later if activity warrants. The frequencies will be 7238 (day) and 3.862 (night). The shift between bands will be at the discretion of the Net Manager and/or NCS. This net will primarily handle Health-and-Welfare traffic and other issues related to Isaac. A moratorium on inbound H/W traffic may be declared if it is obviously impossible to deliver the traffic due to storm damage. 

The Delta Division ARES EMCOMM Net will activate at 12:00 Noon on Tuesday, August 28, on a 24 Hour basis. The frequencies will be 7.275 (day) and 3.890 (night). The shift between bands will be at the discretion of the Net Manager and/or NCS. This net will primarily handle Tactical Traffic. KM5EMA (MEMA) will be on this frequency beginning at 1:00 pm CDST. 

There may be periods on these Nets when there are relatively long period of silence. Please help to keep the Net frequency clear. If you wish to rag chew, please make arrangements and move off frequency. If a net frequency is in use by others tune either side to find the Hurricane Net operation.

That’s it for today.

Here We Are, Again

Here’s my first blog post in a good long while. I figured it was time to get things going again and this post will be about some current projects here at VE3MPG.

A station photo is in order now that the shack is clean and tidy (somewhat). This varies day to day, hour to hour.


I’m located in part of the basement called the “bunker” – 2 windows, one facing due south the other to the east so I get some nice sunlight most days even during the winter months. Power to the station is supplied by a dedicated 120V line and a second, share 120V line. Both have APC uninterruptible power supplies to condition and smooth the AC coming into the shack. In the event of low voltage or complete loss of power the APC units shut down the computers gracefully and a small utility lets me monitor line voltage and power interruptions. The APC units prevent power surges from reaching my equipment, but a good ground is necessary.

The next posting will be about Part II of the St. Louis Vertical article from April 2010. Hope to be completed with testing and construction in time for the annual Chilicon qrp outing at the Rideau River Campground on September 14th and 15th sponsored by the Ottawa Valley QRP Society.

That's it for now.

More changes coming - stay tuned!

After a long hiatus from blogging some new stories and adventures coming. The design is in flux as well so the dark theme will be changing to something more upbeat and unique.

Bob VE3MPG

Frequencies On The Block

I read the Globe & Mail online at breakfast most mornings. A lot of the financial news brings me screaming back to reality – gas prices, hydro prices all skyrocketing. And now the two Koreas exchanging mortar fire with civilian casualties in the South.

An article in the business section stood out:

Prime-quality frequency on auction block

“It is called the real estate of the telecommunications business. Wireless spectrum, the regulated airwaves over which an increasing amount of the world’s data flows, is a key source of profit for the industry and brings in billions to the federal treasury when it is sold off.”

Make no mistake about it. Last September’s incursion by Industry Canada into our “airwaves” is part of the big picture here. We, as amateurs don’t own this valuable commodity and the Government of Canada has its eye on all of these underused frequencies. RAC or any organized voice we think we may have will be useless once buyers are found and they are shopping NOW for underused spectrum. The telecom industry will gladly pay the exorbitant prices the GOC is asking – it helps pay down the deficit and will keep our cell phone bills the most expensive in the world.

The rest of the story can be found online at the Globe & Mail here. Industry Canada’s website can be found here.