Heil USBQ Microphone Preamp

The Heil USBQ Microphone Preamp w/ USB Out brings professional quality, low noise microphone preamplification complete with two band shelving equalization, on-board headphone amplifier and D/A converter in a compact, portable package. Not just an adapter, but a true single channel mic preamp complete with balanced XLR input mic level, switchable phantom power, Bass and Treble controls and adjustable headphone output level. The Heil USBQ is ideal for professional recording, commercial broadcasts and communicating over the internet. No batteries, just plug into USB and enjoy.
Heil USBQ Microphone Preamp w/ USB Out Features

• Low noise pre amp with 16 bit up to 48 kHz sample rates.
• Frequency Response 20 Hz. – 20,000 kHz.
• Equalization + or – 12 dB Bass center 80 Hz, + or – 12 dB Treble center at 8 kHz
• +48 volt Phantom switch
• +40 dB adjustable microphone gain
• Headphone amplifier 60 mW into 32 ohms
• 1.2 kHz. Input Impedance
• 4 3/4″ long, 1″ diameter anodized aluminum case
• Comes to you with USB cable

Price: $79.95 USD
Link

73

"The best number is 73. Why? 73 is the 21st prime number. Its mirror (37) is the 12th and its mirror (21) is the product of multiplying, 7 and 3. In binary, 73 is a palindrome, 1001001 which backwards is 1001001." Amateur Radio Operators often use the number 73 as an abbreviation for "best regards", typically when ending a QSO (a conversation with another Amateur Radio Operator).

YAESU HF/VHF/UHF Transceiver FT-898A

Just Photo published. No more information yet. Stay tuned.
I only received this picture in an e-mail~No info yet.
Looks cool to me though~

Mountain Man of Amateur Radio.

West Michigan's Amateur Radio Mountain Man
KD8BIG- Mark Strait

SimpleSat Look Down from W9KE

SimpleSat

Tom, W9KE has written a program which looks for satellite passes where communications between two different grid locations is possible.

Tom invites interested testers to download the program from http://www.tomdoyle.org/simplesat/simplesat.html.

It is a zip file. Un-Zip the files into a folder and run the SimpleSat.exe file.

No install is required and the three files it will create are stored in the same folder as the SimpleSat.exe program. It does nothing to the registry. It downloads sat data from the net so use a computer connected to the net when you run the program.

Contact Tom directly at tomdoyle1948@gmail.com with any questions or comments

SimpleSat Look Down’ is a satellite tracking program designed for ease of use and is particularly well suited for demonstrations, educational environments and people new to the satellite hobby.

This program requires .Net 4 so you will have to install it if you do not have it installed already. Not sure ? Try running the program – if it runs you have it – if you do not have it you will see a message box telling you that you do not have it. Unlike most ham radio programs this program uses most all of the new bells and whistles of .Net 4 and WPF. Unfortunately this means that it may not run on a few computers even thought most all the other ham programs run just fine.

http://www.microsoft.com/net/download

The program runs well on Windows 8, Windows 7, Vista or XP. How well the program runs depends on a couple of things: Your computer speed – if you have an old computer that does not run very well this program will probably not run well. Your internet connection – if you have a poor internet connection the Tracking Map scroll will not be very smooth.

If the vertical screen resolution on your computer is less that 768 pixels you will have some problems. Many netbooks have only 600 pixels of vertical screen resolution so they may not be entirely satisfactory. I have run the program on a old netbook running XP that has a 768 pixel vertical resolution emulation mode for its 600 pixel screen and it works great.

Here are links to three videos you should watch before running the program. The videos are in high def and look decent in full screen HD. You can access this same page from the ‘Help’ button on the program main screen.

http://youtu.be/PYUmiUDr6YA

http://youtu.be/uZWTjMm9mwY

http://youtu.be/RQr0Efnatos

FAQ:

Q: Does the program require internet access.
A: If you do not have internet access the program will work but the tracking map will not
be displayed.

Q: Why don’t you just cache the map data.
A: Still need internet access to authenticate my Bing Maps license number.

After you have looked at the video and read everything on this page you are ready to try the program. The program does not have to be installed on your computer. It does not store files all over your computer or alter your registry. It runs fine off a modern USB thumb drive. This is actually quite handy as you can take the program with you in your pocket.

Unzip the zip file onto your computer – the desktop works just fine as a location. Go into the extracted folder and double-click on the .exe file. There is an online help button which you my want to try out. SimpleSatLookDown.zip

Version with rotor control – beta version. Click on the ‘Help’ button on the main program window for information on the rotor control function. SimpleSatLookDownRotor1.0.zip

13 Colonies Special Event 2012

 A message from Ken Villone (KU2US) 

For the 4th straight year the "Original 13 Colony States" will be on the air! The 13 Colonies Special Event will start June 30th, Saturday, as a bonus day and end July 5th, 2012. Thats six days this year.

The event will start June 30th at 9am eastern Saturday (13:00 UTC)and end Thursday night July 5th at midnight (24:00 eastern-04:00 UTC). All modes will be represented which includes SSB, CW, Digital and Satellite.

A great certificate, which is different every year will be offered (Go to KU2US on qrz.com for photo and link to our website).

This years theme will be the Colonial era Navy and Tall ships. The USS Constitution is featured on the certificate. Also dont forget to collect all 13 Colony states QSL cards. Most are different this year, also featuring colonial tall ships.

We accomplished over 40,000 QSO's in 2011 and expect much more for this year. Join us on June 30th for this special event honoring our Constitution, the 13 original colony states and our men and women past and present in the military..Hope to put you all in the log. 73 KU2US/Event Manager.

KD8BIG; Storm Chaser

I was going to work DX today but I ended up wiring up my Ford Expedition to install a couple of rigs & other electronics.
Hi-Q-6/160 RT/MC-3-H antenna was also ordered.
Thinking of making it a Storm Chase Vehicle.

Stay tune for pictures and more info. 

Digifest 2012

This is a friendly reminder to those who love exotic digital modes and/or still don’t have nice RigExpert Antenna Analyzer :-).
The Annual Digifest will be held as usual on the 1st  full weekend of June (2012 dates are June 2nd  and 3rd ).
This is going to be Digifest’s 5th year and its popularity is growing with last year’s received LOGs number of more than 200.
Peculiarity of this Contest is the great variety of different categories of the participants in 5 digital modes: RTTY 75, BPSK 63, MFSK 16, HELLSCHREIBER, OLIVIA
and the most fair points calculation based on the distance between the stations.
The Contest consists of 3 convenient periods (8 hours each) during the weekend.
To add more adrenalin into this competition a special feature will be offered to those who like competing in real time – online results will be presented on a server.
And, of course, a lot of real nice prizes, mostly RigExpert AA-230 and AA-30 Antenna Analyzers and RigExpert USB Interfaces. All prizes sponsored by RigExpert Ukraine Ltd.
Since the number of the participants is relatively small and the most populated competing area is Europe, the “far away” stations from NA, SA, Africa, Asia and Australia are at great advantage.
From the last years’ experience those stations were the most prize winners. Considering this and also to support growing participation from Europe,
the sponsors “double” the prizes – i.e. separate main prizes are now available both for Europe and for the “rest of the World”.
But wait, that’s not all! For those of you who won’t be able to win “main prize” in respected category, there will be a lot of  small gifts, like T-shirts and paper awards.
All the prizes will be mailed to participants’ home addresses.
The results are usually available just 2 weeks after the end of the Contest,
So, lets just meet on the 1st weekend of  June and have fun!
Complete rules can be found at http://www.mixw.net/misc/DigiFest/index.html
and  http://www.rigexpert.com/index?s=main&f=digifest end http://ut7fp.kiev.ua

Internet Doomsday; July 9, 2012

Google plans to warn more than half a million users of a computer infection that may knock their computers off the Internet this summer.
Unknown to most of them, their problem began when international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of infected computers around the world. In a highly unusual response, the FBI set up a safety net months ago using government computers to prevent Internet disruptions for those infected users. But that system will be shut down July 9 -- killing connections for those people.
The FBI has run an impressive campaign for months, encouraging people to visit a website that will inform them whether they're infected and explain how to fix the problem. After July 9, infected users won't be able to connect to the Internet.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/05/25/google-warns-hundreds-thousands-may-lose-internet-in-july/#ixzz1vvgQYoEk

MI QRP Memorial Day CW Sprint

The Michigan QRP Club sponsors one contest and three sprints per year. As well as being a lot of fun the contest environment offers us an opportunity to test that new kit, home brew, or antennas. Gives us a format to further develop our operating skills as well as re-acquaint with old friends and meet new fellow QRP'ers.
If you're not a hard core contester, come and join in the fun anyway if for nothing else think of the skill development value. All members and visitors from around the world are welcome and encouraged to join in.

For more info; 
The MI-QRP Club, WQ8RP
http://www.qsl.net/miqrpclub/contest.html

HORYU-2 Satellite

Amateurs Asked to Listen for HORYU-2 Satellite:

The Japanese HORYU-2 http://kitsat.ele.kyutech.ac.jp/index_e_new.html research satellite was launched May 17 at 1639 UTC as part of a mission that included the JAXA climate observation satellite Shizuku. HORYU-2 was built by students at the Kyushu Institute of Technology (KIT) and it carries the call sign JG6YBW. The satellite will conduct a variety of experiments including high-voltage power generation and space debris measurements. Amateurs have been asked to monitor HORYU-2's Morse code and 1200-baud AX.25 packet telemetry at 437.375 MHz. Telemetry decoding software is available for download http://kitsat.ele.kyutech.ac.jp/Documents/ground_station/Horyu2%20Data_Analysis_Program_japanese.zip. To encourage hams to submit reports, KIT will conduct a monthly prize drawing. Details are available here http://kitsat.ele.kyutech.ac.jp/Documents/ground_station/english/Receive_competition_eng.pdf.

Source:

The ARRL 

Yaesu FT1D digital FM handheld.

One of the most eagerly awaited products at Dayton Hamvention was the new Yaesu FT1D digital FM handheld.
It has, for an Amateur Radio rig, a number of innovations:
- A microphone that uses a mini-USB plug and has a built-in camera for low resolution (320x240) pictures,
- An 80 character group short messaging facility
- 9600 bps data transfer
- Micro-SD card slot
- E-GPS facility
Although the optonal extra microphone has a camera there appears to be no way to display the pictures on the radio which some may see as reducing it's usefulness.
The use of 9600 bps with 12.5 kHz channel spacing (is it 10 kHz in Japan?) was a surprise. Some had expected it to support 5 or 6.25 kHz channel spacing with a resultant data rate of 4800 bps (digital speech using an AMBE vocoder only requires a 3600 bps data rate).
The modulation used is what Yaesu describes as C4FM otherwise known as 4 level FSK or 4-FSK and is the same as that used for Digital PMR-446 equipment. 4-FSK has advantages over other types of digital modulation such as GMSK.
Both ICOM and Kenwood have been producing 4-FSK equipment for the PMR market since 2007 so in some ways it's surprising that Yaesu beat them both in releasing an amateur version of 4-FSK.
As yet Yaesu hasn't announced any mobiles, base stations or repeaters so it appears that FT1D's can only talk to other FT1D's in digital mode.
After Dayton some questions remain:
- Does it have APRS? The website of at least one amateur radio dealer had been saying the rig did APRS but the brochure makes no mention of it only refering to E-GPS
- Which Vocoder does it use? The AMBE seems the obvious choice but the brochure doesn't say
- What will it cost? Yaesu currently sell the VXD-10 high power digital handheld to the leisure market for 63,000 yen ($796) hopefully the FT1D will be cheaper!
http://tinyurl.com/VXD10-Handheld
- When will the FT1D be available? Well one Japanese retailer indicates that it could be another six months, see
http://tinyurl.com/CQCQDE-Shop
The FT1DR/E brochure can be seen at
http://www.radioworld.ca/product_brochures/amateur/
yaesu_brochures/ft1d_brochure_front.pdf
http://www.radioworld.ca/product_brochures/amateur/
yaesu_brochures/ft1d_brochure_back.pdf
N9XLC Blog on FT1D
http://n9xlc.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/yeasu-ft-1d-redux.html
2005 Icom and Kenwood demo 'Very Narrowband Digital Communications Technology'
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/apr2005/
icom_kenwood_demo.htm

QRP in the Park

Hi Everyone,
We will be firing up the grills and putting our amateur radio skills into action as we kick off our first QRP IN THE PARK for 2012! If you ever wanted to work low power portable on CW, SSB phone, or the digital modes with HF, UHF, VHF bands; we invite you stop by and operate with us. All operators are encouraged to operated from battery for this event. No generators will be provided.
Where? HELDER PARK
3751 104th Avenue
Holland, Michigan
When? SATURDAY MAY 26TH – 3PM TO DUSK
Note: This event is weather permitting and will cancel if severe
weather is expected for the area. Please monitor this reflector and 147.06 K8DAA
repeater the evening of the event for any changes of times or event cancel.
See You There!
Jeff KB8QAP 
Holland Amateur Radio Club
source 

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In addition to the fun starting at 3 pm, there will be a few 15
milliwatt transmitters hidden within the park. You are more than invited
to find them. There is no competition with this hunt, just the fun of
finding these little boxes.

Bring your own equipment, or there will be gear there to be loaned out
for you to hunt within the park.

IRA Fox Hunt; West Michigan

Independant Repeater Association Hamfest

Fox Hunt

Saturday, June 2, 2012
1:00 pm to 3:00 pm

Our fox for the day, Ole Tom, K8TB, says that NOBODY will find him this year.
...we will see, ...we will see!

Click Here for Fox Hunt Info.

2012 Annual IRA Hamfest

Saturday, June 2, 2012 8:00 AM until about 1:00 PM
Hudsonville Fairgrounds, 5235 Park Avenue
Hudsonville, MI 49426

Click Here for 2012 Hamfest Brochure