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A Heavy Sad Heart Dear Fellow Hams and Friends, April 25, 2024 Dear Fellow Hams and Friends, It is with a sad heart as I write this letter. As many of you have heard by now, MFJ is ceasing its on-site production in Starkville, Mississippi on May 17, 2024. This is also the same for our sister companies’ Ameritron, Hygain, Cushcraft, Mirage and Vectronics. Times have changed since I started this business 52 years ago. Our product line grew and grew and prospered. Covid changed everything in businesses including ours. It was the hardest hit that we have ever had and we never fully recovered. I turned 80 this year. I had never really considered retirement but life is so short and my time with my family is so precious. I want to thank all of our employees who have helped build this company with me over the years. We have many employees who have made MFJ their career for 10, 20, 30, 40 and more years. We are going to continue to sell MFJ products past May 17, 2024. We have a lot of stock on hand. We will continue to offer repair service work for out-of-warranty and in-warranty units for the foreseeable future. Finally, a special thanks to all of our customers and our dealers who have made MFJ a worldwide name and a profitable business for so many years. You all are so much appreciated. Sincerely Yours, 73s Martin F. Jue, K5FLU

Very cool tweet from our friends at Parker Radio Association, showing an ultra lightweight FT8 setup perfect for field activations. It includes the super small and light $95 QRP Labs QMX transceiver (sold as a kit, FYI) and free Android-based FT8CN software. It might be time to pick up a QMX and a cheap Android tablet! Note that the QMX also supports CW and other digital modes with 5 watt maximum output. And since it has a built-in SDR and USB sound card, it should work with just about any computing device other than an iPad, unless someone knows of an iOS FT8 client that works with USB. Original posting: https://twitter.com/ParkerCORadio/status/1782732531571319267 73, Mark -- --------------------- Mark Ehr | K0EHR President, 285 Tech Connect Radio Club Littleton, Colorado k0ehr@... Check out my ham radio blog: https://k0ehr.tech QRZ profile

Hi all, In case you haven't heard through other channels, we've started using a new service, Ham Club Online, to help manage our club roster, calendar, notifications, etc. A few members have mentioned receiving email messages from HCO and they are either wary that they're spam, or they've received a membership renewal notification when they've already paid their dues. First, these messages are legit, provided they come from hamclubonline.com. And if you've received a membership reminder in error, please disregard as we are currently in the process of updating the dues in the database. And if you've received an invitation to the site, I'd encourage you to register and participate. As we explore the platform further, we'll be enabling some cool features including an online swapmeet and potentially enabling online payments through PayPal. Stay tuned! Also, if you receive a reminder about our Tuesday night net (which is at 7pm MT on the 145.145 repeater), you do not need to RSVP. For some reason HCO does not allow you to turn that feature off. We don't require RSVPs or even check-ins for the net, and any licensed ham operator is welcome to join. And if you have any questions or comments around HCO or anything else around the 285 TCRC club, feel free to reach out to me directly. Thanks and 73, Mark -- --------------------- Mark Ehr | K0EHR President, 285 Tech Connect Radio Club Littleton, Colorado k0ehr@... Check out my ham radio blog: https://k0ehr.tech QRZ profile

Here is the Zoom link for those of you who can’t make it to the meeting. Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting us02web.zoom.us Take care, Tony Montoya. K0MCW

An interesting YouTube video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5K9HBiJpuk that discusses how WSPR has been used track ML380 (that disappeared 10 years ago) after the fact. The WSPR discussion starts at minute 47, but the whole video is quite interesting. An aerospace engineer and a couple of data scientists (professors) have mined the WSPR database and use the error rates to triangulate position. This is fairly recent stuff (Feb 2024) and it’s not clear if others agree with the process. The paper is at: How Does WSPR Detect Aircraft over Long Distances - 15FEB2024.pdf (dropbox.com) Jim KC?RPS

Hi Everyone. The next 285 TechConnect Radio Club meeting will be held on Saturday, March 2nd at 10AM, at the Bridge Church at Bear Creek, just North of Hwy 285 & Kipling. We have coffee & doughnuts at 9:30 so come early for the best seats. This months topic is: Winlink presentation with peer to peer demonstration live over Zoom. Jon Budoff (KF?ABR), Art Bullock (N?AIU) The meeting is in the 2nd floor conference room at the Church, near Hwy 285 and Kipling. The door code is 28582#. Someone should be monitoring 146.520 if anyone has trouble getting in. See the club website for complete directions to the church: http://na0tc.org/doku.php?id=meetings Please park on the West side and enter through the West-side door. Stairs will be on your right, and an elevator is available. Take care, Tony Montoya K0mcw Program Coordinator

Bob Heil - K9EID, SK The man who defined the sound of live rock ‘n’ roll music and brought audio engineering principals into mainstream amateur radio use, Dr. Bob Heil, K9EID, has passed away at the age of 83. He was an ARRL Life Member and in the ARRL Maxim Society. A Facebook post from Heil Ham Radio paid tribute to their founder: “Bob fought a valiant, yearlong battle with cancer, and passed peacefully surrounded by his family.” Heil founded Heil Sound in 1966, through which he created the template for modern concert sound systems for musicians like the Grateful Dead, The Who, Joe Walsh, and Peter Frampton. The talk box used on iconic live record Frampton Comes Alive! was of Heil’s design. His audio engineering products have been featured in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and he was honored in 2007 with the Parnelli Audio Innovator Award for his impact on the live sound industry. “My life has been about achieving great sound, whether on the concert stage or in the amateur radio world,” Bob Heil recounted in 2022. “I’ve watched Heil Sound go from a regional sound company to a world-class microphone manufacturer. This company has been my passion,” he said. I really enjoyed watching Bob on the Ham Nation show, especially the Pine Board Radio project.

Hi Everyone. > > The next 285 TechConnect Radio Club meeting will be held on Saturday, March 2nd > at 10AM, at the Bridge Church at Bear Creek, just North of Hwy 285 & Kipling. > We have coffee & doughnuts at 9:30. > > This months topic is: > Allen Bishop k0ark. BCARES VOIP system > > The meeting is in the 2nd floor conference room at the Church, near Hwy 285 and Kipling. The door code is 28582#. Someone should be monitoring 146.520 > if anyone has trouble getting in. Please see the club website for complete > directions to the church: > http://na0tc.org/doku.php?id=meetings > > Please park on the West side and enter through the West-side door. Stairs > will be on your right, and an elevator is available. > > -- > Tony Montoya K0mcw > Program Coordinator

Just picked up a new toy: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HB3XK7L/ - MakerHawk adjustable load tester For a look at that tester, K8MRD has a vid on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um6rBa4RCKw Not as nice as the West Mtn. Radio unit, but a lot cheaper. :) Anyway... I put the Miady 8AH battery box to the test this morning - still running, but I'm already pretty shocked. I charged the unit up using the BioEnno wallwart charger, so it's as close to full charge as it's likely to get. Measured VDC at the terminals was 13.2, so a little above the nominal voltage for the unit, 12.8. I have appx 0.3VDC drop with the various connectors inside the box, so I'm measuring not only using the tester, but the Fluke meter at the battery terminals. First thing I noticed is a voltage drop under load. I would expect a little, but for a full charge to go below the nominal for 1A was surprising. Even more surprising? 0.5AH from full charge to when the BMS shut the battery off. I will do more testing. Next thing is going to be charging it with the solar setup, and checking amperage during discharge, to see if the tester is correct. I don't expect to see much with this, since the total time of the load test was about 28 minutes. Update: Solar charge took 0.37ah until the BMS apparently stopped accepting input, i.e. charge current dropped to 0A. Seeing whether the wall-wart will top it off a bit more.

A reminder that RMHAM will be holding another of their cool SwapFests this Sunday at the Adams County Fairgrounds in Brighton. We will have a club table and Corey KC5YCO and I will also have a table where we will be hocking some of our extra radio equipment and computer stuff. And if you'd like to get licensed or upgrade your existing license, the Mile High V.E. Team will also be there doing testing. I hope to see you there! -- --------------------- Mark Ehr | K0EHR President, 285 Tech Connect Radio Club Littleton, Colorado k0ehr@... Check out my ham radio blog: https://k0ehr.tech QRZ profile

In case you haven't seen this..there is a Japanese amateur radio station transmitting from the moon for a limited time. According to an article on the ARRL website: "The JAXA Ham Radio Club (JHRC), JQ1ZVI, secured amateur radio license JS1YMG for LEV-1, which has been transmitting Morse code on 437.41 MHz since January 19. The probe uses a 1 W UHF antenna with circular polarization and is transmitting "matters related to amateur business." They're not entirely sure how long the station will be able to transmit as it wasn't designed to survive the 14-day lunar night, but for those of you with a high gain directional UHF antenna, it might be fun to see if you can hear the station. There is also a blog from Daniel Estevez on decoding the signal which is was above my skill level, but it makes for an interesting read: https://destevez.net/2024/01/trying-to-decode-lev-1/ 73, Mark -- --------------------- Mark Ehr | K0EHR President, 285 Tech Connect Radio Club Littleton, Colorado k0ehr@... Check out my ham radio blog: https://k0ehr.tech QRZ profile

Mark, I was working on my presentation for Saturday’s meeting and was playing with PSK Reporter. I plan to demo it as part of the presentation. Using PSK Reporter, I noticed that you were on 10m FT8, but not real active. I called out on WSJT-X and we made a QSO. Just another cool use for PSK Reporter. I’ll share a few more as part of the presentation. Looking forward to seeing everyone at the meeting. Tony Montoya – k0mcw Tech Connect Radio Club Program Coordinator

Hi all, As many of you know, the club has an awesome remote station located out in Strasburg CO, powered by a Flex 6400 radio and a fan dipole which has coverage of several HF bands including 10/15/20/40 meters. Yesterday I decided to bite the bullet and invest $99 in the MacOS version of the Flex Radio SmartSDR software; I just posted a blog on the topic if you'd like to check it out: https://www.k0ehr.tech/2024/01/flex-radio-smartsdr-for-mac.html In the meantime, if you're an active NA0TC club member and would like to give the remote station a try, drop me a note and I'll connect you with Mark Edwards (W0QL), our remote station guru. 73. Mark -- --------------------- Mark Ehr | K0EHR President, 285 Tech Connect Radio Club Littleton, Colorado k0ehr@... Check out my ham radio blog: https://k0ehr.tech QRZ profile

?Hi Everyone. The next 285 TechConnect Radio Club meeting will be held on Saturday, February 3rd at 10AM, at the Bridge Church at Bear Creek, just North of Hwy 285 & Kipling. We have coffee & doughnuts at 9:30. This months topic is: Radio wave propagation for FT8 with hints and tips. - Tony Montoya (K0mcw) The meeting is in the 2nd floor conference room at the Church, near Hwy 285 and Kipling. The door code is 28582#. Someone should be monitoring 146.520 if anyone has trouble getting in. Please see the club website for complete directions to the church: http://na0tc.org/doku.php?id=meetings Please park on the West side and enter through the West-side door. Stairs will be on your right, and an elevator is available. -- Tony Montoya K0mcw Program Coordinator

Looks pretty interesting…a Raspberry Pi “hat” that turns it into a full SDR (transmit and receive) for about $150 + cost of the Pi. Anyone out there have one? https://hamimports.com/radio/pa3gsb-radioberry-v2-0/ 73, Mark --------------------- Mark Ehr | K0EHR President, 285 Tech Connect Radio Club Littleton, Colorado k0ehr@... Check out my ham radio blog: https://k0ehr.tech QRZ profile

Not sure it's quite correct to call it a battery, but whatevs. Nuclear Battery has 50-year Life Chinese company Betavolt has announced an atomic energy battery for consumers with a touted 50-year lifespan. The Betavolt BV100 will be the first product to launch using the firm’s new atomic battery technology, constructed using a nickel-63 isotope and diamond semiconductor material. Imagine, never having to charge your HT battery. Or how about QRP or Emcomm portable without solar panels.It'll be interesting to see some specs when available, especially in re. size and weight vs. capacity.

This just came across my QRZ news feed. ARRL Secret Rules Some controversy has arisen of late concerning a motion made in the ARRL board for the adoption of rules collectively known as ByLaw 46. Non-profit corporations in many states operate under so-called "sunshine laws" that stipulate that official business must be conducted in public and that all corporation documents and proceedings are open for public scrutiny. Governments effectively subsidize non-profits through the exemption of taxes, which gives them an operating advantage over for-profit businesses in the same sector. The proceedings of a non-profit's governing board are therefore subject to public scrutiny since the public has a direct investment in the organization's status. The ARRL is a certified 501(c)(3) entity. However, The proposed ByLaw update appears to amount to a "Mushroom Law", i.e., people are left in the dark and fed manure. More links in that thread (no login needed). I haven't read them yet, but I'll be looking.

Big news for digital ops on HF. Bandwidth Limits Replace Symbol Rates on the HF Bands The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) published new rules adopted last month that replace the symbol rate restrictions on the HF bands with a bandwidth limit of 2.8 kHz. The new rules go into effect January 8, 2024. If you get ARRL news via feed or e-mail, you've seen the regular temporary lifting of the symbol rate limit for response to natural disasters, typically the hurricane watch net. This annual exercise has amply demonstrated that new digital modes can operate nicely on the amateur HF bands at much higher data rates. It's good to see the FCC finally acknowledge it as something other than an exception.