A colossal sunspot on the surface of the sun is large enough to swallow six Earths whole, and could trigger solar flares this week, NASA scientists say.
The giant sunspot was captured on camera by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory as it swelled to enormous proportions over the 48 hours spanning Tuesday and Wednesday (Feb. 19 and 20).[…]
“It has grown to over six Earth diameters across, but its full extent is hard to judge since the spot lies on a sphere, not a flat disk,” wrote NASA spokeswomanKaren Fox, of the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., in an image description.
[S]ome of the intense magnetic fields in the sunspot region are pointing in opposite directions, making it ripe for solar activity.
“This is a fairly unstable configuration that scientists know can lead to eruptions of radiation on the sun called solar flares,” Fox explained.
Propagation in the higher portions of the HF band could be very interesting over the course of the next few days. If a solar flare erupts, however, it could make shortwave listening quite difficult.
If you’re planning to attend the Charlotte, NC hamfest (March 8th and 9th), make a point to join the SOTA (Summits On The Air) forum. Christian (KF4LXB), provided me with details:
The forum itself is from 11:45am-12:45pm [Saturday March 9th] in the Cabarrus Room B. There will be total of five of us “SOTAteers” KF4LXB, W4ZV, KI4SVM, WH6LE, and W4ZTM with our kits. We hope to be able to set up a table outside of the conference room so we can have some extra “show and tell” time with our rigs for those interested. We want to get the word out to as many people as possible so we can share about something we all love.
And I thought my buddy, Mike (K8RAT), was being gastronomically adventurous when he made a homemade single-lever “sideswiper” with a steak knife! Imagine what might happen if the steak knife meets up with this:
Those of you following the Kenwood TS-990 will be happy to know that Kenwood has finally published an official press release with specifications and other details.
They are announcing a suggested retail price of ¥798,000, or $9,138.78 US as of day of posting. They offer the same price for the TS-990S (200 Watts) or the TS-990D (50 Watts-Japan only).
Kenwood has publicized a launch date of February 2013.
With a 160 degree bore sight, this slewable curtain antenna can literally adjust its angle to target any portion of Latin America, South America and Cuba. The slewable antenna has no moving parts other than the slew switches; rather, it uses phase-shifting to steer the beam.
For those of you, like me, who got their start in ham radio by listening to international broadcasters on the shortwaves, you might like the article I just posted on the SWLing Post.
It’s a tour of the Edward R. Murrow Transmitting Station in Greenville, North Carolina. Formerly known as VOA Site B, this IBB transmitting station has a global reach and a dedicated team keeping her running each and every day.
The article was published earlier this year in The Monitoring Times magazine. Since there was no worries with page space, I was able to include even more hi-res color photos in my blog post.
Last night, I captured the pirate radio station Dit Dah Radio on 6,935 kHz (+/-) USB. I published the audio on my shortwave radio blog, The SWLing Post, where I post quite a lot of shortwave radio recordings.
I’m well aware that no law-abiding ham radio operator would ever broadcast as a pirate radio station. So this must be a non-ham, right? (OK, fess up!!! Who was it???)
You’ll especially like their CW preamble (or, interval signal, I suppose) which they follow with The Capris’ 1960’s hit, Morse Code of Love. Click here to download, or listen in the embedded player below:
And now, what we’ve all been waiting for: the Ten-Tec Argonaut VI has finally hit the market. Manufacturer Ten-Tec has already begun shipping the new units–I hear they’ve already sold out the first production run. For the past two months, I have had the pleasure of beta-testing this newest QRP transceiver, and I’m ready to share my findings. [Do please note that, other than beta-testing, I have no relationship with Ten-Tec.]
The Ten-Tec Model 539, A.K.A. Argonaut VI
I authored a post about the Model 539 when Ten-Tec first disclosed it at their 2011 Hamfest. The reactions and questions from readers came flooding in–so many, in fact, that I invited readers to send in those questions to share with the engineers at Ten-Tec. I presented these to the company, and posted Ten-Tec’s helpful responses.
Prototype of the Ten-Tec Model 539 QRP transceiver from the 2011 Ten-Tec Hamfest. Note that the speaker no longer has an externally mounted grill.
In truth, I don’t think that Ten-Tec was quite prepared for all of the interest in their modest QRP transceiver. But it was no surprise to me: I’ve always been a fan of Ten-Tec, and although I’ve not been as excited by the QRP offerings since the early Argonauts, I knew I wasn’t alone in my appreciation of this US-based radio company’s quality products.
The following review is not a test-bench review–it is, rather, a consideration of the usability, ergonomics, design, basic performance and, well, fun factor of the new Argonaut VI. It’s only fair to note that I don’t review transceivers often; rather, I focus primarily on receiver reviews at my alternate radio blog. But I could not resist the opportunity to investigate the newest in this venerable line of transceivers.
Size-wise, the Argonaut VI is smaller than the Elecraft K2 in every dimension.
You will note that I compare the Argonaut VI to the Elecraft K2 a number of times. Why? In my opinion, the K2 is the Argonaut VI’s closest competitor. It, too, is a front-panel QRP transceiver not for general coverage. While there are a number of differences, of course, I nonetheless feel the K2 is a closer match than the new Elecraft KX3, the Yaesu FT-817, or the Icom IC-703. Plus, I have a K2 that I already know and love here in my shack, so by default it has been my point of comparison throughout the beta-testing period.
Argonaut VI: first impressions
The Argonaut VI is an attractive, simple, sturdy little radio. It reminds me a great deal of the Ten-Tec Scout outfitted with its simple front panel. The front features two knobs: one controls the AF gain, while its outer ring controls RF gain; the other controls the bandwidth, while its outer ring controls the pass band. There is also an appropriately-sized display panel, quality tuning knob (see below), four multi-function buttons, and a three-position toggle switch.
The TMB switch is a simple and effective way of giving the Argo VI’s four function buttons multiple assignments.
A toggle switch? I can’t think of a recent front-panel radio in production that has had a proper mechanical toggle switch. On the Argo VI, this makes for a simple method to give the four function buttons a total of three one-push functions, each, for a total of twelve functions. Ten-Tec refers to this switch as the “TMB” (i.e., “Top-Middle-Bottom”) switch.
Size-wise, the Argonaut VI is smaller in every dimension than the K2 (see photos). Its physical dimensions are 2.25″H x 6.5″W x 7.6″D, less the knobs and connectors. It weighs a mere 3.6 lbs, and feels very light in my hands. The Argo VI has a sturdy Ten-Tec bail that snaps into the perfect position for tabletop operations. The display is crisp and clear, and actually contains a lot of information:
The Argonaut VI display is compact, yet crisp, clear and displays all important information.
Frequency
2nd VFO frequency
Mode
AGC speed
S Meter/SWR
Output power
Pre-amp
The display can be switched (via an internal setting) to blue (default), green, or red. One nice touch: the dot in the Ten-Tec logo is actually a red LED that lights up on transmit and ALC peaks.
Tuning knob
This is the best tuning knob I’ve ever used on a QRP rig
Perhaps I place more emphasis on a tuning knob that other hams. I liken it to shutting the door on a quality car: you want the door to shut solidly and feel substantial. But it may be more like a car’s steering wheel–after all, the tuning knob is how one interacts with the radio.
To me, the tuning knob is often a measure of a radio’s overall quality, in my humble opinion. As for the Argonaut VI? Here’s the answer: I was so impressed with the tuning knob on the Argonaut VI that I actually confirmed with Ten-Tec that the beta-unit’s tuning knob would also be used on production models. In short, the Argo VI’s tuning knob is heavy, perfectly-sized, has a light tactile grip, and is silky-smooth to operate.
There is no play whatsoever in the action. I like the adaptive tuning, too–when you tune slowly, you’re changing the frequency by hundredths of a kHz; spin the knob quickly and you’ve just shot across the band. After tuning the Argo VI for a bit, other small radios’ tuning knobs begin to feel cheap. Continue reading A review of Ten-Tec’s Argonaut VI QRP transceiver, Model 539→
When the band is open, 10 meters is the band for QRP DXing–great DX can be worked with very low power and very modest antennas.
The entire world congregates on 10 meters on the second full weekend of December for the ARRL 10 Meter Contest. This year this contest falls on the weekend of December 8-9, 2012. Complete rules can be found here: www.arrl.org/10-meter. It is worthwhile to note that this contest allows participation by both CW and phone operators.
We are approaching the peak of sunspot cycle 24 and conditions on 10 meters should be excellent for working DX. Even those not interested in the contest per se should take advantage of the propagation and the sheer numbers of DX stations on the band to work some “new ones”.
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Last night, I captured the pirate radio station Dit Dah Radio on 6,935 kHz (+/-) USB. I published the audio on my shortwave radio blog, 
