Auf dem Distrikt-Servicetag wurde wieder eine US-Lizenzprüfung für alle Klassen angeboten. Im Vorfeld gab es 3 Anmeldungen. Da aber sog. "Walk-Ins" erlaubt waren, nahmen dann insgesamt 4 OM an der Prüfung teil. Ein Teilnehmer hat die Technician-Class bestanden, ein weiterer hat General bestanden und 2 OM haben Extra bestanden. Ein OM hat seine bereits 2009 verdiente Technician-Prüfung erfolgreich zur Extra-Class, also der größten US-Klasse "upgegraded". Diese 3 Teilnehmer verfügen bereits alle über ein deutschen Rufzeichen. Ein weiterer Prüfling verfügt bisher über kein deutsches Rufzeichen, er lässt sich die US-amerikanische Extra Lizenz aber jetzt bei der BNetzA in eine deutsche Klasse A umschreiben. Die Gebühr beträgt inkl. Rufzeichenzuteilung allerdings 200€. Der OM hat sich dafür aber die Anfahrt nach Eschborn gespart. Das VE-Team um Jean-Luc F1ULQ, Peter DC2ZO, Joachim DK9VA und Johnny DK9JC gratulieren allen Teilnehmern. Der Prüfer Mike DF3VM war leider verhindert, er ist bei den nächsten US-Lizenzprüfungen aber wieder anwesend.

Two weeks ago I ordered the S-Pixie kit for 4,79 Euro on Ebay incl. shipping and case from Hong-Kong. It took exactly 2 weeks to arrive. The kit came in a plastic bag as usual and included no instruction and no manual. I also got 7 more resistors and 5 more capacitors than needed. I found the schematics and part list online, so the assembling (with double-checking everything) took me about 2 hours. It worked on the first attempt and I received morse code on around 7023 kHz. While hooked up to my bench power suppy I checked the output power vs. the input voltage. 300mW output are reached with 11V only. For me that sounds like a good sweetspot and as the transistor Q02 will get very hot on TX, this is a good value for the battery voltage. I later googled and found out that the Pixie is oscillating also while it is in receive-mode so I hooked it up to the spectrum analyzer to see if this is true and to also check the transmit spectral purity. My Pixie is pushing 6mW on 20m, while sending morse code on 40m. Not a good value.

Some weeks ago I bought a chinese amplifier kit on Ebay which came for 16 Euro / Dollar shipped. The kit took only 2,5 weeks to arrive and came in a simple plastic bag without any protection and it also came without a manual or instructions. But even if it does not work, the parts alone are worth the money. While waiting for the kit I found an interesing article from John, PD7MAA on his website. He does not only have the schematic available, he also shows how nice such DIY-projects can look like. Especially the filter is worth a look. Building the kit was not too hard, but the surface-mount (SMD) parts are very tiny and you need a calm hand and good eyes. When I had everything assembled I tested it without a heatsink on the two IRF530N mosfets from IOR. It took not more than five seconds to kill both FETs while sending an AM carrier (1,5W drive). I ordered a pack of five new IOR IRF530N mosfets on Ebay which arrived today. After the QRL I soldered them in, and I drilled the holes into two pieces of an old heatsink harvested from an old PC power supply.

Am 30. September 2017 um 09:30 Uhr findet bei uns im Saarland wieder eine US-Amateurfunkprüfung statt. Die Prüfung ist Teil des Rahmenprogramms auf dem Distrikt-Service-Tag der Distrikte Rheinland-Pfalz (K) und Saar (Q), welcher jährlich im Landesinstitut für Pädagogik und Medien (LPM) in Saarbrücken-Dudweiler stattfindet. Geprüft werden alle drei US-Lizenzklassen: Technician, General und Extra. Anmeldungen sind nicht unbedingt erforderlich, da sog. "Walk-Ins" erlaubt sind. Um die Planungen zu erleichtern wird trotzdem eine Anmeldung bei Mike, DF3VM / KK7CW erbeten.

Typically, I write this category in German and the technical part and the building instructions in English. This time it's different because we had a visitor from Japan in DM/RP. A few weeks ago Jörg, DO1DJJ sent me an e-mail from the Japanese radio amateur Keiichi, JF8LPB. He was in our area because of the ADAC WRC rallye and also planned to activate a few mountains under SOTA. It was obvious to us that we did not just give Keiichi tips, but we of course activated the mountains together with him. The advantage for Keeichi was also the fact, that he did not have to bring any equipment for short wave operations from Japan. We had everything with us anyway. Jörg picked up Keiichi in the morning at 8:00 in Trittenheim, Moselle. In a convoi both were then heading to DM/RP-158, Erbeskopf - 816m. At about 09:15 in the morning I was on there too. After a short greeting I then built up. Keeichi called already on 2m FM and had however only little luck. On 20m we could then work many stations.