Farewell Collins Mechanical Filters
FILTERED OUT FOREVER
For many radio amateurs, it’s the end of an era: Rockwell Collins, which designed and manufactured mechanical filters for more than two generations of hams, has discontinued the filters’ production.
The company posted on its website: “Over the past several years, we have seen a dramatic reduction in demand for narrowband analog filters. Due to this and other economic reasons, Filter Products will be discontinuing its mechanical filter products in the near future.”
The company acknowledged that the filters have since been eclipsed by digital signal processing, and this was a significant factor in its decision. Highly popular mainstays for many hams, the mechanical filters were valued for being able to achieve bandwidths of between 0.05 percent and 5 percent, with input and output transducers converting the electrical signal to and from mechanical vibrations. Rockwell Collins has not yet announced a date for the final production run.
Source: Amateur Radio Newsline Report 1973 August 21 2015
TR4W is now Open Source
2015-05-19
The TR4W support group is pleased to announce that TR4W is now Open Source'd on GitHub and licensed under GPL V3.
TR4W (TRlog 4 Windows) is an amalgam of base TRLOG code (TR4W/SRC/TRDOS) -originally authored and Copyrighted by N6TR, with a Windows application layer (TR4W/SRC) -originally authored and Copyrighted by UA4WLI. TR4W is mostly 3GL with some critical code in assembler. As such it is built for speed and supports over 150 contests.
The code is written in Object Pascal and can be compiled using Delphi 7 compiler, which you can google.
The source can be located at https://github.com/n4af/TR4W
Additional product information is available at http://tr4w.net/
Questions regarding code modification may be addressed to tr4wsupport<at>googlegroups.com
73, Howie N4AF
The TRMASTER.DTA database with CWops, FOC, HSC membership and names of more than 3500 contest regular participants can be downloaded here.
EUCW Snakes and Ladders
About Snakes and Ladders
QSL Bureau - a big shame?
[DXNL 1821 - February 27th, 2013]: Changes in the USKA QSL bureau:
QSL cards for non-members of the Swiss IARU society USKA will no longer be returned with a "Not Member" stamp, but silently discarded, to save work and money.
What a shame! This is known problem for many years: the QSL Bureau is roughly abused by a national Ham Radio Society (mostly IARU member) to force hams in the country to join. On the other hand, the Ham radio society officers whining about declining ham-spirit and operating skils. Isn't something rotten there with the IARU and ham radio generally? Why a QSL Bureau can't serve at non-profit basis for an acceptably small fee to ALL HAMS IN THE COUNTRY, regardless of membership?
A particular ham may have a half dozen of reasons to NOT be A MEMBER of the local Ham Radio Society but such ham is excluded from the common QSL exchange. This is an usual practice in many countries for years.
Anyway, my QSL card is MY PROPERTY until delivery to the recipient. I pay for a QSL card (printing, labels, my postal or QSL Bureau expenses etc.) in good belief that it will be delivered to the recipient. The Ham Radio Society decides to silently discard my property without informing me about my waste money.
How much QSL cards discarded do I need to initiate a lawsuit to get a compensation? Where should I get a proof that they actually made such nasty act?
WE NEED A CHANGE!
Winkey USB works in Linux
It is an UDP server allowing operation of the Winkey USB by K1EL with any Linux program with UDP keyer capability. It works in the same way as the popular cwdaemon. With Winkeyer USB server expands the useability of this excellent product to all Linux program with UDP keyer capability (TLF by PA0R etc.).
Downloads:
Just for the case of problems with your current distribution, the older version may work for you.
CW Academy
The CW Operators' Club announces its CW Academy, a program aimed at increasing the fun of using CW in the world of Ham Radio. The program addresses all levels of enthusiasts; from those aspiring to become licensed operators with a desire to learn Morse Code, all the way to veteran operators wanting to increase their CW activity, skills, and code speed.
Those wishing to participate will register here. A CWops member/advisor will be assigned to each registrant as a mentor and on-air contact. We will use "sub-bands" similar to the Novice bands of yesteryear for all Academy students, CWops advisors, and CWops members to communicate with one another worldwide (e.g. 3.550-3.570, 7.050-7.070, 14.050-14.070, 21.050-21.070 and 28.050-28.070).
So, if you've always wanted to join the fun of using Morse Code over the air, or want to become a better CW operator, we welcome you to the CW Academy. Just sign up here and we'll contact you, shortly.
TNX, TKS, THX or THNX?
A common modern practice is to use THX or THNX abbreviations as an expression of thanks. These two „new form“ abbreviations came from internet but our new radio brethren transferred them onto radio waves. It is unchangeable sign that the user of such junky abbreviations is a NO-CODER. A thinking skilled ham can easily compare the sound of TNX and THX (or even worse THNX) on CW, unskilled “wannabe” ham radio newbie not. There is no apology regardless of the fact that these creatures can be seen almost exclusively on the cluster, in discussions and on the keyboard “macromodes”. So, please note that TNX or TKS are ham radio abbreviations, having their distinctive meaning and sound on the CW mode. THX or THNX are internet abbreviations, hardly acceptable among hams. Note also that there is nothing bad if you use TNX or TKS in internet discussions, emails etc.