This
chapter presents articles, essays and features dealing with
technical, operational, regulatotory and historical aspects
of
radio. The layout of some of the available PDF files is my
reminiscence of
the "ham radio" (HR) magazine, which was founded by Skip Tenney, W1NLB,
and Jim Fisk, W1HR/W1DTY and published from February 1968 to June 1990.
In its time HR was the preeminent technical magazine for amateur radio,
it had no peers and to this day published some of the most cutting edge
articles in amateur radio history. Feel free to download and circulate
any of the material presented here ...
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PETITION ZUR VERFAHRENSANWEISUNG UND ARBEITSANWEISUNG 
DER BUNDESNETZAGENTUR FÜR DIE BEARBEITUNG
ELEKTROMAGNETISCHER STÖRUNGEN (in German only)
Das
Gesetz über die elektromagnetische Verträglichkeit von Betriebsmitteln
(EMVG) überträgt der Bundesnetzagentur (BNetzA) die Aufgabe,
insbesondere Probleme mit der elektromagnetischen Verträglichkeit
einschließlich Funkstörungen aufzuklären und Abhilfemaßnahmen zu
veranlassen. Mit der Verfahrensanweisung VA soll sichergestellt werden,
dass dabei "einheitlich, rechtmäßig, wirtschaftlich und technisch
zweckmäßig" gehandelt wird. Im Sinne der VA regelt die Arbeitsanweisung
AA die Vorgehensweise des Prüf- und Messdienstes bei der Bearbeitung
von Störungen. Meine Petition zur Verfahrensanweisung und Arbeitsanweisung der Bundesnetzagentur für die Bearbeitung elektromagnetischer Störungen
zeigt auf, weshalb VA und AA gegen die Vorgaben des EMVG verstoßen und
damit eine rechtmäßige Bearbeitung von Störungen verhindern.
A TRIBUTE TO RADIO LEGEND JEAN SHEPHERD (W9QWN, K2ORS)
The
prolific radio raconteur, whose easy storytelling style earned
comparisons to Mark Twain and who was described as "the first radio
novelist", captivated a generation with his stories and inspired a new
generation of spoken narrative artists. Shep was an American original,
a radio and TV personality, humorist, writer, actor and musician. The
art, wit and humour of Jean Shepherd which has entertained for so many
years lives on in the recordings of many of his radio shows, which can
be found on the web as public domain. Some of these recordings reflect
his genuine an deep-rooted passion for the science, spirit and soul of
Radio and especially for Amateur Radio and CW. It is my pleasure to
present you a few of these recordings which I have compiled and remastered ...
SCHUTZANSPRUCH UND SCHUTZKRITERIEN 
DES RUNDFUNK- UND AMATEURFUNKDIENSTES
(in German only)
Während
mit der weiten Verbreitung billig produzierter Geräte und physikalisch
unvernünftiger Technologien - wie z.B. "Powerline Communication"
PLC/PLT - der Elektrosmog stetig zunimmt, ignoriert die
Bundesnetzagentur BNetzA ganz im Sinne von Industrie-Lobbys immer mehr
ihren Gesetzesauftrag zum Schutz der Funkdienste vor
elektromagnetischen Störungen. Es scheint notwendig, die Grundlagen
dieses Schutzauftrags zu beleuchten ...
ALL ABOUT SQUEEZE-KEYING
Radio
amateurs invented and pioneered electronic Morse code keyers, but today
their knowledge of the different twin-lever keying modes is sparse.
Here is a review and thorough explanation ...
KEYRAMA
The
suffix "-rama" stems from the Ancient Greek word "οραμα" which means "wide
view". In order to complement "All about
Squeeze-Keying" with a useful practical device I developed the
unique PIC-based multi-mode Morse code keyer "Keyrama". It enables the operator to get a wide view of the different keying modes, to compare its correct
emulation and timing of the original twin-lever modes with the
behaviour of other keyers, to follow the visualized action of the
dot/dash-memory and to find out to which extent his specific keying
technique really makes use of it ...
CQ-DX
Let
me take you on a time journey, back to the old days without mobile
phones and internet, when worldwide communication was a real thrill
pioneered by radio amateurs with their homebuilt equipment. Watch
the amazing short movie "CQ-DX"
which was produced in 1956 ...
SQUEEZE-KEYING
This video demonstrates persistent iambic squeeze-keying without dot / dash memory at 40 wpm ...
ENERGIEFLUSS AUF
ÜBERTRAGUNGSLEITUNGEN
(in German only)
Wohin
geht die Leistung, die von einer fehlangepassten Last am Ausgang einer
Übertragungsleitung reflektiert wird ? Jahrelang war ich der
Ansicht, daß sie am Generator total re-reflektiert wird, so wie es von
Walt Maxwell, W2DU, ursprünglich propagiert wurde, und meine
Darstellung dieses Modells war hier zu finden. Inzwischen bin ich zu
einer
anderen Überzeugung gelangt und warum das so ist,
wird hier
erklärt ...
ENERGIEFLUSS UND VERLUSTE AUF
ÜBERTRAGUNGSLEITUNGEN
(in German only)
Kondensierte
Form des Artikels "Energiefluss auf Übertragungsleitungen", ergänzt um
die Begründung und Berechnung des Zusatzverlustes ...
CapKey
Early
sensor-paddles worked with the skin-resistance, which is a widely
varying parameter and made two electrodes necessary - in the form of
split or meandering paddles or solid paddles and a conductive hand pad.
They were very unreliable and no pleasure to operate and that's why
they gained a bad reputation. Being a passionate high-speed CW
operator, in the late 1990s I had the idea for a sensor-paddle based on
the capacitance of the human body to ground, which has a much more
settled value of typically around 200 pF. In 2011 I developed CapKey as
the latest evolutionary stage of my initial idea. The result is a
capacitive sensor-paddle controlled solely by software logic, utilizing
one single re-programmable 8-pin PIC microcontroller 12F683 instead of
discrete and specialized ICs in a very simple and easy to build circuit
...
THE CODEPHASER
Add
a new dimension of CW perception to your receiver by incorporating
this simple audio device for pseudo-stereo reception of radio
telegraphy signals. The sound does not seem to originate from the
earphones as usual, but from the inside of your head. Multiple CW
signals in the receiver passband seem to be spreaded out
holding
specific
positions, while static crashes appear randomly distributed throughout
the entire space - a spatial sound sensation with depth and presence
that
makes CW copy unique ...
I
recorded a few moments on the 40m band to demonstrate
the effect of the CODEPHASER.
Before you listen to the demo, please note that it is
absolutely
necessary to use stereo headphones - PC loudspeakers definitely don't
work ! Don't expect astounding but rather subtle effects,
since
spatial sound sensations are the normal condition for our auditory
system.
Close your eyes while listening in order to focus exclusively on
the sound. And certainly it will take some time and
several listening sessions before you can fully appreciate
this new
dimension of CW reception. The demo consists of 9 radio clips :
Clip
#1 (39 sec.): Sweep across the 40m CW band. The clip starts monaural,
after 15 sec. the CODEPHASER is switched in and the
signals now
appear on the right moving to the left with increasing pitch
...
During the
following clips, the CODEPHASER is switched in and
out alternately (the switching moment can be identified by
a short popping noise):
Clip
#2 (18 sec.), Clip #3 (30 sec.), Clip #4 (31 sec.): CW pile-ups. A wide
filter is used to enhance the spatial effect. Pay
attention especially to G3PHO in the first and F6COW in the
last
pile-up ...
Clip
#5 (16 sec.), Clip #6 (19 sec.), Clip #7 (10 sec.): FSK-signals.
Though it makes no sense to listen to them,
they sound
quite interesting through the CODEPHASER
...
Clip
#8 (18 sec.), Clip #9 (18 sec.): SSB-signals.
Please
listen to
the CODEPHASER
sound demo
MAGNETOSPHERIC
DUCT ECHOES
Sometimes,
at rare occasions in the night during the winter months and
predominantly on the 80m-band, very few radio amateurs are lucky enough
to observe a strange and most thrilling phenomenon: they can hear the
echoes of their own transmitted signals, delayed
by much more time than a trip around the globe would take.
Please
don't hesitate to download my simple computer program mde.exe
which explains Magnetospheric Duct
Echoes (MDEs), calculates path
lengths and time delays specifically for your location and contains a
short bibliography on that topic. This small self-explanatory program
(95 KB) is absolutely save to use on any Windows platform
and does
neither generate nor touch any files on your system. Always keep a
recording device attached to your transceiver and ready to go - who
knows, maybe you are one of those few lucky radio operators
who ever experience these rare echoes ...
THE
COOTIE, SIDESWIPER OR DOUBLE SPEED KEY
Being
a passionate CW
operator, after 35 years of mainly high-speed operation with electronic
keyers I felt more and more bored listening to the uniform and
impersonal sound of CW signals on the amateur radio bands. That's why
in March
2008 I found myself a new challenge: to build and learn to operate a
Cootie key. The picture shows my homebrew Cootie #1. Please
note
that this is NOT a paddle to operate an electronic keyer, and it is
also NOT a semi-automatic key or "Bug" ! In fact, the dots and dashes
are both made manually by horizontal movement of the blade. If properly
operated, the
resulting CW note sounds very distinct, melodic and a little
bit corny ... My main key is still
electronic ("CMOS Super Keyer II" with a homebrew
Sensor-Paddle which works much better than common sensors by utilizing
the capacity of the human body instead of the skin resistance).
However, operating the Cootie makes a lot more fun, is a most
natural way of sending morse code, and learning to master it
is
a true challenge which took me more than two years. So you can
hear me on the air - not always
but often - with my sweet sounding Cootie ...