Singapore West coast park 23:30 h
23:54 It’s up!
Unfortunately, the last packet received was at 23:48, before the connection was lost.
Singapore West coast park 23:30 h
23:54 It’s up!
Unfortunately, the last packet received was at 23:48, before the connection was lost.
Saturday 4 Sep 2021 23:00H / 15:00Z. APRS on 144.390 BEACON only.
Join the fun hunting for the APRS signals after launch. The balloon is estimated to be in the air for a few hours. Signals are likely to be received in the region: Singapore, Johor, and Riau. For the past few months, a team of Singapore hams have worked on a project to launch a weather balloon carrying amateur radio. The flight system consists of a 600g weather balloon filled with Helium (industrial grade) and the payload is assembled from a LightAPRS tracker. Approval of flight involved “no objection” from CAAS, RSAF and IMDA, and Saturday’s flight requires release clearance from RSAF duty controller. For launch, two teams will be deployed in the western side of Singapore. The launch team will attend to the lift off while the remote monitoring team will receive and iGate the APRS signals.
Tracker: https://9v1up.ragulbalaji.com/tracker/
Updates: Ham Radio SG on Facebook
The project team is busy preparing for the launch and may not have time to answer questions that you may have. A presentation will share various aspects of the project at the next SARTS meeting. Come this Saturday, share in comments when you receive 9V1UP-11, stating your QTH and telemetry.
Source: 9V1YP
From Sat, July 11, 12:00 z (20:00 SGT) to Sun, July 12, 11:59 z (19:59 SGT) the international IARU HF World Championship takes place. Details and rules are given on the ARRL website.
SARTS will participate with a IARU Member Society HQ Station under the call sign 9V1HQ. We hope to see a good participation.
If you want to renew/apply for SARTS membership from overseas and you don’t have an SGD bank account, please use the information below.
Beneficiary Bank Information (mandatory)
Bank Name: Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited
Address: 65 Chulia Street, OCBC Centre, Singapore 049513
SWIFT Code : OCBCSGSG
Beneficiary Information (mandatory)
Account Name: SARTS
Account No: 524701182001
Same as above plus:
Intermediary/Correspondent Bank Information for USD only
Bank Name: JP Morgan Chase Bank
Address: 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza, New York, NY 10015, USA
SWIFT Code: CHASUS33
Last updated: 2024-04-04
9V1AB | Nils Christian Ujma | |
9V1AD | Cheuk Yan Au (Chuck) | x |
9V1AI | V. Jayaram | x |
9V1AJ | G. S. Balakrishnan | |
9V1AK | Matt Ranostay | x |
9V1AL | Alex Lee | |
9V1AQ | Claudio Caballero | |
9V1AR | Kenneth Ricaborda | |
9V1AS | Jeff Yeo | x |
9V1AT | Andrew Tan | x |
9V1AW | Aaron Wong | x |
9V1AX | Kelem Amir | x |
9V1BC | Solomon Tan Wei Jie | x |
9V1BD | Ho Jie Feng | |
9V1BG | Achala Daarshana Senaranta | |
9V1BH | Victor Boudioukine | |
9V1BL | Tan Chen Hao | |
9V1BN | Bernd Nestler | |
9V1BO | Baino Paul | x |
9V1BX | Samuel (Sam) Lau | |
9V1CC | Soh Cheah Choon | |
9V1CD | Arnold Cabahug | |
9V1CE | Kevin W Rogers (KF7TUU) | x |
9V1CK | Claus J Karthe | |
9V1CL | Daniel Deng Jue | |
9V1CS | C. S. Lim | |
9V1CV | Choong Sek Yeen | x |
9V1CW | Colin J. Paul | x |
9V1DA | Diego Abas | x |
9V1DE | Darryl Ee | x |
9V1DK | Derrick King | |
9V1DS | Darran Siu | |
9V1DT | Sampath Kumar Padmanabhan | x |
9V1DW | Dixon Wang | |
9V1DY | Danny Vong | |
9V1EH | Liu Chang | |
9V1EK | Eddy Kok | |
9V1EP | Masakazu Namajiri | |
9V1FH | Thum Fu Hang | x |
9V1FJ | Barry Fletcher | x |
9V1FL | Francis Lim | |
9V1GZ | Guenter Zwickl | |
9V1HF | Koenraad Mouthaan | |
9V1HH | Amos Hoe | x |
9V1HL | Herman Lahey | x |
9V1HP | Harish Pillay | |
9V1HX | Alvin Siah | x |
9V1HY | Haoyuan Chu | |
9V1JE | Jeremias Wong | |
9V1JH | Aaron Pok | x |
9V1JM | Joey Muncada | |
9V1JN | Jothinathan G. S. Sundram | |
9V1JT | Jose Carlos (JC) Cortez Tupaz | x |
9V1KB | Benjamin Koe | |
9V1KG | Klaus D Goepel | x |
9V1KH | Peter Loo | |
9V1KM | Kevin Basil Magnus (Mag) | x |
9V1KS | Tan Koh Siang | |
9V1KT | Kevin Tan | x |
9V1KW | Ng Kah Wer Lindon | |
9V1LC | Choong Lee Song | x |
9V1LD | Larry Dimaano | |
9V1LH | Stephan Grensemann | x |
9V1LW | Chia Lih Wei | x |
9V1LX | Mike Easterbrook | x |
9V1LY | Li Yu | |
9V1NY | Ajie | |
9V1MH | Matt Howard | |
9V1OD | Tan Lian Huat | |
9V1OG | Rene Atienza Ogie | |
9V1OW | Dr. Masahiro Wada | |
9V1PK | Peter Khor | x |
9V1PL | Philip Lai Yong Yeow | |
9V1PP | Andrew Lee | |
9V1QQ | Bob Fabrizio | |
9V1RC | Robert Chen | x |
9V1RF | Ross French | |
9V1RK | Robert Kimmel | x |
9V1RT | Roland Turner | x |
9V1SA | Hugh Maison | x |
9V1SH | Shuichi Hosokai | x |
9V1ST | Tan Hoe Teck | x |
9V1SV | Azhaga Muthu Siva | x |
9V1TE | James Buckner | |
9V1TG | Timothy Goh | x |
9V1TT | Andrew Hodges | |
9V1UU | Takehisa Sato | |
9V1VV | John Davies | x |
9V1XB | Patrick Tham | x |
9V1XK | Andy Yee Lai Seng | |
9V1XV | Xavier Tong | |
9V1XX | Kazuhiko Kurita | x |
9V1YC | James Brooks | x |
9V1YJ | Shigeyoshi Sasaki | |
9V1YL | Sally Woon | x |
9V1YP | Chew Lip Heng | x |
9V1YW | Yingwang Shi | x |
9V1ZH | Tan Boen-Hian | |
9V1ZK | Fred Lee | |
9V1ZV | Daniel Wee | x |
9V1ZW | Michael Davidson | |
9V1ZY | Loo Zheng Yuan | |
Assoc. | Abhishek Rai | |
Assoc. | Roger Lee | |
Assoc. | Nicholas Chan | |
Assoc. | Omkiran Sharma | |
Assoc. | Harish Nair | |
Assoc. | Jean-Louis Morin | |
Assoc. | Oshada Rodrigo | |
Assoc. | Sanjeev Gopal | x |
Assoc. | Sri Narayan Shukla (VU2SHO) | x |
Stephan, 9V1LH, is working on the hard- and software of our UHF repeater. He presented the status during our April 2020 SARTS online meeting. See his presentation slides below.
Radio signals passing through the ionosphere can be affected by small irregularities of the ionospheric plasma. This phenomenon is called radio scintillation and can strongly disturb or disrupt the signal transmission. As a result it can prevent a GPS receiver from locking on to the signal and can make it impossible to calculate a position. Less severe scintillation conditions can reduce the accuracy and the confidence of positioning results.
Transionospheric radio scintillation is statistically characterized by two parameters, amplitude and phase fluctuations indices, denoted respectively by S4 and σφ .
S4 is defined as the ratio of the standard deviation of signal intensity and the average signal intensity. Amplitude scintillations are prominent near the geomagnetic equator. They almost appear regularly in the evening hours.
σφ is defined as the standard deviation of a linearly detrended phase data segment. Phase scintillations are prominent in high latitudes, and their occurrence rate increases with geomagnetic activity.
SARTS received a request for statistics or help in acquiring statistics of ionospheric scintillation in the VHF range. VHF is not a common frequency range used in space infrastructure and there seems to be a lack of statistics in the area between tropics, where the ionosphere is bubbling quite frequently.
For interest or feedback, please comment below or contact the webmaster (9V1KG).
Sources:
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/phenomena/ionospheric-scintillation
https://swe.ssa.esa.int/tio_sci
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cindi/scintillation.html
by 9V1DT, April 2021
A short guide by Sampath how to prepare for and get the FCC license. The US FCC license is well recognized world wide and sometimes can be helpful to get a visitor’s ham radio license abroad.
One page guide as pdf (9V1YP):
by Philip Lai, 9V1PL
This article was motivated by my fellow HAMs from the satellite group. Based on my success with the application of the concept of EME on 2 m to our SARTS Repeater without line of sight, I hope this write up can help those in the hobby with similar challenges to explore the concept of EME.
Earth-Moon-Earth communication (EME), also known as moon bounce, is a radio communications technique, which relies on the propagation of radio waves from an earth-based transmitter directed via reflection from the surface of the moon back to an earth-based receiver.
I am located at the South Eastern Coast of Singapore, an apartment dweller with low elevation of 25 m facing south west. The distance to the Singapore VHF repeater is approximately 12 km. The small balcony with an opening of just slightly over 100 degrees is surrounded by tall buildings and makes it difficult for me to reach the repeater located at Dover.
For many months, when I first started as a new HAM, all I could hear was noise from my handheld (HT).
Each time I pushed the PTT, I couldn’t trigger the repeater, but even when I could trigger the repeater, I couldn’t hold it transmitting. It was frustrating, I fully understand, if you are facing similar challenges.
Continue reading Applying the Concept of Earth-Moon-Earth (EME)by Solomon, 9V1BC
Contest is by no means exclusive to the elite HAMs with large tower, yagis, fanciful equipment and years of experience. They do have an advantage, but we rookies have a seat at the contesting table too. On March 27th and 28th 2021, I participated in my first SSB contest. It was the CQ WPX SSB contest. It was a very fun experience, and I was extremely excited that I could have phone conversations with HAMs in places as far as Europe and North America. In this particular blog, I share my setup, experience, and the lessons I learned from this contest. I hope it might inspire you to get an amateur radio license and join us in the next contest to foster international friendship. If you already have a license, well then, what are you waiting for?
HAMs always like to ask each other what equipment they use, and I see this question coming my way. This is my equipment list for the contest.
Power Supply | Alinco DM-330FX |
Radio | Icom 718 |
Antenna | Icom AH4 + Random Wire Homemade Inverted V Dipole |
Logger | Laptop running XLog |
I packed up my stuff into the trunk of my car. It fit nicely into a small compact compartment. I brought a few tools – like a screwdriver and a small knife – and spare items just in-case I had to make quick field repairs. This setup is almost impossible to carry by hand or public transport. After all, the Icom 718 was made to be a base station, not a mobile one. I set up my station on a nice hill in my school. It was one of the areas I identified as potentially suitable for radio operation given its decent radio horizon, and relatively less noise compared to my home.
I set up my random wire antenna right beside the down slope. I did not want anything to block my signal. The white box is the AH-4 antenna tuner. It gives me the ability to switch bands at will. An antenna typically needs more time to be tuned and adjusted when the operator wishes to change bands. In this setup, a wire of random length is attached to the AH-4 tuner, and suspended off the ground by a fishing pole about 16′ high (5m). A ground wire is attached to the other end of the tuner and thrown down the hill. Antenna theory is very complex, especially with impedance, resonance and radiation pattern, I may have given you the false impression that I had taken them all into consideration in my setup. This was a bare minimum setup. I made no such fanciful consideration. My priority was simply to get on the air.
Unfortunately, barely half an hour after I set up, a huge storm streamed by and took away four hours of valuable contest time. What a wet blanket! The wind was so strong it bent my fishing pole a good 45°. But I wasn’t too concerned about the pole breaking. I had a spare. I almost always bring a spare antenna. I resumed the contest immediately after the rain stopped.
For almost the entirety of the contest, I either called CQ CONTEST on an empty frequency, or I tuned around on the dial to find others calling CQ CONTEST. I had my hand on the mic and the other hand on the electronic logger, XLog, on my laptop. During the first two hours of the contest, I only got contacts from Indonesia. Then I got contacts from Japan, and Australia. In the evening, I was very surprised to hear European and North American stations!
Time (UTC) | Locations Heard |
0230 to 0320 | Indonesia |
0720 to 0920 | Indonesia, Philippines, Hong Kong, China, Japan |
0920 to 1030 | Indonesia, Japan, Australia, China |
1130 to 1300 | Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, China |
1300 to 1800 | Indonesia, Philippines, Australia, United States, Ukraine, Slovenia, Serbia, Italy (but Italy could not hear me), Poland |
A contest SSB QSO goes like this:
Me: “CQ CONTEST CQ CONTEST 9 VICTOR 1 BRAVO CHARLIE CONTEST”
Him: “NOVEMBER DELTA 7 KILO ”
Me: “NOVEMBER DELTA 7 KILO, YOURE 59, 068. QSL?”
Him: “QSL QSL. YOURE 59, 1509. GOOD LUCK FOR THE CONTEST. 73”
Me: “THANK YOU. YOU TOO. 73. THIS IS 9V1BC. CONTEST. QRZ?”
The key exchange in this contest is the signal report and the serial number. The serial number is particularly important as it is used to verify QSOs. In this case, ND7K’s report to me is that my signal is 59 (meaning readability of 5 out of 5, and signal strength of 9 out of 9) and that I am his 1509th contact for the contest. My report to ND7K is that his signal is 59 (meaning readability of 5 out of 5, and signal strength of 9 out of 9), and that he is my 68th contact.
Sometimes I call CQ for a good 15 minutes or so before a station even responds to me. I would tune around the band then to see if the band had died. I wouldn’t want to waste energy calling when no one can hear me. But that’s how it is even more exciting when a station finally responds! My eyes light up and I get all excited!
Sometimes, the QSO does not go as well. Here’s one example. He couldn’t hear my callsign. Maybe I was being stepped on by other stations which could not hear me. Needless to say I gave up. I’d be wasting his time and my own trying to force the QSO through the QSB.
Me: “9 VICTOR 1 BRAVO CHARLIE”
Me: “9 VICTOR 1 BRAVO CHARLIE”
Him: “IS THAT A KILO BRAVO?”
Me:“9 VICTOR 1 BRAVO CHARLIE”
Him:“9 VICTOR 1. OK OK. QSB. QSB.”
Me:“9 VICTOR 1 BRAVO CHARLIE”
Him: “I’M HEARING A 1 KILO BRAVO CHARLIE. AGAIN?”
Me: “9 VICTOR 1 BRAVO CHARLIE”
Him: “KILO 1 BRAVO CHARLIE?”
Me: “NUMBER 9. VICTOR. NUMBER 1. BRAVO CHARLIE”
Him: “OK. VICTOR ECHO 1 BRAVO CHARLIE. YOU’RE 59”
Me: “NEGATIVE NEGATIVE. NUMBER 9. VICTOR. NUMBER 1. BRAVO CHARLIE”
Him: “VICTOR ECHO 1 KILO BRAVO CHARLIE. Roger?”
It’s normal to copy the wrong callsign and serial number. Everyone has a different accent. A few stations will do the exchange in their native language. I heard a few Indonesian stations do that with other Indonesian stations. A Chinese station gave me my report in Chinese. But not everyone understands each other’s native language or heavily accented English. Thus, it is normal to hear people use other forms of phonetics to complement the NATO ones. Some examples are listed in the table below.
Letter | NATO Phonetic | HAM Lingo |
Q | Quebec | Queen |
U | Uniform | United |
O | Oscar | Ontario |
G | Golf | Germany |
J | Juliett | Japan |
V | Victor | Victoria |
K | Kilo | Kilowatt (not to be confused with kW) |
F | Foxtrot | France |
For example, the callsign KJ7VOU could be phonetically spelled as “KILOWATT JAPAN 7 VICTORIA ONTARIO UNITED” instead of its NATO form, “KILO JULIETT 7 VICTOR OSCAR UNIFORM”.
Sometimes when the signal is poor, HAMs will read back what they copy to verify. This is normal because some contests penalize for wrongly copied information. Those who watch military films like Generation Kill, police documentaries like COPS, or listen to online Air Traffic Controllers would be familiar with confirmation phrases like “read back correct”, “affirmative” or “10-4”. HAMs have a similar lingo. It is called “QSL”. It means I acknowledge receipt of what you told me.
“NOVEMBER DELTA 7 KILO, YOURE 59, 068. QSL?”
“QSL QSL. ROGER THE 59, 068. YOURE 59, 1509. GOOD LUCK FOR THE CONTEST. 73”
However, like the NATO phonetics, many HAMs have their own unique way of confirming that the read back is correct. These are usually replies to the question, “IS THAT A QSL?”, which asks you to confirm whether I have copied you correctly.
Phrase | Example |
“Roger Roger” | Him: “9V1BC, YOU ARE 59, 1509” Me: “059 3509. IS THAT A QSL?” Him: “NEGATIVE. NEGATIVE. 1509. 1509” Me: ”ROGER. 1509. IS THAT A QSL?” Him: “ROGER ROGER”Me: “THANK YOU. 73 ” |
“QSL QSL” | Him: “9V1BC, YOURE 59, 1509” Me: “59, 1509. IS THAT A QSL?” Him: “QSL. QSL” Me: “THANK YOU. 73 ” |
“Over Over” | Me: “CQ CONTEST. 9V1BC. CONTEST” Him: “7C8C” Me: “7C8C?” Him: “OVER OVER” Me: “7C8C, 59, 060 ” |
This contest got so addictive I decided to pass on lunch and dinner. I had some contest rations on me, so I consumed those as my “meal” instead. I would have continued the contest through the night, but my mom called me at 2am and chased me home. So too bad for me. This is a map of the QSOs I made by the time the contest ended. I logged a total of 88 contacts (pun unintended). To be brutally honest, 88 is nowhere impressive. Many other stations rack up thousands of QSOs. My 88 is not much numerically, but it is a huge morale booster for me. For many months, I complained about the terrible noise level and poor propagation on HF. It was hard to even establish a FT8 QSO, let alone a SSB one. This contest proved me wrong, and I’m happy that it did. It is possible to have SSB contact with just about anyone anywhere with a humble setup and 100W.
I would like to convey my thanks to all the HAMs who shared their invaluable experience, advice, knowledge and even gear with me to get me started in HF, especially Daniel 9V1ZV, James 9V1YC, Peter 9V1PK, Roland 9V1RT, Ben 9V1KB, Darryl 9V1DE, Emmanuel F5LIT, and Jie Feng 9V1BD, who introduced me to HAM radio back in 2018 in the first place!
It makes no sense to do HAM alone. Part of the fun comes from making, laughing at and learning from silly mistakes I make along the way. You make my HAM experience fun and meaningful, and for that, I thank you.
73 Solomon, 9V1BC