Weather Station

hi everyone
Just a quick note to tell you the weather station website http://wx.oh8gej.org is down and being upgraded.

The new site will be up in a matter of weeks. Until then, you can still get weather statistics through our APRS interface.

ciao
Julian
OH8GEJ

Localized anticyclone

In meteorology, an anticyclone (that is, opposite to a cyclone) is a weather phenomenon in which there is a descending movement of the air and a high pressure area over the part of the planet's surface affected by it. Anticyclonic flow spirals in a clockwise direction in the Northern Hemisphere and counter-clockwise in the Southern.

At the surface the air tends to flow outwards in all directions from the central area of high pressure, and is deflected on account of the earth's rotation (see Coriolis effect) so as to give a spiral movement. In the northern hemisphere an anticyclone rotates in the clockwise direction, while it rotates counterclockwise in the southern hemisphere. The rotation is caused by the movement of colder higher pressure air that is moving away from the poles towards the equator being affected by the rotation of the earth. Since the air in an anticyclone is descending, it becomes warmed and dried, and therefore transmits radiation freely whether from the sun to the earth or from the earth into space.

Anticyclones generally bring fair weather and clear skies as the dynamics of an anticyclone lead to downward vertical movement which suppresses convective activity and generally lowers the mean relative humidity, in contrast to the upward vertical movement in a cyclone. However as the anticyclone moves over the earth's surface it may heat up locally, acquire water from the land or oceans or encounter warmer wet air.

In winter the anticyclonic weather is characterized by clear air with periods of frost, causing fogs in towns and low-lying damp areas, and in summer by still cloudless days with gentle variable winds and fine weather. The low, sharp inversion can lead to areas of persistent stratocumulus or stratus cloud, colloquially known as Anticyclonic gloom. The type of weather brought about by an anticyclone depends on its origin. For example, extensions of the Azores high pressure may bring about anticyclonic gloom during the winter, as they are warmed at the base and will trap moisture as they move over the warmer oceans. High pressures that build to the north and extend southwards will often bring clear weather. This is due to being cooled at the base (as opposed to warmed) which helps prevent clouds from forming.
Local geography may cause a range of localized weather phenomena specific to anticyclones, while the interaction of the different air masses, which occurs at weather fronts, may cause a range of weather events.

The polar vortex is a persistent, large-scale cyclone located near the Earth's poles, in the middle and upper troposphere and the stratosphere. It surrounds the polar highs and is part of the polar front.

The vortex is most powerful in the hemisphere's winter, when the temperature gradient is steepest, and diminishes or can disappear in the summer. The Antarctic polar vortex is more pronounced and persistent than the Arctic one; this is because the distribution of land masses at high latitudes in the northern hemisphere gives rise to Rossby waves which contribute to the breakdown of the vortex, whereas in the southern hemisphere the vortex remains less disturbed. The Arctic vortex is elongated in shape, with two centres, one roughly over Baffin Island in Canada and the other over northeast Siberia.

more later

julian oh8gej

OH8GEJ HAM Shack - Equipment, Radios, Antenna and more.: My Weather Station

OH8GEJ HAM Shack - Equipment, Radios, Antenna and more.: My Weather Station

TNC by Elcom

Packet Radio USB micro TNC Plus Combined Set
New improved edition of the well know USB micro TNC . Has all the features of the USB micro TNC PLUS AX25 Connected mode. This allows you to send connect command to connect to another station (BBS, DX Cluster, Friend) and have normal AX25 conversation in connected mode. I can read my messages and send/Receive DX spots or chat with a friend. This is the first TNC that takes advantage of the new technologies and complies with the new WIDEn-N specifications . Small enough to carry it in your shirt pocket and powerful to fit your needs.It will be your companion for years, thanks to the 'Live Update' feature. You can flash the new firmware over internet, instantly.Use it for everyday packet, for APRS, as a Tracker with a GPS or as APRS DIGI. Extremely flexible can be used with existing programs, real plug 'n play. Multiple power options (USB, External or Internal battery pack). You can have unlimited number of TNCs onnected to your computer for multiport stations. Size only 21 x 60 x 43 mm or 0.8x2.3x1.7 inch.  

Yaesu G-1000 DXC just wont die! (Damn-it)

I currently use the Yaesu g1000-DXC on my tower and in my shack for turning my small array of antenna.

The head is computer controlled and as you might imagine, turns my antenna exactly where they are suppose to be pointed.

Other than operating in temperatures ranging from -50 to +40, the damn thing refuses to die.

• Lightening strikes in May 2006,
• -50c in January 2001,
• +40c in August 2003

the trusty old friends continues to turn.
So it looks like no upgrade any time soon.
They just make the darn thing too good.

julian
OH8GEJ

Cushcraft A503s 3 Element 6m Yagi

After a pitiful qso with LY2BAW on 50.112cw and ssb, it became apparent to me that the Cushcraft antenna is "crap".
Never purchase this yagi unless you want to use it to open a 6 meter repeater 10 km away from your QTH.

Next summer, the truck lift is coming and we are putting up the 6M2WLC by M2 inc.
here is the low down.

The 6M2WL was conceived and designed to produce maximum gain and performance around 50.1 MHz. Countless hours of computer optimization and range confirmation resulted in an antenna which will set a new standard for long boom Yagis. It is an excellent stand alone antenna but for the adventurous, it is a perfect building block for spectacular 6 meter gain package.The driven element is a 3/4" diameter tube for improved efficiency and bandwidth, fed by a 'T' match with adjustable shorting bars. Stainless screws lock the joints together. The T match block is CNC-machined and internal connections are sealed with a space-age silicone gel with dielectric strength nearly 4 times greater than air. All three connectors feature 'O' ring seals. The balun cable features double seals; one at the cable and one inside the connector where it mates with the female. This match block configuration was developed at M2 for shipboard ATS satellite use and is now used on all our amateur Yagis.The parasitic element design meets the stringent requirement for extreme durability consistent with minimal windload and visibility. Elements are a solid rod of 1/4 6061-T6 aluminum rod with a 3/8 x 36 center reinforcing sleeve, double crimp-locked to the rod. The elements pass through the rugged boom and are insulated with special UV stabilized button insulators designed to dampen vibrations and prolong element life. Elements are locked in place with stainless steel keepers. Thousands of these elements are currently in service in large commercial arrays with ZERO failures to date!

I love 6 meters. Actually Love is not nearly a strong enough word. I cant get enough of 6 meter dxing.

Years ago, I became very frustrated with a local ham operator who has the impression that more power is better. He would constantly use a kilowatt on HF to have a QSO with local stations with 400-600km.

When I asked why he thought it was necessary to use so much power he replied "because my station should sound good".

From that day on, I decided that the monkey mentality you find on HF these days was sickening for Ham Radio.

Enter 6m, the magic band.

It will take you much more than buying an amplifier to work DX on 6 meters. That band was spawned in some sick realm which is found someplace between HF and VHF but harnessing characteristics from both. It can be dark and lifeless one moment while opening up in a furry the next. 6 meters is for the Dxer who needs to take anti-obsessing drugs to keep him from staying in the shack for 24 hours at a time trying to understand how and when the band with show us its voodoo magic.

I am currently using a 3 element Cushcraft Yagi on 6 meters but I hope that in the comings years, I will be able to replace that Yagi with a 5 element multi-band yagi which includes some HF functionality as well.

Although I love 6 meters, I have also recently found 17 meters QRP operation which is very interesting to me to say the least.

HF contesting is a waste of time and energy with the monkey mentality found there, hopefully there will be some good old fashioned hams who like the QSO as much as they like the challenge of hunting down the DX.

2m 144 9el2 Yagi from Vargarda Radio AB

Now anyone who has worked 2m Nordic Activity Contest with me, will know that this Yagi rocks. I don't really know what kind of Voodoo was used in addition to the damn good engineering of this antenna. For example, i am currently using 50 watts rom the FT-897 with an antenna elevation of about 20 meters. I am easily making contact in southern Sweden, Norway and at time the North cost of Poland. This is with 1 9 element yagi. My plans are to stack 2-4 of these yagis in the coming years, and to compliment the stacking with an even better mast head amplifier. Currently I use the MHP-145 which is a super low-noise Mast-Preamplifier capable of handling RF-Power levels up to 1500 Watts in SSB. The heart of the system is the low noise preamplifier LNA 145, combined with two (2) High Power coaxial Relays in a weatherproof enclosure.I think that the LNA 145 is one of the best 2-m preamplifiers available today. It features a super low noise figure of 0.4 dB, a high 3rd order Intercept Point (+ 22 dBm) and a supherb selectivity thanks to a high-Q tunable bandpassfilter at the output.



The coaxial-relays have been tested up to 2 KW SSB, they feature large goldplated contact areas and an extremely low insertion loss. The manufacturing is done with double shielded Teflon coaxial cable in order to guarantee a low losses and a high power handling capability.There is no RF-VOX and protection circuits in the MHP 145, because Vox circuits will not work propperly at power levels above 1 KW.

Back to my 9EL2 yagi. The company which makes it is a Swedish company and truthfully, I dont normally care about marketing for companies earning money for something i paid for. I just cant tell you how awesome this yagi is. 1 Yagi, good cable and even better connectors insure that I am a top low power station each adn every time during NAC.

Impedance 50 ohm
Directivity 12 dB
DF/B 20 dB
E-plane 35 degr
H-plane 39 degr
SWR <>

40m Aluminum Antenna tower.

My tower is a 40 meter crank up aluminum tower hand built in Finland. The tower has been up for just over 6 years and has never had any problem although it has taken several very substantial Lightning strikes in past years (weeks).

The antenns generally sits at 15-20 meters in height but I do crank it up on contest day or when there are good enough conditions to work 6 or 2 meter DX.

The rotor is aYaesu G1000DXC. The combination gives me about 300 kilogram which can easily be turned my the rotor. That could easily be increased with the addition of a bearing but I opted for a bushing because of the harse Finnish winters and my dislike for climbing towers too often.

Marketing crap :)

This tower is a result of many years of experience. The use of a unique rolling construction minimize the friction and discord between the movable sections. This gives a maximum lifetime of the tower. In spite of the rather complicated construction this type of tower is available in a kit form. Due to the special profiles used and the high precision in construction such a kit is rather easy to assemble as well as easy to handle thankts to the material - aluminium. When ordered as a kit all kind of transportational accidents are at a absolutely minimum. Even the freight cost will be very much lower than when assembled. In areas where transportation costs are difficult this telescopic tower may be well recommended in a kit form. Experience of mechanics is however recommended for a kit assembly.This telescopic tower is of course, available pre-assembled and the telescoping parts are contained and wired. The weight of a 15 metre telescoping tower is approximately 100kg's only. The tower consists of tower sections different in width and sinkable inside the lower sections. The top section is wide enough to house a rotator, even large one like the Yaesu G-2800 model. The top plate is equipped with a polyurethane bushing for the top tubing at a diametre of 50 mm's. The middle section has the same width as the Standard Vargarda Mast. The lower section is approximately 50 cm's wide like the fold base. Each section has attachments for guying wires wich are recommended to be used to secure the tower when erected in a windy area. 

My Weather Station

Weather Data collection and distribution has become a passion of mine. I am really enjoying the the additional fun and interest that weather data has added to my Ham radio experience.

One of the points of working with weather data and reporting my statistics is to provide relevant data to not only weather services but also for APRS allowing people from around the world to data-mine relevant statistics which I am constantly making available to the network.

My weather station (actually two working stations at the moment) are Professional Wireless Weather Centers.


Features:
Records 175 Sets of Weather Data History with "Heavy Weather" PC Software
Upload Weather Data to your PC with Easy COM Port Connection
Rainfall Data (inches or millimeters): 1 Hour, 24 Hour, and Total
Wind Chill (°F or °C)
Records MIN & MAX Wind Chill with Time and Date Stamp
Wind Direction with LCD Compass (numerical (e.g. 225°) or abbreviated characters (e.g. SW))
Wind Speed (mph, m/s, km/h, Knots, Beaufort)
Barometric Pressure Tendency Arrow
Weather Alarm Modes for:
Temperature
Humidity
Wind Chill
Dew Point
Rainfall
Wind Speed & Direction
Air Pressure
Storm Warning
Forecast Icon Based on Changing Barometric Pressure
Barometric Pressure (inHg or hPa)
Dew Point (°F or °C)
Records MIN & MAX Dew Point with Time and Date Stamp
Wireless Outdoor and Indoor Humidity (%RH)
Records MIN & MAX Humidity with Time and Date Stamp
Wireless Outdoor and Indoor Temperature (°F or °C)
Records MIN & MAX Temperature with Time and Date Stamp
Atomic Time and Date with Manual Setting
12 or 24 Hour Time Display
Perpetual Calendar
Time Zone Setting
Time Alarm
EL Backlight
Wall Hanging or Free Standing

Yaesu FT-23r

Type: Amateur VHF transceiver
Frequency range: 144-146 MHz
Mode: FM
RF Power output: Hi: Max 5 WLo: ? W
Sensitivity: N/A
Selectivity: N/A
Image rejection: N/A
Voltage: Max 12 VDC
Current drain: RX: ? mATX: Max ? A
Impedance: 50 ohms, BNC
1986-19xx
Other:
New price 1988 in Sweden: 2940:- SEK
Related documents: 

Yaesu VX5R

The Yaesu VX-5R is a triple band (6M, 2M & 440 MHz) HT with extensive receive coverage, and leading-edge features. It receives the AM and FM broadcast bands, shortwave (AM) to 16 MHz, VHF and UHF TV audio, VHF Air and public service frequencies. The specific ranges covered are: 0.5-16, 47-729 and 800-999 (less cellular). The die-cast aluminum housing, augmented by an extensive gasketing system sets a new standard for water resistance among amateur HTs. This robust construction has earned it a MIL-STD 810 rating.
The supplied FNB-58LI 7.2 V 1100 mAh Lithium-ion battery provides 5 watts out on 6M and 2M and 4.5 watts on 440 MHz. Features include: 16 digit 9 memory DTMF autodialer, CTCSS/DCS, 220 memories, aluminum die-cast case and 8 character alphanumeric display. 

Kenwood TH-D7E G2.0

The TH-D7E is equipped with a built-in AX.25 TNC for simple packet operation or to be used with a handheld GPS (NMEA-0813 compatible) as a full function APRS(TM) Automatic Packet/Position Reporting System. The TH-D7E is capable of reporting exact position, speed and heading as well as calculation of distance to destination. The TH-D7E can also be used for APRS(TM) messaging to send up to 45 character messages through APRS(TM) or APRS(TM) Internet gateways without the use of a PC. Additional features such as advanced functions and capabilities with the VC-H1 Visual Communicator and HF SkyCommand operation with the Kenwood TS-570 D/S or TS-870S series radios are possible. The new unique jog/cursor key makes navigation through the TH-D7E features a breeze. The TH-D7E now makes DATA communications simple and easy.
Features :
VHF / UHF Dual-Band Operation
Dual Receive on same Band (VHF only)
Data Communicator : 1200 / 9600 bps TNC, VC-H1 Control, APRS (Automatic Packet / Position Reporting System)
Compatible with NMEA-0183 ver. 3.0
Large (12 digits x 3 lines) Dot-Matrix LCD 16 Backlit Keys, Multi-scroll, Menu Mode
200 Memory Channels
8-Character Memory Name Input
Built-In CTCSS
1750 Hz Tone Burst
16-Digit, 10-Channel DTMF Memory MIL-STD 810 C / D / E Water Resistance
Powerful Audio Output
VC-H1 Visual communicator connection (optional)
BIPT Approved 

Kenwood TM-D700E

Features at a glance:

KISS Mode (TM-D700E only)

Built-in 1200/9600bps TNC compliant with AX.25 protocol

Full Dual-band operation: VHF x VHF/ VHF x UHF/ UHF x UHF

Remote panel (extension cable and panel holder supplied) with extra-large (188 x 54 dots) backlit LCD & multifunction key display (reversible)

D-sub 9-pin terminal (for PCs)

GPS input terminal (NMEA-0183)

9600bps PC-based packet communications for chat, BBS


TM-D700A/E in detail:
Kenwood Skycommand System (KSS) II*Thanks to Kenwood Skycommand System (KSS) II, you can be mobile and yet enjoy full access to the HF transceiver back home in your shack. All you need to do is hook up the Transporter (a TH-D7A or TM-D700A, for example) to your TS-570D/S(G) or TS-870S HF transceiver. You can then use your TM-D700A as the Commander, transmitting control signals to the Transporter, which also relays your voice to the HF radio. In return, HF signals are transmitted back to the Commander.
This system allows you to transmit and receive HF signals, set frequencies (with LCD confirmation), switch memory channels, and much more -- all from your mobile transceiver. Kenwood Skycommand II enables full-duplex operation with access to such HF functions as XIT/RXT, mode switching (USB, FM, etc.), split-frequency operations on/off, memory shift, and frequency step selection. In addition, once every 10 minutes, the Transporter (TH-D7A) will send out its pre-programmed call sign via CW.

*TM-D700A North American model only (or modified TM-D700E for clever European Hams)

APRS® (Automatic Packet/Position Reporting System) The TM-D700A/E has everything you need to explore the exciting possibilities of APRS® -- and you don't even have to own a computer. If you know your current position, you can manually input latitude and longitude data for transmission to other members of your group or to anyone using APRS®. Of course, a GPS unit will effectively do this for you, and ensure accuracy. When you receive a friend's coordinates, you can display latitude/longitude, direction and distance on your own Data Communicator. Like all of the best ideas, in both conception and execution APRS® is beautiful in its simplicity. 

Yaesu FT-897D

Hams got their first look at the original Yaesu FT-897 at the 2002 Dayton Hamvention. It was the world's first multi-mode high-power base/mobile transceiver designed to fitted with internal batteries (optional) for portable use. Yaesu now offers the FT-897D deluxe version adding 60 meter coverage and including the formerly optional TCXO9 high stability option. The coverage is HF 160 to 10 meters (including 60 meters) plus 50/144/430 MHz VHF/UHF. Receive is 0.1-56, 76-108, 118-164 and 420-470 MHz. It is ideal for home, vacation, emergency, rescue, DX-pedition or VHF/UHF rover operation. With optional items the FT-897D system can be configured for mobile, base or portable use. The large multi-color display can be programmed to show different colors on each band, mode, memory group or event to track signal strength by color! There are two antenna connectors HF/50 and 144/430. 7.9x3.2x10.3 inches (200x80x263 mm). The FT-897 comes with a MH-31B8 hand mic and power cord.