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‘Time-Domain Reflectometer Coax Tester | 30 — Water-Cooled Dummy Load| 34 The Rise of Cycle 25 | 57
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Contents
May 2021 ¢ Volume 105 # Number 5
Second Century
“The New Noma for Events
Scavenger Time-Domain Reflectometer Coaxial Cable Tester
Stan Johnson, WOS
High-Efficiency 2 kW Water-Cooled Dummy Load
Guenther Knobel, DKEET
Product Review
‘Mark Wilson, KIRO
[MobilnksTNCS for APRS; aprsf App for OS; Four State QAP Group Nowvoau
75A QAP AM Transceiver Ki Yaesu SCU-LANO Remote Control Unit,
bhi NES10-2 MK¢ DSP Noise Canceling Speaker
What to Expect During the Rising Years of Solar Cycle 25
Frank Donovan, WALPL
Green Roving in o Red Rover
Wiayne Overbeck, NSN
‘The ARRL Ham Radio Equipment Insurance Plan
Jen Glifort, KCTKNL,
ARRL Field Day 2021
2020 ARRL International EME Contest
Rick Rosen, KIDS.
2020 ARRL November Sweepstakes — CW
Kelly Taylor, VE&XT
The 2021 ARRL June VHF Contest
June 2021 Kids Day
A Look Back — July 1971Columns Departments
‘Ate Foundation 85 aAmatour Radio Frequency Chat ene 60
Celebrating Our Legacy. 198 ARAL Section Managors 16
Giassc Rado. ‘84 Carticte of Code rofioney
Contest Coral 71 Recipients 8
Correspondence. “-24 Convention and Hamtost Calendar... 83
The Doctors in 60 Feedhack 35,55
Edoctc Technology 56 Field Organization Reporte 70
Happenings 68 Guide to ARRL Member Benet 14
Hits & Hacks coon 4 Ham Rd. 124
Hows OX? SOI 78 Indax of Advertsors 126,127
Member Spotight 43 Offeers, Division Direcor, and Stat... 15
Publ Service 69 QST Cover Plaque Award 6
Technical Conespondence 52 Slent Kays. 97
“The Word Above 50 MHz 80 Special Event Siationg ne 82
Up Fron a S179 83
100,50, nd 25 Yeats AGO nncnnen86 Velunteer Monitor Program Report... 85
W1AW Qualifying Runs 84
WiAW Schedule. 7
WIAWs QSL Fle 28
Digital and Mobile Editions
[ARAL members can access he cigtal ection ;
Vaalirs twrwamtorgast,donrioed ow Write for QST
[OS appfrom the Tines Ste, and dawrioad—_ wwwarrLorgigstauthor guide
‘ur Andro apo tom the Googe Play Store emai: qst@arrLorg
Our Cover
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slong ss ey have a ht sup. Wayne
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X700HNADavid A. Minster, NAZAA, ARRL. Chief Executive Officer, naa @are org
Second Century
The “New Normal” for Events
Taking precautions for COVID-19 over the past year has caused significant changes in our
lives, not the least of which was the cancellation of in-person hamfests and larger events.
We were prevented from congregating for radio club meetings. Even ARRL Field Day was
impacted — those group outings we enjoy every year were largely replaced by at-home
operating. As a community, we sought ways to adapt so that we could remain connected
despite being held apart by restrictions and regulations.
‘As part of those adaptations, we gained a new term in our
vernacular: we “Zoom with each other. Companies are
using Zoom to conduct business. Clubs are using Zoom
to conduct meetings and even online hamtests. Analysts
and industry pundits are deciaring that the acceleration
‘of society into a distanced or remote way of working
and interacting is the new normal, and that we should
‘embrace it
‘Over the past few months, I've had the opportunity to
attend three virtual events: HAM-CON (the Vermont Ham
Radio Convention) and Oriando HamCation — which are
ordinarily in-person events brought to life by conducting
them online — and the QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo,
which is purely a virtual event. As the size and sophistica-
tion of each event increases, the complexities of, and
potential problems with, delivering a seamless, satisfying
User experience rise exponentially. Itis easy to become
critical of difcuities and failures of online events lke these,
but conducting them illustrates how incredibly cifficut itis
to configure, scale, test, and implement these virtual
events.
‘There have been important lessons learned from conduc-
ting these events, including: speakers must not use Wi-Fi
or unfamiliar internet connections; speakers must use a
‘camera of good quality; buil-in microphones are generally
inadequate; live meetings or meetings with live side chats
must be moderated by someone other than the presenter,
\who must be alert to muting attendee microphones during
the presentation: the operations of a virtual event must
be carefully handled, including emailing/posting links,
ensuring mass emails aren't being routed into spam or
causing server blacklisting, handling session recording,
and more,
It virtual events are so dificult (and in some cases expen-
sive) to conduc, why do organizers do it? For the love of
the hobby. For the feeling of community. For the inclusion
‘of many hams, from local to DX, who cannot travel 0
‘events. So are virtual events just a fad? A consequence of
the mes? Or are they the new normal — or, atthe very
least, a forward-looking way of reimagining amateur radio
‘evenis? Here's my view:
First and foremost, there is no replacement for being there.
One of my greatest joys is to walk a hamtest — the bigger
the better — to see equipment, hear the stories, and pick
‘out a gem or two to add to my own station. Seeing an old
friend, exchanging a hearty handshake, and catching up is,
another wonderful by-product of being there.
Though online events and in-person events are two very
different beasts, there are best practices that apply to bot.
in-person events have a limited amount of space for
speakers, This forces event organizers to be careful about
curating their lineup of speakers. Online events don't have
these space restrictions and often book more speakers
and sessions than they otherwise would, which can lead
to falling into the “just because you can, doesn't mean you
should’ trap. Online events tend to work harder at having
speakers create a script, and ft their presentation to a
sspexific timeframe. Findings from the YouTube community
indicate that talks in the 10 — 20 minute range are optimal
—a constraint that in-person events could benefit from.
‘Sessions that are more experiential, from kit building to
following along with a book, tend to be more popular and
easily work in both environments!
“The future seems to point to a hybrid model where getting
back together in-person is highly desirable, but not atthe
expense of leaving out those people who — for one
reason or another — cannot travel to the event. ARAL. will
be taking another crack at an online event this month (May
21 ~23) when we host the ARAL at Home event while
sitting at home, missing the fun of Dayton Hamvention!
Welllbe spicing things up with a collection of videos,
activities, and perhaps a Sunday raffle.
We hope to see you there! In the meantime, stay radio
active! Be a connector! And visit our Ideation page at
www.arrLorgideas to submit ideas for content, products,
and more,
eon Th yarg
David A. Minster, NA2AA
Chief Executive Officer
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Scavenger Time-Domain
Reflectometer Coaxial Cable Tester
Discover coax cable flaws and
discontinuities with this pulse
generator and an oscilloscope.
Stan Johnson, WOSJ
Of all the methods of testing coaxial cable, Ike the
time-domain reflectometer (TDR) the most. The oper-
ating principle is quite simple. A narrow pulse (here
10 ns) is sent down the coax under test, and the
reflections are evaluated on an oscilloscope display,
If there are bad connectors or discontinuities in the
line, reflected pulses will appear. This pulse gener-
ator plus an oscilloscope comprise the TDR seen in
the lead photo.
If the coax is terminated with a resistor that matches
the impedance of the cable, no reflections will take
place, and the scope will display a flat line. If the
30. May 2021
cable is open at the end, a positive-going pulse will
be reflected (see the lower trace in the lead photo). If
the coax is shorted at the far end, a negative-going
pulse will be reflected
You can determine the location of flaws by looking at
the elapsed time since the pulse was transmitted. I
you know the velocity factor ofthe cable, you can cal-
culate the length. If you know the length of the cable,
you can measure the velocity factor. You can also
‘measure the impedance of the cable precisely. You
can build a time domain reflectometer pulse generator
for your oscilloscope from scavenged parts for less
than $20.
If there are bad connectors or
discontinuities in the line,
reflected pulses will appear.Finding the Coax Leng
or Velocity Factor
In Figure 1, the TDR has been con-
ected to a roll of RG223 coax termi-
‘nated with an open circuit, so the
reflected pulse at the right side of the
lower trace is positive-going. In the
Upper left corner, you can see that the
AX— the roundtrip time between cur-
sors —is T= AX=3120ns. ittakes
312 ns for the pulse to travel the length
of the coax and back again to the TDR
pulse generator. According to the spec
sheet, the RG223 velocity factor is
v= 0.659 times the speed of light, c= 3
x10 mis, so the length, D, of the coax
is
D= cvM2 = (3 x 10°) x (0.659) «
(812 x 1092 = 30.84m
We used the pulse roundtrip time
T= AX, hence the appearance of the
division by 2 in the formula. To verify
that result, I unrolled the coax and
measured the length as Djy= 30.88
meters. The difference was just 0.04
meters, or less than 2 inches in
approximately 100 feet.
Hf the length of the coax is known (Dy)
and you want to calculate the velocity
factor Vo, the formula can be rear-
ranged to
Ve= 2Dyil(cT) = 2 x (30.88)/|(3 » 108) x
(31210)
which equals 0.660, which is pretty
close to the datasheet nominal value of
0.659.
Terminate the coax under test with a
good-quality 50 © load. in Figure 2,
notice the small pulse reflected from
the end of the coax. The oscilloscope
vertical gain has been magnified to
make the pulse more visible. The posi-
tive polarity indicates that the 50 © ter-
rmination is a higher impedance than
the ooax. Replace the 50 © load with a
small potentiometer and adjust itfor a
Figure 1 — The TOR lower trace shows a positive-going reflection from an
‘open eireut termination,
Figure 2— This vertically expanded trace shows a small flection from a
slightly higher impedance than that of the coax under test
Figure 3 —A reflection is shown from a slighty higher impedance than that
‘ofthe coax under test, with a lower impedance (negative pulse) at 75% of
the coax length.
May 2021 31
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