I think I have not ranted for a while, right? Just recently I bought a simple dual band handy transceiver, to be able to use the repeaters here. So far however I have not had a single QSO with it.

Repeaters are a difficult topic in Taiwan. Years ago I had the chance to witness the construction, installation and later failure of a "repeater" in Taizhong. Said repeater consisted of an Alinco mobile dual band transceiver in crossband repeater mode with two linear amplifiers, one for 144 and 430MHz each. That repeater was set up in a back metal box (with fans, but that did not make any difference) and installed on a building roof - directly under the sun. Do I need to elaborate what happened? Probably not.

The local radio law mentions repeaters, but AFAIK it is impossible to apply for one. Besides, 430MHz in Taiwan is only 2MHz wide: 430-432MHz. There are no repeaters on 144MHz (probably copied from Japan). So how come there are repeaters on 430MHz when you can not apply for one and do not have the space to place uplink and downlink within the allowed frequency range?

The answer is "emergency services". When an earthquake or typhoon takes down regular communication networks, these repeaters are supposed to allow communication in a wider area, ideally throughout the whole island. This is however like a China Crisis song - wishful thinking . "C6" is the repeater supposed to cover the Gaoxiong area. So far I could not open it with my handy transceiver, not from Zuoying, not from Sanmin, not from Xiaogang. So I think I better not rely on it in case of a real emergency...

Emergency services was of course only an official reason to get the repeaters approved. They are connected to echolink, and in the Northern part of this island, people even seem to be using them on a regular basis. But now comes the technical side: You may already have wondered how a repeater fits into 2MHz. The answer is simple: It does not. the downlink frequency is 430.980MHz, uplink frequencies are above 439MHz.

Did you notice the use of singular and plural? Good. This is not a joke. There was a time when even the uplink was on the same frequency. Not kidding. People even noticed that this caused problems (Hear, hear...), and I only shook my head when I read about those problems on the local Skype chat. This is FM! Two FM signals on the same frequency will cause interference or you will only hear the stronger one. So, if a station is closer to C5 (the Tainan repeater) than to C6 (Gaoxiong), but can be heard by both repeaters, while a replying station can only reach C6, do you think the calling station will hear the reply? I think not...

So the solution was to use different uplink frequencies, but still use the same downlink frequency. Ingenious. Do you have an idea how much time it takes to set those frequencies up in your transceiver? Usually you would set a shift (say, 7.6MHz in Europe), and then just tell the transceiver to use shift on certain frequencies. If you follow standard frequency assignments, your transceiver may even switch the shift on automagically. Here however...

Let's see if I can convince anyone to fix this mess...

If you did not know: S9 Antennas was a small company in Texas that offered lightweight verticals at very reasonable prices. Was, yes. I had not checked on them for a while, and as I did I was suddenly redirected to the LDG website . While I generally like LDG (I still use one of their first tuners.), I do not like this acquisition. As AE5X put it very correctly, prices have gone up significantly, which makes those antennas pretty unattractive and you are "encouraged" now to use LDGs balun (unun) instead of one from Balundesigns .

What a pity...

週末に結婚式に招待されていました。特別にハム結婚式ではありませんでしたが、結婚したのはDD6ULFです。そして、DD6UDSと私以外皆親戚でしたので、アマチュア無線はUlfに対してまだ重要でしょう。

AnkeとUlfにいい将来を祈ります！

A short discussion on Taiwan's amateur radio Skype chat today reminded me (Thanks, Rob! Btw, I was serious with that suggestion...) that I need to embarrass people from time to time. Not just any people of course, but those who deserve it, because unfortunately this is often the only way to achieve change here in Taiwan. You have to "hurt the feelings" of people in charge, or they will just go on as it pleases them. Feelings can be more important than laws on this island. An example:

About 16 years ago a lot of youngsters were racing through Taizhong on their scooters. To be honest, that had happened before, and is is still happening these days, and not just in Taizhong. The police usually sits back and lets them race, hurt people etc. Why should the police get involved? They might get hurt in the process...

Besides, it is much more pleasant to sit inside, drink some tea and chat with friends. 16 years ago however, the gangs in Taizhong overdid it. IIRC they even killed people, and especially they raced every night on predictable tracks, one of them being the Double-Ten Road. They were so predictable that local media started to wait for them and shoot photos for a few exciting stories.

Then national media came down from Taibei, including TV. You could just stand on the bridge across Double-Ten Road near the station and wait a while - your "prey" would surely come. That caused a bit of "concern" among legislators, because a few more people started asking a bit louder why media can photograph and even film those gangs, but the police seems unable to catch them. However, that was "concern" only.

Embarrassment set in when international media started publishing this. Now the world was shaking their heads in disbelief. (Believe it though, it's true...) That was when suddenly the police was able to set up a trap and catch the whole gang. After they did, the police threw all the scooters together and even smashed them. After all, they had to show that they were upholding the law - by breaking it. Even in Taiwan the police is not allowed to destroy people's property at their convenience. But what is a law...

OK, that was an old story, here is a new one: Amateur radio is in pretty bad shape in Taiwan. There are not many radio amateurs left now I have to admit, but an important reason for this is to find in the laws and regulations governing amateur radio. The number of radio amateurs can also hardly be the main reason for the current situation, because it had also been like this when there were more of us. So what is wrong?

One thing that is rotten in the state of Taiwan is frequency use. Oh, there are rules and regulations, of course, and one thing you learn in/for the exam is that lots of those are "according to and based on international rules and regulations". That is even true - in theory.

Amateur radio is regulated globally by the IARU. They however can only use frequency contingents allocated by the ITU . Electromagnetic waves do not care for political borders, so things need to be coordinated internationally. So the IARU creates band plans for the three ITU regions on this planet. Sorry, the band plan for region 3 (where Taiwan is located) is a rather poorly written and formatted Word document, but if we have a look at region 1, you can see that the 2m band (144-146MHz) is "used throughout the world".

The 2m band is also exclusively for amateur radio, unlike 70cm (430MHz), where amateur radio not only has to share, but is often secondary. Even the NCC, Taiwan's national regulation body, acknowledges this . (Word file, better look here ) You can also have a look at this PDF (page 25). Nice theory, right?

In practice however, things are very different. Down here in Gaoxiong you will hardly ever hear a radio amateur on that band. What you will hear are coach and lorry drivers, taxis, hospitals etc. Does the NCC do anything about it? No, too inconvenient.

There is even an official emergency frequency on 145.00MHz. This itself would not be bad, if it was done properly. Japan has an emergency and call frequency there. That means people will often call on that frequency and then move to another one after they established contact to another station. It also means that many people are listening, so in case of an emergency there will be people hearing you on that frequency. It is however an amateur radio emergency frequency, used by radio amateurs.

Not so in Taiwan. Here you will find hospitals on that frequency. No joke. They even do regular equipment tests. So, Taiwan is officially violating its own laws, and nobody cares about it. But it gets better: I was climbing again today on a hill near my place. And again I was listening into 2m when I was up there. Right on 145.00MHz I heard a taxi company issuing orders to their fleet. (Taxi has btw an official slot allocated at 139MHz .) 

So, not only do official institutions (Department of Health ) violate national laws and the national regulation body (NCC) does not care, they do not even care when those violations get violated. The only people with bad cards here are radio amateurs, because they can be fined about US$3000 if they do anything not allowed by the pretty restrictive (and often ridiculous or meaningless) rules. Just read BX2ABT's adventures , the entry for 2011-02-16 for example. (Sorry, he is using a rather simple CMS, no direct link to that entry possible.) Legal radio amateurs are the only ones who have to obey those rules, everyone else is happily doing whatever illegal activity they are pursuing.

Now, if you would like to support us, read this, have a laugh or shake your head and tell others how third-worldish some things are in Taiwan. What we here in Taiwan say does not mean much to them, but when the world laughs about them, the people in charge may get uncomfortable enough to finally do something.

Compared to ZL8X this is tricky indeed. So far only a few BV stations seem to have worked VP8ORK, and I must admit that I have not even heard them so far with my antenna. Originally, a number of hams here from Gaoxiong had planned to go to Kending, to Taiwan's southern tip, to try and get VP8ORK from a temporary station with better antennas there, but unfortunately, that trip was cancelled. So I guess I just go on listening very carefully and equally unsuccessfully for Orkney Islands...

Perhaps you have noticed that a few BV stations with a three-digit number in their call sign are on the air now. This is to celebrate the 100th anniversary of an accidental bomb detonation.  While we here in the south have got BN100 assigned, our friends from the north let us use BV100 on our new-year fieldday.

So we decided to spend the last hours of 2010 and the first two days of 2011 near a few mud volcanos not far from Gaoxiong city. While we are living in the tropical part of Taiwan, our winter can be somehow chilly sometimes, especially in the mountains, especially when a "cold wave" approaches from China.

The timing was perfect: We, used to temperatures of 3x degrees March through November decided to sleep in tents on a mountain when night temperatures were down to nine or ten degrees. But with the right nutrition and motivation, we are ready to face even such challenges.

"We", that is KDARC, the "Kaohsiung DX Amateur Radio Club". Do not put too much emphasis on the "DX" part. While we do that, we are simply the most active radio amateurs here in Gaoxiong. This time we had visitors from ART, the "Amateur Radio Club Taipei", who were so nice to allow us the use of BV100.

They brought a battered but sturdy groundplane antenna and a very long Yagi for 2m, which they intended to use for EME. EME did not work out, but their GP allowed us a number of QSOs on the lower bands. Their 2m-Yagi was a special DX edition. As every die-hard VHF DXer knows, your location may be important, but for truly long-distance QSOs the electromagnetic waves should follow the earth's curvature - which can only be achieved with suitable antennas.

BV7RC, Ito san brought his magnetic loop (unfortunately his antenna tuner died, so he had to give up his longwire antenna) and his portable shack ladder.

You never really saw him doing much, compared to all the shouting (SSB) or shaking (CW) everyone else exhibited, but with JT65 he got more QSOs than anyone else in the end.

He is also the only one so far employing a JA-style antenna foundation, securing the antenna base with a car wheel.

BV7GA is using a different approach. He places a tripod, ties a mast to it, using rubber strips, and then hangs a water ballast onto the tripod. Such masts still need to be tied, but may very well stand without extra support as long as there is no wind.

He also prepared a few antennas for testing, for example a 6m quad made with an aluminum boom and fishing rods. Here is the assembly, together with BX7AAI.

The completed antenna may still require some "alignment". AFAIK, nobody did any QSO on 50MHz this time, so I am not sure how this antenna performs.

As mentioned before, BV7RC was the only one pursuing a somehow comfortable mode, everyone else had to work a bit harder for a QSO. Most were done in CW, for the simple fact that most people did CW.

The keyer BV7FC (right) uses in the photo above is indeed an old and weathered Kenpro keyer, belonging to BV7GC (left). It may be old and big, but it still works. BV7CW (he loves his suffix) prefers a smaller device based on a PIC controller.

Oh, btw, the (night) temperatures were not the only nemesis we encountered up on that mountain. There were more than hundred "alarm cocks", roosters bred by the people running the rest area in which we had settled.

They would start their carking business at about 0300 and continuously go on until nightfall, so it was never too silent. While sleeping was not on the top of our agenda, each of us will be glad to be able to sleep in a real bed tonight until an electronic alarm sounds at a somehow more civilized time in the morning.

We are a bit tired now, but it was fun, we had the chance to show some of the visitors passing by what amateur radio is and next time maybe our antennas will even work as they should.

I like Linux. I have been using it for about 15 years now, maybe longer. But unfortunately no OS is perfect, and also with Linux I do encounter problems from time to time. One of those problems is the sound system. The switch from OSS to Alsa was not easy, but I managed. I was still running Gentoo back then, and Gentoo was always at least close to cutting edge, so the switch was made easy.

This time it is not that easy. Linux is in the process of switching to Pulseaudio. Some distributions have already implemented it, others may make its use optional. While Pulseaudio offers neat features, its introduction was not as smooth as hoped. But while the system may have switched, the applications may not have done so. There are still plenty of software packages out there that rely on Alsa or even OSS.

They need a sound device at /dev/dsp, which does not exist in Pulseaudio. As a workaround, "padsp" can be used. So if I want to run "qrq", I enter the command "padsp qrq" and everything is fine. Really. Unfortunately, this does not work with all packages. gMFSK is one of those resisting. To be honest, I did not get a single RTTY software to run on Ubuntu Maverick.

So for the time being, using Linux means no RTTY (which unfortunately cost me a few points with ZL8X). I hope that either the RTTY programs will be updated or someone comes up with a genius workaround - because so far I have not found any. Probably time to reactivate the A1200...

Of course, if someone has a solution for this problem...

It is not quite perfect, but under the circumstances an acceptable compromise. I am a bit handicapped in that I have a flat roof with about 4x12m area - which is unfortunately almost completely covered by a tin roof. So what I did now was putting a relatively short radiator on one side, basically already sticking a bit into the neighbouring house's area.

I had long worried about how to mount this radiator, until BV7GA came up with a very simple solution. The radiator is not stainless spring steel (dreaming...), just regular 4mm steel, 2.5m long. You see it already started to rust, and should there be indeed very strong winds it might even bend. But until then, I will gladly use it.

Above you can see how the feeding is done. So far I am not using an unun, the bottle on that beam is just a choke. I still had a piece of aluminum on my bench, so it was put to good use. The holes were drilled free hand, without measuring, so they are not especially aligned. You may see that I only use seven radials, and that they are not insulated.

The reason is simple: First of all, I did not find other suitable wire, and secondly I have to pull those radials along the tin roof, I can not just put them on the ground. I had hoped originally that I could put this tin roof to good use as either antenna or ground, but I was disappointed both times. Since there is not much space where I could lay the radials, I only used seven so far. There is however one thing the roof does: It shield slots of noise.

I hope that what I deducted from antenna radiation patterns is correct, as I could find only one article somehow dealing with the influence of radials to the radiation pattern. In theory (and if that theory is correct), a radial seems to improve antenna performance opposite to it. That means Europe and also Japan should be somehow OK now. Unfortunately I did not have much chance to confirm this, as I was busy hunting ZL8X (opposite direction) these days - with quite a bit of success I think I can say...

So, time to go hunting now...

Taiwan is a place with a very high population density, so you may perhaps imagine that large antennas are something not everyone can afford. If there is a chance to put a beam up, it will usually cover 20, 15 and 10m. On those bands, most hams here in Gaoxiong had already worked ZL8X, so this weekend we ventured to our monthly meeting ground, an abandoned factory area near the airport.

The plan was to put up dipoles for 80m and 17m, bands for which you rarely find antennas here in Taiwan. Our playground houses several shipping containers, some of which are used for storage. We put the centre of our dipoles on top of our "HQ container", which is actually two containers welded together.

Thanks to our enthusiasm we failed to notice that the second dipole we hung up was for 12m, not 17. Fortunately, this was not a problem for the tuner. I am not sure what the ZL8X crew is thinking when they are consecutively contacted by a bunch of people with similar call signs: BV7CW/BU/FO/GA/GC, BX7AAH/AAI etc, but it was fun. I guess one of the SP OMs was working 17m then, because he also spoke pretty good Russian.

These dipoles were only temporary installations, but as soon as BV7BU, our chief here in the south, got the HQ raised to three container heights we will install permanent dipoles there. I did some measurements today and found that even a 160m dipole is possible. Nice...

Really. I worked them, so you can too. This was only the second QSO after I got my new antenna (GP again, this time 2.5m radiator and a few radials slung across the roof) up and running. With the previous antenna I may not even have heard them, but as you can see this antenna is not exactly impressive either.

The ZL8X crew is doing their best to let everyone have a QSO with them, just check their frequencies and remember that you need to call a few kHz above their frequency. As they said: Listen. Also listen into the range where you are supposed to call, find a nice spot, then call frequently, but give your call only once and listen shortly for a response.

They heard me with my tiny antenna, so if you have at least a dipole or a "real" GP, your chances should be much better than mine.