A variety of peakreading audio level meters including BBC PPM style including one with audio description for the visually impaired. Explore the far reaches of the world, right in your browser. Contest Update Issues. IN THIS ISSUENEW HF OPERATORS THINGS TO DOIf youre a college or university student enrolled in your schools radio club, dont forget about the North America Collegiate Championship NACC coming up soon on January 2. This contest within a contest occurs during the North American QSO Party contest. Vu Meters Software' title='Vu Meters Software' />Music Making DAW Software Accessible for Blind and Visually Impaired Audio Engineers and Musicians. If your club could use some assistance in getting ready for the contest, see the NACC website, and contact the organizers Contest clubs are aware of this event, and may be able to help. The upcoming ARRL 1. Meter contest includes both phone and CW modes. Choose to do either, or both. You can work a station once on each mode for credit. During this part of the solar cycle, the pace of activity is likely going to be on the slow side, but that could change depending on short term solar conditions. Bands are generally more open than we think they are as indicated by tools such as the Reverse Beacon Network and the PSK Reporter websites. BULLETINSSee corrections to QST Contest Announcements for some upcoming contests, below. BUSTED QSOSThe November 2. QSTs announcement of the 2. ARRL 1. 0 Meter Contest announcement contained an error. Contest participants. CW, Phone, or Mixed. Stations in the Mixed category may work stations on both modes for contact credit i. CW and once on phone. In the 2. ARRL RTTY Roundup announcement published in the December 2. QST, the log submission deadline is stated as being February 1. That is incorrect. The correct date is January 1. Chuck, N6. KW, and Ken, K6. MR, point out that in the Worked All Europe WAE RTTY Contest, QTC traffic must occur between stations on different continents. Section 1. 2 of the WAE Rules is dedicated to the special exceptions for RTTY. Rick, WW1. ME, noted that the date published in the Contest Update for the ARRL Sweepstakes Phone was incorrect. The event actually occurred the weekend of November 1. Dave, K3. ZJ, and Chuck, N6. KW, wrote in expressing concerns about using the N1. MM Spectrum Display while entering non assisted category. The relevant rule Dave cited is The use of decoding technology to detect where callsigns are being transmitted and indicate this to the operator is considered assistance in locating stations. This is different from a band scope that shows where signals are, but does not apply any intelligence to identify the source of the signal. See http cqww. Now if the technology only provides callsign or multiplier information it is considered assistance. Chuck points out that If only the signals were displayed, without linking spots to signals for call sign information, then it would be in compliance. In that configuration, Spectrum Display is merely an expanded version of the display on the front panel of many current radios. When the N1. MM Logger Spectrum Display function is used without an external source of spot information i. It is analogous to populating the band map with callsigns by copying or working signals up and down the band. CONTEST SUMMARYComplete information for all contests follows the Conversation section. Dungeons And Dragons Solo Adventures 4E Pdf To Word. Nov 1. 2 Dec 2. November 3. December 1. December 2. December 3. December 5. December 6. December 7. December 8. December 9. December 1. December 1. December 1. NEWS, PRESS RELEASES, AND GENERAL INTERESTContestersDont let your alma mater be defeated by your schools rival in the upcoming NACC Contest on January 2. Make sure your school is on top of their game and ready to go by offering your assistance within the bounds of the rules. Remember, only currently enrolled students that are part of the schools radio club may compete on the school team. January 1 is the start of a new year long operating event the ARRL International Grid Chase. The object of the game is to make as many contacts with as many different grid squares as possible on a monthly and yearly basis. Contests or modes that exchange grid information are a natural for this challenge, but any valid contact uploaded to LOTW is eligible, and its not even necessary to exchange the grid square as part of the contact, as long as the uploaded contact information has valid station grid square information. See the ARRL IGC web page for more information. The U. S. Navy is opting for well rested sailors on when on watch in a recent naval fleet command order to employ circadian watchbills. The Naval Postgraduate School found that 2. Remember that after a 4. Larry, N6. NCThe Yankee Clipper Contest Clubs email reflector was bursting with contesting tips, which were assembled into by Fred, K1. VR, into a document that you can view on YCCCs website PDF. Its potentially ironic that the first tip is Dont be afraid to read the competitions newsletter. Electronic Engineering Times found a well stocked electronics store in Rochester, NY Goldcrest Electronics. The pictures are reminiscent of stores that were commonplace thirty years ago. A 2. 50 mile long lightning bolt was captured on a satellite image. The bolt occurred over Kansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri on the night of October 2. Powerful lightning has long been theorized to be able to cause nuclear reactions, but the phenomenon was only recently observed in nature. Gamma rays, a result of certain types of nuclear reactions, were measured by radiation detectors during a storm near Niigata, Japan in February, 2. If youve been using FT8 for a while, you likely have upgraded the software youve been using along the way. You might want to review FT8 Operating Tips for DXers PDF to see if there are operating practices that also need to be updated as a result of the new software. Array Solutions Bandmaster V BM 5 is like a clearing house for different types of band information and band related switching in your shack. It claims to provide translation between various manufacturers CAT formats e. Elecraft, Yaesu, Icom and also has relay outputs. It even connects to a USB port on Flex. Radio 6. 00. 0 series SDRs. Array SolutionsIm not sure if Millenials are Killing Ham Radio so much as they are just not interested in using it in the same way as older generations. Is there a right way and wrong way to enjoy the hobby According to The Daily. DX, the 2. 01. 8 International DX Convention at Visalia, California is calling for. DX and technical presentations. The 2. Visalia, California event is April 2. Visalia Convention Center. Potential presenters are asked to email N6. RV with a brief description. The Yasme Foundation announces the Yasme Excellence Awards for 2. The Yasme Excellence Award is presented to individuals and groups who, through their own service, creativity, effort and dedication, have made a significant contribution to amateur radio. The contribution may be in recognition of technical, operating or organizational achievement. The latest recipients include The Dayton Amateur Radio Association upon their successful move of the storied Hamvention to a new location with little notice. Paul Verhage, KD4. STH and Bill Brown, WB8. ELK for their continued leadership and innovation in the area of Amateur Radio high altitude ballooning. Nathaniel Frissell, W2. NAF and Magda Moses, KM4. EGE for creating and leading Ham. SCI, an organization devoted to the pursuit of science through Ham Radio, and for their Solar Eclipse QSO Party. The WSJT Development Team, who invented the new weak signal modes like FT8 and develop supporting software. Dale Hughes, VK1. DSH, for his work on 6. Amateur allocations during the ITUs 2. Peak programme meter Wikipedia. A typical British quasi PPM. Each division between 1 and 7 is exactly four decibels and 6 is the intended maximum level. A peak programme meter PPM is an instrument used in professional audio to indicate the level of an audiosignal. There are many different kinds of PPM. They fall into broad categories True peak programme meter. This shows the peak level of the waveform no matter how brief its duration. Quasi peak programme meter QPPM. This only shows the true level of the peak if it exceeds a certain duration, typically a few milliseconds. On peaks of shorter duration, it indicates less than the true peak level. The extent of the shortfall is determined by the integration time. Sample peak programme meter SPPM. This is a PPM for digital audiowhich shows only peak sample values, not the true waveform peaks which may fall between samples and be up to 3 d. B higher in amplitude. It may have either a true or a quasi integration characteristic. Over sampling peak programme meter. This is a sample PPM in which the signal has first been over sampled, typically by a factor of four, to alleviate the problem with a basic sample PPM. In professional usage, where consistent level measurements are needed across an industry, audio level meters often comply with a detailed formal standard. This ensures that all compliant meters indicate the same level for a given audio signal. The principal standard for PPMs is IEC 6. It describes two different quasi PPM designs that have roots in meters originally developed in the 1. AM radio broadcasting networks of Germany Type I and the United Kingdom Type II. The term Peak Programme Meter usually refers to these IEC specified types and similar designs. Though originally designed for monitoring analogue audio signals, these PPMs are now also used with digital audio. PPMs do not provide effective loudness monitoring. Newer types of meter do, and there is now a push within the broadcasting industry to move away from traditional level meters such as those featured in this article to two new types loudness meters based on EBU Tech. PPMs. The former would be used to standardise broadcast loudness to 2. LUFS and the latter to prevent digital clipping. Design characteristicsedit. PPMs need active driver electronics shown here mounted on back of meter movement. Display technologieseditIn common with many other types of audio level meter, PPMs originally used electro mechanical displays. These took the form of moving coil panel meters or mirror galvanometers with demanding ballistics the key requirement being that the indicated level should rise as quickly as possible with negligible overshoot. These displays require active driver electronics. Nowadays PPMs are often implemented as bargraph incremental displays using solid state illuminated segments in a vertical or horizontal array. For these, IEC 6. B at the higher levels. Many operators prefer the moving coil meter type of display in which a needle moves in an arc, because an angular movement is easier for the human eye to monitor than the linear movement of a bargraph. PPMs can also be implemented in softwarein a general purpose computer or by a dedicated device that inserts a PPM image into a picture signal for display on a picture monitor. Level definitionseditA variety of terms such as line up level and operating level exist, and their meaning may vary from place to place. In an attempt bring clarity to level definitions in the context of programme transmission from one country to another, where different technical practices may apply, ITU R Rec. BS. 6. 45 defined three reference levels Measurement Level ML, Alignment Level AL and Permitted Maximum Level PML. This document shows the reading corresponding to these levels for several types of meter. Alignment Level is the level of a steady sine wave alignment tone. Permitted Maximum Level refers to the permitted maximum meter indication that operators should aim for on speech, music etc., not tone. Scales and scale markseditPPMs often use white on black displays, to minimise eyestrain especially with extended periods of use. PPMs are usually calibrated in one of these ways In decibels relative to Alignment Level e. Nordic, EBUIn decibels relative to Permitted Maximum Level e. DIN, ABC, SABCIn decibels relative to 0 d. Bu e. g., CBCIn decibels relative to 0 d. BFS e. g., IEC 6. In simple numerical marks that can be correlated with any of the above e. BritishWhichever scheme is used, usually there is a scale mark corresponding to Alignment Level. Most PPMs have an approximately logarithmic scale, i. Integration timeeditTone burstduration msUnder indication. Type IType II1. 00. B1. 01 d. B2 d. B52 d. B4 d. B34 d. B1. 59 d. B0. 51. B0. 41. 5 d. BQuasi PPMs use a short integration time so they can register peaks longer than a few milliseconds in duration. In the original context of AM radio broadcasting in the 1. Ignoring momentary clipping made it possible to increase average modulation levels. In modern digital audio practice, where quality standards are hopefully much higher than AM radio in the 1. On typical, real world audio signals, a quasi PPM under reads the true peak by 6 to 8 d. B. 4 Nevertheless, quasi PPMs are still widely used in the digital age because of their usefulness in achieving programme balance. Overloads are avoided by allowing, typically, 9 d. B of headroom when controlling digital levels with a quasi PPM. The extent to which quasi PPMs show less than the true amplitude of momentary peaks is determined by the integration time. This is defined by IEC 6. Hz at reference level which results in an indication 2 d. B below reference indication. This standard also contains tables showing the difference between indicated and true peaks for tone bursts of other durations. The longer the integration time, the greater the difference between the true and indicated peaks. In earlier standards, different methods of measurement and criteria were used, such as 0. Neper or 8. 0 voltage instead of 2 d. B, but the practical difference between them was small. A Type I PPM has an integration time of 5 milliseconds and a Type II PPM has an integration time of 1. Return timeeditAll PPMs have a return time much longer than the integration time, to give the operator more time to see the peaks and reduce eye strain. Type I PPMs fall back 2. B in 1. 7 seconds. Type II PPMs fall back 2. B in 2. 8 seconds. History and national variantseditThe PPM was originally developed, independently in both Germany and the United Kingdom, for use in AM radio broadcasting networks in the 1. These were quasi peak meters with some features in common but otherwise substantially different. They are superior to earlier types of meter that were not good for monitoring peak audio levels. IEC 6. 02. 68 1. Type I PPMeditGermanyedit. A DIN scale quasi PPM as widely used in Northern Europe. A Nordic scale quasi PPM as used in Scandinavia. In about 1. 93. 6 and 1. German broadcasters developed a peak programme meter with a mirror galvanometer known as a Lichtzeigerinstrument light pointer for the display. The system consisted of a drive amplifier e. ARD types U2. 1 and U7. ARD types J4. 7 and J4. A stereo version, known as a Doppel Lichtzeigerinstrument contained two mirror galvanometer displays in a single housing. Such displays were still used until the 1.