My first HF radio, the Elecraft KX3, was air-cooled and got me spoiled to the relatively quiet operation. The K4D, on the other hand, has two fans. Although the “base” ventilation speed has been lowered, there’s also some whining from the bearings. Most hams can’t hear it, I, unfortunately, can and don’t enjoy the sound. […]
Quieter fans on the Elecraft K4D Read More »
In mid-December, N1MM (version 1.0.9758) introduced a spectrum display option supporting the Elecraft K4 radio. Below is a walk-through on setting it up. For this to work, your radio will need to be connected to your local network. You can check this by tapping the Menu option and scrolling to the middle. You should see
Displaying K4 Spectrum in N1MM Read More »
In addition to all of the geocaching I planned, I also thought I’d try activating some parks. Parks on the Air (POTA) is a program inspired by the ARRL National Parks on the Air program in 2016 by Sean Kutzko (KX9X) and Norm Fusaro (W3IZ). The idea is simply “everyday is field day,” that is,
Paul (W7PEZ) and I worked field day as 2B EWA, that is, we set up with battery-powered equipment, everything self-contained. The national forest site near Cle Elum was fantastic – great view from a ledge, higher elevation (near 4000′) so it was cooler, very quiet, and trees to mount antennas. Paul brought his ICOM 7300
Newer update here. With my KX3, using N1MM+ to manage CW sending was accomplished via an indirect set of KX3 macros and keyboard sequences. Thus, we had this awfulness: Bob (N6TV) presented at the Spokane DX Association and mentioned this on slides 52, 62, and 63 of his presentation. There is a lot of good
Configuring N1MM+ CW for the Elecraft K4 Read More »
After a year, my new Elecraft K4D has arrived. To any new owner, I’d highly recommend grabbing Bob (N6TV’s) general setup checklist. There are also some great presentations on Bob’s QRZ page. 2022-08-13: This guide is intentionally detailed to ensure that you have everything you need to be successful. Nearly all of the issues that
Configuring Elecraft K4D for WSJTX / FT8 Read More »
When the immunization rate in western WA got high enough, the state began opening up a little, leading our first requests to support public events in nearly 18 months. Since June, I’ve worked at (basic first aid, ham radio work) four marathons: three Light at the End of the Tunnel and the Jack and Jill’s
During the latter part of my Basic class, when students were becoming more engaged, we ran into several problems with the email and text messaging. As an experiment, we used Slack in my intermediate class the most recent term. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive. In the spirit of trying to give back, I thought it would be
Using Slack for CW Academy Read More »