I have had some interest in experimenting with satellite radio. Typically you transmit on one band, receive on another. This can be done with two radios, but I wanted to keep things simpler and use one. I happened to find someone selling a Kenwood TM-V71a mobile radio for an attractive price. It’s a nice radio, […]
Replacing a noisy radio fan in my Kenwood TM-V71a (and ICOM 208) Read More »
My daughter graduated college and moved back home, necessitating a need for me moving my work area. After I set up my work desk and ham shack in the former dining room. Further completing the experience, I have the antenna running right out the back of the house up into a tree. I recently built
Resolving RFI in the shack with a lot of #31 mix components Read More »
I’ve been learning Morse Code through CW Academy. One of the things my instructor has encouraged is getting on the weekly contest, CWT, which runs three weekly, one-hour sessions each Wednesday: 1300Z (6am PST) – mostly 20M, some 40M 1900Z (noon PST) 0300Z (8pm PST) – mostly 40M, some 20M early, 80M later During the two
CWT – a CW Contest Read More »
Tracked down my first RFI this evening! This squiggly thing: was showing up when I was on 160M and was caused by the charger for my Macbook. The squiggle would start moving down frequency until the radio stopped transmitting (and the computer driving the sound out).
There were scant formalized opportunities for field day this year as local clubs either didn’t have a formal program (Redmond) or weren’t actively open (Issaquah), so I joined my friend K7IP in Ocean Shores to mess around with radios and do some geocaching. We operated from the public beach south of town. (4WD very helpful
(Updated 2022-03-08: links to JT-Alert tutorial, K4 setup tutorial; added links to Meinberg NTP and Grid Tracker; updated screenshots of PSK Reporter & WSJTX 2.5.4) Download and install the latest distribution from the WSJT-X project page. The documentation is well-written and useful. Please, pretty please, verify your system clock is set accurately. Seriously. The FT8
I’ve finished a month of QSOs and thought it’d be fun to look at the results. Early (5pm) in the evening, I can hear activity along the east coast, Mexico, and Cuba(!), but I am unable to get through. Not surprisingly, most of my contacts have been between 7pm and 10pm (02 – 05 UTC), when
(For setting up FT8, go here.) Setting up WSPR (Weak Signal Propagation Reporting) was done in preparation for playing with the two-way digital communication modes. The set I was initially aiming for is JT9/JT65, named after Joe Taylor, for very short messages that can be received far away, in noisy conditions. What makes this work