21 Technet: 2024-09-22

Week in Radio

  • Last weekend was POTA weekend: 4 setups and 5 activations in 2 days around Michaux State Forest area
  • Morsle to practice copying CW
  • My first 2 CW contacts hunting POTA
    • 40m
    • X6100
    • 71-foot EFRW
    • 3D-printed Iambic paddles
    • Fell apart pretty quickly, but got into their logs.
  • Testing the footprint of the KA3TKW VHF/UHF repeaters to high on a hill. near Wrightsville with my trusty Quansheng at the SPARC picnic
  • New house
    • Extending my meshtastic network with a minimal external antenna
    • Strong enough into 21 at 5 watts
    • Flagpole mast with a tape measure yagi to try to get back east to Parkesburg.
  • I was up way too late redesigning an antenna winder for the smaller balun I like.
    • I need to get the 3d printer and software going again since the move
  • Xiegu x6100 has another dangerous firmware update that I’ll try in the near future.
    • The last firmware stopped all TX, so we’ll see what happens this time.

Other News

  • A RTTY contest coming up this weekend
  • AO-91: Monday, 10:15pm EDT
  • SO-50: 437.795FM
  • The 6m 53.21 repeater is up.
21  technet  net  ka3tkw 

21 Tech Net: 2024-08-25

My Week in Radio

  • I Wish I had paid attention to the contest calendar for WW digital contest.
  • I’m awaiting a confirmation on QRZ for my last of 50 states: Hawaii.
  • Lots of new open updates for the Xiegu X6100.
  • Started compiling firmware for Quansheng.
  • Playing with a couple heltec v3 meshtastic nodes
    • marveling at the range, better than APRS?
  • I did my first POTA activation by only voice, no digital.
    • lots of qso parties
    • heard Hawaii really easily
    • Wasted someone’s time trying CW
21  tech  net  ka3tkw 

21 Tech Net - 2024-06-30

My Week in Radio

  • outside wire broke and rehung a couple times
    • avoiding tension on it
    • cheap throwing weight from big sockets from Habitat Restore
  • my first summer of HF: May not be as exciting as past Winter/Spring
  • tape measure yagi for direction-finding/tx
    • Quansheng shows dB and S-level of the signal, so going to work nicely for direction-finding
    • found a direction-finding map application for my phone to help with triangulation: SigTrax
    • may go chasing a curious source noises in my area
    • local club is gearing up for a tx hunt
  • POTA / Field Day on the National Mall in DC
    • GRA-1900t whip with coil with jumper
      • noted resonant frequencies at each jumper fully extended, so lookup, jumper, then shorten to tune.
    • ran out all the batteries, but got the park activated
  • POTA around York/Lancaster
    • oops, tick bite and lyme disease
  • sorting all the gear for radio, electronics, other hobbies.

Other Info

  • packet radio
    • 145.010 FM 12db digipacket
    • 28.105 USB 300bd digipacket
  • 13 colonies activity this week
  • Firecracker Hamfest this weekend
    • Triangle Communication will have lots of gear to unload
  • satellites
    • ISS
      • 145.800mhz
      • 145.825 digipeater packet
      • 437.800 fm repeater
      • Monday morning
      • Tuesday morning
      • Wednesday morning
    • AO-91
      • Monday
      • Wed
      • Thurs
    • SO-50
      • Tues 7pm
      • etc
21  ka3tkw  technet  net 

21 Tech Net - 2024-04-07

My Week in Amateur Radio

  • Overload on UV-K5 with better antennas
    • UV-K5 & UV-K6 for comparison - not broken
    • Balance antenna location good enough but not too good
    • FM bandstop filter helps a whole lot
  • Modifying params database on Xiegu X6100
    • Now shows me accurate bands and privileges, so I won’t accidentally wander beyond my privileges.
  • Picked up an Evolve 3 laptop that runs on 12v
    • Linux is being challenging: wifi and sound.
  • Packing camera and radio gear or eclipse trip tomorrow
tech  net  21  ka3tkw 

21 Tech Net - 2024-03-24

I think I was having antenna trouble, so I couldn’t check in. I only listened.

  • KA3TKW has digipeaters
    • 145.010 FM digipeater
    • 28.105 USB digipeater
    • packet radio is free
  • FM satellites that are easy to use
    • ISS
      • packet digipeater
      • voice
      • 10:35pm good pass
    • SO-50
  • Look into digi-pi
ka3tkw  21  tech  net 

21 Tech Net - 2024-03-17

This Week in Ham Radio

  • Tried a couple RTTY sprints
    • tough to get configured in 30 minutes
    • had to fix up logs
  • BARTG (British Amateur) RTTY Contest
    • I’m getting more advanced on my fldigi setup
    • 27 contacts
    • 5W to qualify QRP class
  • The Quansheng charging on its base causes a mess of interference for 40m on my X6100
  • I chatted with Tom (KA3TKW) the other day and added a few satellites to scan on my Quansheng for random repeater traffic
  • egzumer firmware scans very fast
  • I’m looking forward to some POTA now that weather’s getting better.
  • I’ve been using the same antenna for too long.
net  ka3tkw  21  tech  rtty  bartg 

Day of Radio

ARRL/FCC/ARCC in Harrisburg

KA3TKW and the 21 repeater group hosted a lunch with representatives from the ARRL, the FCC, and the ARCC.

POTA

I stopped at State Game Land 246 near Middletown to activate on 10m FT8/FT4.

I used 2 different antennas: - initially used Grabil whip fully extended, shorted coil, w/ tuner - 12.5m EFRW thrown into a tree Both antennas seemed to perform similarly. I was skipping far: lots of contacts came from Oregon, Washington, and I even got Alaska.

Clipperton DX

Later that day, I also contacted the Clipperton DX station, TX5S, on 40m via FT8

21 Tech Net - 2024-01-21

  • ARRL/FCC meeting
    • setup at 10:30
    • lunch at 11:00
    • meeting at 11:00
  • ka3tkw - tom
    • ft8 on 10m on quansheng
  • kc3wry
  • kc3den
  • kc3wwc
    • there for the meeting
    • rehabilitated project j-pole
      • 450 ohm ladder line
      • tuned it with the nanovna
      • resoldered it
      • west to harrisburg
      • east to parkesburg
      • Quansheng uvk5
    • had uvk5 randomly pick up ISS repeater at 2am or so
    • xlr mic cable, untested, available for ARRL meeting
    • always repacking and organizing my bags for optimal carry
  • k3ea
    • DX opportunities
      • good propagation for 10m/12m
      • Clipperton / fox and hound
      • Saint Helena
  • winter field day
    • Harrisburg people are hitting some parks
    • 97 repeater in York
21  technet  net  ka3tkw