My Week in Ham Radio CQ WPX RTTY contest Chased 41 contacts Called CQ with no responses Played in the front yard getting my existing random wire a little higher in the tree Running around 20 minutes before this meeting to try to get my 2m antenna in a place that makes sense. I failed, so I’m on EchoLink. Others’ Questions Number codes? 73, 72 best regards in QRP. Recapping equipment Check temperature ratings of capacitors 85C vs 105C Keeping voltage applied regularly keeps a capacitor in good function Try to operate capacitors nearer to their V rating to keep them “formed up” Is anything leaking from the bottom of the caps Signs of problems? [Read More]

I did the CQ WPX RTTY contest over the weekend. RTTY is fun and more interactive than FT digital modes.

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My Week in Ham Radio

• Chuck’s repairs sound fascinating
  • enough basic electronics from childhood to get to general
• HF radio
  • QRP X6100 with 3rd party firmware - R1CBU
  • Maintainer is flaming out
    • ungrateful complaints
    • unhelpful bug reports
  • Source code is available, so some of us may pick it up
  • UI is an app running on a small embedded linux computer
• Flashed new firmware onto my Quansheng UV-K5 HT
• Restrung a random wire
  • From a steep sloper into a tree in front yard to flat horizontal to the shed in the backyard.
  • Patterns in FT8 contacts look a little different
• Learning CW
  • Morse machine
  • All 40 characters they quiz: Koch method
  • Try the feel with a 3d-printed iambic key
  • Next try a different character set: cwops
  • Next more traditional copying exercises

Question

• Often rebuilding and testing antennas
  • On HF, I can test with FT8 and pskreporter
  • See effect of my changes and maybe more propagation conditions
  • For VHF, how variable are the conditions?
  • On the fringe of accessing 985.
  • Slight repositions with unintuitive results
  • What conditions affect propagation to a repeater like this one?
  • What can I measure?
• Requirements for the Scout badge in radio?

My Week in Ham Radio FCC/ARRL meeting in Harrisburg Activated a state game land park after the meeting 10m near Middletown Lots of west coast Compared vertical whip with jumpered coil vs efrw Built more wire j-poles for more permanent mount NanoVNA is lots of fun, since I can now measure and tune any antennas Field day at Welsh Mountain with W3RRR club Repack bag yet again for portable op Learned about winlink Operated outside on 80m at 3pm, so slow Clipperton on 40m FT8 Back to learning CW on morse machine at LCWO. [Read More]

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

My week in ham radio:

• Discovered the 985 nerds podcast
• Watching Clipperton split operation
• Lunch in Harrisburg with ARRL & FCC
• ISS repeater broke squelch @ 2am
• Looking for a Winter Field Day
  • 985 is doing one
  • Will probably check out a more local one, like W3RRR’s event

• 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

I bought a project J-Pole made of 450-ohm ladder line at the Hamfest for a couple dollars. I rebuilt the connections, firmed up broken parts with some wood splints and tape, and tuned it with the NanoVNA.

It seems to be working pretty nicely for 2m and 70cm. I’m pulling in stronger signals, and still able to transmit.

I bought a few things:

• a handful of connectors for audio and antennas
• a project j-pole made of 450 ladder line

I participated in the RTTY Round-Up.

Trouble with fldigi/R1CBU

I screwed around lots trying to get fldigi talking to the radio. R1CBU software works great with wsjt-x, but fldigi and flrig completely failed to connect. It wouldn’t key the radio. Switching back to stock software on the radio worked fine with flrig, but where’s the fun in that.

For flrig, I could tell it that it was an older version of the radio (X5105?), and it would key and set frequency, but flrig wouldn’t read back the frequency when updated at the radio.

I ultimately got fldigi talking to R1CBU by using flcat with an xml file for G106.

Then I could “tune” power output following instructions in fldigi manual.

Working!

I started making some contacts on 10M and 15M. It’s much more like voice contacts: yelling back and forth on the same channel. I’m using macros and sticking to those for the contest. They’re on the 3rd page of macros in fldigi.

I’ve made at least a few contacts, so I’ll submit them to the contest