985 Workbench Net - 2024-02-05

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?

See also