985 Workbench: 2024-12-23

Walked down the 35-foot flagpole to do some antenna maintenance in the cold
Hunting a handful of CW POTA contacts
Waiting for a good snow day to curl up with the AllStar manual and ARRL antenna book
Thinking about my path through ham radio and focus on digital modes and CW, not spending much time with SSB
ISS will be transmitting SSTV on 145.800MHz, 25 December - 5 Januaary

KC3SCY, Luke:
- On 10m, not so busy this past week
- Working crystal set
K3FHA, John:
- Fixing up and using an antique radio
KC3TYX, Vic:
- Diagnosing/repairing a fan problem in a power supply
NA3CW, Chuck:
- 2M rig in car would shutoff during TX
  - PL259 connector was loose
AF3Z, Jim:
- Working 10m
- Working a couple CW contacts: Europe, etc.
- Organizing the shack: radio, photography, etc
KV3JGB, Matt:
- Fighting with a tree to get an antenna mounted
KC3SQI, Wayne:
- Talking to Los Angeles then Greenland
- Propagation shifts
W3DIB, Greg:
- Reverse-engineering the serial protocol of a Yaesu radio

W8CRW, CR: From the news, how would one use WSPR to find a downed airplane?
- WA3VEE, Ron: they could be searching for the weak beacon on 121MHz
- KC3SQI, Wayne: May have been looking at WSPR logs to look at reflected signals between stations. reddit
AF3Z, Jim:
- What is it about WSPR that makes people think they can use it to search for anomolies?
  - KC3WWC, John:
    - WSPR is used to test propagation and reach. you send signals for a few minutes, and others report back through a central database without needing to have a conversation or to be even able to get a signal back the other way.
    - There’s a huge volume of data that was collected centrally as the plane traveled.
AF3Z, Jim:
- Recounted his understanding of fuses and how they fail according to voltage rating.
- NA3CW, Chuck: Failure means they can explode.
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - Father saw huge 4-foot-long industrial fuses explode after lightning strike.

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