Net

My Week in Radio

• My favorite way to learn things: experiments
  • diagnose and repair a bad coax cable
    • no continuity on center conductor
    • plugged it into the nano vna, switched to smith chart
      • saw a big spiral around the outside
      • no change in the graph on the other side
      • compared to a working cable
      • it should have spiraled
      • maybe alonger spiral for a longer cable
  • 71 foot random wire with 5W is not needing the tuner
    • disconnected lots of different places and checked lots of SWR without those connections
• Tossed a wire into a tree at Swatara State Park today for some POTA contacts
• Operated the last 2 hours of the RTTY contest on 10m, 15m, and 20m.

My Week in Radio

• ISS on scan, so I caught part of an image
  • passes are a bit early right now, and low
• Nice weather
  • local POTA including a couple solid CW
  • some maintenance of the VHF antennas
• Noticed today I can disable the tuner on my random wire antenna and still get OK SWR
  • sounds like loss to me
  • but putting 5W into the wire is still getting identifiable weak signals to Europe, Alaska, etc.
• Reading the AllStar manuals
• Adding 4:1 balun to my list of things to build
  • delta loop
  • Rybakov vertical

Others

• KC3SCY, Luke:
  • crystal receiver
• W8CRW, CR:
  • working on a 10m antenna
• W1RC, Mike:
  • likes SWR tools, since antennas are the final frontier
• AF3Z, Jim:
  • took the Kenwood mobile out of the car to replace the memory battery
  • how’s my audio?
• NA3CW, Chuck:
  • Jim is low
  • arcing in a band switch, so disconnected 10m taps to avoid problems
    • added some feed line and changed antennas, so maybe time to try fixing it to do 10 again.
    • works now
  • finding some bad solder joints in some coax.
  • been in repair mode
• KC3OOK, Bill:
  • working on Joe’s tower again soon
• WA3VEE, Ron:
  • presenting in Pottstown on Friday on antenna analyzers
  • May be visiting the field day site
• KC3YIG, Dave:
  • picked up Alaska
• W3QP, Tim:
  • 2 SOTAs in Western PA
  • new Retevis 25W radio
• KV3JGB, Matt:
  • fixing some lines to get an antenna up in some trees
    • it’s working
    • first contact on 10M
    • also 15M for a rag chew
  • starting CWOps on Friday
• KB3ZIM, Bob:
  • published in latest QST, page 20
• KC3NZT,
  • testing coax with NanoVNA

Questions

• KC3SWC, Charles:
  • How do 12V batteries apply to Winter Field Day? li-ion, lead acid, deep cycle lead acid, AGM, gold cart batteries, lifepo4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each.
    • WA3VEE, Ron:
      • at field day, we won’t be charging any batteries inside
      • uses AGM and lifepo4 for radios, no trouble in cold weather
      • AGM vents, so ensure it has ventilation
    • W3QP, Tim:
      • lifepo4 is a good choice for amateur radio
        • lighter
        • output amperage is usually only 2x capacity
    • W3MFB, Mike:
      • used marine cells lots
• W3FES, Fred:
  • Troubleshooting a switching power supply.
  • Rated for 15 amps.
  • Running a radio, 15W output
  • Voltage drops to 8V.
  • What can he do to diagnose the problem in the power supply?
  • WA3VEE, Ron:
    • need to look at the manual to see ratings
  • NA3CW, Chuck:
    • switching power supplies are usually working or dead

My Week in Radio

• ISS on scan, so caught part of an image
  • passes are a bit early right now, and low
• POTA yesterday:
  • 2 CW + 28 FT4 contacts on 20m
  • pretty rusty on throwing the line into the trees
  • bad section of coax
• some antenna maintenance on a nice day

Others

• K3EA, Greg:
  • Special event station with local station:
    • W2T, Battle of Trenton
    • W2P, Battle of Princeton
  • Contests
    • Canadian Winter Contest
    • next weekend
      • ARRL kids
      • ARRL RTTY Round Up
    • NA QSO party
    • https://contestcalendar.com/
  • Propagation report and DX
    • Dominica
    • Fiji: 3D2GE, CW only
    • watch the DX clusters
  • after DXCC award, go for every country on every band.
• WB3LNY, George
  • built a new pc with chirp, and synced up all his HTs
• VE3HOH, Pete
  • cleanup, indoors.
• KA3TKW, Tom:
  • ISS on night shift: good passes aren’t during the day.
    • there’s a packet digipeater
    • SSTV is active
    • it was only doing telemetry over the weekend
  • good passes for SO-50
  • https://n2yo.com/
  • ham lunch had about 32 people
  • thanks Glen for talking about DXCC
  • zbitx
    • 5 watt QRP SDR TRX
    • will be buying one
    • shipping in February
    • 44 bit ADC
• K3DMM, Denny
  • caught SO-51 with a Baofeng 701
• KC3VZU, Bob:
  • setup a new TYT 9000D with a slim jim outside
• KK4KKW, Steve:
  • new end fed antenna strung into the trees, inverted L, trying it on 10M
• KC3ZBI, Ron:
  • new antenna that’s not on the car now,

Swap and Shop

• WB3LNY, George
  • dummy loads
• VE3HOH, Pete
  • paddles, bugs
    • vibroplex
    • brown brothers
  • oscilliscopes
  • a couple Drake TR7s
  • tower sections
  • a couple Kenwood 130s
  • email is good on http://qrz.com/
• KA3TKW, Tom:
  • 2 shortwave receivers: RadioShack DX440
    • 0-30MHz all mode
  • UHF motorola repeaters, 25W
  • Yaesu FT1XD, dual band, APRS
• K3MIJ, Troy
  • looking for a commercial propane generator

My Week in Radio

• 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

Others

• 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

Questions

• 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.

My Week in Radio

• ARRL 10m contest:
  • 13 CW contacts logged on paper
  • Iambic keyer set to 20 WPM somewhat confidently
  • Still relying on radio to decode for me
• Hunting some CW POTA activators through the week
• Practicing copying CW
• Latest beta of Meshtastic app on Android is reconnecting automatically
• ISS SSTV 25 Dec - 4 Jan

Others

• K3EA, Greg:
  • FT8 whack-a-mole
  • Saw some RTTY contests
  • Canadian contest next weekend
  • https://contestcalendar.com/
  • Jan 4-5 is RTTY Roundup
  • Kids day
  • Good space weather, peak of solar cycle
  • DX
    • Phillipines
    • French Guyana
• WB3LNY, George:
  • Diagnosing heating connections on large electrical panel
• NE3H, Joe:
  • Spoke at length with a bunch of old acquaintances from Taiwan
• KC3VZU, Bob:
  • Installing some coax and a 220MHz rig
• KD3AGU, Richard:
  • Licensed 3 weeks ago
  • Setting up DMR
  • Listening to a net in Ephrata
• K3DMM, Denny:
  • 16F outside, so no fun standing outside for satellite work
  • Tuned some mobile antennas
  • Worked a couple ISS passes
  • Good SO-50 pass
  • Looking forward to lunch on Thursday
• WA3WIJ, Ron:
  • Rebuilding Halicrafters radio with caps and tubes
  • Preparing for straight key night
• KC3ZBI, Ron:
  • Working on an outside antenna
  • Trying for 12 days of Christmas Event
• N7JMS, Jon:
  • Got some new countries on FT8/FT4
  • Building a 10M loop antenna
  • Is there any C4FM or Fusion available in the Harrisburg area?
    • K3DMM, Denny: 447.925

My Week in Radio

• ARRL 10m contest:
  • 13 CW contacts logged on paper
  • iambic keyer set to 20 wpm somewhat confidently
  • still relying on radio to decode for me

News from Others

• KC3YSM, Steve: 10M contest - Spain, Colombia, Poland, France, Missisissippi, Florida
• K3FHA, John:
  • using a voltage reduce box to power an old piece of equipment
  • swapping meters with salvage equipment from ebay
• KC3NZT, Harvey: 10M contest
• AF3Z, Jim: weekend sprintathon with SKCC.
• KC3SCY, Luke: listening to DX (Ohio) AM MW on his crystal set.
• KV3JGB, Matt: starting a morse class

Questions

• W3JAM, Jeff:
  • Unsatisfied with antenna mount on chimney.
  • Glen Martin Engineering used to have roof towers.
  • Looking for some non-penetrating roof mounts: cinder blocks or sandbags.
  • Has anyone used any Martin or Carlson roof towers?
  • Trying to mount a 70ft tower.
  • WA3VEE, Ron: sending a link to an eham article.
• AF3Z, Jim: When is the voltage rating on a fuse important? 20A, 250V vs 20A, 35V?
  • KC3RFG, Jim:
    • the voltage rating is the max at which it’ll properly react when it opens. If voltage rating isn’t high enough, it might not melt far enough and still be able to arc at the higher voltage.
  • NA3CW, Chuck:
    • it may have more physical features like casing material, spring loading to break the connection more, or interrupting current quickly.
  • WA3VEE, Ron: Look for PDF called “Fuseology”.
• WA3VEE, Ron: What do we tell new HAMs?
  • WA3VEE, Ron: HT is pretty useless.
  • KC3RFG, Jim: Resist the urge to buy, but collect lots of info before making too many decisions.
  • KC3YIG, Dave:
    • Don’t by afraid to ask questions of a good group.
    • Let people know if you’re looking for equipment, so others can help you get started.
  • KC3YSM, Steve: Find yourself an elmer, and ask questions on 985.
  • NA3CW, Chuck:
    • The perfect is the enemy of getting on the air.
    • Good enough is good enough.
    • Get used equipment.
    • Borrow equipment.
    • Don’t make any big investments before you know what you want.
  • K3FHA, John: ARRL has an operating manual with advice.
  • WA3VEE, Ron: Even old operating manuals are useful.
  • KC3WWC, John: Don’t worry about what doesn’t work. Get some wire in the air.
  • KC3OOK, Bill: Hams are helpful, so ask questions.
  • WA3VEE, Ron: Listen to the radio, learn, get help.

My Week in Radio

• Monitoring some technical discussions
  • tips on satellite repeaters, including listening duplex
  • some radios have talk-around feature, which I’ve only done accidentally when misconfiguring the radio to talk on the repeater output
• FT Challenge over the weekend
  • lots of activity on FT4, FT8, and subbands outside the usual
  • found wsjtx-improved available on my Debian machine:
    • better colors, location labels, and filters
• Learning obvious things about AllStar last week:
  • my node is simplex, so while the net is transmitting, I can’t throw any DTMF at the node to control it
  • minor delay resulted in lots of missed prefixes

News From Others

• W8CRW, CR: setting up for 10m
• KC3SCY, Luke: doing some good work on 10m
• KC3SQI, Wayne: POTA and 10m
• AF3Z, Jim:
  • worked some of Europe on CW
  • cleaning up radio stuff, workbench, dealing with excess hunks of wire

Questions

• KC3TMZ, Matt: Looking to upgrade the coax run through a window. Should he get an MFJ passthrough or better recommendations?

  • a couple people have some homebrew panels like the MFJ
  • some have the MFJ panel
  • others suggest passing a barrel adapter through the wall
  • KC3WWC, John: there’s thin coax and flat coax for the purpose

• KC3SQI, Wayne: The battery for the radio’s memory only lasts a couple weeks, so he runs a 12V wall wart to keep it powered, but also has a 35-amp 13.8V supply he wants to use. He isolates them with relays, but is there a solar controller way to switch. Blocking diodes? Recommendations?

  • WA3KFT, John: his 7300 doesn’t have that problem. He uses a 12V bus on the desk. His 12V bus is powered by AC power supply on one side, and a 12V battery on the other side. so there’s always power. A blocking diode would need to be 30Amp.
  • KC3RFG, Jim: The manual says power it a couple hours at least monthly to maintain that battery which holds clock and settings. Memories are on the SD card.

My Week in Radio

Contesting

I finished the FT Challenge. There was no special exchange this year. We could use other defined subbands in addition to the regular frequencies to alleviate crowding. We could work anyone, even if they’re not participating explicitly.

I operated QRP, so it was nice to find the quieter subbands and more FT4 activity. You earned multipliers for each 3000km, so I don’t really know on my score yet.

I found wsjtx-improved on the Debian Linux repository, so used that. I saw the color improvements, the better location labels with states, and it had filters.

AllStar

I learning some obvious things about AllStar: it can’t hear my DTMF if it’s currently transmitting, since it’s simplex, so it’s hard to control on a busy net.

Yagi in the Wind

Finally, I watched my home-built yagi flapping around on that windy day. I guess I can stop worrying about it, since it held up fine.

I used my Allstar for tonight’s 985 Roundtable as a test, since my antenna had been blowing around all day. I wasn’t not sure which way it would be pointing.

It’s really easy to miss the first word or 2, or prefixes of callsigns. I was listening along on RF as well. I got 2 random restarts of the Allstar connection, and I learned that I can’t send any commands to the radio while the node is transmitting simplex on RF.

The 985 Winter Field Day will be at Lines Self Storage in Chester Springs, PA.

My Week in Radio

• Built an Allstar node from a PI 4 and a USB-C radio dongle to reach 985
• Stumbled into and recognized some Olivia-8/250 on 20M
• Lots of ISS repeater traffic at convenient times on my good ol’ 1/4 wave antenna in the tree
• Got the radio blog up-to-date with all my adventures
• Listened to Jim, AF3Z, talk about sideswiper keys, and I might give it a try as i’ve changed the way I’ve been using my iambic paddle to almost never squeeze.
• looking forward to FT Challege

Questions

• KC3WWC, John: I have the basic Allstar node configured. Should I leave it connected to 985 all the time? I recognize some of the repeater features, so what other cool things should I have this node do?
  • W3CRW, CR:
    • using it for a few years
    • not always connected
    • switch to other nodes
    • always disconnect from one node before connecting to another to avoid linking.
    • has a node in 2 vehicles to supplement the reception.
  • WA3VEE, Ron:
    • best thing for 985
    • not connected all the time
    • uses HTs anywhere in the house
    • operated at long distances
    • be careful to not cross-link
    • in vermont, connected to 53085, simplex 446.100, unknowingly connected the repeater to the entire vermont network
  • W3DIB, Greg:
    • Joe is adamant about avoiding crosslinks to other repeaters.
    • other danger: if you are always connected, someone else could link to you and cross-link.
      • prevent other nodes from linking to me.
      • disallow every other nodes
    • computer security:
      • keep the node up-to-date and secured.
      • it used to be ancient versions of debian and asterisk
      • now it’s much better….allstar 3
      • careful about forwarding ports to it.
      • uses a VM, flipperphone. will try to get a tutorial together.
    • W3CRW, CR:
      • supermon on the node allows cool monitoring with web access
      • On Tuesday’s at 20:00, there is a tech net on the East Coast Reflector. The net usually runs a couple of hours. You can connect, to the Reflector via Allstar on 27339, 45225 or 45192.
• KC3RFG, Jim: When you setup a station and all the gadgets in the RF chain, where does a wattmeter prefer to be?
  • NA3CW, Chuck:
    • it should be between transmitter and tuner, so you can tell when the tuner is right
    • sounds like bad cable or other installation problems?
    • RF getting back through the chain?
  • KC3RFG will check that jumpers are good
• W3DIB, Greg: On RF now, impressions of the NanoVNA?
  • W3QP, Tim:
    • 100% worth the money
    • depends on use-case
    • needs calibration all the time
    • can be fragile
    • great for building ununs, etc.
    • dedicated VNA can be much more convenient
    • uses nano vna saver python script to capture everything
  • KC3WWC, John:
    • so much cool stuff to measure, so opens up a whole world
    • lots of more features to learn on youtube every week
    • as a technical person, you’ll have a lot of fun.
  • KC3NZT, Harvey:
    • lots more data than a regular analyzer
    • maybe doesn’t need recalibrated all the time.
      • use saved calibrations
  • KC3RFG, Jim:
    • calibrated for each band, saved it, and recalls them.
    • does lots more connected to the computer