Net

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

My Week in Radio

• I used N3KZ 440 repeater in York from Lancaster
  • always surprised on their range.
  • thought UHF didn’t go far.
• I built an Allstar node from a PI 4 and a USB-C radio dongle to reach a fringe repeater.
• I’m looking forward to FT challenge
• I stumbled into and recognized some Olivia-8/250 on 20M, and some SSTV
• I’ve been hearing lots of ISS repeater traffic at convenient times on my good ol’ 1/4 wave antenna in the tree.
• I got the radio blog up-to-date with all my adventures.

Others

• 145.010 packet repeater
• K3EA, Greg:
  • No contests this past weekend
  • Next weekend:
    • ARRL 160m CW at night
    • FT challenge - normal exchanges
  • December 14-15
    • 10m contest, phone/CW, 48 hrs, should be great.
  • https://contestcalendar.com
  • Propagation should be normal and above normal
• WB3LNY, George:
  • Working on ISS access.
• KA3TKW, Tom:
  • ARISS mission 1622UTC, 145.800
  • New satellite on Nov 4, AO-123, ASRTU, FM, 4-day pass
  • Easy satellites
    • ISS: 145.800FM, 145.825 packet, 437.800FM downlink
    • AO-123, 435.400FM down
    • SO-50, 437.795FM down
• K3DMM, Denny:
  • Travel and simplex contacts
• K3AQ, Kenny:
  • New laptop from Best Buy to run fldigi, etc.
• KB3MIJ:
  • Some fldigi on HF
  • Some repeater work at reesers.
• W3MW, Don:
  • Most bands on a vertical antenna.
  • Mounting some antennas on the roof with a contractor.
  • Built some more receive pre-amps.

Swap and Shop

• VE3HOH, Pete
  • Rohn 25 sections + brackets
  • 8 yagis for 432.
  • Kushcraft yagi for 2 meters
• KA3TKW, Tom:
  • Cheap UHF radios
  • CMD-1550
  • Shortwave receivers

My Week in Radio

• Took down my 2M antennas to straighten and resolder.
• Catching up the radio blog with my recent experiences.
• Trying F4HWN firmware on Quansheng radios
  • previous firmware, AUBSUK, for my Quansheng radio was skipping channels when I activated more than 1 scan list.
  • larger display with single VFO
  • rethinking my scan lists
  • the S-meter is calibrated differently from the other firmware
• no questions, because I should just be reading the antenna book
• FT Challenge coming up in 2 weekends. *** Others
• KD3ACF, JT:
  • acquired a j-pole for the attic
  • new ham with an HT
  • magmount on the car, tested with WA3VEE from Manheim High School
• W8CRW, CR:
  • 985 activities
  • Red Rose activities
  • Salem CCARS acitvity
• W3QP, Tim:
  • trip to HRO
  • planning trips
• WA3VEE, Ron:
  • working on an old receiver
    • re-capping
    • Hammerland hq140x
    • terrible, loud 120hz buzz, so ordered capacitors to replace them
    • cleaned
    • fixed
    • needs just a little more work, alignment
  • got over to KC3YSM, Steve’s place to help with his antenna
    • analyzed
    • Buckmaster OCF dipole
• KC3RFG, Jim:
  • watching 10m
  • Croatia, Belgium
  • repairing the 160m/75m dipole, new balun
• AF3Z, Jim:
  • testing his 1-tube QRP transmitter
  • practiced some CW with a friend on 10m
  • found sweden and belgium lower in the band.
• KC3OOK, Bill:
  • 985 net, simplex net
  • working on tower
  • helping Joe, W3GMS, assemble his new tower
• KC3SCY, Luke:
  • lots of time off from school this week
  • 10m has been wide-open
  • spent some time on 40m SSB and AM
• KC3VRW, Phil:
  • attempted to build a 10m inverted-V
  • MFJ tuner
  • trying tech HF frequencies

Questions

• W3QP, Tim: Follow up on battery measurements for the TSA, Watt-hours instead of Amp-hours.
  • bigger batteries have bigger thermal events.
  • Wh is the amount of potential power.
  • Wh doesn’t require doing the math to consider voltage in combo with Ah.
  • 18Ah at 12V.
  • The nominal voltage for the cells is less.
  • Expected usable volts are even less, so Wh is less than just V*A.
  • Nominal voltage can be different across different battery chemistries.
  • Nominal voltage may not be obvious.
  • 11.1 Nominal voltage might be 12.6V at peak charge.
  • Volts and Amps are important for application, but Watt-hours is better overall for capacity.
• AF3Z, Jim:
  • tinkering with Hartley oscillator: mica capacitors, ceramic capacitors, what’s the difference of all the different capacitors?
    • WA3KFT, John:
      • ratings: capacitance, voltage.
      • The “dry electrolytic” is a paste, not oil.
      • main purpose is filtering AC converted to DC.
      • filtering some frequencies
      • ceramic capacitors are pretty stable, until overheated.
      • mica capacitors are small capacitances, pF. used for frequency stablizing.
      • variable air capacitor
      • oil filled are higher capacitance and used for low frequencies in power supplies, etc.
    • WA3VEE, Ron:
      • film capacitors
        • different dielectric
        • used for audio.
      • paper capacitor
      • dielectric is anything that separates the plates.
      • air capacitors
    • W3QP, Tim:
      • silver mica are maybe lower loss than ceramic
      • multi-layer capacitors for higher currents
    • W3DIB, Greg:
      • negatives of certain capacitors:
        • some dielectrics leak
        • tantalums can dead-short, like in a power supply.
      • saw a cool video of people building filters for cheap radios in places with heavy RF to keep them working better.
    • WA3VEE, Ron:
      • they leak when they get overheated.
      • leads to the plate have a little resistance so generate heat.
      • capacitor can have a vent that leaks under pressure.
    • NA3CW, Chuck:
      • capacitors are deceptively complex
      • all components have some bit of capacitance, inductance, resistance.
      • vacuum dialectric for especially high voltage.
      • lots of trade-off characteristics
      • some are piezoelectric (microphone), like a condenser microphone
• WA3VEE, Ron:
  • homework: does a capacitor allow current to flow through it? KC3SQI, Wayne:
• solar telescope demos on December 11 at some park

My Weeks in Radio

• QRP on a couple hawaiian islands
• not much 2m activity
  • added some repeaters and scanned
• POTA
  • Xiegu x6100 mostly turned up to 8W
  • mostly 10m-30m and everything in between
  • challenging to be on an island where you have to go thousands of miles or you reach no one.
  • antennas:
    • 40M EFHW where I had room,
    • 41ft long EFRW with less room
    • vertical whip and coil attached to a fishing pole for a less conspicuous setup on some beaches
  • 6 parks and 2 trails on 2 islands:
    • sandy beaches
    • rocky lava fields
    • inside diamondhead caldera
    • atop steaming kilauea
  • reached:
    • west: Australia, New zealand, Fiji, Japan, Russia, China, South Cook Islands, Samoa
    • east: North Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, Dominican Republic, Argentina
  • practiced some CW on the beach when I didn’t get out the computer
• back to a home park yesterday, but the weather was not as nice.
• took down my home-made 2m antennas and straightened them up.
• trying F4HWN 3.7 firmware for Quansheng radios
  • from a scanner-centered AUBSUK firmware that was skipping some channels
• looking forward to that FT Challenge contest

Other News

• contests
  • CQ WW CW this weekend
  • no contests for the Thanksgiving weekend
  • following weekend
    • 160m CW arrl contest
    • FT challenge contest
• KA3TKW: R&L electronics: TYT MD-9600, GD-77 open firmware
• digipeat through the ISS
• high pass of ISS tonight at 9:10pm.
• 224.220 repeater is up and running, but not linked yet.
• KC3NNO: mini dxpedition to canada

My Weeks in Radio

• QRP on a couple Hawaiian islands
• Not much 2m activity on the islands
  • added some repeaters and scanned
• POTA
  • no summits
  • all successful activations via FT8/FT4
    • allowed me to use pskreporter to study my propagation on different bands, even if other stations didn’t answer my call
  • practiced some CW on the beach when I didn’t get out the computer
  • mostly turned up to 8W
  • mostly 10m-30m and everything in between
  • challenging to be on an island where you have to go thousands of miles or you reach no one.
  • 6 parks and 2 trails on 2 islands:
    • inside Diamondhead caldera
    • atop steaming Kilauea
    • rocky lava fields
    • sandy beaches
  • reached:
    • west: Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Japan, Russia, China, South Cook Islands, Samoa
    • east: North Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, Dominican Republic, Argentina
  • antennas:
    • 40M EFHW where I had room,
    • 21.5M-long EFRW with less room
    • vertical whip and coil attached to a fishing pole for a less conspicuous setup on some beaches
• It may be time to start cobbling together an allstar node.

Others

• W3JAM, Jeff: Jerry Sevic (w2fmi) books on transformers and baluns
• KC3TMZ, Matt:
  • Lives in a park
  • Built a dipole and analyzed it
    • really good SWR: 1.048:1
    • 20 ft into the tree
    • reached California on 20m
    • ran into ARRL Sweepstakes
    • dipole in a tree is a lot of work
    • playing with Inovato Hamclock
• WA3VEE, Ron:
  • worked ARRL Sweepstakes a bit
  • cleared the bench
  • may have gear to sell soon
• KB3ZIM, Bob:
  • avoided ARRL Sweepstakes
  • enjoying 10m
  • some 10m AM as well
  • spent time in Honolulu and enjoyed the Diamondhead years ago
• KC3RFG, Jim:
  • had a balun fail
• KC3YSM, Steve:
  • getting an HF antenna up with help from Chuck and Bill
  • George lent the launcher
• KC3TYX, Vic:
  • Sweepstakes: 75 contacts
  • VaraC for keyboard chat on HF
    • lost settings and had to setup again
• W3QP, Tim:
  • found the 4th edition of the balun book on archive.org
  • winding 2 wires around the toroid is a lot like winding coax
  • winding 4 wires in opposite directions will give more bandwidtch
• NA3CW, Chuck:
  • learned lots from W2FMI book
    • W2FMI tested everything extensively
  • got Steve’s antenna in the air…through the vines, thorns, etc
  • normal nets, including PMA AM net.
  • working on an ultimate transmatch tuner
• KC3OOK, Bill:
  • helped with Steve’s antenna today
  • 2m band opening on Sunday: PA to Ottawa on DXView
• W8CRW, CR:
  • 985 breakfast
  • showed wife around 10m tech area
• AF3Z, Jim:
  • built a Hartley transmitter for 1929 AMA event
    • 1 tube
    • 1-2W
    • worked 5 stations over 80 minutes
• KV3JGB, Matt:
  • 985 breakfast
  • launched an antenna with help from 985-ers after breakfast
  • starting cwops
• W3MFB, Mike:
  • just chatting locally on the radio
• W3FES, Fred:
  • building out a new, larger ham desk
• W3MOW, Mike:
  • quiet week

Questions

• KC3TMZ, Matt:
  • setting up shack in the garage, and ordered a hamclock. wifi is a bit weak. can he extend with a yagi?
    • W3CRW, CR:
      • years ago, had a yagi antenna for wifi, and it worked
      • wifi extender/repeater does even better
    • W3DIB, Greg:
      • trench fiber instead of cat5/6.
        • isolated from electrical storms
      • if you don’t need a ton of bandwidth, try wifi halow bridge on 900mhz.
        • 4Mb
      • yagi antenna may pull in noise from others
    • KB3ZIM, Bob: Adam, KB3ZUV, another 985-er, is working on a similar project
  • flying with HTs?
    • WA3VEE, Ron:
      • bring a good copy of your license printed from cores
      • batteries must be carried on, not checked
    • KB3ZIM, Bob:
      • batteries are the concern
      • check size with the airline
    • KC3WWC, John:
      • wonderous bag of radio gear
        • HT
        • 10Ah lifepo4
        • QRP radio
        • antenna wires
        • if you check any gear, separate out the batteries to carry
    • WA3VEE, Ron:
      • sent link to website
      • limit 8wh, do the math.
      • precheck helps smooth the screening
    • W8CRW, CR:
      • CR has more trouble with carrying powertools since they’re not marked than HT
• KB3ZIM, Bob:
  • wants to get a wire for 160M in the air.
  • could be a long wire with a tuner
  • what’s a good length for a random wire
  • W3QP, Tim: lots of tables out there
  • KC3WWC: google “udel random wire”
    • always choke and counterpoise to avoid common mode current
  • KB3ZIM, Bob:
    • google “ham radio secrets”
      • talks about tuning the counterpoise
    • could try a super-slinky
• W3DIB, Greg:
  • recently got on RF instead of
  • has anyone reverse-engineered the serial connections for Yaesu
  • W3QP, Tim: could use wireshark to look at serial traffic through usb serial adapter
  • KC3WWC, John: there’s cat and drivers for everything
  • W3DIB, Greg: this is a lesser radio without cat control, so he’s looking to control all the comms himself