Net

My Week in Radio

• I met some 985ers on Friday morning at the tailgate and breakfast.
• I heard a bit of the ARISS mission talking to students last week
• I have APRS working
  • UV-K5 running egzumer
    • VOX mode
    • Sensitive
  • Pixel 6 Pro
    • Volumes way up, nearly 100%
  • BTech audio cable
  • APRSDroid
    • AFSK mode
  • Saw decodes on the phone
  • Saw myself show up on https://aprs.fi map
• Evolve 3 laptop is working with Linux completely:
  • network
  • sound
  • used it for a pota activation
• Time to also slim down the go box for POTA as it’s gotten heavy.
• 2m dipole in the tree working well for a couple weeks, so it’s time to change.
  • next: try building a ground-plane quarter-wave with radials
  • it’ll feed better from the bottom
• Trying other firmware on the Quansheng radios
  • mixes of features I want and don’t want
• W3FIS, Paul Ross, sent me a small box of some radio gadgets to explore
• I’ve been seeing people recommend using a CW decoder
  • maybe try the decoder in my radio
  • get some practice keying, instead of waiting
• York Hamfest is on Saturday

17 people attended the net.

My Week in Radio

• POTA: Ridley Creek, east of West Chester
  • 21.56m efrw
  • embarrassing tangle of string, 30 minutes
  • got New Zealand!
• POTA: Presque Isle State Park, Erie PA
  • eclipse
  • 21.56 efrw
  • operated next to my brother, kc3wry from the same picnic table
  • I worked 10m and he worked 40m
  • our data logs will be used my HAMSCI people, University of Scranton
• Caught Pitcairn Island DXpedition, VP6G, on 5w FT8 10m.
  • operating shifted, and was super quiet
  • my first OC
• Operating HT at 5W
  • dipole high in a tree
  • too sensitive for this cheap HT
  • FM bandstop filter to clean up the reception, especially for 985
  • TX though it without any fire!
• Modified the database in my hf radio to mark the bandplan on the waterfall
• started a website for all my notes since october

985 Breakfast on Friday

• Lots of coax, antennas, analyzers, etc for sale.

Halyard on dipole install

• AF3Z, Jim
• Having a full halyard loop of rope to the pulley (like a flagpole) allows you to pull it up or down, whatever is needed.
• Avoids having a pulley up the tree with no rope because an end gets away.

Dipole in the Attic

• KCYYIT, Dave
• Built the fan dipole for 6m and 10m in the attic.
• Tuned it with nanovna
• Not too tricky or ambitious: only the 2 bands.

Mud Mosey

• Event at great marsh institute
• Course marshals used gmrs ch 17.
• 10 ham operators to help coordinate operations.
• Used simplex freq 147.12MHz
• Tom was net control

APRS

• KC3YVQ, Jack
• Does APRS kerchunk N3FYI?
  • We don’t think so. It should transmit and receive on standard 144.390MHz

My Week in Amateur Radio

• Overload on UV-K5 with better antennas
  • UV-K5 & UV-K6 for comparison - not broken
  • Balance antenna location good enough but not too good
  • FM bandstop filter helps a whole lot
• Modifying params database on Xiegu X6100
  • Now shows me accurate bands and privileges, so I won’t accidentally wander beyond my privileges.
• Picked up an Evolve 3 laptop that runs on 12v
  • Linux is being challenging: wifi and sound.
• Packing camera and radio gear or eclipse trip tomorrow

I checked into simplex net west again.

I checked into the Morning Grind on K3IR today. The questions was: plans for solar eclipse? I transmitted successfully through the FM bandstop filter from rtl-sdr.com. The filter has helped immensely to hold 2m signals with sensitive external antenna.

I failed to check-in do to RF issues, but my summary is still good.

My Week in Amateur Radio

• Antenna movement
  • Trying my dipole antennas in new places
    • hanging dipole in back yard
    • still getting debilitating interference over 985
    • 21 and k3ir coming in pretty good
  • Restrung the EFRW antenna for HF
    • a little higher, straighter in the tree
  • It’s great fun to throw wires and strings in trees
• Overload on UV-K5 with better antennas
  • UV-K5 & UV-K6 for comparison - not broken
  • Balance antenna location good enough but not too good
  • Going to try a bandstop filter, but not sure about transmitting through it
  • Love the firmware options on Quansheng radios, but do I need a better radio?
  • It kills me that I’m so marginal for accessing my favorite repeaters.
• Modifying params database on xiegu x6100
  • Now shows me accurate bands and privileges, so i won’t accidentally wander beyond my privileges.
  • Modified the source code and rebuilt the database from my source
• I picked up an Evolve 3 laptop that runs on 12v
  • Getting linux installed on it
• Still learning CW
  • 20wpm
  • It’s so difficult to stay focused copying at 20wpm even for 1 minute

I think I was having antenna trouble, so I couldn’t check in. I only listened.

• KA3TKW has digipeaters
  • 145.010 FM digipeater
  • 28.105 USB digipeater
  • packet radio is free
• FM satellites that are easy to use
  • ISS
    • packet digipeater
    • voice
    • 10:35pm good pass
  • SO-50
• Look into digi-pi

This Week in Ham Radio

• I keep tweaking the outside 2m dipole
  • I got it a little higher
  • It tests different day to night
  • Signal is good then gone every so many seconds
  • Checked it for loose connections in the wind. It seems fine.
• I’ve been learning to configure fldigi more
• BARTG RTTY contest over the weekend
  • I finally successfully ran the frequency for a bit calling cq and getting responses
  • I stuck to the 5W QRP class
• I’m scanning more frequencies for satellite repeaters
• Weather is nicer, so I got out on my bicycle. It’s time to activate some parks (on the bike?). The Tram mirror mount for vertical antenna might clamp nicely to the bag rack.

This Week in Ham Radio

• Tried a couple RTTY sprints
  • tough to get configured in 30 minutes
  • had to fix up logs
• BARTG (British Amateur) RTTY Contest
  • I’m getting more advanced on my fldigi setup
  • 27 contacts
  • 5W to qualify QRP class
• The Quansheng charging on its base causes a mess of interference for 40m on my X6100
• I chatted with Tom (KA3TKW) the other day and added a few satellites to scan on my Quansheng for random repeater traffic
• egzumer firmware scans very fast
• I’m looking forward to some POTA now that weather’s getting better.
• I’ve been using the same antenna for too long.

This Week in Ham Radio

• RTTY NA Sprint
• The 2m dipole is flopping around outside on this windy day.
• I heard the ISS pass on scan. That’s always pretty cool.
• I checked into the Simplex Net in Lancaster County I reached the West check-in to Mount Joy with my external antenna and my Quansheng UV-K5 running 5W.