Technet

My Week in Radio

• I did field day with a group out toward Parkesburg
  • I saw a fancy satellite station for sideband, etc in action
• Attended the lunch on Thursday
• Had Direwolf monitoring a plain ol’ Quansheng to decode packet
• Btech UV-PRO
  • inexpensive
  • APRS location and messaging
  • KISS TNC over BT
  • WoAD on android
  • Winlink
  • Terminal to access BBS on KA3TKW
• Trying to build a tactical delta loop
  • 4:1 balun
  • 2 17 ft whips
  • 25 ft wire for the top
  • 3d-printed base

Others

• K3EA, Greg:
  • QSO parties
  • upcoming contests
  • Solar weather
  • DX
    • Wake Island on 10M
    • Gambia, 10-20m, FT8
      • our sunrise
    • Rowanda, 10-30m, FT8, CW
  • New DXCC programs
  • Cards from bureau
  • Will talk at march lunch about Hamcation in Orlando
• WB3LNY, George:
  • headed to Hamcation in Orlando
• KB9AWS, Bern:
  • New batteries
  • Appreciate the group you have, use the repeater
• VE3HOH, Pete:
  • Working on a combo nvis dipole for 40 meters
    • 20 ft above ground
    • Inverted V
    • Combo it with a vertial for 10M
  • Looking at military antennas for manpack
    • 30MHz-512MHz rubber duck on eBay
  • Looking at some low-power, remote receivers
• K3SWZ, Glenn:
  • Worked 20M helping test a new DX station in Kenya
• KA3TKW, Tom:
  • 145.825MHz ISS packet digipeater
• KB3MIJ, Tray:
  • Repairing some repeater hardware
  • Got a replacement generator for a site
• K3DMM, Denny:
  • Lunch on Thursday
  • HT with Arrow to make ISS contacts and SO-50
  • Try Arrow from inside
• KC3ZBI, Ron:
  • Lunch on Thursday
  • Starting figuring out LoTW
• N3LJP, Bill:
  • Looking for charger for AA, AAA lithium batteries that runs off 120V.
  • KC3BOB, Bob:
    • Hobby King is a good mail-order shop for battery needs
  • KC3WWC, John:
    • I like my EBL chargers off Amazon
    • Inexpensive
• KC3VZU, Bob:
  • Ham lunch, liked the presentation
  • Going to get HF rig up and running

Swap and shop

• WB3LNY, George:
  • Looking for a teletype
• VE3HOH, Pete:
  • Some yagis for weak signal work
  • Drake TR7
  • Kenwood 830
• KA3TKW, Tom:
  • 25W Motorola mobile rigs
  • RadioShack SW receivers
  • Panasonic SW portable
• KB3MIJ, Tray:
  • Jet turbine generator

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

• 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

Week in Radio

• Last weekend was POTA weekend: 4 setups and 5 activations in 2 days around Michaux State Forest area
• Morsle to practice copying CW
• My first 2 CW contacts hunting POTA
  • 40m
  • X6100
  • 71-foot EFRW
  • 3D-printed Iambic paddles
  • Fell apart pretty quickly, but got into their logs.
• Testing the footprint of the KA3TKW VHF/UHF repeaters to high on a hill. near Wrightsville with my trusty Quansheng at the SPARC picnic
• New house
  • Extending my meshtastic network with a minimal external antenna
  • Strong enough into 21 at 5 watts
  • Flagpole mast with a tape measure yagi to try to get back east to Parkesburg.
• I was up way too late redesigning an antenna winder for the smaller balun I like.
  • I need to get the 3d printer and software going again since the move
• Xiegu x6100 has another dangerous firmware update that I’ll try in the near future.
  • The last firmware stopped all TX, so we’ll see what happens this time.

Other News

• A RTTY contest coming up this weekend
• AO-91: Monday, 10:15pm EDT
• SO-50: 437.795FM
• The 6m 53.21 repeater is up.

My Week in Radio

• outside wire broke and rehung a couple times
  • avoiding tension on it
  • cheap throwing weight from big sockets from Habitat Restore
• my first summer of HF: May not be as exciting as past Winter/Spring
• tape measure yagi for direction-finding/tx
  • Quansheng shows dB and S-level of the signal, so going to work nicely for direction-finding
  • found a direction-finding map application for my phone to help with triangulation: SigTrax
  • may go chasing a curious source noises in my area
  • local club is gearing up for a tx hunt
• POTA / Field Day on the National Mall in DC
  • GRA-1900t whip with coil with jumper
    • noted resonant frequencies at each jumper fully extended, so lookup, jumper, then shorten to tune.
  • ran out all the batteries, but got the park activated
• POTA around York/Lancaster
  • oops, tick bite and lyme disease
• sorting all the gear for radio, electronics, other hobbies.

Other Info

• packet radio
  • 145.010 FM 12db digipacket
  • 28.105 USB 300bd digipacket
• 13 colonies activity this week
• Firecracker Hamfest this weekend
  • Triangle Communication will have lots of gear to unload
• satellites
  • ISS
    • 145.800mhz
    • 145.825 digipeater packet
    • 437.800 fm repeater
    • Monday morning
    • Tuesday morning
    • Wednesday morning
  • AO-91
    • Monday
    • Wed
    • Thurs
  • SO-50
    • Tues 7pm
    • etc

• ARRL/FCC meeting
  • setup at 10:30
  • lunch at 11:00
  • meeting at 11:00
• ka3tkw - tom
  • ft8 on 10m on quansheng
• kc3wry
• kc3den
• kc3wwc
  • there for the meeting
  • rehabilitated project j-pole
    • 450 ohm ladder line
    • tuned it with the nanovna
    • resoldered it
    • west to harrisburg
    • east to parkesburg
    • Quansheng uvk5
  • had uvk5 randomly pick up ISS repeater at 2am or so
  • xlr mic cable, untested, available for ARRL meeting
  • always repacking and organizing my bags for optimal carry
• k3ea
  • DX opportunities
    • good propagation for 10m/12m
    • Clipperton / fox and hound
    • Saint Helena
• winter field day
  • Harrisburg people are hitting some parks
  • 97 repeater in York