Bought my FIL a baofeng uv5r.

He brought it over and I used chirp to set his up like mine.

No. Didn't actually stop until the throttle down in Salado South of Belton. Took me 6 hours to get from essentially I35W and I820 down to I35 and 71. Took me 3 hours to go north the next morning.

By air wasn't much better though. Love, DFW, Hobby and Intercontinental were closed due to rain and wind...Abilene, El Paso, Lubbock, and Amarillo were closed due to snow and ice. San Antonio and Austin were the only two airports receiving in Texas that day.

Early bird check-ins at 02:00 UTC on 75 m.  Preamble at 03:00 UTC, with check-ins from mobile,
fixed portable, and QRP stations first (after any emergency or time dated traffic, of course), then
early birds called by number given.  After their turn to burn we take general check-ins.  We go
QRT just before 04:00 UTC, at which time we go QRT and the frequency is handed over to a net
on the west coast.

This net, when propagation is more usual (poor the last few nights) covers roughly FL, SC, NC
on over to west TX, and up to OK, AR, KY, TN, OH, IL, MI, WI to the north.  A big chunk of the
mid south.  

We meet Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights.  Another net that covers pretty much the same
region uses the frequency on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights with some of the same
regulars.

I'm the regular Tuesday night Net Control now (I was doing two nights/wk) and Assistant Net
Control on Sunday and Thursday.  This past Sunday there was a storm over the regular Sunday
Net Control and he had to unplug and dodge the lightning, so I took the net.

Anyone interested in particpating, please send an IM for further details.

I've been busy with radio stuff lately.  In past two weeks:
1. Installed two new antennas, a 20m EDZ and a 40m half square
2. Repaired our club repeater echolink node.  (Computer died so I dug out an old machine and got it installed on that temporarily.)
3. Set up my radios so I can work digital modes remotely using teamviewer on my vacation in Mexico
4. Made first satellite QSO via ISS packet digipeater

Alright, I finally got my PRC-320 all rigged up to run on solar power (two 10Watt powerfilm solar panels, which weight next to nothing and fold up damn near small enough to fit in my pants pocket).  Run in series they get me the 24V I need for the Clansman.

I also got a portable antenna rigged, which uses a jackite pole.

If the bands weren't crap around it, and we had some sun (maybe this weekend) I can give it a proper demo.

Right now just using the whip antenna, but nobody coming in strong enough to contact.

I may actually be able to go remote by hiking into some place (no summits in Florida, the biggest peak around here is at the landfill).

Had to replace the pull point for the 80m FWL feed point (damn squirrels chewed it in two), so broke out the slingshot and fishline.  Actually got the replacement across on a higher limb - easier now the leaves are gone.   Decided to take advantage of the higher point & added another 20' of homebrew 4" ladder line and then snugged things up higher, this also opens the diamond shape a bit more.. A net effect was to lower the freqs of the sweet spots a bit.   It is almost as high as the 160m FWL on that side of the house now.

Nick

I made about 150ft of open-wire feed-line.

Zip ties and 12awg wire. My hands still are torn up.

Added Loop Recorder to the shack PC.  Set it up with a launch script to create a new folder for the day, if needed, and to spin off a time/date flagged .mp3 file every 10 minutes while its running.  It takes its input from the TS-590 usb codec (w/beep mix to include tx mon).  May change the interval later, but I'll try this for a while to see how it goes.

I played with the trial version for a bit, then figured it added enough convenience to be worth the $29.95 registration.  The recording buffer allows overlap so nothing saved gets irretrievably clipped (you can also access, clip and save from the current buffer without interferring with the process).

It should help with "old timers" memory glitches regarding calls...

Nick

ETA: although an older application, it is running fine on a win 10 pro 64 bit machine

I got into D-Star.  
I bought an ICOM ID-51A+  
I got a DVAP and put it on the air.
I then got the DVAP running on a Raspberry PI.
I bought a DVMega and got it yesterday and am trying to get it configured. It's dual band. I have it working on one band but haven't found any information on using it on two bands.

Picked up a used Kenwood TM-271A to use as a dedicated rig for our 24 x 7 fsqcall mesh network for ARES in Kansas City.  I want to avoid beating up the B-Side of my TM-V71A.  If you are unfamiliar with this digital mode, it is great for establishing an adhoc mesh (or in our case a permanent mesh) for emergency management.  This link sheds a bit more light on to what we are doing: http://www.pcarg.org/fsqcall-kc/

I talked to a few friends on 70cm today that I haven't heard from in a while.  for hours on end.  It was pretty cool :)


FBHO was a common theme.

Did some planning for Winter Field Day with some of my club. We've been more active as a club lately, which is good, and at least half of this effort is new blood, which is great.

Had to buy a new computer to run the virtual machine for my Anan. Moar CPU needed. :/

Now I'm looking at using an open collector bcd decoder to modify the band switch on a decent solid state amp. gah.

I keep intending to reply to this thread, but haven't made the time.  Here goes - over the past 6 weeks or so:

1).  Went mobile with my FT-857D.  I happened upon a guy selling 3 HamSticks at the local swap meet for $5.  I had low expectations - and was pleasantly surprised!  I got the 857 is installed in my Toyota Tacoma, and the antenna mount is attached to the bed rail tie down bar, which leaves it ungrounded (the Tacoma has a plastic bed).  To fix that, I attached braid from the mount to the metal pillar at the rear of the bed (which is part of the body), and ran 10 gauge wire from the mount to the truck frame.  I've got good regional commo on 40 meters (more on that below); have talked across the US on 20 meters and to Japan and South America on 15 meters.    

After my initial success with the hamstick antennas, a elmer / friend gave me a Kenwood branded hamstick style antenna (that I can't recall the model number of at the moment) and another elmer / friend gave me one for 80 meters.  I have trouble with RFI shutting the radio down with the 80 meter antenna, but I can make it work if I get it tuned just right and position my ugly balun in exactly the right (hard to repeat) position.  One experiment I did was running coax from my FT-991 in the shack to the 80 meter antenna mounted on my truck...  and testing JT65.  Surprisingly, I've worked many states across the US with it that way.

Then, I got a great deal on an ATAS-120A.  Short story..  love the ease of use / one-button tuning from the FT-857D, but it's not as effective as the hamstick.  Over the past 3 days, I've put 700 miles on my truck from Las Vegas, to Anaheim, CA, western AZ and back to Vegas.  I was able to work some 40 meters with the ATAS 120A, but when I swapped out to a hamstick, the same stations were repeatably better.  The great news is that I had great regional comms with friends in Vegas, and several ragchews with random stations ~within about 250 miles while driving across the desert .  Exactly what I wanted.  Today, I was at an off-road race in Parker, AZ and worked the USS Midway in San Diego from the truck :).  Then I chatted with two friends in Vegas most of the 3 hour drive home.

2).  2M SSB.  One of my elmer / friends gave me a 4 ele 2 meter antenna that I've had up for a number of weeks now, which lets me go horizontal to play SSB.  I'm now a regular check-in on the Southern California 2 meter "Bozo" net (yes, I"m a "bozo").  That's a regular ~145 mile QSO over several mountain ranges!  I have no doubt, though,  that the net control station is doing the heavy lifting.  We also have a local 2M SSB net that I participate in now.  

3).  Packet > mesh network.  I'm on the Las Vegas mesh network (AREDN software), with a 20 mile first hop on 2.4 GHz.  Stations that are 2 and 3 hops away from me have connected their TNCs / packet radios into the mesh network, so I can reach them via the mesh.  Pretty cool...  lots to learn, but I regularly check my Winlink e-mail and the local BBS that way.

4).  Mobile digital / packet.  With my 857D in the truck, I was keeping a SignaLink in there for when I wanted to run portable (mobile) digital.  It occurred to me that with a software modem (using "SoundModem by UZ7HO"), I could also do packet.  The SignaLink is connected to my FT-8800R (or 857D) and to my WinBook tablet and I use that for 2M / 440 packet.  I can also reach back into the mesh network that way.  My third hop on the mesh doesn't have a 440 packet station, but the second hop does.  Since they share TNC ports on the mesh, I can call the third station on 440 and get connected to him over UHF > mesh.  

In other words...  after being licensed for 20 months, I'm still drinking from a fire hose.

ETA:  Well... that got long quick.

Ordered a powerpole crimper. Thought about ordering a RIGrunner.

Ordered 200' of flex-weave copper wire for some antenna work.

Borrowed a Ladder-Loc and 150 feet of ladder line from a friend (to use with the antenna wire).

Do it. those things are awesome.  I particularly like the one that has USB outputs for phone chargers as well:

http://www.powerwerx.com/powerpole-power-distribution/rigrunner-4004-usb-starter-kit.html

Power pole the WORLD! Those will be a huge help. I use to solder them but not now.

Installed the G5RV in a different position on my rooftop.  Made it higher around 15ft and hooked the 703 to it to see how QRP would work.  Tuned to 80m and was able to hit a net somewhere in CA and listen to folks all the way from GA.  However, the other folks could barely hear me.  Next weekend I'll hook the 706MkIIG and try with more power.


By the way, the ISS will broadcast this coming Friday so get your SSTV stuff ready.  

This weekend I set up my shack computer for the first time after moving last year. I also started messing with my RTL-SDR dongle again. I got it last year and had it installed on a different PC, so I had to start from scratch on the shack computer. I was able to copy some SW broadcast stations, local FM broadcast and emergency management. I wasn't able to copy any ham signals, but then again I was running off a 5/8 whip, so that was a long shot. The PC is still XP, so I need to put something else on it.

I drove by a Ham Radio Outlet in Virginia today but did not stop. The truck kept trying to exit the freeway. I did not let it. What's wrong with me? My cheapest visit to HRO was $70. A few visits cost me several grand.

Found a place to stealth camp. Can't sleep without playing with a radio first.

Checked in on an 80m ssb net tonight, after playing around with some stuff. Noticed the outboard meter was looking a bit odd as net control came back & mentioned my signal was a bit lower than usual, but clear and readable. I had been running 5 watts for some wspr testing & forgot to bump the power back up. (was on the 80m FWL for net & net control was about 66 miles out) Probably NVIS, I guess, too far for 5w groundwave?

Nick

Several weeks ago I spent my lunch hour working on ARRL VE accreditation paperwork and questionnaire.
Finally the badge and my certificate came in. Yea buddy! Now I need to figure out what to do with this.

The latest thing I have done (since my last post in this thread) was to download the latest version of Smart SDR (for the Flex radio) and spent the day configuring all my digital software to work with it.
I got WSPR going, got WSJT-X working, got FLDIGI working and had a really nice long qso with a guy on PSK31, and I got RMS Express working and sent three test emails to guys in my local ARES group. Tomorrow I am going to work on being able to run multiple instances of FLDIGI and WSJT-X.

I also installed the software to run D-Star over the Flex and FreeDV on the Flex.


Prior to this, I had some computer issues and didn't use my Flex for months. Possibly since last spring, I don't remember when it was. I sorted out the Windows issues (this all sort of coincided with my upgrade to Windows 10: I had all kinds of soundcard issues that I didn't feel like dealing with for months) and then downloaded updated versions of all my most used software. It is really nice to have the Flex going again.

As a side note: I contracted with some tree trimmers to cut down and remove the stumps for a number of trees including the one that supported one end of my antenna. I told them that when they cut down the trees that they HAD to put my antenna up in a different tree which would make the antenna about 15 or 20 feet higher and would also cause the feedline to drop almost straight down to my shack. I didn't hear from them for months. They finally came to do the work when I was out of town. They called me and told me they did the work and I came home expecting the worst. Low and behold they did exactly what I told them to do including the antenna. My antenna now is exactly where I want it. The point to all this is that this gave me motivation to get back HF which again, I had neglected all summer.

I also got a DVMega running on a Raspberry Pi and am awaiting a case from Hardened Power Systems to turn this DVMega/Raspberry Pi into a portable DV hotspot mainly for mobile D-Star operation.

Hosted a last minute VE session at my house.  Had a guy ready to test but I couldn't leave my AO that day due to being on call for local vol. ambulance.  So, one of the guys picked up another VE and the candidate and headed over.  One new tech as a result.  

Picked up an 857d to put in my shop.  Nice to have something else to listen to when I'm up here.  Eventually, I'll get the extra trinkets to use it for mobile & portable.

For today, I am off to a flying start:
At the gym this morning I watched an episode of Amateur Logic TV while I was on the treadmill. Tommy did a piece about adding a switch to your Raspberry Pi to reboot the Pi, or to shutdown the Pi if you are running the Pi headless. At the end of the segment, he mentioned an App that currently runs on Android devices that can do the same thing without a physical switch. It uses SSH to connect to the Pi over the local network both devices are connected to,  and sends the command reboot or halt to the Pi via your cell phone or tablet using this app.

For those that don't know what I am talking about, this would be if you were using a Raspberry Pi running some stand alone application and you don't have a monitor/keyboard/mouse connected to it. It is just running. So, you have a problem, or you just need to shut it down. You don't want to just pull the power plug because this could possibly corrupt your SD card containing the operating system and your other software. This is just like in Windows: when you want to shut down your computer or restart your computer, you don't just pull the plug, you go down to the start button and click on the button that shuts down the computer the right way only with the Raspberry Pi, you may be running it without a monitor/keyboard/mouse so it isn't that easy.

In my case, I am running a DVAP and a DVMega for D-Star access points. These allow me to use my HT around the house to connect to the D-Star network without going through a repeater. I transmit and receive through the DVAP or the DVMega which is connected to the internet through my home network and then out onto the D-Star network. This allows me to use my HT to talk to people all over the world despite the fact that I have no local D-Star repeaters. I am running both of these devices with a Raspberry Pi and neither has a monitor/keyboard/mouse connected to them. Now when I am in the house, I can control them using a PC also connected to my local network. But, I intend to make the DVMega a portable device that I can take in the car or on trips and using my cell phone as a WiFi hotspot, I can connect to the D-Star network over my cellular data. Another place this might be useful is if I am sitting outside on the porch or I am out in my shed and I want to send a command to the Pi in the house.  So in that case, if I want to reboot the Pi or shutdown the Pi, this presents a problem.
This isn't a big problem: I have my HT programmed to send these commands via RF. So if I want to shut down my DVMega, I can select a radio memory channel that I have programmed and then hit my push to talk and it will send the command to the DVMega/Raspberry Pi and shut it down over RF.

This app does the same thing, but it is kind of cool even though I don't absolutely need it.

So, as soon as I got back home, I downloaded the app and configured it and it works as advertised.

FWIW: this app was written by the same guy (David Grootendorst) who also wrote another very popular D-Star related app called ircDDB remote. This app allows you to select among the various D-Star reflectors and QSY to the reflector you select via your cell phone or tablet. It is basically like changing channels on the radio via your phone or tablet,  Again, you can do this on the radio itself, but I have found this app to be very useful for a number of reasons beyond the scope of this post. One of which is that doing this on the radio takes several button pushes and navigation through a menu, whereas with the Android app, I can just touch one button on the screen and do the same thing. This is especially nice if you want to scan around looking for activity.

Had to re-vamp the wrist rocket line launcher.  The original version used a Zebco 202, respooled with 20 lb. test to pull cord across tree limbs for hanging wire antennae.



I'm guessing I was using it a little harder than designed, it locked up the other day when I was getting set up to pull down a portion of the 160m FWL to get to a non-dropping pull point passthru (which was not allowing the wire to pass freely).   Pulled the reel apart enough to determine it was non-repairable, so ordered a replacement.

I replaced the 202 with a 404, only time will tell if it holds up better.  A plus is that it is physically larger & holds more line.  I often had to add additional line when using the 202 to get the weight back down  to ground level after crossing a high limb.



Nick

Good week for 2 meter repeater net check ins. Our Rhinelander Repeater Club net Monday had 22 check in, followed by 19 for the Iron Range Amateur Radio Club in Iron River, MI. Three Lakes repeater net is this evening, usually 15 - 18 check ins. Great support and participation for our rural area up here. A vibrant and active ham community.

Bought a Samlex 1235M power supply. Should have plenty of power for future plans.

Tiny Trak 4 APRS device is installed in the truck and sort of working. Not sure if I am not hitting the Sayner digipeater every time I transmit, or maybe I need to increase the transmits to more than every five minutes. Will continue to tweak. Our club has an APRS SIG and we are gaining more local users. I counted 10, base and mobile. last Saturday in a two-county area. Cool stuff.

I haven't touched my base HF rigs in 2 months.  

Have 2 mics from 2 ft-1500's that have issues
Got 2 new cables for <10 bux shipped from "Mr. Chung" in China. (via e-bay)
Both arrived within a week & the shipping was free.
One works fine and the other wont carry audio. (all other functions, DTMF etc are fine)
Now to chase out that issue & I'll have the base & mobile both back.
...and not have to  rely on HT's for either..

Have an older Dentron GLA-1000B that needs to be on line... gotta make a coupla jumpers...no pl-259's
..go figure..

 
Any reference to which specific one you got that is so perfect?

It is probably the N9TAX antenna based on the description.  I have one and love it.  On a recent backpacking trip in Arizona I was WAY out of mobile phone service but that antenna along with my Kenwood TH-F6A, I was able to check into nets every night into repeaters that were over 40 miles away.

As far as what I've done this week, I built a universal interface to my Alinco EDX-2 auto tuner that allows me to tune it using any HF radio rather than only an Alinco.  Now my 857D can play indoors and out.

Last week I insttaled a VHF/UHF antenna on my vehicle. I decided not to drill the roof because I may install a full size roof rack soon.
I miss having radios in my vehicle, especially HF radio.


Also before I forget to ask again... Who paid my ARFCOM  membership renewal fee? I can easily afford it but kept procrastinating about it and all of the sudden it was renewed.
Whoever you are, THANK YOU!  I would love to return the favor.

Last weekend I repositioned my G5RV by bringing the center up about 10 feet.  This also changed the position of the ladder line from 45 degrees to nearly 90 degrees and the lowest point of the ladder line is about 5 feet above the ground.  Read the post regarding the Windows bug, corrected it and that has really cleared up the waterfall.  To early to tell if that has improved the Rx as I have no reference to what I may have been missing.

Despite getting 10" of snow yesterday, still looking forward to Spring so I can get out and experiment with portable digital.  Played with AndFlmsg tonight and was very impressed with it's decode sensitivity.  I also want to try Wolphi for comparison.

Had a fairly productive Monday. Dropped the XYL off at the airport, and then juggled cars to get my Jeep into the garage.

My dual band antenna for my FT-857 has been giving high SWR warnings for some time. It lives outside, so I wondered if rodents had chewed up the coax, but no, that wasn't it. I had to pull a fair amount of inside plastic trim to expose my cable routing, and indeed, my MFJ 269 confirmed a problem somewhere in the feed line. Route the new coax, solder on a PL259 and check again with the antenna analyzer - aagh, that's better! Working like a champ now!

I had just found some "spiral cut tubing" the day before at a local Fry's store, and it seemed like a good abrasion proofing measure where the coax runs close to the sheet metal. I actually wrapped on two layers.





Made a small adjustment to my Little Tarheel HF antenna, and also dropped a new battery in the Jeep as the resting voltage had dropped below 12 volts. It was a good day!

Cheers...   Jim

Recently ordered a couple microphone cables for the ft-1500's we have in the house & vehicle.
Got 'em installed & all seemed well...Not so.. One was crackling the audio real bad..
Looking close with a good magnifying glass it was clear that the wires on the mic end had been stripped with a hatchet.
All kinds of stuff was bare where it shouldn't be. Right where it came out of the molded fitting.
Nothing to do but order another one.. so am waiting on that to show up in the mail.

Also have an old Dentron GLA-1000B amp I'm cleaning up.. It has the 6LQ6 sweep tubes & I have an extra set.
Need a few PL-259's to make up a couple short jumpers & that should be good to go.

73..FN

ACOM 1500

Yesterday I was off and didn't have anything pressing to do, so I played around with FSQ.   I had downloaded it back a  few months ago when the article in QST appeared. But, I never did anything with it. I got sidetracked. So, after the current thread on this topic was posted on here, I decided to mess around with it and see what it was all about. Looks pretty cool.

Then I moved on to playing with a Wolphi-Link audio interface . I got this thing in the middle of December and hadn't messed with it yet. Seems like a pretty cool device. I haven't actually worked anybody using it yet but the software seems ackward and I am not sure exactly how the software works. That should take about 10 minutes of today to figure out (this is for Droid PSK).  I am also playing around with using this interface and my cell phone to receive WEFAX. For some reason I think receiving WEFAX is cool although I really don't know why.

You might want to try it on FLDigi now that it's been ported to Android. Lots more support, possibilities, etc.

Yes, I have had that for awhile now. I never used it with this interface, but I will.

I hate your face....

Got my 1000 model last year. Love it. Best amp brand on the market.

 

I haven't had much time with it but I am really liking it.  Very easy to tune and getting at least 1500W on all bands (160-6).  Very quiet too.

Downloaded Fldigi. Have made a few PSK31 contacts with Digipan but I am not comfortable with the way the screen is set up. Confusing to me anyway.

You know,  I rediscovered ham radio after I added a new Mosley Pro67b and an amplifier. I turn the antenna towards Europe,  call CQ and have a large pileup within minutes. This never happened with 100 Watts and a vertical antenna.

Worked with the 2 Drake 2B receivers and the DX40 transmitter on and off since Dayton last year. Still need to work on the VFO for the DX40. Did several portable contests and SOTA activations.  Latest was Winter Field Day this past weekend.  Current project is my bike mobile for Hamvention. There are no mounts available that I am comfortable using with the KX3 on the bike.  There was a prototype at Dayton last year that was supposed to be available by the end of June.  Just talked to him on Monday and that one is too expensive to produce so I am back to designing my own mount.  I have the supplies now and need to get busy with the mill to machine it.  Plans are to have to working and in use for the BMHA ride and forum in May. This rig won't be using the BOB trailer so I also need to build the mount on the rack for the HF antenna.  Don't know yet if I will have the 2m/440 radio and APRS on the bike or not yet.  Depends on how everything fits together. The KX3 mount will get in the way for where I had that mounted before.



Will be leaving next Friday for a week in Puerto Rico to take down our club contest station, store it and do some exploring.  Will also be visiting the radio telescope at Arecibo.  KX3 will be along so you may have a chance to work me some evenings.