John Flinchbaugh KD3EE

POTA in NY State

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

When traveling, we set aside a little time to explore and activate some parks. It gives me a reason to leave the house and see other places.

We stayed a night on Otsego Lake in Cooperstown, NY, so I had easy access to Hyde Hall (US-10044) in Glimmerglass State Park (US-2062), a 2-fer!

My picnic table outside the house was closer to the nearby tree than I usually like, so I deployed the 41-foot (12.5M) EFRW. Within about an hour, I only had 3 FT8 contacts. The bands seemed sort of quiet: I’d only see about 3 signals per cycle on 17M.

I figured it was a good time to compare antennas, so I setup the telescoping whip with the sliding coil. Immediately, that antenna showed me about 12 (4x) signals per cycle. I completed my 10 contacts for the activation with the new antenna and packed up, since we had to get the rest of the way to Vermont.

I checked PSK Reporter when I later got better internet access, and I was being heard, but I wasn’t hearing others. That EFRW was tuning just fine, but not hearing well. I used to struggle with activations with this 41-foot antenna being my main antenna. I may have been making it harder for myself than necessary when I started with the EFRW. The EFHW is pretty convenient enough, so I often use that these days.

Hyde Hall

Glimmerglass State Park

985 Workbench: 2026-03-02

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

wire down when i got home from vacation, so I got to throw it again
- threw it again with pulley and halyard: 42 ft
built a T2LT flowerpot antenna on PVC pipe and pulled into a tree
- replaced a slim jim built from ladder line

Others

KN3I, John:
- crowbar circuits to add to old power supplies to recover them
W3MFB, Mike:
- testing some 10M radios to get them back in service
W3KZG, Scott:
- working on some radios for 985-ers
KC3RFG, Jim:
- repairing his fan dipole in good weather
  - replaced balun
  - trouble tuning it after reinstall
  - check the coax and MFJ lightning surge protector: water infiltrated
  - back in operation
  - tested with rooster net on 75M
NA3CW, Chuck:
- AWA PMAM net, hosted pre-net and regular net, 13 check-ins.
KD3EMS, Chris:
- providence, ri over the weekend with family stuff
  - participated in 2 local nets
KA3GLI, Dave:
- starting echolink for upcoming travel
WA3KFT, John:
- helped a friend take down a broken titan antenna
KC3OOK, Bill:
- simplex net, and welfare net
- pulled power into the shack sub panel
KB3ZIM, Bob:
- a little HF, chasing POTA activators
- got a QSL card in the mail from a POTA activator
KD3AEL, Joey:
- new tech operator in Gap
- participating with W3RRR welfare net

Questions

KD3AEL, Joey:
- When the repeater is quiet, how do you announce your presence on a repeater?
- KB3ZIM, Bob:
  - “ listening”
  - maybe a couple times
  - operate, operate, operate
- KC3OOK, Bill:
  - when you do call, wait a minute or 2 for people to get to the radio
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - don’t just hit and run, wait a few minutes
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - don’t hit and run, patience
- W3MFB, Mike:
  - say your call nice and slow
- W3GMS, Joe:
  - Welcome Joey
  - check out the website
  - find the round table as well
  - get the audio gain up: swallow the mic
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - on qrz.com, add your email, so we can email you
- WA3KFT, John:
  - get on the air and practice
- KD3AEL, Joey:
  - Thank you for the warm welcome
  - looking forward to getting outside with the radio
WA3VEE, Ron:
- Preparing a talk for Pottstown: “Ham Radio Tall Tails, Old Wives Tails, Folklore, Myths, and Debunking Them” Share
- W8CRW, CR: “Ham radio, do people still do that?”
- W3KZG, Scott: “What’s the big antenna for? do you talk to aliens?”
- KB3ZIM, Bob: “All you need is a low SWR.”
- KD3AEL, Joey: “Ham radio, that’s just like CB?”
- KC3RFG, Jim: “A perfect 1:1 SWR means your antenna is resonant”
- W3MFB, Mike: Pottstown has lots of CB-ers switched to ham.
  - “Are you a federal agent?”
- NA3CW, Chuck: “Ham radio is too expensive”
- WA3KFT, John: “What do you mean ‘dip the plate’?”
- NA3CW, Chuck: “this tiny HF antenna is just as good as a halfwave dipole”
- KD3EE, John: “This is the last HT I’m going to buy”
- KD3AEL, Joey: “Now that we have cell phones, there’s no need for radio”
- AF3Z, Jim: “They still use Morse Code?”
- W3KZG, Scott: “Ham radio people are preppers”

21 Tech Net: 2026-03-01

Sun, 01 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

On a vacation cruise, so no radios allowed.
Wire was down when I got home, so I got to throw it again. I threw it with a pulley and halyard this time: 42ft up.
I built a T2LT flowerpot antenna on PVC pipe and pulled into a tree. It replaced a slim jim built from ladder line.
I was looking for that Iran station, but didn’t really hear anything.
I got me spinning through other 49M shortwave and looking up the station locations.
On the subject of open source: ft2.
- When you write code (or a book), you have copyright automatically.
- You choose the license.
- GPL license says: “I provided the source code for free, so you can modify or build upon it, and when you distribute a derivative work, you need to afford your users the same privilege: distribute your modified source.”

Others

K3EA, Greg:
- contests
  - saw NA RTTY QSO Party
  - state QSO parties
  - next weekend: ARRL SSB contest next weekend: new countries
  - https://contestcalendar.com/
- DX report
  - good for HF propagation
  - quiet space weather
  - http://spaceweather.com
  - Bouvet Island, 3Y0K, https://3Y0K.com
  - Nigeria
  - N3GK website to see
- original hamclock server has been duplicated to keep original hardware working
  - hamclock.com for instructions
- QSL cards in the mail:
  - Equatorial Guinnea, Africa.
  - Anguila
  - Ethiopia
- KA3TKW, Tom:
  - thanks for update on ham clock
WQ8M, Scotty:
- Parker, CO
- IRLP
  - project is probably 30 years old
VE3HOH, Pete:
- starting with meshtastic: 1 node found so far
- considering NVIS dipole for 40M
KA3TKW, Tom:
- Iran radio from London: 0300-1600UTC, 9800khz, otherwise 5885khz, and another
- 9:55pm: starlink launch to the east/south
N7JMS, Jon:
- FT2:
  - 8 QSOs during net
  - central africa
  - less sensitive
- Meshtastic: use unlicensed mode, instead of licensed modes, so you can keep standard encryption.
WA1SMG, Matt:
- cornwall townlhip
- reviving an old lafayette receiver: crystal controlled
  - can be used for CW to satellites
KC3VZU, Bob:
- marveling at the testing experience of older hams
  - drawing radio diagrams
  - 20wpm CW
KC3RYQ, Gary:
- Yaesu 8135 with RT Systems: trying to get it programmed
KD3AGU, Richard:
- first net in 2-3 months *** Swap and Shop
VE3HOH, Pete:
- Kenwood
- Drake TR7s
KA3TKW:
- 2-3 DX440 SW radios
- some small Sony SW radios
- RadioShack 10M mobiles

T2LT Flowerpot Antenna

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been curious about the T2LT “flower pot” antenna for a while. It’s fed from the bottom and attached to a sturdy PVC pole. I can easily hoist it into a tree, and it has a low wind load, so it could go on top of a flag pole again.

I built it at the SPARC Elmer night from some 75-ohm TV cable I had laying around. I taped and cable-tied it to a thin bit of PVC, and I adapted the feed point from 75ohm TV cable connector to SMA. I had built it long to allow tuning, but it tested to be just about right for 146MHz when I put the VNA on it.

choke on t2lt

t2lt installed

985 Workbench: 2026-02-16

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

CQ WW RTTY contest
- 70 contacts in one afternoon
- a little antenna maintenance in the middle
using pulleys in the tree for cleaner rope work in trees, learned from field day setup

Others

WA3VEE, Ron:
- worked with Drexel club to get them back on the air next month
  - lapsed license
- all the antennas off the garage to fit in parking garages
- offering a tech class licensing course
- offering tech class and VE session for Drexel as well
- developing a General course
K3KB, Alan:
- planning a move and getting rid of some things
  - not a builder/experimenter anymore
  - may bring some things to the breakfast
- new retirement community location will have limitations
- was a pretty active home brewer
KC3YSM, Steve:
- 40M is hopping
AF3Z, Jim:
- SKCC event this past weekend
  - used PennTech TR45L, QRP CW
  - 40M, 80M, 20M
W3KZG, Scott:
- sorting and selling some radio gear
- doing repairs again
- printing some power-pole mounts to retrofit radios
KC3OOK, Bill:
- Nets
- 985 has been active
- Thanks Chuck for teaching PL-259 plugs.
  - some factory connections were loose
KA3GLI, David:
- bought the ARRL Grounding and Bonding Book
- also got an 80M extension for his EFHW
- picked up a heat gun for building teh efhw
- purchased a replacement fan for another VHF/UHF rig
NA3CW, Chuck:
- never had good luck with factory-installed connectors
- always does his own
- PMAM net
- testing Joe’s tuner at 1KW.
KC3RFG, Jim:
- check in on ECARS mobile
WA3KFT, John:
- fighting coax, intermittent connections
- maybe a broken coax switch
- “Waters” manufacturer is long gone
- need to find a worthy replacement
KC3SQI, Wayne:
- need to reassemble 10M antenna when the weather improves
W3GMS, Joe:
- Dylan is working on new broadcastify connection
  - it’s currently just humming and not working yet

Questions

K3KB, Alan:
- Looking for recommendations for a single wire antenna for an HOA. He may be able to stretch a wire to another building about 80ft away.
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - look at EFRW with a tuner
  - could do an inverted-L
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - Random is not really random.
  - avoid resonant to be able to multiband.
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - likes resonant EFHW
  - has a 78-ft that may fit
  - hit the tuner for the other bands
  - radiates from the center, so the height of the ends doesn’t matter so much.
- KD3EE, John:
  - lots of fun to be had as a builder/experimenter
  - 80M EFHW is 133ft, 40M EFHW will be 66ft.
  - 73ft is a EFRW.
- K3KB, Alan:
  - don’t give me too much credit as a builder
  - lots of it has faded away
NA3CW, Chuck:
- Listening to CW on 40M late at night, there are 3 stations sending really fast, messy, swinging bug CW. It’s hard to copy. Does anyone know much about it?
- W3DIB, Greg:
  - encryption by syncopation
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - may have heard it
  - can’t copy it either
  - sloppy encryption?
- K3KB, Alan:
  - brother used to listen to a station broadcasting scripture to go to sleep
  - is this broadcast or amateur communication?
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - has heard of “great lake swing”, but that is still copyable
K3EMI, Randy:
- Bringing up a big power supply with a variac, the power supply has a meter on it that sticks in the winter probably due to static charge. touching it with a wet finger to discharge it releases it.
- WA3KFT, John:
  - put a wire mesh over the front of the meter and ground it, hardware cloth with 1/4-inch squares.
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - seen it lots of times over the years.
  - wipe it with a dryer sheet
- WA3KFT, Ron:
  - has a vis-meter that does it as well
  - tribo-electric effect in polystyrene
  - rubber band a grounding strap mesh to part of the face
- KC3RFG, Jim:
  - laying a wet paper towel on LCD helps those displays when they’re stuck in cold winter
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - mix water and soap to spray on it
- W3KZG, Scott:
  - staticide spray
  - static guard (tm)
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - anything you try, be careful of solvents in a spray
  - test it in as spot
- K3EMI, Randy:
  - thinking of staticide from digikey
  - likes the idea of wetting a dryer sheet
  - new problem in this house and shack

21 Tech Net: 2026-02-15

Sun, 15 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

CQ WW RTTY contest
- 70 contacts in one afternoon
- a little antenna maintenance in the middle
  - poking at un-un
  - reinstalling counterpoise
PSKFest
- 3rd place in QRP class (of 4 people)
fixed some connections in or near the house to fix some 2M antenna performance
using pulleys in the tree for cleaner rope work in trees
New R1CBU 0.32.2 firmware for the X6100
loaded frequencies into the scan on the quansheng to watch for those new satellites Tom’s been emailing
APRS getting much better on RT-880G with alternate firmware
loved to hear about practical guid to IRLP into KA3TKW

Others

K3EA, Greg:
- RTTY contest
- CW contest
- NA QSO Party for RTTY upcoming
- state QSO parties are coming up, good for WAS
- 17 and 20M will have best propagation for DX
- hamclock backend is going away
  - alternatives are in the works
  - https://openhamclock.com - web based
WB3LNY, George:
- Hamcation in FL
  - nearly as big as hamvention
KC5DRI, John:
- Hamcation in FL
  - meeting people
WE3ARE, Paul:
- Hamcation in FL
  - lots of swaps and gadgets
  - large vendors
  - saw demos of https://amateurrepeaterdirectory.org/
W3TUG, “Tug”/Ray:
- Hamcation in FL
VE3HOH, Pete:
- Chris Casper demoed meshtastic for another club
- wants to get into it
- has openhamclock running
KA3TKW, Tom:
- UMK-1 satellite: got a good pass and posted SSTV photos
- RS-18: 437.950 downlink for SSTV. 10 or 11pm tonight, then 10 or 11 am in the morning
  - then done
- amsat website -> satellite resources -> current satellite status
  - added these new SSTV satellites
- chinese space station will have ham radio soon
  - 145.825 / 436.510 down
  - and another
- ham lunch last thursday: hibachi buffet
K3DMM, Denny:
- some satellite contacts from within the house
- QRZ 250 certificate
  - 20% confirmed on SSB
- AnyTone AT-890UV
  - a friend has a video using full duplex on the HT for satellite.
KC3NWN, Jim:
- using a president washington on 11M
- XFM program for satellite
- elwood of ham clock SK
KA3TKW, Tom:
- IRLP How-to
  - buy an IRLP node for $250-500
  - get a node number assigned
  - 9204 is the one 21 is connected
KK4KKW, Steve:
- some HF work down in Florida
  - good contacts
- contacts harder up here
N7JMS, John:
- FT8
- listening on 21

Pulley in the Tree

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I brought down the Slim Jim with its existing halyard that’s slung over a branch in the front tree. I used that halyard to pull a throw weight and pulley on a new line into the same spot. I dropped the pulley straight down from high spot in the tree, and pulled the halyard out completely. I ran halyard line through the new pulley and hoisted it back up into the tree. Now the Slim Jim hangs free instead of tangled up through the tree.

Pulley

Fixed Slim Jim

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Slim Jim in the tree wasn’t working, so my APRS radio had gone quiet. I started testing with the nanoVNA before going out in the cold to check the connections. I found the lead inside was not passing any signal. The connector at the radio was pulling off the cable, so I could push it back together and re-crimp it. I got away with the easy fix.

985 Workbench: 2026-02-09

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

SWR trouble with HF antenna last week was a bad connection outside the window
Operating on RF, since I’m mobile on a hill after camera club meeting
APRS radio went quiet, so my slim jim seems broken

Others

WA3VEE, Ron:
- hosting upgrade classes soon
- look for article or whatever: “listening to jupiter”
W3MFB, Mike:
- 10-10 contest over the past weekend
  - good conditions
  - Europe
KC3OOK, Bill:
- working on sub-panel for ham shack
W3KZG, Scott:
- doing radio repairs while it’s cold out
- installed radios in larger rolling rack: 30U
KA3GLI, David:
- reading the W1MFB Antenna Notebook
- building EFHW un-un
- visited RadioShack in New Holland
KC3NZT, Harvey:
- got online confirmation for Galapagos
AA3LH, Leon:
- Roosters Net
- working 80m and 40m, extra portion
- will work on antennas next week when warm
AF3Z, Jim:
- FYBO (Freeze Your Buns Off) QRP contest over the weekend

Questions

KC3OOK, Bill:
- What’s the difference between ceramic and plastic potentiometer trimmers?
- WA3KFT, John:
  - ceramic may be for VHF/UHF applications
  - moisture may detune a circuit being adjusted
- W3KZG, Scott:
  - he has cheap plastic kit with lots of sizes. it functions fine.
  - 6-8 plastic screwdrivers
  - cheap is fine for light use
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - has plastic, never tried ceramic
  - materials matter for trimming variable capacitors
  - any material is fine for pots
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - How sensitive are some of these circuits?
- W3KZG, Scott:
  - tools are non-conductive and non-inductive
  - some pots can be shorted
- KN3I, John:
  - GC Electronics kit should be really good; known name.
AA3LH, Leon:
- He has a G5RV doublet for travel, and it tunes hard on 80M. If he added 10ft to each leg (51-ft legs to 61ft), would it help, and how would he need to adjust the 37-ft?
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - simulate it
  - stay away from quarter wave feed lengths
  - probably ok with tuner
- W3GMS, Joe:
  - for the standard lengths, the impedance is around 50 ohms, so only needs the 1:1 balun.
  - may need to trim the ladder line
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - G5RV is 3/2 wave for 20m, so it work well there + other bands.
  - extra length will detune it for its intended use
- W3GMS, Joe:
  - look into the “improved G5RV” - better tune
  - adjusting probably won’t get you much
  - add more open wire line and eliminate coax, and it’ll be an efficient doublet
KB3ZIM, Bob:
- Did anyone work AM Rally? He got 30 contacts and had a blast: 10m, 40m, roundtables
- KN3I, John: just a few hours in the afternoon on 40m
KC3NZT, Harvey:
- Testing diodes in a rectifier before a coil:
  - Had to measure the current to calculate the resistance, since he couldn’t isolate anything.
  - Is there a better way to test coil resistance through the diodes?
  - How do diodes fail?
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - Diodes usually fail shorted
- WA3KFT, John:
  - diodes change resistance with the amount of current
  - isolate the diode and use DC with known resistor
  - measure resistive drop across diode
- W3KZT, Scott:
  - need to isolate diode from the coil to measure
  - resistance in coil

High SWR on HF

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I was seeing high SWR and started needing the tuner for the 80M EFHW. I checked/reseated connections at the wire and un-un with no change. I started testing down the line, and found that the outside connection to the pass-through cable was bad: it started pulling apart. I replaced the window pass-through, and now SWR is good again without the tuner.

Nicsure 5.14.01

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I loaded the nicsure 5.14.01 firmware from the patreon onto my RadTel RT-880G. It changed storage stucture, so I needed to do a factory reset before installing. I found the RMS software does weird things importing chirp files or reading from the radio. I needed to sort out erroneous CTS codes, reverses, etc in the RMS.

The radio is receiving APRS really well off the outside antenna, and I’m seeing lots of good decodes.

985 Workbench: 2026-02-02

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

PSKFest 3rd place in QRP class (of 4 people)
New R1CBU 0.32.2
- IF shift feature to move birdies away from your signal
2W FT8 to Belgium and back on 40M
EFHW high SWR, but tuner deals with it
- too cold to go out to investigate much
- wonder if it’s water and ice on the uninsulated rope

Others

KN3I, John:
- radio on the workbench for repairs
WA3VEE, Ron:
- back to Drexel to help get their station back on the air
  - Kiana, a student.
- K3DTS is closer to having liability insurance for classes
- working with the balloon team from Drexel and another High School
  - APRS for tracking
  - launch from Nottinghill Farm Park
W3SCY, Luke:
- working on CW, 20wpm
- WFD 2 weeks ago
- checked into AMPM net on 3835kHz, Sunday, 04:30pm.
NA3CW, Chuck:
- PMAM Net: heard KN3I, John and W3SCY, Luke
KC3OOK, Bill:
- net control for various nets
- enjoying crimp coax connectors
W3KZG, Scott:
- refurbishing some export 10/11/12M export radios to keep and sell
WA3KFT, John:
- various nets
- lots of check-ins on AWA net, 7237kHz
KD3AIS, Tim:
- back from a trip to Germany and Netherlands
- Looking forward to Ron’s classes
AF3Z, Jim:
- SKCC anniversary event is done: K3Y here in the states
  - helped coordinate 17 operators
  - ~4100 contacts
  - 1363 unique operators
  - 300 contacts personally
  - US sweep: 9 call areas + Alaska, Hawaii, PR
AA3LH, Leon:
- spoke to Costa Rica
W3DEN, Dennis:
- Just moved to West Chester
- in a retirement community, so antenna restricted
W3MOW, Mike:
- fired up raspberry pi hotspot for DMR
- new vehicle, so radio not setup in mobile yet.

Questions

WA3VEE, Ron:
- Students are using APRS to track balloons they launch.
- using a kenwood HT and phones to track APRS.
- suggest maybe a beam for tracking it directly
- What is the range of APRS?
- Suggestions for tracking?
- W3KZG, Scott:
  - check with Corbin, K3HXW.
- KD3EE, John:
  - it’s packet radio, so relayed by digipeaters
  - bridged to the internet, so reliably visible on aprs.fi
  - btech uv-pro is a great, inexpensive radio.
  - seeing DC to Williamsport to New Jersey on my map here
  - I have a fixed antenna for APRS 30 ft in a tree
AA3LH, Leon:
- Un-Un at the end of an EFHW, how do they get away without a counterpoise?
- WA3KFT, John:
  - Needs a good earth ground to be the other half of the antenna
    - stake, water pipe, etc.
    - need a radiating element and a counterpoise
- KC3RFG, Jim:
  - started with end-fed antennas
  - if you don’t install a counterpoise, it’ll use the shield of your coax as the other half of your antenna
  - choke the coax before it enters the house or gets to the radio
  - proper counterpoise helps avoid RF on the coax
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - he wrote an article on the 985 website
  - not all end-feds are horizontal, any vertical antenna is an end-fed
  - running low power, you don’t need to worry as much about return RF.
  - vertical whips are end-fed
  - horizontal random wire is an end-fed.
  - ground plane or radials of a vertical is a counterpoise
  - person serves as counterpoise on an HT
- AA3LH, Leon:
  - always uses speaker-wire counterpoises with ham stick verticals
WA3VEE, Ron:
- Has anyone interfaced a weather station to NOAA via APRS or via internet connection?
- W3MOW, Mike:
  - Is this the same integration like Weather Underground?
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - Weather Underground and all those other services.
  - Ground Truth Weather
- W3KZG, Scott:
  - Dylan, K3DZN, has a weather station at the house that’s all linked up.
- KC3OOK, Bill:
  - Have you bought the Davis View weather station yet
  - It has lots of modules
  - APRS is a module, good for emergency service
  - Can run on a RPi or small computer depending how much you want to do

PSKFest 2026

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I achieved 3rd place in QRP class of the 2026 PSKFest with 11 contacts, 2 DXCC, and 8 states for 110 points. Only 4 people had submitted logs for QRP. :)

X6100 R1CBU 0.32.2

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Upgrade

I upgraded to R1CBU 0.32.2. It tested fine with WSJT-X.

It has a new IF-shift feature to move birdies in the menu, but it was “unavailable” on the old base firmware I was running, so I had to upgrade to Base 1.1.9:

https://www.radioddity.com/pages/xiegu-download
write the image to an SD card
boot it
let it restart
apply the base 1.1.9 upgrade from the system / firmware menu on the stock firmware

Upgrading the base to 1.1.9 went OK after figuring out some issues with a bad /dev/sdb device handle on my Linux notebook.

New Features

Now I can “IF Shift” when I find a birdie near or in the passband I’m trying to hear. It binds nicely to the bottom MFK for quick access.

This firmware continues to work for FT8. I tested power output with CW as well, since there was a note about needing to applying an output gain.

It’s nice to see the discrete values from the graphs also on the screen: received signal, TX power, SWR.

I’ve been experimenting for a while with 2 stop bits in flrig to get the initial connection to succeed more often. Sometimes it helps, and sometimes it doesn’t. I was hoping this update may help, but there’s no difference. I’ll go back to 1 stop bit.

985 Workbench: 2026-01-26

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Winter Field Day

My Week in Radio

Winter Field Day
- I logged for CW ops and listened along
- I could hear 2-3 characters at a time

Others

W8CRW, CR:
- Field Day
WA3VEE, Ron:
- Field Day
  - operated most
  - worked N3FJP, author of the software
  - W1AW
  - W2AEW see on youtube
  - worked with Kianna
W3KZG, Scott:
- field day trailer worked out great
KB3PZY, Al:
- first field day
- Thanks Harvey for mentoring
- 30 some contacts
KB3ILS, Keith:
- antennas up at the field day site
- got to WFD early
- laptops, network, power worked great
- 450-475 contacts made
- SKCC
  - PR on 6M CW
  - Alaska on 15M CW
WA3KFT, John:
- WFD with another club, 75M
  - didn’t hear anyone in the afternoon, all noise
  - early evening it lit up
KC3OOK, Bill:
- simplex net
- welfare net
NA3CW, Chuck:
- welcome Al
- antenna install for WFD with lots of people
- “how to cut a dipole the second time, every time” worked pretty well
- used Joe’s tuner with 100W testing
- PMAM pre-net
AF3Z, Jim:
- SKCC month ends on saturday
  - coordinating SKCC ops, had enough of it :)
  - worked 240 contacts with special callsign
- worked WFD with cornwall station
  - proved total lid
    - operated a Elecraft K3 on 40M
    - heard W3R, but couldn’t get an answer
    - K3 needs VOX enabled for CW, so it wasn’t transmitting
    - quit for the morning
    - realized much later about VOX
AA3LH, Leon:
- winter field day at home: 40M and 80M *** Questions
KD3EE, John:
- What was the problem with the 80M antennas and that radio that rebooted?
- How significant is the dipole arrangement (flat vs inverted-v) to multi-station operation?
- W3KZG, Scott:
  - originally thought it was RF
  - switched radio to AC-DC power supply, and then the radio was fine
  - trailers battery may not have kept up with the severe cold
  - new radio couldn’t tolerate voltage drop, but older radio was ok
  - LiFEPo battery struggles under 30F
  - CW dipole showed high SWR at one spot, still needed to be investigated more
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - when the weather is better, Ron will run a complete analysis on each antenna on the site.
  - we can talk inductance and capacitance then
  - there seems to be an RFI problem from a power transformer insulator up there as well
- KB3ILS, Keith:
  - 80M dipole cut for sideband worked well
  - 40M CW in the corner may need some work
  - 1 beam was pointing at the 80M dipole, so likely caused lots interference
  - it’ll be good to analyze when no one transmitting
  - one 40M dipole may be close to noise.
  - some experimenting to do
  - we still got lots of 40M contacts
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - power-line interference has been an ongoing issue
  - Chuck has a small moxon for 137MHz that will be good paired with AM on his HT to search for the noise source
    - worked to find a bad pole in his neighborhood
  - inverted vs flat dipole
    - dipoles end to end have very little radiation off the ends.
    - inverted-v antennas would have seen each other on the ends
    - analyzers work with very low signals, so would have totally been skewed by nearby QRN and TX
- KB3ILS, Keith:
  - Chuck, let’s build a dipole curtain array for field day.
W3MFB, Mike:
- HF vertical can have a ground plane, even in the air or on the ground? They help control common-mode current? Why use them?
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - the ground plane is the other half of your antenna.
- WA3KFT, John:
  - Has the Amtron A99 on a tower without the ground plane kit, but has a TV mast below it on the tower, so may be serving the purpose.
- W3KZG, Scott:
  - IMAC 2000 antenna, 50 ft in the air without the ground plane kit. The galvanized steel mast underneath it served as the ground.
  - AMTRON 99 came with it, so he installed it. It looks cool.
- AA3LH, Leon:
  - Used tuned hamsticks in Colorado, and put out lots of radials.
- KD3EE, John:
  - the computer and radio going wonky (touchpad, USB, etc) always remind me when I need to add radials to my vertical antenna.
- W3MFB, Mike:
  - With the IMAC, he knows he needs the ground plane kit as it gets higher in the air.
  - His is grounded to a gas pipe, so it seems to work pretty well, and he’s gotten to Australia.
  - Also has lots of coax to absorb it.
  - Has gotten to Australia with it.
KD3BPI, Simon:
- He’s planning for antennas on the house, 2 stories, walk-up attic. He has a dormer facing west, and was planning to mount antennas there. Easy to get to them from attic. Can he mount all the antennas on one plate or should he space them out?
  - regional HF (20m) antenna and dual-band 2m/70cm antenna.
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - Personally doesn’t like to have antenna on the house, since it draws lightning.
  - How much land?
    - Simon: L-shaped, 1/3 acre, but no trees that are actually his.
  - 40M would be a good horizontal wire for regional NVIS
  - grounding is imperative for lightning protection of the house.
  - those antennas, in size, are very different.
  - wires are easier for HF
- W3GMS, Joe:
  - the Hustler 5-BTV for 80-10M is a good option
  - he has radio and tuner for Simon
- W3MFB, Mike:
  - Hustler in the yard would be a good option
  - pin down the feed line and radials with lawn stakes
  - neighbors trees: any limbs over your property could be used to hold up an end fed antenna
  - get the antenna as high as you can get it
- WA3KFT, John:
  - He has 5 antennas at the top of a tower, like a candlabra.
  - an edger is good for grooving the lawn for wires
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - sent link to the Hustler 5-BTV
  - the digital modes are FT8 and PSK31
- W3KZG, Scott:
  - Has an NMO lip-mount with dual band antenna clamped to the rain gutter of the shop.
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - using a copper pipe j-pole inside in the attic of the garage.
    - should work just fine.
  - an HF antenna in the attic would work fine too
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - for new hams and those in HOAs, attic antennas can be effective
- W8CRW, CR:
  - Why’s the 5-BTV so highly recommended, compared to other variations?
  - WA3VEE, Ron:
    - the 5 walks the line of versatility and size
    - they’re different sizes
- W3GMS, Joe:
  - a 4-BTV is 4-bands, 5- is 5-band, etc.
- KA3GLI, David:
  - on the 5-BTV, what auto-tuner is recommended?
  - W3GMS, Joe:
    - LDG RC-1 auto-tuner helps match as you get away from the vertical’s narrow, high-Q, resonant spot.
- KD3EE, John:
  - remember you can build these HF antennas with some wire and toroids.
KD3BPI, Simon:
- How does height affect performance of a vertical: ground vs roof?
- W3GMS, Joe:
  - wire radials on the ground are easy. detuned by the earth.
  - lots of short radials are best
  - elevated radials will perform better, but will require tuning of radials.
  - random lengths are fine on the ground
- KC3WRY, Matt:
  - a ground-mounted antenna is easier to tune, instead of up in the air.
  - ground-mounted can always later be moved.
- WA3KFT, John:
  - worked at an AM radio station.
  - when they moved, they rebuilt all the radials.
    - 60 short and 60 long radials
- W3GMS, Joe:
  - 8 radials with the 5-BTV at the beach was fine
  - gains aren’t as impressive after the first radials

W3EOC ARES Drill

Sat, 24 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

While driving to winter field day, I heard lots of fldigi/flmsg messages sent and received during a drill on the W3EOC repeater system. They assigned municipalities to each operator to call them for reports.

I found the old AndFlmsg from sourceforge wouldn’t install on modern Android, so I couldn’t immediately decode messages.

I found and installed a new version of AndFlMsg, from a new provider. I’ll be ready to follow along the next time.

985 Workbench: 2026-01-19

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

First to the field day site.

at breakfast, I showed off a USB adapter to use a CW key on the computer to chat online or play video games to practice CW
- I’m quickly improving my score as I practice.
helped install antennas today at field day site
- see the seasoned pros in action
- afterward, I visited Micro Center, since I was relatively close

Others

W3MFB, Mike:
- ARRL VHF contest: 6M and 70cm SSB
NA3CW, Chuck:
- field day site:
  - cold, but not windy
  - new 40M dipole for CW
  - new 80M dipole for phone
  - old 80M dipole tested good for CW
  - flipped the TA-33 beam
  - CL-33 beam has a broken element, still on the ground
- Joe’s tuner is completed and ready to test for real on his open wire line
W3KZG, Scott:
- worked on the trailer a bit for field day
  - 12V lines and power bank
  - heat sources
- field day site
  - straightened up George’s trailer
KB3ILS, Keith:
- field day conditions may be challenging: maybe 20F if we’re lucky
  - zoom planning call on Thursday
  - next work day is friday
    - staging
    - vertical antenna
  - start at 11AM Eastern
- working straight key: got a station in Hawaii
KB3PZY, Al:
- some 20M contacts
- field day site
KD3BPI, Simon:
- messing with SDR
  - how does an RTL-SDR work?
  - one chip for radio and for USB
  - can it be repackaged as a PI hat?
- looking forward to field day ops
AF3Z, Jim:
- SKCC: coordinating K3Y operators
  - he’s made 200 contacts on that callsign
  - top person may have 700 contacts
- afternoon sked with friend
KC3OOK, Bill:
- enjoyed simplex net on saturday
- attended field day install
WA3KFT, John:
- January VHF contest: 6M
  - only 1 station found at startup
  - lots of FT8
WA3VEE, Ron:
- thanks everyone who came to the field day
- FTDX-10 does not have the CW filter
- preparing power supplies
- W3R is reserved for next year’s WFD

Questions

W3MFB, Mike:
- Everyone checking in, sounded clear. WA3KFT, John, clicks in and out on his Anytone rig. Why?
- WA3KFT, John:
  - 100W into the cable
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - WA3KFT is badly deviated, needed to turn down audio when receiving.
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - As Chuck said, WA3KFT, John is loud.
  - Can hear everything just fine, no cut-out, so that may be Mike’s rig.
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - Mike, do you have the ability to set narrow/wide?
  - Delaware City UHF repeater exhibits clipping
- W3MFB, Mike:
  - has deviation set to wide
  - Yaesu hears John just fine.
  - AA3LH, Leon, is always loud, but OK.
- W3KZG, Scott:
  - google that radio and the problem. there are settings to adjust to mitigate it
W3MFB, Mike:
- Does anyone have any experience working aurora on 6M? There’s a flare coming tonight.
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - a couple years ago when solar cycle was lower, he made a few contacts.
- More people should use 6M.
AF3Z, Jim:
- Has anyone heard anything much about the effecst of solar flares today around 1pm?
- W3KZG, Scott:
  - forums complaining about bands being totally dead, even up to 2M
- W3MFB, Mike:
  - 10M and 40M were noisy around 4pm
  - 80M has some people, and is pretty clean right now
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - a K3Y operator was struggling to pull people out of noise
  - one station would be clear, then another like a spark hash
  - Jim heard warbling tones
WA3VEE, Ron:
- Antennas were cut long, then installed, we tested, then adjusted. What’s the formula for determining the amount to trim?
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - SWR guesses were just good guesses.
  - For adjusting the length of the dipole: “tuning your dipole, second time, every time”
  - lots of things affect resonance:
    - height
    - quality of ground
    - insulation
    - wire velocity factor
  - to adjust:
    - measure before you put it up, while long
    - install it
    - measure where it resonates
    - corrected length / original length = desired freq / resonant freq
WA3VEE, Ron:
- What QSL card services do you use for custom?
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - KB3IFH prints cards, name tags, etc: https://www.kb3ifhqslcards.com/qsl-pricing-ordering
- WA3KFT, John:
  - Chester QSL Cards
  - plain, white, glossy
  - they advertise in QST
- AA3LH, Leon:
  - CheapQSLs.com
- W3MFB, Mike:
  - https://www.gigaparts.com/customizable-standard-3-5-x5-5-qsl-card.html
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - found software for designing the cards
    - interface with database or CSV
    - prepare all the cards at once
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - cheapqsls.com had multiple designs
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - has used MS Publisher to layout cards
  - W3R cards look nice: yellow on dark

21 Tech Net: 2026-01-18

Sun, 18 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

RTTY Round Up got me the last couple states I needed on QRZ with the new callsign
USB adapter for CW key on computer
- use it with websites
  - vband for online CW chat
  - morse invaders
    - keying CW for video games is improving my accuracy
Continue to practice to improve reading CW
Visited the hamfest in Harrisburg, but didn’t buy anything
Headed East tomorrow to help install antennas for field day next weekend
- see how others do this more reliably
- learn some better practices
- my antennas usually get replaced regularly for repair or boredom
Nothing for swap and shop

Others

WB3LNY, George:
- Hamfest in Harrisburg
- local 6M repeater
- modifying a big icom battery
- got a new IRLP node from a guy in Chicago for portable use
KA3TKW, Tom:
- keep your groups.io account active
- John Holler passed away
- Jeff Dipolo operating VHF contest on: 50.140 USB, 146.52, 446.00
  - Chambersburg
- new satellite: KW2
  - 436.950 down
- Ham lunch on last Thursday this month
  - Glen talking about directional beverage antennas
  - show and tell
  - Riley will be there
VE3HOH, Pete:
- shared some history with John Holler
- helping restore service to a local repeater
  - introducing and balancing some more battery backups
- some work on power supplies
K3DMM, Denny:
- dabbled in NA QSO party
- trying some DX work to Fiji
KD3BVC, Jeff:
- just getting started with his Baofeng UV-5R
- built a jpole
N3RBG, Jeff:
- 50 W, Comet GP-6, 70ft up a pine tree, good signal to/from Plymouth Meeting

USB CW Key for Vband

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I purchased a USB adapter to connect my CW paddles (1/8-inch audio plug) to the computer. I can now use Vband on-line chat to practice keying CW with other people.

The adapter simulates Left and Right Ctrl keys with the morse key, and the website interprets that as dits and dahs. It works really well.

I also found Morse Invaders, which is a typing tutor that uses CW: key the word before it hits your city.

Minor Linux Note: I use keyd to remap some keys on my laptop, so be aware how it may mess with the Ctrl Keys.

985 Workbench: 2026-01-12

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

RTTY Round Up a week ago got me Oregon, the last state I needed for all 50 states for this current callsign
Strung up the 80M EFHW, found a lower SWR with counterpoise removed.

Others

W1RC, Mike:
- looking for a 2M transverter for his Elecraft radio
- getting Yaesu Fusion working to check-in to a net
  - doesn’t like the audio so much
W8CRW, CR:
- helping chuck and george at the field day site on thursday
K3EMI, Randy:
- putting up an OCF dipole on the roof in nice weather
- coax is super-stiff
KC3SCY, Luke:
- setup the new riser for his desk
- almost done building a power supply for a transmitter he built
- some CW
- excited for WFD
K9CAN, Kris:
- from Eugene OR
- hosting a winter field day site on a mountain
- working on a new antenna project
  - multiband
  - modular
  - 3d printing parts for it
  - doublet pieces
NA3CW, Chuck:
- Thursday work session at field day site
  - 9:30am-dark
  - got ropes and pulleys into trees
  - next up
    - launch the dipoles
    - service the beams
    - saturday
    - cold and dry
- Joe’s tuner is coming alive
  - steppers working in one direction and chattering in the other
  - feedback POTs reading fine
KC3OOK, Bill:
- net control for Simplex Net and for Welfare Net
W3KZG, Scott:
- organizing shack
- repairing and updating an old export 10M rig
- preparing trailer for field day
W3QP, Tim:
- SOTA trips coming up in February
AF3Z, Jim:
- SKCC
  - scheduling operators
  - operated saturday and this afternoon
  - worked WA and CA
KC3SQI, Wayne:
- need to drop the new mast to fix 10M vertical dipole
- TV pre-amp needs service too
WA3VEE, Ron:
- Welcome K9CAN, Kris.
- Helped at Field Day site
  - watching George with the potato gun for shooting high lines into trees
  - Met a new ham, KD3CJH, Kiana.
  - worked 8 countries testing beams at FD site

Questions

AF3Z, Jim:
- For WFD, How do we expect winter weather to effect electronics and radio gear? Any likely failures?
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - probably no worry here in PA.
  - in Rocky Mountains, CO, it did make a difference.
    - wire would kink but not unkink, breakage
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - crystals and oscillators will have a temperature coefficient
  - transistors won’t care
  - operators will be stiff
  - LCD screens will slow response, freeze and turn black
  - Li-ion batteries will degrade faster
  - starting generators can be difficult
- W3KZG, Scott:
  - trailer runs solely on battery + solar
  - 300Ah 13V battery
  - Summer field day used 18% of the battery to run FTD-10 radio for 2 days
- KD3EE, John:
  - batteries may need to be swapped to keep warm, like digital cameras
  - has seen LCD on radios stop updating in cold
- W3QP, Tim:
  - some batteries, like LiFePO, don’t like to charge below freezing
- AC2EG, Eric:
  - Commercial-rated (not industrial) laptops can have trouble below 25F. maybe won’t boot.
- W8CRW, CR:
  - LiFePO with a good BMS will keep it from charging in damaging (too cold) conditions
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - operating CW can be hard in the cold
WA3VEE, Ron:
- For those in HOA, what might be a successful, inside antenna? Maybe not in the attic?
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - Do you really need to be horizontally polarized?
    - 10M dipole isn’t huge.
    - mobile ground plane verticals
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - horizontal will be best, but either way, I guess
  - wires taped to the ceiling?
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - magnetic loops?
  - 16 feet for a dipole?
- W3KZG, Scott:
  - 11M dipole hanging in a tree, 6ft from the ground: similar to hanging it from the ceiling.
    - split right off the coax, speaker wire
  - just try it
  - try a magmount vertical
  - try it on a balcony
  - near a window: magnetic loop
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - use 11M whip antennas, and trim it
  - wire across the wall
  - work from the balcony
  - drop a piece of wire from a higher floor
  - outside will avoid inside RFI
  - inside can mess with other electronics :)
- W3KZG, Scott:
  - may have an 11M whip to donate
- W3QNZ, Joe:
  - recycled a pota antenna made of scrap wire and a cobra head
  - moved it into the attic
- KD3EE, John:
  - may have a loop antenna to lend
  - run wires down the hallway or the loft
  - use lower power, digital modes, CW, weak signal for results

Automatic Allstar Link to 985

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I updated rpt.conf on my node to enable the 813 DTMF code for making permanent link. The permanent link will try to re-establish itself after a disconnect.

It doesn’t re-establish upon reboot, so a macro is still needed on startup. I updated the existing startup macro to *81353085 after *77 (report).

985 Workbench: 2026-01-05

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

80M EFHW today for better receive to place 21.6M-long EFRW
- realized it may be better listening as it’s resonant
- Random wire may be “noisy”, because tuned other than what I want to hear
worked some contests:
- PSK Fest: 15 contacts
- RTTY Roundup: 70 contacts

Others

W8CRW, CR:
- 985 nets
- Bill’s for antenna building + computer fest
AA3LH, Leon:
- playing with 1:1 baluns on G5RV
- seeing different antenna performance through the week
- quicksilver balun is doing really well
WA3VEE, Ron:
- happy new year
- field day work this week
  - wednesday meeting
  - thursday building
- RPi 3B+ for an allstar node
- 2 VE sessions:
  - Passed a local student for tech license: Kiana
  - Passed 8 more on Saturday
- If you’re an extra, see about being a VE.
KC3SCY, Luke:
- building a 1929 transmitter and power supply on contract: basically done.
- 75M AM recently
- At Joe’s for winter break to build a desk riser, etc.
KC3RFG, Jim:
- built a clear, stackable case with a a fan for his ham clock.
NA3CW, Chuck
- final testing of Joe’s tuner project
  - building a wooden test stand for maintenance of the tuner
W3KZG, Scott:
- checked out field day site
KC3MAI, Joe:
- visited Bill’s for dipole build
KD3AIS, Tim:
- visited Bill’s for dipole build
W3MFB, Mike:
- 80M DX nets and contacts
- using remote web-SDRs to see how far away he here’s his net contacts: many states away, maybe even Europe
KC3NZT, Harvey:
- played with computers at Bill’s
KB3ILS, Keith:
- WFD chairman
- Winter Field Day
  - Jan 24-25
  - active planning, building, testing
  - 14 people at Bill’s
  - master class in soldering dipoles
  - Thursday will be installing antennas
- Working straight key night, including AF3Z, Jim.
WA3KFT, John:
- stranded wire is nice, but solder joints of stranded can make a weak point
- preferring copper-clad steel wire far antennas.
- has stayed up for 20 years before needing replacement

Questions

KD3EE, John: I want a 2-meter antenna to build that’s simple, sturdy, and I can pull up into a tree. I have the 1/4-wave ground plane and a slim jim already. Flowerpot antenna looks cool. Suggestions?
- WA3KFT, John:
  - j-pole of copper pipe: tee, elbow, pipe
    - plans everywhere
    - sweat solder some joints
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - X50 that already has the ground plane radials
- W3MFB, Mike:
  - use a bit of conduit as a counterweight
  - pull a 25-foot antenna up into a tree above the mount point on that conduit.
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - see W6NBC’s website for home-made antennas
    - including slot design made of aluminum foil tape and pvc
    - delta loop for a bit of directional gain
- KC3RFG, Jim:
  - second the j-pole: rugged
  - pipe is thick for better bandwidth
- KD3EE, John:
  - Mike: i love the idea of hoisting above the mount point
  - Harvey: I have all those pieces here: i can have something by day break!
KD3AIS, Tim:
- Why can it be heard on the digital side?
- W3DIB, Greg:
  - Yes, you are hearing the intermod on digital.
  - echolink/allstar is external to the repeater, not integrated, so that radio is hearing the intermod.
- W3GMS, Joe:
  - You should not hear intermod for digital people.
  - 146.385 receive audio is sent to a simplex link, which is sent to Joe’s house, then into Allstar node to the internet.
  - People connecting via digital, goes to node at Joe’s, processed, then sent up the simplex link to the repeater.
  - People connecting through digital shouldn’t exhibit intermod.
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - Those people you thought were digital, may have been analog.
- W3DIB, Greg:
  - technically, if a digital person is listening to another digital person, it’s just a VOIP call, no RF really needed.
W3MFB, Mike:
- What’s the history of an HF radio that’s been “MARS-modded”, and what’s its purpose?
- WA3KFT, John:
  - MARS frequencies are near, but outside the HAM bands
  - In some radios, like IC-706, you remove a diode to allow it to transmit anywhere.
  - Make a ham radio able to transmit on any frequency.
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - MARS = Military Auxiliary Radio System
- W3GMS, Joe:
  - commercial radios sold are not allowed to transmit outside amateur band for “type acceptance”
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - big manufacturers sell lots more gear beyond ham operators.
  - those radios can be used by other people
  - keep the average “appliance operator” from wandering out of band.
- W3MFB, Mike:
  - Understand the motivation to make it difficult. It’s illegal to work outside band on a radio not type-accepted in those bands.
KC3NZT, Harvey:
- How do existing filters work when out of band?
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - Yes, they still pass through existing filters, so maybe not very clean.

21 Tech Net: 2026-01-04

Sun, 04 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

muted the APRS channel on my UV-PRO, so I don’t need to hear that squawking away
- there is an option to mute digital, but it only works when it recognizes it’s digital
been testing a doublet built from:
- a split speaker wire,
- 44ft end to end
- a 4:1 balun
- choke balun
- 30 FT8 contacts on 20M at 1W for a park activation
80M EFHW today for better receive to place 21.6M-long EFRW
worked contests:
- PSK Fest: 15 contacts
- RTTY Roundup: 70 contacts
gave one of Tom’s cool little ATS radios to a friend’s kid, get him bitten by the bug

Others

K3EA, Greg:
- special event station
- this past weekend:
  - rtty contest
  - psk31 contest
- NA QSO party, CW next weekend
WB3LNY, George:
- working on some 12V power supplies
VE3HOH, Pete:
- ordered some radios
- great tuner
KA3TKW, Tom:
- RS-40 pass at 8:40 tonight
- 437.625
- no special equipment needed
- trivia net on wednesday
- Saturday Hamfest in Harrisburg, W3UU
- new commercial satellite:
  - AST bluebird 6
- mod firmware for ATS v4 radio
  - waterfall
  - s17432
  - decodes CW and RTTY
- DigiRig Mobile: $49
  - audio
  - PTT (no need for VOX), so better than just a USB sound card
  - connect lots of radios
- lots of SSTV
- ordered a UHF Moxon SSTV antennas
  - big in RC airplane world
  - range video LLC
K3DMM, Denny:
- not much luck with SSTV yet
KC3VZU, Bob:
- not getting to the ham fest
- working on full-band radio in truck, replaced the mic
W3MW, Don:
- finishing wiring of antennas
- getting shack back in order
KC3ZBI, Ron:
- doing paperwork to do a ham radio program for a local school
KC3EWN, Curly:
- new Arrow antenna
- Icom W-32A, full-duplex, 5W
- ready for satellite
K3EA, Greg:
- DigiRigs have wiring for old rigs
VE3HOH, Pete:
- watch 401MHZ and 401.025 for occasional satellites

985 Workbench: 2025-12-29

Mon, 29 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

gifted a tiny HF radio receiver to a friend’s kid
- whip, loop, + wire antenna I added.
- listening is how I ended up licensed.

Others

K3KB, Alan:
- cleaning out old gear to maybe move
  - RC airplanes
  - test gear
  - kits
  - very old HTs
  - will bring to next breakfast
NA3CW, Chuck:
- working on Joe’s tuner: about to power up
AF3Z, Jim:
- 10M CW sked
- very few signals otherwise
- heard a solid CQ
  - on at 8000ft mountain in mexico
  - heard JM7OLW (Japan), and got it finally
  - 6pm on 10M
KC3OOK, Bill:
- ham shack is about finished
KC3NZT, Harvey:
- got a new wire up in the air
- all bands were open for testing: 6M-40M
KV3JGB, Matt:
- working some HF
- new CWOps academy class
KD3AIS, Tim:
- listening to HF while doing other work
WA3KFT, John:
- 28435khz 1pm-2pm retired net
  - contacted OK, TX

Questions

K3OU, Manny:
- building his shack from zero, looking at 2 transceivers:
  - Yaesu FT-DX10 (hybrid SDR)
  - ICOM 7300 Mk2 (SDR)
- which performs best?
- WA3KFT, John:
  - using 7300 for 5 years
  - lots of features he’s not used
  - has an ATU
  - uses an amplifier with it sometimes
  - likes it
- K3KB, Alan:
  - had an IC-7300 for a while
  - doesn’t use the ATU, uses external instead
  - what do you mean by performance?
- K3OU, Alan:
  - reception performance:
    - receiving weak signals
    - rejecting side signals
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - both rigs are top-tier
  - IC-7300 is intuitive to Harvey, so never read the manual
  - play with both UIs to see what you like
  - ease of use may be more important than performance
  - HRO has them available for demo
- KA3GLI, David:
  - download each manual and spec sheet for comparisons
- WA8CRW, CR:
  - FTDX10 has better specs
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - Radios sound differently, so you want to hear it connected to an antenna
  - IC-710 sounded nice at field day to Chuck
  - Kenwoods sound nice to Chuck
  - some may be better for DX or general use
- KC3OOK, Bill:
  - Will any of those be at WFD?
  - Be careful reading only specs, some specs can be misleading
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - looked at output of 7300. sending smugmug link
  - Ron has both radios and will bring them to WFD.
  - there should be more there
  - FTDX10 has an external display port
    - IC-7300 didn’t have it
    - IC-7300 Mk 2 may have it
  - FTDX10 has a wider spectrum display
  - IC-7300 is a well-featured “starter” rig
    - FTDX10 has more features
  - look up sherwood engineering for comparisons
- W3GMS, Joe:
  - settling on a rig’s UI is a lot like picking a car.
    - drive it before buying it
  - .1uV difference will not be perceivable: it’s in the noise
  - all rigs are pretty good
  - visit someone and test drive their rigs
  - IC-7300 seems like great bang for the buck
  - don’t get hung up on specs
  - roofing filters are a great feature when operating multiple rigs
  - kenwoods have great audio
- WA3KFT, John:
  - 5 years
  - spectrum scope is the #1 reason to buy it: expandable to analyze a signal
- K3OU, Alan:
  - thanks for all the advice, especially test driving at field day
  - hasn’t been on an HF rig since 80s
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - use different audio presets between rag chewing and contesting
- K3OU, Alan:
  - not going to contest, just chat
KD3AIS, Tim:
- Looking at band plan, why and how do people use the really high microwave frequencies
- W3MFB, Mike:
  - people will use a 10M radio to drive a transverter and parabolic antenna
  - higher frequencies may be useful for satellite
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - has seen 5GHz and 10GHz operations
  - very line-of-sight, maybe from summits
- KC3OOK, Bill:
  - IC-905 does those bands
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - for experimentation
  - there are local people active on 1.2GHz
  - much smaller antennas and dishes
KD3EMS, Chris:
- What would be more secure for the church than using FRS? DMR?
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - look into MURS, it’ll at least not be as common
  - it may allow base stations
- KD3EE, John:
  - you may want to contact a commercial radio dealer to get setup on a licensed business frequency
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - DMR would be more complicated to setup
- W3GMS, Joe:
  - contact Metropolitan Communication for commercial setup and coordination
- KD3EMS, Chris:
  - Triangle Communications in New Holland is nearby

985 Workbench: 2025-12-22

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

I discovered UV-Pro can mute a channel, which I applied to my APRS channel.
- had gotten distracted by a feature to “mute digital signals”, but that doesn’t work very well: taking a while to recognize and mute
took the speaker-wire doublet out for another test:
- POTA after 985 breakfast
- inverted-v
- with a 4:1 balun + 1:1 current choke
  - tuned easily
  - no USB disconnects
- 30 contacts with 1W FT8.
I’m having a terrible time terminating RG174 + SMA: shorts

Others

WA3VEE, Ron:
- WFD is last full weekend of January: W3R
- checked 40M dipole at the field day site: contacted Indiana
- January 3, there’s a testing session in northern delaware
KC3RFG, Jim:
- PI-4 running ham clock died, lost SD card
AA3LH, Leon:
- introduced a choke balun to his G5RV
WA3KFT, John:
- 10M open: Oklahoma and Texas
AF3Z, Jim:
- Pentec Trident 4 drifts as it warms up
W3KZG, Scott:
- delivered a tower to Bill
KC3NZT, Harvey:
- long wire came down, so building some new mono-filament linkages, for strain relief. those break instead of ripping stuff off the house.
KC3OOK, Bill:
- simplex net, got to plymouth meeting
KV3JGB, Matt:
- looking forward to WFD
- starting CWOps fundamentals course

Questions

W8CRW, CR:
- Does anyone make a universal repeater for bluetooth to be able to use it 100 feet away? Specifically for battery data.
- KV3JGB, Matt:
  - most extenders are for audio
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - could instrument the battery to get and publish your own statistics
AA3LH, Leon:
- Would a 1:1 current choke benefit a vertical ham stick?
- KD3EE, John:
  - may help. I use it to keep RFI out of the radio and the computer.
  - for verticals, I’ll often add that choke and radials.
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - like chicken soup, it may help, but it won’t hurt.
AF3Z, Jim:
- His Pentec Triton 4 drifts up and down as it warms. What causes a radio to drift?
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - could be a leaky capacitor
  - heat related some way
  - odd that it drifts both ways
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - test the tester, read-out
  - check with an online radio
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - google says it drifts
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - eHam forum people say ignore the read-out and see what the receiving side is seeing.

FM vs AM

Sat, 20 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I found an old training video about AM vs FM. It explain grid voltage in tubes along the way.

Mute Channel on UV-Pro

Sat, 20 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I found I can mute the dedicated APRS channel on my Btech UV-Pro to never make a sound, so I can listen to the 2 dual-watch channels without needing to hear digital squawks.

The UV-Pro already had a feature to mute what it recognizes as digital signals, but that always takes a moment to activate it. I don’t know how that’s useful at all.

The RT-880G has this feature, and it got me thinking and reading manuals.

2025-12-19 US-8751

Fri, 19 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I activated US-8751, State Game Land 52. I deployed the speaker-wire doublet again in an inverted-V to operate 1W on 20M. It ran NW-SE, and I used the 4:1 and a 1:1 current balun on the coax. It tuned well in 20m, and caused no USB disconnects! My 1W FT8 signal was heard in France and Spain.

The Evolve 3 keyboard had some dead keys: w t. It doesn’t seem I can fix that, so it may need to be replaced.

doublet

4:1 balun

setup

985 Workbench: 2025-12-01

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

playing with my speaker wire doublet portable
- extended to 44ft end to end
- 10M and 40M tuned with some work
- 20M tuned easily, but killed the radio’s USB connection with every TX
- adding a current balun for next test
CQ WW CW 2025
- 20 contacts on CW
- estimated maybe 200 points
- heard Hawaii on 40M
participated in Simplex Net, and got a strong signal to west control

Others

W1RC, Mike:
- sorted stuff in the garage decide its fate
W3MFB, Mike:
- hosted the roundtable last week and this week
- heard all the controls of simplex net
- 10M HF work mobile
WA3VEE, Ron:
- visited Bar Harbor area: Elsworth and Bar Harbor repeaters
K3FF, Rene:
- installed capacitor board into Clipperton:
  - full voltage and working!
  - 700-800W out: needs some new tubes
- ATU-1000 kit
  - follow picture to assemble
KB3MNA, Chris:
- setting up home station
- studying for General
W3QP, Tim:
- activated all the summits in iowa: 2 of them
- South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin
- Friday is Pottstown Club meeting: why you should be chasing SOTA
KD3BPI, Simon:
- shopping HF rigs on FB marketplace
- studying for general
NA3CW, Chuck:
- PMAM Net: 16 checkins
  - good conditions
  - lots of DX 100 heathkits sounding good
KC3OOK, Bill:
- central control for simplex net
W3KZG, Scott:
- replaced truck radio with IC-7100
- made a few HF contacts
WA3KFT, John:
- Antique Wireless 40M Net saw lots of New England
- 10M is open
KD3AIS, Tim:
- 30-inch antenna on magmount didn’t work out on truck
- playing with meshtastic: T-Beam supreme
KV3JGB, Matt:
- studying CWOps to refresh

Questions

W8CRW, CR: Made a homebrew antenna for Simplex Net. How would one figure out the max power for a homebrew antenna?
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - “it depends”
  - size of conductor
  - contacts
  - insulation (voltage)
  - cores
  - cables
  - durability of all the components
  - a dipole and wire line with good insulators can take multiple kW
  - transformers and coils introduce weak points
- W3KZG, Scott:
  - matching circuit of a commercial antenna introduces limitations
  - in simple dipole, the feed line may be the only limit
  - run some power and see if anything is getting hot
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - components and size of wire
  - capacitors have ratings
  - figure out the voltage on the antenna: it’s in the study manual
- WA3KFT, John:
  - on a simple dipole, the feed point is low-voltage, but the ends are very high, so that’s where you need the insulation
- W3MFB, Mike:
  - can cut insulators from PTFE scraps.
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - at very high power, the sharp ends will form corona discharges.
    - round ends or put balls on it
    - not a problem for our power
  - a shortwave station in the Andes years ago would burn off the ends of the antennas, so they went to egg-beater ends.
- W8CRW, CR:
  - it’s actually a simple quarter-wave ground-plane
  - good to know 100W will be nothing for it
AF3Z, Jim:
- Hasn’t put specific insulator on his dipole, just tied to some paracord. Does a real insulator make a difference?
- WA3KFT, John:
  - on a 40M or 80M dipole, the end will be high voltage.
  - nylon cord is probably fine at 100W.
  - if it absorbs and holds water, it can extend and detune the antenna.
  - insulators shed water
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - wet rope will drain energy and effect efficiency
  - 100W won’t matter much
  - some are a foot-long and heavy porcelain, etc
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - ice on the cord with no insulator will detune the antenna
W3MFB, Mike:
- can you co-phase 20M or 40M vertical antennas? is it then directional?
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - directional AM broadcast antennas are co-phased.
  - yes it can be done for ham frequencies
- KA3KFT, John:
  - worked at an AM station
  - 3 towers tuned and phased for a 4-leaf pattern
  - between 1/4 and 1/2 wave apart
  - varying current would allow steering of the signal
  - at the base of each tower, there was a tuning network.
  - largest node pointed toward the licensed city.
  - null pointed toward a city with a conflicting station.
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - envision throwing rocks nearly at the same time into a pond and how the waves interact
- KD3EE, John:
  - check out Coastal Waves and Wires for recent examples of vertical yagis and vertical phased arrays.
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - directional “protection” has been done for a long time
  - pay attention to the lengths and velocity factors of the coax
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - besides AM steering, check out the WVUD FM transmitter at University of Delaware.
  - had to go to phased array to protect another station when they jumped to 5kW
- W3GMS, Joe:
  - in large AM stations:
    - phaser is the equipment that changes phase for steering
    - “dog house” is the tuner the bottom of each tower
  - phasing for our-sized project is done by varying the length of coax

2025-11-29 US-8878

Sat, 29 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I activated US-8878, State Game Land 181. It’s my 39th unique park activated on my way to the next award at 40. I made 11 FT8 contacts at 2-4W with my speaker-wire doublet pulled up into a tree. I had extended the length to 44ft length per some online recommendations.

The battery was low on my little Evolve 3 laptop, and I wanted to charge it from LiFePO, but it wouldn’t charge. It turns out that I had inserted the barrel adapter into the headphone jack instead of the tiny power port. The laptop had died at 9 contacts with 3 people calling me, so I switched to my other laptop to finish up.

10M tuned OK, 40M tuned OK, and 20M tuned easily, but with both laptops, the radio would drop the USB connection immediately upon transmitting. I may need to add a current balun between the radio and matching transformer.

CQ WW CW 2025

Sat, 29 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

For this year’s CQ Worldwide CW contest I heard KH6J from Hawaii on 40M, but I couldn’t contact them. Locals weren’t worth anything except for unique CQ zones as multipliers. I kept it to 5W and made 20 contacts on CW. I turned up to send 25wpm, since everyone was going so fast.

I still rely on the excellent decoder in the R1CBU radio UI, but I’ve been practicing reading CW too.

Ropes and Pulleys in Trees

Sat, 29 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I purchased some pulleys and got some ideas about rope work and pulleys in trees on YouTube.

985 Workbench: 2025-11-24

Mon, 24 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

activated US-1380, Marsh Creek, after breakfast on Friday:
- testing my speaker wire doublet with 4:1 balun and 9:1 balun
- 15 contacts on 10M FT8
- 11 P2P CW contacts on 20M
setup my Allstar node to keep recordings

Others

W1RC, Mike:
- new K3S radio
- lots of nice features
W8CRW, CR:
- helped Bill with replacing his 2M antenna
- simplex net this weekend is looking for homebrew antennas
AA3LH, Leon:
- researching and playing with some of his antennas
AB3AP, Mike:
- accompanied wife to Hawaii
- loosened dipole to avoid any wind while gone
WA3KFT, John:
- lots of openings on 10M
- all 14 antennas have stayed in the air through the wind
K3FF, Rene:
- working on his Clipperton power supply
- fixing harback board
- FT-101B. bought for parts, but fixed it up anyway.
- learning more about the 3D printer.
W3MFB, Mike:
- playing with AnyTone 5555 from CR.
  - 10M radio
  - sounds great on AM
- caught london and texas on 10M
KC3SQI, Wayne:
- getting his 7300 up and running with new antennas
K3DBD, Bob:
- working on a power supply from a repeater site
- good article in latest QST on POTA
NA3CW, Chuck:
- helped Bill with a new antenna
W3KZG, Scott:
- helped with Bill’s antenna
KC3MAI, Joe:
- spent some time listening to CW to learn
- looking into allstar node with KN3I, John.
KD3AIS, Tim:
- got his mobile radio mounted in the car
KC3OOK, Bill:
- antenna party
- new antenna is getting out better during simplex net
VE2AED, Howard:
- 50mi NW of Montreal
- active on HF: lots of experimenting
KC3HQZ, Jean:
- working on HF antennas to be heard better
- some radios in the shop: frustration

Questions

AA3LH, Leon:
- He has a G5RV antenna for traveling with 450ohm ladder line. It connects right to coax. Why doesn’t it need a 4:1 balun? Another similar antenna has the balun.
- WA3KFT, John:
  - the ladder line is part of the antenna, so it’s the normal feed point.
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - G5RV suggested running balanced line the whole way back to the station.
- AA3LH, Leon:
  - Feeds the G5RV with 50ft of LMR-400 and it works pretty well.
K3FF, Rene:
- Wondering about capacitors in harbach rebuild kits having different capacitances for the Clipperton L power supply. Is there concern for in-rush current?
- WA3KFT, John:
  - has a Clipperton L, hasn’t messed with it.
  - higher capacitance is a benefit
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - Sees nothing that limits in-rush current on existing board.
  - sent photos of his restoration process
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - designer of the B model says no need to worry about in-rush.
  - wire gauge should be sufficient.
- W3GMS, Joe:
  - schematic shows no in-rush management, so add it.
  - has some good experience using thermistors for managing in-rush.
  - 2.5-3ohm is sufficient.
KC3SQI, Wayne:
- Is anyone familiar with the Hex Beam and the center mount balun? Is it open at the top for mounting another antenna above it?
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - most hex beams he’s seen have been designed to be the top of the mast with a little stub to support the spreaders.
  - people who mounted another antenna above it did it with as stand-off from the tower below extending up through the webbing
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - has the question out to some manufacturers. waiting.
KD3AIS, Tim:
- Looking for short antennas for the car that fit in the garage. Fender-mounted on truck. Specs being mostly equal, how does he choose?
- W3MFB, Mike:
  - short antennas will be quarter wave.
  - longer will be better: half wave.
  - DX Engineering has a “compact antenna” that’s pretty good.
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - Anything close to 17 inches are quarter wave, and 30-some inches is half wave.
  - half wave can look pretty normal on a truck.
  - half wave can be less ground-dependent.
  - try to get as much wire in the air as you can.
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - longer half wave antenna may avoid RFI from car.

985 Workbench: 2025-11-17

Mon, 17 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

Allstar node being weird
saw a great youtube video on APRS bots:
- MPAD being very versatile for: weather, callsign lookup, location report to email
- ISS bot that tells you the next pass
listened to a couple sweepstakes contacts: to lazy to try to communicate that much exchange QRP SSB
built a doublet on a portable operation today:
- split 6.25M of speaker wire to be a 12.5M-long, center-fed, non-resonant dipole, like my portable EFRW I usually carry.
- the rest is balanced feed line
- right to the radio
- tuned 20M and barely tuned 40M on my X6100
- 2W FT8 heard in Africa and Europe
- next try it with a 4:1 or 9:1 balun to match better

Others

W1RC, Mike:
- Elekraft K3S from an estate sale.
  - advanced radio
  - had a K3 that he never used.
  - computer with an RF section
  - will sell the K3
KN3I, John:
- Went to the Father Murgas Event in Scranton
- signed up for N3FJP and LotW access
- sweepstakes
- fixing another ICOM radio
- 80 meters
W8CRW, CR:
- clearnode is working again
KC3RFG, Jim:
- Got some Aurora photos
K3FF, Rene:
- windy a couple weeks ago, found his amp cutting out for high SWR
  - antenna was arcing to another antenna at high power
WA3KFT, John:
- operating 10M net, got TX, NC, NJ, MA without trying
- 28435kHz - retired net, 1pm EST
KD3BPI, Simon:
- testing airplane radios for work
NA3CW, Chuck:
- chatting mobile
- PM/AM net: abysmal geomagnetic conditions
- computer work: database and labels for a church food distribution effort
KC3OOK, Bill:
- relayed for low-power net controllers in simplex net
KC3SQI, Wayne:
- putting new antennas on the new mast
- shopping other antennas
KC3MAI, Joe:
- Went to Scranton for 120 Anniversary of Father Murgas event: first overland telegraphy
- started studying CW
AA3LH, Leon:
- Introduced an ATU to replace a manual tuner
- connected an antenna directly to the radio
  - found lower SWR than with the switch, maybe needs replaced
KB3ZIM, Bob:
- check out the murgas amateur radio club website for that story
- will be busier in radio as it gets colder outside
- wants to get a 160M wire in the air
AF3Z, Jim:
- went to Scranton for the Father Murgas event.
- met the guy who started HamSCI at U of Scranton: very nice shack for school.

Questions

WA3VEE, Ron:
- what are the types of solar panel installation, and which causes the least RFI for HF?
  - each panel could have micro inverter
  - or they could all run to 1 big inverter
  - read a central inverter may be easier to control RFI.
- KC3RFG, Jim:
  - neighbor has panels across the street
  - 3 years old
  - no choice: all micro-invertors
- W8CRW, CR:
  - find an installer who will do 1 large inverter
KD3BPI, Simon:
- What are the pointers and highlights of studying for General?
- Using another test website to study, something besides hamstudy.
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - hasn’t tested since 1979
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - test sites are “ham cramming”
  - look for “Gordon West study guide”
  - you already know most of it
  - FCC wants to make sure you know it at least once
- WA3KFT, John:
  - has extra class study guide by gordon west.
  - study guide explains why the correct answer is correct.
- KC3RFG, Jim:
  - used ham study to pass the test and get started
  - focused on what you need to know for the test
  - learn more later
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - learn the theory
  - to study and get on quicker, aarl has the question pool.
  - go back and get the Gordon West book for reference and learning later
- KD3BPI, Simon:
  - will find that Gordon West book
KC3SQI, Wayne:
- Looking to step up from windom dipole (used for 4 years). on 10M, it has lots of lobes, so hard to predict results. Looking at a hex beam to put on a rotor on the mast. Considering wind loads for antenna, mast, and rotor. Different ways to mount the rotor: unistrut and thrust bearing. Any experience in strengthening a rotor installation?
- WA3KFT, John:
  - thrust bearing takes all the vertical weight, so none on the rotor.
  - without a brake, it moves easy enough for winds to turn the mast.

21 Tech Net: 2025-11-16

Sun, 16 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Portable Doublet

I built a doublet experiment at a park today.

split 6.25M of speaker wire to be a 12.5M-long, center-fed, non-resonant dipole, like my portable EFRW I usually carry.
the rest is balanced feed line
right to the radio
tuned 20M and barely tuned 40M on my X6100
2W FT8 heard in africa and europe
next try it with a 4:1 or 9:1 balun to match better

My Weeks in Radio

feel lucky to be in this area with lots of repeaters and traffic
flagpole with YAGI snapped in the wind a week or 2 ago.
strung the slim jim in the tree a little higher
playing with nicsure firmware on the RadTel RT-880G.
saw a great youtube video on APRS bots:
- MPAD being very versatile for: weather, callsign lookup, location report to email
- ISS bot that tells you the next pass
listened to a couple sweepstakes contacts: to lazy to try to communicate that much exchange QRP SSB

Others

WB3LNY, George:
- Tried La Grange repeater in KY, but no one answered.
- Keep as active as we can.
- Use it or lose it: they’ll take it away
- linking repeaters may help generate more traffic
VE3HOH, Pete:
- working on some Yaesu FT-100’s
  - predecessor to FT-857.
KA3TKW, Tom:
- lunch Thursday this week
  - everyone share a radio gadget
  - lots of mini demonstrations
- ISS scrubbed the SSTV after first couple days
- ISS ham repeater is still good though
  - high pass monday, 4:45pm
- Russian satellites doing SSTV
  - 435.890 ARCTICSAT-1: 2 good passes Monday morning
  - 5 minute cycle, so don’t be discouraged
KK4KKW, Steve:
- many times can’t make contacts while traveling: 2M or 10M
- hearing people on HF, but not making contacts
N7JMS, John:
- digipi doing SSTV to get ARCTICSAT-1 images
K3DMM, Denny:
- doing some of the sweepstakes
  - got Hawaii
- definitely trying morning pass of arcticsat-1
- trying for ISS pass as well
KD3BOV, John:
- rain gutter antenna
- getting started with the ICOM 2730

Swap and Shop

WB3LNY, george:
- new bird dummy loads
VE3HOH, Pete:
- rohn 25 tower sections:
- guy wire and anti-sway section for the rohn 25
- 432MHz yagis
- 2M yagis for weak signal
- 950ft of philly strand on a roll
KA3TKW, Tom:
- shortware receivers
- moto 25W transceivers
- 24ft camper for sale: $1500

setup

feed line to radio

dipole split

pskreporter

Tree Antennas

Tue, 11 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Since the flagpole Yagi fell, and I’m not rushing to put it back up, I figured I’d see if I can get my 2-meter antennas in the tree higher.

I threw the line up over the tree to have it drop down the middle, and I now pull the slim-jim antenna up through the middle of the tree. It’s not the highest antenna, above the ground-plane antenna.

I also took a moment to untangle the halyards and feed lines. I looped the 2 feed lines through a spring clip on the roof line to keep them from slapping around so much.

I’m getting good APRS decodes off the lower antenna, and strong repeater signals on the high antenna, but it doesn’t quite receive the 985 repeater.

985 Workbench: 2025-11-10

Mon, 10 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

upgraded my meshtastic nodes: faster bluetooth communication
new 3rd party firmware on the Radtel RT-880G
- nice scanning, HF receive, spectrum analyzer
- APRS beacon
- used the spectrum analyzer to observe which of my car remotes were working and which needed a battery
flagpole with my yagi snapped in the wind
- have a cool video of it whipping around in the wind and breaking
- digital until I repair that
- i have a military surplus mast I may try next
Playing a little 1W FT8, turned it up to 4W to get to Chile

Others

WA3VEE, Ron:
- Computers in place for logging on Winter Field Day
KC3SCY, Luke:
- AWA Bruce Kelley QSO Party using 1929 and before gear
  - using a Type 10
  - made 21 contacts in this first weekend
- using Drake R4A as receiver
- building another 1929 transmitter
NA3CW, Chuck:
- antenna survey at the field day site
  - 2 80m antennas on the same axis
  - 2 40m antennas on the same axis
  - each for CW and phone.
  - no more patch panel needed
  - antennas will run up and down with halyards
KC3OOK, Bill:
- South control for Simplex Net on Saturday
  - learning to use a beam for the net
AF3Z, Jim:
- 10M CW at 1pm in the afternoon
  - chatted with Colorado and Marshall Islands
  - vertical dipole
KA3GLI, David:
- measured outside for a wire antenna and run of coax
- setting up a listening station
- need to build an unun for the new antenna
KD3BWL, Frank:
- using new rig to work repeaters in Chester County
W3DIB, Greg:
- Good to hear about computers for Field Day

Questions

KC3OOK, Bill:
- He has new test equipment from Ron, but needs BNC cables for it. What cable/connectors should he get?
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - You want 50 ohm cables for radio work.
  - TV would be 75 ohms
  - 6ft BNC-BNC plus some adapters
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - Avoid cheap cables: poorly shielded/crimped
  - Only trusted the cables he made
  - RG58 is fine for anything 100W or below.
- WA3KFT, John:
  - SO-239 with adapter to BNC works fine
  - stranded center conductor will be nice and flexible
- KC3OOK, Bill:
  - will make some of his own cables
AA3LH, Leon:
- Likes dipoles, center-fed with ladder line. Should there be a couple twists in the ladder line?
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - twists are recommended to keep it from catching much RFI in receive. it exposes both conductors to the noise, so it balances.
  - good signals on balanced lines are differential
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - twists also help with wind
  - he has a twist ever 2-3 feet.
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - be careful to not cause crossovers
- AA3LH, Leon:
  - has 25 feet and about 4 twists.
  - it flops in the wind some
AF3Z, Jim:
- at field day site, each set of antennas are “coaxial”, so in a line, end-to-end, to give them the same direction, but minimal interaction.
- W3GMS, Joe:
  - antennas will be orthogonal (perpendicular)
    - 80M will run east-west to transmit north/south
    - 40M will run north-south to transmit east-west

RT-880G Nicsure Firmware

Sun, 09 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve paid for the Nicsure Patreon to get access to his new firmware for the Radtel RT-880G, and I’ve used his Linux CPS to flash it and load channels.

Having a Linux CPS alone is an amazing enhancement. The UI is not necessarily intuitive compared to other radios, but I’m getting accustomed to it. Most the functions I want from the menu are found by long-pressing the green button, and it shows you the shortcut key you could use. There are also posts about an extended manual that helps a bit, but I still found mismatches.

I have it beaconing APRS and receiving, but it still struggles to get a good decode. The stock firmware shows garbage decodes, but his one just doesn’t show anything for those failures.

It seems to have nice scanning, HF receive, and the spectrum analyzer.

Flagpole Mast Down

Thu, 06 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The flagpole mast broke in the wind about 9:05pm EST or so. I captured the destruction on the Wyze camera that watches it. It snapped right above the point it’s tied to the garage. Fortunately, it fell in an OK direction, so it didn’t damage anything around it.

I could try to put it back up with some spare pieces and guy it next time, or I could try the military surplus mast I picked up at a Ham Fest this past summer.

I’ll be contacting the 985 repeater digitally through Allstar for now.

broken flagpole laying in the yard

985 Workbench: 2025-11-03

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

Other clubs
- Learned about geochron:
  - old mechanical map with terminator lines
  - new digital one with all sorts of visualizations, including ham radio
- Presentation on Antennas and feed line at a Ham Lunch in Harrisburg.
US-1418, POTA:
- FT8, 10M, mostly 1-2W, but 4W some times.
- also 1 CW contact
Built conveniences into software I use for my radio weblog
- easily link park identifies to the POTA site and callsigns to QRZ profiles.

Others

KD3BPI, Simon:
- Listening while mobile
WA3VEE, Ron:
- setup and plan for WFD
KC3SCY, Luke:
- PM/AM net
- working on CW
- Bruce Kelley Memorial event coming up in a couple weeks:
  - will operate 1929 TNT and 1929 Hartley
KC3OOK, Bill:
- Hosted Welfare Net
- At Joe’s to plan hardline from tower to building
- worked on cable trays for his shack
KC3KFT, John:
- 10M has been open lately
- Retired Net on 28435kHz or 28333kHz
K3FF, Rene:
- operated lots on CQ WW SSB. Lots on 10M.
- working on Yaesu 991A that wouldn’t power on initially. (lightning?)
- insure your good equipment
KD3AIS, Tim:
- 1st General Class
KD3BWL, Frank:
- Learned about EchoLink
  - contacted a repeater in VA
- other repeaters
KC3MAI, Joe:
- purchased a CW keyer to start learning
W3QP, Tim:
- Headed to Illinois for work:
  - aiming to activate Summits in Illinois and neighboring states
K3DBD, Bob:
- First time checking in to this net in a long time, even though being a long-time user.
- 68 years into ham radio
- chairman of technical committee in Pottstown Club.
- preparing for ARRL Frequency Measuring Event on 8 November
- fixing a broken PC board for an old wurlitzer juke box
KC3YSM, Steve:
- DXing: Chile, Italy, Canada
- Mobile listening
- Excited to hear Ron’s plans for WFD

Questions

KC3MAI, Joe:
- Has a keyer and paddles, how should he learn CW?
  - is it bad to start with paddles?
- WA3KFT, John:
  - taught CW
  - with a staight key, you can practice spacing within a character as well as the timing of dit and dah (3*dit)
  - straight key is easier to control speed and start slower
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - Has gotten Rusty in CW
  - Used to be able to do 18WPM
  - Look at Koch Method and Farnsworth spacing
    - slow down by extending spacing between characters, not by slowing everything.
  - 10-15 minutes a day really helps.
- W3GMS, Joe:
  - Call Joe and discuss at great length
  - CW instructor in the Military
  - Do not try any sending until you can copy 10 WPM
  - focus on recognizing the sound
  - don’t count dits and dahs
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - use CW software to train
  - ensure you practice at higher speed to avoid counting
  - G4FON software
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - don’t ever look at a chart or page of dots and dashes
  - it’s about sound
  - learn to receive well first
- KB3ZIM, Bob:
  - https://morsle.fun/ is effective practice and lets you stretch for speed

US-1418: 2025-10-30

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I ran out to Sam Lewis, US-1418, to activate when the rain stopped.

I took a few minutes to setup my normal EFHW running North-South to operate more to the East and West, though I did get a contact to Colombia.

I operated mostly low-power FT8, 1-4W, but mostly 2W. I chased and got 1 CW contact before it started getting cold and dark.

setup

antenna north-south

tiny s-biner

key and radio

985 Workbench: 2025-10-27

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 21:01:42 -0400

My Week in Radio

great ham fest in Harrisburg
- ARISS presentation was great with a good pass to hear astronauts answering questions at a museum in Indiana
- bought a cheap power meter for HF and some connectors
5 hours of CQ WW DX SSB contest
- 12 contacts
  - Canary Islands on 5W SSB.
  - heard lots more that could hear my 5W
- logged in World Radio League website and phone app. It exported a perfect Cabrillo file for the contest.
- POLO was not going to cut it for contest exchanges. (I later found global “Activities” settings that exposed a “simple contest” mode.)
blog up-to-date after months being outdated

Others

NA3CW, Chuck:
- PM/AM net on 75 meters
AF3Z, Jim:
- trying echolink, noticed repeater keys instantaneously, but audio is significantly delayed allstar seems less delayed
- 10M CW Sked: around 28.180MHz
- found a DX pile-up a little lower in the band:
  - C5Y from Gambia
  - used RIT
  - managed to work the station
  - 70W
KC3OOK, Bill:
- net control for simplex net
- building his station on the bench
- ron dropped off an HP signal generator
KD3AIS, Tim:
- made his 1st 10 contacts on 10M
- getting comfortable
KC3NZT, Harvey:
- also got on 10M while it’s open for the contest.
  - 50 countries in 10 minutes
  - also New Mexico on 10M for WAS
WA3KFT, John:
- fighting with a Bird Watt Meter 4410.
  - powered by 9V battery
  - has an amplifier that’s required
  - not working
  - may need repair
KC3MAI, Joe:
- upgraded to AE
- signed the private land use bill
- 4 contacts in contest, including C5Y
- Father Murgas Reenactment
  - this is an important event
  - Hungarian priest came to wilkes barre
  - into wireless telegraphy
  - first person to do point-to-point over 20mi (Wilkes Barre to Scranton)
  - used a 2-tone system of his own invention instead of CW
  - Joe’s driving and buying lunch. email him.
AC3NW, Manny:
- identified a good location for his Hustler 5bpv vertical with radials
  - cleared with XYL

Questions

NA3CW, Chuck:
- Helping a preschool with a computer update. Front of the laptop pushed apart and won’t push back together. Battery is 2x original thickness. Stowed in in the driveway. What do you do with a damaged lithium ion battery?
- KD3EE, John:
  - drop it at Waste Management in Lancaster: House Hold Chemicals
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - Home Depot took it as long as not actively warm
    - put it in a non-conductive bag
  - His local scrapper would take them too
- W8CRW, CR:
  - Chester County Recycling said just throw it in the trash(!)
- W1RC, Mike:
  - in Massachusetts, he’d take it to the Fire Dept.
- W3KZG, Scott:
  - For NA3CW, Chuck: SECRA doesn’t accept that stuff, but they do pick up a couple times a year. SECRA recommends the retail store.
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - local trash collector forbid lithium or lead acid batteries
  - likes the idea of Home Depot
    - may only want tool batteries, though, hand-written sign.
  - not generating any heat
KD3EE, John: Seeing a 20kHz-wide band of noise in the 30M band. In SSB it sounds like a flatulent tractor anywhere you tune in it. reminds me of maybe over-the-horizon radar. What might this be, and what other mysteries in signals have you seen and solved?
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - 60M is shared with military, but 30M may also have military.
  - radar usually looks like a narrow sweep
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - not a broadcasting band, but
  - DRM signal on 70M: shortwave with very defined edges
- Aberdeen Proving Ground tests lots of HF radio equipment
AA3LH, Leon:
- Does anyone have any model trains they’d like to donate for a church display at Christmas? Call 717-286-7216 to donate.
  - KD3AIS, Tim:
    - He has too much stuff in the attic, including trains from childhood.
    - Will donate.
- AA3LH, Leon:
  - call the number, thanks.
- W3KZG, Scott:
  - KB3ZIM, Bob, may have some trains to re-home.

SPARC: Geochron

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

https://www.geochron.com/
Owner: Patrick Bolan
- rides motorcycle around and visits geochron users
mechanical clock since 1964
- automated map to show greyline
- backlit
- 6ft map that turns on gears
- shades moved by motors
- seen in movies: twister, clear and present danger, hunt for red october,
- Ronald Reagan had them
  - gave Gorbechev one as a gift: American ingenuity
- Geochron still has a mechanical shop to service them
  - refurbish 300 / yr
  - build 100 / yr new
  - $2500-$4000 for new mechanical
  - 25 hours to assemble
Geochron Digital
- renders 4K on the client
- pulls maps and data from geochron
- HDMI
- used on carnival cruises, since light on internet
his geochron shows:
- pota
- airplanes
- weather / hurricane
- naval carriers for US and others
- aurora predictions
- earthquakes
- lighting strikes
- noaa satellite images
- fire hotspots in CA
- pollution
- remote controlled or by phone app
ISS has a video feed you can show on Geochron, and you can see lightning
Atlas 1 can’t render the newer animated overlays
Atlas 2 and pro (new this week) show everything
ham radio features
- CQ zone maps
- geocentric map
- FT8
- MUF
  - watch for “holes” on the way to a target where the signal would “escape”
- filter by callsign prefixes (VK)
- POTA / SOTA
- ISS
- satellites filtered by mode with footprint
- QRZ logbook integration
- where the moon is shining - moon terminator
need to customize, since there’s so much data
- opacity
Atlas 2 - $425 -
- 16 layers included with internet access
- $2-11/month or more layers
- email coupon@geochron.com for code
  - $425
  - free ham radio annual pass

21 Tech Net: 2025-10-26

Sun, 26 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

CQ WW DX SSB Contest

12 contacts
- including Canary Islands near Africa
- heard lots of places that couldn’t hear me: Galapagos
QRP (<5W)
Logged in World Radio League website and phone
exported a Cabrillo file in the right format to submit!
POLO didn’t seem to collect the right fields

Great Ham Fest in Harrisburg

Saw some faces from a couple different repeaters I frequent
Tom’s satellite presentation was great, and we had a really good pass to hear the astronauts talking to the museum in Indiana.
Bought a cheap power meter for HF and some connectors for it

985 Workbench: 2025-10-20

Mon, 20 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

enjoyed getting to the breakfast
- great to be unemployed this summer
- time to find a job, though
10M open lots for FT8: Azores today with 4W
headed to ham fest in harrisburg on saturday
great collection of probes for my multimeters

Others

W1RC, will:
- local hamfest flea market
  - great gear
  - ten tec 555 scout, a favorite
    - adjustable bandwidth
W3CRW, CR:
- breakfast
AC3NW, Manny:
- considering budget and layout for first HF station
WA3KFT, manny:
- some nets
KC3SCY, Luke:
- working on CW
- building a rig
WA3VEE, Ron:
- Perkasie RF Hill hamfest
- 10M this weekend for HF DX: CQ WW SSB Contest
  - great for technicians
- acquired a cool cat whisker receiver before it got trashed
  - to restore
- winter field day work
AF3Z, Jim:
- carried QRP gear to the beach, but didn’t use it.
KC3OOK, Bill:
- usual nets
- breakfast
- finished his table and a row of equipment
- working on a heath kit
- ordered a speaker for the heath kit
KC3NZT, Harvey:

Questions

AC3NW, Manny:
- Considering antennas for HF in his neighborhood.
  - Trying to remain low-profile.
  - Vertical for HF: Hustler 5BTV
  - trapped vertical
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - used that antenna previously when he was a kid
  - 190 countries
  - 75m resonator
  - WAS on 75M SSB
  - for CW as well
  - solar cycle 20
  - Russia, China, Australia
  - used raised verticals
  - we’ve used that antenna at the field day site
- K3FS, Renee:
  - an end-fed wire can be pretty invisible
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - that vertical could be sort of conspicuous
  - an 80m dipole with ladder line would be a great multiband
  - has chosen to an EFHW for his home
- W1RC, Mike:
  - likes his 130-ft EFRW + tuner for agility
- AC3NW, Manny:
  - end-fed sounds interesting
K3FS, Renee:
- has an older amplifier, Clipperton L
- runs 4 5072 tubes.
- does not have a tuned front-end
- used pi network to match impedence to the amplifier
- there’s a tuning module that can be inserted to give 50-ohm interface for transceiver.
- doesn’t have that module
- would an automatic tuner match the amplifier that’s not tuned?
- WA3KFT, John:
  - uses a 7300 with that Clipperton L for 10 meters
  - has inserted an MFJ tuner between the transceiver and the amp.
  - built-in tuner may not have enough range
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - has no trouble driving the Clipperton L with 7610
  - caution: built a circuit to key it
- WA3KFT, John:
  - also has a circuit of a transistor driving a relay to key the amplifier
  - DIC relay
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - can share keying circuit to be safe
- KC3OOK, Bill:
  - learning about his Clipperton L
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - another word of caution: look at the voltage on the relay.
  - it’s driver at a high voltage, so it runs hot.
  - use an LM317 regulator to bring it down
- K3FS, Renee:
  - great to see so many Clipperton Ls around.
  - already has some tuners to use
  - thanks for relay advice
  - will use a quiet relay
KC3OOK, Bill:
- How would one adapt a new speaker impedance to an old radio that uses higher impedance? matching wattage?
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - speakers are pretty forgiving
  - the volume may vary a little
  - large speakers could require more current to move the cone
  - try it and see
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - 25W speaker doesn’t need 25W, that’s just the max
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - speakers going into clipping is what damages them.
  - sensitivity is rated in dB at 1W at 1M from the speaker
  - pick a speaker that sounds good to you.
  - Liisong speakers are a great option for radios
  - pay attention to how it sounds. a clipping speaker sounds like garbage.
  - 90dB is the benchmark: quite loud.
  - 200-5000Hz is about what we need for SSB
  - find 8ohms or higher
KD3EMS, Chris:
- Church is using FRS Retevis radios, Does anyone have any recommendations for ear pieces for extended use?
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - SAL Notes Zero

985 Workbench: 2025-10-13

Mon, 13 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

practiced copying CW with Morse Maven app while on vacation with no radios.
- Koch method to build up symbols, and now words.
- I need to break the habit of repeating in my head, especially for similar letters, like F and L.
listened to PA QSO party, but didn’t participate
fixed antennas around home were not performing well
- confused by a local repeater also experiencing power problem
- bad connection to YAGI
- 1 entire antenna broken and fallen out of the tree
- untangled and reassembled everything

Others

W8CRW, CR:
- 985 activities, Red Rose, Salem in NJ
WA3VEE, Ron:
- breakfast with Pottstown group
- visited Pottstown repeater site to take photos
- Pottstown UHF net
- graphed coverage with “what’s my path” profiler
- PA QSO parties: 63/67 counties + states, 10k points
  - good test for emergency comms
- worked other special events
- RF Hill Hamfest next weekend
- CQ DX SSB coming up
W3QP, Tim:
- picked up LDG tuner at a hamfest
  - started testing it out recently
  - cleaned it up with deoxit to make it work
- SOTA in vermont: 8 summits
- summit-to-summit QSO party
- cleaning up computer stuff around the shack
  - stuff to get rid of: wireless router, ethernet router, PoE, computer
AF3Z, Jim:
- avoided the PA QSO party
- a little CW for random contacts on 10M
KC3OOK, Bill:
- south control for simplex net: worked 7 counties
- finished riser for his station
- finishing touches on tower base at Joe’s.
KA3GLI, Dave:
- installed a ground-rod
- ordered a throw line to launch some wires
- planning location for his station in the basement
  - power
W3KZG, Scott:
- assisted with Joe’s tower swap
- helped with last-minute things on tower base
- picked up a nano VNA on amazon prime day.
NA3CW, Chuck:
- 985 activities
- net control for 75M PM/AM net
- hosted new hams, James and Mike, to setup a test rig for logging in Kenya. USB to DB9 serial.
- CQ DX WW SSB will be a great opportunity for DX
KD3AIS, Tim:
- learned some colleagues are hams
AA3LH, Leon:
- problem: key up HF radio, and it would turn off.
  - troubleshoot for 2 days
  - 3 radios would work with the PS fine.
  - found a bad connector
KC3SQI, Wayne:
- 80m OCF thrown into a tree.
- used the existing rope to pull a pulley into the tree, so it’s easier to get the wire up and down.

Questions

KA3GLI, Dave:
- Didn’t care for “Coax Shield” to seal connectors. Is there something better?
- KB3ZIM, Bob:
  - There’s a silicone tape, coax seal, that sticks to itself, and stays in place really well: 9 years.
  - Maybe you had a bad batch of that “Coax Shield” stuff.
  - try a different brand.
  - make sure the coax is clean.
- W3KZG, Scott:
  - Coax wrap can be an absolute mess to remove.
  - Has found some recently that doesn’t stick.
  - likes adhesive-lined heat shrink for coax and other electrical applications.
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - coax seal was fine in the past
  - squish it in like clay
  - try self-fusing tape: silicone, sticks to itself.
- KC3OOK, Bill:
  - coax wrap silicon tape
  - doesn’t stick to itself. friction, then electrical tape.
  - cut it off
- KC3RFG, Jim:
  - does a wrap of scotch electrical tape, then the silicone coax wrap, so it’s easy to remove
- AA3LH, Leon:
  - has used a non-conductive grease from HRO on connectors
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - stretch and seal silicone tape from home depot.
    - not radio specific.
  - also grease. used on boat as well.
- KA3GLI, Dave:
  - forgot about adhesive-lined heat shrink
  - lots of good ideas
KD3AIS, Tim:
- Are there big factors unexplored in causes of intermod that effects a handful of nets?
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - interaction between 2 radio signals acting upon some non-linear element.
    - transistors in the amplifier
    - rusty bolt joint
    - crossed wires
    - power line
    - something that creates a mixing element, and causes a 3rd signal
    - adjacent towers
  - we have control of 1 signal, but not the other
  - could be the nearby cell tower
  - nothing has worked yet
    - lots of solid technical efforts
  - trying to solve it with coexistance
    - digital
    - auxiliary site at Joe’s house
      - different PL tone
- W3KZG, Dave:
  - do other sites have intermod problems?
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - it is common
  - troubleshooting the second signal is often the problem
  - can also be a problem with field equipment
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - slipping connectors can cause it
  - commercial sites require a certain connector to avoid it
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - it can be a problem in non-RF equipment: medical, etc

21 Technet: 2025-10-12

Sun, 12 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

traveling:
- cruise ships specifically forbid ham radios
- practiced copying some CW
listened to a little PA QSO party, but didn’t participate
21 has been lower power recently,
- wondering if it’s my multiple antennas or the repeaters
- definitely at least one feed line problem diagnosed during this net

Others

K3EA, Greg
- QSO parties coming up
  - Germany
- CQ WW SSB
- Vanawatu, SSB
N7JMS, Jon
- digi-pi
KC3ZBI, Ron
- talking to a classroom about radio
KA0JQO, Kevin:
- repeater power
- when no double beep, then the repeater is putting out full power: 115W
- when it’s beeping, the power is low: 20W.

Swap and Shop

KA3TKW, Tom:
- shortwave receivers

985 Workbench: 2025-09-29

Mon, 29 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Week in Radio

Welcome Manny!
Attended the 3D Printing show in Belair on Saturday
activated a new-to-me park in MD
WW RTTY contest
- 66 contacts, QRP, Rookie
leaving on a cruise on saturday:
- no ham radios
- will miss Red Rose Hamfest

Others

W3JAM, Jeff:
- Skywarn in Dauphin county
- Simplex Net
- OCF antenna finally installed
- 2m antenna mounted higher
- received a 16 element yagi to refurbish
AC3NW, Manny:
- new extra license in January
- building a shack
- running coax outside
- working on getting operational in general: VHF and HF
- looking to install a vertical for VHF and dipole for HF
- budget
WA3VEE, Ron:
- getting ready for Red Rose Hamfest
  - testing some scopes and power supplies
- setting up his military station
KC3RFG, Jim:
- fixing up an antenna and its connections, so radio will tune better
  - replaced a lightning arrester
WA3KFT, John:
- hearing some other traffic in his location on 985
- advice: always have an SWR meter in the coax line to keep an eye on things.
- reading high SWR on current 2M rig
KC3OOK, Bill:
- hosted welfare net on sunday
- working at joe’s on tower
  - final install this weekend
KC3SQI, Wayne:
- working on his feed lines on tower
- attempted to check-in to the old forks net on Saturday
  - but found Puerto Rico and Scotland instead, so made those contacts
- hula hoop antenna on top of tower
- evaluating performance and noise of different antennas he has up
- noise from air conditioner unit
- one more antenna to move, and then they’re all on the same mast
AB3AP, Mike:
- CW and POTA contacts
- playing with PLL to track broadcast AM modulation
AF3Z, Jim:
- found the rtty contest
- 7030kHz, found the FOC CW party there
  - worked some of them
  - 2 UK, Sweden, Germany, Belgium, US
  - exchange: signal report and name + FOC number
KD3AIS, Tim:
- another week waiting for an antenna bracket for the 2024 Tundra
  - keep getting the wrong bracket
KB3ZIM, Bob:
- more 10M activity
- worked a 6m repeater in Honey Brook: K3CX?
  - linked to other repeaters
  - enjoying morsle.fun: very helpful, 40wpm
AA3LH, Leon:
- playing with a receiver on the long wire again: China, Russia

Questions

AF3Z, Jim:
- With surface mount, integrated circuits, chips in modern rigs, how repairable do we think they’ll be?
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - surface mount requires specialized equipment for soldering
  - swap whole boards
  - send it for repair
- W8CRW, CR:
  - shipped a radio back for repair
  - parts sometimes aren’t available for repair
  - obsolete
- KD3EE, John:
  - Xiegu radios: my X6100 or G90
    - cheap, chinese
    - Radioddity sells a “refresh kit” with common parts
    - I have internal battery to swap in some day
  - updatable software means new features and optimizations in the future
  - is it like cars, where they don’t need repair as much?
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - like TVs, some high power componests with heat sinks will still be replaceable
  - update-able firmware can extend the life
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - for icom rigs with burn-in problem, like ic-7610, repair turn-around is expected to be slow, but it got repaired quickly: 18 days turn-around.
  - updated firmware, totally refreshed, settings restored, replaced clock battery
  - great service from shop in MN
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - late 80s kenwood, never had anything wrong with it.
  - can deal with some surface mount
  - flashing may or may not be possible for replaced chips
  - never missed old car tech: more complex but less likely to fail
  - modifications to yaesu for external audio
    - days of work to make mods, so not accessible to most people
  - keeping rigs as long as possible
  - repairable: connectors, finals, power supplies
  - done with boat anchors
- AB3AP, Mike:
  - old C64 computer had such a following there’s an FPGA reproduction of it.
  - favorite old radios may be cloned, emulated, or new chips fabricated.
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - both his rigs have the original Motorola transistors that have been discontinued
  - ebay supposedly has equivalents (or fakes?)
  - other companies stepped up to make replacements
  - if there’s demand there will be supply made available
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - ARRL had insurance for ham radio gear: preparation
  - amazed at longevity of solid-state gear: Triton IV since the 70s
  - computers with high clock speeds
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - labor is getting expensive: $1000 labor to install $7 part
  - SDR radios, like 7300 is 10 years old, and working well
  - 10 years is probably a good lifespan
  - with labor price, budgeting to buy replacement might be best
  - doesn’t miss old car systems
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - they seldom commit suicide, but they sometimes get murdered
  - some new radios promise updates, but never deliver

US-1587

Sat, 27 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

On the way back from 3DPrintopia, I stopped to activate US-1587 Palmer State Park.

11 FT8, 1 CW contacts
10m, 15m, 20m
Gabil slider whip

setup

985 Workbench: 2025-09-22

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

replaced my RG-58 cable with KMR-400
- $90 for 100ft, terminated
- tested individual cables and combinations
- nanoVNA “through measurement”
- Wayne suggested
- improved my 6.5dB loss to 3dB loss total
- doubled power!
Radtel RT-880G HT got a firmware upgrade
- APRS beacons “just work” now.
- still likes to show scrambled chinese for packets it doesn’t read well
- might next look into using it for a personal digipeating APRS.
this weekend
- 3D printing show in Belair MD
- WW RTTY contest - lots of fun previous years

Others

W1RC, Mike:
- learning a new radio and its menus with the manual
W8CRW, CR:
- 985 and local nets
- flying drone to hang some ropes for another ham
WA3VEE, Ron:
- attended Antique Radio Show in Kutztown: vintage broadcast radio and audio
- Joe emailed photos
- get on Joe’s email list
WA3KFT, John:
- running 6m and 2m nets
- 700+ QSOs so far this year
AB3AP, Mike:
- attended breakfast
- expecting to be at WFD doing 20-25wpm
NA3CW, Chuck:
- PMAM net sunday night, good conditions.
- working on a transciever for James, a new member
  - replacing a memory battery
- tower at Joe’s is basically finished.
KB3ILS, Keith:
- picked up a nice small Elekraft radio
- 5w, EF wire, 50 QSOs on CW
AF3Z, Jim:
- W3GMS website can send event reminders too, in addition to Joe’s emails.
  - good reminder for hosts of nets
- some CW
- Saturday, tried working some other people besides his normal sked.
- finally finished up photos for Longs Park festivals
KC3OOK, Bill:
- 985 nets, Simplex Net on Saturday, Welfare Net on Sunday
- Joe’s tower
- vhf.dxview.com said VHF was open to Canada and east coast
KD3AIS, Tim:
- progress on radio in the truck
- had the wrong mounting bracket
- help from KC3NZT, Harvey
KD3APR, Paxton:
- operating in a house without power

Questions

AB3AP, Mike:
- Winter Field Day sounds like it is 20-25WPM, and that’ll be comfortable. Faster requires lots of extra listens. What are others’ comfortable speeds?
- W3DIB: 0
- AF3Z:
  - keyers set to 35wpm, spacing is usually wider.
  - 20-25wpm is more comfortable
  - try to get contact info before the call
- W3DIB, Greg: N2HM, Bob is amazing to watch
- KB3ILS, Keith:
  - don’t worry about speed on WFD. people will slow if you need.
  - just skip people who go too fast.
  - working closer to 20wpm will get you more contacts
  - managed first straight key contact at about 6wpm at last field day
  - “we’ll help you copy, just try”
- WA3KFT, John:
  - passed test with 13wpm for advanced
  - no longer that fast, out of practice
  - taught code in classes
  - first learned it in boy scouts
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - slower, took 2 attempts to pass 13wpm
  - 15-18 today
- KD3EE, John:
  - morsle.fun: 25-30wpm if i can hear it multiple times
  - keyer at 20wpm, but leaving some space
  - I’ll hope to get help copying at field day
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - flags in boy scouts
  - passed 13wpm in 1967
  - barely passed 20wpm in 1979
  - practicing with a sked qso
  - 35wpm seems impossible, but he’s getting there
  - being retired gives him time to practice
- W3DIB, Greg:
  - https://lcwo.net/
- KB3ILS, Keith:
  - use computer programs
  - also just listen to others’ QSOs on 40m
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - use a websdr to listen
- KD3EE, John:
  - ARRL code practice files and podcast
- KB3ZIM, Bob:
  - hearing signals from south pacific right now on HF
  - practiced and learned at 59 years
  - always intended to use it
  - bought the CW paddle before a transceiver
  - doesn’t want to inconvenience others
  - prosigns are baffling
  - practice sites don’t necessarily demonstrate prosigns
  - seeing dots and dashes slowed us all down
- KD3EE, John:
  - chase POTA to practice CW
- KB3ILS, Keith:
  - relayed my message, and recommended spotting from pota.app.
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - SKCC hangs out on +50khz and events, so good to listen there
  - simple exchanges
  - don’t do CW if you don’t like it.
KD3APR, Paxton:
- Seeing some repeaters offering “auto-patch”. How’s that work, and how’s it sound?
- W3DIB, Greg:
  - Univ Del had an autopatch.
  - you’d need to get permission and get the code to be able to use it.
  - it would place the phone call.
  - it would leave the TX up the whole time the phone was on.
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - it’s been years.
  - other person would need to know to say “over” since the carrier stayed up even when remote is transmitting, and on one would otherwise know when the other person stops
  - got to use it once in the 70s to call for road help
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - needed to remind the phone side that the communication is being transmitted
  - don’t do business.
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - you just can’t use the radio for your boss, “under ordrers”.
  - running a business vs doing a transaction.
KB3ZIM, Bob:
- Is autopatch still used and offered?
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - repeater book lists autopatch as a service on some repeaters
- W3DIB, Greg:
  - it’s probably easy in the time of VOIP.

Meshtastic 2.7.9

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I upgraded all 3 nodes to 2.7.9. The 3EEj node was running warm.

KMR400 Through Measurement

Wed, 17 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been thinking of ways to get more power to W3GMS, and coax might be the weakest link. I have about 75ft of RG-58 outside and maybe 8 ft of RG-174 inside. I took down the flag pole Yagi to replace the coax.

I learned how to measure loss with a “through measurement” on the nanoVNA watching Youtube:

The old coax run measured at least -6.5dB loss total
- -4.5dB for the RG-58 by itself
- -2.0dB for the RG-174 by itself
The new coax, 100ft of KMR-400, by itself measured -1.5dB, and -3.3dB with the patch of RG-174
SWR sweep of antenna on old coax showed lots of wiggles and hung generally low, because of all the loss.
SWR sweep of the antenna with the new coax runs much higher on the 100MHz side, and takes a nice dip at the resonant frequency.
Incoming signals look good and strong by the S-meter on the TYT-9800

kmr400

kmr400 yagi

Radtel RT-880g Firmware 1.16

Tue, 16 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Radtel RT-880G got new firmware yesterday: 1.16. I had to run the upgrade software in WINE.

APRS occasionally receives a message that PASSES the FCS check, but still mostly failed, and some are completely garbled chinese characters.
TX APRS looks pretty good now. I’ve seen on BTech UV-PRO and on https://aprs.fi/.
Listening to “Radio” mode is cool: 20M CW, FT8, and a little voice.
The menus are pretty confusing, and it’s hard to remember the controls, especially in “Radio”.
I was using the radio in “Full Band Tuning”, but it causes problems in spectrum mode, so I went back to normal mode.

985 Workbench: 2025-09-15

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

seeing more “alternate” FT8 traffic on the waterfall: dxpeditions and contests!
tempted to replace my old cheap coax with something lower-loss for my 50W VHF to compare.
- bust out the attenuators and the tinySA or maybe just the little digital power meter I have to measure at the antenna feed point.
bring a wire and a whip to demo the Nano VNA before or after breakfast.

Others

WA3CRW, CR:
- working with W1RC to do some WIRES-X
W3JAM, Jeff:
- Simplex Net
- Central PA Skywarn Net
- Heathkit 102 on the workbench for refurbishment
- amplifier and odds and ends to fix and sell
- looking at antennas to mount on the barn
- rebuilding a 16 element yagi for more convenient deployment/tuning
WA3VEE, Ron:
- won’t be at breakfast, but Antique Radio Show instead in Kutztown
- Red Rose Repeater Hamfest coming up on Oct 4.
- has some gear from some other people to unload
KB3ZIM, Bob:
- wondering about 160m antennas:
  - been meaning to launch an antenna every year this time of year.
  - maybe inverted L.
- IC-7100: radio in 2 pieces, so you don’t need so much at the control head.
  - using a 75-foot cat8 cable for a really long run between TCVR and head.
  - run to the gazebo to operate outside but high power if he wants.
  - lots of fun chasing on all bands.
KC3YSM, Steve:
- building a go-box
WA3KFT, John:
- 6m SSB nets
- antique wireless net on sunday
W3MFB, Mike:
- VHF contest. spoke to someone randomly.
- working some special events and pota stations
KC3OOK, Bill:
- working at Joe’s on antenna
KC3SQI, Wayne:
- moving antennas to the new mast
  - 2m operational
KD3AIS, Tim:
- collecting equipment to put radio in truck
KD3APR, Paxton:
- coming in on an HT
AA3LH, Leon:
- feeling better today
AF3Z, Jim:
- normal CW sked

Questions

KD3EE, John:
- I have my 50W mobile radio, home-built YAGI, 75ft cheap coax in a couple connected sections. How should I evaluate this system?
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - check that the antenna is matched with the nanoVNA: SWR
  - have people on the repeater talk, so I can point for maximum signal
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - with nanoVNA, calibrate at the nanoVNA, then move calibration load to end and use a through-measurement to see loss in coax.
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - bury-flex is a good deal
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - if you’re going to an LMR type cable, should good with bury-flex, since the outside doesn’t allow moisture. they use glue between outside braid and the seal. bury-flex will need heated a little to force the crimp end underneath the braid
  - buryflex is available at ham radio outlet.
KB3ZIM, Bob:
- What are some 160m antenna options?
- height and length is a challenge.
- aiming for an inverted L, but the radials will be a challenge.
- W3GMS, Joe:
  - 240-foot wire, 60ft in the air, fed by open wire line
  - 3/8-wave would need less radials
    - could be end-fed or inverted L
    - not balanced, so noisy
    - will need a tuner to match
  - 1/4 wave would need extensive radials
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - $150 automatic tuner outside. tunes anything.

21 Technet: 2025-09-14

Sun, 14 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

KC3WWC changed to KD3EE
- nice for CW
- start over with a whole new log book
- days to find and update everywhere
packet radio for Winlink and BBSes including KA3TKW
- like my old modem BBS days
- phone + btech HT as TNC
POTA, FT8 + CW
- new Gabil whip with the sliding coil is very convenient
- learning value of chokes in the right places: computer interference from RF
- chasing CW POTA from home
working a little more 10M now as we near autumn
have a google calendar feed from https://contestcalendar.com/ keeping my calendar very full should the mood to do some contesting strikes

Others

KA3TKW, Tom:
- trivia net has new format: 5 digital
- digipeaters
  - 145.010
  - 28.105
K3EA, Greg:
- heard hamsci presentation:
  - study from eclipse
  - upcoming study on meteor scatter
- training session on the local club station
- contests:
  - AARL Sept VHF this past weekend
  - WAE SSB contest
  - next weekend: QSO parties
  - following weekend: CQ WW RTTY
  - https://contestcalendar.com/ for more details
- solar flux index and sunspots down this past week
- normal/average propagation
- some disruptions coming up: increased K index
- minor storms coming tomorrow.
- check clusters for current DXpeditions
  - Palestine/West Bank on the air for about a week, FT8+CW
- no QSL cards this week
WB3LNY, George:
- local hamfest in Indiana
  - sold some LMR-400 + other things
- new tower in place
VE3HOH, Pete:
- recovering from back injury
- cleaning up radios
- working on some amplifiers
- getting some HF wires up
KA3TKW, Tom:
- Owen Garriott, W5LFL, was the first person to operate ham radio from space in 1983
- easy sats:
  - ISS
  - SO-50: tues + wed 7:30pm
  - SO-124: tues + friday 12:25pm
  - SO-125: tues 11:25, wed 12pm, thurs 10:30am
- looking for a presentation for next luncheon
K3DMM, Denny:
- worked PO-101 earlier in the week
- Route 66 on the air: 12 of 19 cities, and 2 of 5 rovers
  - request a cert with even 1 contact
- met fellow ham at RV show, recognizing antenna
KC3ZBI, Ron:
- had someone try to cut his coax
- wondering about periodically reprogramming the keps in his OpenGD77 HT
- Tom: every 10 days or so
W3MW, Don:
- VHF contest, but not participating
- antenna work in nice weather
- looking forward to december contest
KC3NWN, Jim:
- new alinco rig, 60m monoband, beam pointed to repeater
- watched recent ISS pass
- SO-50 often works for him
- east stroudsburg hamfest
- there’s AM on 17m
- lots of simplex 2m and other VHF
- QSL card from oklahoma on 17m

Swap and Shop

VE3HOH, Pete:
- rohn tower with guy cable, 8 sections

985 Workbench: 2025-09-08

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

I tried to get in with RF, but couldn’t make it, so on AllStar
packet radio for Winlink and BBSes
- like my old modem BBS days
- phone + btech HT
POTA, FT8 + CW
learning value of chokes in the right places: computer interference from RF
chasing CW POTA from home
saw more FT8 this afternoon on 10M after a summer of quiet
not ready to consider Winter Field Day and cold temps

Others

KC3SCY, Luke:
- hamfests
- check out Kutztown Hamfest coming up
- 1929 hardware
- practicing with CW on vinyl
W1RC, Mike:
- hamfest in the rain is good for deals
- Nearfest is coming up in MA
W8CRW, CR:
- Mullica Hill Hamfest
WA3VEE, Ron:
- acquired some rare Dimac gear, which preceded HP
- clearing out more stuff.
- breakfast coming up
KC3RFG, Jim:
- antenna maintenance
KB3ZIM, Bob:
- talked to W3GMS mobile a bit
KB3ILS, Keith:
- Mullica Hill Hamfest in the rain
- planning for Winter Field Day
- got some parts for the parts box
  - power supply boards with heatsinks
  - some air variable capacitors
AB3AP, Mike:
- looking forward to Winter Field Day
- traveling with army spouse: Orlando, Hawaii
KC3SQI, Wayne:
- antenna mast work, but not much
KC3OOK, Bill:
- net control for Simplex Net on Saturday and Welfare Net on Sunday
- got an HP spectrum analyzer from Ron
- tower work coming up at Joe’s

Questions

KB3ILS, Keith:
- Comment: POTA is great practice for CW, and KD3EE sounds easier to send than KB3ILS.
- How do you clean up and make variable capacitors turn easily?
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - there’s an electronics-friendly lube from the same people who make deoxit
  - oxidation may not have any effect on capacitance.
KD3AIS, Tim:
- He has a new vehicle with blanks in the dash. Can he add switches to the dash to switch on the radio? Should he use a relay instead of plain switch? What’s the difference?
- KB3ZIM, Bob:
  - some equipment demands more current than a switch (and wiring to it) will allow, so then you need a relay.
  - avoid heating of the switch, too.
- W8CRW, CR:
  - relay for higher-current hardware.
  - maybe avoid connecting the radio to the vehicle power considering warranty.
- KC3OOK, Bill:
  - check with Harvey
KC3SQI, Wayne:
- consider using a dedicated battery to avoid noise from the car electrical system
  - also keeps it from draining the car battery
KC3YSM, Steve:
- second the idea of a small dedicated battery
WA3VEE, Ron:
- 4 radios in the van, and none of them are connected to vehicle power system.
KC3NZT, Harvey:
- a relay is popular, because the connections on the back of a switch are often too small to handle the current without heat.
- use low current to control high current
- low current to the switch also makes it safe to pick anything handy as a ground, so you only need to run one wire.
KC3YSM, Steve:
- Dabbling in HF, and feeling like he may no longer be getting out like he had been. How should he evaluate his antenna? He doesn’t have an antenna analyzer yet.
- Can we do an antenna day at the field day site?
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - excellent idea.
  - remember it could be the bands.
    - check solar weather
  - come to the Thursday roundtable to discuss.
  - dxmaps, dxheat, dxsummit
  - hf propagation maps on google
  - watch SWR on the 991.
  - analyzers: rigexpert, mfj, bird, etc
- KD3EE, John:
  - let’s play at the next breakfast.
  - watch for solar storms
  - check that colorful chart on QRZ

More Packet and Winlink

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I have the new Pixel 10 Pro XL, so I needed to setup Winlink again. I purchased WOAD this time from Play store, and signed up for access to the beta. Previously, I had installed the downloaded APK. One can export sessions from old WOAD, but there’s no way to import it into my new phone.

I’m having trouble getting a node that reliably does Winlink. K3IR seems to fail to connect and complete the transaction. I could use the BBS nodes at KA3TKW and W3CRS. Just watching packets on 145.010 shows some advertisements of services on nodes: Winlink, BBS, and mail

Pota.app Upload

Sun, 07 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Uploading to http://pota.app/ from a phone can be difficult sometimes, but I found a way to do it.

Export from POLO to Google Drive
In the mobile browser, zoom out just a little and turn the phone sideways to get pota.app to allow you to upload.
- make the zoom adjustment in chrome.
- alternatively, switch to desktop mode, but then you need to adjust back
Download the ADI file from Google Drive to local Downloads folder, then upload to pota.app. If you don’t download it, you’ll see a network error in pota.app.

US-9719

Sun, 07 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

US-9719 Susquehanna Riverlands.

40m mostly, 10m, 2W, FT8
40m CW, 5W
KD3EE is very nice for CW
Gabil whip with sliding coil is great
CA, MX, VA, NC, OH, etc
I was seeing interference on the touchpad, so reintroduced the choke at the feed point, and that fixed it.
I had removed the choke, thinking I could use the coax as another counterpoise.

entrance

setup

field

985 Workbench: 2025-09-01

Mon, 01 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

POTA over the weekend
- in addition to digital, practiced some CW
- enjoying new Gabil whip with sliding coil
  - got some other CW contacts from the camp site

Others

N3CGA, Keith:
- studying for extra
- hiking around Pine Grove Furnace and Appalachian Trail
- operating VHF repeaters
WA3VEE, Ron:
- installing radios in the new van
- Mullica Hill Hamfest coming up
NA3CW, Chuck:
- usual 985 nets and PMAM net/pre-net
- working at Joe’s on tower project
KC3OOK, Bill:
- working up the tower at Joe’s, aligning mechanical things
- south control for Simplex Net
KC3SQI, Wayne
- working on his own tower
- home-run coax cables are buried
- moving 2M off the garage to get it to the tower.
KD3APR, Paxton:
- just broke 2 HTs by dropping
- diagnosing some ribbon cables
- learning about DMR
- battery life is surprisingly good on these cheap HTs

Questions

KC3SQI, Wayne:
- Looking for an effective disconnect for some accessible powered fishing reels. He has anyone used barrel connectors for this application. It’s just a 3A motor. The 5525 plug is not waterproof.
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - should handle 3A, depending if it’s tight enough.
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - assuming wire’s good gauge, it should be fine.
  - mismatches in the pin size could be a problem
  - they sometimes get weak.
  - GM-style blade connectors are common, waterproof, and cheap.
  - in marine, bullet connectors can be fine, but not waterproof. can be quick-release for safety.
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - still early prototype, so this is good info.
AF3Z, Jim:
- He has an Astron linear VS-50M with an LM723 chip in it (regulator?), and an SCR and capacitors across output. When it’s been off for a while, upon powering on, the voltmeter needle will stay low then pop up. He uses an extra breaker/switch to turn on the radio after the voltage has stabilized. Initial load on the supply causes it to take very long to come up to ready. What’s its problem? https://www.ameradio.com/product/420223/description.html
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - sounds like a capacitor issue.
  - SCR can be there for over-voltage.
  - maybe a resistive connection on the capacitor itself?
  - make sure caps are connected well.
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - is it a soft-start mode that limits current?
  - seems like a problem, though.
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - built-in ammeter barely registers anything
- W3GMS, Joe:
  - separate supplies for 723 and the path transistors, since they want different voltages.
  - secondary winding on transformer vs “tertiary” windings.
  - it’s not a slow-start control.
  - SCR has current limit pins looking for 0.7V differential.
  - if you don’t see the right voltage, it’ll rob base current and cause output to go to 0V.
  - best to check it with a scope and float the ground during the test.
  - analog meter might be ok, but digital might have too latency.
  - look at CL and CS for voltage.
KC3NZT, Harvey:
- He has a receiver that shows a fault that the antenna is shorted to ground. It’s a bad module, but as a receiver, do receivers generally use discrete components, say in the matching network, that could fail?
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - some will have a diode in the module to bleed off residual voltage from the antenna going through the wind
  - could use RC network to do the same thing
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - is the input of the receiver a built-in antenna or external?
  - it could have a bias voltage that it could monitor and know there’s a problem.
  - if there’s a coupling capacitor that’s failed, it may know that.
  - it could be monitoring and expecting a certain level of background noise
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - it’s an external, passive antenna on 15ft of coax.

Camping and POTA

Sun, 31 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I went camping and operated there and in Michaux Forest, Pine Grove Furnace, and Caledonia. I ran the 40M EFHW in trees at the parks as a sloper and inverted-V for 40M, 10M, and 15M. I did FT8 and a little CW.

At the campground, I contacted NY and ME on CW on 40M in the morning using the Gabil slider coil and whip. I discoverd that the my older Gabil antenna with jumpers on the coil has different thread size for the whip, so not interchangeable.

creek

pine grove setup

pine grove antenna

caledonia antenna

caledonia setup

caledonia inverted-v

SPARC Winlink

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

General Meeting News

Harrisburg Packet Node
- W3ND
- 145.010
- 145.030
- BBS available
- vara-fm and winlink available soon
K3IR active for PA QSO party at site
picnic coming up in a month
Red Rose Hamfest is Oct 4
September meeting may be search and resucue
at the training center October-March

Presentation: Winlink w/ Harry N3FMO

winlink net
saturn net: emergency services and salvation army
initially, saturn was only during the day for retired people
first weekend Harry ran the net on winlink, 20M, he got 70 check-ins.
winlink is good for emcomm
winlink is familiar as email
lots of templates to use
can use telnet if internet is available
HF can be slow for a large volumes
using telnet can keep RF available
https://winlink.org/
for Harry’s net, email: satemail
- Noon Thursday - Noon Saturday
- stations can be placed on the map with “mymaps”
- name, city, state, country
K3IR-10 connects to winlink RMS

985 Workbench: 2025-08-25

Mon, 25 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Weeks in Radio

new callsign a couple weeks ago: KC3WWC -> KD3EE
- spent a day updating callsign everywhere
  - websites
  - local software
  - radio gear
  - still finding updates to make today
all POTA activations
- travel and local
- mostly FT8/FT4, but also some CW and SSB
- new callsign proved quick to key and understood right away
- tried small magnetic loop and EFHW
- usually 2W
- almost ruined one activation
  - sweat on the laptop touchpad caused it to be flake out may want to bring a backup mouse or be more careful

Others

WA3VEE, Ron:
- troubleshooting his AllStar node with Joe’s help
- suspecting the network beyond the hotspot
- diagnosing which tower he’s using with software on iphone
- replacing his van
NA3CW, Chuck:
- congrats KD3EE on new callsign
- AMPM pre-net
- working on trailer project
W3FES, Fred:
- building small antennas for scanner listening
W3QP, Tim:
- back from a week in VA
- SOTA
- lots of bugs
- encountered a mother bear and cubs on one summit. they left on their own accord
- when near sugar grove (government)
  - he thought his radio was malfunctioning
WA3KFT, John:
- net control and participant on various 6m and 2m nets
KB3ILS, Keith:
- 30M CW contact to
  - ZL (New Zealand)
  - Netherlands
  - both QRP EF wire
- wire in a tree
  - smooth CW on a bug to operator in west virginia
KC3OOK, Bill:
- hosted the roundtable last thursday
- hosted welfare net on sunday
- Joe’s tower tomorrow
W3JAM, Jeff:
- adding desks to “studio a”
- 45-degree antenna mounts to work both horizontal and vertical
KC3SQI, Wayne:
- working on antenna mast

Questions

KC3SQI, Wayne:
- What’s the best plug to seal up a 3/8-inch hole on the wrong side of a weatherized box?
- WA3KFT, John:
  - 2 flat plates and a bolt through the middle
  - plus some caulk
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - there may be a rubber gasket plug, but those may be too big.
    - hubble wideman for plugs
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - bulkhead blanking plugs
- W8CRW, CR:
  - epoxy and a backer
KV3JGB, Matt:
- For an antenna running into the tree and a feed line are on the ground, how can he run it to be out of the way, so he doesn’t need to move it to mow?
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - could it be buried?
  - could you run a “messenger wire” to keep it overhead to the tree?
- W3QP, Tim:
  - ran a bit of conduit underground
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - temporary becomes permanent
  - shallow bury when ground was soft
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - if you do bury it, rope in the conduit, and exposed can wick moisture out.
  - conduit is never wide enough after a while
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - has buried line for 6 years now, no trouble.
  - existing feed line can be used to pull the next line.
- KV3JGB, Matt:
  - thanks for the suggestion underground and in the air

US-8834

Sun, 24 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I played a little FT8 at US-8834, State Game Land 136, with only 2W on my 40M EFHW in an inverted-V. I made 26 contacts, and looked for some CW, but barely heard anything.

signs

antenna

setup

car

US-4356

Wed, 20 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I headed to US-4356, Boyd Big Tree Preserve for an activation. I took my time and med 51 contacts: FT8, FT4, 2 SSB, 2 CW. I stretched my 40M EFHW from pavilion to tree to the East. A bystander hung out for 40 minutes to see what I was doing, so I showed him around the bands.

deer

efhw

setup

above the clouds

main pavillion

US-9136 and US-2074

Sun, 17 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

While on a trip to New York with the kids, I activated a couple parks.

Bashakill Wildlife Management

At US-9136, I parked in the middle, and threw the 40m EFHW into a tree to operate 20M and some 40M, FT4 & FT8 I made 13 contacts in the US, Sweden, Germany, and Spain. I got sweat on (in?) the touchpad of the laptop, so the pointer was being very jumpy and hard to control.

Highland Lakes State Park

On the edge of US-2074, I barely got my 10 contacts in time. I used the magnetic loop, and aligned it to go up and down the coast on 40M.

Bashakill Setup

Bashakill Antenna

Highland Lakes Antenna

Highland Lakes Setup

KD3EE

Thu, 14 Aug 2025 22:15:10 -0400

You may have seen that the name of this blog changed from KC3WWC to KD3EE, shorter, snappier, lighter-weight callsign to say phonetically and to key in CW.

In changing my callsign, I made a lot of work for myself updating things:

QRZ.com notified me first, and had me start a new logbook
Echolink
Blog name: DNS, Apache, SSL certificates, redirects from the old name, CI/CD, Github repo name.
LOTW: requested a new cert and all that – Done in a day thankfully.
Name on 2 Quanshengs
Callsign in APRS radios: BTech, RadTel
Allstar node
Name tag I made in LibreOffice Draw.
Pota.app website
Hamalert
WSJT-X
Gridtracker has lots of logins: new api key for new QRZ logbook.
Update everything again on the field laptop
Aprsdroid
Ham2K Polo on my phone
Practice saying it and keying it.

985 Workbench: 2025-08-11

Mon, 11 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

POTA in DE (park and a bonus trail)
- homebrew delta loop
- 32 contacts on ft8 w/ 1W
watched a youtube video about line throwing techniques with an arborist
- I can now throw much higher and more consistently
- my far trees are near power lines, so I’m conservative with my throws
- now have my main wire higher than ever before: needed more throw line.
been coding a bunch on 4 different personal projects all at once.
- lots of fun.
testing and fixing a bug on the spectrum analyzer of the Quansheng firmware I use
prediction that FCC might grant me a new callsign tomorrow.

Others

WA3VEE, Ron:
- Valley Forge Hamfest in Kimberton
  - lots of 985ers attended
  - headed to the field days site
- 985 breakfast coming up
WA3KFT, John:
- sold some stuff at the Valley Forge Hamfest
- hamfest seemed smaller than previous years
KD3BPI, Simon:
- enjoyed Valley Forge Hamfest and meeting everyone
- source of noise on the radio in the car was picket fencing
- will upgrade to a better mobile
N3CRE, Charles:
- evaluating AllStar and EchoLink
KC3OOK, Bill:
- working on lab bench
- prepping for tower work tomorrow
KC3YSM, Steve:
- rerouting some LMR400
- need some things he needed in Ron’s photos from the ham fest, should have gone
- generator project with soft start
KD3AIS, Tim:
- observed all the ham radio antennas on a trip across ohio
KD3APR, Paxton:
- working with Ron on some antenna and radio upgrades
NA3CW, Chuck:
- control for pre-net AMPM.
- testing out a balun with a different tuner to see about tuning all the bands. it works!

Questions

KD3APR, Paxton:
- Looking at 900MHz DMR used for emergency response, Radio Reference is not very clear about what they use. Does anyone have details?
- DMR is the generic digital voice
- 900MHz might be pretty niche
- Is it security through obscurity?
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - Are you sure it’s 900MHz for first responders?
  - DE may use P25 phase 2 trunked system that’s similar to DMR, like Chester county does. on 800MHz band.
  - There may be concerns in public service for privacy, so it might be obscured.
  - P25 is used for more specific details.
  - Ham radio has no encryption.
  - 902MHz-928MHz is 33cm ham band, so they’d not be there.
- W8CRW, CR:
  - W1RC, Mike, might know about DMR programming
- KC3YSM, Steve:
  - ARES in DE may use 900MHz ham bands
  - 900MHz band is undergoing changes to accommodate some broadband usage
- W3MFB, Mike:
  - KI6OM has a repeater on 900mhz
  - 900mhz might be better for digital work than voice
KD3BPI, Simon:
- Got 3-ohm Motorola monitor speaker from the hamfest, and the Yaesu wants an 8-ohm speaker. How do we match it?
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - it’ll probably just work, but maybe not totally efficient.
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - should be fine.
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - it probably will be quieter or may distort. fine on low.
- KD3BPI, Simon:
  - the speaker was in the free pile, and is stamped 1961.
WA3VEE, Ron:
- When receiving through the repeater and trying to offer signal reports, be familiar with what the repeater sounds like to you when considering how another station sounds through the repeater. Understand that if the repeater is noisy to you, then even the best signal into the repeater will be noisy. Try simplex for better signal reports
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - with enough listening you can tell the difference of where the noise is introduced.

R1CBU 0.31.2

Mon, 11 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

R1CBU 0.31.2 has been out for a while, so I finally upgraded. The only fix didn’t matter to me so much, but it was time to get up-to-date.

Higher Home Antenna

Sun, 10 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I watched Youtube and saw a better way to throw the line by cradling the weight on the line and swinging the weight between my legs. It’s much more confident, powerful, and accurate. I threw my home antenna higher in the same tree. It’s so high that I needed to add more throw line now.

!–more–>

Delaware POTA

Fri, 08 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

One morning, I headed to Delaware to have lunch and to activate US-1730, Alapocas Run State Park. It was also along US-9878, Northern Delaware Greenway National Recreation Trail.

I put up my homebrew delta loop with 4:1 balun. With the tuner on the X6100, I could get 1.5:1 SWR on 20M. For kicks, I only ran 1W and made 23 contacts calling CQ on FT8. The location was very quiet for listening.

On 15M, I got Italy with 1W.

I tested a new 5200mAh 12V Li-Ion battery, and it worked for the entire activation. It dropped from 12.3V to 10.9V or so which was plenty for the radio.

nearby

setup

antenna

New Meshtastic Nodes

Thu, 07 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I printed new covers for meshtastic nodes, and I have a second mobile node for Emily to use on trips.

new nodes

985 Workbench: 2025-08-04

Mon, 04 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

Zero Retries Conference
- Sept 13
- virtual and in-person
- digital aspects of radio
current job ended
- travel for some parks and other projects
- maybe building another lightweight directional VHF antenna

Others

WA3VEE, Ron:
- Joe’s been sick in the hospital, but he’s fine. It’s just hanging around long.
NA3CW, Chuck:
- hosted PMAM net in Joe’s place.
- Working on Joe’s tower with Bill
KC3OOK, Bill:
- Joe’s tower will soon be in the air.
- Lab bench is all built in the new shack
WA3KFT, John:
- make power easily available on your bench
- building a master list of callsigns: 985 gang
KC3SQI, Wayne:
- remote switch full of lots of bugs
AF3Z, Jim:
- continued CW practice
KD3APR, Paxton:
- on an 8W HT and beating the intermod
- trying to repair a radio, but the screen goes white and it’s hard to work on.
W3MFB, Mike:
- listening to 40m

Questions

KC3OOK, Bill:
- Reading about his HeathKit he’ll put in his shack. It has 2 different powers listed for AM. What is Controlled Carrier Modulation?
- WA3KFT, John:
  - Controlled Carrier Modulation is the cheap way to do AM over plate-modulation.
  - The audio changes the power of the carrier.
  - Pay attention to peak rating.
  - It’s kind of like SSB.
  - Power supply needs enough power to not sag during peak transmission.
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - HeathKit DX60 also has controlled carrier modulation.
  - It’s much harder to overdrive the modulation.
- WA3KFT, John:
  - T150 applies modulation to screens instead of the plate in some models.
  - burned out a screen with audio too high
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - screen modulation can sound excellent
  - plate modulation can require a very large audio amplifier
  - has used carrier control to save $5k/month of a $30k/month power bill on a large AM transmitter
  - BBC would down modulate a very high carrier to keep the signal very quiet. This was very expensive.
  - It’s all about average carrier power in our radios.
KD3BPI, Simon:
- switched to a magmount on a cookie sheet outside.
- has the Baofeng on the magmount on the car. at speed, he notices more noise (crackle) in TX and RX. Should he ground the antenna and radio to the car better?
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - check the connection of the whip to the magmount
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - Could be building up static, since magmount isn’t electrically connected, and power is not connected.
  - try clipping a lead from coax shield to something metal
- W3MFB, Mike:
  - HT is a good way to start.
  - could be “mobile flutter”
  - switching to a more powerful modile radio
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - Congrats on fixing your signal for the net.
  - Seconds the idea of static building up.
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - power cord to lighter outlet will be a good ground
W3MFB, Mike:
- Why don’t we break for emergency traffic during nets.
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - Nets typically have a script asking for priority traffic.
  - We may not have thought about it. May not be necessary.
  - One signals an emergency; “break break” between transmissions.

Zero Retries

Tue, 29 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Zero Retries Conference is coming up on September 13. They explore the technical and digital sides of radio. There’s news of it on the Ham Radio Workbench.

985 Workbench: 2025-07-27

Sun, 27 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

I applied for a list of vanity calls that are shorter for DXing and CW weight.

Others

AA3LH, Leon:
- visited Colorado
- talked back to 985
- greyline propagation didn’t work like it did back in Spring
N3ILS, Travis:
- park activations in Seattle and British Columbia
WA3VEE, Ron:
- worked AA3LH on 40m
- migrating equipment from 2005 Sienna van to a 2020 Sienna van
KC3RFG, Jim:
- 10M to Venezuela
W3QP, Tim:
- 2 SOTA summits in VA, now QSO cards
WA3KFT, John:
- 10m open to Florida for a Net at 1-2pm local
KC3OOK, Bill:
- woodworking: building tables for the shack
- hosted Welfare Net on W3RRR last night
KC3SQI, Wayne:
- moving antennas to the new mast
KV3JGB, Matt:
- trying 2M driving through North Carolina
KI6OM, Dave:
- got a new 250-years, call sign PA plate
NA3CW, Chuck:
- PM/AM pre-net

Questions

W3MFB, Mike:
- G90 is supposed to pull 6A to TX 20W, how small of a battery can he get for it?
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - battery questions can be very complex
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - depends how long you’ll TX
  - RX is light
  - 15Ah is probably OK.
  - LiFePo batteries drop off very quickly when they’re done
  - balance convenience
- KC3RFG, Jim:
  - Has a G90
  - runs on 10Ah battery all day for 1/3 discharge.
  - short QSOs
  - G90 will run as low as 9V
- W3QP, Tim:
  - all batteries have a max discharge rate
  - Bioenno batteries’ max seems to be about 2x capacity
  - there are spreadsheet to calculate sizes/durations
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - discharge capacity depends on battery chemistry
  - batteries have a “C-rate”
  - 0.1*C-rate is always safe to draw.
  - slow charging is friendlier to a battery
KC3SQI, Wayne:
- Has a new tilt-over mast, and is putting hardware in weather-protected box. Should he mount it on the mast or on the ground?
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - on the leg would be good for accessibility and maintenance
  - mulched bed around the mast might help protect it from lawn maintenance
  - mount at chest-level, include lightning-arrestor.
- W8CRW, CR:
  - also mounted 4 ft off ground
  - boulders to protect the area
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - remember to protect the cables into it with conduit for lawn maintenance
  - UV-protect the box too with paint
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - convinced to mount it on the stabilizing arm.
AF3Z, Jim:
- Last week, he reported varying voltages as sump and shop vac ran. It sounded like an unstable neutral, and he should get it fixed, or cook appliances. His electrician suggested calling PPL PPL found the problem to be their neutral line, so they left a new transformer next to the house until a crew can come out to replace the line. Things are much better now.
KI6OM, Dave:
- Dave’s been operating lots of FT8 on 6M recently. He received an email scolding him for transmitting and not staying in-sync with your other local strong signals.
- W3QP, Tim:
  - transmitting on someone else’s frequency, you’ll bury them.
- KC3TYX, Vic:
  - finds a clear spot and “hold TX freq”

US-4567

Sun, 27 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I activated the Conoy Wetland along US-4567. I used the 40M EFHW running to the South East. I stayed on 40m, using FT8 and 4W. I got my 30+ contacts calling CQ POTA, and didn’t chase anyone.

I experimented with the counterpoise:

I saw 1.5:1 SWR with the counterpoise coiled up.
I saw a lower SWR with the counterpoise unwound.

setup

antenna

river scene

RadTel RT-880G

Wed, 23 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I got WINE setup to run the software for RadTel. I had to install Mono for Windows inside WINE to make the RadTel CPS and Flasher work: https://askubuntu.com/a/992215 I also got serial going: https://gitlab.winehq.org/wine/wine/-/wikis/Wine-User%27s-Guide#serial-and-parallel-ports

The APRS support on the RadTel RT-880G still seems a bit broken, though. I keep seeing a stray character in the path: “WIDE1_-1” Setting the path in CPS software had the same problem. Setting the path to " WIDE1" makes it show OK in packets.

SPARC Meeting: ARES

Tue, 22 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

At the SPARC meeting, we heard about Lancaster ARES with W3COB, Doug Rice.

public service events
- fun runs
- motorcycle rides
work with Lancaster ACS
Eastern PA section -> section 4 -> Lancaster County
exercises
- April Towers
- Peach Bottom Nuclear Plant
- Skywarn
- Firecracker 5-mile Run
https://lancasterares.net/
ARRL task book
- sets standards for training and qualification
3 levels, including “basic”
available trainings
- arrl.org
- FEMA
stay active
- train
- participate
  - biweekly nets
  - monthly meetings
  - public service events
- prepare
Auxiliary Communication Service (ACS)
- larger than ARES
- https://serv.pa.gov/

6M Opening

Mon, 21 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I saw an opening on 6M just now. I was getting contacts an my 71-foot random wire at home about 1000 miles away: Florida and the midwest. 10M is looking similar, even though the MUF map says only up to 21MHz should work. 15M is getting to Southwest, but it’s mostly like 10M. Later in the day, around 2pm local, 6M is open to Wisconsin more than Florida.

985 Workbench: 2025-07-21

Mon, 21 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

I found the nicest state game land for a POTA: It had parking and a game commission maintenance building, so could sit in the shade.
I got a replacement UV-PRO which transmits fine on 2M / APRS.
I’m playing with another cheap RadTel with APRS. It has features from all my favorite radios, but the interface makes the other radios look nice.
I found 6M open to Florida around noon, then Wisconsin later in the afternoon today.

Others

NA3CW, Chuck:
- chasing a noise source in the neighborhood, a pole at the end of the street
W3QP, tim:
- operated from assateague
- got a nasa special event station in Huntsville AL for 50th anniversary of moon landing
W3MFB, Mike:
- big openings this evening on 10M and above.
WA3VEE, Ron:
- there’s a commercial mobile telephone company looking to use some of 70cm.
- see Joe’s email for suggested responses.

Questions

AF3Z, Jim:
- During flooding in Mount Joy, Jim had his shop vac running continuously in the basement along with sump pump. When sump pump activated, the shop vac would rev up, then when the sump pump turned off, the vac slowed down. He tried later with fridge and meter. When fridge turned on, 125V outlet boosted up to 127V. The microwave on high could cause a jump to 139V.
- KS4CK, Bruce:
  - 240V comes into the house, plus the ground in the box. If the ground isn’t solid, then a large draw on one leg can cause an increase to be observed in voltage on the other leg.
  - Call your electric company to address it.
  - 13V delta is a lot.
  - It could be anywhere even back to the transformer, so ask the neighbor.
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - agrees that it’s a bad ground
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - bad ground can be dangerous

Replaced UVPRO

Mon, 21 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I got the BTech UV-PRO back on Friday, 2025-07-18. This one has a different serial number, so very quick replacement. I restored the configuration from the HT app on my phone. The new radio is seen on https://aprs.fi/ again and I occasionally see APRSDroid report that it’s been digipeated by a nearby node. I tested the transmit power to be 4.8W with the small meter. Power was previously not detected at all by the meter.

US-8843

Sun, 20 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I activated US-8843, State Game Land 145. I got 9 QSOs before day change (at 2W-4W) and another 18 QSOs after day change (at 6W). I setup the tactical delta loop, and grounded the black side that passes through the toroid. The feed is the red side. It tuned nicely at about 1.5:1 on 20m and 40m. It was slow going at 2-4W, but I was being seen in PSKreporter.

setup

antenna

balun

RX with Disconnected Antennas

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

K3IR/145.230MHz for the Morning Grind was clear, but low power (S3-S5) on the Quansheng and TH-9800 base. It turns out that both antennas were disconnected at the window for overnight storms.

Scanning Amtrak

Wed, 16 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

While waiting for the train in Exton, PA, I looked up Amtrak frequencies for the Keystone corridor and found they’re mostly all 160MHz-161MHz, so I scanned there. I didn’t hear train traffic in the time, but I heard Chester County emergency dispatch on 160.185MHz. I can also hear it at home with an outside antenna.

SPARC Elmer Night: 2025-07-15

Tue, 15 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

We discussed meshtastic as always. I’ve been seeing more nodes, especially in York.

I re-soldered and terminated my small 1:1 chokes, since the ends had ripped off on last activation.

US-1418

Fri, 11 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

When activating US-1418, Sam Lewis, I accidentally split the activation across 0000 UTC. Fortunately, I still got enough for the second day. I found some of my chokes broken, so swapped cable around a bit. I threw the 40M EFHW into a tree, and got 12 contacts, on FT8, on 15M and 40M.

setup

sunset

71-ft EFRW

Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I went back to my favorite 71-ft EFRW for the home antenna wire. The EFHW was requiring tuning, so I figured it may not be worth having.

Broken Btech UV-PRO

Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I further tested my UV-PRO to find it was transmitting less than 250mW when set to 5W. I compared it to another radio using a nearby tinySA. I RMA-ed it and mailed it back to BTech for repair or replacement.

985 Workbench: 2025-06-30

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Weeks in Radio

traveling
- Chino Hills State Park near Los Angeles
- 2 activations
- hiked and biked my gear in on my back
Field Day QRP, emergency power, on the patio, at home, 50 contacts = 650 pts

Others

W8CRW, CR:
- 985 field day
KC3HQZ, Jean:
- 985 field day
AC2EG, Eric:
- new the group and field day
- rather build than buy, but using echolink right now
AA3LH, Leon:
- mostly dups at field day
KV3JGB, :
KC3SQI, Wayne:
- 10 meter antenna mast assembled and ready to go
KC3WWC, John:
- (making it in over RF)
KC3TYX, Vic:
- field day in maryland
NA3CW, Chuck:
- Field day prep, operation, cleanup
- PM/AM Net on Sunday
KC3OOK, Bill:
- hosted a modified roundtable on 985 simplex, since power was out on repeater
- simplex net
- field day
KD3EMS, Chris:
- 985 field day observing AF3Z operate along with NA3CW
- 7-8 contacts
- need to get general license
AF3Z, Jim:
- field day
  - CW with luke
W3KZG, Scott:
- 985 field day
KC3SCY, Luke:
- 985 field day
- logging had some trouble
- pretty smooth, otherwise
- working on CW
- planning to chase 13 colonies
  - work them early in the morning
W3QP, Tim:
- K3H, Pennnsylania Homestead Festival in Kutztown
  - looking for operators for the weekend
W3MFB, Mike:
- heard VHF packet propagation, so made some contacts
  - 6m
WA3VEE, Ron:
- 1400 contacts total at field day
- collecting photos from field day for the smugmug gallery

Questions

KC3HQZ, Jean:
- Why does a GOTA station have a different call sign from field day activities?
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - GOTA is meant to encourage newcomers and guests.
  - It’s a bonus station that doesn’t count in the total simultaneous stations.
  - May be worth more points on its own.
- W3MFB, Mike:
  - helps keep count of contacts made by newbies and guests.
KC3SQI, Wayne:
- Considering changing from a Windom to a Hex Beam (25lbs) with a 1-foot base pole to the rotor, Would a small ChannelMaster TV antenna rotor work without a thrust-bearing at 30 feet?
- KC3OOK, Bill:
  - Bill is new, but…
  - 25lbs sounds like a lot for an antenna, so might tend toward the better rotor.
- W3MFB, Mike:
  - Agrees with Bill, spring for the better rotor.
  - Has seen a TV rotor drive lighter (6lb) antennas, but that’s much lighter.
  - TV antennas are only 10lbs or so.
- N3OGF, John:
  - destroyed a radioshack rotor in high wind with a kushkraft
- W3ZKG, Scott:
  - rotor doesn’t have a weight spec, but try to keep the rotor as close to the antenna as possible.
  - 25lbs seems heavy.
  - lesser rotors use plastic instead of bearings
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - some specs on google suggest 15lbs capacity.
  - consider the extra weight of ice
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - may try the thrust bearing and lighter rotor
KC3WWC, John:
- I have a long EFHW for 80M, but it’s hard to get lined up on all bands, so I need the tuner to touch it up for half the bands. If I need the tuner for some bands, is there much benefit to this EFHW over a 71-foot random wire I really liked.
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - RG58 is giving loss
  - Generally, you don’t want to tune high SWR through “thin” coax
  - tuning at the wire would be better
- W3QP, Tim:
  - It’s normal for EFHW in trees to not necessarily line-up
  - Don’t know efficiencies of 49:1 vs 9:1 vs 64:1. That could make a difference.
  - stack cores to handle more power in the transformers
  - there are ways to measure with nano-vna.
  - it depends what SWR you’re pulling on each band.
  - transformer has different effeciencies on each band.
KD3AIS, Tim:
- As a newer ham, not a general yet, listening on Yaesu FT-991A to traffic, is an external screen useful?
- W3MFB, Mike:
  - He operated the 991A at field day, and the waterfall is pretty low-res, but wouldn’t bother with a larger screen.
  - recommends using ears and turning the dial
  - listen and make sure he can understand the station, write it all down, then contact.
- W8CRW, CR:
  - agrees with Mike, listen
  - but also has a display connected to his radio as a bonus
- W3KZG, Scott:
  - also has a DX-10 with the built-in display and an external screen.
  - didn’t miss it on or off on field day
  - use a DDI cable to ensure no feeding voltage back into the radio
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - had Ron’s 710 with the little screen, plugged into a big screen.
  - easier to see settings and meters
  - especially when visitors were trying to see
  - bandscope got sort of useless with higher noise levels
  - for bands that come and go (6m, 10m), it’s good to see intermittent traffic
- KC3WWC, John:
  - I like the waterfall, so I spot activity, like lots of CW.
W3MFB, Mike:
- Are 6M and 2M beams at field day site always available for use?
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - as long as it’s up, it’s available
  - it’ll need coax

21 Technet: 2025-06-29

Sun, 29 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Weeks in Radio

traveling
- Chino Hills State Park near Los Angeles
- 2 activations
- hiked and biked my gear in on my back
Field Day QRP, emergency power, on the patio, at home, 650 pts

Others

K3EA, Greg:
- in charge of antennas at local field day
- 13 colonies coming up: https://13colonies.us/
- Marconi Memorial contest
- see the calendar
- monitor FT8 or calling on 6M
- good HF this week
- Guyana: 8R1TM
- Russians in Mozambique: C94RRC, C93RRC
- LotW is undergoing maintenance
KB9AWS, Bernie:
- hearing VHF openings in the morning
KC5DRI, John:
- conversations with truckers while traveling NC on simplex
- travel using repeaters
- got to dayton this year
KA3TKW, Tom:
- SSTV coming around july 4 from ISS, watch email
KK4KKW, Steve:
- POTA Hunting
- visited SPARC for field day
K3DMM, Denny:
- heard lots of ISS contacts on field day
- saturday is firecracker hamfest: postal picnic grounds
KC3NWN, Jim:
- contact from a mobile at camp right now
VE3HOH, Pete:
- local field day in macadoo
KC3VZU, Bob:
- setting up a wire antenna and an HF rig
W3MW, Don:
- lots of work getting antennas up
- trying 10GHz, but blocked by foliage

ARRL Field Day 2025

Sun, 29 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I operated the last 3 hours of ARRL Field Day. My station was at home on emergency power and QRP, so 1E class. I made 50 contacts so that earned me 650pts.

field day at home

US-1139 Chino Hills

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I activated Chino Hills State Park, US-1139, twice while in Los Angeles. I hiked in 1.5 miles for one activation, and biked half way up one of the hills 5 miles for the second.

sign

road

setup

antenna

road

aprs

setup

985 Workbench: 2025-06-16

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

80M EFHW out in the elements
- needed cleaning/repair for corrosion and high SWR
- interesting to reintroduce pieces to see their effect:
  - counterpoise
  - capacitor
checked into the APRSThursday net right away in the morning
- automatically stayed subscribed for 12 hours
- received 174 messages over 12 hours
- across the US and rest of the world
headed to Los Angeles for 12 days
- find some parks
- get back for 1 day of field day

Others

W3CRW, CR:
- Chuck’s presentation on connectors
W1RC, Mike:
- fiddling with allstar
N3RBN, Paul:
- back on the air with pass-through panel in the window
NA3CW, Chuck:
- busy with coax
- inherited lots of coax from a SK in West Chester
  - we don’t want the RG-11 (75ohm)G
  - tangle
- used it to demo the new and old connectors and repairs
- more cable and connectors after breakfast
KB3ILS, Keith:
- drawn back to the radio for field day
- bands rough for low power work
- learning about bandpass filters, and their design
  - induction and capacitances
  - measuring with nanovna and oscilloscope
KC3YSM, Steve:
- learned about the coax connectors
WA3KFT, John:
- finishing touches on shack
  - shortening cables, etc
- has a set of tools that makes it really easy to terminate PL-259
KC3OOK, Bill:
- attended the connector course
- learned to analyze coax
- Saw Ron’s article about ARRL Chester County Field Day on MSN news: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/arrl-amateur-radio-field-day/ar-AA1GIEyc
KC3SQI, Wayne:
- base for tilt-over mast is in concrete
- tilt conduit mounted
- figuring out locks
WA3VEE, Ron:
- helped restring a 40M dipole at field day site
  - resonant right at 7MHz
  - took 6-inches off each end to get to 7.150MHz
- everyone encouraged to visit field day
K3FHA, John:
- working on some test equipment
KC3RFG, Jim:
- repairing a mobile antenna
- getting some good distance on 6M for the first time
W3KZG, Scott:
- building camper/comms trailer
  - will bring it for field day

Questions

N3RBN, Paul:
- RJ-something microphone connectors and cables, is there a way to straighten the coiled part to attach a new connector?
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - don’t know about straightening, but has wired a new cord to the mic.
  - could buy a cheap mic and steal the cable
- W3KZG, Scott:
  - seconds buying a cheap/clone mic for the cable
KC3SQI, Wayne:
- What’s the connector number for PL-259s Chuck used?
  - Chuck will email links.
- Going to a mast that can support more than one antenna. should he pull a whole run for the 2M antenna, or try to route it through the remote switcher that’s good to 6M?
  - WA3VEE, Ron:
    - try to go with as few connectors as possible, especially on VHF/UHF
    - also, respect that 6M limitation on the switcher
  - KC3RFG, Jim:
    - home run is always better
    - the switcher may bleed signal to other lines
  - WA3VEE, Ron:
    - try to operate to the middle of the specs of gear
  - WA3KFT, John:
    - 14 coax runs into the shack
    - 14 switches for choosing radios
    - favorite switch is from Waters.

APRS Thursday

Thu, 12 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I joined the APRS Thursday HOTG (Hams of the Gram) net. I checked in by sending: ANSRVR CQ HOTG good Thursday morning. I guess it sent 117 messages to others, and for the 12 hours I was subscribed, I received 174 HOTG messages to my callsign from stations across the US and around the world.

High SWR 80m EFHW

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I was seeing high SWR on the 80M EFHW: over 3:1+. I found counterpoise was chewed and broken, so I twisted it back together, but I saw no change. I disconnected the counterpoise completely, and that made no difference: still 3:1. I finally unscrewed and re-screwed the rusty alligator clamp and reattached it. That fixed it!

Previously, it seemed I’d sometimes see high SWR for a a moment, then it would recover. It seemed like giving it a little power would “clean up” something.

985 Workbench: 2025-06-09

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Weeks in Radio

got the Bluetooth TNC connection working even better between UV-PRO
- clear the channel
- now it automatically reconnects
testing a new-to-me small-ish magnetic loop: alpha antenna
- small and quick to deploy
- park activation before this net
repaired and re-tuned yagi
- added a the hairpin patch to lower SWR
- extra S-unit hearing 985
last week, allstar node wouldn’t connect to 985 over phone network
- connected to a parrot test node just fine
- strange interference when the car shutoff that blocked any signal

Others

W1RC, Mike:
- got Allstar going with 985
W8CRW, CR:
- working on DTMF on Allstar
- connecting phone to ethernet
WA3VEE, Ron:
- field day press release
KC3RFG, Jim:
- working through some RFI with a mic on HF
W3MFB: Mike:
- bands not great
K3FHA, John:
- organizing antenna switching on the desk
- checking out some test equipment
KC3TYX, Vic:
- replaced fan in a power supply to be quiet
- playing with 6m bazooka antenna for FT8
  - Connecticut, Nebraska, Minnesota, Florida, then it closed
KC3OOK, Bill:
- watching DXtracker, dxview and saw 6m openings
- lots accomplished on Joe’s tower.
- sketching next project
KC3SCY, Luke:
- acquired an AM radio kit to build
  - 7 transitor, superheterodyne, etc
  - soldering
- PM/AM Net
- listening to some CW
WA3KFT, John:
- mounted and using a Comet G9 right now
N3CRE, Charlie:
KC3SQI, Wayne:
- having trouble using the wrong frequency
- concrete base for a new tilt-over tower

Questions

W3MFB, Mike:
- On Simplex Net, he only hears a handful of people, so hard to tell when to jump in. Do others hear a bunch of people? What zone should he be?
  - WA3VEE, Ron:
    - Ron is way East, and doesn’t have a beam aiming West.
    - Rarely hears anyone but KC3OOK and W8CRW
  - KC3TYX, Vic:
    - wouldn’t hear anything for a while, but waited patiently for his section to get active.
    - notes changes in propagation and new people
  - KC3WWC, John:
    - good to note who you can contact simplex if you needed
  - KC3OOK, Bill:
    - what section? check-in with whomever you hear.
    - it’s expanded quite a bit beyond lancaster county
      - the name is actually now “central pa simplex net”
    - propagation varies quite a bit from week to week
    - nearby stations can hear very different sets of stations
    - Bill hears many of the stations now with current antenna
    - Good way to gauge antenna performance
    - just throw your callsign. maybe a relay can get it.
  - W8CRW, CR:
    - he can check-in with central or east, but propagation is very different.
KC3OOK, Bill:
- What’s a good depth for shelves and cabinets holding radios?
- WA3KFT, John:
  - existing racks: 17-inches and 18-inches
  - try not to have too much protruding out the back of the chassis/rack: cables
- W3GMS, Joe:
  - racks have no standard depth
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - ideally, you can get to the back of the equipment very easily
  - he finds 24-inches quite adequate
  - dual channel closetmaid is good for shelves/cabinets
  - give yourself as much depth as you can
- KC3OOK, Bill:
  - looking at 18-20 inches
KC3WWC, John:
- Do others have trouble with allstar to 985 when tethered to a phone hotspot?
- Differences controversy over HAMVOIP (closed source?) vs allstarlink v3 (open-source)?
- W3GMS, Joe:
  - no complaints from anyone else
  - permission list is by node number, not network
- KC3WWC, John:
  - I’ll need to continue to work on it myself.
N3QNC, Joe:
- What are people’s experience on 6M? What power?
- W3MFB, Mike:
  - SSB, 70W
  - likes to run less power
  - FM repeater in honeybrook
- WA3KFT, John:
  - runs 80-90W with a beam
  - SSB
  - used to use a 5W AM rig
  - antenna matters the most: height
- N3QNC, Joe:
  - trying to do 6M for POTA, usually 5W
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - a number of nets on 6M. google or ARRL has a list: “south eastern pennsylvania”
W3MFB, Mike:
- Did anyone listen to shuttle missions? 120MHz, etc?
- KC3WWC, John:
  - I’m pretty sure I used to listen to something in early 90s on scanner. Sounded like discussion of experiments, etc.
- W3GMS, Joe:
  - Fort Mead, Maryland would rebroadcast on 75M.
  - Joe has a processor on display that was designed to process all audio from mission control.
  - He may have the only one that wasn’t used.

US-9719: 2025-06-09

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I activated US-9719 Susquehanna Riverlands with 2W on the new Mag Loop. It made for a very quick setup, and I tried different directions. I got 11 contacts on 40m.

2w, low swr

mag loop

ARRL Digi: 2025-06-08

Sun, 08 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I logged 11 contacts for the ARRL DIGI contest. The email from log system said I earned 41 points (based on distance). I kept it to 2W and 4W and mostly FT4 with some FT8.

YAGI Rebuild and Simplex Net

Sat, 07 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

YAGI Repairs

I straightened the elements, and replaced the driven elements that were loose with longer elements for sturdier mount. I trimmed the new elements to tune, and soldered a new hairpin match to further reduce SWR to 1.5:1. With this repair, I’m tickling S9 reception, again, listening to W3GMS (146.985) pointing in the their direction.

Simplex Net

I further tested by checking in to the West Control in Hellam Township with 5W and the YAGI aimed West. I didn’t hear many other people, and Central Control (W3NY) was booming.

hair-pin match

Alpha Antenna Mag Loop

Thu, 05 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I purchased the Alpha Antenna Alpha Loop Jr+ Mag Loop from Tom, KA3TKW. It’s built of a tuner box, loops of LMR400, and a tripod, and tunes 40m-10m.

Tuning is pretty cool with the geared box, but still pretty touchy. Tuning is very necessary: a band will be completely quiet until tuned, and then noise and signal really increases. I tried it inside, and it didn’t work so well: lots of inside RFI.

Outside, it worked much better, but the 80M EFHW is still better: higher, and broader bandwidth.

The directionality and tuning is neat I can wiggle the spacing of the inner loop to the outer loop to “adjust” induction / SWR. The high Q means efficiency, but I need to re-tune the capacitor any time I move around the band.

UV-Pro, TNC, and APRS

Wed, 04 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

APRSDroid would often fail to reconnect to the UV-PRO: java.io.IOException: read failed, socket might closed or timeout, read ret: -1 The HT app would manage to reconnect OK. I would need to cycle power on the radio to get APRSDroid to reconnect. In APRSDroid, Preferences->Connection Preferences->Channel was set to 1. I blanked that channel setting, and now it may be reconnecting between stop and start of app, bluetooth, or distance.

As a side note, having the UV-PRO monitoring a frequency other than APRS may interfere with packet reception. I don’t see as many APRS packets when monitoring another repeater, probably due to interruptions from the non-APRS audio.

Morning Grind, Scraping, and Games

Tue, 03 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Morning Grind uses NetLogger to log, and it has an API I can use to scrape check-ins:

The question of the day was: What games do you play? Lots of good discussion ensued. I offered Morsle, and W3EO offered free42, hp42 emulator.

DX Mentor with KF8KI and QRZ.com

Mon, 02 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

DX Mentor Podcast 67 with KF8KI from QRZ.com was an excellent listen. I learned that QRZ.com has location in 2 places:

user details from FCC
logbook, update it for temporary location

HamVOIP vs AllStarLink

Mon, 02 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I was curious about the different implementations for building an AllStar node.

HamVOIP is closed source, and has more DTMF commands by default. It’s only built on RaspberryPI. The 985 group has been circulating some new tutorials based on HamVOIP.

AllStarLink is open-source, and some DTMF codes need to be added. It can be deployed on RaspberryPI or a computer. AllStarLink makes the most sense to me for my values.

RFI in the Car

Mon, 02 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I was out mobile, but I couldn’t check-in to the 985 Workbench. I had a weak signal, and I got a boost in interference when car powered off. It was mostly through the mobile antenna/coax, and it was enough to drown out W3GMS. I confirmed with spectrum analyzer on UV-K5.

I also had my AllStar 3 node but it wouldn’t connect either. The node connected to my phone hotspot fine, and it got an IP and all that. I could use the web interface or DTMF, but DTMF was flaky/slow. While debugging, I connected to the parrot node (55553) fine, but I only got “connection failed” from W3GMS (53085). I connected to W3GMS fine from home network the next morning.

car on

car off

Tornado Warnings

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I took down the YAGI flag pole during a tornado warning. While I had it down, I attached the paracord that turns it with zip ties to make positioning reliable and less slippery. I shifted the paracord that secures it to avoid wear, and I straightened some elements.

985 Workbench: 2025-05-26

Mon, 26 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

my week in radio

I did some FT8 at 1W while camping and activating some POTA. I compared a 41-ft EFRW with a 17-ft vertical whip. The resonant vertical was booming.

I also read that lots of CW contesters are using computers to send that fast.

Others

W8CRW, CR:
- helped take down an antenna
- local nets
AB3AP, Mike:
- some CW contacts
NA3CW, Chuck:
- PM/AM pre-net and net
- taking down that tower with CR, Joe, and gang.
- reclaiming some of the antenna hardware
- working on Joe’s tower
  - assemble to find the problems
  - very close
KC3OOK, Bill:
- helped with Joe’s tower
- break from the simplex net
KC3SQI, Wayne:
- finding 15m and 17m open
  - Germany, Alaska, Florida, etc
AF3Z, Jim:
- intermod sounds like a spaceship
- considered doing WPX and a QRP sprint, but missed them.
W1RC, Mike:
- configuring a new AllStar node
  - got a node number
  - downloaded the pi image
  - written to a card
  - named it allstar.local, but can’t get the browser to it.
KD3AIS, Tim:
- learning about noise on the waterfall from harvey
WA3VEE, Ron:
- testing sessions coming up
- upcoming fox hunt
W3JAM, Jeff:
- assembling some spare masts for an OCF dipole
- simplex net
KC3YTD, Steve:
- new Yaesu 991, working well for first HF

Questions

AB3AP, Mike:
- Is anyone successful running trustedqsl (tqsl) on Ubuntu 25?
- contact Dylan, K3DCN, for help
- KC3WWC, John:
  - I have it working on debian unstable, from the standard repo.
- AB3AP, Mike:
  - got it working!
  - using the wrong name: trustedsql instead of qsl
W1RC, Mike:
- getting AllStar node booting, but can’t access it by its name, allstar.local.
- W8CRW, CR:
  - mobaxterm, like putty, to setup through text, instead of web interface
- KC3WWC, John:
  - I often don’t see .local network work either
  - try IP addresses near your computer
  - login to the configuration of your router to see the list of nodes

Broken EFHW

Mon, 26 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The home antenna wire comes down every once in a while. I soldered and re-hung it, and it looks good. It seems to need a little power put through it, and then the SWR looks good. I wonder if some static accumulated, and that is causing higher SWR for a moment.

AllStar on Cellular Hotspot

Sun, 25 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I confirmed that my AllStar Node is connecting to my Android hotspot when away from home. The node got a crazy unfamiliar 10.x IP, so I had no hope of remembering it. I still have trouble remembering the DTMF codes that I setup.

US-4361 King's Gap

Sun, 25 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The activation at King’s Gap Environmental Education Center, US-4361 was tough-going, even though I was at the top of the mountain. I used the GRA vertical whip with tapped coil. Internet access flaked early, so successfully spotted myself on APRS with APSPOT.

Setup

Antenna

APRS Spot

1W on 40m

Wed, 21 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Today I had some success operating 1W on 40m.

At 1330UTC, I made a handful of contacts, and got a strong -05 report. I even got a POTA in FL.

21 Tech Net - 2025-05-18

Sun, 18 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Weeks in Radio

French Creek State Park (US-1355)
- All FT8, 1-2W.
- Tried PSK, but no one responded.
80M EFHW, 130ft
- Built a 64:1 unun for it to help match better than the 49:1.
- Resonant in many places, maybe need tuner in one band.
Customizing Allstarlink node to make it easier to manage.
New R1CBU firmware for my X6100.
Getting tempted about the zbit or sbit, but the X6100 scratches that itch for being able to customize it.

Others

WB3LNY, George:
- Dayton Hamfest.
KA3TKW, Tom:
- No net on holiday weekend.
- Enjoying zbitx and zbitx.
- Visited club in Letterkenny, satellite presentation.
- New power connectors for the zbits.
VE3HOH, Pete:
- Tried 6M with a quarter-wave on mobile.
  - Worked well, trying some repeaters.
  - Working simplex on trip from Pottstown to Pine Grove.
  - Fixing connectors.
  - 100W.
W3MW, Don:
- 2.4GHz station ready to go with loop yagis.
- Soon will have 5.6GHz by next month.
- UHF pre-amp.
- Pre-amp is more necessary, at the antenna, on these higher frequencies.
KC3VZU, Bob:
- Looking into RADTEL 880 w/ HF, VHF, UHF, SSB, 10W.

Swap and Shop

W3MW, Don:
- IC7300, 100w, portable, tuner, pack setup.
- Looking at Yaesu, FTX-1.

US-1355 French Creek POTA Activation

Sun, 18 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I visited French Creek State Park (US-1355).

I deployed my 40-meter EFHW, strung up into a convenient tree. I operated with low power, typically between 1-2 watts, on the 10-meter, 40-meter, and 20-meter bands.

I primary operated FT8, and I also attempted some PSK, but no one responded.

Setup

Pole spike

Antenna

Allstar Link Macros

Thu, 15 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I finally got my reboot command working correctly on my Allstar node:

79 = cmd,shutdown -r now

I also set up a convenient shortcut to connect to the 985 Allstar node. Now, instead of typing out the full connection string, I can simply dial *51* to connect. The macro definition for this is:

[macros]
1 = *353085

I can *6 to quickly disconnect from all active connections.

64:1 Unun for 80M EFHW

Tue, 13 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Today I experimented with building a 64:1 unun for an 80-meter EFHW.

My initial attempt involved 3 primary / 24 secondary windings, but I quickly found that this took up too much space on the small toroid I was using.

After some adjustments, I settled on a 2 primary / 16 secondary windings, adding a 100pF capacitor. This configuration was inspired by resources like KM1NDY’s DIY linked EFHW 64:1 antenna guide.

I’m now successfully running my home EFHW antenna on 40 meters without needing a tuner. On 17 meters, the SWR is a bit high, so I engage the tuner for that band.

This setup reminds me a lot of my previous 71-foot random wire antenna with a 9:1 balun. I’m noticing a significant increase in the number of signals I’m receiving, which suggests this new EFHW might be a considerable improvement over my old 107-foot EFRW.

985 Workbench - 2025-05-12

Mon, 12 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

I ran APRS in the mountains past Carlisle and observed many of the same nodes, indicating a wide reach. I also installed and began testing the new R1CBU 0.30.0 firmware for my X6100 HF Radio. Additionally, I launched a new 80m EFHW antenna, and I’m seeing all the harmonic resonances near the right places, though it still needs some tuning.

Others

WA3VEE, Ron: High schoolers are listening, so we should say, “Hi”. A new club might be forming.
W8CRW, CR: Participated in regular nets.
KC3SCY, Luke: Recommended getting a General class license for access to more frequencies. He failed to get onto the AM PM net.
KD3ZIM, Bob (relayed by Ron): Advised getting licensed early and having fun.
NA3CW, Chuck: Stated that the AM PM Net is shifting to avoid overly long propagation and interference. He’s still working on Joe’s tuner, and pieces are coming in for Joe’s tower as well.
KD3AIS, Tim: Attended a ham group where he was considered a “young person” at 51! He attempted to participate in a 10M net but failed.
WA3KFT, John: Building another 2M/440 antenna and making cables. He’s soon looking for help finishing up those projects.
W3QP, Tim: This weekend is the SOTA North East meetup.
KC3YIG, Dave: Working on a home-made vertical antenna.

Questions

W8CRW, CR: He’s using lithium phosphate batteries in his car and lead-acid in the shack. Does anyone have experience trying to desulphate a battery that won’t take a charge?
- NA3CW, Chuck: Has a charger that claims to desulphate a battery, and it seems to work. He “jumped” the battery with a power supply to get it started, then ran the desulphating charger for a couple of weeks.
KD3AIS, Tim: He’s a Technician studying for his General license and is trying 10 meters. He visited the 10-10 org website, looking at propagation charts and nets, which showed poor propagation. Are these sites correct?
- W3QP, Tim: Those charts provide good information but are not the final word.
- NA3CW, Chuck: Ten-Ten is a good organization, but suggests throwing out a CQ, as everyone could be listening.
- WA3KFT, John: Watching 28435kHz for DX chat and local nets.
- KC3WWC, John: Check prop.kc2g.org for in-depth information.
- KC3SQI, Wayne: Tune down through the digital parts of the band and looking for activity.
- WA3VEE, Ron: Try Ham Clock and the DXView site, note that global conditions may not match local conditions.
KC3WWC, John: Is there an easy way to do preset connections in Allstar 3.
- W8CRW, CR: Look into Supermon.

Launched 80M EFHW Antenna

Mon, 12 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I launched my 80M EFHW at home, replacing my previous random wire setup. I’ve trimmed it up and folded it back, but it still needs the tuner to touch it up. I’m seeing the expected harmonics near each ham band, which is a good sign. My next step is to build a new 49:1 transformer for it.

R1CBU 0.30.0 Firmware Update

Mon, 12 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Changes

R1CBU 0.30.0 brings several notable changes:

The ATT/PRE indicator has been split again, allowing them to operate independently.
A fix for storing/loading of the ATU network has been implemented. This is a different implementation from the PR I submitted.
Controls for an alternate patched baseband have been added, though I haven’t tried the new baseband yet.

Testing

The software continues to reload preferences from the previous version, which is good. The UI changes look promising. However, the Maximum Usable Frequency (MUF) has been low for the past couple of weeks, making 20M barely usable today. Despite that challenge, I can still see my reports on PSKReporter on 20M. I’ve been keeping my power at around 2W for the past couple of months. My first contact with this new firmware was hunting a park near Memphis, TN, on FT8, using 2W.

APRS in Gardners

Sun, 11 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I had my UV-PRO and APRSDroid running at Mountain Creek in Gardners, PA, using a normal telescoping antenna. The APRS traffic I observed looked pretty familiar to what I typically see around home, with a wide range of activity and some of the same digipeaters.

985 Workbench - 2025-05-05

Mon, 05 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

I managed to get my 107-ft random wire a little higher in the tree before the leaves fully filled in. I also made some CW contacts in the 7-zone QSO Party and the Delaware QSO Party.

My Question

I’m contemplating an even longer wire for my antenna setup: an 80m EFHW, totaling 40M in length. I’m wondering if there are any downsides to this, such as a weird radiation pattern or needing more power.

NA3CW, Chuck: Suggested that at certain lengths and frequencies, the antenna might start firing off the end of the wire.
AA3LH, Leon: Shared his experience with a 135ft dipole, which he uses on 10, 20, 40, and 75 meters. It’s fed with 30ft of ladder line, 25ft of coax, and a 4:1 balun, and he says it works great. Consider a dipole with 600ohm ladder line.
KC3NZT, Harvey: Recommended using a 9:1 unun for a random wire and looking into a resonant end-fed antenna. He also mentioned using an AH4 tuner at the wire and that a resonant antenna would be more sensitive. He suggested switching to a 49:1 unun.
KC3RFG, Jim: He went from a 49:1 to a 71-foot end-fed long-wire with a 9:1 unun and found the 71-foot to be quieter. He also mentioned a 53-foot wire and that super-long wires can receive a lot, but also a lot of noise.
KC3SQI, Wayne: Check the udel.edu for information on random wire antennas. He pointed out that as you extend the wire too far, you get too many harmonics and the antenna can become imbalanced. Palomar ununs are among the best.
AF3Z, Jim: Consider what bands I want to use.
KC3WWC, John: Is familiar with the 40m EFHW and is going to try a 80m EFHW. It’s encouraging to hear that the EFHW may offer better receive performance. I’ve used UDEL’s site for non-resonant lengths and will switch to a 49:1 for the EFHW. I’m also considering whether his 71ft EFRW was better than 107ft, noting that conditions probably changed.

985 Workbench - 2025-04-28

Mon, 28 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

I’m using Allstar to avoid intermod.
I added two more parks to my POTA list in Las Vegas. During my operations, I ran between 2-4W and made contacts with Brazil, Belize, and many stations on the East Coast. I primarily used digital modes but also tried some CW.

Others

W3JAM, Jeff: Took down many antennas from his roof and is starting over with his shack setup. He might be unloading some gear and has an OCF dipole from Palomar Engineering ready to launch. He’s also building a large amplifier close to the legal limit.
W3RJP, Bob: Getting started with Repeaterphone for Echolink.
WA3VEE, Ron: Noted that a two-day hamfest is approaching. The Pottstown club is very welcoming, and he encouraged joining them this Friday night. Claymont has a VE session on Saturday, and Sunday will feature the Warminster hamfest. Last Saturday, at the DE hamfest, he met some high-schoolers from Felton, DE.
KC3SCY, Luke: Listening to W1AW for CW practice. He observed that 10M is bad, and he’s restoring an old steel-wheeled wheelbarrow he found in the woods.
KC3RFG, Jim: Experimenting with a magnetic loop in his yard. He upgraded to an aluminum loop, finding it more efficient on 10M but less so on 40M. Using his G90, he made a very strong contact with the Galapagos Islands.
WA3KFT, John: Used 100W to break through intermod. He has a 2M 1K amplifier available for sale and is testing a Comet antenna.
W3MFB, Mike: Testing a new radio in a new location.
NA3CW, Chuck: Participated in the AMA PM net and is setting up a new Linux computer, having figured out how to transfer files between virtual machines.
KC3OOK, Bill: Engaged in some regular nets and is continuing to build out his ham shack.
AF3Z, Jim: Did CW at Cornwall Station and is practicing CW. Has an Astron linear 50A power supply, which weighs 47lbs.
KD3AIS, Tim: Launching his EFHW for HF work with help from a neighbor.
KC3TYX, Vic: Participated in various nets.
W3QP, Tim: Is back from New Zealand, where he activated 20 summits (including Mount Doom) and made a 40M contact to France from NZ.
W3DIB, Greg: Is running 100% Arch Linux.

Questions

W3MFB, Mike: What are others’ experience with ground-mounted verticals for HF? What sizes, transformers, radials? Can it be on a tilt base? Is guying is necessary if they need a mast?
- WA3KFT, John: At an old house, he drove a pipe into the ground next to a patio and used a cheap vertical with a loading coil, which was simple but single-banded unless multiple taps were used. His current 80M-2M vertical in the yard is multiband but a compromise.
- KC3SQI, Wayne: Uses a random wire vertical for POTA, consisting of a single wire, radials, a 9:1 unun, and 35 feet of wire.
- NA3CW, Chuck: Verticals in forests lose efficiency.
- KC3WWC, John: Similar setup to Wayne’s: a 25-foot Rybakov antenna with a 4:1 balun.
- AA3LH, Leon: Uses an Eagle 1 antenna, which is ground-mounted, has no baluns, uses radials in the grass, and is 40 ft tall.
- KC3SQI, Wayne: Suggested loading up aluminum downspouts but noted the need for isolators to compensate for aluminum siding.

985 Workbench - 2025-04-14

Mon, 14 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

I spent some time patching the open-source firmware for my HF radio. The original modification aimed to center and save the ATU network on the current frequency, which is effective for about 25kHz in either direction. The system saves the tuning network settings into both a cache and the database. However, it needs to update nearby saved tunings. I noticed the radio would click in new tuning networks within 1 kHz of each other. After digging into the code, I found the error in how it cached these networks.
Unfortunately, intermod hits every Monday, so I had to jump to Allstar, even though I had tested RF earlier in the week.

Others

WA3VEE, Ron: Discussed the Mud Mosey event.
W8CRW, CR: Also mentioned the Mud Mosey.
AF3Z, Jim: Had a CW sked.
NA3CW, Chuck: Noted that the Mud Mosey operation sounded really good. Also discussed the AMPM net and propagation.
KC3OOK, Bill: Participated in the Mud Mosey. Ron ran a net for people on their way in and out of the Mud Mosey service. Bill also served as net control for the simplex net and conducted a round table exercise to experiment with simplex.
KC3YSM, Steve: Participated in the Mud Mosey for his first service operation.
KC3NZT, Harvey: Listened to the roundtable.
W1RC, Mike: Nearfest is coming up soon.
AA3LH, Leon: Was on 10m last Tuesday, getting a 599 to Oregon, but then the signal dropped off completely. Later, he got a 599 to Los Angeles, but it also dropped off.
KB3ZIM, Bob: Lots of mobile radio activity. Recent Chester County ARES/RACES meeting discussed revival of packet radio.
KC3YIG, Dave: Struggling with building a vertical antenna.

Questions

AA3LH, Leon: If flat straps are recommended for grounding, would they also be good for a counterpoise?
- WA3VEE, Ron: Flat straps control inductance. An electrical ground is fixed, but a counterpoise is often deployed and redeployed in the field, making it hard to keep flat.
- KC3NZT, Harvey: Probably makes no difference. He used a strap in his car because it’s cheap, and he’s used cheap wire shelves in the grass as a ground plane for a vertical, attaching to it with a strap.
- AF3Z, Jim: Brought up the skin effect, where RF runs on the surface, not the middle. A strap may provide more surface area for RF.
- NA3CW, Chuck: Frequency affects the depth of the skin effect. DC uses the entire conductor, 60Hz uses almost the entire conductor, but on VHF/UHF frequencies, it will stay in a copper coating on aluminum (like in LMR400).
KC3NZT, Harvey: Are there any FCC issues with recording and replaying as a relay, especially for emergency communications (EmComm).
- WA3VEE, Ron: ARRL started with “relaying” and that he records and plays back to demonstrate reception, so it should be fine.
- NA3CW, Chuck: Advised to just be careful not to sound like you’re identifying as the other station.

X6100 R1CBU 0.29.2 ATU Bug

Tue, 08 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I encountered a bug with the ATU in the X6100 running R1CBU firmware version 0.29.2.

The ATU networking information is stored in both a cache and the params.db file. When setting multiple tunings close to each other (e.g., 7073, 7074, 7075 kHz), the radio would rapidly cycle through them as the VFO was spun. This behavior cluttered the configurations and made it difficult for the ATU network to hold a stable tune near a signal.

Upon investigation, I discovered that while the cache retained all these closely spaced tunings, the params.db only saved one of them. The intention behind the new feature in R1CBU was to remove the hard boundaries between ATU configurations (which were previously every 25 or 50 kHz), allowing a single tuning network to be effective within approximately 25 kHz in either direction. The database would correctly update a nearby frequency to the middle, but the cache’s retention of every tuning caused the “thrashing” effect. Switching antennas or cycling power would reload the sparser collection of networks from the database, temporarily resolving the issue.

I filed a bug report, and submitted a pull request to fix it.

I patched the ATU code to reload the cache from the database immediately, effectively discarding the extraneous nearby networks.

POTA US-4567: Marietta Riverfront Park

Fri, 04 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Rain was predicted later in the weekend, so I headed out to Marietta Riverfront Park (US-4567) for a quick activation to beat the rain. My initial plan was to rebuild my EFHW antenna, but I cut the new wire six inches too short, and I didn’t have enough wire on the spool to start again.

I opted for my 12.5m EFRW instead. It was 7 PM, so I focused my efforts on the 40m. I successfully got about 18 contacts before I packed up for the evening.

Marietta Riverfront

985 Workbench: 2025-03-31

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

I have a blog of my radio notes, but I’ve fallen behind by over a month in posting.
Tested a rybakov antenna with 4:1 balun and 25-foot wire out at a park.
Btech UV-PRO (for APRS) has been seeing lots of beta firmware updates
Attended a lunch with a Harrisburg 21 repeater group to learn about beacons and online tools for radio conditions
My second 2M antenna (slim-jim) was performing badly
- hanging next to the feed line of the higher antenna, and it was completely de-tuning it
- pulled it up into the tree on its own line to provide space
- still hangs lower than the other antenna to avoid interference
contestcalendar.com has a google calendar feed, which i’ve imported to my calendar, so no more date math to figure out UTC

Others

W8CRW, CR:
- updated phone software, so allstar node is working.
W3JAM, Jeff:
- on digital to avoid connecting to anything on the roof in the storm
- simplex net from the shack
  - always observing conditions on 2M
  - ducting
  - heard lots of distant stations, but not close
  - worked 50 miles across lancaster county
  - switched between vertical and horizontal: horizontal was better sometimes
  - new diamond antenna to install
  - swapping out everything on the shack
NA3CW, Chuck:
- hosting AWA pre-net
- working on Joe’s tuner project: crimp connectors for components
KC3OOK, Bill:
- out in the truck to operate in the weather
- mobile simplex net, south control
  - copied all but maybe 3 stations
KV3JGB, Matt:
- new parts, a choke, for the HF radio
AF3Z, Jim:
- visited a friend’s barn of parts for 1929 hartley oscillator
- triton 4 didn’t turn on for CW sked: bad power supply, so switched to battery
WA3KFT, John:
- 100W RF to get through
- new bracket on the tower
- modifications for being able to tilt down the antenna.
WA3VEE, Ron:
- testing an IC-9700: working nicely
  - right on frequency
  - no harmonics
  - full power on every band
  - all configured
- mud mosey for those helping, April 12, contact KC3TMT for info
AA3LH, Leon:
- back from weather events
- in trailblazer, installed a new dual-band VHF/UHF radio
- ran some 2M nets, but missed simplex net
- 80M: rooster net and bible study net

Questions

AF3Z, Jim:
- AICO audio generator:
  - 2 tubes, precision resistors
  - wein bridge oscillator
  - siren like, but it varies on 15 second interval
  - what component failure causes the variation
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - check for a ripple from the power supply
  - sounded like a beating with the output
  - warble may vary with frequency
  - wein bridge oscillator was the first product of hewlett packard
- WA3KFT, John:
  - check B+ voltage from the power supply and at the tube
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - looking at the schematic
  - uses a lightbulb to stabilize based on temperature
  - check the tubes and check that lightbulb
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - the lightbulb may not light, but it’ll use cold resistance of the tube
  - check continuity
  - if the power supply is giving ripple, the capacitor is bad

POTA US-1418: 2025-03-29

Sat, 29 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I setup at US-1418 for an activation. I tried to setup the 40m EFHW in a nearly vertical configuration, but my throw wasn’t high enough, so I went for a vertical 25-foot Rybakov instead. I used my 4:1 balun.

I got my activation working 10M and 15M FT8.

picnic table

antenna transformer

woods

UV-Pro Firmware

Fri, 28 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been learning about the BTech UV-Pro. When scannimg, it degrades the incoming APRS, even in digital mode where it checks back to the APRS channel frequently. I’ve been using stock APRSdroid over the TNC connection, but it takes a little fiddling sometimes to get it to connect.

In the new firmware, they’ve been flip-flopping features between 8.2.x and 8.3. It has bold/yellow fonts (or not), and new button actions to access groups. NOAA alerts have also come and gone to see if they affect RX performance overall.

21 Lunch: 2025-03-27

Thu, 27 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Beacons and Online Tools to Predict Propagation

Presented by Greg, K3EA
RBN
Pskreporter
WSPRnet
VoaCap
Watch for openings on calling frequencies
ARRL band maps
Hamalert
Hamclock
DX clusters

A side note: SMRA hosts great presentations, so check them out some time.

Contest Calendar Has a Google Feed

Thu, 27 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I always keep a tab open to the Contest Calendar, but I discovered they have a feed for Google Calendar.

Fixing the De-tuned Slim Jim

Tue, 25 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The slim jim I put up for APRS was hanging right next to the feed line of the higher quarter-wave antenna I use for local analog traffic. The feed line was de-tuning the slim jim, so reception of APRS traffic was almost non-existent. I could swap the antennas and the higher one worked much better, and the lower slim jim was greatly degraded for other FM traffic. Usually the BTech is on the lower slim jim, and the Quansheng is scanning on the higher quarter-wave.

To correct the problem, I pulled the 2 antennas up on separate ropes and separated them by a couple feet. The quarter-wave is still mounted higher than the slim jim.

985 Workbench: 2025-03-24

Mon, 24 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

985 breakfast
- chatted lots of Vic and Jerry
pota
- 2 parks: middle creek and state game land down the road
- set up multiple antennas: efhw + tactical delta loop
- telescoping antenna for CB walkie talkie
observed some degraded propagation the next day or 2 over the weekend
need to check and tune up my slim jim again

Questions

KC3TYX, Vic: Tried to tune into WA3KFT’s 6M net, but could only hear 1 person. What kind of antenna should he have used for local contacts like that?
- W3MFB, Mike:
  - PVC pipe with caps and made a rigid half-wave dipole and put it on a lightweight rotor to change direction of the horizontal broadside.
  - try an omni-angle antenna (circular)
  - you may also hear better in the summer.
- WA3KFT, John:
  - used 2 perpendicular wire dipoles thumbtacked to the ceiling in an apartment.
    - single feed point
    - omni-directional
    - feed directly with coax
    - VHF frequencies have smaller antennas
    - thicker elements give wider bandwidth (copper pipe)
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - built one that looked like a hula hoop: folder 6m dipole in a loop
    - omnidirectional + wide bandwidth
    - he can lend it
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - double bazooka design
WA3VEE, Ron:
- What’s the minimum to deploy in the field for HF, VHF, UHF?
- KC3TYX, Vic:
  - radio, hamstick, battery
- W8CRW, CR:
  - just his truck: it has everything for UHF, VHF, HF.
- KC3YSM, Steve:
  - looking at plans for simple wire antennas.
    - KB9VBR pota performer on a camera tripod with elevated radials
    - going to try to build that one
- WA3KFT:
  - handful of hamsticks
- W3MFB, Mike:
  - for emergency in car: UHF/VHF radio, CB, G90, some hamsticks
  - tune anything with a G90

Breakfast and POTA

Fri, 21 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I went to the 985 breakfast and chatted lots of Vic and Jerry.

After breakfast, I hit the parks for some POTA. I started at Middle Creek where I tested my EFHW vs the Tactical Delta Loop.

Next, I setup at State Game Land 156 down the road with the telescoping antenna for a CB walkie talkie.

Middle Creek

EFHW

Setup at Middle Creek

Tactical Delta Loop

TDL Hub

Setup along the road

SPARC Meshtastic Channel

Tue, 18 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I had created a channel on my Meshtastic node for SPARC and at the Elmer night, we signed people up to use it.

Name: SPARC
PSK: WVaaYi2B/GJWGJwgbyXH7+na142aLwend1+UA2W2CPo=

ATU Bug in R1CBU 2.29.2

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I encountered a bug using the ATU on R1CBU 0.29.2. I had lots of tunings very near each other, so it switched a lot. It queries and uses the nearest tuning to current frequency, so lots of close tunings will cause thrashing as you move. I cleared the atu table in params.db to alleviate the problem for a bit.

Fixing the 4:1 Unun

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I had followed the these nice directions to build my 4:1 unun to use with a Rybakov and Tactical Delta Loop, but I made a mistake:

the wires that come from the shield continue in opposite directions around the toroid
on my bad build, they originally both went the same way side by side.
the diagram is clear, if you look closely, but the picture is even clearer.

I tested the 4:1 with the tactical delta loop. It consists of:

the 4:1 unun.
2 17-ft telescoping whips up diagonally 90 degrees from each other.
25-ft wire connecting the ends of the whips with alligator clips.
3d-printed plastic mount to hold it all at the bottom.
screwdriver stuck through the mount into the ground to hold it up.
alligator clips to connect the unun to each side of the loop.
ground spike (screwdriver) wired to the ground side of the loop/unun.
tuner is required to work 40M-6M. 80M and 160M didn’t want to tune.

4:1 unun corrected

985 Workbench: 2025-03-03

Mon, 03 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

launched the newly-tuned slim-jim antenna
- tuned the antenna, soldered in a bit more wire at the top
- hung right below my quarter-wave
- compared both antennas simultaneously with the 2 quansheng HTs with dBm measurements
- lower antenna is for the Btech radio running APRS
- upper antenna for general scanning and local
learned about 900MHz radio at the SPARC meeting
learned about satellite work at 21 lunch in Harrisburg
had the thru-window cable flake out during check-in

Questions

W3JAM, Jeff:
- Has anyone used delving or divining rods for finding water or power lines?
- KC3WWC, John:
  - Tried it as a kid with copper wire rods to find water and wires around the house.
  - Seemed much like the Ouija board with wires. Probably just recognized it.
- KC3OOK, Bill: Had some well drillers do it, but seemed like part of the show.
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - Can’t see how it would work, especially a wooden stick.
  - Would need quite the field to cause movements in the wire
  - Probably easier to attribute it to minute recognitions of the douser.
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - Has known dousers for water to use Green Willow Stick.
- N3OGF, John:
  - His Dad doused for water lots of times.
- W1RC, Mike:
  - There’s a Dousers Convention in Vermont.
- KC3OOK, Bill:
  - His well is 300 ft down.
  - Water doesn’t really “flow” underground.
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - Knew a custom home builder who was a douser.
  - If you drilled somewhere else, would there still have been water?
  - Stick would rotate up and back toward him near the water line.
  - Sister tried it and felt it, even though she may have tried to fight the movement.
- W3JAM, Jeff:
  - Read an article, and he’s trying to find a conductor.
  - Doesn’t think it’ll work.
KC3MAI, Joe:
- QRM, HF Noise on low bands.
  - S5 noise on 40m
  - S3 on 80M and 160M
- Is a certain amount of noise to be expected? Can it be remediated?
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - QRM vs QRN: man-made vs natural
  - Static from lightning
  - Static from wind
  - Solar panel noise
  - Man-made noise can be fixed if it’s in your house
    - Try running off battery
    - Eliminate electrical things to see if anything fixes it
    - Cut the whole breaker
    - A dead short across the antenna may still see noise: thermal noise
      - noise floor
  - Neighborhood noise might be hard to remediate.
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - Has nearby PECO, appliances, Amtrak
  - Searched and found bad wall wart power supplies
  - Neighborhood plasma TV that growls on 75M
  - Has tracked down bad power line hardware
- KC3MAI, Joe:
  - Has several Rokus that might have unclean power supplies.
- KC3KFT, John:
  - Pole insulators on power lines can arc depending on weather, humidity, contamination.
  - 6M AM is a good band/mode for searching for noise also 2M AM.
  - Hit the pole with a sledge hammer to see if the noise changes
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - Crackling on hot humid nights near high voltage lines.
  - Wide-band spark
  - Every wire is an antenna, so could be an emitter.
  - CFL or LED lights
- KD3ZIM, Bob:
  - Had a noise problem several years ago.
  - Called PECO, suspecting power line noise.
  - PECO traced the noise and fixed it.
    - cool receivers and spectrum analyzers
    - checked his scope in his shack and got started.
    - found the line 100-150yds from the house
    - heard the buzzing like welding.
    - cracked insulator on the pole
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - AM transistor radio is a good sensor for the noise
  - W3GMS, Joe, has some experience working with PECO
- KB3ZIM, Bob:
  - Call PECO or Bob or Joe to get Dennis from PECO to do the search.
  - Power lines can carry the “transmission” miles
- KC3WWC, John:
  - I’ve seen videos on Youtube of people searching
  - Electric company is responsible for cleaning up those emissions
  - You can build a tape-measure yagi for searching
  - POTA can be low noise area
  - Hear and see the crackles of very distant lightning.
  - Check the radio power supply

Newly-Tuned Slim Jim

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I launched the newly-tuned slim-jim antenna. With it hanging from the fan, it looked tuned. Hanging right next to the siding outside the window, it looked long.

I launched it into the tree to hang right below the quarter-wave. Hanging in the tree, it looks well-tuned. I compared both antennas simultaneously with the 2 Quanshengs, and the lower slim jim measures 10-20dBm lower than the higher quarter-wave when receiving.

SPARC 900MHz

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

W3IHM, Sam, presented the 900MHz band at the SPARC member meeting.

History

1926 - first regulation of amateur radio
- before 1926, ban on anything belowe 200m
  - amateurs could do anything they want above 1.5MHz
First regulations defined bands
- harmonically related
Amateurs imposed legislation for technical reasons
900MHz has been available to hams since 1926
People wanted broadcast interference from ham radio gone in mid 1920s
1930s - allow anything above 110MHz
1935 - people were getting up to 3200MHz with magnetrons (spinning electron)
Commercial broadcastsers pushed hams into bands and out of lower bands in 1920s when we started figuring out propagation in the ionosphere, and they wanted to broadcast around the world.
war-1940 - we’re allowed above 300MHz
1941 - all ham radio is shutdown for war
1947 - military is reluctant to give back bands
- bands shifted around a little
- allowed up to 300GHz
1952 - added 15M
1979 - added WARC bands (12, 17, 30)
1986 - 33cm
2002 - 60M
2016 - 2200M, 630M
Will we get 8M, 5M, and 4M like other parts of the world?

Characteristics

900MHz-928MHz
Feed line loss is double that of 440MHz
Antenna loss
Atmospheric loss
Simplex is pretty dismal
Bounces well, like off airplanes
- Once got Harrisburg to Philly bouncing off an airplane
- Hit repeaters with Yagis and bounces
It’s a shared band with some other services.

Possibilities

Commercial radios with other software and surgery
Harris radio - expensive software
EF Johnson - free software, but needs surgery
Alinco had something, but not available
Kenwood TK981/481
Retevis RT10 - 1W $80
Listen with Quansheng, but filters won’t transmit.
Baofeng with dirty harmonics might TX on 900MHz
Baby monitors?
SDR dongle
Transverters

Shared Bands

Power meters are everywhere in the middle of the band, and the noise causes the FM squelch to stay closed.
Everyone’s trying to use the slivers on the end to avoid interference.
Amplifiers can overcome the noisy power meters.
Surplus amplifiers and antennas can be cheap.
K3LV has a repeater in the area.
Use it or lose it (already to the power meters).
Power meters may go away after a while to move up to 2.4GHz
Lots of competition for 900MHz - 2GHz - goes through the atmosphere easily.

985 Workbench: 2025-02-24

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

I attended the breakfast and heard a little about the National Traffic System from Vic. I’ve added some nets to my calendar.
I’m in the logs for N4T, the DXpedition to Dry Tortugas with some locals.
- CW and on FT8
My favorite radios have new 3rd-party software:
- Quansheng HTs got F4WHN 4.0 which includes a code fix I contributed
- X6100 got R1CBU 0.29.2 which has fixes for handful of bugs I reported
I continue playing with some mobile Winlink and APRS
EFRW was being flaky with high SWR.
- Cleaned all the connections outside.
- It’s an unprotected temporary build with alligator clips.

Others

KC3SCY, Luke: listening to some CW
NA3CW, Chuck:
- Led the breakfast.
- 75M PM/AM Net
- A professor of chemistry in CT liked our answer on the workbench about ice on the antenna. We never know who’s listening, so make it good.
KB3ILS, Keith:
- Straight key work since field day
- POTA, State QSO Parties
- 15-minute ragchew QSOs
- Slower with the straight key, so people don’t “recognize” him.
- ARRL DX contest: used paddles, boring exchanges.
- Heard his own QSO in a youtube video
KC3RFG, Jim:
- Working on mobile antenna to clean it up.
AF3Z, Jim:
- Jumped up from 35WPM to 40WPM in weekly practice sked, and it was OK.
- Working on heathkit project
KC3TYX, Vic:
- 2M nets
- Breakfast
- Another ARRL DX contest coming up this weekend, giving it a try.
AB3AP, Mike:
- Breakfast
- Learning about direction of arrival for signals to locate signals of interest.
- Some CW, but slower than Jim.
W3QP, Tim:
- Planning trips
- Presentation for Pottstown Club
K3FHA, John:
- Repairing a 65-year-old radio.
- Implementing a service bulletin to fix AGC.
- Some HF nets
WA3KFT, John:
- Digging up lost gear
  - Halicrafters S38
  - Heathkit VF1 VFO
- 6M and 2M work
KC3OOK, Bill:
- All the 985 activities
- Simplex Net: 39 check-ins
- Spending every day in the ham shack
AA3LH, Leon:
- Worked West Coast on 10m.
KB3AIS, Tim:
- Purchased ICOM 2730a for portable radio.
KC3YIG, Dave:
- Breakfast
- Simplex Net
- Building some shelves for the radio desk.
- Contacted N4T on SSB on 20M and 40M.
W3MOW, Mike:
- Good to hear everyone’s favorite interests and achievements in radio.

Questions

AF3Z, Jim:
- NV102 SSB CW transciever
  - CW is working
  - SSB isn’t going out
  - He has the oscilliscope for tracing, 10x probe for attennuation, AC coupled.
  - Looking at all the parts, what is the best way to couple with the circuit without interfering with the circuit?
- WA3KFT, John:
  - 10X probe should have helped
  - There is a 100X probe with very high impedance
  - Make a 2-3 turn coil of solid wire around a pencil, attach it to a bit of coax, poke around with that.
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - Put a little capacitance (2-3pF) in series on the end of the probe.
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - Another way to make a “sniffer probe”: small wire loop on a piece of circuit board.
- K3FHA, John:
  - Since SSB isn’t working, check that audio is getting into the modulator.
AA3LH, Leon:
- He has a 45-ft vertical antenna, end-fed from the bottom. It’s recommended to add an automatic tuner close to the antenna. Is 7-8 feet too far away? 14 gauge, 25ft, red/black twin lead to provide power. Is that too long?
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - power delivery is OK.
  - 7-8 feet is fine. It becomes part of the antenna.
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - 14 gauge is fine for auto tuner
  - Agree with Chuck
KD3AIS, Tim:
- ICOM 2730A can hear the repeater, but no one can hear him.
- W3MOW, Mike:
  - Thinking it’s a hardware issue, or is it programming?
- KD3AIS, Mike:
  - Thinks the hardware is good, and the programming is good.
  - Has programmed previous radios for the repeater
- W3QP, Tim:
  - Has a couple ICOMs.
  - Do you see the frequency shift while TX-ing? (It should.)
  - Try turning off the receive tone.
- KD3AIS, Tim:
  - No receive tone programmed
  - Sees the shift
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - Do you have RTSystems or other software to program it?
  - He could not program the same radio without using the RT-Systems software.
- KD3AIS, Tim:
  - Has not yet used programming cable or software.
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - There should be lots of indicators on the display for every little feature that’s enabled.
- KC3WWC, John:
  - Debug from simplex, then use other repeaters, then check configs for 985.
- W3MOW, Mike:
  - From reading the manual, 985’s split tones could be a challenge.
- W8CRW, CR:
  - On ICOMs, the correct tone setting is T-TSQL / 100.
- KC3RFG, Jim:
  - Had that radio years ago, and programmed it the first time with RT-Systems.
N3RT, Jay:
- Meritron amplifier, trying to hit Christmas Island on 15M CW.
- He flipped it on and it popped the fuse on the 240V line.
- Can he remove tubes to isolate and test the power supply?
- Are the ceramic fuses slow blow?
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - Do you have HV experience?
- N3RT, Jay:
  - Has replaced some things, but always operated with the cover on.
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - No problem turning it on with tubes removed.
  - Check manual about the fuse
  - Could be a complex interaction causing the pop of the fuse, like start-up resistor being blown.
About my outside connections:
- WA3KFT, John:
  - There’s a conducting grease for head bolts of an engine that he uses for outside connections, plus black plastic tape
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - Don’t get any on the dialectric (short)

Reconditioned HF Antenna

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I reconditioned my HF antenna. The SWR was being wonky and variable on the 107ft EFRW: jumping to 3:1 with tuner. I cleaned up the wire ends and alligator clips with sandpaper, reconnected them, and repositioned the counterpoise. Now I’m seeing 1.5:1 SWR with the tuner.

EFRW Clips

21 Tech Net: 2025-02-23

Sun, 23 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

I like radios with open software
- F4HWN 4.0 alternate firmware released for Quansheng
  - includes fixes for the spectrum analyzer that I contributed
- R1CBU 0.29.2 just released for Xiegu X6100
  - includes fixes for bugs I found and submitted
I tried some APRS to the ISS from the Btech UV-PRO
Did a little RTTY for NAQP
Contacted N4T DXpedition on 20M yesterday
- My CW was pretty rough
- I could hear them with the EFHW for 40M in a park,
  - but not the upgraded 107ft EFRW at home
  - probably orientation

Others

K3EA, Greg:
- contests, space weather, DX
WB3LNY, George:
- debugging power problems: tighten your lugs in your panel
- “Pale Blue” is a company in Utah making rechargeable Li-Ion batteries with USB charging port.
VE3HOH, Pete:
- designing an NVIS for 40m, fan dipole
- maybe also a 10m vertical in it.
- nice presentation from KA3TKW, Tom, on working satellites
KA3TKW, Tom:
- new FM bird: Hades R, SO-124, no telemetry yet.
- ISS repeater and upcoming passes
- AO-123 is new, FM repeater: 435.400 FM.
- Ham Lunch this Thursday, noon.
  - presentation: Beginners Guide to FM Satellites
KK4KKW, Steve:
- some HF, but repeater started dropping
W3MW, Don:
- trying to purchase a spectrum analyzer, but UPS isn’t delivering it.
- starting up attic/roof work for antennas.
- testing 10GHz setup soon
KC3ZBI, Ron:
- working on antennas for some upcoming contests

POTA US-1356 Gifford Pinchot

Sat, 22 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I visited Gifford Pinchot State Part, US-1356, and strung up the EFHW from a picnic table to a tree. I managed it in 1 throw to a nice spot. I made 20 contacts:

18 FT8
2 CW, including N4T, the Dry Tortugas DXpedition

Using R1CBU 0.29.1, I knew to pay special attention to undo the AM bug from SWR Scan by switching through modes after an SWR Scan. In this firmware, though, WSJTX would set digital mode (USB-D) and it would bounce back to USB, which doesn’t take sound from the connection to the computer. I had to work around it by disabling WSJTX’s ability to set the mode. Then I could set USB-D and it would stay there.

entire setup

R1CBU 0.29.2

Sat, 22 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

After my park outing, I returned to find an update to R1CBU 0.29.2. It includes fixes for:

SWR Scan that leaves the radio in AM mode
CAT control of modes

Home Wire Down

Fri, 21 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The rope came undone at far end of my EFRW. I had to fish it back down with a wire hook stuck in a fishing pole.

The SWR was a bit high, and I found broken wires in 9:1 balun, so I stripped the wires and reassembled it.

With the antenna working again, I contacted New Caledonia on 10M FT8 with 8W.

Ham Alert Overload

Tue, 18 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I had too many spots coming from Ham Alert, , so it disabled itself on my phone. I had experimented with having everyone in one big alert. I removed one really active FT8 user, because I think they may have been the busiest. I ended up breaking triggers into groups based on clubs.

Rebuild Quarter Wave

Tue, 18 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The quarter-wave ground plane antenna in the tree disconnected in the wind, so I brought it back down and rebuilt it stronger with radials passing through the holes and woven together. I used randomly shorter radials, but 8 of them this time. I watched the SWR drop with the nanoVNA as I added radials. I resoldered the driven element into the socket and trimmed it to tune it again.

SPARC Elmer Night: 2025-02-18

Tue, 18 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I took along the old slim jim antenna I bought at my first ham fest. I understand now better how to tune it: I need to make it a little longer, not just slide the feed point up and down the batch.

The antenna was a little short by measurement with the NanoVNA. I hung it from a fan in the middle of the room to measure it without interference. I lengthened it at the far bend by soldering some extra house wire in the bend.

Now it looks perfect for 2m and 70cm.

Winlink and APRS

Tue, 18 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I recently added winlink back to my APRS ping on the UV-PRO. I immediately got a message from a Winlink gateway that I had 1 new Winlink message waiting. For the full RF experience, I fired up KISS on the UV-PRO and a session to K3IR’s Winlink gateway (145.030kHz) and checked my Winlink mail over the radio.

I needed to be careful to not let HT app start and re-enable “digital mode”. When “digital mode” is enabled, it would switch to APRS 144.390MHz every time WoAD would TX, and that doesn’t work. The hint was seeing APRS traffic in the WoAD log while waiting for my Winlink session to initialize.

The email was KC3WRY, Matthew, playing around sending Winlink via APRS. I acknowledged and responded to his message.

985 Workbench: 2025-02-17

Mon, 17 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

Wind is nerve-wracking with my “temporary” antennas
- long wire broke
- one 1/4-wave ground plane worked itself loose and disconnected.
- yagi on the aluminum pole is good
X6100 was having trouble running and charging its failing internal battery
- disable charging and it’s OK again.
R1CBU 0.29.0 firmeware for X6100
- finding and filing some bugs
- they’re already getting fixed
- will probably need to revert back to the older version
Norfolk Island, VK9DX, FT8 on 10M, with only 2W.
Radio with a waterfall is amazing to watch during CW contest weekends.
- something is up!

Others

N3ILS, Travis:
- setup Allstar node for travel
KC3SCY, Luke:
- listening to W1AW on Drake 4TRX for code practice
W3QP, Tim:
- trouble with IC-7300 on battery. blown fuze on one pole.
- all bands on fan dipole have high SWR after wind damage
KC3RFG, Jim:
KC3YSM, Steve:
- working on some DX with the cold weather
- needed to adjust some audio settings for TX. much improvement.
NA3CW, Chuck:
- Steve, good clean audio is so important for breaking the DX pile-up
- hosted pre- and actual PMAM net
- magneto synchronizer for an airplane, rebuild, repair
KC3OOK, Bill:
- simplex net: east had some trouble, so running late.
  - 23 contacts
  - drywalling the ham shack
KC3TYX, Vic:
- weekly nets
- tried a 10M net, went OK
- hard to tell what was happening on simplex net from his station
KC3TRW, Mike:
- programming up some radios
WA3KFT, John:
- busy on VHF by his paper log, including a little 6m and 10m.
- sorting parts and cleaning up the benches
AF3Z, Jim:
- some CW
- working on an old heathkit TRX
  - removed some solder and resoldered
KD3AKZ, Wayne
- getting a rig on the air
  - still has a beep
- studying for general
KC3NZT, Harvey:
- building an antenna on an off-road magmount that was previously recommended.
  - tested well with nanovna
  - very strong magnets
  - mapping out some coax: shorter and better coax is better

Questions

N3ILS, Travis:
- Is it OK to use the internal tuner of the IC-7300 in series with an external tuner at the same time?
- KC3NZT, Harvey: is it an automatic icom tuner connected by aux port
- N3ILS: it is a manual MFJ tuner.
- WA3KFT, John:
  - uses both internal and external tuner.
  - sometimes one tuner gets you all the way there
  - stacking them won’t hurt anything
  - but it’s inefficient.
- W3CRW, CR:
  - uses Yaesu with 2 tuners in series.
  - heavy lifting with the external LDG
  - fine-tune it with the internal.
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - IC-7300 can be made to match 10:1 in “emergency mode”.
    - it requires some of your power.
  - Does stacking the tuner skew the readings in the radio?
  - has used an automatic external tuner for icom. it disables the internal.
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - tune the external tuner with internal disabled to get close
  - then fine-tune to get the rest of the way.
  - combo could result in weirdo impedance between them, if done in the wrong order.
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - what NA3CW said
  - 2 auto tuners will compete and cause trouble
- N3ILS, Travis:
  - Dave Cassler has a video saying “never stack them”, but that’s auto tuners.
- KC3RFG, Jim:
  - Dave Cassler’s video is about 2 auto tuners.
KC3RFG, Jim:
- Why does my SWR go up with ice on the antenna? It drifted from 1.2:1 to 2:1.
- WA3KFT, John:
  - ice on the antenna changes the diameter. it’s a conductor.
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - water dialectric constant is 80, compared to PVC insulation with 4.
- KC3OOK, Bill:
  - observed the same thing. jumped to 3:1.
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - 10M vertical dipole fed by old window line with a tuner.
  - any time it rains, the normal settings don’t work.
- KC3RFG, Jim:
  - he has 40-foot tall bamboo, and he can tap the wire to de-ice it.
NA3CW, Chuck:
- this Friday is the breakfast
- AWA PM/AM Net 3835kHz
  - https://www.antiquewireless.org/homepage/weekly-awa-nets/

X6100 Crashing

Wed, 12 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My X6100 started freezing up its user-interface. This happens sometimes when the radio board shuts off, but the UI board hasn’t yet. It would happen when I was transmitting, even very low power, 2W. It even did it after a long time just listening.

I unplugging the USB-C from the computer, and it would allow the UI to shutdown, so the USB-C was powering the UI board, while the radio board had shutdown. The internal battery indicator looked like it may have shown low for a moment, but I was on 12V.

I finally realized I had enabled battery charging all the time. Charging the mostly-worn-out battery caused this new shutdown problem. I disabled charging, and now the radio is running fine again.

I ordered 2 new internal battery packs from Amazon to install. I used to be able to run the radio on internal battery for a little while, but now as soon as I unplug external power, the battery will read something terribly low like 7% and about 6 volts.

New Antenna DX

Tue, 11 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The new 107-ft (32.6m) EFRW in the backyard is doing OK, and I’m getting pretty lucky with low power on 10M FT8.

Japan (10500 km): 5W, 2025-02-10 2245 UTC
Norfolk Island (14000 km): 2W, 2025-02-11 2238 UTC

107ft EFRW

985 Workbench: 2025-02-10

Mon, 10 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

Reconfigured fldigi with some more modular macros and used them for a short time for CQ WPX RTTY contest
Replaced my 71-foot EFRW with 107-foot wire
- ATU works a bit harder than the previous, but stretching the counterpoise in a different direction helped.
5W into the wire got me a contact to Japan on FT8

Others

KC3SCY, Luke:
- building out his radio desk
- new Drake TR-4A and matching transmitter
W8CRW, CR:
- Nets
WA3VEE, Ron:
- checking out and testing equipment
- interviewed on podcast: “operation freedom. ham radio in public service.”
- KB3SVC presented on senior scams at another meeting
W3QP, Tim:
- 11 summits in Virginia!
KC3TYX, Vic:
- VHF nets, No HF.
- hiking and geocaching.
NA3CW, Chuck:
- 985 activities
- tower work at Joe’s when weather permits.
- acquired merantz professional CD recorder
- PM/AM net pre-net host. much better at 3:30pm for pre-net.
KC3OOK, Bill:
- 985 nets
- South control for Simplex Net
  - 37 check-ins with only 2 controls
- Passed along some gear to others via Joe
KD3AIS, Tim:
- drove to Parkesburg, and remembered to bring mobile glass-mount antenna and HT, so could contact to the repeater via RF.
AF3Z, Jim:
- working on Omni 6, which is broken
  - getting worse as he diagnoses
- visited old shack in basement and rearranged it
  - finally returned to MB102 heathkit rig with power supply
  - replaced some capacitors
  - now working!
KC3SQI, Wayne:
- email reminder was appreciated to host the workbench
WA3KFT, John:
- playing with some heathkit lunch boxes.
  - 2m, 6m, 11m
  - doesn’t have the 10m
  - they’re regenerative receivers
  - not very efficient transmitters
- vibrator power supply for radios that run off 120V AC
- was convenient back in the day to be able to hang equipment from the old dashboard in cars.

Questions

KD3AIS, Tim:
- Given his recent foray into mobile radio and a glass-mounted antenna, he’s looking at mobile rigs. He’s seeming some that are higher-power single band, and some lower-power dual band. Also seeing single-band and dual-band antennas. But no 70cm single-band antennas. Recommendations and considerations?
  - WA3VEE, Ron:
    - Ron just runs high-power dual-band.
    - there are lots of 70cm repeaters around the area.
    - magmount antennas on top.
    - don’t worry about 65W vs 50W. close enough.
  - W3CRW, CR:
    - found a 70cm-only antenna on amazon.
    - still recommend dual band
  - WA3KFT, John:
    - dual band antenna is nicer for 70cm.
    - he dedicates a 70cm antenna and a 2m
  - KC3NZT, Harvey:
    - don’t worry much about power on dual-band radios
    - watch for nicer features
      - full-duplex
      - digital control
      - dual-watch
  - K3YVQ, Jack:
    - has Larson NMO 270 antenna to give away
  - KC3OOK, Bill:
    - recommended a couple radios with those features
  - NA3CW, Chuck:
    - dual-band rigs run less power because they’re a compromise.
    - single-band rig is no compromise, but more limited in features.
    - there are 470MHz antennas for commercial bands
    - feature: wishes his rig had split tones.
  - W8CRW, CR:
    - crossband repeat
    - split tones
  - WA3VEE, Ron:
    - Yaesus generally don’t support split tone
    - ICOMs generally do
  - W3GMS, Joe:
    - ICOM IC-2730A is great
      - split tone
      - good cooling
      - power makes a huge difference when you’re trying to open squelch on a repeater
      - nmo mount is nice, because you can swap specialized antennas.
  - KC3SQI, Wayne:
    - run IC-4730 for split tone and crossband
KC3WWC, John:
- Adding another dual-band antenna outside, probably dedicated to APRS. How close can they be or how should they be arranged?
- WA3KFT, John:
  - 5 vertical antennas: 10, 6, 2m, 220, 440.
    - 2m and 440 are harmonically related, so separated
    - all mounted on a bar.
    - 440 and 2m are separated 7.5 ft, so they don’t interact.
    - 35 ft off the ground.
    - can’t separate them that much on a car.
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - if the antennas are harmonically related, attempt to separate at least 2 wavelengths
  - dual band antennas are
  - DX Engineering has an antenna bar already setup with multiples
- WA3VEE, Ron
  - Diamond dualband is good. mounted on front.
  - 220 in the middle
  - something else on the far back of the vehicle.

985 Workbench: 2025-01-03

Mon, 03 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

KC3TMZ, Matt:
- 3d-printing and building antennas is great
Trying to build a tactical delta loop
- 4:1 balun
- 2 17 ft whips
- 25 ft wire for the top
- 3d-printed base
- not great so far
- will be using the 4:1 with other antennas, like rybakov
ISS pass with APRS
- decoded relayed packets from Pittsburgh PA, Smyrna DE, Atlanta GA.
Bluetooth control of a radio is pretty convenient, big phone screen

Others

KC3TMZ, Matt:
- ordered a bunch of ferrites, enameled wire,
- 3d printing some antennas
KC3NZT, Harvey:
- met up with KD3AIS
KC3RFG, Jim:
- organizing the shack
NA3CW, Chuck:
- PMA AM Net on 75m
  - it’s moving later due to propagation: 5pm
- working on Joe’s tower project
KC3OOK, Bill:
- drywalling the hamshack
- working on Joe’s tower
  - almost all bolts installed an tightened
  - guided tower with rollers, aligning
WA3KFT, John:
- nets: Packrats, DelVa, Weather
- spoke to David in Texas on 15M
- Bob on 10M in Virgin Islands
- nice band openings
KC3TYX, Vic
- VE accreditation.
- helped with first VE session.
  - all computerized
  - worked with WA3VEE
KC3SQI, Wayne:
- chasing POTA
  - West coast, 20M
K3YVQ, Jack:
- working on go-box for crossband repeater
- relay from HT on a hike to car with 50 watts
KD3AIS, Tim:
- visited KC3NZT
W3QP, Tim:
- preparing for some SOTA activations
WA3VEE, Ron:
- worked a VE session
- organizing the shack
- working on lesson plan for technician review to prep for general
  - short videos / presentations
  - can arrange to do some teaching up here instead of just in delaware
N3CRE, Charlie:
- trying to hook a headset to FTM-500
W3EMF, Jerry:
- originator of the Workbench Net
- new 2M rig in vehicle to access 985 more

Questions

KC3TMZ, Matt:
- Purchased a new antenna that may want ground radials. What’s the best way to connect temporary radials to an antenna?
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - is removable a requirement?
- KC3TMZ, Matt:
  - radials can stay, stapled to the ground
  - he wants to remove the vertical element, so dogs don’t tangle leashes
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - terminate all radials to 1 ring terminal and screw that right to a ground rod
  - it’s a 20/15/10M trapped vertical (he sold it to him)
    - doesn’t need guyed
- KC3TMZ, Matt:
  - liking the idea of a metal pipe into which he can just drop the antenna
- WA3KFT, John:
  - worked in a AM broadcast
  - drive a pipe into the ground to slip antenna into or onto
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - drive a pipe into the ground, flush
  - has a PVC pipe that holds up an inverted-v
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - copper braid with ring terminals, inexpensive on amazon
  - be careful to not short feed with ground in metal pipe socket
KC3NZT, Harvey:
- magmonut often comes with a length of coax. is there a magmount wiht an SO-239 so you can do use whatever coax you want?
- W8CRW, CR:
  - make your own.
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - make your own.
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - there is a bulkhead mount with SO-239 for the antenna that could be added to the magnet
- K3YVQ, Jack:
  - there’s an empty magnet mount
KC3WWC, John: I have a talent, how do we avoid doubling during checkin?
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - don’t worry about it
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - silent “this is”. grab carrier, drop it, then give call.
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - some nets use “this is” protocol. that lowers the chance
  - net host resolves it
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - click method, and it doesn’t matter
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - bigger issue is digital link people and leaving enough space
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - pulse/click method, silent “this is”
  - net control watches for doubles
  - net contral asks for checkins
K3YVQ, Jack:
- Can I combine 2 batteries of different capacities in paralllel on a bus to get larger capacity?
- WA3KFT, John:
  - yes, it’ll work.
  - has a bus with power supply and battery on a bus of banana plugs
  - ok if they’re the same voltage
  - plug the batteries on the ends, and radios in the middle
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - batteries are sometimes limited on max current
  - lithium batteries’ voltage drops very late in discharge
  - a deader battery could be a strong current draw
- K3YVQ, Jack:
  - they have BCM, so they protect themselves.
  - may look into 12V cigarette lighter to power pole charger.
N3CRE, Charlie:
- Having trouble pairing a wireless BT headset with FTM-500.
- K3YVQ, Jack:
  - check that the bluetooth protocols are compatible
  - maybe a firmware upgrade will fix it

After Party

KC3NZT, Harvey:
- when we lack questions, we should present little lectures on testing and equipment.
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - has demonstrated diagnosing feed line problems
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - some things can be explained verbally, others more visual
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - a list of resourcse and videos could live on 985 website
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - lots of zoom practice with document camera, etc in his shack
- KC3WWC, John:
  - I’ll bring my balun around for diagnosis on video
  - I have watched a video on using nano vna to test filters and baluns
  - I like to optimistically use it first, then dig in more if needed
  - I think that keeps me doing stuff that I might otherwise not realize to be possible
  - document my beginner experiences on a blog for my reference and others
- W3EMF, Jerry:
  - echolink in the mobile
  - calling from Elizabethtown

ISS APRS

Mon, 03 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I caught word that ISS was passing in a moment, so I tuned UV-PRO to 145.825MHz, the APRS digipeater on ISS. I heard packets from Pittsburgh, PA; Smyrna, DE, and Atlanta, GA. I tried to ping out my location a couple times, but it looked unheard according to https://ariss.net/.

UV-PRO APRS Digipeat

Mon, 03 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The HT app and UV-PRO digipeats APRS packets like a mesh.

screenshot

21 Tech Net: 2025-02-02

Sun, 02 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

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

APRS Repeat

Tue, 28 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Watching traffic, I discovered one can ask the REPEAT service on APRS to list repeaters near you.

UV-PRO Firmware 0.8.0

Tue, 28 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The HT app presented the firmware update right away upon launching, so now I know it can do the upgrade. The first time I updated the radio, I used the older “BTech Programmer” app.

The update promises some fixes around

ack in in-built APRS,
TNC stability

I discovered in the app the setting: Radio -> ID Settings -> 3 Checkboxes (ID, Location, Check) could be turned off to get to “none” to disable post-TX noises, which is “PTT Release” in the radio.

Those settings kept getting synced from the app to the radio, so now they’re set the way I want it to stay. I could have also disabled “Synchronous Signal Settings” in the app, but the mismatch seems like it would have been confusing.

985 Workbench: 2025-01-27

Mon, 27 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

Really glad to get to field day with 985.
Customized my AllStar node for better mobile use:
- DTMF to shutdown
- DTMF announce IP address
- Announce ip with the start up macro
Btech UV-PRO with KISS TNC support
- It does APRS internally
- KISS TNC for packet to connect apps on the phone via bluetooth
  - AprsDroid
  - WoAD for Winlink and serial terminal

Others

W8CRW: field day
WA3VEE: field day, photographs!
KC3SCY, Luke:
- Made 50 contacts on CW, goal was 10
- Got a nice Drake 4x to help with CW and a new key
W3FHA, John:
- Working on a radio crammed with tubes
W3JAM, Jeff:
- Heard W3R on 80M CW, but didn’t really operate
- Pelican case for Bird meter and slugs for it.
- Checked into Simplex Net and Welfare Net
KC3HQZ, Jean:
- Fun on Sunday at 985 field day
KB3ILS, Keith:
- Winter Field Day
- Logging contacts for Joe
- Heard, “I’ve been waiting for you” from AF3Z under another club call
- Tried Joe’s Begali straight key
- Making room for a straight key
AB3AP, Mike:
- Bought a QSL card dated from 1949 that belonged to Dick, W3ORU, a recent SK from 985.
WA3KFT, John:
- Worked field day a bit
KC3TYX, Vic:
- Made a few field day contacts, but not much. He didn’t hear W3R.
KC3YIG, Dave:
- Fun at field day
NA3CW, Chuck:
- Setup for WFD on Friday
- Didn’t operate the event
KD3AIS, Tim:
- Great time at 985 field day on Saturday
- Met Harvey, KC3NZT
KC3OOK, Bill:
- South control for simplex net: 42 contacts
- Welfare Net
W3QP, Tim:
- Fun at 985 field day
- Had lots of RFI from electrical lines and other antennas
N3CRE, Charlie:
- Visited 985 WFD
W3MFB, Mike:
- Saw 985 field day on Sunday
- Talked to KD3ACF, JT, a bunch
K3YVQ, Jack:
- 985 WFD
- Learned about CW from Keith
AA3LH, Leon:
- Fun at field day, made some contacts
- Looking forward to Summer Field Day
KD3ACF, JT:
- Got a cage for 705 and next POTA activation
- Long chats with W3MFB
- POTA hunting
- New AllStar node
AF3Z, Jim:
- Operated Cornwall Ranger Station for WFD
- Indoor station: 2I
- Jim was their main CW op: 130 QSOs
- Highlight: Saturday night, 80M, finally found W3R when Keith came to him.

Questions

KB3ILS, Keith:
- When operating straight key,
  - Do you rest your forearm on the table?
  - How do you grip the straight key?
  - Operation tips?
- WA3KFT, John:
  - 3 fingers on the knob, arm on the table, only wrist movement.
- NA3CW, Chuck, concurs
- AB3AP, Mike:
  - European style: float the arm
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - In European style, key is often on the edge of the table.
  - Rests his arm on the table, grip thumb + next 2 fingers
  - Holds the key on his leg when camping
- KB3ILS, Keith:
  - Luke is the operator he wants to emulate
KC3YIG, Dave:
- Electrovoice 719 mic needs a cartridge replacement. Tips, sources of parts, etc?
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - No experience changing mic cartridges
  - That mic seems similar to the D104 with a crystal cartridges
  - Specific cartridges can be hard to find
  - Some people seem to replace the cartridge with one from Heil
  - With age, cartridges don’t sound right
KD3AIS, Tim:
- Has a Diamond 510HDM antenna, 17ft tall, can the antenna be placed near trees to hide it?
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - You’re sounding good, so no hurry to put that up.
  - Ron’s antenna is next to a bunch of bushes
  - Foliage won’t attenuate much
  - It’s fine
- WA3KFT, John:
  - Long antennas have nice gain
  - Tie a pipe hitch to the antenna 1/3rd down from the top
  - Hoist it to hang in the tree
- NA3CW, Chuck: Feb 2018 QST, “Live Trees Affect Antenna Performance”
  - Did simulations with HF
- WA3VEE, Ron:
  - His installation is 3-4 feet away from the tree and elevated on army mast
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - Has a tree in path of beam, and it doesn’t seem to affect anything.
  - Hangs other antennas
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - D300 stuck on a 2-inch piece of PVC attached to the deck railing
  - 10 ft from the ground
  - When he got above the roof, got an extra 2dB into repeater
  - Doesn’t make a lot of difference

2025 985 Winter Field Day

Sun, 26 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The 985 group held their winter field day at Lines Self Storage. They had 5 stations in trailers and tents. They worked some satellites and mostly HF. There was hundreds of feet of coax feed line all over the place.

I aw KC3NZT, Harvey, operating a satellite station with special hardware. Harvey also called CQ on HF. He’s a machine, logging hundreds of QSOs.

I used a headphone splitter to listen to another operator, Bob. I copied some CW, but not a lot. I listened for some digital and found a bit of RTTY, but it was for the BARTG contest, not WFD. I made some SSB contacts on others’ radios that were setup for the weekend.

I hung my rolled slim-jim to call on 146.520MHz and beacon some APRS, but I heard nothing. I could also check winlink email through the N3MEL gateway in Downingtown. I had looked it up ahead of time. In the notes in WoAD, I list the frequency where the gateway listens for packets.

I visited during daytime on both days, but did not stay overnight like some did.

Winlink through N3FYI

Thu, 23 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I connected up to Winlink through N3FYI’s gateway on 144.950MHz. using 1/4-wave antenna hanging in the tree. I also had set my APRS message to “Winlink”, so the Winlink server pinged me over APRS when I had a message. I’m not sure I could read the APRS message on the UV-PRO, though, since I let it sit too long. I had a message icon, but I couldn’t dismiss it.

SPARC Elmer Night: 2025-01-21

Tue, 21 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

There were only 3 of us at the SPARC elmer night, but we were on the same page. I compared notes on packet/APRS and WoAD with KC3QEH, JJ. We both had these new Btech-based radios. Even on the hill, our HTs with small antennas didn’t pick up much inside the building. I tried an external antenna from another club radio and I started receiving lots of packets. Sending APRS messages worked under the Signal menu: KC3QEH-7:TEST MSG

Btech UV-Pro

Sun, 19 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Yet Another Radio

I got interested in AX.25 packet over RF, so the Btech UV-Pro immediately looked like an interesting jumpstart, when it got a firmware update that allowed it to operate as a KISS TNC over Bluetooth.

Application Driven

HT is the up-to-date app for interfacing with the radio. There’s a “BTech Programmer” app, but it is an older, branded version of HT.

Setup

In the radio, I’d set “General” -> “Digital” -> “Format” = “APRS”, but the HT app kept switching it back to “BSS” any time it connected to the radio. It would never let me set “APRS” until I “verified” my ham radio callsign. It wants to do it by sending your license info to some chinese site – no thanks. Instead, I used a web app to generated an APRS code that worked in the HT app.

I enabling digital mode in radio to make it periodically beacon my APRS location. I set it to a fixed channel for sending APRS. Only the HT app seems to be able to set the beacon text for APRS.

I can send messages from radio by prefixing the message with the recipient:

KC3WWC-7: hey

TNC KISS Mode

I installed WoAD on Android, and enabled TNC KISS on the radio. I paired the radio to the phone via Bluetooth. I checked the Winlink RMS map on the website to find nearby packet gateways, and set the radio to the given packet frequency for the gateway I was trying to use. I configured a session for the callsign and SSID of the Winlink gateway, and started the session. Now it’ll send and receive queued email. There’s a log in WoAD that shows what it’s doing.

WoAD also has a terminal which can be used for BBSes, like KA3TKW. I connected there to see some messages and a BBS software from 1990!

APRSDroid can also talk to KISS TNC over Bluetooth. It’s a much nicer UI than the radio or HT app. Sometimes when switching apps, I needed to cycle power on the radio, but it doesn’t usually take too much to get it going again.

Customizing Allstar

Sun, 19 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Customizing actions of the ASL node isn’t all that complicated. Everything can be setup in /etc/asterisk/rpt.cfg under the [functions] section:

added *77 to announce IP to help find it on DHCP on WIFI (hotspot):
```
77 = cmd,asl-say -n 63047 -w ip4
```
added *78 to shutdown the node via DTMF
```
78 = cmd,shutdown now
```
ensured I could disconnect all with *6
```
6 = ilink,6
```
made the node fire that *77 command on startup by adding to the (node-main) section for my node:
```
startup_macro = *77
```

US-1418: 2025-01-18

Sat, 18 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I activated US-1418 one nice afternoon with the GRA-1900T on 40m. I was getting desperate, so tried vertical and horizontal orientations. I wonder if I was a bit too close to the metal pavilion.

horizontal

vertial

computer and radio

Direwolf

Tue, 14 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Direwolf doesn’t want to do anything without a local config in place. I had to decompressed /usr/share/doc/direwolf/conf/direwolf.conf.gz to $HOME/direwolf.conf. I customized the configuration file:

set my callsign
listed audio devices with arecord -L, found pipewire, and set ADEVICE pipewire in the config
plugged the Btech APRS cable into the Quansheng and computer
Direwolf is decoding packet (from 145.010MHz) and APRS (144.390MHz).
-q d quiets APRS decode errors when reading plain packet
-t 0 disables the colors
with pipewire, I can have both my record-aprs.sh script and Direwolf decoding.
decoded APRS from ISS on 144.825MHz via multimon-ng:

AFSK1200: fm KB9VIC-9 to DH4TLZ-0 via RS0ISS-0,WIDE2-1 UIv pid=F0
`t].l .#\`KB9VIC EM58 OLNEY IL HOME OF WHITE SQUIRRELS _%
AFSK1200: fm KA2OMQ-0 to W4BB-0 via RS0ISS-0 UI^ pid=F0
QSL? UR 59 FN13
AFSK1200: fm W4BB-0 to CQ-0 via RS0ISS-0 UI^ pid=F0
:KA2OMQ   :QSL and 73 via ISS
AFSK1200: fm W9QO-0 to STPX1V-0 via RS0ISS-0,SGATE-0,WIDE2-2 UIv pid=F0
'oIPl .-/]

985 Workbench: 2025-01-13

Mon, 13 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

discovering some good old packet radio
- 145.010
- listen with multimon-ng
- search for a terminal program for android and linux
patched my favorite firmware (f4hwn) to better render the spectrum analyzer for wide or narrow scan ranges
- built and tested on my own radio
- patch was accepted to the open source project, so it’ll be in the next release
POTA in the cold in prep for field day

Others

W8CRW, CR:
- new radio from HRO
WA3VEE, Ron:
- after 985 breakfast, at field day site, will be introducing radios for field day
KC3RFG, Jim:
- first Raspberry PI kit for a Ham Clock
KC3YSM, Steve:
- nets and POTA
  - all US: GA, AL, MI
AB3AP, Mike:
- hanging out on 30m
- learning to touch-type instead of handwriting from CW
  - ARRL MP3s online
  - 15 WPM typing, 18 WPM is a challenge
  - jots keywords usually to be faster
KC3OOK, Bill:
- hosted last roundtable
- net control for simplex net
- working on ham shack
- windy: gust of 39mph, antenna survived
KC3SQI, Wayne:
- couldn’t get to the repeater due to lots of QRN from powerlines, trains, etc.
AF3Z, Jim:
- SKCC had a weekend sprint-a-thon.
  - operated from Cornwall station as W3CRS
  - they were in 1st place until other clubs started uploading logs :)
W3MFB, Mike:
- experimenting using gutter and down spout and speaker wire as HF antenna
  - 10W and it worked.
  - recommending a similar setup to a friend

Questions

WA3VEE, Ron:
- We’re putting together some seminars/classes to share experience and knowledge.
- What would you like to talk about? theory or operation?
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - get the scope and meters out and discuss impedance, etc.
- KC3OOK, Bill:
  - Ron’s discussion on oscilloscopes
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - general approach to trying to fix something
  - how to check equipment: bandpass filters, crystals
- W3MFB, Mike:
  - understanding solar data
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - propagation
- KB3ZIM, Bob:
  - revisit antennas and feedlines and their attributes
- KC3WWC, John:
  - kit night to build something
  - favorite equipment on the bench that others should have
- KC3OOK, Bill:
  - soldering technique
  - all basic test equipment
  - NA3CW, Chuck: validating readings from equipment
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - surface mount soldering
  - NA3CW, Chuck: good tweasers
- KC3RFG, Jim:
  - refresher on setup and use of NanoVNA
- W3MFB, Mike:
  - soldering coax
- KC3WWC, John:
  - digital modes old and new
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - sorting out limitations of test equipment, signal levels
- W3MFB, Mike:
  - tutorial for the young folks, how to build a repeater
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - how do you find an interfering signal, fox hunting.
- KC3OOK, Bill:
  - basic circuits
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - understanding antenna gain

AX.25

Wed, 08 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I discovering some ax.25 packet radio floating around on 145.010MHz. I connected my Btech APRS audio cable from computer headphone/mic to the Quansheng, and piped the audio into multimon:

$ pw-record --channels 1 --rate 22050 - | multimon-ng -t raw -a afsk1200 /dev/stdin

Here’s some of the traffic I decode:

  AFSK1200: fm AA3RG-7 to ID-0 UI^ pid=F0
  TheNet X-1J4  (PINEGV)
  AFSK1200: fm AA3RG-7 to N3FUD-7 RR4-
  AFSK1200: fm AA3RG-7 to N3FUD-7 RR4-
  AFSK1200: fm W3AVP-5 to ID-0 via AA3RG-7 UI^ pid=F0
  W3AVP Packet System - FN10xc
  W3AVP-5: New Holland Chat
  W3AVP-10: Winlink Gateway
  AFSK1200: fm AA3RG-7 to N3FUD-7 RR4-
  AFSK1200: fm W3HZU-0 to N3FUD-7 RR4-
  AFSK1200: fm W3HZU-0 to ID-0 UI^ pid=F0
  YORKPA:W3HZU  Connect W3HZU-1 BBS & W3HZU-11 CHAT
  AFSK1200: fm AA3RG-7 to N3OGS-7 DISC+
  AFSK1200: fm AA3RG-7 to N3OGS-7 UA-
  AFSK1200: fm AA3RG-7 to N3FUD-7 RR5-
  AFSK1200: fm W3HZU-0 to N3FUD-7 RR4-
  AFSK1200: fm N3DWB-0 to QRZ-0 via KA3TKW-0,PINEGV-0 UI^ pid=F0
  N3DWB JONESTOWN FN10SJ
  N3DWB-1 Mailbox
  AFSK1200: fm N3DWB-1 to MBX-0 via KA3TKW-0,PINEGV-0 UI^ pid=F0
  Mail for: None
  AFSK1200: fm AA3RG-7 to N3FUD-7 RR5-
  AFSK1200: fm W3HZU-0 to N3FUD-7 RR4-
  AFSK1200: fm AA3RG-7 to N3UOO-7 UA-
  AFSK1200: fm W3HZU-1 to WA3USG-1 via KA3TKW-0 SABM+
  AFSK1200: fm W3HZU-1 to WA3USG-1 via KA3TKW-0 SABM+
  AFSK1200: fm WA3USG-1 to W3HZU-1 via KA3TKW-0 UA-
  AFSK1200: fm WA3USG-1 to W3HZU-1 via KA3TKW-0 I00^ pid=F0
  [KPC3P-8.3-HM$]
  95529 BYTES AVAILABLE
  THERE IS 1 MESSAGE NUMBERED 13
  ENTER COMMAND:  B,J,K,L,R,S, or Help >
  AFSK1200: fm AA3RG-7 to N3FUD-7 RR5-
  AFSK1200: fm W3HZU-1 to WA3USG-1 via KA3TKW-0 I10+ pid=F0
  [BPQ-6.0.24.33-IHJM$]
  AFSK1200: fm W3HZU-1 to WA3USG-1 via KA3TKW-0 I10+ pid=F0
  [BPQ-6.0.24.33-IHJM$]

I need to find a terminal program for Android (BPQ Term?), and read more about the anatomy of an ax25 packet.

Fixing the Spectrum Graph on F4HWN

Wed, 08 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

There was a bug for a while in F4HWN 3.9 on the Quansheng radios. The spectrum analyzer graph was too narrow when number of bars exceded 128. I’d easily run into the problem when I set the scan range to 144.000MHz to 148.000MHz, and activate the spectrum analyzer.

I dug into the code a bit and fixed it, so now it scales for large and small ranges.

I submitted a pull request to the project, and it was accepted and merged to be included in the F4HWN 4.0 release. Until that release, I’ll be running my custom build.

I also made a change to allow me to map the spectrum analyzer to a programmable side button like AubsUK had, but I’m no longer convinced it’s worth the limited code space it would consume in the binary.

spectrum analyzer working

985 Workbench: 2025-01-06

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

ARRL RTTY RoundUp
Testing and repairing a piece of coax
- no damage in the middle
- NanoVNA, Smith chart, compared ends
  - one side showed a long spiral
  - other end showed no change upon being connected
  - so I knew I found something
- compared to a working cable
- cut off the end and replaced the SMA connector and it worked

Questions

KC3OOK, Bill:
- For lifepo4 batteries, what’s the proper way to charge and discharge?
- W3QP, Tim:
  - depends how often you use the battery.
  - for storage, 50% capacity is good
  - otherwise charge it up full.
  - don’t keep it full all of the time.
  - not much of an issue, though
- W3MOW, MIKE:
  - researching electric vehicles.
  - whatever you do to treat it better will just prolong battery life a bit
  - there will be better replacements in a couple years.
KC3WWC, John:
- I’m using my 71-foot random wire with a 9:1 unun.
  - I can give it 5W on many bands without the tuner.
  - It’s working, so not all loss.
  - Checked it at with the NanoVNA at different points and it stayed pretty low.
  - Disconnecting the wire definitely ruined SWR, proving to me that power is getting out into the wire, besides it otherwise working.
  - What am i seeing?
- W3QP, Tim:
  - SWR is great for a rough indicator for reflected energy
  - reactance is more important for efficiency
  - losses can mislead you with SWR
  - any piece of wire will resonate at different harmonnics
  - had a shorter wire was resonant at some harmonics that happened to work
- KC3SQI, Wayne:
  - with a random wire, the balun takes SWR of the antenna and reduces it by a factor of 10.
  - Tuner can offer extra protection for the radio
  - a random wire antenna is to be a bit off and close enough for most radios
  - he uses his random wire 71-foot random wire he uses for POTA, but barely needs the tuner.
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - every SWR meter is measuring voltage, current, and time.
  - ratio of voltage and current = resistance
  - a resonant antenna can have a high SWR because it’s feed impedence is not matched.
  - measuring voltage, current, reactance.
  - meters can be calibrated for other impedences, not just 50ohm.
  - SWR compares voltage, current, phase (time) with internal 50ohm reference.
  - watch amplitude of voltage and current on scope, and see it out of phase.
  - can have a low SWR on non-resonant antenna
  - can have high SWR on resonant antenna
  - longer pieces of wire can have more resonances
  - resonances may or may not fall in useful places.
  - low SWR does not mean efficient. could be losses.
  - all lengths of wire will have certain resonances.
  - everyone went with 50ohms as a standard.
  - TV coax is 75 ohms.
  - transformers get it close to what the radio wants.
KV3JGB, Matt:
- He has a Vibroplex, single lever, usually thumb is dit, finger is dah, but he’s reversed the dits and dahs for comfort.
- Does it matter if he works reversed?
- AF3Z, Jim:
  - probably doesn’t matter
  - he learned left handed first then right
- WA3KFT, John:
  - read about telegraph keys and bugs (semi-automatic keys)
  - Vibroplex made a mechanical key that’s left-handed
- AB3AP, Mike:
  - left-handed bugs are more expensive
- KC3WWC, John:
  - I key left-handed, and I’ll have to reconfigure anyone else’s radio, or flip the key.
  - I just flipped the key to reverse it, and was able to adjust with a moment of practice.
KD3AIS, Tim:
- Who would you suggest to help install an antenna on the chimney?
- KV3JGB, Matt:
  - lots of people are willing to help
  - antenna launch parties
  - Matt would help
- KC3WWC, John:
  - try compromised installations for some more independent capabilities
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - come to a breakfast
  - let’s talk about your intentions, site, etc.

21 Tech Net: 2025-01-05

Sun, 05 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

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.

POTA US-1426

Sun, 05 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I made my first trip to US-1426, Swatara State Park for a quick activation. I stretched the 41-foot EFRW to a tree right from the car window, and made 13 FT8 contacts on 40m.

EFRW to the car window

Radio in the car

Diagnose and Repair Bad Coax

Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I had a bit of bad coax on the most recent POTA, so I set out to test and repair it. I saw no damage to the cable or connectors, but there wasn’t continuity across the middle wire.

Which end is likely bad? I connected each end to the nanovna with a Smith Chart. I found on one end, the smith chart traced a spiral around the outside of the circle. The other side did not react at all, like I hadn’t connected anything. For comparison, I tried another cable I figured was good. That other cable had continuity to each end, and both ends each traced a spiral on the smith chart. The length of the spiral seemed to be related directly to the length of the coax: shorter traced shorter and longer traced longer.

So with that, I replaced the one end that didn’t react, and now the cable looks good.

SWR with the Long Wire

Tue, 31 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I was using the 71-foot (21.64m) EFRW antenna at home, and I noticed SWR was surprisingly low as measured by the X6100 with the tuner disabled. I suspected loss on the feed line, but I also found this video of another person not using a tuner with the same antenna.

I disconnected my feed line at different places to find SWR jumps way high, so the measurement is working:

inside window
outside window
at the antenna

Does a very long wire have low SWR for everything? Is the 9:1 giving low SWR? The antenna’s working fine, and FT8 shows far-flung signals like always. Disconnecting antenna wire raised SWR above 1.5:1, but not much. Even with wires disconnected from the balun, it’s receiving a very few FT8 signals on 10m, and I can still transmit, but it’s folding back power with SWR just below 2. The tuner is definitely needed for 6m.

985 Workbench: 2024-12-30

Mon, 30 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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

21 Tech Net: 2024-12-29

Sun, 29 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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

Antenna Maintenance

Sun, 29 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The 1/4-wave ground plane antenna in the tree dropped its feedline, so I brought it down to reattach it and resolder the radials.

I also walked down the yagi on the pole to straighten some elements, since it was a nice day. The yagi was spinning around in the wind, so I also changed the way it’s mounted to clamp it more securely.

I also added some reigns to the mast, so I can (try to) spin it from inside the window. It works well some times but not others. The pole can freeze to the ground.

POTA US-9719

Sat, 28 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I activated US-9719 Susquehanna Riverlands. The tempurature was decent, though a little bit of a mist. I got lots of practice throwing very high in the tree. I used all my throw line to hoist my EFHW into the air. Some people lingered to watch while I struggled to get just the right branch.

I found a large section of coax was bad, so had to scramble a little to get enough cable. I worked 20M to get 2 CW park-to-park contacts and 28 more FT4 contacts

EFHW

Radio and Snacks

Throw Line in Mud

985 Workbench: 2024-12-23

Mon, 23 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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.

21 Tech Net: 2024-12-22

Sun, 22 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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

NVIS

Sat, 21 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I watched a video about NVIS NVIS achieves 75-90 degree take-off, very vertical, and about a 400-mile range. It can get you over obstacles. It’s most effective on 40m and 80m.

To build it, mount a dipole 1/8 wavelength above ground, horizontal. Add a reflector almost on the ground, 5% longer, to keep the ground from absorbing the signal.

Thoughts on Digital

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Ham radio is a long hobby. I don’t really want to rag chew, so I started in FT8/FT4. I got lots of practice and learned about propagation with help of pskreporter and other operators. FT8/FT4 works with low power at home or portable.

I bridged into RTTY and PSK contesting for the next challenge and a bit of excitement interacting with another human keyboard-to-keyboard. I had to wait for contests for activity on RTTY or PSK.

Next, I’m learning CW, the original digital mode. It has the benefit of being common to see every day in POTA and in contests. CW is still low power and weak signal, and I can setup even quicker without a computer. It’s exciting to learn the skill to key and to copy. I can currently key, but I need assistance to copy with computer or radio.

Digital has been a fulfilling path through amateur radio so far.

985 Workbench: 2024-12-16

Mon, 16 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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.

2024 ARRL 10m Contest

Sun, 15 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I did a bit of the ARRL 10m Contest all in CW. I keyed with my 3D-printed iambic paddle but relied on the X6100 to decode incoming signals for me.

I made 13 contacts across 10 states/provinces in 4 ITU zones. I used the Web2Cabrillo website to type up my handwritten logs and produce a Cabrillo file to submit to the contest.

985 Workbench: 2024-12-09

Mon, 09 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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.

ISS Repeater

Mon, 09 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I overheard some tips from Tom, KA3TKW, on the 21 repeater: Check out the AMSAT manuals for contacting satellite repeaters, and operate full duplex, so you can hear while transmitting.

21 Tech Net: 2024-12-08

Sun, 08 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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.

Talkaround

Sun, 08 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Listening to KX3B, I occasionally learn something. Some radios have a button or menu to do away with the offset on a repeater, so you can talk simplex on the output frequency when out of range of the repeater.

I’ve done this by accident.

WSJTX Improved

Sun, 08 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I found the brand new wsjtx-improved available on my Debian unstable system. It’s the next beta plus some UI enhancements including filters, color, etc, better location labels.

FT Challenge

Sat, 07 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This weekend was the FT Challenge.

I made about 112 contacts over 14 unique “letter grids”. I operated QRP (<5W), single operator, single radio. We scored points for each contact plus each 3000km distance on a contact, and the multiplier was that number of unique letter grids. I uploaded my logs, and it’ll probably be a while until I see an official score, but I figure I probably got about 2000 points.

Skywarn Recognition Day: 2024-12-07

Sat, 07 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

7 December was apparently Skywarn Recognition Day, so a station in Mount Holly, NJ, WX2PHI, was celebrating by making contacts on the N3KZ repeater system, so at 5:15pm EST, I keyed up my HT to the mobile antenna on my car and reported 32F and clear sky. It was good to know I could key up the N3KZ node in York from over here in Lancaster.

Yagi in the Wind

Fri, 06 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The Yagi spun around like a wind vane at times atop its flagpole, but it held up just fine. The aluminum pole swayed quite a bit as well. I’ve wrapped a loop of cord around the pole to use as reigns. so I can spin it straight again without really going outside.

Yagi reigns

985 Roundtable on Allstar

Thu, 05 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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.

A Bit of FT8

Thu, 05 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I got Japan, Colombia, and Uruquay on 12m FT8 today. I got so much Japan from Hawaii, I assumed I’d not see it for a long time. Winter is good in 10M and 12M.

Allstar Access

Tue, 03 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The 985 workbench suggested locking down the node to be safe, so I set only my node (63047) in the allow list via asl-menu and node configs. It needed at least one value, according to the UI, so I gave it my own node ID. It still allows me to connect to the W3GMS repeater, node 53085.

985 Workbench: 2024-12-02

Mon, 02 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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

Sideswiper

Mon, 02 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

KN3I, John, and AF3Z, Jim, were talking on 985 about Sideswiper keys. Technically, it’s a straight key. It’s 2 straight keys together, so it’s not considered an automatic keyer. You can optionally use either key to manually key a dit or a dah. Sideswiper is sometimes called a Cootie Key. It sounds interesting, since it’ll not race me on dits.

VE4ARM Beacon

Mon, 02 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I was able to hear a 10M beacon today at 28193.180kHz:

E E E E E VVV DE VE4ARM / B AMATEUR RADIO MUSEUM / AUSTIN MANITOBA / EN 09 E E E

21 Tech Net: 2024-12-01

Sun, 01 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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

AllStarLink

Sat, 30 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I finally got my AllStarLink 3 node up and running. I had registered for a node number, and I had bought the pieces to have them ready to go. The little Pi Zero W boards I have wouldn’t boot, so I used a Pi 4 instead with the USB radio device.

Initial Installation on Pi 4

I started out with the official instructions:

Downloaded the image for the Pi
Installed the Pi Imager by deb file instead of just dding it to the device, since the imager conveniently allows pre-configuring:
- user
- locale
- WiFi network

Configured the Cheap Ausinc UHF AllStar Radio Dongle

I purchased the hardware from Amazon a while ago. It has a USB-C port, and the cable is flipped for different modes:

one way to program the frequency via USB serial
other way to use the USB sound device for TX/RX The product description mentioned the different modes, but I didn’t recognize it. I learned about the flip from a video

I downloaded the srfrs.py Python script to the Pi, and used it to configure frequency and tone to protect default access to it:

./srfrs.py --port /dev/ttyUSB0 --frequency 438.1 --ctcss 94.8

Matthew, KC3WRY, suggested this frequency in the 70cm of the band. I was reading and wondering about 446.1 or 433 or so.

More Configuration and Confirmation

I followed another video for more configuration and confirmation of the settings from intro video.

I made another pass at web-based configs and asl-menu. I set it to be a SimpleUSB device in simplex mode, and I tuned the volume settings. I had no TX until I set “Change CTCSS From = no”. I don’t know what that setting does, but the tip came from the video. Then I could use the allmon3 web interface to connect up to Parrot+ node (55553) for testing, and it reported, “volume just about right.” I could connect and disconnect to nodes from the web interface. There are other commands in the web interface to say the time or id the node on demand.

I could send DTMF commands from my UV-K5 with the F4HWN firmware:

* starts DTMF entry, PTT sends the codes.
*1 <node number> disconnects from a node
*2 <node number> connects to monitor another node
*3 <node number> connects to transcieve to another node
other scripts, like “disconnect all” don’t seem to work yet.

The W3GMS admins granted me access to connect my node to the repeater, so I’ll have a chance to try it out there. I was also able to connect to K3IR.

I further tested my AllStar node talkin to the 985 repeater. I discovered the bit of a delay caused my node to often skip a moment in the beginning of others’ transmissions, so I’d miss a second at the start. Also, since it’s simplex, I couldn’t throw any DTMF commands at it while the node is trasnmitting. I had to use the web interface to disconnect if others were talking at the same time.

N3KZ

Wed, 27 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I used the N3KZ repeater system, specifically the York node on 442.050, for the first time from home. I spoke to N3RCI, who I usually hear on KX3B. He was on the node in Havre de Grace. I used the 1/4-wave ground plane antenna in the tree.

I continue to be amazed that a 70cm repeater node has such reach. I used the York node, but I often hear the nodes in Cumberland, York, and Lebanon; sometimes I even hear Chambersburg…on UHF. It just doesn’t seem like it should be possible.

Olivia

Tue, 26 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I stumbled into a couple Olivia signals on 14071kHz, and on a good guess, I fired up fldigi, and I was able to decode them. They were Olivia-8/250 encoded. I found lots of good documents on Olivia to read some mmore about where they’re likely found.

SPARC Member Meeting: 2024-11-26

Tue, 26 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Club Business

Elections
Ideas
- Looking for help with fox hunt
  - have the transmitters
  - can get help from other clubs

Presentation: DMR with Jason

originally designed for professional radio installations.
- lots of motorola gear
developed in europe first
digital voice
data
components
- radios
- repeaters
- controllers (for routing traffic)
- network infrastructure
lots of networking and linking over large areas.
types
- tier 1 - consumer
- tier 2 - professional, trunked
- tier 3 - trunked, large-scale
TDMA (time-division multiple access) - 2 channels / slots
narrow bandwidth 12.5khz band
modes
- private
- group
- broadcast
- data: text, gps, telemetry
radio id is assigned by radioid.net to you and your call sign
talkgroup = collecting a bunch of radio ids into a single contact
popular public networks:
- tgif
- brandmeister
can also be a private network
hotspots access dmr network via the internet
delmarvadmr.com
3 building blockse
- talk groups
- channels
- zones

985 Workbench: 2024-11-25

Mon, 25 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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

21 Tech Net: 2024-11-24

Sun, 24 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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

Antenna Maintenance

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The home-brew yagi blows around in the wind a bit, so I brought it down this morning as it started to snow, so I could straighten and tighten the elements. I realigned it for the 985 repeater, and checked it to be giving -96dBm.

I also resoldered some radials on the 1/4-wave ground plane antenna that go knocked loose in the tree.

flag pole mast

straightened yagi

Next Firmware: F4HWN

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Problem: AUBSUK multiple scan list

The scan lists aren’t combining correctly on AUBSUK firmware. It’s skipping entries based on ordering. I realized I was missing most of simplex channels, but seeing the GMRS channels, when I enabled my “simplex” scan list in combo with primary repeaters. There’s an existing issue logged, but it’s hard to describe and to reproduce, I think.

Trying the Next Firmware, F4HWN 3.7

F4HWN is available on GitHub. I loaded it on both radios in place of AUBSUK to see how I get along. I’ve found a few features I really like:

Scan on start: if it’s scanning when I switch it off, it’ll scanning when switched on.
3 scan lists: 1, 2, 3, 123, 0, all
- they don’t recombine as freely, but I have:
  - simplex, repeaters, satellites on 1
  - GMRS on 3
scan is just as fast as others, so we’ll see if it’s tolerable.
“main only” display is nice, much easier to read.
spectrum analyzer with scan range, but I can’t assign it to a button.
- Fn-5 is only way to activate it.

I think the S-meter is calibrated much differently from AUBSUK, and other firmwares I’ve loaded, calibration for VHF/UHF vs HF, The S-meter seems to read higher than I expect with lots of S9+.

The spectrum analyzer with a range seems wonky at times: it may be scanning the entire range, but the graph doesn’t seem all there. I noticed it with the scan of 144MHz-148MHz.

985 Workbench: 2024-11-18

Mon, 18 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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

Hawaii

Sun, 17 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I went to Hawaii for the first couple weeks of November 2024.

I packed up all the POTA radio gear and headed out to fly to Hawaii. I carried all my radio gear and big battery in my carry-on backpack.

I added a few repeaters, and scanned 2M, but didn’t hear anyone on my UV-K6.

I started out operating FT8 at the resort with the EFRW (12.5M) strung between columns on the patio. I could reach stations in Hawaii, Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Oregon on 10m, 12m, 17m, and 20m. I had to turn up to 8W to get heard.

For parks, I operated 6 parks and 2 trails across 2 islands: beaches, lava fields, and volcanos.

On 2024-11-04, I activated US-0753, Pu’uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park, with the EFHW for 40m strung across trees in the picnic area near the rocky coast. I accidentally split the day, since I wasn’t familiar with the timezone offset. Fortunately, I had enough contacts for an activation in each of the 2 days. Much of the west coast of the big island also counts as US-4565, Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail.

On 2024-11-08, I activated US-0037, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, with EFHW stretched from a shelter and picnic table to a nearby tree on West Rim Road in the park. I struggled for a bit from my start at 10am. Conditions got better near 2pm local time, and I finished up my activation while having lunch with Emily.

On 2024-11-10 I went to US-2214, Kekaha Kai State Park, after running around a bit to find a spot. I wanted to work fast, and there were no trees in the vast lava field, so I deployed the whip and coil bungied to the fishing pole and the grill of the car. That activation went pretty fast.

On 2024-11-13, I visited US-0739, Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park, which is also US-4565, Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail. It had closed an earlier day, so I couldn’t activate that day. It was good, because I hiked the mile or so to setup on the beach and toss the counterpoise for the vertical whip into the ocean.

On 2024-11-16, I walked across Waikiki to US-10923, Artillery District of Honolulu Historic Site. It was pretty early morning and slow. I strung the shorter EFRW (12.5M) from a table to a tree in an inverted V. I chatted a while with another traveling ham, and I didn’t manage to complete my activation. I ran out of time, and packed up.

My last activation was on 2024-11-17, at US-6425, Diamond Head State Preserve, I setup at a picnic table near the hiking trail, US-10913, Diamond Head Summit State Trail. The whole park is in the caldera of the volcano. The EFHW stretched from table to a tree. The antenna wire disconnected from the transformer, but it was close, so it received OK, but trying to transmit showed a high SWR where the antenna would never usually. It was super-windy as the sun set early over the mountain surrounding me.

985 Workbench: 2024-10-28

Mon, 28 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

R1CBU 0.26.0 firmware for my X6100
- I continue to maintain a fork of the code that modifies the database to show boundaries of US privileges and recommended usage.

Questions

W3MFB, Mike: increased tower height, switched to 60ft of new coax. 35W 1.9:1 SWR, so worse than it was before. UHF is bad too. Checked it with NanoVNA. Seeing 1.3:1 SWR. Trying an analog SWR meter. Using Yaesu 991A. Showing 2:1 SWR. SWR goes up with different power.
- NA3CW, Chuck: Test the tester. SWR shouldn’t change with power. Could be something heating.
- W3QP, Tim: He does see different SWR at higher power due to reflections from his car. Shorter coax is better, but stay away from quarter wavelengths.
- W3JAM, Jeff: Test the tester. Hearing him fine on the input, so it’s good.
- AF3Z, Jim: RF, common mode current, into the meter can cause erratic behavior.
- NA3CW, Chuck: RF on outside of the feed line is sometimes hard to avoid, and can cause reading issues. Grabbing line at different places will cause readings to change.
- W3QP, Tim: Some antennas recommend at least a turn of cable at the antenna to choke.
- KC3OOK, Bill: 1.2 to 1.3 is a 0.9% loss.
- W8CRW, CR: is that antenna tune-able.
- W3MFB, Mike: may try ferrite beads at a height he can reach.
W3MOW, Mike: Looking at Electric Vehicles. Who knows a reputable electrician to run power? Drop him the email you find on QRZ.
KC3TMZ, Matt: Getting noise with random wire on G90. 71ft 9:1 wire. How does one run the counterpoise?
- KC3MFB, Mike: 17 ft, opposite direction, if at all.
- KC3RFG, Jim:
  - try different places.
  - choke at the radio, especially if you don’t
  - run a counterpoise
- W3QP, Tim:
  - There is always a counterpoise, so provide one so you can control it.
  - Number of turns or number of beads will be effective at different frequencies.
- NA3CW, Chuck: There’s an article on 985 website.
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - The further from a balanced antenna, the more it’ll force a counterpoise, and that means your coax, so changes around your antenna (body) can change things as well.
  - Run the counterpoise opposite a sloper or flat topper,
  - you can get some gain in the direction of the counterpoise.
- KC3TMZ, Matt: Propagation to light/dark places?
- W3MFB, Mike: wire runs NE-SW, and it doesn’t matter for direction too much.
- KC3NZT, Harvey: Do you hear them? How do you know you’re not getting to them?
  - Can hear them, but they don’t hear him. Did manage Belarus once.
  - Do they have other stations calling them? Is it a pile-up?
  - He’s getting beat for only 20W.
  - Don’t get discouraged. It takes some technique.
- W3MFB, Mike: Don’t worry about 20W. Don’t call QRP.
- W3QP, Tim: Operates a lot of 10W. Propagation depends on radiation pattern. EFRW can have weird patterns with spiky lobes.
- KC3TMZ, Matt: lots to learn, will take a recording from Ron.
KC3WWC: Headed to Hawaii for a couple weeks and taking radios for all bands. What should I expect/try while traveling?
- W3QP, Tim:
  - SOTA from volcanos!
  - salt water will give a great boost for DX.
  - lots of asia
WA3VEE, Ron: the virtues of broadcastify

Bug with TYT TH-9800

Mon, 28 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I can set a repeater offset from Chirp, and that works fine, but it displays incorrectly in the SHIFT setting on the radio. It displays as 7.60MHz for every repeater frequency. Apparently, visiting the setting in the menus gets the really bad value (7.6MHz) applied until you leave the channel and come back.

Reversing the repeater frequencies (assigned to P1 on the microphone) shows the right frequencies. Programming it from Chirp as a split (instead of +/- offset) works, but still doesn’t show correctly in the menus.

The radio also only allows setting by 10kHz manually, so setting my 605kHz shift for W3GMS is impossible to program from the radio.

There’s already a bug filed for Chirp.

Yagi Pole Upgrade

Mon, 21 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I added some sections to the flag pole to reach 37 feet, and I increased elements on the home-made yagi from 2 elements to 4 elements. Upon adding elements, I needed to stretch the driven element a couple millimeters longer to tune it. In testing, I’m seeing about -100 RSSI listening to W3GMS on a Quansheng. It was about -105 RSSI when mounted lower and only 2 elements.

Yagi upgrade

21 Tech Net: 2024-10-20

Sun, 20 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

I received a couple images from ISS, but it ended quicker than I realized.
JARTS RTTY contest coming this weekend
I did a little CW for POTA.
Trying to reach a little further over a hill and to the East
- building a yagi on a flag pole from a calculator using ARRL spacing
- 50W TYT radio
This Week in Ham Radio Podcast Ham Radio History:
- 1916, amateurs exploring propagation
- 1917 first, faster trans-continental relays with ARRL

Others

K3EA
- Upcoming ARRL Sweepstakes for CW
- Munsters had a Ham Radio episode
KA3TKW
- W3UU Harrisburg Ham Fest this Saturday
- ARRIS mission on 24 Oct, 11:15AM, 145.800MHz
- Tri-repeater is up: 224.210 PL 123.0, 449.925, 53.21
KK4KKW
- Sudden SWR reading on 40M antenna

US-1398 Pine Grove Furnace: 2024-10-20

Sun, 20 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I went camping and activating Pine Grove Furnace, US-1398, and Michaux Forest, US-5471. I stretched the EFHW over the parking lot, because I thought it wouldn’t be busy. I got 21 FT8 contacts and 2 CW contacts to other parks.

park

antenna over lot

setup

efhw

canoe passing by

2-Element Yagi on the Flag Pole

Wed, 16 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Tilt-up Flag Pole

I figured out to do a tilt-up flag pole against the house reaching 25 feet into the air. It sits on a stake in the garden, and is secured to the house with paracord in an eyelet and hook screwed into the side of the roof.

2-Element Yagi

I built a new 2-element yagi using an online calculator It tuned OK with the banana-clip adapter directly connected to the driven element. I first tuned the dipole, and then added the reflector element. As predicted, it shifted the tuning slightly, so I trimmed the driven element to retune. The nice thing is that the spacings and sizes of the original elements don’t change as you add more director elements, so I calculated it with 2 or 3 directors, but put none in for the first iteration. I can add more elements later.

I gave it a try to reach 985 with the TYT TH-9800 running 50W. It was scratchy, but copy-able. I have more flag pole sections ordered to make it a little higher.

PVC attachment

banana-clip connection

flag pole

yagi on pole

secured to house

cord to ground spike

985 Workbench: 2024-10-14

Mon, 14 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

My week in Radio

I saw aurora for the first time, and I got some nice photos.
I visited K3IR tower sight in Mount Joy during PA QSO party
- I listened to people contesting, but didn’t participate.
TYT TH-9800: 50W into the tape measure yagi, tried it on the roundtable, still have work to do
I threw my main 71-foot EFRW higher into another tree.
I watched my flagpole and yagi in the wind
- walked it down while I had a kid here to help
- scoping a new location for it as a tilt-up attached to the house
- collecting pieces for some experiments in engineering

Questions

W8CRW, CR:
- National Electronics Museum is hosting a class for general license.
- How far from the mast should a vertical yagi antenna be installed?
- Can it be installed 45-degrees to be used for both horizontal and vertical?
  - WA3VEE, Ron: some have had success at 45 degrees for satellites.
  - KC3SQI, Wayne: 45-degree will lose you 1.5dB
WA3VEE, Ron: what is the ideal thickness for a bus-bar to which you’re mounting a lightning arrester.
- KC3RFG, Jim:
  - 1/4-inch minimum. thicker won’t hurt anything.
  - mechanically strong (bolted) instead of soldered
  - woven ground strap is best, but 6AWG stranded is good.
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - avoid inductance, so use strap or bar, not wire
  - no right angles, no coils, no spirals
KC3RFG, Jim: Hearing ignition noise on HF on battery or on truck power. How best can one eliminate that noise?
- KC3SQI, Wayne: Remove the mast from the coax and see if you still have the noise. If it’s still there, then it’s coming from power cables. Try a better ground directly to the battery. On vehicles that rust, bolts don’t ground so well after a while, so then you get lots of grounds connecting back through the antenna.
- KC3KZB, Aaron: go for a short ground, and keep ground wire away from ignition wires
KC3SQI, Wayne: What’s the mechanical strength for 1.5-inch conduit?
- WA3VEE, Ron: See Ugly’s Electrical Reference.
- KC3RFG, Jim: that’s right.
KC3WWC. John: I like that I can build my transformers and cut, measure, and test wire antennas, Is it practical to build, iterate, expand a homebrew yagi?
- NA3CW, Chuck:
  - blatant plagarism: they’ve been around for a long time.
  - modeling programs, manuals, existing antennas.
  - different goals: gain, bandwidth, front-to-back ratio examples in the antenna book
  - software
  - moxon antenna: 2 element yagi with bent ends, massive front-to-back ratio
    - great for direction-finding: forward to get in the neighborhood, then reverse to find the null where it disappears
    - not much gain though
W8CRW, CR: Is there a program for windows to map out a computer network?
- W3DIB, Greg:
  - there are lots of tools to probe and fingerprint machines to try to disclose the host OS.
  - also ping, angryping, etc.

985 Workbench: 2024-10-07

Mon, 07 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

I saw some antennas at the Ham Fest, but I couldn’t bring myself to buy any. I’ll build.
I passed extra at the Ham Fest
- I guess enough workbench discussion sunk into my brain.
- Found I can download and search a copy of the entire ULS database like some of those other helpful websites that show available callsigns.
POTA along the Susquehanna River.
- Normal FT8 to get to 10 contacts.
- 1 CW contact, and it wasn’t painful.
- I tested out my newest printed EFHW antenna winder.
Running and comparing Meshtastic and APRS more
- Why use it?

Other News

WA3VEE, Ron, PA QSO Party this weekend.
KC3SCY, Luke, switched his loose couple radio from diode to cat whisker.
KC3ZSJ, Gary, is playing with new antennas.
W3FES, Fred, has a new FT-60R
AF3Z, Jim, is headed to Cornwall Ranger Station for PA QSO Party

Questions

KC3SZO, Chris: How can I overcome some terrain in the way of my RF?
- WA3VEE, Ron: Antenna in the attic
- NA3CW, Chuck: VHF isn’t exactly line-of-sight, so there is hope.
- KC3WWC, John: Lower YAGI inside had advantages over a higher outside ground plane quarter wave.
AA3LH, Leon: Let’s confirm repeater settings for this old radio and new antenna going in the car.
KC3WWC, John:
- I could change my callsign now.
- I’ve only used this one for a year, so not super-attached.
- For contesting, I see the benefit of a shorter call, so I might ultimately consider phonetic and morse weight.
- How did you choose your vanity call? What strategies should I consider?
- NA3CW, Chuck: initials.
- W8CRW, CR: initials.
- AA3LH, Leon: initials, and wanted an “A” call.
- AF3Z, Jim: assigned by FCC. Consider how it sounds in CW.
- WA3VEE, Ron: assigned, and sounds cool.
  - He also has K3DTS for the campus location of his old club.
  - quick and simple for CW
  - 1-by-1 is for special events.
  - easy to understand, so stay clear of confusing letters; V, C, Z, etc.
  - sound in sideband: normal or phonetic.
- KC3OOK, Bill: assigned.
  - catching phonetic for DX
  - NA3NA was catchy.
  - KC3QQD is funny: Quack Quack Duck
- Callsign ideas:
  - KD3FN
  - KB3VI
  - KC3VI
  - AA3WW
  - AA3KK

W3RRR Hamfest and POTA

Sat, 05 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

W3RRR Ham Fest

I passed the test for Amateur Extra: 40/50 correct. I needed 37 correct.

US-4567, Captain John Smith Trail

POTA with Matthew, KC3WRY, at the boat launch under train tracks south of Marietta.
FT8 on 20M
1 CW P2P contact on 20M. I didn’t fumble so much.
I used the newly-printed and rebuilt EFHW winder and throw line. The velcro strap remains a problem for snagging the line.

Matt with 3D Printers

New Antenna Winder

985 Workbench: 2024-09-30

Mon, 30 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

I moved the tape-measure yagi to the top of a 25-foot flagpole in the backyard.
- 10 W, but not quite doing it.
- There’s still too much of a hill.
I upgraded the X6100 baseband, stock firmware, and 3rd-party firmware.
Some CW
- barely got 2 CW contacts hunting POTA, but I got into their logs
- heard AF3Z on 40m out on his trip
- morsle app to practice copying CW words and call signs
I redesigned and printed a new antenna winder.
I heard some AM and some RTTY during contests.
I cleaned up and organized all the radio stuff from the move instead of contesting.
I’m going to try for my extra ticket at the next Ham Fest.

Others’ News

KB3RFG, Jim: all the bands open today in lots of directions
NA3CW, Chuck: lot’s of AM fun
AF3Z, Jim
- spectated some RTTY contesting
- 10m CW conversations
WA3VEE, Ron: LMR400 (KMR400) coax is lowest loss practical

Questions

KN3I, John: How does one make an AM rig sound good? Carrier power, modulation, etc.

10 Meter Opening

Fri, 27 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

10 meter started opening today. With 5 watts, I got to Hawaii and Greenland.

X6100 Firmware Again

Mon, 23 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Xiegu released another updated firmware for the X6100: APP 1.1.9 & BASE 1.1.8, dated 2024-09-23.

I downloaded it from Radioddity, and wrote it to an SD card:

$ sudo dd if=sdcard.img of=/dev/sda bs=1M status=progress

I booted the new card for the app upgrade to 1.1.9,
I applied baseband 1.1.8 from the menu in the UI.
I tried the CW key in the stock firmware, and it transmitted (unlike last time).
I booted back to R1CBU, and it looked good there as well.

I did a little FT8, decoded some CW, and listened to some SSB on 40m. I found I could to turn the RF Gain closer to 100 instead of below 63. It may be reading slightly lower power on the display before ALC kicks in: up to but not over the 5W, where it used to often push a little past.

It’ll stay.

21 Technet: 2024-09-22

Sun, 22 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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.

First CW Hunting POTA

Thu, 19 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I got in W1JMA’s log when they were activating US-7545. on 7047.5kHz. They looked me up in QRZ, so knew my name and location. I sent 599 and received 599. It was a super-minimal exchange, because I fumbled a lot.

I had to read a bit about how to correct errors, and I soon stumbled into AF3Z on 7036kHz, and I saw a funny series of attempted corrections: “a littr eee a littr eee a bit”

Later, I Got a second contact, KV4UD.

985 Workbench: 2024-09-15

Sun, 15 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

Tried some new firmware for X6100, but no good
Moved Houses
- installed some antennas
  - 71ft random wire
  - 1/4 wave ground plane
POTA weekend
- Michaux State Forest
- Caledonia State Park
- King’s Gap Environmental Education Center
- Pine Grove Furnace
- Used an EFHW for everything
- Ran out of battery on Pine Grove Furnace on the second day, so did the whole thing with 1W FT8.
- Tried calling CQ on CW to see if RBN would pick me up.

Questions

Charles, KC3SWC: What books about operating do you recommand?
- Ron, WA3VEE
  - ARRL Operating Guide
  - ARRL: Basic Electronics for Radio
  - Electronics for Hobbyists
- John, KC3WWC
  - Spend lots of time listening to others
  - Youtube
- Chuck, NA3CW
  - Lots of people are listening
  - Keep it civil
  - Keep it technical
  - Don’t bore people with aches and pains
  - ARRL Operating Manualy
  - ARRL Handbook
  - ARRL Antenna Book
  - Be helpful
  - Be interesting
Wayne, KC3SQI: How do you tone squelch for receiving and filtering away QRM from another repeater on the same frequency?
- Ron, WA3VEE: tone squelch or “split tone”
- CR, W8CRW: T-SQL = tone squelch
- Chuck, NA3CW: would be useful when the band opened and a distant DMR is overtaking 985.
Ron, WA3VEE: Yaesu HTs can only do one of the other, not both.

POTA Weekend

Sun, 15 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I used the EFHW for everything. I activated 4 park entities:

Caledonia State Park after riding the Michaux GRVL ride.
Michaux State Forest from the ATV trail parking on the ridge.
Kings Gap Environmental Education Center late in the day, so I raced a little.
- antenna up in about 8 minutes
- 10 contacts within 26 minutes
- on the road again 14 minutes later
Pine Grove Furnace the next morning, where I ran out of battery, so I did the whole thing with 1W FT8. I practiced a bit and started putting out my call on CW to see if RBN would pick me up, but kept it to a shy 1W. It didn’t pick me up.

ATV Trailhead

Michaux

Running Hot

Kings Gap Environmental Center

A wire deployed at Pine Grove Furnace

Key Secured

Failed Upgrade for X6100

Fri, 06 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Radioddity had the new firmware for the X6100. I downloaded it, wrote it, installed it, and rebooted it to see the stock APP 1.1.8 and BASE 1.1.7. That mostly-useless audio spectrum is gone. The strange jump at 63 in RF GAIN is fixed.

BUT transmitting gave NO POWER. R1CBU also exhibited the problem. When I downgraded to BASE 1.1.6, it transmitted again. Others had seen this problem as well, while others had it work. It must have depended upon variations in the hardware.

New House

Mon, 02 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve started installing antennas at the new house. I have a 71-foot EFRW out the backyard. Noise was a bit low, S2 or so. We’ll see how it looks when computers get here. That wire seems good for 80m.

I strung a 2m/70cm dipole into a tree in the front yard. I’m on the wrong side of a hill, so I’m missing W3GMS, but K3IR, KA3TKW, AA3RG, W3UU are coming in strong.

F4HWN 3.3

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I loaded F4HWN 3.3 onto my UV-K5 to have a look. It only has 3 scan lists, and it’s awkward to cycle through them. I found starting the spectrum analyzer to be cumbersome as well, since i couldn’t attach it to a long-press of a button. The single VFO view is pretty nice; it puts lots of nice info on the screen, and it’s big. Ultimately, I went right back to AubsUK for the scan features.

CY9C and SuperFox Mode

Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

CY9C St Paul Island Expedition

Someone spotted CY9C’s Saint Paul Island Expedition on the 21 mailinglist: 18095kHz, SuperFox FT8 mode. I tuned my WSJTX to the frequency, enabled SuperHound, and it crashed upon trying to decode.

  Running: /usr/bin/jt9 -s WSJT-X -w 1 -m 3 -e /usr/bin -a /home/john/.local/share/WSJT-X -t /tmp/WSJT-X
  sh: 1: /usr/bin/sfrx: not found
  Fortran runtime error: EXECUTE_COMMAND_LINE: Invalid command line

  Error termination. Backtrace:
  #0  0x7f02d8e21b9a in ???
  #1  0x7f02d8e22699 in ???
  #2  0x7f02d8e22afc in ???
  #3  0x7f02d90b8eeb in ???
  #4  0x7f02d90b9099 in ???
  #5  0x559f9788ca06 in ???
  #6  0x559f97885f15 in ???
  #7  0x559f97885467 in ???
  #8  0x559f978838a2 in ???
  #9  0x7f02d883edb9 in __libc_start_call_main
    at ../sysdeps/nptl/libc_start_call_main.h:58
  #10  0x7f02d883ee74 in __libc_start_main_impl
    at ../csu/libc-start.c:360
  #11  0x559f97883900 in ???
  #12  0xffffffffffffffff in ???

I filed a bug for the missing binary. In the meantime, I downloaded and installed the wsjtx deb file from sourceforge to make the DX QSO. I saw them again on 14.094MHz, but they don’t hear me.

I checked in on the bug, and the maintainer explained that those binaries are not open source, so not included with the Debian package. To fix it longer-term, I kept the new binaries, and went back to the package that Debian provided.

985 Workbench: 2024-08-26

Mon, 26 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

The photos looked great from Bill’s, KC3OOK, antenna party
https://ft8.live/ for a more responsive visualization of pskreporter data.
POTA at Susquehannock
- No digital, only sideband
- QSO parties for Hawaii, Kansas, and Ohio
- Bothered someone with a bit of CW badly
Morse Machine app on Android for practicing
I finally confirmed 50 states on QRZ.com with Hawaii
- generally 5-10W
- mostly digital, some sideband
I started playing with a couple Meshtastic nodes
- Impressive range for low power, ~125mW

Questions

W8CRW, CR: Is there any device that would log a date-time every time you key your VHF/UHF transmitter?
- W3DIB: string together an arduino, some AI, and voice recognition
- WA3VEE: pull it from broadcastify
- K3VIL: newer ICOM has a recording feature
- NA3CW: security system that can log contacts opening/closing
- W8CRW: looking for something radio agnostic
KC3OOK, Bill: Balanced-L vs T-Match network tuner for open wire feed. Is one better than the other?
- Balanced L = L-C-L and it’s fed on the low-impedance side.
- T-Match has a wider range, but maybe less efficient.

21 Tech Net: 2024-08-25

Sun, 25 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

I Wish I had paid attention to the contest calendar for WW digital contest.
I’m awaiting a confirmation on QRZ for my last of 50 states: Hawaii.
Lots of new open updates for the Xiegu X6100.
Started compiling firmware for Quansheng.
Playing with a couple heltec v3 meshtastic nodes
- marveling at the range, better than APRS?
I did my first POTA activation by only voice, no digital.
- lots of qso parties
- heard Hawaii really easily
- Wasted someone’s time trying CW

POTA US-1425

Sat, 24 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I ran some errands and wandered off to Susquehannock State Park, US-1425 to play. I started with SSB phone, and immediately heard Hawaii. The bands were busy with QSO Parties for Hawaii, Kansas, and Ohio, so I kept hunting people and easily got my 13 contacts. I never switched to the computer for digital modes!

In addition to the QSO parties, I caught a contact from Italy and K8MRD of Ham Radio Tube in a park in Texas. I bothered one last operator with a little CW, but I failed pretty badly. The radio was decoding for me, but my keying wasn’t up to the job.

Radio

Antenna

985 Workbench: 2024-08-19

Mon, 19 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

Iambic Keying
- Tap, instead of squeeze, since I’m having trouble releasing the paddles in time.
- Squeeze Keying at Ham Radio QRP
I started patching and compiling my own firmware for my Quansheng radios
- building and flashing works
- my minor change had no effect
New R1CBU 0.22.0 firmware for x6100
- whole firmware is like a new radio
- minor fixes and conveniences
  - peak marger on S-meter
  - nicer scrolling on waterfall
POTA by the Susquehanna River in Marietta
- I heard some lighthouse events
- I spoke to someone on a nuclear ship in Baltimore
- I ran into a fellow ham and ex-professor from 25 years ago, Paul Ross, W3FIS.
- It’s so quiet away from my normal desk of computers, I thought noise reduction was stuck ON
10m looking pretty open today to California
I’ve been keeping the blog up-to-date, and I use this net to document my week.

Topics

Jeff, W3JAM, is having trouble with an MFJ antenna analyzer that’s not being reliable compared to his other analyzers.
Bill, KC3OOK, is preparing for the weekend’s antenna party.
Jim, AF3Z, participated in the QRP Skeeter Hunt with his Penntech, 68ft of wire, and a tuner. 5W on 40M got him 25 CW contacts.
Luke, KC3SCY, is building a transmitter from 1929.
Tim, W3QP, is planning some hiking and SOTA in Virginia.
Harvey, KC3NZT, was in PEI (I think) doing a little HF and listing to ship traffic.
Question from Jeff, W3JAM: What is Supermon and how does one get started?
- It’s a web-based interfacet to an Allstar node.
- ClearNode app runs on Android.
Question from Harvey, KC3NZT: In 120V wiring, does a voltage between 0V and 120V mean a broken or loose ground or common?
- KC3RFG: Yes! The AC world is different from the DC world.

POTA US-4567

Sat, 17 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I setup camp at Marietta Riverfront Park, US-4567, with the EFHW stretched from the pavilion to the nearby tree. I was expecting to get rained out, but it never came.

I got 23 FT8 contacts on 20m and 3 SSB contacts on 40m and 20m at 10W. I also spoke to a nuclear ship in Baltimore, and I heard some light house special event stations. It was so quiet there at the park compared to my desk full of computers that I thought the NR was stuck on.

W3FIS, Dr. Paul Ross, stopped by to activate, so we chatted a while after nearly 25 years since I last saw him when I was in college.

US-4567, Marietta

985 Workbench: 2024-08-12

Mon, 12 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

Watching APRS
- trying different radios/antennas w/ aprsdroid
- slim-jim working better with any radio
- watching logs and better-understanding the structure of the packets
N3TWT repeater (South Mountain) looks good for “off grid” communication when camping in Cumberland county
- heard lots of volunteer event activity
- also heard N3FYI & N3KZ
moving in September, so scheming new antennas
maybe noticing a bug on AUBS firmware on Quansheng. I have copy of code to read and see about a fix.
I tried another firmware, but missing the killer feature: scan on start

Notes from Others

Everyone went to Kimberton Hamfest
AF3Z, Jim: wait 30 years, and that shiny new radio will be affordable.

Questions

W3JAM, Jeff:
- using a generator, how important is ground?
  - KC3RFG, Jim:
    - already grounded if connected to home.
    - job site may require a ground rod, but doesn’t do much.
    - for field day, generator is the only “reference”, so no need for ground
    - modern generators have GFI built-in.
  - NA3CW, Chuck:
    - don’t let generator run down and stop under load, because it’ll degauss the residual magnetism
- Heathkit SB102 w/ 6146B tubes. It wouldn’t tune up. is there concern with using 6146W tubes?
  - NA3CW, Chuck: 6146W is the ruggedized version. it should work. neutralize, and you’re good to go.
  - AF3Z, Jim: be sure to check the tubes with a tube-tester
AF3Z, Jim:
- cable management while being able to access and change. beat the rats’ nest. Are there good systems for cable management?
  - WA3VEE, Ron:
    - best if you can walk behind the desk
    - everything slides on felt feet, so must have some slack loosely coiled.
  - NA3CW, Chuck:
    - desk 90 degrees to the wall for easy access to the back.
    - garden velcro: can be snipped to any length you need.
  - KC3JAM, Jeff:
    - military systems require being able to get behind things.
KC3OOK, Bill:
- Has anyone used DragonOS / Linux?
  - NA3CW, Chuck: Mint, but not Dragon OS.

985 Workbench: 2024-08-05

Mon, 05 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

Mobile APRS is proving to be really short-range
- Couldn’t even spot myself outside at Sam Lewis up on the hill
- Cycled with it, but no traffic
- Needs a real antenna
Some POTA
- Sam Lewis, US-1418
  - found the leading park activator, kn3a, in my spot. :)
  - storms rolling in, so called it quits
  - watched 20m slam shut: decoding 30 signals to 4
- Susquehanna River, US-4567
  - Columbia Riverfront Park that’s open after sunset
  - spanned into the next day…again, so had an incomplete and a complete activation.
Got an FT8 contact to Israel with 5W from home: first Asia for me.
Weekly RTTY Test and FT4 sprint
Ham radio software may not be the most efficient
- fldigi left running but disconnected from radio ran CPU at 95C doing nothing.
- GridTracker likes to burn cpu too when left running.
AB3AP, Mike, on EZ-Hang slingshot: I’ve given up the slingshot and just swing my throw line by hand.
KB3ILS, Keith: there are scripts online for 3d-modeling any size knob you need.

Questions

W3JAM, Jeff:
- Does anyone have experience using Drake TR4CW on AM?
- Can you add a noise blanker to this radio?
  - Noise blanker would alleviate pulsing noise from electric fence.
  - Jeff will be getting the entire manual library on CD, which will have information.
KC3OOK, Bill:
- How do you connect a NanoVNA to an open wire feed line?
- WA3VEE: Would you need a balun to start getting close to impedance to match the expected 50 ohm?
- W3JAM: Doesn’t matter so much where it’s tuned, since you use it with a tuner anyway.
- NA3CW:
  - You don’t want it to be resonant anyway, because being resonant will give you the largest extremes to tune when trying to move to other bands.
  - NanoVNA may be limited on the impedance it can read.
  - Dipole should be at least as long as half wave + a little
  - He extended a wire to get it to tune where it wouldn’t.
WA3VEE, Ron:
- SOCO connectors carry 208V. When rewiring those connectors, what’s a good caulk-like sealant that could be used for “potting” the inside of the plugs?
  - Plain bathroom caulk can be conductive.
  - Silicon may breakdown at lower voltage than needed too.

POTA US-4567

Sun, 04 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Ben and I grabbed dinner and headed to the Columbia Riverfront Park to activate US-4567, Capt John Smith Trail.

Since there were more people around, I setup the simple GRA-1900T next to our picnic table instead of throwing wires. 20m was very busy, so I was getting a bit lost in all the traffic. I moved to 40m and re-tuned to rack up my more local contacts. As the sun set, our reach got better on 40m. Of course, I accidentally crossed 0000UTC again into the next day, so it was 2 activations: one (incomplete) with 5 QSOs, and the other with 14 QSOs. I operated all digital, since it got dark, and we were looking to pack up soon.

Columbia Riverfront Park

POTA US-1418

Sat, 03 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I headed back to US-1418, Sam Lewis to tried a quick activation on my way to my parents’ house, but I got sidetracked. KN3A, Scott, was already there, so I chatted with him for a few minutes, and then setup my station on the other side of the park. I used my GRA-1900T for a quick setup on 20m. I saw Scott hunting up the band with his big, very local, signal, and then set out to do some FT8. The band was busy, but then just shut off nearing 1900UTC.

I heard about a storm coming from the local repeaters. I tried a bit on 15m, but decided to pack up as I heard more thunder. I only got a few contacts, since I didn’t give myself near enough time.

985 Workbench: 2024-07-29

Mon, 29 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

During last workbench, I used the TYT HT in crossband for the whole net. It gets hot but works.
I found a bug in the Aubs firmware on my Quansheng radios. It skipped lots of my repeaters for a day.
Trying the TIDRadio TD-H8 tonight on M/5W power with the good old tape measure Yagi. It’s sounding really nice here.
On linux, I found cwcp for CW training. I run it at 20wpm with a very slow 20-dot gap.
I’ve been trying APRS with QRZ-1, an 8-year-old Nexus phone, and a btech APRS cable.
POTA in York:
- I had a terrible time throwing into trees that were too high.
- Resorted to an inverted-V EFHW, 2ft-10ft off the ground with telescoping fishing pole.

Questions

KB3ILS, Keith
- How does a hack learn to read basic schematics: conventional or electron current flow?
- Tips for reading schematics?
- Chuck, NA3CW
  - Except when dealing with tubes, work in conventional current.
  - Diode and transistor arrows show positive to negative (conventional) flow.
  - Inside tubes the electron flow is shown negative to positive.
  - Reading schematics:
    - Look up different circuit functions
      - Amplifier
      - Audio oscillator
      - etc
    - recognize those groupings as a “block diagram”.
    - learn to read like a block of functions
    - trace with your finger
- WA3VEE, Ron
  - Think of circuit groups as mechanical operations.
KC3YIG, Dave
- Recommendations for distributing power to multiple radios?
- Astron powering 2 kenwoods: 25w and 65w, 2m and HF base stations.
- W3QP, Tim
  - Ham Radio Workbench has a nice power distribution block as a kit:
    - 1 anderson power polse for input
    - 5 anderson power poles for output
- WA3VEE, Ron
  - PowerWorx gear for power poles
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
  - Anderson power pole has become standard in ham radio.
KC3NZT, Harvey
- Operating internationally, in Canada, do we just add “/ve3” to call?
- W3QP, Tim
  - That’s right for Canada, as long as you’re there temporarily, up to 180 days or so.

Upcoming Hamfest

Reading Radio Club will host their hamfest in Sinking Springs.

US-1418

Sat, 27 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

At Sam Lewis, US-1418 I tried setting up down near the low playground on the corner near the road. There were no trees with good spots. All the viable branches were very high, and I couldn’t quite get a line over them.

I resorted to an inverted-v supported by fishing pole in the middle at 9ft or so. I operated mostly FT8 on 15m, 20m, and 40m, and I did a little SSB on 40m. I got Canada, Florida, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, etc.

Setup at Sam Lewis

Bug Scanning on Aubs 00.07

Tue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I have my UV-K5 and UV-K6 running aubs 00.07 firmware. I added a simplex frequency (446.100MHz) to use as with my local cross-band repeater in position 110. I added the new channel to scan list 1.

Upon powering on the radio, I could scan lists 1 (local repeaters) and 4 (satellites) together. When I press the up arrow to advance off an active channel, the scan would now skip list 1, and go right to 4, and continue to skip list 1. Before I realized it was happening, I thought the day was super quiet.

I dropping the repeater frequency from scan list 1, and the scanning behaved correctly. I tried removing another channel from scan list 1, and reintroducing channel 110 to the list, but that didn’t fix it, so it’s not an issue with the count.

Much of scan list 1 is lower in the channels, so I moved my new repeater frequency from channel 110 to position 30, right after all my other simplex channels. That seems to work fine, so that’s how I’m leaving it.

I may need to try some more things and figure out a reproduction to file a bug on the project:

Is it something about the frequency of 460.100?
Or is channel 110 the problem?
Would another frequency in that spot be a problem?
Are there other channels that would trigger the issue?

SPARC Meeting: 2024-07-23

Tue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

At the previous week’s meeting, many people built EFHW kits and untangled some wire to use with them. No one finished the build and brought them back, so I offered a quick demo of tuning such an antenna.

I connected my 49:1 unun that I’ve been using to a new wire we had hanging. We connected a handful of different analyzers to see how they operated.

985 Workbench: 2024-07-22

Mon, 22 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

Great to see everyone at the breakfast, especially Luke’s loose couplers.
POTA after the breakfast at Marsh Creek with Vic, KC3TYX
- 20m was the place to be, but 2 of us operating, so we had to take shifts with our own radios.
Prime Day Shopping
- microcord
- TYT HT for 10w crossband repeater
  - I’m using it now as the repeater
  - Less tethered to the outside antenna
  - Top of the radio/sma is 50C after repeating for an hour on power
- TinySA
- Raspberry Pi Zero W kits
APRSDroid: phone & radio
- email gateway
- POTA spotting

Notes from Others

solarham.com
Reading Ham Fest coming up
VE session at Stateline Radio Club

Questions

KC3WWC: What’s cool about APRS?
- APRS weather station
- PWS monitor app to find weather stations near me
- Other gateway frequencies?
- Check with CCAR/ARES/RACES nets for their uses.
KC3WWC: In Galenium detector, how does one know when the cat whisker is right?
- Joe, W3GMS
  - put on headphones
  - move spring arm with stiff wire (cat whisker)
  - touch it to the galenium
  - move around to find the hot spot where it’s louder
  - germanium diode conducts at very low voltages, so easy
  - loose couplers don’t work so well in a crystal set, since it’s lossy
  - spark era - 1913
  - before galenium, there was a tube with metal filings, a “coherer”.
    - activate a buzzer
    - tap that would fall and reset the coherer
  - after galenium, then audion tube
  - imperative to have a very big antenna to capture as much signal as possible.
  - drive diode into forward current
  - Heathkit made a collectible kit
    - tightly coupled
    - voltage increase in the second coil
    - higher Q, so could be made more selective
  - Luke, KC3SCY, counted 20 different stations one night
- Chuck, NA3CW
  - fox-hole radio: rusty razor blade, lead pencil, coil, safety pin, oatmeal box, wire
  - galena: ore of lead sulfide
  - immerse the galena in base of lead solder
  - grope around quietly to find magic spot where it works best
  - same thing with foxhole radio
  - uses oxide for detecting, not stainless
  - galena has 0.4V drop, like germanium diode
- Ron, WA3VEE
  - has a marconi cat whiskey receiver
  - 0.4V can be converted to dBm, and it’s a pretty large signal required
  - predates any amplification
WA3VEE: What is the most important measure of solar activity we need to consider?
- most profound affect on propagation?
- KC3RFP: a-index (9 or lower) k-index (5 or lower)
- Tamitha Skov website and youtube

985 Breakfast and POTA

Fri, 19 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

985 Breakfast

It was good to chat radio with everyone, and Luke talked about restoring his antique loose coupler radio.

US-1380 Marsh Creek

After breakfast, Vic KC3TYX, and I made our way to US-1380 Marsh Creek for a park activation and to compare notes on how we operate.

The weather was pleasant, and Vic started on 20m with a vertical ham stick and faraday cloth for a ground plane.

I tossed a EFHW to slope from the picnic table up into a tree. I got it in a good spot with the first try. I was on 40m to give him some room, but the band was pretty dead in the middle of the day. I still had a little interference, since Vic was running 100W. I eventually switched to 20m when Vic had enough contacts, so I could finish my activation. Only 15m and 20m really worked for much. I did all digital + 1 phone to another park in Tennessee.

Vic operating SSB

FT8 at US-1380

Amazon Prime Day

Wed, 17 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Prime Day popped up a few good-enough sales, so I bought a few things.

50w dummy load
TIDradio TD-H8 - HT, 10W, bluetooth, clear case, etc
TYT TH-UV8000D - HT, 10W, crossband repeater
- This should allow me to crossband relay to a repeater via the outside antenna and wander the house with a smaller HT
BNC adapters for HTs.
- Everything goes to BNC for easy swapping to external antennas.
4 HSY Telescoping VHF/UHF antennas with BNC connectors for HTs
TinySA
Sony headphones, wired, as backup for the ones I use now for POTA
2 Pi Zero W kits with cases, connectors, and all that
375ft of micro cord for throwing antennas into trees

985 Workbench: 2024-07-15

Mon, 15 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

I saw Ron’s photos from Sussex County Ham Fest
- I only go looking for connectors and gadgets, not real gear.
Enjoyed Luke’s talk at breakfast
- cat whisker and spark gap
- reminds me of the books I read as an elementary student
  - crystal radios
  - want to build one again and see about tuning it for medium and shortwave
POTA: Caledonia
- used the 12.5M EFRW instead of EFHW
- afternoon, 40m was dead
- 20m and 15m was very busy with SSB contesters
- 15, 17, 20: all EU, and very little local, via FT8 and SSB, but they couldn’t hear me.
  - atmospheric diode?
- only made 4 contacts in the hour I tried
Tape Measure YAGI is amazing for hearing the workbench
- I didn’t want to need to pick a direction, but seems OK for these longer sessions
Purchased an inexpensive variac
- so now I need an old radio with some questionable capacitors. :)
I’ll be at the breakfast, then finding a park to activate afterward.
Writing a bit for the blog in down times

Others’ News

Ron, WA3VEE
- Sussex County Ham Fest
- photos
Luke, KC3SCY
- spark gap and cat whisker
  - receiver working
- GOJO cleaner without abrasive is good for cleaning wood
Keith, KB3ILS
- Lots of extended propagation on 2m
Jack, K3YVQ
- listening to longer-distance simplex on 2m calling frequency
Jim, AF3Z
- some CW
- contests upcoming
  - IARU HF contest
  - SKCC Sprintathon
  - Flight of the Bumblebees QRP

Question

Perseids meteor storm coming this month, What’s involved in working meteor scatter?
- Widen topic to: Any special propagation modes?
- Jim: e-skip?
- Row, WA3VEE:
  - Tropospheric ducting
    - temperature inversion
    - listen to FM broadcast in the morning
      - difficult to hear local
      - hearing much longer distances
      - it’s a mess of overlap
      - means there’s an opening in 2m
    - dxinfocentre.com for tropo forecasts
  - Meteor showers
    - listen to 6m.
- Chuck, NA3CW
  - Signal around the world
    - 1-2 second delay to hear your own “hello”
    - Japan at 10w
    - 1-way propagation
      - atmosphere is turbulent
      - photons strike into ionized air molecules and electrons
      - the wave jiggles the electrons in the air, and they retransmit
        
        this “reflection”
      - signals going the other direction may hit different conditions along the way.
- KC3WWC: antenna orientation?
- W1RC, Mike:
  - Digital modes for studying propagation, since it can be monitored
- WA3VEE, Ron
  - EM energy is released when an electron drops into a lower orbital
  - RBN and pskreporter

US-1337 Caledonia

Sat, 13 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

We headed to Caledonia State Park for the Arts & Craft Fair for a couple hours. I threw the 12.5m EFRW into a nearby tree. 40m was dead. 20m and 15m were very busy with SSB contesters for the IARU HF World Championship. Via FT8 and SSB, I could hear lots of EU on 15m, 17m, and 20m, but not much in local signals. Not many people were hearing me, so I only made 4 contacts in the hour or so that I tried.

985 Workbench: 2024-07-08

Mon, 08 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Radio

I had time off, so lots of Parks on the Air
- The entire Susquehanna River is considered US-4567 as the Captain John Smith Chesapeake Trail
- I scouted some spots along the river.
- I’ve been trying SSB P2P contacts first, then digital modes.
I found Ron, WA3VEE, and other familiar faces at Harrisburg Hamfest.
I got 9 of the 13 colonies on SSB and FT8, usually at parks.
That adjacent net on W3HZU was still a problem on my Quansheng HTs.
- I’m trying the similarly cheap QRZ-1 Explorer tonight. It’s almost as bad.
- I’m also trying the tape-measure yagi right now for some gain toward 985 and rejection toward 970.

Questions of the Night

CR, W8CRW: What would an air compressor from UK (230V, 50Hz) do on 240V/60Hz?
- Induction motor may run 20% faster, out of spec, wear out more quickly
- Starting capacitor for the motor may not be compatible
- May be able to introduce a phase change transformer
Bill, KC3OOK: NVIS experiences for close contacts?
- Jack, K3YVQ: good experience with “trapezoid-shaped” antenna wire: horizontal with ends dropped at an angle.
- Harvey, KC3NZT:
  - half-wave above ground for better DX.
  - a second low antenna may not be worth the trouble of installing.
  - wait for a quiet time and get through to your target contact.
- Jim, KC3RFG: Got 12mi to Philadelphia. Maybe that was ground-wave.
- Jim, AF3Z: 10ft off the ground, a couple hundred miles
- Chuck, NA3CW: “intentional NVIS” = 6ft off ground the whole way with counterpoise directly below, parallel to radiator.
- Harvey, KC3NZT:
  - model verticals in EZNEC software
  - see lobes in radiation pattern
  - can be quite NVIS at some lengths
Jack, K3YVQ: Mounting and grounding an antenna on a kayak.
- Harvey, KC3NZT: tape on the underside as a ground plane
- Leon, AA3LH: glue a plate to the bottom
- John, KC3WWC: float a wire on something floaty to keep it on the surface, see Coastal Waves and Wires on Youtube.
- Wayne, KC3SQI: install foil tape like transducer for a fish finder

Firecracker Hamfest and POTA

Sat, 06 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Firecracker Hamfest

Matt and I wandered around and talked to some people. I only bought a few small things:

tiny efhw kit.
nice 65W PD 20Ah power brick.
broken kenwood HT, won’t power on, but charges. (took a chance, but no plan.)

US-4356, Boyd Big Tree Preserve

EFHW from pavilion, across side trail entrance, into a tree.
Rough time with SSB to start. I couldn’t be heard. I’d stalk these multi-operator activators for 10 minutes, prepare my logs, and then not be able to contact them.
Operated all FT8 on 40m.
One SSB P2P at the end.
It was very hot.

While operating, I got an email from a contact, so I sent a photo and explained my setup with WSJT-X and the x6100.

On a bench at Boyd

POTA US-4567

Fri, 05 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

US-4567, Capt John Smith Chesapeake Trail, stretches from New York to the Chesapeake Bay following the Susquehanna River, so that means we can activate from any public land within 100ft of the river. I drove from Turkey Hill to Bainbridge evaluating spots along the river:

Riverfront park in Columbia would be nice
The boat launch on south side of Marietta has a nice bit of beach.
The park on the north side of Marietta is a bit too busy, but did have a nice area of grass and trees.
I setup at the Riverfront park in Bainbridge.

I threw the EFHW into an inverted-V in tree and back down to a bench. I worked SSB first for some park-to-park activations, and then switched to FT8 on 40m.

Operating at US-4567 in Bainbridge

13 Colonies

Thu, 04 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

There’s a special event contacting stations the 13 Colonies for the week over Independence Day in the US.

I contacted the following stations by SSB and FT8 over my couple days at home and out in the parks:

K2A
K2B
K2C
K2D
K2E
K2F
K2G
K2H
K2I
K2J
K2K
K2L
K2M
KU2US
GB13COL
WM3PEN
TM13COL

POTA US-1743 White Clay Creek

Tue, 02 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Matt and I activated POTA US-1743, White Clay Creek, DE. I deployed the 20m-long EFHW into a tree, which worked nicely with no SWR. Matt deployed a telescoping dipole on a mast. I worked only 40m, and Matt ran 20m. We didn’t interfere with each other at all. I forgot my 5525 power splitter to run both the laptop and radio off 12V battery, but fortunately I didn’t need it for the computer.

Matt Operating

Matt's Dipole

21 Tech Net - 2024-06-30

Sun, 30 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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

POTA National Mall

Sun, 23 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I was traveling to DC the weekend of ARRL Field Day, so I found some time e-bike from the hotel to activate US-0655, the National Mall from a park bench at the mall. I clamped the GRA-1900T right to the bench. Field Day was happening, so traditional bands were very busy. I jumped to 17m for a quieter, POTA-only experience. The LiFePO4 battery hadn’t been charged in a while, so it went dead by the end of my activation. It was a bit of a race against the dwindling battery. With the battery completely exhausted, and running on the internal battery of the x6100, I got to 12 contacts.

I had played with the radio the night before. I tried my gra-1900T and the 12.5m EFRW in the hotel room. We were on the 9th floor of 10 floors in Downtown DC. I barely got out for a moment on 40m with the wire, then nothing. The whip did absolutely nothing.

POTA at the National Mall

Broken EFRW

Sat, 22 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

My 12.5m EFRW at home broke again, so I needed to restring it. The wire breaks at the tie point up in the tree. The kids and I failed to launch it again over the tree with slingshot out the window. I had also tried some small 3d-printed s-biner clips, but they’d release as soon as I launched with the slingshot I got the wire running flat through the other tree instead of up and over.

That didn’t last too long. The wire broke again at the tie point, so I launched it from the street again with the throw line and sockets. I kept it a little looser and switched to a bungee cord to keep it tensioned with some play.

Tape Measure Yagi

Sun, 16 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

There are easy instructions to build your own yagi on Instructables. I had just picked up some hose clamps and had the other necessary pieces: a broken tape measure and some 3/4-inch schedule 40 PVC and connectors; so I was ready to build.

The wiring on mine is held in place by the clamps and banana clip adapter. I always like those for prototyping. As directed, I tuned the antenna by moving radiators in and out and measuring with the NanoVNA.

The antenna is noticeably directional, so I can use it to find directions of signals. The S-meter and dB signal strength numbers on AUBS firmware make it easy to evaluate strength and direction.

I transmitted with it to the K3IR repeater as a test during a net.

Tuning the GRA-1900

Sun, 16 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Initial Tuning

The one-page document that comes with the GRA-1900T antenna detailing the jumper positions on the coil and the lengths at which to set the whip for each band didn’t seem to match up all that well, which led to some frustration out in the field.

I decided to use my NanoVNA to reconstruct my own instructions for using the antenna. I extended the whip fully and recorded the resonant frequency for each jumper position of the coil. Knowing those frequencies, I can set the jumper and shorten the whip until the SWR sweep on my x6100 is happy. The SWR graph on the x6100 can be misleading sometimes, because it often shows a birdie dip or 2 in the graph, but now I’ll always know that I’m to shorten the whip to get where I need to be.

I’ll eventually apply labels to the coil with these frequencies.

US-1425 Susquehannock State Park

I took the GRA-1900T out to Susquehannock State Park for a field test. My plan to tune the antenna worked well. I set the jumper for the frequency below my intended operating frequency and shortened up the whip until the x6100 showed a good SWR curve. Easy!

Oops, Broken Fishing Pole Mast

Since I hadn’t used the fishing pole at the park, I forget I had it and left it behind when I packed up. 2 days later, I returned to retrieve it. Some kids had found it, had trouble collapsing it, dug in the dirt with it, and broke a section.

I was able to put it back together with the remaining sections, and I 3d-printed a new fork/loop to make it useful for supporting wire.

Two Parks in One Day

Sat, 15 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

US-1356 Pinchot

I setup at a pavillion far away from everyone else, so as not to burden anyone wondering what I was doing. Putting up the 20m-long EFHW, I got the socket and throw line stuck in a tree. I had to cut it loose.

I tried 10m for 2 FT8 contacts, but that’s all the further I could stretch that band. The rest of my contacts came on FT8 40m, and one P2P SSB contact on 40m before I packed up.

US-1418 Sam Lewis

At the second park, I operated mostly 20m with the GRA-1900 coil and whip. I was struggling to get that to the right settings, so I finally just extended it and hit the tuner on the radio.

I accidentally crossed the 0000UTC mark into the next day, which means it’s a new activation. I scrambled to try to complete the new day, but fell short.

Sunset at Sam Lewis

Tuning the Counterpoise

Fri, 14 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

My antenna wires at the house were getting moved around a bit with some projects. I found my SWR was a bit high on a certain HF band, and I found moving or coiling the counterpoise (~5.2M) to shorten it greatly reduced SWR. I have to remember to watch performance and adjust the counterpoise as part of my setup and operating.

985 Workbench Net - 2024-06-11

Tue, 11 Jun 2024 21:25:29 -0400

My Week in Radio

I’ll miss field day.
POTA around Harrisburg, York, and Lancaster.
- Mostly FT8/FT4
- Also have been chase some phone park-to-park, and have been getting good reports with my little QRP radio
- Exclusively testing the 20m-long EFHW I built.
Upgrading firmware from a 3rd party for my x6100, and my own patch to show me band boundaries by privilege
Moved the 1/4 wave ground-plane antenna higher in the tree.
Always get perplexing interference at start of this net, otherwise clear all day. It’s a net on the big repeater over in York that’s 15khz lower. Maybe I need to build a yagi next, so I can get more directional.

Other Discussion

Vic (KC3TYX) was making contacts with VARAC, not for winlink. The software let’s you beacon on 14.105MHz, and has 15 slots (channels) near the calling frequencies for conversation. Fire a beacon or 2, and check pskreporter to see if anyone’s listening.
Lots of digital modes have conventional calling frequencies.
WB8NUT website has sounds of digital modes. http://wb8nut.com/digital/
Jim (AF3Z) suggests a 5khz shift to help alleviate interference from W3HZU’s net on 145.970, so I redefined 985 as 146.990MHz with a -605MHz offset. That works in a test after the net.
Trying to move things around in the radio blew away the offset and PL when I saved the new 990 frequency. The computer works better or that programming.

New Firmware for X6100

Fri, 07 Jun 2024 23:44:38 -0400

There’s a new person building onto Oleg’s R1CBU firmware. He first made a patch TGZ available, and then an entire image.

He has a repo for this work, and it includes some build instructions which reference the buildroot and submodules. I think I’m close to being able to build it, but I’m seeing some errors trying to find the xkbcommon headers.

I did patch his source with my DB changes. I built the DB: sqlite3 params.db < params.sql, mounted the DATA partition, and copied my custom params.db to it.

It’s looking nice so far. I can use flrig and have wsjtx and fldigi both talk to it simultaneously. That’s the main improvement in my mind, but it includes some other fixes:

volume encoder can be spun quickly now
smoothing of the TX/SWR graphs
finer detail in the waterfall

POTA US-4356

Fri, 07 Jun 2024 23:38:50 -0400

After a bike ride in Harrisburg, I visited US-4356, Boyd Big Tree Preserve. I used the 20m EFHW sloped up into a tree near the main pavilion. I spoke to a park in Western PA, and a museum ship on Great Lakes in Toledo, OH. 15m FT4 was busy with lots of contesting, so I also ran some FT8 on 20m.

The go-box is over-stuffed again with extra rope. I need to slim it down again.

PODXS070 TDW Contest

Fri, 07 Jun 2024 23:34:47 -0400

PODXS070 Three-Day Weekend Contest kicked off on Thursday night. I made 8 contacts on 40m pretty early. Some of my contacts were bonus stations. It ultimately got overwhelming with at least 2 other digital contests going at the same time.

Camping, POTA, and Testing the EFHW

Fri, 07 Jun 2024 22:54:16 -0400

SPARC Elmer Night

I spent the Elmer Night tuning EFHW again with the NanoVNA. I proved that I saw the same graph when the antenna was stretched shallow vs a higher inverted-V.

I tried folding back the EFHW wire. It changed the tuning slower than cutting the wire. DX Engineering has a video about this. I didn’t get it finished at the meeting, since because it got dark.

Memorial Day Weekend POTA US-4361, Kings Gap Environmental Center

Matthew and I setup at Kings Gap Environmetal Center (US-4361) near the campground. I spent the most the time still slowly tuning my EFHW, and then dodging the rain. I barely made any contacts by the time I got the antenna in the air, and then the thunderstorms returned. We bailed, and I put the antenna up back at the campground strung over the site from tree to my fishing pole to telephone pole for the rest of the weekend. The twisted cords I’ve been using started unwinding, so it’s soon time to replace it with braided mason line.

Antenna on the Car

Fri, 07 Jun 2024 22:45:48 -0400

I removed the magnet from the inexpensive mag-mount antenna that I had stuck to a baking sheet in the back of the BMW i3 (which is all plastic). The bike rack is always on the car, so I cobbled together some scrap metal parts and clamped the antenna onto the rack. It’s got a screw knob, so I can loosen and reorient it when I flip the bike rack.

It works great now with the antenna outside the car and attached to the metal of the rack.

985 Workbench Net - 2024-05-20

Tue, 21 May 2024 08:56:22 -0400

My Week in radio

The Vertical EFHW

I Tested my 20m EFHW wire and unun on 2 different POTA outings In an inverted v with a counterpoise, it worked pretty well, but could be shortened. As a vertical, the SWR was higher, and the counterpoise made it worse. I compared the vertical EFHW to the trusty old EFRW in a mostly vertical configuration. That one had exhibited a terrible SWR as well with or without counterpoise. Maybe I needed more radials instead of a counterpoise? I have 2 ARRL antenna books, basic and the big one, so I could read, I suppose. During these experiments, my computer experienced some common-mode interference too.

Custom Antenna Winder

I 3D-printed a nice customized winder with the transformer attached. I modified the code to be parameterized to any size I want.

More VHF

I’ve been discovering I can hear some further repeaters using the spectrum analyzer feature on my Quansheng, so I’ve been adding more repeaters to the scan.

Thoughts on My Vertical Antenna Problem

You can tune and end-fed at one angle, and it can have a different swr at another angle.
They’re sensitive to objects in their near field. Is the unun near ground or branches? The same goes for the other end of the antenna. Try changing the orientation.
The ends are high-voltage, so they’re sensitive to capacitance. The middle is high-current, low-voltage.
Vertical antenna will have very different conditions at each end. inverted-V or horizontal will have more similar conditions at each end.
RF comes from the current in the middle.
- Vertical is an inexact science.
- The tree effects it.
- 50ft of coax helps provide RF ground, and less can be a problem.
Watch height of unun.
The Smith chart on the NanoVNA can help evaluate what’s happening.
- Crossover point on the chart can show the tuning and the swr
- Is it environmental or the wire?
Counterpoise placement can be sensitive.
Add radials for vertical.

Interesting Bits from Other People

Tim, W3QP, did the W2 SOTA campout: 6 summits and 32 contacts, mostly VHF.
Chuck, NA3CW, talked about accomplishing an 75M net using online WebSDRs to hear, because propagation was so bad.
Rob, K3VIL, is having fun with his QRP IC-705.

POTA Antenna Test 3

Mon, 20 May 2024 03:19:48 -0400

I compared the 20m EFHW with the 12.5m EFRW at Sam Lewis (US-1418). I threw really high and made both antennas nearly vertical into high trees, not inverted-v.

EFHW could hear pretty well, and the SWR sweep showed again that I could shorten it, so I did lower it and take off a few cm.

The EFHW didn’t seem to like its counterpoise. With the counterpoise, it was giving me an SWR of 2-2.5:1 on 40m when I transmitted. If I removed the counterpoise or kept it coiled up, the SWR was lower. I still made most my contacts on 40m.

I think the radio may have again been interfering with the mouse when transmitting. I already had chokes on both ends of the feed line, but adding the counterpoise helped that common mode interference. It was a rough day.

The EFRW would not tune well at all on 40m with or without its single counterpoise. That surprised me greatly, because I had tested that same unun with my existing EFRW antenna out the front window at home.

I wonder if it had something to do with each antenna being mostly vertical. I wonder if they needed more radials instead of a single counterpoise. K4OGO (Walt of Coastal Waves and Wires) always adds so many radials to his verticals.

This had me questioning everything. I thought I was doing something really good by getting the wires high and vertical. When I brought the radio home and connected to the same old EFRW, it was again performing normally.

I also learned that the POTA website cuts off your activation and starts a new one at 00:00UTC, 8pm, so I ended up with 2 QSOs counting toward a second (incomplete) activation at the park.

EFHW into tall tree

EFHW winder

EFRW winder

EFHW Test 2

Sun, 19 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I ran out to Susquehanna Riverlands State Park (US-9719) to test the EFHW again. This time I tied it to a bush and a picnic table and raised the center with the fishing pole mast.

I took the time to sweep all the bands with the X6100’s built-in analyzer app. 40m looked like it could stand to have the wire slightly shorter, but when I transmitted, the SWR looked fine. I saw about 1.5:1 SWR on 40, 20, and 15. 10 was a little off, so I guess I’ll add the 100pf capacitor that most people use.

The tuner made 12m and 17m work, so I made FT8 contacts on 40m, 20m, 15m, and 17m.

I was also trying out some of the combo winder/unun I 3d printed and made some notes. I’ll post my remix soon of another person’s OpenSCAD code. I like the all-in-one designs that wrap up into one package, but I wonder how much that will hinder my random experimentation with antennas.

While transmitting, I noticed the Evolve 3 laptop’s mouse would stop responding. I had seen this on other laptops using the 1/4 wave HF vertical. I added the common mode choke to the feed line near the radio, and that cleared up. There was already a choke near the antenna, but I guess it wasn’t enough. I love when I can see a clear cause and effect or problem and solution.

Riverlands Sign

Riverlands Rain

Riverlands Operating

EFHW Test

Wed, 15 May 2024 21:36:49 -0400

Ben and I took the radio gear for a walk to Hawk Point overlooking the river in Susquehannock State Park (US-1425) for a POTA activation. We threw the 20m EFHW into the trees in an inverted-V. I checked the SWR on 15M, and it came in about 1.5:1 or so.

I could hear really well with it, and I contacted Argentina, Texas, California, and Italy among other closer places on 15M FT8. I spun the dial down to 20M SSB to hear a park in Illinois, but it was busy and the sun was setting quick, so I didn’t wait to try to make contact.

I’ll have to try the other bands next, but my randomly starting up on 15M worked great.

Using the little box as a winder for the wire didn’t work out so well. It became an immediate tangle as I tried to unwind it. I’ll switch to a 3d-printed winder instead.

Hawk Point

Noise from Flares

Wed, 15 May 2024 09:32:22 -0400

I had heard a bit of pulsing noise on all the FT8 bands the other night.

On the Morning Grind Net, Rick, WB3CSY, mentioned this as well and that he suspects it came from a solar flare that was hitting us.

985 Workbench Net - 2024-05-13

Tue, 14 May 2024 18:24:59 -0400

My Week in Radio

I purchased some power cables that split out the 12V line out of USB-C, so I can power my radio from a USB-C power brick/jump-starter battery.
Marie and I relaunched my EFRW even higher into the the tree in the front yard. I used the slingshot out the second-story window, while Marie watched that the street and sidewalk were clear.
I did the RTTY test and FT4 sprint last Thursday.
I saw some better propagation on FT8 before the weekend’s solar storm: Ukraine, Northern Ireland, and Greenland at the arctic circle.
While the bands were dead over the weekend, I built a couple new, lighter antennas for POTA. I cut and tuned some 20m-long EFHW wires and tuned them with NanoVNA. I used recycled plastic gum boxes as enclosures and winders for the un-uns and wires. I also 3d-printed a winder that holds the transformer and heavier speaker wire. I’ll test the antennas when bands are obviously better. I’ve not really used an EFHW much, so I’m curious to see how it performs compared to EFRW.
I saw some recovery today in the band today: Panama, Canary Islands, and the Cayman Islands.
Ron, WA3VEE, sent photos from the Antique Radio Meet in Kutztown.

My Question for the Night

What are the effects of solar cycle and solar activity on propagation? We’re in a high point of the solar cycle, so 10m is good, but too much and it blacks out propagation?

Discussion

Vic, KC3TYX, made a VARA-C contact.
Jim, KC3RFG, found an OCF dipole to be quieter than end-fed.
Jim, AF3Z, has trouble with his Ten-Tec radio sometimes not transmitting.
Jeff, W3JAM, wondered if anyone was making 6m contacts over solar storm.
Mike, W3MFB, noted that 17m sometimes is a pipeline right into Florida in afternoon/evening.
Tim, W3QP, is headed on SOTA campout.
Jack, K3YVQ, Is it OK to use GMRS on a radio that does ham freqs and more?
- Mike, W3MFB: technically, the radio should be locked to gmrs frequencies.
- on the air, no one would know, though.
- Ron, WA3VEE: FCC approves radios for particular services.
- GMRS radios are “type-acceptance”, and the right power limits.
- Some other radios might be hard to limit to the right power.
John, KC3WWC: What’s the solar storm do to propagation? Some activity is OK, but too much is bad?
- Chuck, NA3CW:
  - RF is produced by accelerating (“wiggling”) electrons.
  - Ionosphere doesn’t “bounce” signals, but instead “receives” and “retransmits”.
  - We have loose electrons in the upper atmosphere, good for retransmit.
  - Solar storm ionizes the atmosphere at different levels with varying intensity.
  - Our RF hits ions in lower part of the atmosphere and gets slowed, absorbed (D layer).
  - LF is affected the most, since it moves the electrons further.
  - Solar minimum offers less ionization at any level.
  - D layer, E Layer, F1 layer, F2 layer.
  - Better shortwave propagation at night.
  - Lots more is understood now about the ionosphere.
  - Frequencies are coordinated in SW to adapt to seasonal changes.
  - Electrons free in thicker air recombine more easily, so don’t pass RF.
  - Winter: great distances, because air is thinner.
- Tim, W3QP: noise also comes up during storm and masks signal.
- This video from Coastal Waves and Wires explains the effect a bit.

New Wires

Sat, 11 May 2024 15:41:09 -0400

The bands were dead with the terrible geomagnetic storm this weekend, so HF is very limited. I was only able to contact Lititz from Mountville.

With the downtime, I built some new EFHW antennas. I tied some wires to trees, stretched them out, and tuned each of the 2 20m EFHW antennas with the NanoVNA: one speaker wire, and the other lightweight silicone wire. I built new ununs and mounted them in plastic gum cases and a 3D-printed winder.

I also cut a lightweight EFRW, 12.5m, from the silicone wire and gave it a gum case as a winder.

I’ll test the new antennas soon when the bands are better.

EFHW Gum Case

EFHW Winder

EFRW Gum Case in Use

985 Workbench - 2024-05-06

Mon, 06 May 2024 22:54:43 -0400

My Week in Radio

Backyard antenna
- build
  - cleaned up the backyard
  - threw wires high in the tree near the top of the hill
  - took my time
    - routing
    - tied and supported solidly,
    - no stress on connectors
  - first floor window to high on the hill
  - the hill is to the east
- testing, discussion last week
  - made some contacts on 30m
  - switching
  - FT8 on 15m and pskreporter
  - counted decodes in wsjtx
  - new antenna had fewer decodes on average
  - compared the map - missing europe, since it followed the hill and not enough of the antenna is above the ridge
  - old antenna is mostly flat, but is 2nd floor and above
- scheme to get more of the wire higher
Reading the manual for fldigi
- better prepared for contesting and logging
- less fixing logs
Observing some very boring HF propagation
- if it weren’t for the propagation reports, I’d think I broke something.
- leaves also came in on my antenna tree

Discussions

Tim, W3QP, talked about sota.
Ron, WA3VEE, is helping a new operator shop for equipment.
Ron’s going to the antique radio show to sell.
Leon, AA3LH, is practicing CW.
Jeff, W3JAM, why do we conventionally use LSB and USB?
Bill, KC3OOK, does internet time sync work through hotspots?
John, KC3WWC, What are better interfaces to SOTA?
- map: https://sotl.as/
- phone apps
  - sota spotter
  - sota activator (update the maps periodically)
- uploads and data: https://sotadata.org.uk/
- Tim’s presentation: https://w3gmsrepeater.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/sota-an-overview.pdf

Backyard Alternate Antenna

Sun, 05 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I cleaned up the backyard a bit, and ran a new 12.5m (41ft) random wire up the hill behind the house.

My first tests the next day on 30m at 1W got me some contacts. By 4:40pm EDT, the bands were all in “poor” condition, so it got tough to test.

The next morning, I watched the 40m band close. It was ablaze at 8am, but getting pretty quiet by 10:30am EDT.

I compared the old antenna out the front with the new antenna out the back using FT8 and PSKReporter.

The back antenna saw fewer decodes on 15m on average. It mostly lacked any stations from Europe. Looking at the antenna’s physical attributes, it starts on first floor (lower than the old antenna) in backyard, but it slopes up more vertically. The middle of the antenna, on average, is blocked by the hill to the East.

The old antenna out the front saw more decodes overall, including Europe. It starts at second floor window and only slightly angles up. The whole antenna is higher and clears the hill, even though Europe may still be mostly all the end of the antenna. It performs better.

I had fun physically launching the new antenna, but I’ll need to do some more work to get more of it higher in the air to be useful.

Spin 30m

Sun, 05 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I spun the dial below the 30m ham band at the end of the night, and I caught all kinds of interesting broadcast (31m) and HF air traffic.

985 Workbench - 2024-04-29

Mon, 29 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Ham Radio

Built and deployed a 1/4 wave ground plane with radials
- wire soldered to an UHF chassis plug
- fed from the bottom
- hung in a tree by cord
York Hamfest and 2 parks out that way
- Codorus
- Sam Lewis
- EFRW
- Mostly ft8
- 40m hot at 5:30pm
- 2 phone contacts in Canadian parks for park-to-park QSO
- Took some time to experiment a little
- Fishing pole mast with 3D-printed fork on the end to catch the wire
- Stop pulling on coax…loosened ends
SPDX RTTY contest (Poland)
- 2 contacts
- ended at noon UTC on sunday, so ran out of time
AubsUK firmware for Quansheng
- 10 scanlists
- automatic scan on power-up, feature request
Picked up a new podcast: Ham Radio Workbench
Simplex Net: heard 16 of the 38 people

My Questions

with nicer weather and time to experiment with antennas, how would you recommend iterating and experimenting? I have:
- the QRP transceiver
- digital modes & pskreporter
- nanovna
- some modeling software I could learn
- the latest ARRL Antenna Book

Discussion

Dipoles, sloped or flat?
- Flat leaves nulls toward the ends
- Sloped fills it in to be a bit more omnidirectional
- An antenna close to the ground is going to be NVIS
- Vertical is omnidirectional
Ron’s seeing infinite SWR on the “screwdriver” antenna.
- Others have had problems as well.
Mike wonders about viability of using 6m FM in his area
My Question: How should I evaluate and structure my experiments with antennas?
- Conditions change constantly
- Learn to read solar data
- Take notes on conditions and try to test in similar conditions
- Vic’s experiments:
  - endfeds
  - hamsticks
  - radials
  - aluminum screen or faraday cloth for ground plane
- WSPRnet and pskreporter help gauge how you’re getting out
- See what you can hear
- Qualify callsign for different tests, so I can tell them apart in pskreporter: kc3wwc/a, kc3wwc/b, etc
Ken wonders about TNC for packet radio on HF/VHF
- Glenn, N3MEL would be the person to contact
We heard lots of interference and doubling in the beginning of the net
- This was likely another manifestation of intermod
- Tropospheric ducting happens more in morning in the summer

ISS Repeater

Mon, 29 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The ISS passed at 8:55am EDT at 49 degrees. My vertical 1/4-wave ground plane antenna in the tree picked it up really well. I copied a handful of callsigns pretty easily:

KO4PDI - FL
KC4Y - AL
K4MMD - FL
N5ACR - MD
KC4YMT - GA
KC3MM - SC
K3DMM - PA, Harrisburg

I confirmed hearing K3DMM on the Morning Grind round table (K3IR) a few minutes later that morning.

York Hamfest and POTA

Sat, 27 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

York Hamfest

I ran to York for the Hamfest and I saw a handful of new friends from SPARC and 985. I only bought some BNC adapters, a speaker that’s OK but not great, and a wireless keyboard/touchpad for my Raspberry PI projects.

POTA

While I was out, I figured I may as well play a little radio and activate 2 parks.

Codorus, US-1342

I ran the 12.5m EFRW stretched from high in a tree to a picnic table. I started at the picnic table, but moved into the car when it started to rain. To reach the car, I stretched my coax a bit and camped that to the table, and I ended up with no signal. The feed cable (RG174 with SMA connectors) had pulled loose from the SMA connector, so I had to debug that and push them back together. I operated 17m mostly, FT8, and contacts came a bit slow.

Sam Lewis, US-1418

This time I stung up the 21.56m EFRW, 2-3m off ground on ends, stretched between trees, and a fishing pole mast supporting the middle peak. 17m was still a bit slow, but 40m was hopping for FT8. I had a steady stream of contacts.

Before packing up, I spun the dial and found a park-to-park SSB on 40m: 2 operators on one radio at the intersection of 4 parks in Canada, so that counted for 8 hunter points.

Quarter-Wave Ground Plane Antenna

Wed, 24 Apr 2024 14:06:38 -0400

I followed calculations and instructions to build a quarter-wave ground plane antenna from some wire and a UHF connector that I picked up at the last Ham Fest in Harrisburg. I cut everything a little long and soldered it together. I trimmed the radials to about 54-inches and folded and rolled the radiator wire to a length that is resonant at 147MHz. I measured with the NanoVNA. Once it was at the right frequency, I found that bending the radials up and down could adjust the SWR at its lowest point on the graph. Keeping the radials slightly flatter had a lower SWR than the 45 degrees suggested in the original design.

This ground plane antenna feeds from the bottom, which is physically more sound than the vertical dipole I had up previously. I tested it last night when I strung it up, and it reaches Harrisburg and Parkesburg with no problem.

2m Ground Plane Antenna

SPARC Membership Meeting - 2024-04-23

Wed, 24 Apr 2024 08:25:08 -0400

Joined the Club

My membership was approved, so SPARC now has 146 members. Mark asked if I’m a climber. It sounds like lots of people chicken out about half way up when climbing the tower. When studying for my license, I didn’t commit a lot of the tower stuff to memory, since I didn’t expect to be involved in that sort of thing.

Ham Fest in York

SPARC will be at the Ham Fest in York with some “ham junk” for sale. Ralph, from Radio Shack, bought Souders’ small hardware business, so he’ll have all those small accessories there. Testing will be available at the Ham Fest on a walk-in basis.

Other Programs and Notes

Breakfast in Manheim, every 2nd Saturday, at City Star Diner.
Mike is building fox hunt transmitter. Someone else is building a battery for it.
Tech classes will start again, Maybe on Mondays. Someone suggested conducting a mock net for training.
UHF repeater is working. Full-time tied to VHF.
Field day is coming up soon at the club house.
There may be room for me to help with website maintenance.
Some people are going to Dayton Ham Fest.
Trying to use Ham Club Online again to manage membership. It’s a database for ham clubs. Ares is on it.
Balun Designs is a good source for durable hardware.
HFQso runs nets for testing propagation.
There’s an Appalachian Trail APRS Golden Packet event to pass an APRS packet the entire length of the trail.
Podcast: Ham Radio Workbench
- An old episode (1 year ago?) had Vance, N3VEM, doing rocket stuff.
- I’m never going to finish my podcast list.
I chatted with JJ, KC3QEH. I need to look into his POTA activations.

Club Net

I checked into the club net for the first time tonight.

Aubs Firmware

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I’m trying out the Aubs 00.07 firmware on my Quansheng radios. It’s based on the latest egzumer, and so far has kept up-to-date, and it has its own plugin for Chirp.

It has some really cool features for scanning:

scan on start, a feature I requested of egzumer, but was denied by egzumer.
10 scan lists. I organized mine as:
- 1 = local repeaters and popular simplex
- 2 = all simplex, Ham and GMRS
- 3 = non-local repeaters and other listening
- 4 = satellites
press * to lockout a frequency from scan.
fast scan like egzumer
frequency spectrum analyzer, but no memory spectrum analyzer like nunu.

This is my daily driver now on both my radios.

985 Workbench - 2024-04-22

Mon, 22 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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

APRS

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The Working Configuration

I’ve gotten APRS working with my current gear. I’m running my UV-K5 running egzumer 0.22.0 and VOX enabled. I set the radio volume pretty high, about 75%, and connected the BTech APRS cable and a USB-C 3.5mm audio adapter to my Pixel 6 Pro for an audio connection. The volume on the phone was set to nearly 100% volume. I ran APRSDroid in AFSK mode on the phone.

I watched for my position to show up on the map on https://aprs.fi/.

The Stuff That Didn’t Work

With nunu firmware, I needed to key it manually, but it worked. VOX didn’t work in the nunu 0.20.5, so I switch back to egzumer for working VOX.

Next Steps

I’ll next try to find an old phone to run the APRSDroid and try to use the Explorer QRZ-1, so I can dedicate some hardware to this project.

Revisiting Power Noise

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 16:59:56 -0400

When I first started with the X6100, I’d see some noise that buried real signals when plugged into AC power.

Running on battery was fine, and running on the external lead-acid 12V battery was OK too. For weeks, I used the battery to smooth the noise. I’d run an AC power supply in parallel with the battery and turn it up just high enough that I didn’t see noise in the waterfall. The battery smoothed the power.

I switched to a LiFePO4 battery, and I found the built-in charging circuit made it hard to balance input power and output power just right to keep it smooth.

I asked around on the X6100 mailing list and I got 2 suggestions I took:

a filter I can use with any cheap power supply I already have
a cleaner, and inexpensive, switching power supply from Ateck that puts out a fixed 12V/5A (Part#: PS120V5-D)

I purchased both to try, and both helped immensely, each on their own.

I wired up the filter with some 5525 connectors and printed a case for it. I use the filter in combination with my adjustable 24V/5A power supply on the go. That higher-voltage power supply is also useful to charge the LiFePO4 battery at 14.1V. The battery also lives in my box for portable operation.

I use the Ateck power supply on my desk by itself to power the radio at home.

FT8 DX

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The 40m band was hot at 5:30am EDT. I got:

Trinidad and Tobago
Dominican Republic
mostly eastern US otherwise

Switched up to 15m to get Finland, and I grabbed 1 local contact on 6m. I’ve accumulated 1800 contacts on QRZ, 1489 are confirmed, across 79 countries.

SPARC Elmer Night - 2024-04-16

Wed, 17 Apr 2024 14:18:16 -0400

I visited the K3IR tower site for their Elmer Night. People were configuring cameras and testing an ultra-portable FT8 setup:

truSDX radio
ft8cn on a phone
very lightweight wire antenna and transformer kit
an inexpensive, but super-long, fishing pole as a mast

(Now I need one of those fishing poles.)

I borrowed a soldering iron and started on my own project: assembling a couple common mode chokes from a short piece of RG174. It got dark quick, so I finished the chokes at home. It was my first time trying to crimp those SMA connectors.

I got a quick tour of all the repeater hardware. There are a lot more services running on these towers than I realized.

K3IR Tower

Chokes

985 Workbench Net - 2024-04-15

Mon, 15 Apr 2024 23:16:29 -0400

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

Spectrum Analyzer for Travel

Mon, 15 Apr 2024 15:49:26 -0400

I drove out to West Chester yesterday, but I’ve not bothered looking up and adding repeaters for the area. Instead, I could set the spectrum analyzer on the UV-K6 (or K5) to scan the 145MHz-148MHz, stepping on 5.00kHz, and I had a pretty good picture of any repeaters to hear out there.

Once I heard something, I could pop open RepeaterBook on my phone and see what it was, but it saved me lots of trouble programming anything into the radio ahead of time to not necessarily need it.

April Tower Drill

Sat, 13 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I’m listening to the April Tower Drill of Lancaster ARES. They seem to be roving around the county and contacting each of the repeaters to log a signal report at higher and lower power levels, especially down to HTs.

From the ARES page, I discovered a new repeater to add to my scan list: W3AD at 145.39 PL 118.8.

Ridley Creek POTA

Sat, 13 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

We had some time in West Chester to visit Ben and see the new Mini Countryman, so I stopped by Ridley Creek State Park to activate. I had lots of tangles trying to toss my 21.56m EFRW into a tree – it took 30 minutes just to get started, but I had the wire at least 25 feet into the air. I operated FT8 and FT4 on 10m from a pavilion. I hit lots of Western US, some Europe, Brazil, and even New Zealand!

Chasing DX

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

On the good old 12.5m EFRW, I’m trying 10m FT8 this morning. It’s going nowhere. 15m is much better.

Chasing Hawaii

I have ham-alert for anyone in PA, NJ, or MD spotting the Hawaii DXCC. I’ve been chasing Hawaii around over to 17m and other bands as they pop up, but I didn’t seem them much. It’s the last state I need of the 50.

10m is busy here in mid-afternoon, and I’m reaching south america on 5w. I got Suriname and Cayman Islands on 5w. then 10m maybe died again.

Pitcairn Island DXpedition

I just got the VP6G DXpedetion on 5w on FT8 on 28.0785MHz. That’s my first “OC”! I don’t know why they were shifted, but I saw it on the waterfall on my X6100, so checked it out.

Eclipse 2024

Mon, 08 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Matt and I ran to Erie, PA to watch the eclipse, and activated US-1402, Presque Isle State Park before eclipse. 10m was a bit slow, but I got there on FT8. I ran my 71-foot (21.65m) EFRW sloped up into a nearby tree from our station on a picnic table.

I got some audible screaming on the speaker in addition to the normal clicking when I hit the tuner. I usually have a choke near the radio, and that was missing.

It was cloudy and even some rain in the morning, but it cleared and we saw some blue sky before the eclipse started around 2pm.

Totality was at 3:16pm EDT. I have a video in 360 degrees.

Totality

21 Tech Net - 2024-04-07

Sun, 07 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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

Simplex Net West - 2024-04-06

Sat, 06 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I checked into simplex net west again.

FM Bandstop Filter

Wed, 03 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I posted to Facebook and got lots of discussion about the FM bandstop filter.

When I started adding better external antennas, I could reach further (tx and rx**, but I also found that some VHF frequencies got much worse. It turned out I was overloading the receiver with the strong FM broadcasts in my area and increased sensitivity of the better antenna. I found a bandstop filter helped bring back those signals I was losing.

NUNU Firmware UV-K5 & K6

Wed, 03 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve installed the NUNU fork of the egzumer firmware on the uv-k6. It has a cool channel spectrum analyzer for super-fast scanning that can see all the active channels at once in the graph. There’s no good way to proceed to the next channel, but that’s not a huge problem.

The firmware also includes some unneeded “NUNU” mesh messaging protocol.

Morning Grind & Bandstop

Tue, 02 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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.

Travel and Scanning

Sun, 31 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I took the Amtrak from Lancaster to Pittsburgh to visit Marie. In down times, I scanned with the spectrum analyzer on my UV-K5.

Rail

On the train, I scanned the rail frequencies, 159MHz-162MHz. I could hear some chatter about the Norfolk Southern freight trains in our way, and I heard the automated messages reporting clear track conditions.

CMU Buggy Net

Scanning the entire 2m band on Saturday morning, I heard the radio club kids running their regular net that supports buggy practices.

SPARC Member Meeting - 2024-03-26

Tue, 26 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I attended the SPARC member meeting tonight and heard about lots of interesting plans. They have some fun events coming up, like a fox hunt, some antenna building to prepare for the fox hunt, and even some POTA outings. They’ll also start planning for field day.

The main presentation was about the recent Dry Tortugas DXpedition.

I went home and sent my member application right away.

985 Workbench Net - 2024-03-25

Mon, 25 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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

21 Tech Net - 2024-03-24

Sun, 24 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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

Adjusting Bands on R1CBU

Sat, 23 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I updated the bands on my X6100 running R1CBU to follow the US band plan/privileges:

Clone source: https://github.com/strijar/x6100_gui
Update sql/bands_ham.csv to break bands by plan and privileges for US
Update sql/params.sql to not import band_params.csv, but to instead build it from the bands table
Rebuild the db: sqlite3 params.db < params.sql
Copy the new params.db to the DATA partition of the SD card

Rebuilding the database loses all your settings on the radio, so you have to put those back, but I can now see where the general privileges start and end on each band.

R1CBU 0.20.1

Wed, 20 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I updated my X6100 to R1CBU 0.20.1. Oleg provided a tgz with only the updated files, so I dropped the file into /DATA partition, started up the radio, and it unpacked the update. The tgz contained the x6100_ui binary and params.db.

This can be an interesting way to make my own updates without needing to know how to rebuild the entire image. I see the changes applied to his x6100_gui github repo, so I know that’s a good base for making future changes.

Learning to do make updates is interesting, because the original maintainer, Oleg, is likely done updating this firmware in favor of building his own radio in the image of the X6100. He’s frustrated trying to get help and documentation from Xiegu. I run the R1CBU firmware full-time.

VHF Reception

Tue, 19 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Reception Problems

During 985 net on Monday night, which is VHF on my UV-K5 running egzumer 0.22.0, I’d get periodic static in reception. It got bad enough to completely cut-out. I was using my simple wire dipole hanging in the tree outside.

K3IR had been frustratingly quiet as well, so I checked the antenna with the NanoVNA as it hung outside. There were no fluctuations in SWR, so it’s not connections or proximity.

I tried the Explorer QRZ-1 HT, and it sounded great on the same antenna on the same net. Is my UV-K5 broken?

To test a bit further, I ordered a new UV-K6 to compare. I also downgraded to egzumer 0.21.0 for further testing.

The next day, Tuesday morning, K3IR was sounding better, but I was getting the same periodic noises. The outside antenna doesn’t completely cut out, but shows terrible doubling/overload as if from FM station.

Inside, the magmount antenna on the 3d printer is better. Is the dipole outside too sensitive and bringing in more signal than the frontend of the UV-K5 can handle?

985 Workbench Net - 2024-03-18

Mon, 18 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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.

21 Tech Net - 2024-03-17

Sun, 17 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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.

985 Workbench Net - 2024-03-11

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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.

985 Workbench Net - 2024-03-04

Mon, 04 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This Week in Ham Radio

I pulled my j-pole wire into a tree by string for tonight, so it’s outside the house.
Started testing a longer 71-foot (21.65m) EFRW after months of using the shorter 41-foot EFRW.
- seems mostly the same, so far.
ARRL Internationl DX SSB Contest
- First time using SSB on HF
  - Usually digital modes
  - Not a rag-chewer: here to discuss tech
- 41-ft random wire
- 10 watts
- 42 valid contacts in 37 DXCCs
  - Did hit Russia, but then realized I had tuned too low for my privileges
  - Hit lots of other parts of Europe and South America
- I was Surprised how well SSB worked
- I might want a vanity url:
  - Shorter: less room for error
  - People don’t seem to expect “WW”
  - People misheard 2 -> 3
  - Might be easier to type
- It was nice to chase, since I could pause, relisten until I got the call, etc.

Question about Tuning SSB

During the DX contest, people were tuned all over, not just on full khz. A woman with a higher voice confounded me for a moment as I tried to get her to sound right. I was tuning by 100hz, so some were boomy low, a bit high-pitched, and some were just right. Tuning people a little higher made them easier to read, but that probably makes me lower for them. I tried to keep them as low as I could understand. RIT/XIT might have been useful for longer conversations.

What’s the best practice tuning SSB to hear clearly and tx as clearly as possible?

ARRL DX SSB 2024

Sun, 03 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Setup

The SSB part of the ARRL DX Contest this weekend was a phone contest contacting DX stations only. I used the X6100 running 10W and 41-foot random wire out front window from Mountville.

Exchange

The exchange was:

Me: 59 <state> (PA, papa alpha)
Them: 59 <tx power>

Score

My raw score for my 42 contacts was 3 * 42 * 37 = 4662, but I’m sure some logs may be busted, so it’ll be less. I qualified as low power, limited antenna.

I logged directly into QRZ.com. I could take time to understand their entire callsign and then call back.

Logs I submitted:

START-OF-LOG: 2.0
CALLSIGN: KC3WWC
CONTEST: ARRL-DX-SSB
CREATED-BY: adif2cabrillo.com version 3.0.1
QSO: 14318 PH 2024-03-02 0331 KC3WWC        59  PA     VP5M          59  100    1
QSO: 14288 PH 2024-03-02 0416 KC3WWC        59  PA     V3O           59  1000   1
QSO:  7227 PH 2024-03-02 0438 KC3WWC        59  PA     KP4AA         59  1000   1
QSO:  7191 PH 2024-03-02 0455 KC3WWC        59  PA     EI7M          59  1000   1
QSO:  7181 PH 2024-03-02 0500 KC3WWC        59  PA     TM6P          59  1000   1
QSO: 14271 PH 2024-03-02 0609 KC3WWC        59  PA     EW5A          59  1000   1
QSO: 14264 PH 2024-03-02 0612 KC3WWC        59  PA     WP3C          59  100    1
QSO: 28379 PH 2024-03-02 1622 KC3WWC        59  PA     OM0R          59  1000   1
QSO: 28396 PH 2024-03-02 1645 KC3WWC        59  PA     OL8W          59  700    1
QSO: 28455 PH 2024-03-02 1707 KC3WWC        59  PA     SP8R          59  1000   1
QSO: 28499 PH 2024-03-02 1726 KC3WWC        59  PA     YT1X          59  1000   1
QSO: 28516 PH 2024-03-02 1728 KC3WWC        59  PA     IO5O          59  500    1
QSO: 28586 PH 2024-03-02 1735 KC3WWC        59  PA     TK4TH         59  500    1
QSO: 28582 PH 2024-03-02 1742 KC3WWC        59  PA     E70T          59  1000   1
QSO: 28589 PH 2024-03-02 1757 KC3WWC        59  PA     P40L          59  1000   1
QSO: 21280 PH 2024-03-02 1826 KC3WWC        59  PA     SP8R          59  1000   1
QSO: 21294 PH 2024-03-02 1830 KC3WWC        59  PA     II2S          59  500    1
QSO: 21298 PH 2024-03-02 1837 KC3WWC        59  PA     EW5A          59  1000   1
QSO: 21322 PH 2024-03-02 1843 KC3WWC        59  PA     II2Q          59  500    1
QSO: 21330 PH 2024-03-02 1850 KC3WWC        59  PA     SN2B          59  1000   1
QSO: 28649 PH 2024-03-02 2244 KC3WWC        59  PA     LT3E          59  1000   1
QSO: 21445 PH 2024-03-02 2318 KC3WWC        59  PA     P40L          59  1000   1
QSO: 21420 PH 2024-03-02 2322 KC3WWC        59  PA     8P5A          59  1000   1
QSO: 21345 PH 2024-03-02 2350 KC3WWC        59  PA     PJ5/SP9FIH    59  100    1
QSO: 21338 PH 2024-03-02 2352 KC3WWC        59  PA     ED8W          59  1000   1
QSO: 21290 PH 2024-03-02 2357 KC3WWC        59  PA     ZF1A          59  1000   1
QSO: 14237 PH 2024-03-03 0013 KC3WWC        59  PA     TM6M          59  1000   1
QSO: 14247 PH 2024-03-03 0020 KC3WWC        59  PA     9A1A          59  1000   1
QSO: 14258 PH 2024-03-03 0022 KC3WWC        59  PA     IO6T          59  500    1
QSO: 14258 PH 2024-03-03 0025 KC3WWC        59  PA     TI1T          59  1000   1
QSO: 14272 PH 2024-03-03 0028 KC3WWC        59  PA     LP1H          59  1000   1
QSO: 14284 PH 2024-03-03 0035 KC3WWC        59  PA     IO5O          59  500    1
QSO:  7194 PH 2024-03-03 0048 KC3WWC        59  PA     SP8R          59  1000   1
QSO:  7258 PH 2024-03-03 0101 KC3WWC        59  PA     J62K          59  1000   1
QSO:  7236 PH 2024-03-03 0241 KC3WWC        59  PA     NP4Z          59  73     1
QSO: 14330 PH 2024-03-03 0312 KC3WWC        59  PA     II2Q          59  500    1
QSO: 28308 PH 2024-03-03 1457 KC3WWC        59  PA     S55OO         59  1000   1
QSO: 28327 PH 2024-03-03 1511 KC3WWC        59  PA     9A7V          59  1000   1
QSO: 28367 PH 2024-03-03 1526 KC3WWC        59  PA     NP2J          59  1000   1
QSO: 28369 PH 2024-03-03 1532 KC3WWC        59  PA     SJ8R          59  1000   1
QSO: 21285 PH 2024-03-03 2332 KC3WWC        59  PA     HK1T          59  1000   1
QSO: 21338 PH 2024-03-03 2343 KC3WWC        59  PA     T42T          59  1000   1
END-OF-LOG: 2.0

Problems

I had some problems conveying my call over phone:

Stations heard my “3” as “2”
Stations don’t expect “WWC” (“whiskey whiskey charlie”), and hear it as “VWC” (“victor whiskey charlie”).

I made 42 valid contacts, and 4 were outside my privileges as general. I’m not accustomed to thinking about the boundaries in the SSB portion of the bands.

For my future reference, I noted voice ranges for general:

3800-4000 khz
7175-7300 khz
14225-14350 khz
21275-21450 khz
28300-29700 khz

Question on Tuning SSB

During the contest, people were tuned all over the place and not aligned on 1 or 0.5 khz. I tried to align with them, but sometimes higher was easier to read, but does that shift my voice for them? RIT/XIT may have been the answer for longer contacts, but not for this quick stuff. A woman’s higher voice confounded me a bit as I tried to fine tune.

Conclusion

I had great fun yelling my callsign all weekend, and it’s the most I’ve ever used my microphone.

New 21.56m EFRW

Thu, 29 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I assembled a new 71-ft (21.56m) EFRW and strung it up at Emily’s. It’s 5-6ft off the ground. I give it a 17-ft (5.2m) counterpoise and a 9:1 unun as usual. 2:30pm EST, 1W into it gets me midwest to a little bit of Europe on 10m. I’m not making many contacts, so I bumped up to 5W.

The antenna tunes on 40m too just fine. I’m getting a few more contacts there.

As a new strategy, I’m aiming for ALC around 1.0, instead of just below any movement. This allows me to not touch the power slider in WSJT-X quite so much.

R1CBU 0.20.0

Thu, 29 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A new R1CBU firmware is available for the X6100.

I wrote the image to the micro SD card:

$ sudo dd if=x6100_r1cbu_v0.20.0_sdcard.img bs=1M of=/dev/sdb status=progress

It’s working fine. Auto levels for waterfall and spectrum seems useful, but it still shows the min/max level settings that do nothing while in auto. I had to set up all preferences again, since it comes with a new database on the image.

985 Workbench Net - 2024-02-12

Mon, 12 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Ham Radio

CQ WPX RTTY contest
- Chased 41 contacts
- Called CQ with no responses
Played in the front yard getting my existing random wire a little higher in the tree
Running around 20 minutes before this meeting to try to get my 2m antenna in a place that makes sense. I failed, so I’m on EchoLink.

Others’ Questions

Number codes? 73, 72 best regards in QRP.
Recapping equipment
- Check temperature ratings of capacitors 85C vs 105C
- Keeping voltage applied regularly keeps a capacitor in good function
- Try to operate capacitors nearer to their V rating to keep them “formed up”
- Is anything leaking from the bottom of the caps
- Signs of problems?

CQ WPX RTTY Contest

Mon, 12 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I did the CQ WPX RTTY contest over the weekend. RTTY is fun and more interactive than FT digital modes.

985 Workbench Net - 2024-02-05

Mon, 05 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Ham Radio

Chuck’s repairs sound fascinating
- enough basic electronics from childhood to get to general
HF radio
- QRP X6100 with 3rd party firmware - R1CBU
- Maintainer is flaming out
  - ungrateful complaints
  - unhelpful bug reports
- Source code is available, so some of us may pick it up
- UI is an app running on a small embedded linux computer
Flashed new firmware onto my Quansheng UV-K5 HT
Restrung a random wire
- From a steep sloper into a tree in front yard to flat horizontal to the shed in the backyard.
- Patterns in FT8 contacts look a little different
Learning CW
- Morse machine
- All 40 characters they quiz: Koch method
- Try the feel with a 3d-printed iambic key
- Next try a different character set: cwops
- Next more traditional copying exercises

Question

Often rebuilding and testing antennas
- On HF, I can test with FT8 and pskreporter
- See effect of my changes and maybe more propagation conditions
- For VHF, how variable are the conditions?
- On the fringe of accessing 985.
- Slight repositions with unintuitive results
- What conditions affect propagation to a repeater like this one?
- What can I measure?
Requirements for the Scout badge in radio?

985 Workbench Net - 2024-01-29

Mon, 29 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

My Week in Ham Radio

FCC/ARRL meeting in Harrisburg
Activated a state game land park after the meeting
- 10m
- near Middletown
- Lots of west coast
- Compared vertical whip with jumpered coil vs efrw
Built more wire j-poles for more permanent mount
- NanoVNA is lots of fun, since I can now measure and tune any antennas
Field day at Welsh Mountain with W3RRR club
- Repack bag yet again for portable op
- Learned about winlink
- Operated outside on 80m at 3pm, so slow
Clipperton on 40m FT8
Back to learning CW on morse machine at LCWO.net
- 20wpm
- Single character at a time, waiting for me to answer before proceeding

Day of Radio

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

ARRL/FCC/ARCC in Harrisburg

KA3TKW and the 21 repeater group hosted a lunch with representatives from the ARRL, the FCC, and the ARCC.

POTA

I stopped at State Game Land 246 near Middletown to activate on 10m FT8/FT4.

I used 2 different antennas: - initially used Grabil whip fully extended, shorted coil, w/ tuner - 12.5m EFRW thrown into a tree Both antennas seemed to perform similarly. I was skipping far: lots of contacts came from Oregon, Washington, and I even got Alaska.

Clipperton DX

Later that day, I also contacted the Clipperton DX station, TX5S, on 40m via FT8

985 Workbench Net - 2024-01-22

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

My week in ham radio:

Discovered the 985 nerds podcast
Watching Clipperton split operation
Lunch in Harrisburg with ARRL & FCC
ISS repeater broke squelch @ 2am
Looking for a Winter Field Day
- 985 is doing one
- Will probably check out a more local one, like W3RRR’s event

21 Tech Net - 2024-01-21

Sun, 21 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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

Ladder Line J-Pole

Wed, 17 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I bought a project J-Pole made of 450-ohm ladder line at the Hamfest for a couple dollars. I rebuilt the connections, firmed up broken parts with some wood splints and tape, and tuned it with the NanoVNA.

It seems to be working pretty nicely for 2m and 70cm. I’m pulling in stronger signals, and still able to transmit.

Harrisburg Hamfest

Sat, 13 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I bought a few things:

a handful of connectors for audio and antennas
a project j-pole made of 450 ladder line

RTTY Round-Up

Sun, 07 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I participated in the RTTY Round-Up.

Trouble with fldigi/R1CBU

I screwed around lots trying to get fldigi talking to the radio. R1CBU software works great with wsjt-x, but fldigi and flrig completely failed to connect. It wouldn’t key the radio. Switching back to stock software on the radio worked fine with flrig, but where’s the fun in that.

For flrig, I could tell it that it was an older version of the radio (X5105?), and it would key and set frequency, but flrig wouldn’t read back the frequency when updated at the radio.

I ultimately got fldigi talking to R1CBU by using flcat with an xml file for G106.

Then I could “tune” power output following instructions in fldigi manual.

Working!

I started making some contacts on 10M and 15M. It’s much more like voice contacts: yelling back and forth on the same channel. I’m using macros and sticking to those for the contest. They’re on the 3rd page of macros in fldigi.

I’ve made at least a few contacts, so I’ll submit them to the contest

R1CBU on X6100

Sun, 31 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve loaded the R1CBU UI on the X6100. Reading the manual exposes all sorts of great features and conveniences:

Highlights

Large waterfall
Lots of options on MFK and VOL knobs, and it’s customizable
SWR scan is very fast
CW decoder is robust
ALC starts at 0.0
Serial console access: minicom -D /dev/ttyACM0, root, 123

Bugs

Setting time down to the second is weird. I used serial console and CLI instead.

QRZ Awards

Fri, 22 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I found the QRZ awards tab on the logbook, and applied for awards for which I’ve qualified. They now show on my profile.

Egzumer on UV-K5

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I installed a new firmware, egzumer, on my Quansheng UV-K5. The firmware has some handy features:

It displays name and frequency at once
It leaves the backlight on all the time at a lower level

ALC

Tue, 28 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Here’s a good demo of what ALC is doing. It’s clipping off the top of the signal, so turn the power up to just before ALC reacts, whether it’s 0->100 like the radio in the video or 100->0 like Xiegu radios.

Welfare Net

Tue, 28 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I checked into the Welfare Net at 7:45pm ET. KC3MBB, Brett, just up the street at Donnerville and Stony Battery Rd contacted me afterward to welcome me.

Navtex

Mon, 27 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Tuned to 8416khz, I received a Navtex weather report. I tuned the X6100, CW, FIL2 set to be really narrow, and I let fldigi decode the transmission as Navtex.

Tuning a Dipole by Coiling

Mon, 27 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I have a dipole that’s 20m long (10m each side) strung through the house right to the banana plug adapter to the radio and no coax. I’ve coiled the wires together at the feed point to shorten and tune. I can run 40m with tuner turned off. I’m hitting Europe, Central America, Canada, and the midwest US.

I figure, since the wires are insulated and kept parallel to each other, the coil is serving as feed line and not part of the antenna.

W3GMS Workbench - 2023-11-27

Mon, 27 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I pass off to KC3SCY, Luke, or AF3Z, Jim.

We discussed baluns:

4:1 balun
1:1 balun will let a dipole tune wider on any band
9:1 <-> 1:9 can transform for long runs of transmission cable

Power Supply Noise

Tue, 14 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Running the 41-foot (12.5m) random wire, it works great for 10m and 20m. It tunes really quickly. The power supply gives lots of buzzing and noise on these bands. ATT tames the power supply noise pretty well.

Antennas

Tue, 07 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Antenna of the day: 12.5m random wire w/ 9:1 unun strung from high in loft to the outside laundry line. It tunes for 10m, 12m, 15m, and 20m nicely, but not for 40m. I switched to 5m dipole twist for 40m.

Quansheng Firmware Updates

Tue, 07 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I flashed minor updates to the UV-K5 using Chromium and https://whosmatt.github.io/uvmod/. This got me the following features:

RSSI meter
Mic boost
Better menu strings
18mhz-1300mhz for receive
Backlight on for longer

Flrig

Fri, 03 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I originally had wsjt-x and js8call talking directly to X6100 to do CAT, but fldigi wants flrig, so I set it up. Now i have flrig running all the time, and have wsjt-x talk to that. Maybe it’ll be more reliable with fewer hiccups and disconnects.

X6100 Internal Battery

Fri, 03 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I’m running FT8 on 10m with only the internal battery. I’m finding I’m only able to push ~3W. SWR looks good.

On external power supply, I can push up to 10W

First HF Radio

Wed, 25 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

(After passing the test, I immediately ordered a Quansheng UV-K5 HT. I also ordered this weird $120 HF radio based off the open source usdx project. The HF radio was garbage: the screen was tiny, the audio/CAT control was confusing or non-existent, and it liked to lock up and stop updating its screen. I returned it to Amazon.)

I had been in a hurry, since I was heading to Florida for the week. While I was down there, I discovered the Ham Radio Outlet in Orlando, so I ran there to look around and purchased the Xiegu X6100 QRP rig.

I also picked up a couple accessories shortly afterward to go with it:

connectors between bnc and sma
5W adjustable power supply that didn’t quite cut it all the time (24Vx5W)
10w adjustable power supply (12Vx10W)
speaker wire
banana clip connectors
Ham Radio Today: X6100 book on kindle

Passed General

Sat, 07 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I went to the Hamfest in New Holland and tested for my Ham license. I had studied for Technician, and that went really well, so I tried the test for General. I passed that by only 1 or 2 correct answers, so I’m a General!

Time to order some gear.

SWL

Sat, 07 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I was using the horizontal dipole from the RTL-SDR v3 kit, fully-extended. I saw some good gray-line propagation into Asia.

China
- 17605khz in Indonesian
- 17530khz in Vietnamese
Taiwan
- 15970khz Chinese
- 15340khz Chinese
Australia
- 15460 Japanese and English - Reach Beyond Australia (HCJB)
Philipines
- 15250khz Chinese - Voice of America
Cuba
- 15140khz

SW Finds

Fri, 29 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

6339khz USB

I decoded an iceberg map with fldigi from WeFAX. qsstv tried to decode it as well as PD240, but poorly.

10860khz

Cuban Spy Numbers

15720khz

New Zealand SW station!

5615khz

Gander HF Air Traffic HF is used for transatlantic routes.

Matthew

Wed, 13 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Matthew passed his test for Technician. Callsigns:

GMRS: WRXX561
HAM: KC3WRY

He can use 10m and up with technician license.

SW Broadcast

Mon, 11 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I heard around 31m band (9700khz):

Romania
Cairo
France
Turkye

Also:

11620khz Romania
11850khz Kuwait
13590 Algeria
13790 Algeria

ISS Repeater

Thu, 07 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I tuned to the ISS Repeater on 437.8Mhz as it went overhead (according to gpredict). I couldn’t hear anything really, but I saw a signal sweeping in and out (doppler shift) as it would have been crossing over head.

WWV

Tue, 05 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I heard WWV, the Fort Collins time signal at 5MHz in Neffsville. It was beeps, chirps, and an announcement.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWV_(radio_station)

Busy 40m

Mon, 04 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I used the fully-extended, large dipole kit and the RTL-SDR to successfully receive lots of 40m signals. It may have been especially busy, since it was Labor Day in the US and Canada. I found FT8 (40m and elsewhere) signals from St Lucia, Slovinia, South America, Cuba, and a little FT4 (40m).

I also found some BPSK31, RTTY/45, and still unidentified digital signals.

ARRL Bulletin over HF

Tue, 29 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I had fldigi listening to SDR++ tuned to 7096kHz LSB for 20 minutes and decoded a couple different documents via different modes.

I also spun the dial to catch a couple other transmissions.