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.

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.

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

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. :)

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.

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

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.

My Week in Radio

• 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

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

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.