21 on John Flinchbaugh KD3EE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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: 2024-12-01

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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