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:
- 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:
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”