Today I'm playing with my #amateurradio set up.
There's a UK military cadet operation on this weekend where cadet stations contact #hamRadio operators on the 60 metre band. Happens a couple of times a year.
It's very different from my normal radio hobby, and quite good fun.
The trouble is - I'm now looking at the aerials in the garden critically!
I'm going for a challenge run. Next exam session for the club in this town is monday. The next tuesday, my vanity call gets activated. Let's see if I can advance from unlicensed to Extra, in three consecutive testing sessions (meaning 1 week study per exam), before that happens.
I have one day (not really one shot, they'll keep throwing exams at me as long as I keep sending them $14 payments until the session end) to try and do this. All my practice results come out ~86%, lowest across all practice exams is... 74.00%.
By the numbers I'm going to do this (and I'm not even 30), though it seems my ability to retain knowledge (without someone kind enough to provide the background information and math) is getting saturated here, I don't know if I'll bring my average much above 90%. I'd love to ace an Extra but I'll take any pass over no pass.
I've got an FTM-3100 (2m FM) radio sitting on the shelf not being used, and I feel like I should do something with it. Not sure what though... I already have another being used as an APRS Igate. #AmateurRadio
I wonder if any hams have an idea of what's going on here:
When I run my ICOM-705 in a digital mode like FT8 I get pretty consistent USB disconnects during xmit. Icom gets stuck in xmit and needs reboot.
I narrowed it down to when I am xmitting at >=5W and the antenna is attached. If I plug a dummy load in (at the end, past my antenna tuner, in the same physical location as my antenna feed point) or drop power, it's ok.
Just register for an account and an email will be sent to you with a download link. It took about 45 minutes for the email with the download link to arrive. File size (an .exe) is a little over 1 GB.
I don't know how long this offer will last, so get it as quickly as you can if you're interested.
🧵1/3: SOTA peeps you want to read this. I've found this nifty new #SummitsOnTheAir tool for users of @ARRL Logbook of the World by Jack G5JDA and it's pretty mega.. #hamradio#amateurradio#hamr#sota
Couple of dummy loads put together with 50 ohm 250W resistors. That should more than do me until I want to test more than 100W out of a PA! #hamradio#amateurradio
I just delivered a #radiogram .. it's like a telegram over #AmateurRadio .. via #MorseCode .. but the conditions were sketchy, and we had to relay the message.
Local Slow Nets are awesome for learning #CW Nets at a comfortable pace.
Apparently like 3 days ago I received a package and never really noticed
So I open it and this is what I'm greeted with. Someone just randomly sent me a DMR HT with handwritten note saying that they saw my QRZ page where I mentioned that I wanted to get to DMR but didn't have the spare cash to invest in it, realized they had this that had a broken battery clip that had been sitting on the shelf gathering dust, and boxed it up.
They knew that a piece of plastic and the retaining spring had broken off inside of the battery clip, but could not tell where they went. I could see it almost immediately, and I'm waiting for the glue to dry right now.
Furthermore, the letter wasn't signed with anything identifying, so I don't even know who to thank.
Assuming my glue fix works correctly, the programming cable should arrive tomorrow.
I spent some time last night listening to hams make contact through the International Space Station repeater. It’s so exciting to be able to hear this activity and see the ISS as it passes overhead. I highly recommend it!
After almost 2 yrs of #parksontheair activations, I decided to gift myself a #sotabeams Travel Mast. I think I might continue to do #pota for a while. Makes for easy transport for #hamonabike. Will test today when rain stops. #amateurradio#hamradio@SOTAbeams
At CSU Channel Islands, we are building an amateur radio club (KN6ZYB) that aims to be diverse and inclusive. I am looking for best practices in fostering and protecting diversity. Thompson's best advice on this count is to identify other clubs that have managed to do that for themselves.
So I am asking the #hamradio#amateurradio community here: Can you tell me of any US amateur radio clubs you know of that have managed to attract and maintain a diverse membership? I'd like to reach out to their leaders to learn about their management practices.
There's no secret to the statement that I tend to get "shiny thing" syndrome something fierce. Cool shit catches my eye. Go figure.
But, I'm trying to keep my eyes on what I want to do - which is, learn CW.
To wit, a third competitor in the "next equipment purchase" category has appeared:
XPA125B amp for my X6100. 100 watts with the existing radio
FT-891 Radio, plus digirig and the power pole mod. Probably fans, too; apparently the 891 gets a little toasty in digital work.
TR-35 CW QRP radio - because I'm working on CW, and while the X6100 does do CW, I suspect encouraging myself to use it by way of a radio that does only it wouldn't be a bad idea.
The first two are largely in my pursuit of digital modes with a side order of phone and cw. The last is CW only, and maybe me using my own shiny thing syndrome against myself to actually use it. I'd probably get myself a sparkplug EFHW to run it from, too; combine with a 3aH bioenno and take my rather sizable load out for mobile ops and boil it down to something popped into a small box.
VarAC digital chatting on Amateur Radio seems to be getting more popular than JS8Call
This is at least apparent for what I’m observing in my country on the Southern tip of Africa. The reason seems to be that VarAC provides most of the functions that JS8Call already provides, and then provides a lot of usability improvements as well as transmit ...continues