Got to see a bit of the air show today from a nearby park that has a good view of Langley Air Force Base. Had my Bearcat Scanner (BC245XLT) with the Radio Shack antenna and was able to monitor the Air Boss as well as the air/ground communications for the Golden Knights parachute team.
Tired to contact the special events station at Fort Knox (W2P), but the propagation just wasn’t there. I was able to make two other SSB contacts while trying as well as a PSK31 contact with a Swedish amateur radio operator on St. Martin.
Worked on cleaning the radio room.
Started looking at using my TH-D7A for accessing a DX packet cluster… but I’m not sure if we have any packet clusters in the area. We’ll see.
I’m looking at getting an amp for my FT-817 so I can use it for portable operations without having to pull the IC-706 out of the shack.
Finished about 30 QSL cards to be sent out tomorrow.
Weather Display works on Ubuntu!! I need to transition my weather station from the radio room to the linux box out in the garage. I need to figure out how to do do the FTP upload and webcam.
Started working on a webpage for Old Point Comfort Lighthouse activations: http://www.ni0l.com/monroe/monroe.html
I finished the modifications to the vertical dipole and it’s good to go on 20M and 40M! I ended up attaching the SO-239 directly to the base of the antenna, improving the connection by drilling a small hole for the center pin to fit into and then securing it with solder. To the ground ring of the SO-239, I attached a banana plug to make it easier to remove the wire portion of the antenna. I then attached an additional 4′ section to the antenna. I used a 6″ piece of 3/4″ copper to join the additional length. Then it was test time. I spooled the wire out to 32′ and moved the tap to the top of the coil. Good to go with a 1:1.2 SWR at 7072 kHz. I had a nice PSK31 QSO with Rick, K8CAV, near Cleavland, Ohio. I then rolled the wire up to 16′ and set the tap down to the bottom of the coil. Again, a nice low SWR and I had a quick QSO with CT2ILI in Portugal. I think the antenna is ready for primetime. The last piece is to figure out how to secure the antenna to a long painter’s pole to give it about 25′ of height and then how to secure the painter’s pole in a vertical position.
May 7, 1530Z-2230Z, Fort Knox, KY. Owensboro Amateur Radio Club, W2P. VE Day, General George Patton, 3rd Army and 8th Armored Division. 14.248 14.048 7.248 7.048. QSL. Schley Cox, W4AMW, 1860 Antler Ave, Owensboro, KY 42303-1873. www.k4hy.net. 
May 6, 1400Z-1900Z, Byesville, OH. Cambridge Amateur Radio Association, Inc, W8VP. 5th anniversary from Buckeye Central Scenic RxR Train. 14.260 14.250 7.245 7.235. QSL. Cambridge Amateur Radio Association, PO Box 1804, Cambridge, OH 43725. www.w8vp.org. 
One tip I received from the Amateur Radio Lighthouse Society guys was to have the ability to spot your lighthouse activation on a DX packet cluster. I was thinking I’d have to bring a laptop and my TNC – which add additional complications to my setup. Then I remembered I have my trusty Kenwood TH-D7A, with a built in TNC. Although most of my packet use with the radio has been APRS related, I’ve used it before to do standard packet work along with an Palm Pilot. So – I think that’s my answer for the next lighthouse activation…. I’ll bring the TH-D7A along with the Palm Pilot and spot myself on the local DX cluster. I need to test it out to make sure I know how to spot to the cluster.