Category: radio

Busy day…..

(1) Complete support pole for G5RV feed point….
– this is complete except for the guy-wire. I need to get guy-wire for the upper 1/3 and lower 1/3 of the mast. I think the mast is going to work out well. It is composed of two painter’s poles (Mr. Long Arm). Each has a maximum length of 23′. For the upper section, I cut away the handle on the bottom. This will allow me to nest the upper portion’s lower 1/3 into the bottom portion’s top 1/3 of the pole. I think the total height of the mast will be around 38′. Also drilled a hole in the very top of the upper section and put an eye-bolt through it. Attached to the eye-bolt is a d-ring. I will attach the top of the feed point for the G5RV to the d-ring. As long as I can get some guy-wire… I’ll be good to go.

(2) Prep supports for the G5RV ends….
– got two large buckets from Home Depot. I placed a 3″ piece of PVC pipe (length just over the lip of the bucket) vertically in the center of the bucket. Around the pipe I put in about 4″ of cement. Turned about pretty good. I’ll be able to slide in a 2 1/2″ PVC pipe (10′ long) into the bucket and use it to secure the ends of the G5RV.

(3) Get a pop-up shelter for the operations table….
– got it at Target. 10′ by 10′ with a mosquito net. It will probably due okay in light rain, but not much more.

… and that was it for the list.

I did set up the FT-817 outside with my new RigBlaster NOMIC. Worked pretty good, got an PSK31 contact on 20M from Iowa with 5 watts. Have not set up the Tokyo amp yet.

Preparation for W4M

Only 5 days left to prep for the W4M special invent station. The recon is complete – I’m moving off the moat down to the Irwin Battery. The upper battery puts me at almost the same height of the Old Point Comfort Lighthouse. And the view is fantastic.

What’s left to do:
(1) Complete support pole for G5RV feed point
(2) Prep supports for the G5RV ends
(3) Get a pop-up shelter for the operations table
(4) Fix dipole vertical
– re-solder connection to base
– strengthen pole support
(5) Update USAARS website
(6) Create special event operator script
(7) Prep log books

A Simple ‘Iambic Paddle’ for Travelers


From : Charles & Sandra Cohen

Scott —

Sorry, no parts list. And the bottom is covered by silicone rubber, so a photo won’t help you.

Radio Shack should have everything except maybe the two switches. Those, you could get at any electronic parts distributor as “tactile switches”. They come in various sizes. Mine are 12mm square, with a 160 gm activation force. (less activation force would be better, but I wouldn’t want anything smaller).

The top of my phone jack was transparent, and I could figure out which pin (on the bottom) corresponded to which phone plug contact. You might have to enlarge one or two holes in the board, and I bent or broke one unused pin. But the rest of the pins go through the holes to the back of the board, and hold the phone jack in place.

Each switch has four pins (two for each side of the switch contacts). I just pushed them through the holes in the board without any sockets. The pins fit tightly enough so there’s no play after the pins are soldered (as described next).

On the back of the board, there are four wires soldered in place:

One from the “dit” switch to the “tip” contact of the phone jack;

One from the “dah” switch to the “middle ring” contact of the phone jack;

One from the “ground” (outer barrel) contact of the phone jack to the _other side_ of the “dit” switch;

Another from the “ground” contact of the phone jack to the _other side_ of the “dah” switch.

The ceramic fridge magnets (Krazy-glued to the back) are thick enough so that the pins of the switches and phone jack don’t touch the FT-817. I covered the soldered joints with silicone sealant — no possibility for accidental shorts, that way.

That’s it. This was one of the few times that something I built worked right on the first try. This is _not_ a fancy project.

Good luck !

Charles

K9YA Code Practice Net – SLOW

Wednesday May 17, 2006
7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
This event repeats on the third Wednesday of every month.
Event Location: 7.137 MHz (plus or minus QRM)
Street: http://www.k9ya.org
Notes:
Listen for CQ Slow Net—send your callsign. We QRS to the speed of the slowest
op. We’re here to have fun and practice code.

UTC: Currently 24ØØ Z

FREQUENCY: 7.137 MHz +/- QRM

Venture crew 59 – Jambo Scoutfest 2006

Venture Crew 59 will host a Special Event Station KC3BSA at the Jambo Scoutfest 2006. Jambo 2006 will be held on the Kutztown University Campus in Pennsylvania from May 19-May 21. There will be approximately five thousand scouts attending this event. VC59 will put SSB/CW, PSK31, SSTV, EcoLink, & 2M/6M stations on the air this weekend starting Friday evening.

VC59 will mail out a great-looking certificate for working KC3BSA. For QSL information and additional info click on the link below. We’ll be listening for you – KC3BSA!

http://www.crew59.org

72/73,
Ed, WA3WSJ

28th Anniversary of Packet Radio

At around 9PM on May 31, 1978 were the first KNOWN transmissions of Packet over Amateur Radio. The location was Bill Wong’s Restaurant in Montreal, Canada.

The Montreal Packet Net Group C/O:

Bob Rouleau VE2PY; Norm Pearl VE2BQS; Fred Basserman VE2BQF; Bram Frank VE2BFH; Jacques Orsali VE2EP; Ted Baleshta VE3CAF; Ian Hodgson VE2BEN; among others not mentioned.

They operated on a single 220Mhz channel using start-stop ASCII with the Ethernet CSMA/CD protocol. The protocol was modified for amateur applications by Robert T. Rouleau, VE2PY, and implemented by Fred Basserman, VE2BQF. Montreal Packet Net (MP-Net) Operated at 2400 bit/s using home-built modems.

A detailed description of the Montreal Protocol and hardware used in the experiments is given in the TAB book #1345 “PACKET RADIO” by Bob Rouleau and Ian Hodgson published in 1981. An interesting note is that the Montreal Modem design used the Exar XR-2206/2211 chip set. I am told that a sample of the Montreal Modem was sent to the Vancouver group (VADCG) in the fall of 1978 and it is probably no coincidence that the same chip set appeared in the TAPR TNC modem of which Doug Lockhart of VADCG had a hand in designing.

After an initial spurt of activity in amateur packet, Bob Rouleau and several others in the group turned to commercial applications for packet radio. The resulting company, DATARADIO Inc, today is building and marketing commercial packet radio systems around the world. A typical application is the Canadian Weather Radio packet service introduced some years ago using DATARADIO equipment specially designed for the application.

Bob was inducted into the CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame in 2003

To Commemorate this 28th anniversary listen for W4P from May 26, 2006 – June 4, 2006

Operating will be on both CW and SSB on the “normal” frequencies, i.e.

SSB 3.790 – 7.190 – 14.190

CW 3.520 – 7.020 – 14.025

+/- QRM

Certificate available for a Large SASE

QSL to NA4DR

The Lightship Portsmouth

Did a recon today in Portsmouth and found the lightship. I think it would be a blast activating the lightship. However, the position is going to be tricky…. it’s almost totally surounded by buildings. I think my best bet will be to set up in front (to the west) of the ship along the walkway paralleling the water.

http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=2+high+street,+portsmouth,+va&ll=36.837248,-76.296659&spn=0.001923,0.005407&t=h&om=1

Old Point Comfort Lighthouse activation

What a wonderful morning at Old Point Comfort Lighthouse, Fort Monroe, VA on the Chesapeake! Blue, clear skies, temp at 60d F, with a slight breeze. I could see the Norfolk Navy Base across the bay and watched as USNS Comfort pulled out towards the Atlantic.

I pulled up to my position on the top of the wall surrounding historic Fortress Monroe, right above the moat. Instead of using my mag mount Hamstick, I set up the homebrew vertical dipole on the edge of the wall, raising the mast to about 10 feet. Setup was complete by about 0740/1140(UTC) and started calling CQ on 40M.

Callsign State Member
WA1OHR CT Y/#587
W1VR FL Y/#143 operating from USA 869
W1MCE NH Y/#491

The band died down and I took W1MCE’s advised and switched to 20M.

Callsign State Member
VO1RYL Canada Y/#1218
K0VDP ND N
KB7IOG WA N
KE5FWY TX N
KB7BGS UT N
KC0UIQ CO N
KE7CWR WA N

I then dropped back down to 40M to finish up the morning.

Callsign State Member
K2DNV NJ Y/#1004
N3LWM PA N
K8WFL OH N
N8GW OH N

I shut down at 1050/1450(UTC) and packed up. Thank you for the contacts and the spots on DX Summit and the Beacon Bot. I really enjoyed all the exchanges.

Please look for US Army Amateur Radio Society’s special event station W4M on 27-28 May, operating from Fort Monroe (and USA 567) in commemoration of Memorial Day.

KTF!

73 Scott AD7MI

Weekend wrap up

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