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.

Ark AC4HB 145.090
Bull Run Mt W4XP 144.990 & 441.200 (PVDXSN)
Chesapeake WY7C 145.010 (SEVA)
Chesapeake WY7C 145.070
Elliston K1GG [POOR] 145.090
Elliston K1GG 145.650
Elliston K1GG [DXPOOR] 147.510
Forest N2QT 145.670 (Lynchburg)
N2QT [DXFOR] 145.590 (Jack Mountain)
Great Falls W0YVA 145.510
Hampton WA4OHX 145.010 (SEVA)
Hampton WA4OHX 145.070
Lorton N4SR 145.530
Mt Weather N4OHE 145.710 & 440.925 (PVDXSN)
Richmond WU4G [CVCC] 144.990 & 145.590
Ringgold K4AU 144.910 & 145.610
Woodbridge N4SR 145.530

DX Cluster packet commands: http://www.ng3k.com/Cluster/index.html

I pulled out all my junkbox computer parts, gathered the two desktop towers that had gone south some time back, and hauled it all in to the family room along with a huge monitor. The mission – setup a desktop tower running Ubuntu Linux in the garage and attach it to the network with a wireless connection. I want a desktop that I can use for data storage… music, video, pictures. I’ve got a lot of old harddrives, including USB drives, that I have no idea what’s on them.

Out of the parts box and between the two desktop towers I was able to come up with one working motherboad (Tyan S1854), a Pentium III 450MHz CPU, and 64MB of PC100 RAM (2x DIMMs, 32MB each). Not too impressive. But it worked. I installed Ubuntu to a 18GB harddrive, using a bootable CD for the install. 64MB is slow going.

The task now is to get the Linksys wireless NIC card up an operational.

So far the Ubuntu expierence is going well. I can now print from my laptop over the network to a printer off of a Windows computer. I’ve also been able to connect my iPod and Ubuntu recognizes it as a drive and lets me play the songs from it. What I have had limited success so far with is playing DVDs and other video media. I have to do a little more research on that.

I tested the initial freq range of the VFO circuit and found it was 4.114 to 4.034 MHz – which would equate to a final 40M range that was below 7 MHz. I moved the coils closer together and got 4.002 to 3.925. That range would put me at the bottom of the 40M band (7.000 – 7.070 MHz) and I was looking for something more in the Novice band. So one more adjustment of the coils and I got 3.923 to 3.847 MHz which should give me something like a final freq range of 7.085 to 7.145… putting me well within the Novice band.

Now I need to get a glue gun to secure the coils to the toroid so they don’t slip.

Then it is on to Phase 3.

Phase 2 was pretty complicated… but I got the VFO circuit working. I don’t have a frequency counter so I used my Icom IC-706 for testing and was super happy to hear tone around 4 MHz once I applied power.

Working through Phase 2 now – the VFO circuit. Lots going on in this phase, not looking forward to winding the turns on the T-44 toroid core.

Making progress on the Ten-Tec kit. Phase 1 is complete! The Progress Test at the end of the phase was successful. So far, so good. I’ve just been taking my time and going slow.

The ARLHS Presents Its Annual

ARLHS LIGHTHOUSE SPRING LITES QSO PARTY

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Purposes:

To promote public awareness of ham radio and lighthouses; to contribute to the recognition that lighthouses, lightships, and their keepers deserve; to foster camaraderie within the ham fraternity; and to provide fellowship amongst the members of the Amateur Radio Lighthouse Society

Dates & Times:

0001 hrs UTC on April 15, 2006, through 2359 hrs UTC on April 23, 2006.

Suggested Modes / Calling
Frequencies:

Any and all modes : SSB, CW, RTTY, PSK, FM, SSTV, etc.

Suggested SSB freqs: 1950-1990, 3950-3990, 7250-7290,
14.250-14.290, 21.350-21.390, 28.350-28.390
(Calling on the centered
0.70 kHz on each band — Example: 14.270.)

Suggested CW center freqs: 1830, 3530, 7030, 14.030, 21.030,
28.030
Note that these are center calling frequencies. Work 20 kHz
each side of center.

To alleviate QRM, spread out and work SSB from 50 kHz to 90 kHz and on
CW work from 10 kHz to 50 kHz (i.e., +/- 20 kHz of center.)

Scoring:

Each contact (member or nonmember) = 1 pt.

Add 2 points more if contact is an ARLHS member

Add 3 points more if contact is at a lighthouse or lightship

BONUS for activating a light: As an incentive for participants to activate a light beacon, we are instituting a multiplier. If you activate a lighthouse or lightship under the rules of the ARLHS, you qualify for an additional 2x multiplier of your total score (as determined above). If for example your base score is 600 points and these were all accumulated by your operation at one of the recognized ARLHS lights (see the ARLHS World List), multiply your 600 points x 2 = 1200 points final score. This will be indicated on the final scoring cover sheet, which MUST be attached for log to qualify — see section below under “Log Submissions.”

Example:

You work ARLHS member #155 who is at lighthouse ARLHS USA-701.

Your score for this contact is 1 pt for the contact, plus 2 points

for working a member, plus 3 points for working a lighthouse.

Total score for this QSO = 6 points.

Answers to some other common scoring questions can be found on the Scoring FAQ page at http://arlhs.com/scoring.html

Exchanges:

ARLHS members send call sign, member number, name, state/province/country

Non-members send call, contact number (sequential), name, state/province/country

Lighthouse/Lightship Stations send call, ARLHS lighthouse number, name, state/province/country

NOTE: A numbered list of ARLHS lighthouses is available from page 10 of the Society’s web page at http://arlhs.com

I got Weather Display up and working and even have a hideous looking weather data web page up here. Even have a web cam up:

Note: if it’s nighttime, you won’t see much. I want to work on getting the web camera in a better position, but I’m not really sure where to put it.

I have been having a problem with getting eroneous readings for the temp and barometer when I’m transmitting on some HF bands (seems to be just 10M, 15M, 17M, and 20M).

I found this article by Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU. He does a weekly online column on ARRL.org and has publish a number of books on packet radio and APRS. I really enjoy reading his weekly column and found this article in Stan’s archives.

Surfin’:Spotting Extreme Weather

By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU
Contributing Editor March 4, 2005

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This week we visit a Web site where you can learn a lot about the weather. So much so that afterwards you can consider joining the ranks of Amateur Radio weather spotters.

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Reporting weather conditions is Amateur Radio public service at its finest. As spring approaches (none too soon in these parts), the thunderstorm and tornado season also looms in many parts of the nation. So, it is apropos that we check out a Web site that deals with the observation of extreme weather.

Comprehensive storm spotting training can be had at the National Weather Service (NWS) Storm Spotter Training Web site.

Old friend John Nelson, K0IO, sent me a link to a slide presentation on storm spotter training that was put together by the National Weather Service (NWS) in Des Moines, the folks who operate K0DMX. Who is better qualified to educate us on weather than the NWS?

The slide presentation is excellent and I learned a lot perusing the 219 slides that compose the presentation. For example, the "Look Alike" portion of the presentation taught me that those funnel-shaped clouds I saw on vacation in Florida once upon a time were not necessarily tornadoes; the lesson learned is that a funnel-shaped cloud is a "tornado" only if it is rotating. I also learned about weather conditions I had never heard about before, for example, land spouts, gustnadoes, and mammatus clouds.

Until next week, keep on surfin’.

Editor’s note: Back when he was in grade school, Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, built a homebrew manually operated low-tech rain gauge. Now he maintains a fully automatic high-tech weather station at WA1LOU-15. To talk about the weather (and do nothing about it), e-mail Stan.

Page last modified: 02:41 PM, 03 Mar 2005 ET Page author: awextra@arrl.orgCopyright © 2005, American Radio Relay League, Inc. All Rights Reserved.