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I had the opportunity to go down to the SEMARA club this afternoon as it was open for Kids Day. I was much older then the target demographic, but I wanted to head down and learn how to operate the club station.  I met Bob, K1KVV, who opens the stations just in case someone wants to pop by and he showed me how to set them up, operate, and break them down. Since kids were nowhere to be found (The club doesn’t actually promote this beyond the mailing list), I was able to get behind the wheel and take the station for a spin.

In a word: Wow.

The station consists of a TS-570 and a recently-donated TS-940S and a 40 through 6 yagi on top of an 80 foot tower. I operated almost exclusively on the 570, as that was controled by Ham Radio Deluxe. I must say, I’ve heard the praise for HRD and I’ve been wondering what the hub-bub was all about. The interface and the integration is an incredible blend of the radio and the various tools on the Internet. The integration between the DX cluster is amazing. It really is point, click, QSO.

It was rather quiet for me as most of the activity on the band was focused on the RTTY contest that was this weekend, but soon after I sat down I saw ZR2CR spotted on the cluster and jumped in. I never knew how much a Yagi and tower helps, as I was able to work her on my 2nd try, something I would likely not be able to do at home. I then saw ZD8UW and decided to try my luck. I tuned over there and was curious when he was announcing that he was working split (Listening on one frequency and transmitting on another for you non-Hams) a quick Google showed that it was a DXpedition on Ascension Island in the South Atlantic. It took some time to figure out how to set the 570 into split, and I had a couple of false starts when I was transmitting in LSB but listening in USB, but after that was sorted out, I worked him after about 5-10 tries. I then popped over to 17 Meters and worked PJ2/N9JZ in the Netherlands Antillies.

I had been on the radio for a bit at this point, and Bob was curious about Ham Radio Deluxe so I handed the mic over to him. I showed him what I had learned and he was impressed, working 4A1DXXE, HK1NK, and a couple other stations in short order. He then tried to work an Australian station, but the band was closing up and we both had to leave.

Bob informed me that I can get a key to the station as I was a club member. Bob is fairly active trying to get interest going in operating the club station so I think he was happy that I was excited to use it. I must say, after using that tower and HRD, I’m am very interested, as its a bit of a step up from my TS-120 and my tree-strung dipole. Plus, with winter here, trudging out into the snow to set up my antenna isn’t the most alluring thought in the world.

Steve, K9ZW, has asked What’s the Worth of Twitter?

I’m slowing my Twitter “Tweets” and following of Twitter based on a difficult to use Signal/Noise Ratio.

…

One very active Twittering Ham has a goal of posting 10,000 Tweet posts during the year.

If everyone of those Tweets takes but a second or two out of my attention, that is asking me as a Twitter Follower to give up 5-6 hours of accumulated time.

It’s simply not going to happen.

This was followed up by N0HR’s Twitter Overload post:

Steve notes that one ham has a goal of “tweeting” 10,000 times in a year. Yikes. What possible value could that have to anyone? I could see some value in group using Twitter to meet at the Dayton Hamvention - when you’re all trying to meet you’d know that Frank’s at Denny’s having breakfast, Chuck’s in the flea market and Stan is lugging a boat anchor to the car. That’s about it though.

First off, let me state for the record that I am the said “active Twittering Ham”, but I do not have a “goal” of having 10000 tweets in a year. I did wonder if I’ll hit that number which is looking more and more likely now that I’m less then 50 shy of 9000, but I wouldn’t consider it a goal. Next off, I’m not pissed at Steve for unfollowing me at all. I did mention it in a tweet, but I am not saying that I am sad, angry, or disappointed in Steve.  I am very much in @mediaphyter’s corner regarding following:

…let me make a list of what Twitter is not:

1. A venue for a popularity contest
2. An obligatory mutual instant message system
3. A place where anyone has anything to prove

Exactly. Twitter is different things to different people. Suit your follow list to what you want to see. I’ll be the first to admit that I am a prolific tweeter. My sister never added me to her phone because it she was overwhelmed by texts. I tweet about Ham Radio, InfoSec, the MBTA not working, and any other completely random thing that floats into my head. A lot of my friends are the same. However, I know that this does not suit everyone. I have no problems with someone unfollowing me because I tweet so much, if you’re not going to follow a smaller group of people, I’m going to quickly overwhelm your “stream” on your page, likely providing more signal with noise. There are ways to sift through volumes of tweets, but a lot of people have neither the time or inclination to do so.  Don’t feel the need to follow anyone because “everyone else does it” or if they’re following you. Only follow the people that tweet topics that you’re interests and tweet at your pace. Also, look at the option of turning of

If you’re on Twitter, don’t think you’re going to hurt someones feeling by unfollowing them. I occasionally go through my lists and “purge” people that no longer interest me. If I no longer intrest you, unfollow me! Please! If I follow you, I’ll still reply when you say something I want to comment on and it will still show up in your stream.

Steve, I’m still following you, as you’re one of the Hams who’s tweets I always enjoy. I hope to see you around, and I look forward to you live-tweeting Dayton.

It was the ARRL 10 Meter Contest this weekend. Normally contests are a non-starter for me, as I jut really don’t “get” them, however, I thought it was a good opportunity to try my HTX-100 that has been languishing in my shack since I acquired it. Despite the weekend being filled with Christmas shopping and clearing out the soon-to-be nursery, I did manage to carve out a couple of hours to play radio.

I’ve been wanting to test out my HTX-100 since I recieved it. SEMARA has a weekly 10M Ragchew net on Tuesdays and that was the first and only time I’ve talked to someone on it. The signal reports were good, but there is a slight difference in working somene across town, and working someone across the country. So, I strung up the dipole, popped up DXAnywhere on the computer and scanned the bands. I wasn’t interested in scoring points, I just wanted to see if I was “getting out” and everything was working well. I tuned up and down and heard W4SVO calling CQ. I tried calling him a few times but he kept responding to other stations. Finally he came back to me with a 5 by 9, which he gave everyone but I digress. I continued tuning around and heard another Florida station, WD4IXD, calling CQ, so I got ready to work him.

Now, the HTX-100 has a high and low power setting. It puts out 25W on high power and if you pull out a knob, it puts out 5W. After thinking about it for a moment I decided to be adventerous. My other radio, a TS-120, is 100W all the time unless you fiddle with the mic gain and then your max output is a bit of a guessing game. I worked W4SVO with relative ease and I wanted to have some fun. I pulled out the knob and flipped the radio into low power mode. It took slightly longer but after quite a few tries of losing out to other stations, I finally contacted him. I was pleased, it was my first HF QRP contact! I did the math out on the Google Maps Distance Calculator and it came out to be 1099 miles! Thats 219.8 miles/watt. Not bad! I moved lower on the band and came across a 3rd Florida station, but the band seemed to swallow him up before I could get to him. I then unsuccessfully tried to work @dskaggs, N4EA but the band seemed to be closed at that point, and it stayed that way until I packed it in around 7:30PM.

It was a good couple of hours and I’m glad to have my first 10 meter “DX” contact and my first QRP “DX” contact in the logbook. I need to sit down and QSL WD4IXD as I want to get the QSL for posterity. I also need to start looking at getting the HTX-100 into my car, as that was my original objective for it.

Oh, and I think my final score for the 10 meter contest was a whopping 4 points. Go me!

Jeff, KE9V linked this little… uhmmm… gem on Twitter a few days ago:

Wow. Just Wow. Sorry kids, if you got your license or upgraded after December 2006, you’re not worthy to be here. Might as well turn your ticket in to your local FCC office. I’ll be joining you. Does anyone want all my equipment?

What a load of tripe.

I know Morse code. I learned it after I upgraded to General last November. It’s a good skill to have. I have no problem with people extolling the virtues of CW operation. Operate it exclusively for all I care. I know more then a few Hams who love their CW and I have no problem with them. However, certain CW fans go a little over the top. Suggesting that I am dumbing down the hobby because I didn’t pass a Morse Code Test? Please.

Attitudes like these do nothing but hurt the hobby. YouTube videos, flames on forums, and rants on mailing lists have left many a newcomer to the hobby annoyed and insulted. What does this accomplish? It doesn’t advance the hobby, it certainly doesn’t advance CW’s reputation, and it turns off throngs of people from the hobby. But, it continues: We’re dumbing down the hobby; CW is the one true operating mode; FCC is allowing the riff raff in by lowering the bar; etc, etc, etc.

If you have opinions, add to the discussion. Don’t insult the other side wholesale.

UPDATE: Apparently rjkd732 has seen fit to remove the video, again. Thankfully, this time I mirrored it. I’ll repost it tommorow.

One of the Amateur Radio weblogs I read is Ars Telegraphia by Paul Evans, VP9KF. He recently made a post regarding the legality of identifiers after your call sign.

Now, I was confused, as I was pretty sure that this was legal in the US. Paul is in Bermuda, but he used American call signs, so I looked into the legality of having identifiers associated with calls. I donned the ceremonial robes and consulted the tomes of Part 97. After some searching, I came across the relevant text. Let us open our rulebook to Part 97, Section 119, Paragraph C

(c) One or more indicators may be included with the call sign. Each indicator must be separated from the call sign by the slant mark (/) or by any suitable word that denotes the slant mark. If an indicator is self-assigned, it must be included before, after, or both before and after, the call sign. No self-assigned indicator may conflict with any other indicator specified by the FCC Rules or with any prefix assigned to another country.

OK, I breathed a sigh of relief when I read that as I do occasionally sign with “Mobile” or “Portable” and I do try to be a legal beagle. However, that’s not to say Paul’s statement is without merit. In pile ups, the less superfluous information the less of a chance of muffed exchange. I do think there are two distinct exceptions to this rule: If you are out of your call sign’s section you should sign with the area you are in. I’ve done this the few times I’ve operated outside of my own section, even in situations where it was obvious I was local. When I am working a satellite pass, I especially dislike to hear a call sign with a 6 (California, for you non-hams) in it, only to find out the station is in Ohio. As for QRP stations, I always yield to QRP and portable when I hear them on satellites. Of course, the only way I know they are QRP is if they sign with /QRP or /Portable.

Paul is entitled to his opinion, but I think that signing with certain identifiers is helpful for conveying information. I am more inclined to work a QRP then a non-QRP station, and I am more inclined to work a station in 6-land then 2-land (NY/NJ). Simple identifiers attached to the call sign allow stations to get a better feel for the pile up and more accurately pick the stations “they want.”

Note to Paul if he reads this: Turn on comments!

AO-51 is in a bit of a special mode these past couple of days. Instead of Voice, they’re encouraging people to do SSTV over the satellite. This was originally done back in October to prepare for Richard Garriott sending SSTV from the ISS, but it proved popular enough for the AO-51 command team to add it to their schedule for the month of November. This evening I monitored the passes and was rewarded with some great photos:

These were on the 1709EST Pass:

The 1848 pass was a little more crowded with a couple of dead carriers and people accidentally keying over each other. But, I was rewarded with two “DX” stations and I was able to grab some photos once things settled down:

I am absolutely BUMMED that I couldn’t contact VA7VW by voice. By my calculations, he was 2351 miles away from my QTH. That would have broke my existing “longest contact via satellite” record which was to K7WIN in Arizona, a distance of 2268 mies.

I am also disappointed that I was only able to monitor the fun. I do not have the correct adapter to transmit SSTV from my FT-60, so I am relegated to RX only. Perhaps if I sit down and experiment with some adapters, I will be able to jury rig a cable, but I’m thinking it’s more of an experiment for the next time the command team puts the satellite in this mode. I’m hoping I see it on the December schedule.

Least week I had the pleasure of volunteering at the 51st Scouting Jamboree on the Air at Camp Carpenter in Manchester, NH. JOTA is an annual event in which both Boy and Girl Scouts all over the world speak to each other by means of amateur radio. I was first exposed to JOTA in the early 1990s when I was an avid Shortwave Listener (SWL). I would tune around the bands with my rather ancient Hallicrafters SX-110 searching for the voices of other JOTA stations. I wasn’t a Ham yet and didn’t know any JOTA events in my area so I never actually talked to anyone, but I was glued to the radio for the weekend listening to far flung stations across the world.

Fast forward to two weeks ago when I got an e-mail from Barry Baines, WD4ASW. Barry is an AMSAT officer and was looking for someone to volunteer at Daniel Webster Council’s JOTA event. Apparently all the other area AMSAT officers were busy and since I helped at the AMSAT booth at Boxboro, they recognize a sucker when the see one know that I love to help out. Despite it being quite a hike and an all day event, I jumped at the chance. Partly to give back to Scouting, partly to gab about satellites, but mostly a an excuse to play radio all day. I was somewhat nervous, as I had little to no idea what was going to happen, what I needed to do, and what was going to be available too me. Still, I forged ahead and aimed to do really really well, or at least shovel enough BS to make myself sounding convincing.

An interesting side story is that after I linked up with Paul, KG7HF, the organizer of the event, I recorded the ISS. As I’m listening, one of the two stations that made contact with Garriott was none other then Paul himself. This is an incredible feat. The first thing I thought was “What the heck does he need me for?”

Saturday came and I loaded up my car with my (still not 100%) satellite yagi, my K5OE Handi-Tenna as a backup, my FT-60, my laptop, and some various satellite reference materials. I arrived, met Paul, and he showed me to my station. Paul graciously provided his TS-2000 and his laptop with his rig control software. Needless to say, I was pleased as this is like driving a Ferrari as compared to my setup, which is more like a Pinto. Paul had a 2M Eggbeater antenna and we kludged up a 70cm setup with his Dual Band mobile antenna as his 70cm eggbeater was not working. The Scouts started to trickle in, and we tried to have our first ISS pass. No voice contact, but the few Scouts that were around were amazed by the SSTV pictures. The next ISS pass was more crowded, and we were rewarded with hearing Garriott doing voice. While we were unsuccessful in contacting him, they Scouts were rapt in listening to the radio. There were a few Scouts who walked over halfway through the pass not knowing exactly what they were listening to, leading to a humorous exchange afterward:

Them: “So where was that guy?”
Me: “On the International Space Station.”
Them: “But where was he?”
Me: *confused* “Uhm. In space.”
Them: *not sure if I’m pulling their leg* “Like an astronaut?”
Me: “Yes. He’s up there for a week. He’s on board using their radio. His name is Richard Garriott. He’s a space tourist.”
Them: *eyes start to widen* “Wow!”

With our limited 70cm setup and my inexperience of tuning transponder based satellites, we were not as lucky on the other satellites. We were able to hear a few stations, but were unable to make a contact. However, all the ISS passes were big hits and at least had everyone talking about the contacts. I also worked out a script for the sSouts to handle the contacts to the ISS (with myself as the control operator). My research showed that ISS was not a foreign entity as long as Garriott was using NA1SS calsign (third party traffic agreements, what a crock!), so I let the Scouts take the wheel and just cued them as to what to say. I hope a few of them got bit by “the bug.”

It was a great day. I think the scouts had a great time, and I did as well. I’ve already told Paul to contact me for next year’s event. I met a couple of nice younger hams Devin, KB1OSI and Brittany, KB1OGL, and hopefully inspired a few more. I also have come to a conclusion that I need to get a better setup for satellites. I’ve barely scratched the surface in my setup and it would be fun to expand my satellite use into transponder based ones as well.

They also gave me a patch! I haven’t got a Boy Scout patch in YEARS! How cool is that?

Richard Garriott, W5KWQ, AKA “Lord British” from Ultima, is currently on board the International Space Station as a “Space Tourist”. While Space Tourists are cool and all, what makes Garriott special is that A. He is the son of Owen Garriott, who did the first Amateur Radio transmission from space, and B. he is actively using Amateur Radio during his stay on board the ISS.

I, along with many other Amateur Radio operators have been monitoring his transmissions over the past couple of days. Today, since I was home telecommuting, I snuck out for a few passes with my Yagi to monitor the ISS passes. The first one was the most momentous as after his Slow Scan TV (SSTV) transmissions he quickly popped on the frequency and talked to a few stations.

• Oct 16th, 09:32EDT ISS pass (MP3, 7:38, 3.1MB)

The next few passes were SSTV only, and the last pass, while trasmitting SSTV, the camera was acting up and sending back a black picture. Whoops!

Without further ado, here are the shots that I picked up today:




You can get more information on Garriott’s space trip at richardinspace.com

Previously, when I have been operating the various amateur radio satellites I have been operating out of my car, listening with my FT-60 into a K5OE Handi-Tenna and transmitting with my FT-7800 into a vertical. While this has been very fruitful for QSOs, I have longed for a easier solution not requiring me to head out to my car every time I wanted to operate, something that would give me a little more free range of motion then just hanging my arm out my window, and possibly have something that could be used to pick up the various weather satellites. Plus

There are commercial solutions to my problem, namely the the Arrow II Satellite Antenna who’s name is nearly synonymous with portable satellite operation. However, since I am thrifty (read: cheap) that was way out of my price range. Plus, antennas are just hunks of metal whipped in some kind of strange shape. You’re paying someone to assemble it.

While I have no chance of designing something like that, I thankfully have a friend who is infinitely more talented in such matters. Steve, KB1MEH, the same one who helped me with my original Handi Tenna heard my laments and whipped up a design to rival Arrow’s. Last weekend, he drilled the boom and I cut elements to size and this weekend, we had our first tests.

Unfortunately, we had mixed results. Test #1 was at Fort Taber / Fort Rodman. I tried to operate AO-51 on a 10 degree eastern pass but with no luck. After I failed miserably, we then tried to raise various repeaters. Hit Falmouth with 2W (15mi over ocean). After having a quick QSO and a signal report from KB1QBZ, I tried Fall River with 5W (15mi over land) and then Cranston, RI with 5W (30mi over land). I think I might have done better, but I’ve heard repeated claims of New Beford being in a bit of a Black Hole of RF. After some tuning around, I was also able to pick up, but not raise, Quincy. Which I can not do from my car even outside the “black hole” areas.

Me talking with KB1QBZ

After heading back to my house we tried a better AO-51 pass (74 degrees) and had better luck. While Steve could pick up the satellite better with my older antenna, I was still able to hear it and make two contacts. This was the first time that Steve also ever heard a satellite pass and I think he was surprised at the coverage. I think I was able to raise Quincy, but the mosquitoes were out in force, so further testing was postponed until morning.

It was a mostly successful test run. The 440 RX issue needs to be solved, there are some slight issues with the gamma matches, and I need to buy some kind of handle thingy for the end, but the antenna performed great. It is a fun project and Steve did a great job designing it. Thanks Steve!

I have always been a fan of the The Flea at MIT. A Cambridge institution, I can remember being introduced to it my Freshman year at college with the promise of cheap computer equipment. It did not disappoint and it instantly turned me into a die-hard flea market rat. I would arrive an hour before the gates open to get up in the front of the line. My arrival time, while inconvenient, would almost always pay off, by the time the gates open the lines would stretch down around the block. I would sometimes be starting my second loop around and still see people waiting in line to get in. I reveled in the smell of musty electronic equipment; haggling with vendors, rummaging through boxes, and lugging home backpacks full of electronic junk that would deck out my dorm room. It was a six story parking garage of nerdvana.

After moving down to New Bedford, the logistics of getting up to Cambridge became more complicated. That, coupled with the fact that I now had to store all my tech into a much smaller room, I only started to occasionally go to the flea. Yesterday, I drove up with Steve, KB1MEH, to my first flea of the year, and I was blown away at how small the flea had become. While the outside was filled with the usual vendors, and there were quite a few deals there, what was once a nearly-filled to capacity parking garage didn’t even have a complete floor filled. Steve informed me that it was a similar scene the month before when he went.

On the ride home, I thought to myself about the proclamations of “Ham Radio is dying!” and the subset of that “Hamfests are dying!“, and wondering how the applied to the Flea. While the Flea can be classified as a “Hamfest” and you can often find radios for sale, the amount of computer gear outnumbered the amount of radio gear easily 4:1. What did this mean?

After some thought I came to a conclusion: What we are seeing is the mainstreaming of computer gear that occured in the early 2000s. Computers are now a consumer technology and the vast majority of consumers are likely to toss them out at the end of life. Since older technology has a very limited life-span, the glut “vintage” technology for sale in the late-1990s and early-2000s are now completely worthless and are likely to join their older counterparts in the recycling center or dump. What doesn’t will likely make their way to eBay or Craigslist rather then flea market as it is a lot easier to post an ad online rather then set up shop at a flea market that smells of BO and musty electronics.

I think we may be seeing the same thing on the Hamfest side. With the more non-user-serviceable nature of new radios, when they break, it can be often cheaper to replace them rather then fix them. Since this is leading to a shorter life-span of radios and the conveience factor of online marketplaces, we will likely see flea markets, tech or otherwise, continue to shrink.

I am very happy that I nabbed some cheap ceramic insulators and some more connectors for my budding projects, though.