My musings on Ham Radio … and stuff!
Nothing great, but I was #12 in Virginia! Seriously though, it’s always nice to get another piece of paper for your wall … I don’t have enough already!
ARRL’s RTTY Roundup is this coming weekend and it encompasses most digital modes … Baudot RTTY, PSK, FT8, ASCII, AMTOR, Packet—attended operation only — on 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meter bands. Everybody works everybody. See the ARRL website for the rules. Not sure if I’m goinng to be on, but if I am, “Hope to see you!”
73 de Dick N4BC
Not technically … we’re talking about 15 watts, not 5 watts, but we’re also talking about abound four billion miles away, too. The New Horizons Ultima Thule flyby just happened, and pictures and data are now being sent back to Earth. It was launched around 13 years ago. We live in wonderful times!
Even more amazing was that Voyager 1 was still communicating with the Earth in 2012 after thirty-some years in space and a at distance of more than 10 billion miles away. Awesome!
73 de Dick N4BC
I had a good evening on sixty meters FT8. It’s been raining all day, so I camped out in the shack and got some operating time in. I worked England, The Netherlands, Spain, Bulgaria, Canada, and, of course, the good ol’ U S of A. Signals were good. FT8 is primarily found on 5357.0. There’s lots of activity, and sometimes you find real gems there.
That’s not bad for what I’m using as an antenna. I’ve got a 31-foot piece of wire wire-tied to a fiberglass mast with a 4:1 UNUN, fed by 50 watts through a LDG tuner and 100-feet of RG-8X. I’ve got one radial on the ground of indeterminate length. Definitely non-resonant and non-directional. BUT … it works! If you can’t have an elaborate, expensive antenna … just get some wire into the air. ANY antenna is better than NO antenna!
73 de Dick N4BC
So, Christmas is over for another year, and, as usual, I ate too much! We went over to the kids’ house on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day. In addition to a gut-busting meal, the snacks were present in great abundance. Every year, I say it’s going to be different, but once again – I had no willpower!
Oh well, next year it’ll be different!! HA!!
It’s been quite a while since I worked any JS8Call, so I downloaded the latest version and found quite a few changes … keys moved. new functions … lots of new stuff. Plus, it’d been so long, I really had to figure out what I was doing all over again. Interesting mode, to say the least!
I’ve been working a bit of CW and FT8 over the holidays, but nothing to write home about. I’ve just been doing family things. I’ve got a dozen days off and go back to work the 3rd of January, and only had to take 4 days of leave with all the holidays. Haven’t got cabin fever yet!
I hope everyone is enjoying the Holidays in their own way. No matter what you celebrate, I wish you the all best!
73 de Dick N4BC
WOW! Over a billion QSOs entered into LOTW … that’s a mind-boggling number! Well, I’m responsible for 4,355 of those. That would have been a considerable expense if I was lickin’ and stickin’ postage on all of those QSLs. Thank you ARRL for making this possible!
73 and Happy Holidays de N4BC