My musings on Ham Radio … and stuff!
We had our weekly 2M net last night, and it was a bit chaotic. Net control was having rig issues, other members had their radios programmed wrong, and there was lots of silence while everyone waited for someone to transmit. Definitely needs a bit more structure and “control”.
73 de Dick k4ftw
I finally got around to setting up WSJT-X and JT Alert on the new laptop, and found quite a bit of action. I worked 18 stations (mostly Europe and the US) in a couple of hours on 20 Meters. I seemed to have a lot more luck on JT-9 than on JT-65. Sort of like watching paint dry, but I did fill in a few missing digital Grid squares, prefixes, etc in the meantime.
QCWA Chapter 119 activated Fort Monroe National Monument recently, and although I couldn’t lend a hand with the operation due to a prior commitment, I did manage to work them on CW. I haven’t heard how they did number wise, but it was a beautiful day to be operating portable.
We’ve found a site for W4MT, our 146.73 repeater. We lost our previous site and had been searching for a new location for quite a few months. In the interim, we’ve been having our Tuesday evening club net on the WN4HRT repeater.
Overall, the bands have not been the greatest, but the digital modes offer an opportunity to make contacts with lower power. I made those 18 contacts this evening using 10 watts to a vertical tied to the clothesline pole. Nothing sophisticated about that, folks! Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Don’t forget, CW was the original digital mode.
73 de Dick K4FTW
Tonight was the first scheduled PARC (Peninsula Amateur Radio Club) 2M net in a long time. That’s the good news. The bad news is that Tom (WE4TOM) & I were the only ones that showed up. Everyone else must have forgotten. We used the WN4HRT (144MHz, -.600, 100Hz) repeater at Riverside Hospital. Hopefully, participation will increase.
The bands have been iffy, with lots of QSB. A station will be there one minute and then disappear. I’ve done more listening than talking.
Saturday there is a celebration of life in memory of Bill Howell, WB4UYA, at Nick’s in Gloucester. Bill passed away several months ago. Everyone is invited.
73 de Dick K4FTW
The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and my sinuses are dripping because of allergies … Spring is officially here now! I’ve started digging through winter storage boxes to collect my portable QRP goodies so I can once more play radio from the great outdoors.
I was going to operate while on a Scouting weekend last week, but it was cold and rainy … not a great experience. As it turned out, I was pretty busy as well, so time was at a premium. Everything seems to work well set up at home, so I’m going to at least get out into the back yard and test things in an actual field setting on Saturday or Sunday.
I have been on 20M CW recently, and worked a few Europeans. The signals have been a bit poor when I was able to get on, but the QSOs went OK. I hope to get organized enough to be able to operate /P from the parking lot at work at lunchtime soon. I think that affords the best chance for a regular radio session.
We’re still looking for a location for our 2M repeater (W4MT). We lost our site a couple of months ago and are working several possibilities now. There are several other repeaters in the area that we can use, but it’d be nice to get ours up and running again.
73 de Dick K4FTW