The First 100 Years Are The Hardest

This morning I had the chance to activate K-0454 as part of the Early Shift before work.   I got to the park  just before 7am ET and found an out of the way place to park my rented POTA Rig (a very fun to drive Honda CR-V Hybrid).  It took me nearly 30 minutes to get set up because I kept fiddling around and messing up the most basic things. First I couldn’t find my MacBook Air that I use for HAMRS - figured I left it back in the hotel.  Then I couldn’t find a pen and paper for manual logging, other than the envelop with my license and FAA/TSA/Airline related Lithium battery transportation policies that I keep in my Go Pouch.   I spent a few minutes to see if I could  get HAMRS loaded on my work tablet, but (wisely) decided against that.  A few more minutes to experiment with the manual logging screen directly in the POTA Website.   I was about to Call it a Day when I noticed the MacBook was in my backpack after all! Next,  I used a 16oz Weav...

The KiwiSDR platform enables you to listen to radio from anywhere around the world. This is particularly useful if you want to hear your actual "on the air" transmission and fine tune your audio settings - both transmit power and TX audio equalizer if your radio supports it. My FlexRadio does. This morning I was calling CQ on 30M and RBN showed my signal spotted in Samoa and New Zealand at 11dB and 14db respectively. Conditions per Log4OM2 were Kp:2 (Quiet) A:13, SFI 136 Sunspot 44. OK but not great given where we have been in Solar Cycle 25. Using the KiwiSDR Map, I found station ZL1ROT on line in New Zealand with an 80M HF antenna and a S/N Score of 31.  All channels were busy so I had to wait in queue for a few minutes before getting access to the receiver. You can see my CW signal on 10.119 in the KiwiSDR screenshot below.   The settings are all default except the mode set to CW and the zoom set to zoom to band.  Connected to KiwiSDR: Software-defined re...

I activated K-6590 today as part of a trip to east Texas.  WMAs are really great spots to operate, relatively undeveloped, with very limited motor traffic.   Check ahead because most WMAs are closed frequently for sponsored hunts.  A special use permit or a hunters license is required to enter WMAs in the State of Texas. The Old Sabine Bottom WMA consists of 5,727 acres of bottomland hardwood habitat. According to the Texas Parks and Wildlife, the land was purchased in 1995 for the conservation of this valuable habitat type and to provide an area for public recreational opportunity. Conditions were excellent but it was a little difficult to find a hold a frequency that was clear of contest QRM.   I operated near the upper edge of the 20M band with great success - 14.341 SSB,  63 contacts in just under 50 minutes.  Rig -Yaesu FT-857d,  ATAS-120a actively tuned screwdriver antenna,  100 watts. 73 Chris de WX7V

 I completed the ERC Version 4 USB kit from Vibroplex this week.  The kit comes with a CD for the calibration and test software, plus a PDF folder that has the kit assembly instructions and installation guidelines to mount the board inside the control box for specific rotators.    The kit was easy to build, but getting it working with my rotator took a bit more work.  Specific pin outs and solder points are not documented -  you have to determine that on your own.  The  theory of operations is discussed, and schematics for many rotators are provided, but I needed to use a voltmeter and a little of of trial and error to correctly wire the ERC board to the Yaesu G-450ADC rotator controller. In addition to USB cable, the kit also requires an external 12V power supply.  Vibroplex sells a fully assembled SMD surface mount version that uses power from the USB cable instead.  The board has test points for both 5V and 12V supplies.  Vibrop...

Update 11/23/23.  Something broke in my Log4OM/SliceMaster CAT control set up.  Log4OM kept showing OFFLINE at startup after I upgraded to v2.30.1.0.   The only way I could get it running was to install HAMLIB 4.5.5 and configure CAT to connect to an active HAMLIB instance.   All is good for now.  I'm also running the latest version of SliceMaster v0.11.0g SmartSDR 3.5.9. -----  I've been using N3FJP's Amateur Contact Log (current version 7.07) since Field Day 2021, along with the associated contest loggers.  I've tried many other loggers and all have fallen short until this year when I loaded the revamped Log4OM v2 - Next Generation logger (current version 2.26.0).    Oh, Man this logger is packed with features and the look and feel is great.  The platform is a real joy to use.  The configuration set up takes some time and effort to get the most out of the platform but I've found the time is well worth it.   A...

This Mini-PC is amazing.  For just $249,  the kit comes with an AMD Ryzen 5 5500 with Radeon Graphics , 2100MHz, 6GB RAM 500GB SSD.   The Beeline runs Windows 11 and all my Ham Radio related tools brilliantly: SmartSDR, FRStact, SliceMaster, CW Skimmer and the various loggers - ACLOG,  SKCC Logger/Skimmer, Log4OM. Beeline HARDiNFO Benchmark Beeline UNIGINE GPU Benchmark. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The stats exceed the custom  PC server build  I did just 3 years ago. AMD Ryzen 5 3400G with Radeon Vega Graphics APU, 16 GB Crucial DDR4-3200, Samsung 850 EVO 500GB M.2 SATA SSD Custome PC Build HardInfo Benchmark Custom PC Build UNIGINE GPU Benchmark is only slightly better.

Thank you to all the hunters and P2P who helped me activate K-3007 before it closes to the public end of this month. AG5ZU Timothy Smith was also activating the park but I wasn’t able to find him for an eyeball QSO before I left the park. Located about 90 minutes south of Dallas, the 2500 acre lake was created in 1969 when the Texas Power and Light Company constructed a dam on on Big Brown Creek to serve as a cooling reservoir for the coal fired power plant. The lake is stocked with redfish, striper, catfish, large mouth bass, and even blue tilapia, which thrived in the year around warm waters from the power plant. Fairfield Lake has been open to the public since 1976, but the property is actually owned by Vistra Energy, which leased the land to the state at no cost. The power plant was closed in 2018 and the the property has been for sale for about $110M dollars. A private developer has plans to purchase the land and turn the park into a high end residential golf community. Acc...