My 10-AA holder came. I put my 1.2v 2250mAH AA NiMH batteries and used the 9V to coax connector I had made to power my pskmeter already. I checked polarity with a DVM and plugged it into my FT-817 and Z11 and it works. I also got 3 Maha 4-cell trickle chargers to charge 12 AA's at once. It will take 50 hours to charge them fully but as NiMH cells lose power just sitting there, it will keep them charged.
- posted by Leigh @ 02:40 z 0 comments

 
My Extra class license arrived in the mail today!
- posted by Leigh @ 01:59 z 0 comments

 
According to Hamdata the FCF has issued my Extra, just before my birthday!
- posted by Leigh @ 21:08 z 0 comments

 
I passed Element 4 today at the Sunnyvale VEC and will get my Extra Class license in the mail in about ten days.
- posted by Leigh @ 21:59 z 0 comments

 

I made three QSL card designs using W7NN QSL card stock. I wrote the QSL program itself in PostScript, and print it directly on the printer or with GhostScript. I will probably be posting the code here. I's probably not useful to anyone but me anyway...

1. QSL for when I am working portable HF, when I run a dipole up the flagpole at the local school. The image is a photo of the balun on the way up the "tower". It looks big, but it's really only about 35 feet tall.
2. QSL for when I was QRV as KH6/WA5ZNU on Maui just before Christmas.
3. A plain yellow one that is reminiscent of the QSL cards I had when I was a novice (1969). Some day I will find one and reproduce the design! (It had line drawings of the two hemispheres on left and right and QSL data on the back).

- posted by Leigh @ 18:59 z 0 comments

 

From the patio at work I worked K7STW Ted but didn't get good signal report so I reoriented the dipole and worked KB7JG Jim and got 599 all on PSK31.

Then I switched to USB 18.15750 and talked to Jake N0LX/MM from HFPack on a lake in Colorado in a rowboat. He was 3x9 but said I was 3x3.

- posted by Leigh @ 00:23 z 0 comments