Nearly done with front panel -- just rhe SSB mod and uninstalled component verification before the ohm check.
- posted by Leigh @ 15:47 z 0 comments

 
N6QU

Just before midnight I turned on the FT-817 and heard N6QU calling CQ on 7.038. He had no answers so I called him back at 2.5W but got a QRZ so I switched to 40W with the HFPacker amp and we had a nice QSO, but I had to get to sleep so it wasn't as long as I'd have liked.

Martin has been a ham for 26 years and was running a TS570 at 100 Watts into a ground-mounted vertical.

QSL Sent
- posted by Leigh @ 06:42 z 0 comments

 
KB7PWJ

I worked Rob KB7PWJ/QRP from my car in the parking lot at Xerox with the KX1 at 2.5W into a 20M hamstick. It is a lower parking lot than the PARC one and we were both 339.

QSL Sent
- posted by Leigh @ 17:48 z 0 comments

 
N5AE

I put the 20M OEM Hamstick on top of my Subaru Outback and parked at PARC and fed it with my KX1 at 4 Watts and ALAN's Balun in the 25 ohm position for a 1.0:1 through the KXAT1.

I heard N5AE Dick from Amarillo, TX on 14.057 and then 14.058.90 call CQ. He gave me a 339 and I gave him 449 QSB. No other sigs on band heatd here or there.

QSL Sent
- posted by Leigh @ 16:56 z 0 comments

 
HFPack 30M
At around 0130Z I worked WB6MLC Ken and KB6BA Oliver on 10.117.5. They were in the Sunol/Ohlone Wilderness Area. They were about 50 feet apart and gave me a 589 or so.
- posted by Leigh @ 05:16 z 0 comments

 
Flight of the Bumblebees

Flight of the Bumblebees is over and I got 7 contacts on 20M with my KX1 at the Palo Alto Baylands.

I put my SD20 over a convenient metal stake and set up a wire vertical with the SD-20 and a single radial about 2ft to 4ft off the ground. The vertical top was 22ft up and was 28ft long. I tried the PAC-12 with Alan's Balun and the single radial but it was worse.

My lone 40M was QRM'd suddenly and my last contact on 20M was lost when I got confused by a request to QSY to 15M -- I misunderstood and thought I was QRMing someone. It just shows I need more practice in operating skills.

I only heard one or two other stations I couldn't work. Not too bad for a day with a geomagnetic storm!

1 N7OU 579 OR 180 14.058 1838z QSL
2 AD6GI 559 CA 198 14.060 1842z QSL
3 W6AZ 559 CA 89 14.061.42 1846z
4 K7TQ 559 ID 76 14.060.82 1900z QSL
5 WC7S 579 WY 50 14.060.50 1928z QSL
6 K6III 559 CA 210 14.062.18 2010z QSL
7 N7CEE 559 AZ 271 14.065.53 2020z QSL
8 K6UIZ 000 ?? ? 7.040 2039z (no points)
9 K6APA 000 ?? ? 14.060 2057z (no points)

- posted by Leigh @ 21:16 z 0 comments

 
K8ORD/7
I switched to wires in tree (and wrapped the 40M counterpoise around the trunk a few times) and got K8ORD/7 in Cave Creek, AZ and he answered me a few times but he never got my call correct. Time to go home.
- posted by Leigh @ 00:26 z 0 comments

 
K5CEP from Mitchell Park
I set up my KX1 and PAC-12 on 30M in mitchell Park but could not load it up. The Autek showed 10O at resonance but the KXAT1 could not match it. Maybe I will try Alan's Balun once I make powerpole antenna pigtails for it. On 14.044.90 I answered K5CEP who gave me a 569 but faded. Charles was in Marietta, OK, and has been a ham about 4 months.
- posted by Leigh @ 23:53 z 0 comments

 

A few nights ago I finished putting the buttons in the front panel.
- posted by Leigh @ 18:23 z 0 comments

 
On my K2 Front Panel, the first part I put in tonight was U4. I soldered U4 into the bar LED spot and will not try to salvage it. I ordered a new one. I suppose I can go on while I wait for the part which should arrive Tuesday with luck, but I decided to knock off for the night....
- posted by Leigh @ 06:19 z 0 comments

 
The signal came up and he gave me a Q4 or Q5 and told me about the Santa Barbara ham club picnic in Goleta in August and the steam trains in Goleta coming up too -- I've been to the museum in Goleta once and enjoyed it.
- posted by Leigh @ 02:54 z 0 comments

 
I heard Carl W6JEO in Goleta (near Santa Barbara) and he was S8. He could barely copy me though.
- posted by Leigh @ 02:46 z 0 comments

 
Antenna Updates -- W3FF Budd in Redding, CA
I moved my G5RV feed point about six inches away from guy wires and the mast, and tried to raise one of the ends a bit but wasn't succesful. I came in and turned the FT-817 on and it was on 5.371.50 USB for an earlier HFPack Warmup listen (where I heard nobody) and I heard Budd W3FF calling CQ. He came right back to me when I answered on 2.5W -- I hadn't plugged in the HFPacker Amp powerpole! I got the amp turned on and he gave me a great report. Budd was using a modular antenna with a military whip in a 3/8x24 CB mount on a mountain bike, with a small coil in each end, so he had a tuned ground too. Budd knows his antenna design, and it was working great. There was some QRN and slow QSB but he was S7 most of the time, sometimes up to about S9.
- posted by Leigh @ 02:41 z 0 comments

 

The control board of my K2 #3121 is done, but not tested.
- posted by Leigh @ 05:52 z 0 comments

 

I worked KH6ZM Max in Hawaii from the elementary sxhool with a 28ft wire up this 22ft poll. He gave me a 549.
- posted by Leigh @ 02:53 z 0 comments

 
K2 Assembly

I just put in the PIC 18F452 socket, page 17 of the K2 manual.
- posted by Leigh @ 07:02 z 0 comments

 
SD-20 Antenna

I put my 28ft wire on the SD-20 and tied the 16ft radial to a shrub on the pathway to PARC and used my Radio Shack amplified speaker. It was too hot to try a QSO but I heard quite a bit.
- posted by Leigh @ 00:33 z 0 comments

 
At the Cafe

I went to Douce France cafe and threw the 16ft wire over a peg hanging from the wooden roof and clipped the ground to a bolt on the underside of the table. I heard a few signals on 20M and 40M and maybe something faint on 30M, but nobody would answer me.
- posted by Leigh @ 16:09 z 0 comments

 

Alan's balun. Done but not tested.
- posted by Leigh @ 07:03 z 0 comments

 
5W0DL in Western Samoa
I heard 5W0DL call CQ and answered him with 2.5W on 20M PSK31. He answered me right back with 569 and gave my call correctly but then asked for my call again...I tried again and he said heavy QSB. I cranked up to 40W and gave him my call again and he gave me another 569. Not bad for 10,000 miles, either 2.5 or 40W. Never got his name and his QRZ.com entry is blank...it looks like K8AA may be his QSL Manager.

Received eqsl

Labels: QSO QSL

- posted by Leigh @ 05:22 z 0 comments

 

I finished page 1of the K2.
- posted by Leigh @ 06:16 z 0 comments

 

Starting on the K2 #3121 and options.
- posted by Leigh @ 01:51 z 0 comments

 
I tried to crimp a BNC connector onto some LMR-100 (like RG/174) and broke it, so came to do some operating instead. I saw XE2BSS Alex in Mexicali (a hundred miles east of Tijuana, roughly) call CQ and he gave me a 579 on the first call back. Alex is using a Cushcraft R/9000 about 15 feet off the ground and the Signalink SL-1. I may get an SL-1 -- my homebrew/Ramsey/Buxcomm interface for the FT-817 has failed me a couple of times and is presently in a mysteriously non-functioning state, so all my PSK contacts are on the PSK-20... QSL via WD9EWK
- posted by Leigh @ 04:59 z 0 comments

 
UA0FO Sergey on Sakhalin; 1842 miles per watt
I ran the PSK-20 directly to my G5RV and saw UA0FO Sergey on Sakhalin Island IOTA AS-018 calling CQ on 14.071 PSK31. He was 599. He answered me on my first call and said I was full copy and 559, with my 2.5 Watts. His grid square is QN16ix. So that makes 4605 miles and 1842 miles per watt (or 1535 m/W if you believe the 3W published spec on the PSK-20). PSE QSL (paper)
- posted by Leigh @ 06:11 z 0 comments

 

I worked the Saturday night (Juliet) HFPack rusty CW net on 7109. K6ACJ couldn't hear me but Rob could.
- posted by Leigh @ 02:23 z 0 comments

 
Blogrouter back up
Blogger seems to have updated their version of SOAP, as it is now returning application/xml instead of text/xml, so I updated the version of SOAP::Lite. Hey, they're using XML-RPC! Well, I guess it's related since it's the same perl package. I still randomly get "500 Internal Server Error" out of them but perhaps that's a separate problem.
- posted by Leigh @ 04:27 z 0 comments

 
Terrace Hill, San Luis Obispo, CA.
Terrace Hill, San Luis Obispo, CA. Grid square CM95qg Elevation 475 ft No contacts...
- posted by Leigh @ 11:35 z 0 comments

 
KX1 from Pismo Beach

From the Pismo Beach Pier I worked K0MT jerry on 10.118 on my KX1 in Alamosa, CO with a 24' piece of wire dangling off the pier. He gave me 589 with QSB. 10.118 MHz 20040702 2307-2325Z.
- posted by Leigh @ 23:25 z 0 comments

 

I got my CW output program to compile under SDCC for the Olimex PIC-MT board ($40). It keys a relay, speaker, and LED and outputs the text to the LCD. I can't read the buttons yet.
- posted by Leigh @ 00:18 z 0 comments