WA2VMO
I heard some MFSK CQ's on 7071 and answered WA2VMO Bob in Staten Island (FN30). He said I was off frequency a bit, so now it's happening in two modes! I had realigned again so there must still be some problem... QSB set in and Bob dropped out after telling me about his Icom IC718 and Inverted L at 30Ft. It was cold there -- 27F and overcast.
- posted by Leigh @ 06:08 z 0 comments

 
KH6BB
I realigned my K2 filters with Spectrogram under wine on Linux. I'm not sure I've got it right yet, but there does seem to be an improvment in at least receive. I turned on the rig at 18.163 and heared KH6BB on the USS Missouri in Hawaii and Lee came back to me the first time, but said I was low in frequency. Hmmm. 15W barefoot.
- posted by Leigh @ 19:21 z 0 comments

 
W7RDP
I heard W7RDP/qrp calling CQ on 3580.500 and answered him with my K2 at 5W. Doug has built a lot of QRP kits, but different ones from my. He's got a Norcal 40A and a Warbler (built in October) and a G5RV, same as me. He's on the list for an ATS-3 (SMT kit somewhat like the Elecraft KX1). Doug's practicing CW and hopes to get on the key soon. I'll listen for him on 40 or 20 with his RockMite (well, maybe on 40). RST 579-599. QTH: Sammamish, WA (21m East of Seattle).
- posted by Leigh @ 06:33 z 0 comments

 
First Pedestrian Mobile Outing With Backpack

Operating PM ay Palo Alto Baylands CM87ix. Got a 339 out of W2KFQ on 14.030.10 but not a complete QSO.
- posted by Leigh @ 22:19 z 0 comments

 
WA7CS

I called CQ on 14.060 and WA7CS Carl in a cabin near Spokane, WA answered me 589 and gave me a 549 with his SGC 2020. Carl was enjoying the 30F WX and watching the lake freeze over. Carl was running 20W into a vertical and suggested I try a counterpoise into the water, but then he lost me in QRM. I don't know if the counterpoise did it. It was 16ft long and so there was a voltage node at the water...maybe I should have used a different length...
- posted by Leigh @ 21:41 z 0 comments

 
Almost Cuba
I got a "QRZ WA5ZN?" out of CM6YVC on 7.072.15 PSK31, from Cuba.
- posted by Leigh @ 07:07 z 0 comments

 
On 7.044 I heard W4NSN Gene in Atlanta call CQ and answered him but he said copy was rough. He called QRZ and I heard F3NB answer him.
- posted by Leigh @ 05:55 z 0 comments

 
I answered VE3FU on 14.06071 at 1931Z but OM said I was too weak to copy, Merry Christmas. He was 599 into my Hamstick at the Baylands CM87xl on the KX1.
- posted by Leigh @ 19:49 z 0 comments

 
Santa Claus Land

I just worked Santa Claus Land in Lapland, in Finland, at the Arctic Circle at Their Official Amateur Radio Station OH9SCL (KP26um) from the Palo Alto, CA Baylands (CM87xl) on 14.010 with my KX1 at 4W, a Hamstick on my car roof, a 16ft wire radial, and the WB6ZQZ balun. At 5051 miles that beats 1000Miles/W.

Hamcall.net says their website is http://www.oh9scl.com but it doesn't appear to be up, but I did find an article in the San Jose Mercury News about the place.

- posted by Leigh @ 19:49 z 0 comments

 

Here is my first log book. My first contact was Augus4 4, 1969 at 4:43PM CDT WB4PKX, Joe in Tampa, Fl on 7.183 at 75W on my HW-16 into a 40/15m trapped dipole. He was 579 and gave me a 589. My 4th contact was Pete, KB6HBZ in Hawaii, on August 10, 1969 12:55PM PDT, on 21.130, both 599.
- posted by Leigh @ 05:50 z 0 comments

 

My General license, 05-14-74.
- posted by Leigh @ 16:59 z 0 comments

 
I heard from 6Y5IC Wenty in Kingston, Jamaica by email. I'd seen him in various digital modes last night -- even some of the weirder ones, and he was 599 or 579 all night. Wenty said he's sked with me and we tried it tonight, but all I heard was EM1HO Paul in Antartica! Then I saw Wenty talk to Paul, and then Wenty gave me a call! He gave me a 369 and I gave him 579, so there must be some problem at my end...but at least it worked. Using my K2 at 2.5W driving the HFPacker amp. It looks like the drive necessary to trip the TigerTronics VOX is too much for the K2 and I have to reduce it on the K2 end, which causes ALC. I used the PSK Meter and git it down to 30dB IMD and then turned the amplifier on, but I'm not sure about it all yet.
- posted by Leigh @ 05:38 z 0 comments

 
I got on 7070 and saw Paul operating as EM1HO from Antarctica calling CQ and his signal was so loud I had to turn the RF gain on my K2 down.
- posted by Leigh @ 05:01 z 0 comments

 

I got my W1AW card.
- posted by Leigh @ 02:33 z 0 comments

 

W.U. Tel Co. Sounder I-A 4-Ohm and J38. When I was 5 and told my father I wanted to learn Morse code, he asked an old railroad telegrapher if he had a key, and the man gave him this and another sounder. I remember using it with a 6V lantern battery inside the box. The wires in the box are cloth-covered. I don't know if the key is original. The base has "1817" stamped on it but that is obviously not a date. The sounder says "W.U. Tel Co. Sounder I-A 4-Ohm" on it.
- posted by Leigh @ 17:17 z 0 comments

 

N5LK sent me the old transmatch, from a design in QST.
- posted by Leigh @ 17:02 z 0 comments

 
K2 PSK Cable

I made a PSK interface cable for my K2. I have a TigetTronics SL-1+ interface that I bought to replace a similar one I had constructed, but which had mechanical reliability problems. I had previously bought Don Wilhelm's Fixed Audio Out board, but wanted to see if I could get by with something simpler.

First I tried the AF IN on the Mic jack and AF Out from the headphone jack, but all the plugging and unplugging bothered me.

Next I tried Sverre Holm's suggestion to take the AF off of the audio gain pot through a 1K Ohm resistor. I found this worked but the audio level was low enough that I was losing signals.

Next I tried W4GS's suggestion of just taking the amplified output before it hits the headphone jack, as part of his fat wire PSK interface. I didn't like having to hook the mic jumper block on the control board over to the RF board, but with the Fixed Audio Out modification, I'd have to run 5 wires instead of just one, so I decided to go ahead and do that. I used a gold-plated pin connector which I trimmed on both sides, and then some insulated stranded wire (probably should have used Elecraft green standard!) and took it from R36 common to numbered side of pin 5.

The cable I made from a Cat 5 STP (shielded) cable which I cut off at one end. I used the shield wire for pin 8, which goes nowhere on the interface side. I used a signal ground for the other one (one connected to ground on the TigerTronics box) and then the appropriate AF IN and AF OUT wires from the connector. My choice of connections was determined by wanting to use the same TigerTronics configuration for the FT-817 cable, so I didn't get to optimize the twisted pair usage.

Anyway, it all appears to work. I get acceptable signal levels with acceptable sound levels from the speaker, and if I want to muffle it completely, I can plug in headphones or an unterminated headphone plug.

I'm keeping the W3FPR board unbuilt, in case I need it for some other reason, or become dissatisfied with this solution.

- posted by Leigh @ 07:13 z 0 comments

 
I got an eQSL from XE2SIV for this and from 5W0DL in Western Samon for this.
- posted by Leigh @ 17:03 z 0 comments

 
Mystery Signal

It was on 7071.6 or so. The blue bars are MFSK16 bandwidth and the trace at 7072.4 is PSK31. What is this mystery signal? Update: It turns out to be Throb. See the MixW signal page.
- posted by Leigh @ 03:12 z 0 comments

 
I tried MFSK16 on 7071.5 with my K2 and HFPacker amp. I had a QSO with W7RJR Bob in Spokane, WA, who reported that I faded in and out. Maybe I was overdriving my amplifier. Logged at 07:07:04z on 13 Dec 2004
- posted by Leigh @ 07:09 z 0 comments

 
Around 0100Z I heard WB6MLC Ken and KQ6XA Bonnie on 5371.5 and joined in. Ken suggested I remove the membrane cover of my FT-817 mic and Bonnie suggested I adjust the carrier insertion point and the mic gain. I tried +300 and -300 Hz and Bonnie said +300 Hz was better. I also turned the mic gain up to 99.
- posted by Leigh @ 03:37 z 0 comments

 
OX-1

This was my first QRP rig -- on 1mW I worked Summit, MS (3 miles) and on 180mW (9V battery instead of 12V to the amplifier) I worked Texas into a 40M/15M trapped dipole.
- posted by Leigh @ 23:58 z 0 comments

 
QSL DE WN5ZNU

This was my novice QSL card from The Little Print Shop of Austin TX. The back has a date of 1969 on it and says that my antenna was a "diePOLE" and XMTR and RCVR were HW16.
- posted by Leigh @ 23:57 z 0 comments

 
I saw N5LK's signal on 14.070+ 829Hz and he saw mine at 14.070+200Hz, but we couldn't exchange whole calls even. At least it was a partial success.
- posted by Leigh @ 18:21 z 0 comments

 
N5LK

I gave my PSK-20 to N5LK and we set up a low 20M dipole on the roof of the QTH. It's running East West, but it's low enough that it probably has a round pattern. There are some pine trees that he can try later to get a high north/south running one.

Today we tried but some of the plugs had come loose and the sound settings weren't right, but at least it's receiving. AC7IU Frank in Montana answered me and we had a nice QSO while I tried to help troubleshoot the rig too. Frank says he also runs PSK63 and I may look for him on that sometime.

- posted by Leigh @ 17:55 z 0 comments