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VE3FAL WFD 2017 Jan 28-29
February 1st, 2017 | 
Author: Winter Field Day Jan 28-29 2017
Fred Lesnick
Exchange: VE3FAL -10(1 station, outdoors), ONN (Ontario North)
Saturday morning packed the truck with gear and sleigh to pull into my shelter location South of Thunder Bay. This location serves as not only the area I like to hunt, hike and bike, but also my training grounds for Winter Survival as well as a training grounds for the 1st Thunder Scout Explorer Group that I am proud to be part of.
I parked the truck and pulled the sleigh in 2 kms to the location. Opened up the tent and got the fire going straight away inside as well as outside. Morning temperature was nice and the hike was peaceful as well. Scouter James and part of the troop showed up just after 10am where we practiced building and setting primitive traps up as well as relax and enjoy the day. I prepped a spot for my KX2 in the tent and later put the Packtenna EF up in the tree’s with the help of Scouter James. We were ready to roll for the 1900z start of WFD. I opted to operate 40 meters QRP CW only as it was the only band that showed any real activity; the higher bands were very spotty.
Scouter James and I spent the entire night out at the tent while I played off and on in the test. I was able to make 10 completed qso’s (exchanges) and actually beat my score from last year. For me it’s not hardcore, I am just out to play and hone skills both with radio and survival.
I made a short video of the day dedicated to WFD and it can be seen on my YouTube Channel:
https://www.winterfieldday.com/
73 Fred VE3FAL
Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 144
Winter Field Day this weekend
If you are as serious about emergency communications as we are, we welcome you to join us for our yearly event.
WFDA
New FCC Chairman praises Parity Act
Newly designated FCC Chairman Ajit Pai praised the House action on H.R. 555 and other telecommunications-related legislation that cleared the chamber.
ARRL
HamRadio360: All about APRS
APRS, oh the questions you’ve raised!
HamRadio360
CIA documents about Ham Radio declassified
The CIA has recently released around 13 million pages of declassified documents. Among these documents is a set of reports on Ham Radio in the former Soviet Union.
Ham Radio Reviews
Making broadcast towers bird-friendly
In 1976 in Gun Lake, Mich., one tower killed more than 2,300 birds in one night.
NPR
Mt Herman Winter Activation
We returned to the Most Radio Active Mountain in Colorado, Mount Herman, for a combination VHF contest, SOTA activation and winter hike.
K0NR
Simple Wi-Fi Yagi
It’s easy to make a small Yagi for a wireless router even if it lacks an antenna connector. The photo shows how I added two parasitic elements to the sleeve dipole of my Netgear WGR614.
K6STI
Building an ADS-B station
Complete guide to building an ADS-B station: theory, components, maximizing reception performance.
Radio for Everyone
Headset shootout
Headset reviews are about a dime a dozen on the internet. They’re all subjective too. Everyone’s hearing is different. Especially mine!
K5ACL
Video
Winter Field Day: 5 basic winter survival tips
Winter Field Day is an opportunity to test your gear and personal effectiveness in cold weather conditions.
OH8STN
WSJT-X Raspberry Pi split mode
WSJT-X on a Raspberry Pi.
K0PIR
Happy Year of the Rooster
The monkeys are out, the roosters are in. If you are celebrating or not, a happy Chinese New Year to you.
Not much to report from my side. Amateur radio has taken a back seat, partly due to work, partly due to the enormous noise levels that plague me on HF. With the sun not cooperating there is little to be found on the bands, except for way down low. Steve (VE7SL) has promoted NDB DXing more than once here on Amateurradio.com and I am hooked (again), too. Even with my limited antenna I can pick up new stations every time I turn on my TS-440S. My best DX sofar is an NDB from Indonesia; over 3000 kilometers away. Not bad, but not good enough either. Unfortunately I have many AM stations in the area putting out ghost signals on Long Wave. Dealing with them is a pain, but it’s necessary if I want to join the fun on 630 meters. So far, no luck, but we’ll keep on trying.
TX Factor Episode 14 Is Now Propagating!
Beat the winter blues and enjoy part two of our informative series on HF and VHF propagation. Steve Nichols G0KYA concludes with his explanation on how space weather affects our ability to communicate on the HF bands. Bob parts with some cash at Hamfest and Mike chats to Phil Willis M0PHI and Cathy Clark G1GQJ, two movers and shakers in the world of amateur radio.
We hope you enjoy the show!
Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 143
Parity Act bill reintroduced in US House of Representatives
The bill’s language is identical to that of the 2015 measure, H.R. 1301, which passed in the House late last summer but failed in the waning days of the US Senate.
ARRL
Standing desks for Ham shacks?
I’m quickly realizing standing is clearly helpful, because the same problems came up, even though my new chair was more ergonomic.
N0SSC
Ham Radio EMCOMM Go Kit
In order to simplify the cabling between the SignaLink and my laptop I decided to us a powered USB hub and to make the USB hub accessible on the back of the case.
High On Solder
Amateur Radio Club Survey 2017
We’ve just launched our 2017 amateur radio survey to get a snapshot of an aspect of the hobby.
Essex Ham
Ambulances to jam car radios in Sweden
Ambulances in Stockholm are testing a system that interrupts in-car audio systems to warn drivers that they need to get through.
BBC News
Walkie Talkie Duino
An open source wireless shield for Arduino that can send data and audio.
Tindie
Property owner wants to remove ham radio towers from atop hotel
The property’s new owner wants to take down the repeater site due to what it calls safety and security concerns.
News12
Callsign lookup when portable
QRZ is one of the more popular websites for looking up callsigns but the website is not formatted for use on mobile devices.
Ham Radio QRP
Codec 2 700C
My endeavor to produce a digital voice mode that competes with SSB continues.
Rowetel
Video
Internet over powerline can wipe out the HF band
These devices allow you to use your house power cables as a convenient ethernet connection for sharing the internet. However they are extremely noisy and can wipe out the entire HF band.
YouTube
Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 142
Winter Field Day should bring two worlds together
Deliberately stepping away from a comfortable home operating position to practice ham radio in poor conditions is not an idea too many amateurs find appealing, yet it is a situation that radio amateurs should be familiar with before it actually happens.
Off Grid Ham
5 Reasons to get an Amateur Radio (Ham) License
Amateur (Ham) radio is a service and a hobby. People use it every day as a means of communication around town and around the world.
Average Guy Tech
My TenTec Eagle sounds better than my Elecraft KX3
The KX3 is more fatiguing to listen to than the Eagle because it presents more noise in the audio.
Ham Radio QRP
Remote Ham Radio operation through a Raspberry Pi
I set up remote operation on my ham radio through a Wifi network, over a VPN, and around the world using a Raspberry Pi.
Standard Thoughts
Why even good antennas need good coax cable
The difference is noticeably audible and can bee seen in the spectrum.
Bonito Newsroom
WxBot: An APRS weather forecast auto responder
Send an APRS message to WXBOT and receive back a weather forecast for your location.
KI6WJP
PyQSO: A logging tool for Amateur Radio Operators on Linux
PyQSO provides a simple graphical interface through which users can manage information about the contacts/QSOs they make with other operators on the air.
CHRISTIANJACOBS.UK
hamClock for OS X
Displays your local time, UTC time, and ID timer.
ShiftKeySoftware
Video
The Art of Making a Nixie Tube
I discovered nixie tubes in 2011 and since then, I’ve devoted all my time to studies of nixie tubes and its manufacturing processes.
Dalibor Farny
120 watt foldable solar panel setup
Today we setup the PowerFilm 120 Watt Foldable Solar Panel and Sunsaver 10 solar controller in the field and made a contact on the 20 meter band.
YouTube
How to use a multimeter
Digital multimeters are indispensable tools that allow you to analyze circuits and diagnose problems in your electrical design.
SparkFun Electronics
Ham Radio smartphone
An Android smartphone with built in VHF or UHF transmitter.
HamRadioConcepts
Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 141
To help with your NPOTA withdrawal
Like NPOTA, WWFF was devised in order to get Amateur Radio ops off their duffs and into the Great Outdoors. I love their catch phrase – “Make nature your shack!”
AmateurRadio.com
BY70-1 Satellite camera operating guide
An open telecommand is designed to allow radio amateurs to send commands to take and download an image.
LilacSat
Today: KB6NU streaming General Class course
The classes are going to run from 10 am – noon, and will probably run through the end of March.
KB6NU
80m doublet antenna
Technically, what I have is almost an 80m Doublet – there’s about 18m of wire on each “leg” and I’ve about 20ft of 300-ohm slotted feeder which comes into the Shack and through an FT240-31 choke and then about 30cm of coax to the back of the MFJ-847 tuner.
M0PZT
First DMR QSO
Accomplished my first DMR QSO today with K5IMO (thank you Larry!) on the TG3184 TalkGroup for the State of Texas.
K5ACL
Propagation prediction tool
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G4FKH
Mystery cosmic radio bursts pinpointed
As the name suggests, Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are short-lived – but powerful – pulses of radio waves from the cosmos.
BBC
Automatically recognising digital modes with machine learning
There is a good prospect of using machine learning image recognition for guessing digital modes. Ideally this would be built in to clients but it might make a good app (using the phone camera to capture the unidentified signal) or a web site where you upload a screen shot.
marxy’s musing on technology
Shortwave Pirate Radio 2016 – A Year In Review
Overall, 2016 was another great year for shortwave pirate radio listeners.
RadioHobbyist.org
The missing Q signals
Some Q signals have never made it to the ARRL’s official list.
K3HRN
Video
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2E0ICL works 2E0SQL via a new amateur radio FM satellite, BY70-1, launched into orbit on 28 December 2016.
YouTube
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I introduce you to Anderson Powerpole connectors and how to solder and crimp the connector pins. This connector has become a standard among Amateur Radio operators.
K7AGE
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For this video I recorded the audio from my Kenwood TH-D72a and later played it back to Soundmodem+UISS. Soundmodem decodes many more packets than my radio does. I made a screen capture of UISS and its map so you can see the complete details of every received packet.
KG4AKV
Maclogger DX walk-through
Is there a Mac in your Shack? This time I’m looking at the Maclogger DX logging software and rig control for the Mac platform.
K6UDA
