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I’ve blogged about iOS apps before, but I can’t remember if I’ve previously mentioned anything about HamLog.  I’ve owned HamLog for a few years now.  I’ll honestly say for the record I don’t currently use it, but feel that will soon change.

HamLog is an iOS and Android application developed by Nick Garner, N3WG.  Nick has developed over a dozen different apps.  One I mentioned briefly in another blog post is his Pocket SOTA app.  You can view Nick’s listing of Apps from his website. 

As I mentioned, I’ve owned HamLog for a few years.  I believe Nick developed and released it in 2009.  I’ve watched Nick make many changes to the HamLog app over the years.  While I’ve tried using it to log contacts, I found I could log via pen and paper much faster.  Especially with operating SOTA, you can easily find yourself generating a large pileup.  The extra time it takes to manually key in all the info was just something I wasn’t interested in for my own operational setup.  Until now…

Please take a few minutes to watch this video.  Nick introduces some new enhancements to the HamLog App as well as a new piece of hardware called Pigtail Air.  Pigtail air will allow for true rig control through the HamLog app and of course will speed up the logging process. 

I believe the Pigtail Air device, coupled with my new KX3 (when it arrives) and my iPad will make a fantastic SOTA or portable logging setup.  I’ll now have an excuse to buy that Otterbox Defender iPad case.

Until next time…

73 de KD0BIK

Eldon WA0UWH posted yesterday on lessons learned about the Parallax Propeller programming language Spin. I too have been having fun and games trying to create a user interface for my multimode multiband beacon using the LCD module. Whilst some of my problems have been due to my failure to spot my own stupid mistakes, a couple were caused by the tools themselves.

A considerable amount of time was wasted recovering a working program after a change I made seemed to have messed it up. Eventually I discovered by accident that the program fails to run correctly on the Propeller board unless the main Spin source file is the foremost one in the Propeller Tool editor. I had begun splitting my code into separate objects with their own source files and because I had been editing or referring to one of these files I had tried running the code with one of these files in the foreground instead of the main one.

I wasted a couple of hours trying to backtrack what I had done and ended up installing one of those programs that archives each version of a file whenever you save it so that you can roll back to a previous state. The best program I have found for this is AJC Active Backup which comes with a diff tool that shows the differences between two files but unfortunately I have lost the licence key since the last time I installed it so as I was feeling tight-fisted I had to use something less good.

The other problem that caused a lot of lost time was an apparent error in the LCD UI Spin object. Specifically, the cursor method that is supposed to let you change the cursor to a flashing underscore or block just seems to clear the LCD and then crash. I had been hoping to use the cursor to show what bit of information the user was editing but I can’t get it to work.

I’m not sure exactly where I am going with the beacon project. Jeff KO7M has developed a WSPR encoder that generates the required code when you input your call, power and locator. However there is not much point in using it unless I provide an interface that allows you to input this information as text. If I choose to support Opera then the bit code will have to be programmed in as no-one other than Opera’s programmer knows the algorithm used to encode the callsign. As my beacon is unlikely to be used by anyone other than G4ILO in IO84 at however much dBm it produces I may as well hard code all beacon texts.

The other thing I’m not sure about is how to add the PA. The LCD UI module is now plugged into all the headers on the Gadget Gangster board and I don’t want to attach wires to the board itself. I could solder headers to the two rows of holes adjacent to the existing headers on the Gangster board and then plug a board to the bottom of it. That would be the probably be the neatest solution – unless anyone has a better idea?

Lately I’ve been thinking (again) about getting a new rig and replacing an older Kenwood.  I’ve actually cleaned up the shack a bit and have removed some little monoband rigs that I rarely use and have gotten down to the basics of just what I need.  I feel I need something new in the shack, I’m just not sure what.

The Elecraft K3 would be a no brainer choice.  While it’s a great rig, it somewhat has the makings of a fad for me, and I’ve never been a trend follower.

The KX3 is another option.  I kind of like the idea of a portable rig that has the potential for being a primary home shack rig at 100 watts.  But I still have concerns about the form factor, with the rig being so small and for portable backpack use it seems a bit fragile.  I don’t know if I could be satisfied with it as a home base rig.

I would love to try a Flexradio, however each day I’m leaning more towards Mac in the shack (gasps from the audience).  The last time I looked at Flex they still weren’t supporting Vista or Windows 7.  Perhaps that’s changed but support for OSX is likely light years away.

Nothing that Kenwood currently offers excites me.  Unfortunately I doubt I’ll ever buy a Kenwood HF rig again.

Maybe I should go with a Yaesu rig?  The FT-950 looks like a reasonable choice, though a bit uninspiring.  The price is right and it gets good reviews.  It appears to be a good performing rig without needless extravagance like multi-kilobuck contester rigs.  I’m quite pleased and familiar with the FT-817 and FT-897, so this rig would not be difficult to assimilate into the shack, though it doesn’t really get me into uncharted territory and it seems like a “safe” choice.

Perhaps it’s time I tried a Ten Tec?  The Ten Tec Jupiter is kind of spartan-looking, but interesting.  I like the clean look and under the hood it seems to have a lot of technology and power.  One downside I see is that the MARS mod is not readily available.  I modify all my rigs for DC to daylight transmit for emergency use and so I can use them as signal generators.  I’ve never used a Ten Tec but I know they are legendary performers.

I’ve used Icoms and I can’t say anything bad about them, they’ve just never been on my radar.  I’m not sure why.

Any thoughts from the studio audience on what’s a good $1K – $2K HF-6m rig these days?

The Black Sparrow Media mobile application which lets you see all kinds of content related to programs on the BSM Network, is now available in iTunes.  Simple search for “black sparrow” on your Apple mobile device and you can download it for free.  The application was previously released for Android and is available for any device with access to the Android Marketplace.  You can even use the app to listen to live stream shows of Linux in the Ham Shack! New programs are coming to the Black Sparrow Media Network in the very near future, so stay tuned for that as well.

I’ve mentioned before that some contacts really grab your imagination. This evening was one of those. Generally, over the last few weeks 10m has been closed by the time I have got to the car on the way home from work. However, this evening, when I switched on the 10m rig I could hear a station close to 28.400MHz where the rig was ‘parked’. As I drove over to the supermarket, I could hear W8ERN in Michigan working his way through a steady stream of callers. Driving through urban Didcot is quite noisy on HF, so I hadn’t really expected to hear any more on 10m by the time I had finished my shopping for a Valentine’s meal for Julie.

But as I drove away from the supermarket, with goodies in my shopping bag, I switched on the 10m rig and he was still there, if anything, stronger! To my surprise, Angelo, W8ERN heard ‘mobile’ as someone else called him and asked for the mobile. I called and was thrilled to get a 5/8 report from him.

We had a very easy QSO and I was able to explain that I was running around 10W from the Anytone AT-5555 to a CB whip on the car. Angelo told me about his website and I told him about this one!

Great to make my first inter-continental QSO from the car on 10m with the Anytone rig! Thanks Angelo!

that doesn’t make sense to me.

I am about ready to sit down and fill out the log sheet for the certificate for working K6JSS Golden Jubilee Stations.  As I mentioned before, I’ve worked 47 of the 50.

Anyway, I am looking at the WAS map that the QRP-ARCI so graciously provided along with the log sheet. And I’m noticing something I don’t think I’ve ever really  payed attention to before in all my 30+ years in the hobby. I’d bet good money that someone else noticed this before and that I’m just really slow on the uptake.

We start in the North East – Call section 1.  Next we come down to New York and New Jersey – Call section 2. Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland – the Middle Atlantic states – Call section 3.  The great South East – Call section 4.  Now on to the Central Southern states – Call section 5.  Out West to California – Call section 6.  Up to the great North West and other Western states – Call section 7.

Sense the pattern?  We started in the North East and we’re working around the perimeter of the country (more or less) in a clockwise pattern (more or less) – in numerical order.

So now, after the great North West, we move over to the Central Northern and Central states – Call section 0 ?????  What happened?  Why do sections 0, 9 and 8 seem to be backwards?  We were working our way, nicely around the country in a nice numerical order and all of a sudden – chaos!

I’m sure there’s an excellent explanation.  Any Amateur Radio history buffs out there that can enlighten me?

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

What can I tell. This contest was enervating. My XYL was not too happy with 24 hours of contesting. And I have to admit I wasn’t that much of use to her and my little daughter with only contesting in my mind. But I have to thank her that once in a year she let me go for a whole weekend to do my most important radio contest of the year. Luckely they were away to my mother-in-law at Saturday so I had no distractions. Propagation was bad on Saturday, it was improving Sunday. But of course Sunday I had some distractions, you can not totally ignore family live of course. Anyway I guess I missed some multipliers like VK, I actually didn’t hear VK on any band but know that there was some activity. No interesting DX this time like last year, you got to have some luck with that of course. I made a note from some calls and names from felow bloggers and readers so I could greet them with their names. But at the end I only worked PA1HHO Pleun,  I actually made a short but nice QSO with him on 80m so he tested his new “Rode” mike and let me hear the original mike so I could tell the difference. I made a 40m QSO with him as well. After all a interesting contest and I improved my score from last year, actually broke the 600 QSO barrier. Side effect after the contest, extreme tiredness and a headache.