AmateurRadio.com

I went for a quick hike this morning before lunch to some remote farm fields not far from home. I worked France, Serbia, Kansas, Canary Islands and Russia. It was a beautiful, beautiful morning.

I started out on Hunkins Pond Road and hiked north up an old farm lane. Then I turned east on the old range road. This old road cuts straight through the woods for probably 8 miles. But just a short way up this road I came to David Swain’s hay fields on top of the hill. It’s a beautiful place. This view is looking east toward the Belknap Mountain range.

I set up the KX3 at the edge of the field and tossed my wire over a huge maple. I started out on 20 meters. The first station I heard was Bert F6HKA in France. He was working the Romanian DX contest. We exchanged 599s and a serial number. Next I worked a Serbian station YT1A also working the contest.

My third QSO was up the band a little with W0L. Jerry was working the Kansas QSO party and I sent 599 and NH. Then I listened around a bit to see how the other bands were doing. I finally settled on 17 meters where I heard a couple of strong DX stations.

EA8TL in the Canary Islands was calling CQ right at the bottom of the band. Jorge was very strong and we made a quick exchange. Up the band I heard Alex RK3ER also calling CQ. “Hello Jim,” he sent as he gave me a 559. He was 599 to me.

Now the sun was almost overhead and it was getting pretty hot in the field. I packed up and headed home for lunch after a final glance to the south.

Jim Cluett, W1PID, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Hampshire, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

If you want to spark a conversation at your next social event, ask everyone the proper name for this symbol: #. Most North Americans will probably say pound sign or perhaps number sign. It helps to have an international audience, since a person from the UK will likely call it the hash symbol. Lately, the world of Twitter (and other social media) has made extensive use of # to tag keywords, referring to it as the hash mark used to create hashtags. A musician might claim that it is the sharp symbol from musical notation but closer examination reveals that the sharp symbol is quite different.

The AT&T engineers working on the original DTMF system adopted the name Octothorpe for this symbol. There are various explanations and anecdotes that have developed over the years concerning how this happened. Various forms of spelling show up in the literature (octatherp, octothorp, etc.). Doug Kerr’s story is particularly interesting and available on the internet (see below). There are US Patents that use the word “octothorp” to refer to the # symbol. Patent number 3920926 uses “octothorp” for # and “sextile or asterisk” for the * symbol. The term sextile never caught on at all.

For amateur radio usage (North America bias), I hear mostly pound for # and star for *. I suspect that will not change any time soon.

– Bob K0NR

Wikipedia entry for the number sign (#):  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_sign

The Symbol on the “Pound” or “Number” Key (#) is Also Called an Octothorpe

The ASCII Character “Octatherp”, by Doug Kerr

The post Don’t Pound My Octothorpe appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

Bob Witte, KØNR, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Colorado, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Above is a table that was made for me by Bert PA1B his blog can be found here .Shortly after reading my QRPp WSPR blog post Bert sat down collected my data and made the above table. It shows the calculated lowest possible power in milliwatts. Bert explained to me that the "calculated" lowest power, is the power that could be used (by my dinky antenna setup) to be received with an SNR of -29dB. From the above table it would seem that the 100mW's of power I was using for some contacts could had been considered QRO power! Bert thanks very much for your time and effort and bringing to light the power of QRPp.
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

Above is a table that was made for me by Bert PA1B his blog can be found here .Shortly after reading my QRPp WSPR blog post Bert sat down collected my data and made the above table. It shows the calculated lowest possible power in milliwatts. Bert explained to me that the "calculated" lowest power, is the power that could be used (by my dinky antenna setup) to be received with an SNR of -29dB. From the above table it would seem that the 100mW's of power I was using for some contacts could had been considered QRO power! Bert thanks very much for your time and effort and bringing to light the power of QRPp.
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

Above is a table that was made for me by Bert PA1B his blog can be found here .Shortly after reading my QRPp WSPR blog post Bert sat down collected my data and made the above table. It shows the calculated lowest possible power in milliwatts. Bert explained to me that the "calculated" lowest power, is the power that could be used (by my dinky antenna setup) to be received with an SNR of -29dB. From the above table it would seem that the 100mW's of power I was using for some contacts could had been considered QRO power!
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

  As the long, dog-days of summer begin to come to an end it marks one of my favorite operating activities and that is the Colorado QSO Party.  While I’m not a native to the Centennial State, I am always proud to represent Colorado and this year marks the 140th anniversary of statehood.

The 2016 Colorado QSO Party takes place on  Saturday, 3 September beginning at 0400 UTC (7 AM to 10 PM MDT).  I have a few mid morning commitments which I need to take care of, but KDØBIK should be on the air shortly after the lunch hour. 

Perhaps it is naïve to anticipate better band conditions for next Saturday.  After all…..

But I for one will be giving it a solid effort from the basement ham shack located in grid square DM79np.  I hope to work you in the 2016 Colorado QSO Party. 

Until then…

73 de KDØBIK

P.S.  Episode 71 of the Practical Amateur Radio Podcast will release Saturday, 27 August.  Thank you for listening!

Jerry Taylor, KD0BIK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Colorado, USA. He is the host of the Practical Amateur Radio Podcast. Contact him at [email protected].

  As the long, dog-days of summer begin to come to an end it marks one of my favorite operating activities and that is the Colorado QSO Party.  While I’m not a native to the Centennial State, I am always proud to represent Colorado and this year marks the 140th anniversary of statehood.

The 2016 Colorado QSO Party takes place on  Saturday, 3 September beginning at 0400 UTC (7 AM to 10 PM MDT).  I have a few mid morning commitments which I need to take care of, but KDØBIK should be on the air shortly after the lunch hour. 

Perhaps it is naïve to anticipate better band conditions for next Saturday.  After all…..

But I for one will be giving it a solid effort from the basement ham shack located in grid square DM79np.  I hope to work you in the 2016 Colorado QSO Party. 

Until then…

73 de KDØBIK

P.S.  Episode 71 of the Practical Amateur Radio Podcast will release Saturday, 27 August.  Thank you for listening!

Jerry Taylor, KD0BIK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Colorado, USA. He is the host of the Practical Amateur Radio Podcast. Contact him at [email protected].