AmateurRadio.com

The New Year (UTC time) begins just after 5 PM local time and when I’ll begin my 2014 QSO A Day challenge.  I successfully completed a QSO a Day back in 2012 and it was a lot of fun.  It also helped me meet several smaller goals of achieving my first WAS and build on my DXCC list. 

For 2014, I’ve stepped up my goals slightly and would like to achieve WAS in six different categories and of course also move me closer to DXCC. 

I have a brand new QSL card which I’ll start using in the new year (shown below).  Randy Dorman, KB3IFH did an excellent job on the card.  If you need QSL cards for the new year, please contact Randy.  You won’t be disappointed.

I also have to get back on track with my diet and exercise routines.  I had a stumble on the ice just after Thanksgiving and have been moving slower than normal and consuming more “comfort food” than I should.  However, with the new year comes new goals and new energy to achieve these goals.  The back and tailbone are better and I’m ready to get back to 10,000 Steps per Day.

Happy New Year!  Happy Amateur Radio!

73,

Jerry

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].

Howdy, folks! It's another rip-snortin' episode of Linux in the Ham Shack comin' atcha. In this installment, your intrepid co-hosts have discuss a couple of new Linux distributions, namely Fedora 20 and SteamOS. After that, we have a fantastic interview with the show's good friend Jonathan Nadeau. He has a new accessibility project to make Orca the best screen reader ever, and he (and we) wants everyone to know about it. Also, make sure to check out Hacker Public Radio's New Year's Eve show to get more details. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season, and has a most prosperous New Year in 2014.

73 de The LHS Guys

Russ Woodman, K5TUX, co-hosts the Linux in the Ham Shack podcast which is available for download in both MP3 and OGG audio format. Contact him at [email protected].

I mentioned yesterday that I only seemed to be copying a few frames from each ISS pass. Those seemed to be when the satellite was closest. Which is fair enough of course.

This morning, I spent a few moments reading the UZ7HO manual (which is very good!). You might argue that I should have done that a week ago. But I’m really not that sort of person, I’m afraid.

It transpired that my audio levels into the program weren’t as high as they should have been. I cranked these up almost as far as they would go and left the program monitoring the next ISS pass.

Definitely an improvement! Many more frames copied – great, including some more distant stations such as HG8PL. Rather than copying frames over a short period of time, it was usable over several minutes.

The default setting for the UZ7HO software seemed to be a monochrome waterfall display. I changed it into colour and then followed the manual’s advice to make it a green colour, with red when packet signals are received.

So, a few more frames digi-ed via the ISS today, and messages swapped between Pete, 2E0SQL and myself, over a ground path of around 12 miles, via a spacecraft travelling above us at 17,500MPH.

Tim Kirby, G4VXE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Oxfordshire, England. Contact him at [email protected].

Previously I posted the story about my Christmas Eve Activation to Montoso Peak. On Christmas Day my youngest son, Jake, KB5SKN, and his family came to Santa Fe to stay for a few days. Jake enjoys getting out into the mountains just like I do, so one of our planned days was for skiing and the other for doing a SOTA summit.

The Summit we chose was 7472. In the SOTA world, peaks without names are assigned their elevation as a name, so as you might guess the elevation of this peak was 7,472 feet ASL. The peak is located in the Caja del Rio area that I described in my previous post. the summit is actually half of an extinct volcano. As you would expect, there was lots of volcanic rock and cactus on the mountain.

The GPS route estimated that it would take us an hour get to the summit. However, because of deep ruts in the 4WD roads it took us about an hour and a half to get to the base of the mountain. This summit, like Montoso Peak, had no trail to the top, we would have to bushwhack our way up. Also, because the approach to the summit was from the north side of the mountain, there was much more snow than we planned for. However, Jake and I made relatively good time up the mountain, scaling the 500 foot ascent over .8 of a mile in about 30 minutes.


Mike Crownover, AD5A, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Texas, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

In addition to the fall that my 88′ EDZ took, there now seem to be other problems. While connecting it to the KX3 this afternoon, I noticed that depending on how I handled the coax, the antenna would either “hear” or not. I immediately suspected a fault at the PL-259, so I replaced it. Unfortunately, it didn’t make a difference. That means there is most likely a fault in the coax a bit further back.

Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

I posted a few days ago that I was hoping to have a go at digipeating my 145MHz packet signal through the digipeater on the International Space Station. I got all the gear and software set up and then the digipeater seemed to be switched off.

In fact, I think it was switched off for very good reason, whilst the astronauts were space walking; repairing the pump and deploying the cameras (and then undeploying them again).

I set it all up yesterday, before we went out family visiting. Apart from the fact that I didn’t connect the aerial!

Today I was slightly better organised and left things running whilst Julie and I went out for a chilly, but sunny walk. I was pleased to find that I had copied a frame from IW3RGK when I got back.

The next pass looked promising, being pretty much directly overhead. I started to hear the signals as the spacecraft approached, around 300 miles away and got some decodes so I decided to press the transmit button. To my delight, I saw the digipeater repeat my position: you can see on the screenshot below from the UISS program.

On transmit I was using the FT8900 to the V2000 collinear, so nothing too special. Although I am hearing quite a few packets on the pass, I only seem to be decoding the ones when the spacecraft is almost overhead – I suspect it’s the signal strength – or perhaps the doppler shift is messing with the Soundmodem decodes.

Great fun!

Tim Kirby, G4VXE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Oxfordshire, England. Contact him at [email protected].

Series Six Episode Twenty-Six of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast has been released. The latest news and Martin reviews Dip Meters and Absorption Wavemeters.

• New Technician Class question pool released

• Ham radio operator dials help

• FM fans reject digital radio

• Start the year off by getting a friend into the Amateur Radio Hobby

• 0-30 MHz Band Planning Committee announcement

• Studies of ionograms show supremacy of 5 MHz band

• Amateur Radio Antennas and Masts in NSW

• SO-50's eleventh birthday

• Spain gets experimental permission for 5 MHz

• Youngsters On The Air Finland 2014

Colin Butler, M6BOY, is the host of the ICQ Podcast, a weekly radio show about Amateur Radio. Contact him at [email protected].