AmateurRadio.com

Welcome, everyone, to a special installment of Linux in the Ham Shack. In this episode, we catch up with two fellow podcasters and friends: Rich, KD0RG, and Brady, AC0XR of the Low SWR podcast. During the course of our interview, the guys talk about Field Day, contesting, logging software, Point Linux, HamOS, their recent home activities and much, much more. This episode was a lot of fun, and we think you’ll enjoy the informative and interesting discussion as well. Thanks for tuning in, and thanks for being a listener of the show.

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].

New sunspot region, NOAA Active Sunspot Region Nr. 11890, far left on the solar disc, will produce flares, this week.

The Sun continues to produce sunspots, and this week looks active, too.  Expect another uptick of activity on higher HF bands such as 10 meters, as a “new” sunspot region has now rotated into full view.  It has a complex magnetic structure, so it could produce moderate and maybe strong x-ray flares.  We expect flaring activity to pick up, as a result.

With all of the recent activity, and the continued train of spots, right now, it certainly appears to be a sign of a “second” peak in the cycle.  Most cycles exhibit such double peaks.  Is this one of them in this current Sunspot Cycle 24?

Enjoy the DX!

73 de NW7US (Your CQ Magazine and Popular Communications Magazine propagation columnist)

http://SunSpotWatch.com

http://NW7US.us

 

Visit, subscribe: NW7US Radio Communications and Propagation YouTube Channel

One of my favorite rigs is the Yaesu FT-817, the QRP transceiver that covers HF through 70 cm. I use it for mountaintop VHF, including Summits On The Air (SOTA) activations.

At Pacificon, I came across this bag by AMP-3 which is custom designed for the FT-817. David KF7ETX did a great job designing this bag, which he explains in this video.

There are cheaper solutions out there but this is the best one I’ve seen.

73, Bob K0NR

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

So I’ve migrated as much as possible in the space of a couple of hours and there is some key material missing but frankly I’m not n the mood to move anything else. This will have to do for the time being. I will attempt to move everything from the WordPress site over time but its going to take a long time to do it if I can actually summon the energy.

Alex Hill, G7KSE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, UK. Contact him at [email protected].

WordPress is a great blogging platform but frankly I’ve had enough of being hacked. So to stop needing to spend hours and hours fiddling around with a website, which frankly isn’t much fun, I’ve moved things here until I get either the site sorted or a more secure platform to run things off.

Shame really as I’ve been with WordPress for many years and its done me well, but I just can be hassled with spending hour after hour going through code for a simple blog.

Alex Hill, G7KSE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, UK. Contact him at [email protected].

The K3 just stopped!

This weekend I hooked up the Elecraft k3 as it was all disconnected when we had the house painted as it had to be moved for safe keeping. I wanted to make sure it still worked with all the computer software and the Alexloop. Software can be a very funny thing in that you really don't have to do anything and for some strange reason it just stops working! I am happy to report that all between the PC and Elecraft K3 is working well.

There was one heart stopping moment, it was during a tuning session of  the Alexloop and the rig. I tuned the Alexloop for max receive I then hit the tune button on the K3 with the power on 3 watts the SWR was around 3.1 to 1 so some fine tuning was needed. As I tuned the Alexloop the SWR did a sharp rise and the rig powered off!! I waited for a moment and tried to power the K3 on again and NOTHING! I then checked the incoming power and it was dead. Well I thought better the Astron 20 amp supply taking a hit than the K3. Looking at the Astron supply the lights were on and 13.8 volts was showing on the meter. As I narrowed things down it was a fuse on the power bar that the Astron feeds power to. The K3 was fused at 1 amp at the power bar and not 5 amps and the fuse on the power bar went. After the proper fuse was installed all was well again.

Blown fuse

Last week I was able to purchase for a GREAT price a used very large roll top desk and this is going to be the desk that I use for the radio setup when we move to the condo. Not sure what I am going to do with my 3 monitor setup as it's great having all three. There seems at this point to be room for one monitor and all the radio gear. Whats great about the roll top once  your done all the radio equipment hides away into a nice oak desk. At this point I am brain storming on how to incorporate the other two monitors???
As for radio time Saturday was spent getting the K3 setup and my heart restarted when it powered down. There was a contest going on so the band were very busy but it did give me a change to see how Skimmer works under a contest situation. I can see how this piece of software will give my limited size station some advantages. The picture below is what sold me on the desk, the keyboard tray and the two pull outs.



Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

The only trouble with my very portable satellite setup, consisting of the UV-5R handheld and the Elk yagi is that if the weather is less clement, the prospect of venturing out to make satellite contacts is somewhat less attractive!

Today was sunny if a little cool and once I’d finished my chores, I decided to see what was happening on SO-50. The first pass was well to the East of me, with plenty of activity but few contacts being made. I was more optimistic about the next pass, which was almost overhead here. I was pleased to work PA4MRS/P with a nice easy contact and scraped a quick one with an S56 station over in JN76. My final pass yielded a very nice contact with ES6DO. Just as the satellite faded, I’m pretty sure I heard a Norwegian station.

Good to make some interesting contacts. I suppose making some satellite contacts when there’s snow on the ground will prove my enthusiasm!

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