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Last night as I was driving back from the station, there was the sense on SSB that 28MHz was in good shape with some loud signals coming through from North and South America.

I tried a few CQ calls on 29.000MHz AM, but didn’t hear anyone at all. I wondered if there would be anything on the FM segment. Sure enough the KQ2H repeater from the Catskill Mountains in New York was coming through well – at times well over S9, although fading somewhat, making me think that what had probably been a good afternoon’s opening might have been coming to an end!

I listened for a few minutes before hearing KC2OBW call through a connected UHF link and decided to give him a call. Although my signals (10W or so to the whip) were not strong, it was enough to have a simple QSO. Good fun!

Remember the 29MHz repeaters have a 100khz repeater shift, so if you hear the output on 29.620, you need to transmit on 29.520. Fortunately, the ability to program the Anytone rig makes it easy to set up memories with different transmit and receive frequencies.

Maybe see you on KQ2H?

of lunchtime QRP sessions.  I did not get skunked all week, unless you count yesterday, when I had to work through lunch and didn’t get a chance to get outside. The bands seemed decent and this is the week’s tally:

Today was Indian Summer. Judy and I walked over Shute Hill to Swain’s Farm. I worked Belgium, Netherlands, Morocco and England.

Indian Summer is what we call the last few days of extra-warm weather before the cold settles in for the winter. It was a gorgeous day. It may be the last good day with beautiful fall colors. It was 72F with a crystal blue sky.

The pathway over the hill is about 2 miles. We walked on a crunching carpet of rich colored leaves. Judy got a quick snapshot of me as we neared one of Swain’s fields.

The view from the hay field is fantastic. We gazed out on the Belknap Mountains. In the foreground the rich grass shimmered in the sunlight.

I heaved a line over a maple branch nearly 50 feet above the edge of the field, and I pulled up a 33 foot wire. I hooked up the KX3 and tuned around 10 meters. It was active, and I quickly landed a QSO with ON7DU. Johan was a 599 and gave me a 579 from Belgium. Then I worked the Netherlands. PA5WT was calling CQ and I answered. Kees gave me a 449. He was a strong 599.

Then I switched to 17 meters. Med was calling CQ from Morocco. CN8YR gave me a 339 and he was a 579. I went back to 10 meters for a final QSO with M0UNN in England. I exchanged a quick 599 with Jay and packed up the gear.

The view from the operating position was the greatest! In the past I’ve worked the QRPARCI Fall contest from here, but I couldn’t make it this year. Rain is forecast for tomorrow. I sure am glad I was able to get out today.

They’re coming fast and furious now! After a long period of not having the time or energy to edit episodes, we’re finally getting around to pushing out the backlog. In this action-packed installment, your intrepid hosts tackle gaming on Linux using the Steam platform, accessible computing, mention a site listing more than 50 places you can download Free Software and more. We also revisit the products of Sierra Radio Systems and Pignology, and wish Fedora a happy birthday. All THIS WEEK, on Linux in the Ham Shack!

73 de The LHS Guys

We’re getting ready to hit the road for vacation.  It’s been a whole year since KD2CHE and I tied the knot on a cliff overlooking Lake Tahoe.

Xiegu X1M

We’re not going to be heading back there yet, but wandering through New York’s North Country a bit.  I’m expecting to get a little portable QRP operation in as we poke around up there.  In anticipation of the trip, I picked up a spare power supply from my brother a few weeks ago to use with the Xiegu X1M, and any other 12V items I have or may acquire when I’m not near my main setup.  I decided to assemble the “motel room” version of my QRP setup here to see how it works.  I have the Xiegu, my Emtech ZM2 tuner, mic, the spare PS, and a small amplified speaker sitting here on the couch.  A string of 2 alligator leads is running from the ZM2 to the feed-thru from my random wire up near the window.  Everything powered up, and tuned up, so I decided to answer a couple of calls on 15M.

I made USB contacts with UT7UJ in Kiev, and S51ZZ in Slovenia from my test station on the couch here in Long Island.  Not bad for 5 Watts.  This little rig is full of surprises.  I also just found out from Ed at Import Communications through a post to the Xiegu X1M Yahoo group that he is going to be offering upgrade kits for the earlier X1M to upgrade the front panel and display to the newer version, as well as a strong possibility of a firmware upgrade that will cure many of this rig’s little issues.  The firmware upgrade has already been released for the newer model.

Now, time to pack it back up, and hit the road.  73s de Neil, W2NDG