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• The Worst Thing About Linux

This Weekend in Hedonism (Segment 2)

• Cheryl’s Recipe Corner!

• Slow Cooker Huli Huli Chicken

• Description

• Crockpot huli huli chicken is a dinner you can set and forget, then come back to and enjoy in all of its tropical goodness! Each bite of fork-tender chicken is flavored with the best sauce made of ginger, garlic, ketchup, brown sugar, and pineapple juice. It’s the perfect mix of sweet, tangy, and savory!

• Ingredients

• 1 cup unsweetened pineapple juice

• 1/2 cup soy sauce

• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• 1/3 cup ketchup

• 2 teaspoons fresh ginger root grated

• 1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic

• 4 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs -OR- chicken breasts

• 2 tablespoons cornstarch

• Directions

• In a medium bowl, whisk together your pineapple juice, soy sauce, brown sugar, ketchup, ginger, and garlic. Place your chicken thighs into a crock pot and pour your sauce mixture over the top of them, and cook on low for 5-7 hours. Remove the chicken from the crock pot and whisk in your cornstarch to thicken the sauce. At this point you can either enjoy your chicken in the whole thigh pieces with the sauce, or shred the chicken and add the shredded chicken back to the crock pot and stir it into the sauce. Shredding the chicken makes it an ideal sandwich filler, or topping on rice!

• Cheryl’s Mixed Drink Corner

• Mai Tai

• Description

• One of Russ’s favorite drinks, it carries the Island Vibe and pairs well with the Huli-Huli chicken!

• Ingredients

• 1 oz (2 tablespoons) dark rum

• 1 oz (2 tablespoons) white rum

• 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice

• 1/2 oz (1 tablespoon) Cointreau or triple sec

• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

• 1 teaspoon orgeat syrup or 1 drop pure almond extract

• 1 teaspoon superfine granulated sugar

• Dash of grenadine

• Garnish: an orange slice

• Directions

• Shake all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with 1 cup ice cubes, then strain into an old-fashioned glass filled with ice cubes.

• Russ’s Drink Corner

• Stellum Rye (Barrel Proof/Pick)

• Description

• The identity of Stellum Rye is rooted in a tried and true 95% Rye Indiana mash bill. To enhance this classic style, we incorporate small amounts of more barley-forward rye and choice barrels from both Kentucky and Tennessee. This brings a full, round mouthfeel and flashes of buttery sweetness to an otherwise spicy and tightly focused Rye Whiskey.

• Details

• Mashbill: 95% rye, 5% malted barley

• Proof: 116.36 (58.18% ABV)

• Region: Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana

• Color: Deep copper

• Nose: Stewed apples, peach, pears, nutmeg, clove, light mint and licorice

• Taste: Anise, cardamom, coriander lemon zest, sour orange, green apple, spearmint, light sweetness

• Finish: Star anise, white pepper, mint, honey, green tea

• Price: $60 (750ml)

• Rating: 93

• Bill’s Whatever Corner

• Russell’s Reserve - Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey 6 Year

• Complex and spicy, the Russell’s Reserve 6 Year Old Rye delivers a lively taste profile of citrus zest and subtle caramel with a black pepper finish.

• COLOR - Deep mahogany

• AROMA - Robust nose with notes of roasted almonds, vanilla, caramel, and cinnamon

• TASTE - Complex allspice, pepper, and almond flavors

• FINISH - Smooth, long and lingering with rye spice and dried fruit

• Proof: 90 (45% ABV)

• Price: $40ish

• Rye Scale:

Segment 3 (Announcements & Feedback)

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• We are running low on Weekender topics. If you have any ideas or any topics you’d like to hear us fumble on about, please send them our way.

Segment 4 (New Subscribers, New Supporters & Live Participants)

• Facebook

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• @StacyWh72244513

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• Mastodon

• @kj6dbe

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• YouTube

• Mark Dommers

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• Live Chat

• Ted, WA0EIR

• Winston, KD2WLL

The FT8 mode was first released as part of the WSJT-X software in 2017. This new digital mode was adopted relatively quickly and is now a major force in amateur radio. You’ve probably heard the praises and complaints about it. On the plus side, it enables radio contacts under very poor conditions while detractors say that it is not real ham radio because the computer is making the contact. FT8 is an excellent example of a disruptive technology, impacting daily ham radio operations. This summer, I had two operating experiences (VHF contests) that really drove this point home.

My temporary station setup on the porch for the VHF contest.

ARRL June Contest

In the ARRL June Contest, we had very good sporadic-e propagation on 6 meters (and even 2 meters). I used my IC-7610 for 6 meters and usually had one receiver listening on the SSB calling frequency and the other sitting on the FT8 frequency. My strategy was to operate FT8 while keeping an ear on the SSB portion of the band. If signals were present on SSB, I switched over to that mode. The idea is that the run rate on SSB is inherently faster (and more fun), so it is my preferred way to make contacts. 

There was definitely activity on the SSB portion of the band, but it came and went throughout the contest. There were times that I was able to run on a frequency, calling CQ and having a steady stream of stations to work. Other times, I had to search and pounce, tuning around the band to find a new station to work. The FT8 story was different: most of the time there was consistent activity and new stations to work, but at a slower rate.

The FT8 operators tended to stay on FT8, even when the signals were strong. If they wanted to maximize their score, they probably should have switched over to SSB to make contacts at a faster rate. But they didn’t and that is their choice. (One thing I’ve come to accept is that I don’t control the choices that other radio hams make in terms of operating mode and band.) On 6 meters, I made 428 contacts with 80% of them on FT8. Radio operator decisions affect the types of QSOs made and if I focused only on SSB, I would surely have had more SSB contacts (but how many?)

CQ WW VHF Contest

In July, the CQ Worldwide VHF Contest was even more striking. While I was hoping for a repeat of the band conditions from June, the CQ WW conditions were not very good. However, I did manage to make QSOs using FT8 on 6 meters. The run rate was low and I often struggled to complete the exchange before the band shifted. Again, I listened on 6m SSB and picked up contacts there whenever possible. My QSO total for 6m was 164, with 90% of them via FT8.

After the contest, I heard from contesters that used only analog modes (SSB and CW) who reported that the contest was a complete bust. Even with hours of operating time, some folks only made 10 or 20 QSOs. This clearly tees up the choice: if you don’t want to work digital, you can severely limit your number of contacts. On the other hand, if you use FT8, you can make contacts under weak conditions, but at a slower rate with a computer in the loop.

Like many contesters, I would much rather have a nice run of QSOs on SSB filling up my log. It is just way more fun than sitting there watching the computer screen report the slow progress of FT8. But in the end, we all have the same choice when conditions are poor: actually making contacts using FT8 or sitting there hoping that band conditions improve enough to support SSB.

2 Meter Band

I did make some FT8 contacts on 2 meters, but found only a small number of operators using that mode. I expect that FT8 activity will increase on that band as people figure out they can squeeze out a few more contacts & grids using that mode.

73 Bob K0NR

The post FT8 Dominates VHF Contests appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

In this episode, we join Martin Butler (M1MRB), Chris Howard (M0TCH), Frank Howell (K4FMH), Bill Barnes (WC3B) and Leslie Butterfields (G0CIB) to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. Colin Butler (M6BOY) rounds up the news in brief and in the episode's feature is Your Ideas and Comments.

We would like to thank Roy Jones (VK6RR), Walter Washburn (KT0D), Gary Bridges (WA0VMV), John Bartlett (HK3C) and our monthly and annual subscription donors for keeping the podcast advert free. To donate, please visit - http://www.icqpodcast.com/donate

• Students Achieve Radio Surfer Awards
• Amateur Radio Fun in the Colorado Mountains
• URE Seeks Community Assistance with URESAT-1
• Presenter Opinion : CHOTA 2023
• FCC Recruiting Field Agents
• ARRL Membership Dues Increases from 2024
• BiWota - British Inland Waterways on the Air 2023

Ham College episode 103 is now available for download.

Extra Class Exam Questions – Part 41
E8C Digital signals: digital communication modes, information rate vs. bandwidth,
error correction.

Download
YouTube

Hello and welcome to Episode #511 of Linux in the Ham Shack. In this short topics episode, the hosts discuss the National Boy Scout Jamboree, SOTA activations in Colorado, volunteerism in amateur radio in Sacramento, commercial radio in the HF bands, Snowstorm, Linux on the desktop, COSMIC, Proton Pass and much more. Thank you for listening and have a great week.

73 de The LHS Crew

YZS-362 Coral Harbor, NU (ve3gop.com)

Another month has zoomed by and it's CLE time once again. This is a challenge for all newcomers to NDB listening and the ultimate test of your medium frequency receiving capabilities. Can you meet the challenge?

From CLE organizers comes the following info:

Hello all,

Our 294th Co-ordinated Listening Event is almost here.

First time CLE logs too?  Yes, please! 

Short logs are always as welcome as long ones.

 Days:     Friday 28 July - Monday 31 July

Times:   Start and End at midday, your LOCAL time

Range:   350.0 - 369.9 kHz   

Please log all the NDBs you can identify that are listed in this range (it includes 350 kHz but not 370) plus any UNIDs that you come across there.

Send your final CLE log to [email protected], preferably as a plain text email, not in an attachment and - important - with 'CLE294' and 'FINAL' in its title.

Please show the following main items FIRST on EVERY line of your log:

#   The Date (e.g. 2023-07-28) or just the day (e.g. 28)

#   The Time in UTC (the day changes at 00:00 UTC).

#   kHz - the beacon's nominal published frequency, if you know it.

#   The Call Ident.

Optional details, such as Location and Distance, go LATER in the same line.

Please make your log useful to everyone by including your listening location, its 6-character Maidenhead Locator if you know it, and brief details of the receiver and aerial(s).

We will send the usual 'Any More Logs?' email at about 19:00 UTC on Tuesday so you can check that your log has been found OK.

To be included in the combined results, do make sure that your log has arrived on the List by 08:00 UTC on Wednesday 2 August at the very latest.

 We hope to make all the combined results within a day or so.

 You can find full information about current and past CLEs  from the CLE page https://www.ndblist.info/cle.htm.

You can also find your relevant seeklists made from REU/RNA/RWW by visiting https://rxx.classaxe.com/cle.

Good listening

Brian & Joachim

(CLE coordinators)

(Reminder:         If you wish you can use a remote receiver for your loggings, stating its location and owner -  with their permission if required.

CLE's provide several purposes. They: