AmateurRadio.com

While the rest of the blogosphere and Amateur Radio world seems to be having a spit-feckled nutty about Heathkit zombies, I decided to get on the air tonight (only after replacing the towel rack in the XYL’s bathroom, mind you).

On 40 Meters, I had a pleasant, but rather taxing QSO with Bruce W1CVE from Providence, RI. Summertime conditions were the rule for 40 Meters with lots of band noise, QRM, QRN and QSB. Despite it all, Bruce and I had a pleasant chat. He was 579 here and I received a 559 in return – not terrible.

On 20 Meters, I had a brief QSO with EW1DJ in Belarus. Alex was 599  here, and I received an honest report of 579 in return (not the automatic 599 DX report that you usually get). For this one instance, the haul from NJ to Belarus was far easier than the haul from NJ to RI. Go figure.

A word about last night’s post regarding the tuner and amp for the KX3. In no way did I mean to disparage anyone who has already ordered, or is considering ordering these pieces for their KX3s. If the KX3 is your only radio and you have the funds to afford these, then I am heel clicking, somersault tumbling, high fiving happy for you! I was commenting on my own situation and was not attempting to cast sour grapes upon the Amateur Radio landscape.

73 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

Hello, dear listener! Welcome to Episode #109 of Linux in the Ham Shack. This episode is being released a bit early because there is time sensitive material included, and we wanted to make sure it was available to everyone before the ARRL Field Day weekend, June 22-23, 2013.

Also included along with our thoughts on Field Day are our thoughts on Electronic Design Automation, Manjaro Linux and some introspection and extrospection on the art of podcasting. We would like to warn everyone in advance that this episode of LHS may include language that some listeners might find objectionable or not suitable for young children. We don't plan on making this a habit, but due to the strong feelings involved and the importance of the topic being discussed, we did not feel censorship was appropriate.

We hope you enjoy this installment and look forward to your continued listenership. Also, don't forget to check out the Contests page for info on how you can still win a Beaglebone Black!

73 de The LHS Guys

My operation to remove my gall bladder was successful. Now I’m supposed to take it easy and avoid strenuous activity for a few months. No more five mile walks for a bit. It looks as if I will be logging more time in front of the computer and radio for a while.

The operation to migrate this blog to a new generation Blogger template has also been completed. Comments are now working again, but I’m not happy with the header graphic. I had to go with what I could make given my absence of artistic skills, rather than what I would like to have done. So there may well be some more changes in that area to come.

I had hoped to use a smart looking template from a free templates site. But at first I couldn’t find how to load it into Blogger. So I started off with one of the standard Blogger templates. As I was customising that I accidentally stumbled across the option to load a template from an XML file. Working in Blogger is like being in a maze, remembering seeing the tool I wanted but going round in circles until I located it again.

The problem with the custom template was that I found it contained some things I didn’t want, and the Blogger visual design tools didn’t allow me to remove them. It would probably have been necessary to edit the XML, but that is a step beyond my expertise. So in the end I went back to the modified Blogger template. I’m happy with the layout now, and commenting works again which was the reason I was forced to change. In fact I now have Google+ commenting which if you haven’t tried it is much better. But I’d still like to find something more radio-themed for the header graphic.

In my e-mail box was a special announcement from Elecraft. Today they announced they were taking orders for the KXPA100 amplifier for the KX3, and the KXAT100, the auto tuner for the amp.

The amp is $700 and the tuner is another $300.

At this point, I don’t think these are in the cards for me, for a couple of reasons.

1) Price – I just don’t have an extra thousand bucks laying around. Of course, I could always part ways with something, like my K3, but I’m not too crazy with that idea.  I bought it soon after my Mom passed, so it holds a lot of sentimental value.

2) Practicality – I like the idea of having two rigs. My K3 and my KX3 are mutual backups. If something were to happen to one, I still have the other. If I were to sell the K3 in order purchase the KXPA100 and the KXAT100, I would no longer have a backup. I also like having a main station rig and a dedicated portable rig.

3) Personal – I need to be happy with what I have and not always be on the lookout for “more”. I am very fortunate to have what I already own, and while it may be less than some, it’s still a lot more than even others. I need to enjoy what I have and get off the “consumer hamster wheel” of always wanting more.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

The once famous Jamesburg dish (wikipedia link), located in Carmel Valley, California, was restored and used by hams to do EME experiments and events after its prime mission to capture and relay communications from Apollo 11, Tiananmen Square, and Intelsat came to an end.

The massive 30m wide by 100ft tall Jamesburg Dish

I don’t often look for PSK warbles on 6m but am glad I did this evening. Obviously others were looking for someone as well I1YTO and I ended up having a brief QSO before he faded away again, up to 599 then down to nowt in a matter of seconds. Nice whilst it lasted