Author Archives: robert

Calibrating the Uplinks for FD

Posted on June 21, 2017 by robert

The satellites are conspiring against me this year, mostly passes in the dark (nothing like stumbling/fumbling around in the dark in a field), but I’m getting the uplink calibrated again on my IC-9100. Anyway, was able to calibrate AO-7 uplink … Continue reading →

Posted in AO-7, AO-73, AO-85, ISS, Satellite, SO-50, XW-2A, XW-2B, XW-2C, XW-2D, XW-2F | Leave a comment

Field Day 2017 Satellite Passes

Posted on June 20, 2017 by robert

As usual, here is the list of decent satellite passes for Field Day 2017.  Times are in EDT, and the station location is set to FN41 (Rhode Island).  Many of them this year are after dark.  Going to have to … Continue reading →

Posted in From the OM, Satellite | Leave a comment

First Radials on the Ground for Inverted L

Posted on June 3, 2017 by robert

I’ve been using a low loop, about 450 feet of wire, around 20 to 30 feet off the ground for years.  It worked well for me, enabling me to get 9-band DXCC and 8-band WAS.  But the sunspots have diminished, … Continue reading →

Posted in Antennas, DX, Propagation, Testing | 1 Comment

Amazing LOTW Participation in NEQP

Posted on May 9, 2017 by robert

I just uploaded my New England QSO Party log to LowT and was expecting a few confirmations.  I was stunned when I saw that 60% of the 163 QSOs I uploaded were already confirmed not even 48 hours after the … Continue reading →

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New England QSO Party Fun

Posted on May 7, 2017 by robert

I don’t recall ever operating in the New England QSO Party before, but several emails were circulating encouraging activity, so I thought I’d give it a go.  Conditions were OK on the lower frequency bands — not a lot of … Continue reading →

Posted in Contests, QRP | Leave a comment

Replaced my Mobile Mount Today

Posted on April 14, 2017 by robert

Back in March of 2013, I installed a Diamond K9000 Motorized Antenna Mount. Unfortunately it started acting up about five months ago after about 3.5 years of service mounted on a truck that leaves its garage about twice a week, … Continue reading →

Posted in Gear | Leave a comment

How Well Does the Pixie Receiver Work?

Posted on April 11, 2017 by robert

My club, Newport County Radio Club, just completed our third and final meeting on the 40-meter QRP Pixie kit.  We packaged the inexpensive Chinese QRP kit with sockets for the crystal and final transistor, two additional crystals (7.030 and 7.040) … Continue reading →

Posted in Pixie, QRP | 1 Comment

First Quarter 2017 DX Results

Posted on April 1, 2017 by robert

February and March were pretty good for me at my current snail’s pace, adding three new countries for a total of 261, and bumping the band-point count up to 1,237. So even near the bottom on Cycle 24, there’s still … Continue reading →

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Using a Diplexer (Duplexer) as a 2-meter LPF

Posted on March 28, 2017 by robert

First off, to be clear, I’m talking about a Diplexer, the small device that will fit in your pocket and costs < $60, that is used to combine 2-meter and 70-cm rigs to use a single antenna feed-line. However both … Continue reading →

Posted in Projects | 1 Comment

KA1QYP Half Pint QRP Transceiver Passes FCC

Posted on March 24, 2017 by robert

In our continuing quest to evaluate the output purity of various QRP kits, Willy W1LY constructed a Bill KA1QYP Half Pint Kit. The assembled kit produced a solid 600 mW output and was one of the cleanest radios we’ve seen.  The … Continue reading →

Posted in Projects, QRP | Leave a comment