Author Archives: robert

Fox-1A Launch Successful

Posted on October 10, 2015 by robert

AMSAT launched their first CubeSat, Fox-1A, Amateur Oscar 85 (AO-85) on October 8th.  Telemetry has already been received, and the satellite is currently in the commissioning stage which may take a few days or a couple of weeks, prior to being … Continue reading →

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DXCC Update for Sept

Posted on October 1, 2015 by robert

As of the end of September, I have 236 LotW entries confirmed, plus 6 QSL cards for a total of 242 countries.  Add in 27 QSL card Challenge Points to the 1118 total in LotW and it looks like I have … Continue reading →

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Auspicious Day for AUXCOM Completion

Posted on September 27, 2015 by robert

I attended a two day, 20 hour, AUXCOM training class this weekend.  It was sponsored by RIEMA (Thanks Gil Woodside and Tom Guthlein), and taught by two subject matter experts (Thanks Jim Millsap and Hank Koebler).  We had 23 students … Continue reading →

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Teaching a large Technician Class in Foster RI

Posted on September 17, 2015 by robert

I’ve been teaching Technician classes for about four years now as a way of paying back the ham Elmers who started me on this path 46 years ago.  My usual class size is typically about a dozen, and I’ve been doing … Continue reading →

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HT Shielding Impacts Close-in RDF Capabilities

Posted on August 14, 2015 by robert

My club, Newport County Radio Club (NCRC), held a dry run for fox hunting tonight in a local park (a beautiful ocean-side park, on a stunning RI summer afternoon I will add).  We wanted to try out several different antennas … Continue reading →

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First AO-73 QSO in a Long Time

Posted on August 2, 2015 by robert

I was able to have a short QSO with Rick, W2JAZ tonight about 01:58Z on AO-73.  As I’ve been seeing over the past couple of weeks, the uplink offset is pretty far off the published specs and seems to get worse … Continue reading →

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TNC-Pi for Raspberry Pi 2

Posted on August 1, 2015 by robert

I just ordered a TNC-Pi 2 (they have a model for the older Pi versions as well) from Coastal Chip Works on Wednesday.  It was in my mailbox on Friday – FAST service! Nice looking board, well put together.  I’m curious … Continue reading →

Posted in APRS, Digital Mode, Gear, Raspberry Pi | Leave a comment

Speaking of FUNcube-1: Certificate and QSL Now Available

Posted on July 29, 2015 by robert

AMSAT-UK announced that a ‘Certificate of Achievement’ and/or a amateur radio style ‘QSL’ card for FUNcube-1 are now available online.  Assuming that you’ve entered at least one telemetry report into the data warehouse, then you can print them yourself here: http://amsatuk.me.uk/on/funcube_qsl.php  

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Lost (but found?) Secret Sauce for AO-73

Posted on July 27, 2015 by robert

Shortly after AO-73 was launched, I had decent success working several stations, but only after adjusting my uplink frequency up about 8500 Hz from the published value.  Unfortunately, I never calibrated SatPC32 the correct way, so I was always entering … Continue reading →

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ARISS Contact: One Step Closer

Posted on July 21, 2015 by robert

I am one member on a team of folks who have had our initial proposal for an ARISS contact sometime between Jan and June of 2016.  The initial “marketing” proposal was accepted.  The next step in the process is to … Continue reading →

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