Category Archives: From the OM

Thinking of the peak of Solar cycle 24

Posted on February 20, 2013 by robert

Its a glass half-empty vs. glass half-full thing. According to NASA, we are close to the peak of Solar Cycle 24; they are predicting summer of 2013.  However the smoothed numbers have actually been running below the mean prediction level … Continue reading →

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DXCC in a weekend (and other random musings concerning the ARRL CW DX Contest)

Posted on February 17, 2013 by robert

I’ve been told that timing is everything in life.  If that is true then I’m in trouble, because timing ISN’T my forte.  Take for example the New England Blizzard of 2013 that descended upon RI like a ton of bricks … Continue reading →

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Closing in on 5BWAS (sort of)

Posted on February 2, 2013 by robert

Using LotW, a couple of weeks ago I completed WAS on 20 meters.  Today I completed it on 40 meters.  Still a long way to go, 80/15/10, but I’m getting closer.  I need: 6 more on 80 meters (Missing: Alaska, … Continue reading →

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Initial Test Results on Zippy LiFePO4 4200mA 4S battery pack

Posted on January 27, 2013 by robert

There has been substantial discussion, but not much in the way of published test, on the “Zippy LiFe” batteries offered by Hobby King.  Hobby King has been supplying RC hobbyist LiPo batteries for years and recently started offering a LiFe … Continue reading →

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If I could only have one band it would be…

Posted on January 25, 2013 by robert

Many years ago my father and I would debate this endlessly.  His choice was 40 meters.  Mine was 20 meters.  After restarting my ham radio hobby 2 years ago, I’ve had a chance to track things carefully this time around, … Continue reading →

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A Complete “On-the-go” Ham Station Under Six Pounds!

Posted on January 24, 2013 by robert

Would you believe 5.75 pounds (or less)?  What’s in the “On-the-go” bag? Elecraft KX3 with Internal Tuner Elecraft Paddle and Hand Mic Headphones Two sets of Sanyo XX 2.4AH batteries (16 hours of operating) DC Power Cord w/Powerpoles & Cigarette … Continue reading →

Posted in From the OM, Gear, QRP | 11 Comments

LotW at 160 with J8/W6HGF

Posted on January 24, 2013 by robert

My thanks to W6HGF, Al Danis, for his recent DXpedition (dare I say vacation?) to Saint Vincent Island.  I hear he made over 3,000 hams happy during his two week run.  I can’t wait to see what his QSL looks … Continue reading →

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2012 Wrap-Up and 2013 Goals

Posted on January 7, 2013 by robert

2012 was a great year of Ham Radio for me. I completed 2,724 QSOs, and participated in multiple contests.  I won the 160 Meter Contest in the QRP Category for RI, and had clean sweeps in both the Phone and … Continue reading →

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WB4SON NTP Clock

Posted on December 30, 2012 by robert

The basic clock function was too simple.  Not including the LCD library, supplied by Adafruit (the company that makes the LCD Pi Plate), a total of four lines of Python code are required to write the local time zone date/time … Continue reading →

Posted in From the OM, Gear | 2 Comments

Does Raspberry Pi and Ham Go Together?

Posted on December 29, 2012 by robert

At a recent breakfast with fellow hams, Ted, W1GRI, showed me his latest gadget — A Raspberry Pi (RPi).  This is a small computer with ARM CPU, 512K of RAM, a SD card for flash memory, two USB ports, a … Continue reading →

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