Success with RS-44

Posted on May 23, 2020 by robert

I had a chance to get my Satellite rig on the air and added in information for HuskySat-1 and RS-44.  Never heard HuskySat, but during a pass around 23:45Z, I worked KS1G on CW, and N3CAL, W4ZXT + W5CBF on SSB.  Heard a bunch of European stations as well.

This satellite seems to have amazingly fast and deep fades, so the antenna must be occluded frequently (I’m using CP antennas).  I would often hear only part of a callsign before it would swing from S9 to in the noise.  That made for a challenge.

Funny coincidence; this is the first satellite that my Uplink didn’t have to be calibrated.  The default Uplink and Downlink values that I put into Doppler.sqf were spot on for my IC-9700.

(ED: 3 of the 4 have already confirmed in LotW – Thanks!)

Posted in RS-44, Satellite | Leave a comment

FLEX6600M Springs back to life

Posted on May 4, 2020 by robert

Late last year, I purchased a FlexRadio 6600M along with its companion “Maestro” remote head.  I had the radio installed in my basement shack (I call it the Wombat Room, but everyone else calls it the furnace room), and I kept the Maestro in the 3rd floor bedroom.  My morning routine included doing at least 45 minutes of PT upstairs, and usually chatting with some friends up and down the East Coast on 20 meters.  Things worked well for about five months.

After powering the radio off about ten days ago to do some cable management (clean up the rats nest of coax and other assorted cables — what fool decided to call this “wireless”?), when I powered it back on a few days later, it did not start up properly.  It complained about having no Ethernet connection.  I tried all the user manual things (warm reset, cold reset, swapping cables, etc.) with no luck.  I reached out to Flex Service and Tim Ellison, W4TME, quickly responded.  He suggested that a microSD card, used to boot the internal mini PC had become corrupted.

I got an email from Tim today telling me that the card had been delivered and asking if I had tried things out.  That caught my attention – Tim was more aware of what was going on outside my house than I was.  Sure enough a package was in the mailbox with the SD card.  Within 30 minutes I had the cover off, and the new card installed.  As Tim suggested, it was the cure.  My FLEX6600M has been restored to operation!

It’s a bit scary to think that a dead SD card took me down for a week, and I’ve decided to run the radio off of a UPS just so nothing funny happens with the power supply (not that I had noticed anything strange with the house power in the past few weeks).  But the story has a happy ending, and Flex Service was great.  Thanks Tim!

 

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Leo Bodnar mini GPS Reference Clock

Posted on April 7, 2020 by Bob Beatty

I finally powered up my Leo Bodnar mini-GPS Reference Clock yesterday.  It took only a few seconds to achieve lock and within 15 minutes it was stabilize to within 1 milliHertz.  I’m told by the factory that within a few hours it will be close to the limit of the GPS reference, or about 1 microHertz.  (I’m too lazy to verify that, I’m happy with 1 milliHertz, which I did verify).

It is very easy to use, plug it into a USB power supply and it starts on its own.  The fairly unique thing about this oscillator is that it can be set to almost any desired output frequency.  The default is 10 MHz.  It could be set to 49.152 MHz, which happens to be the master oscillator frequency of several Icom rigs.  Mine is destined to go into my IC-9700 after the warranty expires.  Once setup by a Windows application, no PC connection is required, just a USB supply.

It does require an external GPS antenna and the GPS signal needs to be there 24×7, but if lock goes away, the until will remain on frequency with the internal oscillator slowly drifting.  No glitching occurs during GPS/no-GPS transitions.

After monitoring mine for the past 24 hours, I haven’t seen it unlock yet.

 

Posted in FMT, Gear, IC-9700 | 8 Comments

Successful AMSAT Presentation Using Zoom

Posted on April 4, 2020 by Bob Beatty

I’m fortunate enough to be an AMSAT Ambassador, and from time to time, I get an opportunity to present to groups of hams that are interested in learning about how they can start using the dozen+ Amateur Radio Satellites.  This morning was one such occasion.

I was invited to give a presentation by the Rochester VHF Group (400+ members) and to members in other clubs throughout the area.  Ev, W2EV was the host and did a wonderful job.

Prior to the meeting, Ev and I tested both WebEx and Zoom, and found that the audio and video quality of Zoom was much better.  Their free account wasn’t quite up to the task because we knew the meeting would run more than an hour.  One of the participants had a paid “Pro” version (which costs $15 a month — can be turned on/off at will).  With that we had unlimited time and were allowed up to 100 users (we had 41).

Things went very smoothly with Ev’s help as the moderator (he also monitored the “Chat” for questions while I was giving the PowerPoint presentation).  After the presentation we unmuted all participants for a group Q&A session.

No doubt this can be a valuable tool for hams to continue their meetings and other activities, even while sheltering-at-home.  I will be using Zoom for my next Technician Class, which starts on April 21st at 5:30 PM.

Ev, W2EV, from Rochester VHF Group moderating presentation using Zoom

Posted in AMSAT, Presentations, Satellite | Leave a comment

A Ham has no end of things to do…

Posted on March 27, 2020 by Bob Beatty

With much of the world self-isolating during the COVID outbreak, some folks are understandably getting cabin fever.  My family and I try to reduce that as much as we can by getting outside in the fresh air on sunny days (sort of rare in RI now, during our rainy season; so lots more 40-50 degree days with grey skies).  But of course, being a ham, I have no problem filling all those rainy days with radio activities.

Still sometimes I have to pay the piper on a sunny day.  Today was spent changing the oil in my Honda Generator (EU2000i).  I purchased that at the end of August 2011, just in time to lose power for about a week after Hurricane Irene smacked Rhode Island.  Since then it has been used dozens of times for power outages and various Winter and Summer Field Day events.

The last time I changed the oil (bad Bob, bad), was in June of 2019, right before Field Day.  So today was the oil change day, plus putting the snowblower away and getting the lawnmower ready for spring.  Despite using the generator for less than 30 hours, the oil was fairly dirty as you can see in the photo below.

Please note the use of an accessory oil change tube (milled out of aluminum tubing) to keep oil from dribbling all over the inside of the generator when changing it.  Also note the very low tech oil changing stand!

Changing the oil in a Honda EU2000i

Posted in Alternative Power, COVID-19, EU2000i | Leave a comment

Thank you VP8PJ Team!

Posted on March 7, 2020 by robert

I am always amazed when I think of the logistics and costs of putting on a major DXpedition.  When you couple that with remote and downright dangerous locations, we all owe a debt of gratitude to the teams that put them on.

It is a tribute to the skill of the operators that I was able to work VP6PJ on five bands and all three mode.  I spent quite a bit of time listening on 15/12/10 and 160 meters, but never heard them (only wire antennas here).

 

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Surprise From VP8PJ – Early LotW Confirmations

Posted on March 1, 2020 by Bob Beatty

I had a nice surprise this morning when I checked LotW; three confirmations from VP8PJ.  Still hoping to work them on some additional bands.

Posted in DX, LotW | Leave a comment

VP8PJ FT8 Success 18.095 MHz

Posted on February 27, 2020 by Bob Beatty

It took slightly less than 30 minutes to work VP8PJ on FT8 this morning around 9:30 AM local time (14:30 UTC).  There pretty much was a wall of EU stations (understandable), but despite occasional deep fades, eventually I got through with 100 watts.  Now to look for them on other bands/modes.

Waterfall for 18.085 MHz around 14:30 UTC

VP8PJ Contact made on FT8

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Use Propagation Tools but check outside times too!

Posted on February 26, 2020 by Bob Beatty

Just worked VP8PJ on 10.105 MHz at 21:45 UTC.  Propagation chart says very small chance of working them now.  That said, their signal is 3 to 4 S-units above the noise floor.  I worked them with 100 watts on CW. (Did take me 15 minutes of listening to figure out the operator pattern, then a 5 minutes of calling where I guessed they would be listening)

Just a word to the wise — use HF propagation tools as a guideline, but propagation often works better than you might think.  Check before and after the recommended times!

The above is the Short Path Reliability for RI to VP8PJ generated today using VOACAP.  Note the 30-meter segment is just starting to show some happiness around 21:00 UTC.

 

Posted in DX, Propagation | Leave a comment

AMSAT DMR Net (Wed 10 PM ET on TG98006)

Posted on February 18, 2020 by robert

My thanks to Walter, K5WH, who was nice enough to confirm that my DMR Radio was working on the AMSAT Talk Group 98006.  Walter also indicated that there is a 10 PM Eastern Time net that meets every Wednesday run by Mitch, AD0HJ as the Lead NCS.  Didn’t find that on the AMSAT Website.

 

(Edit: Just wanted to say the 10 PM ET AMSAT Net was great.  It was run very well by “RJ”, WY7AA, and lasted about 45 minutes.  Lots of talk about upcoming roving and various station projects. There were 31 participants by my count.  Also learned that the net is on Yaesu System Fusion 11689.)

Posted in AMSAT, DMR, FUSION | Leave a comment