Nice Day at RI ARES Beavertail Picnic

Posted on July 21, 2018 by robert

My thanks to Paul N1PSX, our RI SEC (Section Emergency Coordinator), and the ARES team for a nice time this Saturday at their annual picnic/get-together.  There were lots of folks from each corner of the state, most of them bringing hundreds of pounds of radio gear to deploy for a few hours today at beautiful Beavertail State Park.

I brought my 100 watt solar panel/charge controller/60AH LiFePO4 battery, and used it to run my IC-7000 to a 20-meter HF Stick mounted on the roof of my truck.  The intent was to show off solar operation, but two other stations were on the air using solar panels by the time I arrived.

There were some impressive antennas in use, lots of tall poles, and even a truck with a 25 foot tower.  However, my tiny rooftop ham stick worked fine and I was able to make a half dozen contacts.  One young visitor, Jack (entering 4th grade this fall), asked if he could make a contact, and started calling CQ.  It took him a bit to raise someone, but my thanks to Dave, N8MME, who came back to him from SE Michigan.

It was a beautiful day to be at the Beavertail Lighthouse on Conanicut Island (US0156, NA031, RI0007S).

Photo by Bob Rico (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWD7xdjlle8)

Posted in ILLW, IOTA, Operating, Portable, USIslands | Leave a comment

Musings on PC Clock Accuracy

Posted on July 20, 2018 by Bob Beatty

As a digital mode and satellite operator, accurate time is essential.  The internet is a wonderful step forward in that Network Time Protocol (NTP) services give the potential for every PC to be accurate to within milliseconds.  Windows recognizes this and has a service called W32tm that deals with clock settings using NTP.  Unfortunately most of the interesting settings are buried in the registry, such as the polling interval which is set to check the time about every 9 hours.  Also the default NTP servers often do not work (for me at least), and I’ve found the pool.ntp.org servers to be far more robust.   There is a nice post that describes these details at Windows Central.

There are several very sophisticated time services such as Dimension4 or Meinberg that can be installed on a PC.  The installation and configuration is non-trivial, however.  And of course that is “one more thing” to worry about in terms of security.  Personally I’ve found it far easier to add the pool.ntp.org servers and change the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet\Services\W32Time\TimeProviders\NtpClient   SpecialPollInterval  Registry key entry to something more like an hour (3600 seconds).

This time (no pun intended) that didn’t work for me.  Every time my new shack PC boots up, it dutifully uses NTP services and manages to set the PC clock to a value that is consistently 0.4 seconds behind.  I suspect during the boot process, some higher priority task is managing to interfere between obtaining the correct time, and setting the PC hardware clock.  To make matters worse, manually requesting windows to adjust the time automatically doesn’t work either.

There are two work-arounds.  The first is simply waiting for an hour (the SpecialPollInterval).  At that time windows will synch up and remain accurate, never being off more that a few milliseconds.  The second is to turn off automatic time adjustment, adjust the clock by a minute or two manually, then turn automatic time adjustment back on.  I’m guessing that windows has some sort of feature that prevents it from constantly messing with the clock until some threshold difference between NTP time and PC Hardware Clock time has been reached.

Posted in Computers, NTP, Time | 1 Comment

Shack PC Up and Running

Posted on July 19, 2018 by Bob Beatty

After the fire last Sunday, I did some testing, and found a good hunk of my 10-year old PC was gone.  The cost to repair was going to be significant, and I’d be left with the guts of an old PC.  I decided to replace the PC with a business-class small form factor machine.  Much faster CPU, more RAM, a faster SSD, and much smaller/quieter is the good news.  Bad news is that any new PC requires lots of software updates and configuration.

Yesterday I spent about four hours to get the PC up and running with all the required updates and drivers.  This morning I started working on the ham applications; HRD, tQSL, WSJT-X, and JTAlert.  About four hours later I had my first FT-8 QSO in the log book and uploaded to LotW.

Now I need to get all my tools loaded for Frequency Measurement Tests, and a few other ham related toys.

Posted in Computers, LotW, WSJT-X | Leave a comment

“Emergency! There is smoke in the basement”

Posted on July 14, 2018 by robert

So I have a rule about keeping all my WB4SON Blog comments about radio.  Keeps me on topic and away from controversial subjects, which is a good thing.  In the very sad news department, my constant companion Lily, our 14-year old English Springer Spaniel, departed the world just before noon today.  I wanted to write something about her, as I was thinking of the number of cold nights she would be curled up warming my feet as I sat in front of my radio in the basement.  But it just didn’t seem right.  So I had no plan to write anything.

About 10 weeks ago, I had developed a minor medical issue that made it quite difficult to get up/down the basement stairs, and in mid June we became aware that Lily was terminally ill.  These things pretty much kept me off the air.  After an unbelievably fantastic final month (lots of walks, trips to her favorite places, huge quantities of bacon, etc.)  Lily let us know yesterday that it was her time, and we made arrangements for her this morning.

After returning from the Vet, a friend contacted me to help him check out his new antenna, so I turned on my radio gear and verified his antenna was working.  But, as was my practice, I left the radio and computer on, figuring I would come downstairs later today — a distraction from missing Lily.

At about 3:15 today, our Nest Smoke Alarms blared into alert: “Emergency, emergency, there is smoke in the basement”.  Knowing the radio was on, I had my daughter grab the fire extinguisher, and we headed downstairs (after being sure there wasn’t a blazing fire at the bottom of the steps).  The smell of burning electronics was quite strong, and as we entered the radio room, we could see a column of thick, black smoke rising from the top mounted PC fan — the computer was literally on fire.  I snatched cables off it, and we could see flames shooting out the back of the DVD burner, which was at the top of the tower.  After getting the computer outside, I pulled the DVD burner out, and eventually the flame died out.  With the exception of that drive and some cables that were burned by the flame, the rest of the computer may well be OK — time will tell.

I can only think that our dog Lily wanted to be sure that I wasn’t distracted by my radio and would be thinking of nothing but her today.  So it goes.

Flames were shooting out the back of this BlueRay writer. Note all the burned plastic. Drive was not in use at the time.

Posted in Computers, From the OM | 2 Comments

Thank you Baker Island Team!

Posted on July 4, 2018 by robert

It’s been a hectic couple of months here in WB4SON land, and my operating time has been severely curtailed.  But it pained me to think that I was about to miss an opportunity for a ATNO with the KH1/KH7Z DXpedition.  I usually wait toward the end of the DXpedition to let the crowds die down a bit, but I had read conditions were so severe that they would be wrapping up a day early.  So I went downstairs yesterday right around sunset to try my luck.

I did hear Baker Island on 14.023 CW, but faintly, around S2-3.  However they didn’t appear to be real busy, calling CQ often.  So I gave a half-hearted try, and was greeted with a “WB4?”.  Clearly staffed by an A1 CW Op, their skill allowed me a quick contact.

Thanks guys!

Posted in DX | Leave a comment

How much gas for a Field Day using a Honda EU2000i

Posted on June 25, 2018 by robert

My club borrowed my EU2000i generator for Field Day.  It gave me a chance to try out my new extended run tank (based on a 20L NATO gas can, with a custom cap for the generator, some J30R10 submersible fuel line, and a NATO fuel draw adapter).  Each generator ran two stations (CW and GOTA, plus SSB and VHF).  My generator consumed 2.3 gallons of gas for 27 hours of run time.  Not bad at all.  Driving up to Field Day, for the first time ever, I wasn’t able to hear generator noise at all.  I heard people a half mile away mowing their yard, birds chirping, etc, but no generator whine.

Next time I can cut down on weight by using a smaller 10L tank, and still have a gallon left over.

Posted in ECOMM | Leave a comment

Field Day 2018 Satellite Passes

Posted on June 16, 2018 by robert

I’ve put together my list of candidate orbits that are happening during daylight hours for Field Day 2018.  Orbits in green are pretty optimal.  Orbits in yellow are lower (and hence further away, or in darkness).

Satellite Passes FD 2018

Posted in AMSAT, AO-7, AO-73, AO-85, AO-91, CAS-4B, FO-29, From the OM, Satellite, SO-50, XW-2A, XW-2B, XW-2C, XW-2D, XW-2F | Leave a comment

QSO #9,000 in LotW

Posted on May 29, 2018 by robert

Silly, I suppose, but I note almost every accomplishment.  I’m happy to say that today I worked Ron, K4AKK, from Savannah, TN on 15-Meter FT-8.  He found his way into my LotW database as Contact #9,000 (since I started back on the air in Feb of 2011).  So that’s a pretty good clip, about 1,250 Qs a year.

I’m also impressed with the participation rate in LotW as that is a 68% confirmation rate.  Many of those are DX stations too.  Thank you ARRL for LotW, and for those that keep it running!

Posted in ARRL, FT8, LotW, Operating | Leave a comment

Still duking it out for the International Grid Chase

Posted on May 27, 2018 by robert

After investing most of April and May’s on-air time to the class I was teaching and the coming of spring (and all the household things that entails), I sort of dropped off the grid chase.  I have been able to get on for the past week or so, and have managed to crawl my way back to 3rd place.  But I’m sure it will be short lived.  Lots of my buds are hard at work on this too.

Posted in IGC | Leave a comment

Solar Cycle 25 Beginning?

Posted on May 26, 2018 by robert

Current solar cycle 24 is declining more quickly than forecast.  Will the solar minimum last longer, or does this signal that Cycle 25 is about to begin?

Some helioscientists are saying that early signs of Solar Cycle 25 are already beginning to appear.  And they are hoping the cycle will be underway by 2020.

Time will tell!

Posted in Solar Cycles | Leave a comment