March to 1500 unique parks continues, along with 120 CWTs

Posted on July 15, 2024 by robert

As of today, I have 1426 unique POTA parks confirmed.  Twenty days ago, the count was 1401, so I’m adding a scooch over 1 park a day.  So the end of September seems like when I might get my goal of 1500 completed.  And the CWT Gold Medal should wrap up by the end of October, which is when I should hit 120 (currently at 84, so 36 remain).  Fingers are crossed!

Posted in CWT, Goals, Hunter, POTA | Leave a comment

Hello Old Friend!

Posted on July 2, 2024 by robert

From the ARRL:  “Effective 12:00pm ET / 16:00 UTC we will be returning Logbook of The World® (LoTW®) to service.”  That is fantastic news!

Current Queue Status for LotW

I uploaded the logs that I had waiting since things went down in early May.  When I logged into my account today, this is what I saw:

When I synchronized DXKeeper and LotW, the most recent LotW confirmation was from May 9.  So we are a couple of months behind.  I was surprised there were only 47K logs in the queue (a 16 Hour delay), but I expect very few people know it is back on line.  Hopefully those May and June confirmations will eventually get uploaded.

Posted in ARRL, LotW | Leave a comment

So how did Field Day 2024 go for me personally?

Posted on June 25, 2024 by robert

I had a few tasks to carry out for my club, Newport County Radio Club, during Field Day 2024, which was hazy, hot, and humid (sounds familiar).

I was charged with making a satellite contact, something I had not done since 2020.  I spent two weeks before ensuring that I had calibrated all the satellites that were still in the air (and bemoning all the ones that were no longer available – CAS-x, XW-x, etc.).  My station is shown in the photo below (IC-9700, laptop running SATPC32, and a 3×11 Arrow antenna on a photo tripod).

The first available pass was for RS-44, and would be at the point of closest approach right at 1400 EDT.  With only about 8 minutes to make a contact at that point, I was pretty confident, but imagine my disappointment when I could barely hear any singlas on the satellite and couldn’t hear my downlink at all.  After that failed pass, I did some quick checking and discovered that the VHF and UHF coax cables had been attached to the wrong beam.  EEK!

There was a pass of AO-73 about a half hour later, and I had no trouble making 3 SSB contacts on it (I gave up trying CW as there were no responses other than folks going up and down the band to find themselves sending endless dots and dashes).  A couple of hours later there was a pass of AO-7, and I quickly made a SSB contact on that bird, just to pay homage to the little satellite that still does, 50 years later!

Another task was to pass a section manager message from our site at Glen Park (Portsmouth RI) through a VHF link to my home gateway (WB4SON-10 on 145.050 MHz).  Despite the 21 mile path and some terrain between the two locations, it was an easy S9+++ connection with a full speed data link.  This message was also part of the Winlink Thursday drill for the week before and after Field Day.

As I wrapped up the AO-7 contact, I felt a burst of cool air on my back, a 180 degree change of wind direction.  I suspected there was a downdraft nearby, so I quickly took my equipment apart, stuffed it in my car, and headed home.  A few minutes after I left, the skies opened with a deluge of rain.  I felt sorry for my buddies in various tents still at the site.

When I got home, I copied the W1AW CW bulletin.

My final task was to work the CW station for the final 2.5 hours of the contest on Sunday.  This year I decided to run Search/Pounce, and enjoyed contacts on 10, 15 and 20 meters.

As always, lots of fun

Posted in AO-7, AO-73, CW, Satellite, SatPC32, Winlink | Leave a comment

Still a bit under 100 new parks to go for 2024

Posted on June 25, 2024 by robert

One of my goals for 2024 is to have confirmed contacts with at least 1,500 unique POTA parks.  As of Saturday June 22, I had 1,401 confirmed.

So 99 more parks to go.  Things have slowed down considerably as propagation during daylight hours no longer favors fairly productive areas, as well as the need to work a unique park.

Posted in Awards, From the OM, Goals, Hunter, POTA | Leave a comment

Another K4NYM Milestone: 450 O2O

Posted on June 18, 2024 by robert

Things have slowed down a bit.  I suspect Bill hasn’t been out in the early morning hours as often as he has in the past due to band conditions (the past month+ has seen very weak signals on most bands up here in New England).

Nevertheless, six weeks after the last Operator-to-Operator award, I received one for 450 park contacts with K4NYM today.  Thanks for always being there Bill!!!

Posted in Awards, POTA | Leave a comment

Daylight Satellite Passes for Field Day 2024

Posted on June 15, 2024 by robert

The document attached has all the current FM and Linear Satellite passes during daylight hours for FN41 (Rhode Island)

Field Day 2024 Satellite Passes

Posted in Field Day, Satellite | Leave a comment

Gold Medal for CWops 2023 Arrived

Posted on June 15, 2024 by robert

2024 is my fourth year of participating in CWT contests, and the gold medal (participating in at least 120 CWT contest for the year) arrived yesterday.

Posted in CW, CWops, CWT | Leave a comment

VARA FM and SATPC32 Setting Conflict

Posted on June 15, 2024 by robert

I had been having some issues with SATPC32 and my iCOM IC-9700.  Whenever I was running SATPC32 and RS-44 was active, for some reason if I used the rig’s VFO knob to tune around the passband, it would sometimes caused the Doppler adjustments to stop working.  All the other satellites were just fine.

I went back to the recommended settings from the SATPC32 documentation and discovered I was twice their recommended baud rate.  So I lowered things to 57600 baud.  On my first test, that seemed to fix the problem with RS-44.

However, I also use that radio with WinLink and VARA FM.  I knew that I was using CAT for PTT, so I needed to drop the baud rate down on that as well.  Imagine my surprise at finding that 57600 baud didn’t exist as a valid value.

The fix was simple; change from PTT CAT control to COM control.  I used the same COM port as I had used for CAT control (COM4 in my case), and selected the PTT pin as RTS.  That worked just fine.

Posted in IC-9700, VARA_FM, Winlink | Leave a comment

Getting Ready For Field Day Satellite

Posted on June 7, 2024 by robert

I haven’t made a satellite contact in a few years as another club member was nice enough to step up.  However, he had to back out this year, and I was left flat footed when everyone else took a step back; it looked like I had stepped forward to volunteer.

I spent a few hours today updating my satellite laptop with all the latest Windoze stuff, and figuring out why my IC-9700 didn’t power up (12VDC power supply had a loose AC plug).  My next shock was that, for the most part, the birds I used a few years back were no longer active (bye bye CAS-x and XW-X).  AO-7 is still sort of working, as was RS-44.

I was able to adjust the transmitter calibration and hear myself on RS-44, but had no responses to a CQ.  That bird seemed to have very good doppler correction throughout the last half of the pass.

I also heard a few SSB calls on AO-73, so gave that a try.  As usual the transmit doppler correction was about 7000 Hz off.  I did make a partial SSB contact with N2FYA, but I don’t think he had the last letter of my call correct.  AO-73 has always been a challenge for me due to its unpredictable frequency offsets.

I need to setup FO-118, JO-97, HO-113 and XW-4, which are all new birds for me, then get the transmit uplink calibrated for them and AO-7.

Field Day 2024 rules are clear that multiple QSOs count now, but only one FM contact may be counted per FM bird:

7.3.7. Satellite QSO: 100 bonus points for successfully completing at least one QSO via an amateur radio satellite during the Field Day period. “General Rules for All ARRL Contests” (Rule 3.7.2.), (the no-repeater QSO stipulation) is waived for satellite QSOs. Groups are allowed one dedicated satellite transmitter station without increasing their entry category. Satellite QSOs also count for regular QSO credit. Show them listed separately on the summary sheet as a separate “band.” You do not receive an additional bonus for contacting different satellites, though the additional QSOs may be counted for QSO credit unless prohibited under Rule 7.3.7.1. The QSO must be between two Earth stations through a satellite. Available to Classes A, B, and F.

7.3.7.1 Stations are limited to one (1) completed QSO on any single channel FM satellite.

Posted in AMSAT, AO-73, IC-9700, RS-44, Satellite, SatPC32 | Leave a comment

2024 Hurricane Season Underway: Are You Prepared?

Posted on June 3, 2024 by robert

NOAA has announced a much greater than normal Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook with 17 to 25 named storms and 4-7 major ones.

With this in mind, are you ready for this year’s hurricane season?  Do you have a plan for protecting your home and family?  See this resource for planning help.

Are you currious about the data that backs up the forecast?  There is an excellent 15 minute long discussion about how the transition from El Nino to La Nina, water temperatures in the Pacific and Atlantic, and upper level winds all factor into the probability of hurricanes. 

Posted in ECOMM, NOAA, Weather | 2 Comments