What a difference a day makes!

Posted on March 1, 2023 by robert

I usually restrict my comments to ham radio related topics, with the rare exception of a weather report.  RI has had a very mild winter, with about 7 inches of snow spread out over 4 or so very minor dustings.  Temps have been very mild as well (good for the heating bill).

We finally had a “decent” snow that required the streets to be plowed for the first time and firing up the snow blower.  We measured 5.5 inches in our driveway, but the official total for our town was about 7.5 inches.  So it doubled our snow for the season.  A day later we are back in the mid 40s and melting like mad.  I suspect it will be gone by tomorrow when the temps increase into the 50s.

Taken on Feb 27th.

Taken on Feb 28 after first snowstorm of the year.

Posted in Weather | Leave a comment

Updating FLEX-6600M to Version 3.4.21

Posted on February 14, 2023 by robert

As usual, the update process to take my FLEX-6600M from version 3.3.33 to the newly released 3.4.21 did NOT go smoothly – but only because the update process instructions did NOT adequately document what to expect.

Per the installation instructions, I had reset my PC, and cycled power on my Flex.  The instructions intimated that the update should be carried out via the PC Installer Program SmartSDR v3.4.21, so that’s what I did.  The installer located my radio, indicated it needed and update, and away things went.

The radio reset itself a couple of times (clicking, fan noise, etc), which I’ve come to expect.  I saw the power button flash red for a minute or so, then go to flashing green.  A few minutes later it was back to flashing red (every 2 seconds), and the SmartSDR program said it was still “Updating…”, while the power button continued to flash red.  The progress bar on the SmartSDR program sure seemed like things had reached 100%.

After a half-hour of this, I finally gave up.  I shut down SmartSDR and reset my PC.  Then I pushed the power button on the FLEX-6600M – It immediately went into its normal startup process, and a minute later the “Operate” screen appeared followed by a prompt to update to version 3.4.21 – which I did.  Shortly after that, the radio was up and running normally.

HOWEVER the instructions did NOT say to push the power button to get it out of flashing red, and of course there was no way to know how long one should wait for things to finish before pushing that button.

I like my FLEX-6600M and the companion Maestro remote front panel, but I do wish Flex would do a better job FULLY documenting their upgrade and recovery procedures.

Posted in FlexRadio | Leave a comment

Some “flakiness” tracking FO-118 with SatPC32

Posted on January 22, 2023 by robert

I’ve been having fun with FO-118 for the past week, trying to get used to it’s unique strangeness (drifting signals).  But I’ve run into issues where my IC-9700 seems to stop updating for Doppler; both uplink and downlink.  I was running SatPC32 version 12.9 and the firmware in my IC-9700 was 1.30.

Today I updated to the “latest” version of SatPC32 (12.10 November 2022), and put version 1.32 into my IC-9700.  That seemed to have fixed things for the moment.

Posted in IC-9700, SatPC32 | Leave a comment

TN8K Rep. of Congo on 40m FT4 Multistream

Posted on January 17, 2023 by robert

While I’ve worked The Republic of Congo a few times in the past, it has always been on higher frequency bands like 15/12/10 meters.  Today I noticed that the were running FT4 Multistream on the 40 meter band.  I started calling them at 2105utc.  By 2122utc the contact was completed.

And also on FT4 Multistream on the 30 meter band.

Posted in DX, FT-4 | Leave a comment

Panasonic Toughbook Battery Date Code

Posted on January 17, 2023 by robert

Hams looking for an outdoor rugged laptop have been Panasonic CF-31 Toughbooks for years since they are available used for reasonable prices and are capable of running Windows 10.  Besides general ruggedness, their best feature is their full daylight readable screen.  Panasonic produced the CF-31 beginning in 2012, and it used the same CF-VZSU46 87 Watthour battery that was used in earlier models.

Since many CF-31s were used in public service vehicles, their battery, although old, is often lightly used.  I have several batteries that are well above 90% original capacity despite being more than a decade old.

To decode when your battery was made, check the label in the lower-left corner.  In the photo below, it reads “BC7A”.  The first digit is the year (9=2009, A=2010, B=2011, etc).  The second digit is the month (9=Sept, A=Oct, B=Nov, C=Dec).  So a BC7A battery was made in December of 2011

Posted in CF31, Toughbook | Leave a comment

Finally – An inexpensive NTP Wall Clock

Posted on January 12, 2023 by robert

Those of you who know me, know that I fall into the category of a Frequency Nut (someone obsessed with the ability to measure frequency accurately – think microHertz), as well as a Time Nut (likewise obsessed with accurate time).

As a Time Nut, my life has gotten a bit easier, as many clocks set themselves automatically these days.  The first to do so used WWV HF signals, which were fraught with all sorts of propagation issues, then they progressed to WWVB (the so called “Atomic Clocks”) which worked pretty well at night.  Finally clocks using the NTP internet time protocol started showing up on the market, often at obscene prices ($300 to $3000).

I just received a fairly inexpensive ($50) LED wall clock that I ordered from Amazon, billed as a “WiFi Clock”.  Sure enough it uses NTP services.  After following the instructions to set up my local WiFi credentials and time zone, it set the clock and has been in lock step with network time ever since.

The clock itself measures about 16 inches wide and 6 inches tall.  Despite having good lighting in my shack, I have the clock set to the lowest brightness setting, and I can read it just fine, without glasses, ten feet away.

I hate to spend other peoples money by recommending things, but this was simply a first for me.  They are currently $55 less a $5 coupon on Amazon.  The company name is Xrexs: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B09YD84R3N?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

You can run it on local time, in either 12 or 24 hour mode.  By changing the time zone and disabling DST you can have it run UTC as well.  The month/date display alternates with a temperature display (I wish I could disable that, but haven’t found a way yet).

Posted in NTP Clock, Time | 4 Comments

Completed Parks on the Air All States Hunter Award

Posted on January 5, 2023 by robert

Yesterday I received notice that I had completed the Parks on the Air All States Hunter Award.  Many thanks to K0TTW, who made the journey up from Colorado to park K-6129, which is near Casper Wyoming.  I had been searching for a Wyoming station since I began working POTA in October of 2020.  Thanks Kevin!

That’s goal one of five for 2023 completed.

Posted in POTA | Leave a comment

Worked Crozet FT8WW

Posted on January 3, 2023 by robert

I had put about six hours into trying to work FT8WW on 30m during his first week.  I found that propagation wasn’t the greatest as he was decoding around -22.  My luck changed yesterday (Jan 2), as signal levels were much higher.  In the afternoon I had my first response back, although I did not copy a 73, so I tried later at night.  At that point the signal levels were much improved, and it took about 30 minutes to break through.

Not very much after the contact, he updated ClubLog, and I saw that I had a confirmed contact in the system:

I’m looking forward for a chance to work him on 20m CW as well.

 

Posted in DX, FT8 | Leave a comment

Goal Review and New Goals for 2023

Posted on January 1, 2023 by robert

2022 was a good year in terms of my goals.  I was able to complete all 5.

  • Teach a CW Academy Course (Winter 2022)
  • Teach a Technician Course (Spring 2022)
  • Conduct NCRC’s first electronic VE exam (Spring 2022)
  • Build my QRP-Labs QCX 20m Transceiver (Actually did 30m and 40m)
  • Participate in 120+ CWTs for the CWops Gold Medal (Completed 163)

I’ve had to cut back on my activities for health reasons (easy to find new radios, not so easy to replace body parts).  But I still think I can manage some decent goals for 2023

  • Teach a class (either Technician or CW Academy)
  • Participate in 120+ CWTs for the CWops Gold Medal
  • Build my QRP-Labs QDX Digital Transceiver
  • Activate 10 new parks in CT or obtain award for hunting 1000 parks
  • Obtain 50 States Parks on the Air award

Perhaps I might be able to complete more than one of the “or” goals and manage more goals, or perhaps I might come up with another one to add to the list (50 states award added Jan 4).

Notable in other areas, I completed my 10th year as Secretary of the Newport County Radio Club, and saw the membership grow to just under 200 (it was in the 20s when I started a decade ago).  I did apply for, and receive an ARRL grant to build out our electronic testing resources.  It wasn’t a particularly good year for DX for me (likely because I was busy with other things, as well as pandemic travel restrictions).  Hopefully 2023 will be better (as I sit in front of my rig trying to copy FT8WW’s weak 20m CW signal).

 

 

Posted in CW Academy, CWops, CWT, Education, Gear, QCX-mini, QRP | Leave a comment

Happy #163 CWT for 2022!

Posted on December 28, 2022 by robert

While there is a chance to work two more CWTs this year, family is visiting, so I will let my paddle cool off until 2023.

I finished the year with 163 CWT contests completed, which is more than enough (>120) for the CWops Gold Medal.  I decided to do some data analysis, which produced the following:

Total CWTs

163

Total QSOs

3666

Unique Calls

771

Top Dozen

K7RL

51

N4BP

49

DK9PY

43

N7US

37

NT6Q

37

N5RZ

34

EA1X

33

K0WA

32

K3WW

32

KM0O

32

N0TA

32

N1LN

32

I was surprised that I had worked 771 unique stations during the year, but also surprised that I hadn’t worked my top dozen even more times – but I guess that comes from hearing many calls many times.  Thanks to all 771 stations that made 2022 so fun!

There will be a new rush to work as many CWTs as possible in the new year.  Can’t say that I’m looking forward to those 2 AM contests, but perhaps the transmitter will warm up the house a tad bit during winter!

Posted in Contests, CW, CWops, CWT | Leave a comment