Go to AF4KK’s  Project Car photo album and check out the pictures.  Click the “next image” link on the left to go through the gallery.

Here’s just a sample of what you’ll see…

73,
K2DSL

In the mail pile we got after returning from vacation was an envelope from the ARRL which contained the WAC (Worked All Continents)  Award I applied for a couple weeks back. It was a form mailed in with a check, but it referenced all LoTW QSLs that were previously applied to DXCC.  All were 20m RTTY contacts but I applied just for the basic WAC award.

The contacts I submitted were:

ZL4A – OC
AL1G – NA
LV5V – SA
ZS2EZ – AF
G3TXF – EU
JM1XCW – AS

Thanks to those operators above and to all the others that have worked me.

73,
K2DSL

I’ve travelled to NC from NJ multiple times and I typically saw no APRS coverage not long after leaving I-95 and getting onto I-40 to head into Wilmington, NC nor during my travels around Wilmington, NC. See APRS map from December 2008 for the lack of coverage I previously experienced. That seems to have changed since my last visit, using the same equipment and vehicle  and I see some coverage as shown in the below map.

If I recall it’s about 100 miles from where you get off I-95 onto I-40 to head to Wilmington. After about 30 miles or so, I wouldn’t show any APRS activity as the old screen shot shows. Now, though not extensive, I saw enough activity to provide a few hits on the way where before there was nothing.  And once I got near Wilmington I seem to have some APRS coverage now where I hadn’t before. There are no APRS stations that I hit late last night as I got into Wilmington that are in Wilmington and they were much farther away. In fact, the last station that “heard me” if it indeed heard me shows as WD4IXD-3 located 451 miles away in Clermont, FL (25 miles from Orlando). I don’t know the APRS packets enough to determine if that is indeed the case but if so, that’s a nice distance over the ocean.

Here’s the screen shot from APRS.fi of the last leg of the trip:

73,
K2DSL

I have a Blackberry and have bookmarked a few ham radio related web sites on it. Some are specifically phone friendly and others are acceptable when viewed on the phones web browser. Below is my list – do you have others on your phone you’d recommend? If so, post them as a comment.

Callsign Lookup – I developed this phone friendly version of QRZ info and a static Google map

APRS Location – Using FindU’s site, just edit the link and add your own APRS identifier

DX Cluster – Mobile version of DX Cluster spots

ARRL LoTW – Though very not phone friendly, it allows me to view the latest QSLs that have come in.  I default to the DXCC Award QSL view and if I need to log in, it takes me there after logging in.

Let me know what sites you have bookmarked on your phone. I don’t have an iPhone/iTouch so if they are specific to those devices, I couldn’t use them. The ones above should work for any browser enabled phone.

73,
K2DSL

Walter Cronkite became a silent key today at the age of 92. He is the first anchorman that I can remember watching when growing up.  He narrated a documentary on amateur radio’s use in disaster relief.

73,
K2DSL

I’m looking to purchase either an iPod Touch or Netbook. They both are about the same cost – $400 for each.  They are very different devices but based on my experience, what I do with them will be based on what I get and not get something based on what I want to do. I was looking at the newest netbook from Toshiba which boasts 9 hr battery life and bluetooth support.

I commute 2 hours a day on trains and today use my Blackberry for email (work and Gmail), browsing the web typically on phone friendly sites, viewing Facebook, etc. I will still have my Blackberry which would allow me to tether it to a netbook and surf over the air if I wanted, but that is less convenient then having an iPod Touch around. But with an iPod touch, I wouldn’t be able to use the web while on my commute.

On my Blackberry I can, and have, downloaded videos for various reasons, some of which are ham radio videos. The screen is smaller then it would be on an iPod Touch and of course smaller then if viewed on the netbook. I have also downloaded audio to my Blackberry and listened to Gordon West audio CDs while studying for those exams, music, etc. I even own an older iPod but I rarely use that and don’t carry it with me.

If I look at immediate known needs, with an iPod Touch I could watch more videos (free or paid downloads) in a handy package. I would investigate what apps (I’d likely pay for) that I’d download for ham radio such as an app for learning morse code, entertainment while on the train, etc. If I look at a netbook, I have software I can load on it now to deal with most anything I wanted including having my logging program, some morse code learning programs, a larger screen, iTunes to play audio/video, GPS, etc albeit it with a much heavier weight to carry during the commute.

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

73,
K2DSL

To kill time on my commute, I take ham radio videos and convert them for my Blackberry. The software I use is Any Video Converter free version. I put on earphones and listen to the videos on my train rides in/out of the city.

The places I’m aware of for ham radio videos are the following, but I’d really be interested if there are other sites that have videos I could view.

AmateurLogic.tv

HamBrief.tv

K7AGE on YouTube or any YouTube video converted or direct on my Blackberry

There’s also videos to view at Ham Radio Tube but the site isn’t Blackberry friendly like YouTube though viewing on a computer is fine. You can download the original videos as a FLV (Flash Video) file on to your computer and then convert it using the above mentioned software

73,
K2DSL

It is really interesting to follow the thoughts of Randy, K5ZD, who is the CQ WPX Contest Director as he works through processing all the logs for a contest.

Randy is posting his thoughts on Twitter at http://twitter.com/cqwpx , currently multiple times a day, working through the thousands of logs.

Comments like the following:

Fixing time errors in logs. Hard for the computer to match up QSOs when one station log is off by 15 mins or more. Time and date errors.

and

And then there are the guys who type their log in but don’t worry about times. The whole 2-8 hour log is within a 30 minute period!

are fun to read. If you’re not on Twitter but want to see all the updates, you should be able to get them via this Twitter RSS feed.

73,
K2DSL

This past week I observed some horrible use of the DX cluster system by many operators. This past weekend in the US was a long weekend in celebration of Independence Day aka July 4th. There was a special event going on this weekend where each of the original 13 colonies (states) had a special event 1×1 call sign (eg K2A) and a certificate was available commemorating the special event. Folks were shooting for getting all 13 logged for a “clean sweep”.

Being in NJ I was hopeful I’d be able to log many/all of the stations. Heck I did a triple play earlier in the year so I did all the stations on RTTY, CW and SSB. Well that certainly wasn’t going to be the case. Most of the stations I saw were on SSB on 20m and being as close as I am to those states, 20m SSB isn’t the best band to make the contact. I saw some special event stations on 40m and none on 80m before I stopped looking.

What was really disappointing was the conduct of many operators trying to make contact with the stations. The first disappointment was how they would put out their call sign when the special event station called CQ/QRZ. Once or twice is fine but I heard stations putting out their call 6 times or more. The special event station was already in the middle of the contact with the station he came back to and these stations are still putting out their call sign on top of the contact. I’m pretty sure one of the basic rules in amateur radio is “listen!”

The second extremely disappointing observation was the use of the DX Cluster for whining/complaining/begging. It was worse then when K5D was running their Desecheo DXpedition! There were operators spotting on the cluster requesting certain states to switch bands. There were operators spotting on the cluster asking why certain stations (states) weren’t on the air when they wanted them to be and how those states were screwing everyone. There were spots to the cluster asking which actual operators were responsible for the special event stations. These weren’t announcements to the cluster but actual spots.

It was certainly a disappointment to see such poor behavior from many operators. Here’s a small screenshot from DXWatch.com searching on K2C, one of the stations in the event, leading up to the end of the event. These are all spots, none of which had anything to do with the actual station being spotted. I’m sure I’d fine the same thing for many of the other special event stations. I have no idea if the spotter was the actual station listed in the cluster so don’t yell at me if it’s your call and you didn’t do the spotting.

Here’s for K2J:

Disappointing to say the least!

73,
K2DSL

I was exhausted after I got home and was very busy at work all week and after I got home so it’s a bit delayed, but here’s my summary of Field Day.

I operate Field Day with the Bergen Amateur Radio Association club which operates as K2BAR.  We operate from the local county EOC center which isn’t far from where I live. We setup in the parking lots that surround the building. This year we operated as a 4F station with the following:

20m CW station with a tribander on the roof of the building
GOTA station that was using a multiband dipole
80m SSB/CW station with an 80m loop around the parking lot
40m SSB/CW station with a 40m dipole or double zepp
20m/15m/10m SSB station with a tribander on a tower
6m station with a 6m yagi on a tower

Things got started around 8am when some folks met at the EOC to get started and others met where we store our equipment. We had all the equipment loaded into multiple vehicles and on the way to the site within the hour. This year we were assembling just 1 tower for the 6m beam and the tribander was going on a tower loaned by the county police. The tower is a powered retractable and tilting tower that is on a trailer. It worked exceptionally well for the tribander.

While folks were getting the wire antennas and antennas for the tower set up, I went around the other side of the building to help with the tribander that was to be used on the 20m CW station. What transpired wore me out. They wanted to lift the assembled tribander and secure it to the EOC tower. I must have climbed up/down that tower 4 times. With trees in the way we ran into issues getting it up where we wanted, so it was disassembled and sent up in pieces. We assembled it on the roof of the facility and then tried to lift secure it to the tower. We again ran into issues with the branches as we tried to hoist it up. In the end, we left it on the roof (2+ stories above the ground) pointed due west. We’re now exhausted.

By the time we finished with the 20m CW antenna, the rest of the wire antennas and beams were up and the stations were getting setup. We had some lunch and finished up getting the stations setup for operating. The club uses CT for logging which I don’t like but it is what they are comfortable with so we have laptops at each of the stations. We spent the day operating and I spent all my time at the 40m SSB or 20/15m SSB stations with some 6m thrown in when I wanted to relax since there wasn’t much action there.

Once it started to get darker and the lights kicked on, we had a big problem! It turns out there is one large light that is having an issue staying on and when it is resetting and in the process of coming back on, we have a S9 noise level on a few of the stations.  Once the light came on, the noise stopped. Unfortunately, the cycle was 10 mins of noise and 5 mins of no noise before it started again. Once that noise kicked in, it was hard work pulling signals out and then like magic, when it stopped, it was shooting fish in a barrel.

In the evening I had the pleasure of meeting N2WKS who is a local operator but not a member of the club. Zev is an experienced contester with a great ear and it was a joy to watch him work the pileups. Zev stayed around into the wee hours of the morning. I took a nap in my car from 3am to 6am. When I woke up it was light out and the noise was gone.

I spent the rest of Sunday operating 20m and a little 6m before we shut down things to tear down. I headed back over to the other side of the building, climbed the tower, dismantled the tri-bander which was on the roof and lowered the parts down to the ground. Then I came down the tower and helped with breaking down the rest of the site. By 4pm Sunday we were done unloading all the equipment and I was heading home.

Field Day is a blast and I really enjoy but it sure is a workout, especially when you stay and operate the entire time after spending a few hours setting things up. But with it being so tiring, I absolutely can’t wait again until next year. My goal next year is to have the 20m/15m station outdo the number of QSOs the 40m station makes.  I think we could have done it this year if the noise didn’t smack us down all night on 20m while the 40m station wasn’t impacted.

Here’s the score summary:

73,
K2DSL