Blackberry app to listen to live scanner and ham repeater feeds

Misc

I saw a posting on one of the Blackberry feeds I monitor about an application that allows you to listen to live feeds from scanners that are streaming their audio onto the Internet. I visited the site and immediately downloaded the application to my Blackberry. It worked perfectly on my Pearl 8130 through Verizon Wireless.

The application is called BBScanner and you can access the site at http://www.bbscanner.com. The application is small and very straightforward to use. You obviouslly need an unlimited data plan with your Blackberry service or you wouldn’t want to use this program. The initial download provides a fully functional application for 14 days. But to actually register the application is… drumroll… a whole $2.99 !! I’ve already registered.

The feeds come primarily from the Radio Reference live feed site but also natively supports feeds from RailRoadRadio.net as well as some weather feeds ftom WUnderground.com. In addition, you can see if a feed from another source can be linked to from your Blackberry as a custom feed. For those outside the US, a quick look shows some feeds for Australia, Canada, Chile and New Zealand in the Browse by Area section.

The program seems to work remarkably well in the testing I did. You first launch the application and select from bookmarked feeds, feeds by area (country, state), feeds by genre (Air, Ham Amateur Radio, Public Safety, Rail or Weather) or by one of the 3 main source feed sites then by country/state, etc. Once you drill down and select a specific feed, it starts to buffer the feed and then starts to play it. It is really that straightforward and smooth.

I have poor hearing so some of the feeds are a bit low in volume for me, but that isn’t the app but the feed itself. If there’s a specific town/frequency/feed you want, you’d need to either set it up yourself or find someone that can get the audio and stream it onto the Internet and then this can pick it up. From what I read at the Radio Reference site, it’s a pretty straightforward process to get setup on your own with the specifics on their Live Audio Feed Provider form.

So if you have a Blackberry I encourage you to download and try this program out. If you’re wondering what feeds are available, the vast majority are streamed from the RR site and you can view those live feeds online. I’d bet you’d find the $2.99 registration fee a real bargain!

73,
K2DSL

2009 Ohio QSO Party

Contests

Looking back on the 2008 Ohio QSO Party, I seem to have made about twice the number of contacts which is likely helped by the ability to make CW contacts, of which I made 21 CW contacts on 40m & 80m this year. This year I made 50 total contacts with Ohio stations.

I received a bunch of good signal reports and as always, QSO Party ops are as friendly as can be. My logs have already been uploaded to LoTW, eQSL and sent to the contest sponsor.

Band    Mode  QSOs     Pts  Sec
 3.5    CW       8      16    6
 3.5    LSB      9       9    3
 7      CW      13      26   13
 7      LSB     20      20   17
 Total  Both    50      71   39

 Score : 2,769

Thanks all you ops out in Ohio!

73,
K2DSL

1×1 Special Event Call Signs

Contacts

There are multiple reasons why folks get a 1×1 call sign. It’s usually for a special event or for some contest. I know I like to know who I made a contact with regardless and finding info on QRZ.com for some special events leaves you out of luck. The below is often helpful to find approximately where someone was operating from and get a general idea of their grid square, which I like to have for every contact.

http://www.1x1callsigns.org is a web site that lists out 1×1 call signs so you can see at least who requested the  call sign. For example, I had a contact yesterday with K8O during the Ohio QSO Party. If I go to the site and click the Search 1×1 Calls link and then enter in K8O, it lists many references with the latest being K8O for the Ohio QSO Party. If I click the details link for that entry it shows that it was issued to K2KW. I can then lookup K2KW on QRZ.com and get a feeling for where he was likely located. It might not be exact but it is better then knowing nothing about the contact. This site, as you can see in the above example, also has historical information on the call sign.

Another place to look up 1×1 or special event info is on the ARRL site at http://www.arrl.org/contests/spev.html which is useful if it isn’t a 1×1 call sign listed on the above site.  CQ also has a web page at http://www.cq-amateur-radio.com/AnnoAug09.html to list special event stations, though the URL is month/year specific. It would be nice if they created a URL which is always consistent and redirects to the current month.

Hope that helps a bit in identification of 1×1 calls and special event stations.

73,
K2DSL

/140 Special Event – ARRL VE’s, Life Members, Appointees – Sept 2-9th

Contacts

In the September 2009 issue of QST magazine on page 20 it talks about the HPM/140 Birthday Celebration Event. It is an event in celebration of 140 years since the birth of Hiram Percy Maxim, ARRL’s first president.

There’s a list of folks such as ARRL Directors, Section Managers, ARRL Life Members, ARRL VE’s and others which are allowed to use /140 after their call during the event from Sept 2 – 9th.

Ops that contact 25 or more stations that are signing /140 are eligible for a certificate. /140 stations give the exchange of RS(T), appointment (eg VE for a Volunteer Examiner such as myself) and name. Other stations provide RS(T) and name.

Sounds like some fun for ARRL VE’s such as myself, life members and others on the list if there are folks looking to make contact with the /140 stations. Maybe we could generate a mini pile up. It even indicates that repeater contacts are acceptable in case that is your mode of choice.

Thought it would be fun to send this out to anyone that gets the opportunity to get on the air during the event. Some more info on the ARRL web site.

73,
K2DSL

5N0HQ QSL received – new DXCC confirmed

Contacts

5N0HQ was a station on during the IARU CW contest. It is only my 2nd contact with a station in Nigeria but it is the 1st QSL from that entity. I noticed that it was uploaded to LoTW yesterday.

I need to figure out all the new DXCCs since I submitted my DXCC so I can keep track for updates. Maybe I’ll do that over the weekend.

73,
K2DSL

WAC Award Arrives

Misc

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

SARTG RTTY and NA QSO Party Phone contests – Summary

Contacts, Contests

I was on vacation this past week at my in-laws in North Carolina. I brought my laptop, my power supply, LDG KT-100 antenna tuner, my Kenwood TS-2000 and a G5RV Jr on loan from a friend and my 20m dipole. I strung the G5RV Jr up between 2 far enough apart to fit the antenna so it was flat, though the end of the ladder line was only up about 10-15 ft off the ground. But it worked.

I didn’t operate too much during the week though I made a few contacts including one to 4L4WW in the country of Georgia. I operated as K2DSL/4 when I was on from NC.

Friday night was the start of the SARTG RTTY contest. I only made 40 contacts. It seemed quiet during that first of three segments of the competition.  I didn’t operate that contest after those 40 contacts.  I had contacts with Hawaii, Alaska, Romania, Italy, Wales, Slovenia & Ukraine along with mainland US, Canada and Caribbean stations.

On Saturday, was the North America Phone (SSB) QSO Party and I operated for a bit there before having to take the antenna down and back for the ride home today (Sunday) with the alarm set for 4am (ET).  I made 105 contacts with US, Canadian, Virgin Island and Puerto Rico stations.  I operated as K2DSL/4 and it threw off a few of the folks that know me as K2DSL. I had a couple of short chats during the contest with the ops that wondered if I moved or was on vacation. Besides the /4, I was also reporting that I was in NC and not NJ. That also threw off some folks that previously worked me and I imagine their logging program popped up NJ as my state. I hope all the ops got the /4 and NC correct in the exchange as I repeated it multiple times if they didn’t say it back.

I enjoy the phone/SSB contests as it is fun to speak to folks that I often just hear the diddles for during a RTTY contest or the dits and dahs from a CW contest. And it is nice to say hello in addition to the quick contest exchange. The NA QSO Party contests are fun since everyone operates no more then 100 watts. Even with just 100w, some of the top contest stations still sound magnificent.I had one 15m contact which I went to after a strong 20m contact with a station that had another op on 15m. I don’t think I could put out a full 100w on 15m as there might have been too much RF coming back down the line and my SWR shot up during the contact. Even with reduced power he was able to get my report.

It was also the weekend for the NJ QSO Party which I missed since I was away. There was only 1 NJ op I heard yesterday when I was on, and he was giving out both NJ and NA QSO Party exchanges. I was hoping to hear a few of the local folks from my club or around where I live, but I didn’t hear them when I was on.

Here are the summaries from the 2 contests:

SARTG RTTY

        Band    QSOs     Pts  Cty   Sec
           7      19     220   10    6
          14      19     185    5   10
          21       2      15    2    2
       Total      40     420   17   18

            Score : 14,700

NA QSO Party – SSB

        Band    QSOs     Pts  Sec   NA
           7      51      51   25    0
          14      53      53   24    1
          21       1       1    1    0
       Total     105     105   50    1

            Score : 5,355

73,
K2DSL (K2DSL/4)

Top 10 Golden Log in 2009 ARRL DX Phone contest

Contests

I received an email a couple days ago that the 2009 ARRL DX Phone contest results were posted to the ARRL web site. They provide a few links to ARRL members that show the web based contest summary article, all the scores and your log check report.

The Log check report (LCR) shows the contacts you logged and how many were in error based on comparing your log to the others. It is useful to review to see if there’s any pattern. For RTTY, all the “print” from across the screen is saved in a text file so I can go back and review those. For CW and phone, there’s nothing to directly compare to but if you might see something that you can pay more attention to in the future. I had 209 contacts and all 209 were valid for a “golden log”.

The LCR also shows others that logged me incorrectly, either by callsign or exchange. There were just 3 logged incorrectly with 1 missing the call, 1 missing the exchange, and 1 missing both. My guess on the one that missed both either took the default exchange (state) they had in their history for the call sign they also missed or they looked up the callsign after the contest on QRZ or some other service and used that for the state.

I then reviewed the web based summary article of the contest and near the bottom it lists the top 10 golden logs and I squeaked in at #10 with my 209 contacts.  I’ll have to see if it makes it into the print edition of the contest summary.

73,
K2DSL

APRS – Better coverage in NC

Misc

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:

K2DSL-7 - Aug 2009 I-40 APRS map
K2DSL-7 - Aug 2009 I-40 APRS map

73,
K2DSL