Tag Archives: #watwitter
This is a mish-mosh of notes, which is what happens when you spend a weekend moving furniture and fixing cars instead of playing with radios.
A Christmas Story Movie Amateur Radio Connection
Jean Shepard, W9QWN and K2ORS, was the narrator and co-scripter of A Christmas Story. He got his start at WSAI-AM in Cincinnati in 1948. From 1951 to 1953, he went to KYW in Philadephia, after which he returned to Cincinnati at WLW.
Talk To Santa Nets
For the 8th consecutive year, the 3.916 Nets will be giving good boys and girls a chance to talk to Santa Claus via the magic of ham radio. The ‘3916 Santa Nets’ will be held on 15 different evenings starting Friday, November 29 through Christmas Eve, December 24th. The Santa Nets are open to all licensed amateur radio operators who wish to invite kids to their shack to talk to Santa. Third party rules will apply. LINK.
Christmas Short Story
Larry Makoski wrote another installment of his Christmas story from last year. This one is in five parts (so far, I admit that when I’m writing this the last two released parts are still queued in the Press App on my phone!). I’d give it 5 stars. Link to part 1. Link to part 1 of last year’s story.
WATwitter Christmas Edition
I hope to be on the air during the holiday break. Watch for me on twitter, and watch for others using the #WATwitter hashtag.
Additionally, I may get on for Straight Key Night. If I do, I’ll turn the power down to limit the amount of people abused by my CW “skills” 😉
QST
I have several projects “incubating”. The most prominent is the EasyLogger with the WF32. I have another ‘on the brew’ that is more interesting and useful. I also saw an interesting use of a PIC12 that I may extend to a PIC16 (since I have one that has no use… yet). There are several radio projects coming as well. 2014 will be an interesting year on this blog.
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Last Friday while sitting in the parking lot of my building, I tried contacting NR4CB or AB4UG to wish them a happy wedding day. It didn’t happen. I could barely hear Connie, could tell someone was there (but couldn’t make out the words) when Eugene was on. It didn’t help that other stations were 2 kHz above and 2 kHz below.
I got to thinking about running mobile HF again.
This could work.
It looks like I need to fashion a pair of brackets – one would be simple, and the other complex a little. I do have the mobile bracket for my 706, so I can always use that as a guide for holes.
It seems far simpler when it is a sketch on a post-it note than when it is a piece of sheet metal that has to fit.
Another thought with the brackets is that I don’t *have* to have the radio there. I need the head there, but I do have the head separation kit, so I can always put the radio elsewhere and run power and antenna to it.
The other thing I looked at was the antenna. Like every other self-respecting ham, I feel as if antennas should be big. I was concerned about this 20m antenna and a quick look at K0BG’s website confirmed my suspicions.
Someone gave this to me. I’m considering giving it back once I have a better alternative.
The antenna is so small compared to 5 meters (roughly a 1/4λ for 20 meters) that it has to be basically a dummy load on a stick. I’m not sure if the bridge above me helped or hurt; I had thought about driving up to Mt. Adams, but for various reasons I couldn’t stray too far. I’ll have to try again. I need to run the antenna wire (I’m not sure other vehicles would like the idea of me having that coax flapping around, and I can’t have the tonneau cover open like it is when I’m stationary.
The last consideration is power, but it isn’t a huge consideration. I have a power line that is safe for 20 amps (as much as my 706 needs), but I don’t want to have to unhook/rehook power connectors (those ARE live, after all). I’m thinking I need a miniature power distribution center with two pair of fused power poles and a master switch, and maybe a battery shutoff.
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Today is going to be my first RTTY contest. I’ve never done RTTY before last night. Fortunately, one of our Milford Amateur Radio Club members, Bill WS6K helped me (and others) out by creating macros and doing some how-tos. We talked through the setup on the club 2m repeater, and he even kept with me after my HT died, and my second HT had a dead battery, so I hooked my second HT to my little Astron power supply which caused a lot of hum on my signal.
So we got things working and tested. Hope to put a lot of people in the log today.
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