Mobilinkd

I spent a little time yesterday getting the igate up- check out AD7QQ-10 on APRS.  There are still a few bugs that need investigating but today will be consumed by work.

Still Kicking

There's been lots of water under the bridges of life since the last posts.  Now that the winter is here, the snow is deep and the work is slowing I hope to increase ham activities.  I have a distressing number of non functioning rigs.  It's time I made a manly effort to fix these things, preferably without conducting any amperage personally.  After work today I will inventory my work, assemble my tools and get to work!

!!!??&&!!##^**!!

My antenna has touched the infinite. Infinite SWR, actually. Darn old coax. That is the most likely culprit, the end of the dipole and coax connection has gotten water in it and shorted out. If I didn't have to work I'd check it out, but it will have to wait for a few days...

Can I spend money.....

I guess that is a little redundant for a Ham- it is not always a cheap hobby even if you fabricate your own equipment.  (I did see a neat video of a French fellow making his own home vacuum tubes- I'll look for it sometime and post it).  But what I purchased this time was a 1.4 GHz feedhorn and choke as part of my plans to manufacture a radio telescope out of the 8 foot aluminum dish I purchased last summer.

Oh, I can hardly wait!!!

New Series of FM birds planned

AMSAT is planning a new series of FM dual band repeater satellites like AO-51 (RIP).  All they need is money.  Consider this worthy cause....

QRP and Winter Cold Weather

I walked up and down a local field with my backpack radio Icom 703 trying to drum  up a QSO on 10 meters.  I heard many stations but could not compete with the big guns with my AH 703 antenna and 5 watts.  QRP is one of those Ham activities that take either a lot of patience or an exotic high altitude location in order to make it worth the while of the poor folks on the receiving end of that weak signal.  But it was still fun, and a definite "geek" moment with ground wires dangling at my calf level and a meter high antenna sticking out of a backpack while wearing earphones.  Wish I had gotten pictures....

Digital CQ VHF now available!

Zinio is an iPad based magazine viewer, and it now has CQ VHS! I have subscribed.