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What have you done in/on ham radio this week?

K

KD8LWX

Active Member
Aug 17, 2009
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I have done this on other forums for other hobbies. It let the experts brag about what cool stuff they were doing and let the newbies see what is working and what is not. Additionally, as a newbie I will be posting my accomplishments. Hopefully I will see progress and maybe help someone who hasn’t done what I am doing.

So, What have you done in/on ham radio this week?
 

I was traveling this past week. I plotted my directions, and loaded repeaters into memory. I still need to work on this. They were loaded, but not in a good order. I need to re-organize them and change how I used the bands.

As I drove in and out of range I listened and then tried to hit the different repeaters. Some of the repeaters I couldn’t even chunk when in the town listed. I have to assume that the tone listed for them is incorrect or they have been turned off. Others were very impressive. Late at night they were active. Rather than talking I listened to the active conversations. I was also able to hit repeaters that I expect to be WAY out of range. I guess it is best to be described as hit and miss on the repeaters. I will be better prepared for the next trip.

While driving I ran APRS. This made it easy for someone to track me and my progress. It made it easy for someone to send me a message also. There are still some large gaps in APRS coverage.

At 5W with a magnetic mounted antenna, it looks like I have a better listening station than transmitting station.
 
I yacked on 75 meters a couple of nights last week. Took my Ameritron ATR-30 tuner out of line to blow out the dust and decided to write up a review, take pics, and post it. I found a new mic from Ten-Tec and lusted after it :). I ordered a replacemnet elastic band for the Heil shock mount because mine is all stretched out of shape - they don't last forever.

Sold my O-Scope and Frequency counter since I wasn't using it often enough to justfiy the space it was taking up. Did two MARS nets last week (not really ham radio, but still radio) - one as a net control and the other as a traffic rep. I also listened in on the 40 meter Swap net on Saturday that's on 7.240 while I was driving for an hour to a birthday party. Some interesting stuff is listed there every week.

I'm not sure what this week will hold for ham radio - but I'll update you as a I do :)
 
I spent a lot of time pouring over dozens of internet sites trying to decide on a new tower and antenna system. :whistle: After deciding on a new system I had to lay down for a while. Not because I was tired but because the price was just plain scary :eek:.

Oh, and I spent a bit more time clearing out the shack in preparation of repainting it and laying new flooring. I know it's not really amateur radio related but with no antennas in the air it's about all I can do at the moment. :cry:
 
Tonight I replaced the band on my Heil shock mount microphone. That has GOT to be one of the most difficult radio related tasks I've done lately. It almost makes me want to just buy a new mount the next time I have to do that. Who knew that would be so difficult? :blink:
 
I've been working so much I havent even turned my stuff on in a few weeks.:blushing:

I did manage to listen on 75 for a few minutes til my eyes started to bed without me.
 
I worked a station in the Phoenix, AZ area from here in upstate NY on 28.415 with a 100 watts and a G5RV Jr strung up in the trees out back.......That was my furthest contact on 10m since I gained privledges on 10m..
 
Elmering 3 locals who've gotten their tickets, all are or will soon be Generals, and 1 more will be taking Tech test in December. One of the guys lives much closer by and I've taught him how to use his MFJ 969 tuner; helped him put up a G5RV that he picked up to get him up and running; we're making an 80 meter horizontal loop together later this week and will get that up, he also has an MFJ 259B Analyzer coming and will show him how to use that; going to teach him how to install '259's onto RG8.....whew! That's enough for two weeks. Also was 1st HF contact for two of these guys and sent them their 1st QSL cards. Will have 6 hams within local range just out of our 11 meter group and will be putting together perhaps a daily 10 meter roundtable.

Big fat ham sandwiches for everybody!!
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Absolutely nothing! I didn’t even listen to people on the local repeaters.



I turned it off and did other things that needed doing.


This week I hope to get the repeaters organized and I will be driving on Wednesday so.....
 
Put an aluminum plate inside the fiberglass hard top of my Wrangler and punched a thick mount NMO through the roof and plate. 2m/440 performance is about double what it used to be...fantastic results!

Replaced the crappy Vanco speaker I had with a nice heavy Icom (SP-5) speaker in the mobile, another big improvement.

Put the MH-59 mic back on the 857D and re-learned how to run the rig with it as I've been learning a lot about 440 machines through friends and how the linking works so I've needed to be able to change machines pretty quickly in the mobile lately.

Cleaned up all the old crusty memories on the 857D, locked out all the ones I don't want scanned and now I can usefully scan with it while driving around again.
 
Worked the ARRL Sweepstakes SSB contest this past weekend from the Deleware Lehigh Amateur Radio Club's, club station (W3OK). I think we ate more donuts and pizzas than scored QSO's.

We ran dipoles and one delta loop (see below), 3 stations, all @ 100 watts.
160-10 meters, about 70ft. high
Full size 40 meter about 50ft. high
Full size 15 meter about 40ft. high
Full size 20 meter delta loop, peak about 30ft. oriented N/W, for E/W signal.

I ran my own call sign and logged 204 QSO's for 29,628 points. Not a serious effort but lots of fun.
 
Ham radio this week

Worked 28 DX contacts on 20 meters. I will post the best.
TL0a Republic central Africa 6200 miles.
VU2XO Baroda India 7351 miles.
PD0MNF Netherlands 3819 miles he was qrp station running 1Watt.

Joe eastern PA.
 

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