Newer hobby, one FDM printer, 2 SLA. Fun stuff, though occasionally frustrating.
Mobile shack? Who knows?
Antenna Analyzer!
I’ve completed building an arduino based antenna analyzer, now to figure out operation and see what my antennas are really doing!
Hamstick NVIS
Going to try setting up NVIS on 40m with a couple of hamsticks at 5′ AGL. We’ll see.
New Stuff in the Shack
In an interesting turn of events, I will have to rearrange some gear in my shack, and maybe a Pi will be more than ample for my foray into the world of SDR. More as it happens.
“Croak” said the PC.
Well, it’s coming up on Old Yeller time for my venerable Pentium D box that has been a trusty companion across three moves, and well over a decade of service.
I’ll have to evaluate what I’m currently using it for in the shack, and if possible, replace it with a Raspberry Pi. There may be too many things connected for a Pi to be reasonable though, and don’t go telling me the wonders of USB hubs, m’kay?
10m Mobile Again
Time to get the HTX-10 going again! Summer means improved propagation! Besides, there are a handfull of 10m repeaters around…
Juentai JT-6188 – Budget priced, tiny, medium power
I was an early adopter on this new breed of relatively inexpensive Chinese mobile radios that are imported under a few names.
After a few frustrating attempts to program repeater offsets by hand into the unit, a small group of owners worked through it on social media. I did eventually grab a programming cable that works with the 3,5mm jack on the back (which is NOT an external speaker jack, and then discovering that the programming software defaults to Chinese…but has a Chinese menu option for English, I got my local repeaters programmed in. This meant having to calculate the offset for each repeater since the software does not to that by itself.
Happily, these radios are now supported by CHIRP!
Fo Time Podcast Rebranded
Fo Time, The Other Ham Radio Podcast is now:
Ham Radio 360
While this rebranding will insure that some segments of the potential audience are mollified, my personal opinion is that something of the spirit and the reason the podcast is started will be lost. That being said, it’s not my circus, those ain’t my monkeys. Good luck, Cale!
Regardless of the name, the podcast is an excellent resource for new hams, and hams looking to get into other previously unexplored aspects of the hobby.
NVIS Antenna
Man, I really have to get those coils wound!