Connectors

With the decline of the hobby electronics industry, here in New Jersey we have lost essentially all stores which stock cable, connectors and parts for electronic, specifically amateur radio, pursuits.

As such, I'm relegated to ordering connectors via an online supplier or, typically, amazon.

Here there are a plethora of Chinese suppliers who seem to provide perfectly adequate connectors.

IF they get the order right.

A big "IF"

Shack Picture

Update 1/4/2016:

New home for my current rigs:

• IC-706
• FT-736R
• FT-817 and lastly
• SDRplay SDR

Have an MFJ through-window feed panel and power supply setup.

Have 3 antennas outside, not permanently mounted yet:

• A99, 10mtr 1/2 wave vertical
• Elk 2m/70cm Log Periodic Yagi
• MFJ 2m/70cm onmidirectional

Hey, I'm getting there :)

Satellite PSK

http://st2nh-blogger.blogspot.com/2013/11/satellite-psk.html

currently setting up a new home shack, have the components and among other
thinks... will try Sat PSK via IC706 -> up to a FT-817 down

edit: I think I'll actually be using the FT-736R down.... but we'll see :)

Should be fascinating!

Destroy this one, and they'll all go.

I think this line by Spock, in Star Trek TOS, was the single reason I went into computers, even though I saw this episode years before my first encounter in a computer lab at Montclair State.

SPOCK: This one's the key. The circuit is now locked. Destroy this one, and they'll all go. 

Note that in my high school, learning about "computers" meant learning basic and submitting jobs through punched cards. I didn't take a computer class until freshman year in college.

I will also note that I never rose to greatness (big deal LOL) in either programming or position.

I have, however, been gainfully employed and have always enjoyed the technology and techniques applied to our world via the bits and bytes deployed in computers.

Now what is it about Satellites that drew me back to Ham Radio?

A sense of "fun"? Something different? Not sure.

One thing I'm sure of is that I'll never rise to "greatness" within the Ham Satellite community, but will definitely enjoy the ride of learning, and sense of adventure, as I point an antenna to an anticipated point of AOS and follow a track through LOS!

AO-85

Had the Elk out over the weekend:

Tried listening to a pass of ao-7. Totally dead, not even a beacon heard on a 60deg pass.

Then caught a nice pass of AO -85...strong as expected but with a lot of fading/dips. Did an a/b comparison to check out with or without my MFJ-916b duplexor with pleasant results using the ft-817

Next I will be checking out a good pass using the rtl-sdr using HDSDR on a nextbook tablet.

I do have several additions on order for "the shack"

1. An Arrow GP146/440 antenna for general weather sat/highpower sat listening:

 2. An MFJ-4603 window feed through panel:

  

and

3. An SDR-PLAY software defined receiver:

 

 

The Elk

no, not the animal, but an Antenna:

picked up one of these:

Listened to a pass of AO-85.

More later

73,
KA2CZU

Oy Vey

so much has happened, and my hope of keeping this blog updated has faded than the worst tumbling satellite without adjusting for doppler shift, dipping behind the LOS horizon!

bottom line is that I'm all geared up, but without much time to get on the air!

Perhaps I'll be able to utilize some cold weather times for standing outside with a yagi pointed in the air ... DOH! :D

ISS SSTV

not for me... schedule didn't allow

ARISS SSTV images were transmitted this weekend from the amateur radio station in the ISS Russian Service Module to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo-Soyuz Mission.
40 years ago this week, the historic joint Apollo-Soyuz mission was conducted. Apollo-Soyuz (or Soyuz-Apollo in Russia) represented the first joint USA-Soviet mission and set the stage for follow-on Russia-USA space collaboration on the Space Shuttle, Mir Space Station and the International Space Station.
Below images that where received during the night between the 18th and the 19th of July with a FUNcube Dongle Pro+, SDR# and RX-SSTV.

Satellites - APRS on Ham Radio Sats

Since the last time I was really active on Ham Radio was at Tinton Falls... I'm reclaiming this blog for my personal Sat adventures, to log notes, and remind myself of what the heck I'm up to :)

anyhow, Sats are free, if you're a ham operator.

some notes on two sats from Patrick:

Date: Wed, 15 Jul 2015 14:07:33 +0000
From: "Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK)" <amsat-bb@wd9ewk.net>
To: "amsat-bb@amsat.org" <amsat-bb@amsat.org>
Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Can't digipeat APRS thru satellites
Message-ID:
    gh4fLseAV5zq7onVv-gHopHzD2M3WZLMo-TCijmbLQ@mail.gmail.com
>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

Mark,

If you are trying to digipeat through NO-44, you will need to use
W3ADO-1 as the path. For NO-84, it won't digipeat anything sent
via PSAT, but you can use ARISS or APRSAT for the path. I have
not used NO-44 in a while, but when it is getting enough power
from its solar panels it does work with W3ADO-1. NO-84 is actually
a good APRS digipeater, even though not many stations are picked
up by the Internet gateways. It is possible that the gateways that
work fine with the ISS and its stronger signals just don't do as well
with the weaker signals from NO-84. With my TH-D72A and Elk, I
hear NO-84 well, and it seems to hear me OK once it is up a few
degrees above the horizon during its passes.

Hope to see/hear you soon on NO-84. I have logged one packet
QSO on that satellite, and will try for more. I also want to try the
10m/70cm PSK31 transponder, but for now my TH-D72A and Elk
antenna is able to use NO-84's packet digipeater well.

Good luck, and 73!