at any rate, noticed an article about a "strange place" where cellphones and wifi are not allowed!
EEK, really?
yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Clause.
I won't plagiarize Drudge, or the local station... if you want, you can read about it here
Tuesday, July 26, 2016
Beyond... way beyond
ok, I'll fess up. I look at drudge daily. Really shocking, eh?
at any rate, noticed an article about a "strange place" where cellphones and wifi are not allowed!
EEK, really?
yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Clause.
I won't plagiarize Drudge, or the local station... if you want, you can read about it here
The
National Radio Quiet Zone is a large area of land in the United States
in which radio transmissions are strictly restricted by law to
facilitate scientific research and military intelligence. It is located
in the states of Wes…
at any rate, noticed an article about a "strange place" where cellphones and wifi are not allowed!
EEK, really?
yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Clause.
I won't plagiarize Drudge, or the local station... if you want, you can read about it here
Monday, July 25, 2016
NPOTA by Satellite
There have been some great opportunities to work hams operating from various National Parks via Satellite.
The ARRL has been sponsoring an NPOTA (National Park On The Air) event spanning the entire country. And they gave a great shoutout to satellite operations in the July newsletter:
The ARRL has been sponsoring an NPOTA (National Park On The Air) event spanning the entire country. And they gave a great shoutout to satellite operations in the July newsletter:
the ionosphere isn’t feeling cooperative, and atmospheric conditions limit the distance some radio waves can travel. One way hams get around an uncooperative ionosphere is to use orbiting ham radio satellites as an intermediary. There are around a dozen satellites in orbit that are designed to relay ham radio signals on certain frequencies in the VHF -UHF portion of the radio spectrum. With only a few watts of power and a handheld directional antenna (as seen in the photo), radio amateurs can communicate through these satellites for as long as the satellite is above Earth’s horizon, which is usually around 10-15 minutes per pass. Each satellite makes about five passes over the US each day.
Thursday, July 14, 2016
FO-29
ok, eventually I will move away from the gee whiz posts, perhaps to some more meatier (meteor?) topics... but for now:
celebrating my first QSO using a linear transponder on a Low Earth Orbit satellite!
Managed a QSO, in spite of some deep fades due to fixed polarization, and no preamp.
"Sort of" getting the hang of tuning manually to find my signal, and then keep a QSO going reasonably well.
I had a lot of practice finding my signal on a the U/V XW satellites, but this time had a 60degree pass of the V/U FO-29 satellite. That's up on 2 meters ("V" ... the first letter is what the satellite receives)
and down on 70cm ("U").
The Kenpro did a fine job, rotating the elk log periodic throughout the pass.
For now, all manual as I still don't have a computer I'm really comfortable using, at least not in the shack.
The only shack cpu cycles are being provided by a win10 tablet that lacks some I/O, or at least I've yet to get the I/O mini-usb to {whatever} working satisfactorily. Maybe work on getting port (and other settings) setup next, or just get a net/note book with full and more usb ports.
celebrating my first QSO using a linear transponder on a Low Earth Orbit satellite!
Managed a QSO, in spite of some deep fades due to fixed polarization, and no preamp.
"Sort of" getting the hang of tuning manually to find my signal, and then keep a QSO going reasonably well.
I had a lot of practice finding my signal on a the U/V XW satellites, but this time had a 60degree pass of the V/U FO-29 satellite. That's up on 2 meters ("V" ... the first letter is what the satellite receives)
and down on 70cm ("U").
The Kenpro did a fine job, rotating the elk log periodic throughout the pass.
For now, all manual as I still don't have a computer I'm really comfortable using, at least not in the shack.
The only shack cpu cycles are being provided by a win10 tablet that lacks some I/O, or at least I've yet to get the I/O mini-usb to {whatever} working satisfactorily. Maybe work on getting port (and other settings) setup next, or just get a net/note book with full and more usb ports.
Monday, July 11, 2016
The XW sats
Finally had a couple of decent passes lined up.
Using the new rotor setup, had a 42deg pass of XW-2F, followed by
a 47deg pass of XW-2A.
Beautiful site lines for my QTH, AOS was at about 15deg, LOS about the same, for both Sats.
I'm in the shack.
N8HM, Paul, is a real amateur satellite 'heavy hitter'.... he's been working the sats HARD for many years now, and via email he gave me some tips on finding my sig, calculating doppler, for these sats.
Cool.
All set, watching my ipad tracking app.
Sats rise, I call out and wow, able to hear myself back in my FT-736R.
"CQ Satellite, hello, CQ CQ CQ Satellite, this is KA2CZU, Kilo Alpha 2 Charlie Zulu Uniform"
On I go, hearing myself, tracking through the entire sat. Occasionally tuning around for other signals.
Nothing, Nobody.
Just myself.
Ok, fine, it happens... no one on the East coast was ready to talk.
Up next, XW-2A... same drill, different satellite. Call CQ, no takers, hear myself fine... start tuning around and think I hear someone, but can't adjust the doppler properly. Tune more, adjust the antenna and track through the pass.
Now, I'm thinking, this is ridiculous... I know this is a more popular Sat, and I think I heard others. What gives?
Simultaneous with the sneaking realization, someone else has heard me and will later send me a nice email: Hey, OP, this is {blah 8 blah blah blah} and I heard you on XW-2A, but you were on the wrong sidebands.
DOH!
LSB up, gets inverted by the sat to, USB down.
I had my rig setup the opposite, and thus no one really wanted to waste a pass by switching themselves, telling me, and then trying to get back to working the pass.
I deserve it:
Using the new rotor setup, had a 42deg pass of XW-2F, followed by
a 47deg pass of XW-2A.
Beautiful site lines for my QTH, AOS was at about 15deg, LOS about the same, for both Sats.
I'm in the shack.
N8HM, Paul, is a real amateur satellite 'heavy hitter'.... he's been working the sats HARD for many years now, and via email he gave me some tips on finding my sig, calculating doppler, for these sats.
Cool.
All set, watching my ipad tracking app.
Sats rise, I call out and wow, able to hear myself back in my FT-736R.
"CQ Satellite, hello, CQ CQ CQ Satellite, this is KA2CZU, Kilo Alpha 2 Charlie Zulu Uniform"
On I go, hearing myself, tracking through the entire sat. Occasionally tuning around for other signals.
Nothing, Nobody.
Just myself.
Ok, fine, it happens... no one on the East coast was ready to talk.
Up next, XW-2A... same drill, different satellite. Call CQ, no takers, hear myself fine... start tuning around and think I hear someone, but can't adjust the doppler properly. Tune more, adjust the antenna and track through the pass.
Now, I'm thinking, this is ridiculous... I know this is a more popular Sat, and I think I heard others. What gives?
Simultaneous with the sneaking realization, someone else has heard me and will later send me a nice email: Hey, OP, this is {blah 8 blah blah blah} and I heard you on XW-2A, but you were on the wrong sidebands.
DOH!
LSB up, gets inverted by the sat to, USB down.
I had my rig setup the opposite, and thus no one really wanted to waste a pass by switching themselves, telling me, and then trying to get back to working the pass.
I deserve it:
Friday, July 01, 2016
Rotation, part deux
Finally, Have the tripod and Elevation Rotor, which for some reason my old brain had translated into Yaesu whatever.
In reality, it's a Kenpro, KR-500, with matching controller:
This will allow pursuit of many more options, and basically will allow me to work
from my shack, gaining more expertise with the Yaesu FT-736R.
This is a nice rig, pretty sensitive receiver, and I've had the most success (such that it has been) using this through the linear transponder sats.
If I run into a nice azimuth rotor deal, I may add that in, with commensurate satpc32 control.
However, for now, this is my basic setup: quick manual positioning of the tripod/antenna for optimal vertical rotation, position antenna for start, head into shack to complete, adjusting the angle for best signal.
In reality, it's a Kenpro, KR-500, with matching controller:
This will allow pursuit of many more options, and basically will allow me to work
from my shack, gaining more expertise with the Yaesu FT-736R.
This is a nice rig, pretty sensitive receiver, and I've had the most success (such that it has been) using this through the linear transponder sats.
If I run into a nice azimuth rotor deal, I may add that in, with commensurate satpc32 control.
However, for now, this is my basic setup: quick manual positioning of the tripod/antenna for optimal vertical rotation, position antenna for start, head into shack to complete, adjusting the angle for best signal.
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