The departing storm

 NOAA 18

Q Codes

 How many do you use? I believe I've only used (spoken or cw) 6: 

1. QSL
2. QRT
3. QSO
4. QTH
5. QRM
6. QRL

Q-codes as adapted for use in amateur radio[edit]

Code	Question	Answer or statement
QNA	not applicable	Answer Net Control in pre-arranged order, or only specified station check in
QNF	Is the net Free?	The net is free
QNI	May I join the net?	You may check in ...
QNU	Does the net have traffic for me?	The net has traffic for you; please stand by
QNX	May I be excused from net?	You are excused
QRA	What is the name (or call sign) of your station?	The name (or call sign) of my station is ...
QRG	Will you tell me my exact frequency (or that of ...)?	Your exact frequency (or that of ... ) is ... kHz (or MHz).
QRH	Does my frequency vary?	Your frequency varies.
QRI	How is the tone of my transmission?	The tone of your transmission is (1. Good; 2. Variable; 3. Bad)
QRJ	How many voice contacts do you want to make?	I want to make ... voice contacts.
QRK	What is the readability of my signals (or those of ...)?	The readability of your signals (or those of ...) is ... (1 to 5).
QRL	Are you busy?	I am busy (in contact with ... ). Please do not interfere.
QRM	Do you have (human-made) interference?	I have (human-made) interference.
QRN	Are you troubled by (natural) static?	I am troubled by (natural) static.
QRO	Shall I increase power?	Increase power.
QRP	Shall I decrease power?	Decrease power.
QRQ	Shall I send faster?	Send faster (... wpm).
QRS	Shall I send more slowly?	Send more slowly (... wpm).
QRT	Shall I cease or suspend operation? / shutoff the radio?	I am suspending operation / shutting off the radio.
QRU	Have you anything for me?	I have ... messages for you.
QRV	Are you ready?	I am ready.
QRW	Shall I inform ... that you are calling (him) on ... kHz (or MHz)?	Please inform ... that I am calling (him) on ... kHz (or MHz).
QRX	Shall I standby? / When will you call me again?	Please standby / I will call you again at ... (hours) on ... kHz (or MHz)
QRZ	Who is calling me?	You are being called by ... on ... kHz (or MHz)
QSA	What is the strength of my signals (or those of ... )?	The strength of your signals (or those of ...) is ... (1 to 5).
QSB	Are my signals fading?	Your signals are fading.
QSD	Is my keying defective?	Your keying is defective.
QSG	Shall I send ... telegrams (messages) at a time?	Send ... telegrams (messages) at a time.
QSH	Stay Happy & Healthy[17]	Stay Happy & Healthy
QSK	Can you hear me between your signals?	I can hear you between my signals.
QSL	Can you acknowledge receipt?	I will acknowledge receipt.
QSM	Shall I repeat the last telegram (message) which I sent you, or some previous telegram (message)?	Repeat the last telegram (message) which you sent me (or telegram(s) / message(s) numbers(s) ... ).
QSN	Did you hear me (or ... (call sign)) on ... kHz (or MHz)?	I did hear you (or ... (call sign)) on ... kHz (or MHz).
QSO	Can you communicate with ... direct or by relay?	I can communicate with ... direct (or by relay through ... ).
QSP	Will you relay a message to ... ?	I will relay a message to ... .
QSR	Do you want me to repeat my call?	Please repeat your call; I did not hear you.
QSS	What working frequency will you use?	I will use the working frequency ... kHz (or MHz).
QST	Should I repeat the prior message to all amateurs I contact?	Here follows a broadcast message to all amateurs.
QSU	Shall I send or reply on this frequency (or on ... kHz (or MHz))?	Send or reply on this frequency (or on ... kHz (or MHz)).
QSW	Will you send on this frequency (or on ... kHz (or MHz))?	I am going to send on this frequency (or on ... kHz (or MHz)).
QSX	Will you listen to ... (call sign(s) on ... kHz (or MHz))?	I am listening to ... (call sign(s) on ... kHz (or MHz))
QSY	Shall I change to transmission on another frequency?	Change to transmission on another frequency (or on ... kHz (or MHz)).
QSZ	Shall I send each word or group more than once?	Send each word or group twice (or ... times).
QTA	Shall I cancel telegram (message) number ... as if it had not been sent?	Cancel telegram (message) number ... as if it had not been sent.
QTC	How many telegrams (messages) have you to send?	I have ... telegrams (messages) for you (or for ... ).
QTH	What is your position in latitude and longitude? (or according to any other indication)	My position is ... latitude ... longitude.
QTR	What is the correct time?	The correct time is ... hours UTC.
QTU	At what times are you operating?	I am operating from ... to ... hours.
QTX	Will you keep your station open for further communication with me until further notice (or until ... hours)?	I will keep my station open for further communication with you until further notice (or until ... hours).
QUA	Have you news of ... (call sign)?	Here is news of ... (call sign).
QUC	What is the number (or other indication) of the last message you received from me (or from ... (call sign))?	The number (or other indication) of the last message I received from you (or from ... (call sign)) is ...
QUD	Have you received the urgency signal sent by ... (call sign of mobile station)?	I have received the urgency signal sent by ... (call sign of mobile station) at ... hours.
QUE	Can you speak in ... (language) – with interpreter if necessary – if so, on what frequencies?	I can speak in ... (language) on ... kHz (or MHz).
QUF	Have you received the distress signal sent by ... (call sign of mobile station)?	I have received the distress signal sent by ... (call sign of mobile station) at ... hours.

Notes for response to radiotelegraph Q-codes

More NOAA

Latest image, running on a pi4, using an rtl-sdr to a low roof mounted groundplane:

Note some definitions:

About the Enhancements This page shows just some of the 35 enhancements WXtoImg provides:
MSA	Multi-Spectral Analysis: combines a sensor 1 or 2 (visible/near infrared) image with a sensor 4 (thermal infrared) image to create a near true colour, near visible image of the earth.
MCIR-precip	Map Coloured IR with Precip: uses sensor 4 (thermal infrared) to create a false coloured image showing areas of likely precipitation. The likelihood and intensity of precipitation increases as the colour goes from green to yellow to orange to red to black to white.
HVCT	HVCT false colour: creates a false coloured image by combining a sensor 1 or 2 (visible/near infrared) image with a sensor 4 image (thermal infrared) to create an image in which clouds are tinted by their temperature.
Pristine	These are images as they come from the satellite without alteration. The earth appears "upside down" on Northbound passes. The two images are the two channels sent by the satellite with channel A (left) switching between sensor 1 (visible) or 2 (near-IR) during the day and sensor 3 (mid-IR) at night and channel B (right) showing sensor 4 (thermal-IR) at all times during normal operation.
Thermal	Thermal: Creates false color images using the temperatures from (sensor 4) Thermai Infrared image. This sensor covers the full range temperatures from very cold cloud tops to very hot deserts.
SST	Sea Surface Temperature: creates a false colour image by combining sensors 3 and 4 (Infrared) and using a pre-defined palette colour the image.

CW QSO Template...

 CW QSO Template

cq cq cq cq de abc abc abc k

if no response

cq cq cq de abc abc k

abc de xyz xyz k

xyz de abc gm rst rst 599 599. name name john john. qth qth maryland maryland. xyz de abc k

abc de xyz gm john rst rst 579 579. name name jill jill. qth qth france france. abc de xyz k

optional: bail out here or anytime with "73 73 xyz de abc sk"

r r r fb jill. rig rig knwd 999. pwr 100 w. ant ant dipole. xyz de abc k

r r r fb john. rig rig yaesu 5432. pwr 1000 w. ant ant g4rv. abc de xyz k

r wx wx cold es rainy. temp 35 f. age age 52 52. been ham 30 yrs. xyz de abc k

r wx wx cold and snowy. age age 71 71. been ham 50 yrs. abc de xyz k

r fb. tnx es 73 73 xyz de abc sk

r 73 73 abc de xyz sk dit dit

dit dit


Glossary:
cq - calling any station
k - over (your turn to transmit)
sk - out (I am finished with this contact and do not intend to transmit anymore.)
de - from
qso - a contact, or conversation between two hams
rst - readability, strength, tone. Format for a signal report.
qth - location is
pwr - power
ant - ant
rig - radio
qrs - please slow down
agn - please repeat (e.g. agn name?)
73 - best regards
tnx - thank you
es - and
fer - for
BT - break between sentences and thoughts. Also means "=". Often takes the place of a period. Period is also acceptable and widely understood.
gm/ga/ge - good morning / good afternoon / good evening
r r r - received / roger. I heard what you sent and understood it.
solid copy - I really understand you.
fb - fine business. Way of expressing happiness.
gud - good
comma, period, slash, question mark - useful punctuation marks
dit dit - two dits sent to the tune of "shave and a haircut". You can send the whole tune too.
om / yl - old man / young lady. term of affection for any ham or if you forget their name.
dr - dear
chow - food is ready I must leave.
abt - about. Use sparingly.
qsb - signal is fading
qrm - man-made interference. Usually other stations too close.
pse - please
bk - over without call signs.

Glossary of terms of questionable value that confuse newcomers:
op - operator, or name. Use name because it is clearer and easier to key.
bcnu - be seeing you
btu - back to you
hpe cuagn sn - hope to see you again soon. Usually sent at a hurried rate as a slur of one giant letter.
hw? and hw cpi? - pointless. Weird ham obsession with copying. If I send "R" assume I can copy you.
ar - end of message. Also pointless. It has some cool history from the days of military and commercial morse traffic but not really needed for a simple ham qso. Still better than hw?
kn - over to you only. Unnecessary. No one is going to disrupt your qso if you use k and if they do it is probably for a good reason.

Random thoughts:
It is best to speak in cave man english. Instead of "my name hr is", say "name name". This is a habit I have picked up from some experienced ops who are super easy to understand.

Use punctuation, with periods or BT between thoughts. Don't rush, and be concise. Leave spaces between words and sentences. Keep exchanges to three thoughts maximum.

Some ops put the sk before the final call sign.

Once you have established that you both understand each other's call sign, you can skip repeating it at the beginning of every transmission.

The order of the first three elements name/rst/qth changes all the time.

Don't be quick to end a qso when you run out of boilerplate. Keep going and you can learn more.

And now for something completely different

 Morse Code/CW.

I'd like to try it on satellites, but I need to get my speed up over 10WPM.

Used to be there, but alas, old brain cells are having a tough time on certain letter combos.

Listening every morning, brings back nostalgia.

Good Stuff

_ _ . . .

. . . _ _

Weather Sats (again)

So, I've been playing around with my SDRPlay RSP1 on an rpi4, which has enough power to run a GUI SDR++.

One application was to receive NOAA APT files, decode, and display WX pictures.
The current functioning APT satellites are NOAA 15, 18 and 19, and folks get decent
images using modest antennas.

Mostly.

Not so me, at least with that setup. I have an MFJ 2m/70cm groundplane on the corner of my roof at about 3 meters and it's, eh, ok. Not great.  Plus with my neighbors house, our house, and trees around, you really need decent passes for decode anyways, but the ground plane really has some nulls on high passes, which is frustrating with the obstructions on low passes.

That said, I'll eventually get around to building a more suitable WX Sat antenna, several plans are out there.

For now, though, I really have not cracked the code between CubicSDR and any of the APT decode programs... noaa-apt seems most acceptable, but the GUI version doesn't seem to have options to decode all the various filtered images available from the download data stream, unlike wxtoimg, which apparently has the filters coded in, but for the life of me, can't seem to work with CubicSDR's data.

So, I went simple and reconnected my rtl_sdr dongle with an FM broadcast notch filter.

A straight pull of raspberry-noaa, which is a nice git repository which has pulled all the rtlsdr scripts in an easy to use "plug and play" solution.

https://github.com/reynico/raspberry-noaa/blob/master/INSTALL.md

it was literally 5 steps:

cd $HOME
git clone https://github.com/reynico/raspberry-noaa.git
cd raspberry-noaa
./install.sh

and then change some directory permissions to allow the scripts to create the image/audio directories.

Let it run.

Not perfect images by any stretch, but a lot better than the other attempts I've been doing.

Results are back to what I used to get, and about expected with my location and given antenna performance

6BTV

has been up all summer.

no radials, but the performance compared to the A99 is, like not kidding Sherlock, amazing.

I do have an issue with RFI into my home intercom/music wiring, unfortunately, especially on FT8.

And on some frequencies I have have stray RF feedback into my transmission chain between my shack RPi computers and the radio... have to work on that more, but I think I need another reorg of my cabling/wiring to straighten it out.

a few discussions around this pop up from time to time on qrz.com

so, a good typist transcribed an old QST editorial:

Hams we are!

Posted on 10 Jan 2013 by Nate Bargmann

An oft asked question, particularly from newcomers to amateur radio, is the origin of the name ham as applied to our hobby. Many explanations have been offered over the years but none have been as credible to me as this editorial in the December 1931 issue of QST:
EDITORIAL
APPROXIMATELY every so often an anguished member writes in to ask us how we can dare to apply the term ham to radio amateurs. Not because it is undignified, for we’re not much on false dignity in amateur radio, particularly within our own family, but because, says our correspondent, everybody knows that a ham means a punk, a lid, a poor performer, a person not fully familiar with his vegetables. Why throw asparagus upon ourselves, our inquirers ask.
Now we arise to remark that if we felt for one moment that that was a correct interpretation of the meaning of ham, it would be a thoroughly hated word at the very  top of our Index Expurgatorious. We’d have a town ordinance in West Hartford prohibiting its utterance and we’d pay a bounty to QST‘s proof-readers to run down the despised term. But as a matter of fact we’re quite convinced that the appellation is an honorable one, one over which we need have no qualms whatever.
Somebody’s dictionary suggests that ham is derived from hamfatter, which was a word used in a popular refrain of many years ago. Just what the significance was is not now clear. Then there are many people who believe that the word comes from the theatrical field, being derived from “Hamlet”–because the ham actor was forever strutting the boards and reciting from “Hamlet.” For ourselves, we find a much more convincing account in an article on the etymology of the language of sports, by William Henry Nugent, appearing in The American Mercury several years ago. Mr. Nugent establishes that the United States learned its first lessons in sports journalism and sports slang from the British Isles, where early writers invented a special style and vocabulary that are still in use. Ham, says he, “began as an abbreviation of amateur to am, which the cockney foot-racers and pugilists of the 70’s pronounced h’am.”
The moment one glimpses that ham is derived directly from amateur, much is apparent that before escaped recognition. One has only to consider, for instance, the way the word amateur is abused. Webster says that an amateur is “one who is attached to or cultivates a particular pursuit, study, or science from taste, without pursuing it professionally”; there is no implication of lack of skill. Yet how often have we heard people say, speaking of many things beside radio, “Pooh, he’s only an amateur!” They are wrong, dear friends, as sure as you’re born, and they’ve merely displayed the depths of their ignorance. We accept no such connotation with respect to amateur; neither do we with respect to ham, and for the identic reason.
The word came to us in amateur radio from the wire telegraphing fraternity, where a
beginning operator was known as a ham operator. That our wire brethren, in professional scorn, employed it to mean a poor operator does not make that application correct; the misuse is, in fact, blood brother to the even more common distortion of amateur. If we borrowed the term from them we took its proper sense, and emphatically left behind any stigma of the opprobrious. There is, we repeat, nothing in the derivation of either amateur or ham to imply a lack of skill, but rather the contrary.
Hams we are, then, and proud of it!
K.B.W.
K.B.W. was Kenneth B. Warner (Secretary, A.R.R.L.), Editor-in-Chief and Business Manager and the QST editorial offices were located in West Hartford, CT at that time.

Cade Foehner- Baby, Let's Do This (Official Music Video)

6BTV

My old A99 antenna (really a "CB Base" antenna) seems to have developed a short somewhere, and won't load up on any frequency.

Therefore, I finally broke down for a 6BTV, trap vertical.

More after it arrives!

Hopefully, this will be a little more reliable, more importantly will load properly and get me out on 10 PSK31, at a minimum :)

Three Down, Five to Go

Three Down, Five to Go

ok, of my original list of "things to do":

I have setup:

• my Raspberry Pi 3 B+ as the "shack computer", and have WSJT-X setup, as well as Gpredict, and TQSL (to upload LoTW entries for later sync to QRZ or N3FJP logs)
• a new Raspberry Pi 4, headless system, for Fox Telem data collection. I ran LMR 400 to the dual band ground plane and reception seems good enough to make an attempt at WX image reception again. For now, I'm letting FoxTelem run and collect data automatically when sats are above line of sight, per Nasa Keps managed by the program.

1. The TAPR controller project I've posted about before
2. Getting my Az - El system working at home
3. Getting on an AO-92 L/V pass with the Alinco DJ-G7T
4. Getting my packet system (yeah that) setup again for local APRS igating
5. Getting one or more of my wire antennas up
6. Getting on mode (K? 10mtr uplink to PSAT to PSK31 70CM downlink) working
7. Re-purposing my shack's win10 tablet to Linux for #4 and/or #6 above 
8. Get my WX sat receiver up again, RPi and my ground plane.

12 Tips of Learning CW

NOT my tips... these came from qrz.com


1) It's important to understand what "learning the code" really means: to become an Amateur Radio Operator who is skilled in Morse Code. That means learning a set of skills, not just the one or two skills needed to pass a one-time test.

That skillset cannot be learned by reading a book, watching a video, using other modes to talk about them on the air, or participating in online forums. While those things can help, they are not the key to learning the skills.

The needed skillset can only be learned by doing, and it takes time, practice, and an active involvement on your part. This is what makes learning skills so different from "book learning" - and why some folks find it so hard to learn skills. You have to be actively involved - it doesn't happen passively.

2) Set up a place to study Morse Code. This doesn't mean it's the only place you study code, just that it's optimized for learning code. A good solid desk or table in a room with no distractions, lots of room to write, good lighting, and a good chair. Source(s) of code (computer, HF receiver, tapes, CDs, etc.), key and oscillator. Comfortable headphones are a good idea. I recommend starting out with a straight key, you may decide to go straight to paddles and a keyer. Regardless of what key you decide to use, it needs a good solid base and needs to be adjusted properly.

3) Avoid gimmicks such as CodeQuick and printed charts with dots and dashes on them. Often such systems were designed to help a person learn just enough code to pass the 5 wpm test, but resulted in habits that had to be unlearned for practical operating. Morse Code as used on radio is sounds, not printing on a chart or little phrases. They may work for some people, but, in general, I advise against them.

Learning to receive Morse Code consists of nothing more than learning to associate a certain sound pattern with a certain letter or number. There are only about 41 of them to learn. If you could learn to recognize 41 words in a foreign language, you can almost certainly learn Morse Code.

4) Set aside at least a half-hour EVERY DAY for code practice. Can be a couple of ten- or fifteen minute sessions, but they should add up to at least a half hour every day. That means every single day, not just weekends, holidays, etc. If you can do more than a half-hour some days, great! Do it! But more time spent on one day does not give you an excuse to miss the next day.

Some folks learn better if they do several short sessions, some learn better if they do it all at once. You have to find out what works best for you.

Yes, you may have to miss a day here and there, because life happens. The trick is to keep such missed days to the absolute minimum.

5) If you can enlist a buddy to learn the code with, or find a class, do it! But do NOT use the class or the buddy as an excuse to miss practice or slow down your learning. The buddy and/or class are a supplement to your study, not the center of it.

6) Download and read "The Art And Skill of Radiotelegraphy". It's free and available from several websites. “Zen and the Art of Radiotelegraphy” is also good. Search out other code-oriented websites, articles, etc. and read what they have to say. But always remember they're not a substitute for practice.

7) Practice both sending and receiving each and every day. Most of your practice time should be spent receiving, but the two help each other. Practice receiving by writing it down and by copying "in your head". I find a pencil and block printing works best for me; you may be better with a ballpoint, felt tip, etc. Or even a keyboard.

8) A combination of the Koch method and Farnsworth spacing is probably optimum for most people. Read up on them, understand and use them – but remember they are tools, not magic. They can make learning the code easier but they will not make it automatic.

9) Discontinue ANYTHING that impairs your ability to concentrate, focus, and learn new stuff. Only doctor-prescribed medications are exempt from this rule; beer is not exempt. Eat right, get enough sleep and enough physical exercise.

10) Put away your microphones, stay off the voice radios - all of them. Besides the automated Morse Code generators, listen to hams actually using code on the air. Copy down what they send. Have Morse Code playing in the background while you do other things (but don’t count that as practice time). Learn how hams actually use code. When you get to the point where you can send and receive code, even slowly, get on the air and start making QSOs. Get involved in CW contesting, rag chewing, DX chasing, etc. Remember that you are learning Morse Code to be a Radio Operator, not just to pass a test.

11) If your HF rig doesn't have a sharp filter (400-500 Hz), get one and install it. Read the manual about how to use the rig on CW; usually the default settings are optimized for SSB. Best operation usually requires turning off the AGC, turning the RF gain down and the AF gain up. The S-meter and AGC won't work under those conditions but that's no big loss; they’re not all that useful on CW anyway.

12) Keep at it. There may be times when it seems as if you are making no progress, and times when you make rapid progress. What matters is that you keep practicing every day. Nobody was born knowing the skills you're trying to learn.

Practice can take all sorts of forms - listening to computer-generated code, listening to recordings, listening to actual on-the-air QSOs, making QSOs (rag chews, contests, DXing). Some of the practice should be things you are comfortable with, some should be a stretch. Mix it up and try different things.

Most of all: Don't practice until you get it right. Practice until you can't get it wrong.

Two Down, Five to Go

update:

ok, of my original list of "things to do":

I sold the TAPR trakbox kit, to allow some other ham attempt to bring it to life

Instead of repurposing my win10 tablet to Linux (which I may still do at some point), I
have instead setup my Raspberry Pi 3 B+ as the "shack computer", and have WSJT-X setup, as well as Gpredict, so far.

1. The TAPR controller project I've posted about before
2. Getting my Az - El system working at home
3. Getting on an AO-92 L/V pass with the Alinco DJ-G7T
4. Getting my packet system (yeah that) setup again for local APRS igating
5. Getting one or more of my wire antennas up
6. Getting on mode (K? 10mtr uplink to PSAT to PSK31 70CM downlink) working
7. Re-purposing my shack's win10 tablet to Linux for #4 and/or #6 above 
8. Get my WX sat receiver up again, RPi and my ground plane.


Really need to finish a few things, but I feel like I'm finally making progress again, after such a long layoff.

WSJT-X Rpi 3

Update: my usual brain-freeze/senior moment. Didn't have the IC-706 CAT USB plugged into the RPI, just the audio.

After some twiddling with the Radio config, WSJT-X is "seeing" and controlling the IC-706 just fine, both CAT and Audio!

So, now onto understanding a bit more about MFJ Intellituner, and then perhaps getting a bit better antenna up.  But I'm back "on the air"

The Raspberry Pi

I have a Pi 3 B+ that I'm going to try using as my shack "computer".

We'll see how it works out... while I was an expert in unix, it's been about 20 years since I did any serious work, other than minor "shell scripting" of various sorts (ksh mostly. lately a little bash).

So far, I've got a 32Gig SD card that boots up a later version of debian (? I think. I'm not up on the nuances of the various distros, images etc that one can load for linux generally, and the rpi specifically)

On that I've downloaded, and built, hamlib, flrig, wsjtx and gpredict.

WSJTX 2.2.1 runs, but am having trouble figuring out what ports it is using.

For this, I'd like to hook up my IC-706 using my xgcomms audio/cat cable that connects into the DNC port on the back of the rig.

Using this, WSJTX seems to "hear" when I choose a default audio port, but I've not figured out the vox, nor a rig interface, that will work.

More later as I work though this.

The good news is that the IC-706 is "up" again, and I actually copied some signals (WSJTX did decode some stations)..... I feel like the station is slowly coming to life after a long summer hiatus.

new operating position

Well, at least a new desk.

Moving on from my trusty FT-736R, I'm going to stay "low power" for now.

Had this old desk, obtained from my father-in-law's old office. A desk he inherited from the previous office occupant.

After some sanding, a beautiful top emerged, and thus will be featured a little more prominently during radio operations.

One down, Six to go

well, sort of.

I looked at the TAPR kit project and decided it needed to go into an experienced builder's hands, lest I ruin it.

1. The TAPR controller project I've posted about before
2. Getting my Az - El system working at home
3. Getting on an AO-92 L/V pass with the Alinco DJ-G7T
4. Getting my packet system (yeah that) setup again for local APRS igating
5. Getting one or more of my wire antennas up
6. Getting on mode (K? 10mtr uplink to PSAT to PSK31 70CM downlink) working
7. Re-purposing my shack's win10 tablet to Linux for #4 and/or #6 above

The Radio Room is down and misc

Well, some painting and "remodeling" has caused me to upend the radio room at home.

So, time to do some summer soul searching and actually get on a few projects:

1. The TAPR controller project I've posted about before
2. Getting my Az - El system working at home
3. Getting on an AO-92 L/V pass with the Alinco DJ-G7T
4. Getting my packet system (yeah that) setup again for local APRS igating
5. Getting one or more of my wire antennas up
6. Getting on mode (K? 10mtr uplink to PSAT to PSK31 70CM downlink) working

....

I could go on, but right now, I've got to rearrange and replan and get busy!

Hobbies take a lot of WORK :)

Until next time... 73 de KA2CZU

TH-D72A, press [OK] for reset

This week I had a frustrating experience with this otherwise nice "HT" (handi talkie? is that still a thing?)

In trying to hit the current, active, APRS digipeating satellites: PSAT (NO-84), ISS and occasionally FalconSat-3, one has to reconfigure the Path, and BPS.  Using this HT there is a relatively simple menu system, and a few minutes prior to the pass, you can be good to go. Typically, I will set the APRS beacon to manual and use it to send up a first message (ok, I've read this is bad form, 'technically', from the AMSAT-BB reflector threads... so, I'll probably curtail this  going forward.

We send messages to each other through these sky-digipeaters using UI / unproto messages and I have several canned (preprogrammed user) phrases to be used to "complete" a QSO.

Unfortunatly for reasons unknown, the D72A stopped sending out messages. I could beacon but not send out an actual message.

I went over every setting in detail:

300 - call sign - KA2CZU-2
301 - Beacon Type - APRS
302 - APRS Locak - OFF
310 - Data Band - A Band
311 - Speed - 1200
320 - DCD Sense - Ignore DCD (only way for me to even beacon right now)
321 - TX delay - 200 ms
380 - Position Comment - Not Emergency
390 - StatusText - set to stuff
3A0/1/2 - QSY stuff all Off
3B0/1 - Pkt Filter OFF and Type = Weather
3Cx - symbol default Kenwood
3D0 - TX Beacon Method- Manual
3D1 - Init. Interval - .2 min (tried other settings)
3E Algorithm both decal and pathing were ON... just set to OFF... don't know what these do
3F/G Smart Beacon , never have touched these
3H0 - PacketPath - *Others
3H1 - ARISS


and for the most part, everything was correct, with the exception of DCD Sense... I was told to only use "Ignore DCD" when working the full duplex 9600bps FalconSat-3 digipeater.


Fine.


That wasn't the issue.


No change made a difference, tried another ham's MC4 file and still no-workie.


What worked?


A full reset, and then restoring my (previously saved) settings.

Remember, it's [OK] to reset, if you saved your settings like you should 😃

Rotor Control - the "next" next step

Note to self:

If I ever purchase a new rotor again, I need to "read the fine print"

I forget that these rotors are used in a variety of configurations and
that they don't assume "simple 4 wire" connections.

I needed to get a cable (or special connectors) to hook up from the controller
to the rotor. - out to the interweb and ordered a pre-assembled 50' cable.

Check.

Then go to mount the rotor.

Oops, no mast mount included. Option.

Back to the interweb.

Check.

Now waiting and waiting and waiting and....