AJ4TW

You CAN have too many trees.

2011-12-04T19:41:00.001-05:00

Well, at least too many branches. I mentioned that branch that was holding me down in the last post, and my idea for getting rid of it. Well, I tried it. I made a "wire saw" from a six foot section of 0.030" stainless steel wire by folding it in half and twisting it together.

So I shot my line over the offending branch and pulled the "saw" up with some paracord. I began to pull back and forth in a sawing motion, for four or five minutes I did this. Finally my homemade "saw" broke. Now let me say, I did test this saw, I cut a small branch off of a tree that I could reach and it cut right through it in about a half minute.

Needless to say this tree is still keeping my antenna down right in the middle, really close to the feed point, which I think is not very good, it is much better to have your feedpoint higher than the ends than the other way around. So I am very frustrated by this darn branch, I have to thank my wife(Stephanie) for helping me today, we tried a few other things and we got pretty darn close to pulling the antenna over far enough to pop it past and up over this branch, almost. . . .ALMOST!! sheesh. So I'm thinking that maybe I'll have to call in a professional, I still think the "wire saw" might work, but I think on this oak tree that I'm fighting with, I'll need a more robustly designed "saw", so look in the future for a possible redesign of my saw, or maybe even a commercially available wire saw/commando saw.

Here is a picture of the gosh darn tree in all it's glory, that middle branch holding my feedpoint down from where this antenna could be if it weren't for it's pesky woodiness.

I maybe should have spent my time today raising a shorter antenna, I want to put one up for 20-10m a nice compact balanced line fed dipole. Kind-of even toying with the idea of making my own feed-line. We shall see.

New wire for New QTH

2011-11-27T11:35:00.002-05:00

Well, I learned something very important yesterday, if you want your neighbors to be happy about your antenna installation, just make sure you put it up on Thanksgiving weekend, loan out your air cannon for your neighbors to hang their Christmas light balls up in their trees and they will be very happy, even possibly forget what you were doing because they are so entertained with shooting lines up into the trees. :)

I put up a 132 foot dipole fed with balanced 450 ohm feedline yesterday, not without some struggling, I tried and tried to get it to pop up over this one branch, yet it is still stuck under it. Isn't there such a thing as a wire saw for cutting wood? If I could loop a rope over the branch and tie a wire saw into the middle section of the rope or paracord, then maybe I could cut that branch without ever leaving the ground, I am going to look for one of those.

The antenna works like a dream on 80m and 40m but not so fantastic on 20 and 10m, so I think I will follow this one up with a shorter dipole for the higher frequencies.

Also, I got a lot of my station set up yesterday, got the computer going, and a few of my certificates hung up, so that is pretty cool.

Still celebrating the arrival of the new cycle!

The 706 is much better.

2011-10-13T17:56:00.001-04:00

A real vfo, some filtering and three times as much power makes the 10m opening much more fun! I got my first ever qso to alaska today on 10m very cool!

10m has arrived.

2011-10-09T15:42:00.001-04:00

2010-12-02T10:16:00.002-05:00

Well, I've moved to a new QTH, long gone are the big antennas hanging high in the pine trees. Now my HF station at home is connected to a short 44ft doublet that is in the attic, and I have a tarheel II on my car. So, if your hearing me then it is most likely on one of those antennas. I'll tell you I really miss those big tall pine trees and all that open space at the old QTH. Hopefully one day before too long we'll get back to a home where we can have some space to operate from.

I've been operating VHF/UHF a lot since the station is so limited at home. Dstar has been fun, but there really is no replacement for HF.

2010-10-16T23:04:00.003-04:00

Well, still enjoying Dstar very much. I've got to say it's spoiled me. Love the digital voice. I have been playing on HF from the mobile as well, Right now the little TDi is my only hamshack. I'm still using the DPRS tracker with my homebrew interface. The map to the right is packets reported to the AK4EG B repeater, these are packets reported to it in October only as of 10/16. The map on the left is Position reports recieved by the AK4EG C repeater during October 2010 as of 10/16.
Just above you see my personal position reports in the last seven days, these are all the reports from my mobile that simultaneously sends my position information with my voice audio. You can explore this more at APRS.FI

Cheers, 73 good DX and GL OM

AJ4TW

A week with DPRS

2010-08-27T19:48:00.003-04:00

Well, it's been one week so far, and I've really made some tracks. It's actually quite impressive when you look at it graphically. One thing that strikes me when I see these plots of my Digital Position Reports is that every red dot represents a transmission in which I was received by a Dstar repeater, probably 95% have been the AK4EG B port, 444.8875, I have also been heard by the AK4EG C port, and the KI4WXS C port a few times. NC is blessed with some outstanding Dstar repeater systems, we have continuous Dstar coverage for almost the full length of I-85 through our state, in most places the corridor is covered by multiple systems. Here is a compilation of all of my reports for the past 7 days:

It is actually a little funny It looks as if I've been obsessively continuously transmitting in some areas, but really those dots all lined up are an accumulation that has happened over the past week of commuting and running errands, basically normal QSO's that I've been having on a daily basis anyway, but have just not been recorded until now.

Another thing that I've recently realized is that listening to the DV mode will spoil you. After having the ID-880 for a week in the car and using Dstar systems heavily I have become very accustomed to hearing clear clean audio coming from my radio. We switched around a bit this morning to some FM repeaters and it's just lost it's luster. I mean, I'm telling you the truth, try it! If you give Digital Voice a real chance you'll become attached to it as well, and you won't want to go back!

2010-08-21T22:31:00.003-04:00

Here are my DPRS tracks from the first two days of having the GPS receiver mated with my ID-880. It works pretty well, and it's been lots of fun. What you see here are all hits heard by the AK4EG B port, that's UHF, repeater(444.8875). You can see that the repeater has a fairly large footprint. You can kinda build a bit of a coverage map for a repeater by looking at the repeater at www.aprs.fi and looking at all the reports gated through that entity, unfortunately the aprs.fi site only keeps one month at a time.

Here is a screen shot of the gated reports so far from 8/10:

Most of the Dstar radios do have DPRS (Digital Position reporting system) capabilities. It is fairly inexpensive to get yourself a GPS reciever and build an interface for the radio, can be done for under $100. It's been a lot of fun to play with so far, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of the Data from my commuting next week! You should try it too!

AJ4TW

2010-08-21T09:52:00.003-04:00

Got the tracker up and running in the car. You can see my location and tracks by going to www.aprs.fi and searching for my call sign, AJ4TW.

The ID-880 came in from Gigaparts yesterday just in time for the weekend, they sent me a new replacement radio. Good job Gigaparts!

See Ya!

2010-08-18T22:54:00.002-04:00

Got word back today from Gigaparts, they received the radio today and are shipping the replacement radio out to me right away. I am very satisfied with their prompt attention and good service. It is nice to see that some businesses still care about their customers, it seems more and more rare these days that a retail type business knows the proper way to treat their customers. Thanks to Brandon and the rest of the guys at Gigaparts! Looking forward to seeing that ID-880 back in it's proper place on my dashboard!

Catch ya later!

AJ4TW

2010-08-15T19:45:00.006-04:00

Well, we got the interface box made to run the GPS on the ID-880. Don WD4CWE made the connections and put it all together, I just showed up with the parts and the plan. It works! I had to send my 880 back because there was a problem with the UHF finals, so I won't have it back until next week. Thanks to the guys a Gigaparts for working with me on that one, I hope to get it back really quick!

Anyway, here are some pictures from building the interface box, what it does is insert the 5v power for the GPS and allow the GPS to talk to the Icom programming cable:

Here you can see all of the parts that I got together to get the thing made total cost of $8.50 or so at radio shack.

This is the 5v voltage regulator transistor.

Here are some final assembly internal photos.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about Connecting your ID-880 to a GPS reciever, I'll be happy to try and help out if I can!

2010-08-14T13:05:00.000-04:00

Well, for reasons beyond my control I'm dropping out of the MDC QSO party. I think I'll turn my efforts towards building the interface for my DPRS set up for the 880. At least that way I can get something done, and my GPS receiver will be ready to go.

I'm pretty bummed about missing the QSO party, but I guess there is always next year. . .

2010-08-12T06:10:00.000-04:00

Last night my ID-880 came in, WD4CWE and I installed it in the car in the heat and humidity, we hooked the computer up to it and programmed it with all the local repeaters. It's ready for action, there are still a few things that need to be done to complete the installation, but it is ready for this morning's commute. So far I think that is a great radio, it is really cool. Nice compact presence on the dash, but with a large enough display that I can easily read callsigns and messages that scroll across the screen.

I'm going to try and get the GPS running on it so that I can activate the DPRS functions of the radio and have live GPS tracking.

Catch ya on the radio!

2010-08-08T20:26:00.000-04:00

It's been a month already! This is August and the Maryland/DC QSO party is coming up Aug 14th, I'm planning on participating again this year, last year was lots of fun and I had a little success as well. Last year of course I was still KJ4BEE.

Also I ordered an Icom ID-880 for the car that should be here this week, I can't wait to have a real Dstar mobile rig, I've been playing with Dstar for over a year now and only using my IC-91AD which is a small hand-held radio. I can not complain at all about the 91, that radio has performed flawlessly that little radio is a work-horse, very tough little rig. But, it was time for something more substantial in the car with DV. I'm pretty excited as this is the first brand new rig that I have ever bought so it'll be pretty cool!

Maybe I'll get a chance to catch you on the air through one of the D-Star repeaters from my new little mobile rig!

2010-07-02T10:35:00.001-04:00

Well, it's independence day weekend. A day to celebrate Liberty, kind-of ironic in my mind. Oh well, with the nostalgic feelings of liberty and independence, I'm going to see if I can get all of the 13 special event stations representing the 13 original colonies this weekend. We'll see how it works out.

http://www.13colonies.info/

2010-06-28T21:47:00.000-04:00

It appears as if the bands are improving, 10m was hopping today. I worked Chili from my mobile station on 28.365Mhz. CE4UJU so I'm very happy to have had that opportunity and success from my automobile!

73!

2010-06-13T16:23:00.001-04:00

It's been too long since I posted, been having fun in the mobile with the 706 and the Little Tarheel II. Played a bit with the VHF Sweeps this weekend, enjoyed a bit of a 2m band opening out to the west. Looking forward to operating at the upcoming Field Day with the Alamance Amateur Radio Club. Had a really nice QSO with my brother, Collins, AB3KC on 80m Single Side Band the other day. It's been a fantastic weekend. Really had fun watching the 24 hour of LeMans and seeing Audi pull off such an impressive victory!

Catch ya Further down the Log.

2010-04-20T19:52:00.000-04:00

Worked A71CV (Qatar) from the mobile station on the way home from work this evening on 20m, the tarheel works! Just surprised that the rainy weather seemed to detune the antenna from time to time, I wonder if that is normal?

2010-04-12T21:34:00.001-04:00

Had fun with the Mobile set up today on the commute. Very fun to hear a few VK stations this morning on the way in, they were sounding good. Gave me hope that the conditions were improving as the bands seemed to be wonderful this morning. Then the bottom fell out and I heard that the sunspots all disappeared, hope they come back soon! A solar flux of only 75 or so, not so great.

Check out this little video from this AM:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEHvo28H8uw

2010-04-11T22:06:00.000-04:00

Got the little tarheel II installed today, and made a few contacts with it, seems to work pretty well! Had some fun. This should certainty improve the commute!

Also made a few contacts on 20m this evening enjoyed that very much.

The weather is absolutely perfect!

2010-04-05T22:50:00.000-04:00

Getting serious about HF mobile with two hours in the car each day. Ordered a Little Tarheel 2 antenna today to go with the 706. Gonna need to spend a few hours getting everything wired up and ready to go. We'll see how that works for me, I'll be sure to let you know. . .

2010-03-26T22:22:00.000-04:00

I'm in Brassleton GA on the road for work, catch me on the WJ4FD Dstar repeater!

2010-02-28T21:15:00.000-05:00

Enjoyed the NC QSO Party today, thanks to all the stations out there who called me. I think I made about 130 contacts today, many interesting ones and a few surprises, especially on 20m some DX stations that I would've never expected, thank you!

I tried a new logging software that I wasn't too pleased with really. It didn't really do what I thought it would do. Maybe teething pains it being my first time using it. At any rate, I'm going to have to go in and fix my log so that I can submit a log and summary sheet.

Thanks again, it was a blast!

2010-02-21T19:30:00.000-05:00

Well, long time no post. Not that anyone is actually paying attention.

I've made a few contacts on HF in the mobile lately, I've got an hour commute each way so leaves some time open for playing radio. Most of them have been 20m, I don't keep a log in the car or have video going or anything. So, if we worked mobile, THANK YOU, it has been a blast. Sure makes the long drive to work a little more fun.

In other news:

North Carolina QSO Party

I'm going to make a serious effort at it this year, see how many Q's I can rack up on SSB. There is a new class this year for SSB only ops, which will be me. Wouldn't it be swell to win the first year ever for the new class with some really nice QSO rates? I think so. In that vein I've purchased some software specifically for this QSO party with all the abbreviations already in the software, also it will link to the rig to record frequency and mode. I've also got another antenna tuner in the hopes that I can load up both of my balanced line antennas and be able to switch between them with the rig's antenna selector. Before if I wanted to switch to the other balanced line antenna I'd have to unhook the antenna from the back of the tuner and fasten the other. This will hopefully help me be a little more flexible. I need to spend some time this week getting the shack ready for the NCQP, I have computers to set up and software to sort, as well as antennas and tuners to check out and make sure they work. Hopefully all will go well and I'll be firing on all cylinders on Sunday Feb 28th at 12:00 EST.

I hope to see you there, it would be great to put you in my log for the NCQP!!

2010-01-23T08:57:00.000-05:00

Too busy to play much again this weekend. Probably mobile UHF is about as much radio play as I'll get. Hopefully things will slow down in a couple weeks and I'll have some play time.

I'm missing the Jan. VHF sweepstakes which I participated in last year as KJ4BEE, that's a huge bummer, but oh well.

I had an Idea for the NC QsO party, I have a friend who is a pilot, I thought about contracting him to fly me around over NC so that I could participate in the NC QSO party as Air Mobile Rover. Is there a class for that? Or do I just go in as rover? Got any idea? give me a reply. That's like a year out probably, this year I wanted to go out to Ocracoke Island for the NCQP, but that's probably not going to happen either. I am still holding on to the possibility of running a multi op effort with some friends.

2010-01-16T19:55:00.000-05:00

Well, it's almost been a week. I did have some fun with the radio this week. Made a few contacts on 40m that were interesting. XE1YQQ, Theodoro in Mexico City, Mexico also IZ8DEP Alfred on the west coast of Italy who gave me a 5.9 report, interestingly enough Alfred also has a US callsign which is KI4RMF, not many folks have calls in more than one country, so that is pretty cool. Also HR2DMR Dan in Honduras who also gave me a 59 signal report, Dan was my first contact into Honduras so I thought that was pretty cool. That's about it for DX this week, I probably wont have much chance to work the VFO this weekend, although I might head down to the shack tonight and jump in on 40m.

I also had a nice Ragchew QSO with Harry, KW5HP, who lives in Little Rock Arkansas. We had a good conversation about antennas, photography, and even a mention of two of amplifiers, although neither of us was running any extra power, both just 100w "barefoot". Harry was running an inverted V dipole that is hidden in the easement behind his house, he called it his StealthTenna. That's a good idea for people who live in restricted areas, a lot of the time you can put up a dipole or some other wire antenna and no one will even know it is there. It certainly didn't hurt Harry's signal any he had great audio and a beautiful 5 by 9 signal report on 7.205Mhz. Thanks for the QSO Harry!

Earlier in the week we did a bit of a propagation test on 10m, 28.425Mhz. My brother, Spencer, KJ4GPP installed in his attic a "Tech Dipole" which is just a short dipole cut to be centered on 28.4 Mhz. He is up at school in Farmville, VA and we didn't have any luck the other night on 10m. He couldn't even hear a friend of mine here locally who was running power and a log periodic beam pointed at him. I'm pretty sure it's just because the band was not open. So, were hoping for more solar activity. Or maybe we can just get Spencer to upgrade, that's the answer there.

Ciao!

AJ4TW

2010-01-10T17:16:00.000-05:00

Well, today I've added a video bar of my Youtube channel in. If I've worked you and recorded the contact chances are that it will show up on my Youtube channel, Shiftlink. One way to find my recording of one of our contacts would be to search your callsign on Youtube.

I really wanted to play on 20m today, but the sun is now going down and it has become very apparent that real life has gotten in the way of play today. Maybe after dinner I'll go to the shack and get in on 40m. There are also a couple of nets tonight on VHF and UHF, one is the local VHF Sunday evening net on 146.670 the K4EG repeater. The other is the Southeast Dstar Weather net which we usually hear on the 145.320 Dstar repeater in Burlington, which is actually located just down the road from my house on Cane Mountain.

Anyway, maybe I'll find some time to play today, I sure hope so!
73
AJ4TW

2010-01-09T22:02:00.001-05:00

Well, here is my brand new Blog. I've got some place to put up my Ustream.tv now! Maybe I'll figure out how to put an interactive log-book up too. I have some other ideas as well. AB3KC, my brother, Collins, gave me an Arduino and an ethernet shell for Christmas. I have a few thought about what kinds of things I could send to this blog from that Arduino unit, so look for that in the future. It's going to take some time for me to put the hardware together. Also the only thing I've ever written a program for is a graphing calculator, so I'll take up some time learning that as well.

My last blog faded into disuse withing two posts, and in fact I just deleted it. But I think I can make this one hang around a bit longer.

I hope you enjoy it, and I hope I do too!
73
AJ4TW