Got home from work and had an itch to try a bit of PSK31 this morning. 80 and 40 seemed pretty dead at sunrise, but 20 meters was already hopping with signals. I was wondering if I would ever catch the EU stations from the new and improved QTH, and I finally got my answer… Read More A Bit of Morning DX
On Friday, I noticed that this weekend was the monthly SKCC Weekend Sprint-a-thon. Since I’m a straight key guy, I figured this would be a good way to get in some of the CW practice that I desperately need. The event runs from 0000 to 2359 UTC on Saturday, but I didn’t get on the… Read More A Little SKCC Activity
Tonight I fired up the 718 again to see if last night’s performance wasn’t a fluke and I could snag a few more QSOs. Eighty meters PSK31 was a bust, so I moved up to 40 and called CQ. Right off of the bat, I got an answer from KD7MTI, who is only about 10… Read More Attention Hound
Sit down, and let me tell you a tale of woe. As I mentioned in my last post, I got my random wire antenna up in the air and it seemed to tune reasonably well with my AT-100Pro. However (isn’t there always a “however”?), the problem that I immediately noticed is that there was broadband… Read More Fun With Broadband Noise
WIIGII! Tonight I had my first QSOs with the new station! I was considering CW but I was feeling a bit sheepish about trying because I’m so out of practice right now. So I dragged out my homebrew sound card interface and homebrew CI-V level converter and hooked them up to the IC-718. A bit… Read More First QSO!
A quick note to let you know that I’ll be off the grid this weekend for a little “staycation”, as we go camping up at Green Peter Reservoir (hey, no snickering you immature guys out there…LOL). I’m going to pack the FT-817ND, 5 AH gel-cell, the PAC-12, and a few end-fed wires to toss into… Read More Much-Needed Escape
This morning we had the first Portland-area version of the Pie & Coffee, which we have informally dubbed the Eggs & Coffee since we are meeting at breakfast time. The meeting (and I use the term informally) was at the Peppermill restaurant in Aloha. In attendance was Dave W8NF, Carl WS7L, and myself. Not a… Read More Inaugural pQRP Portland Eggs & Coffee
No luck in making it to FD this year. Had some more important things come up at the last minute that took priority, so I couldn’t take the time out for FD. After seeing some of the comments about how welcome the slower CW ops were, I’m not too sure it wasn’t for the best… Read More Field Day 2008 a Bust
So it looks like I will be heading up to Stub Stewart State Park to spend some Field Day time with OTVARC and some of the hams from Tektronix. Seeing that the current forecast is for temperatures near 100° in the valley (it may not be much cooler up in the mountains) and that my… Read More Field Day 2008 Plans