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Blog Posts (34)
- Greetings from St. Martin
We got here a week and a half ago. Spent a few days at Beachside Villas. We moved last Saturday to Oyster Bay for the rest of our trip. Lots of great friends here,with a lot more coming tomorrow. My favorite breakfast! The checkin party. Lunch and a great view with Karen & Sister Janet @ Yacht Club. Orient Bay. Friars Bay. Notice how crowded the beaches are! Fiona is windy and some rain, but no danger to us. Delayed friends arrivals, and moved our parties inside. Jim K2BHM
- Everybody's Elmer, Jud, K2CBA
You often ask "How do you know all this stuff?". Well, the answer is easy. Hanging around with Jud and his friends for 40 years. He amassed a group of people that were not just happy reading about it. They had to build it, try it, push it to it's limits. Then improve it. And, that would always lead to another project. An education not available anywhere else in the world! So, this is a picture of Jud from one of the many trips to the Deerfield Hamfest, among many trips to so many other Hamfests. A half dozen of us would pile into Jud's van and start a 2, 4, even 6 hour journey, one way, to a Hamfest. Which meant 4, 8 or 12 hours of some of the finest technical hands on minds having a brainstorming session, with anything science or technology on the table. A PhD in the van would be scratching his head, not understanding a word being said. We recently lost Jud. Ham radio will never be the same to a lot of us again. Services were on the 1st of June, with full Military Honors, at the Gerald B Solomon National Cemetery. One of Jud's best and longest friends, John Stevens, WB2BYP, put together a site to honor and remember Jud. https://www.storyavenue.com/K2CBA.htm You'll see pictures from the June 1st ceremony, followed by numerous stories and memoirs from friends. One picture shows a tower with the "Dog House" at the base. Actually, it is a 180 foot rotating tower, dwarfing Jud's first farm house in Grafton. Later, you'll see the new 3 story house up on the hill with the rotating tower. Both houses provided countless hours of enjoyment for so many people, building, operating, testing, planning, playing. Advancing the technology as we cemented friendships. Rest in peace, my friend, rest in peace. Jim K2BHM
- Just Deserts
My wife was looking for a unique way to self serve deserts at her nephew's wedding next week. She saw some things on Amazon, ordered a few things, and nothing was as expected. So, I went about creating "Serving you your Just Deserts"! She picked out some 12" square marble floor tiles from Home Depot. They were trimmed down with a diamond wheel wet saw. The one piece saved from Amazon, the lazy susan bearing, was epoxied to the underside of the bottom marble tile. 1/2" diameter brass rod was cut to length and "Faced Off" in my lathe to give perfectly flat, square ends. They were easily taped in the lathe for the connector studs. My "Round Tuit" easily made a decorative accent for the finial in top. You can see this accent piece just under the crystal lamp shade holder from Lowes. A fun project! As mentioned, Mother Nature provided some excitement when she blew the paper tablecloths into the Sterno cans in the chafing dishes. I did manage to catch a picture before the firefighters jumped into action. I didn't want to get in their way! This was 1 second into the event. By 5 seconds, it had spread to the whole table! The Bride and Groom at the wedding, with heavy duty backup! Massapequa was not taking any chances. This was too important for any foul ups!!! Jim K2BHM
Forum Posts (97)
- Outer Space Photos RevealedIn General Discussions·July 11, 2022James Webb Telescope First Photos being revealed at 5PM today. Here's the link to watch it live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21X5lGlDOfg168
- Brand New Toy From YaesuIn General Discussions·July 6, 2022Looking at a fall release in the U.S....maybe :)😉115
- Rob W2RWS reports on his Satellite Contacts and provides a blue-print for others to follow in setting up their own station.In HF, VHF, UHF and Digital·July 4, 2022I’ve been wanting to do this for many years, and finally made the jump with rotator and controller purchase. Rig is Scored an Icom-9700 on QTH’s marketplace I scored, used. The Az/El Controller is Green Heron Engineering (w/ USB connections to Mac) and Az/El Rotator is AlphaSpid Mini (I thought this one was more robust and more powerful than the Yaesu). Alfa Spid MINI-RAS with RT-21 Az-El Controller | Green Heron Engineering Antenna the M2 Leo Pack uhf/vhf on rotator and speaker tripod. M2 LEO-Pack Antenna System – AMSAT. The Rotator is on a speaker tripod I got at a second-hand shop last year- it looked useful… I set up in the front lawn where I can watch it turn and point. It requires two 4-conductor wires for the motor, and two coax lines, one each for UHF/VHF. I will eventually mount this on my tower when I get that up. I have 50’ of cable run from my desk for work out the window to the tripod and rotator; might have some signal loss. This setup now at my work desk means I can get some actual work done between passes and can wait for the passes indoors with a cup of coffee in one hand… … 😊 The Satellite tracking program that auto-tunes/CAT controls the FT-847 for uplink/downlink band/frequency/mode and adjusts for Doppler: “MacDoppler” (runs on a Mac; has a 2D view and 3D globe view). Great program; I have it for many years to learn about satellites. This program sets everything automatically per the specific sat. MacDoppler Ham Radio Satellite Tracking for Macintosh (dogparksoftware.com). I determine and verify the actual Azimuth setting with the compass of my iPhone, and the Elevation (Tilt) with the level in the iPhone. On my wish list are: Pre-Amps at the antenna Original Broadband Satellite RX Preamp – AMSAT but needs protection- cannot transmit through– you will blow it out… And, not available now. Filters A Simple Desense Filter for Mode-J Satellites – AMSAT Doing this now with a duplexer… I have listened to the downlink on the SRD Duo and PC with waterfall and separate antenna, and while transmitting on the various uplinks, I see a lot of harmonics very close to the downlinks. Filters and ‘Desense’ may help. The contacts/action are fast-paced, but orderly. You wait for the pass/sat to come into range (some are long shots on the horizon, some are directly overhead, some in-between). You call CQ with call sign and grid sq (Fox Nancy 31 here in PP) or answer a call, generally when sat is within 1,000 mile or closer you may start to hear activity. Or not…. Exchange your call sign and grid square if you can get between the exchanges when finished, maybe a quick hello if the sat pass is not too busy on a weekday. The window of opportunity is over in +/- 5-6 minutes. There is some adjustment on the fly of frequency to tune someone in despite the automatic doppler adjustment from the software. The fast pace elevates the heart rate up a bit. The AMSAT OSCAR Satellite Status page lets you know what sat is active; I find myself contributing to this page a lot. I have made a contact on the ISS repeater when active, and many other sats, but have not talked transatlantic (i.e., when RS-44 passes, at 800 miles up. Huge footprint, that one.) Wattage needed is low, although I have varied my power when I thought I needed it. I follow a few hams in Europe on Twitter, and they are making the trip into the US; further research and a shout-out with questions will be needed. Some sats have several channels; others have just one. Some also have a beacon you can hear to verify you found it; it’s really exciting to hear them ‘from the ether”. I have heard the squeal of the weather sats; decoding NOAA-18 with WeFAX/weather fax is also next. Military sats may also be on the list. FT-4 has been used to make contacts; more research needed. Cool grid square map to track contacts I have started: New and Improved GridMaster Map – KE4AL (wordpress.com) And there you have it! That brings you up-to-date on the sat station progress here in Lake Snow-Be-Gone. Rob W2RWS1120
