This year’s ARRL Field Day was noticeably tinged with difficulty, problems, and loneliness. The goal of Field Day is to set up our radios with makeshift antennas and operate on emergency power while making as many contacts as possible for 24 hours. Adaptation in the face of adverse conditions is the heart of these field …
Category Archives: Amateur Radio
Natural Log
Today I played Radio and won. Since I have a new laptop for work, I’ve been occasionally moving it from my office desk to the ham bench to mess with digital modes like FT8 and Winlink. But I’ve been waffling on getting logging software and keeping shitty paper logs of my radio contacts to manually …
Unexpected Ethernet QRM
I made a quick-and-dirty directional Yagi antenna out of PVC pipe and measuring tape for some future Radio Direction Finding (“fox hunt”) fun. (Instructions here) Since I spent an evening sticking it all together, I had to test it out. So I connected it to a 2-meter (144MHz) radio, tuned it to an unused frequency, …
Dropped
Well, damn. The old music workstation that I was going to repurpose into my radio desk workstation has a copy of Windows 7 which is now out of support. There goes that plan. I mean, I can still use it, but why spend all the time and energy integrating onto a platform that’s beyond end-of-life? …
With Prayer and Bailing Wire
So I consulted my handyman oracles and solved my broken antenna problem. We discussed using Lock-Tite, lock washers, even going so far as to drill and tap setscrews in the side of the receiving bolts. Ultimately, the best solution offered is to drill holes through the base of the hamsticks and use lockwire to prevent …