1000 Views!!

Thanks to everyone who has paused at My blog. I hope some of My posts have been entertaining or useful. I read a few blogs and I'm always amazed at the excellant writing styles and the organizational skills of the writers! I wish My blogs would flow as grandly!

The strange thing is I can think what I'm going to say but to impart that to the printed word...well it just doesn't translate as good. Maybe that's why I'm an Electronic technician and not a writer!!

I also have tried to keep this blog strictly Ham Radio oriented! I have many views on daily events and every day life but I truly believe they are best discussed face to face over a cold one!

I have a hard enough time writing about semi-technical topics.Imagine My prose with social,political or Heaven forbid--religious subjects! No- Ham radio from My corner of the basement is scary enough--- LOL ( laugh out loud)-- don't you hate our acronym rich society??

73 & thanks---Tim

QSL from Haiti

Fond Parisien,Haiti to be exact. I received the above QSL card today- unfortunately a corner of the card and envelope are missing. Appears to be a over-aggressive postal machine. Contact was from April 17th 2010 at 2400 utc on 20m. Short but sweet contact.

73--tim

Hong Kong delivery is here!

My new Handheld FDC-160 arrived by registered mail today. It came packaged fairly well with many stamps and even a "customs" sticker on it. Inside the box was the handheld,battery ,charger,belt clip,earpiece,instruction manual ( english and Chinese? ) and a complimentary pen from the 409shop!
Glanced at instruction manual, attached battery to the back and turned it on.Battery was fully charged and radio has some basic frequencies in memory. We had the Weathernet activated for some very severe storms tonight so I programmed in that Repeater and listened on the new radio. Works great on receive although 5 watts and a rubber ducky don't appear to be enough to access the repeater.Must be a little too far outside coverage area. After adding a simplex frequency was able to verify transmit!
I've added about 20 frequencies into memory-- some Ham,some public service and am listening to it scan as I type. Happiness is a new radio-- especially one so cheap in price!!
It doesn't appear I can directly add frequencies to the VFO,but need to use arrow keys to scroll thru. Can't expect everything ,considering the price. All in all I love it!
73--Tim

HRD Issue

Nice day in Northern Minnesota. Too nice to spend time in the basement but I did have a chance this morning to check out the bands. Ten meters was in very good shape along with most others from HF-6m. I started Ham Radio Deluxe , which I use as My general logging program, using Radio rig control ,Dx cluster,QRZ and the logger. After My first contact , I entered it using the "add" function of the logger and looked up My next contact on QRZ thru HRD, then realized the only log entry showing was the most previous one! This was not good! All My entries from 1992 to the present were gone!
I tried to find where the file of My log disappeared before leaving to go to a movie with My family. Upon returning ,I did again try to find out what had happened. I did load an older save from My USB drive but HRD has not been saving since April!!Luckily this was also a time period of hardly any activity and I still keep abbreviated paper logs. Paper log does not include any contests, but does have single QSO's.
I'm still not sure what happened, but will be paying closer attention to My log!
73---Tim

Happy Fathers Day-- My Family made mine special as always!!

New Handheld ordered!

DISCLAIMER!!! -- this is not an endorsement for a supplier.Manufacturer or any other entity!!!
That being said-- I ordered this portable recently as a Fathers Day gift from My family. Several Hams in the area ordered similiar portables for an incredibly low price-- shipping included from Hong Kong! Yes-- free shipping from Hong Kong, not sure how its possible! I only paid $54.40 and it includes battery,charger and earpiece.

My fellow Hams each have their portables and are using them! Very Satisfied with it!Tracking on mine shows being shipped from Hong Kong-- hopefully not a slow boat!! I only bought this portable ( handheld,handi-talkie, etc) because of the price. Never imagined i would have a reason to own one.Price was right. Won't be here by Fathers Day,which is OK. Hoping it will show up sometime!!

73--Tim

a Google find

Have you ever googled yourself? I have a very common name so the pages of info are overwhelming unless I google My callsign. This is what did and found many pages of My exsistance from blogs,contesting and other times I've been mentioned in cyberspace. Very interesting stuff!! I even exsist on Russian servers!! I also happened across a link referencing the CQ WPX 2009 contest indicating a certificate waiting in PDF for N0UJJ. What the?? Sure enough, 5th place , single operator ,low power, 20m band only for the zero callsign area.
Further checking revealed these certificates are given to many places , I only checked to tenth place, but what the hey? I'll take it! Its a quite nice looking certificate and its a paper to show the Family so they realize My time spent contesting has value.
73---Tim

3 QSO's in a Minute

My time operating during the June ARRL VHF contest consisted of three QSOs during about a minutes duration on Sunday. Reading the 3830 archives leads Me to believe 6m on Saturday was cranking. My Yagi is kaput ,so it would have been verticals only. Maybe next Year!
I did keep very busy considering it rained on and off all weekend. I still have not had time to install the Square shooter TV antenna but because of this project I've re-evaluted My other Ham antenna projects. At one time I was going to put a mono bander for 10m , using an old ATB34 without the traps . This was the only option to fit it in the required space unless-- I move My tri-band VHF/UHF vertical but until recently had no place to reinstall it. Along comes the aforementioned HDTV antenna and now the antenna movement will begin.
Instead of mounting the TV antenna on My existing tower, it will instead be on the backside of the garage along with the tri-band vertical. More trenching coax-- oh well! This will give just enough space for the tri-band beam (ATB34) to spin around. It won't be super high,but at this elevation and with the opening thru the trees East and South should give fair results. Time will tell!!
73 for now--Tim

Quick Update....

Busy,busy, I've been busy!! Girls helped paint shed and whole family tackled the upstairs bathroom. Grass and weeds are still growing at a furious rate and the four letter word (Work) has been interesting- could have said busy....but that's and understatement!
The ground radials for My vertical have taken a beating as I have been trimming the trails they run across . Seems like My wheeled trimmer creates enough suction to lift them up and befor I know it, wrap around the shaft and make a terrible mess! Next trimming will be with the weed trimmer,easier to control!
A bright spot is My Winegard TV antenna was delivered and I think it will be perfect. Wingard makes a sturdy mount and antenna called the square shooter. I'll write up the outcome later after installation.
Listening to the radio while typing this-- 160m and 2m FM, both busy. I have not been on for a while-- several morning nets tomorrow I will participate in. Next weekend is the ARRL June VHF/UHF contest I might give it a try again,been several Years!
73---Tim