205morning report

After the September ARRL VHF contest I was added to the mailing list for the 205morning report which highlights VHF/UHF and higher frequency Nets,QSO's and other relavent communications. This newsletter is assembled by Stan- KA1ZE on a regular basis since 2010. He also has a website which explains how the morning report came into exsistance .you can find it here--www.ka1ze.com

In a Net section of the morning report I saw several Nets I might have an opportunity to participate in and thats how I found the 144.240 Wednesday Night Net which starts at 7:00 PM CST. The Net controls are from Wisconsin-- Mark-WB9LYH at EN54 and Todd- KC9BQA at EN63 and possibly several more. I happened to have a contact with Mark when He was Net control and  the conditions were not great that  but hopefully will improve next time. Todd has a Blog and along with lots of interesting VHF/UHF information also comments weekly on the Wednesday Night net. Thats how My shack was included-- showcasing newbies to the Net. Very cool! Thanks Todd! I've added His blog to My Blog list at the right side.Check it out.

73---Tim

PS-- email with KB9BQA ,He stated information forwarded to Stan -KA1ZE is strickly a text document so I guess I owe a thank-you to Stan, Editor of the 205 Morning report for attaching My shack picture! Thanks to both Todd & Stan!!

Below Zero Weekend!

I had no particular picture to show the frigid weather, so I thought I'd add My favorite Dog-- this is "Bella" . Shes been a member of Our family since We picked Her out from a rescue place. She's a great companion and likes winter except with the present temperatures below zero Fahrenheit! Hers paws get cold- :(
   This weekends VHF contest was a no show for Me. My 2m radio was experiencing S9+ noise when it typically is S3-5 or less. Must be atmospheric.  6m was very quiet  but no activity heard when I was in the shack.
    I guess the HF bands were busy with the NA QSO SSB contest but in tuning around and switching antennas I soon realized My Butternut HF6V was not working. Very high SWR. I even bypassed coax switches,jumpers and lightening protection but it still tests bad. I've had occasional intermittant problems with this antenna usually on the matching stub area outside. Its -10 below right now and getting dark so futher inspection will have to wait till later this week. Its supposed to warm up towards the next weekend.
  On a positive note- -My 10m monobander is tuning real well on 6m,10m and also 12m. An added bonus I guess. Currently listening to 20m on My inverted "L" antenna. Its always nice to have antenna backups!! The more antenna's the better. Work tomorrow-- another below zero day---brrrrr
73---Tim

Apple ID, Narrowbanding and LOTW

The "add Picture" menu on Google blog is still not working so I used the HTML "add picture" feature instead. Works OK as the picture at left shows.
  I've also noticed ARRL's Logbook of the World is now very fast. I checked status last weekend and actually saw only one log in Queue for the first time since the queue status was added. All this week its hovered towards 100 or less so the new hardware is working well.
   I also took some time this week to download the latest N1MM update. I was at 12.10.3 and now I'm at 13.1.1 and I have the upcoming VHF contest ready to log this weekend. New version seems OK although the ARRL VHF contest has several new catagories that N1MM doesn't show. Maybe in another version.
  Over the Christmas holiday I took time to try and straighten out My Apple ID's. When I first bought Apple products and  needed to use Itunes , I made a decision to lump together My Wife's and My Apple Iphones which saved buying Apps and music twice. This was several Years ago and it seemed to make sense at that time but as Apple added features like "find My Iphone",Icloud , Imessage and others it started to cause issues. So I came up with another ID and also added Itunes to My shack PC and started the process of separating APPs and info. So far I've only found one 99 cent App I needed to reload. The others are free ones. One interesting gothcha is when an App needs an update-- its from the shared ID so I delete it and reinstall under My ID. Now Imessage in particular works alot better. Having the same Apple ID seems to confuse some of the advanced apple features.
   I also noticed after December 31st with Public service frequencies and Narrowbanding requirements how silent the Scanner is becoming. I've started looking at scanner options and for Minnesota residents with the Public Service entities switching to the "ARMER" system , any scanner I consider needs to be Digital P25 capable. Bearcat(Uniden), GRE and Radio Shack have this capability on their high end scanners. When I finally have some money allocated, I'll write the results on this blog. Might be awhile-- $400-500 range makes it a little tougher to justify and save!
 Remember the ARRL VHF contest starting Saturday!
 73--Tim

#86 Ukraine

The ARRL's Log book of the world is just cooking along and for Me has added many new log confirmations. Most recent is with UT7E on 20m RTTY during the recent contest. This makes 86 confirmed DXCC's and I expect a few more from recent contests. I did try to check LoTW queue status today but the site  is off line for maintenance.
I was also able to download the Ukraine flag but had to switch My post temporarily to HTML, download the picture and add it, then switch back to "compose" mode. Crude but it worked!! The forum I'm following dealing with this problem still says Google is working on the issue.
  Next week is the January ARRL VHF/UHF contest starting at 1:00 PN CST Saturday and ending at 10:00 PM CST Sunday.
 73---Tim

# 85 Latvia

Log book of the world has installed new equipment and is really processing logs at a good rate. My log from last weekends RTTY contest has been processed and My contact with YL9T from Latvia on 20m was confirmed. Makes 85 confirmed contacts and still a little over 100 DXCC's worked. I've worked other Latvia stations before but no LOTW match.
 I'm glad LOTW has solved its problem with slow process speed-now I wish Google Blogs would resolve its Picture upload issue. I'm following a forum of other bloggers with same problem. We see!
73--Tim
 PS--- freezing rain outside-- the nightmare of all Amateurs and antennas!!

More Wallpaper

The "upload picture" link in My Google blog is still not working so I can't show the picture of My latest certificate. I've been watching the forums and other Google bloggers are having a similiar problem.I can only hope they resolve this issue soon.
  My latest certificate is from the Minnesota QSO Party 2012 contest. I had high score/new record for St Louis County. This contest is fun and I feel like the "rare" contact and I try to log as many as possible. This contest is happening again Saturday, February 5, from 8:00 AM CST to 6:00 PM CST on 160m thru 10m and VHF 6m and up. Hope to add you to the log!
  73---Tim

ARRL RTTY RU 2013

This contest starts at 12 noon CST on Saturday and runs until 6 PM CST on Sunday. I was hoping to be ready for the start on Saturday but I had not tried My set up before and of course I had issues right away. I thought since it had worked in September for a previous RTTY contest I wouldn't have a problem. It ended up being a bad connection in My home made interface.
  I just started on 10m with several contacts when a Family obligation at Our local Church shut Me down till later in the evening. After We returned, ate supper and I took care of some chores, I was back to the contest. Ten meters was very quiet and 15m was only marginal but had enough activity to keep Me busy before dropping down to 20m. After a fairly decent S & P operation on 20m, I next went to 40m and then eventually to 80m before calling it a night.
  I was up early sunday morning and managed many contacts before Church. I operated parts of the afternoon after returning and having lunch. Both days ,the bands were very poor for DX. I only managed 16 different DX entities and only 43 States and Canadian multipliers. Most activity for Me was towards the West coast which is different than most contests which seem to favor the East Coast stations. It really did seem like the California/Washington State QSO parties!
  I used My Yaesu Ft-950 at 50w into either My big dipole,HF6V ground mounted vertical or My 10m monobander although 10m didn't produce much. I also am set up for AFSK using N1MM with MMTTY as the RTTY engine which works great. Great programs! My FT-950 always amazes Me on its BW capabilities and I really enjoy slicing between close "neighbors" to snag that lonely CQ'er!!!
  I managed 240 Q's which was 10 less than last year for a score of 14,160. Conditions were strange but I really like these RTTY contests!
73---Tim

#84 Uruguay

Checking LOTW revealed CW5W from Uruguay posted His recent ARRL 10m contest log and I had a contact with him during the contest. LOTW works well although its still very backed up-- last time I checked it was 11 days behind. Patience is the key word till they have the new equipment installed.
  I also could not download a picture to this blog post. deleted  this post and tried to download again but it would not bring up a browse link. Bug? or google did another change without letting us Bloggers know?? Frustrating. I'll let You know if I find out!
  Remember the ARRL RTTY RU contest starting today at 12:00 noon today-- CST!
73---Tim

2012 wrap-up

Happy 2013!! Hope Your celebrations went well and Your head is OK!! Looking back on 2012 and only considering Ham related items  brings to mind the following:  I started last Year with 64 DXCC confirmed and ended with 83. Not too bad! My blog also had 5000 views and ended with over 8300 views.Again not too bad for a blog I don't have linked to many others! I appreciate the small following.
 I also participated in many contests such as- MN QSO party,Hawaii QSO party,ARRL RTTY RU,RAC winter,CQ 160m SSB,ARRL 10m,CQ WW RTTY,June VHF and several other small attempts.
  I also managed to contact several Dxpeditions with Malpelo Island being winner with most bands worked , plus several special events like the London olympics and the Thirteen colonies event.
 I added some equipment both in and out of the shack.A used tuner,DVS-6 Voice keyer and a 432 Yagi and 10m monobander. I also upgraded My FT-950 to handle the new 60m allocations and was able to upgrade Our DSL to 7m!
 All in all a fairly busy year.
  again-Happy New Year and God bless!!
  73---Tim