Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Field Day 2015 - Big Brutus

Field Day 2015 is here! This Saturday and Sunday SEKARC will be on site and on the air from historic Big Brutus! This will be the 3rd annual SEKARC Field Day at the site and we hope to see all of you stop by and even stay for the weekend!

All are welcome, you can bring your own portable station out to setup or we will have stations setup for you to operate if you prefer! Last year we had to fight some thunder, lightning and heavy rain but the forecast for this weekend is spectacular!

Thursday, June 11, 2015

New Activity for Amateur Radio - WSPR


The Weak Signal Propagation Reporter Network is a group of amateur radio operators using K1JT's MEPT_JT digital mode to probe radio frequency propagation conditions using very low power (QRP/QRPp) transmissions. The software is open source, and the data collected are available to the public through this site.

This looks like a fun new activity for hams. Even non licensed folks can listen? You will need a radio and USB type of soundcard like the Signalink USB. I set mine up with the FT-857 and with this software it has CAT ablility so it's pretty much hands free and let it run! The first day was a Satirday afternoon and I had good results. Several DX stations heard me and I heard them! I attached below a screenshot from day 1. After this screen grab I also reached 2 in Italy.

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Technicians & 10 Meters - Build an Antenna


This is an excellent video, especially for new hams and Technician Class license holders because it shows you how to build and test an HF antenna for 10 meters and particularly the 10m portion where Techs can operate using CW, digital like PSK and phone (voice). The 2nd video shows you how to tune the intenna and a nifty formula for calculating how much to take off of length!

Interesting story, my first HF contact was on 10 meters, voice and I had a QSO with a ham near Chicopee Kansas. WØKEU Keith Retzer so my first HF QSO was about 3 miles in distance!! This is a great video for making and testing various componenets and can be used for other bands just by changing the length of the wire!