Sunday, September 27, 2015

Wetnet Brunch Report 19-Sept-2015


Brunch is always great fun - even if they had no Banana Creme Pie this week.


WSJT-X now has an auto-qso mode.   What took them so long?

Good to see our wandering ski board friend on his seemingly annual visit.

MonWyDaHoTa - no, I haven't figured out what that means either.

Learned of the Gamma Research power supply.   Special feature is that it uses capacitor technology to supply the peak current needed for a 100 W SSB or CW transceiver - but runs with much lower rated full duty cycle construction. Pricey but a small size.

  http://www.gammaresearch.net/hps-1a.html

I shared that both of the Elecraft K3S stations at Summer Gathering were using the recommended PowerWRX 12V SS-30DV supply.  It has a small size and built in power pole connectors.   Should be a lot lighter in a Go Box than a 7 A or 12 A Astron.


I brought the Dash Cam I picked up a few months ago to try and get working.  Ren shared the well done Dash Cam reviews at Techmoan.   (No - I didn't get mine working.  It keeps power cycling like it's not getting enough current.  Time to RTFM.)

The "Periscope" streaming video AP was demo'd.


It's possible to Screen share (VNC) between Mac devices - but what about Airplay screen casting?  We experimented.  No definitive answer yet.
(Update de Jeremy:  You want to use Airplay to stream your screen to someone else’s monitor?  Try Airserver: http://www.airserver.com/Mac  I’ve used it a couple of times to use a Mac laptop instead of an AppleTV off of my iPad.)

For your notes - the magic code at Jimmy Jacks is :  J..J..sGu..1

Bob has a new 820T2 RTL SDR dongle running and is now a master of signal scoping.   He claims he can't decode the 9600 APRS UHF packets by sight but I'm not sure I believe him.

It does appear that SDR#, the main SDR dongle software, is indeed supported and hosted by the Airplay folks at their site.  Many have websites on how to get started but it's still confusing and not straight forward.

Onward!

73,
Bill, WA7NWP

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Pacific Northwest Things Digital


Upcoming:


On the air:

  • Monday evening at 8 PM - Puget Sound Digital Hams net - Digital Radio Fun with FLDIGI and EasyPal and FLAMP and FreeDV  On the WW7SEA machine at 444.550, tone 141.3

Groups:


Resources:

  • FLdigi, FLmsga, FLAMP - http://www.w1hkj.com/download.html
  • FreeDV
  • FSQchat
  • APRS-messenger
  • Winlink2K

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

uHams 9/15/2015

It was fun!
Art visited.
WSPR
Dickies

Discusses Close out deal on Radio Shack 10' antenna masts.  Current prices is $9.97 - the .97 is key that this is a close out.   (NWP: at $10 these masts are a good deal.  Otherwise if I was working on an antenna project I'd instead use the 10' thick wall conduit from Home Depot.  A little more money but stronger.)

Ideas for Next Time:
* Cut and tune a full wave antenna and 1/4 wave matching section.  Compare it to a dipole.  On the lawn - with an AB switch for quick testing.

Monday, September 14, 2015

MicroHams 9/15/2015 and WSPR


The online WSPR database

Who I've heard?

Who's heard me?

The WSPR map:

The old format - which uses the URL so it's easy to bake in options.

Who I've heard - old

Who's heard me - old


Rig

Tricks -

- frequency - my rig is off by 50 HZ


To do:
  Install on laptop


heard before work:
1340 -24 -1.1   7.040009  1 WB5WPA EM13 37
1340 -26 -0.7   7.040099  1 KD6RF EM22 37
1344 -27  0.3   7.040041  1 KP4MD CM98 37
1344 -13 -1.2   7.040084  1 N3XKB DM65 27
1346  -1 -2.1   7.040063  1 K7OFT CN87 37
1346   0 -0.2   7.040130  0 KK7KZ DN30 33
1348 -24 -1.0   7.040014  1 WB5WPA EM13 37
1348 -14 -1.1   7.040098  0 KR6ZY CM95 23
1352 -24 -0.6   7.040107  1 KD6RF EM22 37
1354   1 -2.1   7.040068  0 K7OFT CN87 37
1356 -22 -1.4   7.040019  0 WB5WPA EM13 37
1356  -2 -0.7   7.040137  0 KK7KZ DN30 33
1402 -23 -1.1   7.040022  1 WB5WPA EM13 37
1404   0 -2.1   7.040073  0 K7OFT CN87 37
1406 -14 -1.2   7.040058  0 NU6K CM97 37
1406  -2 -1.4   7.040141  0 KK7KZ DN30 33
1408 -20 -1.3   7.040024  1 WB5WPA EM13 37
1408 -18 -1.3   7.040108  0 KR6ZY CM95 23
1412   2 -2.1   7.040076  0 K7OFT CN87 37
1414 -20 -1.1   7.040060  0 NU6K CM97 37
1414 -23 -1.2   7.040099  0 N3XKB DM65 27
1416 -26 -1.1   7.040026  0 WB5WPA EM13 37
1416  -2 -0.3   7.040143  0 KK7KZ DN30 33
1418 -17 -1.2   7.040007  0 VK6XT OF86 37
1420   2  0.0   7.040058  0 KP4MD CM98 37
1422 -15 -1.2   7.040063  0 NU6K CM97 37
1422   2 -2.3   7.040078  0 K7OFT CN87 37
1426 -26 -1.2   7.040027  1 WB5WPA EM13 37
1426  -4 -0.8   7.040146  0 KK7KZ DN30 33
1428 -17 -1.2   7.040112  0 KR6ZY CM95 23
1430 -20 -1.2   7.040065  0 NU6K CM97 37
1430   2 -2.3   7.040080  0 K7OFT CN87 37
1432  -2  0.2   7.040061  0 KP4MD CM98 37
1434 -16 -1.6   7.040104  0 N3XKB DM65 27
1434 -25 -1.7   7.040128  0 VK2EFM QF56 27
1436 -17 -1.7   7.040013  0 VK6XT OF86 37
1436 -25 -1.7   7.040031  1 WB5WPA EM13 37
1442 -11 -1.2   7.040069  0 NU6K CM97 37
1442   2 -2.3   7.040085  0 K7OFT CN87 37
1444 -22 -1.4   7.040107  0 N3XKB DM65 27
1448 -20 -1.5   7.040119  0 KR6ZY CM95 23
1448 -10 -0.5   7.040153 -1 KK7KZ DN30 33
1450 -23 -2.0   7.040134  0 VK2EFM QF56 27
1452 -21 -1.3   7.040018  0 VK6XT OF86 37

screen:

Inline image 1

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Wetnet Brunch Report 6-Sept-2015


First things first...

  BANANA CREME PIE

Average turnout...

Bruce was using a 6 AH LiPo battery.  Looks like the idea RPI UPS.   Ordered one.  It will be interesting to see if these new-technology batteries will work in the severe winter conditions of my  unattended property monitoring project.

Reminded to pick up some personal: ID Labels from Mavericklabel

... more RSN


Wednesday, September 2, 2015

APRS Packet DX

On Tue, Sep 1, 2015 at 12:28 PM, Robert Bruninga via aprssig
wrote:

> Remember, and IGate is *useless* for noting *anything* about propogation

All absolute statements are wrong.  :)     There is a small chance that some unique DX packets will randomly make it through the system. This is, I would guess, what the K12 propagation website relies on.

Hopefully our next generation IS will preserve and make available dupes if only for local stations to enable better propagation studies and network management.

> To know if you received something DX via RF, you must look at your own RF log.  Bob

It's fun to pick out some DX packets...   Somewhere I saved the San Francisco region node broadcasts I received up here in the Seattle area during a similar lift a few years ago.

73
Bill, WA7NWP