Radio Notes: 10 Meter Fun Today

With a little luck and a bit of perseverance I managed to work two European stations on 10 meters today.  I was pleasantly surprised to add both Belgium (OT4A) and Poland (SP9LJD) to my logbook.  With the band being open in the morning my simple G5RV antenna and FT-897D running 100 watts is actually working, which at times I wondered if it was when it seemed no one could hear me.

Today I also had an "Ah ha!" moment with a setting on my Yaesu FT-897D.  I often wondered why stations sounded so, well, just plain bad on receive.  Even when band conditions were not the best I noticed that a lot of stations were hard to copy and their audio sounded like it was coming from a blown speaker.  While listening to a station today on 10 meters today the meter was pegged at 60dB over S9.  After a quick consultation with the manual I turned on the attenuation.  Magically the signal became almost crystal clear.  In fact I don't think I have ever heard audio sound so good on receive.  I tuned around the band listening to other stations and they all sounded great.  So my lesson learned was attenuation is a good thing and to not be afraid to use it.

Anyway that's my radio notes for today!

73
K7TYE

K7TYE APRS Weather Station Off-the-Air

The Lacrosse weather station has finally stopped connecting to the outside sensors.  At this point the APRS weather station will be off the air indefinitely.  The Crooked  River Ranch APRS Igate will remain on the air as of later today (12/28/2013).

Weather Station Update

The weather station has been reset and revived.  It is running however occasionally I lose connection with the outside sensors for a time then they reconnect.  At this time I have added the weather data back to my APRS station beacons.

APRS Weather Station Down

My Lacrosse Technology WS-2810u weather station had a major malfunction.  The wind sensor and main outside thermohygrometer stopped talking to the main inside unit.  After replacing batteries and resetting the sensors they still would not communicate.  After taking apart the anemometer it appears the reset button was not working.  It is now fixed and back together.  The station is inside and currently all sensors are connected. If they all stay connected while inside to night then tomorrow they will go back outside and should be back in full operation.

APRS.fi Screen Shot of Return Trip from California

Took a vacation to see family in the California Bay Area.  Even included a stop at Ham Radio Outlet Sunnyvale to look at all the new radios that have come out.  After returning home I pulled up the aprs.fi map of my track and have included a screen shot of it below.  Click on it to see the journey and thanks for everyone who maintains digipeaters and igates along the way that I used!

VHF/UHF Antenna Project Completed

Another project is now done on the summer list of ham radio to-do's.  The Cushcraft A50-5S was remounted on a longer mast section along with the Cushcraft A270-10S and the Ventenna VT-27.  This now gives me my multi-band VHF/UHF antenna array just in time for the ARRL September VHF Contest next weekend!

VHF/UHF Antenna Array includes (from bottom to top):

• Cushcraft A50-5S, 6 meter 5-element beam
• Cushcraft A270-10S, 2 meter and 70 centimeter beam, with 5 elements for each band
• Ventenna VT-27, 2 meter and 70 centimeter vertical for FM voice and packet

Ham Shack Update

The move of the ham shack from one room to another has been completed!  A new station ground system is now in place.  The Ventenna has been moved from the roof to the mast above the 6 meter beam.  I have hooked up now my old G5RV for now.  Phase two of this project is to get the full wave loop built and installed this summer as time permits.  Now to get on the air and have some fun!