Demo Post – Embed PDF Files…

This is a test post to see if the embed PDF files feature works…

[UPDATE 11/22/2020 – PROBABLY WON’T WORK FOR NOW UNTIL I UPGRADE THE NEW BLOG PLUG-INS…]

 

[pdf-embedder url=”https://www.kd2ple.us/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Times_Microwave_LMR-400-UF_DataSheet_asof_20180418.pdf”]

 

 

 

Antenna Progress + 2018 ARRL Field Day #1…

I spent the majority of Saturday of my wedding anniversary weekend working on trying to get my petulant antenna mast project up in the air. With the assistance of my wife and daughter(s,) I was able to get my Inverted Vee up to a test height of approx. 26 feet at center mast (ends are approx. 5′-6′ off the ground, and geometry is not exactly in line with the recommended angles.) I say “test” height, as the goal is to get the final center mast to a height of approx. 38 feet, but I left out 3 sections of mast for the time being until I can get some bugs worked out, both signal-wise and structurally (see below.) The pivoting base needs some readjustment and even with 3 guy wires it’s a bit tipsy (the final plan is to have two levels of guy cables, and this geometry is a bit off too – I’m going to have to change the angles or add a 4th guy line.) But either way it’s up in the air so I could start working on the second set of issues – RF.

When I first got the antenna, it sat in my living room for over a month while  waited for final approval to put up my mast. Finally pushing myself over to the philosophy of “get it in the air – any antenna is better than no antenna,” I did just that: I strung an 80M-6M wire antenna across 2 yards (my own + my neighbors) at arm-reach level dangling from the trees – about 2 meters off the ground almost linear. No additional variables – just 150 feet of good quality coax + the antenna. I was able to pick up signals from all over the place, but nobody could hear me. So I figured good start – wait for the mast.

The first time I was able to get the mast up as a test, it was 16-20 feet off the ground and I started having a LOT of static interference. However it was clipped at both ends near metal objects; had an inline lightning arrestor inserted (unsure if it was directional or oriented wrong,) not well grounded; on a metal mast pole; I had swapped out the coax for another [what I consider to be possibly a lower quality brand] cable; and just to add 2 more variables, was connected through a metal bulkhead at my 19″ window rackmount, and I had a brand new rotary tuner inline (I was convinced my first “used” tuner was broken – which I’m not so sure about now – and the new one ironically had LESS interference in BYPASS mode…)

I never said I like to do things the easy way…

So I brought it down to work on and (due to other factors) it’s been WEEKS (ney, maybe a month?) since I had the antenna in the air. TICK. TICK. TICK. TICK…

Each weekend + every few non-rainy days I’ve been outside working on things – rigging up guy cables, digging post holes, bolting 4x4s and cable winches together, etc. This weekend, it happened! I pushed the limits of sleep deprivation and pain (more than usual) and with the assistance of most of the women in my family, we got the thing in the air – and to roughly 70% of the final height !!!

I immediately hit the radio, and found (good news) that most of my static interference is gone, at least at the 20M and higher frequencies, but I couldn’t clearly hear even my NOAA/NIST Time beacons at 5, 10 + 15 + Canada @ 3.330 that I can normally hear. I also rediscovered (as I had completely forgotten) that the air was alive with rapid-fire traffic, as it was ARRL Field Day weekend !!! With hope faded but still there, I figured I’d use the opportunity to try and make some QSLs secondary to the mission of testing the TX ability of my antenna. So I spent most of Saturday afternoon and evening at the radio, listening to traffic all the way from WI + MI to MA, and VT down to VA/NC, but nobody could hear me except one person who could hear something, but couldn’t pull me out of the background. So my antenna tests and first day of my first ARRL Field Day were – to me – essential failures with the exception of me at least being able to hear a lot of traffic, giving me the ability to practice tuning and see where my antenna interference still exists.

Although I cannot consider them official “QSLs,” here are the stations that I was able to log hearing clearly on the First Day of my first ARRL Field Day:

[to be continued…]

Hamshack Hotline

Just got my Hamshack Hotline phones provisioned. Consecutive numbers – just as I wanted. Now to nerd it up more and see if I can extremely affordably link it to the PSTN network withactual public phone numbers since the “Google Voice” gateway option documented is not currently available.

One more step in the direction of technogeekdom…

Celebrate Israel Parade + Celebrate Unique Callsigns…

Being my usual “behind the scenes” self but also wanting to expose my kids to some culture (also an excuse to get them down to New York City for the first time ever,) I volunteered to assist as a ham radio operator during the 2018 Celebrate Israel Parade in the one and only New York City, US of A! It’s a long distance trip for us from where we live, and the offer to volunteer was in response to a broadcast email from a person I have never met. All I had was his name and contact info, including his callsign. Instantly it’s a different feel than some other type of random contact info – immediately you know more about that person, beginning with the fact that they have a common interest and to some extent have been vetted by a high level organization in terms of a skill level (the same FCC as you yourself were vetted by.)

Given the long distance, short timeframe and required background checks, there was no sense of dry run, practice, or even much advance planning (no further comment there.) So needless to say, meeting K2SO along with the other team members in person that day was also the first time we had ever met , nor gone over anything tactical ahead of time other than one or two confidential details by email.

And yet – despite differences – things worked. (Not without a hitch – nothing ever does, no matter how much planning ahead there is. But it worked enough to get the job done!) It worked because:

  1. there was a set standard of knowledge exhibited by the fact that each person was licensed…
  2. there was a understanding and trust in that standardized knowledge and capability, with our reputations (and that of the parade) on the line…

K2SO = OSTROVE, STEVEN A
W2MIT = BUCHWALD, GARY
KB2TGR = KOLAT, DAVID H
N2WKS = DARACK, ZEV N
KD2MKQ = MERCZYNSKI-HAIT, ANDREW J (Tsvi)
KD2PLE = (myself)

There was also 1 other “mystery ham” named “Richard, but he is a mystery unlike the others in that because I never got his call sign, I have no way of recalling who he is…

And that’s the point of the whole “unique” call sign system – the fact that worldwide, even if I don’t have your name or any other of 20 different pieces of personal

information necessary to try and locate someone again if need be, with that call sign I can look up and find every other member of the team, even though I barely knew their first names on that day.

*** TEMP – URL List…

Amateur Radio Webring
http://www.digdez.com/amateur/index.htm

***** http://www.solarham.net/

**** http://en.blitzortung.org/live_lightning_maps.php

*** https://region6armymars.org/resources/solarweather.php

U.S. Federal Callsigns Actually Heard on HF
http://www.ominous-valve.com/feds.txt

================================================================================
Ham Radio Software:
================================================================================

https://winlink.org/
https://winlink.org/HybridNetwork
https://winlink.org/B2F

Download latest free version of  Ham Radio Deluxe

Ham Radio Deluxe 5 Download – About Last free version

AIO Software
http://www.ghafler.com/cat.html?vid=X22552

http://callsignsoftware.com/

Spectrum Commander IX
http://www.scanstar.com/products/explsamp.htm

UnidenCommander
http://dx.torensma.net/

Commander
http://www.dxlabsuite.com/commander/

———————————————————————-
Other members of the DXLab suite of free amateur radio software:
———————————————————————-

***** http://www.dxlabsuite.com/propview/
**** http://www.dxlabsuite.com/winwarbler/
*** http://www.dxlabsuite.com/dxview/
*** http://www.dxlabsuite.com/dxkeeper/

PowerSDR

Homepage v1


http://www.flexradio.com/support/downloads/
http://www.flexradio.com/downloads/powersdr_v2-7-2_installer-exe/

http://www.ke9ns.com/flexpage.html

https://openhpsdr.org/wiki/index.php?title=PowerSDR

================================================================================
Antenna Modeling + Propagation Software:
================================================================================

*** http://ac6v.com/software.htm
*** http://ac6v.com/antsoftware.htm
*** http://ac6v.com/propagation.htm
*** http://ac6v.com/beacons.htm

Mapping Radio Coverage, And Viewing It In Google Earth

http://www.blackcatsystems.com/software/mininec-antenna-analysis-modeling-software.html

*** http://sss-mag.com/swindex.html

http://www.zerobeat.net/G4FGQ/

http://www.g0ksc.co.uk/

https://www.hamradiosecrets.com/antenna-software.html

http://hamwaves.com/antennas/modelling.html

http://www.arrl.org/antenna-modeling

https://ac6la.com/

================================================================================
MARS SOFTWARE + RESOURCES:
================================================================================

http://www.glagowski.org/MARS/Info.htm

https://region6armymars.org/resources/solarweather.php

http://www.n2ckh.com/
http://www.n2ckh.com/MARS_ALE_FORUM/
http://www.n2ckh.com/PC_ALE_FORUM/

http://www.n2ckh.com/PC_ALE_FORUM/PCALESPLITFREQ.html

http://hflink.com/pcale/
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/hflink/

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/SIGINT_WITH_MARS-ALE/info
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/PCALEDOCS/info

***** http://www.glagowski.org/MARS/Info.htm

http://umlcar.uml.edu/DIDBase/

================================================================================
OFFICIAL MARS SITES:
================================================================================

http://marsradioglobal.us/

http://usarmymars.us/

http://www.netcom.army.mil/mars/
http://www.usarmymars.org/

http://www.mars.af.mil/
https://afmars-msn.org/

http://www.afmarsne.org/
http://www.afmarsne.org/AFMARSNE/
http://www.afmarsne.org/AFMARSNE/digital.pdf

================================================================================
MARS PR + NEWS:
================================================================================

http://www.arrl.org/news/iowa-national-guard-exercise-pushes-communications-interoperability-boundary

https://www.qsotoday.com/podcasts/n1in

https://archive.org/details/military-manuals?sort=-date

So I can never do anything the easy way…

Anyone who knows me knows that. I always want to do things the “right way” the first time, so I engineer the perfect schematics, over think a few things, dream of or want all the perfect parts, and out them together all at the same time so that if something doesn’t work right, there are 50,000 variables to decipher and figure out.

I had my 80M vee dangling across my neighbors trees about arms reach above the ground more like a linear than a vee. Nobody could really hear me, but I picked up some decent signals using a good piece of Ultra flex coax, no external tuner (my radio has a pretty decent built in tuner and the used external one I bought doesn’t seem to work.) It wasn’t great, but it got my antenna in the air while I waited for the permit (and the days off) to work on my antenna mast.

I got the permit yesterday, and instead of throwing the vee in the air even temporarily on the mast, I of course spent the past two days in killer heat working on “building it right.” “Right” for me means a total of 5 antennas (including the vee) including 2 custom built crossarms, gas diffuser lightning arrestors, and the next quality (loqest attenuation) cables I could afford, purchased bit by bit since I started engineering this dream over six months ago during the winter months.

The mast is still horizontal, sitting across 2 trash cans on my front yard until I can finish the anchor points in my backyard for the guy cables (which means getting a pulley and cable as high up a tree as I can – long story there.) But to try and keep the vee on the air, I have it also dangling once again too close to the ground – one end across my front yard, steps, across the driveway and hanging off my neighbor’s six foot chain link fence (I knew at the time probably a bad choice – antenna plus metal link fence.) The other end (I tried) is temporarily approx 16 feet in the air, supported by extra mast sections I assembled into a tripod configuration. So once again it’s a linear, one end nicely high up in the air, but the other end across a chain link fence.

So, exhausted, I pull the labeled cables up through my radio room window (oh, and I changed the cable I was using for the Bee of course – add another variable,) connect all cablea appropriately in case of thunderstorms tonight (my bulkhead for the window also isn’t complete, simply because I can’t find any of my saws – kids!) And I fire my Yaesu back up.

Oh, did I mention I also connected my new roller inductor external tuner inline for the first time?

So I’m trying to tune in something – anything – but it all sounds distant, garbled, almost scrambled. I heard some conversations at 14.263.510 and 14.248.800, tried both tuning in RX and also calling both there and on various bands calling frequencies, all to no avail (did I mention that my radio’s built-in SWR / power meter is reading completely different than the roller tuner’s SWR + power meter? Just to toss in a few extra variables…) Even the Canadian time beacon I had set last time I turned off the radio sounded off, so I know it’s not am SSB situation.

I’ve tried several variations, and the best signal I get is still with the roller tuner on BYPASS and using my Yaesu’s built in th,we – but it’s all still garbled.

So do I have enough variable s to try and troubleshoot while I perfectionisticly try to tune in Tokyo?

I’m hoping it’s not the coax (that would be the biggest pain in the @$$ to solve, and even though I hear much pro-American, a,to-import sentiment, I do hear good enough reviews of Shirren cables,) so I’m hoping it’s either the metal fence of the roller.

Its2 the f?@$€& roller tuner.

I take the roller out of line and connect my coax directly to the radio. The WWV time beacon at 15.000.000 is distant as usual but detectable, but the CHU Toronto, Canada time beacon at 3.330.000 is exactly as it was before with the other (better IMHO) coax.

So even in “BYPASS” mode, my brand new roller inductor runer is either broken or (more likely the case and I am hoping so, ) I need more practice using it.

But the “BYPASS” issue troubles me. One extra foot of high-quality, brand-name MOD Digital TM LMR-409UF should not make the difference. So why in BYPASS mode is it screwing with my signal?

I shall continue to try and get my antennas skyward at a priper height as soon as possible (it’s supposed to rain tomorrow, of course.) But I’ve gotten this far being overly-complex, so…

Oh, the joys of learning through self-discovery…

The good news is I finally picked up some RX activity what appears to be just above 60 Meters (which from my understanding it must be overseas, but one of the broadcast stations has a 1-800 number, so…):

6.070.200 broadcast radio

6.029.100 conversation en Espanol

5.967.500 conversations en Espanol

5.032.700 – 5.936.900 – Christian religious broadcast – University Network – 1-(800)-338-3030

First random 2M contact…

So a few days ago in was driving to work early (for me 7:00 pm is early.) Now that I’m a little more confident that my HT repeater settings are correct, I turned on my handheld to see what was going on even though I’ve only once before ever heard any random activity on the air…

All if a sudden, I hear a callsign in a moderately thick Spanish accent calling for a radio check. I responded, and next thing you know I’m talking to a guy in Syracuse (a few miles away) over the linked repeater network.

A small feat, and nothing I haven’t done a thousand times in the past on a professional level, but one more step in the Ham direction.

On The Air – Sullivan County, NY A.R.E.S.

Although it may seem a little lame, tonight was my first live on-air experience both as a Ham (prior occasions nobody answered on this rural local repeater system,) and as an A.R.E.S. member. Proud to be a “newly minted” member of the “newly minted” Sullivan County, NY Amateur Radio Emergency Services (A.R.E.S.) group.