Sunday June 26, 2022

My Planck - I updated my Planck keyboard, as I had AltGr on my left-arrow key, and not being able to just hold down my left arrow key was just really annoying! ...

Sunday June 5, 2022

My Arch - I repiclated ALG's BPWM config on a traditional install, so I can still use the forums!! It looks beautful.

Tuesday April 26, 2022

I just switch my page to use the static-site genrator, Cuttlebelle!

I've been playing with making slide rules...

Saturday December 12, 2020

Got me a proper radio... FT101. And constructed a stealthy 80m OCFD capable of VSWR 3:1 or less on 80/40/20/10m. Now actually made contacts on SSB!

Next aim is CW. Have started making a training script that suits my style of learning: see QRV on github.

Saturday August 31 2019

So, it appears it's been a while since I last wrote anything here. Since my last post, I've made a contact on my local repeater, and several on FT8 using my laptop, Yaesu FT-7 and adapter. I since slod my FT-7 as digital is not my cup of tea and it's just too noisy (QRM) here for HF.

I've been listening to a few satellites though... I built a nice dual band Yagi (pictured above) and I just use my UV-5R. Great! I also has a nice QSO with my mum on our UV-5Rs when I was visiting her town.

Hmm... what should I try next?

Tuesday July 3th 2018

The other day I read about the Inrico T320 in Radcom. I was quite excited by the article and installed Zello on my phone. I told my mum (Anna M6OGI) to do the same and we chatted with Jeff KJ7EFF, Stu WD4LZC, Mark M6YDZ and Tamara lightning wolf.

Tonight I opened my Echolink app and read a bit more about it. On a slide show I found called Echolink for Dummies, I finally found what the conference type is... a collection of connected bits and bobs... I scrolled through the conferences and chose DX-Link Worldwide. People were talking in there. Actually, Erik KG7SWU was talking and immediately noticed me and invited me to join. Wow!

So I had my first official on-the-air contact with Erik and Julian - I was so unprepared I didn't even think to take a screenshot to record their call-signs, and I don't remember them now. Damn! [update: I found Erik again the next day]

Still fairly miffed at not getting any contacts on my actual radios, I decided to check whether I my signal on the local repeater (GB3LB) is intelligible. I tuned my RTL-SDR to the repeater output, hit record, and put a call out. When I played back I could hear my voice. I detuned my UV-5R and announced a radio check - nothing heard on the SDR. This is consistent with my signal being good enough at the repeater - and importantly that my signal was not picked up directly on the SDR... though I might try a few more channels to see if the signal might be being directly picked up... it's still possible.

So I guess the reason I have no contacts on my local repeaters is that they're just very quiet.

Echolink and Zello are very much the opposite, nice and busy, and I'm really pleased with the experience.