September 2010
1 post
American Radio Relay League. United States... →
Will WRC-12 top Top Band?
November 2009
1 post
August 2009
2 posts
Huntsville Hamfest
Despite its being a long and relatively undernourished day at the Von Braun Center on Saturday, the hamfest was enjoyable. Unfortunately, I haven’t had a lot of time or money to invest in radio interests, making some aspects of the event frustrating – I would love to go ahead and buy a nice rig and some accessories! – Still, I got a couple of little things and had a nice time in general.
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Out of the loop
Between work, multiple car troubles, a full Windows reinstallation, not to mention a few other things, I’ve been drawn away from radio-activity for several weeks. I’m hoping that this weekend’s Huntsville Hamfest will get me back into it at least a little.
July 2009
1 post
Field Day
Field Day was a little anticlimactic for me, but still fun. Hot as ****, of course, although the evening weather was quite nice, at least for me.
Site setup went swimmingly and all the social aspects were great, plus I got a good look at a couple of cool emergency-response vehicles (Red Cross and DHS/Alabama Region 6). I didn’t get to operate much, and didn’t manage to make a single...
June 2009
3 posts
FCC-1 progress
Took a few hours today to install most of the discrete components on the NorCal QRP FCC-1 board, up to (not including) the LCD unit.
One small complaint: I’m not sure why they don’t warn you sooner about the “user-supplied” PCB headers (or just include the silly things and tack $.50+ onto the kit price). I’m happy to get the parts myself, but I would have ordered...
VOXables, Field Day, NorCal QRP
Still very busy with work, but I’ve made considerable progress on my newest project: VOX, the newsletter of the Huntsville Amateur Radio Club. As its new editor, I’ve put some hours into redesigning and presenting it, and although there are still some loose ends to clean up, I’m quite happy to say it’s live and let the kinks work themselves out.
Check out the July edition...
VOXing
It’s been an unbelievably busy couple of weeks, largely because I started a technical writing job that promises to be both rewarding and very demanding. On the other hand, things have picked up in ham radio world for me a little bit—and in the web design and meatspace social networking worlds—as I’ve agreed to take on editorship of the Huntsville Amateur Radio Club’s monthly...
May 2009
1 post
Not a lot under the sun
It has been a busy few weeks, but without much going on in ham-radio land. I did attend the HARC meeting early in the month, where we talked about my possibly taking over their newsletter, and where Tom showed a pretty interesting video of David Hathaway—NASA’s expert on the solar cycle and space weather—giving a talk at last year’s Huntsville Hamfest. And while his earlier predictions...
April 2009
7 posts
Happy Samuel F. B. Morse’s birthday to you!
I’ve effectively joined the local ARES/RACES group, although there’s still a bit of paperwork to square away. Severe weather events and associated amateur emergency communications are much more common here than were in New York, especially now that we’re going into tornado season, and I have already gotten a taste or two of how that plays out on the 2-meter band.
What amateurs...
Recognition
…was the theme of tonight’s ARES/RACES meeting.
Incidentally, I’m now a recognized member of ARES, but the RACES paperwork is pending review.
HT memories
It has been an unexpectedly nostalgic experience to overwrite all the New York City repeater and tactical frequencies in my HT’s memory, which have been there for years, with local ones.
For one thing, it’s a sacrifice in some sense. The slots were arranged ideally for convenient usage—the most-frequented repeaters placed for easy access and scanning, the less-used and more obscure...
Unpacking
I started unpacking my station components last night, and this morning dropped my main HF rig off at my brother’s house for future maintenance. I bought that radio at the Mt. Beacon hamfest in upstate New York in 2006, right after I was first licensed, but it has never really worked properly. I was able to receive strong CW signals on it, but there seemed to be something wrong with the...
DE N2NLY/AE
Passed my Extra exam this morning, so I thought I’d celebrate with a new blog. Check here for details about my new Alabama station, informal coverage of amateur activity that interests or involves me, thoughts, giggles, and whatever else pops out. Enjoy, and 73.