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by Richard Kriss on November 24, 2009
This page was by Richard Kriss on November 24, 2009
Welcome to my attempt at a web page. All html errors are mine as this is a roll-your-own page prepared with a Macintosh text editor. To quote Andy Rooney, "Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make easier don't need to be done." All typo errors are mine!
Cool picture of the Austin, TX BATS exiting the Congress Street bridge to pig out on Mosquitoes. City-Data blurb on Austin, TX.
This is a link to the AA5VU blurb on the QRZ.COM showing a summary of my ham radio background and interests.
Like many other operators I enjoy working DX. This is a link to a table showing the AA5VU DXCC Countries Worked as of November 24, 2009. I upload all QSO's to LoTW but still use QSL cards for all ARRL DXCC credits..
The recent (new to me) RTTY additions for 2009 are: A31A Tonga, TX5A Chesterfield Is, FP/KV1J St Pierre & Miquelon, ZK2DL Niue, K4M Midway Is., 3D20CR Conway Reef, C37URE Andorra, 7P8A Lesotho, JI1LET/JD1 Ogasawara, VK9L Lord Howe Isl, and FW5RE Wallis & Futuna Is.
Recent (new to me) SSB additions are: TL0A Central African Rep, 3D2MJ, Figi, 3D20CR Conway Reef, VK9GMW (CW) Melish Reef, 9M8Z East Malaysia and TI9KK Cocos Is.
On 4-Feb-09, I completed the ARRL Triple Play Award #122 that started on 1-Jan-09 to WAS (Work All States) on CW, Phone and Digital with all confirmed using the ARRL's LoTW (Logbook of The World).
In 2008 I was pleased to receive two First Place - South Texas contest award certificates. One was for the 2008 ARRL RTTY Roundup contest and the other was for the 2008 ARRL 160 Meter contest.
This is the AA5VU shack and QSL Card showing the usual brag stuff.
One of my favorite ham radio modes is RTTY and I use an Apple 24-inch, 2.4 GHz iMac Macintosh computer. The iMac is setup to run Mac OS X (Snow Leopard) and/or Windows XP Pro SP3; however, I prefer to stay with native OS X applications.
This is a drawing of the Digital Audio Interface used at AA5VU.
I am a member of the CTDXCC Central Texas DX & Contest Club and the ARRL.
For RTTY, BPSK and other digital modes I use the fldigi (Fast Light DIGItal) modem application. Fldigi is very nice application that runs on Linux, Free-BSD, OS X, Windows XP, W2K, and Vista and is maintained by Dave W1HKJ and a first class team of dedicated programmers. Checkout this Mac OS X Screenshot showing fldigi just after a PSK31 QSO. For regular station logging of QSO's on the Mac I use Aether by Andrew AC7CF .
My on the air numbers are DOS (or Digital on Six) #455, Ten-Ten #27820, Hellschreiber (or Feld Hell) #291 and PSK31 070 Club #612.
This is picture of the Antennas used at AA5VU.
This is a picture of my HF rig the Kenwood Model TS-570S(G) Transceiver.
There are two excellent TS-570 reviews with pictures by PA1AE and ON4SKY.
This is the Yaesu FT-8800R dual band mobile rig that replaced the Kenwood TM-733A in Jan 2006. Check out the FT-8800R lap desk installation. When I have a passenger, the FT-8800R rides the hump. The lap desk came from Target and the red elastic straps are a great mic holder. This is the generic Dual-band mag mount antenna in the hatch area. Not the best but it works.
Lee, WW2DX, maintains cool web page called Mac Ham Radio devoted entirely to amateur radio operators using Macintosh computers. Check Lee's site for the latest OSX ham software.
For DX support I use one of the AB5K AR Technology AR-Cluster systems in the South Texas area or the N8NOE-1 Cluster in Waterford, MI. To find an AR-Cluster node in your area click on this AR Cluster Node List . If you are a Mac OSX user, I recommend the use of EA2RY's RYTelnet OSX application to access your local cluster. Roberto EA2RY's documentation is in Spanish but Mac users don't need docs.
If you want view EA2RY's web page in English, first copy the link opened above then open the Alta Vista Babel Fish Translation utility and paste in the copied link and select the language you want. A pretty cool utility.
This is link to a web page called N5IN Web Cluster that refreshes every 90 seconds. It is an alternative to a telnet interface to the cluster.
This is a screenshot of RYTelnet displaying a test of the CW Skimmer on the K5NA cluster. Note the CW Skimmer picked up AA5VU calling CQ.
Steve Palm, N9YTY, released the Macintosh OSX application called EchoMac for access to the Echolink system. Try me sometime on the K5AXW-R - 136958 Austin, TX node. The output is on the K5AXW 442.15 repeater located at the University of Texas.
In Dec 2005 I volunteered for the American Red Cross training program to become an Operator/Driver of an Emergency Communications Response Vehicle (ECRV). Click on ECRV #4703 for good pictures and click on ECRV 4711 for a slide show of these very cool vehicles. This is our class (90% hams) taken on 2-Feb-06 at the RMC in Austin and a picture of me next to an ECRV in Chicago.
On April 26, 2007 Kris Thompson and I were deployed by the American Red Cross in Emergency Communications Response Vehicle (ECRV) Number 4707 to support the tornado that hit Eagle Pass, Texas. The above link is to a page showing a good picture of the ECRV taken by Kris Thompson.
Additional Emergency Communications Response Vehicle (ECRV) pictures: The Super Class (large slow to download pictures) with instructors taken on 30-May-06 in Chicago. I am the guy in Green in the middle. A view of the ECRV roof; and other views showing the cockpit radios and back seat goodies . Yes, there are more rigs than antennas and the need for the large coax patch panel in the upper rear. Photo credits to Doug Barnes WA9KYD.
Check out the INDUSTRIOUS CLOCK by Yugo Nakamura who had too much time on his hands. May take a few seconds to load.
Watch seconds to years scroll to the left on the CRAZY CLOCK .
Click on AA5VU to send me an Email message.
