KD4EVB
Jeffrey Thomas


Welcome, this site is under construction.  Probably always will be ;-)
 

For those wanting an easy way to be notified when this page is updated, consider this:  www.changedetection.com  *       Get Firefox - because you deserve a better browser!

Status of the www.ntmax.com domain & VPN infrastructure changes.

Sept Update Available:  Between a surprisingly busy year at work and a late summer move to a new home, many projects are delayed.  See link below for the latest  update (Sept 2004).

LINKS being FIXED:  I've gone in and fixed most every broken link I could find on the VPN site and I'm now beginning to clean up the public pages.  The change detection link is now fixed, they made site changes for some reason that broke my original links directing clicks over to a confusing page geared towards webmasters, not users.  Also going thru the "My Links" page and updating, adding, deleting, rearranging, and basically slowly cleaning that page up.  This time of the year, it gets a lot of traffic for what was supposed to be a "low key" page :-)

My Links page:  If you have the old link path, just  change the domain part of the path to www.nkdxe.org  or it can also be found under the same file name at the www.qsl.net/kd4evb/  site.  If you knew how to get the old ntmax my links page, then finding it shouldn't be too tough ;-)  Eventually it will not be hosted on the qsl.net site and only off the nkdxe.org site once it's fully operational.

More status details here if needed. 

Last Updated:   09-10-2004

How to use the Kenwood TH-D7AG on PropNET & Ham-IM

Some said it couldn't be done!  Here's how to make it work, including screen caps of the D7 decoding the local PropNET hub/digi.  Not a big deal, but has a quirk or two that can be worked around.


Revised NKDXE 220, 440, 33cm, 23cm channel plans/layouts.  Coming soon.  Draft copy is maintained on the VPN site.  Lot of changes just now being completed here this winter/spring.  The 6 band crossband matrix codes/chart is available on the VPN site.

NKDXE Field Day 2003 Results:
Our wonderfully incompetent ARRL managed to loose our Field Day submission this year.  I have proof of delivery on file compliments of USPS Delivery Confirmation.  Could it be that my membership was lapsed for a bit this summer and thus our FD report magically got lost even though membership isn't a requirement for FD?  Gee what a surprise huh?  Now why did I renew my membership this year?  Hum, oh to apply for VUCC you have to be a member that's why.  Yet another way the ARRL puts money and silly numbers above the hobby, what a joke they are anymore.  Guess it's safe to say I will not be renewing after I get my VUCC applications completed ;-)  Oh well, 'nuff fussin' about the Amateur Radio Ruination League.  Once the new site is up and I get the spare time, I will   move the results, photos, and so forth over to it.  I'll dig out the numbers here shortly and put the basics up here. 

Considering 6m never really opened up good and our results were saved by some good 2m ground wave work, we didn't do too bad.  Met most of the goals with some improvements in many areas, so other than the ARRL screwup, pretty happy all things considered.  We did snag and work a brief opening into Cuba on 6m, working CO0US (see one of the latest QST's for this story of a very unique DXpedition) on Sunday around 1702Z.  Every year some things go not so well, then other things go better than expected for no shortage of surprises.  After the pretty wild conditions we had for the June VHF Contest, really wasn't too surprising that 6m cooled off for FD weekend.  We even ran all the field day computer logging, packet, and digital resources via LINUX this year!

2003 VHF-UHF DX Conditions:
Outside of  a rather dull June on 6m (with a few BIG exceptions), the VHF-UHF bands were pretty wild at times, especially later in the summer/early fall.   I  out DX'ed several "personal best" records this year, shattering a couple of them real good, including many new states and grids on 2m and some darn nice UHF DXing like working Texas on 432 (yeah 432, not 2m, not 6m, that's Texas on UHF!).  For those that were not on VHF/UHF around the first part of September this year, you missed out on some of the best DX of the past 2-3 years.  With job burdens and mixing into that a QTH move, I'm actually surprised that I added the grids, states, and country count went up as much as it did this year.  I really didn't operate that much compared to years past.  Hopefully I can begin to get caught up over the winter months and be in much better shape for the 2004 DX seasons.  The 2m 144.2760 propagation beacon continues to be heard and reported far and wide.  No sign of eskip in/out of this area on 2m this summer, at least detected, the 2m eskip seemed to stay to the south and west of this area, but there is always next year.  The western US had some awesome openings, sometimes all the way up into the 220 band.  FYI, eskip up onto 220 is considered a "once in about every ten years" type of thing!

Some rough standings (I've still got some logs to review and QSL's to be worked on, so these will likely change over time.  Consider these tentative for as of  up to 12/17/2003:
6m:  QSO =1031,   GRIDS = 222,  STATES = 46,   DXCC = 17
2m   QSO = 545, GRIDS = 85, STATES = 26,  DXCC = 2
432 QSO =  98,  GRIDS = 31, STATES = 13, DXCC = 1

These do not include logs from limited 222, 903, and 1296 operations, digital contacts, AO-40, or contacts on various bands made outside my "home grids" of EM79/78.  All contacts listed above were worked from either EM79 or EM78.  Now to get those 6m grids confirmed, may have VUCC on 2m in another year or two.  All those 85 grids listed above were done via normal terrestrial propagation modes, using less than 100w (usually 45-50w) to a 7el or 9el beam, and they do not count 2m digital, eme, or satellite contacts.


 Find my EMAIL address on QRZ.COM if needed.

Last updated:  04/23/2004
Page created:  12/18/2003