Welcome to my Virtual Ham Shack!
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In November of 2003 I had to take an early retirement, so I am no longer driving a truck. I thought I would miss it, but guess what? I don't; not a bit! I have been off the air for almost 10 years, but... N4DFP is on the air again! I retired my Kenwood TS-440/Sat, and just got an Icom IC-706. What a difference a "generation" makes! I am now feeding that into the W5GI "Mystery Antenna" from K4TR. I returned to service on 180403 @ 1335Z, joining the ECARS net on 40m. I really am enjoying ham radio again. I am giving some serious thought to a uBitx QRP rig to play around with. UPDATE: Station
Info: My antenna is a "tree hanger" right now. I have an Army surplus, 4" sectional, aluminum mast, 45' long. I plan to top that with 10' of 1-1/2" galvanized mast to get the antenna center up to 55'. I will then hang the W5GI in an "inverted-Vee" configuration. Hopefully I can make this happen before summer '18 gets here. Thanks to WD4PIC,
and the fine folks at the Carolina Amateur Radio Club,
So that's the latest in my never ending (or at least let's hope not soon) story. Look for me on the air. My favorite bands are 40m, 20m, and 17m, as the propagation flies.
Once Upon a Time... This was my first 18 wheel mobile setup |
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Daily AM: 7251KHz..................................................... SouthCARS (3515) Daily AM: 7255KHZ......................................................... ECARS: (40072) Daily AM: 14300KHz.....................................Intercontinental Traffic Net Daily PM: 14300KHz...................................Maritime Mobile Service Net Daily PM:
7185KHZ............................................................
OMISS
(4098) Current Solar Space Weather Courtesy of Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology
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So… You Want To Get Your Ham License... (Or Upgrade) Good for you! I know it looks like a daunting task, but relax. Millions have taken all elements, and passed; you will too! There are some helpful study aids available, for free. My first recommendation is the training videos by KE0OG, on YouTube. He has a series of videos for each license class. He follows the ARRL License Study guides, and they are helpful. I would recommend the purchase, but they not absolutely necessary. The next recommendation is HamStudy.org. Again, you can study for any of the Amateur License classes, using Flash Cards, and Practice Exams. If you are having trouble with a particular sub-element, you can drill on that sub-element. The Answers include an explanation of the material by clicking the upper right corner. With these study aids you should quickly become knowledgeable for any license you are studying for. Now a bit of advice. There is a healthy dose of math involved in amateur radio. There aren’t that many questions on the test, but there are quite a few in the question pool. Don’t let that scare you off. KE0OG does a good job of covering the material in his videos. The best advice I can give is, as you work through the Flash Cards and Practice Exams, for every math question, work every problem, every time, even if you know what the answer is. As you work the problems, you will develop a procedural memory for working them with your calculator. You may well reach the point that you start punching the keys before you fully assess the problem.
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Can the uBitX Return Ham Radio To Its Roots?
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My QSL Card
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QSL’ing is a long held tradition in ham radio, but it is expensive to get cards printed, and postal rates have gone up. It is REALLY expensive to QSL now. I was thinking… in the modern digital age, everyone has a computer. Everyone has a printer. Everyone has Email. Most folks even have an email address on their call look-up... I wonder what folks would think if they got an email QSL card that looked like this? You could print it out, and add it to your collection, or store it in a QSL card directory on your computer, or in the cloud, or all 3. I think this idea would greatly reduce the cost of QSL’ing, and maybe bring it back into popular focus…
Now, I know you're thinking, "That sounds like eQSL." Well,
Not exactly... you see, with eQSL, you send in your log and
forget about it. QSL cards are automatically generated from
matching the database. It is not a personal confirmation
from one ham to another. THAT is the attraction of QSL’ing
to me. Since long before awards and contests were ever
thought of, the whole point of a QSL has always been
personal confirmation from one ham, to another ham that yes,
you did have a QSO. A buro database
matched confirmation is like an "eyewitness report". It is a
third party affidavit that your log matched the contacts
log, not a QSL card. On the other hand. an email QSL card,
from one ham to another is that kind of personal
confirmation; a buro generated QSL is not that kind of
personal. Database matched confirmation is great for
contesting and awards, but it just does not compete with Ham
2 Ham confirmation. I have heard complaints... "You're just too durned cheap to spend the money to send me a card! You want ME to spend money to print YOUR card?" Let's
think about this a moment. If I send you an email QSL card,
it's true, it costs me nothing, and it costs you a nickel to
a quarter, depending on the quality you want, to print it.
Yeah, that kinda makes me sound cheap, but, if
you turn around and send me an email QSL card, it costs you
nothing, and it costs me same nickel or quarter to print
your card.
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My New QSL Card?
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Build your own Transmitting Air Variables! Cheap, Easy, Even Attractive, Single Paddle for Your Keyer
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I was surfing the web and came across this antenna design. If it works as claimed, it will outperform a dipole AND will be completely unnoticeable! Properly constructed and painted, this antenna would be indistinguishable from a sewer roof vent! If you have CCR's and/or Deed Restrictions you MUST check this out! Get ready for homebrew home improvement! OK, I know this is a controversial design and I am familiar with the TANSTAAFL Principle. However, it should be cheap and fun to build W0KPH's little test version. Maybe this is one of those things I'll play around with now that I am retired Introducing the EH Antenna
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I would like to introduce you to one of the finest ham radio aids available today. No It isn't another Logging program; there are plenty of great ones out there, but what I have found sadly lacking was a really comprehensive Ham Atlas of the world. I have found one and it is FREE. The web site of Takumi Nomura , JF9EXF is devoted to just such a project. I urge you to check it out. It is complete with fully navigable maps for DXCC, CQ zones, ITU zones, ITU regions, Grid Squares, and even even beam heading maps. Mr. Takumi has put a TREMENDOUS amount of work into this; when I downloaded it to PDF it was over 560 pages (almost 14Mb), so drop by his guest book and drop him a note of thanks.
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QRZ callsign lookup Callsign lookups provided by qrz.com |