Current weather conditions here in Madison, WI: Heavy Snow Blowing Snow and Breezy

Yep, that about covers it. Madison Area Technical College is even closed today, which (I’m told) does not happen very often. A picture says a thousand words… see if you can see my street. So much for antenna work today… heh… that will have to wait a few months, I think.

Speaking of antennas… well, not specifically… let’s say speaking of 10 meters, and then we’ll get to the antennas part in a minute. I keep saying I’m going to find a way to learn morse code enough to actually be able to operate with it, but it just never happens. I might as well admit that I always have something else going on. So I’m looking at the chart of what bands I can operate SSB on as a Technician, and I’m looking at 10 meters– 28.3-28.5mhz. Which probably doesn’t generate much excitement for many people, because it’s the very beginning of a solar cycle and 10 meters tends to be kinda quiet these days (from what I’m hearing out of the speaker).

However, I can reasonably expect to fit a 1/4 wave 10 meter dipole inside my apartment (or on my patio, weather permitting). I’ve also found a reasonably priced replacement microphone for my IC-735; the MFJ-290I, which I just ordered. So once it arrives, I’ll be playing around on 10 meters a bit, when there’s time between classes and work.

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I’m still happy that the morse code requirement was (finally!) dropped. That action was about 20 years overdue. I also still question the timing (at the bottom of a solar cycle), but I’ll take the access to HF without complaint. Have I made any contacts on any of the HF bands? Nope. I’ve needed a new microphone for my IC-735 for a while now, and haven’t found one at the same time I had money for one. (Hopefully soon.) I also haven’t learned the code yet; it’s easy to say that it only takes 15 minutes of practice a day, but finding the 15 minutes is hard with two jobs and school competing for time. (I am still fiddling with receiving CW and RTTY with help from a computer.)

As far as getting people interested in ham radio, someone needs to produce a 25 watt 10 meter mobile rig that sells for $149.95 at Wal-Mart. Then they need to convince Hannah Montana to get licensed and on the air, and endorse the rig.

(You heard it here first.)

I didn’t get to do as much in the area of emergency communications in 2007 as I’d hoped. Classes had to take precedence over meetings and nets once school started again. I might try to participate in Field Day this year, since I’ll actually have battery power to work with (I have a deep cycle marine battery, but I’m still working on powerpoles for everything). The state ARES conference was again scheduled on a Saturday when the Badgers were playing at home, so I missed that again… sigh.

So what about 2008? I’m making a trip to AES to get a microphone within the next couple of weeks, so I can experiment on 10 meter phone. I’d like to say this is the year I’ll get going with the code, but I have Spanish and Trigonometry to worry about this spring. I’ll be at the next Dane County ARES/RACES meeting (17 January 2008), so I can get updated and official, as well as the next Midwest SSTRC meeting (21 Jan 2008). Other than that, I’m going to be busy with school until May, so the best I can do is make it a resolution for 2008 to get on the air a little more. Best I can do for now!

Happy New Year, all!

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The semester is finally over, so I’ve had some time to do some ham related stuff that I had to put off in favor of classes.

I moved my dipole inside, mainly because I don’t have a way to get the feedline (coax) outside without leaving my patio door open. This being Wisconsin, leaving one’s patio door open presents some heating problems. So the dipole is now hanging inside my patio door, partially hidden by my blinds. It’s not perfect, but in a first floor apartment you take what you can get. I’ve been experimenting with CW and RTTY decoding software on my Ubuntu Linux box now that the antenna’s inside.

Patience and persistence paid off; I found an original Apple Airport card on ebay for $50, which is $30-$60 less than everyone else was asking. So now my iBook can do wifi, which is incredibly handy for getting schoolwork done. I’ll also be able to take the iBook out storm tracking next season (which is less than six months away), meaning I’ll have access to radar out in the field.

And it’s Christmas Eve… so I’m going to spend the rest of the evening with the St. Olaf Choir on PBS in one ear, and the HF rig in the other. Wherever you are, best wishes for a Merry Christmas!

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My Saturday project this weekend was putting together a new dipole with the 1:1 balun I picked up at the MARA hamfest a while back. I managed to construct a dipole tuned to about 28.3-28.5mhz, which works pretty well for me and my Tech license. Granted, 10 meters is pretty quiet right now, but a band opening doesn’t help you much if you don’t first have an antenna that works. If you’re a regular reader, you know I live in an apartment. For this antenna, I hung the balun at the midpoint of my patio door (outside), and brought the ends down to make it an inverted V. The ends of the antenna are just about at ground level. It loads up on 10m, and nowhere else (as one would expect). It also makes a decent SWL antenna on lower frequencies though. As I write this, I can hear stations on 20m from Washington and Utah pretty well, and I can barely hear stations from points east. (Which makes sense, my antenna is on the west side of the apartment building.)

And that brings me to phonetics. I’m listening to a couple of stations working a contest; I like to look up the callsigns I’m hearing, especially when experimenting with antennas, so I can get a sense of where signals are going/coming from. I know this has been happening long before I discovered radio… but this thing with making up your own phonetics as you go along is just plain silly. I have no problem with “Sierra Foxtrot Romeo Oscar”, but if you say “Sugar Fiddle Radio Ocean”, my brain has to stop dead and figure out what the heck you’re talking about because those words together make no sense.

I know I’m beating a dead horse. I know it won’t change anything. I know some people think it’s the whole “romance of radio” thing to make up your own alphabet. But show me some love. The phonetic alphabet is your friend.

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Here’s the good news:

NEWINGTON, CT, Jan 19, 2007 — The ARRL has learned that the FCC’s Report and Order (R&O) in the “Morse code proceeding,” WT Docket 05-235, is scheduled to appear in the Federal Register Wednesday, January 24. Assuming that occurs, the new Part 97 rules deleting any Morse code examination requirement for Amateur Radio license applicants would go into effect Friday, February 23, 2007. The League cautions that this date is tentative, pending official confirmation and publication.

http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2007/01/19/101/

And now the bad news:

SEATTLE, WA, Jan 19, 2007 — Average daily sunspot numbers for the week were down 16 points from the previous week to 27.4.

http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2007/01/19/100/?nc=1 (K7RA Solar Update)

DOH! I’ll give 10 meters a try on the day the R&O takes effect one way or another, but I just think it’s interesting we’re getting HF privileges at what seems to be the worst possible end of a solar cycle. (I’m not complaining, mind you.)

The Federal Register, by the way, is available online at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/index.html

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