General Posts
Well I broke down and emailed the person on charge in the net I was trying to see if I could join. The reply email pretty much said it all.
I’m sorry to report that the net is no longer being held.
The website has much information that is not correct or current.
I have advised the webmaster but the information has not been corrected or removed.
Well so much for that.
Well in a nutshell, there was no net. Hell there was no EchoLink. I tried to connect to the conference and I was not able to connect. That Echolink conference must be down.
While I wait for what I am going to be doing with my radio equipment, I figured I once again try to do a local Net. This one has an EchoLink connection. So I will be monitoring both the radio freq and the EchoLink reflector.
The last few times I have listened, there was nothing. I do remember a few years ago when I was passing through, I did try and managed to talk to a few people during the Net. So at least at one point it was used. I think if I don't get any traffic today, I am going to see about emailing the Net Coordinator. I suspect that they will tell that the Net has been dead for sometime. I will keep post a quick update later today, if anything was heard or not.
It has been really slow the last week with radio stuff. I been on a staycation, but that only meant that I had more house related work to do and not a lot time to pursue any hobby related stuff. The best I have been able to do is to try to look at some possible DIY antennas for the portable APRS Digipeater project. There are of course a few options.
First up of course, would be sort sort of J-pole. For a 2 meter one, it's just under 6 feet. While I think I could build something, I think the size does not fit with my portable requirement unless I built it in a way so that it can break down into something smaller. I'm not sure how well that would work long term.
The next options is some sort of basic dipole. which would have a length of about 3.2 feet, a little over half the length of the J-pole. It's a much simpler build, but I'm not sure how I would have to build it to make it something I could use in a portable setup.
Finally there is some sort of ground plane type antenna. The biggest issue with it that I see is the radial elements of the antenna. which are almost 2 feet and are longer than the vertical monopole. While this seems easy to make as well for a basic one, I'm not sure how I would build it to be portable. I would have to have some way of removing the ground plane radial elements.
I suspect I just need to figure out how to build the basic dipole antenna. That seems like it would be the easiest to setup at least for an initial antenna.
No matter what I am going to need a lot of coax cable. That will be a fun one to explain to the wife.
I am still trying to decide on what my first project is going to be. In the mean time, I am trying to test of the equipment that I do have and seeing what it can reach.
Since I also have a GMRS license, I was able to test two GMRS repeaters that are near me. While I didn't get a voice reply to either of my tests, I did get ID response from at least one of the repeaters. Since many repeaters are setup to do something like that, I feel confident that I am being heard. I suspect that I also hit the other repeater as well. While it did not send a Morse Code Id response, I did get some sort of transmit of dead air response each time I did a test call out.
I still need to test several of the HAM repeaters that are listed. Right now I've been trying to see if my HT can hit one of the APRS Digipeaters from where I am at. From what I can see so far, I can hear the Digipeaters, but I don't think any of them can hear me. I am getting some packets decoded but none of my transmit packets seem to show up on aprs.fi. At least for APRS, I am not too shocked. There doesn't seem to be a lot of APRS activity around here and there are few digipeaters.
I think I will try a few of the HAM repeaters this afternoon. I hope that I can hit a few of them at least.
The hobby is very large in terms of the number of areas that one can focus on. Almost anything you think of that is radio related can be attempted or be a focus. I have given this a lot of thought over the weekend. While I am not 100% sure, I believe I will focus on the following.
As can be seen, there is a certain theme to what I'm looking at. That being the item must be portable. Only time will tell if I stick with those ideas or if they morph into something else.
I always things a good place to start is knowing what resources you have to work with. In my case part of those resources is knowing what equipment I still have for Ham radio and Electronic work.
And of course, I have my Phone and a Laptop.
Overall, not a lot to begin with, but at least it is something.
Greetings. A beginning is always a hard thing to do. I thought an brief introduction was in order for a start.
I am kd7jny, I have been an amateur radio operator for a long time. More exacting, I have had my license for a long time. I started off with a tech license. I held that for many years. While I did want to eventually get my general, it took until they dropped the Morse Code requirement for me to get my general. For some reason, I just could never get the knack for listening and copying code. I've held my general for a long time. at least since 2000. It's funny that I'm sort of fuzzy on all my dates. Needless to say at this point, I've had a license of some sort for at least 20 to 25 years.
Now the bad news is that I have not been active during all those years. My most resent break has been five years ago. This is when my wife and I decided to RV full time for a while. Had to get rid of most of my gear since we had to downsize to a really small RV. There was just no room for stuff. While we initially put a bunch of stuff in storage, that really only lasted a year and we downsized yet again. After three years on the road, we finally got a house again. The last two years have been trying to get the house in order and now I am finally able to get back to some sort of activities that include radio.
So that's the good news, I can finally start radio again. And that is what this blog will initially be about. My journey to restart doing Ham Radio again.