4 April 2009

I passed my Amateur Extra test today, and then built a new blog at tumblr to take over for this one. I may eventually use their simple API to port entries posted there directly into this site, but for now I just invite you to head over there.

30 October 2008

Rebuilding the site in PHP. Just got to the log file.

2 July 2008

The Yaesu HF rig is still broken, but without means to plug it into anything sensitive to certain electromagnetic excitations, I haven't found much motivation to plumb its problems.

In other news, Field Day 2008 in Huntsville went great. Except for some intermittent (and not too intrusive) power generator issues and the occasional minor hangup, HARC's Big Fat Turkey, K4BFT, managed to keep four stations plus a GOTA station operational and on the air throughout the event.

Steve, AI4QR, and I spent our time primarily in the 40-meter SSB station, which was equipped with a Kenwood TS-480 transceiver (a pleasant and intuitive radio to operate), a linear amplifier, and an autotuner all plugged into a 40-meter rotatable hexbeam antenna mounted on a probably 30- or 40-foot manlift. We also had a "cloudburner" sloping dipole, which with the tuner loaded up very nicely on 15 meters as well as 40.

This arrangement proved troublesome at first. After spending most of Saturday not terribly impressed with the hexbeam, we were informed that the antenna switcher was wired the other way — we had been working through the dipole on 40 the whole time. Not that it was bad, but it wasn't great, and our time playing with the rotator control was wasted. However, on Sunday morning, 15 meters opened up for a few hours, just as Steve and I were sitting down for our shift. The dipole was tuned beautifully for this, and we worked somewhere between 150 and 200 stations in a matter of two or three hours. We suspect that a great deal of this was thanks to E_s propagation.

One of the best things about this was simply the opportunity to tune my ears to HF listening, and to get a sense of efficient, ergonomic operation. On Saturday, we watched and chatted as some other operators ran the station. In particular Kevin, KG4TEI, provided an excellent example on Saturday. For most of our shift Sunday, we worked pileups on 15 with me on the mic and Steve logging contacts into the fine logging software the station used. We gained much useful experience and complemented one another's listening abilities very well (supplementing each other's understanding, catching each other's errors, etc.). This will be invaluable in any future HF operating we do.

29 October 2007

Well, it has been a while. Not a lot has happened, though. My landlord cut down my longwire, putting to an end the practice I was getting copying the League’s code practice bulletins, and pretty much dashing my immediate motivation to fix the transmitter in my FT-757 (yeah, there is something wrong with the thing), although I am sure to get to that before long.

In lieu of that, I have been messing around with mounting one of my homebrew VHF/UHF antennas out of my rear window. This, too, has gone less smoothly than expected. I had thought that I had some kind of feedline or feedpoint problem, but last night I checked into the Kings Co. ARES net without trouble, using a rather questionable feedline jury-rigged to my HT. This proves that there is also a problem with my Kenwood rig — a mic jack problem is my first guess, as indicated by intermittent TX, although I think it is something more severe than simply corroded contacts. I have checked them all, and tried cleaining them up already, anyway.

In better news, I had a nice day last weekend visiting the Hall of Science club station, WB2JSM, operating as special event station N2S for the 50th annual Jamboree on the Air. Although N2S did not work station K4S, which my brother had helped set up at a Camporee down in Huntsville, I did witness a few good contacts on HF and through Echolink. The club members and scouts were all friendly and welcoming, and they have a pretty good station set up. They are modest about it, but it’s a super-station compared to anything I have seen up close.

Columns on both K4S and N2S appeared on the League’s website last week.

8 September 2007

The comment book is offline.

WB2JKJ, the radio club of New York City’s Junior High School 22, had a booth at the Huntsville Hamfest, and I was lucky to stumble upon it. I have not yet managed to check into their morning 40-meter net, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to do, even under my minimizing circumstances. The club’s most recent newsletter, Apple Slices, has a bunch to say about their trip down south.

31 August 2007

Well, Huntsville was fantastic. GAREC was definitely the highlight of the week, although the whole shebang — GAREC, the hamfest, the ARRL convention, and so on — was great fun.

I didn’t have much of a budget for radio equipment, but I did pick up a sturdy Bencher iambic keyer, which has been a lot of fun to play with and practice on.

Some of what I learned about emergency communications down there was brought to bear last weekend, when I participated in a Kings County ARES/Red Cross shelter drill. We used Winlink as our main conduit of communication with the Red Cross EOC, and it was a great demonstration of newer technology. I also got a T-shirt out of the deal.

I have been putting together a presentation based on my notes from GAREC, and hope to talk about it during at least one of the upcoming ARES meetings. Please contact me if you are interested; there is a bunch of information here.

13 August 2007

Lots going on, very busy. Lots of work to do, but I’m spending my spare minutes getting ready to head to Huntsville. Don’t know how much I’ll need, but I won’t bring much. I am hoping to sit for the General exam on Saturday, but we’ll see how much studying I get done — I certainly need at least a little bit. The forecast threatens ridiculous levels of heat, of course: 106°F! I should really pack light.

18 July 2007

Lots of content and cosmetic changes to the site in the past few days, including the new header/logo and the comment book. Please leave a comment if anything seems broken or grossly incorrect.

Attended the Kings County ARES meeting in Park Slope this evening. Not a whole lot by the time I got there, but Stu brought his scope and checked out output level, frequency, and receiver sensitivity on everyone’s HTs. Met another North Brooklyner and talked about weak-signal and backpacking interests a bit.

Note to self — monitor K2RMX on Saturday(s)

14 July 2007

Happy Bastille Day. Getting back into the radio hobby has been a slow process since my return from vacation, but yesterday I confirmed a trip to Huntsville, Alabama, where I will be attending the Huntsville Hamfest, ARRL Expo, and GAREC-07. It is especially convenient for me that they have decided to have all these events in Huntsville, because I have a couple of brothers there, one of whom is a ham, and none of whom do I get to see as often as I would like. Steve, AI4QR, and I will be attending GAREC together, and the whole family will take a turn or a few around Huntsville’s gargantuan hamfest, seeing what toys we can find, and learning what we can at the ARRL Expo. From what I understand, Huntsville has a top-notch EmComm community and infrastructure, and in addition to what I see at GAREC, I hope to absorb some of their knowledge and thereby benefit my own ARES community.

9 July 2007

Well, I made it; I’m back. Fantastic times, lots to see, not a lot of radios. I did listen in a little bit with a handheld shortwave receiver, but not frequently, and there was not much other than SW broadcasting to hear, at least with the built-in antenna in the locations I tuned in from. I did ogle tons and tons of European antenna systems, though, including a couple that I assume were for 2-way amateur use. No way of knowing for sure in all cases, but even so there was tons to see: Europe is truly still a land where the widespread roof-mounted antenna is alive and well, and there’s a great variety to crane your neck at. I’ll have to do some research into the bands used for commercial broadcasts over there before I’ll know for sure what I was looking at, but I did take some photos — Is it weird to go on vacation overseas and then take pictures of TV antennas the whole time? — and will probably be able to post some of them soon. For now, though, you’ll have to settle for a few pictures of the only amateur antenna I got to photograph, a combined Yagi and vertical system I spotted on a roof in Lecco, Italy, way up north in Lombardy, an area we visited toward the end of our trip. If that happens to be your station, let me know!

Also important at this point is getting my station back up on the air. I didn’t leave any antennas exposed to the elements or equipment exposed to the subletter while we were gone (not that I didn’t trust him), so I still have a little gruntwork to do before I can get back on the air with anything better than an HT. Also on the post-vacation agenda: General Class.

31 May 2007

Well, the site is looking pretty much how I want it. The rebuild has been fun and very educational, employing a lot of the things (CSS and clean design principles, primarily) that I think more ham websites could use. I hope people like it. It has cut into my workday a bit, though, and I've got to get back to copyediting before the weekend. Then I have to get ready to fly out of here on Wednesday! Still, I am hoping to get the Zepp on the roof for this weekend’s ARES nets.

28 May 2007

Brooklyn Memorial Day Parade, my second public service event as a member of Kings County ARES, went well today. I'd been working too darn hard (at least when it counted) to participate in much other than weekly nets these past few months, so it was good to get down there, see the guys, get some sun, do some service. Got my ARES shirt from Julian, had a good time chatting both about and not about radio, talked to some vets, some sailors, some strangers. Net operations went pretty smoothly for me. Things got a little complicated/noisy with the addition of the intermittently linked Brooklyn side of K2MAK/R, but we passed our traffic and shared some always-worthwhile practice. HL came down to see the parade, too, and got to meet some of the guys, and then Mitch gave me his last double Zepp, which was great of him. A draining day, all told! Pictures to come... keep an eye on the main page for a link.

7 May 2007

Homebrew haven! Lots going on in the shack. Nearly done with two new antennas, a 2 meter dipole and a J-pole antenna, both of which just need connectors on their feedlines. After that, I started playing with small circuits on the breadboard, putting together a little high-gain AF amplifier with a 741 op amp, then playing with it in several ways: overdriving, distorting, oscillating, and so forth. Fun AF play. Tangentially, I took apart a pair of computer speakers, mostly for the speakers themselves and the cases, but I also messed around with the TEA 2025 stereo amp chip and circuitry in that unit. Less fun, but interesting. I also pulled an old (80s-era) cassette/stereo receiver out of the trash next door to my building, and pulled a random bunch of components (transistors, ICs, lots of electrolytic caps, switches, some pots...) out of it. We'll just have to see what I do with them. Currently messing with a 555 and some other ideas. Circuit play recommendations are welcome!

1 May 2007

Overhauling station/shop/room. Base Station page has picture of new setup, minus some tweaks. Checked into District ARES net on 440 side last night using J-Pole Antenna, which also got some attention last night. May not be perfectly tuned (to 2 meters) yet, but it is functioning on that band now, after some trimming. Works on 70 cm even from inside room.

29 Apr 2007

I've been up in Maine this weekend, as usual trying to hit the local repeaters. Not a whole lot of luck, there. Not sure if the Maine repeater list I found was inaccurate, or if maybe some of these repeaters got hit in last week's weather or something. I did, however, manage to scare up a bit of friendly conversation about baseball and travel on a machine in Falmouth (W1QUI/R). Thanks for coming back to me, Dana!

24 Apr 2007

Just too busy for a lot of radio stuff lately, but last night I put a little time into constructing a 2m (and 70cm?) J-pole antenna and cleaning up and rearranging the shack/shop area and the apartment in general. Current appearance of the shack is reflected in the new picture on the n2nly.com front page, and at Base Station. The ladder-line was among several things I giddily received from my brother this week, in an Electronics Care Package -- handfuls upon handfuls of devices, components, and other toys to play with, designs, some reference material, and more excitingly, a FLUKE Scope-Meter. I can't wait to get some time to play!

16 Apr 2007

NYC District ARES was activated to supplement Red Cross shelter operations this weekend, and although I did not participate, I listened and learned a lot about how ARES operates in times of need (quite well, from what I could gather), and a bit about how it interacts with the Red Cross. Still a bunch to learn, but it was good to listen in, partially because it motivated me finally to get the Kenwood TM-G707A working. Dad wrote me last week suggesting that I try the power supply that I got with my Yaesu FT757GX (that's the FP757 switching supply), and sure enough, 13.8V at 10A max; works like a charm! I still don't have a great antenna plugged into it or a very solid shack setup, but even exciting a chintzy little quarter-wave vertical (purloined from an old television) with all those watts does a lot better than what I had going before. I also just learned that I'll be getting a small shipment of electronics building supplies and equipment in the mail soon! Before long I'll have a J-pole up in the sky somewhere, and then I'll be lighting up repeaters all over town with reliable signal.

Older entries . . .

12 Apr 2007

I've been adding info about local repeaters and so forth to the wiki. Stuff in my area and ARES-related stuff, mostly, just to show off the way the wiki can store and organize info. If you have a repeater or anything else going on, or if you'd like to elaborate on what I've provided (repeater locations, details, etc.) feel free to change things up.

22 Mar 2007

Got out of work just in time for Kings County ARES meeting last night, which was small but good, attended later by DEC.

Making plans to travel in Europe this summer and have looked up rules that pertain to operation overseas. Because I took the code test when i got my license last year, I will have "Class 1" (i.e., full) amateur operating privileges while operating in any CEPT country I travel in. As of now, it's looking like France, Spain, and Italy, so this will be F/N2NLY, EA/N2NLY and I/N2NLY. Maybe I can throw together a 2m/440 antenna and a battery or Euro power adaptor for the Kenwood before I go..? Or something to charge HT batteries with..? Lots to think about before June.

28 Feb 2007

Been listening a lot on K2MAK, N2ROW, W2CMA, and WB2ZSE machines. Almost nothing on the latter -- Why is that? Seems to get good coverage -- but a few familiar voices on -MAK and I'm getting used to a lot of the regulars on -ROW. Not sure how I'd sound from inside the apt. on any of these machines, and I've been pretty busy with work while I listen anyway, but one of these days I hope to find the wherewithal to chat with some other hams.

22 Feb 2007

Kings County ARES meeting last night went pretty well. Newest member KC2QYP showed, and a few people had homemade antennas to show off. Mitch even raffled off one of the double Zepps he's made -- see pics at http://n2rga.com/double_zepp.shtml. Jojo had a bunch of inventive and resourceful examples, a couple of which will probably be the models for my next homebrew project. Julian told a story of a building fire he witnessed earlier that week, and his radio's role in getting help. A lot of discussion ensued of how to deal with such unpredictable circumstances, but it seems like a major part of being prepared for small-scale emergencies is knowing where people are likely to be listening. It's good to know the ARES-prescribed freqs, of course, so you can check in if something more major happens, but those are not always the most populous parts of the band when there isn't a more widespread emergency.

15 Feb 2007

After holding my W2A together with a couple of rubber bands for nearly a month, I got a replacement handheld and a new base rig from fellow ARES member Jojo, KC2NBE, today. The HT is an Icom IC-W32A with a number of accessories, and the base rig (actually a mobile unit) is a Kenwood TM-G707A. Charging batteries for the HT now, and I look forward to setting up and putting out a real signal with the other rig.

20 Jan 2007

Battery fixture broke on the IC-W2A this morning. Guess I better talk to Jojo about picking up that W32A. Many changes and additions to the the wiki. Enjoy!

17 Jan 2007

Kings County ARES meeting was well attended and full of discussion. Group seems eager to stay active and develop some new activities. I'm glad to have met a few more local radio guys, and look forward to recognizing some more voices on the air.

9 Jan 2007

A pleasant week away and not a great deal of hamming since mid-December. I did get to fire up my Dad's Kenwood HF tcvr (attached to a longwire antenna consisting of... a string of Christmas tree lights!) a couple of times when I was in Illinois, and made a tape of modulated RF noise for Lucas. Also heard a number of SSB and CW signals on that rig. No TX on HF, but I did manage to key up a handful of repeaters in Western-Central and Northern Illinois during the six-hour drive to Chicago. Still, no contacts to speak of, or any net check-ins during the visit. Oh, well. Local ARES nets resumed this week here in NYC, and I'm trying to figure out exactly how I'm going to make a serviceable station out of the stuff I've got.

6 Dec 2006

Operation Santa, my first public service event as a member of Kings County ARES went very well. You can read a bit more about that on my personal blog by clicking here.

2 Dec 2006

This morning I attended the NYC ARES yearly district meeting at the brand new Red Cross headquarters, and finally got a chance to associate some faces and handshakes with the voices and callsigns I have heard on the air. The group was more than welcoming to me specifically (still the newest member, I think), and it was a pleasure to get a sense of some of the people that are involved both with radio and with public service in New York City.

28-29 Nov 2006

Jammers have been insidious in NYC since my return from Maine. I was looking forward to checking into the Big Apple Traffic Net on Sunday (UHF on my HT is still inop, so no Kings Co ARES net), but it was effectively and persistently jammed by someone transmitting 2 recorded loops of previous repeater (KC2RA? WB2HWW? -- update: some of the audio came from the beginning of the video posted at http://www.wb2hww.com/portal.php?page=2 --) output. Eventually the repeater was shut down, and net control managed to get a few check-ins and confirm some traffic on simplex, but my HT didn't pack enough power to allow my check-in. Later that evening, the LIMARC Tech Net on W2ZL was jammed by a different person -- just music, presumably just a mic held up to some FM broadcast. Props to Dick K2RIW and company for patiently ignoring and picking up where they left off. Similar behavior on W2ZL yesterday evening and this morning. It is supremely annoying, of course, kind of depressing in its persistent pettiness, and it seems that the increasingly regular repetition (i.e., during nets) of the jammers' signals lately would allow for some effective RDF operation. Can we get Riley in on this?

27 Nov 2006

I brought my HT to Maine over Thanksgiving vacation. Net organization seems to be a little bit different up there as compared to the frequency and prevalence of NTS and ARES nets on VHF/UHF repeaters in and around Brooklyn. Could not find any regular NTS traffic net to check into. Listened in on the Maine Elmer Net on [KQ1L], though, on Tuesday, and a bit of casual conversation over the course of the week, mostly on the W6BZ repeater out of Arundel, ME.

30 Oct 2006

Checked into KC ARES net last night. On top of technical difficulties on the part of net control, I was experiencing a lot of QRN (or was it QRM?) which seemed to be on the -CMA repeater's input frequency? That, or it was the dreaded intermod.

26 Oct 2006

Checked into Big Apple VHF traffic net last night, portable from Southside. Lots of long-winded, egocentric check-ins. Your call and QTH, guys.

25 Oct 2006

Checked into district ARES net on Monday -- the local EC, Adam, mentioned my attendance at last week's meeting in one of his two pieces of traffic -- and the NTS net last night. Have been reading the [Public Service Communications Manual] during moments of downtime. Checked into NTS net last night -- a very successful, efficient net. Received my ARRL handbook (with bonus WWII-era commemorative QST!) this morning. Next on my list might be the Operating Manual.

23 Oct 2006

Was busy with visitors or out of town myself this weekend, although I did listen in on a number of JOTA contacts Saturday (on N2ROW) and Sunday (Mt. Beacon -- see below) and tried to answer a CQ, but my location in Rhinebeck was not good enough to make readable contact. Sunday evening, on my way home, checked into the Hudson Valley traffic net on the Mt. Beacon repeater (KC2DAA? Repeater directories are incorrect on this -- 147.97MHz) from Taconic Pkwy's Bryant Pond Rd exit. Efficiently managed, effective net (no traffic), encouragement of sev'l check-ins to use emergency/battery power. Back in B'klyn later, put off by naive political discourse on local repeater. District ARES net tonight, 8pm, 147.000.

19 Oct 2006

Attended Kings Co ARES meeting last night. Six attendees in all, -IZ, -RGA, -EDR, -UOL, Richard (call unknown), and myself. Funny little variety of Brooklyn guys. Regretted not meeting -NBE. Meeting was informal and enjoyable, mostly showing off HTs, chatting about how we "got bit by the radio bug", and discussing the various radios we've seen, owned, modded, played with, etc. Gained some perspective through Mitch and Adam on the state of local repeaters, ham culture, and what's "out there" in Brooklyn and NYC. Still hope to participate, "shadow" someone, learn a bit about public event operations. Filled out registration form.

18 Oct 2006

Didn't make it to KCRA meeting; instead rested at home awhile, and biked unpleasantly across the 'hood in the rain to meet with Lucas. Showed him the HT over drinks, then walked around Northside listening in on various repeaters. Oops; left my chintzily homemade coax 2-meter dipole at the Internet Garage on Bedford -- no big deal to lose the antenna (the rubber duck does as well or better), but I want my BNC plug back. Lucas is pretty excited about the AR thing in general, although (just as I expected) he was immed'ly excited about some disallowed usages of the spectrum -- transmissions of music, most notably -- and I had to explain the rationale for various rules carefully so as not to make them seem fascistic. It's really quite the opposite of that.

I wonder what it takes to legally broadcast at relatively low power leves on shortwave bcast bands, though? Or if there are other options for the kind of musical-collaboration use of airwaves that L and I have discussed?

17 Oct 2006

KCRA meeting is tonight, sounds like a good time, but the weather is crummy, Bay Ridge is far away, and I'm not feeling great. What's more, Lucas called and wants to hang out, and if anyone is going to be interested in ham stuff, it's he. Besides, I haven't seen that dear boy in weeks.

16 Oct 2006

Checked into two nets from the roof, the NYC District ARES (pleasant welcome from N2YBB) and, later on, the KCRA club net. Sat through the AR Newsline. Posted info about the ARES/Red? Cross Tech license course on Wboard.

15 Oct 2006

Checked into Kings Co ARES net, portable from Kent Ave, walking btwn N10th and N6th Sts.