Easter Island Heads
It was pretty exciting being able to work Easter Island. There is currently a DXpedition operating CW only from the island. I am not sure how rare of DXCC entity Easter Island is, but it is exotic. When I think of exotic places, Easter Island is near the top of my list.
I hope everyones gets the opportunity to bag this one. The British operators are doing a fantastic job controlling the pileup.
73,
Fred
A large meteor caught on video over Russia. Here is one of the videos that have been posted on YouTube.
Here is a good article about the meteor. Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy blog discusses the meteor that came down in Russia in this article: Bad Astronomy Blog.
I hope some Russian hams were able to operate some Meteor Scatter propagation on VHF.
73,
Fred
I spent the evening in the shack catching up on QSLing. I had a stack of cards I have received that needed to be marked as confirmed in my logbook. I also have a large stack of bureau cards that I also need to mark as confirmed in DXLab. However the bureau cards take a quit a bit longer because many of them are requesting return cards which need to be queued and processed using Global QSL. The process involves preparing an ADIF file which I upload to Global QSL. After asking a few questions the cards are printed and sent to the appropriate bureau. I generally do not use the bureau when I really need a return card. Many DX stations and QSL managers do not respond to bureau cards. I always verify the QSL route through QRZ.com or the DX news letters before I send a card. My return rate on bureau cards is probably less than 20%. My QSL rate with LoTW is over 40%. My return rate on direct QSLs with SAE and green stands is well over 80% so far. OQRS seems to be the best way to QSL if your willing to invest the $2-4 for the card. Of course that is a reasonable cost when compared to the cost of a QSL I mail via international air mail with $2 of green stamps. I have had a 100% return rate on OQRS cards thus far. While i worked on the QSLs I listened to the bands and worked a little DX.
The next thing I did was start the process of upgrading the hard drive in my shack computer to a Solid State Drive. I installed the new drive but I put off the cloning of my C drive to the new drive until tomorrow since I wanted to clean up my C drive and defrag it before cloning the data to the new SSD. The SSD should significantly boost the responsiveness of my computer; especially when running N1MM. I’ll report on the improvement once I complete the upgrade.
73,
Fred
Even though the sunspots are taking a rest I still was able to log a new one today: Tokelau Island ,ZK3T, aka DJ2EH (Dieter). He had a very nice signal in to Indiana this afternoon.
73,
Fred
I have been planning for nearly a year to move my ham shack from its current location inside a small walk in closet to my home office. The home office is closer the base of my tower, but more importantly it is about four times the size of my current location. Unfortunately, my home office has become a large storage space since I retired.
I spent a few hours this morning sorting through some of the stuff I have been shoving into my office over the past 5 years. It is hard to believe all the stuff we hams hold onto. It seems like I am personally attached to every ham gadget, blown fuse, burnt resistor or piece of gear I ever purchased! Fortunately, the clutter is overpowering me so it is time for some Feng Shui! Some of this stuff is going to have to go to new homes. Now if I can just follow through and leave more at the next hamfest than I bring home!
73,
Fred
🙂 The HugheNet upgrade happened today. It only took the installer about an hour to change out the old modem and dish. So far the Gen4 is a vast improvement over our older HughesNet connection. I haven’t measured the download speeds yet, but it does feel much zippier than before.
Fred, KC9QQ
I don’t know how many of you live in rural areas, but those of us that do understand that some of the benefits of not having onerous Home Owner Association restrictions on our antennas are offset by the poor options for internet access. While my ham friends in the city all have 2 to 50 mb internet speeds I have had to rely on a 1mb (on a good day) satellite connection.
My internet access is through HughesNet. When I first installed HughesNet several years ago I experienced nearly a year of erratic access which often forced me to deal with their offshore technical support group. It is a good thing that I could not crawl through the phone lines during a couple of those calls or the technician would have been running through the streets of Delhi with me on his heals! Fortunately, things finally stabilized and it has run reasonably well for the past 3 years.
However, one of the biggest problems has been the limited amount of data that could be downloaded each day. Watching one or two YouTube videos could use up your daily allotment which would cause your system to be FAPed (fair access policy) for 24 hours. They say that is a reduction in speed but in reality it is more like having your access turned off for 24 hours (slower than dial up). Even doing software upgrades had become nearly impossible because the size of upgrades has gotten bigger since most people are now connected by high speed broadband connections. For example a recent upgrade to my Apple iMac was nearly one gigabyte, twice as much as my FAP limit. They only way I could upgrade the iMac was to download the upgrade between 2:00 am and 6:00 am when they don’t impose the FAP limit. Even with the FAP free window, at 1 mb/s it was still difficult to do large upgrades because they would not complete within the window.
HughesNet has now come out with their Gen4 system. It has download speeds up to 15 mb/s (of course reality will be something less than that). They have also changed their FAP to be a monthly total of (10-15 gb) rather than a daily limit. This should make software downloads and other high bandwidth downloads (Netflix) possible each month. At least I am keeping my fingers crossed. I just hope I don’t have to live through another year of growing pains before the new system stabilizes :-(.
The installation is supposed to happen today (in the snow), so if I drop of the map for a week or two you’ll know it didn’t go well. I’m hoping the ham radio axiom that antennas installed in bad weather work the best will also apply to my satellite internet antenna.
73,
Fred, KC9QQ
HughesNet has now come out
Over the past 5 years I have tried several Windows based logging programs. I have installed and worked with each of the following logging programs:
In addition to these general purpose logging programs, I also use N1MM for contest operation.
After extensively working with each of these programs I found there is not a perfect logging program. However, all of these programs can easily handle station logging. In the end, it boils down to your operating style and personal preferences as to which of these or one the dozens of other logging programs is the right one for you.
Some have visually nice user interfaces such as Ham Radio Deluxe. Ham Radio Deluxe also has a wonderful digital mode program, DM780. Others are very easy to use such as AC Log. Logic 8 and DXLab are more complicated because they provide a tool chest of applications which cater to the DXer; especially those chasing new countries and relying on LoTW, eQSL, traditional QSLs and OQRS for confirmations. Ultimately, I adopted DXLab as my primary station log. I continue to use N1MM as my contest log.
DXLab has enabled me to take control of my QSLing because it does and excellent job keeping track of all confirmations and automating much of the process of generating QSL cards for needed DXCC entities. DXLab can also track confirmations for several other awards. DXLab also has a very active Yahoo support group. Anytime I have had a question or problem, I have gotten the solution within hours from the Yahoo group–often from Dave the programs author. The other amazing thing is that DXLab is free.
DXLab is actually a suite of programs that function in unison to seamlessly handle logging, spotting, rig control, DXCC data lookup and call sign lookup from CD, QRZ.com , HamCall etc. You can select which pieces you want to run for any given operating session. For example, if you do not need spotting when your doing your morning ragchew, you do not need to start that module. In the afternoon or evening when you decide to chase some DX, just fire it up and it begins to show you the last spots. Spotcollector will also color highlight those entities needed for award submittals. Double click on a spot and Commander will tune your radio to the right frequency, set the initial split offset and switch to the proper mode. Also, DXView (if you have it running) will look up the station, provide the beam location and a wealth of other useful information. It is really impressive how the various modules work together to provide seamless logging solution.
The digital mode program Winwarbler is OK, but I still prefer DM780 for PSK-31 operation. That is not a problem, because DXLab has hooks that allow Winwarbler to be replaced with DM780 using a simple plugin that integrates it into the DXLab system (pretty slick).
My one complaint about DXLab is that it does take a lot of screen real estate. I solved that problem by moving to a larger monitor. DXLab can also work with two monitors, by allowing you to place some of the less used windows on one monitor while the windows you use the most are kept on the main monitor. I am considering adding a second monitor, because it would be nice to have a second monitor when using N1MM during contests.
During contests, I still do my logging in N1MM because it is absolutely fantastic for contest work. After the contest is over I export an ADIF file which I easily import into DXLab. Recently, a plugin was released which provides a realtime interface between DXLab and N1MM so that the export/import process can be avoided. However, my personal feeling is that N1MM is enough of a resource hog during a contest that I would prefer not to have DXLab running in the background. However, I admit I have not tried it so I don’t know if would be a problem.
If your considering moving to a new logging program be sure to spend some time with DXLab. If you do, I think you’ll like what you see.
Fred, KC9QQ
I had planned to spend a few hours on the radio the past couple of days but that has not been possible. I have been involved in moving a number of websites to a new host and the process has taken more time than I thought it would. My new hosting provider is Hostgator.com. I have been very
Snappy
Mascot of Hostgator.com
pleased with their whole setup so far. Their customer support has been excellent! Also, their control panel provides just about every conceivable option that I need. My prior host providor (verial.com) provided poor technical support, a control panel with minimal capability and a price 6 times higher than hostgater.com.
As of this morning the move is nearly complete. I am just waiting for the DNS for the final site to propagate through this system so that I can verify that everything is working as expected. For some reason the DNS for the last site is taking longer to propagate than the other four that I moved. I guess that is Murphy at work. I have rechecked all the setting so I assume I just need to be a bit more patient.
I plan to spend a little time on CW this afternoon with the K2. I really enjoy the contacts I make on the K2. I am always amazed how well I can get out with only 5 watts. I’m sure the 8 element log
Elecraft K2-10
periodic helps! I am also impressed with how well this kit built radio works. The receiver on the K2 is just as sensitive as the one in my Icom 756 Pro III. The K2 does not have all the bells and whistles of the Icom but it sure does perform well.
One of these days I would love to spring for a K3. I just need to wait for my money tree to start producing $100 bills. Or maybe, I’ll generate enough savings from my new Host provider to convince my XYL I need a need a K3. It may be a long wait.
Fred
Winter View of Tower
It’s a cold windy day in Southern Indiana. At least it is not snowing. The temperatures are supposed to drop to near zero tonight. Hopefully, it won’t drop below zero!
My wife and I have to do some running around this morning, but plan to spend the rest of the day inside close to our wood burning stove. I also plan to spend some time in the ham shack catching up on QSLing and working a little DX. I briefly checked out the conditions on the bands this morning and the bands were a little noisy, but I was able to work an HZ1 (Saudi Arabia) on 15 meters. Hopefully the bands will still be in good condition this afternoon when I make it back to the shack.
Fred