Saturday, April 16, 2005

Ordered a Rock Mite

No, this isn't some little bug that likes rocks, it is a dual frequency QRP transceiver kit offered by Small Wonder Labs. I ordered a 40m kit, which will operate on 7039 and 7040 kHz. As supplied, it puts out a rompin' stompin' 500 milliwatts on a 12 volt supply! There are mods available to double this power, but I'm not going to try anything fancy until I get it running stock.

The other thing about this transceiver is that it is Morse code only (what else would one expect with only half a watt?). To this end I have been polishing up my Morse skills -- sure, I passed the required 5 words per minute test for the General class license, but like most folks who pass this test, they are still very shaky, at best. I think I could pass a test at 10 wpm now, if one were available.

Additionally, I am going to need a 40m antenna, and due to the lack of space to put up a dipole for this band, I have decided to get me a very compact antenna, namely the 40 m band Isotron antenna. I can put this in my attic where I expect it will perform adequately.

ERC and MARA Nets

Tomorrow, I will be acting as Net Control of the Olympia Area ERC Net and the MARA Cascades Chapter, South Section Net. The first will be held at 20:30 Pacific Time on the Olympia Amateur Radio Society's 3-band linked repeater system (147.360 Mhz duplexed at +600 Khz offset with 103.5 PL receive tone). The second will be held on 147.560 Mhz simplex) at 21:15 Pacific Time.

Sunday, April 03, 2005

Comm Log 2005-04-03

I got a little backwards in keeping up with the log, but I'm baaaaccck!

Participated in the Kitsap County Medical Net tonight at about 19:50. I sort of just tripped into it, since I was just calling for a comm check. I tried getting their net control callsign, and I thought it was KD7TJF -- if so, he was probably operating from Seattle, which is about 47.5 miles from me.

Also checked in with the Graham Stake ERC net at about 20:10. Their net control was N7DAR, Dave, about 22 miles from me.

At 20:30 I acted as net control of the Olympia Area ERC Net, and we had 12 checkins, including KD7EBU, KD7USW, KD7USV, KD7UST (me), KD7USS, KD7HYH, KD7RAT, KD7DAT and KD7DAU. KC7PAG and KDYUTC were checked in by proxy by KD7USV. Only had one visitor, N7YNU.

Checked in with the MARA Cascades Chapter, Central Section Net at 21:05, their net control was N7YNU, Kelly.

At 21:15 acted as net control for the MARA Cascades Chapter, South Section Net, and we have 9 checkins, including KC7PAG (who was mobile on I-5 in the vicinity of Exit 88, near Rochester), KD7USS, KD7USV, KD7USW, KD7UTC and N7YNU. Visitors included KC7DTF, AD7AI, and KE7DAU. The net was complete about 21:27.