Kelvin n0mql EN35ld @kelvin0mql@mastodon.radio

My mic boom was fine with a regular mic clip, but my big chrome Heil mounts differently, which meant the space between the XLR connector & the boom arm was insufficient to keep from them interfering in a damaging way.

So today I got a longer carriage bolt, cut off the head, most of the threads, & fashioned a longer shaft for the mic pivot section.

This will work much better.

Can't find which, 'cuz it was an aside while talking about something else, but the "Ask Dave" guy sternly insisted you can't get your PC's clock close enough manually. You HAVE to use "one of the available programs to set it automatically" in order to run the WSJT-x modes.

Laughable.

My radio PC is fussy about ntp working right. But I set it manually often, & can usually get it within 200ms.

Just this last time, on the 1st try, refreshed time.is to see "exact!"

...is applied to a lead, & also disconnects when 12VDC is turned off?

Surely there's a CAT command that will power down the radio, which would also be a plus. But at the very least, it'd mean I could leave the rig off & the antenna disconnected, but if I remote into that PC and launch WSJT-x, the rig powers up AND connects the antenna feed?

That would be kinda awesome.

Here's a funky idea that I'm sure someone else has already thought of before, about lightning protection. I try to habitually turn off the coax switch going to the thru-wall feed when I'm shutting off the radio, &/or when lightning is within 30mi.

But when I start WSJT-x, it will power up the radio. Cool feature of how it does CAT, I guess.

Hey, the radio has a 12VDC output.

WHAT IF I had an RF-compatible relay (or servo-activated switch) that could automatically close when 12VDC...

Yes, I know, #ARRL, my membership is lapsing.

See, you emailed me a few weeks ago about this, & gave me a link to renew. But you threw away my login info. The un/pw that I have in 1password is no longer valid, & the domain I got sent to isn't even the ARRL's domain anymore. This inspires zero trust.

Who TAF is login(dot)personifygo(dot)com??

You've been hacked.

Some foreign-state-sponsored nefarious activity is in the works, & I'm not about to be fooled... like the old GWB quote/gaffe.

Adjust length of vertical using rope and antenna analyzer.

Operate as desired. Change bands as desired. Yadda yadda.

When you're done, un-telescope the mast, as this reel pulls the radiator back in neatly.

Toss the mast back in the truck, and off you go.

So picture this: mount this to plywood (insulated) in back of SUV.

Center conductor of coax connects to this, shield to truck ground.

Telescoping mast mounted to receiver hitch adapter, on which there's a plastic pulley for turning this cable from horiz to vert.

Another pulley at tip of mast, just like for a flag pole, but that line connects to end of this Stainless Steel cable.

Park.

Open back of SUV, hook up the cable/rope, and raise mast.

Prop back of SUV open "just enough"...

https://kelvindean.wordpress.com/2022/06/27/2022-field-day-debrief/

...in which I poke even more fun at our friend Smitty.

The next thing is... I don't have any portable 6m antenna. But I've got a fistful of antenna bits n bobs that were up prior to what I have up at home now.

A store-bought knock-off OCF Windom for 40.

A MyAntennas EFHW for 80 (with wires broken by tree).

I might even cobble together a tape-measure folded-dipole just because I think I have all the pieces I'd need to pull it off.

Better get coffee, then get crackin'. Kicks off in 5 hours, & I kinda wanna be close to on air @ the start.

Actually got WSJTx working on a very old Linux laptop (my regular Radio PC is a Win10 desktop).

So, son of a gun, I might actually get "out there" (i.e. somewhere not @ home) for a bit of the June VHF contest, as a trial run for a remote (AirBnB camper) Field Day.

It can't do CAT - no luck finding USB driver to allow that, or whatever. But the soundcard-over-USB from the Yaesu just magically worked. So TX via DATA VOX.

An adventure, to be sure.

Reflexively disconnecting the antennas because it's garbage day.

Well, I THOUGHT that the inaugural ARRL Digital Contest would be fun. I'd see lots of non-FTx modes in use out there. Alas, no.

What's worse, for some reason, when WSJT-x is being run under N1MM, it only stop highlighting a worked station's CQ about 60% of the time.

I keep double-clicking some station I worked already just 2 or 3 QSOs ago.

Giving up. Gonna shoot Nazis instead. #SniperElite5

Hoping to try Field Day from someplace more RF-quiet than I've been in over a decade.

Willing to have an operating partner, if they're as vax'd and covid-isolationist as I am.

@smitty - I think this helped.

I've enough room in these "beads" to put 5 passes of this cable, so I'm going to experiment with doing 4 loops, or 5 loops, maybe even 6 in all 3 of these, and see how it goes.

It'll be OK if I land on something that affects 40m more than the other bands, since that's the only place that I recall having a troublesome amount of noise. It's not rural woods quiet here, but it's quieter than most suburbs (though that's gradually changing).

Wish me luck.

After.

40m Hash smears and dummy's guess choke (and a lot of extra cable) - the BEFORE pic.

Finally heard confirmation of both the callsign and park number, after he cycled 'round to ask if there were any more QRP, any DX, any P-to-P.

Not everybody operates the way I do, obviously, but I WILL NOT call you unless I know your callsign already.

I just hear him work another, who said "Can you give me your park number, please?"

Seriously, WHY would that not be included before every QRZ?

Hrmph!

Hey, POTA Activators...

You can't keep working the pileup for 10 minutes with "QRZ?" at the end of each report WITHOUT SAYING YOUR CALLSIGN.

I THINK I know who this guy is, 'cuz he's the one spotted in POTA(dot)app. But I've never heard either the park number or his callsign. All I know is there's a pileup on that freq. It's been a long while.

...in the payment?"

She repeats the bit that sounds like Danny Kaye in The Court Jester.

I laugh, "Boy, it sounds like I'm talking to THE GOVERNMENT."

She was not amused. But she emailed me the instructions, & I got it sorted.

Yes, I've complained about how horrible everything about doing ARRL things through their website have been, but boy howdy, it's not NEARLY as back asswards as the FCC's $#!+. Holy cats.