Slow July Updates

Not much of an update this time.

After the 13 Colonies Special Event I took some time off from the radio to focus on organizing stuff after moving out of my apartment and updating the website.

I've added a few QSL cards from the KY QSO Party and the 13 Colonies event to the QSL archive (click link to view). I also added descriptions to each card so the album is now fully searchable (at least for me). The descriptions also allow the image to be accessible to people using screen readers. You can view the descriptions by clicking the (ℹ) after clicking on an image.

I also added descriptions to all of the awards on the awards page as well as alternate text to the awards and images on my QRZ page. I received and uploaded my certificate from the KY QSO Party. My score was higher than what I calculated. I ended up 3,036 points. I'm eagerly awaiting the full results!

2020 KYQP Certificate
2020 KYQP Certificate


I made a few check-ins on the nightly Friendship Net on the East Kentucky Link System (via the KY4ARC Paintsville repeater) after setting my Yaesu FT-2980 VHF radio back up. Not long after some work was done to the repeater and I can no longer hear it. I found out that I can usually hear the N4KJU UHF repeater in Paintsville, via ONLY my Anytone 878UV (my IC-706mkiig seems to be deaf on UHF). I don't have a UHF rig (or antenna) that can reach the UHF repeater so I came up with a different solution. I rigged up a manual antenna switch to the feedline coming from my VHF beam and split it between the FT-2980 and the 878. I use the 878 to receive the UHF repeater and switch to the 2980 to transmit to the Paintsville VHF repeater (it can hear me even though I can't hear it). It's crude, but it works! 

I planned on attending the DX Engineering Virtual Event but ended up being away from home most of the day. I'm going to try and attend the QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo on August 8 & 9. Looks like they have a good list of speakers!

A few other "behind-the-scenes" things were updated on the site to make things work and look a little better. There was also a slight change to the way the automatic emails are formatted (you probably won't notice the change). The domain for the website was also renewed for another year.

I may have some new to share soon! It'll probably get it's own post!

Well that's all for now!

See ya down the log!!

73 

Cam


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

May Updates

 Well we are only a week into May and work has been keeping me quite busy! Not much time to mess around on the radio. I made a few changes to my setup since my last post. I now have a new L-shaped desk (more room for radios!). I picked up a new desk chair (way better for my back!) to go with the new desk. I've been working on cable management for the pat few days and I'm still not finished! I was able to get a new G5rv up in the air with some help from Dad. This one I purchased from HRO. It is a Radiowavz brand G5. Seems to preform about the same as the old antenna. This one supposedly tunes on 6 meters. I haven't had a chance to try it out down there yet. But I was able to make several DX QSOs right off the bat. While I was placing and order I also picked up a pretty nice SWR/Power meter. It is a Daiwa CN-901. It makes a nice addition to my setup. I was using the LED bar graph on my LDG tuner for a wattmeter but it doesn't have the accuracy that I wanted. I also picked
Read more

It's been a while...

 Well it's been a while since my last update. Things have been quite busy. First I now have a full-time job! My schedule hasn't been set yet so it's been quite hectic not know what times or days I'm working. Now onto the radio stuff. During the recent ice storms we had a few trees fall. One of them happened to take down my G5RV. One of the legs is completely broken into two pieces and frayed really badly. Haven't looked at the otherside but it's on the ground as well. I'm going to need to replace it. Right now I'm not sure if I want to get another G5RV or something else. I'll probably take the remnants of the current antenna and make some other dipole out of it. The VHF beam seems to have survived the ice buildup with no damage. Overall we were without power for about 6 days. As you can guess without an HF antenna and a new job I haven't had much time to get on the air. Due to my chaotic schedule I've been missing local nets. I was able to ma
Read more

New year, New Goals

 Well happy 2021 everyone! (I know I'm a month late 😂)  January started off with another meeting of KY4ARC via Zoom. I finally sent in my dues so I should now be a member. This year I decided to set a goal of participating in as many contests as I can. I started off this month with the North American QSO Party, SSB. I didn't have as much time to operate as I originally expected. After operating for about 2 hours I only ended up with 15 QSOs. Noise seemed to really bad on 40m. 80 meters was a little better, though I had some trouble breaking through the pileups. Of the 15 QSOs 13 were on 80 meters and 2 were on 40 meters. Overall all I had 12 multipliers for a total score of 180.  Winter Field day was supposed to be my next contest, but thanks to a power outage the Friday before the start of the event my main shack computer shutdown and now fails to boot. So my logging and digital software were inaccessible. It's been on it's last leg for quite a while. It desperately n
Read more