KM1NDY
A Secret Little Adventure Ham Radio Blog
WX1MAR and I will be getting on the air tomorrow for Valentine’s Day. We hope all of you ham radio operators track us down. Because, it means you will get a valentine as a qsl! 73s and 88s!
Antenna modeling for the amateur radio hobbyist has always struck me as uniquely esoteric. I mean sure, hams build plenty of antennas, but we have all seen the predicted idealized radiation blobs, donuts, and figure-eights associated with the usual dipoles and end-feds. We know that for typical HF wire antennas, the closer to the ground, …
The first summit of the 2021 is actually an old friend — Peaked Mountain in Monson, Massachusetts. Well-traveled, the short 1 mile summit trail consisted of a few inches of hard-packed snow, making microspikes the choice footwear accessory. Especially given that temperatures creeped above freezing most of the day, assuring a slick refreeze for our …
Sitting here listening to the city sounds on my handheld scanner, I’m just grateful there are *some* circulating radio waves I’m able to capture…because my attempt tonight to become a CW partner was an exercise in futility. A radio club buddy of mine reached out about scheduling a regular slow speed morse code rag chew. …
Working Winter Field Day 2021 from an early 1900s train caboose seemed the perfect way to abandon the trials of modern life at least for a weekend. Fortunately, the Chester Railway Station and Museum in Western Massachusetts offered just the ticket for WX1MAR and I. And Dave, the station’s highly knowledgeable proprietor and overall sweetheart, …
…but the info void on transmission line transformers brings me down. Baluns & ununs stay voodoo for now.
Congratulations Marc WX1MAR for passing your Amateur Extra exam today! You can now hang with us big kids on the *other* side of the bands! Great job!
Well it appears the only amateur radio satellite I’ve ever managed to contact may now be out of commission. Or taking a nap. Apparently AO-91’s battery is going down the tubes and the transmitter has been turned off. On the flip side, this screenshot is of the first satellite status report I ever submitted to …
January’s SSB North American QSO Party made a great excuse to play radio and winter gear test in this Never-To-Be-Named outdoor paradise. You know, the one in Massachusetts where winter camping is allowed? (…I’ll never tell!) Plan (largely followed) was for WX1MAR and I to meet KB1REQ, hike 1.5 miles steeply downhill to the Adirondack …
Urban ham radio challenge — beat the signal-to-noise ratio. Or, when it comes to phone, what signal? Two little lonely qsos found on 40 meters. But morse code? Thriving! That paddle makes me feel so darn guilty…