Sunday, April 19, 2009

Kitchen Table Operating...



Greetings,

Last night I jumped on 40M with the FT-817 and Super Antenna MP-1.  Late yesterday afternoon I tuned the MP-1 by adjusting the screw driver portion to maximum noise from the receiver.  The band was fading somewhat as the evening went on, however I managed to make 3 contacts including 1DX all at ~5W of power.  All of this with a vertical compromise antenna and a QRP radio!

73s
--Chris 


Thursday, April 2, 2009

APRS Anyone?

Hi,

After reading an article on digital sound card TNC interfaces in the latest issue of CQ Magazine, I was inspired to download some software and try it out. For my interface, I'm using the AGW Packet Enginer along with UI-View for APRS mapping / monitor application. Along with UI-View I'm also running AGW Monitor for debuging purposes. For a packet interface to my FT-817 I'm using my RIGBlaster NOMIC connected via the Microphone RJ-45 slot.

APRS Mapping Software - UIView
http://www.ui-view.org

AGWPE and AGWMonitor

Setup Notes:
I first tried to use my Windows VISTA laptop with AGWPE and UI-View. This produced mixed results and many instabilities, so I then revereted back to a Windows XP machine, which seems to have solved many issues.

All in all it is interesting and certainitly worthy of more investigation. 

Stay tuned for more.

73s
--Chris