Archive for 2006/03


A Remarkable Evening on the Air at KB6NU

I try to make three QSOs every day, and for the most part, I’m successful. Some days, I only make one or two, but I more than make up for it during contests, when it’s easy to make 50-100 Qs or more.
There are also evenings when I just seem to rack them up. Yesterday was [...]

ARISS Video

Here’s a cool video of an International Space Station contact at the Bradley Bourbonnais Community High School in Illinois.
Thanks to Charlie Sufana, AJ9N, the ARISS mentor for the high school.
NOTE: If you’re using a Mac, you may have to jump through some hoops to get this WMV file to open up.

You Can Now Use LOTW for WAS

From the ARRL Letter of 3/24/06:
==>LOGBOOK OF THE WORLD NOW SUPPORTS WORKED ALL STATES AWARD
Users of the ARRL’s Logbook of the World (LoTW) now may apply their LoTW credits to applications for the League’s Worked All States (WAS) award. Once registered and logged in, users may set up a WAS account on the Logbook [...]

QSLs Received 3/24/06

I got my hopes up when I collected the mail from the mailbox just now. In the pile was an SASE, meaning that there was probably a QSL card inside. I was hoping it would be the South Dakota QSL I’ve been waiting for to complete my Worked All States. Instead, though, it was a [...]

Inexpensive Schematic Capture Software

On the Design News Forum, there is a thread on inexpensive schematic capture software. They list the following:

DesignWorks. At $500, this hardly qualifies as “low cost,” at least not for radio amateurs.
Smartdraw. At $200, this package is still pretty expensive.
pcb123. This package is freeware. You can’t get any cheaper than that.
TinyCAD. This package is open [...]

This Weekend in Radio at KB6NU

This Weekend in Radio at KB6NU
This weekend was a bit of a busy one here at KB6NU. I got an early start, getting up at 6:30 Saturday morning to meet some guys and carpool to the Marshall Hamfest. Marshall is about an hour away, so we wanted to be on the road by 7 am.
The [...]

More Kids and Ham Radio

For the last couple of months, I’ve been working on getting kids more involved with ham radio. I’ve started teaching some kids at a local middle school and have given talks at several schools here in Southeastern Michigan. I’ve also talked to some of the local ham clubs. Here’s the outline of talk I’m giving [...]

Radio Celebrates 100 Years of Voices

From your ARRL:
Newington, CT Mar 17, 2006 — “Hello!” -the first spoken word to be heard over the radio a century ago. The ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio, is celebrating 100 years of voice over the airwaves in 2006.
As a boy, Reginald Fessenden heard his uncle describe Alexander Graham Bell’s [...]

“Smoke is Never Good”

I heard two guys today on a local repeater talking about a project one of them was working on. The first said that he hooked up the power supply, and when he turned it on, it started to smoke. He said he quickly turned it off and reversed the power leads, and now everything [...]

Elmering Pays Off

On Feb 10, 2006, Greg wrote:
I have just decided to get my tech license at age 51 after a lifetime of interest. I have no technical aptitude to speak of. How long do you think it would take me to acquire a license after getting the ARRL materials? I am reasonably well [...]