K9OZ ham radio blog

I had a co-worker over to the house the other day and he saw the radios and started asking questions. Unfortunately, over a three-hour drive, he kept asking questions and never understood what ham radio was, or why I would have all that stuff. He kept relating it to CB radio, and never could get out of that mode. This morning's activity is a good example of a nice contact, or QSO. I called a CQ, which is a general call saying I'm looking to talk to anyone. I was answered by K2AOP, John, in Phoenix, AZ. We traded names, locations, and started experimenting with comparing signal strenths with different antennas. We both had both a vertical and dipole antenna, and we tried vertical to vertical, vertical to dipole, dipole to dipole, etc. It was ineteresting. Then we started talking about jobs, and he asked me for more detail on what I did. I went into some detail, and he had good comments. It was just a nice, randon QSO with a nice guy in the other side of the country -- all done a...

I went to the Power SDR group on yahoo and kept reading the posts. Thanks to Larry, N8LP, the guy who designs, makes and sells, the LP-Pan pandadpter for the K3, I did find a solution. He had posted a procedure to run through for removing the program, removing all files and folders and reinstalling the software. I followed his instructions and no luck. I did it a second time, still no luck. The third time...it magically worked and I have Power SDR/IF stage version 1.19.3.4 running 100 percenct again. It's an amazing system, and the tinkering to make this stuff work is half the fun. I've learned a lot about computers, drivers, software, etc, in the process of getting this all running. But this isn't for the computer novice, easily discouraged or faint of heart.

After crowing about my computer prowess in getting the new version of PowerSDR to work with the K3 and LP Pan, it appears a Windows update caused the software to quit working. Yes, I know I shouldn't have automatic updates on on that machine, but they were. So now I'm toying with the software, reading the notes on the LP Pan users group, and trying to figure out how to get it running again. The computerized radios are nice when it all works, but sometimes...

I had a nice start to the weekend. I turned the radio on 40 meters and heard a bunch of people calling someone around 7030. I tuned down a little and heard ZK3OU . I assumed it was South Pacific because of the ZK call, since New Zealand is ZL. I set the K3 to split and watched the action on the panadapter and listed with my transmitting frequency in the right ear, and ZK3OU in my left ear. I soon figured out where he was listening, and listened to him work a W3. I called immediately on that frequency, he came back to K9OG (a common mistake as he missed the last dit on the Z) so I sent K9OZ again and his report. He came back to K9OZ, and I had him the the log. Then I looked him up. ZK3OU is a mini-dxpedition, tw guys from the West Coast operating down there for a few weeks. They were operating from the Tokelau Islands, which are a territory of New Zealand. It is also a new one for me, a DX entity I've never worked before. So that was a nice start to a Saturday morning. It all happen...

I had experimented with PowerSDR/IFStage software last year with the K3, but the old version didn't support a 64-bit computer, which I'm running. So I let it alone for a few months and checked the web site Sunday and there is a new version, 1.19.3.4, that supports the bigger computer, so I downloaded it. As with all software upgrades, it didn't work right at first, but that's half the fun of this stuff. I soon figured out I'd have up upgrade the LP Bridge software as well, and after I did that, it still didn't work. Then came an hour of trying different combinations, and looking carefully at all the setup fields, and suddenly, I saw the problem. I checked the right box, and it works great. The PowerSDR, combined with the LP-Pan Panadapter, gives me a nice panadapter and computer. Here's a short video of it in action.

I had a good time this wekend with the ARRL DX contest. We've had sunspots the last month, so it appears propogation is finally improving. I managed to make contacts on 15, 20, 40, 80 and even three on 160 last night. As a result, I wound up with over 400 contacts in about 10 hours of operating. I had a great time. With a DX contest such as this, you work different parts of the world on different bands at different times. There is enough activity, that you can really hear the propogation changing and get a better understanding of where in the world a band is open to at a particular time. You use your knowledge of how the bands are, to pick the right bands at the right time. If it all works, it's great. The contest also sold me on the K3. It is just the nicest contest and DX radio I've ever used. I switched to the Icom 756 Pro III for a short period last night, but soon went back to the K3. On another note, the line noise that has plauged me most of the winter seems to have ...

This weekend was the CQ 160 meter cw contest. I ran it a little Saturday night and early Saturday and Sunday mornings, finishing with about 170 contacts. Unfortunately, my S9 line noise has not gone away, and even though both the K3 and Icom 756 ProIII have very good filtering and noise reduction that takes most of it out, it is still just a pain in the ear to work through that type of noise. Yesterday three Commonweath Edison trucks pulled up in front of the house, and the workers made their way through my back yard to the power lines. One told me that a "neighbor was having a problem," but that's all I could get out of him. I told him I'd been experiencing very high noise levels the last few weeks, but that didn't seem to register with him. The four workers spent a couple hours working in the area, and I was hoping my neighbor's problem would solve mine. From what I could see and overhear, they didnt' discover or resolve anything, and my line noise is st...

Last weekend was the winter North American QSO Party, CW. I usually operate this contest, but came down and discovered S9 (that's very high for you lay-people out there) line noise on all bands. I've had this intermittent noise since I moved to this house, generally when there is snow and ice on the electric lines, like last weekend. I have good enough radios that I can filter much of it out, but it's still bothersome and keeps you from really hearing well, which is a real disadvantage in a contest. Despite that, I made 388 contacts on 20, 40, 80, and 160 meters, and had a good time. The SSB version of the contest was this weekend, but the line noise is still here, despite the weather warming and ice melting off the lines. I didn't want to battle the noise, so took a pass on the contest. I hope the noise goes away. Otherwise I have to start fighting with Commonwealth Edison again. I've had them even come out here a couple times, but of course, when they come, there ...

My resolution for the new year, be a better blogger. I took some time off over the holidays and spent a lot of time playing with the radios. Mostly, it was nice rag chews on 40 and 80 meters, but I spent some time on the Stew Perry Distance Challenge -- a 160 meter contest -- and running mobile on 40 adn 20 meters over New Year's while driving to Memphis. I enjoyed getting back on CW mobile, but I'm afraid my trusty old Yaeseu FT 857 is seeing its last legs on HF. During a contact on the drive south, I unfortunately had stuffed a coat over the radio while packing the car, and the radio overheated and quit operating. It later cooled down and I got back on the air, but it died on me again part way through a contact. I should have known better, and broke one of the basic rules of mobile operation -- watch the ventilation around your radio. I've been discovering a bunch of IPhone apps for Ham radio. Some are very useful, some I wonder about. I can now practice sending CW with m...

The young man seventh from the right is me, WA0QMZ. My dad, WA0OQX, is eighth from the right in the back row.