Well I didn’t make any DX 2 meter contacts working the meteor scatter today but I did learn quite a bit researching information on the meteor scatter, comets, propagation, and even more about a Yaesu FT-221.
I was excited about the prospect of making a meteor scatter contact but didn’t really know much about it. I [...]
I just read the ARRL news this morning and this looks great for this coming weekend. Coming this Saturday there is going to be a great propagation event for those of us on 2 meters who haven’t upgraded to our General yet, or just for those who are interested in making some new contacts.
The information [...]
I don’t know how many people actually use Google Alerts (I am sure it is millions), but for those who don’t, you can find some real interesting and sometimes strange stuff on your topics of interest, along with many other beneficial aspects of the alert system. All in all I probably have more than 50 [...]
I just got my first HF receiver, a Lafayette HA-800B, on loan from K4GR (thanks very much), and I can’t wait to get a good dipole antenna constructed and put up so I can listen in. I don’t know that much about the HA-800B but I am learning as fast as my fingers can turn [...]
Tonight the International Space Station (ISS) will be visible with the naked eye, and due to its brightness, should be easier to spot and show more detail than it often does. The Space Shuttle Endeavour, STS-118, un-docked from the ISS for an early arrival due to hurricane Dean, so the observation will be only the [...]
I made my first contact on the air out of the general 2 meter range for our area a few days ago with someone in Yorkshire England. Although Echolink contacts are not really considered to be DX contacts, it was my first overseas contact, which was run through the local echolink repeater, 146.425 simplex. We [...]
We went to see Bruce Willis’ new movie this weekend, Live Free or Die Hard and the amount of general radio coverage was very interesting in the movie, especially if you are a ham radio operator or SWL (short wave listener). Apparently there is a large amount of radio type coverage in all the movies, [...]
I found this unique build from KC7FYS and I had to post a quick link to it here. 40m Pixie Tin
This 40 Meter CW rig was built out of a Pixie Tin through the help of an old ARRL Handbook. He has some great step by step instructions on how to build the rig, [...]
Some of you may know that my wife and I sell books. I have always hunted around for many of those great books on ham radio and never found a good spot to find all of them in one place, so I put together a list of books available from amazon on amateur radio. You [...]
An updated 2 meter repeater list has been posted now on http://www.islandzephyr.com/ki4wlr/repeaters/ for southern Lee County Alabama. This is not a complete or comprehensive list, but an ongoing work in progress as I find and program local repeaters in my area. Some of the tones may need to be updated. I am also still working on [...]