This category is for featured articles that we want to include in the sidebars and other areas on our website.
The results are in.. The N1FD Multi-Op team of Jamey, KC1ENX, Abby, AB1BY and Mike, AB1YK has won the multi-op Area 1 category in the ARRL Rookie Roundup CW.
The team’s CW skills are improving and score was almost double the score from last year!
More Fox Hunt fun this weekend – Bob, W1FDR shares his experiences.
I found both the foxes but I had to work really hard to do it. First I drove to the Home Depot area off of exit 6 and found the strongest signal in the parking area of mine falls park. It was very icy but it didn’t take me long to realize it wasn’t there so I went back across the bridge to the Nashua high school, the parking lots were full with activity and I did not know the area. So I drove to the Wiggins Park area and hiked over to where the foxes were. I was going to take a picture of the strongest fox but there were so many people walking by and I was so busy talking to them I forgot. I then went to find the weaker fox and I did take a picture or I had a picture taken by a passerby.
Then proceeded to help the economy in Nashua with Christmas shopping.
Bob
W1FDR
John, KB1MGI and his son Craig, KB1CGS also tracked down the large wily critter. Here is their story –
KB1CGS Craig my son and myself KB1MGI John both found the 146.565 Fox.
After circling the area around exit 6 we ended up at the parking area at Lincoln Park at the end of Coliseum Ave. Craig and I went over the icy Bridge and stayed on the left trail along the water. Then we walked in circles for ever and we kept ending up at the base of a hill and still walking in circles over an over again.
When climbed up the steep hill to the main trail. At first we figured the fox was across the river behind the high school. Turning around and figured it was back down the hill. Then Craig said look at that stump I saw the tip of the antenna.
2 hours to find. Great job hiding the fox.
We did not look for the other one because it was getting dark soon.
Thanks
Jamey, KC1ENX continues to try to outfox the hunters but so far we have been able to track down the N1FD critters.
Fred, AB1OC
We’ve recently upgraded our Portable Satellite Station 2.0 to add digital and packet capabilities. The upgrade was pretty simple – we added a SignaLink USB Soundcard and a Windows Laptop PC. Most of the software for Packet and Digital Amateur Radio communications is written for the Windows OS so using a separate laptop running Windows 10 was the simplest way to go.
Another benefit of the second laptop was added screen space to use when doing packet communications via satellites and the International Space Station (ISS).
We recently learned that the ISS was going to be again transmitting SSTV images worldwide. This provided a perfect opportunity to work with the digital additions in our satellite setup. We downloaded and installed MMSSTV on our Windows laptop and set the audio levels on the Windows PC and our SignaLink Sound card to properly receive SSTV signals. The MMSSTV application can decode several different SSTV formats including the PD120 format used by the ISS. The ISS transmits SSTV on a 2m FM voice channel. We configured MacDoppler to track the ISS and perform doppler correction on the 2m ISS 2m downlink and began to listen.
The video above was made during the reception of an SSTV image from the ISS during a pass over the United States. The video gives a good idea of what its like to receive SSTV from the space station.
We were able to receive several different images from the ISS during the period that it was transmitting SSTV worldwide.
It was pretty easy to capture the SSTV transmissions from the ISS with our Portable Satellite Station 2.0 setup. The signals were strong and I would imagine that the SSTV transmission could have also been received with a simple portable satellite setup with a hand-held yagi antenna.
We hope that the ISS will send SSTV images again in the near future. It was fun receiving them.
Fred, AB1OC
