Tag Archives: Magic Band (6m)

Antennas, Featured, General, Newsletter, Space, Station Equipment

Satellite Station 4.0 Part 3 – Antenna Integration and Testing

Sometimes we learn from problems and mistakes. We all go through this from time to time. It is part of the learning aspect of Amateur Radio.

Satellite Station Integration

My most recent experience came while integrating our new Satellite Antennas into our station…

Source: Satellite Station 4.0 Part 3 – Antenna Integration and Testing

Our 4.0 Satellite Antenna Array and new our 6 m Yagi are up on the tower and working with our Portable Satellite Station 3.0.

We had some early life problems to work through to get to this stage in our project.  Initial testing revealed a defect in some of the equipment and a wiring error at one of the antennas. We rented a 50 ft Boom Lift to take the antennas back down to correct the problems.

The antennas are back up and all of the controls systems and feed lines are complete and connected to the station. The new station is performing quite well. You can read about the project and the initial performance testing via the link above.

Fred, AB1OC

Activities, Featured, General

Summer Activities – A Picnic and a SOTA

The weekend of August 25th and 26th brought a break from the rainy and hot weather and provided beautiful weather for two NARS summer activities.

On Saturday, August 25th, we held our Family Picnic at Greeley Park in Nashua.  It was a potluck lunch and members brought lots of great food to eat.  It was an enjoyable time, eating great food and chatting with our Ham Radio friends and their families.

Here is a gallery of pictures from the picnic:

Bright and early on Sunday, August 26th we all headed to Mount Washington for our SOTA/POTA activation.  We had another beautiful day with relatively warm temperatures for Mount Washington’s 6000 ft elevation in the 50s.  Most of us drove up on the scenic Mount Washington Auto Road.  We made contacts on many modes and bands on the mountain including

  • Satellite contacts using an Elk Yagi and a Kenwood HT
  • 6 meter SSB and FT8 using the Icom 7300 and an M2 6 meter Yagi
  • HF using Jamey’s Buddipole
  • 2 meter contacts using HTs and the Elk Yagi
Mike and Jamey Work 2 Meters
Mike and Jamey Work 2 Meters

Both the Picnic and the Mount Washington trip were a lot of fun and we’re looking forward to doing these again next year!

Anita, AB1QB

Digital, Featured, General, Newsletter, On The Air, Station Equipment

FT8 Mode on the 6m Band

Anita and I have been operating using the FT8 Mode on the 6m band using our remote operating gateway quite a bit this summer. The SDR-based remote operating gateway in our station allows us to operate…

Source: Operating FT8 Remote on the 6m Band

FT8 Mode on 6m
FT8 Mode on 6m

Our next Tech Night will be about the FT8 Mode. I’ve been using FT8 to work quite a few contacts on the 6m Band this summer using the remote operating gateway in our station. The link to the post above shows how we use the WSJT-X software and other tools to operate using the FT8 digital mode at our station. It also provides links to much of the software that we use to do FT8 and other weak signal digital modes.

Fred, AB1OC

Radio Amateurs Developing Skills Worldwide