MORE FT8

I'am very happy to say I have made more FT8 contacts. However our ARES group has digital stations is hospitals through out Lucas County. The main software is FLDIGI along with it's suites, FLMSG etc. Every now and then I will go up on BPSK31 on HF go through the paces. Going over my macros for mistakes, ways to improve them and new ideas...like inserting pictures etc.

On Wed. the 14th the radio club I belong to TMRA will be having presentation on FT8 put on by Rob KV8P the club president. He always has something going on at the meeting to make them more interesting and keep people coming back. Our membership has grown and we are getting quite a crowd. More to come

73's

Mike / N8GBU

TYT MD-380 DMR RADIO PLUS MODS

I decided to share this information on how to put the MD380 tool on the TYT MD-380. The MD 380 tools firmware changes a large portion of the radio from what it's programmed at the factory to the MD-380 tools package which give you a lot more features than you got stock. For example the side buttons they can be programmed with functions from a large list of things.Several adjustments for the screen lighting. A switch user mode lets say you let someone use borrow your H.T. and you don't want them using your DMR I.D. you can now change user numbers and the list goes on heres a link to a YouTube video on how to change or upgrade the firmware. I was very afraid to at first as I thought I couldn't do it or worse yet make the radio in-operable. One thing to remember: Follow the directions on the video step by step. Don't skip anything or do something you believe should be done.

I put that in red letters as I heard of a case where a gentleman believed he should start with a clean slate and some how he cleaned outr all firmare making the radio in-operable and unable to reprogram it. Dead in the water so to speak. Heres the link to upgrade:     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F8G_Cqayrs

New Loook

Well today I decided to give my blog a makeover things have really changed since I started this blog. New templates, backgrounds etc. I kind of like this theme so we will see how things go!

Mike

SWL'S

I decided to get back into blogging after receiving an eqsl from an Italian swl listener who happened to pick up my FT8 qso which took me a bit by surprise. His SWL I.D.  I1-21171 which has me a bit confused as he says he participated on IOTA? Maybe he's a ham and swl or operated with someone under their call? Who know's but it's nice to get these swl cards!

As you can see on the qsl he mention's working IOTA now I just wonder what island he was on? Living on the shores of Lake Erie we have so many Islands around here. It would be nice to see if I can find out which Island he was on.

Happy Thanksgiving

Even with the holiday their are still the faithful ham's that are activating our national parks. Today even though the bands were lousy I managed to get two more National Parks. One K4LPQ Leo was on the Appalachian Trail in Tn. Since the celebration of our National Parks birthday began I have started looking up every park I have talked to. I have taken out books and looked online. They are all beautiful and we have one near by. Fallen Timbers in Maumee Ohio is a National Park that is often mistaken for one of our Metro Parks as the Metro Parks  maintain    Fallen Timbers for the government. It was one of the largest battles against the Indians in history, tribes joined together and large units of military all battled it out there. It took some time to sink in but imagine no paved streets most were walking some on horse back traveling 100's of miles. The military setting up supply Forts along the way. I really didn't see what the Indians did but I believe they had the upper hand as they new how to survive and live off the land.
Another thing I learned was the real beginning of Thanksgiving, President Washington sort of started it as a replacement for the Harvest Celebrations and later President Lincoln made it an official Government holiday during the civil war as one small way to try and bring a divided nation together. Sort of what we are going through on a less violent scale but yet divided.

73's

JT 65 once Again!!!

Not much has happened since I last posted. The bands have been up and down like a yo-yo. JT 65 however seems to have state side and some DX, Sunday I managed to have a very brief contact with Spain and Boznia. Of course you are limited to send a personal message  just since you can only send 13 characters. Saturday I will be traveling to Marion Ohio for the ARES conference, it will be a first for me. Then I will be working the race for the cure on Sunday, I will be in the SAG wqgon which I have been told is primary jub is to be an ambulance.

I almost forgot I have switch out my stationary position Elk antenna for a Jet Stream JTB 3 3 meter / 440 Mhz ground plane antenna. I have read some article on the antenna before buying it and it is well like unlike its larger model which received a lot of negative reviews. Right away I noticed the difference, I could get into Wauseon which I couldn't do before and that's a pretty good distance away from my QTH.

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JACK POT!!!!

Like many other fellow Ham's I recently received a bundle of QSL cards from my inbound QSL bureau manager. K8MFO (Don) is my manager and he is out of Apple Creek Ohio. The bundle of cards I received were from the ARRL Centennial contacts I made roughly 2 dozen maybe more as I was not really trying. If I heard a pile up or somehow came across one in a contest. It sure was nice receiving them as it was the largest batch to date.

Thanks Don for being there! 73's everyone

Once Again JT65

Ok I admit it I'm addicted to JT65. It simply amazes me when the bands are down JT65 keeps on going. Recent contacts were Ca. Az. Tx., Norway and Sweden. I'am still learning JT65 remember you can only send 13 characters at a time. I need to read up on changing some messages in my macro's.
Recently in the news has been about the Dayton Hamvention changing venues. Hare Arena I must admit has seen her day and now the it will be at the Green County fair grounds and it's in Xenia Ohio about 16 miles Southeast of Dayton. The only thing that stands out about Xenia is a tornado outbreak they had there. I recently talked to a gentleman from Dayton who was delivering a package next door in his own car and he was very familiar with the Dayton Hamvention. He said it a was a great boost to the economy there. I hope those folks will still get some business from hams even though it is a bit further a way.

73's

JT65 Fun

Despite bad band conditions as in a previous post I never trust the internet when it comes to band conditions. This past week the phone bands have been terrible but I did try JT65. Monday I made a contact to Hawaii on JT65 and then Tuesday in the opposite direction a contact to Wales. Not bad for the current Solar Conditions.

I'm Back

After being away for quite some time I plan to post regularly again. The big news for this month and possibly the year is Amateur Electronic is going out of business. Unfortunately to me they had discontinued services that kept me as a loyal customer.

• The stopped taking equipment in on trade or if they did it was few and far a part
• They stopped having in house repairs, even though they had a large back log to support it.
• They stopped sending catalogs out, I always felt when they stopped sending out paper catalogs they could have e-mailed e-catalogs. The only way you saw a catalog ( at least for me was go to their website. )
• When visiting the store it seemed to me they were trying to push me out the door. Yes I had an order waiting but looking around inside the store looking at stuff always had ne walking out with more than I planes to buy.

Most of the guys there had good customer service qualities and would take the time to read your emails about a product or your idea and make suggestions so you didn't buy something you didn't need. They stopped going to hamfests, donating to hamfests and lastly their prices were a bit high.

                     One thing I must share that AES had no control over was I ordered a few antenna adapters for my H.T's of course they always gave you tracking numbers. In this case they were coming by U.S. mail. I thought I would have them in a day or 2. Just by chance I checked the tracking and my adapters were in Pa. uhh Toledo is West of AES what are they doing in Pa? From Pa. they went to Cleveland then eventually found their way here. To this very day I still cannot understand why they went to Pa. My final thoughts back then " Next time pick them ip in person "

                                                                     73's   

Nice QsL Card!

Check out @DX_World's Tweet: https://twitter.com/DX_World/status/567801200243130371?s=09

A Strange Moment in History

WW II’s Strangest Battle: Americans and Germans Fought Together - Days after Hitler’s suicide Americ... - http://pinterest.com/pin/344455071475308439/?s=3&m=blogger

Callbook??? Whats a Callbook????

Being a V.E. for ham radio sometimes brings on some rather unique things. This past session took us into something rather new. Recently their was a law passed that IF you held a ham radio license you could be grandfathered back in as an active ham without retaking a test. As part of the V.E. team we have to verify that the person actually previously held a valid ham radio license.

One of the other V.E's had the foresight to bring along with him a callbook from 1986. What is a Callbook? A callbook is what we as hams used to look up a fellow hams call etc. for the purpose of QSL'ing and on one occasion I had AES use it to verify I was a ham before selling me a radio. Callbooks were used before the dawn of the age of computers. Instead of  going to a website search box and typing in the call, you would have to leaf through this huge book to find the call you were looking for. To top things off there was one callbook for the United States and another one fo DX contacts.  These books were a bit expensive and had to be bought annually to keep you up to date, plus a quarterly subscription would be offered to find new licensee's. Personally I would buy mine every other year for the U.S. one and would ask someone locally if I needed info for a DX contact. The call books we're a bit costly at the time they were about $35.00 plus shipping and maybe taxes depending where you purchased it from.

Back to the exam, as my fellow V.E's filed in for the session they were wondering what we were using a phone book for? The phone book they were referring too was the callbook and of course they were young and never new of what a callbook was or how to use it. After a brief explanation to them of what it was and how to use it they began to use it and look up calls of hams they new that had been licensed over a long period of time. That exam session lasted less than an hour as we had only 2 hams and they both grandfathered. the session was an educational paperwork session and 2 older hams were able to get on the air once again just in time for Christmas!

Wondering about Space Weather Apps.

Lately I have been seriously doubting the validity of space weather apps or propagation apps. It seems that when there is a contest on a given band the propagation or conditions for that particular band sky rocket.
Is this really the cause of ideal conditions or are they just reporting the activity on a given band? To me it seems to be the later. I casually participate in contests and the contest I recently worked was the arrls 10 meter contest. I decided to work phone only. It was rather difficult to find and work contacts even though yes their were some pile ups especially on some rather unique or rare contacts ie...W1AW centennial contest stations. However it seemed the contacts were not as many as I would have thought. QRN noise was about an S5 on my meter. Anyways I checked my app. On my smart phone to what the propagation was reported as. You guessed it 10 meters was peaked out to the top while the other bands were rock bottom.
My thoughts are propagation actually effect all bands in one way or another. Anyways just an observation I made.

GOOD READING AND TIPS

I thought this would be the perfect time to write about a book I recently read. The book is called " The Complete DX'er" by Bob Locher W9KNI. The book shares Bob's operating techniques and skills he has used to get the DXCC and many more awards. For myself I was frustrated about getting my WAS contacts especially a qsl from Hawaii. I have made several qso's to Hawaii but never managed to ge a qsl either through LoTW or regular QSL cards. A member from the local radio club I belong to tipped me off about Bob's book. After reading a few chapters I began putting to work the things he talked about in the book. Soon my WAS number has dropped to needing 9 more states and I have received a qsl from Hawaii. I really don't want to say much more about the book and spoil it for you. If you can pick up a copy of the book and read it. Once your done with it keep it around for reference. You won't regret it!
73's
Mike/N8GBU

Never Trust the Internet!

I have been reading some material on DX'ing and one constant I have come across is don't trust the internet on conditions etc. I have found this to be very true. Numerous times I have tried the bands after the internet reported poor conditions and managed to make a couple DX contacts!

Electronic Logging and QSL's

One thing that I have been wanting to share my thoughts on is Qsl's and the online logbooks. When I first earned my ticket the only way to confirm a contact was through the regular mail in the form of a regular QSL card commonly called Wall Paper. As technology has progressed we have moved into communications by computers and keeping logs on a computer instead of a paper log. Which brings me to my thoughts on logging and qsl's. Today there are 3 major players in online logging and qsl's. My top 2 are the LoTW and EQSL, there are also some others. LoTW is the ARRL's version of online logging as you may know. Many people use this free service and you can obtain ARRL awards by having confirmed contacts on their online logbook and if needed you can do a combination of old hard copy QSL's and what is on their online logbook. The draw back not everyone choices to use them and they do not except confirmations from other online logbooks. There is no real qsl card involved in their logbook just text copies of the contact information.

Next comes EQSL a very unique service! On EQSL offers a few more features than LoTW. One really nice feature is they have printable e-qsl cards. You basically can design your own or upload one you had made. They have their own awards which I believe is to follow suit with Lotw. They do have different member levels. The first level is a absolutely free and as you donate (if you choose to) you can get a few more features.

Both LoTW and EQSL are tied for my top logbook/qsl services. One worth mentioning is QRZ.com, they are the number one source for call sign look up. They are a bit costly in my book, you buy features to make life easier using their sight. You can elect to have no ads on the website, the ability to upload adif's for a fee. My problem with that is I like many other ham's are on a fixed income and its very difficult to make those lump sum payments instead of making payments. I have also found out by my personal  experience that even fewer hams use their logbook service. 

Wolverine SSB Net

I have been working on my membership requirements to join the Wolverine SSB net. A min of participating of 4 nets for 3 months. I now have 5 for January and 4 for this month. They are a fun bunch to chat with.

N. A. QSO Party

Tried my luck at a little contesting. I have found I need to work on understanding logbook programs. All in all it was a lot of fun!

SNOWY DAY/10 METER CONTEST

Today was a very snowy day as a matter fact as I write this it is still coming down. I have taken the snow blower out 3 times now to clean the snow off. Also today was the 10 meter contest. I didn't officially enter the contest but had a lot of fun making contacts. My last count was 31 qso's without really trying. I'm happy to say a lot of my contacts came from South America!

Intermod

I have been trying to help out the local radio club with an intermod problem on one of the repeaters by monitoring a couple frequencies they suspect is coming from.  I have had my scanner on 24/7 trying to catch any transmissions to no avail. I'm just wondering if they have the right frequencies or there may have another problem. One frequency they did give to me was apparently a frequency used to send data to set of the tornado sirens! It was interesting, first and foremost a tornado warning in November? Yes we have had a tornado in the area in November which tore up a section of Defiance Ohio. Anyways first I get the warning over the weather radio, then over the T.V. and then the sirens went off! Something to think about if you ever thought about buying a weather radio and haven't yet. Anyways I'm back to monitoring to see if I can hear anything on the scanner. 

73's

Deeply Saddened

Well I'm very saddened to report that the body of baby Elaina was found. Her body was found in a garage near her Mothers boyfriends home. Autopsy report showed she had numerous broken bone NOT similar to a fall. Her Mother and Mothers boyfriend have been in custody since the beginning of the search for obstruction of the investigation.

I have been busy in the care giver mode, its not exactly my cup of tea. However it gives me a sometime to be on the radio and chase DX. My latest contacts include Australia, Germany,Sweden, Luxembourg, Guantanamo Bay and a host of South American countries. It has been really difficult trying to QSL some of these stations. What it all comes down to is personal choice of where the opposing station chooses to put his or her logs.  Some people choose Log Book of The World others EQSL and so on. For ARRL type awards they either have to be submitted by Log Book of The World or have the hard copy qsl or both. The other electronic log books are not accepted. Which means I have to sit down and sort through my logs and see if I can get a hard copy qsl card from DX stations not on LOTW.

73's 

PILE UP ON 2 METER'S !!!!!

Hello and welcome to my Blog. Yes there was a pile up on 146.520 this morning! I had my radio in the scan mode when it picked up one short conversation after another sort of like a special even station or maybe a contest. It turned out to be a rarity. A HAM Radio operator in a KC-135 flying 30,000 feet somewhere over Michigan. I tried my best to get through to him but my efforts were useless. There were I'm sure many closer and more powerful Michigan stations however either way it was well worth the effort!

MISSING CHILD!!!

HELP NEEDED FINDING THIS LITTLE GIRL!  THIS IS LITTLE ELAINA 18 MONTHS OLD, SHE HAS BEEN MISSING ABOUT 19 DAYS.

U. K. AMATUER RADIO

Lately I have been more and more activity by the U.K. In my opinion they seem to be more involved in Amateur Radio than Americans or they like to publicize and talk about it a lot more than American Hams. For example AMSAT-UK is updated regularly plus for members can read the newsletter. I know AMSAT in the U.S. had problems with  hackers and were down for a long time. The newsletter they sent was bi-monthly with material I had already read on AMSAT-UK. Online there are numerous websites I have found very helpful from the U. K. However no one can out shine K7AGE's YouTube site! I have nick named him every ones " ELMER" he has many "How To" video's. Randy, K7AGE can also be found on Twitter.
Back to the U.K. I have always been a fan and on my bucket list to visit London. In my earlier years of operating I had a mini-quad and a TS-430S and was quite excited to be able to carry out a QSO on phone with a gentleman from the U.K. Back then band conditions were not the greatest and I was very lucky to make a QSO out of the U.S.

FIELD DAY WEEKEND STARTS TOMORROW ! I WILL BE OPERATING ON 20 METERS PHONE UNDER THE CALL W8HHF THE RADIO CLUB CALL SIGN WHERE I BELONG. I WILL BE OPERATING THE NIGHT STARTING ABOUT 11 P.M. EST.

GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE AND BE SAFE !

73'S

 

FIRST CONTACT !

I decided to come down here into the ham shack to program the memory channels I had saved in my computer. After successfully getting all that done I decided to search around for a special event station, another sub hobby of mine in ham radio. While searching the bands 20 meters was not the greatest so I moved to 40 meters. I came across two gentleman rag chewing or so I thought! To my surprise one of the gentleman was a guest operator at A.R.R.L. H.Q. station W1AW ! WHAT A FIND! A FIRST FOR ME! I have been licensed since fall of 1982 and this was the first time I had EVER came across a guest operator at W1AW ! The excitement and adrenaline started flowing with the hopes of  getting that qso from W1AW and qsl them hard copy of course ! The other gentleman was kind of elderly and I think he just wanted someone to talk to. Finally my turn came---- I thought for sure there would be a pile up of sorts and had myself prepared to battle the pile up. I was wrong I made it through no problem except for the band conditions. I received a 55 signal report but who's complaining? I actually was in a qso with a fellow ham at ARRL  HQ !

I think he was as excited as I was, he was telling me about all the new equipment there and the place was very well equipped. After completing the qso and very carefully logging all the needed info, I sat and thought about how nice it would be to travel there to tour the place and be a guest operator. Hopefully someday that pipe dream may come true !

73's

Mike/N8GBU

ARROW Communication Association

I recently came across this website while looking for additional frequencies to program into my H.T. as I have been frequently traveling the Ann Arbor Michigan area. This site has lots of good reading and Helpful links!

73’s

ARROW Communication Association

Amateur Radio Repeaters

I wanted to share this webpage I found. It is from AC6V and is loaded with all kinds of information. I needed repeater offsets for the different bands. My Yaesu VX7R is a 4 band radio and recently decided to program it. I have never used repeaters on 220, 440 and 6 meters. Needless to say the offsets are very different and also a lot of the repeaters are on PL.

73’s

Amateur Radio Repeaters

UNSETTLED WEATHER!

I was going to go to the Fulton County Hamfest today but that's not going to happen. We had thunderstorms and rain all night and the weather man promising more on the way.  The radio club that has this event is the club that had the exam session in which I upgraded to Extra Class. They have a great bunch of guys there and I was looking forward to possibly seeing some of them again. Checking the "Space Weather" or propagation outlook for today doesn't look very promising either, just an overall bad day for ham radio!

BBC News - 'Screaming' traffic cones unveiled in Birmingham

 

BBC News - 'Screaming' traffic cones unveiled in Birmingham

Follow the above link ! It seems in the U.K. they have came up with these new traffic cones to alert workers when some one has broken through their barrier. It also transmits on 433 Mhz to let workers further down the construction site the barrier has been broken. Will we see these in the USA? Time will tell?

73,s

SPECIAL EVENT STATION

I have been extremely Ham Radio busy. Last weekend T.M.R.A. the radio club I belong to had a special events station on the Air! It was commemorating Dudley's Massacre in the war of 1812. The station was on the actual site. The following Wed. I went to the club General meeting, the first one in a very long time. There was a lot of ground covered in a short period of time. Everything from the Dayton Hamvention to Field Day. Over the course of the coming months I'm going to try to be more proactive with the club. They need help with education in the club. Educating newbies to get their ticket.

Monday there is a Tech. meeting at the Challenger Center. I plan to attend that one also. Its more or less an open house to see what they do there. I'm starting to get excited for the trip to the Dayton Hamvention! Its about a 2 hour drive from here I plan to leave very early. Why? There is going to be an antenna modeling software seminar I want to go to.

73's

Learning

I have been struggling my Rig Blaster Pro to get it to interface with my radio. I often wonder if it isn't something to do with the radio. In the mean time I have been exploring and learning Ham Radio Deluxe software. At first I was a bit worried about being able to learn as it seemed very complex for me. I like very simple easy to learn things. Well I have been running Winlogger32 and developed a problem with that. When running a third party cleaning program it would clean my logs from Winlogger32's program. Fortunately I back up my logs in multiple places.
I took a different approach to HRD, I looked at it as a software suite instead of one big program. The log files stay put and I like how they are displayed. One really awesome feature, when running the satellite pert of the program it interfaces with Google Earth. Pick a satellite of interest watch its track on the programs map then click over to the Google Earth Icon. You are then sent on a journey with that satellite and have a view of earth as that satellite would see it. I do this often with the International Space Station basically seeing what they would see. Its a virtual ride along, a high five for the developer of this!

73's
Mike/N8GBU

Busy Busy

I have been a bit pre-occupied with domestic duties and have fallen behind in my goals and duties in ham radio. I suffer from chronic pain and the pain levels have been through the roof lately. I went in for outpatient surgery for a nerve block and that was useless. Anyways I have to get my logs for Feb. uploaded into LoTW EQSL and QRZ.com. Not many contacts but still got to log them anyhow. I'm currently trying to get my worked all states award, also join OMISS. I belong to them many many years ago but no longer show up on the membership list. Besides the fact I have upgraded twice and If I remember right a call sign change. When I upgraded from Novice to Technician class I felt it was time to retire the KA8 call sign. Then getting the "N8" call I was at first disappointed because I was hoping for a "W" as my relatives had. Then shortly afterwards the F.C.C.supposedly discontinued the format of my call sign as they did with the "WA8" calls back when I upgraded. Now once again you may be given a call sign with  just about anything thanks to the vanity license addition. After all that I decided to keep my call indefinitely, I refuse to pay for a vanity call every year or whatever it is.

One of my frustrating projects has been trying to get my rigblaster pro to work. As of right now it still will not work with my Kenwood TS-2000X. I have tried customer service and the Yahoo help groups. Each time I post several new ideas come from the groups. Odds are one of them is going to work eventually. I have confidence in one suggestion in particular and that will be the next one I try!

73's
Mike

RTTY BEGININGS

I had a bit of insomnia and went to the ARRL website. I opened up the electronic edition of QST, it had an article in the "Vintage column" about W7DET's station. It showed a picture of W7DET's station from 1957. What caught my eye was next to the desk was a teletype machine. After thinking for a bit I began to wonder when radio teletype or RTTY actually started. The story was very interesting after reading several sites about the history of RTTY I found out that after WWII the government had all these teletype machines left over and there was a problem. The machines could not be sold commercially and the government had no use for that many machines so they somehow entered into the ham radio community around 1946. Soon afterwards "The Amateur Radio teletype and VHF Society" was formed and things took off from there. It was real interesting reading the history of the teletype and how it came into ham radio I suggest you do a google search for rtty history and you will find a lot of information!

73's
Mike/N8GBU

MY MOST WANTED QSL'S

I have compiled a short list of some rather famous people I would like to QSO with and receive QSL's from. At the top of my list is musician/writer Joe Walsh call WB6ACU. His contact maybe as difficult a station to get as a "JA" as he is a very busy man. I follow him on Twitter etc. and the man is always on the go. If he is not performing solo he is in with the Eagles band and then he maybe found visiting our troops! Next up is the International Space Station, I know its probably not as difficult as I think but a QSL card from outer space would be out of this world ! ( Pardon the Pun )  After that is the sound man Mr. Bob Heil of Heil sound K9EID. Bob's company makes the best quality Microphones on the planet. Not only does he make them for ham radio he makes them for the entertainment world. He is good friends with Joe Walsh and the two have worked together on this side of the business of course the Eagles band has Bob's microphones to use and test and there are also a number of other groups who use Bobs Equipment. Number three on my top ten list is K7AGE Randy. Randy in my book is the YouTube Elmer of ham radio. He has a large YouTube channel of ham radio info video's. I like to think of Randy as my Elmer, I have talked with him a couple times via Twitter and a couple of Yahoo Ham Radio Help Groups also on the AMSAT BBS.

73's
Mike/N8GBU

 

HAM RADIO IN SPACE

I became a bit upset today after reading a posting from the AMSAT BB. The ham was angry or upset because an astronaut from Canada did not have his ham radio license but instead chose to text and tweet from the International Space Station. This upset me because so many hams seem forget that Amateur radio is a " guest " on the I.S.S. and is not a priority. Myself I'm grateful that we (ham radio operators) have a working radio station aboard the I.S.S. It took a lot of work and planning to get the equipment up there and install it. Imagine taking a space walk to install a ham radio antenna ! Then installing the coax from a vacuum environment to a pressurized environment, no problem I do it every day right? NOT!
My first exposure to Amateur radio in space was hearing W5LFL Owen Garriot aboard the "Space Lab or Sky Lab" I can't remember which. Then another instance happened in the 1990's when I received the "DOVE" satellite beacon transmission before it went silent. In 2010 I went to the Dayton HamVention and saw an AMSAT demonstration and I was bit by the bug. All though I have not made a contact via satellite but have the equipment to do so. I guess I'm a bit "gun shy" of attempting to make my first contact, hopefully I'll do it this Summer!
73's
Mike

Putting Shack back Together

My shack or radio room as I call it is in my basement right under the kitchen. At my left upstairs is the bathroom and we had a leak there. It had gotten to the point where something needed to be done, The wood flooring was shot and I was afraid the toilet may eventually fall through. I found someone who would do the necessary repairs, so I took my station apart put my equipment in a safe place until the work was done. I made sure the benches were covered with tarps also. Today as time will allow me I will start putting things back as the work is done. Checking the propagation it don't look like I missed much in the past 48 hours.

73's
Mike/N8GBU

On the Border

Well as the title says I'm on the border ! I joined www.myhamshack.com yesterday and wanted to double check my grid location as I have a tendency to mix up the letters. Myhamshack.com is a free ham radio website you can blog at etc. Anyways I went to www.qrz.com to check my grid location there as they have an application that will help you that. After entering my grid EN81GQ I decided to experiment with various letters as I noticed the Northern grid line was extremely close to my qth. The app. uses Google maps so I started changing the last letter to see where each was. I put in  EN81GR and Low & Behold that was the next grid square going to the North. The map also kept each grid on the map as I entered the next so you could see the location in relationship to the other. Well getting back to that EN81GQ - EN81GR border curiosity killed the cat I had to magnify and get down to the nitty gritty on where exactly this Northern border was in relationship to my qth. Well after numerous adjustments I found this border ran down the back yard property line ! When using the satellite mode on Google maps and finding my qth there are a couple of distinguishing markers. The first one is two doors down the street going east on the opposite side of the street the garage roof has " GO BUCKS " wrote on it with roofing tiles. Number 2 is I have an extremely tall Pine in the back yard that is at least 75 feet tall. I use this tree for my G5RV antenna to attempt to gain height but have to be careful as power lines, telephone lines and cable all run through that tree. An interesting find indeed !

73's
Mike/ N8GBU

Updating The Blog

I have changed my blog address so it fits my callsign better and has a more Amatuer Radio theme. For people who know me quite well know I try very hard not to engage in political topics unless it concerns Amatuer Radio. Why? For over two years I worked for a political telemarketing research firm here in the Toledo, Ohio area. Why did I take a job like that? I worked for over 20 years as a Diesel Mechanic my back gave out and I had other problems landed me on disability. The time I spent doing the telemarketing was helping pay the bills until my Social Security case was won. That took over 2 years. During that time I suffered the rants of the general publics opinions on various issues, canadates and scandals. I have a tendacy to get on the air during contests so I can build up my log book. I suffer from chronic pain so I operate when I have " good " days.
73's

THE ANGLE OF THE DANGLE

This past Fall my son helped me raise and straighten my G5RV antenna. I had it rather low to the ground, draping the ladder line along the garage roof. I also had a "dog leg" at one end of the antenna! When I really started getting active on the bands and " DX" could be heard I decided I had to fix this, my son took to climbing a tree in front of our home. He noticed a problem with a rather large tree branch hanging over the house and sidewalk. Once the antenna was in its new position he asked for a hand axe and began chopping away. I was debating on what to do with the ladder line. I live on a rather small lot and the antenna wasn't high enough to let it hang down like it should. I managed to just have line to bring it back to the house on about a 45 degree angle from the rest of the antenna. Last night and today the wind is really blowing about 35 mph with gusts. I was happy to see my G5RV still up in the air this morning!


73's N8GBU / MIKE