(This post is not really ham radio related, but I will post it anyway)
This post is probably on the old side now, but I am going to post it anyway. The Chaos Computer Club, a hacker club from Germany has been passing out USB keys to help journalist bypass China's firewall.
The software on the USB key can be found here. The FreedomStick is a nice way for anyone to do quick anonymous browsing on a Windows based PC. FreedomStick is based on Tor . Click on the Tor link for more info on how anonymity is archived.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
CQ 15 meters
Looks like 15 meters was open a bit tonight.
I did something I have not done in sometime: I called CQ. I know that may sound silly. I used to call CQ often when I did a lot of 6 meter work. But I heard a strong station on 15m who was having a local QSO so I went down 5 KHz and started calling CQ. Made about 8 contacts before the band went flat and died on me.
This is just a reminder: No one knows if the band is open if no one is talking. While I will probably go back to hunting for stations to QSO with, I think I am gonna start calling CQ again, especially on bands like 15m/10m.
I did something I have not done in sometime: I called CQ. I know that may sound silly. I used to call CQ often when I did a lot of 6 meter work. But I heard a strong station on 15m who was having a local QSO so I went down 5 KHz and started calling CQ. Made about 8 contacts before the band went flat and died on me.
This is just a reminder: No one knows if the band is open if no one is talking. While I will probably go back to hunting for stations to QSO with, I think I am gonna start calling CQ again, especially on bands like 15m/10m.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Quick update, Happy 4th of July
Last weekend was Field Day.
I setup a laptop connected to a large battery, and hooked the rig up to a 55 AH battery and had some fun. I operated 1E EMA. Made 118 QSOs total making contacts on 80m,40m,20m,15m,and 10m. Hopefully everyone else had a fun and safe Field Day.
Have a safe 4th of July.
73 de Bill
W1WRA
I setup a laptop connected to a large battery, and hooked the rig up to a 55 AH battery and had some fun. I operated 1E EMA. Made 118 QSOs total making contacts on 80m,40m,20m,15m,and 10m. Hopefully everyone else had a fun and safe Field Day.
Have a safe 4th of July.
73 de Bill
W1WRA
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Long Overdue update
Greetings.
I have not updated this blog in awhile. Looking at the logs there is an easy answer for why: I have not been on the radio too much lately. I have been making a couple of contacts again, and hope to start getting more "radioactive" as it were.
A few weeks ago I got a stack of cards via the bureau. That was nice. Got a handful of new countries confirmed on 15m, 17m, and 20m. I still have a small backlog of older QSLs I would like to get out soon.
In my attempt to get back into the hobby a bit I re-setup my home APRS setup. It is a modest setup: KPC3+, iCOM 2100h, magmount mobile antenna on a 4 drawer metal filing cabinet, and my old trusty Dell. The home QTH is W1WRA-4 (my mobile which I use from time to time (Kenwood tmd-700a) is W1WRA-9). I am surprised how well the APRS station appears to b working. Will be interesting once I introduce an outside more permanent antenna solution.
Field Day is coming up this weekend. I will put my station on the air using battery power. Should be a fun time.
Until next post, 73.
I have not updated this blog in awhile. Looking at the logs there is an easy answer for why: I have not been on the radio too much lately. I have been making a couple of contacts again, and hope to start getting more "radioactive" as it were.
A few weeks ago I got a stack of cards via the bureau. That was nice. Got a handful of new countries confirmed on 15m, 17m, and 20m. I still have a small backlog of older QSLs I would like to get out soon.
In my attempt to get back into the hobby a bit I re-setup my home APRS setup. It is a modest setup: KPC3+, iCOM 2100h, magmount mobile antenna on a 4 drawer metal filing cabinet, and my old trusty Dell. The home QTH is W1WRA-4 (my mobile which I use from time to time (Kenwood tmd-700a) is W1WRA-9). I am surprised how well the APRS station appears to b working. Will be interesting once I introduce an outside more permanent antenna solution.
Field Day is coming up this weekend. I will put my station on the air using battery power. Should be a fun time.
Until next post, 73.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Shhhh... WSPR
After seeing WSPR pop up a coupld of places recently I decided to set it up.
WSPR (pronounced "whisper") stands for Weak Signal Propagation Reporter, a program that implements transmitting and receiving for a digital soundcard mode called MEPT_JT, an acronym for Manned Experimental Propagation Tests by Joe Taylor, K1JT.
It took me a little fiddling to get it to work right, but It seems to be working. Here are a couple of stations I heard last night:
Sorry for the format being slightly off. I have been running mostly in RX mode, and will sometimes turn on TX mode for a bit. I think I will let it receive during the day to see what other stations I can hear.
WSPR (pronounced "whisper") stands for Weak Signal Propagation Reporter, a program that implements transmitting and receiving for a digital soundcard mode called MEPT_JT, an acronym for Manned Experimental Propagation Tests by Joe Taylor, K1JT.
It took me a little fiddling to get it to work right, but It seems to be working. Here are a couple of stations I heard last night:
Date Call Frequency SNR Drift Grid dBm W by loc km mi
2008-04-24 10:16 F6IRF 10.140265 -24 -1 JN35au +36 3.981 W1WRA FN42ip 5922 3680
2008-04-24 10:10 W1BW 10.140229 -10 -1 FN42hl +20 0.100 W1WRA FN42ip 19 12
2008-04-24 10:08 K1JT 10.140152 -24 -1 FN20qi +30 1.000 W1WRA FN42ip 377 234
2008-04-24 09:24 CT1BYK 10.140216 -29 -1 IM59pf +30 1.000 W1WRA FN42ip 5150 3200
2008-04-24 05:48 F9HS 10.140208 -19 1 JN23at +30 1.000 W1WRA FN42ip 5882 3655
Sorry for the format being slightly off. I have been running mostly in RX mode, and will sometimes turn on TX mode for a bit. I think I will let it receive during the day to see what other stations I can hear.
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