Larry’s List

If you’re a ham in the Kansas City metro area, I highly recommend subscribing to Larry’s List. I haven’t been a subscriber for all that long, but it’s already proven to be a valuable resource.

Think of Larry’s List as a channel for all of the amateur radio-related news in the metro area. You’ll find commentary, opinion, and event announcements all flowing through the list. At the very least, it’s a great source of information, but it can also be a forum for discussing ideas or getting in touch with others that share your same interests.

Way To Go, Linux

I got Ubuntu 9.10 up and running this past weekend so I could start testing out some Linux software, and I was amazed how much was available. I assumed there would be a lot of obscure stuff out there that I would run across eventually, but there was a separate category for amateur radio right in the software manager!

I’ve used Linux a decent amount in the past, but it was usually for work, or just playing around with it at home on a spare machine for the heck of it. Since OS X is my primary OS, I didn’t see enough of an advantage to having a dedicated Linux machine (OS X is officially UNIX, so very similar to Linux under the hood). After seeing this, I’m going to have to start taking Linux a little more seriously.

It may be a little while before I can review any of the Linux software, but I’ll have some posted on my software page as soon as possible.

Software! (again)

I just added and updated my Software, so head over and take a look. The offerings are a little meager at the moment, but I’ll be adding more in the future!

Lots of Activity

It seems like the frequencies have been getting much busier lately. I don’t know if it’s because of the weather, the time of year, or what. It’s been fun listening to the chatter on my walks to and from work each day. Now that I’m working a normal shift, I’m actually able to tune in to the nets that occur in the evening, too.

I’ve been in contact with several organizations lately, and I’m working to become more involved in radio. One organization I think I’ll join is the Johnson County Radio Amateurs Club. I’m also checking to see if I can get more involved with local ECS activities.

Software!

I’ve been browsing around at all of the great radio-related software out there the last couple of days. I can’t necessarily use much of it at the moment since all I have is my little handheld, but it’s interesting to look at the possibilities.

One of the more interesting finds is something I’m sure many of the old-timers are familiar with, but it’s new to me: Ham Radio Deluxe.

I’m primarily a Mac guy, but I’m not so tied to the platform that I can’t see the value in a good piece of non-Mac software. In fact, I have Windows 7 installed as dual boot on my MacBook, and I have a dedicated XP machine at home (which is actually sharing a partitioned disk with Ubuntu, but since this isn’t a computer blog, I won’t bore you with too many details). There are some really nice things about HRD: it’s mature, it’s got a ton of capabilities, version 5 has a web-based logging tool that’s available, and best of all—it’s free!

I’d encourage anyone to take a look at all of the radio-related software out there. There are loggers, antenna design apps, radio controllers… you name it! I’ll see if I can start building a list of interesting stuff here on my site. It’s been done before, but it seems to me that a lot of the software lists out there are fairly out of date.

Back in the Game

After a busy summer and a change in my job, I’m finding a little more time to spend on my hobbies. My son and I built a crystal radio, which hasn’t worked yet, but it was still fun to build. I’ve also acquired a Tiny Trak 3, which I thought might be fun to use for APRS. I purchased the kit, so I have yet to build it. Hopefully I’ll have more success than I had with the crystal radio.

I’ve also found a really cool mix of two interests that I have—radio, of course, and meteorology. Apparently, it’s possible to build a satellite weather station of your own, which is described really well on this site. This is definitely something I’m interested in trying, just to see if I can get it done.

One last thing–I’m going to see if I can use EchoLink to get in touch with friends that I can’t reach on 2m or 70cm. Apparently, there’s an EchoLink repeater in a nearby town that I should be able to hit with my little Yaesu. We’ll have to see what happens!

Busy, busy, busy…

An unanticipated death in the family, a trip home, and a vacation out West–it’s been keeping me away. I’ll be back!

We tried!

A couple of my friends (KD0FIZ and KD5TCS) and I went out to an observation tower at a nearby park this past Sunday to see what we could pick up on the 2m band during the ARRL June VHF QSO party. After a couple of hours trying, we unfortunately didn’t pick up much (there were a few people that popped in, but were unintelligible for the most part).

After a while, KD5TCS went home, so before the other two of us left, we decided to give it one more try. To our surprise, someone responded. It was KD5TCS from home, about 8 miles away on simplex! Success!

The Xtal Set Society

My son is in the Cub Scouts, and I thought it would be fun to build a crystal radio for credit toward one of his badges. (I think the whole Cub Scout badge thing has gotten way out of hand since I was in the scouts, but that’s a post for another day and another blog.)

At first I thought it would be easy to find plans on the internet for a crystal radio we could build from household materials and a couple of components from Radio Shack. As I was surfing around, however, I discovered a local group called The Xtal Set Society out of Lawrence, KS, that produces several crystal radio kits that are very reasonably priced.

While I’m sure I could have put something together myself, I decided to purchase the XS 500 Basic Crystal Radio set. I just received it today and am reviewing the instructions so my son and I can take a crack at it soon.

Electronics have always been an enigma for me, and I’m not sure why. I get the basics… Ohm’s law and all that. I completely understand how the various components function. But then there’s a point where actual circuits come into play, and there’s nothing “circuitous” about them. There are wires and grounds and pieces going every which way!

My hope is that by starting out with this nice little radio set, I can gain more familiarity, and my son can start to learn, too.

VHF Field Day!

The 2009 ARRL June VHF QSO Party is coming up, and it sounds interesting. I’ve never been involved with anything like this yet, but I may just go out with a couple of friends and see what it’s like. At the very least, I’ll be listening to the air waves. You can read more about the field day here:

Join the Fun in the ARRL VHF QSO Party This Weekend