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!

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!

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

Weather!

One of the fun things about amateur radio is listening to the weather nets that activate during severe weather. A net is basically a semi-official way of handling traffic for a specific event, such as a content, some kind of public service, or during a storm. We’re under a tornado watch tonight until 11:30 pm, and I’ve been having fun listening to all of the chatter on our local emergency communication service repeater (K0ECS at 145.470).

Night Owl

At the moment, I work a second shift (I won’t be much longer), so I’m often up pretty late. I was sitting around watching TV last night, and I had my little radio scanning the channels for the heck of it, even though I knew there probably wouldn’t be any activity. One of the repeaters chimes every hour, and when 1:00 am came around, I heard the familiar sound, with a little extra I didn’t expect:

“ding-dong, one-o’clock a.m., why are you up?”

Someone has a sense of humor.

Contact!

I had my first real contact yesterday with W0DLJ on the K0ECS repeater at 145.470 MHz band! It was a simple radio check, but it was fun to actually talk with someone rather than just listen.