My crazy blog

Kenwood TM-721 failure and repair

admin — Sat, 05 May 2012 20:50:00 +0000

My radio lost Tx power on both 2m and 70cm and then finally locked up on one frequency. The problem was the memory battery CR2032 located behind front LCD display on a circuit board. The radio needs to be completely disassembled to access circuit board and unsolder 3 volt battery. I buy these batteries a few at a time because they are used in other products such as PC motherboards. Wires can be soldered on new battery provided time is kept short to avoid over heating battery.

Manteca Bulletin news paper would not print ?

admin — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 17:29:36 +0000

Manteca Water Tower and Amateur Radio

I am a amateur radio operator and helped with the antenna and wire installation that supplies a computer controlled repeater in the shop building. I should be said that installation of the antenna and coax wire was no small task. We had help from a mountain climbing club and used pulleys to lift the wire to the top as it was really heavy. The Manteca Amateur Radio Club repeater serves San Joaquin and surrounding counties. Because of location on the tower station master antenna works really good. Moving the antenna to another tower it is possible that it will not perform the same and needs to be noted that the radio repeater is supported by private donations. When all other communication fails amateur radio works in a disaster and is important.
I think the city is missing the point that saving the water tower would be a good idea and with the lack of water 300,000 gals at 8.35 lbs per gal is 2,505,000 lbs less load on the top.
My suggestion is rent out space on the tower to for commercial communication antennas to pay for painting and other restoration. Metro PCS would pay $2000 a month should cover that cost.
I will agree lets save the taxpayers money and keep the tower as an icon. People when they visit Manteca will see a giant pumpkin.

Manteca Amateur Radio Club meets the first Thursday each month at the Powers Fire Station in a back class room 7:30 PM. Non hams are invited

how to QSL Space Station

admin — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 19:25:42 +0000

Congratulations!

If you made contact with the space station, here are the instructions to receive an ARRL special event QSL card. The card comes from the League, not the astronaut or space program.

If you listened to the space station, you get a card. It’s considered a Short Wave Listening card (SWL).

If the space station came back with an incorrect call sign, the QSO does not count like any other one. It is up to you to come back with a negative or QSL; and verify the contact, and make sure it is copied correctly. When correct, respond with QSO for thank you for the nice conversation, conversation over, roger or 73.

If the astronaut did not come back with your call sign but a general comment like, “You are loud and clear Ohio;” and you are not sure whether the contact was made, send your card in.

When in doubt about your card and contact, send it in. The space station doesn’t count towards any awards.

What do I do if I don’t have a QSL card printed up? Use a regular standard size post card (3-1/2” x 5-1/2”), print out a picture, or make your own. Print the information on the back of the card.
Station contacted (expedition number), Date (D-M-Y), UTC, MHz, RST (Signal Report), Mode

Send your QSL card and a stamped, self-addressed envelope enclosed to:
Norm Fusaro, W3IZ
ARRL
225 Main Street
Newington, CT 06111

(You may add Attention: NA1SS QSL on the left corner of the envelope).

Sometimes it takes a while to get the card, so that doesn’t mean we didn’t receive it. We may be waiting for a supply of cards to be printed. Norm is also the administrator of the electronic QSL Log Book of the World (LoTW) program and ARRL Affiliated Clubs.

For more information check:

http://www.nasa.gov/home/index.html

From the ARRL newsletter 9/20/10
Education Services
Reported by Debra Johnson, K1DMJ

ARISS
Astronaut Doug Wheelock, KF5BOC, continues to thrill hams with contacts made from the ISS. Four ham students at Nelson County Area Technology Center (an ARRL ETP school) and their instructor, Charlie Cantrill, KI4RDT, who attended the TI-2 this past July where he received the station equipment to conduct satellite contacts, got pretty animated over having made a random QSO with the astronaut from his classroom. “Four Amateur radio licensed Nelson County students and their instructor Mr. Cantrill just talked to the International Space Station NA1SS with Astronaut Col. Wheelock via Amateur Radio. This was a high elevation pass and the tracking system was used. ARISS Rocks!” Another TI-2 participant, Tommy Gober N5DUX reported a similar thrill with an impromptu ISS contact with Wheelock at Ft. Bennings Georgia with a group of Army friends. He made a few friends for amateur radio that day.

The social network for ARISS is expanding rapidly. ARISS now has a Facebook page! It has been set up by ARISS volunteer Dave Jordan, AA4KN, who has selected articles about ARISS that he feels will be of interest to the general public. Hams have been posting reports during the past few weeks to the ISS Fan Club web site about their ragchew QSOs with Doug Wheelock, KF5BOC. The ISS Fan Club sponsors are now tweeting the reports, too. Amateur Radio got some great coverage on this web site: http://twitpic.com/2lwwex It featured a front-and-center photo of Astronaut Doug Wheelock, KF5BOC, talking on the ISS ham radio station in the Russian Service Module, the Command Center of the ISS. Wheelock describes the photo, “Fyodor took this picture of me during another night of great contacts with operators in the U.S., Canada, and across Europe. A fun way to stay ‘connected’ with planet Earth. 73!”

Making the email rounds is a new YouTube video done by David Pruett, KF7ETX, of Portland, Oregon, a new ham of less than 6 months. He did a great job of explaining how he was going to try to make a random QSO with Astronaut Doug Wheelock, KF5BOC. Then YouTube viewers sees just how excited he gets when he is successful! Go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSIAi-t0OQI

ARISS volunteer Clint Bradford, K6LCS, gave a presentation over the weekend at the ARRL Southwestern Division Convention in San Diego on satellite ops and ARISS. He was rewarded with a “standing room only” affair of 56 attendees.

Rosalie White K1STO was unanimously elected by the ARISS-International delegates for another two-year term as ARISS-International Secretary-Treasurer. Gaston Bertels, ON4WF, was re-elected as ARISS-International Chairman, and Mark Steiner, K3MS, was newly elected as ARISS-International Vice Chairman.

73,
Rose-Anne Lawrence, KB1DMW
ARRL Outgoing QSL Bureau Associate
rlawrence@arrl.org
860 594-0274

Talking Radio

admin — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 17:26:25 +0000

Now that I own 3 Wouxun ham hand held radios. Want to make some comments. The radio is slowly being accepted by the handy hams. The radio has 2 bands 2 meters and 70 cm an. d comes in 2 models restricted transmit ham bands only and international transmit open 136 to 175 mhz and 400 to 480 mhz. Talks in English and Chinese I have the international model as it is good for testing antennas out of band and will program for FRS and marine channels for emergency use.
audio manuals and radio software can be found on

http://k6pkl.com/wouxunradio.htm

the radio has been really useful with long battery life and weather proof. The cost is low too compared with other hand held radios.

Compass Belt for Blind

admin — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 17:04:06 +0000

Last night in the Science channel a belt called the free space was shown.

the web site showing it is http://feelspace.cogsci.uni-osnabrueck.de/

Below is the audio version I produced

magnetic belt compass Layer-3

Talking radio for the blind

admin — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 18:35:30 +0000

This post is for the benefit of blind persons world wide. amateur radio is your window to the world. The problem is radio equipment that you can operate is limited. I have been working with Wouxun china to have this happen. A dual band mobile radio that talks is expected out soon. It is in the testing stage now.
As a non profit attempt to help have converted their hand held dual band operators manual to a voice file and text reader compatible ebook

http://k6pkl.com/wouxunradio.htm

http://handiham.org/ can help in getting a amateur radio license.

I TALK TO THE WORD WITH MY HAND RADIO

admin — Mon, 17 May 2010 20:56:48 +0000

Below is a picture of my radio station connected to the internet. Can be miles away from home and still connect to my radio network FREE. well actually there is a charge some electric and internet. I have just added a second radio to the system gives me 2 bands to play with 2 meters and 70 cm ham band. The controller information is on . k6pkl.com. what is required a FCC amateur radio license and radio. My system is part of a network called echolink and we all have node numbers. Think of it like dialing the telephone. I can call up systems around the world. On Saturday morning connect to NEWSLINE a news service for amateur radio and my network hears it. can even connect to NASA space center for news on space station. Do not own a cell phone and this is more fun talking hours to other hams around the world.
Talk to a ham in England walking his dog in the evening when I am doing it in the morning. Hand held radio to hand held.

Ham turkey shoot

admin — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:12:10 +0000

In amateur radio we have events that center around the holidays. To explain my radio system is on K6pkl.com. But a short review is I talk over my radio and it enters into the internet and back out to another radio repeater some ware in the world. We use ECHOLINK software and servers to make it work. A amateur radio license is needed to access system. The good part is it is free.

Picture of Game Camera and Deer

admin — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:34:09 +0000

The picture is of a remote camera and a visiting deer. He posed for shot.
The camera is powered from a solar panel not in picture. Will take 600 stills plus videos stored on a 2 gig sd card. I have 4 more plus the one pictured working.

My blog

admin — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:22:44 +0000

I thank the people that send the nice comments on blog and that makes me wanting to add more useful content. These are posted under comments as I read and approve them. The comments that do not get posted are advertising as it is not allowed on this site and jokes just because some of them may offend others.
Love to help others because I get help in my time of need. That is the way us humans need to interact with each other. I call it karma and never try to hurt others or even animals. I have a ranch property and put out corn and water as a thank you to the deer etc in the summer for visiting my land. They are safe on it because NO hunting is allowed. If you visit http://www.billscotts.com will see my friends as I have 5 cameras setup to capture their visit.
Really have a nice day as I will.
Below is a picture of me on the ranch.