Iain M0PCB

Hopefully but it's a bit early to be sure. Depends how the baby travels by then.

I missed those but caught a decent number from NA and EU. Always nice to catch friends no matter the distance :)

I only got in the shack late on, 50q in the log though. The day didn't go as planned.

It's worse than that... Repeated effort over time... 😱

After a few days pondering why my new hand free microphone was ticking on the audio I think I figured it out. I'd added 8v bias, but the icom radio already had DC on the mic input. Double bias ftw, or not. Will test it tomorrow morning when there is life on 2m. #hamradio

QHB, what a fabulous gift! Hope it plays as well as it looks.

They do some good Tim. Hoping to hide one at the end of the garden. Great to catch you in AFS CW too :)

As it happens I was talking to John G8CQX and he has spare bits I can use for his design. :)

Contemplating building a small receive loop antenna to connect up to an SDRPlay RSP1 that I can put on the PC in the garage to make a remote receiver.
#hamradio

I've also recently got a hands free microphone in the car on the 2/70 radio and found a fault with my HF antenna mount. Have the new parts to remake the cable and mount and hopefully it'll be a bit more reliable.
#hamradio

It's rather satisfying to be able to solve problems in the shack. Wanted to direct PTT from the K3 between 2m equipment and 4m equipment. Realised the KRC2 band decoder I had lying around from my SO2R days with a K2 would do it. Wired it up last night and installed today. Works a dream!
#hamradio

“When amateur radio enthusiasts die, their media collections are often disposed of by survivors who don’t have any connection to amateur radio. File cabinets and bookcases full of (sometimes irreplaceable) materials are emptied into recycle bins.” Kay Savetz Radio & communications curator

📻 Amateur radio shaped modern tech, from satellites to the internet. Yet, much of its history is at risk of being lost forever. 🕳️ #VanishingCulture

Why does this matter? ➡️ https://blog.archive.org/2025/01/14/vanishing-culture-digital-library-of-amateur-radio-and-communications/

Coming along nicely, glad to be off assistance with testing. Looking forward to winkey support 😝

I wannit nowwwwww! ;)

This is going to be amazing! Can't wait for a full web based experience!

Otherwise known as a sideswiper, no electronics but a sideways action to manually send.

I've not used a bug in too long. Now my antennas are all sorted I should have a bit more time and enthusiasm to get different keys from the collection on the air

I found moving from paddles to bug to cootie much easier because I don't squeeze key. I guess I lack efficiency at the gain of being able to switch keys.

For the avoidance of any doubt, the next time I'm in the garage I will be hunting down all the similar patch cables and putting them out of use...

#choppitychop

These were from CPC about 15 years ago. In fact they are now the only RG58 anywhere in the shack or antennas lol

Two BNC to BNC RF patch cables that were found to be defective are shown on a wooden desk after being cut into pieces too small to be useful.

I had been having some trouble with my 70MHz transverter not working on tx or Rx with the K3. Opened the transverter and the K3 and checked.

Just installed new BNC cables freshly made by me and it springs into life.

Here's what happens to cheap pre-manufactured cables that don't work

#hamradio

We choose to do things in #amateurradio not because they are easy, but because we thought they were going to be easy, initially

I never learned to squeeze key, but I can see the advantages of doing it. Good luck!

252q with my small effort. Mostly 40m and 20m but some on 80m and a few on 15m. That was 21z to 23z each night. ish... #hamradio

It's a Scheunemann key, but yes a clone of the Schurr. I used a N3ZN key for a while but changed back recently for something different :)

It's from IKEA. One of the only ones I could find at the time which was a nice solid block wood top that was 150x75cm. I had to buy 2 tops and cut one to fit round the corner box. Forget the name of the deal top but the drawers are ALEX.

It's the internet from before there was an internet. There is a certain magic in getting a radio signal around the world though!

It really depends, with people I don't know it tends to be introductory but when I find friends I know well then we chat about all sorts of things. Sometimes the fun is in making things and seeing if they work too. Shame your grandfather never engaged you in ham radio.

It's still a thing, for sure! There is an increasing amount of digital stuff as well but there's room for everyone on the ham bands. :)

When I lived in the USA for 3 years I lived in a town home in an HOA area. I had dipoles in the attic space and operated that way. Noone knew :)