NY4I – Page 4 – Amateur Radio Station NY4I

Tower Project

By Tom on July 7, 2018

To catch up, we are rebuilding our house in Madeira Beach. We lifted the house to avoid future flooding (the house has been flooded 6 times so far since 1985). As part of this project, I am installing a new shack and tower. The tower will be 45 feet of Rohn 55G house-bracketed to the house in two places. I have engineered drawings showing the system to support the house bracket. The tower will be free standing.

In Madeira Beach, Florida, the city has some confusing language regarding amateur radio towers. In one section of the city ordinances related to towers, they specify that amateur radio towers by licensed hams are exempt from this section. But in the code regarding single family residential property, they state that an amateur radio antenna up to 50 feet is a valid special exemption purpose. As a special exemption purpose, it has to be approved by a Special Magistrate. The Special Magistrate first gets a recommendation from the Land Planning manager which here is the Planning Commission. Hence, the presentation to the planning commission first and then if approved, the special magistrate.

Building a Serious Field Day Satellite Station

By Tom on April 21, 2018

I have been acquiring hardware for a serious portable satellite station for several years. I have used various setups at Field Day and Winter Field Day with irregular success.

Here is what I have so far:

Green Heron RT21 Az/El Rotor
Icom 9100 HF/VHF/UHF Satellite Radio
M2 LEO Pack Satellite Antennas
Yaesu G5500 Az/El Rotor
SSB Preamps for 2m and 440
Mac Doppler for radio and rotor control

One website I check out from time to time is the wonderful site of Fred [QRZ call=AB1OC] and Anita AB1QB. I first found this site when looking for ideas on building a shack. One of Fred’s projects has been building a portable satellite station. As I read the list of equipment in Fred’s article, I realized I have just about the exact same equipment that he does. You can find that article here.

Regarding Field Day, one practice that works very well for Field Day planning is a dry-run. Several weeks before Field Day, we get all the radios, cables, computers, etc together and make it all works together. We then take it all apart, put it all in sealed bags or boxes and bring those exact same bags and boxes to Field Day. It eliminates many surprises at the event itself. It occurs to me that I do not do that same with the satellite setup. So this year, a different plan is on order.

Building on Fred’s project, I went ahead and ordered the Glen Martin 4.5 foot roof tower and sand bags. In May, I plan to get together with those interested and assemble the satellite station complete with antennas, preamps, coax and the rest of the gear. We will then make some contacts. I will work on the bits and pieces between now and then, but the goal is to both educate those interested in satellite operations as well as ensure we have a reliable satellite station for portable operations. This can be of use for Field Day, Winter Field Day and the St. Petersburg Science Festival in which SPARC participates. In the future, the antennas may change as I put some of this equipment up at home, but it will be similar.

If you are interested in helping out, I will advertise this to the usual SPARC/CARS and UPARC channels.

DXCC Update December 2017

By Tom on November 30, 2017

Total confirmed country count is up to 277. I added 4 more on 160 and 6 more QSLs on 12m. Now up to 77 on 12m. So for 9BDXCC, I need 10 more on 160m and 23 more on 12m. I have a 160m card and a two 12m cards to be Card Checked at the Tampa Bay Hamfest next Saturday.

DXCC Update October 2017

By Tom on September 26, 2017

Well, I made some more progress. I just received my 100th QSL on 30m so that makes 7 band DXCC (just missing 12m and 160m). I added just 6 QSLs on 12m since March and 10 new QSLs came in on 160 (the fruit of the Winter DX season). I hope to pick up some more QSLs on 12m if we get a decent band opening during a contest. With winter coming, I hope to finish up 160 also this year for 9 band DXCC. My total DX countries confirmed now stands at 273 (adding 9 new ones since March).

Contest program generated graphs of contest stats

By Tom on June 4, 2017

I moved this to its own page so the refresh works…

See here.

Real-time interface of Station Contest Data to Website

By Tom on May 14, 2017

In an effort to involve more of our club members, I had the idea to allow users of the St. Petersburg ARC (SPARC) web page to see in real-time, the status of the contesting efforts at the club station. My vision is something like this…

Using the TR4W or N1MM+ contesting software’s feature where contact and radio info is broadcast to the network via UDP, I have a Raspberry Pi-based collector of this information running at the station.
This info is parsed using code from a few other projects that already process the XML UDP messages and I place these in a database.
A webpage is built from the database with the current radio info (both stations) and a view of the last 50 contacts.
I then build a widget to place on the club’s WordPress site to show this information.
The net result is a user on the website will be able to see the VFO of each radio, the current operator, and the last X contacts worked. The score of the contest will also be available courtesy of the contest logger’s real-time scoring updates.

I will keep a running history of this project on it’s own page on this blog. If you are interested in participating, let me know. I imagine this could have some general utility for other clubs too.

DXCC Update – March 2017 Update

By Tom on March 1, 2017

After 2 more months, I have confirmed another 16 countries on 160. I’m not sure if I can going to be able to get to 100 this season. I also added 7 on 30m and none on 12m. With the summer, I should get to 100 on both 30m and 12m. Here’s hoping that a bunch of 160 contacts show up on LOTW.

Winter is a great time to work DX on 160 meters. I have far more activity on 160m and 30m than 12m. Here’s hoping I can finish off the remaining 40 QSLs on 160 this winter…

Radio Gear for Sale

By Tom on August 4, 2016

Updated 8/4/2016 – Any items not crossed-out are still available.

I am selling some surplus gear. All prices are for local pickup. Actual shipping paid by the buyer. I could also meet in the Tampa Bay area.

Microham DB-37 cable for Icom $40
Microham USB sound card interface (with an icom cable) ($65)
Icom ID-1 1.2 Ghz Analog/DStar radio. Includes data mode via Ethernet connection to send 128kbs data via DStar. Have microphone, manuals and cables. I have a second one if you want to make a pair for a remote data app. ($550 each)
Icom 821H Dual-band 2m/440 base CW/SSB/FM radio (it has a quirk in that when you key there is a slight delay). ($400)
Icom ID-92AD dual band DSTAR radio. Included base charger $200

All radios have been tested on my HP8924C service monitor including output and receiver tests. If you come to see anything, I would be glad to fire it up into the analyzer and let you verify it works according to specs. You know, unless the analyzer sells first.

5B DXCC and 1000 DXCC Challenge points Complete!

By Tom on June 27, 2016

Well, my DXCC goals are complete for now. I was working on 5B DXCC and was able to finish up these contacts on 80 meters. I also collected 1000 confirmed band-points (county and band combination) to reach the first DXCC Challenge level.

I have some more confirmations needed on 12m and 30m for 8 band DXCC and hope to get the rest on 160 this winter. But that is it for now. The next task is to get back into satellite operations.

DXCC Update

By Tom on February 26, 2016

It has been a good couple of months towards reaching my goal of 5B DXCC.

I have confirmed several more 80m contacts so now I need 15 confirmed countries for 5BDXCC.