Winter Field Day Underway

Posted on by

Right on schedule at 14:00 EST, W1SYE was on the air for Winter Field Day from Glen Park in Portsmouth.  Willy W1LY and helpers made short work of the setup, and had two ladder line antennas in the trees, and two tents setup for operation by noon.  There was some concern about HF noise from a new generator, and the noise went away when it was swapped out.  And as you might expect there was a scramble to get the logging computers up and going.

Two tents and two simple multiband antennas

Things were working well later this afternoon.  Reverse Beacon Network spots indicated that the CW tent was putting out a fine signal

The gang is busy on phone during WFD — that’s a new tech (waiting for license) at the mic

 

Bob WB4SON made a satellite (only one allowed) with N1FD who was 4O NH (4 transmitters Outdoors in New Hampshire). The first satellite pass happened 13 minutes after the contest began, and the contact was in the log as soon as the satellite was above the horizon.

Satellite Antenna (crossed 2m/70cm beam)

2m/70cm all-mode radio, laptop to correct Doppler, and 30 AH Battery inside truck (warm)

 

NCRC Meeting Reminder: Mon Jan 14 at 7 PM

Posted on by

Happy New Year!

Our first meeting of the year will be at the usual time/location (7 PM on the 2nd Monday, which is January 14th, at KVH Manufacturing – 75 Enterprise DR, Middletown, RI).

Due to other commitments, Portsmouth EMA Director, Ray Perry, KC1IPC, will give a short presentation at 7 PM on the dot.  After his presentation we will move into our regular short business meeting, induct new members, discuss the upcoming Winter Field Day event (Jan 26/27), and our plans for the coming year.

Please Signup for Winter Field Day

Posted on by

It is only 24 days to Winter Field Day.  A new tab, to the right of the “news” tab, has been added to the website that describes WFD 2019.  In addition to the details, it has a signup form that you can fill in to volunteer for the event.

NCRC has done very well (1st or 2nd place nationally) for the past several years.  This is an excellent opportunity to test your skills.

Winter Field Day 2019 details and signup

FT8 Users MUST Upgrade to WSJT-X Version 2.0.0 Quickly

Posted on by

Observant users of WSJT-X versions 1.9.1 and older may have observed decreased decodes in the past couple of days.  This is because the International Standard for FT8 was changed on December 10th.  The new standard is NO LONGER COMPATIBLE with the old program versions.

Go to the WSJT-X website and upgrade to 2.0.0 quickly.  You must stop using the older versions by the end of this year.

Once that change is made, your decode rate will shoot up as the majority of the users are using the latest version 2.0.0.

New easy FM Sat in orbit, Fox1-Cliff (AO-95)

Posted on by

AMSAT launched another Fox FM Cubesat, Fox-1Cliff, on December 3.  It’s downlink is 145.920 MHz (Uplink 435.300 with a 67.0 Hz tone).  The satellite is still being tested and is not available for use yet, but you can easily hear the voice beacon every 2 minutes when it is overhead saying “Fox1-Cliff Safe Mode”.

I understand the best-guess object # is 43774, and it is showing up in various tracking programs as Fox1Cliff, AO-95, or object 43774.  (So many satellites were launched at the same time, 60+, that is too early to tell them apart.)

Check out the tracking program above and you should be able to hear the voice beacon (only on for about 14 seconds every 120 seconds).