Another frustrating night

Well, 40 Meters started out decently quiet for tonight's Fox hunt; but it has become quite noisy with the local neighborhood QRN within the last few minutes. And that's a shame as Jay KT5E was coming in quite nicely to NJ. It was either a matter of time before I worked him or before the QRN took the band over. Unfortunately for now, it looks like the QRN is winning.

On the bright side, however, I am making this blog entry from the shack in the basement as I listen to that nasty QRN. We recently subscribed to Verizon FiOS TV and Internet. The Web blazes now and in addition, they set up a wireless router. I picked up a wireless PCMCIA card for this dinosaur laptop and actually got things hooked up!

Now I'll have to subscribe to a callbook service so that Win-EQF can gets its information from the Net instead of buying CDs from QRZ every now and then.

Darn! The QRN is working its way on up from S5 to 10 over 9. Looks like it may be an early night on 40 Meters. Maybe I'll go have a rag chew on 80 Meters before pulling the plug.

73 de Larry W2LJ

NAQCC Sprint

The monthly NAQCC Sprint was held tonight; and for the first time in a long time, I was able to participate. No meetings, conferences or other duties called tonight - just me and the radio. My heart sank a bit at the beginning as 40 Meters was plagued by the ol' neighborhood QRN. Solid bars on the K2 to about 10 over 9. Wow!

So I decided to do the Sprint mono-band this month. I stayed on 80 Meters the whole time with one or two quick switches over to 40 Meters to see if the QRN had abated. It hadn't. But that didn't spoil my fun as 80 Meters, while a bit noisy with static crashes, was hopping tonight!

35 QSOs in the two hours of the Sprint. And that was darned well better than I thought I would do at the outset. If you had told me at the beginning, that I was going to see 35 QSOs on 80 Meters only, I might have looked at you a tad funny.

It was nice to hear old familiar calls like W1OH, KA2KGP, N8FVM, K4BAI and others; but it was also nice to hear a few unfamiliar calls with higher SKCC member numbers. That means the new guys are jumping in with both feet and getting active. That's a good thing.

I have to say, though, that two solid hours on the straight key was not all that tough on my wrist and arm. Maybe I'll feel it tomorrow; but as of right now, everything feels great!

73 de Larry W2LJ

Cards from the buro

I came home today to find a small packet of QSL cards waiting for me from the 2nd call area bureau. Not many and nothing exotic; but it's always nice to get DX cards.

Mostly cards from Spain, Germany, Latvia, Canada, and Slovenia. A few of them have really nice pictures and I'd like to scan them and post them; but my scanner doesn't work with Vista.

When I went out to buy the new printer, I didn't buy a multi-purpose job because "I have a scanner already at home". Stupid me didn't stop to think that the old scanner wouldn't work with Vista.

The other alternative, which I might try, is to hook up the scanner to my shack laptop which is running Windows 2000. I could load images up on that computer and just carry them over to this computer using my USB memory stick. That should work; but am wondering if it's worth the trouble.

I need to win the lottery so I can buy myself a decent, current laptop.

73 de Larry W2LJ

Woo Hoo!

The official announcement came down today!

"Finally, I have a firm date on all the parts needed for the return of the PFR-3 radios, which will now be known as the PFR-3A. Steve redid the board and fixed some minor glitches that were bugging him. The board has new software that is NOT backward compatible to the PFR3. It is different because the new board required it. So no, you don't need to upgrade your software in your atmel chip.

The kits will be ready to ship the first week of December. Now the bad news, I have to take a price increase of $25. There is a special offer for anyone who orders between now and Dec. 1st. I will honor the old price of $200 for the kit. The price will officially change on Dec. 1st. So if you are thinking of ordering, don't hold off, so you won't be hit with the price increase. You may order by going to the website and clicking on the PFR3 picture. Dean will keep everything the same on the pricing until Dec. 1st. Steve will have the new manual up in a few days, well before the kits ship.

Thank you again for your incredible patience and support on a great Steve Weber design. 72, Doug"

Just the news I was looking for! And just in time for Winter building season!

73 de Larry W2LJ

An excellent blog post

was made by SolderSmoke news during the week. It interested me so much that I am posting the link here, too.

http://www.jefferson.kctcs.edu/observatory/apollo11/

The story is about Larry Baysinger, an AM Broadcast Radio technician in Louisville, KY, who was also an amateur radio astronomer. He used one of his home made radio telescopes to intercept raw radio transmissions that were coming from Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin while they were on the surface of the moon.

His main interest was to see if NASA was editing the audio in anyway before allowing it to be broadcast to the public. For those who might be skeptical that he was picking up spurious radio transmissions from a ground station, Baysinger was ONLY able to hear the transmissions when he pointed his radio telescope directly AT the moon. In any other position, he heard nothing; and he had to sight his antenna visually.

He recorded what he received for posterity; and if you go to the link above, you can listed to mp3 files that he made of his recordings. Notice that you will hear Aldrin and Armstrong only - no Mike Collins who was in the Command Module, nor any CAPCOM or Public Affairs Office announcements.

This has to be one of the coolest homebrew stories of all time!

By the way, Baysinger found that, by comparing his recordings to those that were taken from TV, that NASA did indeed NOT cut or edit anything from the signals that were received from the moon.

73 de Larry W2LJ

40 Meter QRP Fox hunt success.

The local neighborhood QRN cooperated tonight, giving me pretty quiet band conditions on 40 Meters. I heard Dave AB9CA in Alabama right off the bat. Dave always has a pretty good signal into NJ; and tonight was no exception. He was an honest 579 and I worked him fairly early in the hunt.

Jim K9JWV in Utah was another story. I'm pretty sure I heard him all the way up near 7.050 MHz; but he was at ESP levels and I couldn't be 100% sure that it was him. But I am pretty sure that I heard a few hounds giving their exchanges.

40 Meters was quite long! Stronger than Jim in Utah were stations coming in from Brazil PY and Mexico XE. I would have stayed on the air to work a few; but am battling a head cold or sinus attack or something and all I want to do is get some rest.

73 de Larry W2LJ

Veteran's Day 2009 - Part Two

John Shannon posted this in his diary entry for the day. I get the same weekly letter that he gets from Newt Gingrich (we conservative whackaloons tend to flock together). However, reading this once again, caused a bit of mist to come to the eyes. It is so appropriate and meaningful on today, of all days, that I feel compelled to post it here, also.

Once again, to all Veteran's everywhere - Thank You !!!!

"Where Do We Get These Men and Women?"

"This Veterans Day, I am reminded once again of the wonderful line at the end of the movie adaptation of James Michener's The Bridges at Toko Ri.

A Navy Admiral is reflecting on the sacrifice of airmen given the mission of destroying a group of heavily defended bridges during the Korean War. The men were successful, but at the cost of their lives, leading the Admiral to famously ask:

"Where do we get these men?"

Today, the question is "Where do we get these men and women?" and last week, the answer was Killeen, Texas.

Answer: Killeen, Texas

Killeen is the home of heroes this Veterans Day; men and women who prove that our servicemen and women don't leave their bravery and selflessness behind on the battlefield.

Killeen was also the site of terrorism last week; proof that we are not immune from Islamic extremism inside our borders, even on our military bases.

Killeen is the home of Sgt. Kimberly Munley, a Department of Defense civilian police officer and an Army veteran.

Sgt. Munley was nearby getting her car tuned-up when the 911 call came in. Without waiting for backup, she was the first law enforcement official to arrive on the scene at Fort Hood.

"She Fired Until He Dropped. The Killing Ended."

Much has been written about Sgt. Munley's heroism, but few have described her behavior in the heat of a confrontation with the Fort Hood shooter better than the editorial writers at the Las Vegas Review-Sun

"Could Sgt. Munley, hit in the wrist and both thighs, really be blamed if she'd ducked for cover? She didn't. From all reports, she stood her ground under fire, calmly reacquiring her sight picture, putting four rounds right where she wanted, in the advancing murderer's center of mass. She fired until he dropped. The killing ended."

The Heroes Who Brought Down the Berlin Wall

This Veterans Day week also marks the celebration of another set of American heroes: The men and women who put their shoulders to the Berlin Wall and pushed -- until it finally fell 20 years ago this Monday.

Where did we get these men and women? From all across America and everywhere freedom and human dignity are valued.

For although the revolution in Eastern Europe occurred without a shot being fired, countless Americans -- not to mention Britons, Germans, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks and Hungarians -- sacrificed for that day.

Before there was a wall in Berlin, there was the Berlin blockade in 1948, when the Communist regime in Moscow tried to literally starve West Berlin to death. President Harry S. Truman ordered an airlift to feed West Berliners and resist Soviet aggression. Seventy-one American and British servicemen lost their lives.

And before there was a victory for freedom, 20 years ago this week, there were unflinching advocates for freedom in Eastern Europe like Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II.

These are the heroes we honor today.

Washington Seems More at Home with International Dictators Than America and Its Heroes

"Hero" is not a word we use a lot these days. We have a media dedicated to destroying, not showcasing, greatness. We have popular culture determined to celebrate victimhood rather than heroism. And we have a regime in Washington that seems more at home with international autocrats and dictators than America and its heroes.

But the inescapable fact of America is this: Ours is a country founded and defended, not by conciliation and sophisticated diplomatic gestures, but by honor, bravery and sacrifice.

Our heroes are not incidental to our nationhood but an essential part of it. Why? Because America is not, contrary to what our President believes, merely a nation among nations. We are, on our best days, closer to what Ronald Reagan believed: A shining city on a hill.

Take the Time Today to Thank a Veteran For His Service

The heroes of our city on a hill stretch back from Killeen, Texas, through a bloody 20th Century and a great Civil War, all the way to our founding.

They are the men who left a trail of blood in the snow of Northern Pennsylvania on Christmas night, 1776.

They are the men and women who serve today in Iraq and Afghanistan.

So make sure you take the time today to thank a veteran for his or her service. Take the time to remember and honor a hero.

Because in doing so you are answering the Navy Admiral's question at Toko Ri.

Where do we get these men and women? From a nation that remains worthy of their sacrifice."

Thank you, Mr. Gingrich for writing this.

73 de Larry W2LJ