http://radio.carnagevisors.net radio, live transmission Wed, 29 Oct 2008 01:52:51 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Well my standard upgrade came through. VK3FBSD is now gone, replaced with VK3LNX. Now I can use digital modes, and 20 metres among other things. Just happy it's all come through. And I'm looking forward to the weekend. http://radio.carnagevisors.net/2008/10/29/vk3lnx/ Well Hannah and I were driving home last night and we came across a converstion on VK3REC (the EMDRC club repeater.) About ISS making a pass overhead. So we tuned our trusty little HT to 148.8MHz and at about 1900 local time, we started hearing the SSTV transmission from ISS. Wow, ... http://radio.carnagevisors.net/2008/10/24/iss/ Well finally I took my exams a couple of weeks ago for the foundation license, and on last thursday was assigned the call sign VK3FBSD. But it appears I won't have this call sign for too long as I just took the standard exams (and regs exam) so in a couple ... http://radio.carnagevisors.net/2008/10/19/licensing-and-call-signs/   So Hannah and I decided to build a fan dipole, to cover 80 metres, 40 metres, and 20 metres.   Not a 100% success as it we still need to tune it correctly, but still it worked well. We didn't really have as much time to work, as by the time we ... http://radio.carnagevisors.net/2008/09/10/dipoles/ Well, Hannah and I were able to contact a station in Russia over the weekend. One of the amusing things I've discovered about HF, is that while you may be able to converse with distant stations, just talking to someone locally can be difficult. ~Ivy http://radio.carnagevisors.net/2008/08/25/propergation/ After a few hours of trying, I was finally able to have a QSO with someone via PSK31! The levels and connectors are a bit finicky, but using W1HKJ's FlDigi in GNU/Linux works a treat. I spoke with Andrew, VK5EX, in Adelaide with a report of 599 both directions. He ... http://radio.carnagevisors.net/2008/08/23/psk31-2/ Had my first DX contact. I was expecting to work North American maybe on 20M. Tuning around 80M when we set up was a bit dissapointing, only noise. Moving on to 40M we got swamped by AM Broadcasts. Tune tune tune. 7080kHz, a faint signal. Listened for a few rounds ... http://radio.carnagevisors.net/2008/08/22/ue6mac0/ Well, now that Hannah and I have the new radio, it's interesting to see the difference it makes compared with the ft-707, and that difference is huge. Before we could only pick up the odd strong signal on 80 metres, but now we can pick up a whole lot more. A better ... http://radio.carnagevisors.net/2008/08/20/sounds-of-suburbia-take-three/ Well, we finally did it. Yesterday Ivy and I bought a bunch of radio gear so we could get on the air. Icom 706 mark IIg radio Icom PS-300 power supply LDG AT-7000 automatic antenna tuner Diamond X50 V/UHF antenna Diamond SRH-771 HT Whip We got most the gear from StrictlyHam. Ross didn't have the tuner ... http://radio.carnagevisors.net/2008/08/17/icom-706-and-rememberance-day-contest/ PSK31 has always interested me as a digital mode. Taking up only ~31Hz of audio bandwidth, and a usual SSB signal transmitting ~2.5kHz, you can fit quite a few QSOs in the one passband. This lends itself perfectly to having a single PSK31 call frequency per band, where many people ... http://radio.carnagevisors.net/2008/08/10/psk31/