Something I haven't talked about in a long time is the changes to my station to enable to it to monitor several types of operation in the VHF (6 meter) band where I operate the most. I think this is the last update, but if not, it's close.
I never got the system working quite the way I envisioned it and probably the biggest reason why I stopped pushing on it was related to the simple fact that I had it setup to monitor six separate frequencies on the band where different modes are used. As the year has unfolded, though, the propagation has left Florida and even the SE corner of the US isolated and all the activity seemed to be in only two areas on the band: one for the digital mode FT8 and one for the "old fashioned" or legacy modes of CW (Continuous Wave or Morse code) and phone, or voice. I could just push a button on the rig and go monitor or check those two parts of the band.
Poor propagation seems inconsistent with this being the peak of the solar cycle, but the first half of the year was better than the second half. That's not completely true, in the last couple of months, I saw relatively close reports of Alaska being heard. I never heard the handful of hams in Alaska that were reported but it's still more times and closer to me than I've ever heard of Alaska being reported.
Another issue I had was that the system needed to be configured to run different instances of the software that the digital modes require. I never got past that point because I was never able to test it and verify it worked. And that was because whenever I had the multi-receiver (SDR Console pictured at that first link) open I never saw someone using those modes.
Along the way this year I learned of new piece of software that seemed like it needed to be looked at. Called JT Skimmer, it's described this way:
JT Skimmer is a freeware, open source 64-bit Windows application for Radio Amateurs. Its main purpose is to monitor the band for digital signals and decode multiple WSJT-X modes, on multiple frequencies, 24 hours a day - and help the operator catch band openings and activity from the rare entities. This is especially useful on 6m because of its unpredictable propagation, but the program may be used on any band.
I can't say everything is working as I'd really like to see it, but as soon as I
put a receiver on the FT8 frequency it started decoding. I suppose I could arrange to sit down with a friend some miles away and we could go back and forth with the various modes.
There are aspects of this that aren't working and one is because it comes with
rig control program different from the one I'm using so certain things that go
to the rig control don't work, and other things make my setup do weird things. The one that comes with JT Skimmer is called Omnirig while I'm using Ham Radio Deluxe - a story in its own right for another day.
As we edge closer to spring, I expect the propagation on 6m to improve with Sporadic E propagation leading the way. With that trend may come regular transequatorial (TE) openings into South America as well as skewed TE into Africa or the south Pacific. A true sign of the solar cycle peak will be long propagation that comes from F2 layer of the ionosphere and could reach to opposite side of the planet. Perhaps it will be worthwhile to monitor more modes simultaneously.
I, for one, appreciate the updates more than you could ever imagine.
ReplyDeleteI've seen larger hamster runs than the two bed, two bath condo we're living in on the western coast of FL, n' the OL, while not a neatness freak, is determined that the 2nd bedroom will be used as a guest bedroom for our kids+++ when they come to visit.
Quite a come-down from our very large ranch in Oregon, sorta like trying to squeeze 10 lbs into a 1lb box.
So, reading your travails(?) allows me to dream.
TNX,
Kiss2RunDownLadies
Back when I used to teach upgrade classes I always told students that if they were suddenly to come across a chunk of money somehow that chances are the best thing they could get for their station is a better antenna installation. How's your lot? Do you have one?
DeleteIt might be good to look into how the SOTA/POTA guys put together a station they go portable with. I've got a friend who does POTA operations. I've talked about some of that in my ham radio series, like End Fed Half Wave antennas. It's in my ham radio series, #33 for one, in the list of Special Pages under the list of Florida blogs.
Dad was an instructor at the Army Signal School at Ft Gordon when I was a kid. We learned Morse code in Boy Scouts and built our own keypads. I was about 11 when I started making contact using the CW on Dad's ham radio setup. I was 15 when I found the frequencies of someone rebroadcasting the BBC when they played album sides. I would record the broadcast on a Teac reel to reel and then copy it over to cassette. I would have albums that were released in England before they were released in the USA.
ReplyDeleteThe apple does not fall far from the tree. I retired from the Air National Guard as a SatCom Maintenance-Operator Team Lead. I also installed satellite earth stations all over the world for a number of years.