I have experimented with Radio Mobile for a few years. If you have not tried using it, you should. It is a free RF link analysis program that uses geographic elevation data to help you determine the obstacles between two radio stations.
The details of this program’s capabilities are too numerous to mention here so please visit the web site here…
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I made my very first Olivia QSO tonight. It was a bit daunting, but I took the time to study a little about the standard, already had MixW rigged up with the Olivia DLL, listened around a bit on 20 meters then 40, figured out where to call CQ and just did it.
It was not even two minutes before a ham came back to my Olivia 16/500 call on one of the 40 meter calling frequencies.
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During our Sunday night Tech Net in Northern Virginia one of the participants described a 140 watt amplifier he just finished building for use on the HF bands.
My immediate thought was “Hmmm, he already has a 100 watt style typical HF radio. Why does he need something that does 140 watts?”
The I remembered he also has a QRP rig which generates the typical 5 watts or so and this linear amplifier allows this QRP rig to be just like the typical 100 watt radios when you need or want it.
The amplifier concept comes from a company called…
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Many amateur radio operators take advantage of the bonus points available during the annual ARRL Field Day operating event in June. One of the more interesting bonuses is the Alternate Power demonstration. Many hams use generators powered by wind, hydro and even human. Others use photo-voltaic solar electric panels to power a QRP rig to gain the necessary QSOs for the bonus.
As a demonstration of how solar can work, this is a terrific Field Day activity.
During the solar demonstration, visitors and participants often ask about the viability of using PV Solar Panels as an offset to their electric bill. The motive is obvious… save money.
I have known for some time PV Solar is very expensive and has Return on Investment (ROI) periods of decades. That was some time ago though. I decided to check out the latest solar calculators to see if PV Solar was still a hopeless financial investment.
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