Christmas on CD

A new CD for Christmas!
My wife, Lori, emailed me and said that her work had given them bad printable CD's. They were asked to make them into Christmas ornaments. She asked me if I had any ideas. Really? Me? Oh heck no... well...
If you look at my Facebook page you will find a video of my creation: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=2083814074365

I printed a wreath label to keep it festive. I drilled 4 holes in the CD and installed 4 LED's. On the back is a PIC12F675 programmed to flash several different patterns on the LED's. Also there is a 9V battery taped to the back. Her work loved it! I guess it was left on all week so it was running 24/7. It now needs the battery replaced but should last longer if they shut the switch off... (did I neglect to mention the nifty toggle switch sticking out the front?) That was their favorite part of the CD! Lori has named it her "MORnamant."

Robots to Be

Just what I need... another facet of electronics. I have been looking at PICS for some time now. But I have taken the plunge and ordered parts to build a robot or two based on the PIC micro. I will be using the PIC16F690. I have downloaded and modified some HITECH C code and am awaiting some parts to arrive. I originally was going to build something similar to the BRAM using CD's. I still plan to. But as I was surfing through the Solarbotics (www.solarbotics.com) website I found their BRUTUSBOT chassis kit which is based on the Tamiya tank chassis. So, one of my robots will be a tracked robot. Too cool. I am planning on getting the basic robot up and running, adding IR and ultrasonic sensors, and installing a wireless camera. The camera will transmission will be decoded on the laptop and the images will be sent over HAM radio via SSTV. Maybe someday I'll delve into ATV as well. But that's getting ahead of things!

Working FM Satellites

Wow, working the FM satellites is a blast! It's been some time since I posted here; busy schedule with family and work. But the Satellite Antenna is finished and works well. The FT60 mounts right on the boom and it looks fairly professional if I say so myself. My first contact was near the end of April. I copied a call on AO-51 and responded. It was N9ML. I thought I was talking MILES away. Turns out I could have talked to him on our local repeater! But it was my first satellite contact and I was thrilled. I've had numerous other Satellite contacts. during this time it appears AO-51 is no longer in service. I use AO-27, and SO-50, as my main satellites. QRZ.COM logbook lists my satellite contacts. I have talked to Montana, and I believe my longest one was Ozark, MO. I do have an audio clip on my ham website: www.qsl.net/kb8m. I'll post some pictures here as well.

Improving My Satellite Communications

Just received my aluminum rod today from McMaster Carr (www.mcmaster.com) and am ready now to do final assembly of this antenna. It is a dual band 2M/70CM handheld that my FT60 will mount directly to. It is looking pretty good. It was shown in a May 2008 QST article. Here is the article link from Gatorradio.org:

http://www.gatorradio.org/Manuals/Dual_band_Yagi_Article_FT60_QST_2008_05.pdf

Anyway, I have it painted and just need to cut and install the elements and radio mount. I'll hopefully try it out in the next week. But it definitely looks promising!

Michigan QSO Party, de KB8M

It was a fantastic evening. I was busy all day and didn't get started until about 8pm but what fun. I think I am the only station in St. Joseph County that takes part in this. It's fun being a station everyone wants, and when they hear me the pileups start. I made over 130 contacts in less than 3 hours, including one from Rhode Island. Only one more state for my WAS award!. I am definitely looking forward to next year.

Satellite Contact at Last

Well it happened. After lots of trial and error I made my first satellite contact on 2m FM. I used a 1/4 wave mag-mount antenna and ran 5w with my FT60. I programmed 5 channels so I could follow the satellite and compensate for the doppler, and finally heard the bird. Once I had decent audio I put my call out and someone came back to me. Too cool. I received qsl confirmation and found they were in Koontz Lake. So not a long DX contact, but still a contact. I am working on a new antenna so I can improve my satellite operations. Results will be posted.

Winmor and WL2K... email with NO internet!

Too cool. I just completed several email contacts using RMS Express and my ham radio in our emergency response trailer. What makes this so cool is that I didn't use the internet.  I sent the messages as I would with any email program (Thunderbird, Outlook etc.) but instead of the internet I sent it via RF. 

I connected my computer to my Yeasu FT100 via an interface called SignaLink USB. This interface has its own sound card and connects from my USB port to the data port on the radio. I can do RTTY, PSK31, PACKET, and now obviously send/receive email.

I first got it to work indoors on my home station using the same interface but with my Windom antenna and my IC751 radio. Then I used the FT100. Both gave excellent results. When I finally got the FT100 working I took all the radio equipment to the trailer and hooked it up last night. I could see a few signals on the monitor but could not connect. Today (Sunday) I put up my 20/40M Inverted "V" antenna, and bang... connected on the first try. Success!  I sent several emails. I'd like to try to get a simpler antenna put together for the training in May, but if not, this will work well. I built it for field day 2 years ago and it has served me well.

My goal for the scenario in May is to have our team operate at its best, and #2 is to have radio email work in an emergency situation.