W4SGA - Welcome the Amateur Radio Station of Jerry Perlman

Here are some PSK resources on the internet I have found that might interest you.

The 30 Meter Digital Group - access to lots of good PSK and other digital modes through this site. It was on this site that I first found the PSK reporter and HAM spots.

Echolink

Bringing dead repeaters back to life Worldwide 24/7

Just below is the original post I put up in early 2009 after W4SGA-R had been up and running for just a few months. I am quickly approaching 1 year of having it on the air and wanted to add a few notes to the original article.

The DTMF access through the repeater is still quirky. You can enter 3 and 4 digit node numbers and they typically work with great success. 5 and 6 digit node numbers are still hit or miss, mostly miss. But I have found that long strings entered using a DTMF auto-dailer work well. Don't figure. That seems to be the most troublesome area that I am still working on.

Using the newest versions of Echo Producer software I am able to have weather Alerts, Watches and Warnings issued by the NWS on the air as soon as they download. I also have time and temp announcing at regular intervals.

I have the Newsline and ARRL news files up all week and you can listen to those by punching in 99* or 98*.

Beacons play regularly to let people driving on I-95, primarily, know we have a working Echolink node in the area for their use.

To allow our friends in distant places join us for our weekly club net on Sunday nights we have been moving the node to the 147.330 repeater all day each Sunday. The antenna is located on the WSAV studio tower at 1430 East Victory drive at a height of about 400 feet. PL Tone to that repeater is 205.3 hz.

If you would like to link in and stay connected for long periods of time to my node please feel free to do it. The only time you will be disconnected is if I loose internet access or reboot the computer. I have changed from DSL to Comcast internet which is proving to be not nearly as reliable so disconnects can be frequent but are usually short-lived.

The text greeting you get on Echolink when you connect to my link asks you to ID so we will know you are here. I ask this because only a few people listen to this repeater regularly. I am one of them and there are many hours of the day that can't listen or talk. A lot of other local HAM's have it in scan but only listen a bit of the day, like when they happen to be mobile. This is a great repeater but gets little use locally. The most used machine in Savannah is the 146.970 repeater, but it doesn't have an Echolink connection.

So if you connect just to see if someone is on the air or call to call CQ, be patient, do it several times and stay connected for a while.

The beam antenna has been moved to the antenna farm in the attic because Spanish Moss kept falling off the trees that needed cleaning off all the time.

W4SGA-R node is open to all types of connections unrestricted worldwide. Everyone is invited to use it. 73 - Jerry

Originally posted December 2009

This article was originally posted February 2009

I was just down in my radio room listening to a Ham from California staying here in Savannah connecting to a repeater in his hometown and talking to a friend that was walking around with an HT 3 time zones away. A little earlier on this rare weekday afternoon off I was talking to Alan, a new Echolink friend that lives in the UK while David, KC4MKD talked along from his home on a radio over the repeater.

It was really beginning to sink in what a great tool Echolink was and the new life it has breathed into the CARS 146.70 repeater, a really great repeater that hadn't had more than the ID play over the air in years.

It all began just after Christmas 2008 when Guy K4GTM, Dan KF4MND, Ryan AJ4MY and I got together to hook up an Echolink station at my house with the intention of establishing a repeater link using one of Dan's homemade interfaces. I wanted to use my Yaesu FT2800M base station to connect up to the CARS 146.700 repeater. But Dan's interface only had a RJ45 connector on the radio end. That would work with my Yaesu FT-857D, which is my main radio used for HF, but not with my 2800, which uses a RJ12 connector for mic in.

But we hooked it up to try it out and it worked great. But it tied up my HF radio and literally took me off the air. 2 days later I couldn't stand being off HF radio so I disconnected everything and put my station back together.

While at my station Ryan observed that I had a Tigertronics Signalink USB unit that I used for PSK and other digital modes on HF and said I should use it as the interface. Echolink is one of the advertised digital modes it is supposed to be perfect for. So since I couldn't really rewire Dan's interface and it was such big fun having the link running here I decided to take Ryan’s advise and get the proper interface cables to make this run my Echolink station.

Shortly after the first of the year I ordered the proper connecting cables and when they came in I started to work hooking it all up. According to Tigertronics and the Yahoo Group for Echolink hundreds of systems were running this setup or something very similar with excellent results. It took about an hour to get everything hooked up, but to my disappointment it didn't work first time out of the gate.

It took weeks of working about an hour at a time only a few days a week to exhaust every possible solution I could think of and a few things Tigertronics told me to do before I had to admit I had reached an impasse. I was able to get audio from the receiver into the Echolink software but I could not transmit. Using the PSK program “Digipan” and putting it into the tune mode I was able to confirm the software was activating the PPT circuitry but every time I tried to pass audio it would only made the Signalink box click in and out of transmit mode very quickly. I could not transmit a continuous carrier.

So after another short call to Tigertronics they knew exactly what it was and told me what to do to fix it. 1 minute after I got off the phone with them I had it working. By the way - these folks are great. They don't care where or how you got their product, they are just happy to help you solve your problems and they really know their stuff.

The solution was so simple it’s almost embarrassing and one of those cases where reading every word in an instruction manual would have given me the answer I was looking for much quicker than I got it.

On the front panel of the Signalink USB device are 3 knobs. One for receive level, one for transmit level, and one for something called delay. They told me to turn the delay knob from the 9 o'clock position, which was where it worked just fine for PSK on another radio, to 3 o'clock. The delay adjusts hang-time for the Signalink’s Auto-PTT circuit. With packets of information a really short hang time is perfect. With voice you want more. You can set it for as much as 4 seconds of delay with the control rotated all the way clockwise. At the other end of the scale (where I had it set before) the delay is approximately 15 milliseconds after Transmit Audio has stopped.

And that did it. A few more tweaks in the audio software and it was working just fine and sounding just great. The only problem that persisted was we could not enter DTMF commands and call up remote nodes.

But again with the help of a lot of people in the Ham community around here, researching the Echolink Yahoo group and just taking a few stabs into the dark, we got that part solved too to some degree.

So with everything working many people have experimented with it and are having fun. The link has been up and running for over 6 weeks 24/7 and I think I can safely say the experimenting is done and we are ready to have a permanent working Echolink connection to the CARS 146.700 repeater.

I got some new equipment to make sure we had as reliable a link as possible. The link station now consists of a Pentium 4 – 2.5ghz E-Machine computer dedicated to running the Echolink application. It is connected to the Internet by DSL. An Astron power supply is powering a Yaesu FT2800M radio for the link, into a Diamond A144S5 - 5 element yagi antenna that is mounted out near the river bank pointed right at the repeater. I'm using the Tigertronics Signalink USB as the interface. There is only a USB connection from the Signalink to the computer and an audio connection from the radio’s speaker out into the computer sound card. That’s it. It works great and sounds great. Computer originated audio sounds as good as RF originated audio. I will be forever tweaking it and trying to make it perform better though.

Antenna providing 24/7 link from W4SGA-R to W4LHS 146.70 Repeater which is a clear shot across the river and marsh

Since I’ve have had it up and running we've had regular visitors from literally all over the world connecting. And now local Hams can stay in touch with all their buddies back here when traveling.

This Echolink node has breathed new life back into a repeater that was for all practical purposes dead. No one used it and that was a shame because it is a really nice repeater that Ed Bigbie, W4MMQ recently did a bunch of work on to the antenna and feed line as a gift to the club. I'm not sure of the height but it is way up there on the WSAV TV tower on Little Neck road at US17 just south of Savannah. It gets into Savannah pretty well and covers all of this area out here south of the city.

The link is identified as W4SGA-R. You'll find it in the directory under repeaters on Echolink. The node number is 416682 if you are dialing in from somewhere else by RF link.

If you can, when you are sitting around in your shack, please monitor the 146.70 repeater. If you hear someone connect please acknowledge them so they will visit again. When someone connects via Echolink there is an announcement of their call over the air. A welcome announcement is also played to them over their computer that asks them to ID after connecting. Depending on Internet conditions sometimes there is a delay. I’ve been working on the squelch tail, as that seems to delay things a little too.

Presently I have it wide open to accept calls from all sources including multi-conferences. It will accept up to 10 connections and inactivity time-outs are set at 4 hours. Please connect and monitor as long as you like until it kicks you off. Until I see a problem in a particular area I’ll leave it set like this. I have remote computer access and can shut it down if there are any problems and make adjustments.

Please let me know what you think of the system and any problems you discover so I can look into solving them right away, or any suggestions you have. And above all, please use and enjoy this great new capability the Coastal Amateur Radio Club now has available to its members and the HAM community at large.

Finally I want to thank a few people here that put their support into this project in one way or another and got behind it and helped make it happen.

My Wife, Elizabeth, for allowing me to indulge in my hobby to the degree that I do. Ed Bigbie - W4MMQ, Guy McDonald - K4GTM, Steve Jonas - K4SDJ, Dan Scott - KF4MND, Lowell Beckner – N4ZLJ, Ryan – AJ4MY and Bob Harmon - W4WTO.

Thank you all for the part you played in making this happen.

73 – Jerry / W4SGA

Click here to get Echolink software and read a complete explanation of how the system works. It's free !

About Me !!

My initial interest in radio dates back to about 1962. My dad bought us a Hallicrafters S53-A receiver and strung a wire antenna up between some trees. I listened to radio stations from around the country and the world and eventually covered a couple of walls in my room with QSL cards from shortwave broadcast stations from all over the world. I also listened to the HAM bands some. A short time later on we got a radio that would receive some of the VHF band and a few other bands. I listened to the police, taxis some business 2-way radios and some old radio telephones. Of course there were also HAM's back then on some of the frequencies I could receive. I listened to them too.

Some time around 1965 or so my Dad introduced me to a friend of his that was a HAM, an old guy that was a pharmacist that lived across the street from my Grandmother on 52nd street in Savannah. Every time I went to my Grandparents house I headed over to Henry's house and spent time with him listening to him talk around the world. I learned radio and basic electronic theory from him.

But when it came to learning the code I just couldn't do it. As hard as I tried I just didn't get it. I was going to Hebrew school at the time learning Bar-Mitzvah and having to learn to read and speak Hebrew. Learning 2 "languages" was just too much for my young brain to absorb at the time.

So I became a listener, an SWL enthusiast, and was satisfied with that as a kid until I discovered girls, photography, rock and roll music and then later on broadcasting. Somewhere along the way in the mid-1960's my dad and I played around with CB a bit. CB was a lot different then.

I became a Broadcaster in 1975 when I got my first radio job. I became as interested in broadcast engineering as I was in playing rock & roll music on the radio. A lot of the engineers at the radio stations I worked for and later on at WTOC-TV/AM/FM were all HAM's. By then 2 meters was well established and all my HAM pals were building Heathkit 2 meter radios.

Crystal scanners were around and I bought one of them. When synthesized scanners came around I bought a couple of them, a couple for the house and one for the car. Along with listening to the Cops I always had the HAM repeaters in there too.

By this time in my life I had fully adopted the attitude that as soon as the FCC dropped that damn Morse code requirement I was going to get my license.

When the FCC dropped the code requirement for the Technician's ticket in 1991 I knew it was time to get into the hobby.

I earned my no code tech ticket under the new rules at the first testing session given on the first weekend after the rule change. My buddy Lyndy Brannen (now ND4XE - Check out his website) and I went to the Charleston, SC Hamfest in the winter of 1991 and took and passed the test. My first call was KC4YEC.

I was very active for about 5 years on VHF and UHF from my QTH on Tybee Island, Georgia. It was an ideal location for working stations up and down the eastern seaboard. It was a tall house 300 feet from the beach and I had some really nice antennas up. I was quite active on all the bands from 50Mc through 70cm.

When the Internet and modern computers came along in the mid 1990’s, computers starting to really become the tools of choice in my business, television broadcasting, and my attention was diverted from HAM radio to computers. I also got married and moved from my original QTH on Tybee to another place on Tybee that I couldn't put any antennas up at.

In 2002 my wife and I moved from Tybee to the house we are in now near Richmond Hill in Bryan County Georgia.

I was off the air until October of 2006. That’s when my friend Mark Eversoll (KQ4WT) gave me some of his old radio gear. I pulled out some of what I had left of my old station, set it up and got back on the air on the 146.970 repeater in Savannah, my old stomping grounds. I connected with some of my old friends and made a lot of new ones.

And that started it all over again. The bug had bit me again. I became active once again on all the bands I had privileges on as a Technician.

Soon after becoming active again my buddy Lyndy told me about the vanity call program that had come about while I was inactive, so I checked that out.

While I was exploring the database of available calls I discovered that W4SGA was available. Everyone that is about my age or older that grew up around Savannah Georgia in the 60's - early 80's knew this radio station the "Rocking 140 WSGA". It was a 1000 watt day/250 watt night AM station on 1400 that was the local rocker and EVERYONE listened to it.

It was also the first radio station were I was exposed to the world of broadcasting and my friends there got me into the industry helping me get my first job.

So I was simply stunned !! I couldn't believe that call sign was up for grabs. So I paid for it and a short time later got it.

So as a tribute to all the guys that were "Goodtimers" on WSGA 1400 AM in Savannah, I honor them by keeping their call sign and memory alive and on the air. And I sure love saying it.

OK, so I had the bug again. And I now had the ideal spot for transmitting here at my new house on the Ogeechee River in South Bryan County, EM91, near Richmond Hill, Georgia. I have ample real estate for just about any kind of antenna I might want to put up and a large area for a radio shack in my shop area downstairs. In fact, for me a big deciding factor in buying this house was the downstairs, which was a totally unfinished but partially framed in area with a 2 bay garage with overhead doors and a full bathroom. The perfect future radio shack.

This is my QTH on the Ogeechee River in Bryan County Georgia. The wooded area on the right side of the house in this picture is where all my HF antennas are discreetly located. Most of the bottom floor of the house is my radio station. Located in the wooded area is a 60 meter ladder line fed inverted "V" that also works great on 80 meters and a slightly modified 102" doublet. Orientation of the antennas is north/south

Not pictured here but up and running now is a small diamond 2 meter - 5 element beam pointed at the W4LHS 146.70 repeater. It is mounted right next to the large oak tree pointed across the river and the marsh. This provides a solid reliable connection to the W4SGA-R Echolink node 24/7 regardless of weather.

I knew I had to get on HF. I had a look at the test and decided with a little studying I would have the book part down, but there was still the damn code. Lyndy had just learned it and upgraded himself so he gave me the code practice course and on my way to work every day I worked on learning the code. It was still tough. I had a block I couldn't get around. And by now I was a true code requirement hater.

I was very frustrated and questioned why have this antiquated code as part of the test in this age of modern software driven radios, digital modes and computers. It was really just an artificial filter, in my opinion, to keep people out of the hobby by a bunch of guys that had to learn it to get their ticket and if they had to learn it everyone would have to learn it. Under that sort of logic where was the test on programming a digital radio without an instruction book.

But I could see the handwriting on the wall. The code was no longer a requirement internationally to get on the HF bands and many countries, including Canada had dropped it as a requirement for licensing.

Just about that time the FCC made the best decision regarding HAM radio it had made since dropping the code requirement for the Technician class license in 1991. It was dropping that damn code requirement for all licenses and making just 3 license classes.

In my opinion this was the smartest move the FCC could have made to advance the hobby and remove a roadblock for many that had been in place way too long. Removing the code requirement has brought some of the best and brightest new operators to the hobby in numbers we have not seen since the 1950's.

So like I did in 1991 I studied and took the test at the first testing session I could find, this time in Brunswick Georgia in December 2006. I had to wait until the new rules went into effect in January 2007 to get my ticket stamped and officially become a General class operator.

During the wait before I could get on the air I bought an HF radio and a tuner, put up a wire antenna, downloaded HRD into my Hamshack computer and waited for the day. It came pretty quickly. My first contact was with W1AW on February 25th on 20 meters. 5/9 report. I was thrilled.

Since then HAM radio has become my number one hobby and I enjoy every moment I am able to indulge in it. I'm on my way to building a world class HAM shack over the next 20 years or so, I hope. It's grown a lot. I've made a good start.

I can operate on the HF bands 80-10 meters, only 2 meter and 70cm FM right now. I've made about a dozen 6 meter contact and then only loading up my 102 footer. My primary modes of operation are SSB and a little QRP AM contacts on 80 meters. I also operate PSK31 on 20, 40 and 80 meters mostly and have an Echolink node running 24/7 that connects to our club repeater on 146.70 covering the Savannah and Richmond Hill area up into South Carolina.

Drop me a note if you want to try a contact on any band I can work. I'd love to give it a try. 73 - Jerry Perlman - W4SGA

Originally posted Summer 2007

Let me tell you about the radio club I belong to CARS-Savannah - W4LHS

The Coastal Amateur Radio Society

I was recently elected as a board member of my local amateur radio club, CARS, The Coastal Amateur Radio Society and am honored to help serve the club and the amateur community. I am a member of several committees and I will do my best to improve what the club provides to it's members and further the state of the art of the hobby, and most of all, try to contribute to what a club should provide for it's members - fun.

To further that fun I have recently finished the experimental testing phase of an Echolink station here at my house that links to the CARS repeater on 146.70 (PL100) that covers Savannah Georgia and surrounding areas. The repeater is located on the WSAV-TV broadcasting tower on Little Neck Road at highway US17 near the intersection of US17 and GA204.

The link is W4SGA-R (Node #416682) and is up and running 24/7 now. DTMF tones are activated so you can call a remote link, user, repeater or conference up directly from your radio through the repeater.

Just key you radio and enter the node number. To disconnect just key up and hit #. I have more information on this in a separate section of the website on the Echolink node,

I also consider myself an ambassador for the club and would like to invite all of you hundreds of HAM's in our area to check out the website from time to time to look for new stuff, try out our new repeaters, hook up on Echolink and maybe join us for breakfast on a Saturday morning or come to a meeting.

Our club Website is W4LHS.com. We are in the process of designing a new website that will be active soon. I am a member of the website committee and would appreciate your input on what you would like from an amateur radio club website. Our club call is the former call sign of J. Curtis Lewis, now a silent key.

Ed Bigbie, W4MMQ, obtained Mr. Lewis' call for us recently so we could show our respect for his contributions to the club and the amateur radio community of Savannah Georgia. Curtis was a member of the club, benefactor was a very influential part of the Savannah Georgia amateur radio community. We owe a lot to Curtis for what he did to advance the state of the art of HAM radio in Savannah.

You can reach me or any other member of The CARS-Savannah Radio Club by e-mail using the member's call @ CARS-Savannah.org.

Our club publishes a monthly newsletter, Groundwaves, edited by Mac, KF4LMT. We encourage the contribution of articles. You can submit articles directly to Mac at Groundwaves@CARS-Savannah.org.

The latest edition of the Groundwaves newsletter can be viewed by clicking here.

Recent improvements have been made to some of the repeaters the club operates and maintains. I think our147.330 repeater located on the tower of the TV station I work for, WSAV-TV/DT on Victory Drive across from Daffin park in Savannah at about 385 feet is now the flagship VHF repeater for our club. That baby works!! It covers the metro Savannah area and you can work it from just about anywhere in the city with an HT.

Ed Bigbie enlisted the help of our Director of Engineering, Lowell Beckner, also a HAM (N4ZLJ) and between the 2 of them they were able to do what I had been working on management to do for 12 years with no success - get a really good repeater up on that tower in the middle of town. They just aren't making places like that anymore, especially in the middle of town.

My thanks to both of them for what they have done to help us all enjoy the hobby even more. They both put in a lot of effort, time and planning and none of it was cheap. The entire system from the bottom to the top is first class gear and the installation is the best I've ever seen.

This commercial grade Motorola repeater can be worked with an HT from almost anywhere in the Savannah Metro area. This repeater has a PL access tone of 203.5Hz. WSAV has a huge generator and massive fuel tank so this repeater will remain on the air as long as that tower on Victory Drive is standing. So far it's been there since 1959 so I think the odds are good it will remain on the air in an emergency. Oh, and I forgot to mention, the entire bottom of the rack cabinet is filled with big batteries as another backup.

Recently the CARS Radio Club put the only UHF repeater in the area on the air. It's frequency is 442.70 (PL 203.5) and is located on the WSAV broadcast tower on Little Neck Road at US 17 where the VHF 146.70 repeater is located . Recent upgrades to the antenna system, controller and feed line make this commercial grade Motorola repeater located above the 800 foot level on the tower another wide area talking machine.

A final note here on the 146.70 repeater with the Echolink connection. For years it was plagued with serious interference problems that made it virtually unusable. The Georgia Public Radio station FM transmitter that was the source of the interference has been moved to the GPTV tower near Pembroke and once again, with the help of Mr. Ed Bigbie, W4MMQ, it's working like a champ. New feed line and an new antenna plus the Echolink connection has made this machine a lot of fun and traffic is building on it every day.

Please feel free to use these repeaters at any time and be sure to try our new Echolink connection to the 146.70 machine. You'll find a lot of the club members hanging out there.

73 - Jerry

The Soundcard Oscilloscope

Some fellas from Pennsylvania that I met late one night on 60 meters turned me on to this soundcard based oscilloscope that is very useful and really cool to use.

The Soundcard Oscilloscope receives its data from the Soundcard in your or from an external soundcard interface like the Signalink USB from Tigertronics with 44.1kHz and 16 Bit resolution. The data source can be selected in the Windows mixer (Microphone, Line-In or Wave). The frequency range depends on the sound card, but 20-20000Hz should be possible with decent to good modern sound cards. The low frequency end is limited by the AC coupling of the line-in signal. The oscilloscope contains a signal generator for 2 channels for Sine, Square, Triangular and Sawtooth wave forms in the frequency range from 0 to 20kHz. These signals are available at the speaker output of your sound card. These can be fed back to the oscilloscope in order to generate Lissajous figures in the x-y mode.

The software is FREE from the author Christian Zeitnitz. He is very adamant that it is free to the point that a dialog box pops up each time you open the program that you have to OK telling you if someone has charged you for it you should kick their ass.

He makes it clear also that he does not want any financial support but also not to expect any technical help. As his website states "Do not expect any help with your individual sound problems. Its up to you to solve these problems related to your installation".

So there you go. Check it out and enjoy. It works really well.

Ham Radio Deluxe

A Few Thoughts on a Great Product - and it's FREE !!!

I want to recommend to everyone and then brag a bit on the amateur radio software suite Ham Radio Deluxe by Simon Brown, HB9DRV. It has been a part of my radio room since the day I put my Yaesu 857D on the air. If you have a modern radio and a computer in your shack you really owe it to yourself to check out this great, free software. It is about the best accessory that I can think of to add to your radio. It interfaces with almost every modern radios and takes all the functions and controls, some of which are buried behind multiple presses of the function key and layers of menus, and puts them right there on the screen along with all important operating parameters and all kinds of metering.

HRD connects to your radio through the CAT interface connection and then to your computer. You can pay retail price and buy the CAT cable from your radio manufacturer or buy an aftermarket cable for cheap on ebay. In my case, the Yaesu cable was an old style serial connection so in part that dictated the computer I am using for radio control. Some new computers don’t even have an RS232 connection. (Editors Note: You can also use a USB to Serial adapter with the stock DB9 to CAT cable) On ebay you can get a pre-made cable that connects to a USB port. I didn't know this when I got mine. Mark Bolton (KA4CID) identified the plug as the same used on a PS2 mouse if you want to make your own.

I have a computer dedicated to operation of the radio, which I might also open an Internet browser on from time to time, but that's about all I run on it. In fact on this computer I am running dual monitors because I am also using the DM780 digital application, which is another part of the HRD suite for PSK and other digital modes. The 2 monitors allow me to always be able to view the digital master program and the radio control screen and not have to switch between windows.

You can configure a small radio control area in DM780 to monitor basic radio functions, but having the 2 screens means you don’t have to take up real estate on the digital program, just move from screen to screen. Naturally, this will run fine on a single monitor system you’ll just have to switch between apps from the task bar.

The features of the DM780 program are really another story that I will write as a follow up after I have a little more digital experience under my belt. It looks like it will run every thing from Morse Code to RTTY, all the PSK variants, Olivia, slow scan TV and many others. You can customize the waterfall, receive and transmit windows any way you like and use pre-set macros or make your own so you don’t even have to type. Hit one button to deliver the proper response such as station info and signal reports. Like the logging program, which I will be describing in a moment, DM780 queries QRZ for information on contacts and auto populates the log and uses the info to fill in dynamic fields in the macros for replies. It makes getting on the air on PSK or RTTY easy. You can of course just type stuff in and hit the send button.

I’ve had some great fun using PSK31 making contacts all over the USA and several European DX stations and no one works with over about 45 watts of power and simple antennas.

The interface looks really good on the wide screen monitors that are becoming more the norm with new computers. And the wider screen will essentially allow you do view it like I am doing with 2 monitors.

Setup and connection was super easy. The first time I used my new radio I started out with it connected to the computer using HRD software. I cannot imagine using this tiny (but great) radio any other way. About the only controls I ever touch on the radio are the on/off button, the button to activate the 60 meter band and the tuning knob. I still like to spin the knob, which instantly reads out on the screen via Ham Radio Deluxe. Any function you change on the radio is instantly reflected in the graphical interface.

Every other control; band changes, recalling from memory, mic gains, power levels or any operating control other than the few I mentioned I control from the interface screen via customizable sliders. HRD allows total customization of the GUI so you can really make it look any way you want. I change mine constantly, making little tweaks here and there now that I have settled on a basic layout. You can save all your layouts and instantly change the look.

HRD contains the best logging software I have ever seen or used. It opens as a tab on the operating screen and can be set to auto hide. It interfaces with QRZ also to fill in QSO information and can automatically record time, frequency, virtually everything from the radio as you log the call. Just set it for auto fill and hit F1 and all fields are populated from the radio settings and from QRZ. It contains extensive data handling capabilities in the recorded records such as tracking status of QSL's, contesting information and much more.

There is also a QSL label printing application available that works with HRD’s Logbook, see more about it at: http://www.ham-radiodeluxe.com/Programs/HRDLogbookLabels/tabid/128/Default.aspx

With the recent changes at QRZ.com, you’ll have to download a patch in order for the HRD Logbook’s QRZ lookup feature to work properly. The patch can be downloaded at: http://www.ham-radio-deluxe.com/Downloads/BetaKits/OH2AQClusterFix/tabid/125/Default.aspx

There is a satellite-tracking program as part of the program that works great. Update the elements with one button and select the satellite you wish to track from the list. It will show you forecast tracks with hover elements wherever you select. It will show you the Bird’s footprint at any point in the orbit and give you azimuth and elevation settings.

There is an audio grabber program that allows you to record, store, manage, and playback audio files.

The last of many functions I’ll mention here is the DX Cluster window, a fabulous feature. There is an HRD DX reflector website that you connect to when you launch the program and once you connect it will auto update at regular intervals that you can set. There are actually many sites you can pull information about DX from but this was the default setting and I have never explored the others. You can select the band you want to watch DX info fly by in the window or watch all bands from 160 meters to 33cm. When you see a contact you want to listen to click on the contact in the DX window and it switches to that band, frequency and mode. Very cool stuff.

Oh, and I forgot to mention you can run your radio from a remote location, like in another room on a laptop or another desktop computer. This is a really great feature I seldom take advantage of but it is there and works great. I have not tried it over the Internet outside my home network but I understand it works well that way too.

Lyndy Brannen, ND4XE uses HRD remote all the time and is a real expert on the subject, particularly the audio issues encountered in remote control operation. See his website at www.ND4XE.com where he has information about remote operation and a player where you can listen to his receive audio.

I can’t emphasize more how great and powerful this program is and best of all, it's free!! We’ve all had to buy software like Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop that is really expensive but obviously worth it. This program is every bit as powerful and like Photoshop or Excel, will do almost anything you can dream of doing and things you will never even uncover. And best of all its totally FREE!!!

You've got to check it out. Go to http://www.ham-radio-deluxe.com/ . Write me if you have any questions. I’ll try to help.

73 - Jerry

Originally posted June 2008

The 60 Meter Band

The Hidden Jewel of HAM Radio

No matter what time of day I turn on the HF radio I immediately tune to the 60 meter band. There is a lot of activity on the band in the morning when I am getting out of the house to head to work, and a nice group seems to gather each evening about sunset usually before I get home. Heard here usually on channels 2 and 4, (what the heck is that digital stuff on channel 3 and where is it coming from) and lately the band is pretty hot. There is a lot of mobile activity. I am talking to a lot really nice fellas pretty regularly from out as far as Arizona and Missouri down to Florida and up to West Virginia and all points in between. I've even made some DX contacts from Central America, The Caribbean and one HAM in the UK I've talked to twice in the middle of the night.

This is really a fun band and one I consider a "gentlemen's" band (not that bad behavior is a real problem these days on any band like it used to be). Everyone is on equal footing and that foothold is within reach of every HAM at a modest investment. Since maximum ERP is 50 watts no one is trying to blow the other guy away with more power and massive beam antennas. QRP is common. Everyone is courteous and abides by the rules, as far as I have observed. Since this band is shared with government users and essentially on loan to Amateurs, and everyone using it knows it, we're setting an example so perhaps we can be granted more spectrum in the band at some time in the future. There is an official push going on right now to do that. Sometimes this band is real quite. Good microphones, great audio and antennas are the focus of the people using and experimenting on this band. Wire antennas seem to be most common but I have encountered few users of verticals.

Recently I've added an antenna the plans of which were passed on to me by someone I was talking to on 60 meters. Plans for that antenna were recently featured in QST magazine. It works great on 60 as well as several other bands.

I may also build a vertical antenna for this band from plans passed on from others that have built them that I have talked to on 60 meters. Since I am located on the bank of a salt water river and have the room for a ground field I think I am in the perfect location for doing that.

This is a channelized band unlike all the other HF bands and most older radios, although you can receive on your general coverage receiver, they can't transmit on it. The process for making my FT-857 operate on this band was not intuitive at all. I had to get the book out to use it the first time. Tuning up has been a challenge without an auto tuner.

But it has been a lot of fun. I've sent and received a lot of QSL cards with folks and send cards to most people I make contact with on this band.

So now after settling back into the hobby after many years off I'm finding 60 meters as a nitch I like. Of course I'm still operating on the other bands but this is rapidly becoming my favorite.

Originally posted April 2008

Antennas in the attic

The final thing a wanted to mention was I took down all my outside scanner, UHF and VHF antennas and put them in my attic. Ken Griffin, W4JKG gave me the idea. He has a bunch of antennas in his attic and performance is great. I was put over the top after talking for some time to my pal Bob Harmon, W4WTO when I found out he has an antenna farm in his attic too. I read as much as I could find on the subject and found this is very popular particularly in antenna restricted areas, which, fortunately is not the case here. I was only worried about attenuation from the roof materials but so far no problems from that either. I have a 4 story house with a full sized, walk up, unfinished attic that made this a very easy project. A hell of a lot easier than erecting and taking down push up poles outside that were never as tall as my house. And getting up on the roof was just out of the question. On a one story house when you are up on a roof you can always rationalize you might just get hurt badly if you fall. From the roof of a 4 story house with a steep pitch I believe certain death is probably going to be outcome of any fall. So the roof was not an attractive option. Ken loaned me his MFJ antenna analyzer and I was able to decrease my db loss considerably with shorter feed lines and I will also decrease my chances of lightning hits and weathering of connections. Adjustments are as easy as walking up the stairs. This was a great idea that has increased my transmitting and receiving ability by several fold. I have also increased antenna height by no less than 10 feet. The fact that the antennas are in the attic seem to be transparent so far. I am hearing things on my scanners I never heard before, and hitting repeaters 80-125 miles out solidly and regularly. If you've been thinking about doing this don't delay, just do it. It's a great idea and a simple solution. Be sure to stay as far away from wiring and if there are walls or areas with foil backing this could present a problem. But otherwise a far better idea than risking falling from a roof.

Originally posted Winter 2007

Marconi the HAM KITTY calls the shack home