Category: radio

In mid-December, N1MM (version 1.0.9758) introduced a spectrum display option supporting the Elecraft K4 radio. Below is a walk-through on setting it up. For this to work, your radio will need to be connected to your local network. You can check this by tapping the Menu option and scrolling to the middle. You should see a valid IP address like […]

Parks on the Air

radio

2022-10-19 wt8p No comments

In addition to all of the geocaching I planned, I also thought I’d try activating some parks. Parks on the Air (POTA) is a program inspired by the ARRL National Parks on the Air program in 2016 by Sean Kutzko (KX9X) and Norm Fusaro (W3IZ). The idea is simply “everyday is field day,” that is, you take your radio crap […]

An old piano that's been sitting outdoors for years. It's no longer playable

Geocaching in the Northeast

2022-09-192022-09-20 wt8p

Like a lot of folks, I had to cancel my travel plans in 2020 – this was a March trip to New York City — which left me with a moderate chunk of air travel credit$. I used some of them to visit the oldest geocaches Kansas and Colorado last year, but about by late December of last year, I […]

Field Day 2022

radio

2022-07-012022-07-15 wt8p

Paul (W7PEZ) and I worked field day as 2B EWA, that is, we set up with battery-powered equipment, everything self-contained. The national forest site near Cle Elum was fantastic – great view from a ledge, higher elevation (near 4000′) so it was cooler, very quiet, and trees to mount antennas. Paul brought his ICOM 7300 (HF) and a Yaesu 857 […]

Configuring N1MM+ CW for the Elecraft K4

radio

2022-03-062022-03-06 wt8p

With my KX3, using N1MM+ to manage CW sending was accomplished via an indirect set of KX3 macros and keyboard sequences. Thus, we had this awfulness: Bob (N6TV) presented at the Spokane DX Association and mentioned this on slides 52, 62, and 63 of his presentation. There is a lot of good information in his presentation, and you should view […]

Configuring Elecraft K4D for WSJTX / FT8

radio

2022-03-042023-02-02 wt8p 3 comments

After a year, my new Elecraft K4D has arrived. To any new owner, I’d highly recommend grabbing Bob (N6TV’s) general setup checklist. There are also some great presentations on Bob’s QRZ page. There were a lot of steps necessary to set it up with WSJTX’s FT8 that I thought would be worth expanding here with a lot of screenshots. This […]

Marathon Support

biking
radio

2021-09-242021-09-28 wt8p

When the immunization rate in western WA got high enough, the state began opening up a little, leading our first requests to support public events in nearly 18 months. Since June, I’ve worked at (basic first aid, ham radio work) four marathons: three Light at the End of the Tunnel and the Jack and Jill’s Downhill Marathon / half-marathon. These […]

Lion Rock viewpoint taken on 2021-06-25 while geocaching.

Using Slack for CW Academy

radio

2021-07-142021-08-12 wt8p

During the latter part of my Basic class, when students were becoming more engaged, we ran into several problems with the email and text messaging. As an experiment, we used Slack in my intermediate class the most recent term. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive. In the spirit of trying to give back, I thought it would be helpful relating our experience. 73, […]