For a year or so now, the PSK-31 "watering hole" on the 17m band has been full of FT8. Not that I mind FT8, but come on. Anyway, it seems that sometime last fall the 17m PSK-31 sub-band moved over to 18.097 MHz – details at the Wikipedia article. PSK on 17m is a great little combo for hikers and the like. When the band's open (admittedly not a lot lately, given the current phase of the 11-year solar cycle) low power is plenty for solid long-distance contacts. The lack of contesters and the relatively modest antenna sizes are both big plusses too. I recall one conversation with a guy holed up on the lee side of a rock formation in a blizzard out in Colorado a couple of years ago. He was just out for a stroll with his radio and dog, nothing unusual. It's good to have this capability back. Anyway, PSK-31: It's like The Matrix, but even nerdier. And besides, is there anything else going on these days anyway?
With the current world situation going on, I'm seeing an uptick in traffic to the various "how to program x radio" posts here at the blog. For convenience, here are the major posts on the topic.
Radio Programming Notes: Cables for Baofengs, FT-817/818s, and FT-857s are discussed. There's also a brief how-to setting an FT-8*7 to receive programming via said cable.
Quick-Start Programing... Yaesu FT-60R: External link to a handy one-pager on manually programming these things when the chirps are down. Print it out and stick it in your go-kit.
Yaesu FTM-7250D Quick Start Programming: Manual programming, no cables needed. In the same general format as the above-linked quick-start for the FT-60R. Surprisingly easy. Also, note that Yaesu's Fusion digital mode gives significantly farther useable range for voice communications, so that may be something you want to look into.
All resources listed there are available online, so there's no need to go out for any of this. OK, having said all that, here's one more public service meme from KB6NU's blog (and supposedly from elsewhere, but that link is down):
If 2m is good, I suppose that 30m is even better. Will be off calling CQ on the 30m PSK-31 sub-band for a good chunk of this afternoon.
The following is a news & loose items round-up while I try to think of something of more import to post. (1) Over the years I've observed various hams carefully cutting radial wires to resonant lengths and then burying them in their yards, curling them into shapes better described as "axials" than radials. I've held my tongue, shaken my head, and moved on because, really, it's hard to make an antenna not work. And they're happy with their results. Still, it's interesting to see that this topic has been addressed at least as far back as 1937, as shown in this article at eham. All I can add is that (a) the resonant length of any wire will change when you bury it, or even lay it on top of dirt; (b) that 234/f free-space length sure isn't it; (c) the resonant length will change again next time it rains; and (d) just cut as many radials as you have patience and wire for, run them radially as far as is practical in your yard, and you'll do fine. Because Method of Images. That's what makes an on-ground plane work, all the rest is voudou & gris-gris. (Idle though for a rainy weekend: Is there a uniqueness proof for the RF analogue of Poisson's Equation? Bet there is, bet it's not too hard to show.) (2) In another article at eham, Fishing Where the Fish Are, presents a refreshing approach to recruiting new hams. TLDR: Empty-nesters have the time, money, and increasing lack of fitness to pursue the hobby. What's more, there's an endless supply of older people, Father Time is making fresh batches every day. It may make more sense to recruit there, rather than trying to complete with the distractions that the pre-empty-nesters face. (3) In spare minutes these last two weeks, several friends and I have been fooling with Yaesu's Fusion digital voice mode. It's impressive, giving good clear VHF performance over 20+ miles without needing repeaters or extraordinary towers. It doesn't give magic over-the-horizon performance on VHF, nothing can do that, but it is way better than FM. In communities without repeaters it seems likely to give similar useable coverage, at least for most users. Will have to experiment more on this in the coming years. Why hasn't Fusion caught on faster? Mostly due to Yaesu's bucket-of-everything marketing (example) and incoherent manuals. But overall, yeah, Fusion station-to-station ("simplex") digital voice mode couldn't be easier, and it's damn near magic. The crazy thing is that I've had a Fusion-capable radio for nearly a year, and lots of friends have them too, but the manuals are such crap that we've all just been using them for FM! In the end though, Fusion digital voice simplex is very easy to use and a phenomenal performer. (4) Over at his blog (currently off-line due to who-knows-what, but here's the link) Bob K0NR ponders the question: Why the fuse on the negative power lead on most (but not all) ham radios? His conclusion is that it's generally a bad idea in car installations, because if the ground fuse blows there's always an extra path to ground through the coax shield. Yikes. He also adds that it's probably not that big a deal, but he won't be installing things this way in the future. There is always, always a failure mode you haven't thought of, that some other smart dude can point out. Still mulling over the consequences for stand-alone solar powered radios. There, that should get your weekend off in good nerd-tastic fashion. Catch you on the air.
Article on the Holy Austin Rock Houses at Atlas Obscura. Speculation on their influence on Tolkien is included. Well yeah, seems plausible. Looks like a good place to visit, glad to see that they're kept up and even being restored as a museum.
Sure, I take a lot of snapshots, many of them along the beachfront, many from the top of the Bay bridge. But they're nothing compared to what a real pro can reveal with a good camera. Here, have a look at this photoessay at the Shoofly:
No, really, go take five minutes and scroll through the article. I've lived here almost thirty years and have only had rare glimpses IRL of what he shows here.
Seem it might be a thing. Article at Pop Mech. Lots of room for DIY experimentation here. There will be bruises. Would be mighty handy when out in the woods though.
Potentially listenable big-watt nighttime stations around the southeast are WWL 870 New Orleans, WSB 750 Atlanta, WHAS 840 Louisville, and WSM 650 Nashville. There are others out there, but those are the main ones that come in easily on the northern Gulf Coast. If you're looking for something closer to your place, say within 600 miles or so, Wikipedia has a list of stations around North America. It's useful to be able to set your radio on a frequency and then turn the whole thing around to perhaps sweep its antenna in the station's general direction. Dial around for yourself one night and see what's available in your region. What, don't have an AM radio? Got a car? Radios in those usually have surprisingly good reception. Anyway, it's a neat little video. It's funny that this was considered general knowledge for people just a few years older than I am, but is almost completely unknown to those of us who grew up in the late 70's and onward.
PSK on 17m is a great little combo for hikers and the like. When the band's open (admittedly not a lot lately, given the current phase of the 11-year solar cycle) low power is plenty for solid long-distance contacts. The lack of contesters and the relatively modest antenna sizes are both big plusses too. I recall one conversation with a guy holed up on the lee side of a rock formation in a blizzard out in Colorado a couple of years ago. He was just out for a stroll with his radio and dog, nothing unusual. It's good to have this capability back.
