Spring is here and while I still have snow covering many parts of the yard and temps well below freezing at night, I was able to drive an 8′ foot copper grounding rod (actually a copper clad steel rod courtesy of K1RX) into the ground without any problems. I was able to use a 5 lbs (2.2kg) hammer to get the job done and didn’t hit any ledge. Ran 14 gauge stranded copper wire to the clamp on the rod and connected the wire to the HF radio ground. I’ll work on a more substantial grounding system over the summer.
Next, I changed one end of the antenna support line on my 40 meter dipole. Had been using some thin, weak, neon green, nylon cord. Went with for 100′ of 3/32, black, UV resistant, Dacron rope I picked up at HRO on Saturday. The other support end was already using the stronger Dacron rope. Strong winds (40 to 50 MPH gusts) last week snapped the thinner cord before I had a chance to lower the dipole. Next upgrade is to put up a 140′ long, made in NH, UltraLite Senior antenna (for 160 to 10 meters) this spring.
Amateur Radio
With help from KA1GJU, I got my OpenTracker 1m (Rev 2) APRS unit connected to my Yaesu VX-6R HT. It took a bit of soldering, testing and troubleshooting. GJU discovered that the blue wire on the VX-170 HT cable wasn’t connected to any pin on the 4 conductor 3.5mm waterproof connector. We installed the 10uF cap to pin 1 on the DB-9 and the 2K Ohm resistor to pin 3 on the DB-9, connected them to the white wire (Mic audio) and the tracker came to life!
So far, the set up works fine using only 5 watts from the HT. Once I get the mobile antenna mounted on the car, it should perform even better. Here is a picture of the OpenTracker, GPS receiver and HT.
So what does all this mean? What is APRS? To paraphrase Wikipedia, “APRS is the Automatic Packet Reporting System which uses amateur radio to automatically report the position of a person or object…” In my case, the tracker is used to report on the position of my car. I connect a small GPS receiver to the serial port on the back of OpenTracker and the HT transceiver, a Yaesu VX-6R, is connected to the radio port. The tracker itself is DC powered by a 3 amp fused cigarette lighter adapter. Using configuration software specifically for the OpenTracker, the tracker stores my ham callsign and other parameters controlling tracker behavior. Once everything is powered on and the GPS receiver has a satellite fix (about 10 seconds or less in my testing), the tracker takes the lat and lon from the GPS, bundles the data into a packet that is then passed to the transceiver. The transceiver sends out the data in a burst on 144.390 MHz (in the USA) that is picked up by a local digital repeater, or “digipeater”, for retransmission. An IGate, internet gateway software for APRS data, takes the incoming radio frequency data (the packet) and passes it to the APRS-Internet Service. So as I drive, I send out GPS position reports at periodic intervals that appear on the ‘net. You can view my position in real-time using FindU.com or APRS.fi. I prefer the latter, so go here to view the last transmitted position of my car. Here is a map of a short drive around town I took yesterday while testing the tracker.
Amateur Radio
Cranmore, North Conway, NH – 3/10/08
The kids had Monday and Tuesday off so we stayed in North Conway and skied Cranmore. Conditions were excellent, sunny, little wind. Snowboarding was terrific and the kids loved the long green runs.
Ski & Snowboard
Wildcat Mountain, Pinkham Notch, NH – 3/9/08
We headed up NH 16 to North Conway on Sunday. Our plan was to stay in Conway and ski locally. Got to Wildcat about noon and headed up the mountain for some runs. Looking back, the drive up to the ski area should have been our first clue that this was not going to be a relaxing day of skiing with the kids. In town it was sunny and relatively warm with no wind. The drive fifteen miles up into the mountains became darker, windier and colder along the way. As we rode the chair to the green and blue runs, I noticed the snow flying and knew this snowboarder was going to be tested. I was not disappointed. The descent was filled with crud and I learned that, in this case at least, ‘frozen granular’ equates to ice sheets. I augured in a few times and after being spanked hard for a while, headed for the lodge.
After a Guinness (okay, two), Kirsten and the kids came blaring through the radio. Giving them my QTH (ham-speak for location), they arrived and was treated to their story. They had headed up to the summit but the cr*ppy conditions caused them to spend an hour getting down the hill starting from Upper Pole Cat. It was tough for the kids (hey, they are only 6 and 10) but they came through it fine and we continued on with our skiing and boarding the next day…
Ski & Snowboard
ski, snowboard
Pats Peak, Henniker, NH – 3/2/08
Did a half day of snowboarding. Messed around with my stance width and pretty sure I had it set too wide. After about two runs my quads were on fire. As a beginner, I’m still fighting the board a bit and trying to dial in an angle that feels best for me. More experimentation and boarding needed.
The kids skied well. Abby took a path off a green run onto a short black diamond and went through the woods. She handled it with ease. Cate just loves the speed and picks a line that is almost straight downhill – and she stays in control and can turn on a dime. Next week, I think we’ll hit Cranmore and BW again.
Ski & Snowboard
Bretton Woods, Bretton Woods, NH – 2/24/08 – 2/29/08
Some of our best skiing and snowboarding to date. Fresh powder, almost 2′ while we were there, and flurries every day. The kids passed the tipping point and are now true skiers. Both were running through the green trails with ease. Abby ran many blues and a black diamond or two during our trip.
Ski & Snowboard
