"Too many devices on a power strip?"

"Multiple power strips connected to the same electrical outlet?"

"New" Op Pos

ARRL Internet Remote

Please see Steve Ford's new book!

Mountain Wild Life

I need help identifying this young snake.  He/she is about 5 inches long.
He is in captivity until I get a good guess on family.

WA5MLF Patch Configuration

DTS-4 Control Program Now Available

The LDG Electronics DTS-4 antenna switch can be controlled via a COM port from a local computer.  A functional control program is available for download at:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9lsszp3gchyanjt/DTS-4.zip?dl=0

You will be shown a configuration dialog the first time you run the program.  You will only be shown available COM ports.  Be sure to select the COM port to which the DTS-4 is connected.  You can name the antennas in the text boxes provided.  Select the antenna number you want to be the default antenna.  This antenna will be selected each time you run DTS-4.  Once running, change antennas by selecting the new antenna desired.  All the antennas can be grounded by selecting "Ground All".

Once configured you will see a much reduced window each time you run DTS-4.

You can later change the setup by clicking on the pull-down next to Help and selecting Configure DTS-4.  All of your selections are saved in the System Registry.  To remove these entries, click on Help and Uninstall.

Direct any questions or comments to W4UOA.  My email is good on QRZ.

73,
W4UOA

Cincinnati Remote

Interface on FT-2000D

John's new beach QTH!

Actually the beautiful Pearl Beach QTH of 9K2UU.  More pictures available on QRZ.

Raspberry Pi

See this link for more details!

Morning on the Mountain

FT2K Proposed Layout

Emergency Power at The Cottage

EB5AGV Radio Repair

http://radiorepair.blogspot.com/

Op Pos 4-12-12

Back in TCL this morning....

Progress...end of day and 2,000 lbs lighter!

It now appears that I will need 3 tons of rock to finish all the borders.
I have 1 ton left.  I'll finish the north side of the drive tomorrow and then the south side next week.  Hopefully the weather will remain cool.

Driveway Border Underway

Border kit, some assembly required!

Stacked Stone Edging

Remembering Dan, W4EA (SK)

Brief mode refresher

The availability and channelization of the 5MHz amateur radio band has encouraged a lot of us to: review our understanding of our principal modes of communications (AM, LSB, USB, and CW) and to; reread our receiver (transceiver) documentation. A Software Defined Radio (SDR) panadapter is a excellent way to "look at" each of these modes. The panadapter display is a graphic representation of a radio frequency signal. The x-axis, reading from left to right, is frequency. The height of the graphic is signal strength. Figure 1, is an amplitude modulated (AM) signal on 3.740 MHz as indicated by the red line. Note you can see the carrier energy rising to -50 on the y-axis shown on the left hand side of Figure 1. To the left and right of the carrier, you can see the lower side band and the upper side band respectively.

Figure 1 -- Amplitude Modulation (AM)

Source: KE4ID

Zero Beat and Offset in CW

How to Zero Beat Another Station
by Jack Wagoner WB8FSV
CW stations should always try to zero beat each other. That means to adjust your rig's transmit frequency to exactly match the transmit frequency of the other ham you would like to talk to. Hearing two CW stations conduct a conversation a few hundred cycles apart is a waste of frequency space, and is inviting QRM. How does one zero beat another station? Easy to do on phone or SSB, just tune so that the other fellow's voice sounds normal. But trickier on CW because when you put your receiver exactly on a CW station's transmit frequency, you hear nothing, zero. In modern transceivers, in the CW mode, the receiver's BFO is offset from the displayed, transmit frequency in order to produce an audible tone. In other words, the transmit and receive frequencies are far enough apart for you to hear a pleasantly pitched tone when your transmitter frequency is tuned to exactly that of the ham you are listening to. This frequency offset is frequently about 600 Hz or Hertz.
Here is how I zero beat another CW station with my own rig, a Kenwood TS 450. I tune into, or sweep through, the other CW signal, the pitch going from high to low, until the other ham's CW signal disappears. Now my receiver is zero beat with the other ham's transmit frequency. But I want my transmit frequency to be zero beat with the other ham's transmit frequency. So then I tune again, with the other ham's pitch going from low to high, until I am 600 Hz away. For example, if the other ham's transmit frequency is 7137.90 kHz, I would tune my transceiver to 7137.30 (7137.90 minus .60 equals 7137.30.) to transmit exactly on his transmit frequency. The direction you tune or sweep, the pitch going either from high to low or going from low to high, is rig dependent. On Kenwood ham radios you would tune the pitch from high to low as you tune higher in frequency, to reach the 600 Hz offset and be zero beat with the others ham's transmit frequency.
I wrote the above paragraph several years ago, and currently I zero beat using a different method. I still have my Kenwood TS-450, but now as I tune around looking for a station to contact, I leave my RIT(receiver incremental tuning) turned on. Leaving your RIT on while tuning goes against convential wisdom, but I find it works for me. I leave my RIT on about 500 to 600 Hz up. When I discover another station I wish to zero beat, I tune by ear so that their CW tone drops down in tone to almost nothing, meaning that my transmit frequency is now approximately zero beat with theirs. Then I reset my RIT back up a few Hertz so that I can hear the other station. Takes me one or two seconds. Tuning by ear for an approximately 600 Hz tone just comes with experience. I have found that this method of zero beating works best for me. Recently I have become a DXing nut, and I find this new method faster for me. There is no one best method for zero beating. Whatever works best for you and for your rig.
This zero beat frequency stuff is pretty weird, it confuses me at times, and I hope I explained it correctly. The frequency offset for CW in most transceivers explains why when you are listening to a CW signal in the tranceiver's "CW" mode, and you switch to phone, to "LSB" or "USB," you loose the CW signal and have to go search a bit for it again.

FT2K Taking Shape

Ready for another "short" ConnectNow demo. Loaner still does not

provide telemetry nor echo but more and more functions are enabled

to send to the rig. Recent additions are the digital frequency display,

and scrolling with up and down arrow key. S-meter should be fully

operational when FT-2000D gets back from the shop.

LSB and USB Relative to Carrier Frequency

Thanks to Wikipedia for the following graphic.

MiniRig Continues to Evolve

Minirig now has real-time video feed from Cottage web cam.

J-Antenna

This mornings remote ops screen....

Remote Computer Reset

Robust Short Cut w/Authentication in URL

C:\Users\Carl\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe http://admin:password@thecottage.endoftheinternet.org/Set.cmd?CMD=SetPower&P60=0&P61=0&P62=0&P63=0

This mornings operating position....

Fences

Round Table 2-3-2012

I thought you might like to hear yourselves as I hear you in Mentone. Jack starts us off. I have cut out my overs.

IP Address Changes

The Cottage Century Link ISP changes IP address more often than one might expect.
Recent change to router based DYNDNS.org update MAY make restoration of
lost connect move more quickly. However, I anticipate data flow will still be dropped
when Century Link changes IP address while traffic is active on the node.

Century Link tech supports reports that IP address changes are totally automatic and
WILL take place even if there is traffic on the node.

NE7X well worth a visit!

Also, be sure to visit this link!