Friday night, I was calling CQ on 30m and not having a lot of luck, when I heard a very faint signal a couple hundreds Hz off frequency. One of the reasons it was so faint, is that I had my receive filter set to a pretty narrow setting to reduce the level of QRN during my previous QSO. Fortunately, my hearing is pretty good, and after detecting the faint signal, and realizing that the filter was pretty narrow, I opened up the filter, adjusted the RIT, and had a great contact with the other guy.
The point I’m trying to make is that when calling CQ, you probably shouldn’t have your filters set too narrow. You could miss a fun QSO.
You should probably tune around a bit, too, after calling CQ. While most radios now have VFOs, there are some guys out there using home-brew, crystal-controlled transmitters. If you don’t tune around, you’ll miss their call and possibly a great contact. Another reason to tune around is that even most operators realize that they should zero beat when answering a CQ, it’s not difficult to misadjust one’s VFO and answer a CQ off-frequency. If you don’t tune around, you’ll miss that call and possibly a great contact.
Mini Maker Faire 2016
Yesterday, was the 2016 version of the Ann Arbor Mini Maker Faire. This year, it was held at the downtown branch of the Ann Arbor District Library. I was a little leery that attendance would suffer because of the parking situation downtown, and it did seem slow at first and probably a bit down overall, but I think it was a success.
We had a great turnout of amateur radio guys, including Thom, W8TAM; Prem, AC8QV; Joe, AC8ES; Ed, AB8OJ, and Dave, N8SBE. Thom and Ed showed their SDRs, Joe brought his 3D printer and his RaspberryPi WSPR setup, and Dave brought his K3 setup.
As usual, I had my collection of keys and was teaching kids (and some adults) how to send their names in Morse Code. I have a chart of the characters (see right) that I tape to the table next to the key, and when someone approaches the table, I ask if they’d like to learn to send their name in Morse Code, and if they say yes, I ask them to tell me the first letter in their name.
After they tell me, I show them the character on the chart and then show them how to send it. Once they’ve successfully done that, I tell them to look up the rest of the letters and then send them as well. If they successfully do this, I thrust out my hand and say, “Nice to meet you, Joe (or whatever name they just sent me).” The look on some faces is priceless.
Because this was the Maker Faire, and a lot of the attendees are on the nerdy side, there was a fair amount of interest in the bug. After I showed them how it worked, they really appreciated the mechanics of it.
VE3CWM
This morning, I worked Ralph at VE3CWM. As their QRZ.Com page notes, “VE3CWM (VE3Cold War Museum) is located in the Emergency Radio Room, 25 feet underground, on the top floor of a 4 story decommissioned nuclear bunker. The original call sign was VE3GOC (Government OCfanada). Much of the original radio equipment, a 1984 Yaesu FT-902DM and accessories (above photo), have been recovered and are still operational to this day. The equipment is maintained and operated by members of the Museum’s Volunteer Radio Group (VRG).”
We had a nice contact, and if I’m ever up that way again, I’ll make sure to visit the museum.
TeacherPatti says
Have Thom bring you some of his BBQ. :)
Walter Underwood K6WRU says
Is it OK if I quote and repost the two paragraphs about “send your name in Morse code”? That is a clear description of an easy activity for Boy Scouts.
Of course, I would attribute it to you and link to this blog post.
Dan KB6NU says
Absolutely!
Walter Underwood K6WRU says
Thanks!
And here it is:
https://observer.wunderwood.org/2016/06/07/send-your-name-in-morse-code/