Working hard & playing with the tractor

I have been helping my friend Paul KC0HST work on his new house as time permits on my days off. On Friday I hauled my little tractor over there so that we could spread out the rock in his new basement. (It felt like heart attack work with a shovel.)

My little BX2350 was just barely small enough to drive into his basement.. talk about some challenge work. It is all about having the right tools... or so we like to pretend.

One QSO per day

A few weeks ago I was talking with my friend Bob AD7BP about starting my recent winter tradition of trying to working one QSO per day when I am home.  I ended up starting the challenge (without initially realizing it) a couple of weeks ago.

The list below shows who I have been working since this started in early October.

Date	Time on	Call Sign	Freq	Mode
2011-10-30	23:24	TU2T	18.147	SSB
2011-10-30	14:51	RK6YY	24.8908	CW
2011-10-30	02:03	CT9/DJ6TF	10.119	CW
2011-10-30	01:47	RK0UT	14.213	SSB
2011-10-29	15:43	Z35T	24.911	CW
2011-10-29	15:37	LX1DA	24.9021	CW
2011-10-28	14:44	CT9/EC8AFM	28.4875	SSB
2011-10-28	14:43	IS0RVH	28.49	SSB
2011-10-28	14:40	SP9FOW	28.5325	SSB
2011-10-28	14:38	T70A	28.5415	SSB
2011-10-28	14:33	VP9/N1SV	24.939	SSB
2011-10-28	14:32	VP5/WA2VYA	24.8919	CW
2011-10-28	12:19	RA0FF	3.515	CW
2011-10-28	03:38	F5TTI	7.152	SSB
2011-10-28	00:05	TX7M	28.0288	CW
2011-10-27	02:12	TX7M	14.0829	RTTY
2011-10-26	17:47	E51NNV	28.033	CW
2011-10-26	12:25	TX7M	7.0288	CW
2011-10-26	00:57	TX7M	18.0793	CW
2011-10-26	00:24	3XY1D	7.0192	CW
2011-10-25	03:24	KQ7W	3.582	PSK31
2011-10-25	03:12	TX7M	3.5271	CW
2011-10-25	02:39	V47JA	7.154	SSB
2011-10-24	02:58	T32C	14.0745	PSK63
2011-10-24	02:17	TX7M	10.1078	CW
2011-10-24	01:30	TX7M	21.0825	RTTY
2011-10-23	17:39	SP9KDA	28.0924	RTTY
2011-10-23	17:12	E51NOU	24.8921	CW
2011-10-23	14:58	9A04JB	24.8912	CW
2011-10-23	00:14	BA8AG	28.019	CW
2011-10-23	00:12	UA0IT	28.004	CW
2011-10-22	01:20	D44AC	14.2371	SSB
2011-10-21	23:38	TX7M	14.0289	CW
2011-10-20	21:44	CO6LP	28.0041	CW
2011-10-19	20:44	V44KAI	28.0122	CW
2011-10-19	20:44	CO6WD	28.0128	CW
2011-10-19	15:51	OD5NJ	28.0582	CW
2011-10-18	17:54	UT7UJ	24.891	CW
2011-10-17	23:53	TX3T	28.0276	CW
2011-10-17	23:33	9M6XRO	24.892	CW
2011-10-16	23:12	JH1DYV	28.0282	CW
2011-10-16	22:14	HK6P	24.9647	SSB
2011-10-16	22:13	CO8LY	24.8922	CW
2011-10-16	22:09	CO6LP	24.891	CW
2011-10-16	22:03	FO/N6JA	28.0188	CW
2011-10-16	22:01	ZP6CW	28.01	CW
2011-10-16	21:44	XE2S	28.0321	CW
2011-10-16	03:56	T32C	14.18	SSB
2011-10-16	02:04	YW3Y	7.0021	CW
2011-10-16	01:30	R9HA	18.1168	SSB
2011-10-16	01:15	T32C	18.137	SSB
2011-10-14	18:57	J39BS	28.017	CW
2011-10-13	17:15	T32C	14.18	SSB
2011-10-13	05:37	T32C	1.8172	CW
2011-10-13	04:57	T32C	3.791	SSB
2011-10-12	18:02	T32C	14.18	SSB
2011-10-12	16:44	T32C	24.915	CW
2011-10-12	06:05	T32C	3.78	SSB
2011-10-12	05:21	T32C	1.8172	CW
2011-10-11	17:21	T32C	24.9326	SSB
2011-10-11	13:48	T32C	7.029	CW
2011-10-11	11:56	T32C	7.185	SSB
2011-10-11	04:01	T32C	3.515	CW
2011-10-11	02:35	T32C	18.085	CW
2011-10-11	00:11	T32C	18.155	SSB
2011-10-10	20:31	T32C	21.28	SSB
2011-10-10	17:27	T32C	28.0221	CW
2011-10-10	17:25	T32C	28.4704	SSB
2011-10-10	16:37	T32C	21.015	CW
2011-10-10	03:38	T32C	14.017	CW
2011-10-10	03:34	T32C	10.104	CW
2011-10-09	22:06	PP5BI	28.019	CW
2011-10-09	22:00	XE1XR	28.015	CW
2011-10-09	21:54	XQ4CW	28.0079	CW
2011-10-09	21:44	FO/N6JA	28.0161	CW
2011-10-09	21:31	ZL3IO	28.415	SSB
2011-10-09	20:49	HC2SL	28.0197	CW
2011-10-09	19:52	T32C	28.485	SSB

The times above are in GMT so it is not initially obvious that it is at least one QSO per day, but sure enough it is.

It has been fun working this challenge and has given me a lot of food for thought.

73 de NG0R

Ubuntu USB sleep issue

I use Ubuntu around the house on all of the computers and laptops. It is on my machines, and those of my wife and kids. I have been pretty happy with the system and the admin & support has been extremely low. I typically update as each new release comes out and it is typically a non-issue.

I moved my ham radio activities to Ubuntu based computing as well quite a while back and have largely been pretty happy. (I really like CQRlog as my main QSO logging program)

I am trying to give Ubuntu 11.10 a fair shake but I am not very happy with it. I really dislike the new GUI and the Program Launch UI. To be honest I dislike it enough that I would seriously consider changing to a different OS except for the fact that I really like CQRlog.

One issue that has been driving my crazy is that some of my radio gear uses serial devices and other elements use USB. (ok, no big deal so far)  The USB devices  seem to go to sleep after a certain amount of inactivity. The seem to go to sleep even quicker in Ubuntu 11.10 but I can really confirm that. The issue is that when the USB devices go to sleep they do not always come back with the same USB serial number.  This is a probably for applications that are looking for /dev/ttyUSB0 and get /dev/ttyUSB3 instead.  I spent quite a bit of time trying to resolve this without success. I moved one of those interfaces back to a standard serial comport to get around the pain.  But I was still running into an issue with my K1EL keyer going offline when the computer hit the inactivity timer. <arghhhh>

After a few days of hunting & experimenting I think that I found the fix:

You can see the USB info by running:
dmesg | grep ttyUSB

If you notice the assignments change you can do the following:
sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

Update the following line:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="usbcore.autosuspend=-1"

Save & close the file

Then run:
sudo update-grub

Reboot and all should be good.  The "-1" tells the system to NOT autosuspend the USB devices.

I probably have 5-6 hours into figuring out how to solve this problem. For most devices it likely does not matter up until you have a program that connects via something like /dev/ttyUSB0.

Thanks, JH

T32C

That 160m SSB slot could a challenge to capture.

If/when time permits I would like to get my RTTY integration between the computer & rigs going again and chase a few of the RTY slots.

73 de NG0R

T32C

I am making steady progress on fill in the holes.

73 de NG0R

T32C

I continue to make good progress on working T32C in additional slots.  I would like to get those 12m CW and 20m SSB Q's taken care of. After that I will probably try to tackle some of the RTTY slots. I am having some problems reliably working RTTY from the new shack (It worked fine in the old office) and need to focus on a little integration work to get that solidified.

I would like to get 160m CW in the log also but our common window is a bit late in the evening for me. (I fell asleep at the keyboard last night waiting for the band to open enough to attempt the QSO.)

Overall I am pretty happy given the limited effort that I have made so far.  It is really a sign of how good operators are at the T32C location.

73 de NG0R

T32C

Here is the grid prior to me getting on the air this morning.

I managed to work them on 40m SSB but it will not show up in their online log for a few hours.  40m SSB was the first place where I had a challenge trying to work them. I have a rotating dipole at 60 feet and I was running barefoot at 100w. It took about 7 minutes of working the pile-up to finally get into the log.

Last night I feel asleep in my office waiting for the 160m signal to build up enough that I could work them. Sleep won out on that Q.

73 de NG0

T32C

As of last night I had 3 QSOs in the log with T32C. Over my lunch break today I put 15m CW in the log.  I can hear them working 15m SSB but they are calling for Europe right now.

I have been pretty impressed with their DX expedition so far. Good signals, good operators, good job running the pile-up, and very efficient.

73 de NG0R

T32C - Working a little DX

I decided to turn on the rig in the shack for a minutes between chores. Since I have not spent any time on 10m I have been feeling a little guilty in this sun spot cycle. I decided to check the DX spots and saw a call sign that I did not recognize... T32C.



I was not really sure where T32C was located so I had to visit QRZ.com and then http://www.t32c.com/

I turns out that this is Kiritimati Island; (Christmas Island)

They were working split on 10m SSB. I turned the beam and dialed in the split (up 5) and worked them on the second try.  That was kind of fun. I probably should turn the rig on and hit the PTT a bit more often.  :-)

73 de NG0R

I heard a whisper

Click on the picture to view a larger version

I have been watching to see what paths are typically viable with 5 watts on 30 meters. I decided to leave the radio on over night and let my computer do some work. In the last 6 hours my station heard France, Brazil, Australia, and Japan. All of those stations we running 5 watts or less of power.

The path to Australia is open every day. Initially I thought that I might added by gray-line propagation (normally the radio had been turned on around the same time as sunrise) but clearly that is not the case right now because this screen capture is at 5:45am central time which is quite a bit prior to sunrise.

Clearly WSPR and 5 watts is enough RF & power resolving power to make it across the pond every day.

73 de NG0R