NF6P World on the Web

CyberPatriot Program

Dave Kalahar — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 16:56:38 +0000

Since I’ve not blogged in a while, I should mention it’s mostly due to the level of involvement I’ve had with Civil Air Patrol (CAP). We’ve been deep into communications, aerospace education and something that’s consumed the last couple of months, CyberPatriot. CyberPatriot is the premiere national high school cyber defense competition created to inspire high school students toward careers in cyber security or other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines critical to our nation’s future. We help students learn how to harden computers against attack. Since this is something I’ve done in my work the last 12 years, it’s a natural. It’s sponsored by the Air Force Association (AFA) and they sponsor CAP Cadets completely. Our kids have no expenses involved and they get so many wonderful returns that it’s truly amazing.

Last Saturday, our Squadron 121 Cadets participated is round one of the competition. They found out yesterday that they we’re in the top 100 nationally. They’ll participate in round two of the event on Saturday, December 3^rd. Depending on how they do, they may advance to the 3rd round and then Nationals in Washington DC this Spring.

A number of great companies are sponsoring this national program. Northrup Grumman is the presenting sponsor. Both Microsoft and AT&T have blessed our team with software and wireless connectivity. With support like this, students will not fail. All will walk away knowing new and very important things.

Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1

Dave Kalahar — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:56:50 +0000

We’re installing the Microsoft Service Pack 1 for Server 2008 R2 right now. We’ll see how it goes. I love the 64-bit world.
Remote FX is especially exciting. The host side graphics rendering with help remote access and virtualization routines. This is something that I’ve been using more lately as I experiment with remote data on the weather station console. Hyper-V has also been updated. This update is the same as the Windows 7 Service Pack as I understand.

Earlier this morning I updated the firmware in the Vantage Vue weather Console. It was a big move up in firmware and it should fix my occasional low battery message from the weather sensor. The update went smoothly.

Updated Frequency List Posted

Dave Kalahar — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 03:25:04 +0000

We’ve posted the latest update of the Bakersfield Frequency list to the website. This comprehensive listing has been expanded and included many changes. If your a ham radio operator or scanner enthusiast, you’ll find the list useful. Go to www.davekalahar.com for details.

PSKMeter Prototype Completed

Dave Kalahar — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 01:41:33 +0000

A week ago, the parts bag for the Club project prototype arrived in the mail. Today I built it.�

I’ve been looking for an electronic construction project to do as a club activity in the last half of 2010. I found a kit from KF6VSG called “PSKMeter“. This little device samples your transmitters RF when using PSK31. It contains a A to D converter microprocessor and outputs the RF sample to software that shows the waveform of your signal on the computer screen. This is a great way to check audio level to your transmitter from a sound-card. It can also automatically adjust your sound-card volume for lowest distortion in the RF waveform to prevent splatter and maximize throughput on PSK31. Very handy.

The kit went together in about 90 minutes, including drilling some extra holes in the updated case to accommodatea BNC connector and DC power plug. Check out went smooth and in less than 2 hours, it was installed and operating at NF6P. This kit should be the perfect experience for our club members who have never soldered or touched electronic components. It will be a great learning experience and they’ll walk away with a very functional station accessory.

The basic kit costs $41.40. It has all very high quality componints and the microprocesser was pre-programmed.
I added a nice enclosure, 9v wall wart supply, a BNC T-connector, and a couple of BNC to PL-259 adaptors. A lot of hams will find these parts in a junk box, but I wanted to build it in a configuration that a new ham might need. Total cost $69.72 plus shipping.

I’ll be presenting this at the next Kern Country Central Valley ARC meeting in August.

NAQP July RTTY

Dave Kalahar — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 22:30:49 +0000

It Hit 107 degrees in Bako Saturday. What better place to stay cool than in the shack with a RTTY contest.

I think conditions were, “Pretty Stinky”. 15 Meters never materialized. 20 Meters took forever (about 4pm) to produce, and 40 Meters was a late comer. The last 90 minute brought some good runs on 40 and 80. I’m glad I switched to 80 or my QSO total would have been dismal.

After a couple of BSOD’s, I had to figure out what was up. I updated/replaced the driver in my Digi Keyer and all went well after.

North American QSO Party, RTTY – July
Call: NF6P
Operator(s): NF6P
Station: NF6P
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: SJV
Operating Time (hrs): 10

Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
——————-
   80:   23     6
   40:   59    26
   20: 153    49
   15:    8     6
   10:�
——————
Total: 243    87  Total Score = 21,141

Club: Northern California Contest Club
Team: NCCC #3

IARU Contest Results

Dave Kalahar — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 22:37:13 +0000

The number one rule of contesting is said to be “keep your butt in the chair.” I’m here to tell you that as I get older; keeping my “behind” in a chair is getting tougher. When it’s more fun it seems easier. Without a doubt, conditions were far better in last year’s contest and that left me longing for better conditions this weekend. The good news is working an all time new country for SSB and CW, and an additional new country on CW.

I was very hopeful at first because 40 meters seemed in good shape at 0500. I should have known something was up. B7HQ and HS0ZCW were the loudest I’ve ever heard them. But they never heard me. When the time came to switch to 20, it seemed lackluster. Then, 15 meters was downright bad, and I never heard a peep on 10. However, 20 was giving up Europe stations that helped a lot, especially after 4pm local, when I was able to start putting them in the log until well into the night. Polar flutter was just plain low. The real disappointment was 40 on Saturday night and 80 was just plain closed. I called it a night about midnight local. It was day of “I can hear them, but that can’t hear me”.

With the hoopla for the WRTC I really wanted to work those guys. I think I only managed 2 QSO’s. With low power and wire antenna, it was just not going to happen. I’ve not heard who won, but I hope that all had the time of their life!

N1MM software was acting up. It put strange section data into the log randomly. I spent a lot of time fixing that and really don’t know what was going on. I watched data change before my eyes!

So, I need to figure out how to purchase an amplifier, a new tuner, and move to a location that will support a 70’ stick. Oh, a more comfy chair so I can keep up “butt” time. I wonder what will be the easiest to convince my YL I need????

IARU HF World Championship
Call: NF6P
Operator(s): NF6P
Station: NF6P
Class: SO Mixed LP
QTH: SJV
Operating Time (hrs): 18

Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Zones HQ Mults
————————————-�
   80:    2             2�
   40:   56     16     15       5
   20: 112     77     18      22
   15:   11      4      9       1: �
————————————-
Total: 181     97     44      28 Total Score = 57,168
Club: Northern California Contest Club

WRTC 2010 and IARU Contest

Dave Kalahar — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 20:12:29 +0000

This weekend is the annual IARU HF World Championship contest for radiosport enthusiasts. It’s made even more exciting by the World Radiosport Team Championships 2010 happening at the same time.

The World Radiosport Team Championship is the major HAM Radio contest event of year 2010. WRTC-2010 will take place near Russia’s capital Moscow where 50 teams from all over the world will compete in the same field conditions. The event is held by Soyuz Radioljubiteley Rossii- Russian National amateur radio society. These teams make up the best-of-the-best of ham radio contesters. Several California hams have been invited to the event including K6MJ, KL9A, K6XX and N6XI. WRTC is held every 4 years and it’s always in conjunction with the IARU 24 hour contest event.

I’ll be operating from my home station again this year in a low power mixed (SSB & CW) catigory. Last years event ranked me in First Place for the Pacific Division, 2nd place for the entire zone 6. (old call KD4HXT) Our goal is to do as well this year.

New Router – it’s about time!

Dave Kalahar — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 05:47:41 +0000

I don’t know why the life of routers is so short. I get them to work about 2 years. We just moved from a semi-working Belkin Wireless G Router model F5D7230-4 to a new Belkin Wireless “PLAY” model F7D4302 with N+N300 technology.

We’ve purchased the Belkin stuff in the past because the cost was right and the Linksys stuff I used before seemed to blow up more often. This new Belkin is fast and best of all it’s port forwarding works. I’ve wanted to get my security camera’s on the web and on my I-phone. The simple setup of the Belkin does it. We also turned on “Guest” privledges with a simple password so fiends can tap into WiFi when they come over. The guest account is setup as an DMZ to prevent access to the internal network. An included USB port on the Belkin now has a a Seagate 150Gig external drive on it to share music files with the girls. Very speedy.

Now we get to see how long this unit lasts???

Test from I-phone App

Dave Kalahar — Sun, 02 May 2010 15:22:49 +0000

So why not use the I-phone to post to the blog.

Update on Vantage VUE

Dave Kalahar — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 22:27:00 +0000

It’s been 30 days since we’ve installed the new weather station. We got it going just in time to record all the rain in January. Let’s just say that I’m completely satisfied with it’s performance. Nothing short of amazing.

I had some concerns about RF when installing because it so very close to HF-VHF-UHF transmitting antennas. But we’ve done several contest’s this month including the RTTY Roundup. RTTY will get into anything not right, and with 400 plus QSO’s, ZERO RF issues.

We did add another 5 ft to the elevation and I think that helped wind accuracy.

Great job Davis. You rekindled my passion for weather and as I understand it, you can’t keep up with demand for this product!