This has been a fantastic week for me in ham radio!
Late last week, I went through the ham radio SlackBuilds I maintain (builds and packages software for Slackware Linux) and updated any that had new versions come out since August.
Saturday, I went to visit my parents and came away with a mag mount, a dual band whip for the car, an ICOM mobile power cord, and an antenna adapter for my Baofeng. I also found two short coax jumpers, an insulator, and an Archer SWR meter at a flea market for $5.
In the car on the ride home, I talked with the XYL about ham radio. She's not interested in most aspects of the hobby, but she has agreed that she'll get her tech ticket if I'll become a Skywarn watcher with her - she'll watch the sky and I'll operate the radio. It's a start!
Sunday, we went to a local thrift shop where I wanted to pick up a spare computer power cord, and found an awesome corner desk for $17.50. It'll make a great radio/computer desk in my man cave/ham shack in the new QTH.
Monday, I took a load of belongings to the new house, and gave the backyard a close look. There are two trees I should be able to hang antennas in, as well as a back fence I could run a wire along, and best of all, two pipes in the ground that could work well as temporary places to put up antenna masts. I also tested the Pocket RX/TX android app, which works incredibly well on the WebSDR side. I'm excited to get a rig control interface built for mine and run that through the app.
Tuesday night, I dug out my dipole parts and wire, and found two pre-cut 10m wires as well as enough loose wire clothesline to easily extend them for 15m. I dug out my new soldering iron and did just that, but didn't have time to hang it. Was planning on using it as a sloper.
Wednesday, I threw it up at about ten feet, with an 8/23 foot extendable painters pole I got at an auction as one support and a tree as another. Had my new insulator at one end and an orange soda bottle at the other. Texted my brother to see if we could make contact, but 15m died before we could. It heard great on 40 with a zero noise floor, and I listened to him check in to a net there. He had to go to bed, but I got checked into the same net (with a couple of relays - a 15m dipole isn't a great 40m antenna, especially when you forget to put it through the tuner instead of bypass mode!)
Today, I took my little battery-powered AM radio to the new house to look for RFI. Some of the appliances and circuits are a little noisy, but nothing I can't deal with. I'm probably in a quieter spot now, but I have better trees there so I imagine I'll be fine (and maybe learn to build filters.)
Tonight, I opened another wire clothesline to extend my 15m dipole out to 40. About fifteen minutes worth of soldering, and I was hanging it in the backyard. Fired it up, tuned to 40, and my brother texted me to tell me 15 and 20 were wide open. Tuned to 15, and he wasn't kidding! To my knowledge, 20m is still wide open, and I'm seeing 6m DX spots (and my 6m rig is in storage! Rats!)
I installed a DX spotter app on my phone, and started tuning around. Previously, I've never had a good location or good antenna, so dxing is limited to Field Day. But tonight, I heard EU4A in Belarus, OD5ZZ in Lebanon, and I worked HA8DM in Hungary! It helps that I remembered how to run my tuner on transmit - as it turns out, 100 watts comes through better than 30 watts.
Here's to an even more successful next week!