Main menu
Furry Radio
I apologize for being so inactive, but life has be not great for me.
But I hope to make up for that starting in September. Which is when the Twin Cities Furs ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sncfurs/ ) are having our fall picnic! And what I would like to try is to bring along my TS-130S station and try and introduce every one. Even a little. Sorry no slow scan or imaging possible at my end. The one problem I am concerned with is the location of the picnic. It is along the Mississippi river, down in a tight valley park, named Hidden Falls park. So I am unsure about how well I can get a signal out, or receive at that. I would like to try a test set up a week or so before hand to see how well it can work.
Any one else interested in making a 'event' of this?
WA6BEJ-SK
THEODORE D. BENSON aka "Ursus Californicus"
Sacramento, CA
Passed Away; July 30, 2009
Age: 54
Pittsburgh's Grant building, which has spelled out "PITTSBURGH" in flashing red neon from its 500+ foot apex since 1929, now has a spelling error as a result of a recent renovation of the lighting. It flashes "PITETSBKRRH" now, according to reports. The building's management company says that there is no scheduled plan for fixing the defect.
Story here: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09193/983408-53.stm
We have just completed an unofficial event post-con about one block away from the Westin. KD8HQK, VA6FOX, Silaria, and myself K9SPK went to the Greyhound bus station garage at 10th and Penn Avenue to the top deck to work satellite, hoping to make contact with the International Space Station. We were successful. This location was chosen due to the fact that the David L. Lawrence Convention Center was officially closed off, and the site was recommended by a very helpful Dorsai member in Con Ops.
I had pulled my car (2006 Chevy Impala 9C3) to the roof of the garage where we had an open sky and a moderately clear line of site to utilize its Yaesu FT7800R mobile radio, and able to broadcast at a full 50 watts of power. My signal (K9SPK) was able to be transmitted to and received back from the International Space Station at approximately 1,500 miles above Earth. There was no QSO made with the crew, however the signal did make it there and back at about a S6 or S7.
The radio transmitter operator was K9SPK.
In attendance were KD8HQK and VA6FOX, as well as Silaria (not an amateur operator).
The antenna direction was managed by KD8HQK.
The transmitter was a Yaesu FT7800R at 50 watts NFM.
The receiver was an Icom IC T90A.
The antenna was an Arrow II Model 146/437-10WBP.
The signal on the return transmission was between an S6 and S7.
The antenna direction was Northeast at a 20 degree elevation.
The tracking program was Satscape Java.
This was a very successful run, and next con, me and the others in attendance hope to organize an event similar to this for all Furry Hams to hopefully attend, most likely from the same location due to its height utilizing my vehicle for the transmitter unless we can acquire another radio that can be operated from an alternative power source.
Thanks for those in attendance, and I hope you were excited about the very successful signal as I was.
Cross-posted to my personal LiveJournal account.
The Furry Hams will once again run a solar powered event station at Anthrocon on the rootftop of the Convention Center to demonstrate amateur radio. A full 102' dipole has been erected on the Terrace (rooftop) level of the DLCC and will be on the air on Sunday beginning at 2PM and running until 4PM or later. Please join us on the rooftop for a chance to get on the air and work the special event station!
If you would like to work the event station look for us on 20 meters phone and check THIS post for an update with the talk-in frequency. Any station that QSL's to the Furry Hams Event Station will receive a QSL card in return (postage paid to the US)!
Thanks, and I hope to hear you on the air or see you at the panel!
Oryx & Yappyfox
Hellos,
Where is the best place to find info on ham shtuff going on at Anthrocon?
Thankies!
I just joined a couple days ago and wanted to say "Hi!"
I'm ScritchWuff, or just "Scritch' from Albuquerque, NM. Last month I finally decided to go get my ham license, so I studied my behind off and drove up to Pueblo, CO to take the exams. Somehow I managed to pass the Tech, General, and Extra exams on the same day. The extra exam was quite difficult -- I had to study hard even though I have an engineering background.
At this point, I haven't done anything on HF, but I plan on getting started on that side of things after AC. Eventually I'll learn morse as well. There is a nice empty field just over the wall from my house where I could sneak some ground radials and a mounting pipe for temporary antennas. HOA CC&Rs aren't an impediment to me. I see them more as a challenge to be overcome. I'll just sling a feed line over the wall and take my antenna down when not in use. That saves me from (1) having to deal with the HOA rules, and (2) having to deal with lightning and beefing up my home's electrical grounding system for now. I simply won't have any antennas up during a storm. Anyhow, it seems the solar cycle is on the upswing so this is probably as good a time as any to get started on the HF bands.
For now, I just have my Yaesu VX8R handheld, which is serving me quite well. I'll be bringing it to AC, and am wondering what repeaters and/or simplex frequencies are typically used by the local furs out there. I also saw the previous post about the portable repeater at the hotel. Out here in NM we have a bunch of repeaters linked statewide into the "MegaLink" (NM5ML) system.. It's pretty cool, you can get onto the system from pretty much anywhere in the state, and they are all open repeaters. Is there something similar to that in the Pittsburgh area?
Anyhow, just checking in and saying Hi!
73 AE5ML SK
We're bringing back the portable repeater for Anthrocon this year. Here are the frequencies (these are the same as last year):
Full duplex UHF: 443.4/448.4 (output/input) Tone: 100.0
Half duplex VHF: 147.555 Tone: 100.0 (cross-band repeat, simplex)
The CTCSS tone is transmitted on both outputs.
Hope to hear you at the con!
Hi all,
New to the group and wanted to say hello to everyone :) Thanks to Swift_Fox for pointing me over here :)
73s
Moth.