M0XPX

Not only have I had to update my ham radio twitter account, but also this here tumblr. And now I have to go and update the settings in my radios which do APRS and/or packet. In case you didn’t notice (don’t worry, you didn’t), I’ve moved from 2E0TPS to M0XPX, because I’ve passed my advanced exam, thanks to the Bath Based Advanced Distance Learning course, and my tutor, Steve G0FUW.

I did a little tidying up and rearranging of the shack, so I thought I should post up here in some form of attempt to try and keep updating here. Of course, when I say shack, I am in a flat in the middle of London, so where some folks have entire rooms/converted garages/sheds, I have the top of a set of shelves...

Despite this, I have managed to work JT-65 out into Europe/the fringes of Russia/Kazakhstan with 5W from my Yaesu ft-817 and my recently acquired AlexLoop Walkham, which I am quite pleased with.

I have also been playing with some APRS, using both my ft-817 and my trusty baofeng UV-5R with a mobilinkd bluetooth TNC, and APRSDroid on my phone, as well as setting up a receive only iGate using an RTL-SDR and a raspberry pi.

The things I haven’t been as active with are amsat work, and either VHF analogue or any DMR work through my openspot, so I am going to set myself a goal of making my first amsat QSO by the end of April, and also try to get into the habit of at least monitoring my local repeaters and/or some DMR talkgroups.

Antenna + radio + smartphone with satellite tracking app = assistance required

I spotted that there would be a decent pass of the ISS during my lunchtime today, and as I work just a few minutes walk from Clapham Common I thought I would see what a midday pass was like. Busy, is the answer to that. A few colleagues came along (mostly for the sun and half an hour out of the office I think), but fortunately I managed to not only receive a bunch of beacons, but have mine digipeated a couple of times too, which was nice, as if I hadn’t received anything I’m sure I would have been heartily laughed at.

I did notice some stations utterly spamming beacons multiple times per minute though, which feels somewhat against the spirit of working the ISS, surely if you’ve seen your beacon go through more than once, then let up and give others a shot? 

Stations received today were IS0EBO, IZ2FER, 2E0TPS (yay, me), G3TXA, EA6XQ, OE3BUB, PE1NTN, IZ1BOH, G4BBH, PD0MNI, HG8GL, and RS0ISS.

APRS message received from SQ6OCZ, and beacons from G7HCE, LX1BB, G4NEY, ON7BR, HB9ODI, EA3RO, and that 2E0TPS guy again ;-)

Yup, two nights on the trot. This pleases me, although my tracking was poor tonight, and I lost the ISS for a couple of minutes as it passed through due South. 

A very slow start to that ISS pass, with nothing at all coming through, then suddenly some very very clear APRS reception. Received an APRS message from SQ6OCZ, and beacons from F4BPP, RS0ISS, G4BBH, OH2FQV, IS0EBO, F5CBP, PE1NTN, and some chancer by the callsign of 2E0TPS.

More reception there, but I still don’t seem to have managed to get one of my APRS packets repeated; I’m starting to wonder if the key is to just hammer the transmit beacon key, and something might get through.

My first attempt at receiving audio from SO-50, using an arrow antenna, a yaesu ft-817, and a super cheap digital voice recorder from aliexpress. I need to work on my sat tracking skills I think.

Recorded 2016-06-09 at approximately 20:25UTC (I think) from my home at IO91xm