The Past Ten Days

Lemme 'splain.  No, is too much.  Lemme sum up.

I've been quiet on the blog, but I've been having fun with the radio.  Since my last blog post I've made 38 more contacts:

• By band:
• 40 meters: 18 contacts
• 20 meters: 8 contacts
• 15 meters: 10 contacts
• 10 meters: 2 contacts
• Foreign countries by band:
• 40 meters: Costa Rica and the Czech Republic
• 20 meters: Canada and Aruba
• 15 meters: Spain (2 contacts), Cuba, Nicaragua, and Guadalupe

I mostly stayed away from 10 meters, as there was a contest going on last weekend and it was just a series of pileups that I didn't feel like trying to punch through.

Over the last week or so, I haven't been spending as much time as I was previously.  I was frankly getting a little obsessed with it, I guess.  But it's just so interesting!

WebSDR

On the Yahoo Kenwood group, some people were talking about "web SDR" sites where people had put up web-based Software Defined Radio stations for listening.  This seemed like a good way to hear what you actually sound like on the air.

So, I checked out websdr.org where the list of these sites is kept.  I found a nearby site in Michigan that listens on 40 meters, and I used it tonight to listen to myself on 7.139 MHz.  It has a handy recording feature so that I could record what I actually sound like on the air.  I transmitted a short sequence saying that I was testing, but I couldn't really hear if my audio was clear or not.

Shortly after that, I heard W3AMF calling on that frequency.  I was still watching the WebSDR site, but it was delayed from the radio by about a second.  So, I hit the "Mute" button on the website, turned up the volume on the radio so I could listen in real time, and hit Record on the website.  I had a nice 30-minute conversation with W3AMF (Duff), during which he said that he could not discern any RF on my audio signal.  After he faded into the noise, I signed off with him and then downloaded the recording.

And guess what?  I should have muted the computer instead of muting the audio on the WebSDR site.  I downloaded 30 minutes of silence. :)

I won't make that mistake again.  I'll try recording myself next time I check in to the MIDCARS Net on 7258.

I turned off the radio and got back to work; making up some time in the evening due to being a zombie in the afternoon.

Until next time -

73, Mike