Welcome to KD8RTT.com
I’m Tony Milluzzi, KD8RTT, an Extra Class ham currently residing in the Kansas City area. I’ve been licensed since 2012 and since then have tried out many parts of amateur radio from SOTA to satellites. I enjoy trying out new areas in the hobby, building electronics projects, and volunteering with the ARRL’s Collegiate Amateur Radio Program.
2024 Kansas QSO Party and POTA US-2345 Report
For this year's Kansas QSO Party, I participated again as a 1x1 station, K0B, traveling around central Kansas. Unlike previous years, I decided to make only two stops and enter under the new "Expedition" category. This meant visiting one location on Saturday and a...
Replacing Antenna Switch Relay in Yaesu FT-817
I recently bought an old FT-817 with the intent of using it to get back on the linear satellites. Upon receiving it, I found that no matter which connector I set the antenna output to (front or rear), it always transmitted from the rear SO-239 antenna connector. As my...
QMX Portable Clipboard Setup
I've seen several ham radio clipboard mounting solutions aimed at portable operations like POTA and SOTA, so I thought I'd take a shot at making my own for my QRP Labs QMX, American Morse Equipment Mini-B Paddle, and NiMH battery pack (affiliate link). I took an old...
2024 Field Day Report
For Field Day this year, I participated in the Waypoint Amateur Radio Club, WA0RC, operations from the club shack. WA0RC is the club of Garmin employees in Olathe, Kansas, and has a new, dedicated shack space that was just opened earlier this year. We previously had a...
2024 June VHF Contest/EN20 Grid Expedition/POTA US-2619 Report
For June VHF this year, I decided to put EN20 on the air (after my previous failure) due to its relatively rare status for being a midwest grid as reported by FFMA chasers. My plan for this contest was to use my general setup from previous roves including my 25 foot...
DIY Paddle Interface for VBand CW Practice Website
UPDATE (5/12/2024): Turns out my little DIY project below is not so novel. Check out OZ1JHM's website to see their solution which is basically the same solution as mine, but posted long ago! I recently came across VBand, CW Hotline, and the USB Paddle Interface sold...