Blog
2023 June VHF Contest Report
After my recent few attempts at VHF roves in 2022 (2022 CQ WW VHF Contest Report and 2022 September VHF Contest Report), I decided to try again with a different mindset for activity. I've long considered a method to mount antennas to my car so that there was no setup...
Activation Report: Elk City SP (POTA K-2337) for Field Day
After going back and forth on plans for Field Day this year, I decided to do it as a satellite-only operation from Elk City State Park to double dip on my goal to activate all Kansas State Parks on satellites. I reserved one of the campsites right on the shore of the...
2020 ARRL June VHF Contest Report
I've wanted to give a VHF contest a go for awhile, it never seemed like I could have a workable station for real weak signal VHF being an apartment dweller. With all my travel plans canceled this summer due to COVID-19 and plenty of time to experiment, I figured I...
Activation Report: Crawford SP (POTA K-2333) and EM27/37 Grid Line
Continuing my mission to activate all Kansas State Parks, I decided to take the Friday before Memorial Day (5/22/2020) off from work to travel down to Crawford State Park in southeast Kansas. This park is nicely situated around a lake and offers camping, boating, and...
VUCC Circle Checker Script
As a relatively active rover for satellite operations, I'm often looking to check whether a new location will be within my "VUCC circle" and be eligible to count for my home station VUCC certificate. Rule six of the ARRL's VHF/UHF Century Club (VUCC) Award Rules...
Activation Report: Prairie Spirit Trail SP (POTA K-2350)
Although technically a Kansas State Park entity, the Prairie Spirit Trail State Park is actually a 51 mile trail that connects Ottawa and Iola, Kansas and replaces the old railroad that used to link the cities. Along the way, this trail brushes up against several city...
Activation Report: Hillsdale State Park (POTA K-2340)
As the first step on my mission to activate all Kansas State Parks for Parks on the Air, I decided to visit the park nearest to my home in the suburbs of Kansas City - Hillsdale State Park. This park has numerous RV and tent campsites as well as a few day areas spread...
Activating All Kansas State Parks on Satellites
Being a relatively recent transplant to Kansas (back in the fall of 2018), I've realized there is still much of the state I haven't seen. I've ventured down to Wichita and Topeka, but for the most part, I've only explored the Kansas City...
Raspberry Pi METAR Ticker Display
When I was still in graduate school a few years ago, my office was in the center of a building which meant no windows and no way to quickly see the weather outside. This motivated me to make a project that would display the current weather on my desk. Being a pilot, I...
Arduino-Based Intervalometer for DSLR
I originally made this intervalometer to photograph the 2017 total solar eclipse. I wanted to make a portable and simple intervalometer out of parts I had laying around. I had a small enclosure with a front panel cut out for a keypad, LED, and switch from an old...
Remote Display over USB for Kenwood TH-D74
Although I really like the Kenwood TH-D74 for its long list of features, being an HT, the user interface is not well suited to satellite operations. In particular, for linear satellites where I may need to continuously vary the tuning throughout the pass, it is tough...
February 2020 Satellite Operations Gear
To track things over time, I thought I'd do an overview of my satellite gear as of February 2020. I actually have two different setups for satellite operations: one for the FM/APRS sats and one for the linear transponder sats. Since I do FM sats much more often, I've...
Shorty Arrow Satellite Antenna
After seeing a few people on Twitter with a a shortened Arrow Antenna for satellite operations (colloquially called a "Shorty Arrow"), I decided to try to build my own. Rather than three elements on 2m and seven elements on 70cm as with the regular Arrow Antenna, the...