Saturday, September 29, 2007

Digital modes: Can you do it? Yes.

I was shooting the breeze with my friend Joe, WY3T, on the telephone and the subject of PSK came up. You guys know Joe already (previous podcast)

Joe had told me about his recent foray into the digital modes. While we were talking, I asked him if I could turn on the podcast machine to record this conversation, and what you hear now is the answer. Awesome. Very fun.

Show notes:

CQ magazine
Rigblaster

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Your signal

Hi Everyone.

I'm back from my summer in China and surprisingly adjusted to the difference in time zones pretty well. My wife and my dog are getting used to my being back home in New Hampshire, and I am excited about seeing my dog again, and being able to get on the air.

I'm just playing around with you. It's wonderful to be back home, for more than a thousand reasons, not the least of which is to see my lovely N1TMZ face-to-face again. We used VoIP, POTS, email, and internet chat using Skype, 9y.com, and some others. A LOT. I missed her while I was gone.

I would like to say thanks to everyone who've emailed me, asking where the podcasts went, and 'when are they coming back?' It is gratifying to know that so many of you enjoy these podcasts. One listener told me, "I listen to you on the train every morning on the way to work." Another guy from Romania sent me email asking when the podcasts will start back up, because he has a translator who knows English, and he wants her to download the podcasts. Another ham asks "would you like to talk to one of our amateur radio experts here in Japan about 99 Hobbies?"

Those made feel pretty good, and it's why I keep doing this.

Thanks.

I will endeavor to pick up the pace and start cranking these out again. There are so many fascinating people to talk to and I can hardly wait to get going. Of the 99 Hobbies I've mentioned, I haven't yet talked about half of them!My desire was to kick things into gear by talking with someone who has a passion for ham radio, who knows what he is talking about, and about a subject that affects all of us who have an amateur radio license.

SCORE!!!!!

As you will see, I went overtime (23:30) and still had some un-answered questions!!! This was so fun.

Here we go!

Last night I had a fun conversation with Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA, about his passion: propagation. Of course, Carl is well known as an expert on the subject, having regularly written for Worldradio, QST, and CQ magazines, among others. Check out the picture here of him and his wife Vicky.

Carl and I talked about how and why your signal is able to go from here to there. I think you will be able to hear his love of the hobby.

In one of his answers he uses my favorite radio phrase: "get on the air". Did you hear it?

73,
Dave

Show notes
Email to Carl with questions: [his callsign]@arrl.net
Carl's propagation website is at http://mysite.verizon.net/k9la
CQ magazine at http://www.cq-amateur-radio.com/
Space Environment Center at http://sec.noaa.gov
Space Weather at http://spaceweather.com