Al's Blog-o-Sphere

This is the radio I’d like to take along. It’s got everything it needs to do both voice and APRS.

The whole point of lugging this solar panel along is to have enough power to not need to compromise on my connectivity. I want to be able to blog, to take copious amounts of photographs, to stay in touch with the world, especially my family and friends and have some left over for luxuries like playing Ham Radio along the way.

Since I’ll be traveling alone, the staying in touch will be important. I hope my family will want to know where I am and that I’m safe! I also want to be able to let the people in the cyber-community know how things are going as well.

Ham Radio will also be a part of that. For those of you not familiar with it, you’ll hear a lot about it as I go here. I’ll be using two types of radio communication – almost three, in a way. Continue Reading…

I’ve been digging through a lot of web pages about some Ham Radio topics the past day or two. Digging is a good description, as I could use a shovel to help out.

I’ve been trying to learn a few things about APRS and Packet Radio. I’ve been away from them for a long time. Actually, I never tried APRS, but I was quite heavily into Packet at one time and APRS uses packet radio. I still have equipment that I should fire up and play around with.

But in preparation for my bike tour, I ordered a new radio that has a TNC and GPS built into it. It is supposed to be a self-contained APRS station. So I have been looking for information to prepare me to use it. Continue Reading…

This post probably won’t be interesting unless you’re a Ham Radio operator, or really bored.

This is a story about two headsets – headphones with a boom microphone. Ham Radio operators use these for contesting and DXing or any time you’re using the radio while active and you don’t want to be stuck in front of a “normal” microphone. Because the microphone is mounted on the boom, it’s always near your mouth no matter how you move.

I first bought the Heil Proset many years ago for contest use. It has a special microphone that is tailored to voice frequencies and is supposed to increase intelligibility over SSB radio transmissions. It’s something that Bob Heil developed and has been one of his most successful products.

I used these all the time, preferring them to a desk microphone, but over the years, they got so they were showing their age. Continue Reading…

… is half the battle. Finally, I’m getting to near where I want to be with my Ham Radio studio.

I found a picture of my old operating desk. This is a very early shot of it. For most of the recent time, it’s been sitting turned 90 degrees from what is shown. I guess I wanted to unblock the window! The equipment changed, but mostly, that is the desk I tore apart a month ago.

But it also was piled high with stuff. Unfinished projects, papers I needed to save, magazines I wanted to keep, computer stuff, tools, and on and on. You get the mental picture, even if I don’t have one.

Now that I think about it, this photo might just be pre-computer. It’s hard to think of Ham Radio without computers anymore. Continue Reading…