Aeronautical Mobile Contact from the Dominican Republic

767

On the morning of January 9, 2020, I was up early, sitting alone out in my open-air tropical hamshack on Bahia Rincon on the Samana peninsula of the Dominican Republic.   I had been looking at the stars. As the sky brightened I was listening to band noise from a still-dead 20 meter band on my uBITX.  

Skies were partly cloudy.  The Big Dipper hung upside down in front of me.  I had also seen Corvus, Scorpio, Andromeda, and Leo.  There were a few meteors and one bright satellite.  

But 20 was quiet... until, suddenly,  BOOM! A very loud and clear SSB signal came through.  It was KX4WC/Aeronautical Mobile.  Mike was in a 767.  I called him and he came back right away, giving me a 57 report. He gave his position as 170 miles Northwest of San Juan, Puerto Rico.  He was heading to Port-o-Spain, Trinidad from Miami.  We had a quick QSO -- it reminded me a lot of my contacts with the MIR space station from Santo Domingo in the mid-1990s.  Suddenly Mike's signal dropped very significantly.  I figured that he had moved further south and was no longer line-of-site with me. I had some hills to my south and they were now attenuating Mike's signal.  I could hear him working M0NKL.  We were Mike's only two contacts on 20. 

I realized later that had I looked up, I might have seen the lights of the plane.  Below is the track of the aircraft.  He was at 35,000 feet when he passed over the DR. 

This contact was a lot of fun. Thanks Mike! 

Contacts from the Dominican Republic

Below I have my log from the Dominican Republic.  A few noteworthy contacts highlighted in yellow.  The first contact was actually on 30 meters,  My guess is that the 20 meter EFHW and the counterpoise got close to half wave on 30. 

AE7KI's was a famiiar voice. Terry transmits from Tennessee but his voice is from down under.  I recognized him before I heard the callsign.  

F6HKA was a familiar call.  I checked -- he was a Straight Key Night contact from one year ago.  Great to meet up with Bert again. 

The Aeronautical Mobile contact was icing on the cake.  More on this tomorrow...

Thanks to all who contacted me or tried. 


In the Dominican Republic 30 December 2019 – 11 Jan 2020

4Jan2020 

30 meter CW HK1ANP Fred.  I was in Bavaro.  30 meters on an 20 meter EFHW!

All subsequent DR contacts on 20 meters from Samana near Las Galeras

6Jan2020

0922 CW EW1I Alex in Belarus.

0959 SSB KG4ZEC. A net on 14.300

1657 CW KB3WAV Md

1701 SSB AE7KI Terry – old friend from Tennessee and Australia.

7 Jan 2020

0917 CW F6HKA Bert near Limoges 14.050 SKCC 60693

1500 CW KN4ZQ Dave in Palmyra Va. Me 599

1523 NO CONTACT but close,  CW KC2OHL

1800 CW KC5F Steve – he answered my  CQ   NC SKCC 21092T

8 Jan

CW N3JB John in Va. Me 599

CW W9YXX Bob in Ind. Me 569

1749 CW W8TK Tom in Tuscon Az.

9 Jan

0700 SSB KX4WC/AM Me 57 767 170 miles NW of San Juan

0840 SSB KI5PZE Miguel, Lake City Fla. In Spanish.

0908 SSB W1FDY Jack in SE Va. Me 58 

The point of the Pen shows where we were in Samana. Bavaro is on the Eastern tip if the island.

N2CQR Portable with uBITX in the Dominican Republic (video)

More to follow... 

KK4DAS Michigan Mighty Mite Heard by WEB SDRs -- CBLA Mobilized!

Dean KK4DAS continues to do great things with his Michigan Mighty Mite.  He has been calling CQ on the Color Burst Liberation Army (CBLA) frequency of 3579 kHz.  I think I was the first one to hear him, but since that memorable moment he has been picked up by multiple Web SDR receivers, including the one at Penn State (PETE JULIANO'S ALMA MATER!)  (screen shot above, listen by clicking URL below).  He has also been heard by Web SDRs in Concord Mass,  Newport News Va, and Cleveland, Ohio.  FB Dean.  

So come on folks -- this is a mobilization call for the CBLA!  Get those MMMs on the air.  Send us reports and recordings from Web SDRs or the RBN. 

Listen to Dean's MMM as received at the Penn State Web SDR: 

http://soldersmoke.com/KK4DAS MMM.wav

It sounds great!  And nice CW Dean!  

Santa Came to SolderSmoke! From Australia!

Oh wow!  Santa Claus made a really long distance DX trip to SolderSmoke's East Coast HQ last night.   His chief Elf this time was Peter VK2EMU who crafted the AMAZING Morse key you see in these pictures.  This is truly a work of art.  I will indeed put it on the air with a homebrew transmitter.  And we will keep on soldersmoking.  

Thanks very much Peter.  This was really great.  

Merry Christmas to all!  

Dean KK4DAS Puts Michigan Mighty Mite on the air! And is heard in Falls Church, Virginia! (video)

QRZ.com says we are 5.9 miles away.   The U.S. Postal Service almost prevented this from happening -- they objected to my just putting the crystal in an envelope and mailing it.  Dean's wife had to pay postage due.   

The rig didn't work at first, but Pete N6QW provided sage advice and tribal knowledge.  Adjustments were made and Dean experienced the Joy of Oscillation.  Then, he connected an antenna and was heard at the SolderSmoke East Coast HQ. 

Obviously the beret was the key to Dean's success: 

This was a lot of fun.   And it is a reminder of the power of the MMM.   Dust off those Mighty Mites!  Call CQ and see if you can be picked up by the Reverse Beacon Network.  Let us know if you succeed.   

Getting ready

Done!  Dean's MMM

SolderSmoke Podcast #216 Is Available: BITXs, Paesano, Paraset, ET2, Antuino, Mailbag

Bill's uBITX with HB keys and the mic that used to be the podcast mic! 

SolderSmoke Podcast #216 is available 

21 December 2019

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL! 

http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke216.mp3

Pete's Bench 

Sprat Article

BITX 40 Fun

ZL2BMI Rig

Paraset.   Three tubes!  Almost an ET-3!

Bill's Bench

ET-2 Adventure over,  Rig on the wall

Final QSO count. 20   3 "random" 

Last QSO with AA8OZ

Lessons learned:  100 mW not the problem. Crystal Control cramps your style. 

N0WVA regen amazingly effective.

Tried for the Sunrise Net.  Walter sent me some crystals.  

On to the uBITX. 

Accidentally wiped out calibration and BFO settings. 

Had to do recalibration and reset BFO. 

Learned a lot about the rig. 

How they did CW and how they do it now. Shift TX?  Or shift RX?  Or just shift BFO on RX? 

How all the signals end up as upper sideband.  Only one BFO freq.  Very cool. 

TalentCell 12 V Lithium Ion 3 AmpHour battery. Size of a deck of cards. 

Inspired by Peregrino -- I ordered EFHW Tuner from QRP Guys. 

Homebrew Straight Keys

Antuino upgrade 

SMT soldering. 

Back to Arduino Nano and the IDE.  

A very cool tool. 

Antuino filter analysis.

Version 6 of uBITX out. 

The "Watt Meter" DC power meter.  Very useful.  8 bucks.  LINK:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Digital-DC-combo-Meter-LCD-Watt-Power-Volt-Amp-RC-Battery-charging-Analyzer-M/152339793114?fbclid=IwAR0u9SlZi2Dm6zOJyZt4fDTu7w_pjBIEYD_FiNfLymxtQUbMjcNHjfB17P0

SPRAT, balloons and hardcore homebrew hydrogen. 

MAILBAG

VK3HN's AM receiver.  I ordered 6kHz 455 kHz filters from Australia. 

Dean's MMM

Peter VK2EMU   Hertz not hertz. 

Ben KC9DLM LTSpice YouTube Videos

Steve Silverman  Electroluminescent Receiver Kit

Lyndon N0LFX back to listening.  FB OM

Steve M0KOV built a pill bottle variometer.  Did you get the regen going? 

Anthony VU3JVX   FB HB uBitx.  

Allison KB1GMX  Great to hear from her

Leif WB9IWT -- helped me trouble shoot my uBITX (BFO was low)

Mike EI0CL  old buddy from Azores days.  Recognized his voice on 20.  Great QSO.