07 June: Poor band conditions

UPDATED!  The system check at W0ZSW was disappointing, as the bands were noisy and few signals were heard.  I noticed a noise source that repeats across the band on 40 meters.  I’ll track it when time is available – and because of the poor band conditions, there certainly won’t be many actual stations on the air to interfere with the noise source!  That is a small blessing indeed.  This morning’s HF forecast shows us that geomagnetic storms are expected and band conditions are “Poor”.

Meanwhile, station W0EQO has returned to service after the problem was traced to a bad LAN cable.  Our thanks to troubleshooter extraordinaire Bill Jones, N0CIC.  The station will be ready for Field Day!!!

Speaking of Field Day, it is coming up soon – the 4th full weekend in June, which is the 22nd and 23rd.  For something this weekend, consider the June ARRL VHF Contest:

http://www.arrl.org/june-vhf

W0ZSW will tune the 6 meter band.  Start by listening on the calling frequency, 50.125 MHz USB.  Tune around that frequency. Station control ops should remember that the antenna may not be tuned until you throw out your callsign in a short transmission.

Since the radio is a Kenwood TS-480HX, it does not have the capability to operate on other VHF bands even though the W4MQ software does list those bands (such as the 2m band.)

Have a great weekend and be sure to get on the air!

73 – Pat Tice, WA0TDA
Courage Kenny Handiham Coordinator

 

W0ZSW Service Outages

Remote base station W0ZSW will be taken offline if severe thunderstorms are in the vicinity of Minneapolis-St. Paul Minnesota. This is simply a prudent measure we take to avoid lightning damage to the equipment. The station will return to service as soon as the weather passes through.

Please report any undocumented outages to us as soon as you notice them. A long outage is rare for us, but please be aware that thunderstorm season is underway here in the Upper Midwest and this will continue to disrupt service periodically.  From time to time the station will be taken offline to avoid lightning damage.

Click here to report a problem with the stations.

What does the end of service life of Windows XP mean for remote base users?

Dear Handiham Members and Volunteers,

Should we be concerned with the announcement by Microsoft that the end of life for Windows XP Service Pack 3 is for April 2014?

The good news is that Microsoft also announced late last year that all support for legacy applications written using VB6 and standard Microsoft components will continue to be supported through the life of Windows 8.

What does this mean?

Well, this means that the remote base client should function well on Windows 7 and Windows 8 platforms. We know of a few hams that are already using the remote base client on Windows 8, many are also using the client on Windows 7. Please let us know if you find a particular configuration with Windows 8 that causes issues with the remote base client. In the meantime, we have assessed and continue to review compatibility with Windows 8 for future updates to the remote base client. This type of work takes time but it is well worth the effort. Stay tuned for more updates coming soon!

73, KK4JZX

Welcome to the Remote Base

Important!  We have released a new software client 6.20230.  Please upgrade your existing software immediately to avoid lags in response time and to add CW filters and upgraded menus, plus an improved memories dialog.
Go to: W4MQ Software

TS-480 transceiver used in Handiham stations

The W4MQ software is hosted at Handiham.org.  It is free for anyone to download and use.  Access to the two Handiham stations is available via GUEST login or Echolink for receive only.  Transmit use is a Handiham member service.  You may download and install the host software to operate your own internet remote base station. Continue reading Welcome to the Remote Base