KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

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Take the 2020 State of the Hobby Survey

Posted: 18 May 2020 06:44 AM PDT
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/kb6nu...m_medium=email


Dustin, N8RMA, writes:

First and foremost, I hope everyone is staying healthy out there. I was
originally hoping to release this survey mid-March, but due to the pandemic
response I was forced to change this up. I trust many others have had to
make similar adjustments, so I hope folks understand.

That said, the time has come for the survey to be released! I wanted to
ensure I could devote the proper amount of time to promoting and
administering the survey before I released it. Things have calmed down a
bit in my world and Im ready to do that.

If you have not had a chance to see the results from previous surveys, they
are available he

2017
2018
2019


The survey this year is 100% anonymous (which was a common request) and any
demographic questions are optional. This data does help me do a more
thorough analysis, but is completely optional.

The survey will run from 15-MAY to 12-JUN, so 4 weeks. If there is low
attendance due to world events, I may consider extending this.

As always, please subscribe to my blog for email alerts on future survey
and result activities.

Take the 2020 State of the Hobby Survey here!




The post Take the 2020 State of the Hobby Survey appeared first on KB6NUs
Ham Radio Blog.


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Operating notes: Hamvention QSO Party, QRP, FRLogger

Posted: 17 May 2020 05:09 PM PDT
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As many of you know, this was Hamvention weekend, and because the event was
cancelled, it was a sad weekend for many of us. To help us get over our
disappointment the World Wide Radio Operators Foundation (WWROF) sponsored
the first Hamvention QSO Party yesterday.

It was a fun event. I made 150 contacts in 3-1/4 hours and scored 168
points. (You got 10 points for contacting W8BI, the Dayton ARA station, and
I was fortunate enough to get them twice.) Heres the breakdown:



BandÂ*
CW Q s
Phone Qs



80
17




40
97
26



20
10




Total Qs
126
24
150


Total Score


Â*168




The exchange was a signal report (599 or 59) and the year that you first
attended the Dayton Hamvention. Other than W8BI (1952, the first year for
the Hamvention), the station that gave me the earliest year was K4AVX, who
gave me a 59.
Lifes too short for QRP?

Speaking of the Hamvention QSO Party, theres been some chatter on the
Flying Pigs QRP mailing list. Mostly, it was complaining about the poor
conditions. My feeling is that if conditions arent good for QRP, crank it
up to at least 100 W. Why miss out on the fun being had because youre not
running enough power.
FRLogger

And now for something completely different.

While perusing the FlexRadio Community message board, I came across a link
to FRLogger, a logging program designed to work with the FlexRadio. It
sounded like a great program, and you cant beat the price (FREE!), so I
downloaded it.

At first, I had problems importing the ADIF from ACLog. This was completely
my fault. First of all, ACLog didnt have a QTH field, so when I set that
up, I defined a City field. I thought I could simply change the ADIF field
name to QTH, and then import it. I was flummoxed when that didnt work. I
enquired about this on the FRLogger mailing list and was assured that it
would work, so I gave it another go.

What I discovered is that Notepad didnt like such a big file (10 Mbytes).
When I told it to search and replace, the little blue wheel whirred, but
not replacements were made. I took the file up to my Mac, edited the file
with BBEdit, and it imported without any problems.

With FRLogger, I can do things with the FlexRadio that I dont think that
the SmartSDR software can do. For example, you can smooth S-meter readings
by averaging a number of readings. Another example that I really like is
that you can digitally record the audio. I dont have to muck around with my
little hand-held recorder.

Its not perfect, but the author, WS7M, is working on it, and Ive offered to
help him with the documentation. I think Im really going to enjoy using it.

The post Operating notes: Hamvention QSO Party, QRP, FRLogger appeared
first on KB6NUs Ham Radio Blog.