Copasetic Flow

I recently came across an announcement on the illinoisdigitalham yahoo group about academic scholarships offered to ham radio operators. The scholarships are administered by the Foundation for Amateur Radio . These look like a great opportunity and the folks offering them should be applauded! The announcement read as follows: Scholarships to help amateur radio operators with post-high-school education are now available for the 2009-2010 academic year. In 2009, the Foundation for Amateur Radio will administer 48 scholarships to amateur radio operators (all using the same application), with amounts ranging from $500 to $5,000. The application must be received in paper copy by May 1, 2009, but it is a good idea to start early as four scholarships require endorsements from other individuals or organizations. The 2009 scholarship application form and regulations can be found on the Foundation for Amateur Radio website, http://www.farweb.org/. Pass the word on to any amateur (whatever...

QSL mapper now available in: Dutch German Spanish by Tjeerd PA3GNZ by Dieter DL2BQD by Juan EA5XQ Want to help translate it to your language? Read on! After communicating with Tjeerd, PA3GNZ, of the GQRP group and taking a look at his great Rockmite page , it occurred to me that it would be nice if the QSL Mapping gadget could automatically be displayed in the language of the gadget's user. As it turns out, Google provides an easy API for Internationalization. All that's needed are the translations of all the gadget's labels and messages into each language. Tjeerd was kind enough to provide the translation into dutch, so the gadget shown below will have labels in Dutch when viewed on a browser configured for Dutch. Now all that's needed is the translation for every other language :) If you're so inclined, have the time, and know the translation of the following phrases, please add them to the comments below. I'll bring the gadget up in more languages as t...

The 'Product Slide Gadget' provides a slide show that automatically displays all the products offered for sale on your Etsy store. When a shopper clicks on the image of one of your products, they are instantly linked to the order page for that product. An example is shown below. Example Slide Show To see what your store will look like, go to the setup page . The gadget can be embedded on any web page or added to anyone's iGoogle home page. Just follow these steps: 1. Setup your store's slide show and get the HTML to embed on a web page like your blog or any other page where you can edit the HTML. and/or 2. Add your slide show to your iGoogle home page. Although it is not required, please consider making a donation to help us keep offering services like this one. Setup your store's slide show and get the HTML to embed on a web page If you have navigated away from the slide show setup page, you can get back to it by clicking here . When you arrive at the setup pa...

I found out about a great site yesterday: A, B, C's of Dx . It's a very well written and illustrated site with answers to all kinds of questions you might have if your interested in DX. The page on propagation was particularly useful for me and answered a lot of questions I've had about getting my Rockmite20 on the air. All the material is very practical with well thought out explanations and applications to every day situations. Check it out! Have fun! 73 de KD0FNR

One of the fun traditions of ham radio is sending a QSL card to another station to confirm a contact. To do that, you need the address of the receiving station. It's also interesting to find out how far away the QTH, (location), of the station actually was, and operating QRP with the Rockmite, I'm always curious about what the miles per watt number for the contact was as well. The Copasetic Flow QSL mapper below shows all that information! Just enter your callsign, click 'Locate', then enter the callsign of the receiving station and click 'Locate' again. Both stations will be mapped and the distance between them and the watts per mile will be displayed! You can install this gadget on your own iGoogle home page, or on any web page by using the installer from Google .

This is the three element Yagi I'll be trying out in this week! The guy wires are suspended from trees at each corner. The first set of 'elevation pulleys' allows the ends of the parasitic elements to be raised and lowered independently so that they can be leveled. The second set of 'tension' pulleys allow the parasitic elements to be removed altogether by lowering them to the ground so that various metrics of the antenna, (gain, impedance, etc...), can be measured with and without them. Each pulley set is suspended from the guy wires in such a manner that the element can be slid along the guy wire to adjust element spacing. Plastic and glass string levels are attached to each of the elements and on the cross element level string. The levels are used to make adjustments to ensure that all the elements of the antenna lie in the same plane. The levels are read with a pair of binoculars.

I was back up on Sourdough Trail with the Rockmite 20 on Wednesday. The weather was gorgeous and as long as the sun was out it was warm enough to shed a few layers. I ran into a few dove as I hiked up out to the end of the ridge, but the resident moose must have been hiding out. I hung the dipole between two trees at the point of a ridge line that points off to the East at an altitude of 10,200 feet. The antenna was oriented just a little bit to the northeast due to the positioning and availability of suitable trees for antenna supports. View Larger Map KD0FNR station location and antenna orientation Antenna support After CQing for awhile, I was rewarded with a callback from KB8AP in Central Point, OR who provided me with an RST report of 439 while I could read him at 239, RST reports being rather subjective things with the Rockmite since it has no S meter. After we chatted for a bit, I CQ'ed again and immediately heard back from KC8ITC in the opposite direction, Saline, Michig...