Copasetic Flow

 SOTA accepts ADIF files and they are pretty easy to build from POTA files. After a particularly successful SOTA activation of Mt. Davidson, ( W6/NC-423 ), with 21 QSOs, I once again looked longingly at the Import ADIF button on the SOTA site. Thus far, I've been unable to locate the SOTA fields that should be used, but I happened upon the ADIF standard and found that it might only require  MY_SOTA_REF . On a whim, I used my POTA template to create a line that looked like <station_callsign:6>KD0FNR<Call:5>w0jsl<QSO_DATE:8>20241115<TIME_ON:4>1740<BAND:3>20M<MODE:2>CW<MY_SIG:4>POTA<MY_SIG_REF:7>US-0757<eor> and simply changed the name of the park reference field so I had <station_callsign:6>KD0FNR<Call:5>w0jsl<QSO_DATE:8>20241115<TIME_ON:4>1740<BAND:3>20M<MODE:2>CW<MY_SIG:4>POTA<MY_SOTA_REF:9>W6/NC-423<eor> And it worked !  

 I had an interesting failure with TouCans a day ago. TouCans handily activated a park a day last week. Then, yesterday, when I pulled on the antenna wire just a bit, (I promise), the RockMite keyer rebooted which is never a good sign. I adjusted the wire again and the rig audio went off. What had actually happened was that the power supply had shut itself down. I inspected the interior of TouCans and immediately wondered if the power leads to the Tuna Topper ][+ amplifier had shorted on the tuna can. I unhooked the power lines to the amplifier and tried again nothing. Leaving the power lines detached, I decided to check if the power supply would take a charge. It would. I tried again and the RockMite, (as evidenced by its keyer), booted!  I left everything for a bit before, this morning reassembling the rig with the power lines to the amp re-attached along with the RF output line that I had accidentally broken in the process. I checked the bias voltage to the power transisto...

 The second time TouCans Vertical activated Juan Bautista Trail, US-4571, it was from near the top of Russian Hill in San Francisco. The longest, (distance-wise), QSO was to Alaska which became a bit of a thing last week. The Park and My Forgetful Journey to It: For this activation I was in a city park within the POTA Park. To be specific, I was perched on the side of Russian Hll in George Sterling Park at 10 in the morning. I'd intended to be at the park much earlier in the morning, but I had.. well... I forgot to pick up the radio in my hurry to get to the bus stop. So, I finished my early swim at Hyde Street Pier as intended. The area is gorgeous seated just below and to the East of Ghirardelli Square. And then, I headed back to the house for the rig. In a testament to the public transit around here, I was back up on Russian Hill a mere hour later after taking the MUNI 30 to Powell St. BART station, then the BART back into Excelsior, taking another bus to the house, grabbing t...

 Project TouCans has been flying with its power source onboard for several months. It occurred to me I've never documented the power system in its entirety. The Battery The foundation of the power system is an Imuto potable laptop charger Using this charger as a power supply for TouCans has two advantages. First, it fits in a Progresso soup can, so it fits the form factor of the rig that's more often than not flying suspended in its own dipole antenna. Second, it has two USB-C ports. One is attached directly to a USB-C power deliver breakout board that then feeds the the latching relay that serves as the on/off switch for the rig's radio and amplifier. The other USB-C port sports a short USB-C thunderbolt cable protrudes from the can and allows the battery to be charged without opening TouCan's case. Choosing the Voltage So, we have a supply that provide up to 100 Watts. But at what voltage? That's what this gadget , an Adafruit HUSB238, determines. It's jumper...

 TouCans Veritical activated the Pony Express Trail from Pier 7! Here's the map. Blue markers are QSOs. Yellow markers are RBN spots. Colors indicate relative signal strength using the resistor color scale, (violet is second biggest, black is lowest.) Once again, the rig reached Alaska from downtown San Francisco. In it's usual thumbing-its-nose at conventiatonal wisdom way, the path to Alaska, (the orange line in the map detail below), from the location of the antenna is straight down the metal railing the antenna was mounted in Here's the antenna setup QSOs Callsign rx RST tx RST Time (GMT) Frequency kj7dt 559 579 2024/11/06 21:48:00 14057.4 wx7or 559 559 2024/11/06 21:56:00 14057.4 k0yo 449 559 2024/11/06 22:10:00 14057.4 k5ohy 229 559 2024/11/06 22:18:00 14057.4 kc4cr 229 559 2024/11/06 22:25:00 14057.4 al7kc 449 539 2024/11/06 22:27:00 14057.4 k7esq 559 599 2024/11/06 22:30:00 14057.4 ak6fq 539 459 2024/11/06 22:43:00 14057.4 ve7atj 339 559 2024/11/0...

 When the terrain's not as interesting, I like to use the OpenStreets view of Cesium to get a crisper look at how propagation changes with respect to grey line.  Making maps default to OpenStreets wasn't as easy as I would have liked to pull that off the first time I tried though. Here's the process for switching a map over to OpenStreets imagery right after it's created. Here's   an example of how to code this.  const czml = "";  const viewer = new Cesium.Viewer("cesiumContainer", { terrain: Cesium.Terrain.fromWorldTerrain(), }); var osm = new Cesium.OpenStreetMapImageryProvider({ url : 'https://tile.openstreetmap.org' }); viewer.imageryLayers.addImageryProvider(osm); viewer.scene.globe.enableLighting = true; const dataSourcePromise = Cesium.CzmlDataSource.load("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hcarter333/rm-rbn-history/refs/heads/main/maps/TouCansVerticalPierGround.czml"); viewer.dataSources.add(dataSour...

 Through a timing miscalculation, I found myself arriving early to my Cantonese class at City College San Francisco. I'd taken my time getting there, even stopping for dinner on Mission at the Recovery Room, where some of the customers were carrying on about elections while others at the other end of the bar were avidly watching sports. Me? I was studying for my upcoming Cantonese quiz. However, after taking time for a nice dinner, I still found myself on campus at 01:10 UTC. I studied for a bit, then decided I needed a break. I'd been out all day carrying TouCans around town in a tote sack with its new carbon fiber pole compacted down to two and a half feet or so. Then, it occurred to me! Inspired by K4SWL 's many Ham Radio Work Bench tales of activating parks while out running errands as well as W6CSN 's treatises on activating parks in San Francisco with a KH1 and a vertical, I looked up the map for Juan Bautista National Historical Trail. Sure enough, it was locate...