I use the 500 filter as well.

We seem to hear each other 100%, but not real strong. The day we did 20m first, I think we had a pretty good path.

I usually start with a 1500hz width and try to manually notch out the CW before resorting to a 500hz filter. All the SNR's I report assume a 1500hz filter.

I just use the 500 Hz and adjust the SNR report for full bandwidth (I did empirical testing at full v. 500Hz, and subtracting 20 dB seems to work best.)

I was bow hunting and got back too late and missed the net

@Mach
Yep, I missed due to weather and other stuff, you weren't in the Netherlands I hope.

Netherlands like the country? What did I miss?

I was pretty deep into the thicket. Long walk back to the truck.

I bow hunt behind a Ghost Blind on the ground so I really have to watch my movement and the wind.

I had a doe with a yearling come in and hang out 30-40 yards away from me for over an hour about 45 minutes before sunset. Something pushed them to me. She was blowing for a solid 30 minutes but not at me. So I just hung tight, quiet, and motionless so I would not spook them. I don't hunt trophies, I hunt steaks at the border of a salt marsh where it is thick with briar, vines and wild grapes and this year lots of acorns. I have 3 doe tags but does with a yearly get a pass from me, and I don't shoot yearlings so I just watched them for a long time. They never noticed me and I was down wind.  When it was pitch black I slowly and quietly packed up and left.

It worked, I didn't spoke them, but I got home late unfortunately.

@Mach vvc
No worries, some guy with a bow offed 5 people over there. I wondered if it (the joke) was a bit in poor taste afterwards.

ETA In ham news, I added some coils to the ends of the dipole along with some trailing wire and am now on 160M. I'm still working out the new tuner settings but it looks good. The coils are 2" pvc with about 60 ft. of wire each followed by about 11 ft. of wire with a corona loop. It's like adding enough wire to make up for the missing parts of a 160M dipole.
73,
Rob

I'll be present to NC this week.

Note that I won't be present next week (and likely the following week) so we'll need volunteers for those.

Like last week any reports on local area shortages will make it a little more interesting. If you happen to
remember what you paid for gas last, throw that in as well.

First announcement is out but I'm seeing very very heavy QRM only on 7120.

I think I'm seeing Olivia as well but not getting a decode due to the QRM.

ETA: it looks like a SMPS that's right on frequency but not in the immediate area, hoping it's
temperature sensitive and drifts out of the passband before net time.

Saw something here that looked like Olivia as well but with a broader BW, we might need a Back Up frequency for QSY.
73,
Rob

I copied a test transmission in the past 10.

Let's switch to 7114 KHz. I'll send out the 2350 and 2355Z warnings on 7114 and update the posting.

QSL tnx de Rob
73

I got busy helping my son build a Technic set and just got to the shack.

Just a reminder if you missed it, we're on 7114 KHZ tonight.

Conditions were maybe a tiny bit worse than last week but lots of strong signals
tonight and 100% copy on everyone.

Five stations + net control tonight.

Thanks for making it!

That little glitch was weird. In the middle of my message it stopped sending, though the rig was still keyed up. Took me a few seconds to realize there was something wrong. Shut it down and tried to type an explanation quickly on a very tiny keyboard. That didn't go well, you saw the results.

My glitch was fldigi switching to CW in mid-transmission. No idea how that happened, but I'm guessing
it's RF in the shack making the mouse freak out.

My glitch was being on 7120 until about 5 seconds before i checked in.

As a reminder I can't NC this week so we'll need a volunteer or it's a free-for-all this week.

Probably will be back next week but will update when closer to that time.

I don't have plans to be anywhere else, I can do it if no one else wants to. Not sure I'll be in the shack for a lot of warnings though, generally I'm busy with the family.

I could give NC a shot as well. I know the jist of the format, tho it might be a bit unpolished. That, and I'm somewhat if a slow typist, just ask Redbird.

@GreenDragon I use macros for everything. I only actually type my response to each transmission and copy in a callsign, everything else is a button click. Copy paste the callsigns into notepad during checking and you can copy one back to the buffer and click a button and it does the btu etc. I posted the preamble I send at the beginning of the thread (pg2), why don't you try it and see how it goes?

Attached File



And what Nmboxer said. Macro all the things.

Sure, I'll give it a whirl.

Anybody want to jump on 7120 early for practice?
Its been a while for me.

My radio is currently listening at 7120 Olivia, though I am not in front of it. If you send something I can report back and respond in the next 10-15 minutes.

Sent out a CQ, call ending in U.
Band eerily quiet for me tonight.

100% copy thanks!

I'll  be on in a few, I'm currently on an 80m phone net.


We'll do net on 7120 tonight, since that's where people already are.

I had two messages get cut off in my QSO with Fred, weird. I don't think it was a cursor thing but will have to pay attention during the net.


Fred, sorry I had to run and there was supposed to be more there. Dinner is getting cold...

No Problem, thanks for the practice!

Something weird was going on. I had two long strings that i heard but no decode

Am i getting out?

Try again.

if you are the station ending in O, I copy 100%

That's  me, thanks.

Nice job @GreenDragon on NCS tonight and you should consider doing it again. Condx turned rough here at the end. You dropped down to 50% copy.

I keep a notepad doc open in a second window that I copy/paste in and out of, if you didn't want to store the preamble in a macro you could just put it (completely formatted) in there and copy it in. That is what my daughter did with her comment as she is just learning to type.

Band faded bad here. Pretty much lost NC but we're too close for this to be expected to work, anyway.


Caught the new guys at the end, nice.

I'd definitely do it again. I was hoping to have the macros going, but it didn't happen. I use an old computer for this radio, and I didn't see anything to do them with. I downloaded some stuff to make it work right before net, but I didn't want to restart the computer right before and take a chance of a messup. There was still something screwy going on with the radio program and I had to reboot that before net.

That was great that your daughter joined in tonight.

I got your report 100%, so it must've just been good timing.

With the loop down I was using the dipole tonight, which is "pointed" right at you.

We had 7 participants tonight. One is a returning station, welcome back. Two others are new checkins. If they are reading this, welcome.

Thanks to all for your patience,  I know it was a long net.

Sorry, it's been a long time since I used older digital modes. Hope my transmissions were decent.

Thanks for running the net.

It was fine, glad you joined in.

Tonight was the worst that 40m has been for me on digital in quite awhile.

It was kind of a cruddy weather day, so it was a good day to set up the macros. I should be gtg for NCS for the future.

Hey @Mach!  Nice story.  I've been thinking of getting one of those Ghost Blinds....how do you like them?

It has advantages and disadvantages. I like it and use it almost exclusively.

Disadvantages:

you are on the ground and wind and movement are everything. So is noise. It takes more discipline that being in a tree.
You really can not move unless the deer's head is behind something at least at bow ranges for me in the thickets which is inside 30 yards
I have had deer come in behind me a lot, direction is everything unlike in a tree. you really need to study the terrain and sign and figure out which way they will come in, and even then they come in from behind.

Then you need all that to come together. It is definately more challenging than being in a tree.

Advantages:

you don't need a tree
you can scout and be set up in 60 seconds having never set foot in that area before
you can preset spots by cutting shooting lanes if you want, but if you arent in thick underbrush, you don't have to
You can move locations a lot based on the sign changing during the season with little noise and setup
You can pattern other hunters based on where their stands are, believe it or not I have seen stands create choke points as the deer move to avoid them
You can hunt during the bow season in the area where a gun hunter has a stand
You can hunt areas during the week by other people's stands
On public ground you leave nothing to be stolen or cut down
Nobody will know you were there
You can hunt places that are slightly questionable like behind houses ( at least with a bow )
you can hunt in the middle of a field.
Inside of 10 yards they may notice something is not quite right, but they won't know what it is. outside of about 10 yards they will not see you if you don't move
Were you put it matters. If you break up a downed tree by setting up in front of it, a 12 point monster will notice ( personal experience )
You need a seat that you can just barely shoot over the blind. You don't want to have to stand up. you have to shoot sitting down and with a bow may take some practice.

The biggest advantage is flexibility and changing location but you pay for it with the disadvantages. Deer come in and they see or wind you when if you had been in a tree they would not know you were there.

I like it, but i have lost deer opportunities because I was not in a tree. But when i have connected it has been very satisfying because you are on the ground with them and it is an extra challenge.

Hope this helps. Any questions just ask

I should be able to NC tonight. Hopefully we get some good propagation.

I'm showing a quieter 7114 than 7120 so we're on 7114 tonight.

First reminder goes out at 2300Z.

Anyone want to call out so I can see if I can decode in my alternate shack?