I just had to steal a quote from Julie, K8VOX as the title for this blog post because it describes exactly what the evening felt like!  One of the most frequent activators (Brian, K0ATZ) was out activating a couple parks and it seemed like everyone was around to play radio - he had quite the run going!  

     It was especially fun for me, because Brian was getting started right after we finished bath-time for the kiddos, and I was getting ready to tuck my daughter into bed.  I saw Mike, W8MSC post that Brian was starting up, so I asked my little operator if she wanted to try making a contact - she liked that idea so we sneaked over to the rig instead of starting our bedtime stories (shhhh...don't tell mama:-)
 
​    It only took her a couple tries to get through (with 1 false start), but she did it!  It just so happened that one of the other folks I've been working with on the new QSO storage system, Thom W8TAM, happened to be recording and shared the audio with the POTA Slack group!  I highly recommend you join us over there if you're at all interested in POTA - it's an awesome communication tool to share ideas, gear pics, spots, etc. that is WAY more useful than Facebook (although we are there too if that's what you're into.)  Anyway, for anyone who isn't on Slack, or doesn't want to join, here's the audio from my daughter's contact with K0ATZ:

     While you're here I do want to mention a couple new and exciting developments with POTA.  Firstly, as I mentioned, we have been using Slack for communication.  It's a great way to chat about our common interest without all the baggage that Facebook can bring.  It's also "real time" like Twitter, so it makes a fun place to chat with other activators and hunters while chasing parks.  Also, it is "channelized" and you can set up neat notifications by channel.  As an example, I have mine set to only "ding" me when spots get posted in the potaspots channel...how cool is that?!  Here's a bit of a sneak peak of the chatter when my daughter made the above contact:

    As I alluded to, the spots channel that is part of the Slack group automatically catches spots posted to the new POTA spotting page, so when folks make spots on that site, they show up there and also ding anyone in the Slack group who likes to know when someone is on the air.  This is the message in Slack that accompanies the ding:

     Anyway, it's been a fun week.  We had the announcement that the new POTA program is now accepting logs from all activators, there are 2 leaderboards up on the website so you can track your progress (one for Activators and one for Hunters), and there is a spotting system that, when used alongside the Slack app, can let you know when you need to run to your rig to work the next park, and  I'm within 8 days of finishing my Information Systems degree!  The full scoop on all the parks stuff can be learned by starting at www.parksontheair.com.

Post Contains Affiliate Links   

    A couple of weeks ago I pulled one of my on-going projects (the crowd-sourced one) off the pile and did a bit of work.  To bring anyone up to speed who hasn't been following along, I've been working on a project using a Seahorse box that, in a previous life, housed electronics associated with my work.  As I've been doing this, I've been getting input from my readers on each step along the way.  Last time I mentioned that I was pulling out all of the old bits that wouldn't be needed, to get ready to put the new stuff in it.  That left me with some holes:

     The power jack I'm going to leave in, because I'll reuse that to connect the charger to the built-in battery (which I'm also re-using from this box's prior life.)  This just left me with the other holes to contend with, and last time I promised that I would share my trick for doing that.  Big reveal:

​Epoxy.

     For something that will be painted or covered with something else, liquid epoxy is an easy way to fill in a hole.  In a situation like this, I just cover one side with tape, sit the item up on end, and fill the void.

     Once the epoxy dries you've got some fancy little windows.  Hit them with a bit of paint, or cover them with a decal of sorts (like I'll be doing with this one) and you're back in business!

P.S.    If your YL has a little metal yard sign that you busted when you snagged it with the mower wheel, use any left-over epoxy to fix that too.....

Remember the crowd-sourced project I was working on? You know - the thing where each step along the way I asked all of you for your ideas and input? Well, I haven't forgotten about it!

I've had several major things going on (one of them being finishing up my Information System degree - 5 weeks to go!) Anyway, because of my busy schedule I've just been picking away at all my various projects a little bit at a time. This week, I managed to steal a few minutes in the garage while the kids were chalking on the driveway to work on the box the project is going into. For now this consisted of removing all of the old stuff from the box that isn't being reused, which left me with just the battery from it's prior life:

     With all the old parts out of the way, I'm just about ready to start mounting up the parts of my Bitx40 that are going in here.  The only real thing to do before I start that, is to fill in the holes that were left by removing the old connectors - the next time I get to spend a few minutes on this project I'll show you my trick for doing that :-)

​     73 for now!

     I would venture to say that any ham that does logging with a computer, phone, or tablet, has at least some basic understanding of ADIF - it's the file type that most of our logs are stored in!
     But what is it really?  For those without much software knowledge, files like these can sometimes be a rather amorphous thing, but explaining ADIF can actually be done pretty quickly - it's a text file!  That's right, its just a file of plain text.  If you don't believe me, right click on one of your ADIF files (they end with .adi) on your computer, and choose "open with."  In the dialog box that pops up, choose "Notepad" (or your favorite text editor.)  Voila - you're looking at your log!

     Now, if you do the above, you might notice some things in the text like this: <STATION_CALLSIGN:5>.   All of the things inside the brackets just tell logging programs and QSO storage systems (like LOTW) which field the next bit of data came from, and how many characters are in it.  Pretty slick huh?  

     All of the field names that we use in our loggers should be pretty much standardized to make matching simpler.  With that in mind, it helps to know that ADIF is really more than a file type - it's the agreed upon standard for what gets put in that text file!  If you're curious about the full details, you can check out www.adif.org, for the full list of field types and how they are used.

     Okay - since you insist - 
One of the reason I wanted to touch on ADIF is because, like we joke about in our house "your doin' it wrong!" (spoken in the most naggy voice you can muster up.)

     Now, no one intentionally logs incorrectly, but especially for new-comers, some of the fields in loggers can be a bit confusing, so I really just wanted to touch on some of the most common fields / mistakes that I've seen in logs:

CALL - This is really just short for "callsign" which should be straight-forward, but for new folks, it can be unclear if this is your callsign, or the other person's - for anyone who wasn't sure, this is for the "other" person's callsign.

STATION_CALLSIGN - This also seems straight-forward, but sometimes there is confusion between this field and the next one I'll discuss.  To help clear it up, this is intended to be the callsign you use over the air - i.e. when I call "CQ - this is November Three Victor Echo Mike" I'm putting N3VEM in the "Station Callsign" field.

OPERATOR - This is probably the field that is used incorrectly most often! (heck, I was using it wrong myself for quite some time.)  It is not uncommon for me to see people put names, initials, etc. in this field, but that is not it's intent.  This field is meant to be another callsign!  Normally the "Station" and "Operator" are the same callsign (i.e. N3VEM is usually operating the station of N3VEM) but there are many cases where they will be different - like field day operations, contests, special events, etc. where the "Station" is a club, or the callsign being used over the air, and the "Operator" is someone else.  (i.e. during field day N3VEM may be an operator of the W3RRR station.)

SIG - At first pass, this might seem like a a shortened version of the word signal, and I have seen individuals put "59" etc. in this field, but signal reports actually go in the "RST" fields.  SIG is actually an abbreviation for "Special Interest Group" and it is where you log the "program" the person you are contacting is participating in.  This is the field where you would put "POTA", "WWFF", "MOTA" (Mota?) to indicate that you contacted someone participating in one of those programs.  If you are the one participating, you would use the companion field to this one - "MY_SIG" to indicate that you're activating one of these programs locations.

SIG_INFO - If you do contact someone who is participating in a special interest group, they will often give you a "reference number" of some sort.  SIG_INFO is where you put that number!  If you're the one in the park (or in the mine!) you would put the reference number for the location you are operating from in the companion "MY_SIG_INFO" field.  As a point of clarification, some groups are so big, they get their own fields in the ADIF format - IOTA and SOTA.

     In addition to fields that are commonly misused, there are also situations where people use generic fields when they wouldn't have to.  Just like we commonly say "there's an app for that" when thinking logging, just remember that "there's a field for that."  Some of the more obscure (to most folks) ones that jump out:

MS_SHOWER (the name of the meteor shower that you're making your meteor scatter contacts with)

K_INDEX, SFI - in case you like to log the solar conditions at the time of your contacts.

QSO_RANDOM - a true/false field used to indicate if this was a schedule contact or a random contact

Thanks for stopping by -  feel free to comment if you regularly use one of the many more obscure fields.  Also let me know if there are fields that you have misunderstood in the past - it helps us to share our own mistakes with the next generation of hams, so that they don't repeat our follies!

bye for now!

     It was a busy week for me, but I still managed to make just a little bit of progress on the ham shack.  The larger portion of what I did was making more progress on the drywall in the area right outside of the ham shack.  I also put up some of the plywood ceiling in the service area, and added some bulb bases back there so that when I walk behind the equipment to work on things (and as I continue my current construction work!), I'll have plenty of light.

    For anyone who missed my previous updates, or anyone who is just inclined to like this type of thing, I also did a very short video tour of the space this week - enjoy!

Lastly, before I wrap up for this week, remember that the School Club Roundup is going on!  Just do me one favor - let's impress these kids and young adults with our very best operating skills - I heard a lot of people calling out of turn, individuals answering when schools called for other schools etc.  Many of these young people are getting their first introduction to ham radio, and if what they hear is adults that can't follow directions, we only have ourselves to blame if we can't get new recruits!

​Bye for now!