cw

I've been licensed as KA8KPN since 1980. I have sometimes told people that it was 1979, but that's my mistake. My true story about not having an ID for the general test, but having one for the amateur extra test implies that I was licensed the year I turned 16, which was 1980. That whole time, CW has been my mode. First, with a straight key, and then with a set of iambic paddles (I received a nice chrome based set of Bencher paddles for my 16th birthday.) The thing about iambic paddles is that you need a device called a keyer in order to actually use them for anything.

I've been working on an SDR (Software Defined Radio) receiver that I can control via computer so I can use my TV receiver dongle to work linear transponder satellites. It hasn't work or, rather, has kind of worked strangely so last night I took it apart, metaphorically, and experimented with locally-generated signals so I could try to figure out what was going on. Having identified the errors, corrected those errors, and tested the correction, I can now explain how to make one of those things that works. The receiver part, anyway.

While I'm waiting for new boards to come in for the Arduino-based memory keyer and while I'm waiting for NC4L to get my money order so he can ship my FT-102 back, I'm working on getting back on the satellites. I've decided to try my hand at the linear-transponder satellites. I've watched guys like Andy (W5ACM) operate linear satellites with nothing more than an FT-847 and some well-practiced skills, but I don't have any FT-847 equivalent, and the all-mode radio that I do have is computer-controllable so I can run computer-controlled.