After some poking around I decided to see if I can put a new face to the site with a new theme. What you are looking at so far is what I found most pleasing to my eye. Side benefit to this one is that it also shows my @kf5jra twiiter feed. If you find anything broken please let me know.

This post will explain how I document all the settings of the applications that interface with my ham station. With the complexity of any ham station in interfacing both hardware and software it can get a little overwhelming to keep track of how everything is connected and or its settings. The tools that I have chosen work for me and have been real world tested (accidently).

The first thing to determine is what are you going to use to capture all these settings. Some criteria:

If this is your first time here this is will not look to new to you, but for returning visitors this might look a little different.

Both the front end and the back end of this site has been changed. The move removes any dependencies on having to use an external program to make these posts and allows me to just use my editor of choice. The moves also removes the dependency of having to use a MySQL for the back end.

We got our first snow of the season. Been falling since around 4:00 AM. Due to the previous two days being in the mid 70’s or so it has taken some time to accumulate. Streets are still clear since they have the warmth of the previous two days.

With a little help from the North Dakota QSO party I was able to get the last state for my mixed Worked All States (WAS). Big thanks go out to the operator who uploaded their log so quickly after the contest.

73 de KF5JRA

Ron

With me just turning half a century old (50) I made my life easier at the desk of my ham station.

I have always eyed my dad’s (N6XT) Green Heron RT-21 so I have been on the look out for one to be had for quite some time. So a little over a week before my birthday I spotted a RT-21D posted on swap.qth.com that was almost half the cost of a new unit. Like any good ham operator I did my due diligence to verify the seller was legit. Everything was on the up and up and I became the proud owner of the RT-21D.

This short blog entry is to record that I have confirmed 100 DXCC via LoTW. Now it is time to start working toward the next step.

Hope to see you down the Log

73 de KF5JRA

Ron

The stars have aligned and I have found the time and the finances to be able to attend the International DX Convention. This is will be my first time attending this convention that my dad (N6XT) has been attending for quite some time. This is also the first time both my dad and I will be attending something together that we both share a passion for.

I am looking forward to the face to face QSO’s with everyone that I have either met on the air, or have e-mailed back and forth be it directly or via one of the many e-mail reflectors I am a participant of.

With the help of my good neighbor (Jay) one of my goals was accomplished. I was finally able to get my Glen Martin RT-936 roof-top tower installed. The tower is supporting a K4KIO 6-Band Hex Beam with the rotating duties being handled by a HyGain Ham-iV rotator.

With the rental of a 45 foot boom lift the process went smoothly. The 20m band sits approximately 32 feet off the ground. After everything was cleaned up I made three DX contacts with good signal reports. (Check either QRZ, ClubLog, or HRDLog for the date this was published.)

You have reached this page either by searching Google for my call, a fellow ham who I have worked or has worked me. I gained my amateur radio privileges on January 26, 2011 and upgraded to General in March of 2011.

Above is what my working conditions look like on my side of the radio (excuse the mess, still a work in progress). Below is what makes up my station: