What a pain in the butt!
I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the previous blog back-end I was using (PluggedOut) and so I ported the blog site over to the more popular WordPress package. I wish that I was able to import the data from the most obscure format I was using previously, it would have saved lots of time!
I hope the change was worth all the effort – my first impressions are that this format is much better suited to my needs. Well, better get back to tweaking this site!
Tonight I checked into the OVMRC Wise Owl Net hosted on VE3TWO (the OVMRC club repeater) to see what it is all about. The net started at 04:00UTC and was controlled / hosted by Martin (VA3SIE).
Again I was warmly greeted by the participants – it really helps in getting over being mic-shy (as Ernie, VE3EJJ puts it). The topics included HF propagation monitoring using marine (Coast Guard) HF, antennas for appartments which I recommended an ARRL publication held at the main branch of the Ottawa Public Library (Low Profile Amateur Radio Operating A Ham Station from Almost Anywhere: Link to the OPL listing here), and the up coming OVMRC meeting on Jan 20th.
Net participants included: Maurice Andre (VE3VIG), Jean (VE2OCQ), Patrick (VA3CMD), Bob (VA3QV), Mathieu (VA3ECM), and Roger (VE3NPO).
So tonight I checked into the OVMRC’s Welcome Mat Net to finally start my journey in amateur radio.
The net was hosted by Ante (VA2BBW) and saw a healthy number of participants including: VE3KNE (Brian), VE2OCQ (Jean), VA3CMD (Patrick), VE3XHJ (Sean), Mark (VA3UMP) and David (GM8UPI).
I wish I had remembered to check into the net sooner because it was a lot of fun! I’ll be looking forward to next week’s net. Thanks to all participants!
73!
This Week:
*Propagation by VE3OIJ
*Safety by VE3EJJ
It felt like an eternity since our last radio class – what a nice return to my geek sense of normalcy. It was really great to see everyone come out for the class too – I was worried that we would have lost another along the way.
So the first topic of the night was propagation. Kind of an important topic really, and the material was very nicely covered by Darin (VE3OIJ). I especially appreciate the humor that Darin imparts into his lectures, and his explanations of the material are very concise. Not a heck of a lot of new information for me to pick up on – but that is my own fault, having read so much on the topic already. What was really neat to see was some real-world data on the topic of skip-zone. Darin tracks all of his QSOs and maps them using Google Earth. What he was able to very clearly demonstrate was the “dead-zone” which tends to occur in the skip-zone. Very nice touch!
The second topic of the week was that of electrical and radio safety. Naturally, Ernie (VE3EJJ) put a lot of thought into this topic, and did a superb job of explaining the relevant physiological considerations in general radio safety. I can be a bit of a safety snob when it comes to dangerous activities, so I can appreciate the material presented. I hope everyone was able to take away the important messages from the lecture – aside from the 28 V/m electric field, and 0.0073 A/m values for the exam.
