W7YV Ham Radio

This video made me chuckle but, if you can get past that, this series has some really good advice.

REFERENCES: http://archive.org/details/gov.dod.dimoc.23735  

In the world of Amateur Radio, there are many hobbyists that combine their love for radio with a love for fine machinery. Here is one example of that combination. Richard Meiss, WB9LPU, has been designing and making home brew keys since 1998. The RotoTwin key, shown in the video below, is one of the most unique. But, his skill does not stop there. Check out the links below the video.   REFERENCES: WB9LPU YouTube Videos (it will make you weep!) WB9LPU's Key Corner W1TP Museum of Telegraphy (Richard Meiss Keys)

For those CW operators on a tight budget:

Having just acquired a mint-condition 63 year old Vibroplex Presentation Bug for my 63rd birthday, I thought it might be appropriate to show how a professional uses one. Thanks to Dick Leining (W7DML) for putting me onto this fascinating bit of history. This video is the last night at KPH - the Night of Nights. The last message was sent at 19:59 hours EST on July 12, 1999 by Denise (Denice) Stoops. KPH was a public coast radio station on the West Coast of the United States. For most of the 20th century, it provided ship to shore communications including telegrams (using Morse code ) and marine telex service (using radioteletype ).

I got very lucky the other day and happened upon a Vibroplex Bug on eBay that dates back to 1950 - the year I was born. Even more exciting is that it was placed online as a Buy It Now and I found it, probably, within a hour of the posting The price was right and I pulled the trigger. Today, the key arrived and my goal is to be able to make QSOs with it before my birthday in February. On that day, the key and I will share a fine Jack Daniels Single Barrel Whiskey to celebrate 63 years of life.

Efforts to automate the W7YV shack operations are continuing. The latest addition to the shack is the automatic recording of several traffics nets that are routinely visited here at W7YV. These recordings my be of general interest but, more importantly, may be of use to those taking traffic on these nets as a means to verify what they thought they copied. Using a computer running Ubuntu Linux, a "cron job" has been setup to start an "arecord" session at the times of various traffic nets. This is an experiment and might go away. If it does, well, fine then. Until that happens, check out this link: http://63.226.66.243:8080/nets  . At present, files are kept for one week. This link is shown at the top of the HF Nets section on the right side of this blog. Implementation The setup here at W7YV includes a PC running Linux Ubuntu 11.10. The PC is interfaced to an ICOM IC-756PRO. At present, the process is mostly manual in that the operator has to be present...