Saturday - This morning was the “dump run”. An opportunity to get some larger, bulkier items hauled to the transfer station. There were quite a few willing to walk along side the trailer and help load. We picked up stuff from 20 sites. After securing the load four of us went to the transfer station to unload the trailer. The total cost was $170 which came out to $8.50/site. Not bad especially since we dumped our old combo washer/dryer.
The afternoon was spent trying to get the Windows 11 computer to connect to the FT-710 via a USB cable.
Monday - Success! I gave up on the built-in Windows 11 time synchronization tool and downloaded NetTime, a free, open source program that works. Once the time synced, the data started to be decoded along the left side of the window. I just need to learn how to use the software. This is for an amateur radio digital mode called FT8. It supposedly works with very low signal levels.
I’m also trying another Meshtastic antenna. This one is a mag mount with supposedly higher gain. I have it stuck to the roof of our shed near the peak. It is tuned fairly well as evidenced by the NanoVNA SWR graph. The range is 902 mHz to 928 mHz which is the frequency range used by the radio in the U.S. The default channel, called long-fast, uses slot 20 which is 906.875 mHz. This, BTW, is not in the amateur frequency band so no license required.
Later - First QSO on FT8. From San Jose. It took quite a while to figure out how to import the log file into my logbook on QRZ. I had set up the logbook in 2018 with my original call sign before I picked up my current one. It took quite a bit of fiddling to figure it out. But, now it’s done.
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