N6SPP Eric M. Thompson El Sobrante, CA QCWA # 36149 Chapter 11

=== JULY 2015 Moving back to the SFO Bay Area===
===August 2015 We are now in California=== new grid is CM87ux.
===If you need a card for KL7,VY1,VE7,W6 pls send to address above.

EX: KB6UZD 1987
Novice with cw 5wpm, Tech, General with cw 13wpm, Advanced, and Extra.

Commmercial:
General Radiotelephone Op License + Radar

==LOTW: QSO's before 9sept2010= "N6SPP"-Dx Entity 291 (W6).
QSO's from 10sept2010 to 26july2015= "N6SPP/KL" Alaska

==paper QSL 100% (direct pls)
==eQSL: occasional upload

BEACON(temporarily off air)
"n6spp/b (x3) bp51"
28.2163 mhz
3watts,dipole
xmtr: bp51cf
RadioShack HTX-100 (keyer "Frkn Beacon" from VE3SUN)
Reports welcome via Direct or Dx clusters. TU!
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PORTABLE OPERATION during the year from BQ40+ BQ50 near the Arctic Ocean, and from AO63 Dutch Harbor, AK.
Portable modes: jt65a, LEO fm satellites, wspr, jt9, cw
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Club Stn @ KL7AA: Anchorage - loc: BP51BE FT-1000mp, K3's, Tribander, Acom Amp, Loop and wires. Fully automated Satellite stn: ic-910h, M2 az/el array. "Orbitron+PCSat32", FoxTango controller, Yaesu G5500... We work most SSB/CW sats and the fm leo SO-50.. Currently tracking "FunCube" AO-73's telem. Active operators at the stn are AL4S, KL7TN, KL7SB, and myself.
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>>>SEPT.2010: N6SPP relocating to KL7- Anchorage from the San Francisco Bay Area for a while<<<<

>>> Antennas: "Inverted L RainGutter-Downspout" for 10m beacon. 10 ele yagi for portable EME and Hi-Speed Meteor Scatter on 144mhz. Comet H422 4-band rotatable dipole fixed N-S in pine tree. 65 ft Vertical wire in pine tree. (S9- 43ft Vertical, removed due to antenna restrictions)

>>> ELK and Arrow ants for SSB/CW and FM satellites

>>>Buddipole and PAR End Fed wires for portable ops.

>>>Dec 2012: homebrew "triple-folded" 40m dipole antenna in pine tree at 50ft (using Romex- house wiring 3cond/12awg, inside of 22ft of pvc pipe with balun)

>>>Meteor Scatter from BP51 to CO45 Ketchikan Area on 144mhz soon to follow (?)<<<

Will continue WeakSignal HF/VHF/WSJT/CW while in Alaska. ARRL email is good + N6WM is my SFO to KL7 laison.
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US Army- Signal Corp.- Ft.Gordon, GA "O5 Bravo 30" Radio Telephone Operator
US Army-Europe 1980-1982 NATO/Pershing 1A Nuclear missile unit, BN Ops/Communications
USA-Stateside 1982-1983 Ft.Polk, Louisiana -5th Infantry Mech. Div, BN Ops/Commo
CALIF NG- 1983-1987 Commo + "31 C" RTTY Ops
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Operated from Alaska's Arctic Circle June 2005 - from my wife's hometown of Kotzebue, AK. We connected with family friend, Bob Douglass- KL3BD and he took us a few miles north by boat to grid : AP86sw

*County: Northwest Arctic Burough *rig: FT857d *boat battery *Ant: homebrew mini-dipole with "band-clips", and a modified "PAC-12" vertical.*small SST tuner. Heard JA's,W6,W7's, LA's,KH6.. Made a 2way contact with the "LA6Q" dxpedition, and a few W7's on 20 and 40m.

== I called cq on 60mtrs from the tundra here also- with no luck. I wonder if this was the first use of the 60m amateur band from Alaska's Arctic Circle area? Any feedback would be helpful (June 2005).. The picture on the right was taken at approx 11 pm Alaskan Time>>>>>>>
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1969 "Magnetism" hi.. Reading about magnets, compasses and electricity. Experiments
1969 Crystal Radio kit.. KCBS- SFO
1970 WA6QFU (now W6QFU)- participated in cousin Gene's 10/20m SSTV operations. Wow- 2way pictures from Japan to Fremont, CA! High orbiting Oscar satellite station, phone and cw DX too..
1973 Radio Shack "10 in 1 Electronics Kit". AM transmitter- Attached rf output to house heater vent, and sent voice to upstairs vent areas by (inductively) placing General Electric pocket transistor radio near vent. SWL with dad's "Montgomery Wards" portable radio.
1975 More books on Alexander G. Bell and Thomas Edison. Telephone circuits, carbon microphones. Now reading a neighbor's ARRL study publications. Plotted 30 days of WWV/WWVH sfi,A/K index numbers and studying wave propagation.
1977 (16 yrs old) Phoenetic Alphabet and 24 hr Time format memorized. NERD. hi
1981 Learned CW with W2NSD/1 cassette tape and pencil/paper. SWL, Utility, and MediumWave dx with Yaesu FR-101 and Grundig Satellit 1400 in SW Germany. OP at our Army MARS stn AEA1HKE in Schwaebisch Gmuend- full Yaesu stn with phone patch using Army wire antennas.
1983 Learned basic programming with a Timex Sinclair 1000 (2K memory+ 16K ram unit, 8086 processor)
1987 RTTY: Commodore 64 pc, MicroLog Air-1 tnc. HF utility cw/rtty/fec decoding. Novice rigs: Drake T4X+R4A (and Radio Shack HTX-100). 2-way RTTY q's with long time friend Steve KB6HOH near SFO.
1991 RS-12/13 satellite: 10,15,2 mtrs (Elmer KQ6AR, Dan). T4X up/dnLink, FR-101 2m dnLink.
1993 SSTV: SBE-36 Black+White Robot unit (SideBand Engineers. Gift from 2nd cousin Gene W6QFU. Gene used this unit in the 1970's and '80s). 10+15m, Drake Twins.
1994 FT-890at, FT-530 full duplex ht.
1996 IC-746, SGC-2020(20w hf rig)
2000 PSK31, RTTY: programs- Zakanaka and HamScope.
2001 Hi-Speed Meteor Scatter+ Tropo Ducting. WSJT 1st versions. Downloaded K1JT Joe Taylor's program in time for the Leonids Meteor Shower in Nov.2001. I think there were only two or three of us in the SFO/Sacramento region using the program at the time. We emailed each other and Dr. Taylor for help using the initial versions. First meteor qso was with WA7ADK Gerry (sk) on 144mhz. Successful Meteor qso's followed on 50mhz using multiband fixed dipoles.
2005 Amateur TV (ATV) 1289mhz in/425mhz out- full duplex via W6CX/ATV repeater. Real time- full color. Fun!
2007 EME (Moon Bounce)- First qso with W5UN. Equip: IC-746, 90w, 10 ele horizontal yagi (no elev control), WSJT mode JT65B on 144mhz. !Bumpe de Luna!
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Other Modes/Clubs:
CW
WSPR (now WSPR-X).. One-way beaconing/propagation program (by K1JT). There was an actual bonifide two-way wspr program. It is located inside of WSJT v.7 only. JT9-1+ JT9-2 have replaced the older two-way wspr.

30 MTR Digital Group #2656 Experimenting with Narrow TV mode MP73-N on 10.132mhz(ok in Region2)

FeldHell Club #204 (hellscreiber.. Program IZ8BLY)

ROS (when it was ok in Region 2 in 2010... hi)

OPERA 2012 to present. Mainly 10+ 40mtrs.

WSJT-X : JT65A, JT9, WSPR

WSJT-9.x EME, Tropo, Iono Scatter

SIM31 Club #15 New psk program from EU.

NOAA 137mhz Wx Satellite decoding.

HF WX Fax and FEC modes- program: MultiPsk

Olivia, RTTY etc: FL DIGI

LF/HF Utility "Utes" + MediumWave dx

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Misc:

Spectragram program: ARGO (simple and clean design)

Sat Tracking: PC- Orbitron, iPhone- Sat Tracker Plus and GoSatWatch

EME: VK3UM's Eme Planner, GJ Tracker by W7GJ Lance

>> I enjoy "OBriensweb.com" (skeds), "HamSpots.net/jt65", "PingJockey Central"(meteor,jt65a,eme), "ON4KST/50mhz" (Region2 map/chat), "WSPRnet.org", and "VOACAP.com"(online prop predictions/map). Very useful sites.

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== Member of the Northern California Contest Club (NCCC), the "K6LRG" Radio Team, the Anchorage ARC (KL7AA), the Alaska-Yukon Weak Signal Group, and the QCWA.

Thank you (Mom's) cousin Eugene Savelli-W6QFU in Modesto, CA for the inspiration and elmering at an early age.

+Welcome aboard to my cousin Steve- KG6PID in Concord, CA !!

73, Eric

+ c u on 60 mtrs !

September 15, 2016