Mattes's Musings by KC2GIK

  The Cape May County Amateur Radio Club operated from the grounds of the Cape May County Airport Complex which the EOC/ County Dispatch Center as well as the airport .Kind of cool plane spotting while playing with radios, two of my favorite hobbies ! I quickly found out there wasn't a PSK-31 station setup, only FT-8 and they had that covered so I wandered around aimlessly looking for some way to help. I noticed people were logging After wandering around I finally found the club's Vice President, Joel N3HRK, struggling to enter contacts. He was writing contacts on a notepad only to type them into the logging program in between contacts. After a few minutes of observing this process my archiving skills kicked in, I slid the laptop over and just started typing. Joel still was writing callsigns and exchange information down, but I was logging contacts. Every now and then he'd look over at my work and just smile. I wish I could say we logged over 100's QSO's in an ho...

After a year off due to the 2009 ALPCA Convention in Erie, PA  conflicting with Field Day weekend 2009, I entered this Field Day with  my own laptop and a new antenna. As in previous posts I mentioned I now havea Toshiba laptop which I use remotely whenever possible. So this year I can truly call the station my own! Paul,KC2CJW brought the Pompton Lakes OEM vehicle which was  decided to be my home base. It was definitely one of my more interesting setups because I also toured the van to check out there radios and of course what was in them. This year the 10-70 club, callsign N2SE, setup a station at Darlington Park just down the road from our usual location at Campgaw Ski Lodge. It seems the county scheduled their hazardous materials recycling day the same day as Field Day weekend. However it worked out fine because the attendance was down from last year. We were still a lively group I did have some problems with my new Buddystick  antenna.First of all note to ...

Yes it's the Monday after the last weekend in June, that means it's time for Field Day Fingerings 2008!! Once again I transmitted with the 10-70 Repeater Association from inside the Campgaw Ski Lodge in lovely Mahwah New Jersey. The past three years running I have been doing PSK-31, but this time with my new Yaesu FT-897. Believe me it made all the difference In the world! Like every other year Rocky had to struggle with the computer not noticing the interface right anyway but with a bit of trouble shooting I was running by the traditional 2:00 start. This year my co-pilot was Tim,KA2A (yes I love that call too. Now if we can only get him to get ham license plates) who was jumping on my station every time I got up to stretch which unfortunately was quite often. In the end though we both roped in quite a few stations. There were two major pluses this year, one I had the FT-897 so I was able to bust through some great interference and second, unlike in previous years,...

Seriously I know I should have written this before the Huntsville entry because this was the weekend before Huntsville, but I needed to think about compose my thoughts. Since Isaac went back to Germany, Howie picked me up this year to make the trek up to Capmgaw Ski Lodge in Mahwah. I spent the night before packing up my radios and trying to figure out if I forgot anything. Howie pulled in the drive at 9:30 am Saturday morning to find me still half asleep and woofing down some crumb cake. He actually left with out me, but a quick call on the W2PQG repeater brought him back. I threw my stuff in the back of his car and we were on the mountain a little after 10. Rocky greeted us with a laptop, note to self next year bring the USB driver. This year I truly flew solo and got my prime spot in the lodge right behind the registration desk, which housed the ATV station last year. I also brought my old 2m/440 radio, so I ran the Field Day talk-in station as well. People usually have their ...

Alright that might sound gross but let me explain. For those non hams out there basically Field Day happens every last weekend in June where ham clubs across the nation try to make as many c ontacts as possible. This yearly activity has been around a lot longer than I have and it gets me on the air. Right now my entire ham station is in the crapper, it will be there for awhile. Anyway like almost everything else in this world, the computer enhances everything 100 times over. There are all kinds of "modes" meaning different ways to transmit, there's plain old voice contacts, then there's CW (Morse Code for all you non-hams) you can even do Amateur TV stations on the ham bands. Getting back to the computer, PSK-31 (Phase Shift Key) is among the new digital mediums we are utilizing. Think of it as online chatting but using radiowaves instead of internet. I roped in contacts from a half a dozen states, even KK5K out of Alabama. Yes folks you never know who or what you...