Tag: weather

The weather page has returned…


After a few years hiatus, my weather page is back with a face lift.

I purchased and set up a Davis Vantage Pro2 weather station when I was in Iraq this last time. It was useful there even through I didn’t use it with APRS. My intent was to bring it back and setup here – that’s what I did back in August. But I could never find the software that came with it to interface it with a computer. It has been great having the Vantage Pro2 with its wireless display terminal. I’d set the terminal in the kitchen and could always get a peek at the weather when I got up in the morning. However, it had always been my intent to find the software, interface the weather station with a computer and then pump the data into APRS.
In the past I’ve used Weather Display – which is a great software package for being able to suck in all the data collected by your weather station, display real-time data, and look at data trends and historical information. Weather Display has a web page creation feature which works well, but is not as slick as Weather Display Live. So once I got the weather station talking to my computer, I also was able to get Weather Display Live working and hence my new and improved weather page:www.ni0l.com/wx/wx.html… there is also a link in the navigation bar above [Weather in Leavenworth, KS]

A Sunday In November

Temperatures have dropped here in eastern Kansas, off the Missouri and Platte Rivers. Morning temps are getting down to the high teens but we’ve had generally clear skies – so no snow yet.

Been having a problem with my Toyota Tundra. I had the shocks replaced about two months ago, but I am still having a suspension issues. Often when I drive over uneven pavement I hear a type of popping or low banging. I’m dropping the truck off tomorrow morning at a garage in town and I hope they identify and fix the problem.

I popped the first cap on the KC Ale this past Thursday. One word: Tasty! I was so happy with the results that I brought in a 12-pack to distribute to my small group at CGSC. We will see what kind of feed back I get tomorrow. The KC Ale batch has a great cooper color, medium head, slight hoppy aroma. The taste is crisp and smooth, no off-flavors.

The California Common batch went into secondary fermentation last Tuesday (18 NOV). I’ll try to get it bottled up this coming Wednesday (26 NOV). Then it should be ready for a first by 11 DEC… a good day to celebrate my last night class for this term.

While the CGSC program here at Fort Leavenworth is considered a Masters-level program, it does not award a degree at graduation (unlike the Navy’s program in Monterey or the Air Force in Alabama). Therefore, in order to get a masters, I signed up to take two night classes a week and then by graduation I’ll get the degree. It is a bit of pain now, but this is really the only opportunity I am going to get to earn a master’s degree.

Back to beer: I need to get crackin’ and cook up the batch of Raspberry Wheat. If I am able to get it into primary fermentation today, I should be able to hit secondary fermentation by next Sunday (30 NOV) and then bottle by 14 DEC. It should be nice and tasty by New Year’s Eve.

I need to put together a sample pack for my Team Jedi brethren (Team Jedi are the fine folks I spent my last year in Iraq with). So it looks like the pack will consist of ESB, KC Ale, California Common, and the Raspberry Wheat.

I’ve also had a request from the 7-land Inbound QSL Bureau back in Oregon. I received an email from Marc, NC7M, who let me know I had 200+ QSL cards headed my way. I need to also replenish my postal funds for the bureau. And next week – I will answer all the YI9MI QSL card request that I have… which is quite a significant pile.

No hamming….

I haven’t been on the HF bands for a while. No CW, no DX Packet Cluster, nada. I’d like to get some quality time with the CW paddle.

The weather station is down – not sure what’s wrong.

My 2M packet station is partially working. The TNC is hooked up to yet another old computer that I moved out to the garage. But the wireless network connection out to the garage is hit and miss…. so I’m going to try to set up a bridge to extend the network out there.

I have been prepping the W4V Veterans Day Special Event cards and certificates. I plan to finish up the cards and should be able to print the certificates out tomorrow. All should be in the mail on Thursday.

Beer update: The total fermentation time was two weeks. I bottled the first batch on Saturday. I varied the amount and type of sugar. In 1/4 of the bottles I put 1/2 brown sugar and 1/2 regular sugar. In another 1/4 of the bottles I put all brown sugar. The rest of the bottles got the regular sugar. We’ll see what kind of difference the sugar makes. This Saturday I’ll put 4 of the beers in the fridge for conditioning….. then 4 more the next week, etc. I have another batch to start fermenting… probably this weekend.

Went to the eye doctor today and was diagnosed with keratoconus in my left eye. At first I thought that meant that my eye would bulge, possibly pop out and/or bleed… but it’s actually not too bad. Keratoconus, or KC for short, is a thinning disorder of the cornea that causes distortion and reduced vision. The biggest short term impact is that I have to get hard contact lenses. I do need to start taking better care of my eyes.

Already the 19th of November!

I’ve been falling behind on my updates…

(1) W4V – Veterans’ Day Special Event Station. I got a late start on Saturday… took a while to pack the truck. Setup at Fort Story took longer than expected – my biggest challenge was tying down the center mast after I’d gotten it vertical. It’s really a two person job and hard to do alone. But once I got the antenna up, the rest was easy. A beautiful day as well, low 70s and clear skies. The QSOs rolled in, as long as I was calling “CQ” I was getting QSOs. Sunday was a different story. The forecast called for rain, but I thought I could weather it out. I arrived at Fort Story but the winds became too extreme – no chance of getting the center pole up. I threw in the towel for a portable operation and headed home to operate. Not the same satisfaction running a special event from home, but I still enjoyed the QSOs. Even got Wyoming… which completes my Worked All States Award!


(2) Kenwood TS-930S…. my “new to me rig”. I picked this up from a local ham at a bargain. What a radio!

This piece of electronics perfection is over 20 years old, but it performs like a dream. The receiver is amazing. Also getting great reception reports on both SSB and CW. This rig is now the centerpiece of my shack.

(3) I didn’t work the Sweepstakes this weekend, but did have a QSO with a special event station celebrating Oklahoma statehood. However, I did work a sweepstakes station on 15M who was operating from the Santa Clara Valley.

(4) Also a few CW QSOs – I’ve hooked up my Logikey CMOS4 Keyer. Amazing little device, lots of features – but does a great job as a basic keyer.

Busy In The Shack

WX Station: Yesterday after work I was able to reroute the cable for the wind direction/speed sensor from the radio room over to the garage. This included a quick trip up to the roof. I now need to figure out where I’m going to place the rain gauge. The location is tricky because I don’t want it under trees and it should also be accessible for maintenance/cleaning. Today I need to try and move the webcam from the window ledge outside the radio room to the garage window.

CW contacts: I had two on 80M last night, the first was from MI and the second was from AL. Band conditions were pretty bad. Yesterday at lunch I had a short CW QSO with a Polish station on 20M. I guess that’s my first CW QSO to Europe. The station was sending fast, so I only picked up about half of what was sent.

W4M Memorial Day Special Event Station: in a continued attempt to close out all the loose ends from the W4M special event station, I am now sending out QSL cards to all the remaining contacts that I have not yet sent anything to. These remaining folks never sent me anything, but I’d rather send them the W4M QSL card than hang on to a bunch of extra cards. I’m also including a return SASE for those in the US. I completed 30 last night and would like to do 40 tonight. I just want to get a QSL card out to every contact and then officially close the book on the W4M special event.

Sunday in the shack

I was successful in transferring the WX station duties to the computer out in the garage. I first had to get the Davis Weather Monitor II talking with the computer – which was accomplished after I changed the COM port speed to 2400 baud. I then transferred all the Weather Display files from the computer in the radio room out to the garage. The Weather Display software started up, green lights indicating that it was taking data from the Davis Weather Monitor II. But I didn’t have any sensors plugged in yet, so the only data being displayed was the indoor temp (now the garage temp) and the barometer. The outdoor temp sensor is located near the garage, so I was easily able to reroute the cable into the window of the garage and connected it to the Davis Weather Monitor II box. The outdoor temp came up right away. The next challenge was setting up the FTP for my weather webpage. The Weather Display software has great wizards that walk you through setting up different aspects of the software – the FTP setup had such a wizard. And now the webpage is getting updated every 5 minutes. Great! I still need to (1) reroute the wind direction and speed cable to the garage (requires me to get on the roof), (2) find some place to put the rain gauge (may require me to get on the roof), and (3) get the webcam hooked back up.

Spent some time cleaning up the radio room. I finally unpacked the MFJ-989C tuner that I got to go along with the Heathkit SB-220 amp. Neither are setup – that’s a project for another day.

I was also able to make contact with MI3JQD, operating from Northern Ireland… and a CW contact on 30M with John, K9??? in Indiana.

Radio Room Reconfiguration

Spent some time today reworking the shack…. still have a bit more to do.

(1) I was using two different power supplies – a PS-125 (25 amps) for the IC-706MKIIG and a different power supply for the FT-2800M (2M FM), and FT-1500M/KPC3+ (2M FM packet). I am now using the Alinco DM-330MVT (32 amps) to power the IC-706MKIIG and the FT-2800M. I’m now using the RigRunner 4010S for power distribution. I still need to make a power cable for the RigBlaster so I can get rid of the wallwart.

(2) I moved the FT-1500/KPC3+ and the other power supply out to the garage. My intent is to hook it up to the garage computer. I’ll be able to access the packet functions over the network.

(3) The weather station is down! I plan on getting that working off the garage computer as well.

(4) Heathkit SB-220 – now in the shack. But I’m still a long way from getting it operational. I need to make a list of everything I need to do to get it operational. Part of that will include putting my heavy duty MFJ tuner into action.

This weekend in the shack…..

GYFWW: Get Your Feet Wet Weekend. This was an interesting event… all CW. My CW skills are atrocious and this was my attempt at improving. I enjoyed it, although at times it was very frustrating. The exchange was RST, name, state, FISTS #, and year licensed. Most folks were good at slowing down and repeating missed parts of the exchange. I spent a lot of time just sending CQ without a response. A contest doesn’t have the personal interaction of a regular QSO. At the end of the contest I had 18 contacts and over 200 points… no records broken here. I still have a long way to go on the CW. I would like to get my speed up to 15-20wpm – that will take a lot of consistent work.

Virginia Beach Hamfest: My second year attending the Virginia Beach Hamfest. A two-day hamfest, I went on Sunday. $5 to get in. There were a few vendors, but I had primarily come this year for RadioWorks, a local company from Portsmouth that makes great wire antennas. I purchased a Carolina Windom, 133′ long, good on 80M to 10M. The challenge now is to hang that bad boy. I’ll be assisted by my CSV19 Pneumatic Antenna Launcher.

T-238+ APRS WX Project: The main board was good to go. I put the modem board together Friday night, checked out and good to go. Then came Saturday, I was interfacing the WX sensors (temp, wind speed and direction)… it worked! I was getting the data to read out properly. However, when I tried to interface the modem board with the radio, the LCD screen started showing all solid squares instead of text and the heat sink got very, very hot. The LED heartbeat light is still functioning, but clearly there is something wrong. Hope I’m not back to square one. http://www.tapr.org/kits_t238plus.html

Blue Ridge Mountains DXpedition

The Thursday before Labor Day Weekend I was able to get off work an hour early and headed up to Fort Eustis through a light drizzle (the early beginnings of Tropical Storm Ernesto) to pick up the RV. The beast was 29′ long and about 11′ high. A young gentlemen gave me a orientation of the vehicle which lasted about 45 minutes. First an initial walk around, then an explanation of how to flush the black and gray water holding tanks, how to connect city water, how to connect electricity, how to operate the generator, and how to operate the propane supply. All of this and we hadn’t even made it inside the RV yet. When we did make it inside, I was briefed up on how to operate the test panel, how to turn on the water heater, and a assortment of additional tips for easy operation of all the RV’s features. For instance…. don’t run the A/C while also running the microwave and the water heater takes 20 minutes to provide enough hot water for a shower. There was also a TV with an external antenna that cranks up into position. Nothing super complex, just lots and lots of stuff.

It was a slow ride on I-64 back to Hampton. Not because of heavy traffic, but because I was trying to get a feel for piloting the beast. The wheel was a little loose and it took a while to slow down. The rain didn’t help much. I arrived home and parked out in the street in front of the house. When untethered to an electrical hook up, the RV uses propane to keep the refrigerator going. To avoid depleting the propane, I ran a heavy duty extension cord out to the RV to give it a steady supply of juice.

We decided to watch the progress of Ernesto and wait to see if we’d leave Friday or postpone until Saturday. As the night progressed the winds picked up and the rain continued on.

Friday morning showed that the rain and wind were still continuing. My weather station indicated the rain had picked up around 2am and was maintaining a consistent heavy downpour. The radar showed the southern edge of Ernesto nearing the North Carolina border to the south. Even though the storm would clear our location by about 2pm reports from the roadways indicated things were a mess for motorists and we decided to move our departure to Saturday morning. It was at this time that I noticed the water out front was rising significantly. I could see the water level approaching the storage compartments underneath the RV. After shuffling the cars in the driveway, I splashed out to the RV parked on the street/canal, started it and did a loop around the block to position it to allow me to pull into the driveway. The short loop showed that a few other streets had flooded and small tree limbs and other debris was accumulating in the road – but nothing severe.

Ernesto passed by about 3pm and the standing water drained quickly. We did a quick clean up of all the fallen leaves and small branches in the yard and then repositioned the RV in the driveway for easy loading. From all reports, we were wise to delay our departure as fallen trees and the rain had closed down section of I-64.

Saturday morning arrived and we finished packing the RV and got on the road. Traffic was light and moved well. I kept the speed at about 55-60mph, still getting a feel for how the RV handled. After one break at a rest stop west of Richmond for lunch, we pressed on towards the Misty Mountain Campground in Crozet, VA. Enjoyed a nice QSO on a repeater in Charlottesville with Harry, W2HD. I later found out (according to QRZ.com) that Harry was a former president of ARRL! He chatted a little about being in the Navy but never mentioned the fact of his involvement with The League.

After checking in to the Misty Mountain Campgrounds HQ we arrived at our camp site. The hookups were pretty straight forward and soon enough we had the RV humming.

On Sunday we took the truck to explore the first fifty miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway. What a beautiful area! I was able to hit one of the repeaters back in Hampton from the first overlook along the Parkway. Pretty good for a 150 mile path using 50 watts on FM.


Sunday night I set up the ARSIB and tried to work both S9SS (Western Africa) and P43W (Aruba) but failed to break the pile ups.

Monday morning I had a nice QSO on 40M with Jim, W2SY up in Syracuse, NY. After enlisting in 1940, Jim served in the Army during WWII and participated in the Africa, Italy, and European campaigns. Jim gave me a nice 59 report and am glad I was able to get at least one HF contact before it was time to pack up shop .

The trip home encountered a little bit of rain, but traffic was also light and the trip was uneventful. Average speed on I-64 was probably about 65mph as I was feeling a little more comfortable driving by now.

All in all, I enjoyed the RV DXpedition. Next time I will set up the rig earlier and try to do more operating.

Quick & Dirty: APRS WX Station?

I want to put together an inexpensive APRS WX station for my dad, KD6EUG, to install up at his cabin in Mi-Wuk Village, CA. There was an article in the July 2006 QST that talked about one solution. But the big price tag comes with the weather station itself.

Today I found a nice, inexpensive solution from TAPR, the T-238+MODEM2 Kit. Not only is it APRS ready, it also incorporates it’s own TNC. The weather station components that it works with, 1-Wire™ Weather Instrument Kit V3.0, and also doesn’t break the bank.

We’ll see how this project comes together. For the radio, I will use either an FT-1500M (ideal for the job) or an HTX-242 if I can ensure it’s capable of the task. I like the W3BW (see QST article) solution of using a gel cell with a trickle charger. Should the shore power drop out, the APRS weather station should function for quite some time.

Speaking of WX stations…. you can go here to see the weather at the home QTH.

Looking at the APRS activity around Mi-Wuk, I’m seeing the following nearby stations:

K6TUO-3: looks like a digipeater in Sonora, sponsored by the Tuolumne County Amateur Radio & Electronics Society (TCARES).
K6NFL: over in the town of Arnold, Dave has a very nice wx page.
KE6KYI: located in Groveland.