A few years ago I’ve setup an echolink – RF bridge with the Kenwood TM-D710. With this I could listen and talk to an echolink node of No Agenda from Adam Curry. It’s quite an awesome thing to be able to walk in and around the house with my handy talky and be able to listen and talk to people on the other side Continue reading
After driving a few years now with a magnetic antenna foot and lingering about how good the antenna performance would be if I drilled a hole in de roof of the car, today was the day to do it. Henk PE1PEX helped me with the job. After 4 hours of the antenna mount was ready for testing and the whole car was put back together.
First test wasn’t disappointing at all. I could open repeater PI2RTD (about 65 km further) with only 5 watts from Henk’s driveway. We we’re very impressed with this result! Unfortunately I couldn’t test the antenna driving home from the job because Henk advised me to let the kit dry for at least one night. So as a good boy as I am I did.
To get a little impression the job from start to finish:
It reminds me of an article I read some time ago from the same AMSAT-UK how you can make your own ISS contact via APRS. Then I did put it on my wish list but forget about it.
When I was watching the report of Jessica Leigh M6LPJ and others it triggered my memory.
How cool would it be to succeed in making a APRS-contact with the ISS with just my current setup? If I understand it correctly, it must be possible to reach the ISS with just your average vertical for 2 meters. I do own a Diamond X-200N. And my Kenwood TM-D710 has all the APRS-capabilities on board to make the contact. On of these days I will pick a pass-over of the ISS and try to make a contact. Of course I will report on it here!
