Friday, May 29, 2015

Sunman Balloon Rides

Sunman Balloon Rides has an exciting adventure waiting for you in the friendly Sunman skies. Hop on board to one of the Best Hot Air Balloon Rides in Sunman, Ripley County you'll encounter. Safety is always first,and you can be sure precautions are met every time for your satisfaction. We offer shared balloon rides and private balloon rides.
See their WEB PAGE

Thursday, May 14, 2015

D-STAR info

I love new gadgets and D-STAR is my latest. I have the radio working with local repeater and on simplex in FM mode.  I also have it working digital voice through K4CO a D-STAR repeater located in Erlanger, Ky. K4CO is the closest repeater but I can work a few others at a further distance in Cincinnati and Hamilton Ohio. There is much to learn to take advantage of all the features of the radio I have (ID-5100a) and the D-STAR network. One of the very neat things about D-STAR is you can connect via a reflector to most parts of the world. It is very common to hear a station in the UK or Japan. Any one you hear you can also talk to. This is great for the belt clipper boys that do not have HF privileges. There are a few bad things about D-STAR, one being the cost. These compatible radios are state of the art and are still at the top of the price range. If you are some distance from the repeater as I am you will need a Yagi (beam) antenna to get your signal into the repeater. K4CO repeater is 40 miles from my QTH. If you want to find out more look at http://www.dstarinfo.com/  and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-STAR
UP Date:
I wanted to listen to two reflectors at the same time - So I put a DV Dongle on reflector 01C the ID-5100 is kept on reflector 30C. I have the DV Dongle installed on a netbook and it works perfectly, although it is a little under specks, it works great. It did take an hour of hair pulling and screaming to get the audio and mic working. This is a cheap way to enter D-STAR. Read MORE HERE
DV Dongle










Friday, May 08, 2015

VE Day - 8 May 1945

Winston Churchill waves to crowds 
Victory in Europe Day, generally known as V-E Day, VE Day or simply V Day was the public holiday celebrated on 8 May 1945  to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. It thus marked the end of World War II in Europe.
READ MORE


Monday, May 04, 2015

**** Happens

Somehow I have deleted all of my Blog posts from Jan., Feb, Mar, & Apr. How did I do that ? I don't have a clue.  I am a back up fanatic, but never thought I would need to do this on my Blog. I guess I will look into how to back up for future posts ........ Jack

Sunday, May 03, 2015

May 5th - Cinco de Mayo


It has become a  tradition with this Blog to post each year the tragic event of May 5th.
We should all remember Cinco de Mayo. Please click the below link to view the past posts.

http://wb9otx.blogspot.com/search?q=sinko