Tag Archives: Eric McFadden (WD8RIF)

ARISS contact today: stream on the web or perhaps listen with your radio!

NASA Astronaut Peggy Whitson’s 7th Spacewalk (Image source: NASA)

Last night, my buddy Eric McFadden (WD8RIF) notified me that the International Space Station would be making a pass this morning and doing an ARISS contact with three schools in Belgium.

It appears this pass will create an opportunity for some of us at least in eastern North America (and elsewhere) to listen to the transmission live.

Eric notes:

The frequency of the downlink should be 145.800MHz. As the ISS climbs above your horizon, because of doppler-shift, listen on 145.805. Switch to 145.800 as the ISS approaches zenith. Switch to 145.795 as the ISS drops toward the other horizon. You’ll know when to switch frequency when the audio gets bad.

[…]The ISS runs real power so an HT with anything but the shortest rubber duck should be OK, particularly when the ISS is well above the horizon. A 1/2-wave whip on the HT is better.

The contact starts at 13:47 UTC (08:47 EST)–about one hour from time of this posting.

As Eric notes, pretty much any VHF handheld radio or scanner can easily receive this contact as long as you can tune to 145.80 MHz +/-.

Last time I was in a place to tune to the ISS, it was with my kids and we all got a kick out of hearing astronauts answer questions from children here on Terra Firma. I wrote a short post about this.

Don’t worry if you miss this ARISS contact–they happen all the time. Check the ARISS “Upcoming Contacts” (http://www.ariss.org/upcoming-contacts.html) page where future ARISS QSOs are listed. No doubt, it will pass over your part of the globe at some point!

Southgate ARC also posted the following announcement with a link to the live webcast:

ARISS contact webcast

On Thursday 12 January 2017, an ARISS contact is scheduled with three schools in Belgium.

Two schools will operate from the Euro Space Center.

The event will be web streamed live on:
https://www.facebook.com/eurospacecenter

The radio contact is scheduled at 13.47 UTC, which 14.37 CEWT.

The web streaming will start around 14.00 local time.

73,

Gaston Bertels, ON4WF
ARISS past chairman

Thanks again, Eric, for the tip!

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National Parks On The Air (NPOTA) activations today

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En route to the 2016 Dayton Hamvention, I’m doing a few National Parks On The Air (NPOTA) activations with my my buddy, Eric (WD8RIF).

Eric is currently the number one activator in the state of Ohio.

NPOTA is a great excuse to get outdoors and play radio.

For me, it’s a great excuse to test the LNR Precision LD-11 and my new QRP Ranger portable power pack.

The QRP Ranger (left) and LNR Precision LD-11 transceiver (right)

I am loving the new QRP Ranger power pack–it is the solution I decided on after publishing this post a few weeks ago. It’s a little pricey, but it’s built like a tank, very lightweight, includes a charge controller made specifically for the LiFePo cells, and made here in the USA. It also had a very readable LED display that my buddy Eric says is, “reminiscent of the displays on the Apollo 11 module.” He’s kind of right!

It’s so nice to have both a volmeter and ammeter on the front panel.

We just finished activating the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park (I’m writing this post while Eric drives us to our next activation). I made 12 contacts running SSB at 8 watts. Eric made 16 contacts via CW at 5 watts.

We have planned two more activations this afternoon:

Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument at 16:30 UTC
Dayton Aviation Herital National Historical Park at 21:00 UTC

I’ll be calling CQ on 14.290 MHz and 7.290 MHz +/-.

Please hop on the air listen and/or answer my call if you’re a ham!

Of course, tomorrow through Sunday, you can find us at the Dayton Hamvention in booth SA0359 in the Silver Arena.

Hope to see you there!

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Last day of the 2014 Hamvention

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Today is the the final day of the 2014 Dayton Hamvention. For exhibitors, it’s the slowest day of the weekend (Saturday is the busiest).

My voice is hoarse from speaking with so many people–it’s been great! Many thanks to the SWLing Post readers who stopped by our booth to talk radio.

This morning, I’m listening Pacific Break on Radio Australia with my buddy Eric McFadden while we eat breakfast and prepare to leave. I started listening to RA on my Tecsun PL-310ET and Eric (of course) brought out his Sony ICF-SW7600G and AN-LP1 for comparison. A little radio fun before the craziness yet to come.

We’re not staying in a hotel this year, and we have much quieter conditions for SWLing. Eric, as a I mentioned in a previous post, is retired from the Ohio Air National Guard; this year, he was fortunate enough to secure us a “TLF” (Temporary Lodging, Family) on Wright Patterson Air Force Base. Our TLF is a three bedroom, 2.5 bathroom house with a living room, laundry room, outdoor patio, yard and is surrounded by acres of green space. It’s about half the price of a local hotel, so we feel most grateful! Better yet, a TLF is like being at home: we can string up antennas indoors or outside and play radio.

Eric eating cereal and doing an informal A/B comparison. The AN-LP1 is attached to the dining room window.

Many thanks to Eric (WD8RIF) and his son, Miles (KD8KNC), for being such dedicated ETOW volunteers.

As I head out this morning, I thought I’d post a few more photos I took yesterday:

Though I wouldn’t have a clue how to operate this Collins 10B (above), I would love for it to adorn my radio table.

I’ve also taken photos of new products vendors displayed at the Hamvention. I plan to post them after returning home later this week.

If you’re visiting the Hamvention today, please stop by Booth BA411 and introduce yourself!

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Eric remembers SWLing while deployed in Abu Dhabi

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In an email last week, my good friend Eric McFadden (WD8RIF), mentioned the shortwave radio set-up he used while deployed in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates back in the early 1990’s. I asked Eric for permission to post his email notes–not only did he agree, but he also found photos he took at the time.

Eric notes:

[F]or the Desert Shield/Storm, aka the First Gulf War, I took my Sangean ATS-803A with a doublet fashioned from two Radio Shack audio cables. The doublet was an audio cable with an RCA on one end and lugs on the other; I split the conductors all the way down to the RCA connector and it was almost the right length for a proper 31m dipole.

The feedline was an audio extension (+/- 25′) with a male RCA on one end and a female on the other end. The ‘803A had a proper RCA antenna connector instead of a silly phone connector. I hung the doublet between the peaks of two of our 10-man tents, the front of our tent and the back of our neighbors’. When the UAE winds ultimately broke the doublet at the RCA connector, I stripped the ends and made a random-length end-fed wire out of it.

Our tents had AC-power (and A/C cooling and heat-pump heat) and I’m pretty sure I powered the ‘803A from the “mains” instead of stuffing D-cells into the radio. D-cells were available in the little BX on the base, of course.

The three photos [above] are of my installation in our tent-city at Al Dhafra Airbase near Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. I did deploy my 31m dipole here. These photos were from before the dipole broke and was replaced by an end-fed wire build from the pieces of the broken dipole.

[This photo] was from inside our “hooch” on the Lockheed Compound near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. (Click to enlarge)

That ATS-803A was a great receiver. It’s only real flaw was its size and weight. The size, of course, allowed for a really fine speaker. I traded the ‘803A in at UAR when I bought the ‘7600G and the little active [AN-LP1 loop] antenna when we thought we were to be deployed to Kosovo[.]

Here’s text from my journal I wrote shortly after returning stateside:

“I found many interesting and exotic stations on my shortwave radio, a Sangean ATS-803A and a simple dipole antenna, but as the war progressed,
I settled on the BBC for their award-winning news coverage.”

Many thanks, Eric! I’m happy to hear such a good report of the Sangean ATS-803A–there are still many 803A’s on the used market (click here to search eBay).

Indeed, I just realized that while you were deployed in the UAE, I used the Radio Shack branded version of the ATS-803A: the Radio Shack DX-440 while studying French and living in Grenoble, France. The DX-440 delivered my daily dose of the Voice of America (the only English language news I allowed myself to listen to at the time). Since the VOA broadcast often coincided with meal time at the Université Stendhal cafeteria, I left my voice-activated Micro Cassette recorder in front of the DX-440 which was, in turn, set to turn on one minute prior to the VOA broadcast. It was an amazingly reliable arrangement. (Hard to believe that was over 20 years ago!)

Come to think of it, I’ll have to dig up those micro cassettes and see if I still happen to have one with a recorded broadcast.

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