Happy New Year/Christmas Toy

[K7MT]

Howdy gang - First and most important Happy New Year from K7MT in Helena.

It certainly has been a wonderful year at the K7MT QTH. I finished my first year doing DRN7 on 7235 KHZ which includes traffic handing for Or, Wa, Id, MT, BC, and ALB. It is great bunch of folks who enjoy NTS traffic handling.

It was my 20th year doing the Montana Traffic Net on 3910 KHZ and 20th year taking care of the State of Montana DES Amateur and MARS station.

SHARES was added to the DES responsibilities so every Wed morning at 09:00 I check into SHARES Voice and MT63 with Pactor III to be added next year. At the same time I do a weekly check of the MARS Voice, M110A using a Navigator Sound Card, and Pactor III to Winlink. Then I do a Voice on HF/VHF/UHF, APRS messaging, packet, and Pactor I/III to Winlink. State of Montana DES is ready for EMCOMM and I truly enjoy doing this unconditionally as it is just well fun as it is meant to be.

Another year of APRS under the belt with HF 300 baud APRS on 10147.600 USB and PSK-63, PSK-250, MFSk-16, and GMSK-250 APRS using a signalink USB Hardware, UZ7HO Modem Software, and APRSIS32/APRS Messenger programs for Igating RF. So along with terrestrial APRS, Montana has APRS just about covered.

I got a $14 Christmas Toy which is a SDR USB Dongle Receiver !!! I checked it out for HF to 1.2 ghz using my satellite radio for high high frequencies above 1 ghz as a test transmitter. I downloaded several free software programs and love the Aircraft tracking software that monitors 1090 ghz for live transmission from aircraft flying over Montana. Aircraft speed, origination/destination, altitude, and aircraft type are displayed. Pretty cool for an inexpensive USB SDR Donge Radio and free software... Lots of possibilities and I look forward to the fun.

I wish each and everyone of you good health, good friends, good fun, and good times in 2015. I certainly look forward to another wonderful year.

Cheers Bill K7MT Helena, Mt.
http://www.k7mt.com

[N7YO]

Happy New Year to you as well Bill and also to everyone else that is reading this! AS far as the toys go that's what Ham Radio is all about! Experimenting trying new things and thereby pushing this great hobby of ours along to new and more exciting avenues.

So Good luck and Happy New Year to all and happy experimenting!

[K7MT]

Hi Jim and Wanda,

Always nice to hear from you and I really enjoyed the visit at your breakfast a while back and will do my best to attend in 2015.

My New Years resolution is not to practice Truthiness !!! Thank you Steven Colbert as he explained it "You mean your going to make up more stuff to be more truthful"?

Truthiness is a quality characterizing a "truth" that a person making an argument or assertion claims to know intuitively "from the gut" or because it "feels right" without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts. Webster

I put new strings on the Banjo and played along with Peter Seeger (who passed away in 2014) on youtube and in particular "Forever Young" a Bob Dylan song he really liked. I played along with many other songs in remembrance as he had a influence on my life not only in music but ideology !!!

Cheers Bill K7MT

[N7YO]

You should bring your Banjo up to Great Falls on the 10th of Jan for the GFAARC Winter Social. Our little group of hams ( called Suds N Strings) that play stringed instruments will be playing. We need a banjo, and we have been known to play a Bob Dylan song or two. Let me know if you would like to attend. I save a seat for you.