The SuperLink System
A short one for this week as I catch back up on the Ham Challenge! Life has really gotten in the way of radio the past couple of months, but as the academic semester winds down I hope to spend my summer getting back on the air. More on that at the end of the post!
The challenge is actually this week's challenge!
Which VHF/UHF repeater is closest to your location? How did you find out? Can you hear it? Make a QSO on the repeater if you can!
The closest VHF/UHF repeater to me is actually two repeaters - the 443.850 and 145.170 repeaters in Tulsa, OK. They're colocated at the same tower and I had assumed, knowing that location, that it was closest to me but I confirmed it via RepeaterBook's mobile app.
I didn't make a proper QSO, but I did check in to the Tulsa Amateur Radio Club's weekly net on the 443.850 machine tonight. Usually I check in via web (formerly NetLogger, now Ham.Live) but I checked in over the air this time. I was glad to make it in, as I've been having on and off issues reaching some of the repeaters here.
Relating to the title of the post, the 443.850 repeater is the hub for a linked system called the "SuperLink" - which you can learn more about here. There's always activity, which is a nice change of pace compared to most repeaters. I'm trying to make it more of a habit during my day to have my radio on and monitoring when I'm playing video games or working on busy work.
As I mentioned before, I'm hoping to spend more time on radio this summer and wanted to talk a bit about that. Like most hams, I've got a lot of big ideas that I'm always wanting to tackle, so I've got a lot of thoughts. But here's some of my goals for the summer:
- Wk 29: Make your own xOTA activation - I was planning to participate in Oklahoma Parks on the Air last weekend, but it got rained out. I hope to go do the POTA I was planning sometime soon after the semester ends instead!
- Wk 33: Build an antenna and make a contact with it - I really want to revamp my POTA/general portable operating kit, and so part of that plan (besides continuing to buy more radios!) is to build a 20m EFHW. That'll also probably come early in the summer, as I just need to order & organize all the parts and get it built!
- Not a Ham Challenge goal, but I've been considering participating in the SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver build. Trying to build it in an apartment would be...interesting to say the least, but it's a really neat project with such a simple schematic I want to give it a shot! I may also try and map the schematic to a PCB for some KiCad practice, but first I want to do it Manhattan style to follow the spirit of the challenge.
That's all for this week! Hope to see more HamChallenge posts come from both myself and others around the web.
73 from WW0CJ!