HF-FAX

One thing in radio I have always wanted to do was to decode radio faxes. Basically they are just like your standard phone fax but broadcast over the HF airwaves. It is possible to also download the raw map data directly from the orbiting satellites, but HF Fax is much easier to receive with your standard HF rig. To receive HF-FAX, all you need is the ability to decode PSK31 using your radio/computer. From there, you can use a fax decoding program and you are set. I happen to use Multipsk which is a free program.

All of the HF-Fax transmissions I have come across originate from the NOAA. Essentially, they are weather maps for marine vessels out in the open ocean. If you think about it, if a vessel cannot afford to pay for satellite internet service, they can obtain free weather charts via HF fax. I am simply receiving these free faxes too even though I am sever thousand miles from the nearest ocean.

Attached is an example of a fax I received today. I still have some sound card tweaking to do which I believe is the cause for the phase shifting in the image. Let me know if you want more information and I can post some additional internet sites I have seen.

73 Joe N0NS

nubi78 {AT} yahoo dot com

Field Day 2008!

Field Day came and went. I must say, it was one of the best I have experienced and we had nice weather at only a few minor problems that we skated past. My friend Tom called me Friday at work to say we were not going to use my call sign for Field Day, but rather his because his vanity call came in that day. We went with it as his new call is W0EA, quite nice if you ask me both for CW and SSB!

We set up six antennas, a 20 meter home brew vertical, a 10 meter vertical, and four dipoles of various lengths and band configurations. We had one antenna fail which prompted Chris and Tom to make a new dipole at 9PM local that Saturday night. Other then that, everything went off without a hitch.

We ran three radios, My TS450S, a Yaesu FT890S and a Icom 736, all on generator power for as close to 24 hours as we could handle. All rigs were running ~100 watts, on three different bands at the same time.

We operated almost the entire 24 hours save a few naps had by each of us.

In the end, we made about 640 QSO's, of which I made 299 of them, 241 of them on CW.

I was getting so good at CW that night, I would decide to camp on a fequency, call CQ and pick up the inbound stations with one go of their call. It was a major accomplishment in my "CW Skill" area and I felt very humbled to come this far using CW.

This was the first time my brother and sister-in-law operated my amateur gear. It made me happy to see because they were fighting to jump in and score points. They could not believe we were talking to stations out in New York and Maine like they were right next to us!

Here is the home brew 20 meter vert, on a 15' pole secured to the flag pole. The base of the vert is at the top of the flag, and I have four 1/4 wave ground radials extending out. This antenna worked *extremely* well for us and held up the entire time! Other dipoles and coax feeds can be seen if you click on the picture to get a bigger view.

Tom W0EA is the guy working the Dell "Apple" computer. I am sitting int the middle, Chris KC9GRF is sitting in the far end. My younger brother "Johnny" is standing watching me do my magic.

Here I am with my brother. Hopefully he will get his license sometime!

By the way, please leave me a comment if you have read any part of my blog. I would love to hear from you! My e-mail is nubi78 yahoo dot com

73 Joe N0NS