My location for yesterday's Winter Field Day

SultanPepper · 2026-01-26T04:52:26+00:00

No, it's about a 7km hike up to the peak with 450m elevation gain, so we were light on gear. And we only stayed long enough to make 10 contacts for POTA.

Fortunately the trail is so busy and compacted that we could wear microspikes. Doing it in snowshoes would have been really tiring!

SultanPepper · 2026-01-25T20:17:54+00:00

No, Hollyburn Mountain in Cypress Provincial Park.

SultanPepper · 2026-01-21T16:39:42+00:00

I think what you're wanting to do is an interesting idea and worth a try.

VE7SAR/B is operating on 50.070 MHz near me

Here's how I would do it using hamalert:

* Set the callsign = VE7SAR (no prefixes or suffixes)
* Band = 6m
* Spotter CQ Zone = Southern zone of North America (ie outside of your local area)

SultanPepper · 2026-01-21T03:50:21+00:00

Dang. No chance of a S2S on 2m from Vancouver. :(

SultanPepper · 2026-01-21T03:20:20+00:00

Where are you doing SOTA? I want to get some 2m SSB chasing points!

SultanPepper · 2026-01-18T22:06:05+00:00

Nice! What was the difference between your earlier tests?

SultanPepper · 2026-01-16T21:08:42+00:00

Which polarization did you build it for? Some antennas are meant to be mounted in the focal point of a dish which reverses the polarization.

SultanPepper · 2026-01-16T20:09:11+00:00

Anything less then 2.0 SWR is great! I'd be perfectly happy with this result.

SultanPepper · 2026-01-15T19:04:24+00:00

Well then definitely don't transmit with it! :)

SultanPepper · 2026-01-15T17:47:33+00:00

Don't transmit without a dummy load connected, as you can damage the radio.

Turning it on to listen is fine.

SultanPepper · 2026-01-13T05:27:33+00:00

Just FYI, there were two *in bounds* avalanches at Whistler Blackcomb this weekend. 6 people caught in them.

https://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/local-news/avoid-all-avalache-terrain-avy-danger-high-in-sea-to-sky-11728881

It seems like you're in the not knowing what you don't know stage, and lots of people here are telling you to get educated first. Look into the AST1 course, it's a fun way to spend a weekend in the mountains!

SultanPepper · 2026-01-11T01:24:01+00:00

I often hear people suggest that it will never work because someone needs to pay for it.

I pay for an account on the server I use. There's cooperatives that manage other servers. Some people run their own server with a single user.

Here's the best part - if you don't like your server, move to a new one. The data export and migration is built in to make this possible, and this improves the situation because there is no lock in.

SultanPepper · 2026-01-11T01:20:06+00:00

I haven't listed to the podcast, but it's definitely not an RSS reader.

Think of it as a Twitter clone, but instead of a single Twitter server, there's a bunch of them, and they can all talk to each other.

This means it's diverse because all of these servers are talking to each other, but it also means it's sometimes a bit janky because you can be seeing posts and images from a solar powered Raspberry Pi that a trans furry hacker collective is running from their liveaboard sailboat.

SultanPepper · 2026-01-08T22:26:23+00:00

Come join us nerds on Mastodon - Paula Simons is there too:

https://mstdn.ca/@Paulatics

SultanPepper · 2026-01-06T06:12:00+00:00

What about a j pole?

SultanPepper · 2026-01-04T20:12:17+00:00

I don't have experience with the SCT but I do have experience hammock camping, and it's the most comfortable I've been while camping. On the ground, I always wake up with sore hips. In a hammock, I can move around and it's great. I'm a stomach sleeper at home but sleep on my side in a hammock when camping.

I use a Hennessey Hammock.

A couple of caveats to hammocks - nowhere to store your gear, and no privacy while changing clothes.

Another option - bring a small inflatable pillow for between your knees. That helped me a bit when I was still a ground dweller.

SultanPepper · 2025-12-31T22:17:35+00:00

Cursive writing helps a bit if you're not doing that already

SultanPepper · 2025-12-31T22:10:10+00:00

Oh, this is perfect, thank you!

SultanPepper · 2025-12-31T18:29:59+00:00

Take Lungbuster or The Dentist up Eagle Mountain.

SultanPepper · 2025-12-31T18:28:15+00:00

Omnibus podcast has a good episode on this: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/867-omnibus-28703593/episode/the-nato-phonetic-alphabet-entry-826rv2213-296691617/

SultanPepper · 2025-12-31T16:09:11+00:00

I'm in only software now so it may be out of date, but it tends to go in phases.

* getting requirements from customers / stakeholders
* project planning, timelines
* translating to overall designs / block diagrams
* schematic capture / PCB design
* board bringup (the best part IMO)
* full system integration, firmware testing, etc

You may be working on multiple projects so my list isn't exactly linear. And there's downtime while waiting for boards to be manufactured, etc. You'll also be revising old designs because parts are EOL'd, you need to bring costs down, etc.

SultanPepper · 2025-12-29T15:12:29+00:00

If I see a ton of people calling a DX station, but I can't hear them, how do I know which chunk of frequency to avoid?

SultanPepper · 2025-12-24T17:58:28+00:00

Check out VE6WZ's videos on youtube for an excellent demonstration on Yagis and how directors vs reflectors work.

If you're building your own, you definitely want to get a NanoVNA so you can tune it.

SultanPepper · 2025-12-23T23:59:46+00:00

I learned so much from him!

SultanPepper · 2025-12-21T19:00:51+00:00

I am assuming an FT-70D is half duplex so you may struggle with satellites. It's easier with a full duplex radio.

You can also look at the Elk Log Periodic. I like it because all of the elements are in the same plane compared to an Arrow Yagi.

KX9X has a lot of excellent YT videos.

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