220 & Packet Update

Recently our local packet radio node was upgraded from (can you believe) DOS to Linux! The DOS version of FBB had not been supported in over 10 years and it is getting very difficult to find the older computers that can run DOS. I'm happy to report that after some hard work by the team that runs our system here things are much improved and more stable. Fire up your rig and send me a note at WX1CT @ W4MLB.#ECFL.FL.USA.NOAM or if you got rid of your packet gear send me a note at WX1CT@W4MLB.ampr.org from your email account. 

This past week I put up a small 220 beam on the tower. This is to hit the one and only 220 repeater in Cocoa which is about 25 miles away. Need to do some fine tuning this week but the beam has really made an improvement!. 

Lastly as usual trying to finish up the grounding project. Probably the hardest thing I have ever done in this hobby! Last year we took some type of mysterious electrical disturbance to the house. Lights never blinked but the power went out and I had numerous pieces of equipment that were not connected to antennas or a/c that either failed immediately or over a period of 2-3 weeks. The funny part was the cable box and TV survived but the other TV's including one not connected did not. Common culprit appeared to be HDMI and USB cables. 

That's it for now! 73 Phil WX1CT