Month: August 2017

2017 Solar Eclipse (QSO Party)

It. Was. Incredible.

I guess something not mentioned in the video above is the whole premise of operating ham radio during solar eclipses. It all has to do with the ionosphere. During totality, the ionosphere gets less energy from the sun, making it do funny things. Ham radio gets a firsthand view of what those funny things are…in other words, science.

HamSCI explains it much better: http://www.hamsci.org/node/122

Anyway, I didn’t make that many contacts so my individual contribution to science was pretty minimal. I did operate some FT8 and WSPR, and reported a lot of spots to WSPRNet and PSKReporter, and made this video, so that’s pretty cool.

Sterling’s Back

Hey internet, I’m back doing stuff.

I moved up a few floors into a new apartment with a big second bedroom, and it’s awesome. But really echoey. I could plaster the walls with sound absorbing foam, but I decided I should get an dynamic mic instead. The ATR2100 does XLR and USB (bonus) and also came with a boom arm and pop filter. So I compare it in my echoey office with the MXL990 condenser mic and my GoPro…which apparently has a broken and noisy mic. Probably float trip related.

Enjoy! And CONGRATS MARTY!!!