VK7YUM

Located about 20 minutes east of Launceston in north east Tasmania, the island located just below mainland Australia (OC-006).

The latest addition to the shack ....

Current equipment is: Icom 756ProIII running into a ZS6BKW (the computer enhanced G5RV) up about 100 feet strung between some trees.  The ZS6BKW runs east ⇒ west so there is some directionality.

There is also a Mosely 3 element beam on top of a 2 section tower that seems to work quite well too - so all is good 8^)

I Use a Tigertronics SignaLink for digital modes (my current passion).

You will most likely find me on FT8, JT65 or JT9 on 40m - 10m (mostly 40m and 20m) where I use WSJT-X² and JTALERT³  (JTALERT is a great addition to WSJT-X and if you haven't tried it - then you really should!  Lots and lots of nice additional features for you to play with).  Power out is usually 40 watts with the occasional "splurge" upto 60 watts for a special contact.  Figure if I can't make the contact with 60 watts then bad luck to me.

I am currently swapping between WSJT-X and JTDX¹ software, for no other reason than I can.  Both have there plus's and minus's ... I duuno - maybe I'm just wishy-washy and can't make up my mind.  Once I got past the different user interface JTDX is easy enough to use.  JTDX appears, to me anyway, to decode slightly better than WSJT-X.  That is not to say it does, just it appears that way to me.  I also seem to have less Omnirig errors using JTDX than I did when using WSJT-X.  Again, others may disagree, but .... that's the joys of ham radio :-) And before you ask why Omnirig - well I am damned if I can get Hamlib to work any more than a few minutes before throwing up the blue screen of death.  Seems there is something in my setup that disagrees with Hamlib - so its Omnirig for me :)

You will also find me occasionally "fiddling" with Fldigi and it's various modes too.

My logger of choice is Log4OM⁴ which works nicely with the above 3 programs.

QSL via :

eQSL.cc (automatically)

LOTW - (automatically)

HRDLog.net (automatically)

Bureau - see N2OO for bureau instructions

Direct - - see N2OO for direct instructions

Other interests include motorcycles - I have a Yamaha 1600 Road Star that I don't ride anywhere near enough because .. well .. no real excuse - just slack :)

Latest involvement is with horse and carriages - well pony and carriage to be precise.  We have a shetland pony and a little jog cart that we go wandering around the grounds of a local historical house with ... quite enjoyable pastime ...

¹ Download JTDX here

² Download WSJT-X here

³ Download JT-Alert here

⁴ Download Log4OM here

Thanks for looking,

Cheers

David