[Elecraft] Elecraft CW Net Announcement

[Kevin Rock]

Good Evening All,
    The daffodils and other neotenous flowers are blooming in downtown 
Portland.  Now the progression continues as they gradually bloom further 
West and then higher in elevation.  In about six to eight weeks they will 
be blooming here.  I am sure Ms P will enjoy the many flowers which have 
been added to her yard.  The snow is mostly gone here but the frost has 
been quite heavy.  The wood I cut a few weeks ago is keeping Sam quite 
happy in his box next to the stove.  One day I am sure I will find him 
melted but I don't think he would mind.  Now to find one of those 
cat-shaped Tupperware containers to mould him back to normal :)
    I've kluged a method to get the K2 to headphone to microphone to 
soundcard to MixW, etc together over the last few weeks.  I have 
successfully received SSTV and BPS31 so far.  Now to figure out a few of 
the other modes and make a cable so I can transmit.  I don't think I can 
use the K2 for digital modes since I would have to get the speaker and the 
back audio jack working again.  For now it is a receive only, through the 
headphone to microphone kluge route mechanism.  But the spare rig: Icom 
706 will work for the digital stuff.  It has been opened up for MARS work 
so I'll be able to use it for MT63 reception.  With an bit of interfacing 
I'll get it working for transmit too.  N0SS has a .pdf which I will read a 
bit later and see if I can modify his circuit to run with the IC706.  
Kluge is the operative word here.
    Just checked http://spaceweather.com/index.cgi for the sunspot number.  
Still stuck at zero but that has not stopped propagation before, in fact 
there was a bit of aurora in Alaska earlier this week due to a coronal 
hole allowing some ions to zap us.  Any sort of mechanism to stir up the 
ionosphere is helpful so maybe we will have good conditions for tomorrow's 
nets.  In passing, if any of you have a clear evening sky, Mercury is 
easily visible in the Western sky shortly after sundown.  I saw it two 
Fridays ago while coming home through Banks.  I had never witnessed 
Mercury in the Oregon skies before so was pretty happy to have the 
chance.  If you are an early riser you may want to take a look East of 
Venus before sunrise since there is a new comet to hunt.   Comet Pojmanski 
is a binocular object but may get better, I have not done the research yet.

     Please join us:
Sunday 2300z (Sunday 3pm PST) 14050 kHz
Monday 0200z (Sunday 6pm PST)  7045 kHz

Visit our web site: http://ecn.visionseer.com/ for further details.  Thank 
you for the web space Dan.

Until tomorrow,
      Kevin.  KD5ONS