New Laptop for Ham Radio and Operating Portable in New Mexico
Where in the world is K0PIR? I’m traveling in New Mexico, the "Land of Enchantment". My first camp was on BLM land near Roswell. At the moment I have setup camp near Las Cruces. A very beautiful location on BLM land and I get 3 bars of 5G cellular.
On my last outing in the Black Hills of South Dakota I had lots of tall Pine trees to hang antennas from. It's a different landscape here in New Mexico. No tall trees here, or many trees at all.
Portable station K0PIR.
-
Near Carlsbad Caverns -
Sierra Vista, Las Cruces -
Las Cruces, NM
Antennas!
It's all about the antenna and as my friend says, "Antenna, antenna, antenna."
Since I operate a lot of 80 meters I am using my 80 meter inverted vee attached to a 30ft. flagpole. I've made the flagpole base a little better. See below. If you have any suggestions for improving it, I'm open. Please comment below.
The other antenna on my flagpole is an random wire about 60' in length with a 9:1 UnUn.
I have used this combination of antennas before and they work well.
If I need it I have my Hi-Q-5/80 mounted on the rear.
-
Base Mount -
Hi-Q mounted on a telescopic mast. -
Hi-Q with eggbeater.
New Laptop for Ham Radio and Ham Radio Software
I have been using an HP Stream notebook for a couple of years now. Since I am out in the camper more these days I decided to upgrade. In Las Cruces I purchased a Microsoft Surface Go laptop. So far it's been easy loading my software and the laptop hasn't given me any problems.
The Surface Go is small, very lightweight and the i5 processor with 8GB of RAM is plenty powerful for my Ham software.
Log4OM is loaded and working FB with GridTracker and WSJT-X. I added Fldigi to the mix for PSK31 contacts. More on that later.
This time I have JS8Call working with Log4OM and it logs and works almost exactly like WSJT-X. More on that later too.
Some Drone Footage and Night Sky
Coming Soon
With my new laptop I had to reinstall everything and decided to add some more to Log4OM. I'll make sure WSJT-X, GridTracker, Fldigi and now JS8Call work properly together with Log4OM and then write a post and prepare a video on Fldigi and JS8Call.
Past posts:
NEW Log4OM 2 Logging Program Install and Initial Setup
WSJT-X and LOG4OM Tutorial Free and Easy!
GridTracker, WSJT-X and Log4OM
Downloading GridTracker for HRD and WSJT-X
If you have any questions, comments or solutions, please comment below. I prefer the comment section here or in YouTube over e-mail because your comments and questions will help others as well.
Thank you for subscribing to this website. You can also follow my travels on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
73,
Rich,K0PIR
Thanks, Rich, for sharing your drone shots. I am sure you enjoyed your adventure. I would love such a trip with my wife. 🙂 Do you still have your dog?
Hi Deryl,
Good to hear from you and yes, he is my constant companion. I’ll get his GoPro camera on him another day and do a dogs view of the camp.
Best 73!
Rich, K0PIR
Rich, I will look forward to that dog’s view of the camp.
BTW, what drone are you using? I got a Wish ad that said you were using the $27 drone from Mavic. Is that true?
73, Deryl, WB4DOC
Hi Deryl,
It’s good to hear from you. I will get Mr. B hooked up soon. For the drone, it is a Phantom 3. It’s bigger than the new ones but way cheaper, hi hi.
73!
Enjoy the ride Rich, You are sounding good out there…
Good to hear from you John. Thanks and best 73!
Hi Rich-Looks like your having fun out there in New Mexico. Keep the posts coming and i will check in to see what is new in your adventures. My FT8 and GridTracker with my IC-7300 is working like a champ. Bagged 5 Europeans with two Russian contacts, and CW (obiviously not FT8) station TF4M Iceland, doing quick DX exchanges. 73s Harry AC3EK
Thank you Harry and thank you so much for commenting. Congrats on the DX and keep it up.
73,
Rich, K0PIR
Thanks for the updates. I like reading your blogs. BTW, thanks for the contact on my POTA excursion. Ran 52 parks on my trip to TX and back to ID. Now begins the L O N G process of transferring the contacts from paper to digital and submitting the logs.
Thank you so much Bill. GL and good DX!