N1YHW's Amateur Radio

Welcome! My name is Mike and I wanted to get my ham radio license way back in the early 80's, but I was a really good procrastinator back then, and that dream slipped away from me in time. Everything back then was always gonna get done tomorrow. Well, 4380+ tomorrows later, I finally got my FCC Technician Amateur license! I took the examination in Nashua, NH, USA, on Saturday December 14, 1996. I got my call sign 5 days later! I am perpetually acquiring equipment, and I am always saving to buy more. My goal to work amateur satellites with voice and packet has finally come true! The possibilities are endless. I am working for a startup company, Castle Networks, Inc., that specializes in circuit/packet switch networking.
Yes, I want to to advance my license class, someday.

My Short History in Radio

Me and my buddy from work, Larry (N1TX) survived the ARRL's VHF Sweepstakes Contest over the weekend of January 18, 19, 1997. We worked alot of stations in a pretty short amount of time! Check out our log files:

Our N1TX/Rover VHF-UHF-EME Log
My N1YHW VHF-UHF-EME Log

What a fun time that event was. Stupidity disallowed us from taking pictures of our rover mobile - a 15 foot mast mounted in the back of Larry's pickup holding Yagi's for 50/146/432/1296 MHz! What a sight that was! Next time we'll get photos of our BELOW ZERO hilltop roving setup!

I'm on Packet radio. My home BBS address is:   N1YHW @ N1FT.NH.USA.NOAM
Send me some packet mail! [well, actually, dont, this packet address is no longer valid]


On January 30, 1997 at approx. 03:20 UTC, I received my first telemetry data collection from satellite DO-17 and FM Repeater output from R0MIR (MIR Space Station) on 2m and 70cm, respectfully. This is when the fever of satellites set in!

On March 20, 1997 at 02:50 UTC, I had my first QSO with MIR's PMS (BBS). Click here to see the log file of the albeit brief contact. I received my MIR QSL card in the mail the second week of June (2 1/2 months later from Dr. Dave Larsen) !

On December 31, 1997, I successfully made a QSO on MIRs SAFEX FM Repeater. Running approx. 1500 Watts ERP, I finally got in. I guess they dropped the 141.3 PL tone that week, so that probably helped me get in there too.

MIR/STS-84 Contact from The American Helenic School in Lowell, MA on May 21, 1997.

I also have TCP/IP running with JNOS over AX.25.

My wife passed her Technician class license on June 14, 1997 in Nashua. Her call was assigned by Friday June 20, which is N1ZLR. We communicate pretty regularly during commuting times on local repeaters, specifically, the N1IMO repeater linked system (146.730 PL 88.5) based out of Hollis, NH.


June ARRL QSO Contest: Larry, N1TX, and I operated as a ROVER using his call sign. We activated 5 grid squares and had QSO's with over 50 other grids (thanks to a great E's opening on 6m!). The weather was perfect and we had alot of fun and found some really good operating locations which I'm sure we will re-use again someday in the future. Our ARRL log follows:

June 1997 QSO N1TX/Rover Log



SATELLITE SCHEDULES:

My base analog satellite station was completed and operational around September 1, 1997. I have since been active on almost all of the analog satellites. My log book is filling up! Birds I work include: AO-10, FO-20, FO-29, AO-27, and Mir. When my log book gets digitized, I will put it out here for all to see.
Need New Hampshire for W.A.S.? Email me at N1YHW@amsat.org to set up an analog sked !


1997 ARRL September 20 VHF QSO Party -

What a contest. I won the regional award from the ARRL for this contest for the most QSO's on 6 meters for this whole weekend. Thanks to KZ1L (silent key's) Kenwood TS-60, I was able to perform the contesting quite easily.


Heard the Sputnik satellite on Monday November 3, 1997 at 19:02 UTC. I cant believe it's been 40 years since Sputnik was first launched!

My Equipment List

Here's a picture of my ham shack. It's moving from the bedroom to by basement ham shack very soon.

The current list of equipment that I have:

ICOM 821-H Satellite Rig

Kenwood TS-60 All Mode 6 Meter Mobile Transceiver

ICOM T7A Dual band (2m/70cm) FM Transceiver

Kenwood V7A Dual-Bander (2m/70cm) Mobile for the truck

Kenwood TS-261 2m FM Mobile Radio, for the XYL's car!

ICOM 22S 2 meter Mobile (currently unused)

rfconcepts 1-60 AMP

Mirage 10-100 70cm AMP (used for AO-10 at apogee)

M-Squared 2MCP14 Circularly Polarized Yagi

M-Squared 435CP30 Circularly Polarized Yagi

SSB Preamps for both 70cm and 2m

Glen-Martin Roof Tower with thrust bearing(4 footer)

Yaesu 5400B Az/El Rotor

Two Larsen 5/8 Wave 2 meter Mobile Antennas

Larsen 1/4 Wave 6 meter Mobile Antenna

Saturn Halo 6 meter antenna (for doing mobile Es and contesting!)

Comet GP-3 Dual Band Base Antenna

M-squared 2 meter Egg Beater Antenna

Portable 3 Element 6 meter Yagi

Portable 3 Element 2 meter delta loop

Portable 10 Element 2 meter Yagi

Kantronics KAM Plus *

PacComm PicoPacket with 128K RAM and Battery Pack

ASTRON RS-35M Power Supply

Ham Radio Links

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station
Houston AMSAT Net
Nashua Area Radio Club
Mir FAQ (EXCELLENT LINK!)
Ham Radio FAQ
JSCARC W5RRR

ARRLWeb: ARRL's Home Page
Tucson Amateur Packet Radio (TAPR) Home Page
AMSAT-NA Home Page

Celestial WWW

Ham Radio Outlet
N4OKL's Amateur Radio and Satellite Site of WV
PacComm Packet Radio Systems
KA9FOX Web Site for Amateur / Ham Radio Contesting and DXing
Univ. of Ark. at Little Rock's Amateur Radio Club Home Page
AA9PW's Amateur Radio Home Page
Radio Astronomy Sources
ICOM America, Incorporated
Comet Antenna's for base and mobile use