Trying to work K5D

I am not as active on the Radio as I should be.

I spend more time helping people with Hamtests.co.uk & hamradioforum.net than my own pursuits of that next elusive DXCC.

So have spent some time (and money) this week, trying to work K5D. But boy has it been tough.

To start with finding a place on the bands I can hear K5D. Usually I get static. The one time I can hear him he is working numbers. 5, 6, 7, 8 and that’s about an hour gone.

I also made a few purchases in case can try to work data as my setup wasn’t complete. From G4ZLP I ordered a Icom lead for my DigiMaster Comport, an Icom CI-V lead and a USB soundcard. All working great now, and good value at £31.47 ($45.50 approx) for the 3 items including delivery.

So hopefully with a few days left still of the K5D operation, I am still hopeful.

I also ordered (but not arrived) and CW key for my FT-817 & CW PC interface from BullDog iambic keys.

Finally sorted the blog out as an upgrade left the theme not working. Also my HRD (Ham Radio Deluxe) text thing stopped working.

This is now uploaded to my mini Linux server and the one file is served from there. It’s now proudly on display at the top of the page above the header image.

Bluetooth

I finally got a Bluetooth USB adaptor, and hope and prayed would work as got one that didn’t say on package that would worked on Mac, but the Mac OS X bluetooth software got it working. In case any with a Mac is insterested, it is a Kondor USB BT Adaptor that most of the phone shops in my High Street sell. By the time I got to last one and found the same product (even packaging) I decided to buy from Vodafone and checked if didn’t work I could take back. Luckily it did.

Was quite surpised when I iSync’ed that even the contacts photos were sync’ed. At the moment, I believe that only the Address book can be sync’ed but Apple are working on that.