Wes AFØAJ

@AF0AJ@mastodon.radio
282 Followers
231 Following
92 Posts

This account is primarily focused on my amateur radio activities, but I have myriad other interests, and occasionally post non-ham-radio-related content.

I am a long-time licensed amateur, but took a fairly long break from the hobby, coming back into it in Summer 2024. I operate primarily HF, including a fair amount of POTA (activating and hunting). You'll find me on FT8/FT4 regularly, quite often on CW, and frequently on SSB.

🚫👑

General Blog (incl. Ham Radio)https://querybang.com
PhreakNetBEechwood 4-2451
Wes AFØAJDec 31

That was cool... My first DX contact over Olivia. It was also my third (ever) Olivia QSO. I'm cookin' with gas now, baby! 🎉

#hamradio #amateurradio

Wes AFØAJDec 27

One thing that bugged me about my Winlink setup is that pat and wfview don't get along. Wfview does things in its rigctld emulation that causes no problem with anything but pat, and "real" rigctld just didn't work well for me.

So, Python to the rescue... A "rigctld shim" that acts as a go-between, translating specific problematic CAT messages, while passing through anything else. 👍

Wes AFØAJDec 26

Well, the new Linux box is now back to where the old system was:

✔️ Wfview (CAT)
✔️ WSJT-X (FT8)
✔️ Fldigi (RTTY, etc.)
✔️ Dire Wolf + QtTermTCP (packet)
✔️ Pat + ARDOP (Winlink)
✔️ My hack job interface between Wavelog and rigctld

The more I do this stuff on Linux, the more comfortable I'm getting doing it. I still wouldn't call it easy, but... Considering it was a sum total of only a handful of hours to fully migrate? Not bad.

Wes AFØAJDec 25

My pressie to myself: An upgrade to my #hamradio #linux hardware. I'd been using old Apple gear with #linuxmint on it, a great use case for Linux, but old hardware is old hardware.

I'll be writing-up a blog post soon with deeper details, but the highlights are Geekbench scores 11x to 13x higher between the Mid-2012 MBP, and this generic NUC with a Core i9 and double the RAM.

From a cold start, it's <10 seconds to the Mint login prompt. Crazy.

Wes AFØAJDec 24
UPS just dropped off a surprise holiday gift… a mixed case of Great Lakes Potato Chip Co. chips, two bags of which are their Michigan Cherry BBQ flavor, which I’m head over heels with. Pretty sure ketchup chips have nothing on Michigan Cherry BBQ. Just saying. 🤤🤤 #potatochips
Wes AFØAJDec 22

Well, what do you know... My first #winlink messaging round trip via RF. I still don't think that I actually understand what's happening or how, but it worked.

Top screen shot... The email I sent from Pat to regular email; bottom is the reply appearing back in Pat's HTTP interface.

And thanks to KDØSFY and his RMS down in Colorado Springs, which was easy to hit on 40m from here.

Maybe I can do an #ffwn check-in next week.

#hamradio #amateurradio

Wes AFØAJAug 6

Oh wow! Now here's an honor I've never had before in all my decades of hamming: Being someone's first CW contact! How incredibly cool... ❤️

#pota #morsecode #amateurradio #hamradio

Wes AFØAJMar 6, 2025

Holy time capsules, Batman... Here is the console screen of the last BBS that I operated, restored and working from a July 1996 CD-ROM backup. Logging-in this morning for the first time in nearly 30 years was... surreal.

Tip of the hat to @pheller and his TBBS archival work, and his work on "TBBSBox," a specialized fork of DOSBox tailored to making it possible to run TBBS on modern hardware. Amazing.

#vintagecomputing #bbs #tbbs