The ARRL International DX SSB and the CQ WPX SSB contests are now in the books. Conditions for the ARRL DX contest were good but not as good as the CW contest in February. A solar disturbance can be thanked for that, especially on Sunday. On Saturday, some reported working stations above 29.0 MHz! Bill, N6RV said that he did not run Europe but had some 100+ S&P hours. He also had some "one way" propagation (lots of loud stations but no one answering his CQs). Frank, WA6KHK nearly worked DXCC on 15. Dana, K6NR did a lot more S&P than CQing as compared to the CW contest. He did work quite a few more multipliers though. "Conditions seemed very good at times - I particularly enjoyed sweeping 15 meter EU stations on Saturday morning, hearing all those great signals, and feeling strong with everyone returning on the first call. Later in the contest I could barely break some of the pileups, including not-very-rare stations like PY." Kurt, W6PH said things started out well Friday night with great runs to Asia on 10 and 15 but he was disappointed in 40 and 80. Dan, N6MJ was out at N6WIN's station in Arizona using the ND7K club call. He said it was a tale of two contests. Absolutely amazing conditions the first day followed by disturbed conditions on the second day.

JR, W6JBR worked several new countries and got some great reports with his simple antennas. He worked 58 unique countries in the CW contest and 59 in the SSB contest. Bruce, WA7BNM found conditions to be pretty good on Saturday. Sunday, he said, started out ugly. Jim, N6TJ had planned to go to Hawaii again for the contest but decided to celebrate his birthday with his family. He put in some time operating from home instead. Marko, N5ZO says his raw score would break the W6 call area record by 5.5% if it stands up. Like others, he said that conditions on Saturday were quite good but Sunday was miserable. Ken, K6LA (VY2TT) had lots of "juicy DX" calling in. He thinks he bested his previous high score in this contest. Phil, K6MUG found 10 meters very hot on Friday evening. He was happy to snag some ATNOs in the contest. Warren, KN6ZZI is newly licensed (June, 2023) and had a great time in the contest. He experienced many great openings and worked 36 new ones. Jim,K6ZH reported good conditions, though not as good as the CW weekend. He was happy to hear so many loud EU stations on 10-40 meters both that night and Saturday morning. 10 meters opened early Saturday morning. When he switched to 15 a little later, he had several 80+ QSO hours. 40 and 80 continued to disappoint Saturday night, and Sunday conditions were much poorer thand Saturday.

The final results of the February NA Sprint CW are now in. And as I wrote in last month's issue (it bears repeating!), Dan, N6MJ posted the highest score by an operator with 12 or less band changes. He actually went old school and did just three! Tree, N6TR set a new record for a Golden Log in this contest with 371 Q's. Amazing! And, the SCCC #1 team placed 3rd! Nice job, everyone!



The 75th International DX Convention returns to Visalia this month! April 12-14 are the dates that contesters and DXers from around the world converge at the Visalia Convention Center. From the website, "Meet the big guns from the US, Asia, Europe, Africa and Oceania. Meet the people on the other side of the mic or key. Shake hands with the person you have had that sked with for the past 10 years. Renew friendships." Please send your photos and comments about the Convention to me for publication here.



Preliminary results of the January NAQP CW are out. Tree, N6TR on SCCC #1 has third place just behind Axel, KI6RRN who was using the ND7K callsign (his score went to the AOCC Ambushers team). The SCCC #1 team currently holds 3rd place in the team competition, a hair above Big Sky Deep Freeze #1.

The preliminary March NAQP SSB and RTTY results are also out.

A copy and paste from the February, 2024 SCDXC bulletin:
Dick - N6AA and the ARRL Board
The Board approved the reintroduction of ARRL Life Membership and 70+ Life Membership (for members of age 70 and over) on a revenue-neutral basis. At its July 2023 Second Meeting, the Board had suspended the Life Membership Program, pending the approval of an adjusted revenue-neutral program.
Board members discussed proposed changes to By-Law 46, the Board's Conflict of Interest Policy, and decided to consider revisions at a later date. The Board unanimously voted to approve the establishment of a committee appointed by the ARRL President to affirm the set of ethics guidelines and standards for the Board. In addition to the guidelines, the committee will review By-Laws 42 (Ethics and Elections Committee) and 46 for possible revision. The committee will also engage with a competent legally qualified independent third party to handle all Ethics & Elections inquiries in the future.

Is AI (Artificial Intelligence) in our ham radio and contesting future? In the April, 2024 QST editorial (The Road Ahead), David Minster, NA2AA CEO of ARRL, thinks out loud about the possibilities. And it's eye opening. It could take contesting to a whole new level. You will want to check out that editorial. AI could be a game changer.

Remember...The Quality and usefulness of the SCCC Newsletter (SCCCORE) depends on contributions from members. If you have photos from recent events, screen shots of new contest software, write ups on station improvments or contest war stories, please send them in any format to us via the webmaster. We really appreciate your contributions!

Strange but true...
From history.com:
"Some historians speculate that April Fools' Day dates back to 1582, when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, as called for by the Council of Trent in 1563. In the Julian Calendar, as in the Hindu calendar, the new year began with the spring equinox around April 1. People who were slow to get the news or failed to recognize that the start of the new year had moved to January 1 and continued to celebrate it during the last week of March through April 1 became the butt of jokes and hoaxes and were called “April fools.” "

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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Our March, 2024 poll was "I have or have used for amateur radio use a Raspberry Pi computer."
  64% said they have never used a Pi computer. 29% say they use one today for amateur radio. The remaining
  7% said they own one but don't use it for amateur radio.

Our February, 2024 poll was "After every contest, I run my log through an analyzer or look at the data 
  analysis in my contest logger in hopes of improving my next go round in that contest.
  76% said no. 19% said sometimes and 5% said always. 

Our January, 2024 poll was "After every contest, I upload my contest log to:"
  The options were LOTW, eQSL, QRZ, ClubLog, Two of these, Three of thes, All four of these, or None of these.
  30% said two of these. Another 30% said eQSL. 20% said three of these and 15% said ClubLog. 5% said LOTW.

Our November, 2023 poll was "I took at least one of my amateur radio license exams at an FCC office back 
  when they conducted such things there."
  A stunning 82% said yes! Only 18% said no. Guess that shows that we have an aging club membership!

Our October, 2023 poll was "I started on CW using a:"
  79% said hand key (wow!). 11% said iambic type electronic keyer. 5% said they have never done CW and 5% said
  paddle type electronic keyer.

Our September, 2023 poll was "Have you ever listened to a ham radio podcast? (That is, one where the subject 
is ham radio related.)"
  74% said yes and 26% said no.

Our August, 2023 poll was "I first found out about contesting:"
  44% said they stumbled across one on the air. Another 44% said they found about contesting from a magazine. 
  6% said they learned about it from a friend and another 6% said Other.

Our July, 2023 poll was "My hamshack computer runs:"
  90% said Windows (no surprise there). 5% said MacOS and the other 5% said DOS.

Our June, 2023 poll was "My ham shack computer is:"
  39% said 8 or more years old. 35% said newer (3 years old or less). 26% said 4-7 years old. 

Our May, 2023 poll was "My ham shack computer is a:"
  67% said a desktop and 33% said a laptop.

Our April, 2023 poll was "My first amplifier was a:"
  27% said it was a Heathkit. Another 27% said Other (I wonder what those were?). 13% said VHF/UHF os some
  flavor. 

Our March, 2023 poll was "My first transmitter/transceiver when I received my license was a"
 A whopping 42% said Heathkit! 11% said homebrew, 8% (each) said Yaesu, Kenwood and Hallicrafters, 4% said 
 Johnson and 19% said Other. 

OurFebruary, 2023 poll was "My first antenna when I received my license was a:"
 64% said it was a dipole. 6% said it was a doublet and another 6% said it was a longwire. Another 6% said it 
 was a G5RV and another 6% said it was something else. 12% started with a vertical. The rest was split between
 Alpha, Henry, Yaesu, Ameritron and "I have never owned an amplifier."

Our January, 2023 poll was "My first amateur radio license was a(n):"
 80% said Novice. 13% said Technician and 7% said Conditional.

Our December, 2022 poll was "Of the amateur radio magazines to which I subscribe, I read one or more of
 them online rather than the printed version."

 20% said all to which they subscribe. 27% said one or more and 53% said none.

Our November,2022 poll was "I subscribe to one or more amateur radio magazines."

 28% subscribe to one, 33% subscribe to two, 17% subscribe to three, 17% subscribe to more than three and 5%
 don't subscribe to any.

Our October, 2022 poll was "My ham shack computer is:"

 72% said shared with other tasks (I.E., email, web browsing, spreadsheets, documents, etc.). 24% said it was
 dedicated to their ham radio activities. 6% said they don't have a computer in the ham shack. 

Our September, 2022 poll was another two parter. "When the FCC discontinued the Morse Code requirement for 
 amateur radio licensees, I:" and part two was "Now that it has been many years without the Morse Code 
 requirement,"

44% of respondents didn't care either way. 38% disagreed with the decision. 13% were worried that amateur 
radio would become like the CB channels. To the second question, 63% have no opinion either way. The other
37% think it was a good decision.

Our August, 2022 poll was a two parter. "Do you have/own an HF amplifier? If so, which brand. And, is it 
 a tube or solid state amp?"

50% of respondents said they have an Alpha amplifier. 30% said Elecraft. 11% said OM Power. 5% said Heathkit 
and another 5% said Acom.  56% said their amp uses tubes and 33% said their amp is solid state. 11% do not have 
an amplifier. 

Our July, 2022 poll was "A must do contest for me is"

A whopping 30% said CQWW DX CW! 14% said Sweepstakes CW. The balance was divided equally amont the rest 
of the contests lin the poll.

Our June, 2022 poll was "I will be operating Field Day this year"

39% said with a club at a park or other location away from home. Another 39% said from home said from home.
22% said they wouldn't be participating this year.

Our May, 2022 poll was "My first contest was:"

22% said the Novice Roundup. 17% each said ARRL Sweepstakes, a state QSO Party, CQWW DX, or another contest. 
 10% said the ARRL International DX Contest. 

Our April, 2022 poll was "Your top QSOs per hour rate over a full 60 minutes is:"

47% said 61-70. 18% said 41-50 and another 18% said 81-90. 17% said 41-50. 

Our March, 2022 poll was "In a single contest weekend, you have worked 100 DXCC entities."

36% said yes and 64% said no.

Our February, 2022 poll was "You are only allowed to contest on one band, the band of your choice. Which one 
would it be?"

42% said 40 meters, 27% said 20 meters, 15% said 15 meters, 8% said 10 and 4% said 160. 4% said 2 meters or 
above.

Our January, 2022 poll was"Continuing with last month's typing subject, for those of you that touch type, 
did you learn to do so in a class, on the internet (including a typing app or program), or are you self 
taught?"

50% said in a class. 19% said self taught and 31% said they use hunt and peck instead.

Our December, 2021 poll was"When using contest software, do you touch type or hunt and peck?"

61% said hunt and peck. 39% said touch type.

Our November, 2021 poll was "Have you ever owned a Heathkit Radio transmitter, receiver or transceiver?"

70% said yes, in the past. 18% said they own one or more now and 12% said no.

Our October, 2021 poll was "Have you ever owned a Collins Radio transmitter, receiver or transceiver?"

11% said yes, in the past. 17% said they own one or more now and 72% have never owned one. 

Our September, 2021 poll was "I plan on purchasing at least one new station accessory in the 
coming year."

80% said yes and 20% said no. Are you listening, vendors?

Our August, 2021 poll was "I plan on installing at least one new antenna in the coming year."

64% said yes and 36% said no.

Our July, 2021 poll was "The last time I visited a brick and mortar ham radio store was"

47% said in the past two to four years. 37% said in the past year. 16% said five or more years ago.

Our June, 2021 poll was "My career (or former career if retired) is/was in the electronics or 
telecommunications industry."

53% said yes and 47% said no. 

Our May, 2021 poll was "I have a family member who is also a licensed amateur radio operator."

44% said yes and 56% said no. 

Our April, 2021 poll was "My significant other_____in contests."

60% said tolerates me participating. 15% said encourages me to participate. 10% said doesn't care if I 
participate and another 10% said sometimes participates with me. 5% said they don't have a significant 
other.

Our March, 2021 poll was "Keeping with the theme of last month's poll, my favorite 
type of contest is:"

47% said DX. 33% said stateside. And 20% said both.

Our February, 2021 poll was "My favorite contests are (those in duration):"

28% said 48 hour contests, 11% said 30 hour contests, 5% said 24 hour contests, 17% said 
10 hour contests, 5% said 4 hour contests and 5% said 1 hour contests. 22% said all of
the above! One respondent said all of the above with the exception of Field Day and 
those with other complicated exchanges. 

Our January, 2021 poll was "Do you prefer hard copy QSLs or electronic ones?"

19% said they prefer hard copy (paper) QSLs, 50% said they prefer electronic QSLs (IE, LOTW, 
eQSL, QRZ, etc.), 25% said they had no preference, and 6% said they do not QSL at all. 

Our December, 2020 poll was "I sometimes have conflicts between contest events and
 family events on holiday weekends preventing me from as much participation in one or
 both of them as I'd like.

17% said often, 56% said occasionally, 22% said contesting always wins out, and 5% said
 family events always win out. 

Our November, 2020 poll asked "Is your antenna system mostly:"

42% answered less than 5 years old. 16% each answered 5-10 years old, 11-15 years old 
 or 16-20 years old. 10% answered more than 20 years old.

Our October, 2020 poll asked "Is your current primary transciever:"

43% answered 5-10 years old. 30% said less than 5 years old. 17% said 11-15 years old and
 10% said more than 20 years old.

Our September, 2020 poll was two parts. "Are you an ARRL member?"

87% said yes and 13% said no.

Are you a paid member of any other club other than ARRL?

73% said yes and 27% said no.

Our July, 2020 poll was "Where do you typically operate Field Day from?

23% said from home, 6% said portable by themselves, 59% said with a club and 12% said they
 don't typically operate Field Day.

Our June, 2020 poll was "Did you discover amateur radio on your own?

35% said yes, 35% said that they discovered it via a family member and 30% said that they
 discovered it via a friend.

Our May, 2020 poll was "Have you ever built and/or used Heathkit amateur radio equipment?"

65% said they have both built and used Heathkits. 20% said they have used but not built them
 and 15% have neither built nor used a Heathkit.

Our April, 2020 poll was "Did you participate in the National Traffic System (NTS)?"

25% said yes and 75% said no.

Our February, 2020 poll was "What is your thought on the new digital modes as it pertains
 to contesting?"

27% said great! And another 27% said "not for me." 21% said "they are poisoning amateur radio
 contesting." Wow, brutal. 14% said they haven't tried them. 8% said "not bad" and 3% said
 "unsure / too early to day."

Our January, 2020 poll was "Have you ever operated in a RTTY contest?"

86% said yes and 14% said no. 

Our December, 2019 poll was "Have you ever operated in a VHF contest?"

86% said yes and 14% said no. 

Our November, 2019 poll was "Do you operate in very many contests just to have some
 fun / hand out some contacts?"

86% said yes and 14% said a few.

Our October, 2019 poll was "LOTW has revolutionized QSLing. How do you respond to
 hard copy QSLs that you receive after a contest?

87% said they send a return QSL the same way the incoming card was received (direct or via
 the Bureau). 13% said they send electronic QSLs only (IE, LOTW, eQSL, QRZ and/or other).

Our September, 2019 poll was "If you could go or are going on a Contest Dxpedition
 next year, where would you go?"

75% said to the Caribbean! 25% said somewhere in the Pacific.

Our August, 2019 poll was a two parter. "Do you miss (or wish we had) SCCC pizza meetings?"

20% said Yes, I really miss them. Another 20% said Yes, I hear they were a good time.
 10% said I could take them or leave them. Another 10% said No, I'm not that interested in
 attending meetings at this time. 60% said I probably wouldn't be able to attend many of them
 due to distance or other reason.

The second question was "If we had SCCC meetings, I would..."

10% said Attend as many as possible. 20% said Attend them if they were less than an hour's
 drive. 40% said Attend now and then. 20% said Might attend some of them, and 10% said Probably
 wouldn't attend any of them.

Our July, 2019 poll was "When was your first contest?"

16% said 2010 or later. 5% said 2000-2009 and another 5% said 1990-1999. 32% said 1970-1979.
 26% said 160-1969 and 16% said 1950-1959.

Our June, 2019 poll was "Have you ever operated a Dxpedition in a contest?"

25% said yes, as part of a multi-op DXpedition. 25% said no. 20% said yes, as a single op.
 Another 20% said no, but I would like to! And 10% said yes, both as a multi-op and as a single-op.

Our May, 2019 poll was "Have you ever operated mobile or portable in a contest
 (not a DXpedition)?

35% said both, 35% said no, 20% said portable and 10% said mobile.

Our April, 2019 poll was "For manual CW sending, what do you use?"

65% of our respondents said a keyer. 35% said contest software. 12% said a straight key and
 5% said a bug. 8% said other.

Our March, 2019 poll was "What logging software do you use in contests?"

75% of our respondents said N1MM+. 10% said Writelog and another 10% said N3FJP. 5% each said
 TRLog/TR4W, Win-test or other.

Our February, 2019 poll was "Do you use high, low or QRP power in contests?"

56% of our respondents said high power. 21% said low power and 13% said QRP.

Our January, 2019 poll was "What brand of radio to you use primarily in contests?"

25% of our respondents said Yaesu. 18.75% said Kenwood. 12.5% said Icom. 6.25% said Flex, and
 43.75% said Other. We should have included Elecraft! 

Our December, 2018 poll was "Have you ever hosted a guest operator at your station?"

11% of our respondents said yes. 89% said no.

Our November, 2018 poll was "Have you ever operated multi-op in a contest (home or away)?"

80% of our respondents said yes. 20% said no.

Our October, 2018 poll was "What is your favorite contest mode?"

76% of our respondents favored CW. 12% favored SSB and 6% favored RTTY. 6% had no favorite mode.

Our September, 2018 poll was "What is your favorite contest?"

CQP took the top spot. CQWW DX, WPX, NA Sprint and Sweepstakes all tied for second.

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FOR SALE: SPE Expert 1.5K-FA Series 3 fully automatic LDMOS amplifier. Latest hardware and firmware. Works perfectly. $4000. https://expertlinears.com/1-5kfa FOR SALE: 2. KT34M2 4-element tribander. Latest design. Upgrade with DX Engineering balun, custom boom-to-mast mount by Hector Garcia. $400. https://www.m2inc.com/FGKT34M2 Contact Paul, K6PO paul dot kube at outlook.com Posted 27 February 2024 FOR SALE: Elecraft K3/100 Transceiver 100 watts, 2.7 kHz SSB filter KXV3 I/O transverter KIO3 RS232 Great entry level radio Power cord and manual $1295 Same as above with a built in tuner $1495. If you want custom options, please email. I have many options available that are not being made by Elecraft. Filters KSYN3A upgraded SYN board. DVR's Sub Receivers P3 Panadapter $795.00 Add VGA $1050 Contact Larry, K6RO Lashap at cox.net 310-710-2869 Posted 20 Oct 2021, Perpetual ad FOR SALE: I have a two year-old SteppIR DB36 with 80 M dipole option for sale. The stepper motors, controller, etc all work perfectly, and the boom and trombones/straight fiberglass poles are in good shape. You will likely need to replace some of the small parts (some bolts and Nylock nuts), but can have a working DB-36 for less than half of what it cost new. I'm selling the antenna because the trees near the antenna became so large that tilting it over was becoming impossible, and I purchased a DB-18E to replace it. I have some extra fiberglass poles that I will include, and I guarantee that the antenna will work (motors, etc.). Due to the weight and size, I'm thinking it's going to have to be a pickup in the San Diego area. I might be willing to remove the heat shrink couplings and try to box it if the buyer covers the shipping charges (FedEx ground). Asking $3500 for everything. Seller: Eric, NC6K egruff [at] cox[dot]net Posted 9 Oct 2018, renewed 27 November 2023

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Today, I'm going to walk you through the steps to build your own. It will cost you more than Inovato's product, which by the say, comes bundled with some other software too, but building your own is more fun if you're a builder/tinkerer and you have the flexibility of also loading other software of your choice on it. As I mentioned, Inovato's proudct is built on a Quadra PC. Veritium's, which costs much more than building your own, is built on a Pi computer. You could of course buy your own Quadra computer and install the software but in this article, I will describe doing it on a Raspberry Pi. Assuming you have some of what you need laying around, you can probably rival the cost of Inovato's product. But if not, it's not going to break the bank.

You'll need a Pi computer. I purchased one from Adafruit. I decided to get the Pi 4 B with 4 GB of RAM (currently $55). WB0OEW tells me the software will run on 1 and 2 GB Pi units, albeit a bit slower. I also purchased their Model 4553 Flirc Aluminum case ($14.95) and Model 5801 Vertical Wall Power Supply ($5.95). (Note, I have not noticed any increase in RF noise or birdies at my QTH with this "wall wart.") It's a 5 VDC supply with a micro-USB connector; something that you possibly have laying around (I didn't). You will also need a micro-HDMI male to HDMI female adapter so that you can connect an HDMI monitor of your choosing into the Pi. I purchased this one on Amazon for five bucks. And you will need a micro-SD card (32 GB is what I used), a micro-SD to SD adapter or a micro-SD to USB adapter for programming it.


BTW, you can purchase Pi computers, cases, supplies, etc. from several sources including Gigaparts. I just happened to shop at Adafruit which was one of several online shops suggested to me.


Once you have the hardware on hand, install the Pi computer board into the case using the four included screws, and then install the case cover. Before powering up your new Pi, you'll need to install the operating system (OS) onto the micro-SD card. To do so, download the Raspberry Pi Imager software at www.raspberrypi.com/software. I'm a Windows guy, so I downloaded the Windows version. If you are installing on Windows or Mac, ignore the blurb on the webpage about installing Raspberry Pi OS using a Terminal window. If you're going to do it on a Linux box, then yes, you would follow that instruction.



Now that you have downloaded and installed the Imager, run it. You will have a window like that to the right. Plug your micro-SD card and adapter into your desktop or laptop where you have installed Imager. In Imager, click on CHOOSE DEVICE and select Raspberry Pi 4 (Models B, 400, and Computer Modules 4, 4S). Next click on CHOOSE OS and select Raspberry Pi OS (64 bit). This will give you a GUI on your new Pi. Next click on CHOOSE STORAGE. You will want to be VERY CAREFUL here and select your micro-SD card. I repeat, be very careful to select your micro-SD card!!! If you inadvertently choose your hard drive or SSD or anything other than the micro-SD card and go forth with imaging, you will erase and overwrite everying on that drive! And you will be hating life! So...if you are using a micro-SD card that you had laying around your shack, be sure it doesn't have some important software or data on it because, yes, everything on that card will be erased and overwritten! Fortunately, Imager will give you a warning before proceeding with imaging. Click NEXT.

The next screen will ask "Use OS customisation?" Click on EDIT SETTINGS. On the GENERAL tab, leave Set hostname unchecked. Check the box "Set username and password." You can use whatever username and password you like. I just chose "Pi" as the username and a relatively easy to remember password. If you are desiring to use your wi-fi, check the box for "Configure wireless LAN." Manually type in your wifi SSID. Then type in your wifi password. Select US for "Wireless LAN country." (This selects the correct wifi frequencies here in the USA.) If you are going to use a CAT5 cable to go directly to your router, you can skip this step and leave "Configure wireless LAN" unchecked. Now check the box for "Set locale settings" and choose America/Los_Angeles for the timezone and US for the keyboard layout. On the SERVICES tab, leave Enable SSH unchecked. On the OPTIONS tab, click any you like. Then click SAVE. This takes you back to the "Use OS customization" window. Click on YES.

Here comes your warning that "All existing data on your storage device will be erased. Are you sure you want to continue?" If you are sure it's your micro-SD vard, click YES. If not, click NO and go back to change to the correct device.

If you are using a USB 2.0 adapter, it's going to take 30-45 minutes to write the Raspberry Pi OS to the micro-SD card. So, take a break and go find something else to do for a while. If you are using a USB 3.0 adapter, it will only take a couple of minutes. (See what a difference a $5 USB 3.0 adapter makes?!)

When finished, Imager will let you know that your micro-SD card is ready to go. Best practices tells us to Eject the card using Windows (icon in the lower right of the task tray). I suspect Mac does the same. If you just yank the card out of the USB slot without Ejecting, you could corrupt the Pi OS and have to start over. So yes, save yourself some grief and actually do the Eject first.

Now you are ready to remove the micro-SD card from your adapter and plug it into your Pi computer. You will find the slot on the opposite end from the USB ports on the Pi. BE SURE THE Pi COMPUTER IS POWERED DOWN before inserting the micro-SD card!

If you haven't already, plug in the power supply, HDMI monitor, keyboard and mouse into the Pi computer. If you are using a CAT5 cable to your router, plug that in as well. Then power up the Pi. It will take 2-3 minutes to boot up and once complete, you will be at the Raspberry Pi OS GUI. If you are using wifi, it should show in the uppper right that you are connected. The upper left will have one or more icons. Hover your mouse pointer on the red raspberry icon. You will see a drop down menu. Click on Accessories and then Terminal. (See image to the left.) This will bring up a terminal window that is reminiscent of Microsoft MS-DOS (remember that?!). This is where you are going to enter the commands to install HamClock.

On your desktop or laptop, go to https://clearskyinstitute.com/ham/HamClock/. Scroll down a bit and under the screenshot, you will see various tabs. Click on the Desktop tab. Scroll down a bit to where you see "To install HamClock on other UNIX-like systems follow these steps:". Here, you've already done Step 1 on your Pi when you clicked on the raspberry icon and opened a terminal session. Follow Step 2 in that terminal window, entering each line one at a time and pressing ENTER on your keyboard after each line. After you enter the last one, "sudo make install" and press ENTER, your Pi will begin to download the HamClock software and then install it.

When complete, you hopefully got no errors and are ready to go. If you, like me, did see errors reported on the screen, follow the next instructions on the HamClock website, namely "sudo apt-get update" (then press ENTER) and then "sudo apt-get -y install curl make g++ libx11-dev libgpiod-dev" and press ENTER. This will update your Pi OS and various things, and also get a couple of library files required by HamClock.

Now, you should be ready to go. Type "exit" and press ENTER in the terminal window to close it. You should now have a Hamclock icon in the upper left (globe looking thing). Click on that to run it.

On this first running of HamClock, it will prompt you to set some things up, including your call sign, grid square, etc. There are several screens of set up so click through each one, one at a time and configure as you desire. Some fields and pages can be ignored. You can always change the settings later by rebooting and re-entering Setup. When finished configuring, click DONE to save your settings and boot up HamClock.

At this point, you're smiling because you were successful and now have HamClock up and running! But wait. There's more!

At the top of the screen, there are five panels of varying sizes. The left-most has your callsign in it. If you left click on your call (or in the area to the left of your call), you can change the color of the letters in your call. Now left click in the area to the right of your call. This will change the background color around your call.

Now let's modify the next four panels. Left click near the top of each, one at a time. It will bring up a menu of items you can display there. Be sure to click OK after making your selections. If you choose more than one, that panel will rotate through your selections. Modify each panel to your heart's content. And you can change these whenever you like. Rebooting the Pi will not cause them to change back to default. They will remain as you last set them.

You will have a lot of fun learning about the various panel options and the Setup screens, along with other capabilities of this FB software. You can start by clicking on the User Guide tab on the HamClock website on your desktop or laptop. There are also a few YouTube videos out there.

If you get adventurous with your new Pi, you can install and run other software on it. There is a plethora out there, including much ham radio software. You can fool around using this same micro-SD card but what I did was left that one dedicated to HamClock and I use a different micro-SD card for playing around with other ham software. I'm just getting my feet wet with that now.

One more thing. If you look in the upper left-most panel where your callsign is, just below your call is wi-fi strength rotating with the IP address of your Pi. Your router assigned the IP address to the Pi computer and it's likely going to remain static unless you update the firmware of the router. That said, you can use that IP to view your HamClock on any other device in your household using its browser, such as your phone, tablet, desktop or laptop. Just enter that IP address into the browser window! As long as that device is on the same router as your Pi, you'll be able to view the HamClock there. However, you won't be able to click on anything or change the configuration. That needs to be done at the Pi.

You might be asking yourself, "why did NE6I go to the trouble of buying Pi hardware and installing HamClock software when he already owns the Veritium version?" Because I could. Chuckle. No, that wasn't it. I really don't need two HamClocks. I mainly did it for the challenge and also to guide a ham friend who was having trouble with getting his Pi to work with HamClock. If I ever bore of it, I can always sell it or the Veritium but for now, I'm having some fun playing with the new toy.

And I will also leave you with this. There are now Pi 5's on the market though the competition to buy one is fierce. And there are many reports of bugginess so I would suggeset sticking with a Pi 4 B for now.

I hope you found this article helpful and entertaining. 73 for now... less

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