Reblogged from Ham Radio Blog PD0AC:

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You could call it a Baofeng UV-5R with a punch: the Intek KT-980HP. Rated at 8 Watts output on VHF and 7 Watts on UHF this is arguably the most powerful dual-band HT on the market.

This new radio has been developed by and produced exclusively for Intek. The radio has a newly designed die-cast aluminum front panel, new transmitter circuit design using the powerful…

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Reblogged from Ham Radio Blog PD0AC:

After being told by a fellow QRP’er that 15 CW has been up recently, I managed to drag my KX3 out of its Pelican case this morning.

Its been awhile since it has seen the light of day. Didn’t see much point to powering it on since my main antenna has been down for some time and the amazing Par End Fedz that I jury rigged in the yard some time ago has been beat to hell by the lousy winter and the high winds here in the Northeast.

After being very surprised by the fact that the auto-tuner was able to tune without moaning and groaning, I thought what the hell.

I tuned down to 21.025 and started hearing Europe. What was even more of a surprise is that I was able to work stations @ 5 watts on the first attempt.

That doesn’t say much about my skills but it says a HELL OF A LOT about that Par End Fedz antenna.

Now that I am retired, I don’t have to rely on the continuous faux pas coming from Redmond which I then needed to create conforming reports and slideshows.

Having no desire to drop two grand on a Mac (my preference is LinuxMint on an old Intel Dual Core PC) causes me to use Windoze 7 for various Ham Radio and other software products. Enter iTunes for the 64 bit Windoze 7 Platform.

Since I am not an iTunes power user, I don’t keep up with the latest and greatest iTunes updates. On occasion I will use it to back up and sync my iPhone. I don’t play music, read books or watch Movies on my iPhone 5. Never did, never will.

Recently I wanted to try out an app which required me to sync my iPhone via iTunes. That’s where the trouble began. It had nothing to do with the app itself by the way. In its infinite wisdom, iTunes wanted to perform yet another self update.

To start with, I am adamant about a squeaky clean Windows PC. With every hacker in the world interested in penetrating the operating system, I have 3 levels of protection from viruses and malware on constant vigil. I use Avast, Malwarebytes and run CCleaner on occasion.

This time the iTunes update left me in the gutter. After installing the self update and rebooting the Windoze 7 wonder of the world, I received one of those error messages stating that MSVCR80.dll no longer resides within the clockwork of the Windows directory.

Like anyone else with this of issue, my first attempt was to Google It to determine if this is a well known and perhaps documented problem. Bingo! Typing in msvcr80.dll is missing yielded over 69k results. As expected with the Windoze world there was every imaginable type of response to the problem.

The method I found the most amusing was to install a fresh copy of Windows! At that point I began to LMAO. After searching the file system I found that I had multiple copies of MSVCR80.dll installed.

The fix was plain as day. No didn’t install a fresh copy from the recovery drive or roll back to one of those system created restore points which are usually missing the last 50 or so Windows updates.

Should you run into this problem, bring up the control panel, under Programs, select uninstall a program, sort the entries by publisher name and then delete everything owned by Apple Inc. except the iCloud control panel.

Next download and perform a fresh install of iTunes. Reboot and with any luck  your PC will resume life as mine did before the iTunes self update corrupted the system registry.

Finally, for safety’s sake reboot once more and if successful, manually create your own restore point.

HTH! YK

Join the Centennial Celebration in Hartford, CT from July 17th to July 19th which will host Forums, exhibits, a flea market, keynotes and more. To find out more about the Centennial Celebration go here.

The ARRL Centennial is also hosting a year-long QSO Party that celebrates hams meeting hams worldwide. Make new contacts and meet new friends. The Centennial QSO Party is comprised of two activities. W1AW will be operating portable from each state and  most US territories. There will also be a Points Challenge made by collecting valid contacts throughout the year. Logs will be submitted via the Logbook of the World System. Find out more about the Centennial QSO Party here.

Links To More Information About the Centennial Celebration:

The Centennial Events and Programs pdf

The ARRL Centennial Program Handout pdf

Merry Ham Radio Christmas To All!

For 15 evenings starting on 11/29 through 12/24 Santa is on the air!  The Santa Nets are open to ALL licensed ham radio operators and third party operating rules apply.

The 3916 Santa Nets start at 8:30 PM (Central Tine) on 3.916 MHz. Pre-net check-ins will be taken on the air starting at 8:15 PM.  You may also pre check-in by emailing ke5ggy@gmail.com.

Here is the 2013 Santa Net schedule:

Friday, November 29
Saturday, November 30

Tuesday, December 3
Thursday, December 5
Saturday, December 7

Monday, December 9
Wednesday, December 11
Friday, December 13

Tuesday, December 17
Thursday, December 19
Friday, December 20
Saturday, December 21

Sunday, December 22
Monday, December 23
Tuesday, December 24

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