Amateur Radio

This is the amateur radio page for Stephen “Seer” Snively, general ham radio operator KM6MWO. If you got in contact with me, this might be a good place to learn more about me, my grid square, my equipment, and other things that are of interest to other hams.

Current Band Conditions for the US.

My Equipment

Kenwood TS-140S

Picked up at a swap meet, this is my primary HF rig. I now have a third party IF-10C card, so now OmniRig can CAT control it.

Kenwood TM-V71A

My dual band 2M and 70cm mobile rig, used as a base station. With CAT and digital cables.

HF Signals uBitX

Built in a lunchbox, this QRP radio was my very first transmitter.

Homemade Dipole on 20m

I made a wire dipole out of a Jetstream center connector and a few plastic insulators. It's currently attached to the outside of my garage and doesn't work all that well.

Ed Fong's UHF/VHF Wire J-pole

I got this straight from Dr. Fong's students on eBay. Works great and is currently clamped to my lab's roof.

MFJ-949E Deluxe Versa Tuner II

MFJ -949E Deluxe Versa Tuner II

This is my manual antenna tuner I picked up at my very first Humboldt Amateur Radio Club swap meet. I'm on the lookout for an automatic tuner.

The G5RV Jr wire antenna from True Talk

True Talk G5RV Jr.

This is a hand made antenna using a classic G5RV design, but half the size to fit in my yard. It's held in an inverted V using the PVC mast I talk about in my blog.

Signalink USB Sound Card

SignaLink USB Sound Card

I got this mostly so I could use the Push To Talk feature of the ACC1 port on the back of my old Kenwood radio. That way, my computer could signal the radio to start transmitting my digital signals.

MFJ-939 Auto tuner

MFJ -939 Auto Tuner

I got this to help with the swinging turning that the G5RV gets in the frequent Humboldt County rain.

If you are interested in checking out what ham radio ‘phone’ sounds like, I highly recommend checking out the collection of WebSDR websites. My personal favorite to check in on is in the Pacific coast near San Francisco, just south of Half Moon Bay (or grid square CM87tj to us ham folks..) 

If you are going to check out that WebSDR site, you might have the best luck checking out 80m or 40m Phone, and then clicking around the little title cards in dark orange by default.

KFS WebSDR Screenshot

More info coming soon.

Amateur Radio Blog Posts