Cool bling!, New SKCC Logger, Bonus brag month

 

Cool bling:

AetherSDR lets you put a background image on the spectrum display! What do you think? Pretty slack right?

It appears AetherSDR has reach a "stable" state. The author has slowed down releases quite dramatically.  I used it during the May WES and everything seem to work OK. The thing is I don't think the audio is as good as SmartSDR in CW mode. I don't know about phone or digital because I never use either mode. So I still kind of prefer SmartSDR, at least on my Windows machine.

New SKCC Logger:

The SKCC group has come out with a new logger. It is a local web applications that needs a Chromium based browser  e.g. Chrome or Edge. It has the skcc_skimmer built into it and also has a lot of bells and whistles that make it really useful for SKCC contacts. In the figure above the skimmer is top right and the Add Log Entry is in the lower right. One cool feature is you can import a xml file from QRZ to get grid squares. I haven't try this yet because it cost money, and I'm a little parsimonious i.e. cheap HIHI.

It seems like I will have to redo my "The SKCC for the Intellectually Challenged" since the skimmer is now part of the logger.

Bonus Brag Month:

Bands really suck right now. I did most of my skcc Brag contacts on 40 and 20m. I ended the month with 76 brag QSOs. As of June 10th there are only 32 brags stations listed. 

I ended up with 133 QSOs for May, which is not too bad. I had to take my HF antenna down because I am having some tree work done and the ropes are in the way. I hope to get the antenna back before too long.

All for now 73!