Another week of amateur radio has expired. Expired Ham, get it? 🙂
Welcome to another issue of Expired Ham, a weekly newsletter where I discuss the ways I participated in the amateur radio hobby this week.
Good day fellow hams! Looks like Spring is springing up around here. Hopefully it’s not Mother Nature’s cruel attempt at a joke.
I finally got around to starting to document my Yaesu FT-891 mobile installation with the ATAS-120a screwdriver antenna. If you missed that article, it’s here. Stay tuned for part 2 of that series coming soon.
Apparently there is a workaround solution for those of you who use HamClock and haven’t made the switch to the far superior OpenHamClock.com. I’ve seen a number of online sources describe the process which is relatively simple, yet, not a single one has explained what you’re actually doing when implementing the workaround.
At a high level, the HamClock software is reaching out to clearskyinstitute.com to pull the data that is then displayed on screen. It’s anticipated that the servers hosting clearskyinstitute.com will cease to function early this Summer. To solve that problem, the workaround is to tell the computer running your HamClock software that clearskyinstitute.com is hosted somewhere else. Effectively, this is forcing the computer to go to server XYZ for the HamClock data instead of server ABC.
The way this works is that your HamClock software will request data from clearskyinstitute.com which begins with a query of a DNS server. The name clearskyinstitute.com will be resolved via DNS to an IP address. Before implementing the workaround, this IP address would point to server ABC. On the computer running your HamClock software, you would edit the /etc/hosts (Linux and Linux-like OSes) or C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts (on Windows) to include a line at the end of the file that includes an IP address (for server XYZ) and the name clearskyinstitute.com. After saving the file, any time the computer attempts to resolve the name clearskyinstitute.com, it first checks the hosts file (it does this for all names already) and finds that you’ve set a manual entry with a custom IP address. The computer then uses that IP address to connect to the server across the internet.
The following two options have been made public recently as multiple projects have picked up where Elwood left off. The first is for a project called the Open HamClock Backend (OHB). The second is for W4BAE’s solution. It is important to say that you should only add ONE of these lines, not both.
Which solution you go with is up you. Just know that if your HamClock stops working properly, for instance if it stops updating with new data, your hosts file should be where you begin troubleshooting. There is no guarantee that these IP addresses will be valid forever.
44.32.64.64 clearskyinstitute.com3.128.20.228 clearskyinstitute.comIn other news, I’ve found a use for my old VHF/UHF mobile antenna. Last month, I attended the Skywarn Basic Spotter class and was given a Skywarn spotter ID. I realized that I could mount this old mobile whip on my car and connect it to a my Yaesu FT3D inside the car. This gives me the ability to communicate with the Skywarn net when spotter activation is requested. It’s nothing fancy. I used a Diamond K400S (with the longer feed line) which includes an SMA-M connector on the end of the feed line. The mount and antenna are located on the opposite side of the trunk as the ATAS-120a and the feed line reaches the HT which is clipped onto a LIDO cup holder mount. Seems to work well enough. On top of that, the FT3D is APRS capable so I’m going to assign a few brain cells to the task of learning about that mode.
That’s all I’ve got for you this week.
73,
Matthew, K2MAS
As a member of Amazon’s Associate program, I earn a small commission on qualifying purchases made through referrals. This helps offset the costs of hosting this website and are greatly appreciated.
K2MAS.net 