JT65A

JT65A QSO

Managed my first JT65 QSO on HF this morning with K4EIT. I called CQ and he came back to my 5 watt yell. In running JT65, I now remember the headache I had with my Mini Dell. The Mini has one comm port, 3. That does not allow me to use Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD) to feed the frequency information to JT65HF. If JT65HF is the only program running, I can send and receive just fine. But, I'm missing out on importing the band and frequency data from HRD. I've messed around with virtual comm ports with no success. My only other option, if I want to use this computer exclusively for this, is possibly looking at Signal Link Audio Sound Card Interface which may allow me to do digital with one fewer comm ports needed. Either way, I need to work on this as time allows. Or, just upgrade to a real laptop. I prefer the second actually. 

It took me a bit to figure out how to dial down the ALC and Mic Gain to near nothing on the Icom IC-703+. I have them both at their lowest settings so now I just need to get on, see what reports I get and then look at Hamspots to see who is hearing me and how strong. That's the great thing about modern technology, you can check sites like Reverse Beacon Network (RBN) when running CW or Hamspots when running digital and it gives you a great summary of how well your signal is being heard hundreds and even thousands of miles away.