KC2RGW

Christopher J Esser

Deering, NH, United States

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Licensed 2007 · QTH Deering, NH

Having fun with the hobby ever since.

Average ham with a systems background, early SDR adopter, and a taste for keyboard-to-keyboard digital work, SSB rag chew, and the occasional AM night. Contact via QRZ.

Packet FM / DMR / D-STAR SSB · AM fldigi · JS8Call · NBEMS · SSTV

The station

New QTH as of 2019 — still getting the wires in the air the way they should be.

Antennas

Hustler G6-144 Currently slapped up on 20' of black iron pipe, band-strapped to a deck railing post.
150 ft non-resonant doublet At 40 ft, fed with 450 Ω window line.
Palstar BT1500A Double-L balanced tuner.

Rigs

Icom IC-9700
Kenwood TS-590SG
Apache Labs ANAN 7000DLE MKII
Expert Electronics SunSDR2 DX
SDR receivers: QS1R and SDRplay RSPdx

Software

Various things I've worked on.

ID Timer On The Tens ID Timer An in browser PWA app that pings a reminder tone for station ID. To change the size use the browser zoom keys. Fldigi TCI integration with Fldigi Submitted a patch for full TCI integration for audio and CAT control to run Fldigi as a client app with ExpertSDR3, Zeus and others ZeusSDR Tester and Contributor I am a beta tester and contributor on the ZeusSDR project that I run on my Anan 7000dle mkII TCIdigi Released for Mac and Linux A fork of fldigi in Qt for use with TCI SDR software, audio and CAT all via TCI. Working with ExpertSDR3 and Zeus at the moment. Builds for Mac and Linux, possibly Windows. 590Ctrl Released for Mac and Linux A Kenwood TS-590sg control interface that runs on Mac and Linux. No more requirement for Windows just to get to the User EQ settings, exposes the USB input and output levels for audio over USB as well. QRZterm Released for Mac and Linux A terminal app for QRZ.com callsign lookup and logging. Shows the station record and photo, distance and beam heading from your grid, whether you've worked them, and logs the QSO to your QRZ Logbook.

Digital mode notes

Setup guides written because the same questions keep coming up.

Kenwood TS-590SG USB CAT + fldigi Cable, CAT, and digital-mode setup. Operating General digital mode tips Levels, AGC, RSID, and not being that guy. Audio Sound card levels The “bad waterfall” and how to fix it. SDR ANAN 7000DLE vs SunSDR2 DX Side-by-side comparison from daily use. How-to Virtual / DAW audio on the TS-590SG Processed transmit audio over USB. Station Full audio setup The chain people keep asking about.

Audio in current use

Mic into M2 USB interface, using Caster on Mac with VST plugins for processing on all rigs.

01
EV RE20b
Dynamic microphone on the boom.
02
MOTU M2
USB interface to the PC.
03
Ginger Audio Caster
On macOS, with plugins in the path.
04
Native SDR suites
Thetis / Zeus Link and ExpertSDR on the SunSDR2 DX.

Microphone pile

They get rotated out of boredom. These are the ones that stay in the rotation.

Daily drivers

EV RE-20

Natural and mellow.

Heil PR-30

Full-bodied, hyped high end.

Shure SM-57

Natural and smooth. Needs the windscreen.

Earthworks Ethos

Articulate, sensitive, smooth highs.

Sennheiser MD-421 MkII

Full, with a hyped high end.

Also in the drawer

CAD M177

Flat response. A bit dull.

Deity S-Mic 2S

A bit too hot, heavy proximity effect, small profile.

sE Electronics sE8

Pretty solid, very small. Needs a shock mount.

Shure Beta 87

Sounds great. Terribly RF-sensitive. Not usable on HF.

EV RE-50B

Omni. Natural in-the-room sound, background included.

Heil PR-37

PR-30 character in a handheld vocal form.

Heil PR-31BW

Too sensitive to plosives. Similar to the PR-30.

Audix OM2

Not the best sounding. Excellent noise rejection, very narrow pattern.

QRZterm QRZ.com lookup and logging for Mac and Linux

QRZterm on github A terminal app for QRZ.com callsign lookup and logging. It shows the station record and photo with a summary banner, the distance and beam heading from your own grid, and whether you've worked the station before, then logs the QSO straight to your QRZ Logbook. This runs on Mac and Linux

590Ctrl Kenwood TS-590sg control for Mac and Linux

590ctrl on github This software exposes the User EQ that used to require a Windows machine to access. Also, the USB input and output levels are exposed for those running their mic and receive audio over USB. In Data mode the TX keys the USB audio path. This will build for Mac and Linux

TCIDigi alpha release

TCIdigi is a Qt6 version of fldigi adapted to TCI compatible radios with pared down function for typical digital mode chat modes. TCIdigi on Sourceforge This will build on Mac and Linux and also builds a patched fldigi for TCI use as well. It also has QRZ logging built in to both TCIdigi and fldigi.

The ZeusSDR.com software on my Anan 7000dle mkII

zeussdr.com

160 m loop in winter

Snow and ice on the loop (gone now) — a look at it in the air, about 20 ft lower than normal.

License

General

Granted January 18, 2017.
Expires April 4, 2027, 5 months from now.
Renewal opens January 4, 2027, 90 days before it expires.

FN43cb

Deering, NH
United States

43.08° N, 71.82° W
DXCC entity 291

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