For anyone that’s been following me on Twitter, you’ve undoubtedly seen my tweets about getting some DX on 10m while mobile.  For whatever reason, 10m seems to be the sweet spot with my 706 and the hamstick.

The Setup

The current setup is here (old pic)

This is the radio in the lower center console of my truck.

The Issues

One issue with this is that it is difficult to control the radio.  Part of it is that I need to use it more.  Part of it is that it is just over an arm’s length away.  Solution: I have the head separation kit, I need to mount the radio somewhere easier to see and control.

The only other issue is logging.  I’ve tried using Google Keep and Evernote, but they haven’t worked very well.  Keep tries to transcribe the speech, which it usually does poorly with callsigns and frequencies.  It will normally get the ubiquitous “five nine”, though.  I’ve decided I need an “easy button”.

Easy button block diagram

So, an Easy Button.  Ultimately, this will become an Android App.  It’ll probably be Arduino powered.  It’ll likely be open source, too.

I figure when it is plugged in, it should start an app (maybe I’ll have to do this manually).  It’ll charge the Android device (hence the cigarette lighter adapter).  It may run the GPS to get location when the button is pressed (I can think of a few uses for that); it would definitely get the time and date (UTC, of course!) from the phone, and it would prompt the phone to record the callsign, signal reports, and any other notes.  It would also connect to my IC-706 to get the frequency and mode.

Stay tuned!

-73-