⚠️️ BREAKTHROUGH  ⚠️️ 

The Pillars of Creation and Spotting Comet Lovejoy

This week in space news, a new makeover for one of the Hubble Telescope’s most famous images, and tips on spotting Comet Lovejoy in the night sky.

This is what a comet looks like, up close and personal.

PHOTOS FROM AN ALIEN WORLD.

I am so excited I can’t even. Source: ESA’s Flickr feed.

General Ham: CW Procedures/Abbreviations

Have I mentioned that the General Ham License Manual has a ton more information than the Technician manual?  If I haven’t already, it’s true.  It’s awesome.

So it’s a lot of work to spell out the full text of all words and phrases, so telegraphers developed an extensive set of abbreviations and procedural signals called prosigns.  These are two letters sent together as a single character as indicated by an overbar.   So the prosign  AR  is used to indicated “End of Message”.

And then there are abbreviations to shorten common words such as “AND” is “ES” and “GOING” is “GG” and “WEATHER” is “WX”.

Calling CQ on CW is about the same as on phone/voice.  "DE" is an abbreviation used in place of “form” and the procedural signal K replaces “over”:

CQ CQ CQ DE W0TTV W0TTV W0TTV K

A response might look like the following:

W0TTV DE W1AW W1AW W1AW K

There’s no need to send the CQing station’s call more than once unless there’s interferences or the signal is weak.  When signals are strong and clear, those responding to CQ may even just send their call once or twice.

Good idea is also to respond at the speed of the calling station but if you’re uncomfortable receiving at that speed, send the Q signal “QRS” (send slower) before the final K.  Or if you want to go faster, QRQ.

Also adjust your transmitting frequency so that your signals is “zero beat” with the other signal so that you will be on the same frequency.  This means the two signals produce the same audio tone in a receiver.  Check the radio’s operating manual for instructions on how to zero beat another signal.

And once you’re in contact with another station, the prosign KN is used instead of K to prevent other stations from breaking in during the contact.  It means “Only the station with whom I am in contact should respond”.  When asked if you are ready to receive, “QRV” means “I’m ready to copy.”  After receiving the message, “QSL” means  "I acknowledge receipt.“

Then when it’s time to end the QSO, the prosign SK is used to let any listener know that the contact is completed: W1AW DE W0TTV SK and if you’re going off the air, add CL for closing station.

Phew!

@atdiy/@tymkrs

Our planet seen from Saturn, captured by the Cassini spacecraft

Image credit: NASA / Cassini

Knate Myers - View from the ISS at Night

The Clansman PRC-320 - Plessey RT-320 Military Manpack Transciever [HD] - M0VST (by markbeermonster)

Found a couple old photos of my mom practicing her ham radio skillz back in the day. Ham radio was actually the catalyst through which she met my father. Take that, Internet Dating.

My grandma made that dress she’s wearing with their call letters appliquéd along the hem.

Thirty years ago today, at 11:38 a.m. EST, January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger lifts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Christa McAuliffe, teacher from New Hampshire, was to be the first ordinary U.S. civilian to travel into space. Challenger‘s launch countdown was repeatedly delayed because of weather and technical problems. Finally, on January 28, the shuttle lifted off.

73 seconds later, hundreds on the ground, including Christa’s family, stared in disbelief as the shuttle exploded in a forking plume of smoke and fire, killing all seven crew members. Millions more watched the heart-wrenching tragedy unfold on live television.

“The future doesn’t belong to the faint-hearted. It belongs to the brave.” President Reagan said. “The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we’ll continue to follow. Nothing ends here; our hopes and our journeys continue.”