Amateur Radio Station NG0Z Deerwood - Bay Lake, Mn

09/21/2025

09/20/2025

Back on the Air! The Green Heron RT-21 was the culprit this time. Luckily, I had a spare in reserve. Thank you, Denny, K0TT.

09/20/2025

Working on the rotor today at the station starting at about 11 AM CT. If any of my Minnesota friends are in the neighborhood please stop by and say Hi! 

09/17/2025

NG0Z is off the air for over a week now due to an issue with the rotor.

The controller stopped responding to commands remotely. A trip to the station revealed an antenna pointing a different direction than what the Green Heron software was indicating. Perhaps the relay in the rotor has malfunctioned? Perhaps even a near-miss lightning strike as a very electrically active storm did pass over the station during this timeframe.

A new rotor is on the way just in case and I have a backup Green Heron RT-21 rotor controller on hand already. Hopefully I will be back on the air Saturday once we tilt the tower over, diagnose, and replace whatever needs to be replaced.

Stay tuned. I hope to be back on the air chasing DX and Ragchewing again very soon.

09/07/2025

Recently when I boot up my Maestro it goes right to smart control mode of my 8400 when I have already opened up smart SDR on my laptop. This is in contrast to having to pick options from the initial menu. I don’t remember setting it up to do this but I like it! 

08/18/2025

https://youtu.be/dtl2rLhWGEA?si=klLfOOOt0_mJunLl

Great video on a pivotal point in the history of this great hobby...

Signal Wars: The Untold Story of SSB Step back in time and discover the hidden drama behind one of ham radio’s most controversial innovations—Single Sideband...

08/09/2025

Having your station inside a small metal shed inside a metal pole shed has its advantages. Getting a GPS signal to the 8400 is not one of them.

With a GPS antenna extension cord, I found a suitable spot to mount it outside to acquire satellite signals.

07/23/2025

I fired up the Maestro tonight to see this…two radios to pick from. Then I realized my 6400, which is at FlexRadio for repair, must still be on their bench being tested!

07/15/2025

Logbook of the World confirmation #288 arrived today, thanks to the ZS8W DXpedition to Prince Edward and Marion Island. I was only able to make the contact once, on 40M FT8.

07/14/2025

Adaptive Pre-distortion: Active

07/10/2025

Issue with CAT after upgrading to 3.9.19: CAT is very slow to open I've noticed (or takes two tries) and it stopped posting the frequency to N3FJP and here is what I did to fix it in case you have the same issue and/or until FlexRadio fixes this bug.

I deleted the CAT "Channel" for COM6 and then re-added it back and now it works again. Prior to that, I had rebooted everything in the station to no avail.

This is the first time CAT and it's link to N3FJP has stopped working...since 2021.