HF Voyager: an ocean-going drone with a KX3

There is currently a chance to work some really rare grids. HF Voyager is an ocean-going drone currently making its way from Hawaii to California. Its current location can be seen here. Onboard in a waterproof container is an Elecraft KX3 and a Raspberry Pi computer enabling a variety of digital modes to be used.

At the time of this posting, FT8 is enabled and the drone is in gridsquare CL51 operating with the callsign KH6JF/mm.


From Rusty W6OAT:

"This afternoon I worked KH6JF/mm in Grid CL (we all need it).  I was already late for an appointment so I ran out the door as soon as I finished my QSO without time to call either of you on the telephone to alert you. I'm so sorry about that. But after I got back home tonight, I did some research on this station.  It turns out it is a floating, unmanned robotic station slowly making its way from Hawaii to California. I see no reason why this should not count for the Field Award, so you guys should be on the lookout for it.

KH6JF is operating on FT8 on 20m. Apparently it does not call CQ (edit: evidently it does call CQ at times), but it will respond to stations who call it (that's how it worked for me anyway). So if you can operate on FT8 mode, I suggest late afternoon our time you tune to 14074 kHz and just call KH6JF/mm blind and see what happens.  The robot uploads its log to its website (see QRZ.com for that link) every five minutes when its batteries are charged enough for it to do so, so you can actually check to see if your QSO is there."

Interesting stuff!

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Video of a Wave Glider:

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Wave Glider description:

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