Man Controls House Cat with 40M Signal
By WBØRUR, on the scene
PENGUIN REEF, FLORIDA – A local ham radio operator is making news headlines for what may be a first: a radio-controlled domestic house cat. Walt Munkhausen of 489 Boca Raton Parkway says he was working 40 meter PSK31 when he noticed something very strange.
“It happened entirely by accident. I sent MACRO #3 (SIGNAL REPORT/QTH/NAME) and Mr. Whiskers ran in a counter-clockwise direction. After a few QSOs and giving the cat a chance to rest, it wasn’t too difficult to develop a set
of macros so I could ‘drive him’ around the house like a model car.”
Munkhausen says Mr. Whiskers, a family pet, was never a very good mouser, but enjoys lounging in the retired steelworker’s radio room. The next project on the ham’s work bench is an Arduino powered micro-transmitter to mount on the animal’s collar to automatically monitor litter box usage and start a 7.070 MHz QSO when the box needs changing.
“I’m incorporating the 5-9-9 signal report system,” he adds. “And let’s just say your nose doesn’t want to smell anything less than a 5-5-9.”
Right now, Munkhausen says the cat only responds to 40 meters; but adds the family dog begins to act strange when he transmits on 15 meter SSB.
### HamHijinks.com
photo credit: Venom82 via photopin cc
7.070 MHz QSO when the box needs changing !! Hope he calls “QRZ ?? “
That’s the strangest looking cat I’ve ever seen, kinda like an alien stuffed inside a cat suit. If some other pictures could be provided to see if that moggie can make a different, less disturbing face, or if isn’t just some god-forsaken descendent of a shipboard cat from the Philadelphia Experiment, I’d welcome them.