Relaxing Afternoon in the Shack
May 4, 2013 - Here's "Miss BeBe" (pronounced like the bumble bee, no relation). She loves snuggling on my lap while DX'ing. Slight movements to control the HF rig generally don't phase "Miss BeBe." Today; however, she was extra interested in head scratches and petting. We took a quick photo together while chasing some South American DX. HK3C (John in Bogota, Colombia) has 'em lined up like an air traffic controller!
Start with "Shelter in Place" Resources
April, 2013 - My partner, among others, wonders why I have solar rechargeable battery kits. And friends wonder why I annually test new types of dehydrated food and have resources to back-up drinking water. I half expect to be nominated for "Doomsday Preppers" for this stuff, yet I don't rise to that level of preparedness (obsessiveness?). Read more...
Memorize Important Telephone Numbers
April, 2013 - I great up in Southeastern Massachusetts. Patriots Day, Bunker Hill, the USS Constitution, fishcakes and beans at Durgin Park and the Boston Marathon are among many nostalgic memories. As for many, the 2013 Boston Marathon touched "close to home" for many reasons. David, N5FDL, makes a good point about doing some old school memorization of telephone numbers. Read more...
Reconnected with G4VPC
March 31, 2013 - Fun news! I received an email from an old ham friend, G4VPC. Enrnie, his family and my family got to know each other and visited back in the mid-80's. We lost touch nearly 25 years ago when I left for college. It's great to receive his email update.CQWW SSB 2013
March 30, 2013 - CQWW SSB 2013 is here! Naturally, I'm "cherry picking" unconfirmed DXCC entities and not actually contesting. My QSO's for the first day include some new band-entity combos, such as: Belarus, Turkey, Ceuta & Melilla, Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, Angola, Bonaire, Nigeria, Croatia, Tunisia, Uruguay, Suriname, Senegal, Bahamas, Cuba, Australia (Tasmania), Morocco, Ireland, Montenegro, Columbia.
UPDATE (3/31/13): Kaliningrad, Iceland, China, Kuwait, Georgia, Cyprus, Qatar and Belarus are among other contacts that should add-up for new DXCC band-entity credits!
Ham Friends Near and Afar
March 30, 2013 - It's been a long time since I've hit the straight key. But I still can do it ... just not during contests. The nice thing about morse code are really the people that I've met over they years who have a particular memory associated with CW.
Ernie, G4VPC, gave me my first-ever straight key and I still have it! We used to talk nearly every weekend when I was a teen. I met Ernie and his family many decades ago when he and his family welcomed me to their QTH in Chester, England (that's back when I was a teenager in high school). Ernie sent a surprise email a few years ago and I responded. Regretfully, I never received a reply ... i think I'll send another note later today.
I just exchanged email messages with another friend - Bob, WF1M, who has a new QTH in Florida. Seems Bob fell in love with morse code, which is pretty cool! Bob and I met at my first job. He was a chef at the new hotel where I landed a summer gig and he trained me to do a lot of work that got me through college. It turned out that out that Bob was always interested in ham radio and was pretty excited when I showed up to work one day with my first-ever Icom 2AT. As best I recall, I directed Bob to some books, connected him with my local elmer and got him started in an adventure. And his son, David, is also a ham.
QRZ? Is anyone else a ham friend that's lost touch? It's pretty cool to connect with friends from the ham community -- near and far -- after so many years!
MacLoggerDX Update for CQWW SSB
March 30, 2013 - I've been off the bands for a few weeks ... life sometimes gets hectic. It's the annual CQWW SSB contest. HF propagations stinks, so I'm "cherry picking" of contest contacts for DXCC. My first QSO garnered a first-ever contact with the Philippines.
I also updated MacLoggerDX and was pleased to discover integration with Club Log. The super fast upload lists the QSO on this blog. Nice feature!
KIO HEX Woes
March 16, 2013 - Well, I've been off the air for two months ... my HEX antenna by KIO took two heavy hits from winter storms. Yet another fiberglass spreader snapped and the "center core" seems to have been shaken. After a couple quick preliminary tests, the antenna is resonant on most bands -- except ten meters. I'm using the auto tuner on my amplifier to keep things "Safe-n-sound" until I can get out an make a complete overhaul.Potomac Valley Radio Club
March 16, 2013 - I finally made a visit to the local (Wheaton, Maryland) gathering of the Potomac Valley Radio Club this past week -- at the invitation and encouragement of my neighbor, Ethan (K8GU/3). Truthfully, I've wanted to get involved and meet local hams for a long while. Funny how work and daily life tends to take charge of my schedule.It's been decades since I've really "contested" ... other than Field Day activities. My last contest what as a teenager when I visited a new ham friend (also a newly licensed teen) in Rhode Island. Couldn't tell you the name of the contest or op to save my life, but it was fun.
Alas, thanks to Ethan and the Wheaton sub-group of PVRC for a kind welcome. The PVRC website welcomes ten newbies to the group. I look forward to getting more involved, making some friends and lending a hand to other hams in my neighborhood. Now, I need to update my ClubLog affiliations!
National Capitol DX Association
I finally got my act together. Last January, I reached out to the National Capiton DX Association and inquired about membership. Fortunately, NCDXA updated their website and they now accept applications and fee submissions online. Award Applications
Well, I've spent a year "beefing up" my confirmed QSO's and made my first-ever application. I just submitted the appications for DXCC (Mixed, Phone), Worked All States and CQ WPX. Wow, this is expensive!No Desire to Reminisce about September
DXCC goals for September, 2012 are "bust." There just hasn't been any satisfactory propagation to the Pacific / South Pacific regions (at least when I've been on the bands). Nothing was open to Swains Islands. Here's info on the MUF for 16 Sept 2012:
Field Day 2012
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| ARPSC participation begins Saturday, June 23 at 2 p.m. |
Once the clock hit 2pm Eastern, I activated W4AVA and operated the 20 meter station for the first few hours of Field Day 2012. Good weather, nice friends, food and fun!
DX Blaster Cage Antenna for 75/80 Meters
Now that the leaves are full and the trees provide some natural "greenery, I've moved one leg of the Cage to the front yard. I hope the leaves disguise the cumbersome cage well enough to give me time to test it. Ideally, this will also afford neighbors time to habituate to some minor aesthetic changes.
Next, I want to re-position a long wire from the pulley system located to the left of the house and string a long wire to a mast installed in the opposite corner of the lot. This sounds like a lot of antenna for a small suburban lot, but it's not that bad. Besides, my antennas don't create nearly as much havoc as do the damned bamboo that a neighbor planted on their side of the property line. That stuff is wicked!
Antenna Attention and new DX
I had a little free time yesterday afternoon and was able to work from home. Some nice DX was "rising" her on the Mid-Atlantic, but the HEX had an unusually high SWR. I dropped the antenna this afternoon and examined all the connectors. And voila! Back on the air ;-)
My first contact was with 6O0CW (17M SSB) just moments before the operator went to bed. This is a great first-ever QSO with a new DXCC entity.
Springtime 2012!
DX Blaster Cage Antenna for 75/80 Meters
I spent a few minutes working on the 75 Meter cage antenna this noon hour. It was a bring, sunny afternoon. Definitely a pleasant time for antenna work!
Reviews of the DX Blaster Cage Antenna on eHam offer favorable comments about this antenna. And they're all generally observations with which I concur.
No empirical tests have been conducted at my station, yet the following subjective comparisons were made (conducted at the same time between the Cage and an inverted vee for the same band):
- Lower noise floor and fewer static "crashes,"
- An improvement of up to two "S" units in reception (which includes the ability to "hear" stations on the Cage that are concurrently less-than "weak readable" on the dipole),
- Improved reception reports when testing between antennas, and
- Wide band coverage with low SWR.
This antenna is a keeper ... and I'm considering a 40M version as well. Yes, the aesthetic isn't the best, but the antenna is "hidden" fairly well among the spring buds and greenery. In any case, I protected one of the insulators this afternoon using "Rescue Tape" (self-adhering silicon tape).
