Category: radio

Special Event Station N6T

Amateur Radio Technology Day is two years old and to celebrate we are operating a special event station with the callsign N6T from Oct 7 – 1600Z until Oct 8 – 0300Z.

Frequencies
14.240, 14.044
7.240, 7.044

We are offering special QSL cards to commemorate the event to all stations who QSOed with us for the event. QSLs should follow the ARRL rules for special event stations by sending your QSL card and QSO information along with a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) to the address below.

QSL
David A. Cooper
270 Redwood Shores Pky.
PMB #41
Redwood City, CA 94065

FISTS Fall Sprint

— CW, sponsored by FISTS CW Club from 1700Z-2100Z Oct 14. Frequencies: 80-10 meters. Categories: SOAB (QRP and QRO), Club. Exchange: RST, QTH (S/P/C), Name, FISTS number if member, nonmembers send power output. QSO points: member — 5 pts, nonmembers — 2 pts. Score: QSO points × S/P/C (count S/P only once, count DXCC each time). For more information: www.fists.org. Logs due 30 days after the contest to w8pig@yahoo.com or Dan Shepherd, N8IE, 1900 Pittsfield St, Kettering, OH 45420

EC-012 – Analog Electronics

I signed up for this online course offered by ARRL which starts Friday to try and improve my understanding of basic electronics. Here’s the course description.

This course is designed for the electronics beginner that has an interest in electronics and has been introduced to the fundamental concepts of electricity and electronic components, such as resistors, capacitors, transistors, and so forth. You’ll be reading some simple schematics, as well. In 16 learning units and about 25 hours the student will learn about the use of instrumentation, Kirchhoff’s Laws, Diodes, Rectifier circuits, Bipolar and Field Effect Transistors, various amplifier configurations, filters, timers, Op-Amps, and voltage regulators. Most lessons have design problems and optional construction projects. This course will run for a 12-week period, and earns 2.0 CEUs.

I’ve already purchased most of the electronic components for the class. I want to try and put together a mobile workshop that will allow me to keep all my building equipment in one spot and allow me to work in different rooms of the house.

Lots of Special Events this weekend

Oct 6-Oct 7, 1230Z-2300Z, Paintsville, KY. Amateur Radio Community Service, KI4OIP. Kentucky Apple Festival and 100 years of Amateur Radio. 14.250 7.230 3.910 1.900. QSL. Amateur Radio Community Service, PO Box 75, Paintsville, KY 41240.

Oct 6-Oct 7, 1500Z-2300Z, Honobia, OK. McCurtain County Amateur Radio Club, KD5YQI. Annual Bigfoot Festival, Honobia, OK. 21.230 14.270 7.270 3.900. Certificate. Gary Brock, PO Box 1656, Idabel, OK 74745.

Oct 6-Oct 7, 1600Z-2000Z, Cincinnati, OH. Queen City Emergency Net, W8T. Tall Stacks on the air! Cincinnati’s Riverboat Festival. 14.260 7.265. Certificate. David Vest, 2934 Rontina Dr, Goshen, OH 45122. www.qcen.org.

Oct 6-Oct 7, 2200Z-1600Z, Lake Placid, NY. Northern NY Amateur Radio Association, N2Y. NNY Hamfest and Convention. 14.260 10.124 7.240 7.035. Certificate. Richard Sherman, 25 Pines Rd, Malane, NY 12953. www.nnyara.org.

Oct 6-Oct 15, 1300Z-0000Z, Albuquerque, NM. The High Desert Amateur Radio Club of NM, Inc, NM5HD. Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta 2006. 21.255 14.275 7.260. QSL. HDARC of NM Inc, 4972 Turquoise Dr, Rio Rancho, NM 87124. www.nm5hd.com.

Oct 7, 1200Z-1600Z, Brownstown, PA. Red Rose Repeater Association, KB3BVL. Annual Red Rose Tailgate Fest. Gen phone 40m 20m. QSL. Red Rose Repeater Association, PO Box 8316, Lancaster, PA 17604-8316. www.qsl.net/rrra/.

Oct 7, 1300Z-1700Z, Anamosa, IA. Jones County Amateur Radio Club, N0CWP. 18th Annual Anamosa Pumpkinfest. 14.260. Certificate. Jim McClintock, N0CWP, 301 Vine St, Morley, IA 52312. www.ia.net/~anachamb/pumpkin.html.

Oct 7, 1300Z-2200Z, Columbus, OH. Madison County Amateur Radio Club, W8C. Columbus Day Celebrations/Santa Maria Radio Day. 14.040 7.225 7.040 14.070 PSK. QSL. Don Fuhr, W8LJ, 6800 McVey Blvd, Columbus, OH 43235. http://qsy.to/mcarcoh.

Oct 7, 1300Z-2200Z, Harlem, GA. Columbia County Georgia Amateur Radio Club, W4O. Annual Oliver Hardy Festival. 146.52 21.260 14.260 7.260. Certificate. CCARC/W4O, PO Box 800, Evans, GA 30809. http://ccarc.hamradio.com.

Oct 7, 1400Z-2000Z, Palmyra, VA. Fluvanna County ARES, W4F. 11th Annual Old Farm Day Celebration in Fluvanna County, VA. 28.350 18.150 14.250 7.250. Certificate. Manny Rodriguez, K4MSR, 22 Fleetwood Dr, Palmyra, VA 22963.

Oct 7, 1400Z-2000Z, Springfield, MO. Frisco Retirees Radio Club and The Railroad Historical Museum, Inc, W0DLR. Commemorating the preservation of Frisco 4524 Steam Engine. 14.270 7.270. QSL. Dave Rust, 2151 Deer Ln, Kirbyville, MO 65679. www.rrhistoricalmuseum.zoomshare.com.

Oct 7, 1400Z-2200Z, St Charles, IL. Fox River Radio League, W9CEQ. 21st Annual Scarecrow Festival. 14.260 7.260. QSL. FRRL-Scarecrow, PO Box 673, Batavia, IL 60510. www.frrl.org.

Oct 7, 1400Z-2000Z, Sterling, VA. Sterling Park ARC, K4NVA. Sterlingfest 2006. 14.260 7.240. QSL. SPARC, Call Box 599, Sterling, VA 20167. www.qsl.net/sterling.

Oct 7-Oct 8 and October 14-Oct 15, 0700Z-2000Z, Bedford, PA. Bedford County Amatuer Radio Society, K3NQT. Bedford County Fall Foliage Festival. 14.230 21.330 7.230. Certificate. Paul Fischer, 185 Main St, Alum Bank, PA 15522.

Oct 7-Oct 8, 1400Z-2100Z, Glen Hazel, PA. Elk County Emergency Services, W3E. Elk County Rescue Weekend. 14.280 7.280 3.980. QSL. Mike McAllister, N3RZL, PO Box 448, Ridgway, PA 15853. www.ncentral.com/~elkcnty.

Oct 7-Oct 8, 1600Z-0300Z, Menlo Park, CA. 24th Month, Amateur Radio-Technology Day, N6T, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. 14.240 7.240 14.044 7.044. QSL. David A. Cooper, 270 Redwood Shores Pky, PMB 41, Redwood City, CA 94065. www.fars.k6ya.org.

Oct 7-Oct 15, 0001Z-2400Z, Milford, CT. Lake Effect Amateur Radio Club, W1M. National Wildlife Refuge Week. 21.310 14.265 7.240 7.055. QSL. Kevin Gunther, 2 Milford Point Rd, Milford, CT 06460.

Oct 8, 1400Z-2000Z, Robbinsville, NC. Smoky Mountains Amateur Radio Team, N4GSM. Anniversary of opening of Cherahala Skyway. 14.242 7.242. Certificate. SMART, PO Box 517, Robbinsville, NC 28771. http://main.nc.us/graham/smart/.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

Finally put the CSV19 Pneumatic Antenna Launcher into action. The objective was to drop the four 10′ PVC pipe sections that supported the center point of my B&W inverted vee and replace it with a heavy duty rope supported by the upper sections of a pine tree in the back yard.

I pumped up the launcher to 70psi, loaded the ball, launched it almost straight up. I fired the tennis ball up over some tree branches at about 60′. The ball went up, cleared the branches and easily came down the other side. I attached some heavier line to the far end line and pulled it up and over the branch. I pulled down the PVC and attached the center point to heavy duty rope. I then pulled the center point back up. The launcher worked great and my next step will be to raise the end points from 10′ to 20’…. which will allow me to then raise the center point a few more feet.


I had two 20M SSB QSOs: a station in the British Virgin Islands that gave me a 59 and a station in Italy that gave me a 57. I’m pretty comfortable that my antenna is working at least as well as it was before I made the changes.

TOEC WW Grid Contest

— CW, sponsored by the Top of Europe Contesters (TOEC) from 1200Z Sep 30-1200Z Oct 1. Frequencies: 160-10 meters. Categories: SO (no packet) -AB, -SB, LP-AB, QRP-AB), MS (10 min band change rule), MM, Mobile (SOAB) — work mobiles from each grid field (i.e., JP, KO, EM). Exchange: RST + grid square, i.e., JP73 (log must show all grid fields activated). QSO Points: own continent — 1 pt, other cont — 3 pts, QSOs with mobiles — 3 pts. Score: QSO points × two-letter grid fields. For more information: www.sk3bg.se/contest/toecwwgc.htm. Logs due 30 days after the contest to contest@toec.net or to TOEC, Box 178, SE-83122 Ostersund, Sweden.

CW QSO

I jumped on the radio real quick last night before bed. After jumping around from 30M to 40M to 80M, I got an answer to my CQ from Tim, WD4GXD. Tim lives in Ruffin, a small town in the hills of western North Carolina, that I actually visited back in June of this year. We had a nice QSO, only wish it could have been longer. Tim was telling me that he had just picked up an IC-706 for mobile operations. He QRS’d so I was able to get almost 100% I hope to catch him again later for a longer ragchew.

I tried looking for a quick lunch time QSO, but had no luck. I think I might try and take the ARSIB out here to Fort Monroe and try to work a lunchtime QSO using a portable antenna. Might be fun.

Saturday…..

Finally checked into the VA MARS net. The net started late and I had almost given up on it. I’m going to try and check in again tomorrow morning. I need to get around to raising the height of my inverted vee – I think it will better help my signal get out.

I was able to catch W1AA (Henry and Whitey) and their activation of the Highland Lighthouse (USA 110) out on Cape Cod. Whitey, K1VV, is usually out ever weekend doing a lighthouse activation – always has a nice signal.

Had a very nice Radio Merit Badge class for a young Scout out at Fort Monroe in the afternoon. I setup my 10′ x 10′ shelter and the ARSIB. Initially I planned on setting the G5RV (like during the W4M Memorial Day Special Event) but the wind was quite heavy, so I opted to put up the homebrew vertical dipole. To get some height on the antenna, I attached it to the top of the painter’s pole. Before I had a chance to tie down the pole, a gust of wind knocked the antenna down. The fall caused the feedline connection to break off. Not good. However, with a little bit of wire and some electrical tape, I was able to reattached the feedline connection. Now the antenna was low to the ground and I was a little concerned about it’s performance. The Scout arrived and we started reviewing the Radio Merit Badge requirements. I was able to easily tune WWV on 15 MHz and was also able to find a CW QSO in progress on 40M. Also demoed a bit of CW using my MFJ paddle that has a speaker built in. After we’d reviewed all the requirements, it was time for the HF QSO. The Scout called CQ and after a few tries, received a reply from Charlie, N1MUQ, in Stamford, CT. Charlie had a booming, solid signal and the Scout was able to successfully complete the QSO. We then moved to my mobile VHF rig and the Scout had a nice QSO with Randy, WB7URZ located up in Gloucester. Even with the antenna setup issues, the Radio Merit Badge session was a success and I think both the Scout and I had a good time.

This weekend in the shack…..

GYFWW: Get Your Feet Wet Weekend. This was an interesting event… all CW. My CW skills are atrocious and this was my attempt at improving. I enjoyed it, although at times it was very frustrating. The exchange was RST, name, state, FISTS #, and year licensed. Most folks were good at slowing down and repeating missed parts of the exchange. I spent a lot of time just sending CQ without a response. A contest doesn’t have the personal interaction of a regular QSO. At the end of the contest I had 18 contacts and over 200 points… no records broken here. I still have a long way to go on the CW. I would like to get my speed up to 15-20wpm – that will take a lot of consistent work.

Virginia Beach Hamfest: My second year attending the Virginia Beach Hamfest. A two-day hamfest, I went on Sunday. $5 to get in. There were a few vendors, but I had primarily come this year for RadioWorks, a local company from Portsmouth that makes great wire antennas. I purchased a Carolina Windom, 133′ long, good on 80M to 10M. The challenge now is to hang that bad boy. I’ll be assisted by my CSV19 Pneumatic Antenna Launcher.

T-238+ APRS WX Project: The main board was good to go. I put the modem board together Friday night, checked out and good to go. Then came Saturday, I was interfacing the WX sensors (temp, wind speed and direction)… it worked! I was getting the data to read out properly. However, when I tried to interface the modem board with the radio, the LCD screen started showing all solid squares instead of text and the heat sink got very, very hot. The LED heartbeat light is still functioning, but clearly there is something wrong. Hope I’m not back to square one. http://www.tapr.org/kits_t238plus.html