24 Aug 2010 at 21:30
Marty
Contest
No Comments
Ran across an email today about the Ohio QSO Party taking place this weekend. Its this Saturday, August 28th, from 1600z Saturday until 0400z Sunday (or noon eastern time Saturday until midnight). I’m thinking about trying to make a few SSB contacts during the contest. I’ve been spending as much spare weekend time I can installing slate tile on my porch floor, but I’m thinking I might need a break around noon on Saturday for… say… about 12 hours?
Check it out if you’re interested. Click Here for information.
20 Aug 2010 at 22:09
Marty
Contest
No Comments
Last weekend (Sunday, August 15th to be specific) I competed in the ARRL Rookie Roundup. The contest ran from 2:00 pm ET to 7:59 pm ET. I couldn’t work the entire time on the air; had some other commitments I needed to tend to during that time, but I still managed to get around 4 hours in. Being a rookie myself (first licensed in 2009), I wanted to get in on some of the fun. Conditions were not all that great from my home QTH, and I spent the first 2-3 hours searching and pouncing on other rookies that I heard calling CQ. I finished with a score of 686, which appears to be just good enough for high rookie score for Florida. But… I’m WAY off from some of the high scores I’ve been noticing on the score submission sheet. A rookie in VA submitted a score of 11,952 and a rookie in CA has a score of 13,552. So having a score of 686 isn’t all that much to boast about, I suppose.
But… it really doesn’t matter. It was an opportunity for us rookies to participate in contesting, and I had a blast. Thanks to ARRL for hosting the event. It was a great time!
19 Aug 2010 at 20:11
Marty
Events
No Comments
Made it to the Fort Pierce Hamfest again this year, hosted by the Fort Pierce Amateur Radio Club (FPARC). It seemed to be much more attended this year than last. I spent a lot of time looking over the tables, talking to fellow hams (ran into the ham that I bought my Hustler 5BTV from about a year or so ago), eating… way more than I should have, and picking up a bargain or two. Nothing to report; bought a 40 channel CB just to have around; I haven’t owned a CB since the glory days of the 70′s and the price was real cheap, and picked up a Ethernet switch for my shack (I’ve got two computers in my shack, one running Windows and one running Linux) and the switch will make it a bit easier to split my Internet connection between the two. So not much money spent. A ham was selling a nice Kenwood TL-922A, but just don’t have the bucks for an amp at the moment. So I’ll keep that on my wish list.
Here’s a picture of the room….
Fort Pierce Hamfest
02 Aug 2010 at 12:59
Marty
News
No Comments
A news article discusses a massive plasma bubble heading towards the Earth. It originated from a solar flare. It is to arrive tomorrow, August 3rd. It will be interesting if it will, or how it will affect ham communications. Click Here to read the article.
09 Jul 2010 at 09:19
Marty
Contest
No Comments
The results are in, and I finished up in the middle of the low-power (50 watts) pack. I’m happy with the results since I only operated for three of the six hours the contest took place. The 2010 40m Firecracker Sprint results can be seen by clicking here.
05 Jul 2010 at 08:29
Marty
Events
No Comments
Last evening I wrapped up logging all 13 colonies during the ‘Original 13 Colonies Independence Week Special Event’ with my final contact coming from my home state of Pennsylvania. My first contact was during the Firecracker Sprint (I wrote about this in the previous article). I was working PSK31 contacts and ran across my first 13 colonies contact, K2G (Georgia). So I logged the contact and thought i’d try to make the other twelve. Well, throughout Sunday I managed to work them here-and-there. All twelve were worked SSB phone. A couple of the contacts were really tough to pull out; K2K (New Hampshire) was REALLY in the QRM from SW stations on 40 meters. I finally got them all logged by wrapping up with K2M (Pennsylvania) last evening a little past 11:00 pm ET.
What a great way to work stations on our Independence Day weekend. If you are interested in participating, you still have time… the contest runs throughout today (July 5). There are six UK stations participating in the event as well, using the call MN5ALJ. I haven’t worked them yet… but I still have today to do so.
Information on the 13 colonies can be found by clicking here. Good luck!
04 Jul 2010 at 10:12
Marty
Contest
No Comments
I took place in the PODXS 40m Firecracker Sprint last evening. This was a 40m only, PSK31 contest. The contest operated from 8:00 pm to 2:00 am local (eastern) time. There was no way I could go to 2:00 in the morning operating in a contest, but I managed to hold out to about 11:00 pm or so. In that time I managed 44 contacts, 41 were ‘W’ stations, and 3 were ‘VE’ stations. The contest had 3 power categories: 5 watts, 50 watts, and 100 watts. I operated in the 50 watt category. When the contest first started, I had some difficulties with some contacts and on a couple of occasions briefly thought about cranking the power up to 100 watts but eventually conditions got better and I managed every contact I tried with the exception of one. So 50 watts worked out just fine.
The PODXS 070 Club seem to run a bunch of contests throughout the year. Click here to see the list.
Below is my log from the contest. Click on the log to see a larger view. Or for an even larger image, right-click on the image and select ‘open image’ or ‘open link’ in new tab (or something similar to that) from the menu that appears.
2010 Firecracker Sprint Log
02 Jul 2010 at 14:20
Marty
Events
No Comments
I just finished submitting my Field Day log. After reviewing my logs I ended up with 158 contacts, not the 169 that I had originally thought. There were a couple of errors in the log, and I removed them rather than submit them as actual contacts. Along with my contacts, I submitted that I operated at a public location (Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park), copied the W1AW bulletin, and submitted my scores via the web site. Below are my final results:
Call Used: KJ4LQX
GOTA Station Call: (none)
ARRL/RAC Section: SFL
Class: 1B
List of operators for Class B: KJ4LQX
Participants: 1 Club/Group Name: (none)
Power Source(s): Commercial
Power Multiplier: 2X
Bonus Points
Set-up in Public Place: 100
W1AW Field Day Message: 100
Submitted via the Web: 50
Total Bonus Points: 250
Score Summary
Total QSOs: CW = 0 Digital = 78 Phone = 80 Total = 158
Total Points: CW = 0 Digital = 156 Phone = 80 Total = 236
Claimed Score including bonuses: 472
27 Jun 2010 at 21:50
Marty
Events
1 Comment
Earlier today I wrapped up the 24 hours of Field Day 2010. I am beat! I spent the weekend at Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park and operated as a 1B station. I had two antennas I wanted to set up, so I didn’t wait until the start of Field Day to install them so as to take advantage of the extra 3 hours. Instead, I started setting them up late Friday night, well within the 18:00 Zulu time frame to qualify as a Class B.
I set up a Hustler 5BTV vertical and a G5RV jr. dipole. Both antennas worked about the same… not fantastic, but ok for a portable FD setup. I laid out about 16 radials on the vertical, and I managed to hit California when conditions were just right. I used SQUIRL logging software, and it includes a map that shows where your contacts were located. Looking at the map, for just about all bands and modes my contacts were all North of me. Some slightly west, but propagation seemed to favor north-south communications.
I was ready to start working the bands around 2:30 p.m. ET (18:30 z) but a lightning storm moved through the area and held me up from operating until around 4:00 p.m. I kept working fairly steady until 2:30 a.m. Saturday morning until my eyes would not stay open any longer. So I grabbed about 4.5 hours of sleep and got back to working contacts about 7:00 a.m. Saturday morning. I worked 3 modes: SSB, RTTY, and PSK31. It was nice to work the digital modes; my voice was really starting to give out about mid-Saturday morning.
I finished up with 169 contacts in the log. Certainly had hoped for many more, but given conditions, makeshift antenna setup, barefoot operation, etc… and being my first Field Day, I was just happy to get out here and work portable. Can’t wait for FD 2011!
Now… for some zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…..
Internet connectivity has been extremely spotty, but I managed to upload a few pictures of my 1B station (below).
19 Jun 2010 at 09:49
Marty
Events
No Comments
Field Day 2010 is one week away… are you ready? I started working on my list of items a couple of weeks ago, now its come down to gathering all the items I’ll need. I picked up a new 100′ roll of RG8X coax (#0515), and I’ve ordered an Audio-Comm headset for use at Field Day. Along with those items, i’m planning on taking the following items…
- Icom IC-7000 (nice compact radio)
- LDG IC-100 Tuner (works very well with the IC-7000)
- SignaLink USB (might try some digital modes)
- Chameleon V1 antenna
- Hustler 5-BTV antenna
- G5RV antenna
I am going to work with the Hustler antenna most of the time (if its working). I purchased this antenna used a couple of years ago, but never had an opportunity to set it up. I’m hoping it’ll tune up okay, if not I’ll set up the Chameleon on a push-up pole that I constructed for it. The G5RV will be used occasionally to try to pull out closer signals, etc.
No matter where you are, make sure you get involved in Field Day at some level. You can even stop by, look at what people are doing, ask questions, etc. To find a Field Day site near you, use this nifty ARRL Field Day Locator utility.
Where will I be? Click here.
