Last night around 9pm I was browsing Amazon and found the same 64:1 unun that I use with my 40m EFHW. This antenna is my primary antenna for my “Transportable/POTA” setup with my FT891.

I decided that the last one worked so well for me that it was time to see if the 1st one was the real deal or a fluke.

Around noon today I checked my front door and found the Amazon Fairy had magically made the new 64:1 unun appear sometime between 10am (last time I checked for it) and noon.

I had a spare 100 foot roll of Princess Auto 18ga insulated wire in the shack and as a bonus for my home environment is was even green.

I quickly measured out 64 feet and then did the connection things. As with most of Eastern North America it was a rather wet day.

Around 4pm locally the rain stopped and I was able to remove the old wire and install the new antenna, once again using the fir trees on the edge of my yard for camo as not draw attention to the antenna.

The SWR is pretty good especially for a wire hidden in the branches:

6m – 2.5:1, 10m – 1.7:1, 12m- 1.2:2, 15m – 1.6:1

20m – 2.0:1, 40m – 1.3:1, 80m – 3.0:1

The bands are not the best, but signal reports (90w output pwr) were fairly well (S7-S9+) with the stations that I was able to contact.

All in all for what it is…. I’m impressed and the best part is that using the built in auto tuner on my Yaesu FT991a I can easily bring it down to 1:1 on all the bands listed above.

The results are the same on my Yaesu FT891 with the same style of balun and a 64 foot length of quality (Red) Princess Auto 18 ga automotive wire. The only real difference is that as I use the 891 with no tuner I have to be careful on some of the bands.

As the new install gets more use I will let you know if there are any “issues” with its performance.

73bob

Last night around 9pm I was browsing Amazon and found the same 64:1 unun that I use with my 40m EFHW. This antenna is my primary antenna for my “Transportable/POTA” setup with my FT891.

I decided that the last one worked so well for me that it was time to see if the 1st one was the real deal or a fluke.

Around noon today I checked my front door and found the Amazon Fairy had magically made the new 64:1 unun appear sometime between 10am (last time I checked for it) and noon.

I had a spare 100 foot roll of Princess Auto 18ga insulated wire in the shack and as a bonus for my home environment is was even green.

I quickly measured out 64 feet and then did the connection things. As with most of Eastern North America it was a rather wet day.

Around 4pm locally the rain stopped and I was able to remove the old wire and install the new antenna, once again using the fir trees on the edge of my yard for camo as not draw attention to the antenna.

The SWR is pretty good especially for a wire hidden in the branches:

6m – 2.5:1, 10m – 1.7:1, 12m- 1.2:2, 15m – 1.6:1

20m – 2.0:1, 40m – 1.3:1, 80m – 3.0:1

The bands are not the best, but signal reports (90w output pwr) were fairly well (S7-S9+) with the stations that I was able to contact.

All in all for what it is…. I’m impressed and the best part is that using the built in auto tuner on my Yaesu FT991a I can easily bring it down to 1:1 on all the bands listed above.

The results are the same on my Yaesu FT891 with the same style of balun and a 64 foot length of quality (Red) Princess Auto 18 ga automotive wire. The only real difference is that as I use the 891 with no tuner I have to be careful on some of the bands.

As the new install gets more use I will let you know if there are any “issues” with its performance.

73bob

Yesterday was the annual Flight of the Bumblebees (FOBB) QRP contest, a four-hour sprint sponsored by The Adventure Radio Society. It’s been a couple of years since I last took part, so I was glad to get out for a couple of hours this afternoon. Prior to the contest, I signed up to be a bumblebee station and was assigned bumblebee number 82. 

I operated from a picnic area in nearby Valley Forge National Historical Park (US-0761, KFF-0761). There were several picnics in progress, so I headed to an area well away from them. I found a nice shady spot under the trees, where I set up my table and chair. Except for having to swat the occasional bug, it was a comfortable spot.

My rig was an Elecraft KX3, running 5 watts. I dusted off my trusty homebrew 19-foot vertical and put it to use for this event.

In general, the bands weren’t all that great. Most of the signals I heard were weak, and there was considerable fading on the bands. A few contacts were a real struggle. 

The FOBB activity was surprisingly brisk when I first started, but slowed dramatically as the contest wore on. In about two hours and a half hours of operating, I ended up with 22 contest QSOs. Fourteen of those were with fellow bumblebees. Before I shut down, I came across a POTA station and had a quick park-to-park contact outside of the contest.

Although I was in a POTA entity, I didn’t spot myself or call “CQ POTA.” However, my FOBB contacts were more than enough to complete an activation.

Given the conditions, I did better than I expected. Thanks to those stations that hung in there to pull me out of the noise.

72, Craig WB3GCK

There has been lots happening and no time to keep you in the loop and so here (once again) is the “Coles Notes” version.

The POTA Support your Parks event went better than I expected.

There were some family issues that kept me from taking my FT891 out into the local parks for activation.

However I did manage (as a hunter) to get 35 activators in my log with resulted in 6 new parks in my log as I slowly (very slowly) get towards the 3000 unique Parks in my log.

A bit of a “shucks” happened when a deal I had made for some new equipment for the shack fell through.

The other party (to his credit) cancelled the deal when he found out there was problem with the radio I was about to acquire from him.

It will need major repairs and most likely will not be finding its way into my shack.

And the final “downer” for the week happened yesterday. I entered a contest at our local FM broadcast radio station with the prize being a trip for 2 on a River Cruise along the St Lawrence River and last week they informed me that I won the trip for 2. Liz and I started to make plans

Yesterday I got given notice that the cruise had been cancelled and on the Radio Stations website I found this:

The radio stations, and its TV affiliate has laid off most/all of their on air staff as their Parent Company Corus Entertainment tries to restructure so they can stay afloat (no pun intended).

This is part an an email sent to me (the day after I got notified by the ticket agent that they had cancelled) by Corus which reads as follows”

“I want to thank you for supporting 96.3 BIG FM, and for purchasing tickets to the boat cruise.  Due to recent staff changes, we don’t think it’s the appropriate time to be holding a party boat cruise and have decided to cancel the event.“

Liz was looking forward to the evening out and we will still go somewhere but our feet will stay dry. (a small pun intended here)

Thinking about an earlier “3 Hour Cruise” from the past…has me thinking that keeping dry might be a good thing .

This would be the Punny side of life I guess…

73bob

There has been lots happening and no time to keep you in the loop and so here (once again) is the “Coles Notes” version.

The POTA Support your Parks event went better than I expected.

There were some family issues that kept me from taking my FT891 out into the local parks for activation.

However I did manage (as a hunter) to get 35 activators in my log with resulted in 6 new parks in my log as I slowly (very slowly) get towards the 3000 unique Parks in my log.

A bit of a “shucks” happened when a deal I had made for some new equipment for the shack fell through.

The other party (to his credit) cancelled the deal when he found out there was problem with the radio I was about to acquire from him.

It will need major repairs and most likely will not be finding its way into my shack.

And the final “downer” for the week happened yesterday. I entered a contest at our local FM broadcast radio station with the prize being a trip for 2 on a River Cruise along the St Lawrence River and last week they informed me that I won the trip for 2. Liz and I started to make plans

Yesterday I got given notice that the cruise had been cancelled and on the Radio Stations website I found this:

The radio stations, and its TV affiliate has laid off most/all of their on air staff as their Parent Company Corus Entertainment tries to restructure so they can stay afloat (no pun intended).

This is part an an email sent to me (the day after I got notified by the ticket agent that they had cancelled) by Corus which reads as follows”

“I want to thank you for supporting 96.3 BIG FM, and for purchasing tickets to the boat cruise.  Due to recent staff changes, we don’t think it’s the appropriate time to be holding a party boat cruise and have decided to cancel the event.“

Liz was looking forward to the evening out and we will still go somewhere but our feet will stay dry. (a small pun intended here)

Thinking about an earlier “3 Hour Cruise” from the past…has me thinking that keeping dry might be a good thing .

This would be the Punny side of life I guess…

73bob

I had a chance to use the inexpensive whip I bought through AliExpress recently. While it performed well enough, I encountered a couple of minor quality issues. That’s certainly not surprising, given its $18 USD price tag. 

I made an early morning trip to Ridley Creek State Park (US-1414, KFF-1414). I coupled the AliExpress whip with my homebrew loading coil. My rig today was my Penntek TR-35 (5 watts, CW). 

Extending the whip, I noticed that two of the sections were pretty tight and took some effort to pull them out. Better tight than loose, I guess. Another issue is that the crimp that holds the mounting stud in the bottom section of the antenna was a little loose. When the antenna was fully seated in the mount, I could still rotate the antenna. 

Because this whip is longer than a quarter wave on 20M, I didn’t extend the first section from the bottom. Using an antenna analyzer, I was seeing SWR readings similar to my MFJ-1979 whip. The SWR readings seemed stable. So, I guess the suspect crimp is making a good enough connection. 

Band conditions seemed so-so this morning. Despite that, I logged 25 contacts on 40M and 20M in an hour, including three park-to-park contacts. I didn’t work any DX stations today, but I worked a station on the west coast in Washington on 20M. 

Even with its issues, the whip did a pretty decent job this morning. It won’t replace my MFJ whip, but it will have a place in my antenna arsenal.

72, Craig WB3GCK

As is my practice of late, I did an early morning activation to beat the heat. On Sunday morning, I drove up to Hopewell Fire Tower, which is part of William Penn State Forest (US-5481, KFF-4914). This small tract is located within French Creek State Park (US-1355, KFF-1355).

There was only one other vehicle in the parking lot when I rolled in. My plan was to operate from an old, stone picnic shelter, but I was swarmed by bugs as soon as I got out of my truck. So, I stayed in the truck to keep the annoying flying critters at bay. My equipment today included my Penntek TR-35 (5 watts, CW) and my 12-foot loaded whip. 

Based on my Reverse Beacon Network (RBN) spots, the 40M band seemed in pretty good shape. I quickly logged 15 contacts before moving to 20M. I logged a few more on that band before shutting down. 

My 40 minute activation yielded 19 QSOs, including four park-to-park contacts. One of those P2P contacts was with fellow QRP Polar Bear, VE3WMB. It’s always a pleasure to work Michael.

Stay cool out there!

72, Craig WB3GCK

As I have gotten older, the heat and I don’t get along very well anymore. So, with the heat and humidity forecasted for today, I was just going to stay home and get caught up on some things around the house. My (far) better half intervened and encouraged me to go out early before it got too hot. She’s always right, so off I went.

I drove down to Ridley Creek State Park (US-1414, KFF-1414) and found a parking spot with some shade. Along with my Penntek TR-35 (5 watts, CW), I used an MFJ-1979 17-foot whip with my homebrew loading coil. 

I started out on 40M and wound up staying there for my whole activation. The band was in pretty good shape, as it only took about eight minutes to log my first 10 contacts. 

About 40 minutes into my activation, I got a call from my (far) better half. There was an issue at home, so I packed up and headed out.

I ended up with 20 contacts this morning, with four known park-to-park contacts. One contact was with fellow QRP enthusiast, Jim W1PID. It’s been a while, so it was nice to hear him again. One of my park-to-park contacts was with QRPer Thomas K4SWL. We had a very light copy on each other, but he persevered and eventually pulled me out of the noise. Thanks for your patience, Thomas!

On an unrelated note, it’s great to have Logbook of the World (LoTW) back up and running, after a serious cybersecurity incident. The system also seems to run much faster now, so it’s nice to see the backlog steadily declining. I’m guessing things should be back to normal in the next week or so.

Finally, I’d like to wish my fellow Americans a very happy and safe Independence Day!

72, Craig WB3GCK

While still on my extended stay at my daughter’s house in central Pennsylvania, I wanted to do some casual operating. So, I set up in the backyard to make a few contacts.

Today, I decided to give my Gabil GRA-7350TC vertical some air time. It’s been a while since I’ve used it. I set it up using the Gabil GRA-ULT01 MK3 tripod. I had forgotten how well engineered the Gabil stuff is. Anyway, I used four 15-foot speaker wire radials spread out on the ground. For the coax, I used 20 feet of RG-174.

I started out on 40M. Using an antenna analyzer, I got the SWR down as far as I could and let the KX3’s tuner do the rest. Taking a quick dial spin down the band, I didn’t hear much at all. Eventually, I came across WA2NYY activating a park in New York and called him. Despite the horrendous band conditions, he heard my 5-watt signal on the first call. Next, I heard an activator in North Carolina, but I had a rough copy. We still managed to complete the contact.

I then moved up to 20M and found the same crappy conditions. Eventually, I found and worked two more POTA activators.

I checked the POTA spotting page and saw that there were a couple of European activators on 15M. I tuned up the antenna and did a quick check. Nothing but dead silence across the band.

It was at that point that I checked the band conditions online and saw that there was a severe geomagnetic storm in progress. It showed poor conditions on all the HF bands. That certainly explained the lousy band conditions.

Not being a glutton for punishment, I shut down for the day. Still, I was thankful for the four contacts I made with five watts of CW into an eight-foot base-loaded whip during a severe geomagnetic storm.

72, Craig WB3GCK

I mentioned in a previous post that I’m out in central Pennsylvania, doing some house sitting for my daughter’s family and taking care of my grand-dog. I wanted to get in at least one park activation while I’m here, but I didn’t want to leave the pup alone for too long. Fortunately, Pennsylvania State Game Lands 246 (US-8941, KFF-5862) is just minutes away.

I last activated PA SGL 246 back in 2022 and had 34 contacts. So, 10 contacts this time would not only qualify another activation for Parks on the Air (POTA), but it would also give me the 44 contacts needed for World Wide Flora and Fauna (WWFF). 

I rolled into the empty parking lot and quickly set up my 12-foot loaded whip on the back of the truck. My rig today was my trusty KX3 today (5W, CW).

I started out on 40M and was greeted with about S2 worth of noise. I’m guessing it was coming from a power line that runs over the parking lot. Despite the noise, I made 10 contacts in about 13 minutes. Then things seemed to dry up.

I moved up to 30M for a while, but there were no takers. Determined to add at least one more contact, I went back down to 40M. It took a few minutes, but I finally got one more call.

Around that time, it was starting to get hot in the truck. I also neglected to grab my water bottle as I headed out the door. Doh! So, having narrowly exceeded my goal of 10 contacts, I packed up before I got too dehydrated. Besides, I had an errand to run before heading back to the house.   

After about 30 minutes of operating, the grand total today was 11 contacts. I don’t think I had any park-to-park contacts. 

I think this might have been the shortest activation I have ever done.

72, Craig WB3GCK

I’m currently out in the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania area for a week of house and puppy sitting for my daughter. My companion for the week is a five-year-old German Shepherd named Belle, who was adopted by my daughter and her family nine months ago. She’s a sweet dog, but she sometimes has some separation anxiety. So, I’m making sure my ham radio activities are short and close to home.

The first two days of my puppy sitting duty coincided with this year’s Field Day, so I did a little “backyard-portable” operating as category 1B. In my nearly 50 years of ham radio, this was my first-ever Field Day using my own callsign. 

My plan was simply to set up an antenna in the backyard and make a few contacts each day. The weatherman was calling for dangerously hot temperatures over the weekend, but there’s a section of the yard that has some shade for most of the day. 

My (far) better half came out for the weekend. While I was surveying the backyard trying to determine what antenna to use, she suggested strapping “that fishing pole antenna” (aka Jackite pole) to my grandson’s basketball pole. Great idea! So, I strapped my 31-foot Jackite pole to the pole and used a 29-foot wire and my weather-resistant 9:1 UnUn. I ran 18-feet of RG-8x over to the two chairs that served as my makeshift operating position. My rig was an Elecraft KX3 (5 watts, CW) powered by a 6 Ah LiFePO4 battery.

I started off logging contacts in HAMRS on my cell phone. That lasted for about two contacts before I switched to paper logging. I wanted to keep things simple and forgo using my laptop, so paper logging was just easier for me than using my cell phone.

With temperatures in the high 90s (F), I only stayed out there for two brief sessions on Saturday. When a strong thunderstorm blew through, I called it a day.  

After breakfast Sunday morning, I went back out to make a few more contacts before the weather heated up again. When I called it quits, I had 62 CW contacts in the log, including one DX station (France). 

My three hour effort didn’t break any records, but it was fun. I just wish the weather had been cooler, and I could have done without the thunderstorm. 

I hope everyone had a fun Field Day weekend.

72, Craig WB3GCK

Today I did something I don’t think I have done before: a single-band activation. Normally, I spend time on several bands. Today, however, I wanted to see how my 17-ft whip would perform mounted directly to the antenna mount on my truck (sans loading coil). 

I drove down to Ridley Creek State Park (US-1414, KFF-1414) this morning and set up in one of the picnic areas. After mounting the antenna, I broke out my antenna analyzer. Since the fully extended whip is approximately a quarter-wave on 20M, I wasn’t surprised by the SWR readings. With 15 feet of RG-8X coax attached, the SWR was a flat 1.45 across the band. So I fired up my Penntek TR-35 (5 watts, CW) and hung out on 20M for the next hour.

When I checked the band conditions, I saw the geomagnetic field was “unsettled.” Solar wackiness notwithstanding, I logged my first 10 contacts in about 12 minutes. European signals weren’t very strong this morning, but I still managed three DX contacts: two from Italy and one from France. An hour’s effort produced 26 contacts, including four park-to-park contacts. 

I’m planning to dust off a 25 year old 20M QRP rig and use it for a future activation. This antenna configuration might come into play for that. Stay tuned…

72, Craig WB3GCK

Yesterday, I took part in one of my favorite public service events, the French Creek Iron Tour. Chester County ARES/RACES (CCAR) has been supporting this cycling event for more than 20 years. The French Creek Iron Tour benefits the French & Pickering Creeks Conservation Trust.

This is a large event, with distance options ranging from 11 to 100 miles. Because the event covers such a wide area, CCAR needed to provide radio operators at five rest stops and aboard eight support vehicles. The support vehicles are equipped with APRS trackers, allowing the net control operators to track their locations around the course.

My part in the event was pretty straight-forward. I was once again stationed at a rest stop in historic Yellow Springs, Pennsylvania. Because CCAR has an extensive linked repeater infrastructure, an HT was all I needed for communications. 

Fortunately, there were no serious issues to handle. A few riders rolled into the rest stop needing bicycle repairs, and some riders required transportation back to the start/finish line at the Kimberton Fairgrounds.

This is always a fun event, and the folks from the sponsoring organization are always a pleasure to work with. 

73, Craig WB3GCK

I went back to Marsh Creek State Park (US-1380, KFF-1380) for a quick activation this morning, and things got off to an interesting start. After setting up my trusty Penntek TR-35 (5 watts, CW) and 12-foot loaded whip, things just didn’t seem right. My SWR on 40M was high, and even my Elecraft T1 antenna tuner couldn’t get it lower than 3:1. 

I started checking cables and connections, but everything looked OK. Heck, it’s not a very complicated antenna, so there isn’t much that can go wrong. When I got out of the truck to change to another antenna, I noticed my 12-foot whip looked a little shorter than usual. I took the whip off and immediately found the problem. In my haste to get set up this morning, I neglected to extend the top section of the telescoping whip. Doh! Once I pulled the top section out and re-installed the whip, all was right with the world again. 

Despite getting off to a slow start, my results weren’t too bad (by my standards). I finished with 36 contacts, including one known park-to-park contact. I had one DX contact with IW2NXI.

I finished my activation just in the nick of time. An hour after I got home, there was a major geomagnetic storm in progress. Timing is everything.

73, Craig WB3GCK

I almost talked myself out of this activation today. We had a long day yesterday at a family function with about four hours of driving, so my initial inclination was to take it easy today. In the end, the POTA urge was too great to deny, and I’m glad I went.

I drove over to Valley Forge National Historical Park (US-0761, KFF-0761), which is just a couple of miles down the road. It had been about five months since my last visit, so I was overdue for an activation here. 

Using my Penntek TR-35 (5 watts, CW) and 12-foot loaded whip, I started out on 40M. The signals were surprisingly strong this morning. My activation kicked off with a park-to-park contact with N1BS up in Rhode Island.

Forty and 20M produced most of my contacts this morning. I ended up with 39 contacts with 6 park-to-park QSOs. I had four DX QSOs: two with Italian stations, and two with SM4BNZ in Sweden on 20M and 17M. 

I also had a nice park-to-park contact with fellow QRPer, AA4XX. It had been a while since our last QSO, so it was good to hear Paul on the air this morning. 

After about 90 minutes of operating, the bands seemed to dry up, so I packed up and made the short drive back home. 

In the end, it was a fun morning, so I’m glad I went. 

73, Craig WB3GCK

FT8 has been a revolution. The technology has made DXing really easy. Or has it? I continue to be amazed at how much difficulty people have working DXpeditions on FT8. 

Last year, there were DXpeditions to Bouvet (3Y0J), Crozet (FT8WW) and Sable Islands (CY0S). The most recent DXpedition to Glorioso Islands (FT4GL) has brought it all back to me.

Let's start off with a few observations on people trying to work these DXpeditions:

• Wrong Cycle - It's amazing the number of folks trying to work DX that are calling on the wrong cycle. FT8 has even and odd cycles. Even cycles start at 00 or 30 seconds, and odd cycles start on 15 and 45 seconds. You always call on the cycle the DX station is NOT transmitting. Indeed, if you double-click on a decode of the DX station, WSJT-X will set up the correct cycle. So how are people getting it wrong?