It's going to be a rough few days on the bands by the look of the latest forecast from SolarHam:
"The latest geomagnetic forecast as of 00:35 UTC (Oct 4).
While there is (G3) storming in the forecast for Friday due to the X7.1/CME predicted to pass Earth, that plasma cloud was fairly faint and there is less certainty with the dynamics of that particular event. The stronger CME observed on Thursday associated the X9.0 flare is more likely to impact our geomagnetic field with a passage predicted sometime on Saturday (Oct 5). Keep in mind the timing of this hourly forecast is all dependent on the CME's arriving past Earth as predicted."
Technically this is a “G.P.” Rather than trademarked “Jeep” brand vehicle and trailer. It’s a M151A2 1/4 Ton high-mobility vehicle, or “General Purpose” vehicle (hence the GP name) and with a matching trailer. Roll back to the early 1980s and you would find me either being driven or driving myself in a similar M151A2 pulling… Continue reading Radio Jeep – a M151A2 and M416 trailer
- HEROICS AMID HURRICANE HELENE'S DEVASTATION - BROADCAST STATIONS HIT HARD BY HURRICANE HELENE - WILDERNESS PROTOCOL AIDS RESCUE IN BACKCOUNTRY IDAHO - MILESTONE: IARU HANDLES 1,000TH REQUEST FOR AMATEUR SATELLITE FREQUENCY - SILENT KEYS: SRI LANKAN NOTABLES, VASANTH GURUGE, 4S7VG; SADEEPA SEPALA, 4S6SAD - SILENT KEY: DEWAYNE HENDRICKS, WA8DZP - RADIO TELESCOPE SITE TO REOPEN AS SCIENCE EDUCATION CENTER - RUSSIA, BELARUS, ELIGIBLE AGAIN FOR CQ-SPONSORED CONTEST AWARDS - WORLD OF DX - KICKER: A QSO TO REMEMBER, 100 YEARS LATER
The home brew AM transmitter on the bench at the moment has thrown up the issue of either low or over modulation from my mic audio. Some time ago, I purchased a couple of interesting boards described as "SSM2167 Preamp Compressor Limiter Noise Gate Dynamics Processing Module DC 3V-5V Microphone Preamplifier". They are under AU$5 from AliExpress and really tiny.To aid with experimentation, I've
1494 2212 Coast FM via unid. SINPO 34333. 1620 1728 Radio Alabama. SINPO 34433. 1629 1743 Radio Professor Sickbock. SINPO 44433. 1642 1740 Radio Marskramer. SINPO 44433. 4875 1825 Radio Akenzo (pres). SINPO 54444. 5035 1828 Radio Deltracks. SINPO 44433. 5880 2200 Radio Rock Revolution. SINPO 34433. 6290 1722 Radio Ronalisa. SINPO 44433. 6325 1817 Radio Boomerang. SINPO 55444.
The Radio Society of Great Britain and ARISS, in conjunction with Girlguiding Surrey West and Brooklands Museum including the Innovation Academy, have been collaborating on a special ISS contact due to take place on Saturday 5 October. Girlguiding Patron, HRH The Duchess of Edinburgh will attend the contact as part of a visit to promote […]
Good Morning, Friends, Today, I’m taking most of the day to focus on organizing, administrative tasks (FEMA applications, insurance, etc.), and some much-needed cleanup around the house. After several days of intense labor, we all need some time to recuperate. Basically, we all smell like sweat and chainsaw exhaust. If you haven’t read my previous … Continue reading Helene Aftermath Update: Aid, Community Resilience, and Egress/Ingress (Thursday, October 3, 2024)→
Yesterday was a rainy day, and Marianne and I vegged out for most of the day. The skies started clearing out in the late afternoon:
And we were rewarded with yet another beautiful sunset a few hours later:
This morning dawned sunny, bright and a tad on the chilly side. After breakfast and a few stops, Marianne and I headed out to Kring Point State Park, US-2091 for the second activation of our wedding anniversary getaway.
This time, I did not bring the AlexLoop along, only the Elecraft AX1. I was impressed by its performance on Tuesday and I was not to be disappointed this time, either!
Here are some photos that Marianne took of me doing the POTA thing:
And here are some photos that I took of the setup:
We arrived at the park at about 11:00 (15:00 UTC) and stopped at the Park Ranger booth only to be told that the picnic area was closed for renovation and construction, but that we were free to drive around and look at the park. That's when Marianne noticed quite a few vacant campsites that sure enough had picnic tables! So we stopped at campsite #12 and I headed off to the picnic bench while Marianne did some exploring,
I was set up by15:25 UTC, spotted myself on the POTA app and after calling CQ POTA on 14.062 MHz, I was immediately greeted by Hunters. I didn't want to stay too long as today is actually our anniversary and I didn't think it was polite and proper for Marianne to be bored out of her skull.
I quickly racked up another 14 QSOs in just 32 minutes and I pulled the plug when my batteries started going wonky. More about that in a minute. QSOs were made with New Jersey (NY to NJ on 20 Meters - strange!), WI, a Park to Park with WA9LEY at US-7256 in IL, SC, CA, GA, OH, VA, NC and AR.
The performance from this little antenna just blows my mind. As Craig WB3GCK said to me, "It defies all logic.", but there you have it, the proof is in the pudding. The AX1 will be my go to whenever I activate picnic table portable, The RBN map wasn't as impressive as Tuesday's but the snr figures were very nice! There was not a single skimmer that picked me up with a single digit snr report.
Regarding the batteries. I made sure they were fully charged and they did not last at all. That's probably due to the fact that they've been sitting in the shack for years without being used. I'll have to go to eBay to pick up some fresh ones or perhaps something else that will last a bit longer, but is still small enough to fit in my QMX bag.
Thanks to all the Hunters who worked me this week! My activations were not long or filled with triple digit QSO numbers, but they are valid activations and I had a lot of fun!
Radio Club of Tacoma (W7DK) club members will be operating the BIGFOOT callsigns starting on October 16th at 0000 Zulu, and the special event will end on October 21 at 2359 Zulu. Stations will be using CW, phone, FT8/FT4, RTTY and PSK modes, and will be operating on 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meters at various times throughout each day.
Thanks to those who replied with comments about part one of this series about QSL cards. The consensus seems to be that broadcast stations initiated the practice of sending post cards that hams eventually emulated. That’s a good enough explanation for me, though I prefer to believe it was more magical than that. What got me thinking about all this was coming across a lonely box in the attic that contained stacks of old QSL cards. These go all the way back for me…
I was licensed in 1977 near the end of my high school days. It took me a few months to assemble a Heath HW-16 and get it on the air. My Novice call was WD9GCT, an abomination for a CW operator. When I upgraded to General I asked the FCC to issue me a new call, anything would be better, and they handed me N9AVG out of the pool, a big improvement. I held that call for 25 years until a crazy notion about a shorter call sign that started with a “K” stirred and I picked up the vanity call KE9V which I’ve now held for more than 20 years.
The very first QSL card I ever received was from WB4AKY of Tampa, Florida confirming our 15 meter CW chat on August 4, 1977. This was during the summer I graduated high school and just before I was off to college. Several of the cards received during this period included “good luck in college” notes so I guess that transition loomed large enough in my head that I was pounding brass about it with random strangers. I have about a hundred cards from my Novice days and these are a historic treasure for me and indicate what would lie ahead.
After upgrading to General I began exploring the world of QRP and nearly all of the QSLs received during that period were for low-power contacts. Many more than I remembered were apparently of the two-watt variety. All small kits, a dozen or more of them prior to the Elecraft era.
Some of my favorites include one from W6ZH/QRP “Pete” Herbert Hoover, III. Pete was a prolific low-power enthusiast using his K2 (#0043) who also happened to be the grandson of President Herbert Hoover. Another from the father of the modern QRP movement, Ade Weiss, W0RSP/QRP who was running a home-brew concoction when I snagged him. Another from Ken, N2CQ a legend. My first QSL card for a 2x2 QRP contact with AL7FS in Alaska and KH6B in Hawaii remain special to me too.
Then there was this improvised, but priceless “card” from K7MOS in Billings, Montana (back). Charles was 70 at the time and had been using CW since 1953 - 49 years of CW only for this gentleman!
Another somewhat less traditional, letter and card confirmation came from my friend Carter Craigie, N3AO who only recently became a Silent Key. Back in 2002 he was on the Appalachian Trail when his few watts of RF tickled my galena.
There are so many others, all treasures that persuade me that QSL cards are much more than just confirmation of a contact, they’re historical markers in the slipstream of our radio lives. Electronic confirmations, like LoTW and others, are about as boring as watching paint dry. It’s only become preferable due to ever increasing postage costs that has made traditional QSLing unaffordable.
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