This Again?

I have twisted and worked my way around this problem for some time now and this probably isn’t the last time that I will revisit this topic. However, my station is evolving and as a result, I’m going to make some notes here and share what I know so that other folks can make use of it. Honestly? It’s more so that I will remember how I got here when I inevitably screw something up and have to back it out.

Why Are We Doing This Again?

My solution for the home setup, was to run Win11 on a stick PC that I could interface with the IC-7100 for Winlink email and Other Stuff. Now, what is Other Stuff? In ham radio, we have an unhealthy relationship to old and busted Windows-Only software. It’s changing slowly, but there are still weird packages that find their way into my hands that I “need” to use for This or That.

With the shift from the barely usable Win10 to the What Is This Nightmare Of Constant Advertising Win11, MS pushed me too far. Every time I touch what used to be the Start Menu, I get an advertisement or some unwanted tidbit of news with a picture of a politician or other pop culture nuisance. On top of that, they’d now like me to have an “AI” that follows me around and trains itself using my hardware?

We’re done here.

CrossOver

I don’t know how the link came to me, but I found my way to WG1V’s site and encountered a very different approach to solving the Winlink/Vara/All That Stuff conundrum.

https://www.wg1v.org/posts/2023-12-27-Winlink-and-Pat-on-M1-Mac

The author simply runs CrossOver on their Mac and all of the stuff works.

Now, back in the day, as a Frothy Linux Zealot, I was a reluctant user of Wine to address some needs I had in my day job. I wrestled with it and made it work. Over time, running VMs to handle this stuff seemed to become the new hotness and I didn’t even think about CrossOver for the Mac. The trouble with a VM is that it’s still a full install of Windows and still antagonistic to my desired mental state. Would CrossOver really do the trick?

In a word: Yes.

Following the instructions at the above link, I got VARA HF and ARDOP up and running on my Mac which is what I attach to my shiny new IC-7300 in my shack. It worked out of the box with no fiddling. Full disclosure: I hadn’t updated brew in some time so that took a minute, but with that done, everything else fell into place.

What about the Other Stuff? Most of the radio software out there that might be used for programming an HT for example, is built on ancient frameworks that happen to run reliably under CrossOver. I even pulled up some piece of software that I used to program my DMR HT and it worked out of the box. That outcome was unexpected, but most welcome.

Now What?

To send Winlink mail, I kick off rigctrl and pat with its HTTP UI from a command line and launch either ARDOP or VARA from CrossOver and send my Winlink mail. This gets me two big wins: No Windows and No Winlink Express. This is called Winning.

I have been noodling with my Surface Go to make sure that I can use the 7300 under my Ubuntu setup as well. I want my two main computing devices to be fully ready to run any rig I’ve got that can do a digital mode. On Ubuntu, it will be ARDOP and pat as well. For me, that’s a well-oiled setup with the IC-705. I need to take a minute to add the IC-7300 to the configuration. No big deal, just 10 minutes or so when I get it.

The outcome of all of this is that I now have a single shack computing device that is my Mac and I can do all of the things that I do in one place. Simplifying things is good. And I’ve even got this little stick PC that I can throw something on for an internal fileserver or something.

The Future

In an ideal world, someone (maybe me someday?) will get ARDOP running on a Mac. ARDOP is under active development again and these are exciting times for that modem. I can’t wait to see where it goes! But for now, I will leverage it in this new ecosystem with CrossOver. It works and that’s what matters.

Final

It’s probably pretty clear that I’m willing to work with all flavors of software in different evironments. I’m not opposed to paying for useful software, though my first stop will always be Free/Open solutions. The sticking point here is that I don’t have a lot of time to mess around with some of this stuff and this approach gets me from A to B rather quickly. Again, Winning.

Thanks for reading along!

Why Do I Need A New Antenna?

When I started my ham radio journey, I lived in a suburb of Philadelphia. The house was a twin that sat at the convergence of three hills. Essentially, it was in a depression or, well, crater. It was also a corner lot with power lines running both ways. If I’d wanted more RF noise I wouldn’t have known where to start to create it. In the midst of this, I put a diplole antenna running the length of the attic. It wasn’t stellar. But then again, it was 2017 and the solar cycle wasn’t doing anyone any favors even with good setups.

A lot has changed since then. When we moved to Ohio, I strung the same dipole in the attic and went back to business as usual in the new QTH. It wasn’t much better than before. This is not a surprise. But I got into POTA and started doing a lot of portable operating. In fact, the bulk of my contacts over the last 3 years have been from my portable station. It’s been wonderful! I ended up not paying a lot of attention to just how poorly my attic dipole was performing.

The dipole in question is tuned for 40 and 20-meters. It’s from MFJ and it does what it does. But it’s not very versatile and it’s inside the house. That’s great for some things but getting out or being flexible aren’t really on the menu.

What To Do?

I don’t live in a place with restrictions on antennas but I also don’t live on some massive plot of land in the middle of nowhere. I’m still on something akin to a hillside, but it’s not nearly as dramatic as at the old place. A vertical seemed like a good idea since I didn’t really have a place to hang a dipole that would work. Enter the DX Commander Classic 2.

The Cons

Let’s start with the liabilities, shall we? The place where I can put a vertical is on the side yard of my house. The space between the house and the neighboring fence is about 40 feet. Running front to back (E-W) there is a long stretch to the road and then a shorter stretch to the fence that contains the backyard and associated dogs. It’s a weird rectangle and the overhead space is odd as well because of the house and several trees that I don’t control. That means the position of the antenna is dictated by, as always, Not Me.

The other cons? I dunno yet. We’ll give it some time.

The Pros

A vertical has a small footprint and is easy to mount in a semi-permanent fashion. I can put a spike in the ground and position the antenna on top of it if I so choose. I can also just guy it out and hope for the best. Lots of options.

With 6 elements, it covers 40, 30, 20, 17, 15, 12, 10, 6, and 2-meters. That’s a lot of bands. It’s so much more flexible than my string o’ wire in the attic that it really can’t do much other than improve my situation. It is also easier to set up, take down, get to, and maintain. Lots to like here.

The thing is also really easy to put together and remarkably tolerant when it comes to installation. Another win for THIS vertical.

The Plan

This is the part where I should be talking about how I took measurements and planned out the orientation of everything. Instead, after months of thinking, “I should do that this summer or something” I grabbed my phone and placed a pick-up order at DX Engineering. That is the blessing and curse of being 20 minutes from the largest ham radio equipment dealer in the country (world?). It’s just so easy to click buttons and drive over to pick things up. I ordered the DX Commander Classic 2, a window passthrough panel from MFJ, and a bag of turf staples to hold down my radials and that was that.

The Big Decision

The DX Commander Classic 2 comes with the option to replace the 30-meter element with an 80-meter element. This is done by making an inverted-L using a nearby tree or other support. I don’t really have a great place to do that. I’m sure I could make it work, but I’m also sure that I’d use 30-meters more than 80. That was the only real decision that was required prior to sitting down and putting it together.

The Build

This antenna is probably the least frustrating assembly of anything I’ve done lately. I can’t remember anything else just kind of going together and working quite like this. The mast is really simple. There are clamps to put in place to make sure the segments don’t fall down. There are also spacers that need to be put over the mast to hold the elements in place. No stress there. In fact, even the base with all of its wingnuts and whatnot is just threading screws. The entire assembly of the hardware took less than 15 minutes (the clamps have screws and I have clumsy fingers).

The instructions include a cut chart. Not frequencies and wavelengths and cool math stuff. Just a list of “Cut it here” lengths and a couple of spools of wire. My daughter and I went onto the driveway and pulled out a tape measure. We measured the wire and cut it to length. Then I crimped fork connectors onto the ends and shrink-wrapped them. That’s it.

Stringing the elements to the mast is also very simple. The forks are attached to the base with wingnuts and then the elements are strung up through the various spacers. When they get through the last spacer, there is a tiny foldback into a loop that is then either taped or shrinkwrapped in place. Some shock cord is then run through the next available element, tied off, and a stopper knot put in place to keep the cord attached to the element. The element stays tight and nothing flops around in the wind.

With all of that done, it gets set up and guyed out. Again, my daughter came to my rescue and held the mast while I tied off the guy lines. With it up, I attached some radials and…that was it?

The approach the maker takes to radials seems controversial, I guess. Math supports him and physics is what it is. There is a minimum amount of wire you need for radials and then you hit a point of diminishing returns. I used enough to cover my space.

Huh… I mean… Wow.

With the antenna up and the radials deployed, I plugged it in to my RigExpert Stick Pro. I was kind of dumbstruck. All of the bands except 10-meters and 6-meters were at or below an SWR of 1.5:1 out of the box. Even 30-meters was practically 1:1. The 20-meter element is going to get some attention because it’s a bit long according to my measurements on the RigExpert but it is not a big deal. I’ll probably only take off an inch if I feel like it. In truth, the tuner will take care of that without any sweat at all.

To give some perspective, here are the AntScope2 readings for the bands covered by the antenna with NO TUNING adjustments. These are the elements installed as per the cut chart in the instructions.

Did I mention this thing tunes 2-meters like an antenna that should be able to use 2-meters? I’m sure it’s not great, but… Well, no I’m not sure of that. I will need to hook up a 2-meter rig and see what I can hit with it. Why not?

I will say, I had an Oh No! moment when I hooked it up to my IC-7100 to get on the air. With everything in place, I played with FT8 for a minute or two. But…the tuner didn’t kick in. The radio was happy enough with things as they were which was unexpected. Engaging the tuner manually got me down to 1.1:1 on my SWR meter and, well, that was that. The tuner is NOT doing a lot of work here. After I took it down and tuned up some of the elements, 10 and 6 improved quite a bit. All of the bands are quite healthy!

Current Thoughts

There are no final thoughts for this post. This is going to be something that I study for quite some time. I will say that my initial impressions are good. Incredible, really. I didn’t expect it to work this well without a lot of fiddling with things. But as Callum M0MCX says, it’s not like physics is going to change between his shop and my yard. The rules are the rules.

With new bands available to me, I’m going to spend some time on CW and FT8 and see how I do. I’ve already had some great contacts like Japan on 17-meters with 15 watts on FT8. I’m excited to get out and do some POTA hunting and up my game with my CW from home. I’m genuinely delighted with the out of the box performance of this antenna. It’s like starting the hobby all over again!

A Long Weekend

I had the opportunity to take Friday off, so I did. And with a day off and no commitments until much later, I headed out to The Octagon at Cuyahoga Valley National Park – US-0020. I just couldn’t think of a better way to spend a few hours in the quiet before a weekend of things and stuff.

A brief diversion? The summer has arrived, so my Jeep has its summer outfit on. This is a rag top with no windows save the front windshield and its safari doors. Look, I’m not made of sugar and I live in a place that is grey and cold for a decent chunk of the year. When I get the chance to enjoy the wind in my face, I take it. That does come with some risks. When it rains, well, I get wet. And to be absolutely clear, I expect it and embrace it!

The forecast for the day did NOT include rain. I tossed my clamp-on umbrella into the Jeep simply to keep the sun off as that can heat up the radio and get in my face. It’s a nice thing to take along for contingencies. Ya know, sun or…rain.

Halfway to the park, the skies opened up and it rained cats and dogs for about 25 minutes. I pulled over and looked at the weather radar. It was going to pass quickly enough so I kept going. Arriving at the park, I was met with some “jokes” from others in the parking lot. I smiled and grabbed my gear. They’d come back sweaty and gross while I was just freshly showered!

Getting to the picnic tables did show me that I had some obstacles. The table was wet and so was the bench. No worries! I brought my tarp (always do!) and I set up the umbrella to keep the water that was falling out of the trees off of my gear. I deployed the AX1 and hooked up the IC-705. I was ready to go!

Solar Goodness

Friday was great for solar weather. The conditions were good on 40 and 20 and I was able to grab enough contacts to call it an activation in relatively short order. It was so much nicer than the prior activations when the local star was blowing its top and making things difficult. It was great to pull in the contacts!

For a bit of extra fun, I tossed my Surface Go 2 into the bag and grabbed some FT8 while I was at it. It’s been quite a while since I did any digital work during a POTA activity.

QSO Map

With it turning from rain to clear skies I’d been on the air long enough and was feeling refreshed. Here’s what the QSO Map looks like.

Fun While It Lasted

Saturday rolled around and it turned out that we had a graduation party to attend and a few errands to run. What would normally have been a trip to CVNP on a bicycle turned into a quick drive out to play a little radio while the things that needed doing and didn’t involve me were done. I was very pleased to get two opportunities to get into the field in one weekend.

The wonderful solar conditions from Friday DID NOT flow into Saturday. The earth was spinning into all of the fun that comes from yet another CME. This was causing all kinds of problems. The bands would open for a bit and then go silent. As usual, I parked my IC-705 on a portion of the band where I could see the FT8 signals on the waterfall and watched them ebb and flow as I tried to nab enough CW contacts for an activation.

It didn’t work out that way. I managed to get 7 CW contacts in an hour. That’s not great. But I did bring along my computer and flipped over to FT8 to pick up an additional 4 contacts and validate the activation. I don’t know that I would have made it without moving to a digital mode.

The IC-705

It is not a secret that I am a huge fanboy for the IC-705. The switch from operating CW to FT8 was as simple as turning on my little WiFi router that I carry for these occasions and launching wvfiew and WSJT-X on my computer. That’s it. It took maybe 2 minutes and I was on the air and calling CQ on FT8. It’s brilliant and frictionless. Sure, I’ve been using it for years now and have figured out a workflow that makes things very smooth, but wow is this rig a dream for multi-mode portable. Which, again, is not a surprise as that’s kind of its purpose. It’s just amazing to me that it feels so simple when everything else (like the sun) is making things complicated.

QSO Map

Here’s what the activation looks like.

Final

As we get closer and closer to the solar maximum of Cycle 25 the conditions are going to get weird. I’ve decided that when I head out to do an activation I’m going to toss the computer into the bag just in case. More modes make a successful activation more likely. While activating isn’t the goal – being outside and playing radio is – it’s still nice to check it off as DONE. It also keeps me fresh on my digital operating skills. It’s probably time to play a bit more with fldigi so I can get some other modes in the log. Time for some more experimentation!

It might also be time to take the Hardrock-50 into the field with The Big Battery. We’ll see what happens if and when the mood strikes!

Thanks for reading and 72!

Gorgeous Weather

It was sunny and the temperature was darned near perfect for June in NE Ohio. My wife and I got on our bikes and cycled out to Cuyahoga Valley National Park – US-0020 so that we could enjoy the day. The plan was to spend a little time at The Octagon shelter area so I could play a little radio and then head into Peninsula to grab some lunch. I figured that I could get the park activated in about an hour while my wife did a little reading and we’d be on our way.

Well. Yeah. The thing is…

Sensing A Pattern

We’re heading toward the high point of Cycle 25 and it seems that conditions on HF are getting less and less reliable. I know very little about solar weather and I’m certainly not an expert on our local star. I know what I’ve read and I can compare that with my observations. I’m definitely not alone in observing that activations are harder and harder to complete and that makes me feel less like it’s a “Me Problem” and more like it’s a “Giant Ball Of Gas Problem”. That works.

When I set up my Go-To gear (IC-705 with the AX1) and I’m struggling to get it done, I start to doubt myself. Should I toss my EFHW into a tree? Should I have brought the SuperAntenna? But the truth is, if I’m sitting there and RBN is picking me up but I’m not hearing much, it’s very possible that there’s no one out there to hear me or conditions are worse than I thought.

In any case, it seems that budgeting an hour for an activation is not as likely to bear fruit as it was just a few months ago. Not that it matters. Being outside with my radio is the point. Relaxing and getting on the air are the ends.

QSO Map

Here’s what it looked like on the QSO Map:

Final

QRP seems to be about patience these days. Could be that all radio activities are going to involve more patience than they have in this solar cycle. There are still plenty of exciting times ahead. There are months of long, warm, bright days ahead and I plan to spend as many of them as I can in the field playing radio.

Thanks for reading and 72!

You Read That Right

It was a dessert activation. Monday nights are Scout meetings so I figured I could sneak out to Cuyahoga Valley National Park – US-0020 and get an activation in after dinner. I thought of it as a bit of mental sorbet to cleanse the pallette after a long day. It worked out very well!

The past few times that I’ve been out at the park, the local star has been a royal pain. When the sun throws a tantrum, things get crazy for all of us radio folks – not just the QRP operators! As a result, the past couple of activations have been ones that I barely got over the line. Having taken a good look at the conditions for the day in question, it seemed like I might be hitting the right time in terms of solar weather which I normally don’t check at all. My approach is usually one of “Sure, they say the conditions are bad but what does that mean to me in the spot where I’ll be sitting when I’m sitting there? Best test it to find out!” After a few solar tantrums, I at least check to see how much water or coffee to take along.

Tried And True

The gear was predictable. I took the IC-705 and paired it with the AX1. I had my tarp out and everything set up in about 5 minutes. I have this kit down to SOP levels of repeatability. With everything deployed, I didn’t really take any chances. I went straight to 20-meters and I was rewarded.

Moving Around

I managed to get enough contacts for the activation rather quickly on 20. That’s not a shock, but it was nice to get them in the bag. I decided to move to 17 and see what I could hear. It was really, really quiet. I managed to get a contact in Idaho and one in Utah. A friend from Mastodon said I could be heard poking my head out of some serious QSB in Colorado. I can usually tell how well things are going by the number of other activators on the band. I was the only one, so I moved on to 40 to get the local crew. I was not disappointed.

Refreshing

Getting outside on a warm, sunny evening is a beautiful thing. Even if the bands hadn’t cooperated, it was still nice to be the only one at The Octagon. The field around the structure had just been mowed and there was still the smell of cut grass in the air. The birds were busy – including a few crows that were quite disruptive with some QRN (see what I did there?) while I was trying to copy.

The truth is that radio is one of those things where you can only focus on the activity at hand. Careful listening requires attention and when it’s done right all of those other thoughts from the day disappear. After a good hour or so on the air I almost always walk away feeling refreshed and reset. Every thing is cleared out and I can move on to whatever is next without any mental clutter.

QSO Map

With three bands in play, I managed to get 26 contacts. Here’s what it looked like on the QSO Map:

Final

I get the sense that I need to do more of these “Dessert Activations” this summer while we still have the daylight. As has been mentioned to me a few times recently, we’re hitting the solstice and that means that The Long Dark is slowly turning in our direction. I definitely want to make radio hay while the sun shines.

Thanks for reading and 72!

Weeks Without POTA?

The past couple of weeks have been very busy and kept me away from my beloved parks and activations. Life is like that sometimes and we have to muscle through it. When I saw a break in the action on Sunday morning, I knew that I had to jump on it. The weather was going to be great and I didn’t have any commitments for a stretch. I knew that I could grab about 90 minutes or so for an activation at Cuyahoga Valley National Park – US-0020.

Tried And True

I’ve been putting together some resonant wire antennas lately and really wanted to pull one of those out, but I knew that with it being Memorial Day Weekend the park was going to be crowded at all of my normal spots and getting a wire in a tree or a mast set up was going to be a hassle. I fell back on my reliable AX1 paired with the IC-705.

It’s fun to experiement and I do love to try new things, but when time is short we have to reach for what we know will provide results. This combination has rarely left me skunked in the field and it’s very quick and easy to put up and tear down. Given that time was a concern, this was really the only kit to take.

The Bands…Again

The good news is that the bands were not complete garbage like they have been of late. But not being bad and being good are two different things. I would put it all at a solid medium for performance. It didn’t help that there was a contest going on, but the day before the bands had been far worse. It took about an hour to land 11 contacts. One of those in there was a park to park. That always adds a little spice to the mix.

I felt a little rusty. I’ve been practicing my copying at the computer on and off during most days, but being in the field is different. It’s all a surprise. There’s no telling when that call will come breaking through the noise or how hard you will have to listen to copy it. It was nice to get back in front of my rig and paddles.

The QSO Map

It’s a pretty good spread given that it was 40 and 20-meters all day long. Here’s what it looks like on the QSO Map:

Final

There are days when all that matters is that I get myself outside and into the field with my rig. Sitting there in the quiet and playing radio is a very peaceful way to spend a bit of time. It’s very intentional and almost meditative. The time flies by and I always head back feeling refreshed. Here’s hoping that I’m able to sneak out a bit more as we hit the long summer days.

A Beautiful Day At The Park

On Friday, May 10, 2024 I had the afternoon off and decided to head out to Cuyahog Valley National Park – US-0020 to enjoy a quiet afternoon of radio in the park. The sun was shining. The sky was blue. There was a gentle breeze and the temperature was in the low 60s. It was perfect weather.

And yet…

Hours earlier, the local star had belched out multiple coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that were going to cause no end of trouble for the HF bands. It was such a powerful storm that the aurora could be seen in Florida and Texas. That’s some stuff! I knew about the storm and I saw that we were looking at a K index of 9! (or heading in that direction) as I was going to the park. I was not hopeful for activating the park, but why let something like science drag me down?

Setting Up Some Different Gear

Earlier in the week, I decided to get out the SuperAntenna MP1 and set it up. I’d forgotten how great this antenna is. I was looking at it to use with my Penntek rigs in the event that a resonant wire antenna wasn’t something that I could deploy. I pulled together the tripod and various pieces for it and tossed it in the bag.

I also was thinking that it’d been a while since I took out the X6100. Why not throw that in as well along with a CWMorse paddle? Why not, indeed! With the gear in the bag, I headed out to the park.

Up And Running

My picnic table of choice near The Octogon was, as one would expect, available. The antenna was up and tuned in no time. I jumped on the air. I called and called and called. And called and called and called. Wow it was a long time before anyone came back. I did get some spots from the Reverse Beacon Network, but it wasn’t looking great.

Then 20-meters sort of opened up and I was getting some contacts in the log. Looking at the QSO map after the activation, it looked like any other day on 20-meters. But it was slow going, noisy, and full of opening and closing during that whole time as the ionosphere did its thing with all of that energy.

I did nab a park to park in there and got up as far as Maine and out as far as Arizona. Not too bad for 5 watts under those conditions.

A Note Or Two

The X6100 is a good rig. I can’t say anything against it. It has a ton of great features and is quite a platform for hacking. There are a few different images out there that allow for loading different interfaces and operating systems. It’s just cool. Well, it’s not cool when it’s operating. In fact, it’s HOT. I have all kinds of heat sinks on the back of mine and it still gets hot to the touch. And this is just running CW, not digital modes. Still a great rig and given that it has an internal ATU that will match any load I’ve put on it, it’s a great package. wfview integration is just gravy.

My CW Morse paddle (the aluminum one) is a great key to have around. It’s portable and of solid construction. I haven’t used it in a while so it took a minute to get my fingers attuned to it. It’s on that I keep handy when we’re camping.

The MP1 is a fantastic antenna. Any issues I had with it in the past were definitely operator error. It doesn’t take long to tune and it is very versatile. Also takes up very little space both horizontally and vertically. No wires in trees and the radials can be kept out of the way. The tripod mount is pretty neat too. Though, after having a telescoping whip break on me when it fell over, I do prefer to use the all metal, solid whip. Weirder to pack, but more rugged for sure.

The QSO Map

Here’s what it looked like on the QSO Map:

Final

Looking at the solar weather is fun. It definitely gives a perspective on what is happening with our local star and what that might do to our attempts to operate. But it’s really good to get out in the field and see it in action. We were in a really wild solar storm and there was a lot of energy inbound. I still managed to make QRP contacts. I also had a fantastic time being outside and playing radio. So I would not advise using the solar weather as the source of truth for whether or not it’s a good day to turn on the radio. Get out and listen to the bands. See what happens. Worst case scenario is you get a little time outside and a little time messing around with your gear.

Thanks for reading and 72!

Something New-ish?

Cuyahog Valley National Park – US-0020 is a massive park. It stretches a good way between Cleveland and Akron. There are over 100 miles of hiking trails scattered throughout the park and there are many nooks and crannies. On Saturday morning, I headed out to do an activation. I had some time and I wanted to go down to the Quarry area to work. But as I was driving, it occurred to me that going down into the valley after a couple of weekends of Less Than Stellar Propagation might be adding another layer of difficulty to something that had the makings of a rough day for the bands anyway.

Driving along, I came upon the Shady Knoll picnic area and pulled off there. It’s nothing more than a couple of parking spots and a few picnic tables. There was no one around and as I set up I could tell that the traffic zipping by not to far away might be a reason that more people don’t frequent this area. No matter! I got set up and got to work!

New Fangled Picnic Tables

The tables at the picnic area are the newer ones that I have seen in the park. They are quite thick. In fact, they are far too thick for the clamp mount that I have for my AX1 (more on the mount below!). I had wondered about this because I couldn’t recall if the Quarry area had those tables as well, so I tossed my mini-tripod in the backpack just in case. I’m glad I did!

Slow

I deployed the IC-705 and my Begali Traveler. I was set up for 40-meters and got to work. It was very slow going. There was the activity on the band, but contacts were few and far between. I stalled out after 3 contacts on 40. It was just a lot of calling CQ and a lot of silence coming back at me. Time to move to 20-meters!

The last time I was out, I sat on 14.069 and not for nothing. The waterfall on the IC-705 puts the 14.074 on the far right of the screen if I’m centered on 14.069. That means I can see the FT8 and FT4 traffic. This was very, very useful. As I was calling CQ and listening, I could see the bands fade in and out as I watched that traffic ebb and flow. It’s a handy little trick that I plan to use more often when things are questionable.

As one might imagine, it was slow. The time between QSOs was long. The bands were coming and going. When they were up, things were great! When they were down, I couldn’t hear a thing other than the occasional crash. After about 90 minutes, I had my 10 contacts. 10 minutes more and nothing heard. It was time to go QRT and get lunch with my son.

QSO Map

Here’s what my patience got me on the QSO Map:

A Note On The AM1

I mentioned my antenna mount above. I have the AM1 Portable Antenna Mount System from ProAudio Engineering. It is a wonderful mount for the AX1. It attaches well to normal picnic tables and even to the cargo cage of my Jeep. I take it everywhere. But I did notice something about it early on. It seemed that I got much better results attaching the counterpoise of the AX1 to the ground lug of my IC-705 rather than the lug on the antenna mount. I didn’t give it much thought because I found a setup that worked and I stuck with it. On Friday, I got an email from ProAudio saying that there was an issue with the lockwasher on the unit that wasn’t allowing a connection between the BNC connector and the lug. I got out the old meter and, yup, that was the case. A couple of moments with a file around the edges where the BNC connector passes through to remove the thick anodized coating and BOOM the meter confirmed that things were flowing where they ought to flow. I wasn’t able to play with that this weekend as the table was too thick for the mount, but I’m confident I will have improved results in the field.

Final

Another “struggle” of an activation with the bands being less than helpful. I still got to sit outside with my radio and enjoy The Big Blue Room. It felt good and it was far better than being indoors for sure. I’m not sure I will hit that spot again as the traffic noises kept a lid on the outdoor vibes, but it’s a place to remember when there are crowds elsewhere.

Thanks for reading along and 72!

The Hobby of Hobbies Strikes Again!

I can’t remember exactly when, but there was a point after I got my ticket when I started to see that all of these really cool kits for ham radio enthusiasts were practically buried in 3d printing. The last thing I needed was another pile of equipment, so I put that idea on the shelf and went about my business. Every once in a while, I would poke my head into the world of 3d printing and think, “Maybe? Should I?”

Something that I figured out quickly is that this particular pursuit had a very early dividing point. When one was selecting a printer, there was a decision: Do I want printing or the printer to be the hobby?

The earliest printers were pretty complex kits. The ones with the biggest names and followings could, at a certain point, be upgraded by printing the parts for the upgrade. In my heart, I love that thought. Being able to maintain a tool with parts created by the tool is the kind of thing that anyone who ever went deep on hard sci-fi would get into. But I don’t live on a starship at the outer reaches of the galaxy. I live in a world with time constraints. That, as always, narrowed the field.

Christopher M0YNG, the admin of Mastodon.Radio, responded to a general lazy-web style query I made to the hivemind at large and responded that if I wanted a printer that just did what I wanted it to do, the Anycubic Vyper was a good choice. I did a lot of shopping and poking around and came back to the Vyper. The price was right. It’s pretty user-serviceable. It works out of the box. All of these things were pretty great!

What Do You Do With It?

I have printed a lot of objects for my radio hobby with this printer. Sure, I did a test print of a rectangle with my callsign in it to make sure I could use the software. But I also looked up the plethora of models on the internet that related to my gear.

I made a face plate for the IC-705.

I printed a case – complete with switches – for my QRP Power Meter/SWR Meter/Dummy Load.

And I printed a box to keep my Begali Traveler safe when it’s bouncing around in my bag.

All of those are pretty neat! They didn’t take long and I didn’t have to do much to make sure that they came out in a useable state. Sure, my color choices are questionable, but that yellow filament was on sale.

The Best Part

So many things that come with antennas or radios in general are little plastic widgets that could be described as a square of plastic with a specifically sized hole in it. Take for example the insulators that come along with EFHW antennas. Or even the rings that are used to attach guy lines to a mast. These are little bits that are easy to lose. Well, lucky for us (me) there are a lot of models out there already for replacing these bits and pieces. And honestly, printing one up costs less than shipping if, say, a dog has chewed up said guy line ring.

Being able to whip up one of those parts in under 30 minutes is pretty slick.

Other Uses

It’s not just ham radio where a dumb, plastic widget breaks or is lost and requires a ton of research to replace. There are bits of household appliances that have models on the internet. I’ve found a few of those and have proactively pulled down a model or two for the bits and bobs that are most likely to break.

As I get better with the modeling software, I am more confident that I can make things that are useful and not just cool owls and stuff.

Final

3d printing is a hobby in and of itself. I am not really in it for that, but I can see how one could easily go down that rabbit hole. For me, I see it as a low-grade substitute for the replicator on Star Trek. I’m not unhappy with what I’ve seen and done so far.

It’s Here.

I’m going to call it: spring has finally hit in NE Ohio. What does that mean? Honestly, it means being outside at the parks and not having my fingers freeze as I work CW or get my stuff set up. It also brings along with it some surprise rain showers. The truth still holds that there is no bad weather, just insufficient gear.

What it also means, however is that some of my operating procedures have to shift a bit. During the winter, when I’ve been out at the largely uninhabited parks, I’ve been using my EFHW a fair bit. In the months when there are more people around and there are more leaves in trees, I skew toward my collection of verticals. I’ve been giving a lot of thought to how I will approach this season, but in the course of one week, the trees at Cuyahog Valley National Park – US-0020 have started to fill in and with that comes incresed difficulty with lines in trees. At least for those like me who are not particularly accurate with our throws.

More about this later, but I’m thinking a lot about what it means to work QRP and how critical our choices are when it comes to antennas.

Getting Outside

It wasn’t much of a sell to get my wife to head out to the park on Saturday. We’d thought about biking out there, but the puppy really needed a nice, long walk to wear her out, so we decided we’d drive out there and she could take a hike while I set up and made some contacts. Not a bad plan!

This time around, I had my IC-705 and AX1. This is a pretty secure combo. I was really hoping that they would perform for me on this outing given the rough conditions the previous weekend.

Well…

Not In The Cards

The bands were hot garbage. 20-meters was crashing and fading. 40-meters was almost useless. When I can’t hear anything on the IC-705, I start to think that either my antenna is not plugged in or that the ionosphere has fled the scene. It was really rough. I struggled to get my 10 contacts in about 90 minutes. In the middle of all of this, we even got a little sprinkling. This is why I always have a tarp!

QSO Map

It wasn’t a great day, but I got there. 2 park to parks were in the collection and this is what it looked like:

Final

When the bands are like this, it’s tempting to scrutinize everything. Should I have tossed an antenna in a tree? Should I have taken along other options? Should I do some deep analysis during some backyard portable?

This is where things like Mastodon shine. It was easy to get feedback from other hams who could confirm for me that it wasn’t just me and my puny 5 watts. It was everyone.

As I always say, a day outside with the radio in any conditions is better than not getting outside.

Thanks for reading and 72!

Getting Out To Support The Parks

One of my favorite things in amateur radio is obviously getting out to the parks and participating in POTA as an activator. It’s also pretty clear that I really love hanging out at Cuyahoga Valley National Park – US-0020. There’s really not much better on a Saturday than to bike out to the park and enjoy a couple of hours in the sun making contacts. Well, the thing is…

April Showers? No… Just More Grey Cold

My wife and I were planning to bike out to the park. We were slowly getting ready and started to look at the weather. The temperatures were in the 40s, it was overcast, and the winds were around 18 mph with 32 mph gusts. We looked at each other for a bit and realized that this was totally doable, but probably not much fun. So we changed plans. I would go out to the park on my own and activate for a bit and come home.

I moved my gear from my pannier to my backpack and headed out for the park. The sky was grey and there was a pretty stiff breeze. I went with the AX1 and set up my TR-35 to give it another go now that I had changed a ton of settings on the ATU-10. I was hoping to get a random wire in a tree if I had time.

With everything set up, I got on the air.

Anybody Home?

I started on 20-meters because I did want the activation to move along today. It was a bit cooler than I wanted it to be and with no sun, being outside felt like a continuation of winter. As I called CQ and even spotted myself, no one came back for a long, long time.

The band was crashing. There were flashes of static and a very high noise floor alternating with dead silence. It was enough to make me question the rig and the antenna. I did what I did last time and swapped the TR-35 for my IC-705. No dice.

At this point, I was giving the AX1 some serious side-eye. I reached into my bag and pulled out my 40-20-10 EFHW and my throw line. With no one around, I picked a branch in a tree that was perfectly positioned and got the line over it on the first try. This was a Batman level throw and there was no one to see it. Such is the life of a POTA Activator, I suppose.

This antenna is really the best in my collection in terms of efficiency. It never misses. So why were the bands still crashing and quiet? Why was 40-meters fading like I’ve never heard before? Oh, ya know, just luck. Later on Mastodon I would have my complaints confirmed by a panel of experts who were also frustrated by conditions.

Finally…

I did get my 10. I walked away with 12 contacts total in about 2 hours of activating. Not the worst Support Your Parks Weekend story I heard about Saturday, but not my favorite by far. By the time it was all said and done, my fingers were cold and I was pretty tired of sitting outside in the grey. I guess my mind really believes that April should be warmer and more inviting. I forget where I am sometimes.

QSO Map

Here it is. From the looks of it, it wasn’t too bad. But it didn’t feel that way getting there.

Final

Yes, any day outside is better than one spent inside. I’m just impatient for REAL SPRING and some more time with that elusive yellow orb in the sky. I know it’s coming. And I know that my TR-35 will continue to get a workout until I get a full activation with it. The conditions will change. Things will improve. Next weekend looks good so far.

Thanks for reading and 72!

Amazing Weather!

The entire weekend was about picture perfect. The sun was out. There was a nice breeze. It was warm but not hot. We did have a little work to do with some plumbing on Saturday, but it got done and that made time for Other Things. And you know that means POTA!

Too. Many. Variables.

I decided that I’d go to my most local park which is the Cooperrider-Kent Bog State Nature Preserve – US-9401. It’s just down the street and seemed like a great idea since I had some Dad Taxi duties floating around with unknown timelines. The truth is that this park is a boardwalk look around a bog. There are no picnic tables and no space to sit, really. Thus I was consigned to the Jeep. I’ve shared many times that this is not my favorite setup. This was the first variable in play.

The second was the Penntek TR-35. I’ve been itching to get this little guy into the field, so I tossed it in my bag. I don’t know this transceiver very well, but the only way I learn is by doing.

The third variable was the one that might have wrecked things but I’m not really sure just yet. I recenly received an ATU-10 automatic antenna tuner as designed by N7DDC and built by a reputable seller to whom I shall not link until I have determined if I have a problematic unit or the dreaded Operator Error. I was planning to use this little guy to give the AX-1 that little bump that it needs to work with the TR-35. I’d measured the SWR on the AX-1 a few times in experiments earlier in the week and it just needed a touch of tuning. So little, in fact, that getting it right on the z-match tuner was a total pain. Why not try the ATU-10?

Lots of new stuff in a new place in an operating position I don’t love. What could go wrong?

This Looks OK…

I got everything set up. The AX-1 was clamped to my Jeep’s cargo bar. The tuner was set up on the dash. The TR-35 was hanging out on my speaker in the phone holder (not at all precariously!). Everything looked good. I hit the tuning cycle on the ATU-10 and things settled in at about 1.1:1. Cool! So I started calling CQ.

And I kept calling.

I spotted myself.

And kept calling.

The RBN heard me! That was good! But it was a very long time before I got a call. It came in at 599 for sure. The signal indicator on the TR-35 was lit up nice and bright. It was a perfect signal from Maine. No fading, no nonsense. It was impressive!

And then nothing. Some static. A few crashes on 20-meters. No other calls.

It was time to pack it in.

I wasn’t too phased by not getting the activation. It was a Saturday at about 3 PM and the weather was amazing. It was nice to sit there in the sun (in the Jeep) and play with my new toys. I had the nagging feeling that I get with a new rig that I did something wrong, but I don’t believe that there was anything to do wrong. Sometimes, the magic simply doesn’t happen. And that’s OK! Besides, as soon as I pulled out of the parking lot, my daughter requested pick up and food for her and her friends. Dad Life!

QSO Map

Here is what my QSO with Maine looked like:

Sunday Will Be Better

It is well known that my wife and I love to bike out to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park – US-0020. We do that most weekends in the summer and I always take my radio along to do a little POTA while we eat lunch. I figured this would be an easy win! Once again, I set up the TR-35 and the ATU-10 with the AX-1 and got to calling CQ. This time, I even used the message memory in the TR-35. Good stuff!

Lots of crashing on 40-meters. I got one contact with Michigan and then moved to 20-meters. More crashing. Maybe our local star was trying to wreck my flow, but it could also be that, again, I was using new stuff. This time, I was prepared. I reached into the bag and pulled out the IC-705.

And I got nothing.

It was almost 20 minutes until I got a contact. It was a Park To Park with an operator in Kansas. The crashing on the bands didn’t let up. There was a lot of fading. After about an hour and a half, I had 7 total contacts and a lot of band noise. I’m not going to give any side-eye to the new gear as I really do believe the bands were hot garbage. I also noticed that the POTA site didn’t pick me up on the RBN though I was getting picked up by the RBN. In fact, all of the activators only had spots from hunters. I wonder if there was a technical difficulty there. Not that it would have helped. You can only work what you can hear and there’s no hearing anything over that kind of noise.

QSO Map

Here’s what the map looked like for Sunday in the park.

Final

What’s does all of this mean?

Nothing. Playing with new toys is learning what they’re good at and where you have to give to take. I plan to take the TR-35 out with a resonant wire antenna in the near future and give it a chance to shine in some backyard portable. I also plan to take this week and mess around with the ATU-10. It seems to want to kick into tuning cycles at odd intervals. Maybe I just need to tune it and turn it off. I was pretty sure that I consumed all available documentation on the device and given that it only has 3 button press commands, it’s hard to imagine that there is a lot of user error here. I will report back with findings.

Also, it’s important to note that there’s no getting skunked in POTA. Sitting outside in the sun with a nice breeze on a Sunday afternoon is fantastic with or without contacts. It’s about playing with a radio outdoors. And that, my friends, is hard to screw up.

P.S.

I didn’t take pictures while I was out on these activations for no really good reason. So you get a picture of Bella the Rottie after a very, very muddy hike where she rolled in everything that she could. You’re welcome!

72!

What Are We Doing?

This blog exists for me to catalog sucesses and failures. The other thing it does is provide me with a place to put things so that I can get to them no matter where I am assuming – an internet connection. The topic for today is a refresher on my setup for my portable digital operations.

The Gear and Software

This discussion centers around the use of the IC-705 and the Microsoft Surface GO 2. I have no reason to believe that changing the computer will make any difference as I have gotten this working on other laptops, but the operating system will require some attention.

I’m running Ubuntu as my Linux distro on this device. There is pre-reading required to make this all work and we’ll get to that in a second.

Software includes the following from the Ubuntu repository:

• wfview
• fldigi
• WSJT-X
• Pat

I am currently using the fork of ardop known as – ardopcf from pflarue on GitHub. New and exciting things are happening here in the world of ardop.

The Pre-Work – wfview

There is a great set of instructions on how to get ALSA loopback devices set up appropriately for wfview in their well-written user manual. Start here:

Audio Configuration

With all of that done and in place, there are a few things to look at in wfview for rig control to make life a little easier. At the bottom of this page of the wfview manual there is some good information on setting up wfview to do what flrig would do. That’s what I do. Why? Because it’s working and keeps things simple. The important thing, in my experience, is to set the port number to something other than 4532 which is the flrig default. I set it to 4533 because that’s a safe port number.

Here is what my wfview External Control tab looks like:

It should be noted that I’m using the Virtual Serial Port. This is a mapping to /dev/pty/NUMBER and it takes care of itself once set up.

fldigi

With wfview up and running, setting up fldigi is relatively simple. The following configurations for audio and rig control are currently working.

The rig control settings are set on the HamLib segment of the Rig Control section in the configuration dialogue.

Use hamlib is selected.
Rig is set to Hamlib NET rigctl (stable)
Device is set to 127.0.0.1:4553 (as found in wfview)
Baud rate is set to 115200

All other settings are defaults.

With this complete, save and initialize the connection and then go to the main fldigi window to tune or send a station ID. Rig control and audio should function as expected.

WSJT-X

WSJT-X is the odd duck. My dad and I have the rig control configured differently, but it still works for both of us. What does that mean? There might be more than one successful configuration so maybe find what works and don’t touch it after that. What I use is listed here.

The Radio settings tab is configured as follows.

Rig: Icom IC-705
Serial Port: /home/jcw/rig-pty-1
Baud Rate: 115200
PTT Method: CAT
Data Bits: Default
Stop Bits: Default
Handshake: Default
Mode: Data/Pkt
Split Operation: None

The Audio setup matches the devices that are set in wfview but in reverse.

Note: I find the labeling in wfview to be counterintuitive. It’s probably just my broken brain, but I have to remind myself to flip things around and think about it as source/destination pairs. It’s probably just me.

The Audio tab is configured as follows.

Input: plughw:CARD=Loopback,DEV=1
Output: plughw:CARD=Loopback_1,DEV=1

With this configuration in place, one can test the rig control on the Radio tab or by going to the main window and changing frequencies. Running a tuning cycle briefly will test audio output.

ARDOP – ardopcf

ardopcf is available on GitHub as a binary. Simply download it and put it in /usr/local/bin, run a quick chmod+x on it, and it should be good to go. That’s all that it required of me.

With ardopcf in place, lauching ardop is fairly simple. I put it in a little script so that I don’t have to type out the arguments each time. I named the script “startardop.sh” and dumped it in my home directory. Creative, huh? Here’s what it looks like:

ardopcf 8515 plughw:CARD=Loopback,DEV=1 plughw:CARD=Loopback_1,DEV=1

When you start ardopcf, you should start to see pairs of numbers in the terminal showing you audio input levels. If you’re getting a lot of 0,0 then you might have a problem or wfview might not be running. Maybe your rig is off? Check your signal chain. If, on the other hand, you’re seeing numbers pop up every 4 seconds or so, then you’re in good shape.

Pat

Pat requires some homework and I’m just going to dump some output here. There are instructions for configuration here: https://github.com/la5nta/pat/wiki/The-command-line-interface

The crux of the matter is configuring ~/.config/pat/config.json. Your mileage is going to vary here, but my config looks like this:

{
"mycall": "KC8JC",
"secure_login_password": "NOTPUTTINGTHATONTHEBLOG-HAHAHA!",
"auxiliary_addresses": [],
"locator": "EN91hd",
"service_codes": [
"PUBLIC"
],
"http_addr": "localhost:8080",
"motd": [
"Open source Winlink client - getpat.io"
],
"connect_aliases": {
"telnet": "telnet://{mycall}:CMSTelnet@cms.winlink.org:8772/wl2k"
},
"listen": [],
"hamlib_rigs": {
"my_ic705": {"address": "localhost:4533", "network": "tcp"}
},
"ax25": {
"port": "wl2k",
"beacon": {
"every": 3600,
"message": "Winlink P2P",
"destination": "IDENT"
},
"rig": "my_ic705",
"ptt_ctrl": true,
"beacon_interval": 0,
"cwid_enabled": true
},
"serial-tnc": {
"path": "/dev/ttyUSB0",
"serial_baud": 9600,
"hbaud": 1200,
"type": "Kenwood"
},
"ardop": {
"addr": "localhost:8515",
"arq_bandwidth": {
"Forced": false,
"Max": 2000
},
"rig": "my_ic705",
"ptt_ctrl": true,
"beacon_interval": 0,
"cwid_enabled": true
},
"pactor": {
"path": "/dev/ttyUSB0",
"baudrate": 57600,
"rig": "",
"custom_init_script": ""
},
"telnet": {
"listen_addr": ":8774",
"password": ""
},
"varahf": {
"host": "localhost",
"cmdPort": 8300,
"dataPort": 8301,
"bandwidth": 2300,
"rig": "",
"ptt_ctrl": false
},
"varafm": {
"host": "localhost",
"cmdPort": 8300,
"dataPort": 8301,
"bandwidth": 0,
"rig": "",
"ptt_ctrl": false
},
"gpsd": {
"enable_http": false,
"allow_forms": false,
"use_server_time": false,
"addr": "localhost:2947"
},
"schedule": {},
"version_reporting_disabled": false
}

Wow. That’s a lot of stuff. That is the configuration that is currently working for me for sending Winlink email using ARDOP or telnet.

What a lot of people seem to miss is that Pat has a web gui that will run on localhost:8080. It makes using Pat a lot easier and gives a fresh, modern GUI to Winlink email. And yes, it handles forms and everything. It’s pretty darned cool!

To get that up and running, I use yet another creatively named script: startpat.sh. The contents of that are:

pat-winlink --listen "ardop,ax25,telnet" http

What does that do? It starts up Pat listening for connections on ardop, ax25, or telnet. I didn’t detail ax25 here because, well, I’m not done playing with that just yet. And telnet should always be there so that you can use Pat if you have a good internet connection and NEED to check your Winlink email. The http argument starts the application listening on 8080 for the web UI. With Pat running, all you have to do is go to https://localhost:8080/ui and you’ll see the web UI. You’re now free to explore Pat and send/receive Winlink email.

Final

This is the setup that is currently working for me. I will update this as I add other modes, etc.

That Didn’t Take Long

I have been using West Branch – US-1999 as my go-to park this winter. This is in part because there is a seldom-used shelter available and the park is quite empty this time of year. I’ve gone on at length about how much I enjoy the solitude at the park. It’s one of the things that I really enjoy about POTA. West Branch is a busy place once it gets warm enough to be on the water, so I’ve been enjoying the quiet as we inched our way through winter.

In fact, I’ve only activated West Branch a total of 41 times. I just pulled up the neat POTA stats and saw that my contacts break down very neatly to:

CW: 900
Data: 90
Phone: 10

How wild is that? What this really means is that I didn’t spend much time at this park before I started on my quest to learn CW. 900 contacts. That’s a lot more than I would have expected! Sure, I’m still chugging along at 15 wpm and I’m not exactly ready to rag-chew for any period of time, but I’m putting in the time and enjoying it. That’s what Ham Radio is about.

What’s intriguing is that I was pulling in more contacts per activation than at US-0020 when I was running primarily FT8. It should be obvious, but CW contacts for POTA can run much more quickly than an FT8 QSO. Not to mention that it seems to me there are more hunters on CW than FT8. There is bias in there, but it’s what I’m seeing.

Fox Den Activator

When we got back from our trip to Hocking Hills, I took the opportunity to head out to the park while the family was otherwise engaged in Things And Stuff. Two of the three trips I made out during the week were absolutely miserable. High winds. Temperatures in the 30s. Whitecaps on the water. Not the best time to be sitting outside and not moving around. But I did it. What I didn’t do was take many pictures.

During these last three activations, I pulled in the Fox Den Activator award for 40 activations at the park. Another neat PDF to add to my growing collection.

The notable contact for that trip out was a hit from France! F6EAZ was very patient and sent that call about 8 times to beat the noise. I got a 529 from that end. It’s always exciting to get Europe from a picnic table in NE Ohio on 5 watts.

The Kilo Activation

On Easter Sunday, I took the opportunity to head out while my wife and daughter had a hike for a challenge my wife is working on and my son, well, slept. Or something. My original thought was to sit in the Jeep, much as I hate it, and do the activation from there given the weather the past few days. But when I arrived, there was no wind. It was almost comfortable outside in the mid-40s. I changed plans and tossed my EFHW onto The Branch and got setup and ready to go.

This was the kind of activation that I see in videos. I was in pile-up mode for the first 30 minutes or so where I grabbed an average of a QSO per minute. It was a wild ride for sure! Operators doubling up and me trying to pick out bits so I could narrow the field. I’m getting better at that mostly, I think, because I don’t mind taking my time and sending “?” a lot.

There was precious little downtime during this activation. There were the odd minutes where no one answered, but for the most part, I think a lot of hams were hanging out and waiting for holiday festivities to start or just wanted to pass some time Sunday morning on the air. Either way, it worked out for me.

I do have to say that there are occasionally calls that come out of the blue that throw me. That definitely happened on this activation. Calls that start with “SM” are pretty rare for me with 5 watts in NE Ohio. But there it was. SM3NRY coming in loud and clear from Sweden. I did take a minute to check the call on my phone. Wow. How awesome is that?

I also managed to get KE2AEQ from the Mastodon Radio world in the log as well. A great day for radio!

What was particularly intersting was that I needed 64 QSOs to hit the Kilo mark. I caught 67. There was a dupe and two busted calls in there. Remember gang, always grab a couple of extra while you’re there. I think I would have been pretty bummed out to come up one QSO shy.

QSO Maps

Here are the QSO Maps for the three activations that put me over the top for the Kilo.

Final

I am sure that I will still get out to West Branch for activations, but we’re getting to the time of year when I spend way more time on my bicycle and try to travel to and from activations that way. There are also more boats and geese and people wandering around now. Plenty of photographers to go along with the disc golfers and folks fishing. The park and its people are waking up for spring. Like the birds, I will migrate elsewhere for a bit. There are new parks to activate and old ones to revisit. Maybe even a rove!

Thanks for reading and 72!

Vacation Time!

The kids hit Spring Break for the last week of March and I took the week off to hang out with them. Of course, that means a little bit of camping because as a family that’s what we do. This time around, my wife, daughter, rottie, and I were the attendees for the camping portion of the week off. My son wasn’t feeling it and if he was going to be home, it made sense to leave the Old Man Dog aka Nacho home as well given that it was going to get cold and he’d likely not have a great time with it.

We packed up our camper and headed out into the far flung reaches of…Ohio?

We picked a private campground near Hocking Hills State Park – US-1958. Our plan was to set up and hang out and get over to the park to do some hiking as weather and mood permitted.

This trip was less about radio and more about learning bits and pieces about our camper. We used the heater for the first time and it was amazing! I had a lot of doubts, but the team at Opus has really thought it through. Well, that was until we turned on the water and the water heater started spewing water into the back compartment of the camper. This required some field maintenance which turned out to be field discovery of the comings and goings of the plumbing. Let’s just say I learned a lot and we’ll have water for our next trip, but we were using a kettle to pour water from the Jerry Cans for this trip. Live and learn, right?

The Park

Hocking Hills is known as one of the most scenic parks in Ohio. There are massive caves and waterfalls. It’s all very carefully laid out as to be accessible for everyone (in most places) and that’s great! This does attract crowds and I find that it’s harder for me to relax in nature with 300 of my closest friends.

The crew hiked to Ash Cave and then split up. The ladies and pup went onward and I headed back to the parking lot to attempt an activation.

Super Stealthy Ham Guy

This parking lot was loaded. I didn’t take any pictures because there were constantly people coming and going. I didn’t want to creep anyone out, so I only snapped a quick shot of my setup. It’s the stealth combo of the IC-705 and AX1.

I picked a picnic table that was off in the mud so that it wouldn’t be Prime Real Estate and got set up. It was interesting in that there was a tree to blind it from cars turning into the parking lot, but otherwise, I was in plain sight about 20 yards from the lot. No one even so much as looked at me. The low profile of the AX1 was doing its thing. I had my headset, so I was silent. I was sure someone would say something, but no one did. Weird!

I got to work an put 27 CW contacts in the log before I was rejoined by the ladies and the pup.

QSO Map

Propagation was good to me on 20-meters with my meager 5 watts. Here’s what the QSO Map looks like.

Final

That was the only radio I was able to work in while we were camping. But more happened later in the week when we returned home. Stay tuned for more excitement and thanks for reading along! 72!

The Weather Isn’t Why I Live Here

That’s not an entirely true statement. I’ve lived in places where the weather was far, far worse but there is something about having a bright, sunny, gorgeous looking day (as seen through the window of a house) and walking out into high 30s / low 40s temperatures. Not horrible, but when one is sitting still, not as comfortable as I might like.

Yes, I was back out at West Branch SP – K-1999 this past weekend. I’m chipping away at that kilo and I’m in the last 200 contacts. If there were to be a day where it was sunny and in the 60s, I’m sure I’d sit there until I got it done. But with high wind and cooler temps, well, an hour or so is just about enough time sitting still.

Saturday With The TR-45L

On Saturday, I decided to take the Penntek TR-45L out with me. I left any other options at home so that I’d force myself to get re-acquianted with this rig. I’m glad I didn’t have a fallback position as it forced me to reckon with some things.

Initially, I paired my Sunday Driver rig with the AX1. I don’t have a lot of practice with the Z-match tuner and I fiddled with it for quite a while. The rig wasn’t happy with the SWR. I didn’t have my QRP SWR meter with me (tactical error) so I couldn’t tell if the rig was really unhappy or just enjoyed blinking the angry red light at me. I know that we’re talking about less than 5 watts here, but I really like this radio and I don’t want it to be sad. It felt like a good idea to change it up.

My backpack always has my end-fed half-wave tuned to 40-20-10 and a random wire antenna along with my throw line ready to go in a single pouch. Why? Because in a pinch, the random wire will do what I need it to do and the end-fed has never failed me.

Note: I’m not saying the AX1 failed me. I’m saying I need more time with the tuner to figure out how to keep everyone happy.

I pitched the end-fed up into The Tree on The Branch and got back to it. This was a place where plugging the end-fed into the clamp mount I have for the AX1 was really handy. It keeps everying nicely positioned. I’m sure I’ll hear about some law of antenna physics I’m breaking here, but stuff worked. Everything was just over 1:1.

Working… Working…

I nabbed 14 contacts on 40-meters in about 30 minutes. It was pretty steady until it wasn’t. When 40 felt depleted, I moved over to 20-meters and picked up 16 more in short order. I did get a surprise contact from Alaska! NL7V was doing the heavy lifting on that contact for sure, but it’s in the log! It was a good spread of contacts and, as usual, the end-fed gave a stellar performance.

QSO Map

Here’s the QSO Map for the Saturday activation.

Sunday With My Buddy

Having been a bit humbled by my experience with the TR-45L and the realization that I’m going to need to do some backyard portable hunting to get a better feel for this rig, I took my old buddy the IC-705 out with me this time around. I decided to stick with the end-fed antenna just to see what I could see. I was not disappointed.

Setup took a little longer. On Saturday, I got the throw line up in one shot. Sunday, I looked like a blooper reel. There was a lot of throwing before I had the antenna in place. It got where it needed to be and things were set up and ready to go shortly thereafter.

QRN? What’s That?

I’m not re-opening the discussion. I’ve decided that QRN is all natural phenomena include geese and, in this case, really loud winds. I was set up and running along on 40-meters and about 15 minutes or so into my activation, the wind started howling. The trees were swaying. There were whitecaps on the water. I zipped up my coat and put on my watch cap and got back to it. It became a challenge to hear over it, but I kept going.

It’s probably an important thing to say yet again, but the average activator probably isn’t relaxing on a beach somewhere. At least, not if they are activating a park in NE Ohio in March. I appreciate the patience of the hunters who have no idea that they’re competing with the environmental noises at an activation site. Thanks for playing along! And yes, I do know more than CQ, my callsign, and “?”.

Surprise!

After depleting 40 and 20, I decided to give 10 a chance before I packed up. It was pretty quiet on that band. And when the IC-705 isn’t hearing something, it’s probably not able to be heard. But just as I was about to give up, I heard a very, very faint call. After much back and forth, I made out DL3AZ. Germany. On 5 watts into a wire in a tree. That’s the wild magic of radio. I got a 519 and I’ll take it all day long. After that contact, it was dead air and time to pack up before my fingers got too cold to function.

QSO Map

Here’s what the QSO Map looks like.

Final

I’m really looking forward to better weather, but until it gets here, I will keep heading out to the park 90 minutes at a time to enjoy some therapy in The Big Blue Room. It’s sometimes hard to remember what warm activations felt like – or ones where I would sweat! I know that they happen, but they feel like distant memories. They’ll be back soon enough.

Thanks for reading along and 72!

Activation Report

Last weekend wasn’t great for being out and activating, so it’s going to be a quick post today. On Friday, 08-Mar-2024 I took the day off and got a little time to head out to West Branch SP – K-1999 for an activation. The weather was outstanding. Sunny, in the 50s, and only a light breeze. There were many boats on the water as everyone seemed to decide that it was the day to take off. And they weren’t wrong given that Saturday was rainy all day and Sunday saw 2″ of snow drop on us. Friday was what we got.

My dad asked about the mount that I have for the AX1 so I figured I’d put a picture of it here to use as a future reference. It’s a cool antenna mount that fits picnic tables as well as the cargo cage on my Jeep. It’s solid and does its thing.

The bands were not great. It was noisy and there was a lot of fading. I worked 40-meters for a bit and then switched over to 20. It wasn’t easy going on either band. I still managed to get from Arizona to Nova Scotia despite the less than great conditions.

The gear was the usual: IC-705, mAT-705 tuner, Begali Traveler, and the AX1 antenna. Quick setup, quick tear-down, and great performance.

QSO Map

Here’s what the QSO Map looked like.

Final

Quick report today to keep myself honest and track progress. I’ve been out every weekend this year so far except one to activate. Funny to look back and think that a goal for 2023 was one activation a month. Now it feels like if I’m not doing one a week I’m going to lose my mind! I guess that’s what happens when you’re having fun.

Freeze Your Acorns Off

Each year, my local club hosts a QRP event at Fred Fuller Park in Kent, Ohio. It was the first event the club ever held and they’ve kept that tradition alive. Part of it is wearing Hawaiian shirts to thumb our collective noses at Mother Nature during an outdoor operating event that is usually held in February in less than comfortable conditions. There is also a competition of sorts for the best shared dish. And points for things like having a black squirrel (the club mascot) at your operating position.

For me, it’s less about the competition itself and more about sitting outside in miserable weather playing radio with my dad. We always team up and while we don’t win, we have a lot of fun.

As with last year, we primarily ran FT8. Digital and CW have a 5 watt max with a 10 watt allowance for Phone. I didn’t feel like talking and I know that because we’re not at a POTA entity, grabbing contacts is never easy. FT4/FT8 is always a good choice.

We made about 31-ish contacts. Plenty of different states and we got a province in there and Cuba as well. Not too bad. We didn’t plan on winning and left a couple of hours early because of things and stuff. It was a lot of fun. Just shooting the stuff with other club members and whatnot. Very relaxed. Not nearly as cold as last year, but still rainy and miserable so the spirit of the event was in tact.

A Regular Activation

The Sunday after FYAO it was a bit warmer. In fact, when I got to West Branch SP – K-1999 I noticed that there were more cars there than I’ve seen in a quite a while. Certainly more than I’ve seen to date this year. There were plenty of disc golfers and I counted 5 boats in my time there. The temperatures were in the lower 50s so it was no surprise that there were people on the water. During my time at the park, it was overcast, but the sun came out later in the day.

I put up the AX1 and started on 40-meters. I did pretty well. I did move over to 20-meters and it wasn’t that bad. There was a big SSB contest going on so the CW segments of the bands weren’t too bad.

Once again, I got my buddy out in Oregon (WA7RAR) with a faint signal, but readable. And I did get surprise. Way, way down in the noise there was a faint signal. I tuned a little bit and cranked it up on the IC-705. There it was. I1EEW. Very slowly. Three times in a row with a pause. I got back to them and sure enough, we had a contact. Italy! Imagine that! On 5 watts from NE Ohio! I do love those little surprises that pop up now and again. It keeps it all very, very interesting.

QSO Map

I once again have proof that the AX1 is the worst dummy load I own having leaked it’s RF as far as Oregon, Florida, Texas, and Italy. Here’s what it looked like.

Final

I’m inching my way toward my kilo at West Branch. I need to close it out before cycling weather is here in earnest and I start only activating parks that I can get to on a bike. I certainly could get to West Branch on a bike, but there are stretches of highway that are just too dangerous for bikes based on my experience. It’s OK. I have several parks that I can cycle to regularly and there will be plenty of opportunities for that this spring and summer.

Thanks for reading and 72!

More PDFs In My Filesystem

One of the fun things about POTA is watching the stats trickle in. I’m not out there trying to hit specific numbers most of the time, but I do like to see those big donut graphs close in on themselves. But the one that did kind of grate on me was the Worked All States grid.

Let’s be clear, getting Hawaii from NE Ohio is going to be rough. It’s doable, but so many things have to go right. Not the least of which is getting an activator in Hawaii.

The POTA team does give an “Out” of sorts by including Washington D.C. as a state. I got that relatively early on as every POTA activator who goes there wants to grab an activation.

The most stubborn state in my experience is…Vermont. I don’t know what it is about that state, but they only seem to come out for contests. I was resigned to waiting for Ham Alerts and the like to finally show me someone in VT and grab that final state. Then the fun started.

A new Tech Lincensee on Mastodon said that he got over into Vermont all the time. I told him to upgrade to General ASAP so that he could go there and we could grab a contact. Ya know what? He did! My good buddy Joe KC1SRI went off and got his General and then marched over to the park (I don’t really know how he got there…I’ll assume he used a car or something rather than marching) and we had a very rough, but serviceable, QSO and that was that!

It might have taken him a little while to get around to logging it with POTA, but as with all good things, it got done! Now there’s another PDF I can point to and enjoy.