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.
My MFJ-1979 17-ft whip on 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!
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.
My Gabil GRA-7350TC vertical on the Gabil GRA-ULT01 MK3 tripod
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.
My KX3 and 6Ah LiFePO4 battery
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.
Yikes! This explains the lousy band conditions today.
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.
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).
There really wasn’t much to photograph where I was at US-8941/KFF-5862. Just a gravel parking lot and some big boulders.
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.
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.
Yours truly operating backyard-portable (Photo by my (far) better half)
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.
My Jackite pole strapped to my grandson’s basketball pole. (Photo by my (far) better half)
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.
My minimalist setup. I opted to keep things simple this year.
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.
My Field Day Security Officer
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.
Just over three years ago, I figured out how to Remotely operate FT8 using a product called RealVNC.
RealVNC had a Home plan that allowed up to 3 users and up to 5 devices for non-commercial use. Perfect for remotely controlled computers in a ham radio shack.
Today, without any notice, RealVNC disabled my Home plan, and I had to choose between paying each month for a plan, or adopting their Lite plan, which allows 1 user and up to 3 devices for non-commercial use.
That's fine. They allow me to use their secure remote access software without fees. I can understand they might want to change the terms.
The Lite plan fits my usage. I've only ever had two devices active anyway, and it's just me as the user.
But, without notice - that is just damned inconvenient. Since I switched plans, I need to visit each device and re-configure them to be part of the new plan. Which means I can't remote into those computers until that is completed.
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.
My 17-foot whip mounted on my truck at Ridley Creek State Park (US-1414, KFF-1414)
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…
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.
French Creek Iron Tour participants taking a break at the Yellow Springs rest stop
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.
My minimalist setup for the French Creek Iron Tour cycling event
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.
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.
Using a notepad as an impromptu sun shield for my Penntek TR-35
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.
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.
My location in Valley Forge NHP (US-0761, KFF-0761)
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.
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?
Endless Calling - I've noticed some stations keep calling the DX after the DX station has QSYed or QRTed. A little bit of hopeful calling isn't unusual on Phone or CW, or even RTTY. But stations continue to call much later -- like an hour later, and they are still calling.
Calling without Response - Some stations don't respond when the DX station calls them. They keep calling instead of advancing to the next step. This can get really bad. During the FT8WW expedition, I saw FT8WW keep responding to the same station for more than 10 minutes. Each response had a different signal report. This made it clear that FT8WW was heading this caller quite well, but the caller wasn't hearing FT8WW at all. Instead, that station took up a valuable response slot for 10 minutes -- denying perhaps 20-40 stations from working FT8WW.
Confusing Fox/Hound (FH) and MSHV - Most DXpeditions using FT8 use either FH or MSHV in order to maximize the number of contacts they can make. It is easy to get confused with these two modes. They appear similar. Both allow for the DX station to transmit multiple FT8 carriers at the same time. FH imposes additional behavior to both the Fox and Hound ends of the contact. In particular, there are audio-frequency dependencies that FH enforces. But, it is perfectly possible to work a Fox station even if you are not in Hound mode. MSHV requires no special modes. And yet someone accused people of DQRM, calling FT4GL below 1000 Hz, when the DX was using MSHV, not FH.
What causes all these odd observations? I believe they all resolve to a single cause -- people are calling DX they cannot hear. That's right, people are calling DX stations they aren't decoding at all.
This is fundamentally wrong. I wrote about this years ago on how to bust a pileup. You cannot work DX if you cannot hear them. If you aren't decoding the DX station, stop calling. Yeah, that's hard, but your calls won't net you a contact, and you may be actively depriving someone who can hear the DX from making one.
I think FT8 has made some people lazy. They hear some DX station is active on some frequency, probably through a spotting network. So they switch to that frequency, set their watchdog timers to an hour or more, and enable their transmitter. Then they go off and drink a few cool 807s while their computer works the DX for them.
Farfetched? No, it explains all the observations above.
Be a good FT8 operator -- don't call DX when you cannot decode them. Wait until you can decode them reliably, just about every cycle -- then start calling.
Since I’m slowly sneaking up on POTA “Repeater Offender” status (20 activations) at Marsh Creek State Park (US-1380, KFF-1380), I made a quick trip back there this morning. Unlike the rainy weather I encountered last time, it was a beautiful, clear morning.
Since it was a weekday, the parking lot at the Western Launch area was pretty empty. When I got out of the truck to set up my antenna, I noticed a large heron. Last time, he was patrolling the shallow, marshy area near my parking spot. Today, he was proudly standing on the dock, surveying his domain. I snapped a couple of pictures of him and continued setting up.
The resident heron surveying his domain at Marsh Creek State Park (US-1380, KFF-1380)
I went with my usual setup: my Penntek TR-35 (5 watts, CW) and my 12-foot loaded whip. Starting on 40M, it took all of 12 minutes to make my first 10 contacts.
I had some errands to run, so I kept it short. In a little more than an hour, I logged 22 contacts. There weren’t any park-to-park contacts, but I did log four European stations (Italy, Sweden, Czech Republic, and Slovak Republic) on 17M.
The heron eventually flew off. Like the heron, I took off, too—for home, that is.
You’d be forgiven for assuming all the posts on this website are either related to Parks On The Air (POTA) or Summits On The Air (SOTA) activations, but in fact, this blog is simply about “outdoor amateur radio.”
Today’s activity was just such a case of not POTA and not SOTA, just plain old outdoor radio. The driving factor was that today was Memorial Day, a day to honor the fallen, and traditionally, to spend some time outdoors, but trouble is that at my home QTH in San Francisco the skies were overcast and the temperatures expected to remain in the mid-50s. When the weather is like this, which is most of the summer, our family likes to escape to Marin or Sonoma counties to experience the warm weather that is uncommon in The City.
One of our favorite spots is Marin French Cheese Company factory and store, simply known as “The Cheese Factory” located in Hicks Valley near the Sonoma county line. Here they offer delicious cheeses made right there on-site as well as variety of picnic fixin’s to enjoy with your cheese. However, the main reason we go here is that the cheese factory offers its guests the use of their park-like grounds.
Most visitors congregate around a small pond and picnic area on the north side of the parking lot, but if you go around back, on the south side, there is a wide open grassy field dotted with full shade trees and plenty of picnic tables. Even on busy days, you practically have the place to yourself. If there are other groups, they are usually spread out enough that you still have plenty of space.
Now, about the radio activity. I’m making plans for an overseas trip later this summer and hope to have the opportunity to attempt a Parks On The Air activation while I am there. It would be very easy to bring the KH1, an entire station in a small “camera” bag. But I just got the KH1 after a six month wait for delivery and would be very upset if something were to happen to that radio while traveling abroad.
Slightly less convenient, but still quite small is the station consisting of the QMX multiband CW/Data radio, Gabil GRA-7350T base loaded vertical antenna and tripod, Talentcell Li-Ion battery back, and various connective bits. All of this can fit in my carry-on and still leave room for other travel necessities. And if something unfortunate happened to the QMX it’s not nearly such a big deal. The station could be replaced quickly and inexpensively.
I just needed to do a quick field check of the QMX station combination to verify that I can put it on the air in a park like setting, such as I am likely to encounter while traveling. The QMX is a high band model covering 20m through 10m which enables a smaller deployment footprint. I promise, there is no chance that I’ll be tossing wires into trees in a foreign park!
Previous activations have shown that when using the GRA-7350T on these high bands, especially above 14 MHz, that easier tuning is achieved when the 16 foot radials are folded back on themselves, effectively shortening the radials. Instead of folding them, I took one set of radials and cut them in half. There are two sets in this kit from when I thought I needed a lot more radials than I actually do with this antenna.
When hooking up the QMX to check the ability of the antenna to tune to a 50 ohm match with the shorter radial set, I realized that I forgot one of the power cables that connects the Talentcell to the QMX, doh!
I did have the cables needed to use the Bioenno LiFePo-4 pack with the QMX, but the battery was fully charged and supplying more than 13v, which the QMX cautioned against by flashing the battery icon to indicate the over-voltage condition. Well, shoot!
Fortunately I had another option. I brought along the KH1, because why not take the KH1 every where you go (except overseas)? With the internal autotuner bypassed, I could still test the tuning ability of the antenna system to provide a low SWR and be confident that when I use the tune mode on the QMX that I could achieve a similarly good match. I am not planning on bringing an antenna tuner.
The antenna tuned easily enough on 20m, 17m, and 15m using the KH1 as an RF source and SWR indicator. Naturally, I tried to make a few QSOs while I was proving the antenna system.
Normally when I do ham radio in the outdoors I am activating a park or summit, so I am the DX. But the cheese factory is neither a POTA park nor on a summit. I’m just a regular ham, outside, running QRP. I didn’t even have cell phone coverage out in the country, so I couldn’t look at the POTA spots page for stations to hunt. I would just have to do it the old fashioned way, by tuning around and listening.
I spent about an hour “on the air” hunting for stations calling CQ POTA or CQ SOTA. That yielded three QSOs, all on 20 meters.
W0ABE
Colorado
20 meters
20:25 utc
K7SHR
Wyoming
20 meters
21:12 utc
W6KC/VE7
British Columbia
20 meters
21:25 utc
QRP Hunting Log
While testing the setup on 17 meters, I didn’t hear a lot of activity but I did hear a JA working an Italian. I could copy both stations, the Italian was weak but the Japan station was pretty loud. EA3PP was calling from Spain, but QSB was enough prevent me from attempting a call. You can’t work ’em if you can’t hear ’em!
The logbook looks very different when I am not activating and don’t have access to spots info. A lot of callsigns written down, but not worked. When I work a station, the time notation becomes the indicator that I had a QSO with that callsign.
On the way back to the cold City, we stopped at Hicks Mountain Hens to pick up some freshly laid, pasture raised eggs. So I guess you could just as well title this post “Ham ‘n Eggs.” Ok, I am leaving now …
Over the course of the long Memorial Day weekend, I got in two short activations. As expected, there was a lot of activity going on at the parks. Parks in this area get a little busy on holiday weekends.
Ridley Creek State Park (US-1414, KFF-1414)
I rolled into Ridley Creek State Park early on Saturday morning. Even at 0900 local time, the park was fairly crowded. I was going to operate from a picnic table, but given the number of people there, I decided against that. Between the hikers, dog walkers, mountain bikers, and folks setting up for picnics, it was a busy place.
Using my Penntek TR-35 (5 watts, CW) and 12-foot base-loaded whip, I logged 27 contacts. Most of the contacts were on 40M and 30M, with just one on 17M. No DX today, but I had three park-to-park contacts. After about 90 minutes, I packed up and headed home.
Norristown Farm State Park (US-4363, KFF-4363)
On Monday, I had another early activation, this time at Norristown Farm State Park. As I expected, there were quite a few people at this park taking advantage of the holiday.
This activation was almost a carbon copy of Saturday’s. I used my TR-35 and 12-foot loaded whip, and once again, I made 27 contacts with three park-to-park QSOs. Like the last activation, 40M and 30M were the most productive bands for me.
This time, though, I worked two European stations (Italy and Sweden) on 17M. These were my first DX contacts in more than a month, so I was glad to be out of my slump.
I hope everyone had a happy and safe holiday weekend. Be sure to take time to honor those who paid the ultimate price for the freedoms we enjoy.
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Lately, most weekends have been rainy around here. The forecast for tomorrow is much better than the rain today. Unfortunately, family obligations gave me no choice than to activate today.
I headed over to Marsh Creek State Park (US-1380, KFF-1380) early this morning, to avoid heavier rain later in the day. Despite the lousy weather, there were a lot of cars in the parking lot.
A rainy morning on Marsh Creek Reservoir
The rig today was my usual Penntek TR-35 (5 watts, CW) and my 12-foot loaded whip. As is my usual practice, I started on 40M. The band predictions forecasted poor daytime conditions on 40M, but that wasn’t my experience. Although some of the signal reports I received were lower than usual, I logged my first 10 contacts in about 13 minutes. My first contact was in Georgia, so that’s not too bad for 40M. The 30M band also seemed to be in decent shape.
When I moved up to 20M, I found some annoying broadband noise across the band. I’ve never encountered that here before, so I was wondering if there was a hybrid vehicle or something in the parking lot. I skipped 20M and moved up to 17M. The band was nearly devoid of activity, and 15 minutes of CQing failed to produce a single contact. While I was CQing, though, I passed the time by watching a large heron wading by. I went back to 40M to finish up.
This Heron was walking through the shallows looking for breakfast
My final tally was 32 contacts, three of which were park-to-park. I didn’t have any DX contacts this morning, but there were some highlights:
I had park-to-park contacts with KD8IE on two bands.
I worked my friend Frank N3FLL. I talked to Frank on a local repeater on my way to the park and gave him a heads-up. He found me on 40M.
I worked Al N3KAE on 40M. Al is the Regional Coordinator who uploads my WWFF logs for me. It was great to add him to the log.
Ready for the rain, with my patented coil protector (aka grocery store plastic bag) and some pipe insulation to seal the window opening
My setup withstood the rain pretty well this morning. I used a piece of pipe insulation on the passenger side window, where I fed the coax through. The fit could have been better, but it kept the rain out. Once again, I used a plastic bag to protect my homebrew coil. When I took the antenna down, I used a chamois cloth to dry the whip as I collapsed it. That worked pretty well.
Pipe insulation sealing the window where the coax enters. The fit wasn’t great, but it was good enough.
Hopefully, we’ll have a rain-free weekend one of these days.
I had another rare opportunity to activate a park on a weekday. After all the solar wackiness over the weekend, I checked the band conditions before I got started. The numbers looked better, but I still expected to encounter some flakey band conditions.
Band conditions this morning
I rolled into Ridley Creek State Park (US-1414, KFF-1414) and started setting up. Once again, I used my 17-foot MFJ-1979 whip and homebrew loading coil. Thinking I would need all the help I could get, I went with the longer whip. The rig was my Penntek TR-35 (5 watts, CW).
Using the MFJ-1979 17-ft whip with my homebrew loading coil
About a minute after spotting myself, I received a call on 40M from another activator. Another hunter called about a minute later. I was off to a good start, right? Not so fast! After those two calls, things really slowed down.
I split my time between 40M, 30M, and 20M, and it took me about 45 minutes to make my first 10 contacts. In fact, I thought number 10 would never happen.
An hour’s effort produced 15 contacts with 3 park-to-park contacts. Sadly, there were no DX contacts to be had. Happy to have salvaged the activation, I packed up and headed home.
I’ve been toying with buying a 17-foot telescopic whip for some time now. I didn’t really have a pressing need for it, since my 12-foot whip has been doing a great job for me. As a result, I kept talking myself out of buying it—until now. When I heard the news that MFJ was shutting down production, I figured I might as well buy one while they’re still available.
With no additional matching, you can adjust the MFJ-1979 to cover the 20M band and higher. I figured this whip coupled with my “Junk Box Coil” should easily cover 40M through 20M with the antenna fully extended. The four-foot height advantage over my 12-foot whip, should yield some performance improvement. With my older, larger coil, operation on 80M might be possible.
To test my assumptions, I made a trip to Evansburg State Park (US-1351, KFF-1351), where I was one activation away from a POTA “Repeat Offender” award. Like my last visit, it was raining, and I seemed to be the only one in the park.
I set up the 17-foot whip and coil on the back of the truck and quickly identified the proper tap for 40M. I used a Sharpie pen to mark the tap location. (The coil now has two sets of marks.) Despite an impending geomagnetic storm, I made my first 10 contacts in about 12 minutes. Not too bad for an early activation on a Friday morning.
The MFJ-1979 17-foot whip mounted on my “Junk Box Coil.”
After about 25 minutes, I switched to the 30M band and marked the tap location on the coil. I picked up eight contacts on 30M before giving 20M a try. It was no surprise that the SWR was a flat 1.5:1 with the entire coil bypassed. Although conditions on 20M seemed a little weak, I logged five more contacts before pulling the plug. I ended up with 25 contacts in the log. No DX or park-to-park contacts today, unfortunately.
For part of the activation, I used a plastic bag to keep the rain off the coil. When I got home, I brought the coil and the whip inside and dried everything off. While I had the whip extended, I measured the actual length. By my measurements, it’s 16 feet 11 inches long.
Based on this brief test, I made a few observations:
Compared to my older 12-foot MFJ whip, I don’t think the quality of the MFJ-1979 is as good. The older whip just seems to telescope more smoothly. Some online reviews mention problems keeping the antenna from collapsing after using it for a while. In an effort to avoid problems like that, I’ll be extremely careful when extending and collapsing the whip.
Performance on 40M, 30M, and 20M should be better than the 12-foot whip, given the additional length. A big difference? Given today’s band conditions, it was hard to tell.
With the 17-foot whip and my coil, I can cover 40M. 30M, and 20M without adjusting the length of the whip. However, the 12-foot whip gives me 40M, 30M, 20M, and 17M without adjusting the whip. This lines up perfectly with the bands on my TR-35.
I won’t be retiring my 12-foot whip anytime soon. I think for most POTA activations, I’ll stick with the 12-foot whip out of convenience. For contesting and activities like Winter Field Day, I will probably go with the 17-foot whip. I have an old 20M mono band QRP rig I want to put back on the air in the near future. The MFJ-1979 should be perfect for that.
If you were checking the Trans Provincial Net Website you might of noticed a small blurb mentioning I will be taking the summer off.
“Bob VA3QV will be away starting 18th May till September 2024.”
I currently cover the 11am (EST) hour 5 days a week and I do enjoy being a NCS…. But… Now that the nicer weather is finally looking like it might arrive… I decided I would prefer to spend it doing other stuff compared to sitting in the shack for a while.
No doubt that radio will be a big part of my summer but it won’t be from the shack unless its raining.
As always if I am doing (or have done) anything interesting in radio you will be able to read about it right here.
This was another of those weekends that involved different aspects of ham radio. I was involved in a public service event on Saturday, and I got my QRP-portable fix on Sunday morning.
Once again, I served as the net control operator for the event. Chester County ARES-RACES (CCAR) had 13 operators at nine locations along the course. Several local dive teams also took up positions along the course, to ensure the safety of the participants.
This year, I was set up at the Northbrook Canoe Company, which is the end point for the course. The weather was less than stellar, with on and off drizzle throughout the event. The CCAR team, along with a paramedic, hunkered down under a large overhang off of one of the buildings. Communications-wise, this is a straightforward event. CCAR’s repeater system provides excellent coverage in the area, so the entire course can be covered using HTs. I was able to run the net from my camp chair with my AnyTone HT.
I neglected to take pictures of the Canoe Challenge, but I did snap this one of the WB3GCKmobile next to the Brandywine River.
Fortunately, there were no serious issues to be dealt with, and judging by the cheers at the finish line, the participants had a great time, despite the weather.
Evansburg State Park (US-1351, KFF-1351)
On Sunday morning, I wanted to get in a quick POTA activation. The weather was worse than the day before, with chillier temperatures and a more steady rainfall.
I rolled into Evansburg State Park and found the park completely empty—except for one crazy old ham. After setting up my 12-foot loaded whip, I draped a plastic bag over the loading coil to give it some protection from the elements. I used my trusty TR-35 (5 watts, CW) up in the cab.
My antenna and I sporting our raingear in Evansburg State Park (US-1351, KFF-1351)
For as early as it was (0900 EDT), the number of callers surprised me on 40M. I had my first 10 contacts in about 13 minutes. I operated for exactly an hour and spent most of my time on 40M. Moving up to 30M, I picked up three contacts there before shutting down.
I ended up with 31 contacts, including one park-to-park contact that I’m aware of. No DX today, but the Canadian stations were really booming in.
Towards the end of my activation, I had some rain coming in the passenger-side window where I bring the coax in. Normally, I use a piece of pipe insulation to help seal things up a bit, but I couldn’t find it in the truck. I have some more in the basement, so I’ll have to cut a new piece to fit the window.
Now it’s time to dry off my antenna parts before putting them back in the truck for next time.
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