Computers in the SHACK

I am not a computer guy I do not try to talk the talk with guys that are really in the know. A friend of mine once told me you should have at least three good friends one with a pickup truck, one with a hot tub, and one that is a computer tech....makes some sense !

Most all of us today have a computer at our operating position, some are used for simple tasks such as spotting DX, logging , and others are used for everything from rig control to SDR. What ever yours is doing it is no doubt important to your Ham Radio operation. I fall in the middle spotting, logging, RTTY, CW (transmit) and PSK.

But the same computer contains all my everyday stuff too photos, records on line business things and so on....Well where I am going with this is that this week for the first time ever starting with a C64 I had a total system failure...yes a hard drive failure the blue screen of death....I am also a so-so backup guy some things I do often some not so....I guess that is half of us....

Well long story short after some cash layout and much fretting I am up and running with a new hard drive and some improved features to my Dell Windows 7 machine. I was sooo lucky much was saved from my old drive but some was lost forever my bad ! So if you are like me a so-so back up guy change your ways it can happen, and if you are the other guy who has always backed up faithfully good on you I should have listened once again my bad !

So the moral of the story is BACK IT UP I lost some things I will never recover, gone forever so don't be me...Get on have fun and oh yes back up you files....73

160m

Well the WX here in Idaho is bitter cold was -6 this morning so good time for some warm shack time. This weekend was the ARRL 160m CW contest so thought I would give it a try with my 100 foot wire @ 25 feet and 100w ....yeah not so ideal but all I got !

Always surprised that it works at all, my high city noise and bad antenna are just a bugger but the idea is to have some fun and try to do better than last year, Well I had fun and did do better than last year, I ran the new FT-950 for the first time on 160 in high noise conditions, need to do some more setup so back to the book today, but was overall happy with it.

I think the East coast was hearing Europe better than the Western US, as I did hear many working EU stations. So good DX for my pewee station is East coast. Best this year was Alaska NY CT RI NH so that is good for me...I hope you are all planning at least one contest this winter, remember make the best of your situation get on and have some fun.

November DX and Contests

I guess the header should have October in it also.. I made my yearly trip to Oregon for the CQWWDXSSB contest and yes I did get snowed on again...We ran MULTI-ONE again this year and had a good time conditions were very good and as old friends do we spent a little to much time catching up so radio score suffered.
We never will win but we will always have a good time. We ran low power with a tri-band beam and a long wire spending most of our time on 10 and 15m. I hope all who were on during the contest had as much fun as we did. I am recovering from a bug so did not operate ARRL SS CW just did not feel well enough. May do SS SSB and CQDXCW if time allows...

I guess what I wanted to put out there now is two of this months DXpeditions running now, one is Wake Isl. K9W which I think is a less than exciting call, and the other is San Andres 5J0R now that is a good call. I have tried to work the Wake Isl. stations a few times on CW but the pile-up is so unruly and has not been controlled very well by the DX station I have about given up for now.

I have worked the 5J0R station on RTTY after a few days of trying and it seemed to go well, no one was unruly and the callers were well above the DX freq. and it seemed to be a good operation. I guess what I need to know is why these operations get so screwed up with band police sending UP UP every few seconds and operators that are just rude and exhibit poor operator skills ....Tell me if you know...sure makes it tough to hang around for a new one....

Some good stuff coming up in the contest world so if your not in it to win it...be like me in it for the fun of it....Get on have fun and 73....

ANTENNAS and THE SUN

Well as of today it looks like the numbers are looking better for a change as I compose this SN is 138 A index is 5 and K is 1.....Enjoyed some DX on both 10 and 15m this morning hope it holds out for a few days as I would like to chase some DX on RTTY this weekend.

From my past posts you all know I have antenna restrictions where I live and I have tried very hard not to let that put a damper on my love for the hobby. I have done some work arounds that have been ok and even better than just ok...I did not like the idea of attic antennas as they cause so many RF issues such as.....setting off the smoke alarms, turning on the dish washer, tripping the GFI's in the kitchen oh yes and in some cases inflating and deflating our air bed.....

This was not a constant problem but each band seemed to have it's favorite appliance to fool with.
I decided to install another vertical antenna ( have one hidden a flagpole) in the back yard in plain sight and see if I get any complaints....what's it hurt to try?

This is just an old Hustler 5BTV which I have found to work pretty well for what they are. I first painted it OD green so no shiny aluminum in the yard then installed radials which the flagpole is lacking on, it only has one for each band due to it's location....

So guess my point is see what the neighbors will accept ( I will let you know if I get busted) it has been up about a month and no complaints yet! The test will be when the leaves fall and it will be more visible....we will see..... : )

So no matter your situation try hard to get on have fun and 73....

RTTY CONTEST

Well my second try at RTTY contesting proved to be much harder than the first. My first try was a NA contest which seemed to be laid back and a good time to get my feet wet without to much stress....
Well my second try was the CQWWDX RTTY contest hummm....I told my friend for a new guy it goes like this....you put on your bee keeper suit wade into the swarm of bees and try to catch just one with a pair of tweezers...I give to the experienced RTTY contester my total respect you guys are the real deal. Due to family obligations I did not get to spend all the time I wanted to with the contest but as it turned out it was enough....

I managed to work some DX and some U.S. stations and I thank them for being good operator's and having the patents to work me, as I was screwed up about half the time with wrong macro clicks and the like....I have a renewed interest in RTTY and look for DX almost every day in the RTTY sub bands, and will no doubt jump in to another contest.

Thank you to all the great RTTY ops that taught me allot this past weekend I admire you all. RTTY being one of the old modes is great fun, and I recommend it to all who have not tried it or who have been away from it for a long time like me..... so if you are tired of the everyday digi modes give RTTY a try.....A great bunch of guys operate the mode and will be polite, and helpful to you.

RYRYRYRYRY...get on have fun and 73....Jim K7JAN

SUMMERS END

Well Labor day is upon us, my grand kids are back at school and that all seems to signal the end of summer. In ham radio world that seems to mean the end of the E-skip season, my last 6m QSO was Aug. 5th out here in the West. A very mixed bag of HF propagation and dismal solar cycle made 6m almost all the operating I did this summer.
I know summer is for other things not radio, and I did all that stuff too but I try to enjoy the hobby year around when I can. A few bright spots for me was getting my RTTY setup working better and learning the software so I do not look like a total fool on the air, and working some late night 20m DX a few times. First real DX on RTTY in well over 20 years it was fun.

Also enjoyed doing a restoration on my old but wonderful Yaesu FT-301 station ( now I have to find a place to set it up)

Also working my first South American stations on 6m CW this summer so you see there were some bright spots. Had a nice FD trip with K7BUY but conditions were sooo bad we mostly enjoyed a nice visit and nice scenery from our seats in my Jeep.
I hope you all had some good operating this summer, and in my part of the world it was a hot, hot summer with smoke filled Sky's due to many forest fires here in the western U.S. So I am looking foreword to cooler weather, some fall contesting and getting to tryout my new FT-950....

Get on have fun and best 73.....

An Antenna I Love.....

Wanted to share a vertical antenna I love. A few years ago a friend shared with me this very cool antenna that works great, it can be installed as a base station antenna, a portable antenna, or even a back pack antenna.
This past field day I used this antenna as a stationary ( when stopped) antenna and it was wonderful even with very bad band conditions....
The first element of this antenna is a JACKITE pole these telescoping poles are used to fly kites with, jackite.com is a good place to start. The pole you want is the 30 foot, it telescopes to four feet and is light weight great combo. You will feed the 32 feet of wire attached to the pole with a 9 to 1 UnUn that would be a balun for Unbalanced to Unbalanced.....The core is a T130-2 set of 3 enamel wires 9 turns.
I will not go into the math here but it works great. From the balun you add 32 feet of wire an antenna tuner is required and an auto tuner is the best but manual tuner will work fine. This antenna will work 6m-20m with out a counterpoise but you should add another 32 feet of wire to the ground side for 30 and 40m.

Ok First get your pole (jackite.com) the 30 foot model. second build the balun....

 

 

 

Ok now add your wire and go for it....

TX5K Clipperton , Class Act !

For many of you it is easy to work about any of the DXpedition stations that have been on in the last year or will be on soon. For some of us low power so-so antenna guys it is real work and a challenge, it is such a help when the DX station is running a well controlled and orderly operation.

I would say that the TX5K group that operated from Clipperton this spring has no doubt set the bar very high for operations to come, great operators, well controlled pile up ops and just a pleasure. It was fun to follow them on the web and there online log was great....

Clipperton is not so rare anymore I have cards from two previous operations in the 80's and 90's but this card is most special to me. If it had not been for the great operators and there class act a station like mine ( 100w and low random wire antenna) would have never worked them on the 80 and 160m band....So thanks for a great job and thanks for the great QSL for 80 and 160 cw.....

6 Meters - What Works ?

I was just on the eham site looking at some posts pertaining to this years E-season. We who operate 6 here in the U.S.  get a mixed bag depending on our location. We who live here in the Northwest always feel short changed when we see the guys in the East and S.East working Europe and the Caribbean many days at a time....
I was very active on 6M in the 80's and at that time I spent many hours working JA's and the South Pacific on F2, what a great time that was. I missed out on some years but now have been active for about 7 or 8 years again on 6. In the 80's I ran a 3el beam for a while and a 5el beam later on at about 50 feet and a 20w Yaesu FT 620B and in my opinion then and now it is all about the opening.

Yes big stations with good antenna systems have the edge at times but us little guys can hang in there too with some operating skill and knowledge. My current station is of the smallest with antenna restrictions I am pushing it with a 3el beam at 15 feet that is painted camo green to blend in and not to be seen from the street. My other antenna is a ground mounted 5BTV that works ok on 6....it just does !
Not being the best E season but not the worst I managed to work 160 stations so far this summer and two new DX countries ( both South America)and a few aurora contacts so not all is lost, now if I could get RI and Del to finish my 6m WAS....many years in the making ! My point as always is use what you have, try new things and get on and have fun, still another month of E season so get that 6m antenna up and have at it....73

Our Ham world

There is so much going on in our world today...much I tend to avoid. We can go to hundreds of web pages and see it all so I try to keep it lite here, ham radio, Jeeps and all things non political we can get it else where.
In one of my previous post you saw that my station had to be removed for all new flooring in our house, what a job all rooms had to be moved out then back again. Most of you know what a mess that is but when you have a Ham station it is a real mess. Well we are all done and most is back to normal I thought it would be fun to post some photos of the Ham shack rebuild...

Empty shack with new floor...

Little at a time..

Back on the air and only took a couple of days after the two weeks of floor work....Have a couple of bugs but will work on those when my back stops hurting....get on have fun and build a station...73

JEEP Field Day

Well another FD has come and gone think it is number 37 for me. They have come in all forms, full up big efforts with many operators, QRP, backyard, and Jeep trips. The last time we had a real Jeep FD was in the 1980's in one of my CJ5's in Owyhee Co. in SW Idaho running my trusty FT-301 mounted between the front seats....great time we spent five days jeeping and had a great time.

Due to time constraints this year there was only a plan for pal K7BUY to arrive from Ore. and we would take the Jeep and head to the hills exploring some of our old stomping grounds and stop and radio from several places along the way.
It was a great day wonderful visit with old friend and beautiful Idaho...First radio stop and lunch was on the south fork of the Boise river below Anderson Ranch Dam, great lunch and a few contacts...however the mosquitoes loved us a little to much so off to higher ground with less water.

Next stop Cow Ck. summit with wide open views in all directions we set up the Jackite Pole antenna and went to it, the band conditions were soooo bad but we worked many western stations with a few 8's 2's and 4's thrown in. The setup worked well with the FT-897 LDG tuner Hustler mobile antenna for 40,20, and 15. The Jackite Pole Antenna is a carbon fiber pull up that is in 4ft sections and holds a 32 foot wire fed with a 9 to1 UnUn...it preformed great on 20m.

At the days end we had driven over 100 miles had a great time and proved our portable/mobile setup works just fine...I hope you all had a good FD if you went out and enjoyed good friends and the great outdoors like I did....Everything is more fun in a Jeep.....Get on have fun and 73

Tear Down

Blogs are a funny thing we just set here and talk about things that may or may not be of interest to others. You have seen photos of my station and it is nothing special, no new $10k radios on the desk but many old classics that I use on a regular basis.....It seems to be what ever turns us on so to speak.

My new rigs are now 7 years old a pair of FT 897's one is set up for general use SSB, CW and 6M the other is set up for CW and RTTY...and mobile in the summer in my 2001 Jeep YJ. The rest are old rigs from the 70's and 80's TS 940s my main SSB rig, TS 430 a like new rig I seldom put on the air and a TS 180s that I use for other band RX in contests but is like new also....A FT 301 and all that goes with it that dates back to the 70's and it works great, and a bunch of boxes that switch PTT functions, noise bridge, keyers, meters and tuners....You get the idea.

In about a month this all has to be torn down and removed as the entire house is getting new flooring....what a job, not to mention everything else in the house that has to be moved...I plan to rebuild the station with better wire routing, better cooling for the four power supplies and the computer. A constant problem here is grounding so will work on that too.....

I will set up a 6m station in the garage and that will be about it for the month of July....Wish me luck get on have fun and best 73...

June Contests

Well I have never gone out of my way to work the ARRL VHF contest which will be June 8th this year....but. We always seem to do something for ARRL Field Day and this year it was decided to keep it simple.....Jeep road trip to visit some old stomping grounds and to do some radio along the way.....
Let me start at the beginning, I will soon have to tear down my station for new carpet in the shack so...I decided to remove one of my FT 897 stations and install it in the jeep a bit early...ok now we are caught up.....I am now ready for our rolling FD and the June VHF contest so think I will do both I prefer the CQ VHF in July but have another obligation with Search and Rescue that weekend so why not.....
The Jeep is set up with the 897 one of my LDG auto tuners, a home brew antenna switch, dual headset intercom and the following antennas. an old Hustler mobile setup to use while rolling and a 31 foot collapsible vertical for stationary work, I will add a mast for VHF contest later but for now I have a dual band vertical for 2m and 70cm......
We should have a fun time and a good road trip Idaho is a beautiful place in June....get out, get on and have fun....73

6M DX

It is possible...even with low power and bad antennas, 6M can be magic. My first South America 6M DX was great fun....Get on keep trying and have fun ...73

6M Friday

Wow what a great 6M day, had not been up long when bud K7BUY sent a text ...Hearing double hop E on 6 .....So I turned on the rig and computer WOW....what a morning worked from MT. to NY and all points in between....Wound up with 25 good contacts not to list all but Canada, MT, KS, OH, NJ, NY w.VA, VA, GA. Well you get the idea although I had much to get done today I spent way to much time on 6 this morning....What fun, Thanks Larry for the text message and remember it is E season. Get on have fun and 73....

SPRING HAS SPRUNG

It seems that we all mark the seasons one way or another, baseball starts, school is winding down and so on. Well in the weird world of Ham Radio it seems to be E-skip season. Today May 4, 2013 was that day for me....We planted tomatoes that's a sign, we had our new grand daughter out side and 6M opened a little for us deprived operators in the North West....All good signs of spring..

I have said enough about my operating conditions with the CC&R thing but it is so fun when I get in on good stuff like the big guns....My 6m beam is painted camo and installed about 18 feet up with an armstrong rotor ( I turn it by hand) I also use my Hustler 4BTV on 6 for a omni antenna and it works well. I hear a station in Florida calling and on the vertical I respond and work him, I then hear a station in Cuba call and I switch to the beam pointing East and work him...it was great.

About an hour later I see on the reflector a local station which I know has big antennas and big power working Chile, I run out arm-strong my antenna in that direction and on CW work CE2AWW great fun for my puny little station....so spring has sprung even in the North West.

So as always my point is no matter what your operating situation is, get on the air and try...believe nothing is out of reach and you will be surprised with the results.....I have also installed a QRP HF rig at my garage work bench for the times I am out there....running 10W to attic dipole on 10 / 15 M and have had some great contacts even a few JA stations......Get on have fun and 73....

POST WPX

Well my trip to Ore. was a pleasant surprise as the weather was very spring like and I did not have to drive in the snow this year. However the band conditions were very poor with only a few bursts of very good low noise band openings.
The normal throng of JA stations did not ever show up I think we only had four in the log, one VK and only two KH6 stations. But we had a couple of pleasant sunrises with fair openings to Russia, and Northern Europe and one middle East contact with A71AM.

Our score was very low this year even low for us low ball contesters we did about a third of what we did last year. But as always a nice visit with my old friend and some hours of setting on the deck with a drink enjoying the fabulous view and the spring sun. We even managed to do a little antenna work during the slow times so we made the best of it.
Hope some of you managed to work a few this weekend, about time to get some spring yard work done and put up the 6 meter antenna in hopes of a good E-skip season....73 and enjoy the spring.

CQ WPX 2013

Well it is trying to be spring and in short order it will be here, for me the beginning of spring starts with my annual trip to Oregon to operate the CQ WPX contest from the QTH of K7BUY. What this means is that I will most likely have to drive for five hours one way and at least some part of it will be in a spring snow storm....it just never fails.

I guess my point is that not only is it a great radio weekend but even a greater time spent with an old friend away from the hubbub of the city. Try to make a plan in the next year to go see an old friend and do something you both love to do, no matter what it is it is good for us...

I hope to hear you on in the WPX contest it is a good one and a good way to say goodbye to the winter radio season as you know we all spend way less time in the shack starting about this time of the year. I will have a report on our weekend when I return....Get on the radio have some fun and say goodbye to winter....Photo taken last March of the lovely spring WX !

Clipperton Isl.

When I was a kid in rural Idaho I sat on the floor and turned the dial on an RCA floor model radio and was amazed at the things I would hear, my mind would conger up visions of far away places in exotic settings....and I would wonder what is it like there.

Radio was magic then and still is if you think about it....just magic. Over the past 40 some years of being a Ham I have had the wonderful experience of talking to far away places and I still have the same visions as I did as a kid but I sent my signal back to them....I know we all know how this works but it is still magic !

When I served in the NAVY I was stationed in the Pacific and I got to set foot on some very cool tropical places....I wanted to see them all but not to be...I know what a tropical breeze feels like and the sand beneath my feet and I love all things tropical and South Pacific....

Well I will have to say maybe all things Pacific, once again a group of very adventurous Hams have made the trip to Clipperton Isl. to hand out contacts to the rest of the world...Clipperton was number 19 on the most wanted country list....I had worked Clipperton in 92 but followed the 2013 group very close the web is so great for such things.....So when I worked them on 80m and 160m on CW I flashed back to those days setting on the floor looking at that old RCA....

I will always get excited when working a small Atoll in the Pacific, I am not sure what it is but it feels so good for a few moments to be in touch with a remote island with a rich history of explores, pirates and crazy ham operateors putting it on the line to give me the thrill of working one of the most inhospitable and remote places on earth....Thanks to the TX5K team for a job well done, you thrilled me twice last week.

If you do not chase DX then start, it is an adventure from the comfort of your shack....get on the air have fun and dream of far away places......73

             A couple of the tents on Clipperton Isl. thanks again to the TX5K group, well done !

Two in one

What a weekend, I decided to put my new RTTY setup to use in the NAQP RTTY contest and to work the CQ WW160 Phone contest too...160 was a bugger with high noise and not so good prop. I struggled with the whole thing. Friday night very bad with my low antenna and local noise plus the bad conditions, did not think I would make last years score.

I decided to check band at midnight and it was a bit better so stuck it out until about 0200 and managed to match score from a year ago but was a bugger.

However the NAQP RTTY contest was fun and I learned allot it has been 30 years or so for my last RTTY contact so I am in re-training. I managed to work 32 states and get my system setup like it should be. Next adventure in radio will be ARRL dx ssb contest this next weekend, and Clipperton Isl. will be on the air for the first time in some years so will try hard to get new country with that one.

Then the last of March it will be off to Or. for CQ WPX SSB at the K7BUY qth always a great time, good contest and best friend time. So get on the air have fun and 73....

Contest Season

Well it seems that winter has been a bit harsh here in Southern Idaho so only hope is to spend time in the shack. Did a little with NAQP SSB and ARRL VHF contests last weekend but was not fully involved....This weekend will be 160M CQ CW contest and I will be all in.

I hope you will all check the contest calender and pick one to be involved in, will sharpen your operating skills and pass some time in the dreary cold time of the year...73