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 !