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...