AmateurRadio.com

Dayton or not? Hamvention vs. Hamcation

I have been to Dayton http://hamvention.org/ many times and due to the fact that I live in Florida now I end up going to Orlando HamCation http://hamcation.com/ just become of the convince for me. I was just listening to a few people driving home on Dstar and started to think about why I didn’t go.

Dayton was also great because there was a new announcement of radio, great meetups with friends I have not seen in a while and I keep wondering why, is it cost. Is it just because I get the same deals in Orlando or is it because it lost its appeal?

The rest of my question:

http://nicktoday.com/dayton-hamvention-vs-hamcation/

Today was magic! Everything has turned green in the last couple of days. Judy and I rode our bikes in Old Hill Village this afternoon. I brought the KX3 and worked Slovenia, Lithuania, Dominican Republic, St. Kitts, Indiana and South Dakota.

We started out at Shop Road and headed south. We could tell the Pemigewasset River was high. But we were surprised when we found the road was flooded about a mile into the trip.

We turned around and rode back to the camper. Then we headed south by car several miles and came into the flood control area from the other end. It was gorgeous. After riding for ten minutes or so, we came to a beautiful little cove.

Soon the old road leveled out through a large field not far from the river. But we were on high ground and didn’t see any more water on the road.

We stopped in front of an old butternut tree a mile or so farther on. I’ve operated here before.

You can see Judy in the background. She brought her knitting and is working on some booties for a friend’s new baby. I tossed my line over the tallest branch and set up a vertical wire. I ran the KX3 at 5 watts and started out on 17 meters. Right away I worked W1AW/0 in South Dakota. I jumped between 17, 15 and 12 meters to work six stations in about 20 minutes.
Here’s my log:

18 May-14 2026 18.085 W1AW/0 CW 599 599 SD
18 May-14 2030 24.892 HI3LFE CW 599 599 Dominican Rep
18 May-14 2034 21.035 LY10W CW 599 599 Lithuania
18 May-14 2037 18.068 S51TA CW 559 599 Slovenia
18 May-14 2043 18.076 W9FAM CW 599 599 IN
18 May-14 2044 18.077 V44KAI CW 599 599 St. Kitts

From this spot I look east across the Pemi to Sanbornton. It’s beautiful.

I packed up the gear for the ride south to the camper. Judy took a quick snapshot of me and the bike.

Join W5KUB for live coverage of Hamvention 2014 beginning at 1300 UTC today. Astronaut Douglas Wheelock, KF5BOC, will be the guest and co-host on both Friday and Saturday morning. Should be a lot of fun, and definitely entertaining!

Live stream @ http://www.amateurradio.com/live

If you enjoy the live webcast, don’t forget to drop a small donation to support W5KUB’s efforts.

Once again, I do not have the good fortune of being able to attend FDIM and Dayton.  Attending FDIM is like, #1 on my wish list, but not this year and probably not next year, either.  Joey’s Confirmation is this weekend and next year, Cara’s will be the same weekend. So maybe FDIM 2016?  I can always hope!

But even though I’m not there, I do have the symposium running on a separate tab and I am listening, while working. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/g4gxl-test is the link, for those of you not in the know.

What I am listening to is mostly over my head.  I’m not a technical wizard by any stretch of the imagination.  Most of these guys making presentations are using transporters while I’m still rubbing two sticks together, trying to make fire.  That said, it’s still fun to listen to. Craig Behrens NM4T gave a talk that I am actually able to follow and enjoy – same for Rev. Dobson’s talk on regenerative receivers earlier this morning. And right now there’s a fascinating talk being given about WWII POWs building clandestine radios by Dave Cripe NM0S. Man, I wish I were there!

All this talk of Arduinos has me curious.  There’s a guy who comes to all the NJ Hamfests who sells beginner kits and I have that ARRL Birthday Month coupon kicking around – and they have a good book on Arduino experimenting, if I remember correctly.  Intriguing (like I don’t have enough to do!).

This afternoon during lunch I had a cool QSO with Gary WA2JQZ who was operating the Marshall Spaceflight Center ARC station WA4NZD. Gary was using a Yaesu FT950 at 5 Watts to a dipole.  He was a good 579 or louder here and I got a 559 in return.  I had actually worked Gary a few weekends ago during QRPttF. So we talked about that among other things.

And I hope I’m not “talking out of school” here, or giving away state secrets, but Gary shared some information that I am going to pass on.  Please listen for N4A later on this year, sometime towards the end of July. The Marshall Spaceflight Center ARC will be using that call to run a Special Event station honoring and commemorating Apollo 11 – which of course, landed on the Moon in July – July 20th, 1969 to be exact.  I’m not sure when they will be on, but I am sure there will be announcements in all the usual places.

As a Baby Boomer, I was a huge manned spaceflight fan/geek.  When I hear about something like this, I make every effort to work the space flight themed Special Event stations – even if it means picking up a microphone (ugh!)

Update – Congrats to TJ Campie, W0EA (fellow blogger) who won one of four TenTec Rebel radios, which were given as door prizes today at FDIM. It was neat to listen in as his name was announced.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care enough to send the least!

Yes, it’s ready to view over on www.txfactor.co.uk

Bob and Mike assist Roger G4ROJ with his amazing kite aerials. Nick pays a visit to Ben Nock G4BXD at his Military Wireless Museum in Kidderminster and discovers Ben’s impressive collection of war sets and spy sets. Mike reports from the Exeter Radio and Electronics Rally to find out what people expect from a rally in the 21st century. We also review a new quad-band mobile radio from Wouxun.

We hope you enjoy this bumper edition!

73

Nick 2E0FGQ
TXFactor Team

Today, sadly, marks the two year anniversary of the passing of my Mom. Some days, it seems like her passing happened so long ago. Other days, the pain is as raw as if it had just happened. I know they say that time heals all wounds, but there are some things you never get over.  And to be honest, I would rather feel the occasional pang of grief than become complacent about her death. There are indeed moments when the emptiness and sadness still rear their ugly head. Fortunately, those sad times are farther and fewer between, and there are many times when the memories invoke moments of joy and laughter or a smile.

In a related matter, the friend of a friend passed away in early April. I mention this, because some of you may have known him – some well, others just in passing. The person I am referring to is Bill Stevenson G4KKI. Sadly, Bill passed away from cancer in early April. Bill was one of the “QRP family”, a FISTS member, an antenna experimenter and he loved going on portable QRP operations. Bill contributed a lot to the various QRP lists with posts about his successes with homebrewing rigs, magloops, and his various portable QRP ops expeditions to various places in his beloved home of England.

His webpage is still up, if you care to have a look:  http://homepage.ntlworld.com/g4kki.william/

And Bill also liked to post videos of his projects and exploits on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/g4kki

A person once said that, “Everybody wants to go to Heaven, but nobody wants to do what they have to do to in order to get there – die.”  I suppose that’s true, but sometimes I think the heavier burden is left with those of us who stay behind.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

I took the kayak out on Hermit Lake today. It was beautiful. I worked Missouri, Rhode Island, Florida, South Carolina, Alabama and Georgia… all with a d-star handie talkie.

It was 70F and sunny, and I was ready for my first outing to Hermit Lake. I brought a d-star setup packed in a bright yellow Pelican case. It contains a Raspberry Pi computer, a battery, a DVAP (digital voice access point) and a MiFi card. I also had the Icom ID-51 handie. This setup gives me access to the world-wide d-star network.

As soon as I left the shore I started working stations all over the country. I was connected to reflector 30C which is in Atlanta. A reflector is a collection of repeaters. Today 30C may have had 60 users. Making contacts is easy. When I started out, KB6RRX in Georgia was talking with WJ4X in South Carolina. I joined in and explained that I was out in Hermit Lake in a Kayak. Adam, WJ4X looked me up on http://www.aprs.fi. He could see my GPS track on the lake. Unfortunately, I forgot to change the hiking icon to a boat.

The lake was wonderful! As I was paddling along, a large loon popped up barely 20 feet from me. He didn’t seem worried about my paddling by. I floated past islands and coves where turtles basked in the sun on half sunken logs.

Not far away a large Canada goose veered away to the south of me. As I floated through the quiet water, I chatted with Jamie, K4OEY in Alabama. Then I had a call from Mike W4MPL in Orlando. Turns out we both went to the same college. A few minutes later I was chatting with Tony AD0DQ out in Missouri.

As I neared the shore I heard Barry N1TOQ in Rhode Island send his ID. I returned the call and we chatted for a few minutes. He also operates d-star while /MM and wanted to know the details of my setup.

Within the next 10 days our club is putting up a d-star repeater in the area. Next time I go kayaking, I won’t need the pelican case full of equipment. I’ll just use the repeater.