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Finally a chance to take out my Shack-in-a-Box and do some outdoor operations. The weather for Friday and Saturday was predicted to be very good, with Saturday being the sunniest. It turned out to be the other way around, because on Friday morning I took my son to his baseball practice and set up the MP1 in a quiet corner of the field, under a blazing sun. With my deck chair positioned under some trees I took this selfie…

It being a Friday the bands were quiet. I worked JR1CXW from Japan on 15 meters in CW and had a nice long QSO with him. Then nothing till almost an hour later when I heard KZ5OM coming in on 12 meters. Because I had already marked the different bands on the MP1 tuning coil it was a breeze to get the antenna into resonance and work him. He came in 559 and I got over the Pacific with a 539 signal. Yeah, two firsts: one for CW QRP across the Pacific and one for CW with the US on 12 meters. Thank you Jerry, great working you.

After that V85TL and JQ2IQW who was interested in my QRP setup. I got some attention from a parent and gave a short demonstration. The exchange with BH1FXN was just a 599 one, but it was enough to impress him.

The sun was shining, the temperature just right and the coffee well brewed, so a perfect Friday morning. To be continued….

The Simi Settlers Amateur Radio Club in Simi Valley, California toured the USS Iowa, worked some DX, and got some great lessons about shipboard life. What an interesting history lesson in this video taken by club president Rick Galbraith, W6DQE!

USS Iowa, lead ship of a class of 45,000-ton battleships, was built at the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, New York. Commissioned in February 1943, she spent her initial service in the Atlantic and carried President Franklin D. Roosevelt to and from Casablanca, Morocco, in November 1943. USS Iowa is presently part of the Reserve Fleet.

Getting started with HSMM-Mesh™ (High Speed Multimedia-Mesh), also known as Broadband Hamnet™, can be daunting to hams that have the interest, but lack the expertise of network engineers. Indeed, perusing comments and documents on the Web can be confusing to newcomers who want to participate in setting up Amateur Radio broadband mesh networks under FCC Rules in Part 97.

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Gerrit PA3BYA has created an interesting SSTV Security Camera with the Raspberry Pi.

I could see this set up in the doorway of a repeater building on a remote mountaintop somewhere. It would be priceless to see a vandal’s bewildered face!

Would that jibe with Part 97? 🙂

Jameco recently reached out to me to ask if I’d be willing to ask you about the type of amateur radio products you’d like to see them carry.

Like DigiKey and Mouser, Jameco is one of the larger electronics component distributors in the United States. They’ve taken notice that amateur radio is a growing hobby and that their current inventory selection may not be serving us as well as it could.

So, what type of items do you have trouble sourcing?

Antennas? Batteries? RF connectors? A wide selection of QRP and other types of inexpensive kits? Other components you’ve had to source overseas?

No idea is too crazy — they want to know what’s on your mind and what frustrations you have when trying to get the items you need.

Normally my projects take a long time to finish because I can’t find the right materials (I’ll dedicate a post on that later). But my “Shack-in-a-Box” project was done fairly quickly: only six weeks.

The box is an old German army issue box that my Junker straight key came in. Very sturdy and not too heavy.

I padded it with foam I got from a shop selling notebook batteries; the plexiglass dividers were left-overs from old cosmetic product displays. The little basket was a dollar from the local hardware store and the only thing bought new.

Everything but the antenna is in there: the KX3, LiPo battery (old laptop battery cells from a friend), the touch paddle and various cables. There are ear plugs and an old computer microphone with which I get very good audio reports. With this setup it takes me less than a minute to be operational and packing up is equally fast. This weekend is a long one in Taiwan because of Peace Memorial Day and I’ll be out on the coast doing my first serious stint of portable operation. If you hear me on air don’t hesitate to call me. 73.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Vdpsg_ZLwE

John W1LNX worked Scott W9AFB aeronautical mobile over Colorado recently. Not a bad signal for just over 100 miles away. I am curious about his distance record.

According to John’s description, Scott was operating aboard a Boeing C-135 (or one of the many variations thereof) at about 33,000 feet.

Although Scott’s transceiver in the airplane is limited to 2M and 6M, I think his enviable operating position gives new meaning to the term “air superiority”!