AmateurRadio.com

What an evening! Nearly 80 degrees and humid. Judy and I walked to Knox Mountain. I worked Spain, California, Cuba, Morocco, and Texas.

The hike in was fast in order to keep ahead of the mosquitoes. It was well rewarded by the view of the pond after the 1.5 mile hike.

As I approached the pond, a large gray heron swooped up in front of me and headed east to the other end of the pond. It was stunning. We walked around to the front of the cabin. Beautiful!

I tossed a line nearly 50 feet into the cherry tree at the edge of the pond and pulled up a 33 foot wire. I set up the KX3 and used the earchi.org 9 to 1 unun. At first I operated on 20 meters. I worked two Spanish stations in a row and lost them both at the very end to QSB.

After that things picked up a bit. California and Cuba on 20 meters, then I switched to 17 and worked Morocco and Texas. Here’s the log:

27 Aug-13 2134 14.008 EA5HFW CW 559 599 Spain
27 Aug-13 2140 14.013 EA8AGF CW 449 579 Spain
27 Aug-13 2145 14.022 N6QQ CW 559 599 CA
27 Aug-13 2146 14.011 CO6RD CW 599 599 Cuba
27 Aug-13 2155 18.086 CN8KD CW 599 599 Morocco
27 Aug-13 2156 18.075 WF5W CW 579 599 TX

Mid-way during the operating a hoot owl in the woods not far away let forth with several calls. It was remarkable. Down by the pond Judy was knitting some baby booties in the sunlight.

As I packed up the gear, a bunch of jays started squabbling down by the pond… a chorus of “Dee Dee… Dee Dee. As we headed down the path, I turned back for one more snapshot of the pond.

For the last seven years the Ocean – Monmouth Amateur Radio Club has participated in the International Lighthouse / lightship Weekend. As in years passed we were hoping to operate from the Sandy Hook lighthouse, US0035 this year. Sandy Hook Lighthouse is located on the grounds of the former U.S. Army Fort Hancock facility, which is now part of the National Gateway Park System. After Super Storm Sandy in October of 2012 we were worried that we would not be able to use the facility as the storm had caused major damage to the Sandy Hook Gateway National Park area. Working with our contact in the park system we were informed in May of this year that the lighthouse had not suffered any major damage from the storm. We would be able to once again to operate form the light… so we started to plan “Operation Stronger Then The Storm.”

Plans were worked up to operate three stations: two high frequency and one VHF station. As in past years, we were going to hang wire antennas off the top of the light tower. The decision was made to use an Alpha – delta sloper off the North East quadrant and a G5RV hung as a sloper off the western quadrant. This would give use multi-band capability with paths to both Europe and the United States. With the antennas at ninety degrees to each other interference was keep to a minimum. Having the Atlantic Ocean and Raritan Bay on either side as ground plans would not hurt either. Our first HF station was an Yaesu FT-990, running about 125 watts (phone and CW). Station two was an Kenwood TS-50 running 100 watts on phone.

Arriving at the lighthouse at 06:00 Saturday morning work started. Our first order of business was to unload our vehicles and put up the shelters and then get the antennas ready to haul up the light tower. It was about this time that Mr. Murphy showed up. Our VHF station was to be operating on six and two meters. Unfortunately, the club member who would be bringing the VHF equipment had another engagement and he forgot about and could not make it. In true Ham Radio fashion we improvised something: A small homemade J-pole was hauled up the tower along with two hundred feet of coax and mounted to the light tower railing. The other two antennas followed and we were soon ready to get on the air.

Operations commenced around 0800. We worked mostly twenty and forty meters (which was as hot as a pistol!) in the HF bands. A mobile two meter radio powered by an AC power supply were hooked up to the J-pole and we were off and running. With about forty watts output on 146.520 simplex we were making contacts as far north as New Hampshire, west to Harrisburg, PA. and south to Cape May. Our clubs premiere CW operator also put up an end fed wire into a tree and operated a solar QRP CW station (3 watts). His most notable contact was to a Lighthouse in Cuba on forty meters. Both HF Stations were running and the only issue we had was the stateside contest that started around midday. So finding a quite spot to work was sometimes a challenge.

As night fell most of the contesters faded away and the bands were once again quiet. Operations worked into the night, until the overnight crew could not keep their eyes open. One member had set up a small six-man tent and a few of us sacked out there. The others caught some sleep in their vehicles. Waking before dawn we got back on the air. During the early Sunday morning hours other club members arrived bringing coffee, donuts and other snacks.

As with all our events food and drinks were available to the members who were at the event. Our club’s resident breakfast chief was not with us this year (his blueberry pancakes were missed). I provided the needed items and hardware to serve pork rolls and egg & cheese on hard rolls for Sunday breakfast. I have not heard of any issues with my cooking as of yet, and yes I had some too. We also would offer food and drink to any of the Park Rangers or other Park personal who came by to see us.

Operations continued till 1100 Sunday. With the threat of bad weather coming in we decided to pull the plug. After dropping the antennas, packing up the shelters and doing a ground clear walk we started off the hook. Our club cannot speak highly enough of the Sandy Hook National Park Staff. Any issues or questions were promptly answered or fixed. They came by often to be sure we were O.K. and to see if we needed anything. We have been informed that we will once again be welcomed back to operate in next year’s International Lighthouse / Lightship Weekend and we will all be looking forward to next year’s event.

Yes, that is a Raspberry Pi on the bottom of my rubbish bin. I’m not saying the RasPi is rubbish, but I am not weeping about its loss, either.

As with many new things there is a hype and with the RasPi there was no exception: “What a bargain to get so much computer for such a low price.” Well, you pay for what you get, so when I got mine last year September I soon found out I also got a lot of problems to solve. More than I was willing to. The USB/network problem has been mentioned a lot on various sites. Stable power would solve that, so I build a very stable solid state PSU with 78S05 regulators and 6800uF capacitors. Even after that you just had to look at the USB ports and the network would come crashing down. Since I was running the RasPi headless this meant rebooting over and over again.

So my plan to build a solar powered weather and APRS digipeater were soon abandoned and with only a single USB 1-Wire dongle attached it just collected weather data. Uptimes were great, the longest one being over 100 days – until I accidentally switched the power off.

Then we had this, on July 14….

http://youtu.be/fLqZ32XTbbg

I shot the video just after fixing a drainage problem: the water was almost entering the shack. At 14 seconds you can see the first flash of thunder (the EMP hit the camera). It was a forebode of what was to come: a hit right behind where we live. The result: all the garage door openers and video doorbells were broken within a 50 meter range. Two of our routers were out and……the weather station. Network cables make great antennas, so the 1-Wire dongle didn’t respond to incoming signals after the hit any more. The RasPi was also dead, but later that night I put 5 Volts on the GPIO pins and it came back alive, albeit running very hot. I had a spare 1-Wire dongle, so the weather station was up and running again – for the moment.

But not a month later the expected happened: slowly the colourful LEDs on the RasPi main board dimmed until there was no life in them left. It must be a problem with the on-board voltage regulator, but they are glued to the board (yes, I tried removing one), so the rubbish bin it is.

Added bonus is that I now have a much cleaner spectrum, too! There have been projects to get the RasPi transmitting using the GPIO pins on the FM band, WSPR and what not. I found out that the RasPi was acting as a little spread spectrum transmitter, putting out carriers every 30 kHz on HF and 6 meters via the network cable. Unplug the network and it’s gone, plug it in and you broadcast 24 hours a day on multiple frequencies.

I already had a Atom board prepared and with some extra time spent the weather station was back up in a jiffy. My little PicoLCD screen also worked with the new set up, while with the RasPi it would just stall. Therefore, you can surf to pa2bx.nl, again, for the latest weather in Longtan, Taiwan.

So, the Pi is dead, long life the Atom!

This afternoon I took a quick walk up the range road and into one of David Swain’s back fields. I worked France, New Mexico and Croatia.

The range road runs north from Hunkins Pond Road in Sanbornton… not far from where I live. I walked up about half a mile and then turned right toward the Dearborn farm. I stopped in Swain’s field.

The view was fantastic… to the south is the Belknap range. The grass is pretty high and David is doing the second hay cutting on his fields now.

At the edge of the field I tossed a wire into a maple tree. I sat right down in the grass along the stone wall and set up the KX3. I used a 33 foot wire with the earchi.org 9:1 unun.

I started out on 15 meters and answered Ollie F5IAE as soon as I turned on the rig. He was 579 and gave me a 559. “FB JOB UR NICE QRP,” he sent before signing.

Then I called Paul KW7D in New Mexico. He had just finished a contact with Ireland, and he gave me a 579. We chatted for a minute before saying goodbye.

Then I switched to 17 meters and heard Kiko 9A4WY in Croatia calling CQ. He gave me a 559 and was a strong 599. In all I made the 3 contacts in about 15 minutes.

I packed up the gear and headed back.

How fortunate to live in the countryside and have so many beautiful places from which to make radio contacts! To walk and bike through the hills, lane ways and fields of New Hampshire is a real privilege. And thanks to all of you who listen a bit harder for weak stations and make it all so rewarding.

This afternoon I rode my bike from East Andover to Dyers Crossing. I worked Cuba, Elba Island, Moscow, Tino Island and Slovenia.

I rode about 2 miles and turned off the trail onto an old road. Crossing the brook was a one-lane bridge. It was blocked off to traffic.

I walked out onto the bridge and heaved a 33 foot wire into a maple tree overhanging the bridge and sat down. I operated for 15 minutes on 17 meters and 20 meters. I used the KX3 at 5 watts. Both bands were in great shape. Here’s my log:

17 Aug-13  2042  18.077   CO8LY              CW 599 599 Cuba
17 Aug-13  2043  18.078   IA5/IZ5NFD   CW 599 599 Elba Island
17 Aug-13  2054  14.011   UA5C                 CW 599 599 Moscow
17 Aug-13  2055  14.012   IP1T                   CW 579 599 Tino Isl Light
17 Aug-13  2100  18.070   S51WO             CW 599 599 Slovenia

Tino Island Lighthouse – Italy

The afternoon was really perfect… about 75F and sunny. Ideal for a bike ride
through the fields and woods of New Hampshire. Working a little DX is
all I need to make the afternoon completely memorable.

This afternoon my wife Judy and I walked in some fields at the top of Shute Hill. I worked two stations in England and two U.S. stations.

We walked to the end of Rufus Colby Road, past Tommy Sheehan’s old house and up the range road through the woods.

After a ways we turned east toward Auger’s 20 acre field. There we turned right into a smaller field that had once been pasture. It was full of goldenrod, milkweed and blackeyed susans.

After walking across a few acres of land, we came to a break in a stone wall and walked into a second field.

It was at the edge of this field that I tossed a line into an oak tree. I pulled up a 10 meter wire and sat down on some moss.

There was a CW Ops sprint in progress and I quickly worked two stations in the mini contest: W6SX in California and K4VU in Alabama. Then I tuned down the band and heard my old friend Tom G3HGE finishing a QSO with another station. He was strong and answered my call right away. “It’s been a long time,” he sent and gave me a 579. Tom was a 599 as usual and we chatted for a few minutes. I’ve worked Tom many times while hiking, and I usually send him a picture or two. I promised him I would do so again and we said goodbye. I tuned down the band a bit and there was another English station, G4RFR. We exchanged quick 599s and signed. Romeo was operating a club station in Dorset.

What a thrill to take a quick afternoon walk in the countryside and work half way around the world. As G3HGE said when he signed, “It’s magical.”