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Right on the Gulf of Mexico, not 50 feet from the water, This is my favorite venue for QRP.

The crosses are a memorial to people that drowned in a freak storm that blew in from the Gulf Of Mexico, unannounced and unanticipated. This is a beautiful spot for ham radio operation, (bug spray required)!

MFJ push up pole is neatly deployed from the 2 inch towing receiver on the back of my truck. This is the first time I tried it out. There is a 30 meter EFHW, End Fed Half Wave antenna attached to the top with a rope and pulley.

Dave, K4DFG and I operated QRP from this park today. He worked 20 meters. I worked 30 meters. Both of us use the PAR EFHW, antennas. They are very easy to put up and take down.

Kx3 for a radio, and a computer for logging and transmitting CW,

I worked a guy in OK who was also QRP and very glad to be working QRP and is back on the air after a long lay off. We hit it pretty good here today, they just finished mowing the grass as I set up.

Dave used his FT817 and worked a couple of guys in Texas.

No goats here, sorry! No long hike, just a drive up and plop!

Hiking with all this stuff is unthinkable. But for a drive up and plop style of operating. I take extra parts, batteries , just in case!

Fiberglass electric fence post keeps the terminal end of the EFHW off the ground.

The coax is the ‘other half’ of the antenna. I try to make sure its close to a 1/4 wave long on whatever band I happen to be on.

This seemed unnecessary today on 30 meters, the coax was a bit short of that figure but it worked well anyway.

We had a great time, made a few contacts and enjoyed the beautiful venue.

Air boats haunt this very shallow cove so its a good idea to have noise cancelling headphones but even then, they are pretty loud. Only one went by today.

72 de AA1IK

Ernest Gregoire

Hanz and I went canoeing on Hermit Lake this morning. We made a QSO with NC while /mm and then we stopped on an island and made a few more… it was all makeshift because I forgot a tuner!

It was 85 degrees on Hermit Lake… hot and humid, but with a nice breeze. We set out about 10:30 with an FT-817, a bit of wire and hopes for a great adventure. That’s when things started going wrong…

As I began to raise the 14 foot fiberglass pole, I broke off the tip and had to rethink my strategy for attaching a wire. I knotted the wire around the tip and pretended everything was fine. I reached for the tuner, only to discover I had left it behind in a last minute gear switch. I thought the adventure was over… but recovered quickly. Oh well… who needs a tuner? We’ll just find the band with the lowest SWR and hope for the best.

After putting up the antenna, I stuffed the wire into the center conductor of the SO239 on the back of the rig. I didn’t even use a counterpoise. I turned the rig on 17 meters and there was K2J, the 13 Colonies Special Event Station from North Carolina, calling CQ with an S9 signal. I called him signing /MM. He came right back to me. Hanz and I grinned from ear to ear. I told the operator I was on a lake in New Hampshire and thanks for the contact! Then I realized I had forgotten to switch on the external battery. I was running with 2 1/2 watts on the internal AAs with no tuner. And all that with a few feet of wire wrapped around a 14 foot pole lashed to the canoe with rubber bands… and no counterpoise. To make things worse, the bands were clearly very poor. Geepers!

We floated around for a while but there wasn’t a lot of activity. At one point we heard KG4TO in Guantanamo Bay. He heard us and tried coming back to the /MM, but he couldn’t quite get our call. We headed for an island to get
out of the wind a bit.

Once there, we decided to land and set up a dipole cut to frequency. We grabbed the gear, and headed up a short but steep hill. At the top was a clearing with some tall trees. We heaved a wire over a branch and pulled up 33 feet of wire and laid a counterpoise over the tops of some bushes, and listened around. 20 meters sounded like the best bet. We had to shorten the wires a bit to lower the SWR, but quickly made contact with Paul, KW7D in NM. Paul gave me a 579 and we were thrilled. Hanz took the key.

Hanz worked K2G, the 13 Colonies station in Georgia. Tim gave us a 599. We figured we’d beaten the odds of an outing with no tuner and called it quits.

How to Save Ham Radio – Parts 4 & 5 – N1IC  – The Easiest Two!

So first of all let me say that I had a started 4 and 5 a long time ago when I was writing this series but due to some personal challenges with my health I had to take a step back from blog posting and this series … with that said I wanted to close it out. 4 and 5 as I started writing them were both serious topics but I wanted to combine them since one will be a little more controversial than the other and hopefully 5 will help bring everyone back from their thoughts on the 4^th part 🙂

http://nicktoday.com/how-to-save-ham-radio-parts-4-5-n1ic-the-easiest-two/

I just happened to have my tablet with me at work today. During lunch, I sat down and was looking through Google News. In the science section, I happened across an article that was posted from The Christian Science Monitor, written by Peter Spotts.

Peter Spotts?   W1PNS, Pete Spotts?  “From the Key of W1PNS” Pete Spotts – fellow blogger?

So I clicked the little hyperlink that also served as the byline, and sure enough. Besides all the very prestigious accomplishments that were listed in the brief bio, was a mention of an interest in Amateur Radio.

So it appears that our Pete is not only an accomplished Amateur Radio op and QRPer and CW fan, but also a very accomplished author and writer. Some of you might have known that, but I didn’t and I thought that this was the coolest.

Just goes to show, there’s a lot of really talented writers authoring some of these Amateur Radio blogs. I don’t count myself among their number, but there’s a lot of quality reading to be found in the links on the right side of this blog. Don’t deprive yourself of their wordsmithing.

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

This afternoon I took the kayak out on Hermit Lake. I worked Orlando, Florida and Worcester, Mass with an Icom 51AD d-star handie talkie.

The setup was pretty simple. I parked the camper at the edge of the lake. On the front seat I used a Raspberry Pi computer (credit card sized) connected to a DVAP. A DVAP is a tiny repeater. It’s about 1 by 2 inches and runs a few milliwatts for local access. I also had a mifi card supplying an internet connection in the camper. This setup gave me a range of about a half a mile from the camper. I was connected to reflector 30 which is like a conference room comprising 50 local repeaters. One of the advantages of d-star is that there’s a lot of activity and it’s always easy to reach someone to chat with.

Out on the water, I talked with Dave KB1PVH in Worcester, Ma for a few minutes and headed over to an island to check out some wild irises.

This lake is also known for two varieties of carnivorous plants… the pitcher plant and the sundew plant. They aren’t in bloom yet.

As I headed back toward the shore, I said hello to Mike KA9ZRZ in Orlando, Florida. He was also using a Raspberry Pi and DVAP. Suddenly, as I passed a quiet cove on one of the islands, a huge gray heron swoshed right across the bow of the kayak a few feet above the water. I think we were both startled.

I put the kayak back in the camper and listened to VK4TUX from Australia chatting with another station. International contacts on d-star are common.

POWER POLE ADDITION TO 3 AMP POWER SUPPLY

I wanted a 3 amp power supply for my Kx3. The 12 volt ‘laptop’ power supply did not quite have the ‘chutzpah’ to charge the internal batteries, all the way!

I bought it from local ham that no longer used it and wanted to make it compatible with all my other gear. I use Power Pole connectors on all my radio gear including accessories. Manufacturers are ‘Getting the picture’ by using Power Pole connectors which are superior to all other types, (in my opinion) but they are catching on slowly. My first thought was to simply place one power pole connector on the face of this Radio Shack 3 Amp power supply.  (See the rectangle on the face plate)

Second Option Layout

It was a mistake to use a ‘permanent marker’ to layout the face plate cut out, but fortunately, it went away with the cut out! This, proving once again, that not all my original ideas are good ones!

Cut Out Portion of the Face Plate is Shown Here.  

The internal components were removed to facilitate soldering.

There is not a ‘whole lot’ of room inside this power supply, but more than in some I’ve seen. None the less, I opted to remove the internal components to allow a good solder job from the Power Poles to the original binding posts. I covered the splices with heat shrink tubing.

I used a Dremel Tool  to remove the lower right corner of the Power Pole face plate and a hacksaw on the cut out.

This was necessary  in order to keep the cigarette lighter socket where it is. A good filing job was necessary to smooth out the hacksaw and Dremel tool marks. I used a cloth to shield the circuit board and transformer from flying metal chips, then vacuumed out the inside very, very well. The last thing I need in a power supply is a ‘rogue’ chip of metal bouncing around inside it. I also cleaned out the interior of the cabinet with Q-tips and rubbing alcohol to make sure I got them all. The voltage was off a bit, but that was easily adjusted by turning a small pot on the circuit board. It reads a prefect 13.8 VDC now.

This cigarette lighter plug fitted with Power Pole connector is such an example of the versatility that these sockets bring.

This particular plug works in your car as well, opening a myriad of possibilities for charging and lighting. This socket is very useful for accessories of all kinds.

My pocket flashlight is powered by 4.2 V batteries that can be charged via the cigarette lighter socket.

Cell phones usually have such an adapter too, as do Kindles, or MP3 players.

So here you have it, a 3 amp power supply modified with Power Pole connectors.

This little power supply now sits on a coffee table powering my Kx3, among other things. Please feel free to contact me for information about doing modifications like this one. Please note, this is a ‘regulated’ power supply, and not a ‘switching’ power supply. Radio Shack no longer makes this model. At least I could not find one like it in a Radio Shack Store search online. You might find one like I did, by looking for a used one.

73 de AA1IK

Ernest Gregoire

Links http://www.powerwerx.com/

http://www.dremel.com/en-us/Tools/Pages/ToolDetail.aspx?pid=4000

My Buddipole Antenna, Configured as a 2 Element Yagi for 6 Meters

The ribbons are to keep me from poking my eyes out on the end of the whips.

Here, I’m trying the antenna out in my driveway before I take it to the beach.

Kx3 QRP Radio 

Six Meter Summer!

This pavilion is my favorite operating spot at Hagen’s Cove. 

It overlooks Dead Man’s Bay, on the Gulf of Mexico in Perry Florida.

I’m going to spend the summer playing around with my Kx3 on 6 meters. The antenna here is a Buddipole, configured as a 2 element Yagi. Its easy to assemble in the field, so I’ll take it to the beach (Hagen’s Cove) and try to make some contacts with it. I’ve been a ham for 22 years but have never done much with 6 meters. This will be a 6 meter summer for me. Join me, I’d love to have a ham radio buddy to share the adventure with.

de AA1IK, 73