AmateurRadio.com

Nothing like a Drill Sergeant…

Beach Boys Amateur Radio Club | 2 Alpha | Santa Barbara.

Emerito, N6ETO’s son Vinnie taking a tour of the ionosphere despite closed out conditions.

Phil, KK6PE working on the laptop prior to official start while Brian and Frank troubleshoot our rotor control box.

Phil, KK6PE is downloading N1MM Logger for use over the weekend. The club operated from the dialogue box while inputting mode, frequency, and callsign.

Fred, KI6QDH and John, KG6RFW logging Saturday afternoon 20m contacts.

Fred, KI6QDH in the pilot’s chair and a box provided screen shading otherwise it was impossible to see one’s input.

Operating our low band station. I’ve never forgotten field day in Western Pennsylvania as a novice. The low bands were always hot and fun!

Phil, KK6PE, Ricky, and John, KG6RFW manning our high band station through Saturday evening. Ricky totally dug high frequency operations.

Saturday night pumps on the low bands and I’m having a blast working both short and long skip. The evening cooled off significantly enough to warrant a North Face sleeping bag and skull cap.

Ernie, AE6ZE who hosted our first ever field day event in the pilot’s chair on Sunday morning.

Riding a few hours sleep and back in the chair on 40m early Sunday morning.

Activity shifted on Sunday as many operators went into the log as 1 Deltas and I imagine it will be an on-going, persistent trend in the forthcoming years.

KI6QDH and KI6UYB logging contacts either on 15 or 10m because 20m was not as productive as the team had hoped for through the weekend.

Kord, KI6UYB hitting his groove on the high bands mid-Sunday morning.

John, KG6RFW summed up our weekend beneath the warmth of Cycle 24 during the final hours of field day.

73 from the Beach Boys Amateur Radio Club and stay tuned for our next adventure!

Conditions could hardly have been worse for the RSGB’s VHF Field Day contest this weekend. Yesterday I worked a few southern Scottish portables on 2m and 6m, plus the Lincoln Radio Club station G5FZ/P on 2m, and that was that. There did not appear to be a shred of Sporadic-E on either 2m or 6m, according to DX Sherlock. 6m was so quiet my K3 S-meter wasn’t even moving.

Today when I turned on the radio I tuned both 2m and 6m without hearing a single signal. The map on the right probably shows why. We awoke to heavy rain and gale force winds, and I immediately thought of those poor guys on hilltop sites with their guyed poles supporting their beam antennas. If the wind didn’t force them to take the antennas down I dare say the rain and the poor propagation made them decide they might just as well give up.

This has been a really disappointing year for me too, VHF-wise. After working Spain and Portugal on 2m on two separate occasions last year – the last being exactly one year ago – I improved my antenna by 3dB and my output power by 6dB in the hope of doing better during this year’s season. But I have worked nothing and as far as I know the sporadic-E this year has hardly been heard this far north. DX Sherlock showed that a couple of well-sited northerly stations managed to make a few contacts a few weeks ago and I fleetingly heard a station from Romania complete a contact and call CQ at that time, but that was that.

Something is becoming clear to me that I never realized when I lived in the south, which is that just a couple of degrees of latitude can make a huge difference to the amount of Sporadic-E you get. The season isn’t over now but it must be on the wane and I’m soon going to be away from the radio for a couple of weeks, so it’s looking as if 2010 is going to pass for me without any 2m Sporadic-E DX.

Was it a week ago when ham radio operators across the nation gathered together for a weekend of emergency wireless communications and socializing?

Gratitude.
I want to thank Ernie, AE6ZV for his magnificent effort as the Beach Boys Amateur Radio Club successfully executed its first ever field day. He magnified the definition of ham radio spirit while Honda generators hummed, Morse code sang into the starry night, and operators shouted into microphones.

Many thanks to Emerito, N6ETO, Fred, KI6QDH, John, KG6RFW, and Kord, KI6UYB for their inspiration, hard work, and dedication to the Beach Boys Amateur Radio Club mission — ham radio is a lot of fun!

I believe our club is reinvigorating ham radio in our local area as participants chatted up the excitement of logging their first ever HF contacts, the flush of our accomplishment, and their passion for a wonderful hobby. Our local 2m repeater will never be the same after last weekend.

Reward Is In The Effort.
We are a band of like minded with varying degrees of expertise. Our antenna systems for the weekend included an elevated Butternut HF9V with 5 quarter wave radials on the low bands (40 & 80m), a 3 element tribander at 35 feet (10, 15, and 20m), a G5RV (80m LSB), and a 40m dipole.

Propagation really depressed conditions on the high bands with a Sunday morning sporadic-e exception. Literally, 20m was gridlocked and 100 watts was not sufficient enough to conquer both conditions and signal jam when 15 and 10m are virtually shut down however; Beach Boys Amateur Radio Club logged over 200 contacts on the high bands.

A job well done for Kord, KI6UYB who logged his first ever HF contact!

Low Bands Play On.
The low bands performed beyond expectation and we were more than pleased with the performance of the elevated vertical with counterpoise. The concentration of 6 land stations on 40m had an enormous positive impact on our log statistics. Their signals ranged from barely above receiver noise floor to an astounding 20dB on the s-meter.

Forty meters made up the difference for our low power operation especially when 20m was gridlocked.

Fred, KI6QDH fired up our G5RV on 80m LSB beneath a sky ablaze with full moon light and thin, wispy tendrils of fog. His effort spiked our overall total while I logged Morse code contacts on the same band. I enjoyed listening to him as contact after contact went into the log. On the other hand, we are in need of an 80m operator who is a night owl because my brain stopped processing Morse code around 1 o’clock in the morning.

The Beach Boys Amateur Radio Club logged over 500 contacts on the low bands.

Locally Reinvigorating Ham Radio.
Our preparations paid dividends especially in terms of having a lot of ham radio fun. We had lots of visitors throughout Saturday afternoon and, hopefully, our band of passionate operators inspired individuals to look again at ham radio in addition high frequency (HF) operating.

We were wiped out when the buzzer concluded our first ever field day operation. Our team effort scored over 700 contacts in the log and we are targeting over 1,000 for next year.

Next Project?
The Beach Boys Amateur Radio Club is looking at its next project, perhaps, UHF/VHF operations near the beach with our beams pointed north/south toward San Francisco and Los Angeles. There are digital modes yet to be conquered and lots of space on HF for ham radio fun. Six meters is all the rage in the area trending Hawaiian print shirt popular along the central coast of California.

Stay tuned for the next adventure and 73 from the shack relaxation zone.

P.S. Working on my radial system this afternoon, antenna lab gets a 6m beam, and I renewed my ARRL membership.

The QRZ.com thread resulting from the news about the French petition to have D-Star made legal has not degenerated into the usual flame war. This afternoon it produced this interesting post by Gavin, G0LGB whe makes some observations that are quite jaw-dropping.

Gavin claims that “Repeater groups are being persuaded by financial incentives, free or drastically reduced equipment, fast-track applications via RSGB/Ofcom, to convert their under used repeaters to D-Star.” The logic of how converting an under used repeater to use a little-used digital mode will increase traffic escapes me. More likely it has to do with starting to establish a network by the back door in the hope of encouraging more users, after which the busy repeaters will come under pressure to change too. We are having D-Star forced upon us whether we want it or not!

The other worrying claim Gavin makes is that the repeater keeper has the ability to ban users, not just from the repeater but from the D-Star network as a whole. This would be fine if it was simply used to ban miscreants – though why someone would pay £500 for a radio just to swear or play music is also a mystery – but apparently people have been banned just for voicing opinions unpopular with the repeater owners (somewhat reminiscent of my own experience with the ROS digital mode!) This is possible because the system is digital – all packets of audio or data originating from you are stamped with your call so the network knows who you are and where you are (or at least which repeater you are in range of.)

I think that, regardless of the merits or otherwise of using digital voice on the VHF bands, D-Star is not the way to go. It vests too much power in the hands of one manufacturer, Icom, and in individual repeater owners. It’s just unacceptable to have a situation that could result in you being barred from your hobby just because a repeater owner disagrees with your views. I suspect that the people who find APRS too much like Big Brother won’t like this either.

Today French radio amateurs have finally been granted permission to operate in the region 7.1 to 7.2MHz. Vive la France!