AmateurRadio.com

There are always questions about what is the best way to pack a radio to insure that it is protected and gets to and from the remote location in the same condition that it left home. I suppose the function for the answer to that question would be:

R = # of Radios
C = # of Containers
H = # of Hams

R x C x H = the number of ways to pack a portable radio.

Translation = a lot of ways to pack a radio

So here is my solution for carrying an ATS4B and an MTR to the top of the mountain, complete with power supply, ear phones and key.



Mike Crownover, AD5A, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Texas, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

is a microcosm of Amateur Radio in general. There are niches within the niche. QRP means different things to different people. In my estimation, (and I’m sure I’m way off base and nowhere near complete) the major categories are:

Competitors. Just like their QRO brethren, these guys exist solely for the contests and/or DX. You see their calls in the contest score tallies of CQ, QST and even QQ. Otherwise, with a few exceptions, you never seem to work these guys for a ragchew, or ever hear from them on the QRP e-mail reflectors. Some have the big towers with the yagis and they spend every last ounce of effort and money squeezing the very last iota of capability out of their equipment and themselves. These folks are very hard core.

Organizers. Folks like Paul NA5N, Rem K6BBQ, Rich KI6SN, Marshall N1FN, Jerry N9AW, Dale WC7S, among others. These guys come up with neat and fun concepts for events that we all have fun in ….. like the ARS Spartan Sprints, the Run For the Bacon, the NAQCC Sprints, QRP To The Field, the QRP Fox Hunts, Freeze Your Butt Off, Flight Of the Bumblebees, Sweat Your Butt Off, the Zombie Shuffle, etc, etc, etc. And of course, QRP-ARCI who organizes so many fun events like the Spring and Fall QSO Parties, the Hoot Owl Sprint, and so many more.

Builders and Tinkerers. These are the true homebrewers. Designers like Steve KD1JV, Mike AA1TJ or Jason NT7S, Rev Dobbs G3RJV, Doug W1FB (SK), Hans G0UPL, who seemingly can come up with great and ingenious designs (effortlessly) while brushing their teeth in the morning; and then share with the rest of us. Some guys are like Dave AA7EE or Tony W2GUM (SK). These guys build, and while they may not necessarily build their own designs all the time, their construction projects are things of beauty. Then there are guys like Dale WC7S and Don W3FPR who seem to eternally cruise the e-mail reflectors, always on the lookout to answer the questions of befuddled troubleshooters (like me!), or to perhaps assist someone with the building or finishing of their kits.

Entrepreneurs. On a commercial level, we are so lucky to have guys like Eric WA6HHQ, Wayne N6KR, Doug KI6DS, Diz W8DIZ, Rex W1REX and Dave K1SWL, Bill N8ET (who recently had a stroke, but was at Dayton this year, from what I understand) and others who have come up with companies that keep us in a never ending supply of QRP goodies.

Antenna experts. These people spend their time designing, homebrewing, or just tinkering with …..antennas. There is probably a little bit of this category in each of us – but these guys …… well, this is their “thing”. Several call signs that I can think off the top of my head that fit into this category – Steve AA5TB, Bud W3FF, Dale W4OP, Bill WA8MEA, L.B. Cebik W4RNL (SK), Alex PY1AHD, among others.

Experimenters. These guys think out of the box, and come up with new ideas for new things, or perhaps lead the way making use of new technologies, modes, etc. or perhaps they write software for QRPers. They’re a lot like the builders and designers in one sense, yet different in another. In this group I would put people like George N2APB, Joe N2CX, Joe K1JT, Julian G4ILO and so many others.

Outdoorsmen. Steve WG0AT, Guy N7UN, Jim W1PID, Martin VA3SIE, Bud W3FF, Ed WA3WSJ, Rem K6BBQ, Dennis K1YPP and all the SOTA folks. These are the folks who exist for taking their equipment outdoors and seeing how far they push themselves and their equipment. These are the guys we sit around and ask for “just one more story”. These are the guys we love to watch on YouTube or read of their exploits on their blogs.

Teachers. These folks are great examples for all the rest of us, they are particularly concerned with passing on the hobby and its tradition to the future generations. All the folks listed above are teachers, but the guys that (in my mind) especially fit this category are the guys who like to “spread the word”. Those who come especially to mind are John K3WWP and Dan KB6NU and Rich W2VU, Joe K0NEB, Cam N6GA, among others.

The rest of us – The “Ham and Eggers”, if you will, or if you read the comic strips in the newspapers, perhaps the “Pluggers”. We’re the day-to-day guys on the bands, the ones who do it all, the guys who do the rag chewing, the guys who work some DX when we get the opportunity, the guys who complain and moan on the e-mail reflectors, the guys who hunt the Foxes, the guys who buy, build and sell all that QRP stuff out there. The rank and file, the great huddled masses who go about their lives, probably unrecognized for the most part, but for without whom, there would be no QRP. Hopefully, because of efforts of the people named in the above categories (and there are so many more that I haven’t included due to advanced Senior-itis) there’s a bit of each of those categories in all of us.  Perhaps you find yourself fitting into multiple categories.

A note to my readers – the names and calls mentioned above are mainly North American QRPers. This is because these are the names and calls that I am most familiar with. Personally, I know my knowledge is sadly lacking and that there is a treasure trove of QRPers out there, throughout the whole world who deserve to be added to the list of names I mentioned above. I wish I knew more about them. If you have some names that stand out in your minds, please add them to the comments section. Or even better, I’d love to hear about them and their accomplishments, and perhaps even run future blog posts about them (I sense a new series developing here ….. “Profiles in QRP”) – Polish QRPers, Russian QRPers, Thai QRPers, Italian QRPers, Aussie QRPers, Brazilian QRPers, QRPers from around the world. Send me an e-mail!

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

Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

 

 

Guess what?  Its sunny and there’s Es to be had about. After several months of not really touching the radio at home because of the various commitments I made to a certain cycle sportive I took a week off work and decided to catch up on the family and my hobby. After a nice long weekend away with the kids in Centre Parcs (If you don’t have kids then it’ll be hell on earth, otherwise I can recommend it, especially the security at Sherwood after our friends bike was pinched. The Muppet got nicked at the gate and is now at her majesty’s pleasure)

Back to radio though…A few quick fire contacts on 6m soon had me back in the swing although an attempt at FSK was a step too far today. Still nice to work a few stations and to see the sun out. The Powabeam is doing the business on a Moonraker mast. Not an ideal set up but useful.

 

 

Alex Hill, G7KSE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, UK. Contact him at [email protected].

Some post-Dayton additions have been made to the RadioKitGuide.  Rather than continue to paste the entire thing here I will link to it and list the changes only.

Changes  in Hendricks (2 new kits!), YouKits (1 new kit!), TenTec (New QRP rig coming soon), Four States QRP (1 kit retired, 1 coming soon), CR Kits (1 new kit!).

You can see the guide here:  RadioKitGuide.com

Neil Goldstein, W2NDG, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New York, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Some good planning on Sarah’s part yielded a bridal shower for her sister scheduled on the same weekend as the Hamvention.  Huge win.

1. Speaking of huge wins, there was no sewer back up this year.
2. Like the last time I attended in 2011, I’m pleased to see more younger (than me) hams in attendance.  A high-ranking ARRL official noted to me the “energy and enthusiasm” present in this generation of young hams that was not present 15 years ago (this year marks my 20th year as a ham, but I didn’t mention that).  Attendance was still thin compared to my first visit in the mid 1990s.
3. Deals.  I stimulated the economy by purchasing a small CDE rotor for my VHF activities, an HP server power supply for a future solid state amplifier project (>55 amps at 50 volts), a couple of 900-MHz antennas, and some miscellaneous small parts.  I sold some junk to partially cover that expense.
4. People.  Ran into a lot of old friends and made some new ones.  This is really why I go to Dayton, well, that and the junk.  K8MFO tells me there are Bureau cards coming.  W8AV has 930s for me to work on.  W2NAF had people for me to meet.  AD8P was able to win himself a pizza from an unnamed W5 in the “SB-200 challenge” of correctly differentiating an SB-200 from an SB-220 at a distance of 20 feet—a tribute to the W5′s failure to distinguish the two until after the sale last year.
5. W2NAF has written an article about our trip to Adak (NA-039) that was published in the June 2013 issue of CQ.  It has a lot more background detail than what I wrote on the blog.  Check it out.  I picked up a copy of that and the May 2013 issue which has the 2012 CQ WW CW results in it.
6. Products.  I just don’t care that much about new products.  The Ten-Tec Rebel that several people have already discussed is a cool idea.  I know that Ten-Tec took some flak for not opening up the Orion SDR core when they produced it.  But, let’s be realistic, people.  Hams would have bricked those suckers in a heartbeat.  A sandbox “open source” radio is a step in the right direction, but I question what a ham can really customize that matters without screwing it up.  Maybe I’m just not visionary enough.  Almost 10 years ago now, I interned in the R&D lab at a large consumer appliance manufacturer as an undergraduate my supervisor was always saying, “How can we make this attractive to the [hardware] hackers?”
7. Guns.  The Hamvention web site was very specific that the Trotwood Police Department would be actively enforcing Hara Arena as a non-gun zone.  Seriously?  It’s a ham radio convention.  Bill Goodman is there at least once a month the rest of the year.  Do hams bring their go-kits to gun shows?  They must.  Inquiring minds want to know…
8. Suites.  I did not do the contester suite thing.  Was thinking of going on Friday night but fell asleep in my in-laws’ living room.  This is a recurring problem when I visit so no one bothered to awaken me.

Was the trip worthwhile?  I think so.

Ethan Miller, K8GU, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Maryland, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Would you like to win a Beaglebone Black? Of course you would! Check out our Contests page for details on how to enter to win. No purchase is required. Good luck!

Russ Woodman, K5TUX, co-hosts the Linux in the Ham Shack podcast which is available for download in both MP3 and OGG audio format. Contact him at [email protected].

I found this interesting:

And this is  from the InfoAge Webpage concerning the project:

“In late 1945, in the lull that followed the Japanese surrender, a number of scientists at Fort Monmouth’s Camp Evans began working on a way to pierce the earth’s ionosphere with radio waves, a feat that had been tried just before the war without success and which many thought impossible.

Project Diana, named for the goddess of the moon, was designed to prove that it could be done. Begun on an almost unofficial level by Evans radar scientists awaiting their Army discharge, the project was headed by Lt. Col. John DeWitt. Operating with only a handful of full-time researchers, the project scientists greatly modified a SCR-271 bedspring radar antenna, set it up in the northeast corner of Camp Evans, jacked up the power, and aimed it at the rising moon on the morning of January 10, 1946. A series of radar signals were broadcast, and in each case, the echo was picked up in exactly 2.5 seconds, the time it takes light to travel to the moon and back.

The importance of Project Diana cannot be overestimated. The discovery that the ionosphere could be pierced, and that communication was possible between earth and the universe beyond, opened the possibility of space exploration that previously had been only a dream in adventure films and comic books. Just as Hiroshima opened the nuclear age in 1945, Project Diana opened the space age in January of 1946. It would take another decade before the first satellites were launched into space, soon followed by manned rockets, but Diana paved the way for all those achievements.

It even initiated the tradition of naming such projects after ancient Greek and Roman gods, like Mercury and Apollo. For Fort Monmouth Project Diana was a pivotal event that built on World War II expertise, but pointed the way to the future.”

Somehow, I have got to fit this location into either an upcoming QRPTTF or perhaps a cool theme for the 2014 Skeeter Hunt ……………

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

Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].