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The weather is looking good for Saturday for my planned expedition to Morristown National Historical Park (NPOTA HP28) this coming Saturday.  Sunny with high temperatures in the upper 40s (9C) Hopefully, there will be no curve balls out of  Left field that will preclude me from going.

The plan is to leave the house somewhere around 11:00 AM (1500 UTC) and be up there and on the air by around 12:00 Noon (1600 UTC).  I plan on working 40, 20 and 17 Meters - CW around the QRP watering holes. I'll be packing some water and snacks and hope to stay for three or four hours. I am going to see if I can get the PAR END FEDZ 40/20/10 up in a tree in the parking lot.  If not, I'll just rely on the Buddistick for 20 and 17 Meters and a Hamstick for 40 Meters.

Last Saturday, I went to the Cherryville hamfest out in Flemington, NJ which is run by the W2CRA, Cherryville Repeater Association.  This was the very first hamfest that I ever went to as a newbie Ham back in 1979, and it's always held a special place for me.  Unfortunately, over the years (and especially since the dawn of eBay) the Cherryville hamfest seemed to be on the down slope.  Like a lot of hamfests, it suffered from poor attendance, lack of vendors, etc was plaguing it - and seemed to be spiraling towards its death knell.

Happily, between last year and this year, that trend seems to be reversed.  Attendance is still nowhere near where it used to be, but it's growing.  The number of vendors is still down (but again, growing), and for the most part the really bad junk is gone - and by junk I mean non-ham related garbage.  I mean really, who wants to buy a roto-tiller at a hamfest? Sure there's still lots of non-Ham stuff to be seen, but it also seems there are more and more treasures to be found.

I purchased some new SO-239 chassis connectors as well as two old butterfly type variable capacitors that I got for five bucks.  The capacitors have long stems on them, so they should be useful in my magnetic loop antenna project. I need to clean them up with some contact cleaner, but some initial testing seems to indicate that they are in the 200 pF range. KJI Electronics was there, and I purchased a Diamond antenna for my VHF/UHF handheld.  What a difference when you buy the real brand and not a cheap knock-off!

Before I forget ........ I have a friend who has a "hardly used, very good condition" SGC-2020 QRP radio that he wants to sell.  I am not privy to the price.  But if you're interested, send an e-mail to [email protected] and I will forward it on to him.  He's not looking for eBay type money, but he's not interested in getting taken, either.

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].

The weather is looking good for Saturday for my planned expedition to Morristown National Historical Park (NPOTA HP28) this coming Saturday.  Sunny with high temperatures in the upper 40s (9C) Hopefully, there will be no curve balls out of  Left field that will preclude me from going.

The plan is to leave the house somewhere around 11:00 AM (1500 UTC) and be up there and on the air by around 12:00 Noon (1600 UTC).  I plan on working 40, 20 and 17 Meters - CW around the QRP watering holes. I'll be packing some water and snacks and hope to stay for three or four hours. I am going to see if I can get the PAR END FEDZ 40/20/10 up in a tree in the parking lot.  If not, I'll just rely on the Buddistick for 20 and 17 Meters and a Hamstick for 40 Meters.

Last Saturday, I went to the Cherryville hamfest out in Flemington, NJ which is run by the W2CRA, Cherryville Repeater Association.  This was the very first hamfest that I ever went to as a newbie Ham back in 1979, and it's always held a special place for me.  Unfortunately, over the years (and especially since the dawn of eBay) the Cherryville hamfest seemed to be on the down slope.  Like a lot of hamfests, it suffered from poor attendance, lack of vendors, etc was plaguing it - and seemed to be spiraling towards its death knell.

Happily, between last year and this year, that trend seems to be reversed.  Attendance is still nowhere near where it used to be, but it's growing.  The number of vendors is still down (but again, growing), and for the most part the really bad junk is gone - and by junk I mean non-ham related garbage.  I mean really, who wants to buy a roto-tiller at a hamfest? Sure there's still lots of non-Ham stuff to be seen, but it also seems there are more and more treasures to be found.

I purchased some new SO-239 chassis connectors as well as two old butterfly type variable capacitors that I got for five bucks.  The capacitors have long stems on them, so they should be useful in my magnetic loop antenna project. I need to clean them up with some contact cleaner, but some initial testing seems to indicate that they are in the 200 pF range. KJI Electronics was there, and I purchased a Diamond antenna for my VHF/UHF handheld.  What a difference when you buy the real brand and not a cheap knock-off!

Before I forget ........ I have a friend who has a "hardly used, very good condition" SGC-2020 QRP radio that he wants to sell.  I am not privy to the price.  But if you're interested, send an e-mail to [email protected] and I will forward it on to him.  He's not looking for eBay type money, but he's not interested in getting taken, either.

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].

I have been a member of SKCC for some time now, but never really done anything with it except hand out my number if asked- I’m 8033 if you’re interested.

Burke Jones, NØHYD, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Kansas, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

I have been a member of SKCC for some time now, but never really done anything with it except hand out my number if asked- I’m 8033 if you’re interested.

Burke Jones, NØHYD, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Kansas, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

They say the days are long, but the decades are short. It’s hard to appreciate how far we’ve come in fifty years — both in terms of technology and prices!

Here are a few of the ads from the March, 1966 issue of 73 Magazine. Enjoy the walk down memory lane!

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Matt Thomas, W1MST, is the managing editor of AmateurRadio.com. Contact him at [email protected].

Here is this week’s space weather and geophysical report, issued 2016 Mar 14 0430 UTC.

Highlights of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 07 – 13 March 2016

Solar activity reached low levels on 08-09 and 12 March. The largest event of the period was a C3 flare from Region 2519 (N05, L=007, class/area=Cso/80 on 13 Mar) at 09/1250 UTC. Very low levels of solar activity were observed throughout the remainder of the period. No coronal mass ejections (CMEs) observed in coronagraph imagery were determined to be Earth-directed.

No proton events were observed at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit was at high levels on 07-11 Mar and decreased to moderate levels on 12-13 Mar.

Geomagnetic field activity reached G1 (Minor) geomagnetic storm levels early on 07 Mar due to the influence of a positive polarity coronal hole high speed stream (CH HSS). Activity levels subsided to quiet to unsettled levels on 08 Mar and quiet levels by 09 Mar. Quiet to unsettled conditions were observed on 10 Mar and continued into early on 11 Mar when the co-rotating interaction region (CIR) ahead of a positive polarity CH HSS caused G2 (Moderate) geomagnetic storm conditions. As the CH HSS progressed, conditions tapered down to active levels early on 12 Mar and into quiet to unsettled for the remainder of the day. Activity continued to subside with only quiet conditions observed on 13 Mar.

Forecast of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 14 March – 09 April 2016

Solar activity is expected to be at very low levels with a chance for C-class flares throughout the forecast period.

No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to be at high levels on 16-21 Mar and 04-06 Apr. Moderate levels are expected on 22 Mar-03 Apr and 07-09 Apr. Normal levels are expected on 14-15 Mar.

Geomagnetic field activity is expected to reach G1 (Minor) storm levels on 15-16 Mar and 02-03 Apr due to the influence of a negative polarity CH HSS. Active conditions are expected on 17 Mar and 08 Apr. Unsettled conditions are expected 18 Mar and 01, 04, 07, 08 Apr. Quiet conditions are expected throughout the remainder of the outlook period under a nominal solar wind regime.

Don’t forget to visit our live space weather and radio propagation web site, at: http://SunSpotWatch.com/

Live Aurora mapping is at http://aurora.sunspotwatch.com/

If you are on Twitter, please follow these two users: + https://Twitter.com/NW7US + https://Twitter.com/hfradiospacewx

Get the space weather and radio propagation self-study course, today. Visit http://nw7us.us/swc for the latest sale and for more information!

Check out the stunning view of our Sun in action, as seen during the last five years with the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXN-MdoGM9g

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Visit, subscribe: NW7US Radio Communications and Propagation YouTube Channel

We're done with the editing of Episode #164 and here it is for your listening pleasure. In this episode, your hosts tackle topics from Bugbook computers to permanent amateur radio licenses, from Turing phones to Raspberry Pi computers and from antenna modeling software to lobster on pizza. We hope everyone will find something to enjoy. Please let us know by sending us feedback. We'd love to hear from you.

73 de The LHS Crew

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].