K9OZ ham radio blog

New home for blog

2012-01-21T08:30:00.001-06:00

I moved the content of this blog to a new location and new url -- www.k9oz.com -- last weekend. For future updates to the blog, please go to that url. I'll see how traffic picks up on that location, and determine at some point whether to keep this blog going or not. But for now, if you want updates, go to the new url.
Thanks and 73, Bruce

Straight Key Night

2012-01-01T19:18:00.004-06:00

New Years's Eve is Straight Key Night for hams. We all get out our old radios and straight keys and relive our youth. I was running a 70s era Novice radio, the Heath HW-16, and using an old military straight key from WWII. We get spoiled by the modern radios with selective filtering and electronic keyers that make sending Morse code much easier, but it is a blast to get the old gear out and pretend it's 1965 and I'm a 12-year-old playing with radios in the basement.

Reawakening the blog

2011-12-31T07:27:00.002-06:00

It's time to get the blog going again. I've had several other things going on in my life that I won't go into on this blog, and it cut into my ham radio time and pretty much stopped my blogging this year. As we start into 2012, I'll make one of my resolutions to try to blog weekly.

In the past year I've added several pieces of equipment. Last spring I bought a Ten Tec Eagle just out of curiosity. I'd read the ads, and wondered if the receiver was a good as they said. My take is it does have a very nice receiver, but they worked hard at making it a simple radio, and in my opinion it is a little too simple. It has too few controls for my daily operating on cw, so I've found I'm not using it much and it will probably go onto eBay soon.

My other two acquisitions this year are the Elecraft KPA 500 amplifier to round out my Elecraft K-line station and a Yaesu FT 101 E that now makes up my vintage/AM station. I'm sitting here listening to the Midwest Classic AM net on Saturday morning on the old Yaesu, and it sound great on AM. That is the weekly extent of my phone operating.

DX, the bands are open again

2011-04-01T22:23:00.002-05:00

Sorry I've been away from blog, but I've been very active on the radio past couple months, and I just haven't kept up with blogging. In the meantime, the bands have been open, and I have to say I'm chasing more DX than I every have in my ham career. Tonight, for example, I worked Fiji, 3D2A, on 10 meters at around 9 p.m. local time with my first call. That blew me away. Then I came back down and worked Israel, 4x4FC, on 40 meters on the second call. I just don't have that kind of results with my simple ground mounted vertical. In the lst week I've worked Greenland, Guam, Jordan, Sardinia, Fiji and Israel. Most of those are new countries for me, and using the Logbook of the World system, I've been able to watch my country count steadily grow. Then while I was writing this, I managed to workd JW/F8DVD which is an expedition to Svalbard, whcih is an island in artic sea north of Norway. I managed to snag him in a lucky shot in middle of pileup. Another new one. So I've got DX fever for now. It's really different to see all the DX popping up in the log.

Mini Cooper ham radio install

2010-12-11T09:09:00.003-06:00

Here's more details on installing ham radios in Mini Coopers.
On my R56 I used the heavy-duty Comet lip mount on the edge of the back hatch and had an ATAS 120 antenna on it. It worked well, and I could get into parking garages. When I was looking at trading the R56 for my Clubman, I assumed I could use the same mount on the center of the back doors. But I've spent days messing with it, and it just doesn't work well. The coax is just enough to bother the proper closing of the door.

So at the moment, I'm confined to 2 meters and 440. I used a small lip mount on the club door -- I think that's what it's called, and it works OK. It isn't real pretty, but it isn't too obtrusive. Nobody has ever noticed it when looking at the car. Next summer I may try removing the AM antenna and putting a simple quarter-wave in its place. For the radio, I'm using a Yaesu 7900 with the radio mounted in the back cubbyhole under the false floor, and the control head attached to the CD changer with double-sided tape.

I can't use the CD, but I never had used it since every CD I own is on the iPod. I had my doubts if the control head would stay there, but it's been there for about 3 months with no problem, and looks good and is easy to use while driving. Forgive the dirty car in the photos, but it's salt season in Chicago.

Timewave ANC-4 works

2010-11-24T19:20:00.003-06:00

I've been battling very bad line noise, and made the jump to buying a noise reduction device from Timewave, the model ANC-4. It uses a second antenna, picks up the noise, moves it 180 degrees out of phase, and removes the noise before it hits your radio.

It sounded too good to be true, but it does work.

It's not simple, and not 100 percent. After reading reviews, I saw a lot of positive, but also saw people who said it did nothing and they returned it.

For the first couple days I was in the did nothing category, but I kept experimenting with different receive antennas, until I found a combination that worked. If you aren't picking up the noise on the second antenna, you can't use it to phase out the other noise. So that's the key.

Now I'm using the dipole as my main antenna, and the vertical as the noise antenna. I have it set up so I can switch antennas quickly, using the vertical as main and dipole as receive.

Meanwhile, my noise has gotten worse, so this is the only thing keeping me on the air right now. A video is attached, showing how it works

Sweepstakes results -- clean sweep

2010-11-08T22:06:00.002-06:00

For years my goal has been to complete a clean sweep in the CW ARRL Sweepstakes. A clean sweep is working all 80 sections in the US and Canada, which includes Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Several years I've been close with 78 or 79 sections, but I never managed to get the Northwest Territory in Canada.
This year I was fighting high line noise, and wondered whether to even take part. But I started out and started getting some of the rare sections -- North Dakota, Wyoming, South Dakota -- right off, so I got hooked.
The contest started at 4 p.m. local time, and by the time I went to bed at 1 a.m. I was close to 400 contacts and had 76 sections. I was missing Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Newfoundland and Northwest Territory.
So I thought I had a real chance for the sweep. On Sunday, I started out with a good run on 40 meters, and after it got light moved to 20 and 15 to look for my three missing multipliers. I didn't spend full time at the radio, just checking the spots and CW Skimmer every hour or so to see if they had popped up. Around 10 the KH6 stations showed up on 20, so it was no problem to get Hawaii, but I had seen no sign of the other three.
Around noon I was doing search-and-pounce on 15 and saw Puerto Rico pop up on Skimmer. I jumped to the frequency and had him-- only two to go. Shortly after that I saw a spot for Newfoundland, and discovered a huge pileup calling him. I used all my pileup busting skills -- and got him after about 10 minutes. Only one to go. I went back to search and pounce on 15 watching what was showing up on Skimmer, and suddenly Northwest Territory station popped up. I jumped the frequency and got him on the first call. I think he had just started operating on that band, and I beat the spots and the pileup.
So at 1 p.m. local time, I had my first clean sweep. It felt good. I took a break. At sundown I came back to the shack and ran 40 and 80 for a little while, getting my contact total to 600. Around 6:30 I pulled the plug when I hit 600 contacts. More on fighting the noise later.

Illinois QSO party

2010-10-24T21:55:00.004-05:00

I had a great time last weekend working the Illinois QSO party. I wound up with about 375 contacts, and a good number of multipliers, so I should end up with a respectable final score. But what's more important, I had a great time doing it.

Everything seemed to work -- I spent most of my time running frequencies (calling CQ and having people call me) on 40 and 20 cw, and when things were slow, I moved up to 40 SSB and did about 120 contacts, and picked up a bunch of new multipliers in counties that just weren't on CW.

One of the highlights was having a European station call me on 40 cw at 3:30 in the afternoon. Working Europe at night on 40 is no big deal, but I've never worked Europe on 40 that time of day.

In the end, I worked about 10 different Europeans on 20 and 40, which was nice and gave me six additional multipliers.

The Illinois QSO party is always about three weeks before cw Sweepstakes, and gives me a good warm-up for it. I'm ready.

Radio for sale

2010-10-09T11:05:00.004-05:00

My trusy Icom 765 is for sale on eham.net. Here's a better photo than you can see there.

Contest season is back

2010-10-03T11:00:00.003-05:00

Contest season is starting up, so I'll be more active, and share more here on the blog. I added the Elecraft P3 Panadapter a couple weeks ago, and I've been happy with it. This weekend was the California QSO party, so I used it as a good chance to see if I have all the software and radios working together. So far, it is. I can even run the P3 Panadapter and the LP-Pan Panadapter on the computer at the same time, so I have band scope both on the computer and on the screen next to the radio. The attached video gives a quick demo.

iPad radio control

2010-08-21T07:33:00.003-05:00

I've spent a lot of time trying to control the K3 from the iPad, and I'm so close I can taste it, but never have succeeded. I'm using an iPad App called Jump, that streams the audio back to the iPad, as well as controlling the remote computer.
It works very well, except I can't get it to stream audio from the computer's sound card output. I know I'm missing a small setting somewhere, but I've been through every menu I can think of, and I haven't found it.
I can stream other audio from the computer back to the iPad. I can hear the sounds, play a Youtube video, etc, and hear it on iPad. But I can't get the audio out from the sound card.
I did have it running the other night where I controlled the radio with the iPad, and used Skype to send audio back to my iPhone, but then I'm using two devices. If the iPad would multi-task, I'd be there.
I'm running Vista on my comptuer, by the way. Anyone have any ideas, I'd be glad to hear them. For the moment, I'm ready to admit failure on this one.

Random new country

2010-08-21T07:29:00.002-05:00

I was doing my usual Saturday morning routine of tuning around 40 meters CW when I heard Zl7LH calling CQ. I replied, and worked him on the first call. ZL7 is Chatham Islands off the coast of New Zealand, not a bad Saturday morning QSO on 40, and a new country for me. That was a good way to start Saturday.

Last night I had a good high-speed CW contact with Neal, N4HAF in Raleigh, NC. It's nice to get back on CW and get the CW muscles working again.

Slow summer

2010-08-15T07:59:00.003-05:00

Looking in the log a couple weeks ago, I realized I had nearly been off the air this summer. So I tried to get on the air for some simple cw QSOs a couple weekends ago, and it was nice to hear CW again.

Last weekend I ran the North American QSO party for a few hours. I did a couple hundred contacts, mostly on 40. 80 meters was just too noisy to deal with.

This weekend I messed with the Worked All Europe DX contest on Saturday night on 40. I could hear a few EU stations, between all the US stations calling CQ Test. I managed to squeak out 25 contacts on 40 meters last night, but that's less than an hour on good band.

As the weather changes, I'll get more active on the radio and more active on the blog, I promise.

Lack of activity

2010-06-30T21:25:00.002-05:00

This has been a slow summer for ham radio. I made a couple of contacts running mobile the last week on 40 CW, but really haven't been on the air in the past month. I even missed Field Day, for the first time in 10 years. A wedding of an old friend's daughter took precedence. Hopefully, I'll get back on the air the next month, and have some things to post about.

I did pick up a software defined receiver at a Hamfest a couple weeks ago, but haven't gotten it out of the box to mess with yet. Stay tuned.

Dayton Hamvention

2010-05-16T15:23:00.000-05:00

I spent Saturday at the Dayton Hamvention and had a good time at the contest forum and at the hospitality suite of the SMC (SOciety of Midwest Contesters) on Saturday night. It was a great chance to talk contesting and station building with other contesters

My only purchase was another keyer, plus some odds and ends. More on that keyed and a couple other things when I get home.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

SteppIR update

2010-05-09T13:53:00.000-05:00

Ok, I got outside and worked on the STeppIR vertical this morning. As I suspected, the problem was with the coax connection to the antenna. As I kept trying different coax and radio combinations, suddenly everything worked again. In plugging and unplugging the coax and trying different combinations, I evidently cleaned the connector on the antenna. After it started working again, I went back and cleaned everything with Deoxit, and hopefully it will solve the problem. All I know is it's nice to have the vertical back.

I did open the antenna, and will post some pictures shortly.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

SteppIR vertical problems

2010-05-08T18:48:00.002-05:00

I've been using the SteppIR big vertical for about three years with 20 radials under it. It works great, but over the last winter an intermittent problem has shown up.

It seems I'm somehow losing connection with the antenna. All of a sudden, the antenna goes deaf and won't tune. I can recalibrate it a few times, and sometimes it comes back. This happened again this week, and for the life of me I can't get it to come back.

Last fall i opened the antenna up and did continuity checks, and suddenly it started working again. I guess that's what I'll do tomorrow. I may take some pictures and post here on my progress.

So far, I've removed the coax from the antenna and attached it to a dummy load at the antenna base. I get a nice flat SWR reading when I do that, so it's not the coax. I also hook my Yaesu FT-817 directly to the antenna with about a 3 foot run of coax, and get nothing buy high SWR and no signal. So I know the problem is with the antenna. I suspect either to coax connector on the the antenna, or the connection to the element within the antenna.

If you're totally confused at this point, let me offer a little more explanation. The SteppIR works by a metal tape moving to different lengths inside a fiberglass tube. This allows the antenna to be adjusted to a perfect quarter-wave vertical for any frequency from six to 40 meters. It's all controlled by a controller within the hamshack, which I've also tested. There is one spot where a spring-loaded piece of metal pushes against the tape to give the electrical connection. More details tomorrow.

Minis on the Dragon

2010-05-06T20:53:00.004-05:00

Took the Mini to Minis on the Dragon last weekend. Not much radio time, but did meet two other hams at the event. There were over 600 Mini Coopers there, by the way. Here's a nice shot of the car and antenna.

I'm thinking of heading to Dayton next weekend. Not much radio time with all this travel.

Mobile cw

2010-04-28T07:22:00.000-05:00

I had a couple of good cw mobile contacts yesterday. Look for me on 40 cw all day today and Sunday.

More on iPad

2010-04-17T10:13:00.001-05:00

Still trying to get the iPad to control the radio. I was hoping my next post would be a step by step description of how I did it, but still missing the last step. I can't get the audio to output a from the right port on the computer. Sometimes I wonder why I derive myself nuts with this stuff.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

IPad post

2010-04-10T08:58:00.002-05:00

Ok, this is the first post I've tried to make by actually typing on the iPad. It works, but is going to take some getting used to the keyboard. The iPad is an interesting toy, and I've almost got it sete to where I can control a radio remotely and stream audio back to the iPad. I don't have the audio part working yet, but I'll figure out my mistake soon.
This morning I made a nice QSO with Pete K4BKD, who I've talked to multiple times. It was a good saturday morning cw chat, we talked about weather, radio, dogs, radios, cars, and pollen counts, all at 25 words per minute using Morse code. Fun.

Location:Lincoln Ave,Lisle,United States

QRP fun

2010-04-03T22:20:00.002-05:00

This morning I spent some time running the QRPARCI QSO party. I had a great time and remembered why I like qrp so much. More details tomorrow.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Just a nice conversation

2010-03-28T08:44:00.002-05:00

I had a co-worker over to the house the other day and he saw the radios and started asking questions. Unfortunately, over a three-hour drive, he kept asking questions and never understood what ham radio was, or why I would have all that stuff. He kept relating it to CB radio, and never could get out of that mode.
This morning's activity is a good example of a nice contact, or QSO. I called a CQ, which is a general call saying I'm looking to talk to anyone. I was answered by K2AOP, John, in Phoenix, AZ. We traded names, locations, and started experimenting with comparing signal strenths with different antennas. We both had both a vertical and dipole antenna, and we tried vertical to vertical, vertical to dipole, dipole to dipole, etc. It was ineteresting. Then we started talking about jobs, and he asked me for more detail on what I did. I went into some detail, and he had good comments. It was just a nice, randon QSO with a nice guy in the other side of the country -- all done at 25 words per minue using morse code. It's hard to explain the thrill in that, but it's there.

Power SDR working again

2010-03-27T08:17:00.004-05:00

I went to the Power SDR group on yahoo and kept reading the posts. Thanks to Larry, N8LP, the guy who designs, makes and sells, the LP-Pan pandadpter for the K3, I did find a solution. He had posted a procedure to run through for removing the program, removing all files and folders and reinstalling the software.
I followed his instructions and no luck. I did it a second time, still no luck. The third time...it magically worked and I have Power SDR/IF stage version 1.19.3.4 running 100 percenct again.
It's an amazing system, and the tinkering to make this stuff work is half the fun. I've learned a lot about computers, drivers, software, etc, in the process of getting this all running. But this isn't for the computer novice, easily discouraged or faint of heart.

Power SDR issues

2010-03-23T21:59:00.002-05:00

After crowing about my computer prowess in getting the new version of PowerSDR to work with the K3 and LP Pan, it appears a Windows update caused the software to quit working. Yes, I know I shouldn't have automatic updates on on that machine, but they were.

So now I'm toying with the software, reading the notes on the LP Pan users group, and trying to figure out how to get it running again. The computerized radios are nice when it all works, but sometimes...

ZK3OU, new country on Saturday morning

2010-03-13T07:42:00.006-06:00

I had a nice start to the weekend. I turned the radio on 40 meters and heard a bunch of people calling someone around 7030. I tuned down a little and heard ZK3OU. I assumed it was South Pacific because of the ZK call, since New Zealand is ZL. I set the K3 to split and watched the action on the panadapter and listed with my transmitting frequency in the right ear, and ZK3OU in my left ear.
I soon figured out where he was listening, and listened to him work a W3. I called immediately on that frequency, he came back to K9OG (a common mistake as he missed the last dit on the Z) so I sent K9OZ again and his report. He came back to K9OZ, and I had him the the log.
Then I looked him up. ZK3OU is a mini-dxpedition, tw guys from the West Coast operating down there for a few weeks. They were operating from the Tokelau Islands, which are a territory of New Zealand. It is also a new one for me, a DX entity I've never worked before.
So that was a nice start to a Saturday morning. It all happened the old-fashioned way as well, with me tuning around the band and happening across DX. There's something to be said for that in this Internet age.
After that I slowed things down and tuned to 3885 and listened to the Midwest Classic Radio Net at 7:30. I always enjoy listening to the old AM gear on this net.

New PowerSDR software

2010-03-09T19:26:00.004-06:00

I had experimented with PowerSDR/IFStage software last year with the K3, but the old version didn't support a 64-bit computer, which I'm running. So I let it alone for a few months and checked the web site Sunday and there is a new version, 1.19.3.4, that supports the bigger computer, so I downloaded it. As with all software upgrades, it didn't work right at first, but that's half the fun of this stuff. I soon figured out I'd have up upgrade the LP Bridge software as well, and after I did that, it still didn't work. Then came an hour of trying different combinations, and looking carefully at all the setup fields, and suddenly, I saw the problem. I checked the right box, and it works great. The PowerSDR, combined with the LP-Pan Panadapter, gives me a nice panadapter and computer. Here's a short video of it in action.

ARRL DX contest

2010-02-21T19:00:00.003-06:00

I had a good time this wekend with the ARRL DX contest. We've had sunspots the last month, so it appears propogation is finally improving.
I managed to make contacts on 15, 20, 40, 80 and even three on 160 last night. As a result, I wound up with over 400 contacts in about 10 hours of operating. I had a great time.
With a DX contest such as this, you work different parts of the world on different bands at different times. There is enough activity, that you can really hear the propogation changing and get a better understanding of where in the world a band is open to at a particular time. You use your knowledge of how the bands are, to pick the right bands at the right time. If it all works, it's great.
The contest also sold me on the K3. It is just the nicest contest and DX radio I've ever used. I switched to the Icom 756 Pro III for a short period last night, but soon went back to the K3.
On another note, the line noise that has plauged me most of the winter seems to have subsided. Both the electric and cable company have been working on the lines in this neighborhood, and my hope is somewhere during that process the faulty insulator, or whatever was causing the problem, was replaced.
Now that I've said that, the noise will probably return. All I can say is it wouldn't have been much of a contest this weekend with the noise present.

Fighting line noise

2010-01-31T08:56:00.004-06:00

This weekend was the CQ 160 meter cw contest. I ran it a little Saturday night and early Saturday and Sunday mornings, finishing with about 170 contacts. Unfortunately, my S9 line noise has not gone away, and even though both the K3 and Icom 756 ProIII have very good filtering and noise reduction that takes most of it out, it is still just a pain in the ear to work through that type of noise. Yesterday three Commonweath Edison trucks pulled up in front of the house, and the workers made their way through my back yard to the power lines. One told me that a "neighbor was having a problem," but that's all I could get out of him. I told him I'd been experiencing very high noise levels the last few weeks, but that didn't seem to register with him. The four workers spent a couple hours working in the area, and I was hoping my neighbor's problem would solve mine. From what I could see and overhear, they didnt' discover or resolve anything, and my line noise is still present. Time to make my own report to Commonwealth Edison.

We got a Corgi puppy about three weeks ago, named Lucy. Here's a video of her on first day home.

Winter contests, winter noise

2010-01-16T21:45:00.003-06:00

Last weekend was the winter North American QSO Party, CW. I usually operate this contest, but came down and discovered S9 (that's very high for you lay-people out there) line noise on all bands. I've had this intermittent noise since I moved to this house, generally when there is snow and ice on the electric lines, like last weekend.

I have good enough radios that I can filter much of it out, but it's still bothersome and keeps you from really hearing well, which is a real disadvantage in a contest. Despite that, I made 388 contacts on 20, 40, 80, and 160 meters, and had a good time.

The SSB version of the contest was this weekend, but the line noise is still here, despite the weather warming and ice melting off the lines. I didn't want to battle the noise, so took a pass on the contest.

I hope the noise goes away. Otherwise I have to start fighting with Commonwealth Edison again. I've had them even come out here a couple times, but of course, when they come, there is no noise..Oh well, stay tuned.

Ham radio I phone apps

2010-01-04T22:25:00.005-06:00

My resolution for the new year, be a better blogger.

I took some time off over the holidays and spent a lot of time playing with the radios. Mostly, it was nice rag chews on 40 and 80 meters, but I spent some time on the Stew Perry Distance Challenge -- a 160 meter contest -- and running mobile on 40 adn 20 meters over New Year's while driving to Memphis.

I enjoyed getting back on CW mobile, but I'm afraid my trusty old Yaeseu FT 857 is seeing its last legs on HF. During a contact on the drive south, I unfortunately had stuffed a coat over the radio while packing the car, and the radio overheated and quit operating. It later cooled down and I got back on the air, but it died on me again part way through a contact. I should have known better, and broke one of the basic rules of mobile operation -- watch the ventilation around your radio.

I've been discovering a bunch of IPhone apps for Ham radio. Some are very useful, some I wonder about. I can now practice sending CW with my IPod touch, which isn't very useful, but I also found a very slick logging program called HamLog. It makes a nice little mobile log, and it can be exported to another logging program, which is very slick. More on that in the next post.

Chadron, Nebraksa hamfest, 1967

2009-12-14T21:07:00.002-06:00

The young man seventh from the right is me, WA0QMZ. My dad, WA0OQX, is eighth from the right in the back row.

Great weekend on 160 meters

2009-12-06T15:44:00.002-06:00

This weekend was the ARRL 160 meter contest, which is always one of my favorites. I operated for a few hours Friday night, had a couple of long runs going, and ran for a few hours in the early evening on Saturday. The result was over 600 contests, and I had a great time. Next weekend is the ARRL 10 meter contest, which is really almost the opposite as far a propogation and hours of operation goes. With the low sunspot numbers, I'm not expecting much, but I'll be on.

I am learning more and more on contesting. My lesson from this one is, "If you're running a frequency and getting a high rate of hourly contacts, don't quit to go watch a football game or something. When you come back, the contest and conditions will have changed, so don't expect to pick up where you left off. I've read that advice before, but I saw it first-hand Saturday night. If I'd kept operating Saturday night, I could have added another 200 contacts or so, but I went to watch Nebraska-Texas game (hey I grew up in Nebraska so I'm allowed.)

Oh well, it's a contest, and I still had a great time.

DX contest

2009-11-29T14:32:00.006-06:00

I spent some time working the CQ Worldwide DX contest this weekend. I learned a good lesson -- keep checking the bands.

The contetst started Friday night, and I tuned around on 40 meters. I could hear a few Europeans, who were being swamped by hundreds of US operators calling them. That wasn't the contest I remembered, so I went upstairs and did something else.

Saturday morning wasn't much better. I worked a few Asians on 40 meters to get started, then moved to 20. There I heard just a few Europeans, again being hounded by hundreds of US operators. With my vertical, I don't stand much of a chance in that situation. I made a few contacts, but soon gave up and did something else.

Then late afternoon I went back in the shack and listed on 15. I could hear Asians, and made contacts. Then I ate dinner, and came back down to 40 meters. There were the Europeans, all over the band. I spent the night working them. It's still a thrill to hear that faint signal from half-way around the world, and to hear them answer with your call.

I worked the contest off and on during the evening, and Sunday morning came down and there were the Europeans on 20. Again, I started working them, and really got into using CW Skimmer to spot for me. It scans the band, and feeds the stations it's hearing to the bandmap on my logging program. it creates a whole new world for search and pounce.

But Skimmer isn't all-knowing. You still have to tune the band. During all this, I worked a fair number of Africans, and I imagine I picked up a couple new countires (for me) in the process.

This afternoon I was tuning across 15 and worked New Zealand and Botswana back to back. That's cool.

So it was a good radio weekend. I didn't set the world on fire, but sure had a good time.

CW decoder

2009-11-26T09:11:00.002-06:00

I was having a very nice conversation (at 30+ words per minute on cw) with Bill, KA1RVM, this morning. We were talking about radios -- my favoroite subject -- and started talking about cw decoders. I told him I was surprised how well the decoder on the K3 worked, and picked up the camera and shot this quick video of the K3 decoding Bill's last transmission.

KG0GY wins Field Day 2b2

2009-11-14T11:30:00.002-06:00

Last summer's Field Day results were just posted, and my cousin, Brad, KG0GY, did all right. We finished third in the section of Nebraska, behind the large operations put on by the Lincoln and Omaha clubs. But to our surprise, we finished first place nationally in our classification of 2B2, a group (not a club) with two stations and two operators. There weren't a large number of entries in that category, and there is Brad's call at the top of the list. I'm not sure how we beat this next year.

In a side note, it is 70 degrees in Chicago today, not bad for middle of November. I'm sitting on my deck in the sun writing this.

Slow sweepstakes

2009-11-09T21:28:00.003-06:00

Last weekend was the CW Sweepstakes, probably the biggest and most challenging of North American contests. I had planned on making a major effort to work a clean sweep -- all 80 sections -- but discovered I had an old friend and his wife visiting over the weekend. It was hard to tell them "No, don't come, I have a ham radio contest."

So instead I did a very modest effort -- in about 2.5 hours of operating I made roughly 140 contacts. I had a good run going on 40 meters Sunday morning, and did some search and pounce just to listen around the bands. Actually, it was a little liberating not to have to try to beat last year's score and make that clean sweep. Maybe next year.

Meanwhile, there are plenty of other contests coming up this winter. Maybe I'll make a big effort on the 160 meter contest next month. Phone Sweepstakes is two weeks away, and I'll dabble in that a little, but I just don't see the challenge of working a phone contest. Maybe if I had a better microphone and a foot switch I could run the frequency....

Another new old radio

2009-10-30T21:16:00.003-05:00

Last Saturday I heard a local ham saying he had an old HW-16 for sale. It is a cw transceiver made by Heathkit in the '70s and designed for the Novice class license holder back then -- a low-power, crystal controlled transmitter.

I stopped by on my way home from work a couple days later, and by Wednesday night I was on 80 CW with my one crystal at 3841 calling CQ. First call I was answered by KB8AXS, Mike in Cincinnati. My bug -- a semi-automatic key -- fell apart in the middle of the contact and I finished up with the hand key. That's old-time ham radio, a straight key and simple CW only radio. So that's my new vintage station. Look for me on 3841.

Old friends

2009-10-24T22:55:00.002-05:00

Tonight I heard an old friend, N9HAL, calling CQ on 80 meters.

I ran into a guy named Bob from Wisconsin a few years ago on 40 cw. We started talking and trading personal information. It turned out we were both originally from Nebraska. Then he asked me if I used to be WA0QMZ. It turned out he used to be WA0ODM, we went to junior high and high school toghether and were both helped along by the same group of older hams in Sidney, NE, the small town we grew up in. Small world.

Bob and I have had some random schedules, but most often we just hear each other on 80 or 40 once or twice a year, and then spend some time catching up. It gives me a nice bridge to the past, plus we have a lot in common today and talk about fixing up old radios, operating CW, and some random things. Contacts like that are why this is such a nice hobby.

In other radio activity, I did operate the Illinois QSO party last weekend and made roughly 200 contacts. I had hoped to do more, but wasn't feeling 100 percent and quit to take a nap. It is only a hobby after all. It was still fun, and I'm looking forward to contest season this winter.

Got Midway DXpedition

2009-10-17T07:00:00.004-05:00

This week the K4M DXpedition to Midway Island has been on the air. I made a few half-hearted tries at working them on 17 meters this week in the late afternoon, and heard them before work on Friday morning on 40 meters, but didn't have time to chase it. So this morning (Saturday) I got up at 4 a.m. as they are only on the air for a few more days.

By 4:40 I had them in the log on 40 meter cw and I got them on 30 meters by 5:30. I spent a little time on 80, but I couldn't hear them very well. I actually heard them better on 160 this morning, but didn't have any luck snagging them there. I tried a little on 40 SSB, but at that point the sun was coming up. Oh well, I got them on two bands, so I'm happy.

Now it's 7 a.m. and I'm ready for a nap. Tomorrow is the Illinois QSO party, and I plan on hitting it hard. I'll have an update tomorrow night.

There is a new radio in the house. I've had sellers remorse ever since I sold my Icom 756ProIII a year and a half ago. I even bought a used 756Pro to try to make up for it, but still missed the extra features and tweaks in the Pro III. So this week I bought a Pro III on close-out, for about what I sold my old one for last year. The Pro is up on E-Bay this morning.

In my DX chasing, I was jumping between the Pro III and the K3 on different bands. Each has their strengths and weaknesses, but I'll say I'm happy with my purchase of the Pro III. On some band conditions, it heard K4M better than the K3. In other conditions, the K3 heard the station better than the ProIII. Both are great radios. I'm happy.

Early morning DX

2009-10-10T13:36:00.002-05:00

This morning the Oceana DX contest was on, and there on the bottom of 40 were quite a few Australians and New Zealanders calling CQ. I worked everyone I heard. Nice to start the weekend with a little DX on 40.

Gearing up for Illinois QSO party next weekend. I plan on hitting it hard from the home station. I'm not exactly in a rare county -- DuPage -- but looking at last year's results I didn't do bad. It would be nice to break into the top 10 this year.

New old radio

2009-09-22T22:00:00.005-05:00

Last Sunday I picked up a project radio. It's an old Yaesu FT-101ZD. I owned one from about 1980 to 1998. Why I sold it in '98 is beyond me, and I've recently been looking for a replacement. I found one locally. It needs cleaning and I ordered a new set of capacitors from the guy who sells cap kits on E-Bay. I'm looking forward to digging into it, cleaning it up and getting it back in top shape. More details to come

Cloud logging

2009-09-20T09:30:00.004-05:00

A question I've been asking myself is why there isn't a "cloud" logging program -- a logging program that exists on the Internet, and everyone can view real time. Logbook of the World is an awards database, not a real-time log.

Then this morning I stumbled on HamRadioDeluxe online log. This seems to be totally a beta and work in progress, but very interesting. I've uploaded a few logs to it, and it's posted on the top corner of this site. It looks like someone else was thinking the same thing I was.

2009-09-18T17:30:00.002-05:00

Test from phone. Getting ready for w9dxcc

More mobile DX

2009-09-12T17:45:00.003-05:00

I finished my road trip today, and worked more DX. I was working an East Coast station on 20 CW while driving through Des Moines, and SP5SA (Poland) broke in to see if he could get that county. I gave him that county, and we kept talking until I reached the next county line and he got Jasper County as well. He thanked me profusely. All this while I was driving 80 mph on I-8o.

Later I heard LZ50KA (Bulgaria) calling CQ and answered him. He came right back, and that was another good contact. Not bad for using an ATAS 120 antenna on the back of the Mini Cooper.

Mobile activity

2009-09-11T17:55:00.002-05:00

This week I took a 900 mile drive to visit a friend in West Nebraska. That gave me a lot of mobile time. Here are some highlights.

Early on the trip Monday I had a long contact with someone (his call escapes me) who I've talked to a few times from Pennsylvania. While we were talking he viewed this blog, and commented on the photos of the mobile setup. That's how it's supposed to work.

Shortly after that I was calling CQ on 40 meters and W7AAZ/m came back to me. It turned out he was about 400 miles ahead of me on I-80, also heading west. We talked for about an hour, largely about mobile setups -- his was in a Corvette -- then both stopped for lunch at the same time. A half hour later I called him again, and we went for another half hour or so. Great mobile activity.

Today I started the eastbound trip. This morning I was having no luck on 40 meters, so listened to the I-pod instead. Then this afternoon I switched to 20, and was still having minimal luck. So I settled in on a frequency and started calling CQ.

After numerous calls, I had a faint station come back to me that I first copied as K7KAT. It took a couple rounds for me to realize it was IK7Kat, and I was working Italy, not the west coast. After he signed, I started calling CQ again, and this time was answered by KH6LC near Hilo, Hawaii. So back to back I worked Italy and Hawaii, with my compromise Yaesu ATAS 120 antenna. Not bad. After that, I figured my luck was running out so I went back to listening on my I-Pod. I'm stopped in Omaha for the night, so I have another day of mobile ahead tomorrow.

Vertical back on air

2009-09-05T18:24:00.003-05:00

I got the Steppir vertical back in a vertical position this weekend, and it's nice to have it back in service. It blew over during a thunderstorm this summer. I was lucky, the concrete that the support post split and the antenna tipped over without being damaged. I normally keep it guyed, but had removed the guys due to an ongoing deck construction project. Now that project is done, and the antenna back up. I'll have it guyed again by tomorrow night.

I haven't been on the air much. Just some random rag chew QSO's on 40 and 30 meter cw. This morning I had a nice chat with Bill, W3BW, on 40. We've talked a few times, so carried on the conversation talking about my experience with cw mobile operation. As I get more active this fall, I promise to get more active with the blog...famous last blog words.

Summer activity

2009-08-02T08:56:00.002-05:00

While summer is not the traditional best time for ham radio -- noisy bands and too much outside activity -- there are a few contests in the summer and that's been most of my activity as late. Last night I ran the North American QSO party, with a respectable 340 contacts in about six hours of operating. The bands were noisy, but workable, so I had a good time.

A couple weeks ago I operate he IARU contest for a few hours working a nice range of DX, with even a few contacts on 15 meters. Maybe the bands will come back. I had a nice surprise in the mail right after that contest -- I got a certificate in the mail that I had placed first place in CW only High Power in Illinois in the 2008 contest. That is kind of a fluke, as the big guns in Illinois all entered as low power and had many more contacts than I, but I'll still take the first-place finish. It show why to send in a log, even if you think you have no chance of ever winning.

That's been about the size of my activity. We have a road trip coming up next weekend, so look for me /m on Friday and Monday on 20 CW.

More on Field Day

2009-07-05T20:08:00.003-05:00

Our success was due to good antennas. Here are photos of the 20 meter loop held up by Brad's push-up pole and my phased verticals, with my aunt's windmill in the background. No, we didn't use the windmill as an antenna support, but we thought about it.

Field day 2009

2009-07-05T19:59:00.003-05:00

I travelled to Nebraska again this year to particpate in Field Day with my cousin Brad, KG0GY. We did our first attempt last year, had a lot of antenna problems but managed about 360 contacts. This year we were much better prepared and organized on the antenna front, and did 800 contacts as a 2B station. We ran a K2 and an Icom 756 Pro to phased verticals on 40, a loop up about 40 feet on 20, and a multi-band OCF dipole on 80, 40 and 15. The dipole wasn't high enough for us to do much on 80, but it did well on 40 and 15.

We were very happy to more than double our contacts from the year before, and we're starting to wonder how to top that next year. We operated about 15 hours, slept for a few hours in beds, and had dinner with my aunt. Not a bad Field Day at all.

Shown in the photo is Brad, running the K2 on 40 meters. We were inside the door of an old shed, but running on emergency power.

Fixing mobile problems

2009-06-13T10:48:00.002-05:00

I was having problems with high SWR (standing wave ratio) on my ATAS 120 mobile antenna. My guess was the feedline, which was the standard tiny coax that comes with a Comet or Diamond trunk lip mount. I ordered the Coment 3D4M coax cable assemly, which has 13 feet of RG58 coax. All of a sudden my SWR on the ATAS goes down to 1:1 on 40 meters and some random RF problems are solved.

Lesson -- use real coax on HF mobile, not the miniature type that's designed to go through a gap easily, but may be so-so on transmitting and sheilding RF.

Dayton update

2009-05-24T22:24:00.002-05:00

I made it to the Dayton Hamvention and back last weekend. The highlight for me was the contest forum on Saturday morning. I just stumbled into it, but had a great time and learned some things. I seemed more at homewith the contesters than most of the groups I was involved with at Dayton. Most contesters are CW ops, that's part of it.

My big Dayton purchase was a Stationmaster controller from Microham. It's purpose is to interface between the K3 and the PW-1 amp. I got it up and running, but it's been buggy so far, and seems to go into error mode every now and then. I'll keep messing with it, but so far I'm regretting my purchase. It added a lot of complextity to the station, just so I wouldn't have to push a button on the amp and the SteppIR vertical controller when I changed bands. I saw that at good insurance for the amp, but so far, I'm not sold. More on that later.

Dayton one week away

2009-05-07T21:19:00.001-05:00

I'll be in Dayton one week from tonight. Any followers or tweeters going to be there. Let's do a meet-up.

Two contests at once

2009-05-04T19:30:00.003-05:00

This weekend I was able to run two large QSO parties at the same time -- the New England QSO party which covers the New England states, and the 7th Area QSO party, with all the 7th call district -- Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

I had tried doing it in the past, but found logging a probem. You really need two separate log programs open. With the new setup with the K3 and LPBridge, I'm able to run two logging programs at once. Saturday night I was running the 7QSO party on WinEQF and the NEQSO party on N1MM logger. Both were up on the screen, so switching between the two was simple.

I don't have exact numbers, but I did around 70 contacts in the 7QP and 40 in NEQP. I just didn't hear enough New England stations.

On another note, I got my 80-meter dipole back up in the top of a tree where it belongs. It's now at 40 feet, rather than sloping from 40 to 10 feet.

Mobile install finished

2009-04-20T12:32:00.002-05:00

Last week I had the Icom 7000 in the Mini Cooper, but was running the power for the radio from an accessory jack in the boot (trunk.) That worked, but we all know that's not the best way to do it in the long term.

Sunday morning I was on a Mini Cooper web site and did a search for running power lines through the firewall. It turns out it was incredibly simple, with Mini leaving a space to do exactly that, and right next to the battery. So I now have a fused power line running direct from the battery to the radio in the boot. This solved a couple of issues, and I can now crank the power up to 100 watts without fear.

Of course, I had to drive around a make a couple contacts. I am impressed with the 7000 as a mobile radio and am getting the hang of going to the right menu on the fly. I'm happy, and ready for the road trip to Dayton next month.

It works

2009-04-16T22:06:00.003-05:00

First contact with the new mobile this evening while coming home from Rockford. N4YG, Joe, in Huntsville, AL. We both had good signals, so I think the new setup is working. I got the MFJ remote antenna controller and it works. You push the button to raise or lower the antenna for best SWR. Yes, I can't change bands while driving down the road like I could with the Yaesu radio, but the Icom IC 7000 is a much nicer radio. More on that as I spend more time on the air. Listen for K9OZ/m around 7030 mornings and late afternoons.

Three antennas

2009-04-12T19:28:00.002-05:00

Now I'm a true ham, with three antennas on the Mini.

HF mobile in Mini Cooper

2009-04-12T19:20:00.005-05:00

I spent most of Saturday getting the Icom IC 7000 installed in the Mini Cooper. It was a trick, but it's in and seems to be working fine. I'm running the Yaesu ATAS 120A antenna, and have a gizmo on order that will allow me to tune the antenna manually. For right now, it's tuned to 40 meter cw and that's where it will be this week.

I had picked up a neat little paddle at Dayton a couple years ago, and hadn't had a chance to really use it. I screwed it to the top of the Cooper's ashtray, and it should work great there. The position is perfect.

I'd like to have the control head higher -- closer to line of sight, but for right now its sitting next to the shift lever. Not great, but doable. If you really want to mess with the radio, pull off the road.

Novice QSL card

2009-03-29T17:41:00.010-05:00

A few years ago I was visiting my uncle Merrit, WA0HFH and we went down in his shack and started going through his old QSL cards. I was amazed he had one from me, that I had sent him shortly after getting my license. It's not often you find something you wrote and sent as a 12-year-old.

This was sent in late October 1965, and I got my license in August. So I think, from reading the message, I had just gotten these fancy printed QSL cards, and was proud to send him one. During my novice days, I carried out a schedule with my uncle nearly every Saturday afternoon, chugging away at low-speed CW. At the time I didn't think much of it, but looking back now I realize the time he put in to help a nephew get on the air.

My novice station was a Globe HG 303 transmitter and a Heath HR-10 receiver. My dad and I had built the receiver from a kit -- a weeks-long endeavor that I'm sure was a chore for my dad, but again, he willingly put in the time to help.

Going mobile

2009-03-28T08:01:00.002-05:00

I was talking about getting active mobile again, that's opertating cw HF from the car by my definition. I put the ATAS 120 back on the Chevy Equinox, and unfortunately, it seems to have died. I've run the Yaesu FT-857/ATAS 120 combo for a quite a few years and really like it, but the antennas don't seem to last that long. This is my second one that has died, so I don't think I'll buy a third.
So I'm at a quandry -- what do I use for an antenna. I ran Hamsticks for years, and may go back to that. They are simple, cheap, and you don't feel bad when a $18 antenna fails. I'm also debating what radio and what car to do this in. I spend most of my road time in a Mini Cooper, but I spent a few hours trying to figure out how to shoehorn a HF rig into that car last weekend, an didn't come up with a solution.
I presently have a Yaesu FTM-10 in the Mini, which is perfect for a limited-space installation of a 2 meter/440 radio. The microphone and speaker are housed in the control head, so the control head is the only thing in the front of the car -- the rest is in the boot (Mini-speak for trunk.) But 2 meters and 440 are boring in my opinion -- at least in the area I'm commuting. So there's no news on my mobile installation.
The good news is the bands have been better, and been having nice contacts each weekend on 40 meter cw. Look for me there.

Getting the mobile bug

2009-03-11T20:38:00.003-05:00

Hello to K2CZ who commented on my Mini Cooper silliness. Yes, I need HF mobile in it. I've got 2 meter/440 with the Yaseu FTM-10 -- that strange little radio designed for motorcylcle work. It does work well in the Mini, the control head has the speaker and the mic in it, so that's all I really have up front.

But I miss my HF mobile. I ran a Yaesu FT 857 and ATAS 120 antenna for years, but the ATAS has died and my wife gave me an Icom IC-7000 for Christmas. I can see having the 7000 driving a Hamstick on the back of the Mini. I do a 90-minute commute two days a week, so I have plenty of mobile time to kill.

That's my Spring project, if Spring ever arrives. Stay tuned.

Slow winter for ham radio

2009-03-07T08:25:00.002-06:00

I thought it was jut me, but last month in both CQ and QST magazines, there were articles about how bad the bands have been this winter. Ok, that's my excuse for not getting on enough and not blogging.

Actually, I've just grown lazy on the blogging. I was on last weekend and had three very nice CW rag chews. They were Bruce, K6ZB, in Thousand Oaks, CA; Tony, N2ATB, in Chrerry Hill, NJ: and Bill, KA1RVM in Hollison, MA. All three were nice conversational contacts, where we talked about a wide range of things clipping along at 25 wpm or so. That's when CW is really fun for me.

Contest season is about over. I tried to get on the the 160 meter phone contest last weekend, but my dipole antenna blew down a couple weeks ago. Instead of a dipole at 50 feet, I now have a dipole at 50 feet on one end and 10 feet on the other. It still gets out ok on 80, but I could tell the difference on 160. Oh well, spring will be here soon and I'll get a new rope up to the top of that tree and get it back up in the air.

Enough of this, I hear a CQ on 40 meter cw....

2009-02-11T21:41:00.001-06:00

Here's me and my Mini cooper
http://www.miniusa.com/crm/ecard_holiday_2008/MyCard?pid=1016765&check=BMPVGK3QQT6ITLBN

Second op

2009-02-09T19:24:00.003-06:00

Gus the cat likes ham radio, or at least chewing on the cords.

Sprint, and good weekend

2009-02-08T20:11:00.002-06:00

I ran about an hour and a half of the NA Sprint last night -- a very fast-paced contest -- and wound up with about 60 contacts. Nothing to write home about, but I had fun.

The good news is the line noise that is generated by the electrical system in this neighborhood disappeared last night, about the same time the snow melted. It had been steady s5 noise since December. It's great to hear a quiet band again.

This morning I was down enjoying the quiet band, and had three great contacts. They were Joe, N4YG in Huntsvuille, AL, who I've talked to a couple times before; John, K3MD, who I've worked in many contests but never had a long contact with; and Mike, VE3GFN, in Toronto who had a new K3 and we talked K3s for a while. Good morning on the air.

CQ 160 contest

2009-01-25T17:42:00.003-06:00

Friday night at about 11 p.m. I realized I'd forgotten about the 160 meter CW contest this weekend. I tuned around the band, heard some stations, but it was dark, cold and snowy outside and I didn't want to go out and reconfigure the antenna. So I went to bed.

Saturday I went outside while the sun was out, it was still cold and snowy, and reconfigured the antenna so I could operate Saturday night.

I have a 80 meter off-center-fed dipole fed with ladder line up about 50 feet. For 160, I tie the two sides of the antenna together and feed it from the long wire connection on the Dentron MT-3000A tuner. On 80 meters, I've been running coax to a balun just outside the shack, and feeding the open wire from there to reduce RF in the shack. Hence the need to go outside to reconfigure antennas.

Saturday night I got on 160 about 5 p.m. as the band opened to the East Coast. I took a couple breaks in the evening to eat dinner and go somewhere with my wife, but by 11 p.m. I'd broken 300 contacts ranging from Maine to Washington. So a good night on 16o.

Noisy bands for NA QSO party

2009-01-11T21:15:00.002-06:00

This weekend I spent several hours Saturday in the North American QSO party. This is a quick contest -- it only lasts 12 hours, and I operated about six of them. I wound up with around 240 contacts, but spent a lot of time battling my high noise levels. I could tell people were calling me, but I couldn't pull them out of the noise.

Noise has been an intermittent problem at my location, but it's gotten worse this winter. Hopefully, it will pass and I'll start hearing things again. If not, maybe I need that cabin in Arkansas with a remote station set up.

Straight key night

2009-01-03T17:53:00.002-06:00

Every year on New Year's eve and New Year's day there is an event called Straight Key Night, when cw operators get out the old straight keys and pound out a few contacts. I made eight this eyar, and it was enough to remember how much work is is to send with a straight key. Today we all use electronic keyers, much faster and much easier, but maybe not as much romance.

I'm always surprised my fist -- that's how well you send cw -- isn't that bad with a striaght key. I used two different keys, a Vibroplex I picked up at a hamfest a few years ago and an old miltary key -- it says WEP 1940 --on the bottom

Bad weather, bad bands

2008-12-21T12:13:00.002-06:00

This morning it's -5 F, the wind is blowing hard out of the west and snow is drifting across the driveway. I'd say it's a good day to go in the basement and play radio, but between poor band conditions and my high line noise, I'm not having much luck.

Over the weekend I did manage to squeeze out a few nice contacts. Here they are.

This morning I talked to Vic, WA6MCL, in Riverside, CA. Vic was running an old Heathkit SB-102 and SB-200 amplifier. These were kit radios built in the early '70s. They were considered very nice radios back in their day. It's always nice to talk to someone on vintage gear, and we had a nice talk about running old gear. A few years ago I ran a lot of old Drake gear, but sold it all and am sticking to the modern gear -- for now.

Last night I talked to w3ANX, Geo, in Apollo, PA. It was our second or third contact this year, and we compared notes on weather, Christmas plans, and updates to our stations. A nice, high-speed cw QSO.

Earlier I had to K8LV, Eric, in Holly, MI. The conversation ran about the same, weather, Christmas, the poor shape of the bands lately, and old radios. Eric was looking at my blog while we were talking and commenting on it.

Friday night I had talked to Bruce, K6ZB, in Thousand Oaks, CA. Again, this is the third or fourth time we've talked and had a nice chat going deeper into operating habits, love of CW, and old equipment.

Sorry for silence

2008-12-13T07:22:00.003-06:00

It suddenly dawned on me I hadn't posted in weeks. Sorry.

That reflects a little on my radio acitivity -- it hasn't been that high.

Two weeks ago I spent a little time running the CQ WorldWide DX contest. The first day I was plagued by high noise level and poor conditions, so did very little. The second day my noise disappeared and I could hear Europe and Asia on 40 and 80 meters, so I spent some time running both bands. Not a huge effort, but that was fun.

Last weekend was one of my favorite contests, the ARLL 160 meter. But I was travelling last weekend, so never got on the air. After all, this is just a hobby, so you do miss some contests.

This weekend is the ARRL 10 meter contest, but so far I've heard two signals on 10 meters. Hopefully it will pick up this afternoon and I can work a few stations. On 10 meters, you are entirely at the mercy of propogation -- the radio gods. It doesn't matter how good your station, etc, if the band is dead, it's dead.

In the meantime, I've reorganized my station one more time. I think I've got it set up how I want it. It's a big ergonomic improvement from past setups. Now all I need is a good contest weekend and an open band.

A good Sunday

2008-11-09T19:41:00.002-06:00

With all my recent posts on the run-up to Sweepstakes and SS itself, it's easy to overlook how I spend most of my time on the radio -- with casual random contacts with other hams.

Today -- Sunday -- was a good example of a day of radio for me.

This morning I had a couple short contacts, then got in a long conversation with W3ANX, Geo, in Pensylvania. We quickly we discovered we had a common passion -- radios -- and spent about an hour talking about different radios, pluses and minuses of each, etc. etc. It's like when a bunch of car guys get together, they can talk about cars for hours. We can do it on radios, but we do it via radio and with Morse code.

This afternoon I was doing something else when I heard a loud CQ on 80 meters from K5HZ. I answered, and started talking to Ron in Autrian, MI, in Michigan's Upper Penninsula. As we talked, I discovered he lived on a lake I've driven by several times, always thinking that a home along that lake would be ideal. Now I'm talking to one of the people who live there. It turns out he's an engineer with G.E., and is able to work from his home, so chose that as his location. Not a bad choice. Again, we talked for about an hour, as we had a lot in common. Chances are we'll run into each other again and pick up where we left off.

With those two contacts, it's a great Sunday for radio.

I almost met my goal

2008-11-03T17:42:00.003-06:00

With over 500 contacts I only managed 79 sections, one short of the coveted clean sweep.

On Sunday morning I only had four to go, ND, and NLI in the US. and NWT and NL (Newfoundland) in Canada. I got them all but NL.

Oh well, that gives me a goal for next year, to finally get that clean sweep.

In the end, I had fun. That's all that matters.

Sweepstakes goals

2008-11-01T07:07:00.002-05:00

It's Saturday morning and Sweepstakes, the biggest and toughest contest, starts this afternoon. It's tough because the exchange is long and unpredictable. People complain about contensts having a meaningless 599 exchange, but Sweepstakes is just the opposite. I'll be sending a
serial number, precednece or the classification I'm in, my call, the check which is the year I was first licensed, and my section -- 1 U K9OZ 65 IL. That may not seem like much, but copy different variations from different stations a few hundred times at high speed CW and you start to see the problem.

I ususally set a goal for myself prior to the contest. Last year my goal was 400 contacts and a clean sweep -- working all the sections. I wound up with 380 and 75 sections. Someday, I'd like to do the clean sweep, but most years I wind up in the 75 to 78 range. There are a few tough ones, like the Northwest Territories in Canada. So my goal this year is 500 and a clean sweep. I'll report back on my progress next week.

Ready for Sweepstakes

2008-10-26T08:38:00.005-05:00

After what seems weeks (okay 2 weeks) of swearing at the computer, I have the station fully set up and ready to run for the contest season. In this screen shot you can see LP-Pan giving me a visual display of the band, CW Skimmer decoding a signal, and N1MM logger running.

I had most of this running on an old XP computer two weeks ago, but I was at 100 percent processor capacity. So thinking it would be too much work to upgrade to a bigger processor on that machine, I bought a basic new gaming computer with Vista, a high-powered processor and lots of RAM. That made sense to me. I could get the machine for $500 or so, move the sound card and extra port cards from the other machine and be ready to run. If Vista was a problem, I could downgrade to XP.

I waw wrong on every assumption. The sound card I had -- an M-Audio Audiophile 2486 -- has no Vista drivers and it was a bear to get the Power SDR software to run on Vista, so I decided to downgrade the computer to XP. It didn't want to do that. After a week of futile attempts to get XP loaded on the new machine, I bought a sound card with Vista drivers and went about the task of getting Power SDR to work on Vista. The secret -- which I finally discovered -- was to run the program as administrator the first time I ran it. One of those Vista tricks. Thanks to the folks on the yahoo group for LP-Pan for the tip.

On Thursday of this week I had it all working. so I decided to put the computer in a better position and rearrange my operating position for better ergonomics for Sweepstakes. That meant unhooking everything and setting it back up. I the process, I reversed two wires from the LP-Pan panadapter the sound card. The result is that it looked like it was running correctly, but I was having all sorts of problems with ghost images and other strange occurances. In trying to fix it, I blew up the software a couple times, but have gotten good at reinstalling everything.

Finally, last night I realized the two channels from Panadapter to the sound card were reversed. I fixed them, and I'm done. It all works as advertised.

Now I've added CW Skimmer and the last piece of the puzzle. I'm not sure I can multi-task enough to use it in the heat of a contest, but I'll try it next weekend.

Illinois QSO party

2008-10-19T22:25:00.003-05:00

I took part in the Illinois QSO party today, racking up arond 250 contacts in about five hours of operating. The K3 with the LP-Pan peformed great, and I'm ready for Sweepstakes in two weeks.

I even plugged in the microphone and did 40-some phone contacts on 40.

More on LP-PAN

2008-10-11T10:25:00.002-05:00

Here's a screen shot of the setup, ready to rock and roll. You can see N1MM logger ready to control either radio, and the PowerSDR is showing the bandscope from the K3. If I see a strong signal on the bandscope I can click on it and the radio will move to that spot.

And I'm just getting started with this.

K3 as a software defined radio

2008-10-11T08:43:00.005-05:00

I've added the LP Panadaptor from Telepost to the K3 last week. The LP-PAN take an IF output from the K3 and adapts it into the sound card of a computer. You can then use Power SDR software, the same software used to run the FLEX radios, and use the computer as your receiver with full filtering. You can use the computer as a second receiverm while using the K3 as your first receiver. It also gives you a very nice band scope you can use while choosing to use either the receiver in the radio or the computer.

In short, it adds a whole lot of versatility to the K3. It also adds complexity. Getting this all set up isn't for the computer illiterate, or someone who doesn't want to spend some time reading manuals, user groups, and puzzling through getting all the settings tweaked. Enjoy the video.

I got this set up last Saturday night, just before leaving for a week on the road for work, so I haven't had much time to play with it. I'm still learning. Like any computer thing, it seems like things work differently each time. Last Saturday night it was flawless. I came down last night and turned it on and it was buggy as all get out and I spent a couple hours trying to solve the bugs. I turned it on this morning, and it's flawless again. My guess is I need more computer.

Getting the station set up

2008-09-28T19:01:00.003-05:00

With new radios, it always seems to take a while to get the software, the wiring, the station set up correctly. I've got the K3 now running throught the ICOM PW-1 amplifier, along with the 756 Pro. I've got both radios interaced withe the computer logging program, and a different computer set up as the contest station.

There are still a couple bugs to work out, but I'm getting close.

I tried testing things this weekend running the Texas QSO party, but propagation seemed to be against me. On both 20 and 40 meters, I could barely hear anyond from Texas this afternoon.

Oh well, it's almost contest season. I'll be trying to update my contest activity more regularly as the season progresses.

I'm now feeding the RSS feed of this blog to my twitter account. So if you're a twitterer, you can follow this at twitter/bplantz.

K3 contacts

2008-09-26T19:47:00.003-05:00

Okay, here's the contacts with other stations with K3s.

W7ZQ, Jim near Riverton, WY. He was running a two-element quad at 180 feet on 40 meters. He was loud. I'm having a case of antenna envy.

W5WSF, Jack in Raleigh, NC. Running a K3 and Steppir vertical. Identical station to mine.

W9AC, Paul in Jacksonville, FL. A K3 and vertical.

That's just the ones I noted the K3 in the log.

A word on logging. In the old days -- 60s -- hams were required to keep logs. With the advent of two meter FM in the 70s, the logging requirement went away, and many quit keeping logs. I keep a complete log using WinEQF software, and upload all of my contest logs into the master log. Since 2001 when I started computer logging, I've got 12,000 contacts in the computer. If I hear a station, I type in the call and the log tells me of past QSOs. I've gotten better at keeping notes in the log, I try to keep age, and rig used, and often a couple other details.

Here's a funny story. I was working a guy in Idaho a few weeks back, and my log showed I had worked him four years ago and his age was 91 and he was using a K2. He told me early in the contact that he had just bought a K3 and used the K2 for camping trips in the high mountains. I did a double-take in the log. If my notes were correct, this 95-year-old had just bought a new high-end radio and still went camping in the mountains. I was sure I had put the wrong age in the log four years ago. Finally, I sent my age as 55. He replied with his age, 95. I hope I'm buying new radios and going camping at 95.

Too active

2008-09-26T19:26:00.001-05:00

I've been too busy with the new radio to get on the air much. I'll try to catch up this weekend with some updates. It's funny, but about half of the people I've worked -- okay, maybe one fourth -- seemed to be running K3s as well. Having a good time with it.

K3 on the air

2008-09-17T19:44:00.002-05:00

Last weekend we had 12" of rain, so it a good one to stay inside and play with the new radio. All I can say is I agree with the reviews, this is a very, very nice radio. The receiver is great, the noise blanker and noise reduction can take out my horrific line noise and it's a very nice CW rig. There isn't much more I could ask for.

Here's the K3, with my K2/100 and KX1. I like Elecraft.

The K3 is here

2008-09-12T22:50:00.008-05:00

I ordered my K3 from Elecraft on May 12, trying to get ahead of the orders placed at Dayton. It arrived September 9. The first picture shows the boxes unpacked and unopened about 7 p.m. After a quick trip to pick up an anti-static mat, I started assembling.

The second photo shows my stopping point the first night, after a couple hours. The third photo my ending point on Wednesday night. The fourth is late Thursday night, where I had it together and on the air. All in all, it was maybe a 6 hour process.

The result is a very sweet little radio. More on that later.

QRP contesting

2008-09-02T21:45:00.002-05:00

Monday night I participated in the Michigan QRP Club Labor Day Sprint. In two hours, I worked 35 stations in 25 states, two Canadian provinces and from Maine to Washington. I had a great time with it. I plan on doing more QRP contesting over the winter.

One thing I learned, QRP contesting takes a good, no great, receiver. I started out with a different rig, but soon switched the the Elecraft K2. Running a frequency in a QRP contest is easy, but you have to listen carefully. Look for me on further QRP contensts this winter.

More radios

2008-08-11T22:04:00.002-05:00

My biggest problem is I enjoy messing with different radios. Every now and then, I run out of room and sell some off, then I start buying again. Today, here's the lineup.

Icom 756 Pro -- love this radio. I had a 756PROIII I sold a few months ago and was really having buyers remorse. I'm glad I found the Pro at a nice price locally.

Elecraft K2/100. It's my baby. I built it. I love it. I'll never sell it.

Icom 765. I bought this used a couple years ago for $500. A big rig, big knobs, lots of controls, great receiver, great sound. It's showing its age by making some funny noises every now and then, but still a great radio. I use it a lot.

Patcomm 16000A. Anotehr $500 find on e-bay. A strange radio, you don't hear many, or hardly any of them, but a very nice cw rig. Great QSK. I won't say I love it, but well worth the $500.

Orion I. I really tried to love this radio, but it's currently for sale on E-bay. I just never got comfortable with it, and it had way to many menus for my taste. I'll let someone else own it who will enjoy it more than me.

My dog

2008-08-08T18:05:00.000-05:00

Second op Buffy

Contesting

2008-08-04T17:57:00.002-05:00

Last weekend was the North American QSO Party -- cw. I always enjoy this contest, it's fast, only lasting 12 hours, and simple. I messed around on 15 and 20 meters for a while in the afternoon, and racked up about 50 contacts, but didn't really sit down and operate.

Then Saturday night I went downstairs and 9:30 and started out on 20 meters, quickly switching to 40 and 80 meters. By 12:30 a.m. I was closing in on 250 contacts, so I shut it down. I had a good, high run rate for those 3 hours and ran a frequency on 40 for the last hour. I seem to have passed a milestone in my contesting skill, where I can now sit and run a frequency for an hour or two. That's a new one for me.

On the radio side, I picked up a used Icom 756 Pro. I had sold a Pro III a few months ago, and had a serious case of seller's remorse. I'm really happy to have the Pro, and I can live with the minor downgrade from the Pro III with the extra $$$ I have in my savings account.

Slow summer

2008-07-27T09:01:00.006-05:00

I've been remiss in keeping the blog up, but the month of July isn't a great one for Ham radio. Too much band noise from thunderstorms, too little time, and too many other things to do.

The only exception for that was the IARU contest a couple weekends ago. This is a short, simple contest, with a very simple, fast exchange. I went downstairs Saturday night, and managed to rack up neary 400 contacts. I acheived a high QSO rate running a frequency for a couple hours. That got my contesting juices flowing, and I'm looking forward to next fall's contest season. More on that as we get closer.

I have other interests and hobbies, one of which is cars. My daily commuter car is a 2007 Mini Cooper, and as a friend told me "Minis aren't a car, they are a cult." I participated in the cult this weekend at an event titled Mini Takes The States. It was a Mini rally, with several hundred Mini Coopers at the Road America race track in Elkhorn Lake, WI, about 150 miles north of Chicago. Despite some horrific traffic on the way up, it was a fun day.

Field Day results

2008-07-01T22:18:00.003-05:00

Well, I made it to Nebraska to operate Field Day with my cousin Brad, KG0GY. Despite breaking both of our antenna supports, we managed to get low antennas on 20 and 40 meters and make about 370 contacts -- 368 of them on CW.

We both learned a good lesson -- you can't have too many antenna plans for Field Day. When the first support broke, we joked about going to Plan B. By Saturday afternoon we were on Plan D, but luckily, that one held up.
Next year, we'll do more antenna preparation.

For me, it was a kick to operate from Nebraska, and send NE as the section. It had been 30 years or so since I had done that.

The photo above is Brad, hard at work. We ran my K2/100 and his Icom 746Pro.

Field Day is coming

2008-06-15T21:46:00.002-05:00

Field Day, where Hams all around the country spend a weekend "in the field" operating under emergency conditions is coming. Next weekend I'm travelling to Nebraska to mount an operation with my cousin Brad, KG0GY, from Juniata, Nebraska.

Brad and I have similar operating interests, and we've been talking about doing this for years, so it should be fun. He's been active with the Lincoln Amateur Radio Club for years, and I've been active with the Wheaton Community Radio Amateurs. We've both been active in Field Day with those clubs, and have both been very active in those clubs. We also share the view that we're tired of clubs, but like Field Day, so this is our solution.

We'll be operating 80, 40, 20, and 15 meters, primarily on CW, but may run a little SSB, if we're bored. We'll be running my Elecraft K2/100 and his Icom 746Pro. I've got a small Honda EU2000 generator that will provide our power.

My Field Day philosophy has always been "if I have to spend more than a couple hours in preparation and more than 30 minutes in setup, it's too complex." For the 20 and 15 meter antenna I'm using my Force 12 vertical dipole. I've used it past Field Days, and it meets my antenna raising criteria: "If the antenna is too big for my wife to put up, it's too big." I've included a shot of the antenna broken down and ready for transport. The base is the biggest part of the package.

I'll post more details from the Field Day site next week, and more photos and summary after the event.

Look for us on 80, 40 and 20 CW as KG0GY, 2A NE.

Novice station

2008-06-03T20:49:00.004-05:00

The wife was cleaning out some old trunks and found this picture from january 1966 of my Novice station. Yes, I was 12 years old, WN0NHG, and the proud owner of a Heathkit HR-10B receiver, a Globe HG-303 transmitter, and a Knight Kit SWR bridge. Note the QSL cards on the wall, most of them with other Novice calls.

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, in the past there was a Novice class of license, which was how most people got into Ham radio. It required passing a 5 word per minute code test and a simple test, mostly covering regulations. It was good for one year, and you were limited to three 50 KHz bands on 80, 40, and 15 meters. Transmitters had to be crystal controlled and limited to 75 watts.

But with those limitations, and a rotten, wide receiver in the HR-10, I worked all over the U.S. and Canada and had a ball.

Note the Heathkit speaker in the upper right corner of the photo. I'm still using it today. You can spot it in some pictures of my current station on this blog. Sadly, I don't have any wallpaper with rocket ships on it.

Summertime blues

2008-05-23T06:48:00.004-05:00

It's finally spring, and while that means warmer weather and May flowers, it also means thunderstorms, poor band conditions and less activity on the radio, at least in my case. Last weekend was a beautiful weekend, so a couple of quick contacts early Saturday morning was the end of my activity.

I did buy another radio during the last two weeks. Ever since the Dayton Hamvention last year -- the world's largest gathering of hams -- I've been thinking about ordering an Elecraft K3. I've held off, thinking that I'd wait until the new radio was in full production and there wasn't a six-month wait.

Then I talked the N4LQ, Steve in Louisville, KY, on his K3 the other night. When I asked about the K3, he told me he had replaced his Icom 7800 -- a $8,000 radio -- with the $2,000 K3, and was hapy he did. That sold me and I went to the Elecraft web site and ordered my K3. I won't see it until September or October, but that's ok. I'll have it ready for contest season next year.

Speaking of contests, the biggest ham radio even for me of the summer is Field Day. Held in June, it's where hams set up "in the field" using emergency power and operate for 24 hours. It's often done with local clubs or groups, so it's a nice chance to get out of the basement and out in the open air and do things with fellow hams.

The last eight years I've operated 40 cw with the Wheaton Community Radio Amateurs, the local club I belong to. This summer I'm trying something different. I have a cousin who is a ham in Lincoln, Nebraska, so he and I are going to do a two-man, two station portable operation from his mother's farm. His call is KG0GY and Brad and I are both CW ops, have both been active in our respective clubs, and are both ready to try a Field Day on our own, so to speak. If it works out, it could turn into a new tradition for us.

Over the next few weeks, I'll detail my Field Day plans and results.

A good radio weekend

2008-05-11T07:34:00.011-05:00

Saturday morning is probably my most consistent time to get on the air. I usually get up early, the wife is still in bed, and I head for the basement to play with the radios for a a couple hours. For some reason, the dogs have gotten in this habit, and wait for me by the basement stairs on Saturday and Sunday morning and are upset if I'm not heading downstairs by 7 or so.

Here's a quick wrap-up of this weekend's contacts -- all on 40 meters and CW.

K4UY, Ron in Madison, AL. This was our third contact in the last year. We talked about where he lives, the Huntsville area, and how nice it is. I travel a lot for work, so often know the area where my contacts live. People like to talk about where they live, so that's often good fodder for conversation.

NS9F, Gene, Lockport, IL. This is maybe 10 mile from my house. I've run into this gentleman a couple times on 40 meters, we had a nice chat.

KB5GXD, Angelo, St. Joseph, MO. I've talked toAngelo, a retired doctor, several times. Another nice chat.

Then later in the evening: YP9W -- Romania. There was some Romanian contest going on, and I heard people working this station. I gave him a call and worked him on the first call. That's my DX for this weekend.

Sunday morning we had torrential rains going on, but no lightning so I went down and got on the air. The bands were very poor and I could hear few stations. But I still managed to have several good contacts.

K3MD, John, Pittsburgh, PA. I've talked to John several times, we have similar interests and both have too many radios. We talked radios for a while, another common topic that's easy to talk to people about. Nice contact.

W4OCO, Mike, Mooresville, NC. We didn't talk long, he was having a hard time hearing me. But after we signed out, W5SG, Bill, near Houston called me. We had a long chat, again, talking mostly about radios because we had some common interests in that area.

These were all CW contacts. What I think I like about CW is that while you're operating it, you have to focus on it. I woke up this morning dreaming about work and trying to solve a work problem -- not what I want to do on Sunday morning. During my couple hours on the radio, work never crossed my mind, because I was focused on CW.

My antennas consist of a SteppIR vertical in the back yard and an 80 meter dipole fed with ladder line in the trees in my yard. The person driving by would never notice my antennas, unless they were looking hard for them.

A little about me

2008-05-08T22:16:00.005-05:00

When I'm not in the basement playing with my radios, I work as a editorial director of a small publishing company, producing a variety of trade magazines and web sites in the woodworking and agribusiness markets. You can view a couple of those at Countertop Business and EcoAgri.Biz.

I grew up in a small town in west Nebraska, and got my first ham license at the age of 12. My call was WN0NHG. I got my General license a year later, and was assigned the call WA0QMZ. Back in those days, your only choice of a call was the random call assigned by the FCC. When I got active in ham radio again in the late 90s, I discovered the FCC had instituted a vanity call sign program, so I chose my current call, K9OZ. The 9 is for the 9th call district, which inlcudes Inidiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. Nebraska is in the tenth call district, hence the calls with the 0 in them.

What is CW?

2008-05-06T20:23:00.000-05:00

CW is sending Morse code, yes those dits and dashes you learned in Boy Scouts, over the radio in a continuous wave mode, hence the abbreviation CW. It used to be widely used in maritime, military and railroad communications. It's a highly efficent, highly effective way to communicate. You can communicate farther, with less power and a more simple radio, than in most other modes.

A lot of the arcane phrases and abbreviations in Ham radio stem from its roots in telegraphy. Long before kids were texting short messages, telegraphers were figuring out abbreviations. Some of these are being picked up by the texters today, some not.

An unmarried woman is a YL, short for Young Lady. When she gets married, she becomes an XYL, ex-young lady. My wife doesn't like that phrase, she still thinks of herself as a YL.

CQ is a call you put out when you are looking for someone to talk to. I will send CQ several times followed by my call, K9OZ. Someone hearing that, knows I'm looking for a chat and will reply by calling me with my call, followed by their call. Then we're in conversation. I've had CQs answered by people in the same suburb and people in Antartica. It's like fishing, you throw your line out and you're never sure what will bite.

The other ham in the family

2008-05-05T20:53:00.000-05:00

My XYL -- that's hamspeak for wife or X young lady -- pointed out that I've failed to mention that she's also a ham. A few years ago she decided she wanted to be able to use the radio in the car, and got her license. She later upgraded to a General class license, and even passed the code test back when that was a requirement. Her call is K9GAL. I've managed to get her on HF a few times, but she spends most of her ham time on the local repeater. We took this picture a couple years ago in front of the vintage equipment I had at the time. Most of the gear in the background has moved on to other owners.

More radios

2008-05-04T17:33:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite new toys is a Patcomm 16000A, the top radio in this photo. I found it on E-bay last month at a nice price, and jumped on it. It is a nice cw rig, with nice filtering and a built-in keyboard. Patcomm went out of business shortly after introducing this radio, so it's one you never hear on the air. I tell people what I'm running and the general answer is "I never heard of it." Yet its a dandy little CW rig.

Contesting

2008-05-04T07:04:00.000-05:00

I consider myself a casual contester. Sometimes I wonder why, but yesterday was a good example why. Saturday morning is often my time to spend a couple hours in the shack playing with the radios. I'd had a couple nice cw QSOs and listened to part of an AM net, but tuning around I heard CQ 7QP. A quick check of the contest calendar at the ARRL web site and I discovered the 7th call district QSO party was on. Bascially, its a combined state QSO party of all the states in the 7th call district. I was hearing Wyoming, Montana, Washington, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Idaho on 40 meters, so I set up my logging program for it and dove in.

By the way, for logging I use N1MM software. It's great for contests, and you can't beat the price (free.) I ran the contest for a while, and went on with my day. I had some free time in the afternoon and went to 20 meters and dove back into the contest. Meanwhile the New England QSO party started up, so I was soon hearing stations calling CQ from two different contests -- one East Coast and one West Coast. Being in Illinois, I could work either. I started a second log for the NE QSO party, and soon I was jumping between the two contests, depending on geography.

Later in the evening I went back downstairs and worked more 40 meters, then jumped to 80 meters for an hour or so. It was all search and pounce (where you tune around looking for stations calling CQ) but it was fun. By the time I shut down around 11, I'd put over 100 QSOs in the log, run into a couple of fellows I know, and had a good time. What more could I ask for?

By the way, I did most of the operating on the Icom 765. Despite it's age, it's a great contest radio. I'd used the 756 ProIII as my condtest radio the last few years, but I sold that radio a couple months ago. I didn't miss it at all.

QRP

2008-05-02T20:35:00.000-05:00

Tonight I worked WB3AAI/QRP. He was running an Elecraft K1 at 5 watt into a St. Louis Vertical, made from wire and a fiberglass fishing pole. Lou was on a mountaintop in the Allegheny mountains of Pennsylvania, and was a nice contact. It's amazing what can be done with a very small radio and a very simple antenna, even on a night like tonight where the atmospheric noise and static was very high. I need to get back on QRP more this summer. QRP is low power, less than 5 watts, by the way. Most large modern radios are rated at 100 watts. I run most of mine at 50 watts for day-to-day operation.
Well the band is noisy and I'm sleepy, so enough for tonight. 73

Radios and radios

2008-05-02T20:14:00.000-05:00

Tonight there are multiple lines of storms moving through the area, so not a good radio night. That makes it a good time to update the blog.

Unfortunately, summer is often tough for HF radio, too much static. Although I'm listening on 40 meters and hearing quite a bit above the noise level

I promised to talk about radios a little. In the last 10 years I've been active in radio again, I've found myself buying and selling a lot of radios.

Here are a couple of my favorites, that I'm running these days. The Icom 765 was a high-end rig when it was new in the early 90s. The receiver is as good as any I've ever listened to, and it's just a nice big radio to operate. Lots of knobs and buttons, so no menus to scroll through to set things up. If you want to adjust something, turn the knob. It's got a big, heavily weighted tuning knob, so it's just nice to use. I dont' know how else to describe it. I like it so much, I sold my number one rig, an Icom 756Pro III a month ago. I liked it, but just didn't use it much so I got rid of it before the price started dropping on it.

Notice the paddles in front of the radio. On the left is a Begali -- the best. Made in Italy, it just has the nicest touch of any paddle I've ever used. My second favorite is the Kent next to it. I've had it about 10 years, and it was my everyday paddle until I picked up the Begali last year.

My shack

2008-04-30T19:24:00.000-05:00

I have a wide collection of gear, most of it I've picked up used the past few years. More details later. I'm a cw operator, with 99 percent of my activity on cw. I've been a ham for 43 of my 55 years, and was a good cw op as a youngster, so it came easy back then. Through the years I've built up my speed to where I can copy in the 40 word per minute range in my head, but most of the time I'm conversational rag chewer at 25 wpm.

In this blog, I'm going to log my activity, and a few highlights of what I hear, what I do, and what I find interesting.

An example is last night. I started out with a lower-speed contact with K3OXG, Lou, in Waynesburg, PA. We chatted a while, and when I signed out I was called by F3NB, Andy in Toulouse, France. He had a good readable 569 signal, which was unusual for 8 p.m. on 40 meters from Chicago. We actually had a nice little QSO. It's always neat to have the DX call you.

I was running my Icom 765 to the SteppIR vertical. More on that later.