K9OZ ham radio blog

Last weekend was the ARRL DX Contest.  As I'm not a big gun with a tower and a beam, I don't get real competitive on the DX contests. But I had some free time this weekend and operated mostly early morning (around sunrise) and late afternoon/early evening (around sunset.)  While 15 meters never really opened up here, I made a lot of contacts on 20 and da good number on 40 and 80.  I even managed to snag a couple of new countries, and several new ones on 80 meters. I quit when I hit 300 contacts.  I had fun.  That's what counts.

On Monday we were having another 70-degree day so I hopped in the pickup to do another Summits On The Air activation in Arkansas.  My destination was Petit Jean Mountain, which is about 10 miles south of Mount Magazine and on the south side of the Petit Jean Valley.  This is not Petit Jean State Park, which is actually on Mud Mountain, which creates some confusion. I had read the notes on the summit.  It sounded like there was good National Forest Road right to the summit, although the last mile might require hiking.  That's a common scenario here in Arkansas.  Many of the summits had fire towers on the top in the past, which have long been abandoned. But the roads often remain, either as trails or as rough roads that are probably above the capabilities of my Ford Ranger. I left home around 8:30 with plans to do Petit Jean Montain, then may swing over to Mount Magazine for a two-summit day.  The National Forest Roads were good -- much better than they a...

February is a good time for SOTA in Arkansas.  The leaves are off the trees, so you actually have some views from the summits, the chiggers and ticks are dormant, the poison ivy is gone for the winter and the temperatures are often in the 50s and 60s. Yesterday, February 2, was a good example.  The high in the afternoon was 62, so it looked like a good day to head for the hills. I did the two easiest and closest summits to my house -- Crystal Mountain (W5A/OA-008)  and Oak Mountain (W5A/OA-006).  They are a few miles apart on a well maintained -- for Arkansas -- National Forest Road and both require a quarter-mile hike or so. I had done both summits in 2017 and 2018, but decided to knock the pair of them out early this year. It was also good practice in doing multiple summits in a day.  Crystal Mountain has a jeep road going up, and often has other people or Jeeps at the top.  After I got set up, a young family came hiking up.  I spoke to the fat...

One of the things that makes Summits on the Air, or SOTA, possible is the background work that's been done by volunteers around the world.  Summits on the Air organizationis based out of the United Kingdom and has a very robust series of web sites that tell the operator anything they need to know, keep track of logs and standings and offer a glimpse into the world of SOTA. SOTA has recently updated its mapping software, and I'm going to use a couple of maps, courtesy of SOTA, to answer the two most common questions I hear -- "Where are the summits," and "How far can you talk." First the reach.  While I've reached Europe a few times from summits, on most activations I can work stations from coast to coast. The map below shows the stations I worked on November 18 from Petit Jean Mountain. The red dots are home stations or chasers.  There are three colored triangles on this map. One indicates my summit, and the other two are other activators I worked. T...

I traveled to the Wichita Mountains in southwest Oklahoma this week on a summit activation trip.  As with most of my trips, my execution didn't live up to my planning. I had hoped to activate 4 summits in two days, but wound up activating two and wisely calling it quits.  I have to remember my legs are 65 years old take it easy on them. As for the activations, the first on Wednesday was up Elk Mountain. It's a pretty 1.1 mile trail that's took me about an hour to climb. The only problem was the weather. I'd studied weather reports and Wednesday was supposed to be sunny and in the 50s -- perfect hiking weather.  When woke in Lawton, OK Wednesday morning there was very thick fog.  My plan was to do Elk Mountain in the morning and Mount Scott in the afternoon, then pick up a couple of nearby summits on Thursday and head home. So I stuck to plan and was at base of Elk Mountain at 9 a.m. and in the fog.  I kept telling myself it would burn off by the time I got t...

For those who are wondering what Summits On the Air, or SOTA, works here's a quick summary. SOTA got is start in the United Kingdom, and has been popular in Europe for years. It has gained popularity in the US the last few years.  The object is to make two-way communication with another amateur station that is being operated portable on a summit.  People activating from a summit are activators, those working them from home or other summits are chasers. Summits are designated by location. Summits in Arkansas are W5A (US fifth call area and Arkansas) and a alphanumeric designation.   When I refer to summits I'm activating, I will give both the common name and the SOTA designation. Every summit is assigned a point value given that is awarded to chasers who work the station and to the activator. An activator has to make four contacts to count it as a an activation.  Lots of information is available at  SOTA's web site , which is comprehensive and very well o...

Over the past year and a half Summits On the Air, or SOTA, has become one of my primary interests in ham radio. In fact, it was July 5, 2017 I made the drive to Mount Magazine (Arkansas' highest peak) and did the short hike to the summit. I pulled out my KX-2 QRP transceiver, hooked it up to a small vertical, and proceeded to make contacts across the country on 20 meters.  I was hooked. Since then I've done about 30 summits. Most have been in Arkansas, but a few in South Dakota.  I'll post some details and pictures from some of my favorite summits and hopefully, start recording the new ones as I get them on this blog. Mount Magazine (W5A/MA-001)  was my first summit.  It's easy to get to on a well-marked trail from Mt. Magazine State Park.  At the top, you are in a cleared, paved area with zero view, so it's a little anti-climactic for most folks. I quickly followed that with another easy drive-up summit, Mt. Nebo (W5A/MA-004).  As fall approached I w...

In moving my blog back to Blogger I managed to lose posts from 2012 on.  That's ok, I really hadn't posted much since 2014 and was ready to start fresh. So here goes. About 5 years ago we uprooted after nearly 30 years in Chicago and moved to Little Rock, Arkansas to be near my wife's family.  It was a good move, and my pre-retirement move. As of July 1, 2018 I retired from full-time work, which gives me much more time to indulge in my hobbies -- ham radio, hiking and Mini Coopers.  I hope to explore all three in upcoming blog posts. Here is view of shack in Little Rock.  It's a modest setup, but gets done what I need. More details to come.  Primary radio is an Elecraft K3 I've been operating for 10 years now.  I've added the P3 Panadapter adn KPA-500 amplifier, so I have the full "K-line" so to speak. This photo is a little dated, as I've replaced the FT-101 with an Icom 765. 

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.

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 Midw...