DX on 20m!

I gotta start getting up earlier EVERY morning when I'm home- I actually worked some DX on 20m today! The 2 catches this morning were Norway and the Czech Republic. Nice to work the ancestral country! We will make one more try at this in the current year tomorrow and see if we can bag a few more for the HF Challenge.

What has KC9FQV been doing?

Well, as I said before...this blog thing is hard work! I think what I will be doing from here on out is posting forward from now- and as I have time, I'll do "Flashback" posts to catch up on the later part of 2008 while I was on the road. Sound good?

Antenna Repair coming...

Looks like I'll have to go on the roof and replace the center insulator on the 80-15 dipole...I am getting more and more 'dropouts' on the signals and I think that the old Ten-Tec center insulator is starting to come apart for good. Stay tuned...

ILQP a Success!

Well, the Illinois QSO Party for 2008 is history, and the KC9FQV had yet another even more successful year! Here are the raw score stats:

Net Operating Time: about 5 hours
Contacts: 117
Multipliers: 68
Claimed score: 7,956

This year, I operated with Matt, KC9HRH, who provided the comfortable ARC Comm trailer that we used from the park behind Plainfield Village Hall. We operated the TS-2000 using mainly phone. My goal was to try pushing digital modes this year, but due to antenna issues, that just did not happen. As the Cubs say, maybe next year... :-)

While Matt was playing with some antenna designs that he wanted to try, I setup the Perth Outbacker on the roof of his pickup and began. Unfortunately, because of the nature of the Outbacker, I was not getting a whole lot of instate action. I went out after a little while to help Matt, and after a few frustrating trys, we realized the issue, hard to make a standard dipole, etc with a 4:1 balun! The wrong balun accidentally got ordered. So, we got out the 'backup dipole' (cut for 80m) that I had in the trailer, and strung that up, and then started to rock! We both had a great time, and I think I might even be able to convince Matt to do it again next year...but we'll stay closer to home this time!

QRV from the ILQP!

Tomorrow (10/19/08) Matt KC9HRH and I will be QRV from Will County for the Illinois QSO party! at this time, we plan on operating portable from the Plainfield area. Exact location TBD.

We will be comfortably ensconced in the Fox River ARC Comm Trailer, running a TS-2000 for SSB and a TS-450 for PSK. We will also monitor 146.49 FM for simplex stations. This will be my first ILQP running HF, and Matt's first contest, period...so we are both looking forward to the fun!

If you happen to be in the area, give us a shout on simplex and stop on by. We will also monitor the FRRL 2m repeater as well as the KCOEM 2m machine.

QRV from EM37cc!

I will be QRV on PSK31 tonight after 1700 hrs. Look for me around 7.070 or 14.070

I might also try some voice, probably around 7.210 +- QRM.

I am expecting to be on the air through about 2000-2100 hrs. For those chasing grids, I will be at EM37cc.

QRV from St. Louis!

We are currently QRV from Hazelwood, MO on 40m at 7.261 +- QRM. We will also be on 20, 30 and 80 at other times during this week. I will publish a full schedule shortly.

Trying Portable HF...

Well, in a fit of inspiration...I have come up with the tools necessary to do Portable (if not mobile) HF. As I will be in Missouri all this next week, I am taking my TS-450 with me and will be testing in SSB and digital modes. My setup will be:

TS-450S/AT
Astron SS-20 PS
Perth "Outbacker" antenna on a 4-1/2" magmount base.

For Digi modes, I will be using Digipan, MMTTY or MultiPSK with my direct interface for the TS-450.

I will place the antenna on the roof of my van and if possible, run coax into my room through the window (I may also try a Buddipole if I can borrow one). If I cannot get coax into my hotel room, I will operate from the van. Now, if the Outbacker can be used mobile...well then, that open a whole NEW window of opportunity!

Stay tuned for more info on skeds, to see if this will work...

2m Band Opening!

This last night, I had occasion to come down to Merrilville IN, where I was staying for the night before some shows in Crown Point the next day (today now, I guess). Anyway, It was about 9pm, and as I was making the turn off I-80/94 onto I-65, I decided to flip over to 146.52 to see if anyone was around.

I found two guys talking, one who ID'd as Eric, KC9???, and another gentleman (didn't get the name, hopefully he will be sending his contact info via email). Anyway, they were wrapping up and planning to go to 2m AM, when I threw out my call. Both of them came back to me, and were good strong signals. Now I figured they were from the area, but was I in for a surprise...as one said his QTH was Marengo, IL, and the other was from Woodstock, IL. Yup, you are not mis-reading that. After I got the van back on the road, I asked again just to be sure. It was confirmed.

That is nearly 80 miles...and I was on a mobile! Needless to say, that was the hit of my night. If this can happen at the BOTTOM of the sunspot cycle, imagine what it will be like when the sunspots come back... :-)

My new mobile radio!

As some of you might know (and many more might not), I have been having 'issues' with my Icom IC-2710 mobile radio. In short, it overheats...while just sitting there. I haven't had the time or the $ to send it in to Icom and get it fixed- but a good friend Greg, N9CHA had a Yaseu FT-8800 that he let me borrow for awhile. It worked well for me...so well, I ended up buying it from him. Eventually I will get the Icom fixed, and that will probably become Marilyn's mobile rig, or I'll use it the shack...not sure yet.

Anyway, boy does this radio have FEATURES! So many, I will probably never use them all. But it is dual VFO, and is APRS and packet-capable with the data port on the back. So, it will work well for what I need. And Greg had a remote head kit too, so I have some flexibility in mounting it.

I have used this radio well since I have started my travels. Including a rather neat occurance that happened on the way to Merrillville, IN this last night...

Hello again- a little catch-up...

Well, I am sure that some of you have been wondering what I have been up to, probably some of you really haven't cared. It has been a great while since I have posted here, mainly because Ham Radio has taken a back seat to...MY NEW JOB!

In August, I started working for Motivational Productions. This San Antonio-based company is a Christian-based not-for-profit organization that produces and shows multimedia postive character shows in schools all across the country. My job as a Youth Speaker/Tech takes me to IL, IN, MO and IA. I am on the road. A lot. So I haven't spent a lot of time in the shack. I hope to remedy that in the not-to-distant future by adding HF mobile to my capabilities. For now, it's just VHF/UHF.

So in the meantime, let's see if we can catch up with some of the Ham Radio goings on that I HAVE experienced while on the road- here we go...

Time's Just tickin' Away...

I didn't realize it had been that long since I posted last! Not a whole lot going on around here...

- continuing to work on the tower (Allen got the mast holder parts back to me, he did a GREAT job on them!) I have re-assembled it and I am finishing getting the last of the loose rust off of it so I can prime and paint it.
- I am still having fun on 10m...up to 17 states now! I am way behind on QSL'ing.
- I am still intending to flip my shack PC to Linux...I have Ubuntu 6.06 installed on a second removable drive, I just haven't had time to play with some of the details (getting Wine running so I can continue to run N3FJP's Amateur Contact Log, some of my packet programs, etc.). We'll see...

Next stop...the Bolingbrook Hamfest this Sunday- also the site of the ARRL IL Section Convention!

FRRL Hamfest

I attended the FRRL Hamfest today- not completely as a spectator though. We were displaying for both ARES and the Red Cross (Matt KC9HRH brought their communications trailer out). We all had a great time, and the weather was PERFECT! I will try to add pictures tomorrow.

Fun on 10m!

Wow! While I was in the shack working on this and that tonight, I turned on the TS-450 and decided to listen to 10m...just to see if anything was happening. All of the sudden, in pops KR4EX, calling CQ from NC. I called him back, and he heard me! 10m was open! Didn't get much done after that...I was too busy talking to NH, NY, AL, and 4 other states I can't remember- all inside of an hour. And then...oh my is that PSK I hear on 28.120???

This is gonna be fun, people!

The Tower

I had not much to do on the 4th of July, so I decided to work on another project that had laid dormant for awhile. About 3 years ago, I had picked up one of those heavy-duty 10' TV tripod-towers along with a 10' section of heavy-duty mast from someone that was throwing it out (it was one of our newspaper customers, back when we did that-but I digress....) They had it on their curb with a sign marked 'free'. Well- I couldn't resist that!

Anyway, I took it home, and started to clean it up, but like other things, more important projects came up, and it got put aside. I didn't want to give it up though, and moved it not once, but TWICE. Anyway, with the opening on 10m starting up, and the 10m dipole laying in my yard that was given to me, I put two and two together, and...

I pulled the tower out and discovered that it had taken on a bit of rust sitting out in the yard (surprise!). So, I started working on it. I found a wire wheel that would fit my drills and began going at it. I borrowed a DeWalt grinder from my neighbor across the street and cut off the 6 bolts holding the mast into the tripod, the 3 bolts holding the upper mast support to the tripod, and the 3 bolts holding the 3rd tripod leg to the supports. I took the wirewheel to it, cleaning as much as I could before it got dark.

At that point, I kinda got a an impasse...as a lot of the rest of the work to be done required tools I didn't have. Enter my friend Allen KB9VO, who is a tool designer/metal worker. "Eric, Eric...why do you trouble yourself so...I have a SANDBLASTER." He is coming over Saturday morning to take a look at things. Stay tuned- to be continued...

So, About That Antenna...

OK, I probably left some of you with a question or two about my 'fan dipole' that is cut for 80/15m. Let us see if I can answer those.

This antenna was actually made and used for our club's 80/15 CW Field Day station 2 years ago. The dipole is actually constructed out of 450-ohm ladder line, fed by coax. One 'side' of the ladder line is cut for 80m, and the other 'side' is cut to 15m. The center insulator is a Ten-Tec "Acrobat" (see "Up On The Roof", below for a close-up of it). At the insulator, on each side the two ends are brought together and mated with either the center conductor or shield of the coax feeder. The antenna is strung from a tree in my front yard to a tree in my neighbor's backyard, in a roughly N/S configuration. The center point is conveniently over my roof, so it's an easy matter to get the coax through a roof vent into the shack.

So, how does it perform? The antenna is cut for the CW portion of the band- so, my TS-450 can tune it reasonably for SSB, but it is a compromise at best. However, on PSK...it rocks! Now, I have discovered that I can also tune it OK for 40/30/10m also. Again, a compromise...but you use what you have, right? It actually works well in all these bands- go figure!

Will I put up a better antenna someday- of course. But for now, it works and the best part is that it was free- given to me by a club member when I was starting out in HF and didn't have anything else. So, I make it work and either enhance it, or pass it on when I get something better.

And isn't that what Amateur Radio is all about?

Up On The Roof...

No, we're not going to talk about James Taylor today...last week, a connection in the center insulator of my 80/15 'fan' dipole gave out. It is a Ten-Tec "Acrobat", and is fairly open on all sides, so I knew it was only a matter of time before the weather would take its toll. Well, it finally did.

I found out in the worst way...went to go for some PSK on 40/30m (Yeah, I know...using a 80/15 dipole for 40/30m? That's another story.) turned the antenna switch from my 20m dipole, and...silence. Borrowed a friend's MFJ analyzer...oh yeah, there's a short or open somewhere, got infinity SWR...up on the roof, and yup- the center conductor side of the coax has broken right off. So OK, let's fix it...but wait- there's too much tension on the dipole to fix it in place. OK, a trip to the tree in the front yard- climb the tree, undo the guy rope, lower the one end of the antenna, climb down the tree, carry the ladder back to the deck in the back yard, get BACK up on the roof...NOW we can fix the antenna!

Folks, this is NOT a fun connector to have to work with- especially when you are sitting on the roof, trying to a) brace yourself as to NOT fall off of the roof, b) hold the ends of the dipole so they don't do what they want to do (slide off the roof), and c) reconnect the dipole ends and the coax in the insulator. The whole process took about 2 hours. re-cut the coax feeder and got a clean end, did the same with the ends of the ladder line, and put everything back together JUST in time for the Monday night City Of Lights 10-10 net at 8:30pm (10m too on this dipole? Yeah, you'll hear how and why later).

I know, I know...why not just take the whole thing down and fix it on the ground? I mean, Eric you DO have your dipole hung so you can easily raise and lower it, right?

Um, no. But that's yet another story.

Welcome to my blog!

I have decided to enter the blogosphere and see what happens. here I will write about my personal journey through Amateur Radio. I may not write every day, it will be mainly when I have something I feel is significant enough to drag out the computer for. So let's take a journey together and see what happens!