RaDAR by Foot

I took advantage of a trip to Miramar Beach near Destin FL to visit the TopSail Hill Preserve State Park. When I arrived I did not know what it offered. The park is on the beach but has trails through the woods and has a couple of lakes. I took advantage of a trail and hiked 2.5 km with my gear to some picnic facilities with restrooms no less. Hey that is all I ask for portable ops. My backpack had everything I needed for this situation including KX3, battery Alexloop and accessories.

My first contact was Wink WA8KOQ in TN on 30 meters. Then I switched to 17 meters SSB which was open. My first QSO was N9IMS the Indy 500 special event station. This was followed by working KA1GJU Aeronautical Mobile. Kris was in a 737 headed west over New Orleans.  A fun QSO he actually said he would rather be in the park than the plane. This was the Made My Day QSO. Then I worked W7P a special station for Lake Powell/Grand Canyon. The final QSO was EA8/DK5AL at La Palma Island the most north-westerly of the Canary Islands, Africa. He was running 80 watts to a dipole.

This was an enjoyable outing and I got a 5 km walk in. This qualifies for the Pedestrian Mobile category multiplier in the RaDAR Program. The RADAR program is a good way to exercise your portable operating skills and equipment. See this link for the rules. In addition there is a Google+ Community: Rapidly Deployable Amateur Radio (RaDAR) for sharing your RaDAR operations at this link You don't have to join the community to participate in RaDAR. The RaDAR program is administered by Markus KD0JKM. The RaDAR rule structure is close to that formulated by the founder of the RaDAR contest idea: Eddie ZS6BNE.

RADAR Fun May 25th 2013

An opportunity came about as my wife was scheduled to work Saturday in Apalachicola FL which is about 65 miles from Panama City. I volunteered to drive and therefore I had the day to spend in the area. A few miles further is St. George Island which has the state park and the lighthouse. So this was a made to order opportunity for RADAR Rapidly Deployable Amateur Radio. RADAR is an on-going program see the details here.

I set up in one of those covered picnic areas by the beach with the KX3 and the Alexloop on the table. My initial mindset was to avoid the WPX CW contest.  I managed a QSO with KA9ZAP in TN on 30 meters. Now sometimes you get those picnic areas to yourself but this was a beautiful Saturday and there was a flood of beach-goers coming in. So I picked a sort of no mans area out in the parking lot and set up my 44 foot doublet. Even though there was activity on 30, I was not getting out so good. I shifted to 17 meters and hooked up with KK4IP. KK4IP is a disabled vet and was at Omaha Beach. I thanked him for his service. We had about a 30 minute QSO. I was trying to finish out five contacts at the park and gave in to the WPX. I snagged two 40 meters stations pretty easy which was surprising on the 44 foot doublet.

Time for lunch. I headed out to the Subway near the lighthouse. The lighthouse and its beach access was hosting a crowd also. I found a bench that was covered and I set up the Alexloop. I had a number of inquiries from visitors about what I was doing. They seemed impressed. In fact, a lighthouse volunteer spoke to me. He remembered the Atlanta folks activating the lighthouse a while back. He took a picture of my setup for their newsletter. Most of my contacts there were WPX on 20 CW and one was DQ4W from Germany.

It was time to head back across the bridge to Apalachicola. I did have time for another stop at a park. The one I picked had some nice shade. Most of my contacts had said I was on the weak side. But I got a solid 579 report with the Alexloop on 30 meters from Allan W4MQC on Pine Island FL. Allan and I have has a few previous QSOs. We had a 35 minute ragchew this time. Allan is wrapping things up at his summer home and is headed to New Hampshire.

I must say RADAR inspired me to have three portable outings in one day. This qualifies as the mobile category multiplier.since the locations were more than three miles apart and I made at least five contacts at the first two. The RADAR program is a good way to exercise your portable operating skills and equipment. See this link for the rules. In addition there is a Google+ Community: Rapidly Deployable Amateur Radio (RaDAR) for sharing your RaDAR operations at this link You don't have to join the community to participate in RaDAR. The RaDAR program is administered by Markus KD0JKM. The RaDAR rule structure is close to that formulated by the founder of the RaDAR contest idea: Eddie ZS6BNE.

Field Day Anticipation

From my teen days as a ham, Field Day has had special meaning to me. In those days, my fellow teenage hams and I would set up the antennas and the rigs at the site, someone from the ham club would drop off the generator and we had it to ourselves the course of 24 hours. I have always thought, plotted, and planned for field day pretty much every non-field day day. Well I did take 25 years off from radio but for the last five or six I have been practicing field day often doing QRP portable. So in any case, I am looking toward June 22 with great anticipation.

This year I acquired an Elecraft KX3. This rig will get its chance to shine at field day. One great feature is the Digital Voice Recorder (DVR) as well as CW memories. Another plus is low power consumption. I have enough batteries to make the duration. Two of them are LiFePO4, 10AH and 15 AH, which should be good for about 20 hours. I would love to have the soon to be released QRPWorks Ham Central Terminal to support CW, PSK-D, RTTY and logging. Yes my laptop could do it but it needs more power than the HCT and the laptop screen is difficult to read in daylight.

I have two antennas planned  One is a NA4RR hex beam covering 20, 15, 10 and 6 meters. It will be about 18 feet up. A second is a 40 meter full wave horizontal loop up about 30 feet. It should cover 40 through 10 fed with window line. It also should work as a vertical on 80 meters with the window line shorted together and some counterpoise wires. The full wave loop on 40 meters it is NVIS but I'll take that for Field Day.

So I would say my equipment is better than my op skills but I can plod along. I am likely to get some help from fellow club ops. I am hoping one year to do a QRP battery entry.The club is a 2F EOC entry this year. We are W4RYZ in North FL. I hope everyone can support their local Field Day operation.

Elecraft KX3

FD 2011 setup

NA4RR Hex Beam

Hex Beam set up at Mr. Grumpy's Crooked Fence Ranch

Don KK4DWC hosted a club fox hunt at his Mr. Grumpy's Crooked Fence Ranch near Southport FL. In addition the NA4RR Hex Beam I bought at the Orlando Hamcation was deployed.

This is actually a pre-test for the upcoming Field Day. Marv KK4DKT and other club members did most of the work. The Rohn 9H50 telescoping mast was supported at the base by the rocket club trailer. It was only extended to about 18 feet.. There were 9 guy wires to angle pieces driven in the ground. Marv headed up the assembly and pushing the mast up. We just used the wires for 20 and 15 meters. The SWR was excellent across those bands. No tweaking or tuner required. It just happened that the bands were terrible I only made one QSO to VA. Bob WB8PAF also made a QSO.. So looking forward to Field Day for a real test. After Field Day the Hex Beam will transition to the Panama City ARC club. Hint they have a nice tower.

Marv and Cody assembling

Bob KK4DIV hooking up the guys

Marv KK4DKT pushing it up.

NA4RR Hex Beam Deployed.

A Tale of Two Hobbies: The Rest of the Story

One of my stories, A Tale of Two Hobbies, ended up on page 25 of the Spring 2013 QRP Quarterly. Also see this post. Here is the rest of the story in John's words:

Greg

I was so impressed with your QRP station from the cotton field,

that I built a mag loop and bought a new Yaesu FT 817nd.

I made my first contact today.

E77DX was 59 at my station and he gave me a 57.

First QRP QSO and I get Bosnia!

Hope the pics come thru ok!

73

John/W8JER

He did a great job on the loop. Here are the pics:

APRS/Fox Go Box

The Byonics TinyTrack 4/GPS-2 will combine with an FT-2500 transceiver  magnetic mount antenna and SLA battery to deploy APRS in someones vehicle very quickly. The Byonics PicCon uses the same interface cable and will support our club fox hunts. I threw in a mic, backup 12V cigarette power cable and a power meter for grins.