Had an opportunity to spend 5 days in the Great Smokey Mountains, in Maggie Valley, NC. My wife’s business enabled her to barter the use of a home half way up the side of the mountain. I took a week off from work and loaded my hobby into the car and the wife and I headed up there. This time I used the EagleOne portable antenna (http://w8afx.com/) I setup the Kenwood TS-480 with coax going out a sliding glass door and insulated the opening as best I could for the cold mountain nights. I put up the antenna tripod in a good level area in the driveway and staked it to the ground. I also attached three radials to each leg and then extended the 31′ mast with the wire inside. At the base of the antenna, I use an LDG 4:1 balun, using the built-in antenna tuner of the KW TS-480. Wow, what a great portable antenna. My first contact was N8W operating from the Seney National Wildlife Refuge at Seney, Michigan during the National Wildlife Refuge Week Special Event. Other stations I QSO’d that day were in Ohio, Spain, Italy, Maine, Georgia, and North Carolina on 40 meters SSB. What a great few days, driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway, visiting shops in Asheville and Cherokee, NC and enjoying the cool crisp November air of the mountains. It was a very enjoyable vacation.
Archive for the ‘Amateur Radio’ Category
Vacation – Using the EagleOne Portable Antenna
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009JOTA – Jamboree On The Air – Boy Scout Troop 109
Saturday, October 24th, 2009Participated in the Boy Scout “Jamboree on the Air” (JOTA) event held at the YCARS clubhouse today. Had a good turn out as you can see from the picture. It went the full 3 hours but time seemed to whiz by so fast. They boys were very attentive, asked a lot of questions and were very engaged the entire time. I did a presentation on the different aspects of amateur radio and how it is used for emergency preparedness. Brian Dale – AD4XJ, gave a presentation on the science of radio such as wave length, frequency; and on radio safety. He also talked on the requirements for the Radio merit badge.
Steve Kelly - WB4QNI
Steve Kelly (in picture)- WB4QNI, brought in a display of different morse code keyers and a setup to let the boys see, touch and feel morse code. After this we went into the radio room where we had two stations setup. Brian showed them some digital modes such as SlowScanTV and PSK31. We then set them up with contacts on various bands using the club callsign, K4YTZ. I was on the UHF/VHF band and Brian was on HF. Each boy had a “log book” with them and they filled out information about each of the their contacts.
In terms of getting new HAM’s, yes! Brian and I are meeting with them again in December to do their Radio merit badge, and again in March. I will be teaching a class for them to get their technician tickets. (including their Dad’s!) This was very fun and Brian and I agreed, this was the first of many JOTA’s to come!
The Ham “Shack”
Thursday, January 29th, 2009when I first heard the terminology of the “HAM SHACK” I envisioned these ham radio operators out in some shack where they do their radio craft. OK, I get it. It could be an office in the basement, a desk area in the bedroom, a shed in the back yard, even on the kitchen table. Whatever configuration we setup our communications center, I still don’t have what I could call even close to a shack.
When I bought the house, I wasn’t a Ham. I had no idea I would someday need a space for antenna’s in the yard (I am in a highly covenanted neighborhood) or some some space to hang maps and setup computers, transceivers, power supplies, antenna tuners, amplifiers etc etc. You just can’t setup anywhere especially if the better half has her ideas of decorating. The other thing to consider is where are you going to put your cables, grounding, and holes in the floor/ceiling/wall to get your equipment to the proper antenna that propagates your signal to the Ukraine.
I did operate for awhile in the garage. In the spring and fall that was fine but my garage is uninsulated. The winters and summers are too extreme to comfortably operate without heat or air conditioning.
I also don’t have a window that faces the backyard, only french doors windows to the deck from the dining area. I have been cultivating some bushes on the side of the house and have purchased a feed through panel. My computer system is in an armoire in the kitchen, necessitated by my moving out of my office to accommodate my son that moved back in with us. Hopefully the evergreen bushes will cover the mess of wires coming out to various temporary antenna’s I may setup. (Remember the covenanted neighborhood. Thank heaven for flag poles! And now you know the rest of the story.)
Church Communications Plan
Wednesday, December 17th, 2008Well, I finished putting together an emergency preparedness communications plan for our church congregration. Our church is pretty territorial in where member attend church. It was easy to organize sub-units with a designated team captain and assistants that would be responsible for members in a specific area. The goal here is to provide the flock leaders with information about his sheep in the event of a disaster so he can react with aid as needed. This information can also be forwarded to his superiors as well as emergency response organizations. Because of the diverse area between North Rock Hill, SC, Fort Mill, SC and Southwest Charlotte, NC, we are actually providing a great public service to these members neighborhoods by providing an emergency response team to bring fire, police, and medical aid to the residents. I hope the members embrace this and we can implement this plan. It could be a model for other nearby congregations.
Service to Community – Amateur Radio
Thursday, December 4th, 2008A major aspect of amateur radio I enjoy is the many opportunities it affords to serve the community. There are not many hobbies where the primary function is to aid your fellowman.
One service amateur radio provides to the community is providing radio communications during events. I will have to opportunity of serving in such a capacity this weekend during the Gastonia, NC Christmas Parade under the coordination of the Gastonia Area Amateur Radio Society. In the past I have provided radio support during long bike races, being a checkpoint at a distant location. While we enjoy talking with people all around the world using our own amateur radio equipment, the underlining reason we do this is to use our skills and equipment to aid our neighbors, community and nation.
One More Worry in the Carolina’s
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008Living here in the Carolina’s, I have always only worried about the standard disaster: Tornado’s and Hurricanes. Now the Mecklenburg ARES brought to my attention another disaster to prepare for. A tsumami!
THIS IS A DRILL MESSAGE THIS IS A DRILL MESSAGE THIS IS A DRILL MESSAGE
AT 2345Z 1 DECEMBER2008, A LATERAL COLLAPSE OF THE CUMBRE VIEJA VOLCANO LOCATED IN LA PALMA, CANARY ISLANDS OCCURRED. THIS COLLAPSE HAS TRIGGERED A DESTRUCTIVE TSUNAMI THAT IS SPREADING TOWARD THE EAST COAST OF THE UNITED STATES. IN APPROXIMATELY 9 HOURS, AN ESTIMATED WAVE OF 10-25 METERS COULD REACH THE COAST OF THE EASTERN UNITED STATES.
AT THIS TIME, ALL ARRL SECTIONS THAT BORDER THE ATLANTIC OCEAN SHOULD BE CONSIDERED TO BE AT THE HIGHEST ALERT STATUS AND TAKE ALL NECESSARY ACTIONS.
THIS IS A DRILL
Wow, a tsunami reaching all the way to Charlotte?
Other License
Monday, December 1st, 2008My other FCC license is for GMRS. WQFX800. (I had to write it here or I would forget it).
