Antennas

Tuesday the 10th vs Friday the 13th

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This is a tale of 2 activations, 2 owls and one park. On Tuesday, Oct 10th, My long suffering wyfe and I set out to Kings Gap (K-4361 for you POTA types) and I activated the park. This consists of setting up my radio and making a minimum of 10 contacts. I was able to make 34 contacts in the time I had to be there and enjoyed the day. Everything went smoothly. I got my antenna line over a tree branch in one throw and was set up in less than 15 minutes. My wyfe wandered around taking pictures and also spent some time on the interwebs and enjoying the weather. It was a great afternoon. As I said, everything went smoothly. My owl decoy, Ptolomey (pictured below) kept watch for bears and made sure we weren’t bothered by insects or other pests. Then there was today, Friday the 13th. My wyfe, on the spur of the moment, decided that she wanted to do some videoing up at Kings Gap and since we would be going up there I decided to bring my equipment and activate. First, I had to turn back 1/2 km from home as I had forgotten to barricade off the area of the house where the cellar stairs are. I rather prefer not to return home to our Rhoomba on its back at the bottom of the stairs screaming for help and being circled by well-meaning cats. Then the small store at the bottom of the hill at Kings Gap did not carry the brand of chips my wyfe wanted. Once we go to the top of the hill where the mansion is, there were workmen doing various and sundry things preparing the place for the upcoming fall/winter seasons. My wyfe settled herself in to doing her thing and I started setting up my radio. Yeah … On the 4th throw, my throwing bag wound 3 times around a branch. I stood there, about 15 or so meters below staring at it and uttering lots of nsfw words. There was no way I could leave an weighted throwing bag attached to several meters of florescent twine attached to that branch. Finally the thought hit me: The twine has 2 ends!! I took a convenient stick and tied it up with the other end of the twine and threw it over the branch 3 times. This unwound the throwing bag. Unfortunately, my wyfe had wandered over to observe the spectacle and almost got hit with the bag when it came loose and plummeted to the ground. Now 3 more throws got it over the branch and I was able to raise my antenna. My usual 15 minute set-up took me almost 45 minutes. Now my owl Tootsie was able to scare away any bears but the gnats were another story. They ignored him and swarmed me. I did my best to ignore them. I made 55 contacts and had a very successful activation in spite of Friday the 13th and Murphy. Feel free to look at my pictures and to laugh at me. 🙂 Pic 1 is Ptolomey, Pic 2 is Me on the 10th, Pic 3 is Tootsie and Pic 4 is me on the 13th. Namaste Y’all

WOW!! Where did September go???

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It has been a busy month, I guess. I have really been into the whole POTA thing and between that and work and keeping my life from falling into the usual chaos, it has been one amazing fun filled blur. I mentioned in my last post that I had activated 2 parks on 3 September. Well, just the other day, 1 October, I went out to the same place, Big Spring State Park, located in Tuscarora State Forest and activated again. I made a total of 49 contacts in an hour including several park-to-park contacts and was able to withstand the constant bombardment of acorns falling from the trees. It was a beautiful early autumn day and I was very happy to be out and about. I will include a picture or 2 below. I prefer to go out on nice days as I do not want my radio rained on. There are pavilions I could use, I guess but I do prefer the open air and sunshine. It doesn’t take me long to set up and I can be on the air within 15 minutes of pulling into the park. I prefer to use a G5RV Junior antenna as it is a good multi-band antenna and works well as an inverted vee. Right now the only limiting factor in my setup is my power situation. The battery pack I use just isn’t up to the job which is why I am going the pick up a LiFePo 12V 20ah battery tomorrow which will allow me to run my rig for a much longer period of time. You can expect a more contacts listed from my next activation report. well kidlets, enough for now. Namaste, you’all.

As for Summer, I don’t hear no singing!

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It was a beautiful day today and I decided to go activate a park. I went to Big Spring State Park which is located in Tuscarora State Forest, making it a two-fer! All went well. I put my antenna up over a convenient branch with my arborist bag and quickly got on the air. I self spotted on the POTA app and soon was making contacts. I had no real issues until an operator started using AM on a nearby freq. I just moved down the band and started over. I ran for a while more before the heat got to me. Overall a very successful activation. I made 44 contacts including 3 park to parks. I will be back there in the near future as it is a nice park and is nearby. I enjoy working portable and POTA gives me a chance to get outdoors. Yesterday I was out on my lawn and, with the help of my long-suffering wyfe, got my Buddistick tuned up using a 4″ by 20′ length of copper screen as a ground radial. It worked great and I will have to try it at a park next. Now I think I will sit here and stream some shows.

Namaste, y’all

Radio Active in a good way

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Had a great day yesterday. My long suffering wyfe and I went camping at a local state forest and I activated it for the POTA program. Please note that my wyfe isn’t into camping and only went along to keep me company as I could not find anyone else to join in on the adventure. The campsite we chose was very remote. While we were there no cars went by, which pleased me to no end. It is up on a dirt road on top of a ridge. The only amenities there are a parking area, a picnic table and a fire ring. This was very suitable. While we were there the wind was blowing which kept the bugs to a minimum, even though the temperature was in the 80’s (farenheit) or high 20’s in Celsius. We had the camp set up in about an hour and I was soon on the air. I got to try out some new equipment. To hang my antenna I used a weighted arborists throwing bag. This was easier than using a stick and allowed me to throw the line higher in a tree. I had my generator that I had won in a raffle and my tent which I had also won. Both my owls were there, Ptolomy and Tootsie (pictured below) to guard the camp. I even brought along a slingshot with steel ball bearings in case a bear showed up and I wanted to piss it off. In reality the only critters we saw were a porcupine which walked purposefully past the camp, a large beetle doing beetle things a big toad, and a racoon which came by the tent this morning to see what was blocking his path. As for the activation, I had a very successful time. I made a total of 78 contacts with 4 of them park-to-park contacts. I stayed on the 40M band as it seemed to have a good result. I worked as far away as Puerto Rico, and several places in the eastern half of the country and a few Canadian stations before I had to stop due to my power supply running low. Overall, a good time was had by all. Hats off to my wyfe who made us a great supper of cabbage and kielbasa!

Not a Good day, a Great day!

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It was a great day today. The weather was beautiful and it was a very nice day to be off. One of those Sundays that come along once in a while that make you want to go outside and do things. Today my wonderful wyfe and I went out to a State Park about 15 miles down the road and did a POTA activation. POTA stands for Parks On The Air and is a program for ham radio operators to get out and be active in the public, operating in State and Federal parks, Forests and Game Lands. The park we were at was Big Spring State Park ( POTA Number K-4355) which is located on the western edge of Perry County PA. As I said, it was a beautiful day. It only took me about 15 minutes to set up. I put up an inverted Vee antenna with the apex up about 30 feet. My radio is a Yaesu FT891 and I was using my new LDG Z11 Pro II tuner. The setup worked great and I was able to make 26 contacts in less than an hour of operating before the bugs drove me out of there. In the meantime, my wonderful and long suffering wyfe was enjoying herself making videos of nature and of me operating. All in all, a good time was had by all. Following is a pic of me operating and my setup. The random hunks of tree bark on the table were still there when we left. 🙂

Events Special and Otherwise

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Yesterday we, the club I belong to, held a special event to mark the anniversary of the birth of Marie Doro, a local who was a very well known actress in the early 1900s. She was very famous on stage and in silent films and was the first American actor invited to appear before the British royalty!. She was born here in Duncannon PA and is buried here, though she lived the majority of her life elsewhere. In a perfect world, running a Special Event would be simple. Since when has this world been perfect? There is quite a process involved starting with getting the club interested in hosting the event to announcing the event and getting the announcement published in QST magazine and on QRZ.com to painstaking work designing the certificate to securing a venue to hold the event to procuring equipment to enticing people to operate the radios and bring food, chairs, tables and other odds and ends. anyway, we did it. I even made a batch of chili which was a big hit. I even brought one of my mascot owls, Tootsie to supervise. He approved of the radio activity.

Summertime is getting closer and the living will be easy

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Soon it will be time to start thinking about getting outside more and enjoying the warmer weather …. until it is 95 degrees Fahrenheit ( for those who still use that system, I prefer 35 degrees Celsius) with a relative humidity of about 85% then you will want to lay about in the AC and bitch. Actually I was out yesterday with my new radio and a G5RV Junior playing around. First off I was learning the foibles of tuning this set up as an inverted vee. I didn’t want to have it set up in too permanent looking a configuration as I was in a public location. Second, I was learning the menu system of the radio as so far I have not had a lot of time to use it. Third, I was fine tuning my grab and go style. Back some years ago I could have a portable QRP station up and on the air within 15 minutes of pulling into a location. Yesterday it took me over 40 minutes to get on the air not including having to return home to get my power supply (turning red with embarrassment). I am not as readiness able as I used to be, I reckon. Guess I just need to practice. My plans for the future include bringing alternate antennas to try out. One nice thing is that my wyfe is willing to assist. She enjoys coming along for the ride and likes to laugh at my mistakes. 🙂 In any event, I will keep plodding away and keep posting here. For now, namaste, y’all.

So I lead A Boring Life

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The other day my Wyfe and I took a drive to Delaware and picked up a new toy: a Yaesu FT891. This is an HF and 6M transceiver. It is a pretty cool little rig. We took it out yesterday and tried it out in a nearby park. I set it up connected to a battery power supply and worked with a Buddi-Stick antenna. I only operated for a few minutes as it was a bit windy and chilly but I worked a station in Indiana with ease considering the location I was in is down in a hollow. I have better locations in mind for the next ventures. I am going to start doing Parks On The Air activations as a way of getting outside and being more active. It is also a way of generating interest in ham radio in a public venue. “Parks on the Air® (POTA) started in early 2017 when the ARRL’s National Parks on the Air special event ended. A group of volunteers wanted to continue the fun beyond the one-year event, and thus, POTA was born.” That is a quote from the POTA webpage and I couldn’t say it better. Basically parks (State and National) parks have assigned numbers. Other entities such as State forests have numbers too. To activate an entity you set up within the boundaries of the park and work stations. The stations you work are called hunters and you are an activator. Simple and fun. Well I can hear the work bell ring so it is time I get a long. Namaste to you’uns.

Beware the Ideals of March

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Here it is again, the middle of March. We went for a bit of a ride but the animals were not cooperating. It is currently 2 C outside with the winds between 10 and 26 KPH so I think the ruminants are huddled in the treeline wrapped up in squirrels and robins for warmth. Typical March weather in the Northeast.It is okay, it gives me an excuse for idleness on my day off. I can sit here drinking coffee and listening to folks on the ham radio bands. The stove is running well and keeping it nice and warm in here. I am trying to work a special event station celebrating National PI Day but not having luck so far. They are located in NJ but are right now on 20M which is a bit long to reach here. Hopefully they will QSY to 40M sooner or later. My cats are behaving which translates out to they are asleep. Overall a good day. I have an appointment tomorrow at the ophthalmologist so that I can be informed that my retinopathy has progressed and my cataracts are a bit bigger. It is a yearly ritual; almost pagan in nature. I think I will relapse into a semi-vegatative state for now and lose myself in the comforting white noise of 40M.

Namaste, kidlets.

It is a coffee and radio kinda day

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Wow! I am sitting here yawning and it is only 1623 est. Even copious amounts of coffee don’t seem to help. It is -2 C outside … the kind of day you want to sit inside and do inside things. I was on the radio for a bit, chatting with a few folks after i did my due diligence on my exorcise bike. My wyfe joined me and we spent the time killing things on the video game. It is a great way to distract yourself when you are exorcising. Now I am sitting here contemplating my next course of inaction. My kittehs are all snoozing in the warmth of the stove so I can’t interact with them. My wyfe is cocooning. Well I guess I will have to get back on the radio and see if I can scare up any more people to bother. I am getting a lot better with the cootie key which is a lot easier on my arm. I think it was a good purchase.

Well enough for now. Namaste y’all