Club Activities

No Park Pics But You’ve Seen It Before

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Howdy kidlets. Another blog installment. A few things have happened since my last entry and there are some terms I would like to cover.

Ham radio operators like their jargon and technical terms. Signal reports are an integral part of operating whether they really mean anything or not. Some folks just give lip service to the reality of the report whereas others treat them as sacrosanct. They are used to give the station you are talking with an idea of how well their signal is being heard. The system of reporting is the R-S-T system where R stands for “readability” , S stands for “Strength” and T stands for “Tone”. When using voice the T is omitted. R is a number from 1 (unreadable) to 5 (perfectly readable). S is for the strength of the signal and runs from 1 (very faint or “in the noise”) to 9 which is extremely strong (booming in there). T is used for Morse Code transmissions and does not apply to voice communications. It runs from 1 (very rough) to 9 (perfect tone). Tone is sort of outdated with solid state radios and Software-Defined radios. Using the older tube rigs, tone could be effected by a number of things such as tubes going bad or other circuit issues. Rarely today do you hear anything other than a 9 for Tone. Most contesters just give a 59 or 599 as a means of being expeditious as they are trying to make as many contacts in the allotted time as possible. Most operators give the R by ear and the S by watching their built in meter in the rig. Ok enough knowledge for tonight. 🙂

Today I went to Little Buffalo State Park us-1376. If you want pictures of the park you will have to look through some of my previous posts. It was a beautiful day, for October. The sky was sunny and the temperature was reasonable, almost pleasant. There were several people in the park walking and dog-walking and picnicking in an attempt to make the most out or the fair weather before it becomes unpleasant to go outside. Prior to the activation I was at a VE session. (VE is volunteer examiner which I will elaborate about in another entry). I wanted to do a quick activation as I had something to do at home. Without SWMBO to log, activations can be a juggling act. Sometimes it can get confusing switching from logbook to mic and back. I managed to keep up, though. In less than 1/2 hour I was able to add 15 contacts to the log, with 5 park-to park QSOs. A pretty good activation.

Now as for yesterday, we were driving home from a town in the next valley (Newville, if you must know) and we turned onto a back road as we usually do to take a bit of a shortcut. LO! and behold!, in the middle of the road ahead of us was a small figure which we both took for a squirrel sitting up. That wasn’t the case. As we got close the figure resolved itself to be a kitten. I stopped the car, intending to shoo it out of the road but when I got close, I saw that his eyes were gummed shut and his nose was caked over. There is no way we could have left him there as it would be a certain and probably slow death. I picked him up and we set off to continue our trip home. We stopped in at SWMBO’s mother’s place and I called the vet as this little critter needed some doctoring. Amazingly they took us right in. The vet checked him over and sprayed him for fleas and gave us medicine for his cold and his eyes. We took him home and he is now my little buddy as he likes to sit on me and to sleep. We named him “Scout” as he is fond of nosing around and checking out his surroundings.

Well, that is it for now. Next time I will talk about the VE system and maybe another topic or two. As always, namaste kiddos.

Scout when we first picked him up
Scout sleeping on my chest
Snack time for Scout

My Owl Was Moistened

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First off, we had a bit of a disappointment last night. Due to heavy rain, the National Night Out activities were cancelled at the Landisburg Fire Station. Representatives of the Perry County Amateur Radio Club, including myself, were planning to be present at a booth to show off our hobby and to demonstrate ham radio to the public and explain how we can be of service to the community during an emergency. Our next chance for public exposure will be at the Perry County Fair in Newport next week. SWMBO and I are going to be at the booth on opening night, August 13th. Expect a report and pictures. I will be showcasing my dipole made from 2 Slinkys. So on with today’s activation! SWMBO and I set out at 0500 for Gettysburg and arrived at the area of Devil’s Den around 0615. Devil’s Den was a location where Confederate sharpshooters shot at Union troops on Little Roundtop. It is a group of boulders left by the last glacier and makes for a great place to hide between shots. Glory did some videos and recordings and I watched wildlife. There was a whistlepig who was curious about me for a while but then when about having his breakfast. After a bit we decided the mist and drizzle was getting uncomfortable so we headed over to Culp’s Hill for an activation. I put a 40M Hamstick on my magmount and set the radio to 7.289 MHz which was empty. Within 5 minutes we had logged 10 contacts! It was almost like fishing a creek that had just been stocked! In less that 45 minutes we had worked 52 stations (we didn’t count them until we got home and transferred them to the POTA app) but it was just too moist out to continue. Thanks to the folks who stayed at home and hunted, we had a great activation. You might wonder why I say “we” when it is me doing the talking. I give great credit to my long suffering wyfe, Glory, who does my logging and offers lots and lots of support and encouragement. She also puts up with my foibles such as having owl decoys and gnomes and pink flamingoes. Well enough for now, kidlets. As the founder of our order taught us: “Keep your stick on the ice!”. Namaste

Devil’s Den in the morning drizzle.

Little Roundtop as seen from Devil’s Den

Zarathustra the owl and Lester the gnome watching operations
Burdock (Arctium minus)

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.

At Least My Kitties Love Me!

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Of course the title has nothing to do with the subject. I hope everyone is well though that is a hope based in futility as if everyone is well then there is no basis of comparison, now is there?

I had some fun this past Sunday. I belong to an online Morse Code radio club called FISTS which sponsors a quarterly contest. In February, May, August and November, they hold 2 two hour contests. Since they are short duration contests they are called Sprints. The goal is to contact as many other stations as you can within the 2 hour time frame. There are 3 entry catagories: high power, low power and group. I was working low power (5 watts). I was able to make several contacts and was lucky enough to contact 8 different states. Each state gives a multiplier which ups the score. All in all I scored a very decent score for working a single band and a low power station. I am looking forward to the Spring Sprint in May.

More information can be found at fistsna.org and information on ham radio can be found at arrl.org. Information about the Perry County Amateur Radio Club and the special event station we will be running can be found at https://perrycountyarc.org/event/celebrating-marie-doro/ and also at https://www.qrz.com/db/KC3TKC

New year/ new revolutions

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So … did I make any resolutions? Hardly. I never do. I don’t see the point. I am the same old me and do not foresee any changes aside from my beard going greyer. 🙂

As for radio stuff, I am currently starting to put together a special event for May. There is a lot to do and not much time to do it. This will have 2 purposes: 1, to commemorate the life of Marie Doro, a silent film star who was born in this county and is buried locally. and, B, to do a practice/shakedown for field day. I am about to start seeking volunteers to provide radios, antennae, a venue, food and operators. I am looking at the 27th of May as the date and plan to have the event run from 0800 local until 1600 local (1200 UTC until 2000 UTC). The certificate will be done via e-mail. We will fill out contact information from e-mails submitted and reply with the certificate attached as a jpg or pdf file. Hopefully I can find people interested. If enough people sign up and participate I might make a batch of chili! If anyone reading this is interested please feel free to contact me.

Anyway, it has been a good evening on the radio. I tossed my call out a few times and had several stations call me. That is always nice. The days are getting longer and I look forward to more light.

Until next time, namaste kidlets.

Why is the game a foot?

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So here it is, a Saturday afternoon in November and I am enjoying coffee. Today was the Fall FISTS Saturday Sprint. FISTS is an international Morse code club. They started their Sprints up again after a year or two hiatus. The object is to work as many stations as you can in 2 hours. There are 3 entry categories: QRO, QRP and Club. I entered the QRP category. In August, I worked the Summer Sunday Sprint and came in first place in the QRP category.

The Sprints are held on the 2nd Saturday and 3rd Sunday of February, May, August and November. On Saturdays they run from 1600 UTC to 1800 UTC and on Sundays from 2100UTC to 2300 UTC. They are a lot of fun.

Conditions were good today but there are several other contests going on which made some of the bands a bit crowded, especially if you are QRP. I enjoyed myself and look forward to the February Spriing.

More information can be found at: http://www.fistsna.org

TTFN

There’s a cat chewing on my arm!

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Bet that got your attention. 🙂 I am sitting by the window watching a beautiful day go by. My cats are nearby including Mayhem, my little sweet girl who was chewing on me a minute ago. My big motional sports cat, Marley, is laying down by my feet and taking up a shitload of floor space. Basically I am chilling. I just finished 3 days in a row at work and only have tonight off before I have to work another 2 days. It is no biggie. I am used to it. I also have to look at my work sched and figure out when to schedule a dentist appointment, a doctor appointment and a routine blood draw. Lots of fun. I also have to consider when I am next going to brew some beer. That is not a chore, it is fun. I have some kveik yeast in my fridge (Lutra strain) and I will make a starter before I brew. In a few minutes I am going to go upstairs and ride my exorcise bike while killing stuff on my PS4. It is a way of distracting myself from the fact that I am exorcising. Tonight I will get on my radio for a few. I will try to make some SKCC and FISTS contacts. What are those? Well SKCC is Straight Key Century Club and FISTS is the international Morse Code Preservation Society, both fun groups to belong to. I will include links to their web pages below. Here is a link to a page which tells me what propagation conditions are like on the ham bands: https://hamradiofornontechies.com/current-ham-radio-conditions/

It explains very nicely what the numbers mean. SKCC page is: https://www.skccgroup.com which describes the group and FISTS is: https://fistsna.org

Well enough for now. I am going to pet Mayhem and let her chew on me before I go exorcise.

Namaste y’all

Slash and Chop

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Well yesterday I continued my perpetual war with Satan’s Putting Green. I finished the mowing and weedwacking and was trimming the white mulberry trees back to bonsai size when the first drops of rain fell. I was glad to get it all done and it does get unruly and I start to fear the demons inhabiting the tall grass.

I recently have started to get more active in one of the clubs I belong to. FISTS is a club dedicated to the preservation and use of Morse Code. The name of the club refers to the fact that every operator sending with a straight key has a distinctive style of “fist”. It is as distinctive and individual as a finger print. During WWII one indication that was used to determine that an operative was turned to a double agent was to listen for differences in their sending. A change could indicate the operator was under an unusual amount of stress. In any event, FISTS is a (free membership) club for promoting the use of Morse Code on the ham radio bands. They even have 4 mini-contests (sprints) during the year: spring, summer, autumn and winter. All information dealing with them can be found at http://www.fistsna.org

Again with the Namaste, folks

Momento Mori

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So here I am, sitting down. I just finished kegging my blonde ale and now it is a matter of waiting for it to carbonate. One nice thing about brewing beer is that most of the work is done by yeasts. Once you make them a nice home they go to work procreating and when they have had their fill of procreation, they become factories. They take in sugar and other fermentables and process it into alcohol and gas (CO2). Wonderful little critters.

It is always a good thing to question your own motives. Why did I join a certain club? Better yet, what am I giving to the club to make things better? Clubs will die from lack of activity. When I first got into ham radio I joined a local club. On paper the club had over 50 members. I never saw more than a handful at meetings and the only activity the club did was a half-assed attempt at Field Day. The “leadership” of the club was content to do nothing and there was a sense of ennui throughout. Basically the club was dead. I am hoping that history does not repeat itself. I am currently in a new club that needs a boost. I realize that there are a lot of things in a persons life and priorities have to be set but a little time can be spent on a positive thing.

Carry On Lawnmowing

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Well, I was able to finish taming Satan’s Putting Green prior to the commencement of the rain. It is amazing how fast it grown. Now my neighbor will have to mow his. It’s a never-ending competition. I had my car in for repairs. Now I am sorta relaxing and playing on the radio. Got a cup of coffee in hand. I am hoping that the band propagation gods smile down on me. Speaking of radio, it is almost field day. I have a suggestion for a field day antenna to try. They are simple to build and are quite effective. I am speaking, of course, of a Z-L Special. They are a mono-band antennas and are easy to put together. They consist of 2 folded dipoles spaced .1 wavelength apart and driven 135 degrees out of phase. There are a lot of web pages and Youtube videos that detail the construction and if you are reading this then I believe you can find them on any search engine. 🙂 My point is if you want a simple to construct antenna for field day or for other use, this is a good one to try. You can even build them as a rotary beam. I had a 20M one that I loaned out and it never got returned but I am planning to build another one soon for 17M.

Namaste Again