Mobile Operations

More from the POD Person

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Heidi-Ho. Wow, 2 posts in 2 days. Something must be off with me lol. I decided to activate today because the weather was nice …. for January. The temperature was pretty mild …. about 3.5 C (38.5 F) which was not too bad. First, I tried to go to Fowlers Hollow State Park but there was oo much road construction activity there so I decided to go to Big Springs State Park, my old stand by. We got the POD set up and I got on the air. I put the heater in it and soon was in shirtsleeves. BTW, all my owls declined to make the excursion with us so I was mascot-less. Oh well, their loss. We were set up and on the air in a short period of time and I quickly made the required amount of contacts for a legit activation. After about half an hour I switched from 40 meters to 15 meters and made more contacts. I even made 2 DX contacts: Spain and Canary Islands. Overall I made a total of 45 contacts in an hour on 3 bands, 40, 15 and 20 meters using an inverted Vee antenna and my Yaesu ft891 at 75 Watts. My Wyfe is urging me to try operating from the car as a practice for our vacation so I am going to look at streamlining my setup. I will fill in more about that in later posts. Well the log has been uploaded, I am warm and am drinking coffee and my motional sports cat is by my side so I think it is time to sit back and relax. As always, namaste kidlets until we meet again.

The POD
The Pod from the side

Calling CQ

Always have a plan “B”

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Once again it was too nice a day to waste, so my long-suffering wyfe, my owl Ptolomy and myself set out to activate a park. I wanted to get a new one (at least new to me) in the books so we headed to Col Denning State Park, just on the other side of Doubling Gap. It was a great day and it did not take long to get set up. Unfortunately I was unable to make more than one contact. He was mobile and in RI so I know it wasn’t my antenna. Just circumstances, I guess. There was no internet signal where I was so I could not see if I was spotted, nor could I spot myself. Oh well, such is life and ham radio. On to Plan B. Not too far away is the Three Square Hollow Vista in Tuscarora State Forest, which I have worked from before. It is a beautiful location with an outstanding view and good radio visibility. Within about 1/2 hour of operating I was able to make 29 contacts including some park-to-parks which helped ease the sting of an unsuccessful attempt. All in all it was a great day. I even got to chat a bit with some of the other hams out there. I am attaching the obligatory photos of Ptolomey, my radio and the view from both locations. Namaste, kidlets, until next time.

Ptolomey watching my 6 at Col Denning State Park.
Yes, that is a thermos of coffee.
Ptolomey at Three Square Hollow Vista blocking my view of Cumberland County PA.

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. 🙂

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.

Ahhhh …. Autumn

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Well it is Autumn again. I just got done beating Satan’s Putting Green back into submission and I am looking forward to the seasonal die-back. In any event, running a lawn mower reminds me of safety. Thinking of safety reminds me of the annual Simulated Emergency Test. What is that, you might ask? Well :

The annual Simulated Emergency Test (SET) is a training exercise involving the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) and the National Traffic System (NTS), a message-handling service of amateur radio. The American Radio Relay League is a prime mover in this event, which is organized somewhat like a contest. Its primary purposes are to evaluate strengths and weaknesses in emergency preparedness and communications, and to demonstrate amateur radio to the public.

During the first full weekend of October of every year in the United States, a nationwide radio communications network is set up that links every major city and most of the geography of the country. This technological infrastructure is set up from scratch within a few hours at locations that vary from state and local government Emergency Operations Centers to isolated areas without utilities of any kind. Every mode of radio communications is utilized including analog, digital, voice, data, simplex, duplex, satellites and even automated relay stations launched on aircraft and with weather balloons. For no more than 48 continuous hours, this nationwide radio communications network is exercised with the primary objective of proving the system’s readiness and capabilities. Then as quickly as it was set up, the system is dismantled and stored in preparation for when it is needed. The system has demonstrated its value time after time during earthquakes, hurricanes, forest fires, terrorist attacks and other disasters. All of this capability is provided by volunteers who continuously hone their technical skills and acquire, build, and maintain their own equipment. These radio engineers and operators, along with their equipment, combine into an important resource for emergency communications.

There you have it. The SET will be held this weekend, OCT 1 and 2. The SET is held this time of year because it is near the end of hurricane season and is a good way of evaluating performance under stressful conditions. Right now, Florida and other areas in the South are being pummeled by Hurricane Ian. There are traffic nets set up on the HF bands to pass health and welfare messages into and out of the affected areas. Ham radio has been a major part of emergency communications and will remain so.

Nothing to grouse about

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Wow. Since my last entry I had a long work stretch … 5 consecutive days. Now I am in the middle of having 6 days off so it is balanced out. 🙂

Last night we went for a ride on the back roads looking for animals. I refer to this as going on recon. We enjoy just getting out and about and living in a rural area makes that easier. First off we were buzzed by 2 very large hawks about 2 miles apart. They both swooped down but the second one went about 50 feet to another tree and when we approached, went to another tree further on. This repeated 4 times before we passed him. About 3 more miles on, we came upon a female grouse walking down the road. I slowed the car and tried to ease past her without chasing her. As we drew near I started hearing some leaves rustling on the side of the road. I looked over and observed a male grouse displaying and making noise to distract us from his mate. All in all it was a very enjoyable recon. We sighted 8 ruminants, 6 turkeys, 3 hawks, 3 moggies, 2 grouse and 2 squirrels. Not bad. I did call on 146.52 several times and did not receive any replies. That is not surprising as we were out in the hills and away from civilization.

The other day we went on a bus tour in Gettysburg. We only live about an hour from there so we do go to the battlefield quite often. It was nice for a change to sit back and let the driver deal with the traffic, though we do like coming down there on our own.

Well enough for now. Namaste kidlets.

Summer Musings

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It has been over a week since I posted. I am sitting here marveling at how fast the summer is going. Soon it will be that time of year when I get stuck behind school busses on my way home from work. Joy. I looked at Satan’s Putting Green today and realized it needs mowing. I won’t be able to do it until the weekend. Oh well, my neighbors won’t care. Usually my one neighbor mows his yard the day after I mow mine. Almost a symbiotic relationship.

I was able to work the final (of 3) special event station run by W9IMS. I qualify for their certificate. Every year they run 3 specail events: the Grand Prix, the INDY 500 and the Brickyard. You can get a qsl card for working any of these events and a certificate if you work all 3. Now I am looking forward to the Route 66 On The Air event which happens in the beginning of September.

Namaste y’all

And it’s a beautiful day…

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On Sunday I worked the W9IMS special event celebrating the Indianapolis Grand Prix. 2 more to go. Every year the W9IMS club runs a series of 3 special events : 1 for the Grand Prix, 1 for the Indy 500 and 1 for the Brickyard 400. They have nice QSL cards and if you work all 3 events you can get a great certificate. I have worked them for the past several years. Their info can be found on qrz.com

As you can tall, I like working special event stations. They can be an exercise in radio skills and a lot of fun. I have a collection of certificates that I have in loose-leaf binders. I have my wyfe laminate them and then I store them. I look through the binders now and then and revel in the memories.

Good outside activity weather is here. I am looking forward to doing some outside operating, either from a state park or doing some basic hilltopping. Some years back a group of us got together and camped out on a mountain top and used helium balloons to support antennas. That was a lot of fun.

Namaste, all

Unexpected Vote of Confidence

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Hi all. I was approached the other day by someone who admits to reading my blog and said that they like it and look forward to reading it. Feedback is always nice.

As usual, on my commute to work, I put out my call on 146.520 MHz. I got no response at first and changed over to the 146.460 repeater. No one answered me there and I went back to 146.520. After a few more miles of silence I called on 145.110 and got a reply. We had a good chat for a few miles before I get to my exit. We discussed the G4FON Morse Trainer software and that steered our conversation to classic literature. I even made the observation that I recently read The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald and I found all the characters in the book to be despicable. Now I am working through To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. At least the characters are likable.

If anyone actually readss this blog and wants to leave a comment, feel free.