I have been listening for the past several days to try and work the Special Event station commemorating the anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. This afternoon I found them on 7.052 working CW. I was able to work them. I am happy! Information on the event can be found on qrz.com under the callsign of W8F.
#Radio
Veterans Day and other stuff
Hi all. First a shout out to all the vets out there. Thank you for your service.
I would like to change the subject a bit and put in a plug for FISTS, the International Morse Preservation Society. This is a group of ham radio operators dedicated to using Morse Code (CW) on the air. The club promotes fellowship and mentoring. From their webpage:
“FISTS is a well established and recognized CW (Morse Code) organization in the world of amateur radio. Founded in 1987 by Geo Longden, G3ZQS, it now has a world-wide membership in the thousands and growing daily.What FISTS wants to accomplish.
1. To further the use of CW on the amateur bands.
2. To encourage newcomers to the CW mode.
3. To engender friendship within the membership.”
Their webpage is http://www.fistsna.org. They hold activities on the air such as sprints and other contests. Best thing of all is there is no dues! You can join online.
Now for something a bit more different, a 1970 film promoting ham radio from the ARRL and posted on Youtube:
non timetis messor
A wise person once said: “Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana”. Does time really exist or is it just a subjective way for us to delineate our lives? My cats are not concerned with the passage of time. They eat, sleep, and play on no set schedule. When I make beer I am aware of times such as boiling for at least 60 minutes, fermenting for about 2 or 3 weeks, a week or 2 to carbonate, but is that anything near reality? To the yeast, fermentation is done when it is done. The beer will only carbonate as fast as conditions such as ambient temperature allow. There is no hurry, no sense of necessity. With ham radio, I keep track of time as a reference. I note down what time my contact started and what time it finished. I do no worry about how long it takes to establish a contact. I just call until someone answers. Maybe that is why I am not into contests … too much pressure of time involved, trying to make as many contacts as possible during a limited timeframe.
Oh well, enough for now. I am going to go back to frittering my life away harmlessly. Namaste, y’all.
A book Review
The book I am reviewing today is “Today I Am A Ham” by Ethelyn M Parkinson. My wife found it at a yardsale. For a youth-oriented book, I found it interesting and enjoyable. 14 year old Eric aspires to be a ham while maneuvering through typical family and school and friend issues. He isn’t the athlete that his coach father wants him to be; he also is’t the perfect brother that his drama queen sister wants him to be. He gets the full support of his other sister and, with the help of friends and local adults, he is able to get his ham ticket. As for sports, I will leave that to you. On the whole, it was a good read. Below is a link to some reader reviews:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1697633.Today_I_Am_a_Ham
Weather and Radio
There is a long association between weather and radio in general and Amateur Radio in particular. When broadcast radio started to become in general use, people began to rely on it for local weather reports. Amateur Radio was also found to be useful for spreading weather reports, not only locally but over long distances. One topic of conversation over the radio has always been the weather. Many QSOs include the local weather. It does go deeper than just chatting, however. Hams are concerned about the weather. If thunderstorms come along, it is bad to have your equipment hooked up in case of a lightening strike. Hail and high winds can take down antennas. Trees can come down during storms and flooding can cause all kinds of havoc.
Amateur Radio operators (hams) have been and still are relied upon to provide back-up communications in emergencies and a lot of emergencies are weather related. Even if a ham cannot get to an area and assist with communications they can still be of value by reporting local conditions. A lot of hams have weather stations in their yard and can report things such as temperatures, pressure changes and precipitation totals to the NWS. There are phone apps that allow you to report (mPing is one example and is free) local conditions. What do you do if your cell service is out? Well there are a lot of clubs out there that hold nets when there is severe weather. You can log into a net on a repeater and report. They usually have a back-up plan in the event that repeaters are down. There are also weather nets on the HF bands where you can report conditions. A lot of options exist.
At the extreme end, there are hams who go out spotting bad storms such as tornados. anyway, here is a list of some resources to use if you want to get into weather reporting or learn more about the weather:
http://www.weather.gov is the National Weather Service website
https://www.weather.gov/SKYWARN This is the official NWS Skywarn page
https://www.weather.gov/skywarn/wfo_links This is a link to find local spotter classes in your area
https://www.meted.ucar.edu/education_training/course/23 This is a link to online spotter training
https://www.skywarn.org/local-groups/ And finally a link to locate groups in your area.
I hope this has been useful information to someone out there. 🙂
Another day
A nice day here in Pencilvania. We were out and about doing some shopping earlier and then when we got home, we burned some trash and I got Satan’s Putting Green under control. I was even nice enough to sweep the grass cuttings off of the road. 🙂 I refer to my lawn as Satan’s Putting Green as it isn’t really lawn. It is more pasture that over grows easily with the wrong kind of grass and other plants. I do have a lot of purslane and millefoil, so it isn’t all that bad. I also have ground ivy which can be used for bittering beer.
Now I am drinking coffee, relaxing and trying to make contacts on my radio. Hmmm … no wonder I am not even getting spotted. I just checked the MUF prediction for this area and I am well above the Maximum Useable Frequency for the bands today. I have been calling on 24.910 MHz and getting no response. Time to tune to a different band. Ok. Now I am on 10.118 MHz. 30 Meters is a good all around band. I will try here. My signal should get out. That is one nice thing about being an Amateur Extra and using CW … you can use any Amateur Radio band. I have even, on occasion, invaded the SSB (voice) portions of bands like 80M and 160M. I am not obnoxious about it. I do listen first for a clear frequency. I just got spotted by a station from Portugal. My signal is travelling. I think one reason that I am not getting anyone is that there are some contests going on. Since 30M is not a contest band, there might be few people here. Oh well, it is all part of the fun. The antenna I am using is my homemade dipole. Dipoles are easy to make and work very well. They can also bee difficult for people to see which is a good thing. There. I worked a station down in Florida. Well closing this for now. Almost time to go on recon.
A Mini Vacation
We went on a mini trip down to West Virginia and Ohio. It is very peaceful driving at 3 in the morning. You seem to be in a tunnel, with the trees arching overhead. The main thing is to watch out for the animals that spring into the road in front of you. After a bit, we got on to the turnpike and then it just becomes sort of tedious. Mile after mile of dodging trucks and drinking bad coffee. Well the coffee was not the worst that I have ever had but it came damn close. I called several times on 146.520 MHz but got no replies. Then we got to our first destination: Chester West Virginia, home of the World’s Larges Teapot!
Our next stop was in New Cumberland West Virginia where there is a house with some interesting yard art:
The next stop was at Hill Billy Hotdogs. We were really disappointed with the place. There was a lot of hype but there was nothing special about the dogs. The Hamilton in Carlisle PA makes much better dogs. I am not saying they were not good, they just did not live up to the hype.
We did visit the Mothman and take a pic with him:
And we happened to find the grave of Bob Evans, founder of the restaurant chain that bears his name.
Overall, we had a great time. I was unable to get anyone to answer me on 146.520 MHz but that can happen. Not everybody monitors that frequency. The motel we stayed at reeked of cigarette smoke in the hallways and we found a lizard in the bathroom. I took the poor critter outside and let him go. 🙂
The Mother Road
US 66 was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The highway, which became one of the most famous roads in the United States, originally ran from Chicago, Illinois, through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona before terminating in Santa Monica in Los Angeles County, California, covering a total of 2,448 miles (3,940 km).
Every year in September, the Citrus Belt Amateur Radio Club sponsors a special event to celebrate this piece of American history/culture. You can find information on their webpage: W6JBT.org including a preview of what the certificate will look like. It is a fun event and can be challenging depending on band conditions. I have never gotten a clean sweep but I do enjoy working the stations along the route. This year there are 22 stations including 2 rovers who will be cruising up and down what is left of Route 66. The various operators will be using SSB, CW and digital modes. This is the 22nd year of the event. Why not give it a try?
Relaxing how?
Had a good day and now it is time to relax and play on my radio.
Frist thing this morning we went to breakfast at a local restaurant. We then took my mother in law down to a Walmart and then to a food store. That is always an interesting experience. After we came back I fired up the weedwacker and brought Hell’s Half Acre back under control. I have been without a weedwacker for a few weeks as my old one shit the bed. I tried to have it fixed but no luck. I ended up getting a new one. My pole saw fits on it so first I cut down some lilacs that had been killed by a huge wild grape. Once I got that done, I did the weed trimming. It does take a bit out of a person.
Now I am on the radio calling CQ. I just worked a gent from Oklahoma and and trying to see if anyone else can hear me. I am on the 30 Meter band at 10.121 MHz. This is the band I built the antenna for the other day. If I don’t get anyone to reply soon I will change frequencies and try the 40 Meter band. I have found 40 M is a good all day band. I can always find someone on there. I just moved to 7.113 MHz. This is in the old novice portion of the band but I have found it to be a good area to use. Sometimes it is very relaxing to just tune through the bands listening to any signals I might hear. I am seeing spots … not if front of my eyes, but I am being “spotted” by folks who enter it into a database online where you can look and see who is on. I use a couple: reverse beacon network and cw club rbn spotter. Sometimes I use the DX Summit webpage, too. It is a good place to find special event stations.
Well back to relaxing!
Ruminants and Moggies and Hawks! Oh my!!
Odocoileus virginianus: Not a very catchy name, I know. I usually refer to them as ruminants on my Instagram page. We don’t mention their common name out loud as it tends to attract them and entice them to run out in front of my car. My wyfe and I enjoy going for recons in the evening and counting the critters we see. For example, tonight we counted 23 ruminants, 27 moggies and 1 hawk. 16 of the ruminants were standing together in a field. Moggies are the only domestic animals that we count. There is no agenda to what we are doing, it is just for fun. We often bring cameras and phones to take pictures. It is amazing what can amuse a person. Back to the common name. Every time we have been driving along and casually used the common name, one jumps out in front of the car. At one time I considered buying some stickers and putting them on the driver side door. At this point, I would qualify as an ace. The proof is in the car repair bills. Other animals we count are owls. turtles, turkeys, groundhogs, squirrels, ducks, gooses and chipmunks. We don’t reveal where we see the ruminants as I believe hunters should do their own recons. I do keep my radio on in case someone calls (ham radio, not broadcast). There are a few repeaters I can reach in the areas we drive. It never hurts to be ready for anything.
Nature, Radio, and Me 