These are made by CWMorse.US in Bon Wier, Texas.
I've only ever used a straight key before, so this will be a new adventure for me to explore. I'm sure learning how to use them will set my CW standard back several years, but it's great to learn new skills.
Of course now I have to dig out the manuals for my FT-950, and the Elecraft KX3, so I can figure out how to change the menu settings to allow paddles instead of a key to be used.
It's going to be interesting!!
This mornings propagation numbers were: SFI=74, SN=0, A Index=7, and K Index=3. As well as these poor numbers, we also had some extremely bad QSB....to be honest, the bad QSB has been around constantly for about 2 weeks!!
I did expect the place to be crowded this morning, but the parking lot was empty when I arrived.
First in the log was a CW contact with Bill, K4NYM, in Florida. The QSB took him out so fast I didn't get a chance to give him my park number. The rest of my 13 contacts were all SSB, and took a bit of doing given the deep QSB.
It was difficult enough making contacts given the QSB we had, but on top of that I had several cases today of stations repeatedly shouting their callsigns over the station I was in a QSO with. Some operators seem to have no patience at all these days. Needless to say, if you were calling over other stations I didn't work you.
Radio today, as usual, was my KX3, and the antenna was a 20m Hamstick mounted on the roof of the van with a 5" mag-mount.
The bands have not been the best for the past week. Lots of QRM and very deep QSB across every band I wanted to operate on.
Now, when I bought this, several years ago, I could never get a decent SWR with it anywhere on the bands it was advertised for. In the end I just stripped off the wire and put the unun in my junk drawer and forgot it.
I had a look at it again, and thought I would give it another chance. I cut a 66' piece of wire, attached it to the unun, and added a few SOTA Beams insulators. Up it went on my 33' mast and I put the analyzer on it. It wasn't too bad, and after I had removed about 3' of wire - it was just about perfect.
I made several good solid contacts with it, and it is now usable on 40m through 6m, far more than it was supposed to have when it was new. Best of all the SWR is 1.5:1 to 1.8:1 everywhere it will tune.
I'm glad I looked through the junk drawer now!
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| The finished antenna, ready to go |
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| Map of my contacts the first time it was used. |
It runs from 1200 UTC July 24 to 1200 UTC July 25.
The Rules can be found HERE.
Have fun, and stay safe out there!
I was reading today that some hams are having issues with their portable rigs overheating and shutting down in the warm weather we have been having out west while doing POTA, and SOTA, activations.
I've never had that issue. My Dad taught me how to make a suitable sun/heat shade for any radio I might have that I want to operate portable.
The answer is a simple cardboard box big enough to fit the radio, painted gloss white on the outside, and flat black on the inside.
The gloss white paint reflects the suns rays and the flat black helps you see your radio in the intense sunlight. This idea is a lot cheaper than some of the responses to the original article.
Below are some photo's of the sun shade I made last year with my KX3. It works very well. This took me less than 10 minutes to make, and the only expense was two cans of spray paint. I hope this idea helps somebody.
It's definitely true that the older you get the faster time moves. I can't believe we're already in July! Over the weekend I did manage to complete two POTA activations, although on Saturday the propagation was not very good.
When I looked at the propagation numbers before I left home, they looked pretty good. SFI=94, SN=72, A Index=5, and the K Index=1. However, I didn't see the small note about the X1.5 Solar Flare which caused a major bump in the propagation.
I had also planned to activate Carrying Place National Historic Site, but could find no place to park so I could operate. This is one I don't think I will be back to, it just isn't conducive to activate safely.
The third planned activation was supposed to be Lake on the Mountain Provincial Park. This also didn't take place, not because of bad propagation, or lack of parking, but because there were just too many people wandering around and I didn't think it was safe to setup my station. I will be back for this one, but I'll do it very early on a weekday when the crowds will not have gathered yet.
Sunday arrives and I think I had better stick close to home as it's my 34th wedding anniversary, and I would like to live to see my 35th........but the XYL asked me if I was going to go out and "play radio", well, needless to say I took a chance, said yes, and drove to activate the Frontenac Arch Biosphere, VE-0023.
Once again the propagation numbers looked good, SFI=90, SN=81, A Index=4, and the K Index=1. But, they had fooled me yesterday so I checked them a few times to make sure I wasn't going to get fooled again.
It was early and there were not too many Park Hunters around, but this time the numbers held and I did a successful activation of VE-0023. It was done only on 20m, normally I do it (no idea why) on 40m. But today I reached out and 11 stations who had never worked it before got a chance to do so.
So it was a great anniversary weekend, I got to "play radio" and the XYL got some much deserved peace and quiet......a win win situation 😆
Stay safe out there!!
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| Sunday's 20m contacts from VE-0023 |
Field Day 2021...
In three words: “What a Zoo”!!!!
This Field Day was like the three stooges all trying to go through the same door at the same time. Nobody listening out for other stations on the same frequency, nobody asking if the frequency is in use...yep, just spin the VFO, and wherever it stops start calling CQ FD right away before somebody else does.
The ARRL placed a power limit on the home based stations of 150w because of issues caused by the home based stations last year. Yet, there were home operators out there bragging they were using 1000w and 1500w again this year....and many of them. I heard a W4 and a K3 in particular, talking about their high power levels during one of their exchanges. If you’re not going to follow the rules, why take part?
There seemed to be more LIDS out there than usual causing issues this year, and the foul language on the air at times had to be heard to be believed. Perhaps it’s time the ARRL took some steps...big ones...to put an end to this bad behaviour on the bands. This isn’t the first year this has happened, it’s just that it gets worse every year. Nobody seems to care about the bad behaviour and nobody will do something about it, so after a while it becomes acceptable because there is no penalty for flaunting the rules and the accepted behaviour standards.
This is what I wrote last year about Field Day:
"The ARRLs decision to temporarily modify the rules was, in my opinion, an absolute disaster. I'm sure the ARRL will scream that this year was the "Largest Field Day Turnout in History!" within the next couple weeks as the logs begin to roll in, and of course the numbers look good for their amateur radio publicity, but Field Day should not be a numbers game. It might just well have been any other contest weekend.
The people who actually participated in the real SPIRIT of Field Day had absolutely no chance at all. They were getting completely blown away by the D and E stations running large antennas and amplifiers. That's all you heard. I'm just guessing right now without looking at my log, but I would say easily 95% of the contacts I made were Class D and E."
The ARRL did nothing about this, and this year it was even worse. Every word I wrote last year I could write again about this year. The spirit of Field Day is emergency preparedness, not a contest. If you're not prepared to operate under minimal conditions and with minimum equipment, why bother taking part?
I think that after 25 years of doing them, I’m over field day. This was the last one for me.
