Portable HF has always been a fun thing to do. A couple of weeks ago we had a 4 day weekend. So the wife and I packed up the car and drove till we got tired. We stopped for the night in a very historic town of Clear Lake, Iowa. In addition, Clear Lake, Iowa is also the town where Buddy Holly, The “Big Bopper” and Richie Valens played their last gig before their fateful Read More …
I don’t know about you but I am ready for Field Day this year. I’ve been working on my set up for portable HF operations for the last couple of months. It is nothing elaborate or even remotely fancy. It does work and that is good enough for me. List of items I will be using at Field Day 2016 • Icom IC-730 HF Transceiver • MFJ Versa Tuner II • Homebrew – 80m dipole, Read More …
That’s right . . . I put up the homebrew 80m HF dipole. Roughly 132 feet of wire strung out from the top of a 12 foot fiberglass painters pole while we stopped in Enders, Nebraska. Threw out the solar panels. I use a metal S carabiner to attach my 1:1 balun to the painters pole. These little reusable zip-ties are handy. Beautiful sunset!
The bands were in terrible shape this day! Just barely made contact on 20m that day. Also had the newly purchased Baofeng – UV5R HT. The fellow ham I purchased it from at the Expo already had it programmed with all repeaters in northern Arizona.
Setting up our homestead! . Talkin’ to the fellas and staying connected from 1,100 miles away! Our set up at the Expo. No hookups at this Expo solar panels are in order to keep the batteries charged. . Lots of sweet overland vehicles at the Expo. These are Global Expedition Vehicles made in the USA. . Can’t forget about the two wheeled vehicles. The adventures of Robinson FUSO! An old ambulance makes a great platform Read More …
When all else fails use Ham Radio right? This is the way I’ve been keeping in touch with the fellas back home when on the road. Just throw out a wire and start talking. Only a 12 foot fiberglass painters pole with a 20m homebrew dipole tied off to BBQ pit on one side and tied off to a rock on the other side fed with an ancient ICOM IC-730 doing about 70-80 on a Read More …