October and November of 2018 my wife and I went on our annual 6-8 week excursion out to North Carolina to the Overland Expo. During that time I operated from various place along our route and never had a problem making contacts with my friends in Missouri and Tennessee. Though I did find myself operating from Walmart parking lots on more than one occasion. 75%-80% of my operating is done either mobile or portable with Read More …
I got a late start on this years VHF Contest. As a matter of fact I did not start setting up till late Sunday morning. That is almost a whole 20+ hours after the contest had started. My wife and I went to Schell Osage Conservation Area near Schell City, Missouri. It has some camping areas and a fishing lake. This is also the place where we did the January VHF Contest in 2018. That Read More …
Another successful Warrensburg Hamfest 2018! Here are a couple of snapshots I took while there. I did get to visit with several friends while in attendance. Lots of goodies to look at and purchase…
Few days ago my ICOM 706 was getting bad reports on audio. I quickly checked all connections and double checked them again just to make sure. I changed out microphones and checked settings on RF power and microphone levels and still was get no good reports back. RF power is getting out to the meter. SWR is good. Changed coax cables. Checked all coax connections twice. Power supply is stable voltage. Changed microphones. Checked microphone Read More …
I picked up this SignaLink USB interface while at the Ararat Hambash in Kansas City, MO. I really have been looking at them for a while now. Associated Radio out of Overland Park, Kansas was at this event also and I decided to pick one up and give it a try. I purchased the SignaLink USB and the ICOM 13-pin DIN Accessory Port Connector to connect to my ICOM IC-706. Furthermore, Dan at Associated Radio made sure Read More …
My YL was gone and I had a couple of days left unattended so I made a quick dash up to the Ararat Shrine Hambash in Kansas City, MO. I had attended this event last year but I didn’t arrive till later in the day. This time I was there before they opened the doors at 7:30 am. There were a whole bunch of people and vendors there. I did run in to a few Read More …
The Green Country Hamfest is a great hamfest! People come from all over several states to go here. This is the 3rd year in a row that the XYL and myself have attended. This year was different though. We decided to pre purchase our tickets this year and save a few bucks. We also planned to camp at the campgrounds right next to the expo center. The camping did not work out and if you Read More …
VHF Contest Time! This time I kinda stepped up my game. September 2017 VHF contest I ran 7 watts of power into a 3 element yagi antenna. Furthermore, I had some time to somewhat prepare for this one. Bumped up my power to 50 watts SSB I bought(2 days before contest time) a 6m 3 element yagi (never did get it tuned up in time for the contest). Bought a 30-foot push-up pole because height Read More …
Furthermore, I had bought the LDG Z-100Plus Autotuner about 10 months ago and have thoroughly enjoyed using it. It is a small, low-cost automatic tuner suitable for a base station, mobile or portable use. LDG Z-100Plus Autotuner advanced memory tuning, providing 2,000 memory locations. It handles up to 125 watts SSB or CW, but requires only 0.1 watts to tune, making it ideal for QRP operation. This little tuner requires very little electrical power. About Read More …
A couple of weeks back I went to a local hamfest here in southwest Missouri. Eventually I picked up a 2-meter linear amplifier. I also did participate in the 2m VHF contest back in September of 2017 and I enjoyed the contest very much and wanted to up my power from 10 watts to 80 watts. My ICOM 706 is an older model that does 2m-160m. 100w on HF and only 10w on VHF. I guess Read More …