We camped a few days around Granite, Colorado. During our stay there we explored the Stone Cabin that was near by. Furthermore the Arkansas River was within walking distance. I did some HF radio and made a few contacts including one to my brother W0EGT back in Missouri on 40m. I used my ICOM 706 and my MFJ 17 foot vertical attached to my homebrew induction coil. Our campsite the 2nd night. Beautiful area!!!
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 …
The ICOM IC-730 was my first HF radio. I have carried this radio all around the USA doing portable operating. This radio was given to me to use by W0EBV after passing my General test. It is an excellent 1st radio for anyone to get on HF. It covers 80m – 10m bands excluding 12m and 17m. With 100w of output power, this radio is great for Field Day and Winter Field day as well. 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 …
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 …
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 …
I didn’t prepare much for Septembers VHF contest. I threw together a 6m dipole and I already had a 3el 2m beam that I hadn’t used much yet! So that was my total preparation. My wife had some family property that was only a few minutes away from our QTH that was at a higher elevation than we were at home. So that is where we found ourselves with the Jeep and the rooftop camper. I only Read More …
Simple 6m copper dipole I made for the September VHF contest.
Field Day is a day I look forward to and making a bunch of contacts all over this wonderful world. Last year’s field day, I was with a local club in west-central Missouri. We made just a little over 100 contacts — all on battery and solar power. This year, I had different plans. My wife and I needed to be in Tennessee. She had a conference in Franklin the same weekend as field day. Read More …
From time to time, I like to reflect on where I’ve been with my Ham radios. Here are some pictures from 2016 until now of some of my activations. None of them are NPOTA (National Parks On The Air) and none of them are SOTA (Summits On The Air). They are just plain old QSO’s and to keep in touch with my friends in Missouri & Tennessee when I’m traveling. Lost Dutchman’s State Park – Read More …