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 …
I wanted to attend OZARKCON gathering of QRP enthusiast last year but never made it. This year I knew I was going to attend at least on Friday evening. Only got to spend a couple of hours there and it was well worth it. I got so wrapped up in talking with people that I forgot to take pictures. I am looking forward to attending next year! W5CYF – Check out his Youtube channel N4CCB Read More …
I purchased this single lever paddle kit from QRPGUYS website a couple of days ago. It was a simple fun kit to build and took about an hour to do the build. I tried to remember to take pictures as I was doing this build. As you see, it fits nicely in an Altoids tin…..
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!
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 …
A painters pole antenna mast seemed like a good idea. My wife & I are going on a trip soon and I wanted to take my HF radio with me. I did not want to spend the money on a Tarheel or a screwdriver antenna yet so I opted to make a portable lightweight antenna and mast. I had been doing some research and found several people had been using a fiberglass telescoping painters pole Read More …