Author Archive
Chasing DX: Christmas Joy! (Maybe)
Late Breaking News! You may remember my previous post where I tried to work Rotuma Island to no avail. Well, I think, maybe, I have finally worked the station!!! A few days ago I was idly tuning the bands when I came upon a huge pileup in the CW portion of the17 meter band. From […]
Alaska Antenna Adventures: Beer Cans and Moose!
My adventures in Alaska were a great introduction to “home brew” construction. Antennas are a big “do it yourself” area. You build it, you adjust it, you re-build it, you make it perfect, and in the next ice storm it comes down!!! That was in 1948. I find myself going through the same cycle today, […]
Alaska 1948: Stove Cold!
That stirs up some memories — thinking of my adventures in Alaska in the late 1940’s. My ham radio station was built in a Quonset hut which I lived in and shared with 3 other guys. This is a sheet steel half tube some 16 ft across and 32 ft long resting on 4 ft […]
The Ups and Downs of Sunspot Cycles
The good news is that the 10 meter band is wide open. The bad news is that I have low power (100 watts) on 10 meters and no antenna. Wait! Wait! The good news is that my vertical antenna for the 40 meter band loads up swell on 10 meters. And you can go around […]
Putting the “human” back into human interfaces
In the latest QST, Frank Columbus, WA2KWR, writes the following: “— I find the current lot of handheld and mobile Amateur Radios to be overly complex.” Frank goes on for a page describing the failure of modern radios to provide a workable human interface. His words echo mine of a decade or so ago. Those […]
Chasing DX
First real test of the new antenna system did not turn out as good as I would have wished. The DX station I was chasing is 3D2R on Rotuma Island in the South Pacific. It is just about on the International Dateline and 10 degrees south of the equator. It and Conway reef to the […]
Back in Operation!
Well, the station is back in operation after being pretty much trashed all summer. Talked with Pan, BD4QH in China last week, and an Aussie, and a station in Timor Este. All on 20 meters and the rig worked pretty much like in old times. Running about 800 watts output which is about 2 db off […]