This is the most cards I’ve received at one time. 5 are from the Rookie Roundup and the Canary Islands one is a reply to one I sent out.
Hexbeam!
So I got the hexbeam installed, took quite a bit of work but wow the reception is significantly better than my old off center fed dipole. This is the NA4RR model. The hexbeam itself was really easy to put together. I had issues with the mast. Lots of issues. The previous antenna was built with military camo poles which are 1.75″. 1.75″ leaves enough room to level the pole in the tripod so I figured I would go with that size for the mast. I figured thicker was better so I ordered 1.75″ aluminum tubing with 1/4″ thickness. For some reason I expected the antenna would have a clamp for…
ARRL SSB Rookie Roundup 2018 – 5th Place
I got 5th place in the ARRL Rookie Roundup SSB contest. I had 66 contacts. It was pretty slow going for the beginning, the first hour it was lightning so I stayed off the air, then I got 20 contacts the next 4 hours and 46 contacts in the last hour. Here’s my first contest certificate:
MOV protector for rotor cable
I’ve ordered the hexbeam and rotor. I already received the rotor cable so I figured I’d get that prepped now, the rest of the stuff should be here Monday. I’m hoping to have it setup next week to use in the Florida QSO Party. In an effort to keep lightning out of the house I’ve added a terminal block with MOV’s in the single point ground panel outside. There’s commercial product for this but this setup does the same thing. If the voltage goes above 82v then the MOV takes over and the current goes to the ground panel. Hopefully I don’t have to find out if it works. We…
International Space Station SSTV
The International Space Station was broadcasting SSTV images on 145.800MHz this week. I knew it was coming and did a little practice with my Baofeng UV-5R beforehand. The ISS made 1 good pass each day and I was able to get images on 2 of them. I connected the Baofeng to my MacBook Air with a cheap USB sound card and an adapter cable for the radio. On a recommendation of WU2F I recorded the audio to process it later. I used Audacity to record and made sure to enable playback during recording so I could hear the signal. The signal was very strong in my front yard. I used…
TARCFest XLI
Tampa Amateur Radio Club Fest XLI. It’s a small hamfest, this is the 2nd one I’ve been to so they must do it a lot. I picked up some connectors and talked with some people I knew. I’m starting to know people.
Florida State Parks on the Air 2018
I joined up with N1COR and WU2F to activate Egmont Key State Park K-1863 for the Florida State Parks on the Air event. I’ve been to this park a couple times and thought it would be a great place to activate. It’s only accessible by boat, we took the ferry from Fort Desoto Park, see my Not POTA post about that park. We had 2 spiderbeam poles. I setup with 40m wire vertical and they setup with an end fed for 20m. We each got about 30 contacts. It was a fun day and a really great spot to setup. SPARC also contacted me about this activation and posted and article at http://sparc-club.org/pat-kx4hl-and-friends-activate-egmont-key-state-park/