Archives: 2018
March 31, 2018
This was a fun one. I went out to Terra Ceia Preserve State Park. It's less than a 30 minute drive and not much of a park, more of a swamp with a dirt road you aren't allowed to drive on. I had a failed attempt at an activation in Big Cypress due to being too close to the powerlines I think so I…
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March 16, 2018
I used some military camo poles I picked up at Hamacation to make a higher mast for my 80m OCF dipole. This added about 12ft to the top. I don't notice a huge difference and the SWR got worse which was unexpected. I'm still able to get through pileups into Europe and have been making contacts. I've…
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March 15, 2018
I received the QSL certificate from W0JH. They noted that they had their pre-meeting breakfast at the same restaurant I ate at in Stillwater when I was there two days before the QSO. Small world.
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March 5, 2018
I participated in the ARRL DX Phone Contest this weekend. The band was full of DX contacts so it was a really fun time. I made 74 contacts in 40 countries over the weekend. Since I had things to do at night I only used 20m so I entered as single operator low power 20m only. If the scores are like…
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February 20, 2018
So I packed up all my portable gear and my new spiderbeam.html) mast but before I left for the park I thought I would lookup the K number for the park. Turns out it was a country park and only state and national parks are part of Parks on the Air. Since it's an awesome park and I had the day off I…
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February 18, 2018
I received my first 2 responses to the QSL cards I sent out. I printed out 20 cards myself just to see if I'd get some back. I've sent out about 7 so far and these are the first two I got back. I bought a page of international stamps for 10 @ $1.15 each and I send out $2 with my card for return…
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February 14, 2018
I found myself making an unexpected trip to Wisconsin so I packed up my POTA radio to see if I could do an activation while I was away. I found K-4300 Kissick Swamp Wildlife Area was pretty convenient to where I was going. I picked the warmest day I was here to try it (43F today, most days didn't…
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February 9, 2018
Hamcation was my 3rd hamfest. I went to the biggest one in Tampa but it was rainy so there weren't many vendors. I went to a smaller on at the Tampa Radio Club as well. I didn't find any deals at these two, people seem to way overvalue their junk. At Hamcation I found some deals though. I had a…
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February 3, 2018
There's quite a bit of noise at my house with all the power lines and neighbors. I also found that my power over ethernet switch causes some terrible RFI right in the middle of 40m and 20m SSB bands. I was reading a lot about Summits on the Air, its sounds really fun but there aren't any summits in…
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January 27, 2018
A few local clubs joined forces for the Winter Field Day. We setup outside the fire department training building and used the buildings to hold up antennas. We ran 3 stations with a 80m OCFD, 40/20m fan dipole and a trap vertical. I had a few good runs CQing and also made a contact with W1AW! View…
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