February 4, 2023

Loop on Ground RX antenna

I’ve been thinking about a 2nd antenna since I’ve got a Flexradio with a lot of antenna ports and only one connected. I came across a receive only antenna called a Loop on Ground. It’s like a poor man’s beverage antenna as it is only 15’x15′ square. Matt Roberts KK5JY has a great write up on it at his website http://www.kk5jy.net/LoG/. I built it just like he did. Here’s how it looked installed, you can see the yellow tent stakes at the corners: The transformer box is in the bushes so I don’t run it over with the lawnmower. I used 14guage THHN wire and tacked it down with landscaping…

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written by AA0O - Posted in Antennas

January 15, 2023

NAQP CW Jan 2023 – 211 Q’s

Was on team W1YL Memorial-8 with the Florida Contest Group. This is a new personal best in this NAQP CW contests with 24,687 points. Though I might have less than that officially because I’m not 100% sure I got South Dakota on 80m because a lid doubled on the op. Didn’t operate for 5 hours while hosting a show with my other hobby, and cut out 50 mins before the end.

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written by AA0O - Posted in Contests

December 31, 2022

2022 Year in Review

I did a lot of stuff with the radio club this year, I wrote a Year in Review about it on the club webpage. My big radio things this year were going to the FCG Contest Dinner at Hamcation, usually it’s on the same day as the club meeting. I got to meet quite a few people I knew from on the air and online only, also I won a power supply in the raffle. Hamcation is on the 2nd weekend in February for 2023 and I’ve already got my tickets to this year’s dinner. I also drove up to Dayton this year and did POTA camping on the way….

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written by AA0O - Posted in Antennas, Club, Contests, CW, DX, Hamfests, Parks on the Air, QSL

December 12, 2022

K-8348 Fort Drum Marsh State Conservation Area

Made a quick stop at K-8348 on a drive across the state to do an activation. Didn’t have tons of time, got 12 contacts then had two people call on top of each other for 5 minutes straight so that I couldn’t copy either of them and both responded to any partial call I gave, so I packed it up. Nice enough spot besides the bird poop on the table.

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written by AA0O - Posted in Parks on the Air

November 28, 2022

CQ WW CW 2022 – 675 contacts!

I set out with a goal of 600 contacts, last year I got 371 and I wasn’t very focused. Ended up with 21.5 hours according to N1MM+ out of the 48. After the Saturday night I didn’t think I was going to make 600 but things got easier on Sunday and I moved right along. The only one I think I missed that I saw was UP0L in Kazakhstan, just couldn’t get through the pile.

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written by AA0O - Posted in Contests

November 20, 2022

K-4641 Tiger Bay State Forest

Stopped on my way back from a trip to Jax. Really nice brick road into the forest and the dirt road were in great shape. Unfortunately it started raining about 10 minutes after I got setup so I cut it short with only 12 contacts.

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written by AA0O - Posted in Parks on the Air

November 20, 2022

K-4625 Jennings State Forest

Stopped for some POTA today. Had a good pileup going on CW and someone kept sending “ID” and I was like why does this guy want me to treat Idaho special. Then I thought maybe that was part of his callsign so I sent it back to him. Then I finally realized I hadn’t sent my call in awhile so I sent it. Need to remember to do it more in CW, I do it by habit in SSB. I was losing my CW focus so I switched to SSB and had a good run but then it started to rain and I wasn’t under cover so I packed it…

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written by AA0O - Posted in Parks on the Air