Worked All States

 24 years a ham, and I've not accomplished Worked All States (WAS).

Right now I sit at 47 confirmed states in LOTW.

WAS is a serious challenge for me, and the three states I have left present logistical and technical problems.

First, let's consider the most curious of the 3, Vermont. This is a state where I have multiple QSOs, but only paper QSLs. I guess no one in VT uses Logbook of the World.

crazy!

Second is the state with only a few Hams, South Dakota. There's only around 2100, but the guys there are working, not hammin' it seems on the the weekend.

The third is the state that is pretty far from me, Alaska. It's the most challenging technically. This is mostly due to Aurora effects, and the geomagnetic eccentricities of the planet. I have only heard an AK station once or twice. I think it's a little funny I have a confirmed QSO with Hawaii but not Alaska.

go figure.

gotta just keep pluggin' away. Sooner or later, in the middle of this sunspot peak, we've got to catch a break.

Until then, I'll be happy to hunt POTA stations. Parks on the Air is one of those groups that exists because of the internet. It also makes ham radio fun for a lot of people, including me. I haven't activated a park yet, but I'm working on creating a station just for that. It will have portable logging, and be entirely self contained. I will be able to open the lid, take out and deploy an antenna, tune it up with a VNA, turn on the radio and get on the air!

Ten QSOs later and I fulfill my mission.

Junk Food Should Taste Good

 Purpose is important. If something doesn't do what it should we either repurpose it or throw it away.

Today I had to throw something away.

It started with a morning trip to the break area for coffee. We have a machine in our office that will custom grind a single cup of coffee's worth of beans, and brew you fresh a cup! It's very good coffee. People will often place little "Take one" snacks out, and this Christmas season has been no exception. There's been an amazing array of cookies, cake, snack, other "Junque Food" available!

"Today" there were cookies

Perfect in shape and perfect in appearance, I gladly chose my portion, and my fresh cuppajoe, and returned to my desk to go about my day and be about business. I sipped the coffee, delicious, medium roast, fresh, and amazing!

I took a bite.

nope, nothing good happenin' here.

Folks, I didn't eat any more of these cookies. They weren't stale in texture, but the taste was as if they'd spent all year soaking in plastic wrap. It's hard to explain. They were off. Almost like there were old ingredients used to make these precious things, or that they'd been sprayed with saran wrap.

They weren't good for anything but to be thrown out.

I immediately thought about what Jesus taught in Matthew 5:13:" 'You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet."

That's what needed to happen to these cookies. They were untasty, and no matter how good they looked, I knew better than to take another bite. Jesus uses the example of salt because they didn't have the same salt we had, they had sea salt, and it was possible for the actual "salt" in their salt to be washed out leaving only the tasteless impurities behind. It looked right, but it weren't right. It would still poison the ground though, so it would be thrown out.

May I, in this New Year heed the warning, and be salty salt, useful in my place.

Lunchtime Ham Radio Shenanigans

Antenna over the edge

 Today (2024-02-02) on my lunch break,  I managed a QSO with Vern (NJ8L) in Newark, OH! Our QSO with each other count is up to three! The first 2 times look like SKCC contest QSOs on 40m. He confirmed both of those with me, so I look forward to the new band confirmation. 

Happy Face Due to Great QSO

Here's The scoop: while contemplating participation in the yearly FYBO event this weekend,  I decided to go ahead and bring a radio to work to test my setup.  I used my QCX+ on 20m running about 3 watts. During my lunch break, I set up in about five minutes, and called CQ, an EFHW (End Fed Half Wave) antenna carrying RF into the ether. The antenna I used might be this one: EFHW Part 3 Bigger is Better? It certainly is at least the same design RF wise.

I did receive some spots, but not a lot. I also tuned a little bit, and heard NJ8P calling CQ at 14.061 MHz. I answered and we conversated for a couple minutes before I returned to my desk. Tomorrow, I might just make it outside to Freeze my Buns off. 

I'll be seein' you on the air!

 Hello!

I have a new ongoing series on the Christian doctrines of salvation. Check it out!

https://basicorlando.blogspot.com/p/salvation.html

Right now, I'm up to 5 parts. There's at least 3 more in the works!

Antenna Grounding and Feedback

So I have a new shack, and with a new shack comes new problems.

Right now the issue seems to be feedback getting back to the radio and causing interference to the radio. I've got two antennas up, and there's a third I scrapped.

First antenna up was a 20m Off Center Fed Dipole (OCFD), I used a 4:1 W2DU balun at whatever ratio (1:3 I think?) the online plans told me. Results were middlin' and I think it caused some problems. I definitely could have used an antenna analyzer to help me deploy that. I've scrapped it for now, the housing for the balun came unglued, so it will need some work. There's also some debate as to whether i need a voltage balun or current balun, or possibly both here. Honestly most of the documentation i've found about OCFDs sounds more like magic than easily replicable  science. I don't know. I'll try again in the future, but I also need to take another look at my skeleton slot fed dual band dipole project I started a loooooong time ago, but never finished. I'll apparently need a ferrite bead current balun for that.

Then I deployed a long wire. It's half an 80m dipole. it's doing OK, but is very tuning touchy. I don't know if that's because my station ground is lacking, or what. Right now, my ground is simply the return to main. I'm sure that's part of the issue, but I'm not sure what to do about it. I am tempted to run a wire to the ground rod outside that's from the old shack. My latest research on station grounding has me second guessing that though. 

My third antenna is a 20m Delta loop. It's served me well in the past. I have it deployed as a nearly equilateral triangle with 450ohm ladder line. I've tuned everything from 20 and up, and had some nice contacts. It gives me the least amount of feedback, and to get the feedback to stop, all I have to do is turn the power down a little.

That's it for now, a tour of my shack and projects.

lots to do.

New Post on BASIC Blog

 Some time ago, I started a ministry to homeless people called BASIC.

BASIC Stands for "Believing And Serving In Christ". I started a blog over there that I used to propagate our prayer list, and to provide updates to the ministry's supporters. I would also post theological posts over there, including sermons and lessons I've done other places. now I'm in the middle of a series on the topic of Salvation.

it will be a multi part series, here's the first post:

https://basicorlando.blogspot.com/2023/03/brothers-what-shall-we-do-salvation.html

go and check it out, tell your friends.

The Fight

 I'm weary.

I'm burdened.

I'm tired of being ignored, maligned, and pushed aside in favor of shallow, insipid, worldly philosophies.

 

I am full of lament.

So much has been lost! What can be gained if you forfeit your soul! All around me those who would claim the Name of the Creator show they don't understand. A few know that they don't understand, and maybe more than them can grasp it, but so many are without even a most basic knowledge of what they were called to do when they began calling on the Name of the Lord.

Ah His Name is so abused.

by my lips and my deeds. Father, I'm often one of them, blessing with the same mouth that curses. Knowing the cure, but when do I show the way.

I'm not blameless. I'm not righteous.

I sit.

burdened.

I need to tell you what I know of the Lord.

What is wrong will be made new. What is old will pass away.

Burned away, I await a transformation. Grace changes things. Changes what I am. Feets of clay fall away replaced by solid rock. This rock is a teaching I know and obey.

Do you see it yet? It came.

It's here.