News, Podcasts, Gaggle of Google RADio stations.

February is exciting this year!
Lots of things are happening in my life.
I don't even know where to start.

1. Most exciting thing right now, Is that I got a chance to preach this last Sunday! I'll post some notes and maybe even embed a youtube video later.
2. The Podcasts I'm listening to sum up my life well, birds, radio, programming, and religion. I probably should post a review on each one I'm listening to right now, and how it's influencing the directions I'm taking in life. There's some intersections across several lines I'd like to share, The radio and programming podcasts will go here, because they serve (interestingly enough to me) as the point of intersection. Here's a partial list of what I'm finding really interesting:

• Two Bearded Preachers
• Ruby Rogues (ruby/ruby on rails)
• 100 Watts and a Wire.
• Out There with the Birds. 

I'm listening to more than this right now, mainly while at work, doing chores, or running. It gives my brain something in the background.

3. Life moves fast when your a father of four, you'd better be ready. My oldest turns 13 this year!
4. I'm planning on running another 5k in March, the Carillon Classic. Hee hee hee. In preparation, I'm running at least three days a week now. I'm also trying some dieting to put me into Ketosis. I'll try to update as I go along with that, if for any other reason than to keep myself on track.

Post Irma Debrief

Irma affected me more than I know just yet.
First there was the lead up to the storm
Then it CAME.
Finally, was the aftermath.
I know now I'm not done processing it. There was a lot of stress.
It seemed almost immediately after Irma came Maria.
Maria,
Wow.
So  much destruction in Dominica and Puerto Rico.
Ham radio has been called upon to help.
I've been deeply moved by it, I admit. I got into ham radio, in part, to help others. I've worked special events where ham radio has played a role in helping others. Mostly I've used ham radio as an escape.
Today I am convicted.
I thought I was through with ham radio for a while, but I don't think I can be. They needed operators, and this time it couldn't be me. That's not right, it's not who I am.
So I'm coming back to the radio table, better this time. I'm going to focus on operating as efficiently as possible too. My plan is to initiate the following station improvements:
Operating Location:
1. Improve my station with the addition of a narrow filter for CW to cut out QRM/QRN
2. Provide for backup power with the addition of a high amp hour deep cycle battery.
I'm looking at several options Including Deep cycle marine batteries, Gel Cells, and LiFePO batteries.
3. Initiate a protocol for quickly deploying post disaster antennas that can operate independently of tree supports at frequencies that can support sustained in state communication.
4. Long Term: Rebuild the shack. Make it a place that's easy to operate. Right now, it has no AC, no Heat, and can be a pain to be in sometimes. Time to change that, eventually.
Ham Education:
1. Continue to plant the radio bug in my kids, see if they pick it up. I've got four, surely one of them wants to get "radio active"
2. Over the next six month learn more about simple to make gain antennas out of wire and ladderline.
I'm starting with a variation of the G5RV cut for 15 m, and a 20m loop.
3. Teach a local class of some sort in the next year, prepare others for their ham radio license.

I'm putting a reminder on my calendar to revisit this post in January.
We'll see how it goes.

That Last Minute Ham Radio Thing to Do...

...Before tropical storm force winds take down the antenna farm...
Yes, this is a Post about the W3EDP antenna.
In roughly 36 hours tropical storm force winds from Hurricane Irma will be affecting my area. I only have one HF antenna deployed right now, my W3EDP. I keep another one handy, just in case the first one gets damaged in the storm. If you find yourself wanting a quick antenna project to have ready to deploy "Just in Case", but find yourself working last minute, here's an idea.
1. Prep work: You'll need an antenna tuner with a "Balanced line" input. If you don't have one right now, you're not entirely hosed, just design your antenna carefully, use low power, and use the principle of tuning by maximum racket (The louder the static/noise you receive means your antenna is working more better). If you can cobble together a tank circuit to use to tune the antenna, all's the better!
2. Go to Radio Shack (if it exists in your area) , and buy a 100' roll of speaker wire. I prefer the 18 gauge stuff with clear insulation. Size doesn't matter at 100 watts or less, as long as you can create two legs by pulling the wire apart. It will also help if you can get some banana plugs, one red, one black (color not critical as long as you pay attention.) Also acquire some sort of string, fishing line, small rope, for deploying the antenna
3. Once home, take the speaker wire, and pull about 5" apart, tie an electricians knot. This is your input side to the tuner. The knot is not critical, but it can help keep the wire together. That might not be what you want to do, so after you build the antenna, you can untie the knot if you want.
4. From the point of the knot, measure 17' of speaker wire. The parallel strands of wire are usually marked, one side a solid color (or no color at all) and the other side has a stripe. Sometimes, this mark isn't done with color but with texture molded onto the insulation. The important thing is that you want to be able to tell one side from the other. Cut one strand of the speaker wire at 17'.
5. Continuing from the knot, measure 85' of speaker wire, and cut both sides. You now have one short leg, and one long leg with some extra wire attached. Pull the extra wire apart from the long leg of the antenna. Save it! Doing some math (85-17) You'll realize that you have about 68' of speaker wire now. After the crisis is over, you can play with that wire by building an End Fed Half Wave Antenna for 40m.
6. Improvise an end insulator for the long leg of the antenna. I prefer using buttons from old milsurp BDUs.
7. On the input side, strip the insulation off of both wires, about 2"-3" and attach the banana plugs (if you have them). Red on the long side, black on the short. If you don't have them, no worries, just remember that you want to attach the long side to the "Antenna" side of the tuner/transceiver, and the short side to the "Ground".
8. Deploy your antenna. I try to use at least two supports. How isn't important, just get it in the air, with as few bends and turns as possible!
9. Tune and enjoy. You may have better results pulling the short leg apart from the long.

One final warning:

DO NOT EXCEED 100 WATTS TRANSMITTED POWER WITH THIS ANTENNA WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING WHAT YOU ARE DOING.

There are some funky voltages generated by this antenna at certain loads, so please be mindful. I'd suggest staying off of 30m entirely until you can play. The antenna works really well on 40 and 20. It's decent on 15, and poor to outstanding on 10. For 80m you will need to detach the short leg (black plug) and work the antenna against the station ground. This technique may also get you better results on 10m, especially in the technician class voice portion of the band (28.300-28.500).

NAQCC CW Sprint Tonight!

I should participate, there's supposed to be prizes.

The kids will be going to bed....

I've got the gear ready to go....

hmmmmmmmmmmm.

One thing bothers me.

Logging. I lost my e-log due to a computer mishap (may be recoverable, idk yet), and it's keeping me behind at LOTW. I don't have a lot of QSOs to add over there, but I do have a few.

I have another logging program installed on my laptop right now, it uses some N1MM software.

Need to QRV...

info about the sprint/contest/prize:

http://w2lj.blogspot.com/2017/04/special-naqcc-sprint-tomorrow-night.html

Tomorrow night, April 11th ( The morning of April 12th for those of you not bothered by UTC conversions), will be the 150th NAQCC Monthly Sprint.  That's 12 and a half years of monthly NAQCC Sprints now - since the club was formed.  In honor of this momentous occasion, the leadership of the NAQCC has planned something special.

Info about NAQCC:

http://naqcc.info/index.html

Will anyone be interested in trying to pick me out of the noise on 80m on 3579?

I'll fire up the NoGA Twin Tube 80, otherwise, I'll be QRV at the full QRP gallon (5w) using a Kenwood TS-140s.

My # 7276

W3EDP Over Time

It's the antenna I keep in the back of my car because I never want to be caught without an antenna.
It's the antenna that keeps people coming to my blog. The original post I did about the antenna has more views than any other post on my blog so far.
It's the antenna I've sold before because I believe in it that much, and as of right now, it's the antenna that I make the most QSOs with at the QTH.
It's the W3EDP.

While not the best solution in every situation, it's a solution in almost every situation. Here's some examples of how versatile it is:

1. I've used it QRP, and QRPp
2. I've used it with up to 100 watts.
3. I've taken it into the field
4. I've used it in a semi-permanent deployment at the house.

Only thing I haven't run, is one up a kite, and I've got plans on doing that one day.
I have a shack logbook (Don't you?), and while not every quibble I do in my shack gets recorded into the logbook, one thing that I always try to do is record the tuner settings for the W3EDP currently deployed in the backyard. The W3EDP remains true to its tuning, generally, if I write a value down, I can switch bands and come to that setting later.

Settings.

 Doesn't work all the time, but it works often enough. Take the time to notice that where you are in the band affects the tuner settings, but not overly drastically. For instance, on the date of 31 October, 2015, the setting for 3.930 was "5/6 H 3/4" That means between 5 and 6, closer to 6, H, between 3 and 4, closer to 4, but only slightly. On 11 November 2015, I went to the bottom of the band, 3.505, and the settings were similar, 5/6 H 2/3. I expected this change. Sometimes I experiment with different settings on purpose, hoping to get a better signal. You see this especially on my settings for 20m. On 30 October, I had the tuner set to /6 B /4. That indicates "Touching the left edge of 6, B, touching the left edge of 4". Typically, when using the W3EDP, this is the go to setting for most of 20m, but sometimes the tuning can be touchy. I experimented with the vertical antenna I have for 20/15m. I wanted to find a tuner setting that was close for both, and was pleased with the results (See settings for dates 16 Dec 2015).

"Silky Wire"

Corrosion on the end is intermittent along whole wire.

The W3EDP currently deployed in the backyard is built of bare "silky wire." It seems to weather well in Florida weather, and I can detect no adverse performance characteristics, despite some apparent corrosion.



 I've also built it using Radio Shack outdoor grade speaker wire, bare #14 antenna wire (wireman #511), and Flexweave. I'm torn on whether I like Flexweave or Silky better. I will say that using #14 antenna wire seems to be the best if you are going to use it in a permanent setting, as long as you won't have it touching trees, buildings, etc. One change I might make to the setup I'm running now is to the tuner.
I think I want to create a dedicated tuner, but I need to do some analysis on the antenna, maybe model it out on different frequencies, sweep through the bands. I've learned some interesting things about modeling while planning an antenna that performs well on bands that don't do well with the W3EDP. That means I'll have to change my model, but because I've learned something, I don't mind so much.

Anyway,
That's how things are going currently with my W3EDP. I haven't made many QSOs yet in 2016, but I do promise some more interesting antenna posts soon in the future! I'm working on building an antenna to work around the pesky tuning problems I seem to have with the W3EDP on the WARC bands, notably on 30m and 17m.
73 es HV FN,
GB Hoyt

Serious Contest Log Submitted

Just finished submitting my first serious Contest log. Over the weekend, I casually operated the FL QSO Party. I'm kind of nervous to see my score. I got 62 QSOs, 22 phone, 40 CW, and 39 mults. I was "low power" (100w) and claimed a score of 8136.
Nervous I am....
I hope I did ok!

Final Countdown

Que Europe!

Sing along, I guess.


Here's what I've done recently:

• Communion Meditation, April 24, 2016 at Highlands Church of Christ
• Studied bromeliads in my backyard.
• Took the kids birding, Had a blast.
• Almost done with a semester of College. (It's finals week!)

Here's what's coming up:

• Starting a new job
• Continuing the series on Skeleton Sleeve Dipoles 
• More ham radio! 
• Planning more college classes

To borrow some lyrics, I'm "optimistically discontent" over what the next month will hold, if only we can all hang on that long.

KG4GVL Skeleton Sleeve Pt 1

In my quest for finding an antenna that gives me two bands without a tuner, one of the most interesting candidates so far is the "Skeleton Sleeve Dipole" featured in the Appendix of Small Antennas for Small Spaces.
This antenna fascinates me because it's one of the physically simplest multiband antennas I've seen. I know an EARCHI type endfed could be called "simplier", I also think they could be called "lossier" too. I've built a couple Half-wave end fed antennas, and while they are impressive, I am not really sure about how good they are. the SSD has no tuner, no traps, no matching section. When deployed to the proper height, they can exhibit gain when compared to a dipole of similar height, especially on the higher frequency band.

I wanted to build an antenna that was easy to operate on bands that it's hard for my W3EDP to tune, namely 30m and 17m. Especially 30m. With the the solar minimum upon us, and the potential for a larger Maunder minimum type event, I figured it would be wise to have something dedicated to 30, that may be the best daytime DX band.

The Original 40m/20m Folded skeleton Sleeve Antenna Courtesy W1ZR

I started, by taking a spreadsheet and calculating the length of the antenna depicted in the book as a percent of a standard dipole in feet ie: L/(486/f) * 100%. L = total length of the folded skeleton sleeve in feet, f = Frequency in MHz.

After that, I calculated the similar percent needed for 30m and 17m, and soon discovered that if I was going to keep what I thought was similar spacing and construction as the original, 17m would not fit! I decided to go with 30m and 15m instead, figuring it would be a better fit. I came up with the model mentioned in a previous blog post. It didn't take me long to figure out that the model didn't quite work the way I expected it to work. I had some questions about why that could be, so started out by fiddling with the lengths of the antenna, and even putting it in freespace. Eventually, I emailed the expert, W1ZR, the original designer of the antenna. He sent me some wonderful information and tips about modelling these types of antennas I want to share.

First off, here's what a generic image of the design looks like:

I plan on building the top style. The bottom one has some potential, too, but the top style is the one I want to build because it's over all length is shorter than a traditional dipole.

The particular dimensions I'm after

Above is some of the excellent information W1ZR sent me. Notice the dimensions for most band combinations. I asked him if he used any formulas to come up with the numbers, and he said no. He created the model with trial and error, and then built it out to see if real life fit the model. That's dedication the ham radio way! I circled the information for the 30/17 model so you can get a rough idea of the dimensions. I got all this information last fall, and over the winter I began building the antenna with the idea that I would have it up in time to catch some winter QSOs and Spring E-Skip on 17. Turns out, I busted my timetable all up by going back to school! 

To be continued...

Work Parking Lot Portable

Tonight was the NAQCC Sprint, and I decided to attempt participation from the parking lot at work.
I didn't get any QSOs, didn't even manage to get out to the vehicle until after 10:15, but I did hear stations, and I called CQ NA a few times even.


This time, I reinforced an idea I've had in my head a while. If your antenna isn't set up in 5 mins, your risking time wasted. Next portable system will be like that. It may or may not involve a collapsable fishing pole. The other day I tried to set up my SLV in the parking lot, and the pole kept collapsing. I've been rethinking the SLV concept, and might make some modifications in the future. Last night I used my EFHW antenna. I didn't have a way to measure SWR, but every other time I've checked it out, it has been excellent!

I didn't make any calls, but I copied some fairly strong signals, and did manage to capture some spots on the Reverse Beacon Net.
Next time I'll try harder!

 All of these reports were sent from my SW-40 aka "The Killer Watt Radio"
I need a freqmite...
Not bad over all though, for a radio that was putting out less than 1.5 watts!

Late Night Antenna Math

It's late, and I'm doing math, there ought to be a law :-)

I'm doing this partially because I want to know if I'll be able to study after work in the spring. How does my mind handle math in the wee hours of the night?

I'm not real sure, but I've been having some fun modeling some antennas!

Sometimes it helps me to see what the antenna looks like, then I can write down some numbers, and enter them into XNEC2C.
Main thing I've learned tonight is that you need to make sure you are running your wires the right way when you fiddle with their lengths!
I've included a github gist for this antenna below. 
***EDIT*** It should be noted that units in the file above are in Meters, not feet. Also: I think there's a way to go from XNEC2C to EZNEC, if you know something about the NEC Cards. I don't understand the process though.

Hard Facts, Updates, Happenings, etc.

Life is funny.
I'm planning on going back to school almost 20 years after I went to college the first time.
I'm going to be a Phoenix at Florida Polytechnic!
I must be crazy.
Hopefully, once I start applying myself to the coursework, I will soon be rewarded with a BS in Computer Science and Information Technology with emphasis on Cyber Gaming.
There's a lot of math involved, I'm glad I bought a TI-89 at a pawn shop in Atlanta, back in the day. Buying one new would be PRICEY! Some of the books I'll be getting are pricey too.
I'm excited about it though. It will lead to other opportunities at work.

It's time for a different role here at the big Green P. Not that I mind what I do now, there's other things to consider. I've been in this role for almost 5 years, working nights. It's halloween, and I'm away from my kids, again. I'll be gone during Thanksgiving, again. At least this year Christmas is on a Friday, and I'm off on Fridays. The only way I'll be off on Christmas is if I'm scheduled off (Fri, or Sun) or I take vacation. I'm not complaining about the work. I'm pretty good at what I do, and it's challenging at times. I love it when something new breaks, and I get to help fix it. Especially when I'm the one who bird dogs the problem, and can identify the issue. Good problems like that make me enjoy my job. Sometimes people are what make it challenging. That's how I spell "annoying". Especially when something has the same problem over and over again. Times like that make me glad I know the Serenity prayer, thank you Uncle George (Drouet)! He had it on a placard that hung on a wall somewhere in our house. It was loose, so I hijacked it when I went to college the first time. I keep it in my radio shack now. Speaking of radio...

Radio updates:

Here's the Situation at KG4GVL:

Any attempt I have made to release a post about the W3EDP antenna failed.
I've got about half an article written. I keep thinking I'll come back to it, but it hasn't happened.
Life happens. That's all I got to say about that for now.

QSO Wise:
My attempt to average a QSO a day, and operating at least twice a week is floundering.
I have no QSOs recorded in July, a smattering in August, none in September, and only some toward the end of October. I would like to think I am in the middle of a bit of renaissance, though.
Here's a little math to help explain.
On LOTW so far, I have 84 contacts for the year. That means I have 281 contacts left to make for the year to make my average of 1 per day. From the day after the last entry in my log book to the end of the year is 65 days, leaving me about 4.3231 QSOs per day to make my average. From the 26th to day, I've had some radio activity, so the average has changed, I just want everyone to understand where we are.

***EDIT***
01 Nov 01:30 EST (was just 1:59, TIMEWARP!)
Recrunched the numbers based on my QSO count after my birthday. I have made 4 so far on 01 Nov. I didn't do as well on some of the days before, but I didn't truly understand how far behind I was either. I'm doing good over the course of the week, but my average QSO rate is up to 4.4333333/day if I'm going to average 1/day for the year!
***END EDIT***

The last entry in my LOTW logbook is for the 26th of October 2015. That was my birthday, any my wife graciously allowed me to pursue radio much of the day, until the kids got home from school. I was off that evening from work, so that helped too. I managed to make 9 contacts (10 counting the SOUTHCARS net checkin, it's worth getting a number just to check in on your birthday), all voice contacts, mostly on 15m, some on 20m. One was even a DX contact! Next year, I'll have to make a concerted effort to keep a theme. maybe do 13 contacts on 3 bands (I'll be 39), then change QTHs, or something like that. Of course, next year, my birthday will be on Wednesday. Not much happening in the middle of the week.
Maybe a QRP CW OPS contest or something.
I hope I'm not at work all night.
Night shift is getting old...

Just When Somethings Start Going Right....

Other things start going better, and the first thing you were working on starts getting put off.

I've got about half a post written for the W3EDP antenna. Usually I get an article done sometime during the month of May about the W3EDP, but I don't think it will be ready by tomorrow. Tomorrow is my wedding anniversary, so I think blogging will be low on the priority list of things to do. I'll get it done during June, before Field Day, because hey, the W3EDP would make an awesome last minute field day antenna for someone out there, and they'll need to know how to make it, and how other people have used them. I have, however, been fairly radio-active recently, last week, I had two days of QSOs, and I had 7 total QSOs, this week I haven't been as active, but that's because something has been consuming all my time.

I've been studying C# like mad, preparing for an interview to be held this Thursday. As of right now, I'm in virgin territory in my book, covering things I didn't get to when I first picked this up back in February. If I win this job, I'll have most evenings and weekends off. I'll be salaried, but hopefully making more money than I am now.

We shall see.

Other news:
Everyone in my family has been sick in May, and Murphy's law is in full effect. I'm kind of sick of May as a result. I've got two kids with strep, one with stomach troubles, and the baby had a cold. My wife had some issues, and is battling a head thing, as am I. Even the family vehicle has been sick, we blew a tire out and it will need to be replaced. Fortunately, it was one that was due to be replaced anyway.
The house next door, where I took the pictures of the Tillandsias got renovated. The poor house needed it, and the new owners worked hard on it. One negative though, is that the limbs that grew most of the T. setacea were removed. Because it is the least common bromeliad on my street, it made me sad. However, there are other colonies on the street, and I'm sure it will be fine.

With school winding down, sickness, and new job opportunities, May has been an interesting time. June could be even more interesting.

I'll make sure to keep both eyes open.

Worked a Special Event Station, Other News.

Friday ended a very long week for me. I was a substitute teacher by Day Tuesday - Friday, and a Publix Data Monkey at night Monday - Thursday.

Fortunately, it ended on a high note. I got to make a fire with my kids, and we toasted smores, it's the standard big fun event at our house, and it was big fun. Somewhere in there, I actually got to do a lil ham radio too.

It's true what they say, you're never too busy for what you want to do. I've wanted to make sure I work radio at least twice a week, and while last week, I only got to do it once, did it I did, and it was a good station at that!

On May 7th, 1915 it happened, by April 2017, "REMEMBER THE LUSITANIA!" enlistment posters were up in America. Without getting too political, it's the ship the Germans sunk that Churchill (as First Lord of the Admiralty) thought would hasten US involvement in "The Great War". It took the US some more time than that to get involved directly, but it is a matter of historical record that we had bullets to give the British on that ship.

To commemorate the sinking, GB100MFA is operating out of Liverpool, England, the home port of the Lusitania, and so far I've managed to work them once on 20m CW. OP was good, but my CW was rusty, like as in there was some corrosion on the contacts for the key I had to clean off, and I had a hard time understanding him beyond the normal RST exchange.

Maybe I'll try to work him again later! Supposed to be a "SSB" station out there too.

Ramble On!

Fly in week at Lakeland Linder Airport. Many folks coming in for that. I'll have to research the history of fly in week. There's going to be airshows, lots of personally own/flown aircraft, and my cousin is coming into town! She's a pilot and airframe maintenance mechanic to boot.

Lots of metal birds to look at, and not just the feathered ones for a change.

Speaking of birds, migration is at its peak in FL. Reports are filtering in from all over the state of moving warblers, tanagers, buntings, and other feathered beasts. I haven't seen a lot yet, but I went birding Saturday morning with the oldest at Circle B Bar, still working on that post. The peak was probably a week ago, but there's still a lot out there to see. Plus, breeding for the locals has begun!

Discovered a wide area repeater network in FL:
SARNet.
Seems interesting, I can hit the local repeater with my $30 Radio Shack clearance (from 10 years ago) UHF special radio using a rubber duck. If you live near an interstate in FL, chances are you are already in a coverage area for one of these linked repeaters. Find out a local one, and give out a call. I've been trying to call every now and again, but haven't heard any activity on them yet.

FL has at lease one other repeater network, the NI4CE network, and I think there's some linked repeaters in south Florida too. It's important for an old hat like me to remember that repeaters are where a lot of the most important activities occur for ham radio, and repeaters introduce most new hams to the hobby. Be kind, be courteous, and always follow good amateur radio practices when using repeaters.

Plodding Forth....

The meat of this post is as follows:

First, I've managed to work stations 2 days in the last five on my radio!
6 QSOs total. so over one a day, still! I broke the streak using voice on 15m, and kept the trend alive using CW.hopefully, I can continue to do well. I realized last week I went all March without a single QSO.

Secondly, I'm going to be doing some posts about epiphytes (air-plants), namely some local native bromeliads, namely Tillandsia recurvata and T. usneoides. There's another I haven't identified yet. We'll get to that later, lots of pictures coming! Likely a haiku or two, perhaps some straight up verse. If you grok what I'm dropping here, I got close to them, and understood their being. For a moment all was as it should be.

Finally:

There's much gurgling going on in my brain. Something is effervescent and building just beneath the surface of my consciousness. There's a connection to be made between the moral decay amoung individuals, the increasing authoritarianism exhibited by the state, and the increasing desire of society to utilize state authority as a bludgeon for what it considers to be the evil of the day. When things coalesce, there will be a good chance that what I postulate will offend and chagrin many people I love. I hope you'll bear with me, it's going to be a bumpy ride.



***EDIT 09 April 2015***
worked a VK2 today on 20m CW!
took the compost to the compost heap, drilled some holes in a box for my eldest child's science project, then turnt on the radio. took about five minutes to make sure I had their call right, and then call the station myself. very FB OP!
I need to work a lot more stations to bring the average up, but I did accomplish my goal of working stations on two separate days this week!

Also,
working on my Tillandsia post. Pics are on the computer, and I've been typing the background. Hoped to have it up today for my Dad's birthday, but I had to take a car tire to the shop and hop around a bunch, before I came to work.

***EDIT again 13 April 2015***
Jim in MO AF0F on 20m CW!
Need a lot more, will take schedules.

Also, two Tillandsia posts are up, and I'm working on the third
Featurinig:
 Tillandsia usneoides
 Tillandsia recurvata

Stalled

The 5 month old in the house is too dang cute ya'll.

New Years Resolution update:
1. Average QSO count of 1 per day: waaaaay behind. I'm trying to get into the habit of going to bed earlier, so that means no radio. Because most of my operating has been at night, post midnight local time, I have less time for long stents radio.

2. Two days of radio activity per week. Also, haven't had time for this. Trying to make more time, but I've got a lot going on right now, and need time for physical activity more than radio time though.

Haven't even uploaded QSOs from this year to LOTW yet. UGH.
My strategy is to renew resolution #2 first, get two days of activity. Even if only for one QSO. I'm keeping my CW skills up by whistling license plates while on the way to work, and also random texts. It helps, but not much.
Progress report due next Monday.

Keeping the QSO Rate Up

My twin ham radio resolutions for this year have been:
1. to average 1 QSO a day
2. to operate twice a week.
So far, I'm doing decent, I'm down 3 QSOs right now, but that's because I had a couple of days when I only had time to make one QSO.
Goal 2 has been pretty easy to keep
Other things I'm exploring in the world of Radio:
Microwave transmissions.
CW.
So far, I've only made CW QSOs. Use the code or loose it!

Ham Radio New Year's Resolution

I made one new years resolution about ham radio. My operating habits during December greatly influenced the wording

I, KG4GVL, do resolve to do my best to operate a minimum of twice a week, with the goal of averaging one QSO per day for 2015, or may the Wouff Hong find me as I sleep.

I've tried the whole "QSO once a day" thing, and that quickly became work. I managed to go somewhere around two months with a QSO every day, and many days it felt like I made the contact because of the commitment, not because I enjoyed the QSO. Time is a precious commodity in our house, and I don't have a lot of it to operate radio. In December, I managed to operate a handful of days, spending about an hour of time at a time (sometimes less), and had a blast running stations that were calling CQ. I even managed to call CQ a few times my own self and snagged a few new countries. Part of that I realize was propagation, but I've learned through the years that it don't matter how well propagation is if you don't get on the air. Plus, the maxim "RF gotta go somplace" is a reality. When you QRV, the signal goes somewhere, and the RBN network is a testament to how well some bands do under what would normally be considered marginal conditions. I really enjoy operating when I can get several QSOs at once.

Other people have made their resolutions too, one of the coolest is to build a project from your birth month/year issue of QST. I didn't see much in that would really work for me in the October 1977, but if anyone has an extra issue that they'd let me peruse, I wouldn't mind. :) I do have an October 1953 issue of QST that looks pretty interesting, and I think it has part of a 222 MHz project that would be pretty neat to construct, if I could find the parts to construct it.

Also doing some investigating into ham radio with microwaves. If the kids ever get their license, I think they'd get a kick out of building stuff they can use to bounce a signal off a satellite, or even the moon. The local library has a copy of The ARRL UHF/Microwave Experimenter's Manual and while some of the math inside seems complicated, the projects/ideas inside seem pretty straight forward.

Finding Obsolete Parts: Furthering This Idea of a STHR

In a recent Post, I put forward the idea of a Strategic Thru-Hole Reserve of parts commonly found in kits made in the mid 90s to today. There's been some good feedback about this, so the next step is to discuss what comes next. I envision a website where people go to share what they have and what they need. Let's say I need a 2SC2166. I should be able to search for the part, select a person with the part, and contact that person to make some sort of arrangement to acquire the part.
Sound about right?

Operation Rock Garden Update

While I wait for #3 to bug me about her radio again, I'm working on my 10DE7 project.

Here's the skinny:
I took some parts that look like this:

and turned them into this:

and in the processed learned something about phasing.

Some project notes,
I did make the connection between taps 9 and 7 permanent, that is, soldered the wire in place. I made a short jumper with spades so I could experiment with places to put them on the taps. The first time, I soldered a jumper wire between pins 8 and 9, and didn't get the results I wanted. I thought for a minute that I had a bad transformer. I learned a couple of things in the process.

1. Autoranging digital VOMs can mess with your head. I kept getting jumpy measurements in the milivolt range, and it kept making me nervous. Verifying some readings with an analog meter really helped me settle down.
2. When dealing with AC transformers phasing matters. I should have realized from the schematic of the taps that the phasing a the bottom of one set of secondary taps would be out of phase with the top of the next set, but it took a little experimenting to figure that out.
3. When dealing with an unknown quantity, don't solder things down. I know better, but sometimes I don't do better.
4. Alligator clips for VOMs have their place.

I got to bed pretty late last night, so probably no shacktime tonight.

I have to think some more about plate voltages anyway.