10-10 Board Meeting in San Antonio

The 2008 Board of Directors meeting for 10-10 International Net, Inc. was held in San Antonio, Texas on May 31, 2008.

As Treasurer of 10-10, I presented the annual financial report.  We had a busy day with a lot to discuss as always.

The following day, June 1, 2008 was the 20th Annual Hill Country Picnic held at the home of Jack K5CC.  In addition to great food and wonderful company, we enjoyed a nice opening on 10 meters prior to the "parking lot net".  I also was able to watch Allen N5AFV work several stations on the AO-27 satellite, using the 10-10 Club call sign W6OI.

See more photos at http://kr7rk.com/1010board2008.htm

SteppIR Installation

On May 25, 2008, some friends came over (again - this has been a multiple step process) to help get my new 3-element SteppIR beam installed.  We started at the inhuman hour of 5:00 a.m. to avoid the heat of the day, which turned out to be a wise choice.

We had previously added an additional 10 feet to the tower, so the beam is a bit over 40 feet up.  I would have liked to go higher, but in my present city lot, a higher height is not feasible.  Two weeks earlier, we made a failed attempt to raise the antenna.  We were close but the gin pole positioning prevented the mast plate from mounting.  In the process of that attempt we also did some minor damage to the SteppIR's motor control cable.

The second time went very smoothly, and my first day's QSO's included some nice DX (Ukraine, Israel, Asiatic Russia, Uruguay), as well as some good 10 meter contacts.  We did not completely finish the job - the tower still needs some guy lines installed to secure it better.

These guys are the best - I'd never have been able to do it without them!  May there always be good propagation for the following hams:  Larry W7LB, Owen AK7AR, Eric KC0AYD, and Ed K6ESS, and my son Ryan, KR7YAN, who pitched in a little.

See more photos at http://kr7rk.com/steppir.htm

Dayton Hamvention 2008

I attended the 2008 Dayton Hamvention on Friday, May 16 to Sunday, May 18.

  I also attended Contest University the day prior to the Hamvention.

As usual I had a wonderful time.  I worked at the 10-10 booth, presented a talk at the 10-10 forum, and cruised the halls in search of unique radio goodies.

Click Here to see a PowerPoint presentation from my forum talk.

For more pictures see http://kr7rk.com/dayton2008.htm

Using the Huge Discone at Titan Missile Museum

Our local club, the Radio Society of Tucson, operated the 7th Area QSO Party from the Titan Missile Museum in Green Valley on May 3, 2008.

The museum has a HUGE discone antenna, which basically allows operation on any HF band.  We had a lot of fun!

The antenna was built in the 1960's, during the cold war.  At one time it must have been totally off-limits and high-security, but now they allow hams to use it freely.

More photos are at http://kr7rk.com/7qptitan2008.htm