NPOTA Activation - Tumacacori - 100th Annversary of National Park Service

Today is a special day for the great outdoors.  On this day, 100 years ago, the National Park Service was founded in the USA.  While I'm not a fan of big government, I do love nature and I'm glad there are protected places where nature is protected.

To honor 100 years of national parks, the American Radio Relay League coordinated with NPS and created the "National Parks on the Air" event.  For the entire year of 2016, amateur radio operators are encouraged to visit parks and "activate" them.  Other operators are encouraged to "chase" the activators, i.e. the goal is to promote the parks by having people make contacts from within park boundaries with others around the world.

Our local club, Oro Valley Amateur Radio Club, has done several NPOTA activations this year from nearby national parks.  This morning, we set up bright and early at the Tumacacori National Historical Park (designator HP45).  We were ready to roll before sunrise!

Tumacacori also happens to lie along the 1200-mile Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail (designator TR13), so we were able to provide a double NPOTA activation to chasers.  We set up a single station, so we had plenty of operators to share duties.  We all used the OVARC club call sign, W7AI.

Operations began with SSB on 40 meters, then CW on 40.  A few others ran the station while I observed and assisted with the donuts :-)

After a while, I took over and operated 20m CW.  We were using N1MM to log, which has an automatic keyer, but I also used a nice paddle.  We were spotted on the DX cluster which helped draw chasers, so I was able to run on 14.043 for a while.

Most of the station gear was supplied by Tom, W8TK.  We ran 100 watts from a Kenwood TS590 into an end-fed half-wave, with the top up around 30 feet on a portable mast.  This was a nice portable setup, although band conditions were moderate at best.  We worked stations pretty much across the US and Canada.

I left a bit earlier than the others, because it's a work day and I needed to get to the office.  When I  left, we were hovering around 100 contacts, and hopefully they pulled out a few more QSO's before breaking down.  The park officials had invited us to a birthday cake and ice cream celebration at 10am, but I wasn't able to stay that late.

This was my first NPOTA activation, and I sure enjoyed it.  I think OVARC will have a few more before the end of the year and I'm hoping I'll be able to join in on the fun again!

Baluns

I'm working on several different antenna projects right now, and in some cases I want to include a Balun in the design.  "Balun" is a contraction of "Balanced to Unbalanced" - a balun is basically an impedance matching transformer, usually to cause a radio to be presented with an approximately 50 Ohm antenna load.

Over the years I have purchased baluns but they are actually not difficult to build.  So, I'm planning to learn as much as I can about balun theory and design, and construct some of my own.  Some of the baluns I have purchased in the past include high-power capable models sold by DX Engineering, a triple ratio switching balun with 1:1, 4:1, and 9:1 options, sold by Buddipole, and others by MFJ, etc.

I recently built a small kit from Elecraft, the BL2, which provides a medium power capable switching balun with 1:1 and 4:1 options.  An interesting comparison was to put it in line with a dipole and record resistance and impedance values, and SWR, as compared with other baluns.  I used a RigExpert AA-170 antenna analyzer for this purpose.  Although the values recorded were not identical, they were similar enough to make me comfortable that this balun will be acceptable for use.  My plan is to use it as part of a portable multi-band linked dipole, and I think having the two different options will be convenient.

I'm also preparing to construct some of my own baluns and ununs.  I have some ferrite cores and plenty of wire, and it doesn't take much more than that to make a quality balun.  In fact for portable antenna operations, constructing my own will provide me with the best option, at the lowest cost.  I'll be able to optimize it in terms of both specific impedance characteristics for the antenna designed, and minimal weight.

Tour of W1AW (Remote at the OVARC Meeting)

The monthly meeting of Oro Valley Amateur Radio Club included a live-via-Skype video tour of the ARRL HQ Station, W1AW.  Sure hope I can go there some day and see it in person, and even operate for a while.

I often wonder whether my Uncle John, who was a ham as a young man and lived in Connecticut, ever got a chance to operate from their.  During the Q&A, I asked the Station Manager, Joe Carcia NJ1Q if log archives exist that might help me learn whether Uncle John visited, and he said yes they have them back to the beginning!

Fun Up North - Beacon Hill SOTA Activation

During the hot summers in Tucson, my YL and I love to head up to the cool mountain air in Flagstaff.  We were there for the weekend of August 13-14 and I thought it might be a good opportunity for me to do a short SOTA activation.  I spent some time reviewing options on the SOTA Mapping Project site and was not surprised to learn that there are many, many peaks in the Flagstaff area.  A bit more research led me to contact Pete, WA7JTM.  I did not realize it at the time, but Pete is the W7A Association Manager for the SOTA program, and was most helpful.  I asked Pete if he had a recommendation for a fairly easy summit, and he recommended I give W7A/CS-038, Beacon Hill, a try.

Since this was primarily a trip with my YL, and I knew we would be doing a lot of running, I didn't want a challenging or lengthy hike.  In fact, in the morning before the activation, we ran for over 2 hours on Lake Mary Road, so my legs were already a bit tired for the day.  Beacon Hill turned out to be a perfect choice, requiring only about half an hour's drive to the base of the hill.  The hill was located behind the now-closed Mountain Ranch Resort.

I parked on the dirt road behind the resort, and gathered my gear.  I had a daypack for the radio gear, and the Buddipole was in its own bag.  Maybe a lot to carry on a hike, but I wasn't expecting it to take very long to reach the summit.

There is no trail that I am aware of, so I basically just bushwhacked my way up.  Although it was off-trail, it really wasn't too difficult, but at points the underbrush was thick, at other points the grade became steep with slippery terrain.  As I neared the top, I found some thin animal paths.  It was an enjoyable hike and I was happy to be in the cool air rather than the 100+ temps in Tucson!

Upon reaching the summit, which is at 7,547 feet elevation, I relaxed a bit and set up my Buddipole.  It was breezy so I guyed it, but was able to extend the mast fairly high.  While the Buddipole is not the best in terms of portability, it does do a nice job once it's up there.

Plus, it looks kinda cool (in my biased opinion).

I was excited to test out the station setup that I have been working on for portable packing operations.  I've put an Elecraft KX2 on a bamboo carving board, along with a Begali Traveler paddle.  This is definitely a QRP setup but it's very nice to be able to operate the KX2 off a small internal battery pack as opposed to a heavier battery that a larger rig might require.  The Begali paddle is heavy for hiking with, but it's so much higher in quality that I'm willing to carry it.

I'm always changing things around, that's one of the fun things about ham radio, so I'm sure this setup will be different at some point.  But it really performed well for me on this trip!  Using just 5 watts, I was able to work stations all across the country and even into Canada.  My favorite QSO of the day, however, was with an Arizona station - imagine my surprise to hear WA7JTM in the pileup calling me!  It was really nice to give him a contact for his chaser log after his help in choosing the site.

I didn't have a lot of time on the hill, as my YL had stayed back at the hotel and we wanted to do some other things later in the day.  My final QSO tally was 14 stations in the log (10 CW and 4 SSB), including one Summit-to-Summit QSO with W0C/PR-009, which earned me 10 points towards my Activator total.

Support the ARRL

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) has served the amateur radio community for over 100 years.  I'm not sure if our hobby would exist today without it.  Thank you ARRL.

Two Peaks in a Day - Bigelow Mountain & Mt. Lemmon, SOTA W7A/AW-003 & W7A/AW-001

I've been bit by the SOTA bug, so on August 1, 2016 I decided to enjoy a day activating two of the closest peaks to my home.  Both Bigelow and Mt. Lemmon, part of the Catalina Mountains range, are easy to access, via a drive up the Mt. Lemmon Highway.  Although SOTA rules do require a minimal amount of hiking, it's not much.  So I chose to bring my Go-Box, which has excellent station capabilities but is far too heavy to lug on any lengthy hikes.

I began with Bigelow Mountain (elevation 8,540 ft).  This one requires a drive on a dirt road for a couple of miles.  At the top are multiple commercial towers to service the local Tucson community.

The views from Bigelow are spectacular, especially to the East where the majestic Pinaleos rise with their showcase Mt. Graham.

The skies were partly cloudy and the temperatures were just perfect.  The desert is quite hot at this time of year so it was so nice to operate outdoors in the cool air.  As I began setting up, a friendly deer walked right by me!  I watched and realized a small fawn was also following along behind its mother, but it was a bit more careful and moved among the trees.

I set up the Buddipole for 20 meters and cranked it up high.  My FT-991 was filled with signals as soon as I fired it up!  My first QSO was with my friend NU7Y, who was waiting down in Tucson.  After that the pileup hit and I worked 21 stations, all CW.  I would have kept going, but dark clouds were approaching and since it's monsoon season, I was concerned that the weather could change quickly.  So I tore down the gear, took it back to the car, and drove further up the hill to Mt. Lemmon.

The summit of Mt. Lemmon is 9,157 ft, but it's not fully accessible due to the observatories.  I was an instructor at the Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter for several years and spent many nights standing on the exact summit point, but on this day I had to remain outside the fence and operate a small distance away (this is allowable under SOTA rules).

As I set up, a light rain began to fall.  I didn't hear thunder yet, so I continued to set up and was pleased that it stopped when I was ready to start making contacts.  I enjoyed working 23 stations from Mt. Lemmon, again all CW.  A few hikers came by at various points to see what I was up to.  Unfortuntely, after a fairly short time, the weather took a turn for the worse.

Wind cropped up and then thunder started crashing, so I knew it was time to hurry up and pull down the antenna!  Just as I finished packing things up, the rain began in earnest.  I waited for a few minutes to see if it was a temporary storm, but it became clear that the day's monsoon was upon us.  The rain was absolutely pouring buckets and the temperature became quite cold.

I had planned to do a nice run up on the mountain after the radio operations.  I've run in storms plenty of times before, the rain doesn't really bother me.  So I drove down to the ski valley parking lot, put on my running gear, and went out to run.  I had only gone about 1/4 mile, in pouring freezing rain, when a huge clap of thunder struck and I saw a lighting bolt far too close for comfort.  I made the decision at that point that my time on the mountain had come to an end and called off the run for safety's sake.

It was a wonderfully fun day anyway, and I'm looking forward to my next trip up to these peaks or a few others in the same range.  My logs earned me 10 points + 3 bonus points for each summit in the SOTA Database, plus I had a few Summit-to-Summit QSO's.