W1AW/6 Being Operated by KR7YAN

Here is Ryan making a 10 meter QSO with a station in Kansas this afternoon from the special event station W1AW/6 at the ARRL Southwest Division Convention. We've had a great day with numerous interesting seminars, some radio ops, cruising the exhibit hall (and buying a couple of new toys!), and going to the banquet. Ryan collected his 10 numbers by making contacts on 10 meters during the daily net, so he will now be able to submit an application for his own 10-10 number.

The day is not quite over as we are awaiting the midnight hour and the Wouff Hong ceremony.

Satellites from the Parking Garage

Here's me and Ryan trying to work an AO-51 pass tonight from the top floor of the Marriott in Torrance. We attended a seminar by Clint K6LCS on AMSAT and working AO-51 with an HT, and then about 30 people went to the roof to try to work the "bird" during its 14-minute pass.

3 of us had HT's with Arrow Antennas - Clint, Larry, and me and Ryan. Clint managed to break through to 4 different stations, but Ryan wasn't able to get in on the transmit side. We did manage to hear stations throughout the pass, beginning with an XE2 (Mexico) at AOS (Acquisition of Signal) all the way throught to a KL7 (Alaska) at LOS (Loss of Signal). It was a lot of fun and everyone cheered whenever Clint completed a QSO. We even had the famous Gordon West, WB6NOA, as an onlooker. It was a great way to spend the evening.

ARRL Southwest Division Convention 2007

Well I am here in Torrance California after a long day's drive for the 2007 convention. My son KR7YAN and my friend Larry W7LB also drove out with me, so even thought it was a long drive it was an enjoyable one.

We used Larry's Avmap GPS to direct us - high tech! Throughout the day I kept checking various HF bands but no contacts made, the propagation was very poor today.

We missed the first hour of seminars but made it in time to attend a talk on pic programming. After that we cruised the exhibit hall - it was nice to see a lot of vendors here. There are definitely a few toys calling out to me, perhaps tomorrow we'll be making some deals.

Shack Renovation Nearing Completion

"Completion" is a relative term because one thing I have learned is that the ham shack is never really complete. It's a continual, ongoing process of changing, improving, and shuffling around of stuff. A true ham shack is more like an experimental playroom, with radios moving around and testing different equipment and arrangements.

I was fortunate to build this bench about 15 years ago, out of simple particle board. I used a 4'x8' piece as the main desk, so it really is big. But I've had no problem filling up the space, even before computers took a prominent place. My recent clean-up has included removing a huge mess of gear from the top shelf - I would have been embarrassed to show a pre-cleanup photo!

One of the best things about this workbench is that since it's not some fancy-shmancy piece of furniture, I am completely unafraid to drop solder balls or spill some ink on it.

Many rigs have come and gone from this bench. To name a few of the "bigger" ones, an Icom 735, Yaesu FT-1000MP, Kenwood TS-2000, Icom 706, and the latest one, seen in this photo, is a Yaesu FT-2000D. I like the big rigs, and have learned that there really is a major difference between ham radios. The '2000D has superb audio and I just love the high-tech output to the LCD monitor on the left.

Conventions and Hamfests

Ham Radio provides some great opportunities for social interaction, technical advancement, and personal growth. All of these can occur over the airwaves but it's always great fun to attend a convention, hamfest, or local club meeting.

I've been fortunate to attend many of these, sometimes as a general attendee and others as an exhibitor or even a speaker. I can't think of a single time that I have gone to a ham radio event and not had a good time.

I'm in the process of a major shack overhaul and while I was cleaning up the top shelf of my workbench, I came across a number of name badges from various events. Usually I save them as a souvenir, and I have quite a pile now. Here is a picture of a few of them.

Conventions are on my mind since I just attended the 10-10 International Net Convention a few weeks ago, and next week I'll be at the ARRL Southwest Division Convention.

Coax Change on the Beam

Last weekend I continued the antenna work theme by doing some maintenance on my own setup. I have a 3-element 4-band beam on a 30-foot tower that has been giving some poor SWR readings lately. I decided to start with the coax since the line that was up there was 12-year old Radio Shack RG8, and the Tucson sun and monsoon rains can really wreak havoc on just about anything.
I had a couple of lines of Times Microwave LMR400 laying up on the roof, attached to a VHF beam that is currently out of service, so I decided the easiest approach would be to just swap the lines. I climbed the tower and it took me about an hour to make the changeout. While I was up there I noticed that the fiberglass insulators used on the Cushcraft antennas (I also have a small VHF/UHF vertical) were really trashed.
Anyway the change in transmission line seems to have helped quite a bit but I still have an unacceptably high SWR on 10 and 15 meters. 20 and 40 are just fine. I'm guessing there is a problem with the traps but it's going to be a big job to repair or replace the antenna.
It's a bummer that while the antenna is arguably the most important part of any ham radio installation, it's also the most difficult to maintain.

Up on the Rooftop

Last Saturday I joined AA7HX, KB7LMI, and K2VNT for a little bit of antenna work. We were making repairs to the K7RST repeater here in Tucson, which operates on 448.325 MHz. The mast holding the antenna is a push-up type and had slid down quite a bit; that resulted in slack in the guy lines, which caused a bending of the mast.

Although we were able to push the mast back up and lock it down on the bottom section, we couldn't work on the upper sections without taking the whole thing down. Also, the bending is probably not repairable. So we improved it and probably lengthened its life a little, but more work definitely is needed.

The picture shows me looking up, with Ted and Dave standing nearby. More pictures are on my website.

Ten-Ten Convention

This being a new blog, I'll post a few "catch-up" items. It also might take me a few posts to learn how to best use this blogging system.

Back on August 9th, 2007, I attended the Board of Directors meeting for Ten-Ten International Net in Omaha, Nebraska. On the 10th - 12th, we had the biannual Convention. It was a great time, with close to 200 10 meter enthusiasts spending their weekend together. We held "parking lot" nets, including both voice and psk31 nets.

Despite the poor propagation at this point in the sunspot cycle, 10 meters is alive and well; we continue to bring in many new members each month. The membership numbers are right on the verge of passing #75,000. The Board voted on several enhancements to our member benefits, including my suggestion of making all 10-10 awards free to members. I'm sensing an upswing in ham radio interest these days - it seems like more hams, including myself, are eager for action. Perhaps it is because we've all been waiting long enough for the cycle to head back up. I think there is also some increase resulting from the FCC's dropping of the code requirement back in February. I cannot wait to see what it will be like when propagation improves.

I set up a little station in my room while I was in Omaha, using a Yaesu FT-817 and an MP-1 antenna. I used this setup for both voice and psk31 contacts.

To see more photos of the event, go to http://www.kr7rk.com/tenten2007.htm