A New Beam for W7FPX

This afternoon, I helped my friends Jim, W7FPX and Larry, W7LB, set up a new Cushcraft MA5B beam on Jim's roof. It's a nice compact little antenna that can work on 5 bands (10, 12, 15, 17, and 20 meters). Here is a picture taken late in the afternoon, just before I hoisted it into the rotor. It was great to see Jim again, it wasn't too long ago that he was a member of a small group of us that would take telescopes out to dark sites for observing sessions.
I had some other ham radio fun today as well, I worked my first-ever RTTY contact during the ARRL RTTY Roundup. I wasn't making a serious contest effort but I did decide to use the contest to learn how to use my DM780 software to operate RTTY. I was successful in getting it to work, although I must admit that I think PSK31 is a superior (and more efficient) mode. But it's all part of the fun to try out new operating modes. I made 10 contacts in the contest and will send in my log to help for checks against logs of the more serious contesters.
I also made one Kid's Day contact with my two younger sons. They talked to a 13-year old in New York, she is already a General class licensee.
It appears that NASA identified a sunspot a few days ago with reversed magnetic polarity from the previous cycle, indicating the start of the new cycle. This is exciting news for us hams!

Straight Key Night - Happy New Year!

The ARRL's Straight Key Night is going on right now as I type this. It started last night at 5:00 p.m. local time (which is 0000 UTC) and goes through until 2400 UTC. I've spent a few hours on it, mostly listening but I have made a few QSO's. My CW skills are not great but I can do a fair job copying up to about 15 wpm; above that, I'm not yet confident enough to jump into a QSO although I can usually pick out most of the words. Sending is always easier than receiving, but even there I tend to make mistakes after I've been operating for a while and get tired.

I've never done a lot of CW operating and one of my New Year's Resolutions is to start doing more of it. I've got both the straight key as well as an electronic keyer paddle - both of them made by Bencher. One problem with CW is that a QSO takes a longer time than on voice. A typical brief CW QSO might take 15-30 minutes, so to do CW requires a bigger time commitment. And time is something I never have enough of. It also requires a greater level of concentration. But it's really a lot of fun and I know that the faster you go, the more fun it gets.

My first SKN contact last night was with N6WK, who is one of the founders of the Straight Key Century Club (SKCC). Gordon holds SKCC #3T and I was pleased to add him to my log.

We're taking a family hike today so I'm probably finished with SKN for this year unless we get home before 5. It was a great kick-off to a fun year in ham radio!

Hamming it Up at Cub Scout Camp

Here's my junior op Jason, making a 2 meter QSO this morning at the Catalina Council Winter Day Camp. The camp consists of 2 days of various activities, one of which was a ham radio demonstration set up by the ARRL AZ SM Tom Fagan, K7DF (that's his new call). Tom recruited a bunch of other hams to come help him, and they did a wonderful job enticing the kids with 4 different stations. The boys made a simple circuit, practiced morse code and phonetic alphabet, learned to solder, and operated the 2 meter radio under the watchful eye of one of the volunteer hams.

Out of the 16 activities that they did, Jason says he liked the ham radio station the best. That makes me happy! He's probably getting old enough to start studying for the technician license, and although he has plenty of daily opportunities to operate my radios, he tends to take that for granted. So having the setup at the camp was a whole lot better than me just inviting him to come in to the shack.

By the way, what you can't tell from this picture is that it was only about 40 degrees out there at the time. We've been in a cold spell lately.

ARRL's Emergency Communications Course

I just completed the ARRL's Level II Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Course (ARECC Level II) yesterday.

These courses are definitely worth taking. They require some serious time and commitment, because there are numerous "Activities" that really need some work to do properly. They are not just fill-in-the blank or multiple choice questions, instead they are quite challenging projects.

I'm hoping to become much more active in local emcomm efforts (my last official RACES badge expired a few years ago) and these courses are helping me tune back in since there have been many changes to the way emergency management utilizes amateur operators. In the past I have been involved with the Pima County RACES group, Civil Air Patrol, and the Rio Rancho Public Safety Reserves. I've always enjoyed this type of volunteer effort and while my primary interest in ham radio really isn't about emergency communications, it is one of the FCC's stated purposes for the existence of amateur radio and it can be quite interesting.

There is one more course in the series, Level III, which I'm registered for already. It won't start until later this month though.

Letting the Smoke Out

I recently broke the 1st rule of electronics - "Never Let the Smoke Out". This picture shows my MFJ-705 Low Pass Filter, which decided to misbehave during a recent PSK31 transmission. The odor was intense, not just a smoky smell but a seriously awful chemical olfactory offense which somehow managed to infiltrate the entire house.

I have not figured out why this happened as the 705 is rated for high power (2500 watts) and I was only running about 50 watts. Sure, the PSK signal is continuous duty, but it doesn't seem like that should cause it to melt.

So I guess I will be testing out the famous MFJ "No Matter What" warranty. Meanwhile I'll just be grateful that the whole shack didn't burn down!

Fixing Up the Traps

This afternoon I finally finished repairing the traps on the Cushcraft A3-S. The repair job hasn't really taken a lot of time, but other responsibilities have made it a long process. Basically I removed the trap, removed the old cracked caps, blew out the traps to clean out any debris, checked the set screw, replaced the caps with new ones, checked the DC continuity, scrubbed the ends with emery cloth, applied conductive paste, and returned them to their proper position. One of the hardest parts was tightening the hose clamps enough, and I did have to repace a few.

So hopefully I will be able to get the beam back up soon.

El Tour de Tucson

I've ridden in the El Tour de Tucson a few times, but this year I volunteered as a radio operator. Ted AA7HX assigned me to the role of Sector #1 Chief, which turned out to be a very good job for me.

The race has somewhere around 9,000 to 11,000 riders, depending on who you listen to. My Sector covered the first ~30 miles of the 110-mile route. There were 4 aid stations in the Sector, and my job was basically to cruise around helping the radio operators stationed at each aid station. Net Control provided us with directions. We didn't see a lot of action, since the race had just started; later Sectors had more accidents, bike repairs, and food and water problems to deal with.

I started up about 5:30 a.m., and was finished by 11:00. It was especially interesting to work El Tour since I'm currently in the midst of the ARRL Emcomm Level 2 course, which is designed to train operators for proper net control procedures.

The picture shows my truck at aid station #3. The net was on the W7SA 2 meter repeater, and I also ran APRS from the truck along with numerous other hams.

D-Star at RST

Last night was the RST meeting, and we set a new record for the largest attendance ever with 56 people squeezed in to the room at Cox Media. The topic was D-Star, and it was an excellent presentation.

After the presentation, the club made the commitment to set up a new D-Star system in Tucson. The excitement level has been high and as of this afternoon it looks like enough funds have been raised to go for a "Full Stack" - which means that we should be seeing 2 meters, 70 cm, and 23 cm repeaters in service before too long.

A couple of guys in the club already have Icom 2820H rigs, here is one of them set up on the table for a demo, with a 1.2 gHz repeater module in the background. The audio is certainly cleaner but the real power of D-Star seems to be in the networking capabilities. It will be interesting to watch as the D-Star system evolves.

That's what makes ham radio so fun, there is always something new to play with!

Eyeball Picnic

There's an unofficial group called the "North American Simplex Alliance" (N.A.S.A.) that hosts an annual eyeball picnic for hams. The picnic was this afternoon at Ried Park and there was a nice crowd there. I brought the whole family and we enjoyed plenty of good socializing and more food than anyone could possibly eat.

Tucson Hamfest

Yesterday was the annual hamfest, sponsored by Old Pueblo Radio Club. The hamfest was held at Tucson Electric Park and got going bright and early in the morning. I didn't arrive at sunrise but I heard that's when things got started, as usual. There were two rows of seller's tables, with plenty of good deals and stuff that no one can live without (or that no one wants, depending on your perspective). Hamfests certainly support the idea that one man's junk is another man's treasure.

I had planned to sell some junk but changed my mind the night before. I also didn't buy too much, just a few odds and ends like a wire cutter, mobile speaker, and some Anderson Powerpoles. I also got a free Alinco DJ-X10 wideband receiver, but as I expected when I got home and tried to power it up, no luck. I did get a chance to see lots of friends there, and also managed to get a bit of a sunburn.

Another Great Radio Society of Tucson Meeting

Last night was the monthy meeting of the Radio Society of Tucson (RST). The speaker was Steve Franks, KE7BTE, who gave an interesting talk about Radio Mobile software. Radio Mobile is an interesting mapping program capable of modelling radio wave propogation. We also got an update about various ham activities going on around here. It seems like ham radio is really undergoing a rejuvenation lately. The club repeater just got an upgrade and is now on Echolink (node # 7095). The Tucson hamfest is looking to be a strong one (only two weeks away!), and the annual picnic will be the next day and has a lot of interest already. Contests are being planned, possible D-Star system is under consideration, and lots of other stuff happening. It sure is good to see the excitement!

Today is the 10-10 Sprint. So far it appears that the band is going to be very poor, the only contacts I've made so far are with my YL and son. The antenna is still on the roof, but hopefully the package of parts needed to repair it will arrive from Cushcraft today.

Down Comes the Beam

This morning a few guys helped me take down the A3-S beam for some repairs. We started a little after 6 a.m. and by 8:00 the tower was looking pretty lonely without it. It's been about 13 years now since I put the antenna up, and unfortunately it's been providing rather poor SWR readings for a while now. I was fortunate to have the help of some experienced, safety-conscious hams - Owen AK7AR, Eric KC0AYD, and Larry W7LB. Eric did the tower climbing - in this picture, he's lowering the beam (Owen was holding a rope on the ground, attached by a pulley at the top of the mast), while I'm maneuvering it to the resting spot on the roof.

I was hoping it would be a quick fix, but decided that it needs a little more detailed work, so we didn't put it back up yet. It's sitting on the roof, and hopefully this week I'll spend some time cleaning out traps, etc. I also need to decide whether or not to replace the rotor. The old one, a Yaesu G-450XL, still works very nicely, but it isn't capable of computer control, and given its age I would not be surprised if it didn't last a whole lot longer anyway.

So I'm off the air on HF at the base for a while. I've had some nice success recently, using the tuner; last night I worked some PSK31 including Cuba. But the antenna is arguably the most important component of the station and I'd really like to get it back working the way it used to.

Some Good DX on 20

This morning I managed to have a little fun on 20 meters before heading off to work. Managed to work Czech Republic, Sweden, Ukraine, and Market Reef. This was a nice surprise since last night 20 meters was as quiet as it could possibly be.
The Market Reef contact was with OJ0B and is a DXpedition planned to be active for only about 9 days. They came back to me immediately so I guess we had a nice pipeline going. I'm amazed at guys who do these DXpeditions. This one required a helicopter fly-in and apparently they have already had to deal with bad wx conditions.
Alas my antenna is not behaving well at all, 20 is fine but the other bands are not. I'm working on a plan to do some antenna work very soon, hopefully before contest season really gets rolling.

CAT Control with Ham Radio Deluxe

Tonight I managed to get the computer talking to the FT-2000D. I was thinking I'd need to solder up some special DIN connector but it only needed a 9-pin F/F serial cable, which I already had.

I've been using Ham Radio Deluxe lately and now it is able to control the radio. Actually I prefer to operate the rig using the knobs and dials - there is something missing from the overall ham radio experience when you use only the computer for control. However, the synchronization between the rig and the logging program is very valuable, since the software now knows exactly where I'm tuned. This will be especially useful in contest situations.

The Antenna Farm

Here's a picture of part of the KR7RK antenna farm. At the top is the HF beam, and on the left is a new Comet GP-15 tri-band vertical that I bought at the convention last weekend. It covers 6m, 2m, and 70cm and is connected to a quad-band Yaesu FT-8900R in the shack.

On the right is the APRS wind anemometer, and next to that is a Cushcraft dual-bander AR270B that is used for the APRS weather station.

There is still a ton of antenna work to be done to really get things running smoothly and efficiently.

HRO Phoenix

Today I had to work at a client's office in Northern Phoenix. It just happened that the Phoenix store for Ham Radio Outlet was nearby, and I finished up early enough to pay them a short visit. I didn't buy anything since I just went to the Convention last weekend, but it was fun to stop in and see the rigs set up all along the wall, and all the goodies for sale. I took this image with my cell phone, so it's not too good, but you can see the beams on top of the store. There was someone inside playing with a little Ten-Tec rig and listening to W1AW on CW.

On the way up this morning, I was surprised to hear my friend Jesus, N7SCE, come on the 448.350 repeater. Turns out he was going the opposite way and we were close enough to switch over to VHF simplex for a nice QSO. But I think the little antenna on my Pontiac needs to be replaced, it's not doing a very good job these days. I'll try to check the SWR this weekend. I also decided not to put on the HF antenna for the drive because the mount is getting quite loose. So in addition to all the antenna work needed on the base, and on the truck, I also need to do some on the car. So much to do, so little time.

RST Club Meeting Night

Tonight was the monthly meeting of the Radio Society of Tucson (RST). The club is really growing lately and there are some excellent presentations at the meetings. The speaker tonight was Ron Holle, a meteorologist from Vaisala, which is a company that operates the National Lightning Detection Network. These guys have some very advanced lighting detection systems and they publish plenty of data regarding lightning strikes around the world.

Ron's talk was quite interesting and while it was not directly related to amateur radio, it certainly was a relavant topic since we all need to be concerned with our antennas taking a hit. Last year I had a neighbor whose tree was hit, and the lightning jumped across to the house and started a fire. Another friend of mine from the astronomy club had a very damaging strike at his house this summer. Tucson is one of the worst places in the country for lighting strikes during the summer monsoon months. Here's a picture I took last year from my back yard during a severe thunderstorm - I probably was putting my life on the line when I took this!

An Old Classic

My first dual-band HT was an Alinco DJ-580T, which I bought in 1992. The DJ-580 is a full-duplex, true dual-bander VHF/UHF handheld and I sure had a lot of fun with mine. Today's HT's are a little bit smaller but at the time, the '580 was a heck of a lot of radio for its size.

In a sad moment in radio history, my '580 vanished one day, never to be seen again. I wish I knew where it went - I think it's possible that it got set atop a car and we drove off, but that's just a guess. Anway for years I have sadly wished it was still in my rig collection.

I finally decided to watch ebay for sales and sure enough, there are plenty. After a few weeks I found what appeared to be a good one, and with a little bit of bidding I won it for less than $100. This was a $500+ radio in the heyday, but the newer HT's and lower HT prices in general have made it worth less. Actually, a hundred bucks is a lot for most HT's of that age, but this one is worth it.

Anyway I received it today and it's almost like new. I got the full kit, complete with box, manual, etc.; there were also a bunch of accessories like a drop-in charger, DC cable, case, etc. So I feel like I'm finally catching back up to an old friend. Do I really need this Alinco HT? Well no, I suppose not, since I have a fancy Kenwood TH-F6A with more features; but I definitely can put the full duplex features to use if we work some easy-sats like we did a couple of nights ago. One thing I especially like is the independent VHF and UHF volume and squelch controls.

Alinco has never been the "Big" name in ham radio, but in my mind this one is a classic and I'm sure happy to give it some new life.

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.