Before I forget, I wanted to jot down some notes about the Parks on the Air exercises I just did in Iceland and the Faroe Islands. Final statistics: Iceland: 11 parks activated (9 the first time anyone had), 382 QSOs, 277 confirmed (as of writing) for 41 countries. For the Faroe Islands, 172 QSOs, 121 […]
Parks on the Air Notes Read More »
In the seven years since my first radio contacts, I now have a process for logging amateur radio contacts. However, it wasn’t until I started working remotely more that I appreciated how logging amateur radio contacts accurately is complicated. This inaccurate logging was the cause of much frustration during the final throes of my completing
Logging Amateur Radio Contacts Accurately Is Complicated Read More »
During one of my CW classes, a couple of my students were waxing on about the fun they had in assembling a QRP Labs QCX+ radio kit. They invited me to participate in the fun. Although I’ve done small kits in the past, this was much more ambitious. I was leery what paltry soldering skills
QCX+ 5W CW transceiver kit Read More »
I had a lot of fun hunting during the first “contest day” of the CW ARRL DX contest last weekend. 10M was wide-open, with runners as 28.160. Not only did I set a personal record for volume of QSOs in a day, enough confirmed for me to blow past the 100 needed for DX CC
100 Country CW Club Read More »
For ham folks who stumble here, the tl;dr is I’ll try to activate four parks on the air as TF/WT8P. I will be QRP, which means CW or FT8 are preferred modes. Logging should happen pretty quickly because Iceland is well-connected. I’ve been overthinking my trip to Iceland, but this is what I’ve settled on:
I wrapped up another field day with my friend Paul (W7PEZ) in Eastern Washington. For the two days, I had 204 contacts, broken out roughly as: Paul worked 200 contacts, nearly all CW. Both are personal records. Neither of us were “running,” which would certainly have bumped up the totals, nor did we operate all
Notes on Field Day 2023 Read More »
In geocaching, there are a lot of “challenges” published, where in addition to signing the log, you have an alternative logging requirement (“ALR”) to perform some feat. These can be as simple as “find 10 mystery caches” or “find a cache for every letter in the alphabet,” or more complicated. In my 15 years, I’ve
My first HF radio, the Elecraft KX3, was air-cooled and got me spoiled to the relatively quiet operation. The K4D, on the other hand, has two fans. Although the “base” ventilation speed has been lowered, there’s also some whining from the bearings. Most hams can’t hear it, I, unfortunately, can and don’t enjoy the sound.
Quieter fans on the Elecraft K4D Read More »