Are you arranging for a generator for your Field Day effort? Then it’s time to get to work, to drag them out, test them and make sure they’re ready for Field Day.
These tips will help you in getting your small to mid-size generators ready for Field Day. If you’re running a large generator, the kind that comes on a trailer, some of this may bot apply. They will have additional needs anyways. The point is that now is the time to pull the generator out and get it ready.
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W4FT at the W4DW 2008 Field Day 80m/15m SSB station
It’s that time again! Field Day 2010 is a mere 8 weeks away. Or as one of our local hams calls it, that High and Holy Day of Field! Around here, the local big gun is the Raleigh Amateur Radio Society.
So what does all this mean? Simply that it’s time tostart working on getting everything ready. There are other web sites that will detail a broad range of preparations and I urge you to google them and get ideas. My plan is to do a series of posts on different preparation topics. I don’t claim to be an expert, but they should get you thinking! Read more…
Before you take one of your treasures to sell at a hamfest, please unpack the mice!
After last Saturday’s RARSFest, we all went home exhausted and stayed that way all day Sunday. One of my fellow RARS members shared the following. On Sunday night, he was resting on the couch, still recovering, when he heard a quiet rustling noise.
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Well, I said it was temporary. On Friday, I took the TA-33M down. As soon as I can get the pieces all together and figure out an asking price, I will put it up for sale. If nobody buys it earlier, I’ll have it at the RARSFest 2010 hamfest at the Raleigh, NC State Fairgrounds on April 3. Along with the standard 3-band TA-33, I have the 17m+12m driven element and the 40 meter extension kit. I haven’t decided if I will sell it as a complete package or three seperate packages. There’s a used Rohm push-up mast too. More to follow.
73,
Cliff W4FT
That’s right, this hobby is NOT a race! Even in a contest, being the fastest to key the mike isn’t necessarily the best idea. What am I ranting about, you ask? I’m talking about good (and bad) amateur radio operating practices. Lately, it seems like more and more hams will key up and start talking in milliseconds after someone else has stopped. It’s mildly distracting during casual conversations, and, to me, really irritating during net check-in. This isn’t limited to 2-meter repeater operation – it is getting common on HF too. Whatever happened to the concept of waiting a second or two to see if someone wants to break in, or to make for a more orderly net? And what happened to training new ops in proper radio etiquiette? Read more…
Ooh, waaaay too many ham radio accessories around the house! There’s a long story, but the short version is that I have a lot of ham accessories and the time has come to part with them. You can read all about it on the other pages, but know that I kept some of the goodies for myself! Just click on the link at the top of the page – Ham Accessories for Sale – to see the list of stuff available. Those pesky terms and conditions 
are on the page in the pulldown under that same tab.
Hope you find something you like.
73,
W4FT
It looks like my B&W 160-20 trap dipole is having some serious issues. I noticed during the Nov. Sweeps contest that contacts on 40 meters were almost impossible, but 20 and 80 meters was working like a charm. When I put the antenna analyzer on it, I discovered something disturbing. Everything below 20 meters was 6:1 or worse! ( The match on 20 meters is still around 1:1) Today, I pulled the antenna down and started checking it. Everything looked ok mechanically, so I started checking for opens across the traps. Results were inconsistent, and not repeatable on the ohmmeter.
To make a long story short, OXIDATION! I should have soldered all the connections instead of depending on just the mechanical connection of twisted wires. The oxidation looks to be disrupting the antenna connections between the wires and the traps. One of the 40 meter traps may be bad too.
Now, I’m thinking that it is time to replace this antenna with something else for 160 through 40 meters. 160 is a bonus, but 80 and 40 are absolutely required. I have 20 and up covered with a yagi. I’ve been thinking about loops, dipoles, etc., but this probably needs to be some kind of wire antenna. I do have several trees to serve as supports.
Throw out your suggestions! What would you go with?
73, W4FT
With the sun cycle at or near the bottom, 10 meters is a real challenge right now. Last weekend, I spent time on and off trying to make contacts on 10 meters. As you might expect, contacts were few and far between. But, I thought I’d give it a shot. At the start of the contest on Friday night, I started tuning around, looking for stations. Most of the band was dead. I did make a contact with a station in Virginia, which must have attracted local attention. My next 4 contacts were all local Raleigh stations.
Over the next two days, I scanned the band, looking for stations, mostly with no success. Late Sunday, I did find a few more signals, probably from sporadic-E, coming in from Oklahoma, Kansas and South Carolina.
Ultimately, conditions were just so poor that, except for checking the band occassionally, I didn’t do much. While these conditions make for a real challenge, I’ve never been interested in sitting for hours, calling out into the ether without response. This was a great contest back in the mid 90′s when I got my license and maybe it will be again when the sunspot cycle peaks again, but this year…. oh well.
A Clean Sweep! Contacts with every section in the US and Canada during the contest!!!! This was about my third or fourth November Sweepstakes, but I finally did it — maybe. Yes, I know that I made contacts with every section, but will it survive the log checking process? With about 16 sections having only one contact in my log, there’s a chance that a busted call could rain on my parade. One year, I lost three sections from busted calls. Another year, no losses. It all depends on how well the exchanges were handled by me and by the person on the other end. Fortunately, the clean sweep mugs are based on submitted logs, not on post-processing. Since I know that I made solid contacts with all 80 sections, I’m getting my mug! 
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TA-33M and Cushcraft 11 element Yagi are halfway up!
I’ve been remodeling my house for a while now, so the radio shack and the antennas have seen frequent changes and moves. Earlier this summer, I found myself wanting more than just my B&W 160-20 trap dipole hanging in the trees. This would be a temporary install only. Sometimes, you just have to scratch an itch. Read more…
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