Out here in Kansas, on the eastern edge of the prarie, the leaves are turning and the first frost is upon us. The time is NOW to get the hamshack in order.
(1) My VHF/UHF antenna and Davis weather station NEEDS to get mounted up on the chimney. I have the mounting brackets – thin aluminium straps that circumnavigate the chiminey. However, the roof at the new QTH is basically three stories high and the roof itself is pretty steep. Too steep for me. The solution? I am trying to get a local roofing company to give me an estimate for the job.
(2) The HF antenna. In the course of sorting through all the hamshack flotsam, I’ve started to identify “stuff” I can part with. Already I’ve said goodbye to some old MFJ TNCs, the Kenwood TS-930S, and my old TinyTrak (thank you Craigslist!). There’s more to part with and I’m still in the process of identfying them (… like an ICOM PCR-1000, TenTec RX-320, and a D-STAR DV Dongle for starters). More importantly (and back on topic), I unearthed two in-the-package wire antennas. The first is an 80M OCF dipole from RadioWavz and the second is a G5RV+ from RadioWorks. Now I need to dust off the CSV19 Pneumatic Antenna Launcher and let the tennis balls fly.
(3) Once I have my antenna situation under control, I can take the hamshack innards to the next level.
Questions to ponder:
Do I retain the hardcopy collection of QST magazines I’ve been carting around since 2005ish? Starting for the late 40’s, it is a solid collection up to 2000. It takes up a great deal of space and I have the same issues on CD. I’d like to find the collection a new (local) home, if possible.
My new job has me on the road – it would be great to take some gear on the road with me. What to take? Needs to have a small footprint. Sounds like a job for the KX1. What to use for an antenna?
I am researching the possibility of doing a mini-DXpedition to one of the Pacific Islands. The overall intent of the operation is to have an adventure, not to activate “a rare one”. The focus has also been narrowed (at least initially) to US possessions. Going to a US possession will alleviate the need to get special operating licenses and/or permissions. Here are the prefixes for what is out in the Pacific:
KH0 Mariana Islands
KH1 Baker, Howland Islands
KH2 Guam
KH3 Johnston Island
KH4 Midway Island
KH5 Palmyra, Jarvis Islands
KH5/K Kingman Reef
KH6-7 Hawaii
KH7K Kure Island
KH8 American Samoa
KH8 Swains Island
KH9 Wake Island
There are a few of these I can eliminate immediately. KH1: Both Baker and Howland Islands have restricted access. I don’t have the time or energy to devote to get special permits and I am only going to go somewhere that has commercial aviation service. KH2: Guam offers this, but it is definitely not exotic enough of a location. KH3/KH4: Johnston and Midway Islands have restricted access and no commercial aviation service. KH5: Both Palmyra and Jarvis Islands are too complicated to get to. KH5/K: Kingman Reef – no way. KH6-7: Hawaii is in the same category as Guam. KH7K: Kure Island… see Kingman Reef. KH8: Swains Island (which probably has one of the most unique stories) is privately owned with no regular commercial service. KH9: Wake Island is a distant possibility because it still has active military and AMC flights, although I would have to get official permission – which is unlikely (but not impossible).
The best candidates are KH0: Mariana Islands and KH8: American Samoa. The Mariana Islands (with Siapan, Tinian, and Rota as the only islands that I am looking at) are probably the easiest for me to get to. Siapan has direct flights from Seoul and is a tourist destination for Koreans. From Siapan there are regular commercial flights to both Tinian and Rota. Both these islands also have lodging possibilities as well.
American Samoa will take a bit more traveling – no direct flights. But it is definitely possible to get there and lodging is no issue.
So the islands in the running are now:
KH0 Mariana Islands CQ 27 ITU 64
KH8 American Samoa CQ 32 ITU 62
KH9 Wake Island CQ 31 ITU 65
The time for the trip will probably be April and I think I would go for 10 days. Now it is time for more research.
I recently took a trip back to the states to attend an exercise at Fort Hood, Texas. I arrived a day early and had a free Saturday. Checking the ARRL website for nearby hamfests, I saw that there was one scheduled in town of Lufkin. Early Saturday morning I hoped in my rental car and sped east along Texas Hwy 7. I arrived around 10am. The hamfest was held at a church and I parked in the front lot along with a healthy population of vehicles bristling with antenna.
Making my way to the rear entrance of the church building, I saw that there was a small group of tailgaters with their wares out. I headed inside to the entrance table where I was told there was no charge to attend. Excellent! Now, this wasn’t a huge hamfest – but what it lacked in size, it made up in spirit and the friendliness of the local hams.
I perused the tables inside, arrayed around an indoor basketball court, not seeing anything that immediately caught my eye. Then again, I really wasn’t in the market for anything. There was a MARS booth – which impressed me that they would be present at a small event like this. In one corner the hamfest organizers were selling Lufkin Hamfest t-shirts. I scooped one of those up. Next I ran across some late 1990s issues of QRPp, the journal of the Northern California QRP Club, which I picked up for 50 cents each.
I always enjoy cruising the parking lot at a hamfest to see the variety of mobile installations. I had never seen such a large HF antenna mounted on a sedan before. The antenna mount was rock solid and I imagine this ham enjoys his mobile HF QSOs.
I have been here in Korea for just over two weeks and am settling in at Camp Red Cloud, located north of Seoul. I think I’ve done a poor job in the blog of laying out the last month and half in which there has obviously been some significant changes in what I am doing.
On May 20th, I graduated from the School of Advanced Military Studies, culminating my two years at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, knee deep in graduate-level text books and Army field manuals. One of the requirements for graduation was to write a monograph on a military subject. I choose to write on the early history of MARS prior to World War II, when it was known as the Army Amateur Radio System (AARS). During this years Hamvention at Dayton, I had the opportunity to present the paper and I am pretty happy on how it all came together. No significant research had ever been done on early MARS history so I spent the majority of my research combing through primary sources and even conducting a few interviews with the few remaining former members of the AARS. If you have an interest in MARS, the history of radio in the Army, or the origins and organization of radio emergency communications, the paper is available here at no cost. One facet to the history of the AARS that I found intriguing was the relationship that grew between the AARS and the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression. The ARRL recently posted a short article I wrote on the subject and you can see it here if you are interested.
My assignment following school was to Korea with the 2nd Infantry Division. To actually get there, I elected to take a less typical means of transportation for part of the journey. I decided to take Amtrak from Kansas City to Seattle, where I would board a government contract flight to Seoul. I had ridden trains quite a bit in Europe, but never had taken a train for more than a short distance in the United States. I had also recently read Waiting on a Train: The Embattled Future of Passenger Rail Service, A Year Spent Riding Across America by James McCommons. If you are interested in passenger rail travel, enjoy a good road trip, or would like to know why train travel fell victim to the car culture, you will enjoy this book. The author, James McCommons, travels all the primary Amtrak routes (with mixed experiences) and talks with US rail movers and shakers around the country. Overall, he said Amtrak was good and getting better. I decided to see for myself.
One of the countries more historic and picturesque routes is that travelled by the California Zephyr. Originating in Chicago, the train traces its way west, climbing through the Rockies west of Denver and on to the Sierra Nevada’s an into California, terminating near San Francisco. My folks still live where I grew up near San Jose, so California was great for a stop over. I could then take Amtrak’s Coast Starlight from San Jose through Northern California, central Oregon through Eugene and Portland, then on to Seattle.
The train ride west was wonderful and I did write a post about it. The stop over in California was a lot of fun. Arriving during the early evening of Thursday, June 10th, I was able to get some sleep and meet my dad for some QRP portable field operations. We headed up to the Santa Cruz Mountains, above Saratoga, strung up a 40m dipole and had fun playing with my FT-817 and KX1. Although we didn’t achieve any great DX contacts, it was a great time. Saturday morning we headed over to a local monthly hamfest known as the Electronics Flea Market @ De Anza College. De Anza College is a little known junior college which has overseen the growth of Silicon Valley. Although I did not find anything I couldn’t live without, I enjoyed roaming around and seeing what the vendors had.
Before lunch, we headed over to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. Founded in 1999, the museum opened long after I had left the Bay Area. Very cool museum!
Then it was back to the train station in San Jose and I hopped on the Coast Starlight and headed north. The train ride was relaxing with some amazing scenery.
I spent Sunday night in Seattle and caught a shuttle bus on Monday to SEATAC. Flying with AMC can be an experience and differs from a commercial flight. The AMC counter was located at the far end of the international terminal and I joined a long line of guys with short haircuts and heavy, canvas green bags. Although I had to check in at 7:00pm, the flight wasn’t scheduled to board until 1am. They didn’t pack the flight, so there was a little elbow room. Instead of flying directly to Korea, our route would take us to Anchorage, followed by Yakota (near Tokyo) and then Osan Airbase in Korea. We got to Anchorage, deplaned for fueling, reboarded and then sat for three hours. Apparently the weather was bad over Japan, so we were held over for about 24 hours in Anchorage. I had been stationed in Alaska during 1993-1994 and it was nice to see that midnight sun again (sunset at 11:30pm with sunrise at 4:30am).
From Anchorage to Japan with a short layover and then on to Korea. The rest of the story is here.
And on the amateur radio side of things… My equipment is here. I shipped over my Icom IC-7000 for HF and a Kenwood TM-D710A to use with my EchoIRLP node. Also on the way is a Davis Vantage Vue weather station that I hope to get on line and on APRS. I need to get my Korean license and have all the necessary paperwork. Just need to get it turned in now. There is a monthly hamfest in Seoul next Sunday that I am going to try an attend – that should be an experience and I will have to bring my camera.
Have you been enjoying Jeff’s new podcast at KE9V.net? Cornbread Road is a Jeff at his best, weaving a tale of mystery and amateur radio in the heartland.
I will endeavor to keep my blog up to date with posts about my experiences here in Korea.
I woke up early with the dual intent of getting to the shower before there was a line and catching the sunrise. Both were accomplished. The shower on the lower level was compact, but reasonably easy to use. Towels were provided. I was in and out fairly quickly and there didn’t appear to be anyone waiting on me to finish up. Unfortunately the sleeper car attendants had not yet begun to brew the coffee, so I made my way to the observation car without the aid of my morning caffeine.
The was starting to make its way up in the east as the sky began to color. There were already a few people in the observation car, a few I think from coach they may have spent the night there in an attempt to get some more room to stretch out. An older couple sat down next to me. They were on there way to San Diego, California to see their grandson graduate from Marine Corps boot camp. One thing I learned quickly is that train travel provided ample opportunity to meet and talk with others. Breakfast was served starting at 6:30am. The food was great and the company even better. I was seated with a couple from Roanoke, VA and an elderly lady from Front Royal, VA. Having formerly lived in Virginia for a few years, there was plenty to talk about. The ladies husband had served in the Air Force and she had lived various places around the country but now lived back near where she grew up. We had a long stop in Denver (the station is next to Coors Field) which allowed everyone to stretch their legs. Reading some of the tips on traveling on the California Zephyr, I knew after the break in Denver, I needed to get a prime seat in the observation car for our trip up into the Rockies.
I sat next to two gentlemen farmers from Nebraska who were traveling to Grand Junction, CO to do some sightseeing around Utah and the northern side of the Grand Canyon. One of the gentlemen had a son who was serving with the 1st Infantry Division at Fort Riley and preparing to soon go overseas. The farmer himself had served in the Army during Vietnam and we got to talk lots of Army stuff having both attended basic training at Fort Leonardwood, although about 20 years apart.
The scenery as we made our way into the Rockies was truly remarkable. The train slowly climbed and weaved its way up the mountain, passing through many tunnels, the longest being the Moffat Tunnel. You could not have ask for better weather; the blue skies with a few high clouds stretched across as far as the eye could see.
I had lunch with a grandmother from Salt Lake City who had been visiting family out east. She traveled the route frequently and pointed out the Glen Canyon river rafters who were enjoying the an exciting trip through the rapids. We had a long stop at Grand Junction, CO where we were able to detrain and walk around a bit. It was hot! That made me realize how comfortable we had it on the train, which always seemed to be kept at a comfortable temperature.
The old train depot there was for sale an Amtrak was using a building next door as its station.
Dinner was steak with potatoes and green beans. I also had some merlot to go with it. A really great meal. I sat next to a woman who was in the process of moving from Portland to Cheyenne to pursue her artistic desires. She had dabbled in photography, making video documentaries, music videos, and other creative medium and decided to dedicate all her time to it to see if she can make a go of it. The couple heading to their grandson’s boot camp graduation were also there and I got to hear about the gentleman’s Army experience (he also went to basic at Fort Leonardwood, MO), winters outside of Chicago, and other interesting dinner conversation.
Sleeping the second night came easier. I think this was due to the lack of the train passing through populated areas and sounding its horn, which seemed to happen often the night before. Again I was able to make my way to the shower early and watch the sun come up as we passed through eastern Nevada, getting closer to Reno.
When we arrived at Reno after breakfast, a tour group of about 20 got off and were going to continue to see Reno, Tahoe, and then explore California eventually heading down to Los Angeles. Shortly after the Reno stop, the train began to make its climb up into the Sierra Nevada Mountains. I enjoyed the picturesque views even more than the Rockies.
The train followed near US I-80, passing Donner Lake and making a stop in Truckee. On the way down on the western side of the mountains I had lunch with a couple and their boy who had gotten on in Reno and were taking a weekend trip to Sacramento. The boy, Gabe, age 7, was a train fanatic and had his own layout at home. The couple had originally lived in Colorado, briefly in Chicago, and had settled in Reno. I enjoyed hearing about Gabe’s home layout where he had a number of different gauges. The family planned to enjoy the rail museum in Old Sacramento, which has always been one of my favorites.
After Sacramento, the train made its way down towards the San Francisco Bay Area. Crossing a bridge in the East Bay and making our way around the water, we could finally see the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco in the distance. The final stop of the California Zephyr is Emeryville, north of Oakland, and that is where I got off to change trains in order to make my way further south to San Jose.
Unsure how the transition to the next train would work, I took my ticket to the Amtrak agent and told her I was headed to San Jose. She asked me, “San Jose? You want to go to San Jose?” and I said “Yes, I really do hope to get there.” She said the train would be there shortly and to hop on. The train arrived on time and I hopped on and found a seat. Soon we made our way south and pulled into San Jose.
I had a great time. Amtrak had been on time (mostly), the sleeping arrangements were fine, the food was excellent and the company and conversation even better. My Amtrak experiment had been a success.
The Southwest Chief from KC to Chicago (aka the Glory Train). No baggage service as the KC Union Station baggage elevator was broken. Bad news for me as I had to haul my two duffles I had planned to check. Lots of walking. From the waiting room out to the elevated platform, down to the train platform and then down to the train. I was worried wasn’t going to find room for the duffles on the train, but it worked out. I had a seat on the top level and soon discovered I was on the Glory Train. A large church group from Chicago had taken the Southwest Chief out to Los Angeles and was now heading back. It was a lively, friendly group and made the trip interesting. I explored the train after a bit, finding the lounge car that had big windows to view the farmland that rolled past us. The offerings from the snack bar were not the best, but I avoided starving. The seat I was assigned had huge leg space, real comfortable. We had quite a few stops between KC and Chicago. One or two were “smoking stops”, which provided time to actually exit the train for a few minutes. We rolled into Chicago early! I needed to find an ATM to get cab fare and then I needed to find a cab. Although signs were posted, it was very intuitive and I quickly was lost and frustrated hauling around my two heavy duffles. I found the ATM and then found the exit only finding myself on the wrong side of the street. There was no way to cross, so I had to travel back down into Chicago’s Union Station and make my way back up on the other side. Did I mention the heavy bags?
On Tuesday I got to the station at 11am with my departure time being at 2pm. This time things were going my way. Check in at the Amtrak counter was easy and the clerk explained where I needed to go to wait and where I could temporarily check my carry-on bags. He also checked one of my heavy duffles. Sleeping car passengers get to hang out in the Metro lounge, which is almost as fancy as one of those airport executive lounges. There I was able to temporarily check my carry on duffle. I then proceeded to explore Union Station. The place is nice, clean, and modern. A food court upstairs rivaled any major airport’s amenities and I snagged a Jamba Juice for lunch while leeching of the free WiFi from a nearby cafe. Back in the Metro lounge I waited until 1:25pm when they called our train for boarding.
The crowd in the Metro lounge included a wide variety of folks but slightly weighted towards the elderly. The lounge was big, but it was filled up pretty nicely.
An attendant lead us out the back door and to the train platforms. I was directed to my car and found my “room”. It Is small, but clean and in good condition. The attendant for the our car came by and covered some of the basics: where the shower is, where to get juice or coffee, and that someone would be coming around to arrange for times for the meals in the dinning car.
As we headed out of Chicago, the urban areas turned to suburbs and then turned to rural farmland. So far no luck in getting my HT’s GPS to lock, but I will probably have better luck in the lounge car.
My Field Day adventure started on Tuesday, 23 June. I finished the final touched to the eARSIB and then through every possible item I thought I might need (minus a 25 pin to 9 pin cable for a Kantronics KPC-3+ which I will talk about later) in a total of 3 footlockers. I packed up the truck, loaded up the dog and was on the road by 10:30am. There was good APRS coverage on my route along I-80 up until western Nebraska where I encountered an almost 200 mile gap. Once I hit Cheyenne, I was back in APRS coverage. My stop for the first night was Laramie, Wyoming, which I made before sunset.
The next day I pushed on west. While in western Wyoming I was able to check into the 40M Sparkle Net (7262 kHz) and talk with Dave, KE0DL, back in Leavenworth, Kansas. I also noticed on my GPS that one of the APRS stations was moving along I-80 the same direction that I was going. I gave a short call on the 2M National Simplex frequency and got a reply. We had both started the drive in Wyoming but parted ways in Salt Lake; he headed south on I-15 to Vegas, I kept west on I-80. I enjoyed the drive through eastern Utah. Park City, Utah is a place I had spent a lot of time skiing about twenty years ago. I’d been there often in the winter, but this was the first time seeing it during the summer.
Traffic was heavy through Salt Lake City and I did my best to make my way around the city as quickly as possible. West of the Great Salt Lake, I had an interesting HF QSO with a gentleman in Southern California who was using an Elecraft K3 with an the diminutive MT-1 antenna. My initial plan was to spend the night in Winnemucca, Nevada but upon arriving discovered they had me on the second floor in a non-pet room. Instead of hauling my footlockers up a flight of stairs I decided to push on to Fernley, Nevada (just east of Reno) where I found a great hotel with a first floor room I could practically back my truck up into. The dog liked it too.
Thursday morning I worked my way up the eastern side of the Sierra Nevadas, listening to a few 40M nets. I reached the Sonora Pass around noon and enjoyed the view. The dog a I hiked up to a nearby plateau and took in the view.
After traveling down the western side of the mountains I was able to raise my dad, KD6EUG, on a repeater near his cabin in Mi-Wuk Village. California Hwy 108 wound its way down from Sonora Pass. The drive was spectacular along the scenic route and traffic was sparse. I rolled down the windows and opened the sun roof to take in gorgeous day. Reaching the cabin in Mi-Wuk, both the dog and I got to strech our legs and rest up. Thursday night we assembled the gear that would become a permanent station at the cabin: an IC-706MKIIG, LDG Z-11 Pro, RIGblaster PnP, IC-208H, all powered by an Icom PS-125. In addition to the radio gear, the station would also integrate a Davis Vantage Pro2 weather station, beaconing the weather data view APRS.
To simplify the APRS setup in the cabin, I decided to use a special add-on piece of equipment from Davis specifically designed to be used for APRS – the WeatherLink APRS streaming data logger. The data logger, once configured, streams weather data directly to a TNC, eliminating the need for a computer (or UI-View32). With this setup, it was not necessary to leave a computer running to keep the weather station pushing data to the TNC and VHF radio. The weather data is formated by the data logger to be ready for transmission into APRS. The station also has a laptop which I installed the WeatherLink software that would allow me to configure the APRS data logger. Configuring the data logger was pretty straight forward. Setting the parameters in the TNC to grab the data loggers APRS weather info proved a bit more challenging. The challenge was further compounded by my forgetting to pack the 25 pin to 9 pin cable that connects the laptop to the Kantronics KPC-3+ TNC.
The real work started Friday. The first task was completing the installation of a Davis Vantage Pro2 weather station on the cabin roof. That was done without much trouble.
The next step would be to get the weather data out via APRS using the IC-208H paired with the Kantronics KPC-3+ TNC and the Davis APRS streaming data logger. With the lack of a good cable to use between the laptop and TNC as well as not knowing exactly what parameters were need in the TNC we decided that task would have to wait until after Field Day.
Now it was time to string some antennas. The first was a 132′ dipole which ran N/S. I’d packed my CVS19 Pneumatic Antenna Launcher (aka tennis ball launcher) which helped us position the antenna up about 40′.
Next we strung a G5RV going E/W. This is the same G5RV I bought from a fellow ham when I lived back in Virginia. He had never used it and I had used the antenna only once while running a special event station at Fort Monroe.
It quickly became apparent that we could not both operate using both antennas due to their proximity to each other and surrounding powerlines prevented us from placing the antennas end to end in order to minimize interference. The solution: my dad’s Force 12 Sigma 5. The problem: the antenna was back in San Jose. So Friday night consisted of my dad traveling back to the Bay Area to retrieve the vertical antenna while I continued to configure the laptop (N3FJP Field Day networked logging software, Digipan for PSK-31, and the Davis Weatherlink program) in addition to setting up my operating position on the back deck of the cabin.
My operating position setup consisted of a 10’x10′ pop-up shelter (with mosquito net) and a large table with comfortable folding chair. Inside the shelter I placed a large table with the eARSIB and my station’s laptop.
I verified that the laptops at either operating position (the one inside the cabin and mine outside on the deck) could communicate via WiFi using the N3FJP software: it worked like a charm. The software allows two (or more) operating positions to share one log. Each operator gets to see the combined log and is notified of potential dupes.
Saturday morning my dad arrived back from the Bay Area and we setup the Sigma 5.
My operating position on the deck had the antenna connections for both the G5RV and the Sigma 5, my dad’s position had the 132′ ladderline-fed dipole. Interference between the two positions was sometimes a problem. I could use the Sigma 5 vertical on 20M, 15M, and 10M as long as my dad stayed on 80M or 40M (as long as I wasn’t on 15M). While this slowed down operations a bit, it gave us time to take plenty of breaks. My dad started Field Day by working PSK-31 on 20M. I worked phone contacts on 15M and 10M. Later my dad switched to phone, which he really started to enjoy.
10M and 15M were really incredible. I was able to work all the way to the East Coast and up and down the West Coast. For dinner, I BBQ’d some brauts. By midnight we were both exhausted and decided to get some rest.
I enjoyed using my eARSIB. This is the first time I used a foot pedal for my PTT – paired with a Heil headset. That worked great, allowing me to use both hands on the keyboard. I had been unable to configure the West Mountain RIGtalk to work on my laptop – not sure why. But it wasn’t too hard to just flip the band in the logging software. I had not used my Logikey CMOS4 Keyer in some time. I paired it with my Vibroplex paddle and the two worked well together. I enjoyed a few QRS CW QSOs – thank you for those who took the time to slow down for me. I had picked up a marine battery to use with my PWRgate and that worked well.
Sunday I got up after four hours of sleep and started working 80M using the G5RV.
The G5RV worked nicely and I contacted stations from Western Canada down to Southern California and Arizona. I moved up to 40M and expierenced similar results – but was also able to work a station in Japan. My dad was up soon and started to work on 80M and 40M with the 132′ dipole while I switched to the vertical and worked stations on 20M. By about 11:30am we were both pretty much spent. Overall we made about 250 contacts, mostly phone but also a few PSK-31 and CW…. and we had a great time!
KD6EUG Brags About The Number of QSOs He Made
We slept well Sunday night and Monday morning had me back working on the Kantronics KPC-3+/Davis weather station. The biggest problem I was having was figuring out what value to use for the GPSHEAD parameter. Without the correct value, the KPC-3+ was not grabbing the weather data. GPSHEAD would pull in the data a place it in LT (a buffer). LPT setup the APRS path. BLT setup the amount of time in between the TNC initiating a beacon transmission containing weather data.
After a few calls to the Davis headquarters, I was able to figure out that “@” was the magic value for GPSHEAD. Now the weather station is up and operational.
It was then back on the road, up and over the Sonora Pass. I was able to talk to my dad, operating from the Mi-Wuk cabin station, on 80M from the top of the pass. I spent the night in Carson City, Nevada and the next day headed east on I-80. I had made the decision to take I-70 back to Kansas in order to try something different as well as seeing a part of Colorado I had never seen before. It was a long haul to Grand Junction, Colorado – I arrived around midnight. After a few hours of sleep, I was on the road again heading east through some of the most beautiful scenery of the trip. Aspen and Veil were beautiful cities – I hope I get a chance to go back there someday. But while the drive was scenic, the going was slowed and progress was not nearly as quick as I had experienced before while moving through Wyoming and Nebraska.
I finally emerged from the Rockies and headed into Denver, stopping at the Ham Radio Outlet located there. Terry, KC0VFO, and I talked about our Field Day experiences – he operated mobile. His call sign looked familiar and sure enough, I had worked Terry on 15M during Field Day.
Moving east through Denver I was back on the open road, moving rapidly along I-70. I heard a call coming over the 2M National Simplex frequency. It was a gentleman operating from the Mt. Evans Observatory – we had an enjoyable QSO and he went on to work others. The Canada Day contest was also underway and I started to hand out contacts from the mobile. I had planned to make it all the way back to Leavenworth, Kansas but realized I was too tired and needed to spend the night somewhere. I crossed the Colorado/Kansas border and arrived in Goodland, Kansas were I found a hotel room and promptly fell fast asleep.
My final day on the road was pretty easy driving. When you think about Kansas, it is usually what you see in western Kansas along I-70. Flat terrain, lots of farms, not much else. For some reason, the speed limit max in Kansas drops to 70mph (Nebraska, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado all have a max of 75mph). I listened to some of the morning HF nets on 80M and 40M, then made contact with K2L, a special events station in Charleston, South Carolina. I was also able to check into the Sparkle Net on 40M and then later worked two stations on 17M, both located in and around the western border area between North and South Carolina. Soon I was back home, arriving before 3pm.
I am getting ready to head out for my road trip west. I recently got an opportunity to visit the Pony Express National Museum and am going to tailor my route west to follow (for the most part) the Pony Express route.
The Pony Express was a fast mail service crossing the North American continent from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, from April 1860 to October 1861. It became the nation’s most direct means of east-west communication before the telegraph and was vital for tying California closely with the Union just before the American Civil War.
Once telegraph service was extended between Sacramento and Salt Lake City, the Pony Express was no longer viable as a money making operation. So in a way – Morse Code killed the Pony Express.
I am going to try to stop at some of the original Pony Express stops as well as other points of interest (like Fort Kearny, NE).
For those interested in following my progress west from the Missouri River to the California Sierra Nevada, I will be using APRS. I will also be looking for HF contacts to keep me entertained on the drive, so keep an ear out for me on 40M and 20M.
Departure time is set for early Tuesday morning. Tomorrow I need to pack.
I am linking up with my dad, KD6EUG, for this year’s Field Day. He has a cabin up in the California Sierra’s in Mi-Wuk Village, located just above Sonora. Our planning for this event has been ongoing for some time. There are really own a few days left and I am trying to lay out all the remaining tasks to accomplish in order to set conditions for a super Field Day experience.
Phase I: Planning and preparation. We’re in this phase now.
Phase II: Travel to California. My love of a good roadtrip has inspired me to drive from Kansas to California for Field Day.
Phase III: Field Day setup. We are going to setup a station that will become permanent up at the cabin. I will operate another station that I am going to setup outside.
Phase IV: Field Day. Have fun! This will be the first Field Day that my dad and I have operated together.
Phase V: Clean up and station tweaks. We will spend the Monday after Field Day cleaning up and making any necessary adjustments to the cabin’s station.
For planning and preparation I need to:
– Make a packing list. There is a lot of “stuff” I need to haul out to California and once we are up at the cabin in the Sierra’s it will be a little difficult to make a run to RadioShack (let alone the Ham Radio Outlet in Sunnyvale).
– Cabin station equipment. I believe I have all the pieces and parts that will make up the cabin station. What I need to do is lay out everything and do a test run. One of the station components includes a laptop. Not only will the laptop running logging software, it will also run all the digital modes. I anticipate setting up the laptop will take a lot of time.
– eARSIB. I need to complete my renovation of the eARSIB. Parts wise the only thing I am missing is a shipment from Mouser which should arrive soon. Minus those parts, I need to finish putting everything together and testing it. This includes interfacing the eARSIB with another laptop (my laptop). All this will take some time.
– Items left to purchase. There isn’t much left to get. A pop-up shelter and a 12v marine battery… a quick trip to Walmart should solve all this.
– Roadtrip plan. I have my route generally planned but I need to make my reservations for my overnight stays enroute to California (… and the return trip).
Come Monday, I hope to get most of the planning and prep tasks complete.
(3) Once I have my antenna situation under control, I can take the hamshack innards to the next level.
I have been here in Korea for just over two weeks and am settling in at 
The Southwest Chief from KC to Chicago (aka the Glory Train). No baggage service as the KC Union Station baggage elevator was broken. Bad news for me as I had to haul my two duffles I had planned to check. Lots of walking. From the waiting room out to the elevated platform, down to the train platform and then down to the train. I was worried wasn’t going to find room for the duffles on the train, but it worked out. I had a seat on the top level and soon discovered I was on the Glory Train. A large church group from Chicago had taken the Southwest Chief out to Los Angeles and was now heading back. It was a lively, friendly group and made the trip interesting. I explored the train after a bit, finding the lounge car that had big windows to view the farmland that rolled past us. The offerings from the snack bar were not the best, but I avoided starving. The seat I was assigned had huge leg space, real comfortable. We had quite a few stops between KC and Chicago. One or two were “smoking stops”, which provided time to actually exit the train for a few minutes. We rolled into Chicago early! I needed to find an ATM to get cab fare and then I needed to find a cab. Although signs were posted, it was very intuitive and I quickly was lost and frustrated hauling around my two heavy duffles. I found the ATM and then found the exit only finding myself on the wrong side of the street. There was no way to cross, so I had to travel back down into Chicago’s Union Station and make my way back up on the other side. Did I mention the heavy bags?
My Field Day adventure started on Tuesday, 23 June. I finished the final touched to the eARSIB and then through every possible item I thought I might need (minus a 25 pin to 9 pin cable for a Kantronics KPC-3+ which I will talk about later) in a total of 3 footlockers. I packed up the truck, loaded up the dog and was on the road by 10:30am. There was good APRS coverage on my route along I-80 up until western Nebraska where I encountered an almost 200 mile gap. Once I hit Cheyenne, I was back in APRS coverage. My stop for the first night was Laramie, Wyoming, which I made before sunset.
