Tag: special event station

Saturday

I’ve been recovering from a cold, so I have been on as much as I’d like. I had a couple notable QSOs today:

W7DK/90: The Radio Club of Tacoma’s 90th Anniversary special event station. An ARRL-affiliated Special Service Club since 1920, the Radio Club of Tacoma will mark the occasion with a homecoming dinner October 21 and a week-long operating event with certificates. Special event station W7DK/90 will be on the air October 16-22, and for part of the event will put its “old oak rig” — a circa 1930 breadboard-style AM transmitter — on the air. “We have done some historical research, and it’s been very interesting,” says the club’s Peter Baker, AD7EU. One item that turned up was a W7DK QSL card from 1938.

JOTA: Jamboree On The Air — a nearly 50-year-old tradition — provides an opportunity to showcase Amateur Radio for Boy and Girl Scouts and Guides, Cub Scouts and Brownies around the world, some of whom will be part of the next generation of radio amateurs. I had a nice QSO with two Scouts up in Wisconsin. One Scout was a 2nd Class and the other Life.

CW QSOs: the first few on 20M and 30M had the op at the other end blazing away a little to fast for me. I then went down to the good ol’ Novice sub-band on 40M and had a nice QSO with Fred, KC2IOD. His callsign looked familiar and sure enough – I worked him when I activated the Old Point Comfort Lighthouse (USA-567) back in February.

FISTS: I received the latest issue of the FISTS periodical. Lots of good reading.

Lunch contact

I had a short QSO with Ray, W3YBF during lunch today. After my second call of CQ on 7.114 MHz, Ray came back with a nice 599 signal. He started out sending faster than I could copy, but then slowed down. I wish had had more time for a longer QSO.

I’m also slowing sending out the remainder of the certificates and QSL cards from the W4M Memorial Day special event station. These are to folks who have not sent a SASE (or anything else), but I figured I might as well send out the certificates I’ve printed and the QSL cards that I have.

Special Event Station N6T

Amateur Radio Technology Day is two years old and to celebrate we are operating a special event station with the callsign N6T from Oct 7 – 1600Z until Oct 8 – 0300Z.

Frequencies
14.240, 14.044
7.240, 7.044

We are offering special QSL cards to commemorate the event to all stations who QSOed with us for the event. QSLs should follow the ARRL rules for special event stations by sending your QSL card and QSO information along with a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) to the address below.

QSL
David A. Cooper
270 Redwood Shores Pky.
PMB #41
Redwood City, CA 94065

Saturday…..

Finally checked into the VA MARS net. The net started late and I had almost given up on it. I’m going to try and check in again tomorrow morning. I need to get around to raising the height of my inverted vee – I think it will better help my signal get out.

I was able to catch W1AA (Henry and Whitey) and their activation of the Highland Lighthouse (USA 110) out on Cape Cod. Whitey, K1VV, is usually out ever weekend doing a lighthouse activation – always has a nice signal.

Had a very nice Radio Merit Badge class for a young Scout out at Fort Monroe in the afternoon. I setup my 10′ x 10′ shelter and the ARSIB. Initially I planned on setting the G5RV (like during the W4M Memorial Day Special Event) but the wind was quite heavy, so I opted to put up the homebrew vertical dipole. To get some height on the antenna, I attached it to the top of the painter’s pole. Before I had a chance to tie down the pole, a gust of wind knocked the antenna down. The fall caused the feedline connection to break off. Not good. However, with a little bit of wire and some electrical tape, I was able to reattached the feedline connection. Now the antenna was low to the ground and I was a little concerned about it’s performance. The Scout arrived and we started reviewing the Radio Merit Badge requirements. I was able to easily tune WWV on 15 MHz and was also able to find a CW QSO in progress on 40M. Also demoed a bit of CW using my MFJ paddle that has a speaker built in. After we’d reviewed all the requirements, it was time for the HF QSO. The Scout called CQ and after a few tries, received a reply from Charlie, N1MUQ, in Stamford, CT. Charlie had a booming, solid signal and the Scout was able to successfully complete the QSO. We then moved to my mobile VHF rig and the Scout had a nice QSO with Randy, WB7URZ located up in Gloucester. Even with the antenna setup issues, the Radio Merit Badge session was a success and I think both the Scout and I had a good time.

A few updates from the shack….

Scouts: received my Radio Merit Badge pamphlet in the mail today. Between the pamphlet and web resources, I want to put together a course package for the merit badge. One of the gentlemen I work with has a son who is interested in pursuing the Radio Merit Badge… so I need to get crackin’.

Army MARS: put in an application for Army MARS. The VA state rep told me it will be a couple weeks before I get my MARS callsign and initial training information.

US Army Amateur Radio Society: picked up a few more members. need to make contact with the Iraqi folks to check on the status of the pending YI9 applications.

DX: made contact with one of the newest DXCC entity… Montenegro! The YU6AO Montenegro DXpedition team now has a Web page at http://www.yu6ao.info/ and a log search at http://www.yu6ao.info/log.html … I’m in the log!

eBay: purchased an ASTATIC D-104 microphone. Should be a fun project adapting it for use with my IC-706MKIIG.

Local ham swap: made a deal to purchase a SB-220 Heathkit HF Linear Amplifier! This should give me a little more motivation to improve my antenna situation. Also need to acquire an antenna tuner.

Lighthouse QSL cards: finished my QSL cards for the Bodie Island Lighthouse (USA-062) and the Currituck Beach Lighthouse (USA-212) activations. Some of the Currituck Beach contacts are getting a North Carolina lighthouse key chain/compass/thermometer. Tried to get those to fellow ARLHS members.

W4M Special Event Station QSL cards/certificates: everyone who had sent me a SASE has been sent a QSL card (and certificate if they provided a large envelope).

SkyWarn Net: checked into the Chesapeake Amateur Radio Service (CARS) SkyWarn Net. They had made recent improvements to their repeater and have greatly expanded the coverage.

W4M Feedback

I got the following email:

From : KC2HZW
Sent : Monday, July 24, 2006 8:20 PM
Subject : RE: W4M QSL

Hi Scott!

I recieved your QSL card and Special Event Certificate today. WOW! I Have to say this is one of the most beautiful cards and certificates I have ever seen. It’s really obvious that you put quite a bit of time and thought into their creation. While I don’t “chase” special event stations, I do work a hand full each year; this one will definitely go into my book to show my ham friends and visitors to my station! Nice job!

73 de Richard, KC2HZW

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It’s nice getting the positive feedback. Makes all the effort I put into the event worthwhile!

Lazy Sunday

Knocked out some more QSL cards and certificates for the W4M special event station. It’s fun going through all the QSL cards. Two QSL cards stood out from this morning, one from Washington State near Fort Lewis and the other from Sierra Vista, AZ… near Fort Huachuca. Each QSL response has the W4M folded QSL card, the Old Point Comfort Lighthouse (USA 567) QSL card, the W4M US Army Amateur Radio Society special event certificates, and sometimes a picture or two from the actual event.

The US Army Amateur Radio Society is picking up more members. We’ve been able to identify more hams downrange as well as hams getting ready to go – trying to get them their reciprocal licenses as soon as possible. Also identified some folks in Korea, to include a POC to help with licensing. I need to start looking at Germany as well… I’m sure there has to be quite a few Army hams in Germany.

…. and I even had a 40M CW QSO today! Had about a 40 minute ragchew with AA4TB who is down in Summervile, SC (near Charleston). Tommy put up with my horrible CW skills and kept it slow. I need to find the time to do some serious work on my CW. I wish I could find somebody I could establish a regular CW sked with… like two or three times a week. I think this would really help me improve. Plus – on air practice is a lot better than working one of those CW computer programs.

I have grand plans for a new antenna. The Radio Works is a local company and produces quality antennas. I have two Radio Works G5RVs – one of which I bought from a local ham. The antenna was originally purchased back in the 1980s, but unused. I used the antenna for the W4M special event station – still looked like new and worked like a champ. My current antenna is a B&W end fed inverted vee. Although it has omnidirectional properties, it has a N/S orientation. My plan is to put a Radio Works Carolina Windom 160 Special with a E/W orientation. I intend to use it as a flattop, 133′ in length. I have nice pine trees in the front and back yards, I think I can get the Window up about 50′ or more. Just waiting for my CSV17 Pneumatic Antenna Launcher!

Saturday… having fun

I had an interesting morning with a trip to The Suffolk Seaboard Station Railroad Museum. What a wonderful place! They had an elaborate model train layout that was based on Suffolk back in 1907. Also had an old telegraph key on display with a Morse Code dot and dash chart. Interesting to note…. it showed American Morse Code, not the international Morse.

The rest of the day has been spent working on QSLs for the W4M special event station. I will have all cards/certificates sent out by Monday to those who had sent me a SASE. In addition to the special event QSL card, I’m trying to include my special QSL card for the Old Point Comfort Lighthouse (USA 567) (http://www.ni0l.com/usa567/)… as well as the certificate. I think the certificates turned out nicely.

This weekend with AD7MI

I looked for three special event stations this morning and didn’t find any of them! There was the Anniversary of Moon Landing put on by the Reservoir Amateur Radio Association, Wapakoneta, OH, the Colonial Williamsburg/Historical Triangle by the Williamsburg Area Amateur Radio Club, and the 200th anniversary of Zebulon Pike’s Expedition by the Pikes Peak Radio Amateur Association (PPRAA). Didn’t hear a peep for any of the three. But – while searching for the above I was able to work Bermuda (a new country!) and also the W1AA out at the lighthouse on Clark’s Point, MA.

I’ve been catching up with my QSLing. I was able to get about 40 cards out the door this morning and have another 40 ready to go.

Cleaned up the workbench in the garage. Set up the trickle charger with my big ol’ marine battery. It’s a Black & Decker – I’ve already gone through one that died on me. I hope this one continues to work.

Had a nasty storm pass through very quickly. Enough to get me wet while BBQing dinner. The local SkyWarn net was up. Thunder, lighting, and about 0.06 inches of rain in about 5 minutes. Also trying to work AA1BU who was on 20M from the Virgin Islands. I think he had his antenna pointed towards Europe, had no luck trying to work him.

I need to bang out a few more QSL cards. Sure would like to finish up WAS and DXCC. One contact at a time I guess.