How do you get yours up? Antenna that is...
Total Voters: 37
Grrrrrr!
Tuff day on the ice floes in Central Florida. I was not able to use my target location because of rain and wind direction, so I operated from the back porch of our condo with my Sierra and SST working through my Buddistick up about 15 ft on a painter’s pole. Temp hovered in mid to upper 40’s but with the wind and dampness it felt colder at times.
Band condx were poor with brief bright spots when the QSB let up and signals sounded fairly decent. I started on 30m but it was pretty quiet so I tweaked the antenna in the rain for 20m and found it even quieter… Back to 30m after checking 40m which also was noisy and almost no signals heard.
First QSO was K9DP Dan in Smithville, TN… He was 569 until QSB hit hard but we had a 25minute ragchew that was nice. He gave me a 599 and a couple others did later making me wonder why they could hear me better than I was hearing them? Then read the mail for a bit on a few other stations but didn’t get a rise when I tried to connect. Tried to connect with K9QB but after a few weak QRZ’s we both moved on for better luck.
Finally heard a PB on 20m, WD4MSM, Barry in Indiana working someone else. When they finished the QSO I called Barry and we had a short QSO although the QSB was up and down and made copy tough at times. It was good to be able to Grrrrowllll. Tried to find others and even using the QRP Spots and K3UK spotting pages could not connect. Then I called CQ and Guy rose out of the Band N7UN was in the log… Good to connect with another Bear but the copy deteriorated quickly so we kept it very short. Thanks Guy for digging my signal out. Next was Frank,, KB3AAG to finish my day. His signal totally got lost in the noise and so it was a short QSO to end the day.
Whew… many antenna changes, tweaks and lots of tuning, listening, trying to hear today. I think the bands were pretty void of activity except for us QRP types. Not often that happens, eh?
Thanks to all who went out and gave it a go. Missed talking to our Canadian and West Coast guys this time… let’s keep trying. Also quiet without Ken Bear raising a ruckus from MI and no Alpha Bear on the AT… See ya in March… Grrrr!!!!
72, Kelly K4UPG PB #173
Today was Polar Bear Moonlight Madness Event! I wore my new Polar Bear hat and it brought me luck. I setup in the 3 story prayer tower at Pioneers, my ministry headquarters. That kept me out of the weather and got me up in the air a bit which helped my W3EDP antenna do its thing.
Pioneers Headquarters Prayer Tower on left
Bands were pretty good and there were a lot of QRP signals out there as well as SKCC and FIST ops. I worked a few of my fellow Polar Bears:
Then I worked a few non-PB’s and had some good QSO’s with SKCC members.
Next weekend is the FYBO and the Central FL QRP Group will be operating its first multi station- multi operator event at Sylvan Lake Park in Sanford, FL. If you’ll are down this way look us up. If not, give a listen for K4AHO which is the call sign we will be using.
Here’s to many good QSO’s. Thanks to all the good ops with good ears that heard my peanut whistle 2 watts today.
The last few days our local news was full of stories about the cold weather that gripped Orlando. I signed up for a shift to operate special station K3Y/4 for the Straight Key Century Club (SKCC) as part of the celebration of the 4th year anniversary of our group. That meant going outside and setting up antennas and sitting out in the sleet and cold rain that was falling. YIKES!
Tough sending even with fingerless gloves
Good thing I have lived in cold weather before. I had to dig a bit, but found my long johns, thermal tee shirt and other cold weather gear. My favorite bear coat, Purdue stocking cap and fingerless gloves finished off my official Polar Bear outfit. I did my duty but nary an answer to my endless CQ’s on 20m, then 40m and eventually 30m! Two hours of calling and zip to show for it. I’ll be back… ya’ cannot discourage a POLAR BEAR QRP Op that easily!
Grrrrrrr! Brand new Polar Bear #173 ventured out to Lake Fredrica today to stir up some fellow PB’s on the air. Setting up the mini bac Delta Loop Beartenna went well and I started on 40m. The band was OK, but I couldn’t seem to raise any BSO’s with my fellow Polar Bears. After a few minutes I switched to 20m with my Wilderness Sierra and WOW! The band was full of California ops in some sort of contest. Most of them blew me away with their fast CW and very strong signals but it was good to hear so much cw activity and the band was pretty good.
I setup my trusty Buddistick for 30m and almost got a perfect SWR. My Wilderness SST on 30m was hearing a good bit of activity and I managed brief qso’s with fellow Polar Bear QRP members W05X and N9SKN despite pretty heavy QSB on both signals. I heard W6BBQ and WG0AT but could not get a reply when I called them.
A bit later the band opened to Europe and I also was hearing West Coast (California and Washington) stations. I came back to S57MU and he gave me a 559 into Slovenia! Not bad for 2.1 watts out and it was a good way to end a fun day.
Thanks to the Polar Bear QRP Group for allowing this baby bear to participate. I look forward to future portable events and I’ll keep workin’ on a super-duper Beartenna so I can hear ya’ll even better. Grrrrr!
PBMME Oct 09 portable site at Lake Fredrica Orlando, FL
Tuning for Bears on 30m
My project this week was a Ten Tec 1051 Noise Bridge. I used a Ten Tec enclosure and it all went together quickly and even worked on the first try! It is a sweet tool for tuning an antenna when using a tuner without putting a signal on the air. I think it will help me and my BLT+ find the sweet spot a good bit faster than doing it otherwise. In the future, I plan to upgrade it to a full RX bridge so I can do some measurements too. Here it is…
TT 1051 rear view
TT 1051 Noise Bridge simple front view
I have been like a kid on Christmas Eve thinking about this event. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and I chose to stay closer to home than originally planned. In this low power (QRP) ham radio event, the Bumblebees were to hike, bike, or travel via water to the spot they would operate. As bee #86, I donned my backpack (overly packed by the way) and headed to the lakeside park in our housing development which is about 3/4 mile from my home. It was about 90+ degrees Farenheit at 11 am when I set out to my site.
The sky looked good, except the clouds were building to the Southwest… So I setup camp and decided to use the shelter rather than be out in the open in case rain came. Good choice!
So I setup my Buddistick for 20m using my MFJ 207 Analyzer. I soon had the SWR down to 1.3/1 and after hoisting the antenna into the air on my semi-official BEE colored painter’s pole it went down to less than 1.2 to 1! Good enough for this ham! Signals were a bit down and there was a good bit of QRN which would get worse. Since it was early, I ate lunch and watched the herons work the shallows of the lake while I waited for the 1 PM starting time.
Bumblebee 86 on the way out~ note the BEE colored hat
Buddistick up and away
She's up and ready to rock n roll
From the bottom looking up!
My Rig setup. Nice view, eh?
Unfortunately, the weather decided to roll in and 15 minutes after the start I made my first qso. Then the lightning sirens went off and I pulled down the antenna and played it safe. After two hours of watching the rain and lightning show and a few herons on the hunt for food, I got a window of good weather and put the station back on the air. Two more qso’s in the next 20 minutes and then the rain and lightning moved back in on me.
Here comes the lightning and rain again!
So with only 39 minutes to go, I decided to roll up the coax and trek home. I had lots of fun despite the challenges. I’ll be there next year, the Lord willing!
The last couple weeks have been busy at my office. This weekend we took some time off and headed to St Petersburg Beach. Since it was ARRL Field Day and I have not participated in that great event in almost 30 yrs, I took my Wilderness Sierra and Buddistick antenna and did some LAZY operating from the beach. My little 2.5 watts out didn’t break through too many pileups, but I had a great time listening to all the activity and being at the beach too.
You can only take so much Florida sun in one day… gets might hot. So I found a fine alternative and perhaps set a historic way to use the Buddistick. Check out my Hammock Mobile operating site. Buddistick is on the support pole.
After taking a few laps of the tailgate vendor area at the Gulf Coast Amateur Radio Club Hamfest in New Port Richey, my wife, Connie and I drove down to Honeymoon Island State Park and Beach on the Gulf coast north of Clearwater/St. Petersburg. This was my first time out with the new setup for pedestrian mobile. I learned a lot and had a blast despite semi-poor band conditions and a very windy day.
I was using a MFJ 9420 on 20 meter SSB to my Buddistick mounted on my backpack frame. I connected with several HF-Pack members on the 14, 342.5 MHz hangout or there abouts… heard lots of others too. Budd Drummond, W3FF was spotting and helping the portable and mobile stations make connections. Budd was pounding in at 20 over S9 from California and had the best signal I heard all day. Lower on the band I heard good signals from Spain, Azores, and a few G3’s but my 10 watts didn’t compete with the contest crowd today at least.
Here’s some photos of the setup I used. Will refine it to prevent some of the wind related problems I experienced today and post more detailed photos in case someone is considering a similar rig. The wind load on the Buddistick and bicycle flag combination was a real surprise and caused a number of issues for me.
Honeymoon Island initial testing.
First contact brings a smile to my face!
Tweaking to compensate for sun caused vfo drift
Working the HF Pack 20m frequency
Wind forced me to the pier
