Expired Ham – Vol. 1 Iss. 12

Expired Ham

Another week of amateur radio has expired. Expired Ham, get it? 🙂

Welcome to another issue of Expired Ham, a weekly newsletter where I discuss the ways I participated in the amateur radio hobby this week.

I bought the rigid loop for the Chameleon F-Loop 3.0 magnetic loop antenna and it arrived this week. It was super simple to install and afterward, I was hoping to be able to easily tune 40 meters. However, I found it to be just as difficult to tune 40 meters as with the LMR400 cable loop. Maybe it’s just the antenna placement that’s causing that. Since we have nicer weather these days, I moved the antenna setup out to my deck, which seemed to provide a bit better reception at least on 20 meters than what I get when indoors. That makes sense I guess. I may take it out there after sundown sometime to see if I can tune in 40 meters any better.

CW Academy is going well. We are entering our fourth week of class this week. Our advisor keeps telling us that we are exceeding expectations. I do feel like I have been improving my character recognition and sending skills, so I guess maybe there’s some truth to it. Having never taken this class before, though, I don’t know what level of skill I’m exceeding. I’m anxious to see where I am at the end of the class.

I’ve ordered yet another antenna to add to my growing antenna collection. Andy Perryman, N0APX, had a good deal on his “EFHW Biscuit 20” antenna that I took advantage of. The idea behind the antenna, I believe, is similar to that of the Spooltenna (which I kind of want to buy also), in that the full antenna kit is compact and includes a BNC connector connected to a 49:1 UNUN, which is connected to a long wire for the antenna, which is then wound around a spool when not deployed. The N0APX EFHW Biscuit antenna, according to the website, is cut for 20 meters use and is a fraction of the cost of the Spooltenna. My plans for the EFHW Biscuit is to use it as my primary QRP antenna since it should be easy to carry around with the rest of my QRP kit. Andy’s stated on his Instagram account that the EFHW Biscuit antenna is not QRP only. It should be able to handle up to 100W of power on SSB, he says.

I bought and am reading The CW Way of Life by Chris Rutkowski, NW6V, which has been a good read so far. Part 1 and part 2 of a three part video presentation on the MorseBusters Youtube channel is where you can find Chris speaking about “Keymanship”. The presentations cover some of the material Chris includes in the book. I found the presentations before I found the book and bought the book as a result of the presentations. The book is probably better in print since there are lots of diagrams and some use of color that may not present well in ebook format.

The QRP Labs QMX transceiver arrived this week and I’ve played around a bit with it. I have not made a QSO with it but have been learning the menu layout to familiarize myself with how it functions. I’ve also been putting together a portable QRP kit bag with other bits and pieces that I’ve seen other people using in various Youtube videos. I originally opted not to get the CWMORSE.US paddle with the included magnets, but after a bit of use and consideration, I decided that I should have done just that. Luckily, the paddle without the magnets is the same as the paddle with the magnets except that the magnet recesses don’t have the magnets installed. I ordered a bunch of magnets of the proper dimensions as specified on the CWMORSE.US website and a metal base to attached the paddle to when in the field. It just turned out that I don’t care much for operating a paddle with two hands.

QRP kit contents

73 CUL DE K2MAS

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