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.
Hello everyone. This week was another fun week of getting more CW experience under my belt, or shall I say “between my fingers”. Also, it was another week of buying a bunch of amateur radio stuff that I think I need. I gotta stop doing that.
If you have been following along with me over the last couple of weeks, you’d maybe recall that I broke my NØAPX EFHW antenna after getting it stuck in a tree. I had reattached the wire and it worked fine enough, but after connecting an antenna analyzer to it, I realized I could tune this thing a bit better. So, I removed the old wire and attached about 35 feet of new wire to it and then stuck it up in the air to start fine tuning. I didn’t do what I shouldn’t have done the first time I tried tuning this wire, which was to snip off what I thought I didn’t need, only to find that I did need it because I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. Taking some inspiration from the recent purchase of the Spooltenna, I instead, simply looped back the wire onto itself until I got a good match on the analyzer. In my defense, I did do this initially the first time I tried to tune the NØAPX antenna. Where I went wrong was snipping off the excess. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
So, that’s good news. I like the NØAPX EFHW because it is tuned for 20 meters which means it is short enough to be deployed at my QTH, albeit in an almost vertical manner. Perhaps not the best way to deploy an EFHW wire, but it gives me something to work with that’s better than my CHA-F-LOOP 3 magnetic loop antenna, which I kind of hate, and the AX1 whip, which I kind of like. I think I’m going to sell the mag loop.
I didn’t buy anymore antennas this week, though I almost did. I was doing some price comparisons between the Buddipole mini and the Chelegance JPC-7. I think a dipole is going to be my next antenna purchase.
What I did buy this week, however, is a new pack to stuff my radio stuff into that I can just grab and go. I had purchased the Elecraft bag for the KX3 and was disappointed that it’s no different than a cheaper padded bag with customizable velcro pieces on the inside. I had expected something custom made to be perfect for the KX3 and some extras. Anyway, I wanted something better because by the time I put in all the RG-316 cables, DigiRig Mobile and its cables, the AX1 and it’s counterpoise, a couple CW keys, a battery pack, the KX3 itself… you get my point. I had run out of room for the things I needed to keep together as a kit. Also, I bought the Elecraft PX3 panadapter so I needed more room to stow that along with everything else. The backpack I bought is ruggedly-built, has lots of pockets, has lots of Molle style straps on the sides and front, can carry my MacBook Pro, has a padded back for comfort and lots of air flow, and perhaps the best feature, the front unzips about 3/4 of the way down meaning that you can lay the pack out flat on a table and just set things inside of it instead of having to try and stuff things down from the top. The pack is the Amheh 32L “Military Tactical Backpack” which seems to be up to the job I have in line for it. Now I have to figure out how to not pack more than I need for an outing. I have like three EFHW antennas in the bag now and 50 feet of RG-8X and that’s just too much. But, I wanted to see what the bag was made of and even if I were to carrying around all 50 lbs of this stuff, it seems like it would put up with the abuse.
I bought a few other things to add to my kits like in-line chokes and that Elecraft PX3, but none of it has arrived yet so I’ll wait to talk about it until next week.
On a different topic, I tried activating US-1596 Seneca Creek State Park again via CW and failed again. I was having a difficult time getting calls copied successfully. QSB is killing me. After struggling with that, I did manage to log five contacts, which isn’t anything to write home about I guess, but it’s better than none. I’ve made it a point to practice contest running with the callers affected by QSB with the expectation (and hope) that through regular practice, I can get better at copying a message that is fading severely. QSB is going to be a struggle for me if I can’t figure out how to beat it.
I also hunted a few IARU HF contesters on Saturday. That was kind of fun. I kept hearing “CQ TEST” and at first just thought it was someone testing their radio, but after hearing CQ TEST all over the band, I started wondering what was going on. There were only two contests that I could find that was on for this weekend; the SKCC weekend sprint and the IARU HF contest. After looking at the contest rules for the SKCC sprint, it didn’t seem likely that these people calling CQ were working that contest. I found the answer in the IARU HF contest rules where the suggested contest exchange was given and stated specifically “CQ TEST FROM CALL” as being the recommendation for calling CQ. As it turned out, the hunter message is super simple–RST and ITU zone. Of course, that just means 5NN and if you’re in the eastern U.S. the number 8, i.e. “5NN 8”. So, I hunted a few of those contesters and had a good time at it. Then thunderstorms started to roll through and I had to pack it up and call it quits for the day.
Lastly, I’m going to try again to activate US-1596 as soon as the weather cooperates. I will be trying out some new tactics to combat those damned mosquitoes next time I go out there.
And on that note, I’m going to say 73 and HPE CUAGN next week.
Matthew, K2MAS
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