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.
Good news everyone. I finally finished my FT-891 mobile installation. If you recall from a few weeks ago, I mentioned that I still had to sort out a tuning problem with the ATAS-120a that was preventing me from getting a good match on 15 meters. I’m happy to say that I’ve overcome that problem. It just took more bonding, apparently. I only completed that work yesterday evening, so look for a write-up this coming week on it. I think the full install turned out quite nicely. Now that the tuning situation is resolved, I can focus some effort on tweaking my operating position inside the car. I’m unsure whether the steering wheel desk is the best place for my paddles. I would welcome any ideas for possible mounting solutions if you have them. As you can see from the following photo, though, there’s may no better location and I’ll just have to make it work.
On the home front, my wire EFHW typically gets tossed into the air with the fed-end at the bottom. I do this because the transformer is too heavy for the Explorer POTA 33 mast’s carbon fiber elements. It bends way too much. It bends quite a bit with just the weight of 33ish feet of wire hanging from the end bits. I really like the brand and I like that the masts are capable of collapsing down to a truly manageable size for portable use (I absolutely love the Explorer POTA 20 for hanging a QRP antenna in the air), I did want to try deploying a traditional sloper configuration for my antenna. GigaParts and the Ham Radio 2.0 Youtube channel hosted another Let’s Make A Deal event on Friday evening, so I did a bit of bargain hunting. I picked up the Intellitron AM-2133M 33-Foot fiberglass mast and a couple odds and ends. This new mast is made of fiberglass instead of carbon fiber and its dimensions in regard to thickness of each element is greater than the Explorer mast. It should provide a bit more rigidity at the top end, enough hopefully that I can hang a somewhat lightweight EFHW transformer, like the new Spooltenna mini, in case anyone wants to gift me something. I would be very interested in how feeding the same antenna from either end actually affects its propagation and efficiency properties.
This weekend (March 21-22) brought us the Virginia QSO Party and some poor solar weather. I did not participate in the QSO party, however, I did get out and activate a local POTA park on Saturday. I’m fairly certain that everyone had issues with the bands yesterday due to the CME that had passed by overnight the night before. It was a massive struggle to get the minimum 10 contacts needed. I was hoping today was going to be better, but I woke up to find the solar weather forecasters are reporting a G3 magnetic storm current in effect due to a coronal hole stream. A K-index of 7 is apparently not good for ham radio.
Yesterday was the first time ever (I think) that I’ve actually heard another station on the VHF simplex frequency 146.52. I was impressed by the number of local operators who were participating int he VA QSO Party on VHF. I hadn’t thought of taking my FT3D’s hand mic with me yesterday, otherwise, I might have been tempted to hand out a QSO a time or two. I have no intention of putting a larger VHF/UHF radio in the car. If I have learned nothing else from this FT-891 installation, it would be that this car was not meant to have ham radio equipment installed in it. I do intend to use the mobile whip connected to my FT3D to play around with APRS a bit and maybe with SKYWARN should I get more involved in that program this year.
In a bit of non-ham news, there’s a new craft brewery pub that has opened within walking distance of the house that the wife and I just stumbled upon yesterday when at the grocery store. So that’s exciting! I am familiar with their beers and their food was good, so I think we’ve found a potential summer hang-out for when we don’t feel like cooking our own dinner. And we get a bit of exercise by walking instead of driving. Beer = Win. Good eats = Win. Exercise = Win. Now hopefully they stay busy enough to stay open. They are in a location that’s had two or three other restaurants over the last decade, so I’m hoping they have a better fate than the others.
Have a great upcoming week, my friends. Spring is here and soon we’ll have an abundance of pollen in the air to fill our eyes and noses. I look forward to tending my 6′ x 6′ yard as the grass appears to be growing again.
73,
Matthew, K2MAS
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