2010 ARRL Field Day

I stopped by the Peace River Radio Association’s field day location, so I thought I’d share a few photos I snapped while there: View Full Album A good looking antenna farm was already up, including dipoles, yagis, a vertical with ground radials and what appeared to be either a log periodic array or a highly […]

First Contact on the Boat !

I finally screwed up the courage to hit the ‘tune’ button on the 746 and successfully ((I think) tuned up the entire rig on my sailboat (mast, shrouds, stays, etc.) since I have not yet installed my backstay insulator. That insulator will complete the installation of my boat QTH… At least my SWR meter indicated […]

Handheld APRS

Here is where I was at recently (as reported by my handheld ham radio): http://aprs.fi/K0GKJ-7 I was sitting on my boat, with my ham radio turned on and set to automatically transmit my APRS beacon to the world. Unlike my SPOT satellite tracker, no subscription fee, just a little amateur radio ingenuity, and it passes […]

Mobile VHF/UHF

Since I built my VHF/HF rig (Icom 706MkIIG) into a suitcase for portable ops, my relatively new HT (Yaesu VX-8R) is performing mobile duty on the road. Just got the GPS feature too, so now I can broadcast realtime position data (APRS) as I’m rollin’ down the road. Looks pleasingly funky, and works pretty darn […]

HF Install on Boat Almost Finished

A radio shack aboard a liveaboard boat falls somewhere in between a shack at the house and a mobile rig in the car. Best of both worlds, I say! I’m borrowing on my experience with mobile ops as well as gyrations in setting up a QTH at the house. Add to that those aspects of […]

Mobile Ops & Installing the “Sorta Base”

Now this is my primary mobile VHF setup: View Full Album And work continues on my primary “base station” (which is also sorta mobile) – the boat… below I’m constructing the high voltage cable that will connect my (end-fed) wire to the antenna tuner. After putting ring terminals on both ends, I found that I […]

Boat QTH Progress

Since we were at anchor away from home for a couple of days, the YL pursued her favorite on-the-hook passion (read) as I pursued mine (putz on projects, one of which was making progress on my radio installation). Installing my Icom AH-4 antenna tuner (coupler) was priority one for me now that I had materials […]

A Second Portable Tower & Antenna – for VHF/UHF… Works Great!

When you gotta sneak around, slipping antennas toward the sky without anyone bitching about it, the results can be rewarding in a rather perverse manner. Especially when the results are SPECTACULAR !!! Plus, with portability as a priority, it’s a lot of fun knowing you can set up anywhere, literally in minutes, and get on […]

The “Bug” in Operation

Well, I finally got my modest unprepossessing new forty-eight year old (1962) Vibroplex bug–mostly cleaned up. Turns out that is painstaking work, cleaning with a Q-tip, isopropyl alcohol and metal polish (Flitz), while keeping track of lots of itty-bitty parts during the take-apart and put-back-together-again-without-screwing-it-up operation. I tried not to disassemble too much at one […]

Portable Ops

This was my first deployment of the completely portable and self-contained antenna system & station – great receiving, no contacts, however (didn’t try too hard) – mostly testing setup time, operational deficiencies, etc)… I only deployed four tuned elevated radials for twenty meters, but was able to load the antenna up nicely on forty as well, […]