Sunday, July 31, 2011

If It Ever Cools Down ... I'm Ready !!

N4LA's
Buddipole Vertical
Yes ... I'm ready for portable ops 
If the WX ever cools down !!
My portable antenna system covers 10-80 meters
Total weight ...Less than 5 pounds.
So whats in the bags ?

1. Military Surplus Carry Bag
2. 24" to 48" Portable Mast 
( Painters Pole )
3. 2 X 22" Accessory Arms
4. 4 X 11" Accessory Arms
5. 4 Section Shock Cord Whip
6. Elevated Radial Stake

1. Military Surplus Carry Bag
2. 2 X 66 ft Radials
3. 5 X Tents Stakes
4. 25 ft of Coax
5. 3 X Guy Lines
6. VersaTee
7. Standard coil for 40 Meters ( Optional )
8. Shorty Coil for 10 - 30 Meters
9. Accessories / Extra Clips 

The Total Antenna Package
I use the two 66 ft radials and the VersaTee 
to make a full size 40 or 80 Meter Dipole.
10 - 80 Meters with 
NO TUNER
Not Bad !!



73 de N4LA
Waiting for 
Cooler 
Weather
So I Can Get
"Radio-Active"




Too Hot For Portable Ops !!

Turn Up The Heat !!


We hit 100F degrees again this weekend ...
I'm ready for winter !!

73 de N4LA



Friday, July 29, 2011

Big Gun Portable Ops !!

EI8GQB / EU-115
"Olivier"
2011 IOTA Contest
I worked Olivier EI8GQB (Home call ON4EI ) 
on 40 meters this afternoon ...
from his incredible portable location in Ireland.
He was running a K3 at 100 watts 
and a single 40 meter vertical.
His signal was peaking S9 at times.
Olivier was testing his antennas 
to prepare for this weekends IOTA contest.

Here is a pic inside the portable shack.
Olivier will be running SO2R / 100 watts
with a Elecraft K3 and a Kenwood TS-2000 ...
during this years 2011 IOTA contest.

Here is portable antenna # 1
10 element 20m inverted V antenna 
pointed at the US ...
14.4 dBI gain with 40° 3dB beamwidth
manually bi-directionnal East 100°-West 280°
Look at the take off angle at this location !!

So what are the rest of the portable antennas 
at Olivier's portable antenna farm ?

OTHER ANTENNAS

3 element 40m vertical array 
SPIDERBEAM 20-15-10 m band
18M VERTICAL TOP LOADED 80-40m Band
CROSS DIPOLE 80-40m
Beverage antenna 200m long east-west

WOW !!!
What a portable set-up ...
Look up Olivier on QRZ.com 
for more updates !!

EI8GQB 
is 
"RADIO-ACTIVE"

73 de N4LA


Sunday, July 17, 2011

Great Headset for the Elecraft K3 !!

My New K3 Headset


( Turtle Beach  ... Ear Force Z1 )
$29.95
I have often wondered what a "Gaming Headset"
would sound like on my Elecraft K3...
Well let me tell you ... this little headset rocks !!
The headphones or "cans" as some people call them ...
 produce excellent receive audio ...
The headset is both light weight and very comfortable.
The ear cushions incorporate unique acoustic-silencers 
to reduce background noise.
The Transmit audio, to my surprise was very good !!
The mic element is a electret condenser ...
The mic is quite sensitive and produces very clean audio.
It's also a noise cancelling mic that's very effective.
The frequency response is well balanced.
The boom is longer than the average PC headset 
and its nice and flexible, but not flimsy.
If you like the Yamaha headset that many K3 owners are raving about ... 
you should like this even better.
It's cheaper .. and in my opinion a much better headset.
Best of all they plug directly in the back of the K3 ... no adapters needed !!
I purchased mine at a local Walmart.


73 de N4LA

My Summer Reading List !!

This is a great book if you are interested in Topband DXing ... 
Lots of good info here ... 
A must have if you enjoy sleepless nights chasing rare DX !!
..............................................................................................


If you love experimenting with antennas ...
or
You are a fan of Force 12 antennas .... this is a great read.
Tom Schiller ( N6BT ) has always been on the cutting edge of antenna design
In this book...
Tom shares his antenna observations over the years.
Lots of great antenna info here !!
.............................................................................................


If you are considering buying a Elecraft K3
or 
You already own a K3 ... this is a must have item !!
Fred ( KE7X ) ... explains in detail what you need to know 
before and after the K3 purchase.
Another way I describe this book is ...
It's like the owners manual on "Steroids" 
Simply put ... This is the K3 Bible !!

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Ham Radio Fun !!

Firecracker Hamfest
Salisbury, North Carolina
Sponsored by
The Rowan Amateur Radio Society )

I wondered why they called this the "Fire Cracker" Hamfest ..
Now I know !!
Have you ever been to hamfest in North Carolina in July ?
The two words that describe it best are ....
HEAT & HUMIDITY 
I went with my buddies K4MK / Kent and W4RKO / Tom
and we had a great time .... thanks for the invite guys!!

Get
Radio-Active "
Support your local Hamfest

73 de N4LA




Tuesday, July 5, 2011

High Winds on the 4th of July !!

July 4th Storms .. I'm lucky this time !
Storms blew in Monday evening and almost cost me a roof.
We had little rain ... But what we did have was straight line winds
reaching in excess of 60 mph just before the approaching storm.
In the picture above ... the 80 ft Poplar tree is now 60 ft !!
Here you can see the top 20 ft of the tall poplar tree
now resting on the ground. 
It sounded like Fire crackers 
exploding when it began to fall !!
This final picture was taken from my front deck... 
as you can see, 
these tree limbs are much too large 
to simply drag away ... 
The limbs missed my heat/air unit by 3 ft... 
and my roof by 10 ft ..
Fortunately there was no property or antenna damage
just a lot of scattered debris.
Guess today was my lucky day, 
since I narrowly avoided a call to
my insurance agent.
But
I'll have to fire up the chainsaw ...
to clean up this mess !!

73 de N4LA