New "ManCave" for N4LA !!

N4LA ... My Last Project & Post for 2012

( Click on pics to enlarge)

In the beginning ..... There was lots of work to be done.

I purchased a new pre -fab 12ft X 12ft Building.

to make into my new Ham Radio Shack / ManCave !!

Sheet Rock and Painting ... Not alot of fun !!

.... will it be worth all the effort ?

I used 3 gallons of Cabot "Australian Timber Oil" 

on the exterior.

Coax / Cable and Station Ground Entry Points.

Here's the new look at N4LA !!

Looks like all the hard work paid off.

Here is my main operating position at N4LA

Happy New Year to all ...

"ManCave" Complete !!!!!

To view additional pics of my new shack

click here on QRZ.COM

73 de N4LA

RARSfest 2012 SOTA presentation

What is SOTA ?

by

W4MPS / Marc Sullivan

Thanks Marc !!

Check out more of Marc's excellent Videos
at
http://www.youtube.com/w4mps

Get

"RADIO-ACTIVE"

73 de N4LA

VP2M with new KX3's !!!!!

The "Buddies in the Caribbean" mini-DXpedition group is off to VP2M (Montserrat) April 8-16th, 2012 with a new group of operators who have never experienced the "other side of a pileup"! We will have two of the new Elecraft KX3's (Ser#23 and #24) with us! We believe this will be the first DXpedition using the new KX3 radio!

Because of severe baggage limits on the Antigua to Monserrat flight (one bag under 50 lbs!), we will be limited to 100 watt or less low power radios and the Buddipole portable antenna systems. Yet our goal is to demonstrate "ultralite" dxpeditioning into magnificent "vista" locations, operating a field portable, battery-only KX3 radio with backpackable, lightweight antennas and most of all "having fun" on the "volcano isle".

The eight operators are: Budd/VP2MFF (W3FF), Guy/VP2MUN (N7UN), Paul/VP2MVO (KB9AVO), Larry/VP2MLR (W7DGP), Russ/VP2MQR (N7QR), Tom/VP2MTM (K2GSJ), and Chris/VP2MYZ (N2YYZ). There will be several Gingerbread Villa stations in operation on 160-10m using CW, SSB, and RTTY or PSK. At the same time, several teams will be battery-only, field portable either from Montserrat beaches or scenic mountain tops with the KX3 and signing callsign/p. 

QSL via LoTW, eQSL,or mail to the operator’s home callsign (SASE required).

73 de N4LA

My Favorite Radio Spot for Portable Ops is on FIRE!!

Coolers Knob is Burning !!

As many of you know ...

one of my favorite radio spots

to operate portable ... 

is only minutes from my home.

It's on the peak of "Coolers Knob"

which is located in the Birkhead Wilderness Area.

I turned on the news about 6:30 am on Sunday morning

And to my surprise ...

I found out that one of my favorte hiking spots

in the area was on fire !!

The picture above shows trucks from the

US Forestry Service

And a specialized group of fire fighters

called the " Asheville Hotshots"

were also called in from western North Carolina.

They also brought along Air support

with a helicopter and drop bucket.

The winds for the past couple of days have been gusty

and have caused problems with containment.

At the present time, just over 50 acres are burning

and the fire is expected to continue spread due to high winds.

As of the last report...

They say it may take a few days to put the fire out.

When they open the trail back up

I'll try and hike up and gets some photos for the blog.

For the latest info go to my local news link below.

WFMY News 2 ( Local News)



Topband Holiday Gift !!

Gifts from "TopBand"

To my surprise...

 160 meters gave many of us a nice holiday gift last night.

"GOOD PROPAGATION"

Late Wednesday afternoon I decided to turn on the K3 

and see if  I was hearing any signals on Topband.

(As many of you know Topband has been poor this season so far.)

At around 6 pm local time or (23:00Z)

I was hearing a few signals from Europe

but nothing to get excited about.

Signals were mainly weak but seemed workable.

I checked the DX cluster and found several spots.

Actually more spots than I had seen in a while.

During the next 45 minutes I managed to put 4 DX contacts in the log.

UR5 , HA8, ON4, DL7

Not great ... (yet) ... but a start.

Anyway .... It was time to get ready for church,

so I turned the rig off and planned to check the band again after church.

When I returned, I turned the rig back on around 9 pm or (2:00Z).

To my surprise, the band was wide open into Europe !!

I managed to put 22 contacts into the log from 9pm to 1am (02:00 to 06:00)

not bad for a band that seems to be just waking up.

I ended up working 18 countries in 4 zones.

Austria, England, Euro Russia, France, Hungary

Poland, Finland, Czech Rep, Bulgaria, Netherlands

Norway, Italy, Romania, Ukraine, Germany

Belgium, Lithuania, Sweden

Zones ... 14,15,16,20

The neat thing was ... 

As I watched my gray line map throughout the night,

 I could see the signals peak for each country

 as the gray line moved across Europe.

The odd thing I noticed ...

 was that most signals were 559 with qsb both ways 

most of the night.

Although they did peak higher at sunrise times.

The band was quiet as well

unlike the night before.

It was "Holiday Magic" for radio !!

What a great Holiday gift.

Thanks "TopBand" !!

73 de N4LA

80 Meters : New Country - New Zone !!

Thanks Mr Wu !!

BU2AQ

 I worked Mr Wu in Taiwan this morning on 80 CW

For a new country / new zone (Zone 24)

Qso time was 12:19Z

He was 449 to 559 with qsb when I worked him 

just after sunrise .. and his signal was still building !!

I received a 559 signal report.

I used the APF feature on the Elecraft K3 for the 1st time

during the qso with Mr Wu ... and I was very impressed,

as it made his signal pop right out of the noise !!

Conditions were Good on the low bands this morning

as the Aurora level was only at 1 ...

which created a possibility for good polar path openings.

73 de N4LA

Get

"Radio-Active"

N4LA Update

Many of you have probably noticed the lack of blog entries for November.

So I thought I would give a brief update.

On Nov 6th my mother passed away unexpectedly.

So for the past few weeks, life has not been easy...

especially with the holiday season upon us,

Needless to say .....

My radio time and computer/blog time 

have been very limited over the past few weeks.

Thanks to all the support of all my ham friends 

around the world during this tough time.

And a special thanks goes out locally to my good friends

Jack / W4TJE  & Abe / K4MK

and also my church family

at

" Farmer Old Fashioned Baptist"

Over the past weekend I finally resumed my radio activities

and found it to be a nice distraction to the past few weeks

As many of you know the CQWW  CW contest was in 

full force over the weekend.

I worked a handful of stations of stations worth mentioning.

40 meters

VU2PAI

4S7NE

80 meters

TC2T

C5A

KH2L

JA1YPA

JA3YBK

160 meters

C5A

JA3YBK

JA1YPA

* This was the first JA's of the season for me on Top Band*

As many of you know I also enjoy the SOTA program

"Summits On The Air"

On Sundays I typically relax and play radio if I get the chance.

This past Sunday I decided to keep and eye on 

http://www.qrpspots.com/

and

sotawatch.org

for SOTA activations.

I was not disappointed, as I put several new summits in the log

VA2IEI / Dennis on VE2/QC-002 ... 20 meter SSB

KD0BIK / Jerry on W0/FR-107 ... 17 meter SSB

NE1SJ on W1/CR-007 ... 17 Meter CW

KD9KC / Mike on W5/PO-007 ... 20 meter SSB

WT5RZ / Ron on W5/PO-007 ... 17 meter CW

Thanks Guys for your summit activation efforts... 

as we all know

 some of these summits are not easy to get to !!

For more info on SOTA 

go to 

http://www.sota.org.uk/

Thanks again for all the condolences

73 de N4LA