Buddies in the Caribbean Suitcase DXpedition 2011 - Dominica J7

AE4LD ... New BIG GUN in Randolph County

OpTi-BEAM OB 13-6

6 band / 13 Element Yagi  for 40/20/17/15/12/10

I went by to see my good friend Larry Draughn today ...

to check out his new antenna install.

Larry recently moved to a new location and

the picture above shows his new 100ft Rohn 45G tower.

Larry is the owner of LNR Precision 

who produces the Par End Fedz antennas.

Here's another view up the tower !!

Boom length on the OB 13-6 is 7.9 meters or nearly 26 ft

Lightning Protection ? .... YES

Plus ... LMR 600 low loss Coax

No shortcuts at AE4LD !!

The "New Sheriff" in town 

AE4LD ( Larry Draughn )

Guess I'll have to wait my turn in the pile-ups now !!

Larry / AE4LD 

is

"Radio-Active" 

73 de N4LA

ON5RZ .. Bicycle Mobile Across the US & Canada !!

Extreme "Radio-Active"

This has been a really interesting day on the radio ...

Instead of chasing DX ... I decided I would point my yagi out west 

and hang out on the 20 meter qrp frequencies ( CW & SSB )

and listen for the SOTA ops.

These are the guys that operate portable 

from various mountain summits 

and are recognized by the official 

Summits On The Air group.

I worked several interesting portable stations today ...

including  

Raf / ON5RZ 

who started out peddling in San Francisco 

on his Bicycle ....

142 days through USA & Canada. (with a tent & Yaesu 817 ;-)
April 27th. till September 13th. : K/ON5RZ/p and VE/ON5RZ/p

When I worked Raf ...

He was taking a break in Quebec Canada

He was using a Yaesu FT-817 at 5 watts with a small vertical

and

His signal was peaking 59 !!

To follow Raf on his journey 

Check out his blog 

at

http://on5rz.blogspot.com/

ON5RZ

is 

EXTREME

"Radio-Active"

73 de N4LA

Clean Sweep ..... Goats On The Air !!

Colorado 14er Event

Sunday, August 7 2011

Handies Peak ( on the right ) 14060 ft

What is the Colorado 14er Event ?

CLEAN SWEEP 

I worked all the "GOATS" from Handies Peak today !!

WS0TA ... Op: Fred / KT5X ... 20 CW ... 15:26Z

N0B ...      Op: Guy / N7UN ... 20 CW ... 16:12Z

N0B ... Op: Steve / WG0AT ... 20 SSB ... 18:01Z

Thanks Guys !!

Fred / Guy / Steve

are 

"Radio-Active"

A Hams Toy Box !!

My Antenna Toy Box = Fun ... Fun ... Fun !!!

Saturday I decided to get my Buddipole ready for hiking in the fall.

I wanted to optimize my portable set-up ... so I decided to add a 2nd radial

and also tune the radials for each individual band.

A must have for a serious Buddipole user is a good antenna analyzer.

I use the Rig Expert AA-30

This is a very important tool if you want to 

optimize the efficiency of any vertical antenna with elevated radials.

Here's the portable antenna test range

The picture above is my Buddipole Vertical

with 2 elevated radials on a 5 ft portable mast.

Another look at my 2 elevated radial set-up

Here is a picture of one of my guy lines for my

5 ft portable mast .. As you can see I use aluminum

tent stakes and a simple loop to hold everything in place.

S hooks secure the 5 ft portable mast at the top.

I use a home brew radial ring made of  light weight aluminum

( It was home brewed by my friend Guy / N7UN )

This picture shows my elevated radial supports..

They are simply 3 ft  tall driveway markers 

that I picked up at Lowes hardware.

( Another tip from my friend Guy / N7UN )

This is looking down on the elevated radial support.

As you can see the radials are wound 

on a Wire Line Winder also from Buddipole.

and connected to the support pole 

with a simple Velcro strap that's been taped on.

I like to use the Triple Ratio Switch Balun  (TRSB )

also from Buddipole to optimize my portable vertical.

It is fed with 25 ft of LMR 240 coax.

Here's a pic of my 20 meter set-up ...

using the new Buddipole Shorty coil.

Black is my 20 meter tap ... Blue is my 30 meter tap

As you can see I use two ...

 Counterpoise Wire Adapters to connect each radial.

I use a Mini Banana Plug Lead to connect the radials together.

And for the vertical radiator I use ....

4 X 11 inch ( Half Length ) 

2 X 22 inch (Full Length )

Accessory Antenna Arms

and a 4 section

Shock-Cord Whip

As my old pal  Budd / W3FF says...

Have Fun ... EVERYDAY !!

73 de N4LA

Goats on the Air ... from 14er CO & CA

Happening Now !!

Goats on the Air from 14er CO & CA
Posted by: "steve_wg0at" qrp.wg0at@gmail.com   steve_wg0at
Tue Aug 2, 2011 11:38 am (PDT)

"Amateur Radio operators from around Colorado will be climbing many of
Colorado's 14,000-foot mountains to set up amateur radio stations in an effort
to communicate with other radio amateurs across the state and around the world.
Join in on the fun on this first Sunday of August and see how many of the
mountaintop stations you can contact. The prime operating hours are from
approximately 9 AM to noon local time (1500 to 1800 UTC), but activity may occur
at other times during the day. Most mountaintop stations will be running low
power handheld VHF radios. And some HF QRP" ....From www.14er.org

YES! Once again it's that time of year when Rooster & Peanut have to haul the
OG's radio up a 14er! Just why we're not sure ...says, Peanut

But if you're looking for something to do on this coming Sunday AM please listen
for us (Fred/KT5X, Guy/N7UN, Steve/wGOAT) at 1500-1800z on 14061 & 14342.5.
We'll also try to selfspot on QRPspots.com and SOTAwatch2.com.

Fred is some kind of crazy mountain runner in training for the Pikes Peak
Marathon and will likely run ahead to the summit and setup his ATS3 with EFHW
and begin to warmup the frequencies as wSOTA. He will likely be on as the band
as it opens around 1300z or ?

Although the Ham-14er event is primarily UHF/VHF FM operation more stations than
ever will be operating on HF this year ...this could be the beginning of
something big?

You DO NOT have to be on a 14er to work another station!
Please join us for some fun QSOs!!

Here's a partial list of peaks and stations:

MOUNTAIN: Name(s)/Callsign(s) ...Comments
ANTERO: Bob/K0NR and Joyce/K0JJW
BIERSTADT: WE7C ...Tentative plan - so company is welcome
HANDIES PEAK: Steve/wG0AT, Guy/N7UN, Fred/KT5X
....Plus 20m CW/SSB as N0B, nS0TA, wSOTA and wGOAT
Mt EVANS: KD0KOB - N. Amateur Radio League VHF UHF ...maybe 20M QRP
Mt SHASTA, CA: Brian Boschma/N6IZ ...SOTA expedition with hopes to work 14ers
Mt. BELFORD:Keith W0NX ...Can try for Mt. Oxford, weather and time permitting
Mt. BROSS: KC0YRM, KD0DCW, ...possibly others 70 cm thru 20m SSB
Mt. SHERMAN: Scott/AC0FQ and Judy/KD0GUY
PIKES PEAK: KB0SA Stu W0STU and the Troop 6 Boy Scouts and friends
...(see August QST 2011 for story on Troop 6 Boy Scouts)
TBD Brad, KC0PKD

check www.14er.org for more info

73, GOTA (Goats On The Air)
track us at:  http://aprs.fi/?call=Wg0at-7

22 Members of SEAL Team 6

  killed in crash in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Insurgents shot down a U.S. military helicopter during fighting in eastern Afghanistan, killing 30 Americans, most of them belonging to the same elite Navy SEALs unit that killed Osama bin Laden, as well as seven Afghan commandos, U.S. officials said Saturday. It was the deadliest single loss for American forces in the decade-old war.

Thank you 

You will be missed