The KØNR Weblog

During this busy Field Day weekend, I received an email from Alex XE1MEX reporting that he has achieved DXCC via Satellite. This is quite an accomplishment since he made most (or all?) of the contacts via LEO satellites. It turns out that I have worked XE1MEX several times on the FM birds from home and from PJ4 (Bonaire) and HR3 (Honduras). Although I have not been on the OSCAR satellites lately, a few years ago it was a major focus of my ham radio activity…resulting in VUCC on Satellite. I made it a point to activate rare grids and countries whenever I could and it was tons of fun!

It is great to hear that Alex achieved his goal of DXCC. I really appreciate that he took the time to thank the hams that helped him get it done by activating the various countries. It brings back memories for me…maybe I should dust off that Arrow II antenna and go find an island to activate!

73, Bob K0NR

Dear friends,

Today, I am celebrating the submission of my application for my DXCC Satellite award !.

All of you made a great contribution to make my dream came true and I really appreciate your support to achieve one of my important goals as amateur satellite DX operator.

All of you were operating out of your home when we had our satellite contact. On most of the cases, I did not get any other contact with those DXCC entities afterwards; therefore without your cooperation I would be still far away of achieving my long awaited goal (almost 10 years working/confirming):

Ramón, XE1KK> HC8/XE1KK, KP2/W1RSV, PJ7/VE7RKK (and others…!)

Drew, KO4MA> FS/KO4MA, KG4MA, VP2EAG

Allen, N5AFV> VP2V/N5AFV, J79AFM (and others…!)

Bob, K0NR> PJ4/K0NR, HR3/KB0CY

Neil, VA7DX> 3DA0WC, 7P8NK

Yoshi, JF6BCC> T88IY, KH2GR

Vladi, LZ3XV> 5N0EVR

Rafael, XE1GRR> XF4DL

Dave, W2VV> VP5/W2VV

Wayne, W9AE> FG/W9AE

Jerry, K5OE> 9Y/K5OE

Neil, W6FOG> W6FOG/6Y5

Nori, JE1PLR> A22BP

Bill, N2COP> N2COP/C6A

Francisco, CT1EAT> CT3/CT1EAT

George, DU1KIR> DU1/GM4COK

Rolf, DK2ZF> EA6/DK2ZF

Wayne, N5WD> V31WD

John, N8QGC> N8QGC/VP9

Jean, F6CBC> FM/F6CBC

My appreciation too for the satellite operators of the DX-peditions:

GB4FUN, VP6DIA, TZ6RD, 5K0Z and K5D

THANK YOU VERY MUCH TO ALL OF YOU AND BEST 73 !!

Alex, XE1MEX

I’ve been thinking a bit about “Trail Friendly Radios” for VHF in preparing an article for QRP Quarterly. I came across this video about choosing radios for use in the Summits on the Air (SOTA) program. SOTA is a fun program from Europe that has found some interest in North America. The basic idea is an awards program that encourages operations from the various summits in a region. This has some similarity to the Colorado 14er Event and its associated awards.

Anyway, here is the video by Richard G3CWI:

Catching up on the fine material spewing out of the web. Remember, if it came from the internet it must be true.

Newsflash: The DTV transition has happened and the world has survived. It just doesn’t matter, because it is television. To quote Joey from Friends, “it is a moo point….a cow’s opinion.”

Brian Wood, W0DZ, has opened a ham radio store in Loveland, CO. Good luck with it, Brian.

The Fi-Ni Report says there is a movement to regulate the speed of Morse Code. Really funny. I am not sure who is writing this stuff but their mind is sufficiently warped….which I like.

Did you miss the ARRL June VHF QSO Party? It was a party. Excellent 6 Meter propagation from Colorado to most parts of North America.

In the What’s Up with That Department, Riley Hollingsworth K4ZDH is now on the QRZ staff. I guess qrz.com is serious about cleaning up its act….they brought in the enforcer. I am a fan of Riley’s and best of luck to qrz.com.

From the This is Stupid Department, I came across this blog posting about teaching Fortran as a programming language in college. This is totally nuts. Maybe criminal.

I’ve been trying out Verizon’s broadband internet service, using my tethered mobile phone. I have to say this is pretty sweet, even if it costs $50/month. I was looking for a way to get internet up at the cabin in the mountains. No DSL or cable there, so the choices are limited. The Verizon signal is acceptable (could be better) but actually seems more usable for data than voice. (I guess we are more tolerant of dropouts on data feeds than on voice.)

73, Bob K0NR

I have gotten into the habit of taking photos of interesting radio sites. This all started as part of my general tendency to visit mountain summits to play ham radio. It turns out that for some reason, there are quite a few radio installations in high spots. Hmmm, imagine that.

So I started taking photos of the more interesting ones. One thing lead to another and I now have a photo collection of lots of different towers, antennas and radio sites. Fortunately, my spouse thinks this behavior is cute…other people find it a bit crazy.

So I am driving west on Highway 24 and I see this really big flag pole at Lake George, CO. It just doesn’t look quite right— a bit too fat. I drive closer to get a better look and, sure enough, it is really a cell site with an antenna disguised as a flag pole. (This is at the US Forest Service work camp. )

Clever design, I think.

73, Bob K0NR

One of my toys these days is a Jeep Wrangler (TJ) which we use for playing in the mountains. I finally got around to installing some ham radio equipment in it a few weeks ago. I mostly wanted to have good old 2 Meter FM - the amateur radio utility mode - in the vehicle. These days, it makes sense to include 70 cm (440 MHz) as well.

The Jeep Wrangler

The first priority was to pull the old AM/FM receiver and put in a new Sony CDX-GT430. Crutchfield supplied excellent installation instructions and soon I had the center portion of the Jeep dash pulled out and the receiver installed. This work gave me valuable experience in pulling the Jeep’s dashboard apart. Not surprisingly, the Wrangler disassembles quite nicely with just a few screws here and there and a handful of those snap-in-place trim fittings to undo.

Sony AM/FM/CD Receiver installed

The next job was to get a dual-band Yaesu FT-7800R 2M/70 cm transceiver installed. This is a one-frequency-at-a-time dualbander, very easy to use with all the required FM features. Originally, I thought I would just bolt the unit down in a convenient spot and call it good. As I surveyed the Jeep, I realized that I could do much better using the detachable control head approach (using YSK-7800 separation kit). The control head was mounted to the main plastic piece that covers the center of the dash using a pair of angle brackets from the hardware store. The radio box went under the back seat… somewhat protected from weather when the top is down and definitely not in the lower part of the Jeep floor. With the hardtop off, a hard rain can cause a small lake to accumulate inside the Wrangler. (I know from experience.)

Yaesu FT-7800R control head

The most challenging decision turned out to be what antenna to use and where to put it. Mobile antennas are always a trade off between radiating effectiveness, ease of installation and overhead clearance. The Wrangler has a removable hardtop, made of fiberglass. This presents two problems: the fiberglass makes for a lousy ground plane and there will be times when we go topless. So a roof mount was not looking very attractive. Another choice was on the spare tire mount, which hangs off the back of the vehicle.  I’ve seen a few installations like this that look good. It looked like a more complicated installation and I was not sure how well the antenna would radiate off the back of the vehicle.

Side view of FT-7800 control head with microphone installed

In the end, I chose to mount a short dual-band antenna on the hood near the driver’s side, using an NMO-style mount with one of the L-shaped trunk mount brackets. This is not the best location for antenna efficiency but it would be “good enough” for most use. The antenna is a 1/4-wave on 2 Meters, about 19 inches long, also tunes to 70 cm. The low profile has the added advantage of not getting pounded down by tree branches on the back roads. And I can take the hard top off without changing the antenna configuration. Did you spot the antenna in the first photo?

Dualband 2M/70 cm NMO antenna

The Jeep had a obvious rubber plug that I poked through to get the DC power and antenna connections through the engine firewall. Per the usual guidance from the transceiver manufacturer, I connected the power cable directly to the 12-volt battery (with fuses in line).  The antenna seems to pick up a bit of ignition noise due to the close proximity to the engine, but it is tolerable.

Off to the mountains to have fun.

73, Bob K0NR