Amateur Radio · VHF/UHF · Summits On The Air · Colorado Mountains · Adventure
One of the things that makes a VHF contest so much fun is that you never know how its going to play out. One of the major factors is sporadic-e propagation which is, well, sporadic. Sometimes we get rewarded with decent propagation and sometimes we get completely skunked. In the morning, before the 2012 CQ … Read more
About a year ago, I bought a Yaesu FT-950 transceiver with HF through 50 MHz. I’ve really enjoyed that radio. This weekend I am working the CQ WW VHF Contest and giving it a good workout on 6 Meters. It is set up quite nicely for contesting with a decent receiver, built-in antenna tuner, DSP … Read more
I recently confessed blogged about a not-that-well-executed SOTA (Summits on The Air) activation, in How Not to Do a SOTA Activation. This past weekend, I made another run at it with much better results. Still, I did use a slacker low impact approach to the activation. My hiking partner spouse and I decided to go for … Read more
For 2012 ARRL Field Day, we operated from the cabin in portable style. Temporary wire antennas were tossed into the trees and the trusty Honda EU1000 generator provided emergency power. The Spousal Unit, Joyce KØJJW got on the air and made some contacts, making this a multi-op effort. We used a similar approach as last … Read more
This weekend my wife and I were out exploring the San Juan Mountains near Ouray, Colorado. We found ourselves on a Jeep road to Engineer Pass. When we got to the pass, we stopped to have lunch and I examined the high peaks nearby. I saw some people on the summit of one of the … Read more
This weekend is the ARRL June QSO Party (also known as The June VHF Contest). It is a great opportunity to get on the air and try out the VHF bands. In particular, 6 Meters usually has some fun sporadic-e propagation during the contest. It is a blast when that band comes alive with signals … Read more