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By w4kaz, created on 2021.06.09 at 08:41:17 | last changed on 2024.04.21 at 12:30:54 |  Wazzap wit dat?
 Reality sets in 2021_08_21_> Would be really nice to see solar flux improve, but sunspot numbers continue to be/trend mediocre. Either the predicted time scale is going to be longer or the magnitudes of activity lower. Maybe both?  Peak at ssn 60? That would be sad. The optimistic projections would be nice to see again, but I expect to be long dead before that happens.  SSN today at 25. Based on today’s reality, it time to repair the 80m antenna and that 15m/10m project is deprecated.
2021_10 >> https://helioforecast.space/solarcycle
2021_12>> SSN Graphics, https://wwwbis.sidc.be/silso/ssngraphics
2021_12_26_> What a difference a few months make. Too bad this didn’t show up in the week before the 10m contest. Beginning to think there may be a bigger cycle than I would have ever expected. A few more months of this would make the high bands worth experimenting. Was expecting peaks well below 100ssn….hmmm. From the helioforecast.space site, [current graphic link].
 ssn graph, dec 2021….Didn’t ever expect to see ssn over 140 this cycle, or even much over 80. and:
2022_01_04: This last graph shows the current cycle is ahead of the modest predictions that I thought were over-optimistic. The spike to 140+ SSN in mid December seems more like a much stronger cycle than the last, since the cycles usually ramp up quickly once they begin. That will make fun high bands again, but given the wide range of predictions that missed, even the folks doing this full time might be scratching their heads. Fun stuff. Peaks above 200 ssn? Hoooooweeeeee! 2023 might be the best radio condx I’ll ever live to see again.
link: https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/solar-cycle-progression
2022_03_30: Well the SSN just keeps a-climbing. Flux movin-on-up. Curve in numbers is still much sooner, steeper, and stronger than anything I expected, and better than the middlin’ prediction that I thought would be a best case.  The last hurrah. Sweeeeet. Now I’m just hoping the polar flip and mini-nova catastrophe sorts are wrong. 🙂 🙂 🙂
2022_07_23: Semi-related, found a really cool RBN mapping site. Check out the work of HA8TKS. Good format, centers an azimuthal projection on the searched call sign with lots of options.
By w4kaz, created on 2025.08.07 at 14:35:34 | last changed on 2025.08.10 at 12:50:25 | Photos from 2025 N4C IOTA and POTA activation: http://w4kaz.com/images/iota2025n4c/
The 2025 IOTA was run from one of the cabins at Cape Lookout(Iota NA067 and Pota US-0683) using the call sign N4C. Ops N4YDU and W4KAZ. N4YDU made the decision to tag along for the 2025 Iota contest outing. As always, having a world class operator means the radio will get a lot more actual use than it would have had I been alone. I am betting the log accuracy will be better too, at least for the YDU QSO’s. 😮
After returning from Field Day a month earlier I gave a bit of consideration to canceling the IOTA trip to Cape Lookout. Then decided to go ahead and keep the trip as scheduled. I’m not even sure if I nudged N4YDU or he asked if I was going, but after the first contact I made sure Nate knew there was plenty of room if he chose to make the trip. And plenty of operating time to fill if he chose to do it. “Highly motivated operator” is not a label I would ever apply to myself. My own interests are more about seeing what works and what does not.
WX es environmental konsiderationz
As luck would have it the weekend of the contest brought a few days of clear weather. The “weather tax” this time around was sticky-hot-humidity. Not only was the temperature elevated, but the wind was very mild for the NC outer banks. There were a couple of points where we even had dead air, drawing out the biting kritterz of the insecty sort. Gnats and green-head biting flies. At one humorous point, a literal cloud of gnats. Bitey-bitey!
Spraying the cabin window screens helped limit the gnat incursions into the cabin. Ants were present but thankfully not into the food and refreshments. Battery fans provided some moving air overnight to help permit sleeping in the ick. Even the rudimentary cabin was much more comfortable than setting up in and living in a tent in the style of a tropical DXpedition. Window screens, running water and a flush toilet beat the shit out of roughing it like the days before industrialization.
Antennaz? We are doing WHAT for Antennaz?!?
Maybe that’s how the conversation got started with ‘YDU, because I know I texted him to see if he had ever dorked around with a 40m OCF dipole. I had already decided to experiment using a 40m OCF fed directly with 300 ohm window line run back to the shack into a 4:1 balun, and a short coax jumper from balun to a tuner. The second antenna was to be a 59 foot doublet(K2AV suggestion from 2010) from FD and (failed)WPX. Once YDU jumped aboard ship he verified function of his butternut vertical and that was added to the list. For backups I had along a selection of other things(trap dipole, EFHE, linked dipole, etc) that we could have used in a pinch.
The OCF and the doublet were set up favoring Europe, parallel to one another and about 80 or 90 feet apart. The modeling on that seemed ok, but in hindsight I doubt I would do it that way again. The vertical was deployed in a mostly clear area to the NE of the doublet. The wire antennas were supported by 30 foot telescoping masts that are self supporting when mounted in the screw-in ground anchor bases. All of the exterior work got done Thursday afternoon after catching an empty slot on an earlier boat than the 2pm ride booked.
Since the OCF was fed directly with the 300 ohm window line and the balun located just a coax jumper away from the radio, I presume without actual measurements that the feedline was radiating in random directions along with the antenna itself. Probably not ideal, but the QSO’s got logged anyway. In practice there was little difference between the doublet and the OCF, while the vertical showed occasional improvements on some signals. FWIW the doublet had marginal less static/white noise/QRN than the OCF.
Radio? Where the hell is the stupid adapter? Why is this an RCA jack?? WTF????
Setting up the station was an exercise in “where is that cable”, since the last couple of times had been with the K2 instead of the K3. Everything needed was there…somewhere. The Elecraft K3 was used. Logging under Writelog, which took YDU a while to adjust to his preferences. The wire antennas were both routed from their baluns to an MFJ tuner that was used as an A/B switch in the tuner bypass positions. The tuner’s antennas routed to the K3 antenna one position and the vertical was routed to the K3 antenna 2 position. The K3 internal atu was used for matching to the wire antennas, and not generally needed for the vertical. After pulling a bad set of headphones everything was working. Too easy. It is NEVER that easy.
Contest? There’s a Contest today?
N4YDU started out hot from the gates and chased mults and called CQ. 15m was the big surprise for me, as the 15m band has seldom been open during this contest for this QTH over the past several years. The low USA activity levels make the first 8 hours of the contest somewhat of a challenge. The EU stations tend to concentrate on working other EU. Since the Cape Lookout QTH is also a POTA entity, for my part I alternated calling CQ for IOTA and POTA. The self spotting rule change allowed us to post spots in the POTA system. This resulted in some decent rate hours that have been really dead in the past. I hit 15m and 20m hardest for POTA, and neglected 40m entirely. Probably left a lot of POTA Q’s on the table by never getting to 40m.
As the afternoon grew longer it sounded like 20m was ready to open pretty well to Europe, so I wanted YDU to have a shot at the possible higher rates. Also better to have the better op on the radio when 40m opens. While it was nothing like a major contest rate wise, the best rates we had were centered on local sunset on 40m. YDU pulled the plug for the evening around 0400Z. The early morning/local sunrise hours did not produce any JA, KH6, ZL or VK, much to our disappointment. 80m over-performed beating out 10m by 16 QSO’s and 4 mults.
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
The Good: As always, enjoyed have N4YDU along for the trip. We had a bit more time for setting up as we were able to catch and earlier boat to the island than the one scheduled. That alone gave us an extra two hours to set up antennas and such. All of the antenna systems functioned as expected and no repairs/redo’s/debugging was required on the antenna systems. The radio systems were “mostly” ready to plug and play, but I will need to repack/review/reequip the radio set ups with the goal of having each radio packed individually as a stand alone unit. WX goodness was complete lack of thunderstorms, a rarity over the past 10 years.
The Bad. The worst part was weather related. Although we were spared any electrical storms, that was all due to a high pressure system sitting over the region that also drove the temps into the mid 90’s (95F/35C) with the associated oceanside high humidity. Just like being in Louisiana again! Except I’m no longer acclimated to the norms of S. Louisiana weather. Nathan took to dunking his shirt in ice water to get some relief. Normally Cape Lookout has a consistent breeze blowing that helps mitigate the heat, but we caught a couple of spells of nearly still air.
The UGLY: Bugfest 2025. The other downside to the still air is that it gives the biting flies and gnats(“Gnatzi’s”) freedom to roam. Just like being in Louisiana! Humorous anecdote reserved for in person grinz.
Addendum(2025-08-09): What Next?
The question naturally arises: “Is this 2025 Iota antenna plan how I would do it again?”. The answer that intermediately comes to mind is “NO”. But that would be the case just out of the curiosity of trying something new. If I were to deploy the same antennas again, I would have put the two wires at right angles based on how similar they functioned this year. Also, after some more research and modeling, I think the OCF needs to be rebuilt. It seems like feeding at 40% point makes more sense, giving a better match on 15m and 10m while keeping 20m and 40m at a low swr. (TO BE TESTED, 40m OCF with 27.5′ and 41.25′ legs[8.38m and 12.57m]). LINK: “Off Center Fed Antennas” W3TB youtube presentation, April 2023 WCARES. Also thinking about how and 80m OCF would fit into the favorite Iota QTH. Then there are the permutations and combinations yet tried(OCF and EFHW, doublet and EFHW). The grass is always greener, aina?
Contest Results:
N4YDU’s 3830 2025 IOTA Contest write up: https://www.3830scores.com/showrumor.php?arg=RvYizV77LDDxJU
 3830 scores for Multi stations and band breakdowns POTA Results
POTA hunters came in for the Q’s, and there were 42 P2P Q’s confirmed so far in the POTA system. Just guessing, but it looks like about 150 to 200 Pota hunters checked in, and that is probably a conservative estimate. Thanks fer the Q’s hunters!
Pota from Calo this year:
 Screenshot 2025-08-07 – POTA activations from US-0683, Cape Lookout National Seashore
By w4kaz, created on 2025.07.29 at 11:18:18 | last changed on 2025.07.29 at 11:28:13 | 2025 ARRL Field day at cape lookout was more of a fun trip to work out bugs from my failed CQ WPX camp trip.
Using a different antenna tuner with the same antenna from WPX presented ZERO issues, so now I am more curious about taking a closer look at the antenna tuner as the source of the problems. The radio used for FD was my Elecraft K2. Everything else EXCEPT the tuner was the same set up as used for WPX.
Result: FD, everything worked. WPX, transmit issues out the wazzoo and I bailed out before the contest started.
Ahem.
Since the trip was also an extended birthday party, spent a lot more time on smoking cigars and sipping really nice whiskey. Despite that, still managed to cage 232 QSOs. As a change of pace I ran packet spots, and had fun just punching cw spots. Total operating time was about 8 hours, with 3 hours at the start on saturday afternoon and the bulk of it Sunday morning. Both periods terminated by food, whiskey, and cigars.
Sensing a theme there….
Some photos in a slide show from the field day hootch: http://w4kaz.com/images/2025_fieldday/
By w4kaz, created on 2025.03.15 at 19:27:17 | last changed on 2025.03.15 at 19:30:27 | Looking at a few of the promo vids folks have posted so far about the Pota33H mast I decided to take a chance on it and the order arrived late last week. On first look I thought it might not be long enough to stretch to the 30-ish feet, but I underestimated the strength of the carbon fiber. For its short length it has a lot of sections inside, and the top section is about 1/2 inch diameter tube. Thicker tubes are stronger than thinner. The carbon fiber provides a lot of strength in a much thinner level of material, so it should be just fine. I expect it will have less flop/droop than any of the fiberglass masts. But the folks who got it made should be happy, it seems to check all of the design goals any backpacker might have for compact, lightweight, and strength.
It did have a couple of caveats for my own uses. If the mast were a full 48 inches I would like it better, but it was designed for its short collapsed length. The second caveat is more of an impact for my own purposes. The base piece at the bottom of the mast is heavy duty, and quite thick. The end cap is thick and sturdy. So thick that as delivered it is just slightly too large to fit in one of my favored mount methods, a trailer hitch post holder.
 The end cap from the pota33H after filing is about 60mm diameter. It fits into one of the hitch mount post supports, but not the other. |
 The hitch mount that does not accept the Pota 33 mast appears to also be about 62mm diameter. Perhaps it is out of round? Thicker walls? Will need the micrometer to find out, the two different pole receptacles appear to be the same size to eyeball mark 1. |
 The hitch mount that accepts the Pota 33 mast is about 62mm diameter. |
 Pota 33 base fits for this hitch mount after a bit of judicious filing |
 Pota 33 base is too fat for this hitch mount |
 The truck hitch receiver with a step extension that supports the telescoping fiberglass mast. The mast du’jour is the Jac-kite 31 footer. Plus assorted extra junk in the truck bed. |
After trying the mast in both mounts it was clear it was very close to being able to function in one of them. After a few passes with a file around the widest part of the pota33h’s base cap, it was able to just barely slide in to the hitch mount. That will make deploying portable a bit more convenient. Kinda hate putting the file to a massage brand new sort-of-pricey mast, but WTF. Not like I was sending it back anyway.
Also, the pota33h should be FB for use in the screw in earth anchors I use for the beach side deployments. As long as it works with those its worth trying.
The unknowns now are: What it will do with a real antenna attached? Will the friction fit hold in the wind? Will the friction fit hold an antenna without collapsing in the 20 knot winds common on Cape Lookout? Will the carbon fiber be better than fiberglass when stressed? Will the thin wall carbon fiber tubes crack and split, compared to fiberglass more or less likely? Will sand prove to be a bigger problem for this mast than others? Will it really be less floppy than its fiberglass predecessors? Will sand cause it issues? Will it have difficulty being lowered after a roll in the Cape Lookout sand? TBD…soon!
Future post on “mast roundup”?
By w4kaz, created on 2025.03.14 at 17:14:43 | last changed on 2025.03.14 at 18:15:48 | This year for the NC QSO Party I activated three Pota entities in three different counties. US-6909, Harris State Game Land(WAKe county), US-6920, Lee State Game Land(LEE county), and US-6916, Jordan State Game Land(CHAtham county).
After Action Photos
Did not take any photos during the event, but the morning after. The extension on the hitch mast support allows dropping the tailgate with the antenna deployed. On my last vehicles(a 4runner and Jeep Cherokee) I also had a front mount hitch, which I prefer to use for the mast. So far the only front hitch I have found for the Sierra hangs down too far. The ground clearance on the Sierra 1500 is too already low for my preference, only about 9 inches. Begs for a 3 inch lift. The “radio mount” in the vehicle is comical, a 5mm plywood board resting on a jack stand in the front and taped to the console in the rear, with the radio “secured” with more painters tape to the board. Hmmmm……sketchy, but functional.
The truck hitch receiver with a step extension that supports the telescoping fiberglass mast. The mast du’jour is the Jac-kite 31 footer. Plus assorted extra junk in the truck bed.  The high tech radio install for the 2025 NC QSO Party. The battery is behind the radio sitting on the “parts-n-spares” tote. MFJ tuner in passenger seat on radio storage box. STATION
The station du-jour was the FT-891, logging with a kludged writelog half assed set up. For whatever reason Writelog was not flagging dupes, so I was trying to look them up manually while S&P. Mostly just went S&P while trying to find a clear frequency.
Used a telescoping fiberglass mast at all three sites, which showed more droop than expected. The telescoping mast was supported in a hitch mounted pole support with the base of the mast resting on the ground. The antenna was a 58 foot doublet fed with 300 ohm ladder line into a 4:1 balun, with a short coax jumper into an mfj-949 tuner, radio set at 100w. Logging on a laptop running Writelog, which could send frequency changes to the radio but was not polling and keeping the log updated when spinning the dial on the radio. At the third and final stop the antenna was modified to extend the length to 90 feet for better use on 80m. Power to the radio is supplied via a 100ah LifePO4 stand alone battery. Radio conditions seemed excellent for most of the day. The broadcast stations on 40m became troublesome, should have moved to 80m late. Lack of sleep kicked in late though, and I bailed with an hour of time left on the table.
The Day
The day started out at US-6909 on frozen ground. Arrived a bit early to set up before NCQP startup, but was running late anyway. Wound up doing only SSB. Could not get any results on 20m, so moved down to 40m to work more locals. Ran into that days’ only problem when the keypad caused problems with the radio. More on that later….. In the meantime, had a decent time at that location.
Moved on a few minutes earlier. The second location at us-6920 was in full sun, but had the best rates of the day. As the afternoon wore on I began to miss the freezing weather from a few days earlier. Operating in the vehicle was a bit warm under the clear skies with temps almost hitting 60 outside. But the 20m pileup of Pota ops was worth the sweat.
The final location, US-6916 was a good choice logistically, but the band was crowded and it felt like folks were not taking into account the park and county had changed. Note to self: Game lands get REALLY dark, bad idea to misplace the flashlight.
Musings In-No_Particular-Order
Generally, it was a pretty fun outing. I’m torn between using Writelog, which I really like, but does NOT FUNCTION PROPERLY with my FT-891, or finally switch to N1MM which I generally HATE WITH A PASSION. Suckage either way, although the FT-891 itself is more than likely the point of failure. I can probably get over my N1MM hate fetish, but the ft-891 would still be a problem due to the dread “Cat Control Tick”. FT-891 Tick worse than N1MM which is worse than Writelog not working with the 891. ??PAPER LOGS???
So in this case I used Writelog anyway, and resigned myself to fucking up the log. I like Writelog, and I like the ft-891 as a radio. Maybe N3FJP is the solution, I already have the license, I like it better than N1MM, and I had it working with all of the radios(ts-590/K2/K3/ft-891).
Other minor issue…..somewhere Saturday loading the truck I misplaced the FH-2 keypad. WTF!?!?!? I had the home brewed keypad, so I used that, but it was causing it own issues. Like for some reason when trying to record messages it was changing the radio frequency instead. NOT GOOD. The temp solution was to use the radio controls to record the messages, and forget about customizing the radio message memories on the fly. I hope the FH-2 keypad turns up when I ransack the vehicle tomorrow.
Other issue….I gotta learn how to pare the gear down. A correctable personal deficiency. Not EASILY correctable, but correctable. 🙁
Observation-1 ….The 58 foot doublet K2AV came up with several years ago for use in the IOTA contest is a really good general purpose antenna for 40/20/15/10. It was originally designed to allow the Elecraft K3 internal tuner to find a match, so it is a piece of cake for an external tuner. At the last stop I added legs to increase it to a 90 foot doublet to allow using it on 80m/75m, and easier match for the tuner. The shorter length models well showing useful patterns on all four bands and matches easily. Use the K3 in the car? A possibility.
Observation-2 ….The antenna used was constructed of 16ga wire, The mast droop is substantial especially with the longer legs. Time to try 18ga wire again? The 26ga stealth wire?
Results:
NORTH CAROLINA QSO PARTY
Call Used : W4KAZ
Last County Ran : CHA
Callsign(s) of Operators(s) : W4KAZ
Entry Class : Single Op – In State
BAND CW PH MULTS
==========================
80 0 0 0
40 0 167 59
20 5 123 27
15 0 0 0
10 0 0 0
Note: The one DX mult (if worked) not shown in band breakdown
Multipliers : 86 NC Counties/State/Prov
Extra DX Mult : 1
W4NC Bonus : 0 pts
W4WS Bonus : 0 pts
W4NC+W4WS Bonus : 0 pts
Cherokee Bonus : 50 pts
Dare Bonus : 0 pts
Both CTY Bonus : 0 pts
Contact Points : 595
Total Mults : 87
Claimed Score : 51815
I have followed the North Carolina QSO Party Rules
ALL Operators must sign clearly, including callsign
Signature(s): ___________________________________
Date: ______________
MULTIPLIERS WORKED:
ALA ALE ASH AVE BLA BRU BUN BUR CAL CAM CAR
CHE CLA CLE CUM DVD DUR FOR FRA GUI HAR HEN
HYD IRE LEE LEN LIN MAD MCD MEC MIT MON MOO
NEW ONS ORA PEN PEQ PIT RAN ROC ROW RUT STA
STO SUR TRA UNI WAK WAT WIL YAD CT MA NH
RI VT NY NJ DE MDC PA AL FL GA KY
SC TN VA AR LA MS OK TX MI OH WV
IL IN WI KS MN MO SD NB ON
You have also been credited with one mult for DX
By w4kaz, created on 2025.01.06 at 10:01:53 | last changed on 2025.01.09 at 16:30:42 | After a detour to building the 2 band trap dipoles using rg-316 type coax, the worm turned. The failure of a couple of the coax trap antennas due to incomplete sealing and weather proofing the coax became a problem. The antenna at home failed. Two of them. Then the antenna being used for portable ops failed during the 2024 NC QSO party. In the meantime, the home antennas built from coils and capacitors for 40m/20m are still in use 4 years later with no change in resonance points.
Rather than continue with a seemingly fragile system it was time to revert to the coil-and-cap design. Avoiding the cap failures previously experienced on the 10m/15m antenna is addressed by using caps with low enough values to be appropriate for the 10/15 version. So a supply of the TDK ceramic caps was laid in. These caps have 3KV and 6KV ratings. Parts#810-CC45SL3JD080DYGN (example is 8pf SL 6kv) from mouser. TDK Data Sheet for Sl ceramic capacitors.
For the 10m trap a value of 10pf was used, with 16 turns of 18ga stranded wire tightly wound on a 1 inch diameter piece of fiberglass tube. (calculated inductance is about 3.25uh) This originally resonated about 27500, but crept up after taping and sealing to 28000. Decided to roll with them as constructed. These may be fragile, too fragile for portable use, as 18ga wire was also used for the connections. NOTE: USE LARGER GA WIRE FOR CONNECTIONS.
The “tricksey” part discovered previously is that using caps with a large enough reactance on the upper band helps them survive by limiting the current actually flowing through the capacitor. At the 100w levels the voltages are less of an issue than the current handling. Using parallel-series combinations can also help, depending on what value caps are available.
The downside is that the inductance value to resonate the trap for 10m becomes relatively large. This makes tuning the antenna for the 15m band “tricksey”. The 15m tail is short, maybe 15 inches from the relatively large inductance used in the trap. When trimming, very small trimmings move the 15m resonance quite a bit more than on a normal 15m dipole. The good news is that the 10m band is only very slightly effected by trimming wire on the 15m side of the trap. The 15m tails needed to be replaced and re-trimmed after trimming a 2 inch bit of wire moved resonance from 20.85mhz to 21.65mhz. oops. SMALL SNIPS FOR 15m tuning!!!!
After trimming, the 10m/15m antenna is good from 28000 to 28750, and also covers the entire 15m band. STOP….DO NOT TRIM AGAIN!
The 20m/40m version is built with a trap resonance at 13.65mhz. The 20m legs are approximately 15ft long. The 40m legs will be about the same. (?actual measurements?) Total antenna length of about 60 feet.
Both of the 2019 home 20m/40m trap dipoles can be easily matched with the Kenwood TS-590 internal tuner for use on 10m as well, which provides options. Worked JA’s on 10m using the 20m/40m trap dipole several times now. The new version for the 20m/40m portable does NOT tune on 10m, probably because of the different value of capacitance/inductance used, or maybe because the new antenna traps resonate at 13.65Mhz instead of 12.5Mhz. The new trapped antenna covers the entire 20m band, with the highest SWR of 1.5:1 at 14000-14015. The 40m band is below 1.5:1 SWR from 7000 to about 7250, with the swr going to about 2.3:1 at 7300.
(For future testing, add turns
Using the new 1 inch o.d.(~25mm) fiberglass form material as the coil form and the TDK capacitors:
Freq———Capacitor——-–# turns calculated——#turns actual——-
27.7Mhz—>10pf————->12 turns (approx)—–> 12 turns, 28Mhz(use 12.5?) (calculated inductance of 3.25uH as constructed)
20.66Mhz–> ?????
13.75Mhz—> 34pf————>16 turns —— ——–> 16.5 turns, 13.65Mhz (calculated inductance 4.04uh)
6.75Mhz—-> 16.33 turns
By w4kaz, created on 2024.07.05 at 14:20:57 | last changed on 2025.05.28 at 17:00:09 |
Solo FD for 2024, once again a camping trip to Carolina Beach state park(POTA US-2722).
The station
Arrived late Thursday afternoon and set up the campsite, had an early evening meal, and a relaxing cigar.
After a mixed night of broken sleep, started setting up radio gear and antennas on Friday afternoon. The station was an Elecraft K3 and an MFJ versa tuner as the antenna switch/swr meter.
Tried out a new computer, which flopped big time as it could not connect to either the radio of the winkeyer. Forgot to load the FTDI drivers on the target laptop beforehand, so whipped out the old-n-busted laptop for the duration. Old and busted has charging issues, but it worked well for intermittent sessions with charging during off time breaks. It was easier to use the known computer than waste time on the unknown.
Having decided beforehand to operate mostly during daytime hours, no antenna for 80m was set up. Two trap dipoles were hoisted, one for 40m/20m and the other for 15m/10m. Both installed on separate telescoping fiberglass masts as inverted vees. The masts resulted a height of about 27 feet(~9m) for the centers of the antennas, generally favoring the NW direction. Ran a few test strings and RBN results looked decent.
Its-not-a-contest-its-an-event
Saturday morning had enough time for a good breakfast, a supply/ice run to the store, and plenty of time left over for a few shakedown qsos. Was growing tired as 1800z approached, so got off to a slow S&P start. After a bite to eat and a short walk to stretch out the legs back to it for several more hours. 15m was good at the start, and 20m was good into the evening. 40m was good too, but with 20m flowing it was more interesting to stay there. Bailed out for much needed sleep at 0230Z.
Morning brought another slow half hour start at 0930Z. Slow but steady runs began soon though there were a lot of S&P periods mixed in. Started Sunday morning on 40m and began sweeping up 40/20/15 as the morning progressed. 15m was not nearly as good Sunday morning, but 20m kept improving. Strong finish on 20m. Finished up with about 475-480 Q’s.
After a short break station teardown took a couple of hours. The antennas came down first to keep the work in the shade. The station was torn down and packed with an eye on using the same setup again portable at the end of July for IOTA 2024. Antenna selections for that may change based on site location,WX, or any other wild hair that might manifest after 30 days delay. An EFHW for 40m would have been used to add 80m. I had an 80 FCP variation ready in that case, and the 40m EFHW functions as the 80m 1/4 vertical element. That configuration requires a switching of the EFHW feed point to one dedicated to the 80m vertical. Looking for a way to use relays for switching within a single box.
Portable and CAMP notes
The camp site used was almost ideal for a single station and limited antenna set up. It would have been possible to squeeze in another EFHW or dipole easily. The 4runner served as sleeping quarters with an easily detachable screen awning for rain and bugs. The screen awning was relatively easy to detach/attach to the vehicle for ice and food runs, both easily available right around the corner from the park. It would have been substantially LESS convenient to detach the rain gear in bad weather, something to be planned for in the future. Still better than using a ground tent, or one of the newly popular roof mount tents. Too old for either of those to be worth while anymore.
Food convenience is now an issue. Just don’t see much point in being very picky about trying to store any specialty items. Roll with convenience over healthy going forward.
Another drawback to the location is…..the location. The park itself is quite nice, but the drive is not a lot of fun. Maybe another park in a more rural area would be a better choice if another suitable camp site can be found, although the nearby supply resources are useful and convenient at Carolina Beach.
The weather was hot but tolerable, and the rain mostly cooperated by being light and timely. No lightning for a welcome change. The only WX negative was when a shower came during a food run, making re-setting the screen tarp a bit of a mess.
When the sleep schedule is broken, naps are refreshing. Just do it. Sleep when tired makes the other waking hours more interesting and elevates alertness levels.
MOAR PHOTOS *link http://w4kaz.com/images/2024FD_web/
SCORE RECAP
FD W4KAZ W4KAZ
By w4kaz, created on 2024.04.01 at 14:11:02 | last changed on 2024.04.01 at 14:56:26 | Last month we finally got a chance to take the radio for a spin to work the NC QSO party from a few parks. A ‘few’ parks turned into two parks, but I did learn a few things. The weather in my area turned out to be perfect for a nice ride to a couple of portable operating areas. Comfortably cool temps and crystal clear skies.
I decided to approach the trip as an Out-and-Back. Drove out to the first park with intent on making stops to set up the portable antennas at each location. Had just barely enough time at the first stop to get set up before the 10am local start. Then things quickly went sideways.
The Station
Used a hitch mounted mast receptacle to hold the antenna mast, a 32 foot telescoping fiberglass pole. The mast supported a 40m/20m trap dipole, which I probably damaged by breaking a partially corroded wire on one of the traps. Ends were tied up on some of the nearby coniferous biological antenna supports. The station itself is an Elecraft K3 powered by a 100ah LifePo4 battery, on trickle charge from a 100w solar panel on the vehicle roof rack. All set up on back seat of the vehicle. Parked in the shade because comfort is more important than charging the battery. Location numero uno was at McKinney Lake State Fish Hatchery Pota k-8010, Richmond county NC. Unfortunately no photos of either the station or other sites due to ‘plan divergence #2-Lost Phone!’.
Diverging from the plan
Maybe a bit over-ambitious. The first event occurred when the antenna suddenly lost its nice low SWR on 40m. It is a 40m/20m trap dipole that has been in use for a couple of years. Made just a handful on 40m to start then moved to 20m. The antenna was still OK on 20m. Curious. After a bit I dropped the antenna to try to debug the 40m issue and noticed the wire coming out of the trap to one 50m leg appeared corroded. Wasted too much time fiddling with antenna instead of operating. Wire corrosion plus over-vigorous installation Mistake #1.
After burning too much time at the first location, moved on to POTA#2. Ate my lunch there an could not find phone. Spot#1 was just 6 miles away, so retraced to POTA#1 to see if I had dropped it there. No Joy. Mistake#2
Decided to skip spot#3 and drove directly to spot#4, Lee State Game lands, Pota K-06920 in Lee county. Set up the 40m EFHW, and had decent runs on both 20m and 40m. Success! Neither 10m nor 15m were delivering, so skipped any time there. This had the sun beginning to fall below tree line, so packed up the kit and moved to spot#5. No photos taken, still had not found phone.
Spot#5 turned out to be occupied, and no other locations in the pota had been scouted. Mistake #3. At this point I mostly bailed. Parked the car at home in driveway for a handful of Q’s on a hasty 20m vertical(non pota). Then ditched entirely for food.
Damaged goods:
The broken antenna is going to be replaced. A functional backup will also be added to the travel list. The real downside did not show up until later, when the logging computer quit taking a charge. Very likely RF damaged. Bleh.
Lessons
What was pounded in again is that wasting time during the event is costly. ALWAYS have a backup. The “lost phone” was not lost but had slid down between seats inside an invisibility cloak. Found that at home by dialing the number. Not knowing was rain on the parade.
- Need to examine the locations as planned to have an alternate site ready.
- Need a few dry runs setting up to get a hard figure on how much time is needed. Pota practice sessions!
- Need to research better to determine transit times between sites.
- Use the firmer times to budget time on each site.
- Be more flexible.
- If something craps out, HAVE A PLAN B
- If the ANTENNA craps out go DIRECTLY to the backup. Do NOT fart around with the broken antenna, it can be dealt with later.
- Plan on more CW.
Taking the time to activate LEE and RIC was worth the effort. It should be feasible to easily activate four different counties/Potas as a portable in the 10 hour period. More than that would require more research or an area with a higher concentration of Pota entities. Travel time is an issue. Operating from POTA entities was also worthwhile, and the first time scout of the sites was useful for future POTA activations.
By w4kaz, created on 2024.03.18 at 12:52:01 | last changed on 2024.03.18 at 13:37:30 | A really cool RBN mapping site:
Check out the work of HA8TKS. Good format, centers an azimuthal projection on the searched call sign with lots of options. Lots of options to play with, can be used to list the spotter station or see stations that are spotting a caller.
EXCELLENT!
https://dxcluster.ha8tks.hu/azimuthal_map/index.php?c=W4KAZ&t=de
By w4kaz, created on 2024.02.26 at 16:08:15 | last changed on 2024.02.26 at 16:08:15 |
Fun hints on setting up writelog to key the SSB memories on the Elecraft K3.
Check the ini file for the K3 commands section:
[Elecraft_K3_commands]
Macro_10=SWT21;
Macro_11=SWT31;
Macro_12=SWT35;
Macro_13=SWT39;
Then set up each contest for the %gk10,%gk11,%gk12,%gk13 in the SSB function keys(I choose to go with F1-F4)
See the whole K5ZD info…….https://k5zd.com/setting-up-writelog-to-send-k3dvr-messages/
By w4kaz, created on 2023.08.05 at 16:10:03 | last changed on 2024.12.03 at 21:23:38 |
Sand and Radio
What could be more fun than dancing the biting fly dance to set up antennas for playing radio in the sand and sun? Hmmmmm.
The weather on the south core banks(‘Great’ Island) gave glimpses of gloom but mostly cooperated very well for a change. Arriving at the cabin about 1pm local(1700Z) allowed us to unload gear and set up masts and antennas in the normal sunny sandy heat.
Photo Album w4kaz M/S 2023 IOTA photo album [Most photos by N4YDU]
Antennas and Station
The main antenna was a 40m/20m trap dipole, with a 15m/10m dipole as a second. We also set up a 40m EFHW that allowed use of its radiator as an 80m inv L vertical. We also set up a BOG as an rx antenna using about 200 feet of wire and a transformer. The BOG made use of the generator hut’s ground wire. The EFHW was fed on 80m against an 80m folded counterpoise.
 2023 W4KAZ M/S Iota – Right/background is the 40m/20m trap dipole on its telescoping mast. Left/foreground is the mast to elevate the end of the EFHW. The generator ground was free because power was supplied via LifePo4 batteries. These were supplemented by 200 watts of solar cells once they got plugged in again after being knocked loose. The main radio used is an Elecraft K3.
Contest
The operating was at times interesting and at time tedious. Pretty much normal for IOTA from NC. N4YDU started off on 20, but quickly moved to 15m upon finding it more productive. That was one of the more interesting things, as 15m has been a dry hole for the past few years. We swapped off every couple of hours or so after that.
 2023 W4KAZ M/S Iota Station layout The normal mid day doldrums were supplemented by calling both CQ IOTA and CQ POTA and giving out the park K-0683 along with the IOTA exchange. 20m SSB started to pick up during my 2000Z shift. After that I was happy enough to turn the keys over to N4YDU for some of that world class operator stuff on 40m CW. One of my highlights is listening to N4YDU pull callsigns out of 40m bedlam at 30wpm. One of N4YDU’s highlights was moving W1BBB across 9 band/modes for his unique mult. Thanks to W1BBB for having game!Â
Early nightÂ
The evening was capped off by the unexpected termination of the logging computer around 0330Z. The battery supplying voltage had reached its limit and cut off power to the hub. Both of us were ready for some sleep, so we pulled plug and prepped for incoming weather. The weather arrived about 0600z, lighting up the sky and rumbling half of the team to gloomy awareness. 😮
N4YDU capped off the morning chasing mults and possible 15 pointers around. W4KAZ snoozed.
It ain’t Over….
After the 1200z end breaking down gear goes much faster than set up. Plans for possible extra POTA operating were ditched in favor of relaxation. Everything was down and ready for packing before the obligatory IOTA afternoon storm rolled in.   YDU caught the storm boat out, and KAZ chilled out and napped on the veranda in the cool breeze blowing in off the Atlantic after the storm. The early morning boat brought another nice trip to its conclusion.
 Sunset Sunday evening looking back from CALO over the sound  The w4kaz M/S qso breakdown
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