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Picked this up off theTower Talkreflector. Rohn Tower has been sold by Radian to a company in Peoria called O’Brien Steel. Radian has themselves been recently acquired by Montreal based Prestige Telecom. So ownership of Rohn returns to Peoria. I hope that is good news for the employees as well as their niche market customers – hams. Had another great time this year. We operated as N4PY, and ran 3 stations plus a VHF rig. The daytime temps were blistering, but there was a steady hot breeze blowing and the humidity was moderate. The heavy rains waited until we were done to show up, a real stroke of good fortune. The FD site N4YDU got us access to was outstanding. We improvised and modified plans to accommodate the realities of the site, but it has great potential. Just like anything else – you learn by doing. The more you do something, the more you learn. So, no surprise, it is the same with Field Day. These are not really all from 2008, but they all were either discovered or re-iterated this year. 2008 FD Picayunes:
I was browsing through some of the back issues of club newsletters, and ran across the YCCC tribute to W1PL, SK in the February issue of the Scuttlebutt. Despite an early life filled with adversity, W1PL must have found happiness in the latter part of his life. He sure seems to have earned a good life. He sounds like a man whom I would have enjoyed knowing. Appreciate what you have. Well, one way or other the next year will be interesting. The sunspot predictions will be tested against the actual data, and two competing sunspot models will have more data to use for future predictions. In another couple ofmillenniathey will have enough data to make their predictions with a confidence level higher than 50%. The plotted progression data should soon start to diverge from one or both of the predictions. It’s a shame the data takes so long to collect, because it is a fascinating subject area. And right now, the data is taking even longer to collect than normal. Favoring the lower prediction maybe? If the higher peak numbers are going to come, I’d expect the spots to start ramping up pretty soon, although we are still well within the averages for the lengths of a cycle. I wonder if there are any trends from the data following longer-than-normal minimums, or longer-than-normal cycles? Hmm. As the kids would say, “Are we there yet? Are we there yet?” “Be patient kiddo. It will only take a couple thousand years to get the data we need.” Cha-Ching! We have a winner! This is old news, but it is actually official to me now that it is published as such on the RSGB web site. N4YDU and I made a special event expedition as N4A to activate the South Core Banks’ Cape Lookout last summer. Our stay coincided with the RSGB IOTA contest weekend, and we participated in the contest. It has been several months since I checked the RSGB website for results postings. The contest scores were posted to their site In January, but the official list of trophy winners had not been finalized at that time. But I checked today, and there is ‘N4A’ in the “Island Low Power” category. “ NA High Score Plaque (Expedition Only) N4A NA-067 ” Cool. Well, actually it was very HOT, and also very HUMID. The end of July might be a great time for an outing in Great Britain, but it is definitively NOT such a good choice weather wise for the coast in the south-eastern USA. And with the temp already at 100 here in the first week of June, the outlook for this year is grim. N4YDU did 95 percent of the QSO’s, so it is a good milestone for Nate. But I went along for the ride, so I’ll be happy to take credit too. 😉 I almost forgot to mention one of the more interesting “goodies” I picked up at this year’s Hamvention. If anyone has fond memories of the Heathkit 5010 uMatic keyer, here’s the ticket. Its the CW Touch Keyer. The touch keyer is a set of capacitive paddles mated to a keyer. I came very close to missing this entirely. Their booth was in plain sight on the floor of the arena, but I didn’t spend much time there. On a last minute walk through, we noticed their display, and began playing with the samples. Hooked! Sold! Cha-CHING! They also sell the capacitive paddles board as aseparateitem, and that is the option I chose. I plunked down the cash for the P3 kit, because I’m not sure yet how I’d like the paddles configured. I’ve never liked using paddles. Iambic paddlesaggravatethe arthritic/carpal tunnel in my hand, even more than a straight key. My paddle “fist” really sucks. I don’t know that this will help any, but for only $20 USD, it is sure worth trying. Heck, it was worth the twenty just for the novelty factor – many folks won’t remember the heathkit keyer. I didn’t at first, but after a memory jog by NT4D, I remember seeing a set of these back in the days of my yoot’. I’d never actually used a set, but remembered seeing them. The P3 kit went together in a few minutes of solder smoke. After initial testing, I now need to decide how to construct the contacts/paddles, and decide what sort of enclosure to use. The board itself is small and will fit into an altoids tin, leaving the tin mostly empty. There is also a P3SMD version, if you want an inexpensive gizmo for practicing surface mount soldering. The light touch required on the display models is encouraging. The “complete” wired paddles have gold plated paddles, so I would expect pretty good life from them. They sure were fun to play with. But it leaves open the question of how to construct my own set. Thepossibilitiesare varied and numerous. Inspiration will come. It always does. Not getting to Hamvention in Dayton? Not to worry! For those who can’t get to the Hamvention in person, there is always the WA5KUB Monkey Cam. Tom’s site now has a chat window, so all of us who wish we were there can ask questions and just be general nuisances to one another. Pretty cool. The Hamvention in Dayton is a great deal of fun. Make the trip with two or three like minded radio geeks and you will have an enjoyable time. There are outside events such as FDIM, the nightly contest super suites, the Saturday contester’s dinner(pre-order for that one!) and various presentations through the days at Hamvention inside the Hara buildings. And the Mother of All Hamfest Fleamarkets. Hourly door prize drawings, plus the big final day prize drawings. And hams from all parts of the world, especially the US, Canada and Mexico. If you get bored, you probably are not a ham…. If you have never been to the Dayton Hamvention, and may never be able to make it, all is not lost. In the internet age, you can still experience Hamvention vicariously. So for a bit of the flavor of Hamvention, check out some of Tom’s photo’s from 2005 here, from 2006, and mixed photos from prior years Hamventions. Better yet, hitch a ride and see for yourself. Just in time for a Hamvention pep rally, The History Channel broadcasts a program on Tesla. This should be pretty interesting. ÔŽo scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer.Ô¼/strong> The above is a statement by a statistician named Stigler, studying “multiples” in the area of invention. In this usage, “multiples” are when a discovery or invention can be found to have been made independently by two or more people. This is not really radio, but it’s quite interesting reading for the science minded. The New Yorker has an interesting article discussing the nature of invention. Credit to N3JT, who passed the link to the PVRC mail list, although he notes it was passed to him. I just knew I was the first to have that idea about using small gas engines to power electric cars back when I was a teenager in the 1970’s. Too bad I was too broke to shine the patent lawyers shoes back then when my gray matter still functioned. I was really hopped up when I ran across the web site of G3TXQ. I was particularly hopped up by his documentation on his hexbeam experimentation, particularly the modified geometry broadband version. I played around with my own experimental hexbeam for 17m/15m/10m, back in 2000-2001, right after I had re-licensed. There’s no magic to the antenna, but it does give one the performance of a 2 element yagi in a much smaller physical space. The hex design is right at the top of my “really interesting stuff” list. Its one of the things I corresponded with W4RNL over. ‘RNL was not a great fan of the design, but agreed that it did have its place. I’m not sure of the reason for my own illogical interest – just one of those things. But back to G3TXQ. He has taken the step of modifying the geometry of the reflector. He indicates that this change will improve the f/b ratio and also gives a broad match that is closer to 50 ohms. The classic Hexbeam design has an impedence in the 20 to 25 ohm range. The G3TXQ version has a flat SWR across the 20m through 15m bands, and most of 10m. Way Cool. Even better, the modeling shows the best SWR and best f/b ratio seem to happen at approximately the same frequency. I’m thinking about a 15m monoband version now. I guess its also time to go back and surf the hexbeam yahoo group again. |
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