Radio W4KAZ Thanks for stopping by the virtual KazShack. Feel free to comment - I often approve them.
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By w4kaz, created on 2007.10.31 at 16:29:17 | last changed on 2007.10.31 at 16:32:52 | I didn’t really expect to operate this DX contest, but I’m glad I did. I discovered that I’ll need a better 20 meter antenna before Sweeps, as I seem to have an intermittent connection somewhere on the 20m dipole. This antenna is at a ladder line fed dipole at 50 feet, so it should be working well enough. I was unable to load it properly. I’ve decided to ditch it in favor of a coax fed dipole in the same location. I have a vertical that I will probably deplaoy as well-just in case.
I was also happy to hear 15 meters open on both days. It has been a while since I operated a contest with my favorite band open enough for my piddly rectangular loop. Piddly or not, the 15&10 meter nested rectangular loop is a good antenna when conditions are better. It requires only one support, has a 50 ohm feedpoint, and I can turn it 90 degrees to favor a different direction. Not as good as a yagi, but better than what I had before, and its a good SWR across all of 15 meters and the contest area of 10 meters. Continue reading 2007 CQWW SSB W4KAZ SOAB LP
By w4kaz, created on 2007.10.22 at 14:02:35 | last changed on 2007.10.22 at 14:02:35 | With my other hat on, I’ve updated the PVRC-NC page of Sweepstakes content. The revised page has a bit of new content, and has been made more generic to appeal to a wider audience. Feel free to share the link.
By w4kaz, created on 2007.10.19 at 09:50:49 | last changed on 2007.10.19 at 10:12:12 | Sweepstakes 2007 is right around the corner. The CW portion is from 2100Z, Nov 3 to 0300Z, Nov 5. I have not been operating enough CW to be prepared this year, but there is still some time for me to practice. I’m relegated to S&P on CW, because I’m just not proficient enough to try to run stations. We’ll see.
If anyone is interested,there is now a drop down menu item on the PVRC Home Page which has several interesting links to Sweepstakes advice. These articles are in various formats, and anyone is welcome and encouraged to visit the pages. These are all great reads, with lots of ideas and tips.
Included among them is a link to an N6BV Hamvention presentation in which Dean provides an interesting group of maps and charts relating to Sweepstakes 2005. I think this is great planning information.
By w4kaz, created on 2007.10.10 at 20:53:49 | last changed on 2007.10.10 at 20:53:49 | Scot, K9JY populated his blog for the month of September with a contesting ‘tip-O-the-day’. It makes for interesting reading and its a really good summary of contesting tips for someone new to radiosport/contesting. He’s pulled the list together as “30 Ham Radio Contesting Tips”. Heartily recommended for one and all.
By w4kaz, created on 2007.10.06 at 16:31:47 | last changed on 2007.10.06 at 16:32:28 | Well, its not especially impressive, but the ARRL DX SSB multi-single at NT4D made it into the top ten box for US multi singles. Since we didn’t really put in an exceptional effort, this is pretty good. We are agreed that we probably could have easily done better, but we took a less serious approach to the contest intending to have fun and learn few things. Conditions on Saturday morning discouraged me from running on 15 or 20 meters, as I was not serious enough to want to dig into the QRN for the weak ones. Jay feels like he could easily have done better on 40 and 80 meters. Once we get Jerry comfortable with running stations, I think we’ll be in good shape.
Anyway, its nice to be in the results box, even if its at the bottom.
By w4kaz, created on 2007.10.01 at 18:57:14 | last changed on 2007.10.02 at 20:45:28 | edited 10/02/2007, kaz
A couple of things made me curious enough to wonder what a plot of 10 meter QSO’s versus sunspot numbers would look like. So I gathered QSO data from W3LPL’s ARRL DX contests as posted to the 3830 reflector. Frank posted the QSO breakdown by band, which is what I wanted. The result is no surprise, but I found it interesting anyway. The results may appear in some future edition of the PVRC newsletter.
I have also put the article up as a static page on my website. This has the original article with a bit of supplemental information.
Continue reading QSO’s vs Sunspots
By w4kaz, created on 2007.08.26 at 19:28:57 | last changed on 2007.08.26 at 19:53:59 | I added more N4A photos to the N4A website. The last few frames at the bottom of the N4A photos page show some close ups of the gear we used on the beach for the Iota expedition.
I was a bit surprised at just how well the 21 inch stakes worked as guy anchors. They really held firm. These stakes were cut from 42 inch”deck balusters” I got from the local big box for about 75 cents each. They are just pressure treated 2×2 material. I cut each baluster in half, so two vampire killers are obtained per baluster. I expected to need to back these up with additional stakes, but they held the 36 foot mast with just dipoles very well. It took only one stake to hold each guy. The second surprise was how easily they came out when pulled straight up rather than at the 120 degree guy angle. Continue reading N4A Antenna Support Hardware
By w4kaz, created on 2007.08.25 at 08:20:53 | last changed on 2007.08.26 at 19:15:26 | Once again, I missed both August NAQP’s by picking the hottest week of the hottest month to spend in the hottest, most humid place in the US east of the Mississippi. I did manage to get some fishing in with a buddy.
 
My fishing pal kept all of the catch.
By w4kaz, created on 2007.08.02 at 09:47:28 | last changed on 2007.08.21 at 08:23:22 | As always, working N4A with N4YDU was a lot of fun. On arrival at the docks, we were both very eager to get going, and got a little impatient waiting for the boat across to the island. The wait was somewhat broken up by the boat pilot’s dog, who seemed to be torn between playing ball with N4YDU and jumping in the water to cool off.
Arriving at the cabin by about 2:00pm local, the WX was very hot and humid, with only a light breeze and crystal clear blue skies. We first set up the generator and climate control, then spent a couple of hours putting up antennas.
Continue reading 2007 Iota as N4A from Cape Lookout
By w4kaz, created on 2007.07.16 at 11:18:38 | last changed on 2007.07.16 at 19:53:38 | Only 112 QSO’s spread out over several hours. I spent a lot more of my operating time listening to various run stations and just soaking in the propagation observations on the bands. I just couldn’t get into operating the contest on either mode.
But maybe thats because I spent the first five hours ripping apart and re-building the station set up. All was not lost. I was able to debug a problem with the DVK input to the radio(a bad RCA jumper). Since I had just completed a new feed-through panel, I also needed several new jumpers to go from the panel to the station. I had more fun soldering up jumpers than I did operating.
Continue reading 2007 IARU @ W4KAZ
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