Radio W4KAZ

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2007 IARU @ W4KAZ

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.

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last changed on 2007.07.16 at 19:53:38 | Category: Operating Events | Leave a comment

Visit with EA5DFV

By w4kaz, created on 2007.07.08 at 08:21:07 | last changed on 2007.07.08 at 08:50:46 |

On the day of July 5th, NT4D and I got the chance to spend a bit of time with Jose, EA5DFV. Jose was here on holiday for a visit to his family members, and had taken the time to contact some of the local NC hams who were in his contest logs. NT4D offered Jose a ride to the PVRC/NC meeting, and off we went.

It was very interesting hearing Jose’s stories about his station, and the problems unique to operating from Europe. Jose is a SSB contester, and will be hosting the 20m phone station for Spain’s IARU HQ operation as AM5HQ. He joked that he was really here to “spy” on the W1AW/4, as he was able to meet many of the people who will be operating the US HQ station from NC this year.

Hams are often some of the nicest people I meet. Jose is certainly one of them.

Hey, Jose! One more meeting and you can become a member of PVRC!

last changed on 2007.07.08 at 08:50:46 | Category: Hams | Leave a comment

IOTA

By w4kaz, created on 2007.07.04 at 15:14:58 | last changed on 2009.01.26 at 10:17:59 |

Planning to operate IOTA with N4YDU at the end of the month.

Cleaned up and tested the SWR on a couple of vertical antennas today. One is a hy-gain ATV18 I got on loan from NT4D. This antenna has seen one too many field days. The so-239 on the base is broken, but I can use a short coax jumper to feed it. The 10 metertrap seemed intermittent at first, but is working for now.

The other is a 20 meter quarter wave that I made from parts of a broken CB 5/8 wave. The base was sound, but I needed to do a bit of surgery on the upper elements. I also replaced the bolts with hose clamps, and some of the rusted hardware with stainless parts. This is a project that had been laying around, but a trip to the beach moved it up the list.

last changed on 2009.01.26 at 10:17:59 | Category: Antennas, Operating Events | Leave a comment