The Next Adventure?

When I began to get back into amateur radio in the late fall of 2019, CW was the initial focus. I had enjoyed working code before becoming inactive and it was fun reawakening those neural pathways. Within a month or so of working on the code, my speed was in the 13-15 WPM range -- a far cry from my previous 22 WPM, but good enough to get back on the air. 

I think there were a small number of CW QSOs before I discovered FT8, which seemed pretty cool! True, FT8 isn't a conversational mode, but it makes a lot of sense in the nadir of the sunspot cycle. Also, when combined with tools like pskreporter.info, you rapidly gain an understanding of propagation, power, and antenna directivity. It's a lot of fun. 

This week I qualified for WAS and DXCC on FT8, and the shininess seems a little less now. Having proved to myself that these milestones are obtainable with a little discipline and thoughtfulness, there's a definite sense of "now what?".

Besides still aiming for VUCC on 6 meter FT8, on HF I'll probably head back to CW. I like dittybopping more than talking, although SSB on Field Day was a whale of a lot of fun. For sure FT8 will be a staple, because variety is the spice of life.

The Joy of the Hunt

When I was active in ham radio earlier in my life, I wasn't a hardcore contester or award seeker. I didn't keep track of states or countries for Worked All States or DXCC, and while I occasionally did participate in contests, the awards were never of interest.

Now, I find myself actively seeking a few more countries to complete DXCC, that elusive Alaska QSO to complete WAS, and various WPX endorsements. In doing so, my appreciation of different facets of radio has increased significantly. It's forcing me, for example, to understand propagation trends and patterns; how radios and computers interact with one another; and different practical antenna designs and why they work, among  many other things. 

Other people may or may not be interested in such parts of the hobby, and that's okay; different things appeal to different people. That's part of the greatness of Amateur Radio: Others continuously develop things to discover and participate in at some point.

 

Birds and Antennas

A rapid de-tuning of an end fed long wire (EFLW) antenna mid-QSO is usually a sign that something bad has happened, especially when the rapid de-tuning is accompanied by a lot of squawking.

Birds and EFLWs don't always coexist peacefully.

In the middle of an FT8 the other night I noticed the SWR increase dramatically. Not catastrophically, but very significantly. In the morning the cause was clear -- the far end was no longer tied to the tree as it had been. It was on the ground.

I think birds had landed either on the antenna or on the branch where the nylon line had been tied off. They clearly didn't appreciate it when the line snapped.

Neither did I!

Six Meters: The Magic Band

While I've never dipped a toe into VHF beyond 2m or 70cm FM, the weak signal modes above HF have always intrigued me. A tweet this afternoon alerted me to a 6m opening, so I decided, just for giggles, to see if I could hear any FT8 signals. I've only got an end fed long wire (EFLW) antenna, a 117 foot long wire with a 9:1 unun (the MyAntennas EFLW-1K), which I love but had limited expectations for on 6m.

In fact, I heard signals. Six meters was alive!

Well then, I just had to try transmitting. The antenna tuned up just fine, and on my first day ever on 6m, I managed to work 11 grids in 7 states -- using a 117 foot EFLW antenna.

That's why they call it the Magic Band. I'll be putting up a dedicated antenna soon.

Field Day 2020

This year was a strange reintroduction to Field Day, being the first FD event I've participated in since roughly 1985. COVID-19 prevented a group outing so I went it alone with a Yaesu FT-891, Wolf River Coils telescoping vertical (Sunday I used a MyAntennas EFLW), and 20Ah LiFePo4 battery.

Despite the sub-optimal band conditions, challenging weather, and lack of company, it was still a blast. I operated SSB to keep it simple this year. After giving up on 20m QRP Saturday afternoon and switching to 40m and 100 watts, I racked up a mediocre 50+ QSOs while marveling at the performance of the FT-891. The digital noise reduction and variable bandwidth filters made the difference between QSO and no-QSO many times. It's a nice rig.

Other random thoughts on FD-2020:  

• Very few on air spats or snarky comments heard.
• There were lots of polite "thank you" and "good luck in the contest" comments peppered into exchanges. 
• I heard a goodly amount of slow and medium speed code, helpful for people building (and rebuilding) their CW skills.
  

Other than limited propagation and the usual poorly tuned amplifiers producing QRM on nearby frequencies, the event was enjoyable. Hopefully next year we can deploy in groups.

Back in the Hobby

I've been an Amateur Radio licensee since the mid-1980s, and an Extra Class licensee since the mid-to-late 1980s. It was a huge amount of fun then: There were sunspots, I was young and it was all new, and the used equipment -- which was what we could afford -- was still relatively simple to understand.

As happens with so many people, however, school and life intervened. The hobby fell by the wayside as other things took priority. I never let my license lapse, though, and late last year was finally able to reenter the hobby, 30 years later.

What a time it is to be a ham! The commercial radios nowadays are technological masterpieces, and there is much innovation and experimentation with home brew, which now includes SDR and DSP. The Internet, which didn't exist when I was previously active, provides a tremendous amount of information to anyone who cares to learn and connectivity to communities of common interest.

As I was becoming inactive there was a lot of talk by gadflies about how the hobby was in decline and how young people didn't care about code or the technical dimensions of radio. None of that concern turned out to be true. Look at publications such as QEX and the QRP Quarterly; those and others reveal a group of highly technical hams. There's even a resurgence of CW operation as new and innovative digital modes emerge.

The hobby is, at its core, alive and well.

I'll blog from time to time whenever something crosses my mind that seems relevant. Hope to meet you on the air soon.