Amateur Radio in 2021

COVID-19 has affected us all in different ways this year. Many people have gotten sick or lost colleagues or loved ones. Others have lost jobs or have lingering symptoms of the disease. As an infectious disease epidemiologist, 2020-2021 has been crushingly stressful and tiring for me. 

Amateur Radio has been a godsend, though. Using FT-8 to chase DX or pursue WAS has provided much solace, and copying a few minutes of CW has Zen-like qualities for clearing the mind. Listening to POTA operators while working on the weekends has expanded my world beyond the confines of four walls and a keyboard.  

I don't know what 2022 will bring, but I do know that our hobby will continue to provide rest and escape from the stressful times. And for that I am grateful.

73, friends.

Field Day 2021

This was the second year of Field Day in the Age of COVID-19. I planned to operate as 1D outside, but the threatening skies convinced me to participate instead as 1E inside. It was a new experience.

Running the FT-891 off a 20 Ah LiFePo4 battery at my usual operating position in the shack worked quite well, and led to a new and deeper appreciation of the '891's capabilities. It really is a remarkable radio. 

Working Field Day from the shack was enjoyable. Propagation was reasonable and I bettered my score from last year. The mosquitoes were not missed one bit. 

That said, I hope next year we can get back to a more traditional Field Day. Radio alone is fun, but radio together is great.

VUCC!

A little less than a year after first transmitting on the Magic Band, I qualified for VUCC. This was a goal of mine, just to see if it could be done on FT8 and using the same EFLW that I use for HF. If fact, it is possible!

Next, I want to try my hand at SSB on 6m, as FT8 is getting a little old. I've been brushing up on my Morse and hope to jump into that again soon. 

Field Day is just around the corner; this is such an awesome hobby!

Disappointment

For the first time in over a year, the local hamfest was held. It was 100% outdoors, in alignment with COVID-19 guidelines. Much of the event felt familiar and normal. It was nice to see tailgates and tables with used gear, parts, antennas, and cables. It was equally great to see other hams outdoors in pursuit of the hobby.

About 1/3 of the those in the crowd were wearing masks. There are many reasons why someone may want or need to wear a mask. Maybe they haven't been fully vaccinated. Maybe they cannot be vaccinated due to a health condition. Maybe they feel safer wearing one, until things calm down just a little more. 

I needed to get a few coax connectors and some other hardware, and found, promptly, deals. As I paid, the person selling the parts -- they were not wearing a mask -- mentioned my mask and launched into a rant about the "China virus", "what China did to us", how "the truth is all coming out now", and that "the US should cancel its debt with China." It was impossible to follow; there was more, but you get the idea. The words were said with anger and hatred, and it was pointless to engage.

Sadly, this hamfest exchange is similar to on-air arguments and tirades heard over the last year. Our hobby has a long tradition of respect -- of helping, not belittling, others pursuing their radio interests. Most of us find relaxation in our radio endeavors, and take pride in our accomplishments, our stations, and the service we provide to our communities. Regardless of your position and views on politics and world affairs, why bring it up?

It feels like the hobby has lost something when amateurs act in ways to purposefully disrupt the enjoyment of others. Can't we please concentrate on the positive things we have in common with one another and stick to the the topic at hand: Amateur Radio?

The Novice Days

Once upon a time we had magical sections of several HF bands. These were frequencies devoted to Novice Class licensees. Amateurs with higher license classes could and did work on the Novice bands, but Novice licensees couldn't transmit outside these select frequencies. 

I say "magical" only in hindsight. At the time, these bands seemed more like gorilla warfare than anything else. New hams who were learning Morse code and the basics of radio operation often had poor signals, caused QRM, and exhibited poor "fists". I remember 40 meters in the mid-evenings could be a real jungle!

And yet, learning took place efficiently on the Novice bands. Part of the learning was because you tended to realize when you or the person at the other end screwed up (sometimes by smelling smoke from your finals!). Other times, learning occurred when seasoned hams came down to the lowly Novice bands and modeled good operation. Mostly, learning took place out of necessity -- because nobody wanted to remain a Novice Class operator any longer than necessary!

Those were fun times. I remember the utter magic when my first QSO as a Novice took place one evening on 40 meters between Wyoming and New York state. Wow that was exhilarating.

Adventures in the Shack: Rookie Mistakes

I recently got a Yaesu FTDX-3000. It's an amazing radio. The DSP and filtering are extremely effective, and it almost makes the FT-991A feel like a toy, which is most definitely is not.When the radio arrived I carefully installed Anderson power poles to the factory DC cable and applied power. The radio came to life. 

A bit of background. For roughly the last year I've concentrated on FT8, with the exception of Field Day, which was done outdoors using SSB on the FT-891 (yes, I like Yaesu equipment). In the shack, which is on the second floor of my home, 98% of my operating has been on digital at powers not exceeding 30 watts. My radios are powered from one of two Astron RS-35 linear power supplies, using cables that I carefully made with eye hooks and power poles. Being on the second story raises the specter of effective grounding. I had strung a copper wire down to the grounding rod associated with a whole-house 30KW generator, which was itself bonded to the house entrance ground. It all seemed fine. 

After spending some time marveling at the FTDX-3000 receiver, I tried transmitting at CW signal at 100 watts. I keyed down and WHAM -- the rig rebooted! Was this a bad unit? I tried again and WHAM -- the rig rebooted again. I tried a different band. WHAM -- reboot. I tried reducing the power to 50 watts. WHAM! Reboot! I shut down and went to bed, sorely disappointed. 

The next day I suspected grounding issues. Specifically, I wondered if I had a good DC ground but a poor RF ground. After putting in a much more respectable ground with a shorter path to a cold water pipe and bonding to the house entrance, I tried again. WHAM! Another reboot. 

Well, I thought, maybe RF from my end-fed long wire is dumping RF into the shack and affecting the sensitive electronics in the '3000. I lowered the power to 20 watts and was able to transmit. I increased the power to 30 watts and was able to transmit. At 40-50 watts, however, the radio rebooted. So I tried winding some feedline chokes, and it seemed to make a little difference in that now I could transmit a little over 50 watts before encountering problems. 

I ordered a common mode feedline choke from MyAntennas and that seemed to help a little -- and my noise floor decreased, which was nice -- but the radio still wouldn't get much above 50 watts before rebooting. 

I tried disconnecting everything from the radio and transmitting; the problem persisted. I tried cleaning oxidation off fuses; the problem persisted. I disconnected all other radios from the RIGrunner power distribution system I use; the problem persisted. I put ferrites on all the power and other cables; the problem persisted. 

A local amateur with whom I had been discussing the problem suggested shortening the power cables, which come from the factory very long. I didn't do that, but I did try a new power supply, figuring that the higher current drawn on the higher power might have uncovered some instability. When I went to remove the eye hook connections on the power supply, I saw that the positive power cable was brown and stiff -- charred, in fact -- around the eye connector. 

It turns out that the eye hook I had installed was not heavy enough to carry 20 amps. The rig was rebooting because it couldn't draw sufficient current to transmit. Because I had operated at lower power levels until now, the issue had never surfaced. 

I felt like such a rookie. 

There a many lessons here, but perhaps the most fundamental is that, when encountering such problems, always start with the power. If I had simply looked at the power cables at the power supply unit source, maybe it wouldn't have taken three weeks to identify the root problem, which was easily solvable.

Of course, my station is now much better for all the things learned and steps taken to harden my setup. This hobby is so great that teaching lessons.

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.