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I highly recommend operating during the ARRL Rookie Roundups. It’s designed for new hams or experienced hams who are new to a mode, so you don’t have to worry about any pressure. You can do it from the comfort of your own shack, a nearby hilltop, or with a group of others like the rotating rookies of N1FD. It’s a lot of fun and a “target-rich environment” to make QSOs, but without the crowding of the bands like in other contests. (And if you aren’t a rookie, please try to work them during the contest, I assure you they’ll really appreciate your QSO.)
Alan W1AHM gave me the link to this page by AC6V (SK) which is now maintained by his friends. There is a huge amount of good stuff there, check it out when you’re ready to drink from the firehose!
Great ideas, thanks!
The bonding & grounding talk sounds very useful. It was something I found mysterious when I was starting out. And should I connect my broadcast TV antenna mast to my radio ground?
Antennas without towers also sounds great. Maybe it can be paired up with a “bring your own” problem solving session on an afternoon out in a park.
For antenna analyzers, how to get it to talk to a PC would be helpful.
I like the idea of a build session for a balun. And what’s the difference between current and voltage baluns?
This page makes an interesting point about an alternative to a ubiquitous term (not necessarily related to satellites):
There is no such thing as gain in an antenna. This is one of the most difficult things to teach my students. This term was established many years ago, probably for commercial reasons…
The correct term is directivity – i.e., the capacity of antenna to direct the available power into one preferred direction. This looks as a gain in the correct direction, but the power was ‘stolen’ from elsewhere.
The normal illustration of this is squeezing a balloon to redirect some of the power from one direction to another direction.
I have not yet seen a copy of this new book, so FYI FWIW:
http://www.arrl.org/shop/Grounding-and-Bonding-for-the-Radio-Amateur/
Thanks, Dave! It was a lot of fun! The pile-ups weren’t too bad, and people were very patient. We found a rookie in Alaska and she seemed at least as excited to get NH as I was to get Alaska. I got a generous handful of calls from hams who got their licenses back in in the 1950s. I got a DX contact from someone in the Caribbean who got their first license a while back in the UK.
Thanks also to AB1QB and AB1OC for the use of their station and for their guidance! We were all limited to 100W, but I could really hear the Alaska station come up loud and clear as I swung the 4 over 4 SteppIRs around to the right heading. I also got great signals from a few mobile stations and a few QRP stations.
The upcoming CW and RTTY Rookie Roundups are great incentive to work on my code and try out digital modes.
By the way, remember that there is no food service at the park, so be sure to bring your own lunch, or stop at one of the numerous places near where you get off of the Interstate.
So far the weather forecast for Sunday looks beautiful!
73!
On 07/21/16 12:41, Jahnke, Bart, W9JJ wrote:
>
> Hi Aron,
>
> Here is a mockup of one recently submitted … the names were changed etc.
>START-OF-LOG: 3.0 LOCATION: VT CALLSIGN: K2XYZ CLUB: YCCC CONTEST: IARU-HF CATEGORY-OPERATOR: MULTIOP CATEGORY-ASSISTED: ASSISTED CATEGORY-BAND: ALL CATEGORY-MODE: MIXED CATEGORY-POWER: HIGH CATEGORY-STATION: FIXED CATEGORY-TRANSMITTER: ONE CLAIMED-SCORE: 123465 OPERATORS: W9JJ NN1N N1ND NAME: BART JAHNKE ADDRESS: 225 MAIN ST ADDRESS-CITY: NEWINGTON ADDRESS-STATE-PROVINCE: CT ADDRESS-POSTALCODE: 06111 ADDRESS-COUNTRY: UNITED STATES CREATED-BY: N1MM Logger+ 1.0.5774.0 QSO: 14003 CW 2016-07-09 1200 K2XYZ 599 08 IR4M 599 28 QSO: 14003 CW 2016-07-09 1200 K2XYZ 599 08 DL6ZB 599 28 END-OF-LOG:A comment says that the suspension of ham licenses in Turkey was just temporary, and another reqport that it didn’t happen: