Category Archives: Operating

Straight Key Night (Day?)

Posted on January 1, 2018 by robert

A New Years Eve dinner and party kept me off the air last night, but I made a point of dusting off my old J-38 key, and firing up a QRP rig that I had built to put 4.5 blazing … Continue reading →

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Worked All 13 Colonies

Posted on July 6, 2017 by robert

Last night I was NCS for my club’s HF net.  Right after our net cleared, K2C, a station in RI started calling CQ for the 13 Colony Special Event, and I picked him up, along with several of the other … Continue reading →

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Mid-way through 2017, DX is Crawling

Posted on July 2, 2017 by robert

At this point halfway to the bottom of cycle 24 (2020), I suppose it is only natural for things to slow down, not only due to the sunspot cycle decline, but also just because there are fewer needed DX entities … Continue reading →

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Goals for 2017 and 2016 in Review

Posted on January 1, 2017 by robert

Four out of seven 2016 goals were completed successfully: 255 Confirmed Countries  YES 1,200 DX Band-Points  YES WAS Completed on 12 Meters (need WV)  NO Successful ARISS Contact at All Saints Academy  YES Teach a Technician Class for Monsignor Clarke … Continue reading →

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K1 30-meter Emissions, Revisited

Posted on December 16, 2016 by robert

So I decided to open up my K1 and recheck the 30-meter bandpass filter alignment, guessing that the simple “peak coils for maximum” in the manual might also tend to peak the spurious emissions for maximum as well.  Sure enough … Continue reading →

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Elecraft K1 Emissions

Posted on December 14, 2016 by robert

After completing the internal tuner add-on for my K1, I wanted to run emission tests on it as well.  My unit is two bands: 30-meter and 20-meter. FCC Limit:  For transmitters installed after January 1, 2003, the mean power of … Continue reading →

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BaoFeng UV5R Spectral Purity Testing

Posted on December 9, 2016 by robert

I have seen some reports of BaoFeng radios not passing FCC Spurious Emission Standards.  I have a old UV5R that is affixed to my Fox Hunting RDF antenna.  I re-enabled the transmitter (normally programmed off to avoid accidentally blowing out … Continue reading →

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Christmas Bunting QSO

Posted on December 4, 2016 by robert

I’m a little late getting the Christmas Tree lights installed on our pine trees in the back yard, but my friend John, WA1ABI, announced he was all ready with his tree lights, and expected to make a QSO with Rich, … Continue reading →

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NM22 NPOTA Activation Success

Posted on November 13, 2016 by robert

Emboldened by my success at the local beach running 20-meter SSB from my truck, I figured that I would give a NPOTA Activation a try.  So last night I registered a two hour long activation of NM22, Roger Williams National … Continue reading →

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Success on 20-Meter Mobile

Posted on November 12, 2016 by robert

During JOTA 2016, my HF station had some RF issues due to the use of an off-center-fed-dipole (OCFD).  This type of antenna almost always has common-mode current issues on the coax.  Ultimately we solved it by making a 5 inch diameter … Continue reading →

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