Goal Review 2020

Posted on January 1, 2021 by Bob Beatty

Despite the lingering smell of a burning garbage, 2020 is finally behind us.  Like most of the planet, I found myself wishing the year would just end.  In my case, I’m quite blessed, as my immediate family is healthy and safe, along with my friends, although the number of people I know personally with COVID has grown far too large.

Despite global woes, 2020 was a pretty successful year for me in terms of ham radio.  The goals for 2020 were:

  • Teach a Technician Class
  • Reach 275 Confirmed Countries in DXCC
  • Reach 90 Confirmed Countries on 160-Meters
  • Reach 1450 Band-Points in the DXCC Challenge
  • Reach 40 confirmed states on satellite

All but the final one was accomplished.  While completing a physical class that began the prior year, I also held two online classes in 2020.  They were actually much more popular than the in-person classes.  Over 60 new hams were minted.  At this point, I’ve personally instructed over 15% of the ham population in RI.

My DXing was down somewhat this year due to other interests and simply waiting out the bottom of the solar cycle.  That said I did complete my goal of having 275 confirmed DXCC entities, as well as 1,452 points toward the DXCC Challenge.  I also finished with 93 confirmed countries on 160-meters.  I’m hoping I will complete this for 9-Band DXCC by the end of 2021 (I already have 9-Band WAS)

Where I fell short this year was Satellite operation.  This was partially due to the pandemic as it was not possible to setup my gear in a park this year, so I missed my goal to have 40 states confirmed via Satellite (I’m at 37).  I did manage to convince a friend of mine, Kurt K1SEA, to get active on the birds, and gave a couple of presentations virtually as an AMSAT Ambassador.

While I wasn’t as active as some years, I did finish 2020 with 12,000 entries in LotW (exactly 12,000).

That’s a pretty good confirmation rate, too, of 71%.  Of course the LotW thing is sort of silly, as I have a few duplicate contacts in there, but I still keep track of it (my actual log stands at 11,924, so I guess that is 76 duplicates).

Other things that stand out in 2020 was my introduction by John K1JSM, and Willy W1LY to Parks On The Air.  I’ve been bitten hard by that bug (so hard that it will put other 2021 goals at risk).  I activated 13 different parks in RI and managed to work 129 unique parks as a Hunter so far.

Thank you radio gods for a fine 2020, along with the many wonderful folks I’ve met during the year.

Posted in Activation, DX, Goals, POTA, Satellite, WAS | Leave a comment

Still loving POTA

Posted on December 16, 2020 by Bob Beatty

I’ve been blessed to be part of the Amateur Radio community during this insane year.  What a perfect pandemic hobby!  Parks On The Air have made it even more enjoyable and gives me a good reason to leave the house from time to time and get on the air from one of RI’s 50 different parks.

It’s our first snow storm of the season, and we are due to get about a foot.  If so that is more snow than we had all last year!  We shall see in the morning, but I plan on being at a park on Friday in the sunshine just to get a photo of an activation in the snow!

I’ve managed to work 100 parks on the air as a Hunter in the past two months.  MANY more to come this winter, I hope!

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Random Musings on POTA

Posted on November 17, 2020 by Bob Beatty

I started my Parks On The Air journey on October 2nd; my first activation with John K1JSM, Willy W1LY, and Richard KC1ARO at Brenton Point Park.  I quickly caught the bug, and have worked with them and other Newport County Radio Club members to form a POTA group.  We try to coordinate activations, somethings having three or more stations on the air (sort of like a mini Field Day), or simply to let folks know where we will be if operating by ourselves.  My wife (not a ham – and usually turned off by anything radio) has even asked to join me at future activations so she can explore the areas with our dog while I make contacts.

In the six weeks since my first activation, I’ve put ten parks on the air, earning a “Bronze Activator Award”, and have worked more than 50 Parks On The Air as a Hunter from my home station, earning the “Diamond Hunter Award”.  That represents over 300 contacts in my home log, a big boost to my activity.

I have some random musings from my activities:

  • My 20-meter hamstick (by which I mean a MFJ-1620T class of antenna) was silly long out of the box, and I had to grind off about 4 inches (leaving another 4 inches sticking out for future adjustments).  That resulted in a perfect SWR across the 20-meter phone band when mounted on my truck roof.  The 17-meter hamstick was spot on when mounted on my truck roof.
  • That same 20-meter hamstick, when mounted on our minivan, was badly detuned.  The 20-meter antenna was resonant above 14.350, so it was now too short.  Hopefully I have enough adjustment room left to make it useful with both the minivan and truck.
  • I tried a 30-meter hamstick on my truck.  I was able to adjust it to about 2:1 SWR, but no lower.  It turns out that the connector/rig end of the feedline was presenting a very high voltage, causing me to receive RF burns when using my keyer paddle (carbon-fiber finger pieces).  I note that the rig is isolated from the truck body as I power it from a separate battery.  Likely tying some braid to the truck frame will eliminate the problem.  That wasn’t an issue on 20 or 17-meters
  • When operating in one park with the rig on my tailgate, I received several comments concerning RF feedback on the mic.  I suppose no longer having the rig inside the truck interior led to that issue as I was certainly inside the near-field of the antenna.  I suspect some ferrite clamps will solve the issue.
  • While other simple antennas have been VERY effective in the field (end fed half wave and end fed random wire), nothing beats the simplicity of popping a 20-m or 17-m hamstick on the roof and getting on the air from inside the vehicle.  From drive-up to on the air is usually less than 5 minutes.  Doesn’t really matter how wet or cold it is outside either.
  • Once spotted, most of my activations with hamstick and IC-7000, have produced a QSO rate of about one a minute.  In other words, if you don’t want to spend a bunch of time, you don’t need to as you can have the required minimum ten QSOs in about 15 minutes or less.
  • A one QSO per minute activation requires about 7.5 AH of capacity from a LiFePO4 battery.

 

Posted in Antennas, Awards, Battery, Gear, POTA | Leave a comment

Typical LiFePO4 Battery Use for 100-watt SSB

Posted on October 25, 2020 by Bob Beatty

Because of my POTA activity, I’ve been able to keep track of my current consumption as I run my IC-7000 in SSB.  It is a fairly typical 100-watt rig, pulling about 1.4 Amps in RX at listening volume, and specified at 22 amps in TX.  What that translates into actual consumption requires measuring the consumption over time.

In a pile-up or contest mode, which means about 1 contact per minute, my rig used 9.1 AH over 74 minutes, which is 7.4 AH per hour of operation.

In a casual operation mode, about 1 contact per 5 minutes, my rig used 7.1 AH over 74 minutes, which is 5.8 AH per hour of operation.

So I should expect about 4 hours of pile-up capability out of my 30 AH batter, or just over 5 hours of more casual operation.

Given my POTA operation time durations, I would think a 15 AH LiFePO4 battery would be more than sufficient for a single park activation.  Something like the ABS-encased Bioenno BLF-1215AS, which can withstand some knocking around, and weighs 4.3 pounds.

By the way, my 30 AH Bioenno Battery was purchased back in April of 2014 and has been in heavy use for more than six years.  It still meets its nameplate capacity.

Posted in Battery, LiFePO4, POTA | Leave a comment

POTA Activation K-6979 Arcadia Wildlife Management Area

Posted on October 19, 2020 by robert

While Rhode Island is sort of small (Yellowstone can hold TWO Rhode Islands), it is a beautiful place, and is currently host to forty Parks On The Air entities.  One of them, Arcadia Wildlife Management Area covers a broad area on central west RI, and is the largest recreational area in the state.  Surprisingly, no one has ever activated Arcadia, K-6979, according to ParksOnTheAir.  That changed today!

I drove into Arcadia and parked near Browning Mill Pond.  I was intending to test a couple of antennas, and chose to begin with a 20-meter HamStick attached to the roof of my truck with a 5″ MagMount.  I used an Icom IC-7000, a small all band/mode 100 watt rig (idle since the 2016 ARRL NPOTA).  The HamStick was tuned to slightly favor the SSB portion of the band, with a SWR of 1.3:1 (it was 2.0:1 at 14.001 MHz and 1.8:1 at 14;349 MHz).

On-air operation began at 17:45 UTC, and ceased at 18:59 UTC; that’s 74 minutes.  Oddly enough, I completed 74 contacts in that period, coast to coast and a few into Europe.  Signals were unbelievably strong into the Southeast, with TN and AL booming in well over S9 (these states are a single F-layer hop away from RI).  During that time, I consumed 9.1 AH from my 30 AH battery (or a rate of 7.4 AH per hour of “pileup” use).

In the end, I never did try my new end-fed half-wave antenna, as the pileup was quite deep with just the HamStick.  Thanks to all Hunters who made the activation fun!

Entrance to Browning Mill Pond, part of Arcadia

Rig was an Icom IC-7000, with 100 watts. It was run by a 30 AH LiFePO4 battery

A 20-meter HanStick/MagMount was the antenna, adjusted for a  SWR of 1.3 to 1 on 14.280 MHz

Arcadia Management Area is a stunning collection of trails and ponds in western RI

 

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POTA Bronze Hunter

Posted on October 17, 2020 by Bob Beatty

Since my post on Oct 2 about activating Brenton Point Park, I’ve done another activation at Trustom Pond (K-0517) on October 9th along the southern coast of RI, and plan on going to a park in the Point Judith area tomorrow afternoon.  No doubt activating is fun because you get to be outside and sometime have a chance to see friends in a safe location.

But the other half of the Parks On The Air program is being a Hunter — someone who looks for Activators.  Without even knowing, I had word a few parks in the past year or so, so spent a couple of hours working some parks the past few days.  The award system for POTA is automatic and simple — just download a PDF.  Here is the entry-level award for Hunters:

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Use a 2mm Allen Wrench for HamSticks

Posted on October 12, 2020 by robert

I have a number of HamStick antennas that I use with my Truck.  Over time, I’ve lost every one of the little pesky Allen Wrenches that they come with, and couldn’t find the size listed anywhere on the web.

I suspect they were designed with a 5/64″ Allen Wrench in mind, but I’ve noticed that occasionally slips with some of my worn set screws.  A 2mm Allen Wrench is slightly larger (2.000mm vs 1.984mm), and seems to fit more snugly.

T-Handle Allen Wrenches, either 5/64″ or 2 MM can be found for < $4 on Amazon

 

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POTA – Brenton Point State Park

Posted on October 2, 2020 by Bob Beatty

I was lucky enough to get together with a few friends (John K1JSM, and Willy W1LY) today for a Parks On The Air (POTA) activation of Brenton Point State Park K-2870.

John and Willy are avid activators, usually islands, but have changed to parks on the air, so they have a lot of experience and have tried several different antennas.  Today we were using a Yaesu FT-897 with a PAR End-Fedz end-fed half-wave on 20 meters, and it seemed to work exceptionally well.  Willy and John did their activations on SSB, but I gave things a try on 14.060 CW.  I was amazed at the EU propagation.  Within 20 minutes I had worked 12 stations.

My thanks to DL4EAM, EA1ASG, F1BLL, IK2YGZ, IK4DRY, IW2NXI, N5PU, ON4VT, PA1H, SP1JQJ, UA6FZ, and VE4AKI for being on the other end.

FYI: My Location was Brenton Point State Park, grid FN41hk, 41.451094N and 71.351883W

Bob WB4SON at the CW Key

RBN indicated great S/N levels

Willy at the mic, John on the right. Pretty spot! You can see the mast holding up the high end of the end-fed antenna by the park sign

The sky was dramatic for sure, but it was in the 60s with light 5 knot winds from the WSW

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The year that won’t end

Posted on September 19, 2020 by robert

Pandemic, social unrest, political unrest, unbelievable fires, running out of names for Tropical Storms, even a plague of locusts, and there is still another quarter of 2020 to go!  Nevertheless, I’m very grateful to have Amateur Radio as a hobby as it provides many opportunities to keep my brain active and distract me from some terrible things going on in the world.

I set the following as goals for 2020:

  • Teach a Technician Class
  • Reach 275 Confirmed Countries in DXCC
  • Reach 90 Confirmed Countries on 160-Meters
  • Reach 1450 Band-Points in the DXCC Challenge
  • Reach 40 confirmed states on satellite

Good news is that three of the five have already been accomplished.  Not only did I teach a technician Class, but I’m part way through the second for this year.  Both are historically large classes being taught online.  They have lead to historically large VE sessions, and large number of new hams licensed.  At this point I’ve taught between 15 and 20% of all licensed hams in the state!

I did finally reach 275 confirmed countries in DXCC.  Almost everything left is dependent on future DXPeditions.  That has brought me close to another goal, with only four band-points left to get to my goal of 1450.  Two of those came about due to 6-meter openings.

After stalling at 89 confirmed countries on 160 over the noisy summer months, I got back on 160-meters yesterday.  I worked two new countries (Iceland and Anguilla) and heard but didn’t work three more in South America.  By this morning, Iceland had confirmed (thank you TF2MSN), completing my goal of 90 confirmed countries on 160-meters for 2020.

My final uncompleted goal for 2020 is to work 40 states via Satellite.  I’ve been off the birds for months due to foliage, and my usual excursions to parks have been severely limited by the pandemic.  I doubt I will be able to work 3 more states before the end of this year.  So more than likely I’ll finish the year with 4 out of 5 goals completed.

 

Posted in 160-Meters, Awards, COVID-19, DX, Education, Goals, Satellite | Leave a comment

Solar Cycle 25 OFFICIALLY Underway

Posted on September 15, 2020 by robert

NASA and NOAA made the announcement earlier today: Solar Cycle 25 is underway, with Cycle 24 ending in December of 2019.  Their best estimate is that it will be similar to Cycle 24, so nothing to write home about, but by this time next year, things will be opening up and will stay that way until about 2029.  Get those HF antennas up in the air soon!!!

 

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