WB4SON

I recently purchased another K2 Energy K2B12V10EB battery (4 cells in series, 10AH, 123 Watt-hour LiFePO4 chemistry – in a package similar to a 7AH SLA battery but about 1/3 the weight).

I noted with interest that the package had a very large red warning label that read “Primary Lithium Batteries — Forbidden for transport aboard passenger aircraft”.

Concerned that might prevent me from traveling by air with my radio and battery; I found and read a government document that describes the situation.  In summary it seems that carrying such a battery in your carry-on bag is OK, but you are not allowed to pack it with equipment in your checked bag.  I’m no lawyer, your mileage may vary, etc., but here’s the document:

http://safetravel.dot.gov/whats_new_batteries.html

LiFePO4 Battery (12V, 10AH, 2.5Lbs)

While I am anxiously awaiting Elecraft’s release of their KX3 QRP rig, my fingers are itching to try something new.  It’s been awhile since I’ve built a radio from a kit (the last time was a HW-16 years ago) — althought I’ve been building all sorts of other things over the years.

So I have just ordered a TenTec 1320 (20 Meter CW QRP Rig).  That should keep my fingers busy for a few days this fall.

TenTec 1320 QRP CW Rig

I have mentioned my BuddiPole antenna before.  I think BuddiPole tends to elicit some strong responses from folks.  There is the camp that swears BuddiPole is too expensive for what you get.  There are those that feel BuddiPole is poorly made.  And finally there are those that absolutely love BuddiPole products.  I fall strongly into the latter group.

BuddiPole isn’t inexpensive.  A basic deluxe package with 9-foot tripod is $400, or $475 for the 16-foot tripod version.  Everyone has to make a value judgement for themselves, but in my opinion, you are getting a high-quality set of integrated parts that function well and does the job it is intended for quite well:  a light-weight, quick to assemble portable antenna that uses tapped loading coils to provide multi-band coverage from 40-meters to 2-meters.  With a couple of accessory parts it is easy to make full size (half-wave dipoles or quarter-wave verticals) from 20-meters and up, or 2 or 3 element beams for 10 meters and up.

Those that feel BuddiPole is poorly made are usually complaining about broken adjustable whips that will break/bend if the antenna falls over.  Those folks have usually NOT installed the guy-wire kit per the instructions.  The antenna was meant to be portable.  It can be setup in 10 minutes and taken down and stowed away in the same amount of time.  There is little reason to leave it up during storms, or to not use the simple tent-stake guys to keep it from falling over.  If you take care of it, it will perform its intended job for a long time.

Personally I’m not a fan of shortened antennas.  Short = small = lighter weight for sure, but performance suffers.  While you do have to use coils on the lower frequency bands, their use is optional on 20-meters, and not required at all from 17 to 2-meters.  A full-size 1/4 wave 20-meter vertical is a fantastic performing antenna since the take-off angle is low.  Even with a single elevated 1/4 wave counterpoise, losses due to radiation resistance are not substantial.  It is easy to change bands by adjusting coils or adding/removing sections.  Preliminary positions are color coded.

Little things like velcro straps to hold cables in place and attach guys, and things like multiple pockets to hold parts in the nylon carry bags strike me as the height of customer-centered design.  These guys clearly use the product themselves and constantly think of ways to improve it and make it easier to use.  BuddiPole continues to add accessory parts to the product line to reduce weight, increase performance, or add new configurations.

Post Hurricane Irene, after my primary antenna had beed damaged by the storm, I had a full performance 20-meter vertical antenna on the air in under 15 minutes.

Nothing is perfect, and BuddiPole isn’t either.  My biggest complaint is that the shop seems so busy with orders that they are somewhat slow in responding to queries via email (expect it to take a day or two), and their website is substantially behind the times in terms of missing products.  A bit more focus on that area would make the BuddiPole experience top in class.  However, they do stand behind their products.  One of my accessory arms, several years old, came apart.  They sent out a replacement free of charge.  And as the product has evolved over the years, they try to work with their customers to make sure older parts can be used as is, or adapted.

Thanks BuddiPole (JD, Chris and others) for a wonderful product.

Pretty much all of the east coast from North Carolina to New England was visited this weekend by an unwelcome guest — Hurricane Irene.  This was a massive storm, over 500 miles in diameter, that managed to dump an enormous amount of water onto already soaked land, causing massive flooding.  After hitting North Carolina as a category 3 storm, it made landfall again off of Coney Island, NY as a category 1.  It proceeded to travel up the Hudson river.  Areas to the west of the storm were soaked with a foot or more of rain.  This included NYC, which suffered substantial flooding (and the first mandatory evacuation on record).  Rhode Island, about 150 miles to the east took the brunt of the wind.  Despite the reduction in force to a tropical storm, RI saw gusts of over 85 MPH and as of yesterday afternoon, between 1/2 and 2/3 of all customers were without power.

Of course we knew the hurricane was coming, and the press did a wonderful job of stoking hysteria.  I figured no matter what it was going to be a bad power-fail situation.  RI’s last significant hurricane, Bob, happened 20 years ago, which meant trees had grown up and engulfed wires, and had done so without being tested by high winds.  So on our return from Cape Cod, the first thing I did was contact Mayberry’s, a huge RV supplier in New Jersey, and ordered a Honda EU2000i generator.  FedEx had it in our hands early Friday morning, two days before the storm.

I had purchased a 4KW Colman generator after Hurricane Bob, as we had lost power for 11 days following hurricane Gloria in 1985, and about 2 days after Bob.  I rationalized that buying a generator would dovetail well with my ham radio hobby and would virtually guarantee no storms in the future (that guarantee lasted for 20 years — making the best return on an investment ever).

The Colman worked fine for just about 20 years, although I never did use it.  A couple of times a year I would fire it up and run it under load for an hour or two then shut it back off.  That routine worked well until last year, when I stowed the generator with fuel in it during the summer of 2009, and didn’t attempt to start it again until the fall of 2010.  By then the gas had evaporated and had ruined the carburetor.  I had that replaced and the unit serviced last year.

Despite having a working generator again, I had fallen out of like with mine.  For starts it was massively heavy.  I could only barely lift it off a wheeled cart by myself.  Starting it was always a problem as it took quite a bit of effort to get that 8 HP engine turning over.  It was loud (as commercial generators tend to be) and it would vibrate all over the place.  Finally it wouldn’t run long on a tank of gas.  But frankly I had fallen in love with Honda generators which I had seen running at several events.  I say “see” because hearing them is a challenge unless things are quiet and you are standing right next to it.  They purr and make less noise than a human voice.

As I type this, my Honda is so quiet on the back deck that I can’t hear it above the sound of keys clicking on my keyboard, or the refrigerator humming away.   Yesterday it ran our lights and refrigerator from 3 PM until 11:30 PM on a half gallon of gas.  It was a strange feeling to be the only house with lights on for miles around.  Thanks for a great product, Honda!

Honda EU2000i Generator