Ham Radio Camping Trip.

Started by gil, April 13, 2013, 08:24:50 PM

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KC9TNH

Follow-up RFI re the end-fed (assumed sloping, not flat-topped over 2 trees):

- Fed from the top or bottom, and azimuth of the wire, i.e., if fed from low-end is the end of the wire pointing away from you, vice-versa for top-fed.
Just curious. Third-world Norwegians are curious.  ;D

cockpitbob

Shortly after 8:00pm I gave a listen on 7,067.5 but nothing heard.  I'm 1,200 miles north in coastal Mass and I often hear FL so I'm hopeful I'll hear him and maybe get to say "hi" at some point.  I'll give his 9:00 sked a listen tonight too.

RadioRay

I missed the 8 o'clock sked.  I was pole dancing at Romie Haag's to earn some ham radio money ( I earned $1.43 before taxes).  We made it for the 9 pm shot, but it was poor copy, though we did chat a bit. 

>>> Morning shots are excellent: night - not so much, because of the T-storms and HIGH noise.



>Ray
"When we cannot do the good we would, we must be ready to do the good we can."  ~ Matthew Henry

cockpitbob

I was listening at 9:10 tonight but nothing heard.  I'll try to remember the 11:00am sked tomorrow.

It's great that his gear is working so well.

RadioRay

Oh yeah!  That's a great transceiver!


>>> The best sked is 11:30  / 14067.5  .  Your should be in a good location to work him.


>Ray
"When we cannot do the good we would, we must be ready to do the good we can."  ~ Matthew Henry

KC9TNH

2000, one of those "heard him in there" but nothing really copyable while you were pole-dancing.
2100, heard "someone in there" same result but was disconnecting some things so didn't hang around.
Then again 1 pic may be worth....

RadioRay

Gil is in good spirits. The new tent is getting good reviews. Water is a bit of a concern, but only a bit.  There is water from a pump in the area, but it's very poor quality and at the least, requires boiling. 

Gil asked for a weather forecast for the area. I got it from internet and tapped it back to him in brief form. He was pleased to hear mixed rain in the forecast so that he could collect fresh rain water and have easy showers.  He has two trash bags and one old trick is to collect rain water in the trash bags, press out the air, then when the sun comes out, lay the bag out flat and let the sun heat the water for bathing.  I've done that many times. A couple of large trash bags in your emergency kit are a good investment. Shelter and water are enhanced with them.  Water tight materials are RARE in nature.

One piece of radio TFC passed to me from Gil.


73 de RadioRay ..._ ._

"When we cannot do the good we would, we must be ready to do the good we can."  ~ Matthew Henry

RadioRay

#22
ha ha -

OK , so it's not that old Bill & Ted movie, but it's fun.  We've been having a good series of contacts and ALL HERE are welcome to join in.  A few have and it's a good party.

Gil is hoping for more rain, for a good shower.  He's in an area where it's best to pack-in your water (ouch!). Rain is in the forecast for this afternoon.

The little Weber MTR QRP transceiver that he built is doing a VERY good job!  He is quite impressed with it.  It draws so little power n receiver (35 mA) that he can listen with little worry of battery drain.  The 3 to 5 Watt transmitter sounds very good on the air.  It's repeatable & accurate in frequency, so very easy to find him on the air.  The only glitch is the Morse paddle is a bit erratic.  Probably just dirty contacts. Easy to fix in the field.  Over-all , he is VERY pleased with the entire set-up.  He will be hiking out Monday and if we are VERY nice to him, perhaps he'll post some of his pics and video. 

So - all is well- other than insects...    ;)


73 de RadioRay ..._ ._
"When we cannot do the good we would, we must be ready to do the good we can."  ~ Matthew Henry

cockpitbob

I finally heard you guys! It was during your 9:00pm sked.  Ray was 599 the whole time for me.  I was getting about 60% copy from Gil due to QSB.  He was about 449 when there but would go away completely for many seconds at a time.  I'm in MA, down in a hole and about 1,200 miles from Gil.  Very impressive that I copied any of his 5W.

Gil's code speed has really improved since the last time I heard him when we tried the Prepper's Net.  I think you guys were chugging along at better than 15wpm tonight!

KC9TNH

Quote from: cockpitbob on April 20, 2013, 09:37:56 PM
I finally heard you guys! It was during your 9:00pm sked.  Ray was 599 the whole time for me.  I was getting about 60% copy from Gil due to QSB.  He was about 449 when there but would go away completely for many seconds at a time.  I'm in MA, down in a hole and about 1,200 miles from Gil.  Very impressive that I copied any of his 5W.

Gil's code speed has really improved since the last time I heard him when we tried the Prepper's Net.  I think you guys were chugging along at better than 15wpm tonight!
Agree with all the above; the times I was able to copy both sides (also 1200+ miles away) he was doing OK (although I agree with Ray & could almost tell when he sounded tired). A Neanderthal-tolerant simple little straight key, adjusted a bit further than one might on a regular shack desk key, might be something to put in the bag. (I have a couple of J-37's, either attachable to a pilot's knee-board; have looked at a little Czech key that I've heard has a good rep but further research needed.)

But his speed has definitely improved (slow is smooth, smooth is fast, less repeats). So...

Gil:  Future self-denigration of your code-learning obstacles or mention of being stuck at 10-12wpm will not be tolerated without penalty of pile-on.  Nice job!

Will be seriously looking for the AAR; in particular I'd like to hear not about the comms piece but how you can reduce that ~63# tick on your back for next time.

Tomorrow is official flake day, so I will be lounging (without the bugs) in the rear area here and listening for the AM sked.
8)

RadioRay

#25
Cockpit Bob & Wes!  Glad that you're able to hear and copy.  It's ROUGH on forty at night QRP during thunderstorm season. Your copy of Gil at >60% through all that racket is GOOD!  I had him send his message traffic (short notes for other people) three times, so that I could be certain that I got it correctly, through the T-storms and SSB voice interference.   The Army kinda drilled that whole 'perfect copy / no interpolations' thing into me... ha ha

OK - So what's Gil up to in camp?

Seems that he had a little rain, but just enough to dampen things and no lightning. He mentioned that twice.  I think that he meant to infer something about not sitting on wet ground with a long piece of wire UP in the trees connected -eventually- into the ear buds inserted about 1/2 inch from his brain -  :o - during a Florida lightning storm  -  ::) - hmmmm... .



He located an old fashioned hand pump for NON=potable water and boiled it for use. He's had armadillos walk through camp, talked with hams in France & Italy as well as all over the USA, using that itty-bitty , MTR kit radio that he just built  and the BIG news was today, when other hikers came in and shared vodka and cigars! I don't know if it was Russian vodka or Cuban cigars, but let's have a little fun with this !   ;) 


73 de RadioRay ..._ ._
"When we cannot do the good we would, we must be ready to do the good we can."  ~ Matthew Henry

KC9TNH

Quote from: RadioRay on April 20, 2013, 10:56:11 PM...and the BIG news was today, when other hikers came in and shared vodka and cigars! I don't know if it was Russian vodka or Cuban cigars, but let's have a little fun with this !   ;) 


73 de RadioRay ..._ ._
So did we finally find that numbers station that's been trying to energize the sleeper-cell now making a living selling turquoise in Taos? Or maybe E. Howard Hunt left a couple more guys on the beach...
How old were these feather merchants?
8)

Frosty

Quote from: RadioRay on April 20, 2013, 10:56:11 PM
Seems that he had a little rain, but just enough to dampen things and no lightning. He mentioned that twice.  I think that he meant to infer something about not sitting on wet ground with a long piece of wire UP in the trees connected -eventually- into the ear buds inserted about 1/2 inch from his brain -  :o - during a Florida lightning storm  -  ::) - hmmmm... .

Is that on the test?   :P

Quote from: RadioRay on April 20, 2013, 10:56:11 PMand the BIG news was today, when other hikers came in and shared vodka and cigars! I don't know if it was Russian vodka or Cuban cigars, but let's have a little fun with this !   ;) 

Those bastards!  Chechnyan terrorists is my guess, and infiltrating the US with Raul's assistance probably.   Don't trust them if they don't know who won the World Series Gil!

RadioRay

#28
FROSTY !  You owe me a new keyboard ! IN FUTURE, Please preface all hillarious comments with

/// SPEW ALERT !!! ///


Yes, he was on-air again this afternoon , tapping code from under a tree. Gil passes his best regards to the forumites. KC9TNH joined us on the air as well and volunteered to send some of his SNOW to Gil, who is roasting in +85F and humid conditions.  This time/frequency combination is not good from Florida to KC9TNH but Gil could still copy (though barely) Wes/KC9TNH. I did a little relaying between the two since it's always strong between Gil and I on this sked and Wes was Loud and clear.  // You gotta LOVE the ability of Morse code to be heard! // It was good to have some of our radio lunatics from this forum on the air together.

I mentioned coffee to Gil and you could almost hear the symptoms of java withdrawl from 800 miles away!  He has had no coffee on this trip, having brought tea to keep the weight and bulk to a minimum.// Vietnamese coffee solves this.//  He is planning to break camp tomorrow and hike out to his rende' point for helo 'extraction' by one of the many Radio Prepper birds.



//OK - this is total BS, but it sounds more exciting than meeting his ride.//

73 de RadioRay ..._ ._


Aaaah! I can hear the Spanish lady now in my headphones WITH A FEW SCREW-UPS FROM THE BROADCAST ENGINEER....

ATENCION!  . . .   UNO DOS QUATRO SIETE OCHO.....   BUENOS DIAS MI AMIGOS Y RADIO AFFICIANADOS. ESTE ES LA VOZ DEL RADIO HABANA CUBA, TIERRA LIBRE EN AMERICA! ....  QUARTO QUATRO NUEVE UNO  TRES          FINAEL  FINAEL. 
"When we cannot do the good we would, we must be ready to do the good we can."  ~ Matthew Henry

KC9TNH

#29
Quote from: RadioRay on April 21, 2013, 03:48:20 PM
I mentioned coffee to Gil and you could almost hear the symptoms of java withdrawl from 800 miles away!  He has had no coffee on this trip, having brought tea to keep the weight and bulk to a minimum.
What weight? I used to pack those little teabag-like Folger's packets or just a week's worth of coffee for at least a cup/two a day (to be savored). Done right it's just down to boiling a little water. (Alot of teas have as much or more caffeine in them but, alas, it's tea, which is like saying the American League plays baseball...). 'Course if water is an issue, they're also a diuretic. But coffee would be in the pack, just 'cause.

"Sergeant Muldoon, I'm not a Marine. I believe in my comfort."

Oh, well; this ought to be an interesting AAR.
Thanks Ray for playing NCS, aka 'pivot man' & calling for audience participation.

:)

ERRATA: When it comes AAR time I'd be interested to know Gil's specific words on his sleep solution, bug mitigation approaches, and the feed point & compass orientation of his antenna. I know he has copied me better at his home location which is specifically why I used the dipole, vs the end-fed that his broadside to Ray.