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Messages - vwflyer

#61
General Discussion / NVIS or ground wave?
October 03, 2016, 01:53:33 AM
Big back story here.
I've started playing around with QRP NVIS to see what it's capable of. I set up my computer to auto start a recording of my home radio's audio at certain times. I then turn the radio on and tune it to the freq I want to try. I then go out into the mountains and set up my QRP rig and simply string my EFHW from tree to tree as high as I can reach. When I know the computer has started recording I call CQ. If someone answers great. If not no big deal, I just want to see if my home QTH recorded me and how strong I was. So far I've only made three attempts but plan on many more at different distances, on different bands, at different times of day and in different terrain. The first attempt was at 130 miles on 40 meters in the mountains at 9:00 AM. My recording heard absolutely nothing. Then it occurred to me that my noise floor on 40 at my home QTH is always S7 or more. That could be why I didn't hear anything. If my signal was S5 it would have been buried in the noise. So I decided to try 30 meters out as it's a lot quieter than 40 at home. On the second attempt  my recording never started for some reason so who knows.

On my third attempt I was just going to a friend's house in town about 12 miles away from me. He has a big yard so I figured I'd take the little rig along and try a 30 meter contact from there. Long story not so short, my recording picked up my CQ quite well at 12 miles on 30 meters at 3 PM.

So here's my question. Was I using NVIS or ground wave to reach home? Both of our houses are in low spots so while there are no big hills between us there is also no chance of line of sight communications. My 2 meter FM base station at my home can't get more than about 8 miles towards town when talking simplex with my mobile rig and both are running 50 watts, not 4 watts that my QRP rig runs. The antenna was oriented for NVIS and not ground wave but at 12 miles it might not matter. Any opinions?
#62
Net Activity / Re: On the air..
September 24, 2016, 04:46:45 PM
Sure, whenever you like. I only occasionally get into France. Living about as far way from either coast as a guy can get, and running a lowish OCF dipole doesn't make my QTH and station a DX eating combo.
#63
Net Activity / Re: On the air..
September 24, 2016, 01:56:37 PM
Hi guys,
I'm monitoring 10.114 at the moment but if anybody wants to try another band I'm open to anything. It's 17:56 UTC right now and I will be at radio for another hour or so.
#64
General Discussion / Re: ARRL Conventions
September 19, 2016, 12:49:11 AM
QuoteI even get bored using "normal" radios. I'd rather plug in my RT-320 or MTR than my KX2...

That's funny, I was just deciding the same thing the other day. I much prefer sending or answering a CQ with my HB-1B than with my Icom 706 or Kenwood TS-140s. Yes, I can turn those down to 5 watts or so but it still doesn't feel the same as a successful QSO with a small radio. There's just something fun and satisfying about these little "gimmicky" radios. Even while sitting in my ham shack it's more fun to use the QRP rigs than the QRO rigs, though it's the most fun using the QRP rigs outside.

At the other extreme of the spectrum is my grandfather's Collins KWM-2. This thing is anything but QRP. Sure it "only" puts out 100W but the thing glows like a lightbulb and keeps my shack nice and toasty in the winter. What it has in common with the QRP rigs though is that its more fun to have a QSO with than my Icom and Kenwood. I don't know if it's the whole multistep tuning with the big knobs and switches you have to do to get it ready to transmit, or the spinning of the old analog dial or the smell of the tubes or the nostalgia or what it is. It's probably all the above and then some but a casual SSB QSO on it can leave me glowing inside almost as warmly as the tubes in the rig glow.
#65
My antenna is not the best but it works and I pretty much built it out of what I had laying around. I bought a SOTA tuner and a 4 foot piece of RG174. I then took some left over 14 gage speaker wire I had from a home theater install and pulled it apart. I cut it into three lengths and used some left over automotive spade and ring connectors I had around to make it into a linked end-fed for 20, 30, & 40 meters; the three bands my MTR works on.

I use a 20ft Shakespeare Wonderpole for my mast when I don't have low tree branches handy but often times I just tie a rock to the end of a piece of paracord and chuck it over a branch. When I'm operating 20 meters I usually have it as a sloper from the pole or branch down to the tuner but when I have the other half of the wire connected for 40 meters it makes an inverted vee.

I recently bought a used YouKits HB-1B 5 band rig and a Sotabeams tuner as a package deal. With another stretch of wire and a few more connectors  I can make another whole station but since I'm out of speaker wire and connectors I might go out and buy some more flexible wire and better connectors this time. I'm not sure I want to make a wire with 4 links in it though for all 5 bands. I might take a little more time and plan the next one out more.
#66
Thanks guys. If this rig or one of it's brothers had cross band repeat I'd be all over it. What cheaper way to set up a duplex repeater?
#67
I just came across this rig. I've never seen it before but you can't beat the price for a duel band mobile. Has anybody heard anything good or bad about these radios? I don't see where in the specs it mentions receive current draw but it's small enough to be a decent go box radio with more power than a handi talki.

http://www.banggood.com/QYT-KT8900-136-174400-480MHz-Dual-Band-25W-Mobile-Radio-Transceiver-Walkie-Talkie-p-1026663.html?currency=USD&createTmp=1&value_ids%5B%5D=29&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Crc-dm-c7&utm_content=ruby&gclid=CJ3q9r_0vs4CFQouaQodwZYGCA
#68
New To Radio / Re: How much power do you need?
August 04, 2016, 09:00:54 PM
I recently came across the ARRL podcast "The Doctor is In".
http://www.arrl.org/doctor
The episode on CW is very good and he does a good job of explaining why CW works so much better than SSB. Definitely worth a listen.
#69
Actually, I'm torn between buying one of these little 5 volt units for charging phones, tablets, and AA batteries and buying a 12 volt foldable panel like the instapark 27 with a charge controller.
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00F05VDVU/ref=ox_sc_act_image_5?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=AU5MW0P13QZ5V

With a 12 volt unit I can charge via the USB port like the smaller panels but I can also charge small 12 volt batteries with it which can be handy if I want to run a rig off a 12 volt battery. I can also take it car camping and keep everything charged from my car's cigaret lighter and use my mobile radio and keep my car battery topped off with the solar panel rather than running my car.  Of course the downsides are that it costs twice as much and is less ideal for lightweight backpacking. I do more car camping than backpacking though so the added functionality of the 12 volt panel might be the better fit. If I did more long distance backpacking where a battery pack would not last the whole trip then the small 5 volt panels would be better I guess.
#70
I'm sure they are both great products. I've never seen the Choetec but it has good reviews. I don't understand its specs though. The  instapark 10 watt panel says it puts out two amps at 5 volts hence its 10 watt rating. The Chotec on the other hand says it can put out up to 1.8 watts also at 5 volts. That would make it a 9 volt panel, not 12. This would make sense as the Choetec has two panels and has less panel surface area than the three panel instapark. My brother says that his instapark will charge his iPad. I've heard that the 7 watt goal zero panels are a little underpowered for an iPad.
#71
I was trying to decide between those same two chargers and weighing the pros and cons of smart charger vs battery pack capable. Although I was looking at getting this other folding panel just because it t came highly recommended by my brother and has come down a lot in price since he bought it.
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B006ZRYU9O/ref=ox_sc_act_image_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=AU5MW0P13QZ5V
#72
General Discussion / Re: Field Day: What to expect?
June 29, 2016, 08:32:03 PM
I think I need to buy a fishing reel:)
#73
General Discussion / Re: Field Day: What to expect?
June 29, 2016, 06:43:52 PM
QuoteI use a slingshot, fishing weight and line.. Works like a charm.
Gil, I assume you use a real with that line. I've tried shooting fishing line without a real and I just made a mess of things.
#74
Well I for one really enjoy watching radio prepping videos on YouTube. There is a distressing shortage of well done ones though. So any new additions, particularly well made additions are very welcome. I've done a fair bit of amateur video productions but haven't done much with graphic design for intros and outros. If the intro isn't real graphic intense I could probably help there... Or I could just make myself finally learn Apple's Motion.
#75
General Discussion / Re: Field Day: What to expect?
June 27, 2016, 12:50:07 AM
QuoteIf we had HF Land Mobile licensing like many other countries, I'd do that, now that I live ashore.
We used to pay for that type of HF license in Mexico but it was quite a bit pricier than $180 annually. The price was one reason we abondoned HF once everyone got satellite internet.
In Brazil we are still using HF in some villages but due to the frequencies assigned by the government (none higher than 8 Mhz) some of the further villages are struggling to make reliable contacts. I'm going to look into helping them set up a trial digital station to see if they can improve their success rate that way.