OK all you spooks - you know who you are 8) - what can you tell me about RetroShare? Anyone here using it? A good friend of mine sent me an invite to start using it and it's secure encryption interested me enough to download it (Yes, they have a Mac version!). Discuss, and.............. GO!

There hasn't been any activity on the forum all weekend, just thought I'd break the silence ;D


So how was your weekend? I stopped at a friends Friday evening to help him diagnose a noise in his truck engine, went to a wedding on Saturday (not mine! 8) ), then spent a lazy Sunday loafing around the house.

One of my preparation goals has been to set up regular skeds with like minded hams, to form a network if you will. Most of the experienced hams here always tell people that you can't just get licensed, buy some equipment, pack it away and assume you're prepared to communicate if the SHTF. Your chances of successfully communicating via amateur radio under those circumstances without the necessary skills gained from experience are slim to none. Almost as important is establishing regular skeds with folks that are also prepared and will likely be there to communicate with if the SHTF, trying to establish meaningful skeds during the chaos of alien invasions and zombie attack would be a formidable task at best.

If you're reading this then you're already at what I feel is the best resource for accomplishing this goal - the RadioPreppers forum of course. Wes - KC9TNH and I are now having fairly regular daily contacts all the while continually refining our 'system' with different times, bands, frequencies, procedures etc, as we find what works best between us. Ray and Gil also have a regular sked and the four of us have been known to drop into each others skeds helping to form a mini network. My point is, do this now, if the SHTF we won't have the internet which obviously means no RadioPreppers forum to meet up with like minded hams, no way to start a thread looking for someone to have a sked with, no way to PM that person to work out the details, no way to e-mail that person to refine the system................. you get the point.

Anyone have any experience with any of the AR15.com nets, calling frequencies etc? I peruse the Ham Radio forum there on ocassion but I don't follow it regularly enough to keep in tune with what's going on and the signal to noise ratio on ARFCOM is kind of poor if you know what I mean.

Is it just me or did the font and icon size of the forum list pages recently grow?

As we celebrate America's independence today, remember the 3% who fought for our freedom. The brave men who signed the Declaration of Independence were gambling with their lives, their fortunes and their freedom, don't let their sacrifice be in vain.

Happy Independence Day!!

It's a beautiful Saturday morning, the sun is shining, the temperature is in the low 80's and there's a gun show in Des Moines............... gee what a dilemma, I wonder what I should do today 8)

Here we go again with my usual last minute weekend plans ;D
I'm leaving tomorrow morning to head for northeast Iowa to do some trout fishing/camping. Since it's my normal spur of the moment decision and we're pretty short on time to make skeds, I'll just throw out some times and frequencies and you can reply here if you want to QSO then. So........

Friday evening: 0130Z (2030 CST) 14.068 MHz CW

Saturday morning: 1300Z (0800 CST) 7.065 MHz CW

Saturday evening: 0130Z (2030 CST) 14.068 MHz CW

Sunday morning: 1300Z (0800 CST) 7.065 MHz CW

Depending on where you're located we could switch bands to get favorable propagation but I want to stay fairly close to those times.
WARNING: if the trout are biting I reserve all rights to completely forget about sked times  ;D

Calling CQ on 7.103 MHz CW right now - 13JUN2013 0050Z

I thought I'd try to take advantage of the three day weekend coming up so I'm potentially going on another short backpack trip this weekend, this time to Loess Hills State Forest in western Iowa. This isn't a sure thing yet but I figured I'd throw it out there for sked times.

One thing I learned from last time is that morning skeds on 20 meter should be earlier than 1100 local time. While propagation was fine with very little QRM, it pretty much kept me tied down to camp until lunch time with no option to break camp and get back on the trail. Around 0900 local time would be much better.

The timing of the evening skeds at 1900 local was good for camp reasons but long distance propagation on 40 meters wasn't very hot at that time, close in was very good at that time though. That being the case, where we're located in relation to each other should be the determining factor in what band and time we choose.

Who's interested?

Who's up for a sked tonight? I want to test out my new ATU in my KX1.

I cashed in some overtime for some extra hobby money and ordered the auto tuner kit and the integrated paddle kit for my KX1. I wanted to get the 80/30 meter module also but instead directed those funds to a water filter, that one will have to wait a while longer. These two additions should make my trail operating even quicker, simpler and easier than it already is by eliminating two separate pieces of gear. It also prevents me from getting all the way out to the middle of nowhere only to realize I left them at home. I'll try to remember to take photos during the build process, my problem is I get so focused on building that I forget all about photos.

As promised........

My recent backpacking trip pointed out my glaring need for a water filter because boiling water sucks!!
So who has one, what do you have, what do you like or not like about it? I used a Katadyn Hiker a few years ago on another trip, it worked fine but other than using it a few times I don't have much practical experience with it.

I'd like something that's lightweight, compact, easy to use, little to break or go wrong in the middle of nowhere; easy to replace, long lasting, inexpensive cartridges, oh it'd be nice if it was dirt cheap too. Gee I'm not asking for too much am I? 8)

Well my backpack trip is a go. I have Monday and Tuesday off so my plan is to be on the trail by sometime Sunday afternoon and head for home sometime Tuesday afternoon/evening. I'll only be about 40 miles from my place so propagation should be pretty much the same as from my home QTH. I only have 40 and 20 meters in my KX1 so that's where we'll have to sked. Who's interested?

It's a rhetorical question because yes, you can, and yes....... I did  8)

With my upcoming backpacking trip, I decided my old tent that has served me well for almost 17 years and has LOTS of repairs, has seen it's better days. That combined with the my desire for a smaller, lighter tent led me to purchase an inexpensive Ozark Trails one man tent for $30 at Wal-Mart.

The problem was the bright burnt orange and light gray/silver color would stand out like a sore thumb. A Google search on the feasibility of painting nylon turned up responses all over the map, from 'it'll work just fine' to 'the paint will eat the nylon' and everything in between. I actually found someone warning of the danger of suffocation since the nylon will no longer breathe............. dude, it's a tent, not a garbage bag.  :o

My solution.......... just paint the damn thing! At worst I'm out 30 bucks so I took the gamble. It was already clean and dry since it's brand new so I set it up in the yard and sprayed it with the same Rust-Oleum Camo series paint I use to paint gun parts using very light coats, closer to an over spray than a coat of paint, then I sprayed it with Scotch Guard silicone spray. It turned out pretty well in my not so humble opinion. After it dried completely I set it up outside for a water resistance test, after last nights rain it was bone dry inside and the water was beaded up on the outer surface. Time will tell how well it holds up.

Here's a little story of how I saw the light in regards to CW.

I've been a ham for 13 years now, the last 5 as an Extra. For most of that time I was a phone and digital operator with little interest in those weird sounding dits and dahs. While technically I passed the 5WPM code test to get my General ticket, I only barely learned it for the sole purpose of passing the test which I just eked by hair of my chin combined with a little luck. Oh there were a few times when I thought  it might be neat to learn code but it never went beyond that. Then I read an article on another site titled 'The Case for Code' which was the motivation for me to finally learn code. I started studying everyday and within about 3 weeks I made my first CW QSO. From there my main practice was on the air and my code proficiency skyrocketed. That was almost a year and a half ago and I now have hundreds of CW QSO's in the log, a Weber Dual Band rig, a KX1 and I've even homebrewed a couple of rigs from scratch, suffice it to say CW is now by far my all time favorite mode............I almost contemplated selling my microphones LOL. I'm now very comfortable at 12WPM and can often keep up at 15WPM depending on the other ops fist, 17-18WPM gets to be a real challenge for me but I know with time I'll get there.

I checked with the author and he was more than happy to allow me to post a link to his article. Many of you may already know him, some of you may have already read the article. Hopefully it inspires some of you to get off the fence and learn code, I know it did for me.

73 de KK0G
Chris

The Case for Code - Part 1 http://theoriginalpreppernetworks.com/APRN/APRN_blog/?p=4530

The Case for Code - Part 2 http://theoriginalpreppernetworks.com/APRN/APRN_blog/?p=4533

Anyone want to sked this evening? Tomorrow? Sometime? Anytime? 8)

I was surfing the web trying to find a better way to store and deploy my EFHW for use on the trail when I saw the Yoyo antenna http://www.hamradiofun.com/yo-yo-tenna.htm which is $26 with shipping for a single yoyo.

Of course me being the eternal frugal homebrewer, I did a little more surfing to see if I could find the parts to make it myself and what do you know.......... I found these http://www.ebay.com/itm/120931636307?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649 which only cost me $12 for a pair of 'yoyo's'.

I started building this solar panel back in February and decided to drag it out of the closet and try it out in the sun. I still need to build a frame/enclosure for it but so far it seems to be charging a couple of my SLA batteries that I use for QRP work quite nicely.

Hi everybody.

I joined the forum about a year ago but haven't really visited here much other than in the last few weeks so I thought I'd introduce myself. My QRZ profile;  http://www.qrz.com/db/KK0G gives a quick rundown of my ham activities and a few photos.

As to the subject of my post; I just ordered an Elecraft KX1 on Monday, hopefully it shows up later this week, can't wait to get started building it. About a year ago I completed a Weber Dual Band from Hendricks QRP Kits and it's been a great little rig but I wanted something a little more trail friendly hence the KX1.

KK0G