Author Archives: Bob K0NR

2006 ARRL September VHF Contest Results

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The ARRL has published the results for the 2006 September VHF QSO Party. I didn’t really pay any attention because I didn’t remember working the contest. However, it turns out that I once again dominated the QRP category in the Rocky Mountain region. Well, “dominated” means that I was the highest score (65) of two entries.

I went back and checked my log book….it seems that I must have pulled out the FT-817 and went out on the back deck and worked a few stations.

Single Operator Portable Scores for Colorado:
Call Score QSOs Mult
K0NR 65 11 5
K0JJW 6 2 2

K0JJW is my wife, who also made a couple of contacts that weekend. Thanks, hon, for the competition 🙂

The September contest generally has very light activity in my area, so looking forward to the June contest and some good 50 MHz conditions.

73, Bob K0NR

ARRL Launches Emergency Radio Campaign

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From the ARRL Web Site:

NEWINGTON, CT, Jan 30, 2007 — “Ham Radio . . . Getting the message through for your family and community” is the theme of the League’s 2007 public relations campaign. The “Emergency Radio” Web site debuted this week. ARRL Media and Public Relations Manager Allen Pitts, W1AGP, says the 2007 emergency communications initiative pick up the momentum ARRL public information officers started during the just-ended “Hello” campaign.

I think the Hello Radio campaign was well done from the point of view of having a simple, on-target message and decent media content to back it up. Unfortunately, the only place I heard about Hello Radio was via the amateur radio community. Did it ever make it into the mainstream media? I don’t know. This is a practical challenge of any advertising campaign…getting enough exposure to reach the target audience.

Now we have the Emergency Radio campaign. It also appears to be well done, based on the initial web site. It is a good message that should appeal to a segment of potential hams. But will it have the reach?

73, Bob K0NR

K0NR – ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes

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For the last four years, I have operated a backpack portable QRP station in the ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes. I am not sure how I got hooked on this but the basic idea is to hike up to the summit of Mt Herman (~9000 feet in elevation, grid locator DM79mb) and operate for the afternoon. The contest goes all weekend but I am not signed up for a mountaintop camp out in January. So for me this contest becomes a hike-the-mountain-then-make-some-contacts event.

The first three years, the weather was amazingly good. It was so sunny and warm that I worried about sunscreen more than about having sufficient clothing. Last year, we had serious snow on the trail but it was still a reasonable hike. See my ARRL Soapbox comments here.

But Colorado has experienced record snow fall this year….and it is not melting any time soon. When I woke up on the morning of the contest, it was once again snowing at my house. My good sense said “Bob, you are not going up the mountain today.” The other part of my brain (the one that likes a good challenge), said “This has now reached the status of Official Challenge to be Overcome.”

My wife Joyce (K0JJW) and I loaded up The Big SUV and headed to the trailhead. A US Forest Service road that is not maintained (read: not plowed) in the winter is the only way to get to the trailhead. We carefully drove up the road and got within 1/4 mile of the trailhead. The road was blocked by various vehicles that had gotten stuck. We found a place to park that did not block the road, grabbed the snowshoes and started our climb.

We slogged our way up the trail through heavy snow and eventually arrived at the summit. It was not that bad of a climb, but the snowshoes were essential and the deep snow slowed us down. We arrived at the summit around 1 PM, one hour after the contest started.

At the top, I had about 25 QSOs before the cold started to get to me. It was difficult to operate the radio in the snowy conditions….and it was pretty dang cold. I did not bother to assemble the 2M yagi antenna, operating just off the vertical whip antennas. At first, I thought I was going to just work my own grid (bummer). As the afternoon progressed, I picked up 4 adjacent grids on various bands, so I was feeling OK about that. (Not rare DX but at least I got outside my grid.)

More information on VHF contests can be found here: How to Work a VHF Contest

73, Bob K0NR

The PJ4/K0NR Story

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I finally got around to putting together the PJ4/K0NR DXpedition story on my web site.

My wife (Joyce K0JJW) and I were looking for a great place for an island vacation and someone recommended Bonaire as a quiet little island with world class diving and snorkeling. We checked into it further and confirmed that this was a great place to spend 2 weeks just hanging out.

See the rest of the article here.

Morse Code Testing: Irrelevant

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I promised myself that I wasn’t going to write anything else about the FCC’s decision to eliminate the Morse Code testing requirement for amateur radio licenses. The issue has been debated for decades, all of the arguments have been made and I am quite weary of the topic.

Then I came across the Long Delayed Echoes blog, where Jeff KE9V made his 2007 New Years predictions, which included this:

Having thrown the gates wide open by eliminating the Morse code requirement for all amateur testing we learn that there’s nobody out there waiting to join the party. I predict no significant increase of new licensees in 2007.

This really struck me as likely and it made me realize something important: eliminating the Morse Code testing requirement is not good or bad….it is irrelevant. I seriously doubt there are thousands of potential hams just waiting to get their license, if and only if the FCC removes this hurdle. At the same time, this 5 Word Per Minute requirement is not much of a barrier to keeping out the undesirables. (There are plenty of LIDs that have their Extra Class license, even when the requirement was 20 WPM.) This change is not going to add significant numbers of radio amateurs, nor will it ruin the amateur radio service. It just doesn’t matter.

The fact that much of the ham community is vehemently in favor of or against this change is an indication that we are focused on the wrong question. We have lost perspective on the basis and purpose of the amateur radio service and how it fits into the 21st century. Ham radio is about tinkering with new technology, exploring the magic of radio, performing public service and having a whole bunch of fun. Let’s focus on that, rather than licensing requirements.

73, Bob K0NR

P.S. In case you wonder, I received my Extra class license when it required 20 wpm code. Big deal.

Counterfeit ICOM Handheld Radios

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ICOM has issued a notice on its web site that counterfeit versions of their basic VHF handheld radio, the IC-V8, are showing up at various locations on the internet. ICOM says that “Some of them look almost identical to genuine ICOM products. It has been reported recently that these products are also being sold through internet shopping sites at very low price.”

Apparently, these radios are showing up on eBay and a product review has been published warning potential buyers of these radios. This product review describes how to tell whether the radio is a fake. (I am not able to verify the accuracy of this information.)

I don’t recall a “knock off” of a popular ham rig before. Certainly, many items in the mainstream consumer electronics market have had cheap copies made, but the ham market is relatively small and doesn’t usually attract this kind of attention. Also, this radio can probably be used for land mobile applications (not necessarily legally, see your local government radio law.)

Buyer beware.

73, Bob K0NR

FCC Drops Morse Code

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Washington, D.C. – Today, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted a Report and Order and Order on Reconsideration (Order) that modifies the rules for the Amateur Radio Service by revising the examination requirements for obtaining a General Class or Amateur Extra Class amateur radio operator license and revising the operating privileges for Technician Class licensees. In addition, the Order resolves a petition filed by the American Radio Relay League, Inc. (ARRL) for partial reconsideration of an FCC Order on amateur service rules released on October 10, 2006.

The current amateur service operator license structure contains three classes of amateur radio operator licenses: Technician Class, General Class, and Amateur Extra Class. General Class and Amateur Extra Class licensees are permitted to operate in Amateur bands below 30 MHz, while the introductory Technician Class licensees are only permitted to operate in bands above 30 MHz. Prior to today’s action, the FCC, in accordance with international radio regulations, required applicants for General Class and Amateur Extra Class operator licenses to pass a five words-per-minute Morse code examination. Today’s Order eliminates that requirement for General and Amateur Extra licensees. This change reflects revisions to international radio regulations made at the International Telecommunication Union’s 2003 World Radio Conference (WRC-03), which authorized each country to determine whether to require that individuals demonstrate Morse code proficiency in order to qualify for an amateur radio license with transmitting privileges on frequencies below 30 MHz. This change eliminates an unnecessary regulatory burden that may discourage current amateur radio operators from advancing their skills and participating more fully in the benefits of amateur radio.

Today’s Order also revises the operating privileges for Technician Class licensees by eliminating a disparity in the operating privileges for the Technician Class and Technician Plus Class licensees. Technician Class licensees are authorized operating privileges on all amateur frequencies above 30 MHz. The Technician Plus Class license, which is an operator license class that existed prior the FCC’s simplification of the amateur license structure in 1999 and was grandfathered after that time, authorized operating privileges on all amateur frequencies above 30 MHz, as well as frequency segments in four HF bands (below 30 MHz) after the successful completion of a Morse code examination. With today’s elimination of the Morse code exam requirements, the FCC concluded that the disparity between the operating privileges of Technician Class licensees and Technician Plus Class licensees should not be retained.

OK, there you have it…the waiting is over….the FCC has ruled. Is this the end of ham radio? Will the ham bands be overrun with poor operating practices? Will CW operation fade into the night, never to be heard again?

I dunno. Get over it. Turn the radio on. Work somebody (on whatever mode you prefer) and have some ham radio fun.

It is not clear when this change takes effect, so look for more information to follow.

73, Bob K0NR

Shuttle Discovery (STS-116) Scheduled to Launch Dec 7th

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The space shuttle Discovery is scheduled to launch on December 7th with the radio amateurs on board: Sunita Williams, KD5PLB; Christer Fuglesang, KE5CGR/SA0AFS; Nicholas Patrick, KD5PKY. See the ARRL news article here. Detailed information from NASA is available on their space shuttle page.

You’ll be glad to know (?) that NASA is improving the quality of the food for the astronauts. The TV food show host, Rachael Ray, recently visited NASA’s prep kitchen. USA Today says “TV host upgrades astronaut meals.” Not only that, there is a special delivery of instant latte mix on the way to the ISS.

Let’s keep those astronauts well fed and maybe they’ll use the ARISS station to get on 145.80 MHz more often.

73, Bob K0NR

Satellite Operation from Bonaire PJ4/K0NR

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As mentioned in a previous post, I was in Bonaire on vacation, so I took along some ham radio gear and did a PJ4/K0NR Mini-DXpedition. Well, maybe it is more like a Micro-DXpedition.

Everything had to be transported via airline, so the radio gear needed to be compact, which included HF and satellite gear.

The satellite station consisted of:

The first problem I ran into was that AO-51 was configured in a rather, uh, interesting mode of SSB uplink (146 MHz) and FM downlink (435 MHz). My little HT can’t do SSB, so I was locked out of AO-51 for that week. In the second week of my trip, AO-51 was configured for 2.4 GHz uplink and 435 MHz downlink. OK, so I wouldn’t be using AO-51.

Fortunately, another VHF/UHF FM satellite, SO-50 was available. In fact, it was really available. I had not been on the satellites for quite a while and my experience was that the FM birds were usually jammed with activity. The first time SO-50 came over I didn’t hear a thing. I wondered whether I had the satellite tracking software set correctly. Daylight savings time had just changed but Bonaire does not change time, so I thought my PC might be off by an hour. I fiddled with the software until I convinced myself that I had the tracking software configured properly.

I finally figured out that the SO-50 was just not used much. Of course, Bonaire is in the southern Caribbean, near South America, so US stations were only workable for a few minutes of a pass. But still, SO-50 was very quiet. Then I realized that I normally rely on a signal on the downlink for me to adjust for doppler shift and point the antenna. Without a signal, this became more difficult. (My HT doesn’t let me tweak the downlink frequency while transmitting.)

The next thing that happened was that I transmitted on the 2M uplink and heard terrible interference on the downlink frequency. It sounded like a local broadcast station was mixing with my uplink signal and showing up on the downlink frequency. Uh, oh, this was really bad since it completely wiped out my ability to listen on the downlink. There were several broadcast stations on the island, including Radio Netherland, but I did not verify the source of the interference. Clearly, my poor little HT receiver couldn’t handle it.

The interference problem was solved by finding a good spot on the island that didn’t have the problem. Presumably, this was far enough away from the source of the interference to eliminate the problem.

I made a few skeds via email and finally got going on SO-50, using the callsign PJ4/K0NR. Bonaire falls under the CEPT licensing system, so I was able to operate without any special application or permission.

It was fun activating PJ4. Thanks to the radio amateurs that took the time to work me in Bonaire. QSL to my home call.

73, Bob K0NR

PJ4/K0NR Mini-Dxpedition to Bonaire

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PJ4/K0NR NETHERLANDS ANTILLES. Bob K0NR will be active as PJ4/K0NR from Bonaire (IOTA SA-006) from Oct 28 to Nov 9th, SSB and PSK31 on 30M through 6M. Also active on FM OSCAR satellites (Grid FK52). QSL to home call.

The AO-51 schedule has it configured for modes that I cannot work portable, so I will be focused on SO-50. Send me an email if you want to schedule a contact.

Use MP3 Player for Portable Logging

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In the past few weeks, I’ve refocused on portable satellite operations using a station consisting of a dualband handheld radio and the Arrow II antenna. One of the challenges with this kind of operation has been the logging. Sometimes I’d have someone jot down the information on paper as I worked the various stations. This can be fast and furious so it is easy to miss important information. Other times, I’ve used a small cassette tape recorder to record the audio from the contacts.

I recently came across a nice upgrade to the audio tape recorder. Creative Labs produces a very small MP3 player called the Zen Nano Plus that has a built-in microphone and recording feature. I just clip this device onto my shirt as I work the satellites, making comments about callsigns, grids, UTC, etc. into the microphone. Since I work the satellites full duplex, the downlink audio goes to my headphones and are not heard by the Nano Plus. I make it a point to repeat any important logging information. The Nano Plus does have a line input, so you could run the audio from the receiver into the MP3 player and capture the downlink audio. This has the disadvantage of shutting off the microphone, so I have not used this approach.

There are multiple versions of the Zen Nano. The “Plus” version has the built-in microphone, which is essential for logging. Of course, the Nano Plus can be used for listening to music or other audio programs. It also has a built-in FM tuner. The Nano Plus is a remarkable device, available for less than $50 on the web.

This type of audio logging may have other ham radio applications such as logging mobile operation.

For more information on working the FM birds, see the AMSAT web page. (Look for information on SO-50 and AO-51.)

73, Bob K0NR

Those #@$%# Power Adapters

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I was getting ready for a trip. Of course, I need to take along my electronic toys, I mean, necessities. There’s the mobile phone, the iPod, the ham radio gear, the digital camera and lots of other stuff. As I gathered up the toys, I surveyed the required support gear, which includes various forms of batteries and those dang power converters. You know the ones, the so-called “wall warts” that convert the AC line voltage to the required DC level. The only problem is that each little electronic gadget seems to require a different power level. Even if the voltage is the same, the plug size or polarity is sure to be different.

Not too long ago, I was writing about the virtues of the USB (Universal Serial Bus) standard. It has really simplified the plugging in of gadgets associated with computers. Not so with the DC power converter problem. It almost seems like the manufacturers make all of their profit off the power converter, so they are motivated to keep them non-standard and hard to find.

I try to explain where all of these power converters come from. I have (literally) piles of them from different pieces of equipment that have probably already been tossed onto the scrap heap. That’s another thing….why don’t they consistently label the power converters so you know what piece of equipment that are meant to serve? I’ve got power converters for rechargeable flashlights, for (radio) scanners, for handheld ham radios, for digital cameras, for MP3 players, for notebook computers, for computer scanners, for mobile phones, ….the list just seems to never end.

OK, let me say something positive here. I’ve noticed that some power converters have adopted switching regulators which let them handle a range of line voltages from 100 to 240 VAC. This is great for people that travel outside the U.S. You may still need an adapter to get the plug to fit the wall outlet but the power converter can handle virtually any line voltage around the world. Nice!

Back to complaining —- why can’t they just standardize on two or three power adapters, with a specified DC voltage and connector size? This could be the biggest ease-of-use breakthrough for the electronics consumer since the invention of the AA battery.

— 73, Bob K0NR

Ham Radio Report on IEEE Spectrum Podcast

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As an electrical engineer, I’ve always been a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The IEEE publishes Spectrum, which is an excellent magazine for technical topics relating to electrical engineering (EE). They recently added an audio podcast called Spectrum Radio to their program, covering topics interested to EEs.

This past week they published a audio clip concerning ham radio. This includes some on-the-air audio and an interview with Joyce Birmingham, KA2ANF. It is well done and worth listening to….maybe share it with some of your non-ham friends.

  • 73, Bob K0NR

FCC Releases Long-Awaited "Omnibus" Amateur Radio Report and Order

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From the ARRL web site:

NEWINGTON, CT, Oct 11, 2006 — Ending a protracted waiting period, the FCC’s Report and Order (R&O) in the so-called “omnibus” Amateur Radio proceeding, WT Docket 04-140, was adopted October 4 and released October 10. In it, the FCC adopted nearly all of the changes it had put forth in its 2004 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in the proceeding.

The complete FCC report and order is available online here.

One of the key rule changes for the VHF community is that auxiliary operation will soon be allowed on the 2-Meter band. Currently, auxiliary operation is limited to the 222 MHz band and higher.

Part 97.3 defines auxiliary operation in this manner:

(7) Auxiliary station. An amateur station, other than in a message forwarding system, that is transmitting communications point-to-point within a system of cooperating amateur stations.

In everyday language, we might call this a link, as in a control link for a repeater system or a link between two repeaters. Amateur radio stations that are connected to the Internet, using EchoLink or a similar system, are also auxiliary stations.

The existing FCC rules on Auxiliary Stations are:

§97.201 Auxiliary station.

(a) Any amateur station licensed to a holder of a Technician, Technician Plus, General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operator license may be an auxiliary station. A holder of a Technician, Technician Plus, General, Advanced or Amateur Extra Class operator license may be the control operator of an auxiliary station, subject to the privileges of the class of operator license held.

(b) An auxiliary station may transmit only on the 1.25 m and shorter wavelength bands, except the 219-220 MHz, 222.000-222.150 MHz, 431-433 MHz and 435-438 MHz segments.

(c) Where an auxiliary station causes harmful interference to another auxiliary station, the licensees are equally and fully responsible for resolving the interference unless one station’s operation is recommended by a frequency coordinator and the other station’s is not. In that case, the licensee of the non-coordinated auxiliary station has primary responsibility to resolve the interference.

(d) An auxiliary station may be automatically controlled.

(e) An auxiliary station may transmit one-way communications.

The FCC will be modifying paragraph (b) to be:

(b) An auxiliary station may transmit only on the 2 m and shorter wavelength bands, except the 144.0-144.5 MHz, 145.8-146.0 MHz, 219-220 MHz, 222.00-222.15 MHz, 431-433 MHz, and 435-438 MHz segments.

This means that auxiliary operation will be allowed on 2 Meters but the weak-signal portion below 144.5 MHz and the 145.8-146.0 MHz satellite subband are protected. This opens the way for EchoLink and other auxiliary stations to use the popular 2-Meter band.

Is this a good thing? Maybe, maybe not. This could be a positive change that allows for greater operating flexibility. If hams use good judgment on the frequencies they use, it will probably work just fine. On the other hand, it could result in a bunch of uncoordinated auxiliary stations causing interference to other radio uses. As usual in ham radio, the end result will be determined by the amateur radio community (and not FCC regulations).

73, Bob K0NR

USB on Ham Radio Gear?

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One of the really well-done and useful technologies available today is the Universal Serial Bus (USB). If you don’t know what this is, you have been living under a rock or simply refuse to own a computer. The first revision of the USB spec (USB 1.0) was released in January of 1996. The standard has been revised and improved over time and USB ports are now standard on virtually all computers today.

USB has become the preferred and standard method for connecting electronic devices to a computer. Yes, there are some applications that might require a different connection such as IEEE-1334 (AKA Firewire), but for the most part the world has embraced USB.

In my collection of electronic stuff, I have quite a few devices that use USB. Let’s see. The computer mice that I use with notebook computers all use USB. My Garmin GPS, my digital camera, my Apple iPod, my external hard disk and my keychain Flash memory drive all have USB. The really cool thing is that I can just plug these devices in and they pretty much work. Sometimes the first time you use a device, you may have to load the right driver. On subsequent connections, it just works.

Then there is my ham radio equipment: all stuck in the archaic world of RS-232. You remember RS-232….it’s that 9-pin D connector that might still be on your computer. My newer computers don’t even have it anymore but some of my other ones do…which is the problem. If a manufacturer wants to be backward compatible with older computers (like the ones that many of us hams still have lurking in the basement), you need to support the “old” serial port.

If you have a newer computer without an RS-232 port, you can’t connect it to brand new ham equipment. Now, the good news is that there are adapters that convert the new USB port to connect to older RS-232 equipment. See an example of one here. My experience is that these converters really do work but they require some setup to get it right. Instead of the device self-identifying (like a USB device would), you have to specify the right COM port, the right serial speed, the right parity bits and so forth. Why did we ever have to set parity? Why couldn’t it just always default to a common setting?

USB is also very fast, with USB 2.0 running at 480 Mbit/s, compared to maybe 115kbit/s for RS-232. USB also supports hubs and addressing of multiple devices connected to one USB port. RS-232 was pretty much a “hook up one thing at a time” bus.

The point here is that it is time to move on. Come on, ham radio manufacturers, forget the old RS-232 ports and give us USB. Bring ham gear into the 21st century.

73, Bob K0NR

Humboldt Peak – 2006 Colorado 14er Event

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Humboldt Peak – 2006 14er Event
Bob KØNR and Joyce KØJJW

The Colorado 14er Event is a fun mountaintop ham radio event. See my previous posting of the event announcement. Joyce and I decided to hike up Humboldt Peak in the Sangre de Cristo mountain range. Humboldt is the 37th highest peak in Colorado with an elevation of 14,064 feet.

We drove the Jeep up South Colony Lakes Road to within about 1.5 miles of the end of the road. Yes, the road is dang rough. We backpacked in to just past the trailhead and camped out Saturday night. There was heavy rain on Saturday afternoon that delayed us some and it rained a little through the night. On Sunday morning, we hit the trail at 7 AM and made the summit around 11 AM, about an hour later than expected. The trail is easy to follow until the end, where there is a bit of rock scrambling.

Our equipment was two dualband (2M / 70 cm) Kenwood handheld rigs with 1/2-wave vertical antennas. We both made a bunch of contacts on 2M FM. I also tried 446.0 MHz but didn’t work anyone on that band. After operating about 45 minutes, the clouds moved in and we headed back down. The rain held off until about the last mile or so of hiking. We got back to the Jeep and bounced our way back down the 4WD road.

It was good to see some radio operators on non-14er high spots (Mosquito Pass and Sante Fe Peak). The log is a bit sketchy due to serious brain-fade at 14,000 feet. Any corrections would be appreciated. Thanks to everyone we worked…sorry we missed a bunch of you.

K0JJW Log [ Time ~11:00 AM to 11:45 AM MDT]

Call Frequency Name Location
K6?? 147.42 Mike / Pikes Peak
KC0TXK 147.42 Nathaniel / Mt Princeton
W0NX 147.42 Keith / Shavano
K0CAO 147.45 Chris / Belford
N0XGC 147.42 Mike / Pikes Peak
W6OAL 147.42 Dave / Parker
AC7SX 147.42 Joe / Uncompahgre Peak

K0NR Log:

K7MWD 147.42 Matt / Belford
KC0SZO Sherman
WB0RRU Dave / Colorado Springs
KC0YAF Pikes Peak
AC7SX Joe / Uncompahgre Peak
N0XDW Jeff / Mount Bross
N0WAE Santa Fe Peak
W6OAL Dave / Parker
K0CAO Chris / Belford

73, Bob KØNR

Colorado 14er Event

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Amateur Radio operators from around Colorado will be climbing many of Colorado’s 14,000-foot mountains to set up amateur radio stations in an effort to communicate with other radio amateurs across the state and around the world. Join in on the fun Sunday, August 13th 2006 and see how many of the mountaintop stations you can contact. The prime operating hours are from approximately 9 AM to noon local time (1500 to 1800 UTC), but activity may occur at other times during the day. Most mountaintop stations will be running low power handheld radios. Stations running high power need to keep in mind that they can interfere with stations they cannot hear.

Two awards to encourage mountaintop operating throughout the year are available. The Summit Award is given to radio amateurs that contact 10 or more peaks and the Pinnacle Award is for operating from 5 or more peaks.

Radio operators with 14er climbing experience who plan to climb a 14er should log their name and intended peak at the HAM 14er Yahoo group.

QRP Quarterly – Summer 2006

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The Summer 2006 issue of QRP Quarterly showed up in my mail box today with my VHF QRP column on page 36. It looks like a few Internet references got edited out of the article, so I will list those here.

Colorado 14er Event web site: http://www.14er.org
QST article on the Colorado 14er Event: http://www.14er.org/OCTQST.pdf
Ham14er Yahoo! Group (Colorado 14er Event): http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ham14er/

73, Bob K0NR

CQ WW VHF Contest

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This past weekend was packed with family activities, so I wasn’t sure if I was going to participate in the CQ WW VHF Contest. Finally, on Sunday morning, I decided to pack up and head to Mt Evans (14,000 foot mountain with a road to the top). Actually, the agreement with my spousal unit was that we were going on a mountaintop picnic that also happened to include a 2M / 6M ham station. I operated in the Hilltopper category (QRP power, operating for 6 hours or less).

The station was an FT-847 running 10W to a 3-element 6M Yagi and an 2M9 Yagi on 2 Meters. The antennas were on a 15-foot mast mounted on the hitch of my SUV.

I started operating around 1930 UTC and found 6 meters open to the midwest. Of course, 2 meters gets neglected by the single ops when 6 meter is hot, so not many QSOs on 2 meters. The contest ended at 2100 UTC, so my operating time was limited.

About 1.5 hours of operating netted:

36 grids on 6M, 2 grids on 2M
76 total QSOs
Score: 3116

Now I am wishing I had gotten up there early in the morning….maybe next year.
The 2 band format is really nice for a simple portable or rover station. As long as 6 meter propagation is good, two bands is plenty of action. Also, the Hilltopper category works well if you can’t spend the whole weekend playing radio.

73, Bob K0NR

Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-121) Launched

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NASA successfully launched STS-121 Discovery today, July 4th.

From the ARRL web site:

Three hams will be among those taking the trip to the International Space Station aboard Discovery. They are Commander Steven Lindsey; Pilot Mark Kelly; mission specialists Stephanie Wilson, KD5DZE, Thomas Reiter, DF4TR, Lisa Nowak, KC5ZTB; Michael Fossum and Piers Sellers. Reiter, a European Space Agency astronaut from Germany, will join the Expedition 13 crew of Jeff Williams, KD5TVQ, and Pavel Vinogradov, RV3BS, and will remain for at least part of Expedition 14. NASA is pinning its hopes on a successful Discovery mission, since the space shuttle is the only vehicle capable of transporting the components remaining to complete the ISS, including the ESA’s Columbus module, which has been outfitted to accommodate Amateur Radio. More information on the STS-121 Discovery mission is on the NASA Web site.

I had previously posted some thoughts on STS-121.

73, Bob K0NR