ham_bitious

joined 1 year ago
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5
White Mountains SOTA Adventure (lemmy.radio)
 

Three of us (AA6XA, KE6MT, N6RUN) spent a few days peakbagging and playing radio in California's White Mountains. The highlight was climbing White Mountain Peak, a 14er. Here are the videos from the trip

Day 1: https://youtu.be/N4vlB0vUXDM

Day 2: https://youtu.be/_MrAtT4pRhI

Day 3: https://youtu.be/XVUOeInevQY

Hope you enjoy!

Fishing for 40m NVIS antenna ideas. in c/amateur_radio@sh.itjust.works
[–] ham_bitious@lemmy.radio 1 points 6 months ago (3 children)

My reading of the state park map is that the park is on the ocean side of route 1, so that'll eliminate going up any real hills. I'm not really familiar with that section of the coast, though.

It also sounds like you want an excuse to expand your antenna collection. Go for it! Antenna experimenting is fun. Set up two, and try some A/B testing, or use WSPR or RBN.

Its an interesting problem you've found. As a frequent SOTA op, its not one I encounter :D

Fishing for 40m NVIS antenna ideas. in c/amateur_radio@sh.itjust.works
[–] ham_bitious@lemmy.radio 1 points 6 months ago (5 children)

To get NVIS just use your regular 40m antenna, but set it up closer to the ground. Depending on your mast height, it might be NVIS already.

What park is it? Maybe there's a spot off the beach you could operate from?

Anyone who knows antennas that can explain this j pole to me? in c/hamradio@lemmy.ml
[–] ham_bitious@lemmy.radio 2 points 10 months ago

A j-pole is a half-wavelength vertical with a quarter-wavelength matching section on the bottom.

It turns out that the 70cm band is about 3x the frequency of the 2m band (150MHz * 3 = 450MHz, close enough to each band). So the 2m the long leg of the j-pole is 3/4 wavelength (1/2 + 1/4 matching section), and on 70cm the long leg is 2.25 wavelength (3/2 + 3/4 matching). Both are an odd number of quarter waves, as we expect. The ham who made that briefing probably discovered in their testing that the matching stub wasn't good for both bands, so they added a second one for 70cm.

This is not a novel design, Arrow Antennas has been selling one like it for years (https://www.arrowantennas.com/osj/j-pole.html)

1
New Elecraft KH1 (lemmy.radio)
 

I assume by now everyone's heard about the new Elecraft KH1 handheld transceiver. Offical Website Wayne N6KR is not a SOTA op, but he seems to know exactly what SOTA ops want.

I was able to hold one and play around a little at Pacificon today. Definitely a nice radio. Most of the internal volume is a giant battery. Due to space limitations, he said not to expect any other bands. But 40-15 is the sweet spot for QRP HF. Lightweight, and even with the whip extended doesn't feel heavy. Probably the closest thing the ham community has to an HT for HF, so far. I wouldn't mind having one; N6KR is a great salesman and engineer. I'm sure there are videos out showing it in action by now. We timed him going from packed to ready to transmit, it took him about 22 seconds. Most of that time was unwinding and tossing out the counterpoise wire.

The receiver is a superhet, similar to the MTR or KX1. Transmitter puts out 5W. There are two antenna connectors, BNC and the screw for the whip, and you can choose between them. Its not really shown in the manual, but there's a little "catch" to hold the end of the counterpoise wire when it's wrapped around the radio to keep it nice.

*Permanently Deleted* in c/amateur_radio@sh.itjust.works
[–] ham_bitious@lemmy.radio 2 points 11 months ago

This has been my experience using multiple HTs on the same band.

[US] ARRL's gone done it. Raising dues. in c/amateur_radio@sh.itjust.works
[–] ham_bitious@lemmy.radio 2 points 1 year ago

This is the reason to support ARRL

KPH Enigma Crypto Broadcast in c/amateur_radio@sh.itjust.works
[–] ham_bitious@lemmy.radio 1 points 1 year ago

Haha, that or there's a new "enigma" coin

KPH Enigma Crypto Broadcast in c/amateur_radio@sh.itjust.works
[–] ham_bitious@lemmy.radio 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

MRHS (the group running KPH) has a newsletter you can sign up for. Check out https://www.radiomarine.org/

6
KPH Enigma Crypto Broadcast (lemmy.radio)
 

The KPH coastal station near San Francisco sent a special message this weekend. It was encrypted with an Enigma machine and sent for everyone to try and decode. If you missed it, and want to try I posted a video of it: https://youtu.be/IgbggcpxrC0

Have fun!

1
SOTA Weekend North America (lemmy.radio)
 

In case you missed it: (stolen from the ARRL weekly letter)

Summits on the Air (SOTA) in North America has three events scheduled between August 4 - 7, 2023. The Colorado 14er annual event will run from August 4 - 7, the SoCal SOTAFest in Southern California will run from August 4 - 6, and the Pacific Northwest Not-Quite-Fourteener event will run from August 5 - 6, and includes climbers in Washington and Oregon.

Many different frequencies and modes will be used during the August events, but the recommended 2-meter FM frequencies have been changed to 146.58, 146.55, and 146.49 MHz to align with the use of the North America Adventure Frequency for SOTA (146.58 MHz). Operation is also permitted on select HF frequencies. The National Simplex Frequency (146.52 MHz) may also be used. Each event website provides a list of operating frequencies. All amateur radio operators and shortwave listeners are invited to participate.

Why is it called HAM? in c/hamradio@lemmy.ml
[–] ham_bitious@lemmy.radio 1 points 1 year ago

Ham is not an acronym. Not sure where it came from 🤷‍♂️

I'm starting to get sick of YouTube everything in c/amateur_radio@sh.itjust.works
[–] ham_bitious@lemmy.radio 1 points 1 year ago

I make videos of my SOTA activations, but I still write trip reports for the summits for people who like to read.