Amateur (Ham) Radio BS and Callsign Thread!

*sad trombone noise*

 

Last guy that played one of those sounds had his extra license pulled...

 

I was hoping someone was gonna catch my drift.

 

yup. Can't believe I let it lapse. Totally slipped my mind.

I never got that courtesy mailer from the FCC. I'm retesting here in a couple weeks though. Give me plenty of time to find a way to install a new rig in my new ride.

Right now I have two repurposed radios from work here. I hacked an old motorola MAXtrac on 2M, and a Motorola CM200 on 2M. I think it's time to jump into the next gen though.

 

Where are the favorite places for antennas in these trucks? Is the world moving toward NMO?

 

I put mine where it works.
Seriously though, I prefer center top cab but found it hard to balance a good antenna with garages and tree limbs. So I played with left/right center cab. I did not see much difference in transmit distance. I then tried forward or back and did notice better distance when cab forward (likely the front end mass is off center and the correlation to ground plane).

So mine is off center (right) cab forward NMO.

View from drivers seat:

 

I'll post up my sketchy setups from the New England Forest Rally after this weekend. We'll see who cuts more corners.

 

Haha want my slim jim? BTW totally got screwed trying to save this weekend and be the smart fiance.


Was told this weekend is her Bachelorette party...

 

Ohh that's no fun. Hope you were able to get outside or something like that.

 

Shopping around for a desk to set up an office with. Anyone have tips or considerations when setting up a desk layout for a ham shack?

 

Mine is a 2x4 frame with a piece of plywood on top, tap con screwed to the wall. Nothing fancy.

 

I am using an old computer table

 

I think I might go yardsale hopping next weekend to see if I can stumble on something for the new home at a good price.


In other news, more details and a date finally on this cool guy for those in the QRP game. 10w, but it's standby power consumption is bragged to be the lowest around.

https://lab599.com/

 

Any idea on the street price?

 

That's the best part. $700

 

In keeping with amature radio, I built a rough one from plain old 2x4s. It has copper grounding plate, rack and such. The legs are also 2x4 in a trestle style painted black. Not fancy...but that was the point. Note, I have the same rig in my "shack" as my truck so I can program from the shack and just swap out the memory stick or vs. I ran a seperate power line from my service panel and have bonded the hell out of everything. Diagrams on my site: k1sib.com



Edit pic of setup in Taco (same Rig), transceiver in whiskey bottle holder.

 

Where is your whiskey bottle holder? I keep mine within arms-reach...

 

Apparently I’m a bit dry...behind rear seat. I’m in the process of fabricating a box for the auxiliary battery and relay circuit to provide a clean install.

 

Last weekend, I volunteered at the New England Forest Rally in Western Maine and Northern New Hampshire. As I have heard it, this rally presents the most problems of any rally in the country. It takes place in the middle of nowhere. To my knowledge, every stage has zero cell service and many of the stages require communications over mountains.

The gear that I used started with the truck radio, my Kenwood v71a. Instead of using the starting battery, I powered it with a 110AHr SLA battery. Instead of the truck antenna, I used an Ed Fong j-pole fed using LRM-400. Typically, the antenna was 30 to 40 feet in a tree. In most positions, I cross band repeated so that if I needed to, I could leave the truck and maintain communications. I also brought my wife. Surprisingly, she was totally up for it, it was awesome having a team mate for the rally.

The first day of the rally, I worked at finish time control. At this position cars come to a stop to hand off timing cards. The flying finish position radios the official time to the crew at my station and we fill out the cards and hand them back to the car's crew. Beyond that, as the start control position announces the cars and their start time, I simply repeated the information back so that each station can hear the information if they need it. I had a couple of challenges at this position. My HT wanted to be more smart than me and automatically included an offset when I programmed my crossband repeat frequency. After pulling out my computer and quickly reprogramming, I was all set. One of the really fun aspects of working finish timing control is that someone has the job of making sure that brakes aren't on fire.

After we finished up at that stage a buddy and I drove to another stage that has cause problems for decades. It's essentially a course that wraps around a mountain. VHF communications are worthless. Everything has to pass through a human repeater. It's a horrible system. So, my buddy and I were there to run an experiment on 80m in an attempt to NVIS the hell out of the mountain. We were set up about a mile from the start position and the director of comms was position a couple of miles past the finish. We hear each other really well. I was using my IC-7300 with a LDG auto tuner going into a resonant 80m dipole about 10ft off the ground. My 100w was dong great S9+10 to +20. After dropping down to 25w, I was still over S9. The director was on the other using a KX3 pushing 15w and I was getting him at about S7. So resounding success and we are probably going to be using HF on this stage next year.

The second day was quite a bit more stressful. We worked at one of the chicanes. My stage captain had us set up off the road near the chicane. I pulled my weed wacker and cleared a spot for the truck before stringing up my antenna. As we were completing our setup, the rally master drives by and asks me if I "really want to put my truck there". How do you answer that question when the rally master asks that. So, he suggests a spot and we start working to set things up when another guy drives by and tells me I'm in a bad spot. So, he suggests a spot further down the road to put the truck and we can operate near the chicane. COOL, 20 minutes before they start sending cars, we start setting up our third spot. The best I could do put my antenna 10-15 feet off the ground. Pretty compromised position so I had to cram all 50w into the antenna. The first car was David Higgins, he goes by faster than my brain can comprehend. My wife and I "Holy fuck" and "Holy shit" at the same time and get ready for the next car. Next was McKenna and rips past and my wife and I realize that the excitement is actually just pure terror. So we sprint down the road after McKenna goes by and jump in the truck. Greatest decision of the day, temps topped out around 95, so the air conditioning was worth the fear.


We found a Unimog, I'd sell my Tacoma's soul for this rig.


80m dipole set up in NVIS position.


The Foyota tucked off the road at the chicanes. Compromised J-pole position.

 

T

The Foyota