June 2021
T0 MAKE CONTACTS, YOU NEED TO BE ON THE AIR…..
27/06/21 10:54
This month is going to be all about Dale Ricketson - KA5YEU, Dale is one of those success stories that make me as a HAM Radio operator and as a HAMster Weak Signal Member proud.
While the event of this morning has huge bragging rights, and we will get to that in a few moments, I want to give first a little history of Dale.
I met Dale about 12 to 15 years ago on 146.520, it is a little over 116 miles between his QTH in Alice, Texas and my QTH in Converse Texas. Over the years we were able to work each other on 146.520 Simplex FM when we had band openings in the mornings, we became on the air friends and on my many trips to McAllen for my job, we would work each other on 52 simplex while I was passing through the Alice area. In almost everyone of those conversations I would pretty much hound him to get on Single Side Band 2 meters.
I finally wore him down, and he began building a modest 2 meter SSB/CW Station. You can say that his getting onto SSB and becoming another proud HAMster is my success story, and yes I’ll take credit for that.
BUT WHERE THE SUCCESS STORY becomes all about Dale, is from that point forward. Dales station is modest, he has a TS-2000 with 100 watts, feeding into 2 stacked 11 element yagi’s at about 35 to 40ft. His is not the strongest of stations, but he makes some fantastic contacts and it is all because of him.
He could be like so many Amateur Radio Operators out there, complaining about the lack of propagation, listening but never calling and then complaining no one is on the air.
NOPE, he is not only listening and going back to almost every station he hears, but is putting out his call as well. As such the number of VHF 2 meter DX contacts he is making grows almost constantly, and he is a regular source of conversation on the air.
Dale is doing what we are all supposed to be doing, putting out our call and not just sitting on the frequency monitoring and bemoaning the lack of activity.
And every now and then that perseverance pays off, and you make that once in a life time contact that has you’r shaking from the adrenaline rush.
This morning Dale made that kind of contact, the ones that have you dancing around like a giddy school girl and waking your wife up early in the morning…..BECAUSE YOU NEED TO TELL SOMEONE.
Not only did Dale demonstrate that Single Side Band Phone is still a very useful tool, and you do not need to use FT8 to make amazing contacts, but showed how persistence and making the attempt pay off.
In his words, he was debating heading out to tend to his tomatoes but noticed the MUF was up, so got on the radio instead…….After working a few contacts he heard a faint signal and the call VE3ZV, the signal was in and out and at best a 5/5, but he went back to him and surprised he was heard and made the contact. The Canadian station faded out almost as fast as he came in, showing not only is persistence important, but timing is as well.
Use the tools are your disposal such as VHF Real time propagation maps, MUF reports, etc….BUT MOST IMPORTANT MAKE NOISE, get your call out there.
This morning using 100 watts, on SSB Phone this contact was made.
2021-06-27 @ 14:35 UTC VE3ZV {EN92} with KA5YEU {EL07} on 144.200 SSB - eQSL 2334 km E-Skip
Congrats Dale on a record breaking HAMster Weak Signal Group Contact.
Best of luck and I hope your successful contact inspires many more fellow HAMsters to not only get active on Single Side Band, but to make some noise.
IT WOULD BE GREAT, IF WE COULD WRITE AND BRAG ABOUT MORE SUCCESS STORIES SUCH AS THIS , SO LET'S ALL GET ON THE AIR, MAKE SOME NOISE AND START WORKING THOSE CONTACTS!
MAKE SOME NOISE ON 144.200 AND 144.180
The N5XO & KE5MHJ Station Renovation
04/06/21 06:00
N5XO Station Build:
What started out as a simple tower modification project idea back in April of 2020, and because of COVID, getting all of the parts ordered and shipped to me dragged out for months. The RAZER took about 5 months, due to the owner/operator of the company and his wife both developing COVID and unable to work for awhile, then follow that up with all the orders that came in before and after me……So I did not get the RAZER unit until the first week of January.
That combined with a GEMI amp for my 1296 station, I ordered it also in April, and two weeks later I learned due to supply problems, etc with COVID AND BREXIT, it would not ship until January 6th. My original thought was to cancel the order and just order it again after they started shipping.
After reviewing it with Ruth, we just decided to leave the order placed and the charge to my bank card completed…….As I did not want something to happen and I not have the money when they were ready to ship.
I am glad that I did, it arrived the first week of January a little ahead of schedule, and orders at that time were now pushed out past July….so basically had I canceled my order and waited it would never be here.
Combine that with delays in some very low loss coax for the tower rotor jumpers, relay boxes and my mast mounted pre-amp for 432 and even though every order was placed last year before late May, the last of the parts all arrived in January.
To top off the frustration of all of the above, due to some other life events, I learned that I would also be MOVING MY HAM SHACK from the front bedroom and family room….to a back bedroom of the house. NOW I’LL BE HONEST, THIS SUCKS…..There are 14 hard line cables running from 4 towers through the attic and down into my ham shack……These hard line cables range from 1/2 inch to 2 1/4 inch. I will tell now it took Ruth and me 2 full days and a lot of struggling to move them from the den into the front bedroom when I moved the shack so that I could turn the den into a home theater room {which I am also giving up for this current situation {REALLY BIG SIGH}. PULLING EVERY SINGLE CABLE OUT OF THE HOUSE BACK TO EACH TOWER IS GOING TO BE HELL.
Then of course the projects got held up on the tower…..due to the fact that we had a major deep freeze that kind of killed all activity, power and desire to go out the front door for a couple of weeks, combined with repairing damage at the ranch and here from the deep freeze…….We then finally started planning the tower project first phase.
THEN CAME THE RAINS :) Now while I was disappointed to get rained out not once, but twice on planned tower weekends, I was grateful for the much needed rain here and at our ranch. The ranch is coming out of the drought stage, and we are now just DRY rather than sever. But I will be honest, when last Saturday the rains came down like cats and dogs from 10:pm the night before until 9:am Saturday….I WAS TRULY BUMMED.
But as luck had it….the rain stopped at 8:30 and by 9:30 it was drying up and by 10:am when we were ready to get started….it was not bad and was actually a bit cooler than expected.
SO PHASE ONE WAS FINALLY ABLE TO BE STARTED.
=====================================================================
I’ve broken the shack remodel into 4 Phases.
PHASE #1: Strip the primary tower of all antennas, mast, thrust bearing, cables, relays, and pre-amps. Leaving the tower 100% bare.
COMPLETED!
PHASE #2: Pull 100% of all the control cables, rotor cables, hard line, etc 100% out of the house, and off all towers.
Phase #3: Complete the RAZER installation, and install new antennas for 2 meters vertical FM, 2 Meters Horizontal CW/SSB. Plus 900 MHz FM Vertical.
Phase #4: Move the HAM shack and return it to a multi-operator contesting shack to allow up to 3 operators to take part in the VHF/UHF contest.
We are as part of Phase #4 adding 10 Giga-hertz capability to our shack.
Shack will be setup for single operator on 6 meters, single operator on 144, 220 and a single operator on 900, 1296, and 10 Gig.
I will also fully restore our full HF operational capability from 160 meters through 10, but all as a single operator as I have NO INTEREST in HF contesting.
WELL THAT IS THE NEW PROJECT, I am fixing to take two weeks vacation and devote all of my time to getting this time in a quick and timely manner.
What started out as a simple tower modification project idea back in April of 2020, and because of COVID, getting all of the parts ordered and shipped to me dragged out for months. The RAZER took about 5 months, due to the owner/operator of the company and his wife both developing COVID and unable to work for awhile, then follow that up with all the orders that came in before and after me……So I did not get the RAZER unit until the first week of January.
That combined with a GEMI amp for my 1296 station, I ordered it also in April, and two weeks later I learned due to supply problems, etc with COVID AND BREXIT, it would not ship until January 6th. My original thought was to cancel the order and just order it again after they started shipping.
After reviewing it with Ruth, we just decided to leave the order placed and the charge to my bank card completed…….As I did not want something to happen and I not have the money when they were ready to ship.
I am glad that I did, it arrived the first week of January a little ahead of schedule, and orders at that time were now pushed out past July….so basically had I canceled my order and waited it would never be here.
Combine that with delays in some very low loss coax for the tower rotor jumpers, relay boxes and my mast mounted pre-amp for 432 and even though every order was placed last year before late May, the last of the parts all arrived in January.
To top off the frustration of all of the above, due to some other life events, I learned that I would also be MOVING MY HAM SHACK from the front bedroom and family room….to a back bedroom of the house. NOW I’LL BE HONEST, THIS SUCKS…..There are 14 hard line cables running from 4 towers through the attic and down into my ham shack……These hard line cables range from 1/2 inch to 2 1/4 inch. I will tell now it took Ruth and me 2 full days and a lot of struggling to move them from the den into the front bedroom when I moved the shack so that I could turn the den into a home theater room {which I am also giving up for this current situation {REALLY BIG SIGH}. PULLING EVERY SINGLE CABLE OUT OF THE HOUSE BACK TO EACH TOWER IS GOING TO BE HELL.
Then of course the projects got held up on the tower…..due to the fact that we had a major deep freeze that kind of killed all activity, power and desire to go out the front door for a couple of weeks, combined with repairing damage at the ranch and here from the deep freeze…….We then finally started planning the tower project first phase.
THEN CAME THE RAINS :) Now while I was disappointed to get rained out not once, but twice on planned tower weekends, I was grateful for the much needed rain here and at our ranch. The ranch is coming out of the drought stage, and we are now just DRY rather than sever. But I will be honest, when last Saturday the rains came down like cats and dogs from 10:pm the night before until 9:am Saturday….I WAS TRULY BUMMED.
But as luck had it….the rain stopped at 8:30 and by 9:30 it was drying up and by 10:am when we were ready to get started….it was not bad and was actually a bit cooler than expected.
SO PHASE ONE WAS FINALLY ABLE TO BE STARTED.
=====================================================================
I’ve broken the shack remodel into 4 Phases.
PHASE #1: Strip the primary tower of all antennas, mast, thrust bearing, cables, relays, and pre-amps. Leaving the tower 100% bare.
COMPLETED!
PHASE #2: Pull 100% of all the control cables, rotor cables, hard line, etc 100% out of the house, and off all towers.
Phase #3: Complete the RAZER installation, and install new antennas for 2 meters vertical FM, 2 Meters Horizontal CW/SSB. Plus 900 MHz FM Vertical.
Phase #4: Move the HAM shack and return it to a multi-operator contesting shack to allow up to 3 operators to take part in the VHF/UHF contest.
We are as part of Phase #4 adding 10 Giga-hertz capability to our shack.
Shack will be setup for single operator on 6 meters, single operator on 144, 220 and a single operator on 900, 1296, and 10 Gig.
I will also fully restore our full HF operational capability from 160 meters through 10, but all as a single operator as I have NO INTEREST in HF contesting.
WELL THAT IS THE NEW PROJECT, I am fixing to take two weeks vacation and devote all of my time to getting this time in a quick and timely manner.
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