Amatuer Radio and Politics
10/05/22 06:08
I have been an Amateur Radio operator for a very long time, pushing over 50 years. Most people who know me, know I am an opinionated cranky old conservative who places a lot of strength in right and wrong and law and order……..I am extremely passionate about the hobby, promoting the hobby and increasing my and other peoples enjoyment in the hobby. And over the years CQ Magazine has been one of my favorite publications and I have issues dating back mid 70’s through today. I was a HUGE FAN of CQ VHF and above, and have always thought CQ was a much better magazine than QST, etc. I stuck by and defended CQ even during the struggles they had financially and the long delays in getting magazines out to us, subscription issues, etc.
But the below stand by CQ and the contest they will be holding bothers me. Amateur Radio has as a rule always remained non-political and we have enjoyed conversations with other Amateurs around the globe in friendly and not so friendly nations, and one advantage to that is we always had reminders that the person on the other end of the microphone is typically just like us. The same hopes, dreams and passions….We all have families, friends and we pretty much all want the same thing. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is horrendous and the toll on human life is terrible, the suffering and pain this is causing and the fact Putin is now showing signs of being vindictive and just going scorched earth…..with what from my perspective is a “If I can’t have it, they can’t either” and just trying to destroy everything in the country to leave it in absolute ruins. BUT WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO with our Amateur Radio friends? If the news reports are accurate and in today’s world I know how hard it is to sort out the truth from fiction in our news media, but from all appearances many thousands of Russian citizens are protesting the war, 10’s of thousands have been arrested and imprisoned for voicing opposition to the war.
As an example one of the biggest promoters of Amateur Radio I have run into and someone who genuinely has fun with Amateur Radio and is a constant source of energy and enthusiasm for the hobby, someone I have had many conversations with via e-mail, Zoom and she has even been a guest on HAM Talk with me……I truly am fond of her as a friend and extremely enthusiastic Amateur Radio operator…….SHE HAS ABSOLUTELY NO VOICE in the activities of our government, she can not more control Putin than you and I, so what advantage is there to be gained by blocking her and cutting her out of international activities or any other Amateur in Russa, Belarus, etc……
I personally disagree very strongly with everything Joe Biden has said and done……I am very unhappy with his actions……But I have no ability to exert any control over him and he and his party are going to do what they want and all I can do is voice my opposition, but let’s be honest my opposition is going to have very little impact and unlike Russian Citizens, I am not worried about getting arrested and imprisoned for bitching about Joe Biden.
I think CQ is out of line with the basically banishment of Russian participants, I think it undermines the value of the hobby and it shuts another door to communication between people.
Because of CQ’s actions and stand on this, I am honestly after 47 plus years giving hard consideration to canceling my subscription and may not take part in the CQ VHF and above contest for the first time in decades.
https://cqwpx.com/blog/cq-to-limit-contest-participation-by-stations-in-russia-belarus-and-donbas-region-due-to-russian-invasion-of-ukraine/?fbclid=IwAR00qYfkoPFSQAoBff8etWf6VIip5hRX5j_IXcYH5K5_8RckXiFfMfno62Q
CQ to Limit Contest Participation by Stations in Russia, Belarus and Donbas Region Due to Russian Invasion of Ukraine
AA3B
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 17, 2022
Contact: Rich Moseson, W2VU, Editor
w2vu@cq-amateur-radio.com
STATEMENT OF CQ COMMUNICATIONS, INC., REGARDING CQ CONTESTS AND THE RUSSIAN INVASION OF UKRAINE
(Northport, NY 17 March, 2022) – CQ Communications, Inc., publishers of CQ Amateur Radio magazine and sponsor of the CQ World Wide DX and WPX Contests, announced today that in light of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and Belarus, it will not accept competitive entries in any of its sponsored contests by amateur radio stations in Russia, Belarus or the separatist Donbas region of Ukraine (unofficial D1 prefix). Logs submitted by these stations will be accepted only as checklogs. In addition, contacts with these stations by other participants will have zero point value and will not count as multipliers.
This is in line with a similar action taken by the Radio Society of Great Britain, following the lead of other international sports federations around the world.
“We regret the need to take this action,” said CQ Publisher Richard Ross, K2MGA, “and recognize that the vast majority of our fellow amateurs who are affected by it are innocent bystanders who had no role in their government’s decision to invade another sovereign country. However, in light of the great suffering being inflicted without cause on the people of Ukraine by Russia’s leaders, we cannot in good conscience stand by and do nothing.”
The CQ policy will take effect with the 2022 CQ WPX SSB Contest on March 26 and 27. Future events will be considered on a case-by-case basis, depending on the situation at that time.
But the below stand by CQ and the contest they will be holding bothers me. Amateur Radio has as a rule always remained non-political and we have enjoyed conversations with other Amateurs around the globe in friendly and not so friendly nations, and one advantage to that is we always had reminders that the person on the other end of the microphone is typically just like us. The same hopes, dreams and passions….We all have families, friends and we pretty much all want the same thing. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is horrendous and the toll on human life is terrible, the suffering and pain this is causing and the fact Putin is now showing signs of being vindictive and just going scorched earth…..with what from my perspective is a “If I can’t have it, they can’t either” and just trying to destroy everything in the country to leave it in absolute ruins. BUT WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO with our Amateur Radio friends? If the news reports are accurate and in today’s world I know how hard it is to sort out the truth from fiction in our news media, but from all appearances many thousands of Russian citizens are protesting the war, 10’s of thousands have been arrested and imprisoned for voicing opposition to the war.
As an example one of the biggest promoters of Amateur Radio I have run into and someone who genuinely has fun with Amateur Radio and is a constant source of energy and enthusiasm for the hobby, someone I have had many conversations with via e-mail, Zoom and she has even been a guest on HAM Talk with me……I truly am fond of her as a friend and extremely enthusiastic Amateur Radio operator…….SHE HAS ABSOLUTELY NO VOICE in the activities of our government, she can not more control Putin than you and I, so what advantage is there to be gained by blocking her and cutting her out of international activities or any other Amateur in Russa, Belarus, etc……
I personally disagree very strongly with everything Joe Biden has said and done……I am very unhappy with his actions……But I have no ability to exert any control over him and he and his party are going to do what they want and all I can do is voice my opposition, but let’s be honest my opposition is going to have very little impact and unlike Russian Citizens, I am not worried about getting arrested and imprisoned for bitching about Joe Biden.
I think CQ is out of line with the basically banishment of Russian participants, I think it undermines the value of the hobby and it shuts another door to communication between people.
Because of CQ’s actions and stand on this, I am honestly after 47 plus years giving hard consideration to canceling my subscription and may not take part in the CQ VHF and above contest for the first time in decades.
https://cqwpx.com/blog/cq-to-limit-contest-participation-by-stations-in-russia-belarus-and-donbas-region-due-to-russian-invasion-of-ukraine/?fbclid=IwAR00qYfkoPFSQAoBff8etWf6VIip5hRX5j_IXcYH5K5_8RckXiFfMfno62Q
CQ to Limit Contest Participation by Stations in Russia, Belarus and Donbas Region Due to Russian Invasion of Ukraine
AA3B
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 17, 2022
Contact: Rich Moseson, W2VU, Editor
w2vu@cq-amateur-radio.com
STATEMENT OF CQ COMMUNICATIONS, INC., REGARDING CQ CONTESTS AND THE RUSSIAN INVASION OF UKRAINE
(Northport, NY 17 March, 2022) – CQ Communications, Inc., publishers of CQ Amateur Radio magazine and sponsor of the CQ World Wide DX and WPX Contests, announced today that in light of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and Belarus, it will not accept competitive entries in any of its sponsored contests by amateur radio stations in Russia, Belarus or the separatist Donbas region of Ukraine (unofficial D1 prefix). Logs submitted by these stations will be accepted only as checklogs. In addition, contacts with these stations by other participants will have zero point value and will not count as multipliers.
This is in line with a similar action taken by the Radio Society of Great Britain, following the lead of other international sports federations around the world.
“We regret the need to take this action,” said CQ Publisher Richard Ross, K2MGA, “and recognize that the vast majority of our fellow amateurs who are affected by it are innocent bystanders who had no role in their government’s decision to invade another sovereign country. However, in light of the great suffering being inflicted without cause on the people of Ukraine by Russia’s leaders, we cannot in good conscience stand by and do nothing.”
The CQ policy will take effect with the 2022 CQ WPX SSB Contest on March 26 and 27. Future events will be considered on a case-by-case basis, depending on the situation at that time.
A look back at the original UNCLUB!
10/08/21 08:46
August 2006 N5XO formed the Amateur Radio UNCLUB known as the Unusual Suspects, our sole purpose was to promote Amateur Radio, and have fun.
WHAT IS AN UNCLUB? I spend my days doing meetings, contracts, and formal activities, when I am in my hobby I want to relax and have fun. I did not want to deal with formal meetings, minutes, dues, club officers and the politics that go with all of that, so I formed what we have referred to as an UNCLUB.
In 2012 with a large amount of our activity and interest focused on promoting VHF/UHF Weak Signal Operating, we changed our name to HAMster Weak Signal Group.
Since our creation in 2006 I think we as a GROUP have done an amazing job of promoting Amateur Radio. When you think of all the huge events and projects we have pulled off as a UNCLUB it is even more amazing. I thought I would share some of our events and Activities. It is these projects and the friendships of an incredible group of people that make me proud to be part of this fine group. – Greg N5XO
Website: We built a new website - www.144200.net, where we featured photos and news from various ham radio events that our members participated in, plus a list of our proud members.
Tower Raising: I think we have had more tower raising projects than about any group around. Since every thing we do is about Taco’s… it would explain why as a group we seem to be getting larger {grin}. We have helped each other raise towers, design systems and improve our stations. I am impressed with our accomplishments. When we first started operating simplex like many ham’s and clubs we relied on repeaters and our stations showed it … now we have stations that anyone can be proud of … and have outstanding simplex coverage.
In fact within the members of our group…
PROMOTING SIMPLEX AND WEAK SIGNAL is our thing {grin}
Remote Field Day: We put on what we called our Remote Field day, we camped in everything from tents, RV’s, back of pickup trucks, etc……We put on this annual event from 2007 through 2013. We operated off portable antennas, generators, batteries, etc. This is a fun 3 day event with getting away from the hussle and bussle of city life … plus it promoted for training remote field operations, emergency communications and allowed us to test antenna designs in remote conditions that we had worked on the year prior.
We have encouraged non-hams to join us for the weekend events… to enjoy the out doors and get interested in ham radio….I’m happy to say we have created 6 or 7 new hams out of this activity over the years.
School Day: We got with a local school and promoted a Radio Fair day … our group donated a 100% full brand new working 2 meter ham station….20 amp power supply, 2 meter mobile radio, 40ft push up pole, J-Pole antenna and 60ft of LMR 400 … We introduced a 8th grade Junior High school Science class to Amateur Radio … and offered the 2 meter station to the first student who got his or her license. This program created 9 new hams for the hobby… and afforded one lucky young lady a 2 meter station…
This is a program we should do again… it was a lot of fun…
Repeaters: Even though we are not a repeater club and we prefer as a rule SSB or FM Simplex operating on VHF/UHF, We do recognize the value and need for repeaters and have built and put up 3 very wide area coverage repeaters.
Pipe Creek: 147.120 PL 82.5 plus System Fusion
Jourdanton: 147.240 PL 82.5 plus Sy stem Fusion
San Antonio. 443.025 PL 82.5
First and Foremost we wanted to see if we as a group could pull of a repeater project. I am happy to say we did a very good job. Not one of us had any past repeater experience, but not only have they now operated for 10 plus years trouble free, but offer some of the regions largest coverage foot prints with just a few exceptions.
Biggest bug issue was tuning the duplexers and I am happy to say that was a great learning experience. The repeater went on the air 3 years ago now….and the only maintenance or attention it has required was when we purchased a DB-420 high gain antenna to replace the temp hustler 440 base antenna that went up as a temp antenna until we could get what we wanted. Not a second of maintenance or any issues have developed or been required in over 3 years.
Working to put San Antonio on the VHF/UHF Weak Signal Map. A huge push and project was to get San Antonio HAMs active on VHF/UHF Weak Signal SSB, we started presentations for local clubs, we preached and promoted the advantages of SSB operation to everyone we got in front of, plus we formed a Weak Signal net on 144.180 that is held every Sunday Evening at 7:pm.
Plus to help test propagation and encourage people to aim the antennas this way, we built and put up VHF/UHF Beacons.
N5XO Beacon - EL09 - 144.289 @ 15 watts on single K5VH Omni at 120 ft
N5XO Beacon - EL09 - 432.360 @ 10 watts on single K5VH Omni at 115 ft
N5XO Beacon - EL09 - 1296.424 @ 15 watts on stacked WA5FRF Omni at 120 f
Encouragement of New Hams: We have reached out directly or indirectly to brand new hams and helped guide them to a club that fits their needs or help promote them into simplex operations. We have mentored more than a few hams over the years and while we do not individually have all the answers, with a diverse group such as ours … we usually have someone who can help them out….and or get them in the right direction.
One of the most interesting aspects of our group to me that shows we are promoting and pushing things in the right direction is the number of wives who married to hams for years, decades, etc. and never had a moments hint of interest in Amateur Radio started attending our breakfast, activities, etc… and enjoyed themselves so much that they are now hams….
THAT TO MY WAY OF THINKING SPEAKS VOLUMES ABOUT THE WONDERFUL PEOPLE WHO MAKE UP THE HAMster AMATEUR RADIO CLUB….
Look at everything we have accomplished since that simple day when Greg invited 4 local friends to take part in an antenna design and construction project and what we have formed and built.
IT’S AWESOME IN MY OPINION!
WHAT IS AN UNCLUB? I spend my days doing meetings, contracts, and formal activities, when I am in my hobby I want to relax and have fun. I did not want to deal with formal meetings, minutes, dues, club officers and the politics that go with all of that, so I formed what we have referred to as an UNCLUB.
In 2012 with a large amount of our activity and interest focused on promoting VHF/UHF Weak Signal Operating, we changed our name to HAMster Weak Signal Group.
Since our creation in 2006 I think we as a GROUP have done an amazing job of promoting Amateur Radio. When you think of all the huge events and projects we have pulled off as a UNCLUB it is even more amazing. I thought I would share some of our events and Activities. It is these projects and the friendships of an incredible group of people that make me proud to be part of this fine group. – Greg N5XO
Website: We built a new website - www.144200.net, where we featured photos and news from various ham radio events that our members participated in, plus a list of our proud members.
Tower Raising: I think we have had more tower raising projects than about any group around. Since every thing we do is about Taco’s… it would explain why as a group we seem to be getting larger {grin}. We have helped each other raise towers, design systems and improve our stations. I am impressed with our accomplishments. When we first started operating simplex like many ham’s and clubs we relied on repeaters and our stations showed it … now we have stations that anyone can be proud of … and have outstanding simplex coverage.
In fact within the members of our group…
- we have 3 more tower projects coming along in the next month to month in a half…
- 2 of them 72ft towers with large antenna arrays….
PROMOTING SIMPLEX AND WEAK SIGNAL is our thing {grin}
Remote Field Day: We put on what we called our Remote Field day, we camped in everything from tents, RV’s, back of pickup trucks, etc……We put on this annual event from 2007 through 2013. We operated off portable antennas, generators, batteries, etc. This is a fun 3 day event with getting away from the hussle and bussle of city life … plus it promoted for training remote field operations, emergency communications and allowed us to test antenna designs in remote conditions that we had worked on the year prior.
We have encouraged non-hams to join us for the weekend events… to enjoy the out doors and get interested in ham radio….I’m happy to say we have created 6 or 7 new hams out of this activity over the years.
School Day: We got with a local school and promoted a Radio Fair day … our group donated a 100% full brand new working 2 meter ham station….20 amp power supply, 2 meter mobile radio, 40ft push up pole, J-Pole antenna and 60ft of LMR 400 … We introduced a 8th grade Junior High school Science class to Amateur Radio … and offered the 2 meter station to the first student who got his or her license. This program created 9 new hams for the hobby… and afforded one lucky young lady a 2 meter station…
This is a program we should do again… it was a lot of fun…
Repeaters: Even though we are not a repeater club and we prefer as a rule SSB or FM Simplex operating on VHF/UHF, We do recognize the value and need for repeaters and have built and put up 3 very wide area coverage repeaters.
Pipe Creek: 147.120 PL 82.5 plus System Fusion
Jourdanton: 147.240 PL 82.5 plus Sy stem Fusion
San Antonio. 443.025 PL 82.5
First and Foremost we wanted to see if we as a group could pull of a repeater project. I am happy to say we did a very good job. Not one of us had any past repeater experience, but not only have they now operated for 10 plus years trouble free, but offer some of the regions largest coverage foot prints with just a few exceptions.
Biggest bug issue was tuning the duplexers and I am happy to say that was a great learning experience. The repeater went on the air 3 years ago now….and the only maintenance or attention it has required was when we purchased a DB-420 high gain antenna to replace the temp hustler 440 base antenna that went up as a temp antenna until we could get what we wanted. Not a second of maintenance or any issues have developed or been required in over 3 years.
Working to put San Antonio on the VHF/UHF Weak Signal Map. A huge push and project was to get San Antonio HAMs active on VHF/UHF Weak Signal SSB, we started presentations for local clubs, we preached and promoted the advantages of SSB operation to everyone we got in front of, plus we formed a Weak Signal net on 144.180 that is held every Sunday Evening at 7:pm.
Plus to help test propagation and encourage people to aim the antennas this way, we built and put up VHF/UHF Beacons.
N5XO Beacon - EL09 - 144.289 @ 15 watts on single K5VH Omni at 120 ft
N5XO Beacon - EL09 - 432.360 @ 10 watts on single K5VH Omni at 115 ft
N5XO Beacon - EL09 - 1296.424 @ 15 watts on stacked WA5FRF Omni at 120 f
Encouragement of New Hams: We have reached out directly or indirectly to brand new hams and helped guide them to a club that fits their needs or help promote them into simplex operations. We have mentored more than a few hams over the years and while we do not individually have all the answers, with a diverse group such as ours … we usually have someone who can help them out….and or get them in the right direction.
One of the most interesting aspects of our group to me that shows we are promoting and pushing things in the right direction is the number of wives who married to hams for years, decades, etc. and never had a moments hint of interest in Amateur Radio started attending our breakfast, activities, etc… and enjoyed themselves so much that they are now hams….
THAT TO MY WAY OF THINKING SPEAKS VOLUMES ABOUT THE WONDERFUL PEOPLE WHO MAKE UP THE HAMster AMATEUR RADIO CLUB….
Look at everything we have accomplished since that simple day when Greg invited 4 local friends to take part in an antenna design and construction project and what we have formed and built.
IT’S AWESOME IN MY OPINION!
BECOME BEGINNERS AGAIN!
06/07/21 16:56
In 2006 when we formed the Unusual Suspects, our focus and goal was very simple. Promote Amateur Radio and to have fun. We were extremely successful at this, we were known as the extremely friendly, energetic and fun group to hang out with.
Other clubs, the local Amateur Radio Store all recommended us to new ham radio operators as the group to hang out with, and because we were very active on 2 meter Simplex and all of us monitored 146.520 and reached out to each other using 146.520, we attracted a lot of brand new ham activity.
We were the UNCLUB with no rules, no officers and no drama, just doing ham radio and having fun. One of our biggest strengths were we were a family group, as such we had children, grandchildren and spouses join us in our activities ranging from remote field day weekends during spring break, antenna building, we had a monthly Meet & Greet Breakfast, and every Friday we had an informal breakfast get together.
To sum it up, we were fun and we had fun. As such, we did something very few clubs have pulled off, we attracted a lot of spouses into the hobby and even a few of the younger generation.
As more specifically ME, MYSELF AND I became so focused on Weak Signal Operating, and as a result the club did as well, our focus and the way we presented ourselves changed and we lost ourselves and what made us the fun group we were. We were highly successful in our promotion of Weak Signal Activity and we had some extremely successful events such as our lunch and learn…..But we were no longer doing the fun stuff.
So with that in mind, we are getting back to our roots and RETURNING TO THE DAYS OF THE UNCLUB attitude and activity.
LET’S ALL BECOME BEGINNERS AGAIN.
The HAMsters Weak Signal Group, will become the HAMster Amateur Radio Group, we will still focus on advancing, encouraging activity within the VHF/UHF Weak Signal arena, and we are expanding that activity to include more entry level EME, start dabbling with Microwave activity, but we are returning to 2 meter FM Simplex activity and will along with promoting and encouraging Weak Signal activity, we will promote and encourage 2 meter and up Simplex as well with a very noticeable return to FM Simplex activity on a daily bases.
We are seeing a return to our fun events and activities……..
Joining our weekly SSB net on 144.180, we will see a return of our FM Simplex net on 146.520. This was an extremely popular net and attracted a great deal of activity through out central Texas….WATCH FOR DETAILS. This was the net so many said could not be done, a simplex net would not work. Not only did it work, but it was one of the more popular nets in the region.
March of 2022 will see a return to our Remote Field Day Weekend camping trips again.
We will start working on our Balloon launches and experiments once again……We have two weather balloons just waiting to carry some radio equipment into near space or on a trip across the country or who knows maybe even further.
Starting August 6th our informal breakfast get togethers will return, we just enjoy breakfast and fellowship combined with our larger monthly Meet & Greet plus Swap meets.
And we will return to our HF DX hunt and work that was so popular on Saturday mornings for many years {I’ll explain more of this in a later article}.
PLUS ANYTHING ELSE FUN RELATED IN AMATEUR RADIO TO HELP NEW COMERS TO THE HOBBY ADVANCE AND GROW.
LET’S HAVE FUN!
Other clubs, the local Amateur Radio Store all recommended us to new ham radio operators as the group to hang out with, and because we were very active on 2 meter Simplex and all of us monitored 146.520 and reached out to each other using 146.520, we attracted a lot of brand new ham activity.
We were the UNCLUB with no rules, no officers and no drama, just doing ham radio and having fun. One of our biggest strengths were we were a family group, as such we had children, grandchildren and spouses join us in our activities ranging from remote field day weekends during spring break, antenna building, we had a monthly Meet & Greet Breakfast, and every Friday we had an informal breakfast get together.
To sum it up, we were fun and we had fun. As such, we did something very few clubs have pulled off, we attracted a lot of spouses into the hobby and even a few of the younger generation.
As more specifically ME, MYSELF AND I became so focused on Weak Signal Operating, and as a result the club did as well, our focus and the way we presented ourselves changed and we lost ourselves and what made us the fun group we were. We were highly successful in our promotion of Weak Signal Activity and we had some extremely successful events such as our lunch and learn…..But we were no longer doing the fun stuff.
So with that in mind, we are getting back to our roots and RETURNING TO THE DAYS OF THE UNCLUB attitude and activity.
LET’S ALL BECOME BEGINNERS AGAIN.
The HAMsters Weak Signal Group, will become the HAMster Amateur Radio Group, we will still focus on advancing, encouraging activity within the VHF/UHF Weak Signal arena, and we are expanding that activity to include more entry level EME, start dabbling with Microwave activity, but we are returning to 2 meter FM Simplex activity and will along with promoting and encouraging Weak Signal activity, we will promote and encourage 2 meter and up Simplex as well with a very noticeable return to FM Simplex activity on a daily bases.
We are seeing a return to our fun events and activities……..
Joining our weekly SSB net on 144.180, we will see a return of our FM Simplex net on 146.520. This was an extremely popular net and attracted a great deal of activity through out central Texas….WATCH FOR DETAILS. This was the net so many said could not be done, a simplex net would not work. Not only did it work, but it was one of the more popular nets in the region.
March of 2022 will see a return to our Remote Field Day Weekend camping trips again.
We will start working on our Balloon launches and experiments once again……We have two weather balloons just waiting to carry some radio equipment into near space or on a trip across the country or who knows maybe even further.
Starting August 6th our informal breakfast get togethers will return, we just enjoy breakfast and fellowship combined with our larger monthly Meet & Greet plus Swap meets.
And we will return to our HF DX hunt and work that was so popular on Saturday mornings for many years {I’ll explain more of this in a later article}.
PLUS ANYTHING ELSE FUN RELATED IN AMATEUR RADIO TO HELP NEW COMERS TO THE HOBBY ADVANCE AND GROW.
LET’S HAVE FUN!
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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