N2OEF

I came home from a bit of a longer run of work trips last week. My beautiful wife and I had planned on getting out and doing an activation. Truthfully, I don’t know why she enjoys tagging along for these activations but she does, and it’s awesome! Prepping the gear I decided I wanted to give the TenTec R4020 a go at an activation. I normally operate the TX500 but I’ve really been wanting to put the R4020 on the air at a park. ...

This is a quick “how-to” mostly to remind myself how this all works. This is a working document for a few friends that do some contesting with me…. subject to changes. What is Web Radio Control? Web Radio Control is a software applicable from WebRadioControl.tech that installs on a raspberry pi and allows remote control of your radio over the internet without multiple computers running. I’ll have to cover some details about the software in the future and a few concerns. ...

I’ve got to be honest, this isn’t something I’ve ever really dealt with. I usually take pride in keeping my station well grounded and antennas properly tuned. While preparing for field day, I was testing a few antenna configuration at the QTH. This year I’ll be operating 3D from my QTH. My original plan was to install 4 dipoles for the low bands 2 each for 40 meters and 80 meters. I reasoned that my location on the east coast would make 40 and 80 meter contacts fairly easy up and down the coast. ...

Fort Yargo State Park This is really nice park. A few dollar entry fee (I think it was $10) but the park is fairly large featuring a camp ground, boat ramps, and multiple places to setup and operate. I found an area near one of the large picnic shelters with some smaller tables. Not wanting to intrude, I used the smaller tables even though they were out in the sun. ...

Contesting I absolutely love contesting! I’ve always loved the thrill of pile ups and just working through the pile up. Reality is, it’s not always like that. In fact, a large portion of the ham population may have never experienced that. POTA aside, I’m still itching to get into some contest. My real goal has always been CW contesting… This is something I watched for many years growing up around my ham radio clubs. Operators that were true masters of the art of CW. It’s always been a fascination and I’d spent much time watching these operators sit and work station after station at 30 word per minutes, like they were just talking…. oh and they were talking to other people sitting around them. It was like it was completely nature. ...

New Mexico is a different place. Having grown up on the east coast all of my life, I find it fascinating and different being out west. This activation I tried something a bit different and probably to my detriment. Being a frequent traveler, I am flying quite a bit, and I’ve been trying to reduce as much as I can in terms of bulk to carry. Unfortunately there are work things I just can’t get away from carrying, so ham radio, or tech in particular, has been the target of this crusade. ...

Introduction For years I’ve been fascinated by CW or morse code. For years, it’s also been a struggle for me. I was originally licensed at age 14. Back then, the general class required a 5 WPM code exam. I took that as literal and practiced at 5 WPM to pass the test. After passing the 5 word per minute code test, I spent some time listening to code on the air, but it sounded like a foreign language. What I didn’t realize was that a character at 5 WPM sounds much different than a character at 25 word per minute. This was my challenge. ...

Well, I guess we’ll just skip right over 2025 and jump right into 2026. I’ve been away from the blog here for a while. Truthfully, I don’t think anyone reads this, but it’s an exercise in frustration on my part. This happens to be the only website I haven’t migrated yet, so at least I get maintenance experience. In any case, 1-10-2025 was my last post and here we are in 2026. So here is what I’ve been up to! ...

I’ve done quite a bit of portable operating in my lifetime. Most of it terribly unsuccessful in my teen years, although this was mostly due to terrible band conditions back then. Today the bands are on fire! I’ve talked to someone in Ohio from a beach in Guam running 50 Watts into a portable antenna, on sideband. If that’s not impressive, I really don’t know what is. ...

Welcome to 2025! It’s been a longggg year. A lot has really happened and if I’m being honest, I’m actually looking forward to what 2025 will bring. Upgrades around the shack There isn’t too much to write home about the shack. I did manage a few upgrades, installations. The shack has been a painfully slow progress project for years now. I haven’t really covered the shack much on this site, I should start to include it here maybe. ...