April 27, 2018
This is the most cards I’ve received at one time. 5 are from the Rookie Roundup and the Canary Islands one is a reply to one I sent out.
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April 26, 2018
So I got the hexbeam installed, took quite a bit of work but wow the reception is significantly better than my old off center fed dipole. This is the NA4RR model. The hexbeam itself was really easy to put together. I had issues with the mast. Lots of issues. The previous antenna was built with…
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April 24, 2018
I got 5th place in the ARRL Rookie Roundup SSB contest. I had 66 contacts. It was pretty slow going for the beginning, the first hour it was lightning so I stayed off the air, then I got 20 contacts the next 4 hours and 46 contacts in the last hour. Here's my first contest certificate:
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April 20, 2018
I’ve ordered the hexbeam and rotor. I already received the rotor cable so I figured I’d get that prepped now, the rest of the stuff should be here Monday. I'm hoping to have it setup next week to use in the Florida QSO Party. In an effort to keep lightning out of the house I’ve added a terminal…
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April 14, 2018
The International Space Station was broadcasting SSTV images on 145.800MHz this week. I knew it was coming and did a little practice with my Baofeng UV-5R beforehand. The ISS made 1 good pass each day and I was able to get images on 2 of them. I connected the Baofeng to my MacBook Air with a cheap…
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April 14, 2018
Tampa Amateur Radio Club Fest XLI. It's a small hamfest, this is the 2nd one I've been to so they must do it a lot. I picked up some connectors and talked with some people I knew. I'm starting to know people. They have some nice towers
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April 7, 2018
I joined up with N1COR and WU2F to activate Egmont Key State Park K-1863 for the Florida State Parks on the Air event. I've been to this park a couple times and thought it would be a great place to activate. It's only accessible by boat, we took the ferry from Fort Desoto Park, see my Not POTA post…
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March 31, 2018
This was a fun one. I went out to Terra Ceia Preserve State Park. It's less than a 30 minute drive and not much of a park, more of a swamp with a dirt road you aren't allowed to drive on. I had a failed attempt at an activation in Big Cypress due to being too close to the powerlines I think so I…
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March 16, 2018
I used some military camo poles I picked up at Hamacation to make a higher mast for my 80m OCF dipole. This added about 12ft to the top. I don't notice a huge difference and the SWR got worse which was unexpected. I'm still able to get through pileups into Europe and have been making contacts. I've…
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March 15, 2018
I received the QSL certificate from W0JH. They noted that they had their pre-meeting breakfast at the same restaurant I ate at in Stillwater when I was there two days before the QSO. Small world.
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