So, even though I'm considered part of the millennial generation (just barely!) I didn't have anything to do with Facebook until I started writing this blog.  The only reason I got lured in was just to make up the Facebook page that would be the companion to my blog, to share what I'm doing here with all the Social Media users out there, which, based on the stats, is where quite a lot of my readers stumble in from.  

    But you say "what does that have to do with ham radio?"  Well my dear friend - let me tell you!  

I was on a work trip, and I realized late in the work day Wednesday, that I would finish my work day Thursday early enough to stop and take a tour of the mothership (ARRL Headquarters.) Using my new fancy Facebook skills, I put up a quick post stating
"I'm right outside Newington CT for work, and I should finish early with my work tomorrow - anybody know of any neat places I can visit in the area?"
Aside from the obvious, lots of folks jumped in with restaurants in the area, etc. One of the folks who joined in the conversation was K2HAT. He had some really good information to prepare me for my visit, and even let me know that I should drop his name with the receptionist. As it turns out, I didn't have to do that, because when I walked in the lobby door, I saw this, that I suppose K2HAT had something to do with....

     Talk about an awesome surprise!!  I learned very quickly that everyone at HQ is extremely friendly.  My tour guide (Ron AA1IL) was great.  I was the only one who happened stroll in at the start time of the next tour, so I got Ron to myself, and it was awesome to learn about HQ, and everything that goes on there, from him.  It's easy to picture something like this as an "Ivory Palace" type of place if you've never seen it, but in reality it is a very down-to-earth, friendly, modest workplace for those that keep the ARRL running.   

     We toured a lot of the different departments in the HQ building, and I got to see some really neat things.  One of the cool things I first saw was the boxes and boxes of W1AW/Portable QSL cards waiting to be sent out from the centennial celebration.  The next thing that jumped out at me was the education department.  This is where they do all the planning and coordinating for all things education, like the summer programs for teachers in science and math programs, and the events done for school groups.  They had some neat stuff sitting out as example projects, including a floating APRS package that school kids get to build and send down the river! 

     Another highlight for me was getting to see the June issue of QST magazine before it even got published - I won't give away any inside secrets, but based on the storyboard there should be some good articles in the coming edition!

     Additionally, I've been enjoying the podcast and some of the little video's that the ARRL puts together, so it was neat to get a peek at the room where some of that magic happens.  While in the lab, I got to see some of the infamous test equipment that gives all of us QST readers the inside scoop on the performance of the equipment the ARRL reviews, all while the lab technicians were filming a video product review for the digital edition of QST!

     Speaking of podcasts - I did also happen to see (although I didn't think to take a picture of it...) a picture of WY7YL of 100 Watts and Wire fame, planting a big old kiss on Kay Craigie - priceless!

I could go on and on about what I saw there......so I will!
Also in the lab area, they have a really neat display of some antique and vintage radio equipment. For a lot of hams there would be piles of memories in this room - for the younger folks like me there's not really nostalgia tied to this equipment, but more of a sense of awe at just how cool this stuff is, and what it represents as far as the history of amateur radio.

While talking about history - who can forget W1AW, theamateur radio station! They've got some neat historical stuff, like the Old Man's (Hiram Percy Maxim, founder of the ARRL) desk, and some awesome new stuff, like radio's I can only dream of owning. You can take a turn operating here if you bring your license, but I didn't on this trip because I was recovering from a cold which made talking difficult, and I didn't want to be the guy who coughed all over the microphone that others would have to use! I'll be back in the area in just a couple weeks though, so as long as I've recovered, I'll make a return trip, and take my turn pointing all that ERP (Effective Radiated Power for the non-hams out there) in the direction of some of your receivers!

     If you couldn't tell, I had a blast.  There was a lot more that I got to see, but it would take pages and pages to go through it all.  I'll just wrap it up by saying that this visit made me proud to be an ARRL Member, and proud of the things that my dues are getting used to do and support!

     To the stranger whistling in the Lancaster, PA Panera bread - "I heard you!"  
     Yesterday I had a CW close encounter.  We were running some errands, and my wife had used the Panera app to place a pickup order for a bagel.  The Panera rewards card had earned us a free bagel every day for the month of April, so we were making sure to take advantage of it!  When you order for pick up at Panera, your order ends up on a shelf, and you just pop in, grab it, and pop out again - if you're quick you can be in and out in about 30 seconds.  It was during that 30 seconds that I heard a faint whistling coming from somewhere in the restaurant.
     The sound triggered something in my subconscious that made me turn and look back over my shoulder as I dashed out the door.  It wasn't until my feet hit the sidewalk outside that it dawned on me - the whistling was in a very distinct pattern:

_._.  _ _._

     Wait a minute - that's CW, and it was someone whistling CQ! I was on a bagel mission for the YL, so even though I strongly considered it, I didn't head back into the store to whistle back and figure out where it came from.
     As we were driving away I was wondering who the whistling was meant more - was it meant for me?  Was it pure conicindence?  Was it actaully just someone whistling and because of all the time I've been spending learning morse code, I just heard something that wasn't actually there?
     Then it dawned on me - I was wearing my 2015 Ham Radio Field Day shirt - there probably happened to be another ham in Panera who saw my shirt, and decided to "put out a call."  Sorry I missed you!  Next time I'll be prepared to whistle back!

_..  .     _.  ..._ _  ..._  .  _ _

If you go all the way back to the beginning of this blog, you can see the current state of my home shack. If you need a refresher, here it is again.

     Due to the hecticness (is that a word?) of life, and some other home projects that needed finished ahead of this, I haven't had time to dig into the work down here yet - but I will soon!​

     Even though life is busy, I still like to play radio in the house every so often. If that urge strikes and I can't fight it, I bring my stuff in from the car and set up like this:

When I do this, the antenna I use as a temporary one is my gutters. Right outside this window is the downspout that goes up from the basement to the roof, and then the gutter runs the length of the main part of the house, about 32 feet. This means that between the downspout and gutter, I basically have a 60ish foot inverted L antenna, with the vertical part being about half of it. This works out to about 1/2 wave on 40 meters.

     When I decided to use this I knew it would be temporary, so I just pounded a 6 foot piece of rebar I had into the ground at the base of the downspout. I put a ring terminal on the center conductor of the coax and screwed that to the bottom of the downspout, and then used a hose clamp to attach the shield to the rebar.

Good enough that I'd consider burying some radials, putting in a proper ground rod, and making the coax connections a little more weather proof.  I made some contacts with good reports, and low power almost right away, so I decided to measure my gutter antenna using my analyzer.  Here's the graph:

     This graph covers from 0 to 54 MHz, and almost all of it is under 5:1 SWR, so the LDG tuner that works with my radio can match it all just fine.  Here are where the bands land:

• 160m is all right around 3:1
• 80m varies from 2.5:1 to 3.5:1 
• 40m is the worst ranging from 4:1 to 5.3:1 (go figure!)
• 30m is all just under 4:1
• 20m is all between 2:1 and 2.5:1
• 17m is about 2:1
• 15m is all between 1.8:1 and 1.81:1
• 12m is between 2.8:1 and 3:1
• 10m is between 2.7:1 and 3.3:1
• 6m is between 1.6:1 and 3.3:1

     In addition to the relatively low SWR, there are a several spots that are nearly resonant - several of those aren't in the amateur bands, but a couple are:

• 3.780MHz
• 28.080MHz
• 51.840MHz

     So if you actually read the whole way through this - what do you think?  Are you gonna hook up to your downspouts and gutters and see what magic you can make happen?  I know at least one of the local hams in my area uses his gutters from time to time, and I owe him a visit so that we can hook up the analyzer to his guttertenna and see how it charts out.  Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts!

dah di dit   dit     dah dit   di di di dah dah   di di di dah   dit   dah dah

So....I'm learning CW (or as most non-hams know it: Morse Code.)  For anyone who needs an interpretation of the above, its the sound in CW of this message:

de n3vem

de is an abbreviation for "this is" so my message above just says "this is n3vem."  

     I had set a goal for myself to be able to have an on-air QSO by September.  Some people might think that I should be able to learn the code much quicker, but remember, in addition to ham radio, I'm a husband, father, a full-time employee for a big company, AND a student.  My company does tuition reimbursement, so I'm working on finishing up my degree through one of the local colleges.  All that being said, I think I'm doing okay!
     I've been using the software program Just Learn Morse Code and it seems to be working well.  This program uses the Koch-Farnsworth method, which basically means you listen to the characters and one speed, but spaced at another.  That way you get used to what the characters "sound like" at the faster speed, but you get them delivered to you slower.  I now know the entire alphabet, all the numbers, and all the punctuation that I think I'll actually need.  Right now, I'm listening to the characters at 10wpm, spaced at 5wpm.  I can copy 5 minutes of code at about 90% accuracy this way, so now I just need to start speeding up my spacing.  When I'm at 10wpm for both characters and spacing, I think I'll have a go live on the air.
     Before that happens, I do want to invest in a key in the meantime, and an oscillator so that I can practice sending with something other than just tapping on my desk :-)  I'm having a blast!
     My daughter has been amused by it too - she has now started bringing me things and saying - "Daddy, spell this in morse code!"  I think I might have a future ham on my hands...

     Do you have any recommendations for keys?  Leave a comment and let me know!

     My local club, the Red Rose Repeater Association, is having an event today!  We are setting up at Welsh Mountain Community Park as a way to play on the radio, participate in the ARRL Rookie Roundup, and generally have some radio fun.  Pull it up on google maps and come join us from 2pm - 8pm, EST.  One of the club members will be monitoring the repeater if you need a talk in:

 Freq: 147.015     offset: +0.6     PL:118.8     Echolink Node: 380019