Before getting started, I have to qualify the title of the post with the fact that I absolutely abhor alliteration.......maybe?  Anyway, it has been some time since my last post.  I haven't had much chance to play radio in the last several weeks because, as many of you know, most of my operating is mobile.  The problem was, I was without my vehicle for a while because it once again started doing the thing where it decides to stop running while I'm going 60mph on the highway...fun.  In the middle of that I had to make a trip out of town, so my radio activities were limited HT stuff.  It still lets me talk to folks, but doesn't make for as much entertaining reading.
      Anyway, to get on with the topic of this post - some of you may remember reading about my gutter antenna in an earlier post.  Since my vehicle was going to be gone for a bit getting repaired, I decided to take my radio gear out, so that I could set it up and play with it at home.  With 2 little ones in that house, even that is hard to do, but I eventually threw everything back on my desk, and hooked it up to the Gutter-tenna.  

     So, according to the purists, here's where I tell you the antenna is awful - it has no radials, just a ground rod, which isn't even copper (it's a piece of rebar!) I tune it "in the shack" and not at the base of the antenna, etc. etc. etc.  According to all the things you "should" do for an antenna, I might as well be transmitting into a dummy load, but you know what - it works anyway!  Which is the whole point here, even this absolutely awful antenna lets me get on the air, make some contacts, and play around.  Stop listening to what everyone says you should do, and just throw some metal in the air (or connect a wire to the metal you already have in the air...) and play radio!  ​       

     So, since my gutters are the most antenna I will have up at home for the immediate future (not because of homeowners covenant, but because of a much more important one...) I decided that I could at least slowly start "upgrading" my gutter-tenna.  I'll post here when I get to make my tweaks every now and then, so here's the couple tweaks I just made:

     Radials!!!

     We've been working on mulching, and because of the arrangement of flower beds, where the downspout I connect to is, etc.  I realized I could throw down a couple radials, and as we finish mulching, they'll be buried.  I only put down 2 for now, but I figure if I plant radials every so often as we work in the gardens, yards, etc.  I'll slowly over time build up a proper radial field, and maybe the YL won't even notice it going in (okay...so she already knows the plan...she caught me, in her own words, "skittering around out there" so I was obliged to let her know what I was up to :-)

     These first 2 radials I put down are 50 feet long.  One runs along the house, and goes around the front corner, so it is tucked in the back of the flower beds.  The other runs through a mulched area under a big tree, and then under the play house I built in the back yard a couple years ago.  Even though we're not done mulching, I threw mulch down over the radial that runs towards the back, just to hold it down while we mulch the rest of the area.  Just do me favor and ignore the dirt on the playhouse porch - we just had a decent wind/rain storm and all the stringy dirty stuff came down from the maple trees and blessed us with it's presence all over our property.

     I also changed the feedpoint just slightly - I pulled out the rebar and replaced it with a piece of copper pipe I had in the garage.  This is still temporary, but at least it won't rust away while I get the more permanent feedpoint put together.  For now the pipe just has a hose clamp making a mechanical connection to the braid of the coax and the two radials.

     The connection to the downspout is almost as fancy (and PS...can't last long - copper to aluminum by it's nature is temporary - there's a fancy word for it I forget [ed. Galvanic Corrosion - thanks to the social media community for reminding me!], but the "mismatch" of metal types will eventually make this connection rust a bit, but that's okay - I only need it to last while I "fancy it up" a bit!)

     So, at the end of the day, my Absolutely Awful Antenna isn't really that bad!  It works, and oh, by the way, has a very tuneable SWR of around 3:1 or less in most of the Amateur Bands (of course, 40 meters is the one that's completely out of wack......oh well....)

     So what radio "rules" do you break in order to get on the air and enjoy the hobby?  What has worked that surprised you, and what didn't work that by all accounts should have?  Leave a comment and let me know!

    I apologize in advance if this post isn't "radio-ey" enough, but part of ham radio is rag chewing (for the non-hams: rag chewing is the radio slang we use for a casual, on-air conversation), so consider this post my half of our rag-chew!  If you're looking for more radio-specific stuff, check out the categories menu - there's all kinds of stuff there!
     As I write this post I'm sitting in the corner of the new bedroom in the addition we put on our house - the work in this section of the house is what I've been busy with when I've had time for home projects, which is why I haven't made much progress on the shack in the basement yet - but the end is in sight, so I'm hoping to get some time with my tools in the basement, so that all of you can start to see the things that are in my head manifesting themselves in lumber, sheetrock, wire, and radio-goodness!
     I'm also standing by for the start of my club's (W3RRR) weekly on-air net which will be in progress before I finish writing this.  I haven't gotten to participate many meetings or nets because of my new job.  When I'm not out of town on a Wednesday night, I'm spending it with my YL and two little future operators.  This evening however, was a rare one in that daughter-future-operator fell asleep promptly after her bedtime story, son-future-operator is all snug in his crib, and the YL is enjoying a quiet evening bath - that leaves me with my 9-o'clock hour completely free, so I get to listen to the net, and check in, with the sounds of little ones quietly snoozing in the background.
     The hot topic this time of year (and which of course is being discussed on the Net) is always field day.  Last year I was going to be running our club's GOTA (Get on the Air) station to help any non-ham visitors get a turn operating some radio equipment to see what the fun is all about!  Field day last year is what prompted me to get myself in gear to finish building my "Porta-Station"  that I have discussed in previous posts.

      I did finish building it in time for field day last year, but then it rained like nothing else, and with the threat of lightning, our club's field day got cancelled.  I ended up operating from my garage / driveway and made enough contacts to not be in last place in the 1B category (although I was pretty close to the bottom of the list - good thing for me it's more about the fun of it than winning!)
     For this year's field day my goal was to finish my "secret project" in time for field day.  While that is still a goal [ed. Field day is now here, and I didn't meet this goal, but stay tuned to my new posts, because I am making progress and will do the formal announcement and sharing when its done!], because we now have a baby in the house again, I couldn't commit to being away for the whole weekend, so I won't be running the GOTA station. I'm still hoping to have my project done so that I can show it off during the time that I will be at field day to participate!  
​     With that thought, I did get to spend about an hour and half working on the secret project this afternoon.  Stay tuned, because once the project is done (or at least mostly done!) I'll start posting a daily series on the evolution of that project (The first 2 parts are written already!)
     Hope to hear you on the air on Field Day 2016 - stop by the Lancaster County Visitor's Center to meet me and my club members!

     Hey, that was mostly about radio after all!  What can I say...I'm a ham, I end up talking about radio stuff even when I think I'm not going to be talking about radio stuff!

      Go activate this park!  My activation here was very short, because the real reason for this trip was a family vacation, so I had to sneak in my contacts after everyone else was tucked into bed.
     Why should you activate it?  Well - for one, the park is open 24 hours so you can operate as long as you want.  Secondly, this park boasts the tallest coastal mountain on the eastern seaboard - and you can drive to the top - Plus it's an island, so if you're into the islands on the air thing it has that going for it too.  Think about it like this:

• You can camp in the park if you want 24 hour fun - Great!
• Reasonably tall mountain (Cadillac Mountain)  - Great!
• Easy Access. Drive right to the top, and park at one of the many convenient pull-offs, or right at the parking lot at the summit - Great!
• You're surrounded by salt water - also Great!

Because of these reasons, I can't believe that my activation was only the 8th one from this park so far!

     Part of the reason that I want you to activate this park is so that you can take advantage of these things - I wasn't able to for a couple reasons, so my contacts ended up being right inside the park on Seal Cove Road, right down the road from the place we stayed during our trip.
     The main reason I had to do my activations this way was because I wasn't in my car - halfway to Acadia my brand new car broke down and had to be towed, so we finished the trip in a rental.  I pulled the radio stuff out of my car so that I could still activate, but it wasn't my normal arrangement, and I had some equipment trouble to boot because of the shuffle, but I still managed a successful activation (We picked our car back up on the way home - that's another story for different blog though...)
     I made a few contacts on 40, but for some reason at one point on 40 something completely detuned my antenna and I started getting all kinds of RF in my audio.  I switched to 20 meters and changed microphones and was able to make a few more contacts before needing to call it a night - thanks to all those that worked me!

     Aside from the radio fun, Acadia is just an awesome park!  This wasn't our first visit there, because we really like the area.  If you go in the off-season it's easy to get around and park.  If you go during peak tourist season consider yourself warned!

     One of my favorite things to visit in Acadia is Thunder Hole.  Basically, it is a "hole" in the rocks, and when the tide is coming in the waves crashing into the hole make some impressive booming sounds - hence the name Thunder Hole.  I also like it because every time we go there and I see this sign, it brings out the 12 year old boy in me:

      Once I get the giggles out of my system after seeing this sign, I can really enjoy the sights from all over the park.  You have to visit yourself to really appreciate it, but here are just a few of my pictures from this trip:

     You're still reading?!  Why aren't you already packing your gear to head out and activate Acadia?!

     Oh no!  there are spies trying to listen in on the phone calls at my hotel!

     I'm not a conspiracy theorist, so when I saw this thing in my hotel room connected to the phone I figured there was a legitimate reason, but I know some people would probably freak out!

     So what does the secret black box in a New Jersey hotel room have to do with Ham Radio?  Well - Like any other good ham, when I saw what I supposed was an electronic device connected to a communication device, I took it apart!  What do you think it was?

     Ta-da!  RF Choke!

     Now that we know what it is, we don't have to panic - the foreign spies apparently aren't interested in land line conversations from a hotel in NJ after all - we can breathe a sigh of relief.  With that being said, I guess most normal people wouldn't have done this, they probably would have just looked at the sticker on the front of the device and Googled it - but that's no fun!

     Based on the frequencies it says it is for, I would have to assume that there are some strong AM broadcast signals in the area that were causing problems in the audio for the phone handsets, because these were on both the phones in my hotel room, and the phones in the lobby, etc. that I could see.  I didn't notice anything on the ham bands as I was driving into the area, but then again, the only ham band that falls in the range of this device is 160 meters, which I don't have capabilities for in my car.  Maybe a ham from Secaucus will stumble onto this blog entry and let us know if there are some strong AM signals in the area that could be behind all this business.
     What would you do if you saw a funny black box connected to the phone in your hotel room?  Leave a comment and let me know!

     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!