2021-01-30, 12:36:07
Well, it's the big day already. I have opted to operate 1I from inside my heated trailer using commercial power. I have a Honda EU2000i generator but I don't want to annoy my neighbours. It's a quiet generator but it still makes some noise.
Frankly, I'm not a competitive contester (you know, the legendary diaper-wearing, feeding tube types who don't leave their station for the whole 24 hours of the contest). I'll tolerate the chilly trailer for a couple of hours today and the same again tomorrow.
My antenna is an MFJ-1979 16.5ft telescopic vertical with a home made base-loading coil to make it resonant on 40m. The coax shield is connected to the centre of 44ft of steel fence wire via my home made tuned LC (a coax capacitor in series with another coil) counterpoise/ground matching circuit.
This arrangement worked FB (fine business, in CW talk) during one of my summer Parks On The Air (POTA) activations so I hope I'll get the same good results this weekend.
I'm all tuned up. My FT-891 keyer has memories programmed for my CQ message, my callsign and my exchange. I have the speed set to 20wpm. That's a bit slow for contests but if I have to use the paddle I want to make sure I can send reasonably accurately. Sometimes my brain and fingers don't sync well.
Ok, ready set ...
Frankly, I'm not a competitive contester (you know, the legendary diaper-wearing, feeding tube types who don't leave their station for the whole 24 hours of the contest). I'll tolerate the chilly trailer for a couple of hours today and the same again tomorrow.
My antenna is an MFJ-1979 16.5ft telescopic vertical with a home made base-loading coil to make it resonant on 40m. The coax shield is connected to the centre of 44ft of steel fence wire via my home made tuned LC (a coax capacitor in series with another coil) counterpoise/ground matching circuit.
This arrangement worked FB (fine business, in CW talk) during one of my summer Parks On The Air (POTA) activations so I hope I'll get the same good results this weekend.
I'm all tuned up. My FT-891 keyer has memories programmed for my CQ message, my callsign and my exchange. I have the speed set to 20wpm. That's a bit slow for contests but if I have to use the paddle I want to make sure I can send reasonably accurately. Sometimes my brain and fingers don't sync well.
Ok, ready set ...
John VA3KOT
Blog: HamRadioOutsideTheBox.ca
Blog: HamRadioOutsideTheBox.ca