Thursday, January 16, 2025
New Year’s Eve Sand Dune SOTA & POTA by Tim (W8TMI)
My wife and I head to Northern Michigan over the New Year’s holiday almost every year. It’s a nice way to wrap up the year and the busy holiday season. Most of our friends and family obligations are met, and we can spend time unwinding and exploring the wonderful things that Michigan has to offer.
This year was no exception. We found a nice place to stay in Frankfort, Michigan. Several breweries, eateries, coffee houses, hiking trails, miles of shoreline, and a local bookstore made this an ideal location for a few days with nothing pressing to accomplish.
Being a ham, I always take a peek around to see what POTA and SOTA entities may be nearby wherever we end up staying. I was in luck, there was a SOTA within a POTA just north of where we were staying. Along the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (US-0767) is Empire Bluffs sand dunes (W8M/LP-019). This was too much to resist.
As the plans firmed up around our timeline and bookings, my mind began to imagine the activation. I am well versed in POTA activations and have many tricks to overcome beaches, snow, lack of picnic tables, lack of trees, and many other things that can come my way. My mind began to question if I had the right gear to make this happen and I began to plan for a setup that could be deployed and operated in harsh conditions with little assistance from the environment around me.
I have learned from my previous experiences on the sand dunes of the Great Lakes that conditions can be challenging. I knew I would more than likely face snow on the ground, new snow in the air, wind, cold temps, sand, narrow dune peaks, local vegetation, and the challenge to hike all of my gear to the spot. Now it was time to take what I had and turn it into the SOTA/POTA setup that could get the job done.
The antenna would be the GabilGRA-7350 [QRPer.com affiliate link] with three 13’ radials deployed out as far as I could get them. Gabil recommends setting the antenna to the general resonance area marked on the coil and using a wide range tuner to finish the job. I have found this to be true, especially analyzing the antenna on the soil in my backyard where I can get a 1:1 SWR match versus the sandy beaches of Lake Michigan.
I chose the CFT1 as my radio. It covers the bands that I would more than likely operate and with the Tufteln face cover it weighs around 8 oz.
20 meters being the primary band because with the wind and cold, I knew speed would be paramount. For the tuner and battery, I chose the mAT-10 ATU and the Talentcell 3000 mA Li-Ion [QRPer.com affiliate link]. Finally, the N0SA M7 iambic paddle.
To bring this kit together in a way that I could operate standing up, I needed some kind of bag or pouch to wear that would allow access to the tune button on the tuner, the volume and VFO on the radio, ability to log, and key without having to hold on to the paddle. As a fly fisherman I thought about a sling pack or a chest pack, but neither would work with any of my backpacks I planned to haul the antenna.
My friend Erik (WS3D) recommended a waist pack. At first glance I wasn’t sure this could meet my needs. Off to the local shopping center I went to see if I could find some options that could accommodate my SOTA kit. After going into five different stores that had some forms of waist packs, my local athletics sporting goods store had one that I thought might work with some minor modifications.
It was small, which meant it could easily fit into the backpack I planned to use. Once I got home, I was able to stuff each component into one of the several pockets provided on the pack. The question remained: how do I key without holding the paddle?
Following the tip provided by N0SA who designed and made the M7, Velcro attached to the bottom of the key would allow adhesion to the pack. I was able to purchase some of the “loop” material from JoAnn and got to work with my sewing machine. A small 2”x3” portion on the right side of the pack would allow for right hand keying while I kept the logger in my left hand. Keeping my right hand free to operate the message functions, volume, and VFO of the radio if needed.
I had a kit and a plan, now to get to it.
My wife and I headed out for the Empire Bluffs trail on December 31st, 2024, the first hike of many on this trip. With a little bit of haste because in the previous few days several X class flares were sending a geomagnetic storm our way and it was expected to hit between 12:00-13:00 Eastern time.
The winter weather was increasing in its intensity, more snow coming down with more expected as the day progressed. The trail itself was moderate throughout. Rolling elevation typical of most sand dune trails around Lake Michigan. That is, until the summit of the Empire Bluffs. The loose sand beneath our feet gave way a little with every step, the wind along the lakeshore increased from the relative calm of the wooded trail. The views were breathtaking and inspired a sense of respect for the Great Lakes and the seriousness of these bodies of water.
Making it to the summit at 11:30, the ridge was even narrower than I expected. It would be a delicate dance to pass someone going the opposite direction along the top. A steep angle down from where we hiked up and a steep descent into cedars and pines on the other side. Through the snow and vegetation, I quickly began deploying my antenna knowing that time was of the essence. Between the impending solar storm and the cooling temps with lake shore winds, there was haste in my actions.
The GRA-7350 set up quickly and I had the station ready to go in a matter of a few minutes. According to my log, I had my first contact at 11:39. Working on the Portable Logger app (PoLo). I had the entity number for both the SOTA and POTA programmed in and as each contact came through it let me know how many contacts away I was from completion of both programs. The snow continued.
At 11:52 I hit a lull. I had a pileup, but it was gone. The bands died. The storm must have hit. I was at 9/10 for the park. I had the summit, but I was stuck at 9 contacts for the park. Cursed.
Five minutes later through fast moving QSB KZ1J came through. Working 15 WPM, I don’t move fast through a QSO. But I made it as quick as possible. I copied their call on the first go, and sent as succinctly as possible, “KZ1J TU UR 599 MI BK”. To my relief I heard him on the rise of QSB, “BK TU TIM UR 559 MA BK”. That was it. 10/10. I beat the geo storm, bettered the elements, and got my summit and park activated. “BK TU MA 72 . .”
I quickly packed up my radio equipment and tore down the antenna. Ready to get moving and get the blood flowing again to warm up. Once down off the heights, the wind felt more reasonable as lower dunes blocked the brunt of it for us. The trees eventually provided the best reprieve. The snow coming down was less harsh and more picturesque. It was time for one of the best parts of a hike, food!
We went down the road and found a sandwich shop that had an amazing sub and warm chicken chili. Just what was needed for a day like this.
72, DE W8TMI, Tim
P.S. A couple more photos from the hike.
Vanishing Culture: Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications Posted on January 14, 2025 by vanishingculture
The following guest post from curator and amateur radio enthusiast Kay Savetz is part of our Vanishing Culture series, highlighting the power and importance of preservation in our digital age. Read more essays online or download the full report now.
Amateur Radio has been a hobby for well over 100 years. For as long as there has been an understanding of electricity and radio waves, people have been experimenting with these technologies and advancing the state of the art. As a result, the world has moved from wired telegraphy to tube radios to telephones—fast forward a century—to GPS and high-speed digital communication devices that fit in your pocket.
Advances made by amateur radio experimenters have propelled the work of NASA, satellites, television, the internet, and every communications company in existence today. People fiddling with radios have pushed forward technological advances the world around, time and time again.
And yet, the people making these efforts, doing these feats, aren’t always the best at documenting and preserving their work for the future. That’s where Internet Archive comes in.
I’m the curator of the Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications. DLARC is a project of the Internet Archive, and my job is to find and preserve this rich history of radio and communications. DLARC collects resources related to amateur radio, satellite communications, television, shortwave radio, pirate radio, experimental communications, and related communications.
In the two years since the project launched, DLARC has preserved thousands of magazines and journals, manuals, product catalogs, radio programs, and conference proceedings. These materials were scattered worldwide, often inaccessible and in obsolete formats. We’ve digitized material that was on paper, cassette tape, reel-to-reel tape, CD-ROMs, DVDs. We’ve digitized video from 16mm film, VHS, U-Matic, Betacam and even more obscure video formats.
We’ve built a collection of more than 140,000 items and made them available to the world. Researchers, academics, and hobbyists use the library to learn from the rich history of this 100-year-old hobby.
Learn more about DLARC
One reason this preservation is necessary is that the people creating history don’t always realize at the time that they’re creating history. In 1977, the creators of Amateur Radio Newsline—a weekly audio news bulletin—probably didn’t realize that their project would still be going on in 2024, 47 years later. And for all of their amazing work, if they had realized they were documenting history, they might have made more effort to save those recordings: the first 20 years of their work are missing. (DLARC has found some recordings from 1996, then most of them since 2012.)
Sometimes creators do recognize the importance of their effort. For more than six years, Len Winkler hosted Ham Radio & More, a radio show about amateur radio. Winker recorded every episode on cassette tape and managed to digitize many of the shows himself. However, the process of digitizing hundreds of episodes is tedious and he wasn’t able to complete it. With his approval, DLARC stepped in to finish the job. They’re all online now, more than 300 episodes including interviews with many notable names in the radio community.
There have been other huge successes: the entire 43-year run of 73 Magazine is digitized and online thanks to the publisher, Wayne Green, who donated the collection to Internet Archive before his death. Most issues of The W5YI Report, a ham radio newsletter that was published for 25 years, are online as well.
Attempting to preserve material years, or sometimes decades, after the fact makes systematic preservation nearly impossible. For every success story of content saved and archived, there is a heartbreaking story of loss. When amateur radio enthusiasts die, their media collections are often disposed of by survivors who don’t have any connection to amateur radio. File cabinets and bookcases full of (sometimes irreplaceable) materials are emptied into recycle bins.
Another challenge to preservation and access is membership organizations that keep their material behind paywalls. They sometimes prevent any of their information from being lent in an online library, which it is their right to do. However while they actively thwart efforts at preservation, it remains unclear whether those groups are adequately preserving their own history.
Some material is preserved intentionally, but a good amount was saved purely by accident. The material we recover and digitize has come from attics and basements, from libraries discarding obsolete material, from long-forgotten FTP sites, from scratched CD-ROMs, and from the estates of people who have passed.
So we float where the radio waves take us, trying to preserve the past as much as possible, while encouraging today’s content creators to consider how to make their material accessible to future generations.
About the author
Kay Savetz is curator of Digital Library of Amateur Radio & Communications. DLARC is funded by a grant from Amateur Radio Digital Communications to create a free digital library for the radio community, researchers, educators, and students. If you have questions about the project or material to contribute, contact kay@archive.org.
How People Make Circuits without Printed Circuit Boards - Video from https://qrp-popcorn.blogspot.com/
Addendum added to the text January 13, 2025 - scroll to see -
Resource Files
Addendum January 13, 2025
LOL -- a reader emailed and wants more signal power -- and asked whether they could just swap in a pair of medium power BJTs like the BD139-140 to get more output power. Sadly no. I have a higher power version of this amp in a receiver called Regen 5 plus one other on this Blog. However, there is another way to get more power without greatly increasing the parts count:
Above — My new Popcorn PA version that goes to 700 mW clean signal power without adding a ton more parts. The finals = a TIP 122 &127 pair. 2 more diodes get added to the bias stack to forward bias the 2 pairs of emitter followers. To avoid a big voltage drop, I moved the 22 Ω resistor outside the TIP power followers on the DC positive rail since these BJTs draw much more current than the basic version of this audio PA. Further, a 470 µF AF bypass capacitor gets added to filter the output pair on the positive DC rail.
The TIP 122-127 are low voltage complementary power Darlington transistors in a standard TO-220 package giving a current gain of ~ 1000. They only cost ~ 60 cents per transistor even in Canada with our nearly worthless Canadian dollar. A BD139-140 transistor usually cost 25-30 cents more.
Above — Schematic and pin out of the TIP 122-127.
Above —DSO screen capture at about the maximum clean signal power ~ 700 mW.
Above — FFT screen capture with the AF amp driven to 700mW. The harmonic distortion is not as low as the original audio PA shown in the video. However, this is the compromise of using the TIP Darlington transistors + easy-peasy diode biasing scheme with 4 diodes. The better way to bias the power followers is via a transistor like I did in the audio PA Regen 5 back in 2015. Regardless, the TIP pair are a compromise compared to 2 separate BJTs pairs with optimum circuit design.
Still, to, the harmonic + crossover distortion will still be on par; or better than most of the audio amps you see in many lower power consumer electronics -- or a typical home brew Ham /SWL radio receiver.
Thanks for the email. If you have a question,or request, please email.
My readers are the best! Popcorn Todd
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Saturday, January 11, 2025
Elecraft KX2 and WSJT-X Easy Setup by K0PIR ·
Sometimes all we need is a little QRP transceiver, a weak signal mode and a good antenna. In comes the Elecraft KX-2, WSJT-X and a random wire. It can be used successfully in the field or at home (Ham Shack Portable). Although CW is preferred by many, you'll find more opportunity to make short contacts (QSLs) using FT8. However, Morse code is more exciting because there's conversation and more human interaction. The Elecraft KX2 is well suited for CW ops. I think it's the best backpacking/SOTA HF transceiver around.
Sabrent USB Sound Card
Elecraft KX2 WSJT-X
With the Elecraft KX2 transceiver I am using a Elecraft KXUSB serial cable
Sabrent USB Connections to KX2: Sabrent Mic In to Elecraft KX2 Phones. Sabrent Speaker Out to KX2 Mic In.
The antenna I am using inside the Ham Shack is a 80' random wire with a 9:1 UNUN
K0PIR Suggested KX2 Settings ( See Video Below):
Receiver and Transmitter
- MODE: DATA A (WSJT-X will assist, but verify it is Data A mode and correct FIL width)
- NB: OFF
- NR: OFF
- PRE: OFF
- RF Gain: 0
- FIL BW: 4 kHz
- FIL Center: 1.5 kHz
- AF: 2-10
- AGC MD: OFF (See: How to Save Your Ears When AGC is OFF)
- AGC LIM: 20
- MIC GAIN: 0-50 (4 bars of ALC on transmit
- PWR: 5 to 7 watts
- MICBIAS: OFF ( may not be necessary to turn OFF)
My WSJT-X settings:
- Rig: KX2
- PTT: CAT
- Mode: Data/Pkt
- Split: Fake It
Elecraft KX2 Connections to HP Stream Laptop
Elecraft KX2 Settings for Digital Modes Data A Video
Thank you
More to come on WinKeyer 3 and RTTY FSK. Post your thoughts below in the comment section.
If you have any questions, comments or solutions, please comment below. I prefer the comment section here or in YouTube over e-mail because your comments and questions will help others as well.
Thank you for subscribing to this website. You can also follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
73,
Rich, K0PIR
Sources:
The Elecraft KX2 by Fred Cady - KE7X
Elecraft KX2 Owners Manual
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