Amateur Radio Station K I 4 L L A

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Hello Solar Cycle 24
The sun spots with reversed polarity from Cycle 23 have now begun to show up: Sunspot is Harbinger of New Solar Cycle, which is excellent news! At least now it's safe to say we've probably hit the bottom of the cycle and it can only start to get better this spring and summer. I'm sure it will still be pretty quiet for awhile yet, but just a few sunspots this past July created some activity on 10-meters. Hope to hear some more people on 10-meters!

November, 2007
Apparently I jumped the gun thinking that propagation was going to improve. During the last several weeks sunspots numbers have gone back to zero and the bands have been the worse I've heard yet. Even the workhorse 20-meter band has been bad lately. I tried my hand at contesting for the first time during the ARRL November Sweepstakes, but I couldn't make the 100 contacts needed to qualify for a pin. I'll still send in my logs for the 60 contacts that I did make, with the highlight being able to talk to someone in Hawaii (just barely, but I did make the exchange of information).

On a different topic, picked up a cool new antenna for VHF-UHF, perfect for portable/emergency use: Evans Engineering EE-3 Tri-band. It's small, lightweight and easy to put together. It needs some sort of mount or hang it up with fishing line. I put together a kit with velcro and a 3/4 inch piece of PVC to strap it to a light stand.

July, 2007
The 10-meter band is starting to show some signs of life! In the past week I've been able to make a few contacts on SSB Phone and even talked to a couple of people on a 10-meter FM repeater. I recently acquired a Buddistick portable antenna kit and tried it out over the weekend. I drove up on the Blue Ridge Parkway and setup a portable station using the Ten-Tec Scout on battery power. The Big Spy Mountain overlook has a beautiful 360 degree view and is at an elevation of 3,200 feet.
The 20-meter band was pretty clogged up with a contest going on, but I was able to make over 20 contacts on 10, 17 and 40 meters. I was really impressed with the Buddistick!

March, 2007
Life at the bottom of the solar cycle: "Sunspot numbers for March 15 through 21 were 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 and 0, with a mean of 0" (Quoted from The ARRL Letter Vol. 26, No. 12, March 23, 2007). That's a whole lot of zeros! Listening on HF this past weekend, there was a whole lot of nothing on 10-meters and I only heard two stations on 15-meters (and there was a SSB contest going on). There is something to look forward to in 3-4 years, the most intense solar maximum in fifty years.

February, 2007
The FCC finally ruled on the Morse Code exam requirement and now Technicians will be able to operate some limited HF beginning Feb. 23, 2007. It's kind of ironic that most of the gained privileges will be in CW mode. Complete information can be found here: FCC's Morse Code Report and Order WT Docket 05-235.

To celebrate the new ruling, I will be holding a 10-meter Net, Friday evenings at 7:00 pm EST (local time) on 28.490 MHz SSB Phone. Propagation isn't much now, but wanted to at least give it a try.

December, 2006
I'm ready for winter and possible power outages now. I purchased a couple of 65 amp/hour batteries, a PwrGate Backup Power System and RigRunner power strip. Also got PowerPole connectors for all the radios, so I can plug anything in and have battery backup.

September, 2006
Picked up a used trapped vertical antenna and have it ground mounted in the backyard. It's a Hy-Gain AV-14 for 10-15-20-40 meters. It tunes up just fine on all four bands without any radials. The first day that I installed the vertical, I called CQ on 14.330 and to my surprize I heard back from someone in Spain! Been operating on HF for a month now and I've got a nice list of contacts from several different states. On 20-meters I'm getting consistantly good contacts in the southwest, TX, OK, NM and even CO. On Sunday afternoons, I dust off the Ten-Tec Scout and I've been able to check in to the Ten-Tec nets on 14.329 and 7.253 (2030Z and 2100Z). Most of those guys are running rigs with linear amps, so I'm definately the QRP person at 50 watts!

August, 2006
After working with Code Quick for two months, I was able to pass the 5 WPM CW test! Now I'm finally going to be able to try out the Kenwood TS-570 and the Ten-Tec Scout this weekend. Look for me on 10 meters (28.490), 15 meters (21.390) and 20 meters (14.330). Twenty meters seems to be open more often, so that's where I'll probably be.

June, 2006
Hopefully will be putting up a 40/80 meter dipole out in the backyard this summer. If I ever get the hang of CW, I'll be ready to get on the HF bands.

May, 2006
Continuing to learn code, I've decided that Code Quick with it's sound-alike technique is working better for me. Looking forward to Field Day in June and taking another shot at the code exam at the next VE day.

April, 2006
I've been studying for the General exam since January and decided it's time to give it a try. Passed the written test with flying colors, crashed and burned horribly on the code test. Oh well, back to the Code Quick program for more practice. I also purchased Ham University, so maybe later I can comment on which program works better. I'm also taking the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) class this month.