Hi Jarred, I know several people who use the FT-817 as an IF rig for 10 GHz tripod-mounted portable operations. They seem to be happy with its performance. I have been thinking of getting one myself
Hi Dave, Garmin eTrex (at least the older ones) have it. Kept me from getting lost a few years ago looking for hilltops for microwave operating positions. The DeLorme atlas I have had mislabeled all
My Garmin eTrex hikers' GPS, although not the biggest, bestest with all the bells and whistles, does display "trail" lines of where you've been. It doesn't show a map or anything but it does have a l
Hi Terry, I don't know what the activity is like in your area, but I often have to fight for those QSO's. I've spent as much as a half hour trying. They are not a walk in the park here. Conditions ha
I thrive on microwave QSO's, both in and out of contests. In this area we have "microwave activity days" on the first Saturday of the month. I have also been known to take trips to a hilltop on an ea
The ARRL does give out regional awards for their VHF contests. I have a whole envelope full of cetificates they have sent me for being #1 in Illinois or in the Central Division for the Single-Op Port
I never enter these contests to win. Single-Op QRP Portable is a category that often has very few entrants, so I do accidentally place fairly high in the scorings once in a while. But I do it mostly
I like to run the bands with a couple other stations, but we havwe an agreed-upon rule that we won't do it if there's a pileup or a big opening on 50 or 144 MHz. We usually schedule a time several ho
This contest generally runs coincident with the Spring Microwave Sprint, and this year is no exception. So work people on 902 and up for the Microwave Sprint and count your QSO's on 2304 and up for b
The HTX100 is better. It has a couple drawbacks too, but mostly I have lived with them. The two main ones for me are on CW mode. One is the lack of an offset in CW. Most ham rigs that do CW will offs
If you're really into homebrewing and feeling adventurous, try the KK7B R2/T2, mini-R2/T2 or micro-R2/T2 combinations. You can add as many bells and whistels as you want. I've been working on a versi
Yes, the 10 GHz contest is a totally different concept than the other VHF/UHF contests as far as Rovers go. Scoring is distance-based and the only requirement for a rover is to move at least 10 miles
I had similar results with a little more effort. I got a late start; set up on a hill in EN50ue and got started at 9:30 pm local time (0230Z). I called CQ and listened in all directions for an hour a
Yes, Tony WA8RJF is the moderator. The schedule is pretty full already, though. There are six speakers already scheduled for an hour and a half time; each of us gets about 15 minutes. 73, Zack W9SZ _
There certainly has been more activity in this contest in past years than in this one (at least in my area). It's kind of hard to say, because I operated from a hill with a lot of towers on it and th
The activity is much greater in the mainstream contests like ARRL and CQ-VHF. It's been less than in past years but still a fair amount. It depends on openings, too. There haven't been any really goo
These loop Yagis can be considerably shortened and still work quite well. http://www.ntms.org/files/1296%20Loop%20Yagi%20Dimensions.pdf The thing I like about loopers is that they are durable and if
The most critical elements are the reflector, driven element and first director. The driven element is the one that has to be built to take the power. As I noted, you can saw off (or construct a shor
The regular VHF banquet that has been held the last number of years could not be arranged this year, so some of the VHF crowd are getting together for an informal dinner at the Dark Horse Tavern in M
Hi Chuck, *"3.5.4. *Rovers MUST sign "rover" on Phone and /R on CW and digital modes after their call sign." http://www.arrl.org/june-vhf It should also be logged that way. The one thing I have been