HF From Walmart Parking Lots

October and November of 2018 my wife and I went on our annual 6-8 week excursion out to North Carolina to the Overland Expo. During that time I operated from various place along our route and never had a problem making contacts with my friends in Missouri and Tennessee. Though I did find myself operating from Walmart parking lots on more than one occasion. 75%-80% of my operating is done either mobile or portable with Read More …

ICOM IC-730

The ICOM IC-730 was my first HF radio. I have carried this radio all around the USA doing portable operating. This radio was given to me to use by W0EBV after passing my General test. It is an excellent 1st radio for anyone to get on HF. It covers 80m – 10m bands excluding 12m and 17m. With 100w of output power, this radio is great for Field Day and Winter Field day as well. Read More …

September VHF Contest 2018

I got a late start on this years VHF Contest. As a matter of fact I did not start setting up till late Sunday morning. That is almost a whole 20+ hours after the contest had started. My wife and I went to Schell Osage Conservation Area near Schell City, Missouri. It has some camping areas and a fishing lake. This is also the place where we did the January VHF Contest in 2018. That Read More …

Joplin Hamfest 2018

Honey!!! Let’s go to the Joplin Hamfest!!! Nonetheless, we got up early on a Saturday morning and drove two hours for this? YES!!! The Joplin Hamfest is one the more organized hamfest in southwest Missouri. Furthermore I look forward to going to this every year. This year it was held at the Jack Lawton Convention Center just south of Joplin, MO. in a nearby town of Saginaw, MO. New venue, new vendors, new people, new Read More …

Pomme De Terre Rendezvous

I took a Hasselblad 500C/M to the local rendezvous and took a few snapshots. I had already had it loaded with Kodak Porta 160. I did not bring an extra back with B&W. Next time I will load it with Black & White film. These are not perfect shots or perfectly exposed. These are shot handheld using the sunny 16 rule. These negatives are developed by me and scanned by me with a Epson V550 Read More …

Looking Inside a Dirty ICOM 706

Few days ago my ICOM 706 was getting bad reports on audio. I quickly checked all connections and double checked them again just to make sure. I changed out microphones and checked settings on RF power and microphone levels and still was get no good reports back. RF power is getting out to the meter. SWR is good. Changed coax cables. Checked all coax connections twice. Power supply is stable voltage. Changed microphones. Checked microphone Read More …