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 …

SignaLink USB

I picked up this SignaLink USB interface while at the Ararat Hambash in Kansas City, MO. I really have been looking at them for a while now. Associated Radio out of Overland Park, Kansas was at this event also and I decided to pick one up and give it a try. I purchased the SignaLink USB and the ICOM 13-pin DIN Accessory Port Connector to connect to my ICOM IC-706. Furthermore, Dan at Associated Radio made sure Read More …

Ararat Shrine ARC Hambash 2018

My YL was gone and I had a couple of days left unattended so I made a quick dash up to the Ararat Shrine Hambash in Kansas City, MO. I had attended this event last year but I didn’t arrive till later in the day. This time I was there before they opened the doors at 7:30 am. There were a whole bunch of people and vendors there. I did run in to a few Read More …

Green Country Hamfest 2018

The Green Country Hamfest is a great hamfest! People come from all over several states to go here. This is the 3rd year in a row that the XYL and myself have attended. This year was different though. We decided to pre purchase our tickets this year and save a few bucks. We also planned to camp at the campgrounds right next to the expo center. The camping did not work out and if you Read More …

January VHF Contest 2018

VHF Contest Time! This time I kinda stepped up my game. September 2017 VHF contest  I ran 7 watts of power into a 3 element yagi antenna. Furthermore, I had some time to somewhat prepare for this one. Bumped up my power to 50 watts SSB I bought(2 days before contest time) a 6m 3 element yagi (never did get it tuned up in time for the contest). Bought a 30-foot push-up pole because height Read More …