Arapaho National Forest Activation (K-4400)

I woke up about 5:27 am to about 35°F outside with a slight windchill of 32°F at 9428 feet in elevation. Slept great. Wool blankets are toasty. Made coffee and tea and a banana for breakfast. Earl set and made a few voice contacts on the 20m band. I set up a 76-foot-long speaker wire in a tree & tuned it up and started making FT8 digital contacts around 9:15 local time. Australia was hearing Read More …

Portable in Colorado

Thanksgiving portable in the backyard of the daughters house in Aurora, Colorado. I had the ICOM IC-706 with the MFJ 904H manual tuner with a wire going to the gutters. I had never tried loading up gutters before, so I figured why not. Using my MFJ antenna analyzer I tuned them up on 40m and made a few contacts. Then I loaded the gutters up on 20m and checked in to the Maritime Mobile Net. Read More …

HF in Colorado

We camped a few days around Granite, Colorado. During our stay there we explored the Stone Cabin that was near by. Furthermore the Arkansas River was within walking distance. I did some HF radio and made a few contacts including one to my brother W0EGT back in Missouri on 40m. I used my ICOM 706 and my MFJ 17 foot vertical attached to my homebrew induction coil. Our campsite the 2nd night. Beautiful area!!!

Activating Locations

From time to time, I like to reflect on where I’ve been with my Ham radios. Here are some pictures from 2016 until now of some of my activations. None of them are NPOTA (National Parks On The Air) and none of them are SOTA (Summits On The Air). They are just plain old QSO’s and to keep in touch with my friends in Missouri & Tennessee when I’m traveling. Lost Dutchman’s State Park – Read More …