Cape San Blas Activation Preview

Digital FT8 in the Park 10/12/2017

Just sitting and thinking...

Good morning, folks.

KK4DIV here once again from the keyboard.  I do not sit here and blog as much as I'd like.  Time is usually one issue.  Another is I usually get more enjoyment out of the video side of blogging, or vlogging if you will.

However, today I thought I'd type a little something up as it is my first day of vacation and we are under a tropical storm warning.  That's right, Hurricane Nate is in the Gulf of Mexico as I type this and charging his way toward the northern Gulf Coast.  Fortunately this time around the storm looks like it is going to miss Florida and mainly affect Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.  I feel for the folks over in that direction.  Fortunately it is not a strong hurricane and hopefully there will not be much damage from it.

My main purpose today is to comment on our great expedition to St. Vincent Island as I look back on it one week ago today.  If you haven't seen the video, I have it posted on my YouTube channel qwikslvr74.

or you can just click on it right here...
W4RYZ expedition to St. Vincent Island

We had 7 hams from our club travel over to the island located between Port St. Joe and Apalachicola, FL.  It was an early morning for us, however this did not affect me as I usually am up early.  It seems the older I get the earlier I go to bed and rise in the morning.  I guess I can understand my dad a little better now.  Anyway, I digress.

It was a great trip, with 128 total contacts.  We only needed 25 to activate the island under the US Islands program.  So, there was no problem there.  My only issue was with my QRP portable setup.  I ran my FT817, the Windcamp 80 meter off-center fed dipole and laptop for PSK31.

In the 2 hours, I logged only 2 contacts with PSK31.  This was very disappointing for me as I was hoping for at least 20 contacts over the 2 hours of operating time we had.  I do not understand the poor performance.  There were plenty of signals on the waterfall, perhaps they were drowning out my mere 5 watts.  More testing of my setup may be required.  Stay tuned to my YouTube channel for testing and updates on my PSK gear.

For now, we all are basking in the glory of our success and happy we could bring the W4RYZ callsign into the spotlight.

...and looking forward to our next activation.  Stay tuned!

73!
de KK4DIV
My YouTube Channel

W4RYZ St. Vincent Island Expedition 9/30/17

CG3OCL balloon near Panama City 9/28/2017

Vlog Update: St Vincent Island Expedition

Digital Mode: FT8 from the Front Yard 9/4/2017

Satellite Ops Kinsaul Park 9/2/2017

Friday Vlog Update 9/01/17: New Toys and Radio

Friday Vlog Update 071417

Windcamp WA-4 Antenna and the 13 Colonies Special Event Stations

Unboxing and First Impression of the Windcamp WA 4 Portable Windom Antenna

Portable Operating near Choctawhatchee Bay

Wild Adventures Part 2

Wild Adventures Part I

W4B Field day 2017 Panama City Amateur Radio Club

N4Y 2017 Field Day Site at Falling Waters State Park

Friday Vlog Update Field Day Prep

ICONNTECHS 4K Action Camera Unboxing

Rain, upcoming field day, and tropical storms

Satellite Log Periodic Antenna Part 2

Satellite Log Periodic Antenna Project

Friday Vlog update: Trip to the store with the wife, and 1000 sub giveaw...

Radio Equipment and YouTube Videos

Well, as an avid enthusiast of just about anything outdoors, my excitement about getting out and operating ham radio outside is understood. With that being said, I am growing quite a collection of different equipment for this endeavor as I see new things and watch other videos. Recently, it occurred to me that as I grow my YouTube channel, it may be good to do more videos on the equipment I use. I have done quite a bit in this regard, but I feel that I could do more. With that being said, I have made the decision to try to test 1 new thing related to ham radio a month. It doesn't have to be something big, just anything. I will say, I have already purchased a new antenna and look forward to getting it in and trying it out. I am always looking for a bargain, and this item was relatively inexpensive. I will not spoil it by saying what it is, I will save that for later.

I really enjoy watching other people's YouTube videos and getting new ideas for my gear.  I feel that people can gather a great deal of community knowledge this way.  My channel has grown and morphed over the years.  It started as just a collection of shooting videos and maybe some talks about the firearms I had.  I even posted some videos of wildlife. I still have a love of these things and maybe they will make it's way back into the channel someday.  Radio, over the past 5 or 6 years, has been the focal point of my attention (even though I still dabble in the others hobbies of mine).

Until next time...

--Bob

Portable Ops: Second Saturday Sprint 6/10/2017

Vlog update 6/9/17: Satellite ops update, Second Saturday Sprint, and More!

Backyard Portable Ops: Museum Ship Weekend 06/04/17

FT817 Go Kit

SO-50 satellite work 3/31/2017

A little SO-50 satellite work around 17:30UTC from EM70.



I took my Yaesu FT-8800 satellite go box and newly built log periodic to Kinsaul Park in Lynn Haven, FL today to try the satellite pass.  It was a 30 degree pass and I felt I could at least squeeze a couple of contacts out of it.  I am really enjoying this new antenna and so far (on 2 different outings) I have had good luck. It was fairly easy to build and I just enjoy building stuff myself.  There is a greater satisfaction when you begin making contacts with something you created.



As for the FT-8800, it is a FM transceiver and using this I am limited to working the FM satellites. The nice thing with this radio, if you have a good pass and you are getting into the bird (a bird is what us hams call the amateur satellite) well, you can hear yourself come back on the downlink since this is basically 2 radios in one and has a built in duplexer.



I was able to work 2 stations on this pass.  WO3T was in grid FN00 and NS3L was in grid FN20.  Both were Pennsylvania stations.







73!

KK4DIV