Tag Archives: Portable

Guest Posts, Morse Code, News, Portable, QRP

16th Floor QRP: Coffee break portable at the office

4 Comments

Many thanks to Bill (KG4FXG) who shares the following guest post:

Return to the Office:  Operating portable during coffee breaks (Atlanta to England)

by Bill Carter (KG4FXG)

Have you ever thought about operating from your work location?  Perhaps during lunch or a coffee break?  What if that location was downtown in a big city?

In my case, I work in a 17 floor Skyscraper.

The building has several large outside balconies on the 5th, 10th, and 17 floors.  There is also a green space on the 5th floor that is a grassy area with a lawn and trees.  What are all the possibilities here for portable operation? Let’s find out!

Amateur Radio is about learning, and to that end we may build antennas, perhaps QRP Rigs, and other things.  I’ve been building many QRPGuys and Tufteln antennas.  I also use a few that I’ve purchased, such as the Chelegance MC-750, AX1, Gabil Vertical Antenna GRA-7350TC [gear links below].

Sometimes, the weather does not play nice and I’m forced to try operating indoors.  Here I am using the Chelegance MC-750 on the 16th floor where I have clearance all the way to the top of the 17th floor.

The antenna almost touches the ceiling on the 17th floor.  I was able to make a contact in England: John G4RCG.  His location was in Kirkhamgate, Wakefield–about 11 miles from Leeds. We were able to exchange names but that was about it on 20M.

This antenna is amazing, I can’t wait to try it outside in our green space.

I was using the Elecraft KX2 but I have several QRP Rigs that I have brought to the office.  Such as the Norcal 40, Elecraft K1, both of which were kits I built.  I started QRP back in 1999 before there was POTA.  Back then, you had to build your radio.  Most did back then.

Learning about propagation has been interesting.  It is not ideal to operate indoors.  One simple way I test conditions is to see if I can hit the reverse beacon network.

Here’s a screenshot of the Reverse Beacon (below) while I was using the Chelegance MC-750 on 20 meters:

(Click to enlarge)

Simple Office Setup

I work for the railroad.  You will notice my mug says Taggart.  Some humor here, but that is from Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.  Story about a railroad and so much more.

Here is the Green Space on the 5th floor.  Could you use this space for portable operations?

Here is pictured where I operated off the 10th floor balcony.  The view is amazing!

For the balcony, I just throw a wire over the glass railing.  The balcony is huge with many tables and chairs for lunch.  I have used K4SWL’s Speaker Wire antenna build here.

My hours are very unusual.  I normally work from 2AM to 5PM and I leave to drive home at 11AM.  I love telecommuting for work these days.  So, when I operate, it is around 3AM or 4AM.  Not ideal times for POTA, but a great time of day to work DX!

I have so much more to try.  I have a Spiderbeam Pole and SOTABEAMS Pole that I am playing with as well.  I also have the Alex Loop Antenna that I will try from work.

Another operating position: here I am inside running RG-316 through the door to the 10th Floor Balcony.  I am using Thomas’s Speaker Wire antenna here.

One of the challenges that I face at 3AM is cold temperatures and wind.  There can be wind around these large buildings that can make operating difficult.  In cases of cold weather, I just opt for the little table and chair next to the door.  Besides, the coffee stays warmer longer inside!

New buildings make it very difficult if not impossible to get an RF signal out.  Getting an antenna outside is key.  And even then, that does not guarantee success.  The building’s corners have glass conference rooms.  You feel like you are outside, but I haven’t found a really good location for QRP.  That said, there are many more options to try.

Have you tried operating from your work location, perhaps at lunch?  Maybe as a POTA chaser?  What is your go-to method and set up?  Check out more of my shack on QRZ.

Bill KG4FXG

Gear:

Note: All Amazon, CW Morse, ABR, Chelegance, eBay, and Radioddity links are affiliate links that support QRPer.com at no cost to you.

Field Reports, Hacks and Hints, Kits, Portable, Skills

Are you prepared for Radio First Aid?

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by Vince (VE6LK)

(As is Vince’s usual, this article has a bunch of links – click on as many as you wish for the full experience)

Before I go too far into this topic, I wish to first offer hearty congratulations to Thomas Witherspoon for having one thousand posts on QRPer.com! Woo-Hoo!

Do you pack a Radio Field First Aid kit?

On my recent trip to VE3-land I had a few opportunities to practice set-up with my gear–away from the safe place that is my truck–to ensure I’d brought everything for my trip to Hamvention and activations along the way. I did forget an audio cable, however a visit to a local dollar store solved that problem inexpensively.

So, unless you pack two of everything -because two is one and one is none– you should expect that something’s going to fail or break along the way. What you never know is when or how that’s going to happen. I wouldn’t be writing this story if it had not happened to me before.

This time it was on a Sunday outing to VE-1512, the McLaughlin Bay Reserve Wildlife Area in Oshawa Ontario and far away from the comforts of my shop at home. Tucked away not far off of the 401 Highway, this nature reserve is a calm and peaceful oasis just minutes from urban life. I saw kayakers, hikers and trail runners during my visit.

Setting up my Comet HFJ-350M, I added the jumper cable to set the antenna for 20m and then I started to push the antenna down into the ground onto the stake. And that’s when my hand slipped and I broke the jumper cable connector, busted off in the hole.

Broken pin that triggered my outward potty mouth

For the inquisitive among you, my inner potty mouth made a brief outward appearance, ahem. Continue reading Are you prepared for Radio First Aid? →

Antennas, Articles, Guest Posts, News, Portable, POTA, SOTA

Skip recommends the QRPguys DS-1 portable antenna kit!

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Many thanks to Skip (K4EAK) who shares the following guest post:

The QRPguys DS-1 Portable Antenna Kit

by Skip (K4EAK)

There have been several videos and extended comments lately about the Elecraft AX1 and AX2 antennas, both of which function remarkably well for a small, highly compromised antenna.

For those interested in other, similar designs, especially those hams who find that building the equipment is half the fun, another option to consider is the QRPguys DS-1 antenna.

The DS-1 is similar in concept and design to the AX2. It consists of a base-loading coil, a 46.5-inch collapsible whip, and a plate to attach the antenna to a small tripod. One can also purchase an add-on 40-meter coil. The can be deployed in just a couple minutes and, when collapsed, the longest portion is only 6.5” long, easily fitting in the palm of one’s hand. QRPguys recommends a 16.5′ counterpoise; I use two such wires, usually spread out at a 180-degree angle. I’ve also used it with a clamp-on mount and a car window mount.

Building the antenna is simple and took me less than an hour. After installing a BNC connector into a brass plug and inserting the plug onto a length of PEX tubing, one simply runs the supplied 22AWG wire from inside the tubing, out and around making 22 turns, and then sealing it with a length of heat shrink tubing.

There are really only two aspects of assembly that are slightly more difficult. The first is that it’s necessary to drill and tap two holes for 4-40 screws, which obviously means that (1) one needs a 4-40 tap and (2) one needs to be careful tapping the threads to assure a clean cut. The second is that the heat shrink tubing, at least as supplied in my kit, was grossly oversized, which required some finesse in getting a final product that was at least reasonably aesthetic, to say nothing of accomplishing that without dry roasting my fingertips.

Field testing of the DS-1 shows that it works surprisingly well. The SWR is well below 2.0 across almost all of the 20-meter band and where it is higher than that (the upper end of the voice portion), the KX2 internal tuner can tune it easily. As one would expect, on 40 meters the antenna has a somewhat narrower range, although the KX2 tuner has handled it on all of the frequencies I’ve tested so far (all CW). And it appears to be efficient enough.

I have used it on numerous activations and consistently get to the requisite 10 contacts within 20 minutes or so after getting spotted. After that, the number of contacts depends on the time available, but for those occasions when I have only a 30-minute window for an activation, the antenna is a convenient and practical alternative.

I keep the antenna, the tabletop tripod, and the counterpoise wires in the water bottle pocket of my pack, ready for use whenever I have a few moments for a quick activation.

73 Skip K4EAK

Click here to check out the QRPguys DS-1 antenna

Conferences, Portable, SOTA

SOTA at the Charlotte Hamfest, Saturday March 9th

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SOTAIf you’re planning to attend the Charlotte, NC hamfest (March 8th and 9th), make a point to join the SOTA (Summits On The Air) forum.  Christian (KF4LXB), provided me with details:

The forum itself is from 11:45am-12:45pm [Saturday March 9th] in the Cabarrus Room B. There will be total of five of us “SOTAteers” KF4LXB, W4ZV, KI4SVM, WH6LE, and W4ZTM with our kits. We hope to be able to set up a table outside of the conference room so we can have some extra “show and tell” time with our rigs for those interested. We want to get the word out to as many people as possible so we can share about something we all love.

Forum page: http://www.w4bfb.org/hamfest2013/forum_sota_webpage.html

Hamfest site: http://www.w4bfb.org/hamfest2013/hamfest.html

SOTA is serious QRP fun. Thanks for sharing this, Christian!

If you have a QRP related event you would like to publicize, simply contact me with the details and I would be happy to post it on QRPer.com. 

Grab And Go, Portable, QRP, QRP Radios

A Grocery Store Find — a Portable QRP Station Bag!

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QRP Bag -- click to enlarge

I found an almost perfect bag for carrying a small QRP transceiver, simple antenna, and accessories yesterday in our local Aldi grocery store. The bag (photo) is manufactured by “Adventure Essentials”, is described as an insulated lunch bag, is available in several color-schemes, and cost all of $3.99 plus sales tax. I purchased the grey-and-black version, product number 41991. The bag looks to be very rugged, is covered by a two-year warranty, and the tag even includes a toll-free telephone number for customer service.

QRP Bag -- click to enlarge

As can be seen in the photos, the bag is almost ideally sized for carrying any of the current crop of trail-friendly-radios such as the Elecraft KX1 or KX3, the Ten-Tec 40×0 two-band or 4040 four-band rigs, the Youkits HB-1A three-band or HB-1B four-band rigs, or the MFJ 92xx single-band rigs.

If I didn’t already have a Pelican Case for my KX1 Mini Travel Kit, I could probably be very happy carrying the station in this insulated lunch bag!

Standard disclaimer: I have no relationship with Aldi other than being a satisfied customer.