Quail, Deer, Rabbitt, Turkey, Squirrel, pheasant and other animals are being hunted in the U.S. I wake up each morning and check the forecast to determine what type of fowl or other prey I might want to pursue. I go through all of my equipment and gear to determine which weapon I might take.
Here's the CATCH. I'm not your typical hunter. As cold weather has descended upon the Ohio Valley (Kentucky.USA); this old body just doesn't handle the freezing temperatures like it did when it was younger.
This winter I'm scaling back doing Parks on the Air activations. I've made some winter Ham Radio goals. My goals are to do some QRP radio kit building, repairing some transceivers and doing some SSB, CW, FT8, FT4, RTTY, PSK31, Olivia, and Satellite hunting operating. Some of my hunting equipment consists of the following:
I have a several sets of firepower to throw at the Amateur Radio / Ham Radio HF bands. Ten Tec 580 Delta, Ten Tec Omni D, Ten Tec Corsair, Yaesu FT-891, Yaesu FT-817 and when I've had enough with the HF bands, I will likely power up my Yaesu FT-726R All Mode V/UHF All Mode SSB/FM/CW Transceiver, point my Arrow Yagi to the heavens and work some satellites.
CAS-4A QSO August 2018 as KB4FLC with Joe - KE9AJ
Living in an apartment does have its limitations as far as what I can use to seek out my prey. But my Alpha Mag Loop has been my staple for work the world on 80, 60,40,30,20,17, 17, 12 and 10 meters. I've been able to search well beyond the bounds of my abode to the far reaches of the earth for prey that is not indigenous of the U.S.
Alpha Mag Loop 80 - 10 Meters
Some of my resources of ammo I will use this winter hunting season to try and snatch that rare beast are as follows.
CW Club RBN Spotter
https://rbn.telegraphy.de/
RBN / Reverse Beacon Network
https://www.reversebeacon.net/
Parks on the Air
POTA Scheduled Activations
POTA Active Spots
https://parksontheair.com/index.html
Summits on the Air
How I chase Summits on the Air stations
Summits on the Air Spots
Summits on the Air Alerts
Another one of my goals is to hunt more DX. Solar Cycle 25 has presented itself with many opportunities to work DX at different times of the day, different bands and modes here in the U.S.. While doing Parks on the Air activations this summer, I got smitten by DX QSOs from the bowels of a metropolitan urban city POTA site using 5 watts and less. This winter I hope to add to those DX contacts by using these apps.
DXHEAT | DXCluster & DX Research Tool
https://www.dxheat.com/
DxCenter/DxCluster
https://dxcluster.dxcenter.com/
There's one DX callsign, I've got a hankering to get in my logbook. JW5E - Svalbard Amat0rradioklubb SARK in Longyearbyen, where (currently December 2024) the sun will not rise again until February 15, 2025 at 11:42 a.m. local time. JW5E is one of hopefully many long sought after callsigns, be it domestic, club, DX or other presently unknown callsigns I hope to add in my Ham Alert, turn on the app and patiently wait to get that HAM ALERT!
Ham Alert
https://hamalert.org/about
I'm quite sure I've misseda tool. If someone has anymore please free to leave a comment or send an email so I can add them to this post.
The CWmouse Paddle There is a CW Mouse in my POTA Bag and you don't need CHEESE to feed it. In late December of last year a mutual follower on Mastodon Radio asked me if I would try out and review his NEW concept 3D Printed Iambic Paddle he had produced. I obliged and said yes. First let me touch on MY EXPERIENCES with 3D printed Ham Radio products. I'm a pounder. It goes back to my early days in the 60's as a Novice. Pounding doesn't bode well with 3D printed paddles. When I first got involved in operating Morse Code with Parks on the Air, I wasn't confident with my CW skills so instead of purchasing an expensive paddle so I opted for an inexpensive and reliable 3D printed paddle. I purchased several 3D printed paddles in mid to late 2021 for POTA activations. Noting against any of the people who produced the paddles I purchased but I have found that continued use of 3D printed material in a warm environment does not hold up long term. Most of the paddle compo...
I received a few comments from my recent post "So You've Learned Morse Code (CW). Now What? Some operators say they are having difficulties finding operators sending at a speed they could copy. Over a few days I took time to listen across the bands and did find their comments to be fairly accurate in comparison to the amount of total CW signals I heard. There were not many operators sending at speeds less than 15 WPM. Just might be a little daunting for a someone stepping into the Morse Code world. It is definitely not like the days when I was first licensed in 1963 or when I was relicensed in 1983 when Morse Code was required by the FCC. In those days of yore, Novices were restricted to CW on 3.7 - 3.75 Mhz, 7.1 - 7.15 Mhz, 21.1 - 21.2 Mhz , 28.1 - 28.2 Mhz. I look back now and tremendously appreciate my days as a Novice during those days. There was no internet or spotting networks then. There were though regular daily and weekly CW nets and of cour...
Note: I've had this post in the can for a long, long time and felt now; due to the potential of price increases as a result of tariffs directed to countries where these batteries are produced, it might be a good time to look at these batteries. I look back to 1985 when the "Back to the Future" movie was release when we became aware of the Flux Capacitor and I remember when operating portable those days of lugging around a BIG HEAVY battery to operate with my Ten Tec Omni transceiver. In the words of a Bob Dylan song, "The Times Are a'Changin" No more lugging around a 16+ lb. 12 volt battery. In today's Amateur Radio World, all I need is one of these units to power my Amateur Radio portable activities . Miady 12VC 16Ah LiPo4 Battery TalentCell 12V 6Ah Battery TalentCell 12V 3Ah Battery Bioenno 12V 3Ah LiPo4 Battery Thunderbolt Magnum 9V 200 mAh NiMH Rechargeable Battery A few years ago I came upon a YouTube video review by Jason KM4ACK about hi...
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