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.
So you've learn Morse Code (CW) The graphic above depicts of what I think some look like after they decide to place their fingers on the straight key, paddle, cootie, or bug and send their first Morse Code characters. The cold weather of winter has taken its grip on most of the northern hemisphere and there's "No better time than the present" than to fire up that rig and quall your Morse Code fears and get "ON THE AIR". Parks on the Air (POTA) and Summits on the Air (SOTA) have proven to be incredible instruments in bringing more and new Morse Code operators into the fold. However, "OLD MAN WINTER" has put a "FREEZE" on the number of Morse Code activators. Maybe you have become accustomed to the predictable format of POTA and SOTA QSOs. Don't fret. There is another organization which lends to the same short predictable format to fill the void of the shortage of POTA/SOTA Morse Code activators this winter. http://www.k1usn.com/ ...
I hope everyone had an enjoyable and wonderful Christmas. We'll be back sometime in early 2025. Here are a couple of Blog Posts we are working on. I don't need 1.21 Gigawatts, a Flux Capacitor or Plutonium to make a QSO Confessions from a Wanna-Be Engineer
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