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first three portable ops

Rhona Mahony
 

Hi there,
I have taken my portable kit out three times now, with my wire antenna for 20 m suspended from a 20-foot fishing pole, with four wire radials. The radio is a new FT-817 with the Z-817 tuner.
First I went to the hill behind my housing complex at Stanford, on a Saturday at around 4 pm. The hill overlooks the Bay. I had trouble distinguishing voices on 20m. The voices were so overlapping, I really couldn't make out any single one.
The second time, I went to the beach on Beach Park Blvd. in Foster City where I met some of you once. This was on a Saturday or Sunday at mid-day. I could hear better on this day. I listened in on a long conversation between three fellows--one in Ontario, one in Denver, and one in the Caribbean. They were fine-tuning their audio output for an upcoming contest. "This is Setting One, this is Setting Two...." Dull, but brilliantly audible.
The third time, I went up to Windy Hill. It was the Sunday of the recent SSB contest. Again, 20m was very crowded. It was very difficult for me to distinguish a single voice. On other bands, I could hear people better. I had, by this time, worked up my nerve to actually SPEAK on the air. I couldn't get a match, though, on the bands where I was hearing clear voices.
Unfortunately, at Windy Hill a ranger approached me as I was loading my car. He told me to get a permit next time by calling the office on a week day. That may be inconvenient for me. I seldom plan ahead of time. I just dash out when conditions at home make a little operating time possible. I was ingratiating to the ranger. I hope that my unpermitted activity didn't prejudice him against other hams who may use the Hill.
A few comments. The people that I heard speaking were all talking about their radio gear, except for one gentleman discussing his tomato plants. The other observation: people yak for a loooong time without giving their call sign. Then they say it so quickly that it is hard to catch it.
Call me a girl, but building and assembling gear so that you can talk to other people only about building and assembling gear tracks a person's brain into a teeny, tiny place. For me, the gear is a means to end. I make an exception for, of course, and eagerly listen to cogent summaries of effective and clever QRP gear. I also, hmph!, want some manners so that I can figure out who is talking from where. Should I start an Etiquette column in QST magazine?
Some questions. Are there settings on the radio I should be playing with to improve my listening experience?
What bands other than 20m can I expect to match for transmitting? 40m or 10m?
I very much appreciate your kindness and encouragement. I hope that I get a chance to join one of your outings soon.
~~Rhona k6rho
--
Rhona Mahony
rmahony@...
Tim Dolan
 

Hi Rhona,

Nice to hear from you after such a long time. You have a very nice setup and once you get comfortable, you will find that any number of topics can be covered in a QSO. Due to the nature of this hobby, many hams are interested in contests, equipment, etc., but with that said, the scope of topics I have experienced seem limitless. Generally, it just takes one of the ops to bring up a topic and go from there. Since everyone has gear, it is an easy subject for many to bring up.?Legally, hams should ID every 10 minutes, but as time goes on, many lengthen that interval for one reason or another.

If you were to join an outing in the near future, I think you would quickly become comfortable on the air, with tuning techniques, and a host of other fine stuff. All of us were uncomfortable in the beginning until someone with more experience showed us what to do. That was certainly true for me and I was fortunate to have someone help me out. Many of us use a vertical with raised radials and we can show you what is required to operate on several bands. Most of the time the solution is quite simple.

You have set up in several nice locations worthy of returning. However, all the open space areas require a permit which is fast and simple to get, even on the same day. Hiro and I found that out one day at Windy Hill when we were visited twice by different rangers. Fortunately, they were all nice and aware that we were not aware of the new rules. The Seaport site now also requires us to let the management company know we are setting up. I guess it is the sign of the times we live in.?

With the weather getting better, more folks will be out and about and please join in whenever you can.

Tim


--- On Fri, 4/9/10, Rhona Mahony wrote:

From: Rhona Mahony <rmahony@...>
Subject: [QRPops] first three portable ops
To: QRPops@...
Date: Friday, April 9, 2010, 11:13 AM

?

Hi there,
I have taken my portable kit out three times now, with my wire antenna for 20 m suspended from a 20-foot fishing pole, with four wire radials. The radio is a new FT-817 with the Z-817 tuner.
First I went to the hill behind my housing complex at Stanford, on a Saturday at around 4 pm. The hill overlooks the Bay. I had trouble distinguishing voices on 20m. The voices were so overlapping, I really couldn't make out any single one.
The second time, I went to the beach on Beach Park Blvd. in Foster City where I met some of you once. This was on a Saturday or Sunday at mid-day. I could hear better on this day. I listened in on a long conversation between three fellows--one in Ontario, one in Denver, and one in the Caribbean. They were fine-tuning their audio output for an upcoming contest. "This is Setting One, this is Setting Two...." Dull, but brilliantly audible.
The third time, I went up to Windy Hill. It was the Sunday of the recent SSB contest. Again, 20m was very crowded. It was very difficult for me to distinguish a single voice. On other bands, I could hear people better. I had, by this time, worked up my nerve to actually SPEAK on the air. I couldn't get a match, though, on the bands where I was hearing clear voices.
Unfortunately, at Windy Hill a ranger approached me as I was loading my car. He told me to get a permit next time by calling the office on a week day. That may be inconvenient for me. I seldom plan ahead of time. I just dash out when conditions at home make a little operating time possible. I was ingratiating to the ranger. I hope that my unpermitted activity didn't prejudice him against other hams who may use the Hill.
A few comments. The people that I heard speaking were all talking about their radio gear, except for one gentleman discussing his tomato plants. The other observation: people yak for a loooong time without giving their call sign. Then they say it so quickly that it is hard to catch it.
Call me a girl, but building and assembling gear so that you can talk to other people only about building and assembling gear tracks a person's brain into a teeny, tiny place. For me, the gear is a means to end. I make an exception for, of course, and eagerly listen to cogent summaries of effective and clever QRP gear. I also, hmph!, want some manners so that I can figure out who is talking from where. Should I start an Etiquette column in QST magazine?
Some questions. Are there settings on the radio I should be playing with to improve my listening experience?
What bands other than 20m can I expect to match for transmitting? 40m or 10m?
I very much appreciate your kindness and encouragement. I hope that I get a chance to join one of your outings soon.
~~Rhona k6rho
--
Rhona Mahony
rmahony@stanford. edu
Dave Flack
 

¿ªÔÆÌåÓý

Tim,
?
Is there a posting or a file that gives the information about permitting?? That would really be helpful when we want to go out individually.?
?
73,
Dave, W6DLF
capesafari
 

Hi Rhona

As Tim mentioned - there are so many aspects of the ham radio hobby to
explore - for me - there is the curiosity of why and how things work, and I found that there's enough to keep me busy for quite a while.
The rf technology field is really so diverse that I'm sure you'll find sweet spot, tuning in those distant (or no to distant) stations on your 817.

If youre curious to know whether your station is actually working, this weekend is again great opportunity for antenna experiments - with the JIDX CW contest, (which has all of JA wanting to make QSO's with the world). Even if you're not into contesting, those big JA stations are good listeners, and they'll go the distance to pick your weak signal out of the noise for their logs. Try 40m at night.

Example: 40m propagation was fair last night, and I managed a few JA using: Softrock 6.3, 1 Watt, 40m fibreglass vertical. That means propagation was working.

At the same time I was running the skimmer to see what else was going
on, and a few interesting dx showed up on 40m
Pity they were not handing out QSO's to anyone else but JA
dx showed up at my receive location last night 40m: HL2, DU1, BD1, YB4, XU) So give it a try.



Good luck on the experiments and finding those QSO's worthy of your time.

I'd be curious to know if the Bay area experience the same good 40m propagation at night time?

73 - Deon k6wh

--- In QRPops@..., "Dave Flack" <daveflack@...> wrote:

Tim,

Is there a posting or a file that gives the information about
permitting? That would really be helpful when we want to go out
individually.

73,
Dave, W6DLF
 

¿ªÔÆÌåÓý

Tim,
?
Nice write-up on your travels with the Daves last weekend. You went to my fav haunts, sorry to have missed it.
?
I woke up with vertigo, and after several hours of dealing with it, asked a neighbor to drive me to emergency. Just wanted to be sure I wasn't having a stroke! Turns out you need to have more symptoms than dizziness to trigger that concern. But I didn't know that.
?
Bottom line, I'm healthy as a rat and the vertigo is going away - cause unknown. Fine.
?
I wasn't going to write about all that. My intention was to wish you well on your surgery Friday. It's such a good thing to do. I sleep so much better without having to 'place' my arm throughout the night. The rehab is tedious, and you can expect to be pretty sore in the beginning, but that goes away quickly, and you will be so glad to have a new shoulder in the end.
?
Of course, once the shoulder is fixed, you can't expect to work real DX any more. Just Lodi and Orinda.
?
May the Irish gods of light and health shine upon your shoulder and speed it's healing. Today is swamped with work, but I'll give you a call mid-week to cheer you on!
?
Murf
 

Tim,
What is this? Had no idea you were having a shoulder problem. Hope all will go well and you get speedy recovery.
Hiroki


--- On Mon, 4/12/10, Neil wrote:

From: Neil
Subject: RE: [QRPops] first three portable ops
To: QRPops@...
Date: Monday, April 12, 2010, 12:25 PM

?
Tim,
?
Nice write-up on your travels with the Daves last weekend. You went to my fav haunts, sorry to have missed it.
?
I woke up with vertigo, and after several hours of dealing with it, asked a neighbor to drive me to emergency. Just wanted to be sure I wasn't having a stroke! Turns out you need to have more symptoms than dizziness to trigger that concern. But I didn't know that.
?
Bottom line, I'm healthy as a rat and the vertigo is going away - cause unknown. Fine.
?
I wasn't going to write about all that. My intention was to wish you well on your surgery Friday. It's such a good thing to do. I sleep so much better without having to 'place' my arm throughout the night. The rehab is tedious, and you can expect to be pretty sore in the beginning, but that goes away quickly, and you will be so glad to have a new shoulder in the end.
?
Of course, once the shoulder is fixed, you can't expect to work real DX any more. Just Lodi and Orinda.
?
May the Irish gods of light and health shine upon your shoulder and speed it's healing. Today is swamped with work, but I'll give you a call mid-week to cheer you on!
?
Murf

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