Comments for Ham Radio - A contact sport

Comment on This tower takes the cake by Chad (KD4LEI)

Chad (KD4LEI) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 02:40:38 +0000

Congrats to Brandon! Hope to talk to him again sometime soon and hope that groom’s cake tasted as good as it looked. Last time I have seen groom’s cake’s was when I lived in the south where they are commonplace in weddings from Texas to the Carolina’s.

Comment on Doing a good deed - the Radio Merit Badge by W8RIT

W8RIT — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 01:13:04 +0000

Hello, I’m very pleased to hear of your successful endeavor teaching Radio Merit Badge to Boy Scouts. I also at one time was a Radio MB counselor, but unfortunately due to other work and family obligations had to curtail it. Someday, I’ll get back into it. I would like to know if you would like me to send you a .ppt that I had used myself. I also have another .ppt that another ham used in his efforts and would have no problem with sharing his ideas. If so, you can contact me @: w8rit@arrl.net.

Comment on Best ham radio logging application? by pat

pat — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 18:04:20 +0000

Hi Ernie

The ham radio reviews database on my site is definitely an ongoing thing. It has been running since August, 2006 and has info on hundreds of products and about 30 reviews from several hams.

I’ll continue to add products for review and keep the door open for others to post reviews. I’d like for it to be an alternative to sites like eHam which allow anonymous reviews from folks who haven’t used the products.

73
Pat

Comment on Best ham radio logging application? by Ernie Thomas

Ernie Thomas — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 17:48:15 +0000

Will this be ongoing or a one shot affair?

Comment on Radio Propagation: "Are we there yet?" by Scot, K9JY

Scot, K9JY — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:56:07 +0000

I’m hoping so too! It will be nice to have contesters be able to use more bands than 160-20 as there is a lot of room on 15 and 10 to spread out the activity.

Comment on St. Barthelemy (FJ) added to DXCC by David Kozinn, K2DBK

David Kozinn, K2DBK — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 18:56:46 +0000

I think the “gotta have it now” is a common phenomenon. I know that the guys who are #1 Honor Roll want to get it ASAP to retain their status (though one list I follow says that once you achieve that status, they don’t come and take your plaque from you!). That accounts for some of the folks calling, but certainly not all.

For any DXpedition, for some folks, there’s a strong desire to get them “in the log” ASAP in case they have to go QRT. As has been posted elsewhere, St. Bart’s isn’t exactly Good Grief Reef, where a wave will wipe them all out, it’s a civilized island with resident hams, hotels, power, water, restaurants, and, of course, bars to relax in after that pileup.

I think the situation with FJ is similar to what I saw with Montenegro (4O) when they split off. For several days, it was an absolutely madhouse. Like FJ, 4O is a “regular place” where people live and where there are resident hams. Neither place is particularly difficult to work from most parts of the world.

I did manage to work FJ on 17m CW earlier today (and I’m happy to say that it didn’t take me as long as you, once I realized I was transmitting on my 6m antenna instead of my G5RV and switched!) I’ll try to work them on 20 SSB when Martti comes back from lunch (or whatever he’s QRXing for), but if I didn’t manage to work them now, I know they’ll be on the air again soon.

Comment on CQ WW CW - 3830 Posting and Lessons Learned by Scot, K9JY

Scot, K9JY — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 15:26:40 +0000

This is actually a very good “after action review” of the contest. The objective isn’t to win for most people, but to evaluate how their station is doing, what worked and what didn’t. Big contests are a great time to determine how things are working.

Comment on I.C.E. - hot gear for surge protection by pat

pat — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 18:57:41 +0000

Fortunately, I had relatively good luck with ICE on this order. Order was placed on Sept 16 and received the equipment on Oct 2nd. Wasn’t quite as fast as I would have liked, but it wasn’t the worst I’ve seen. I did send an email after waiting two weeks asking for a status - didn’t get a reply… so you’re right that they could improve on customer service.

Comment on I.C.E. - hot gear for surge protection by Larry Cobb

Larry Cobb — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 16:43:36 +0000

I don’t doubt that I.C.E. have excellent products. But I am sure disappointed in their customer response. They seem to take forever to deliver on an order that was direct to the factory web site and don’t communicate very well–and that’s being generous ;). My next orders will be with DX Engineering or Polyphaser.

73!
Larry - NK2X

Comment on I.C.E. - hot gear for surge protection by Scot, K9JY

Scot, K9JY — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 03:50:58 +0000

The really hard parts of putting up a tower are the logistics and the details. This is one of those details that are critical for the tower and parts longevity, but is a detail that can get thrown out just to get the tower up in a timely manner.

It’s good Steppr is recommending the protection and you’re getting it installed.