Smoky Mountain Spring Break 2009

We returned today from our trip to Townsend, TN. Let me start this by saying that we had a WONDERFUL time!!! The kids got out of school on Thursday afternoon for their annual spring break vacation. The XYL and I decided that this year we would go up to the Smoky Mountains and see what it was all about.



We left out early Friday morning. The trip was just shy of 500 miles. With two kids we knew that Mapquest's estimate of 8 hours would be more like 9+. Our drive up went very smooth until we got to Birmingham, AL. We noticed that the front left tire of the truck was very low. I pulled over on the side of the interstate and got the air compressor out to fill it up. My gut said that there was a slow leak and that everything would be fine as long as I was mindful of it. As were were working our way from Birmingham to Gadsden, AL I decided to call a friend who is from Gadsden to ask him where to get the tire fixed. He gave us directions and sent us to Bingham Tire.



The guys at Binghams took great care of us. It turns out that there was not a leak in the tire, rather a bad valve stem. Before we left I had to get a picture of me with their sign. I thought it was really funny!





As our drive continued the scenery became quite beautiful. The hills, rivers and mountains are such a nice change from our home in Florida. Driving over the Tellico Dam was a sight to see. As we hit the home stretch of the drive we came through a town called Maryville, TN. Rebecca and I really enjoyed this city. It seems like it is a really nice place to visit or live. We hope to return there soon. More info can be found here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryville,_Tennessee



The last 20 miles of the drive were really great. At this point you begin your trek into the Smoky Mountains. Being from Washington state, mountains aren't neccesarily the most amazing thing to me, but after living in flat, pine covered Florida, it was a welcomed sight. Upon our arrival at the cabin we moved into "unload the truck mode". After 9 1/2 hrs in the truck we were all ready to get out. The kids took off exploring and Reba and I got to work. Here's a picture of the cabin we stayed at.





Once everything was setup, and everyone in place I decided to setup my station. I brought along the Sierra, TE NE KEY, ZM-2 and doublet antenna. I forgot one key piece of gear and that was my PL-259 to BNC adapter. NOT GOOD...I searched, looked and scrounged to no avail. Off to the local store in Townsend and luck would have it that they carried aligator clips. Out of the clips and wire that I already had, I "jumped" the connection. It worked but not that great. Here are some pictures of me operating.







Terrible view huh? My antenna was 30ft agl on the north side and 300ft agl on the south side!!!





Here's a picture of me frustrated at the fact that I forgot my adapter. A picture is worth 1,000 words...





Sunset from the porch.





As the trip went on we hit all sort of great places. We went to the Smoky Mountains National Park. Our destination was Cades Cove http://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/cadescove.htm. Cades Cove painted the picture needed to go along with all the stories I had read as a kid about mountain life in the 1800's. What a neat place. If you ever get the chance, go!





We also went to Dollywood which is Dolly Parton's theme park. The kids had a blast on all of the rides. We also got to see circus/acrobat type of show. I never thought I would see a lady on a unicylce on top of a giant ball, but I did. The weather turned cold while we were at Dollywood. By 1600 we were ready to go back to the cabin. Lots of fun and the kids are still talking about it.



The next day we went in to Sevierville and Gatlinburg. No trip to Sevierville is complete without stopping by Ten Tec. I have a 1340 tx and really like it. I know it will be a few more years before I can buy any of their nice radios, but it was still fun to look and operate their radios in their ham shack. In the end I bought a small coax jumper, Ten Tec ball cap and you guessed it, a 259 to BNC adapter!





Me sporting my new Ten Tec cap.





Onward we march. Gatlinburg next destination. Let me start by saying that this place is really pretty but it is CRAZY! There were people everywhere. It is a tourist hotspot. We decided to head up the aerial tram to the top of Mt. Harrison and see the view. To our suprise at the top is a vast assortment of things to do at the ski lodge. We rode the ski lifts, alpine slide, and Blue Cyclone Raft ride. On our way up to the peak of Mt. Harrison I made my first ever "Ski Lift Portable" qso with Jerry KG4NPH.







What a fun day on top of Mt. Harrison and I am truly amazed at how your antenna height can really get your signal out!



During our stay in the Smoky Mountains I had great QSO's with folks to the east and south of me, all on 40m. Notable QSO's were Tom KC0GT in Melbourne, FL and Rob KD4LRP in Fairfax, VA. I also got to work Bob WA6VVA and Bob N4CU both members of my club NOARC in Crestview, Florida. Everyone commented that my Sierra's 3watts were putting out an honest 599 (with my new adapter of course). I guess my antenna being 300ft up really makes a difference. More info on the club can be found at http://www.w4aaz.org/.

I had two gripes with the radio while there. The first was that lately I feel that the SSB mode is slowly working its way down into prime CW territory. It seems like 7.030-7.050 in the evenings is now a SSB haven for foreign operators. Finding a frequency not in use is becoming very tough. It sure makes it hard for us QRP guys as the listed calling frequencies are 7.030 and 7.040 respectively. I know that I don't own the frequency nor do I want to, but I'll get down off of my soap box now.

The second gripe came during an emergency call to the WB4GBI repeater in Knoxville, TN that I had to make. There was an accident on the road we were traveling on from Townsend to Pigeon Forge. A car decided to push on through a hair pin turn while an 18 wheeler was already negotiating the turn. Of course the trailer ran over the car! In this location there was no cell phone service so I jumped on my trusty IC-28A and found a repeater that had people talking. "Break, break, break" rendered no response even though I know it was heard. The ragchew about our President and guns continued. When the two main stations in QSO broke for a second, a third ham called for me the breaking station to try again (proving that I had in fact been heard). I responded with my call sign and that I needed to report an accident, and the response back from the first two stunned me. "Breaking station, you're weak into the repeater. QSY to another repeater closer to you and if you have an emergency call 911." The XYL and I sat looking at each other, stunned...Back to guns and the President the QSO went. I couldn't believe it. After a minute or so the owner/sponser of the repeater Tim WB4GBI got on and shut everyone up and reminded everyone about what exactly needed to happen when someone called "break, break, break". It took a couple of tries but the required information was passed. State & county law enforcement were dispatched.

I sat there thinking about what happened, when the hams on frequency started an excuse session about why they couldn't/wouldn't hear me, or not help out etc. Tim WB4GBI jumped back on and reminded the entire group of the purpose of Amateur Radio during emergencies and the fact that it may take more than 1 listen to a weak signal requesting help to get the message through. Furthermore he made it a point for everyone to take a "lesson learned" away from the event. As many of you know my job does not allow for this kind of excuse making and I was glad to see that Tim had "pulled their punk cards" as we say in the Marines. Bravo Zulu Tim!!!



All in all the trip was a family memory that I will never forget. The kids were great and we truly fell in love with east TN. We're looking forward to our next trip back to the mountains of Tennessee and maybe I'll get a chance to work you. Best of luck and 72.


Steve

SITREP

I have been working long hours lately. We have had a schedule change at work. My position usually requires me to be the first one in and the last one out. In spite of the change I have been steadily chipping away at my PFR-3. I have built up to and passed the Smoke Test-1. My display is working and I am looking forward to getting to the next smoke test.

My hope is to take the kids to the beach this weekend or next. Of course I'll pack a rig with me and do my best to make a few contacts. I am really looking forward to the chance to use vertical antennas with the salt water as my counterpoise!

That's all for now, 72 and hope to work you soon.

Steve

The W5RE "Junkyard Dog" Paddle

I have not made it to many club meetings as of late but this past Thursday was different. I was excited to go because it had been 4 months since I had been to a club meeting (http://www.w4aaz.org ) It was good to see the guys and the class on "DSP Fundamentals" by N4CU was informative. Bob W5RE gave a show and tell on a paddle that he had made. In Dec 2007 he challenged all of the club members to build something. Didn't matter what, but build it and bring it to the club and show the members.

A little background: Bob N4CU and Bob W5RE are my mentors in this HAM radio hobby. W5RE is the man I have to thank for giving me the motivation and drive to learn Morse code. Without it I would have never discovered my passion for QRP/p operations.

Back to the story: Out of the box came a set of CW paddles that Bob hombrewed from materials around his house. The paddles were made of stuff described by Bob as "from a bunch of junk in my shack". Based on Bob's description I chuckled to myself and came up with the name The "Junkyard Dog" Paddle in my head.



After his description and demonstration Bob spoke briefly about a ham that he was proud of. A guy that took on the challenge of the code and was now "running 30wpm with the DX stations". He then turned to me and presented the "JYD" Paddle to me. I didn't know what to say! "Thank you" and "Don't listen to Bob, I'm nowhere near 30wpm" was all I could say.

As the meeting ended the guys all came over and had a go at the "JYD" and we talked CW. What a meeting! Thank you very much Bob W5RE for the nice words and great little paddle. Here are a few more pictures of the "Junkyard Dog". I am enjoying the paddles very much. Bob did state that this paddle is the test version. I can't wait to see his final version in action.









72
Steve

March PBMME at Britton Hill

Jerry N8PXE and myself traveled up to Lakewood Park just outside of Paxton, FL today to participate in the March PBMME. There were multiple events on the bands today so the chance of making plenty of contacts seemed to be good.

It was cloudy with on and off rain when we met up at the CVS pharmacy in Crestview, FL. This is where we parked my truck and jumped into Jerry's. He has a nice Chevy pickup with alot more room than my Nissan Hardbody! Once we had everything loaded up, off we went. Its took about 35 minutes to reach our destination. The drive is nice with farmland being the norm along the way.

Lakewood Park is the name given by Walton County where Britton Hill is located. At a whopping 345ft it is named after a Post Mistress that lived in the area. What is funny about Florida's highest point is that it is by far the lowest of the 50 states. It is not even close. DEAD LAST! More information can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britton_Hill.



With the weather being not so good I was reassured to see the pavillion waiting for us when we arrived.



It was time to spring into action and get our stations and antennas up and working. Jerry and I put up a 20m GP and 40m dipole.





Jerry put up his G5RV using a fiberglass mast as the center support.



Once the chairs, food and antennas were setup up it was time to break out our stations. I was using my Wilderness Sierra, ZM-2, Te-Ne-Key while Jerry was using his FT-857D and LDG Auto Tuner.

My setup:


Jerry's setup:


Now it was time for the fun part. I fired up the Sierra on 20m and Jerry hit 40m. There were tons of stations on and I was really excited. Once tuned up I started hunting for PB's. Almost immediatly I heard Jed AD7KG in UT with a HUGE signal!!! I was excited. Great things had to be coming my way to hear CQ PB this quick. I set the keyer to 18wpm and answered back. No reply. I answered again. No reply. I was stumped. For Jed to have this big of a signal I was certain that he would be able to hear me. "Never fear, I'll move on and come back to him" I thought. So I worked up and down +/- 14.060. No shortage of activity with the Elecraft QSO Party but I was unable to get anyone. I returned to where Jed had been but I did not hear him. I was starting to get frustrated so I decided to move to 40m. Once I had removed the 20m coax from the ZM-2 and placed the 40m coax on I noticed an error. Not a rig or tuner error but, an OPERATOR error. I had never put the switch on the tuner from the "tune" postion to the "operate" position. No wonder nobody heard me. I was replying to everyone into a 50ohm dummy load! Bonehead Award goes to me!

On 40m Bob K3KKA quickly answered my CQ. Bob's QTH is near Daytona, FL. He gave me a 589 RST which I was happy about. Bob told me an interesting story about the antenna he was using. He said it was a long wire with his swimming pool as the counterpoise. I chuckled because thats the first time I had heard of a pool and HAM radio being combined! It was a great QSO and Bob enjoyed the fact that he had just worked Floridas highest point. Thank you for the QSO Bob.

Meanwhile Jerry was hunting and pouncing on stations. He was working people from the Pacific Northwest all the way across to the East Coast. If there was an award on the number of QSO's, then Jerry took that trophy home with NO contest!

Jerry taking a break:


About this point I got hungry so I broke out my peanut butter & jelly sandwich that Ann had made us before I left. About that time Jerry's and my good friend Phil N6COP showed up. What an unexpected suprise. While Jerry and I ate our sandwiches Phil jumped onto Jerry's setup and got into the action.



During the little break I got my GPS out to see what grid we were in and how far off the elevation was. To my suprise the elevation said 350ft! Not bad considering that a GPS' elevation is usually much further off in my experience.



It was around 1500cst that the rain and wind really got bad. The temp had been 65 degrees all day but it was now starting to drop. I decided to jump onto 20m again before it was too late and this time I remembered to put the tuner into the correct position. I called CQ a couple of times and Ed K1GDH answered. His QTH was Webster, MA. He was running 5w while I was running 1.7w. We had a great QSO going when the Elecraft guys jumped right on top of us. I lost him completly! I was angry but I won't jump on that soap box. RST received from Ed was 539. Thanks for the QSO Ed.

As the temp kept dropping Jerry and I both knew that it was time to wrap it up. Once all of our gear was packed up I took a quick second to run over to the granit marker at ground zero and take a picture.



As we were leaving I saw something that I had not seen when we arrived. We were in such a hurry to setup that I had not looked at the view that Britton Hill provided. It is not the most beautiful sight I have ever seen but it was nice enough.



And what is a trip to any state's highest point without a picture of the crew? Thank you Phil for taking the picture!


In summary it was a great day. I had a blast. Jerry and I talk most mornings on the Eglin AFB repeater. This was our first chance to get out and operate together. This won't be the last of the N8PXE & W6EOD crew. 2 great ragchew QSO's for me and a boatload for Jerry! Look for us the next time we're at Britton Hill!!!

72
Steve

Baker Park

I had big plans this past weekend to get the kids outside. I was hoping for clear skies and more of the 75+ degree weather that we have been having. Mother Nature had other plans. A big thunderstorm rolled in on Friday night with off and on rain. The rain continued through Saturday morning and the kids were wanting to get out. What to do? I decided to load them up along with the gear, with the intent to scout new areas for this upcoming summer. We drove around and came up with a big fat goose egg! We checked out a few places on the Yellow River but gators and mesquitos look like they are ferocious during th summer at those spots! Around 1300cst there was a break in the rain so I decided to take the kids to the park in Baker.

I setup my Sierra, ZM-2 and TE NE KE to a 33' wire radiator and 33' counterpoise. I set my gear up on a table that allowed for me to operate on 40m and watch the kids at the same time.


I have noticed that with this particular setup I get an awful amount of impulse noise into the receiver of my Sierra. The first time I used this particular type of antenna in the backyard at my house, this was not a problem. I thought that this antenna would work well and solve the problem of the long diss & ass asociated with a doublet or GP. I have tried it with my FT-817 and Sierra and the noise is terrible on both.

I have two thoughts on the problem. Either my ZM-2 is the root cause and I need to check it for problems. Or the power line noise is amplified with this type of antenna. This has never been an issue with the doublet & GP. If you have any suggestions please send them my way!

The kids had a great time. Ann gave a thumbs up for QRP/p and quality time at the park!


Tyler was just glad to be out of the house and the truck.


I made one contact before the noise became irritating. I did not want my bad attitude to affect the kids time at the playground and another wave of rain was inbound to our location. I shut it down and we loaded up and went back home after 1 hour at the park. Thanks to Ray WQ5L in Gulfport, MS for the QSO!

Sunday was no good for being outdoors as the weather turned cold. When I got up on Sunday morning it was 29 degrees and the wind was blowing at 20+mph. Oh well, maybe next weekend. Until next time 72 and hope to work you soon.

Steve