Kev's Radio Adventures

I had taken some time off from work to knock out some schoolwork but found that I had taken an extra day… shucks. I looked into a place where I could be relatively close to home to set up for a few hours and activate. I found Bury St Edmunds Abbey and Morton Hall, two castle references in Bury St Edmunds which is a town just 25 minutes from my house. Side note: I had found Morton Hall and sent it into the coordinator at ECA to get it added late last year. The two reference areas had a small part where they overlapped. Checking out some maps, it looked like most of that area was a public space. I packed up my Xiegu X6100 the night before and was ready go. In the morning, I dropped my kids off at school and made the 40 minute drive from the school to the park. I generally will park and walk the area to find a good spot to setup before I get my things out. It usually helps me get the lay of the land and keep myself from walking aimlessly with all of my gear (in this case just a small ...

I knew it was going to be cold and windy on the beach, but the sun would be shining. I wouldn't make the same mistake I made on New Year's Day; I wore a warmer coat, brought a scarf (that I knitted last weekend), and had some thick socks on. Nothing was going to stop me from activating from the beach. I drove about an hour to Cley Next The Sea to activate Black Joy Fort. It's a reference with no part of it standing but it is in the reference area for Norfolk Coast AONB. I took a short walk down the beach so that I was within the Blakeney NNR, Norfolk Coast AONB, and within 1 kilometer of the ECA reference. I set up the M1ECC Slidewinder DX with my Xiegu X6100. As I've mentioned, I'm getting more into the QRP game, so I figured no time like the present.  I started on 40m CW and after about 30 minutes and 23 contacts, I realized that I was only working with 3 watts. I guess I'm getting more into QRP than I thought! I did get the power up to 5 watts but I'm not...

English Castles Awards & World Wide Flora and Fauna:  Winter has been tough for finding time to get on the air. I activated 3 castles and 1 WWFF reference in January. It has been a goal of mine last year and this year to get out an operate portable at least twice per month. Some people may find this simple, but with my busy life I really have to try to fit it in. ECA: I activated Castle Acre Castle, Castle Acre Priory, and Castle Acre Town Defenses for English Castles Awards winter activities. This 3-in-1 got me the first level of Winter Activity award which was great. I had to visit the location twice to get them activated.  For the first attempt, I set up in a field just off from the priory. I had brought my FT-817 and KM4ACK end fed antenna. I strapped my telescoping pole to a tree stake and strung the antenna up just fine. I had gotten about 30 contacts between SSB and CW but after about 2 hours, my fingers were frozen from the wind and cold. I was seriously concerned ...

For years when I lived in Nevada my Christmas Eve tradition was to go duck hunting. It reminds me of a tradition my mother had told me that her dad had done: Thanksgiving morning was spent deer hunting. Now that I live in the UK, hunting is a bit more difficult so this year I decided to replace it with Ham Radio! My youngest son wanted to come along today. I’m pretty sure he only likes coming because I let him bring his Nintendo Switch, but I’m happy to have his company and spend time with him. He’s noisy and asks a lot of questions so it does make activating a bit more difficult. Even more so with CW where it seems my brain can’t switch back and forth between English and Morse Code very easily.  We were at Lakenheath Fen RSPB which is POTA and WWFF. This counted as WWFF’s Brass Monkey #2 activation for December. I set up the radio in the car with the trusty mag mount and ham stick combo. It’s been a while since I activated CW only so I was ready for the challenge. I planned on 40,...

The winter season makes ham radio portable ops difficult; it's cold, windy, and we get quite a bit of rain in my part of the UK. If everything lines up and it's relatively warm, the wind is calm, and the rain is holding off, it is fine weather for activating in the field. However, these conditions also need to line up with life. I have a full time job, wife and two kids, and attend online university taking two courses at once. I'm lucky to get a day out in nice weather. This is where activating from the car pays off. It shields me from the elements, however after an hour or so, the cold seeps in. I have 40m, 20m, and 17m ham sticks and a mag mount for the top of the car. Not to mention the mobile 2m/70cm radio. This seems to do well enough for the most part and with 50 watts, it doesn't make things too difficult.  The ham sticks are tuned to the low end of the bands as I'm primarily a CW operator. In the voice portion of the bands, even on the low side, the SWR reac...

Thanksgiving is a typical American holiday: stay at home, relax, and spend time with family... and don't forget the food! Lately, I can't seem to stomach turkey or ham, we don't have any family around, and we had no plans to spend the holiday with anyone. This year, we decided we'd head out and take a trip on Thanksgiving. My wife is a big history buff (she'll have her graduate degree in a few weeks) and loves to visit the abbeys in ruins. She decided that we'd stop for the night in Whitby where Bram Stoker was inspired for his famous book,  Dracula , and the next 2 days we'd spend in York. I did some searching on the English Castles and English Lighthouses and found that if I'm sitting at Whitby Abbey (G-01916) on the hill, I'm within 1 km of the 2 lighthouses (ENG-163 & ENG-165). Score!  We left early on Thursday morning towards Whitby and arrived at the abbey in the early afternoon. After getting checked into the English Heritage visitor centr...