Kev's Radio Adventures

My son and I stopped at Tesco for Meal Deal lunch. We knew it'd be a busy day and we wanted lunch prepared for when our stomachs started to growl. At 9:30 UTC, we headed for Southwold Lighthouse. This was a special activation, however. At the pier car park, we would be within 1 km of the lighthouse, we'd be in the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB. Awesome! We'd get ELA (ENG-135), WWFF (GFF-0272), and POTA (G-0328). This weekend is the 10 year anniversary of WWFF so we knew it'd get wild. That's not all, though... this is also the Essex CW Club's Activity Week (25 contacts for the week is the goal). The exchange is just RST and Name for non-members so it should be pretty simple to get the required number during my activation. Some folks would give their name in return after I sent mine, and some would not. Here's hoping! When we arrived at the car park, I quickly deployed my 40m ham stick antenna, hooked up the FT-891 and was on the air operating CW in no time. ...

I was searching last night for a castle I could activate today. There are several within about a half hour from my home, however most of them I am unfamiliar with. It's always tough trying to go somewhere new. What antenna should I bring? Will there be any public land to set up or should I activate from the car? Is 5 watts going to be enough? Should I bring my 100 watt radio? Eventually, I found a spot that I could activate two references from and I had been to the area that would suffice for both. I knew what antenna to bring and I knew I wanted to try my "new" QRP radio I blogged about previously. So, I packed my bag ready for a dual activation. I had my KM4ACK end fed, SOTABEAMS telescoping pole, and my Icom ID-51. I was ready to go.  I parked at a public car park in Ely and walked just about a quarter of a mile to Cherry Hill Park. From this site, Ely Cherry Hill (G-02357) was on sight and Ely Old Bishop Palace (G-02358) was just over the old castle mound. Perfect!  W...

About a year ago, I found online a Yaesu FT-817 on eBay. It had no microphone, no charger/DC plug, most concerning was that the seller had no way to know if it worked. I put a bid in for probably around $150, though I forget exactly what I bid, and won. Great. I have a new radio; I hope it works. When it arrived, as advertised it did not have a charger/DC plug. I did discover, however, that it uses the same microphone as the FT-891 (which was my first HF radio that I still own). I searched and searched and somehow found a plug that would work for this radio. Low and behold: it powered up! I put in an order with SOTABEAMS for a Power Poles connector to replace the barrel plug. When this was hooked up, I was ready to go... sort of. I tested it out on 2m CW with a member of my local club who is also a prolific CWer with more experience and who has a much better ear for the code than I have. We were able to make a contact and it went well except for the fact that this radio, like almost ev...