Hamfest

W3RRR Ham Fest

I passed the test for Amateur Extra: 40/50 correct. I needed 37 correct.

US-4567, Captain John Smith Trail

• POTA with Matthew, KC3WRY, at the boat launch under train tracks south of Marietta.
• FT8 on 20M
• 1 CW P2P contact on 20M. I didn’t fumble so much.
• I used the newly-printed and rebuilt EFHW winder and throw line. The velcro strap remains a problem for snagging the line.

Firecracker Hamfest

Matt and I wandered around and talked to some people. I only bought a few small things:

• tiny efhw kit.
• nice 65W PD 20Ah power brick.
• broken kenwood HT, won’t power on, but charges. (took a chance, but no plan.)

US-4356, Boyd Big Tree Preserve

• EFHW from pavilion, across side trail entrance, into a tree.
• Rough time with SSB to start. I couldn’t be heard. I’d stalk these multi-operator activators for 10 minutes, prepare my logs, and then not be able to contact them.
• Operated all FT8 on 40m.
• One SSB P2P at the end.
• It was very hot.

While operating, I got an email from a contact, so I sent a photo and explained my setup with WSJT-X and the x6100.

York Hamfest

I ran to York for the Hamfest and I saw a handful of new friends from SPARC and 985. I only bought some BNC adapters, a speaker that’s OK but not great, and a wireless keyboard/touchpad for my Raspberry PI projects.

POTA

While I was out, I figured I may as well play a little radio and activate 2 parks.

Codorus, US-1342

I ran the 12.5m EFRW stretched from high in a tree to a picnic table. I started at the picnic table, but moved into the car when it started to rain. To reach the car, I stretched my coax a bit and camped that to the table, and I ended up with no signal. The feed cable (RG174 with SMA connectors) had pulled loose from the SMA connector, so I had to debug that and push them back together. I operated 17m mostly, FT8, and contacts came a bit slow.

Sam Lewis, US-1418

This time I stung up the 21.56m EFRW, 2-3m off ground on ends, stretched between trees, and a fishing pole mast supporting the middle peak. 17m was still a bit slow, but 40m was hopping for FT8. I had a steady stream of contacts.

Before packing up, I spun the dial and found a park-to-park SSB on 40m: 2 operators on one radio at the intersection of 4 parks in Canada, so that counted for 8 hunter points.

I bought a few things:

• a handful of connectors for audio and antennas
• a project j-pole made of 450 ladder line

I went to the Hamfest in New Holland and tested for my Ham license. I had studied for Technician, and that went really well, so I tried the test for General. I passed that by only 1 or 2 correct answers, so I’m a General!

Time to order some gear.