K3MRI

Wow Lind. Gorgeous location and perfect shot!!!!!! As in Perfect. This is Windows or Mac desktop image worthy 👍

@KW4TO and I have been discussing the horizontal V. It's a really interesting antenna. Thinking of building one and trying it out. Needs quite a bit of space but, in theory, if well set up could do very well. Here is an article by Andrew Roos ZS1AM from 2004. weekend_antennas_2.pdf

Welcome Eric. Glad to have you on board.

So, weird story. I wanted to go to Berryville. Night before, I had to do something that took longer than expected. I ended up working on it until 4AM (considering I'm usually in bed by 9PM, you can imagine the impact). So anyway, I wake up at 8, with four hours on the pillow, hop into the jeep and off I go. I get about half way when I decided I need a coffee and maybe a super quick nap, like one of those rest stop, put your head down for a moment kind of nap. By then it was about 10:30. My phone rings, it's my wife who's wondering why the heck my phone shows me stopped at a gas station for four hours!!!! Ooops. Wake up, flip the route, and head home. As for your shopping list, nice. I need a wattmeter, now that I think of it. Better look for it online before I fall asleep again 😵

I agree. There is no way that Apple is forecasting an impact on their supply chain and others, much smaller, would not. Heck, GM is delivering trucks with the understanding that they will have to retrofit some chips. I heard a rumor, though they won't admit it, that Elecraft's K4 is delayed for that same reason. Again, unconfirmed but a rather reliable source.

Welcome Ken. Glad to have you aboard.

Welcome to the Community Ron.

Hi Mark. First, welcome to our small (but growing) community. Second, good points you make about vhf/uhf. It’s true that my initial thinking was about HF where, unfortunately, there seems to be ‘anger creep’. And maybe worse than anger, there is also ‘entitlement creep’ whereby many old-timers, my age group, assume that they have an inherited right to certain frequencies or times of day. As for the LA VHF/UHF example. Interesting, I had not thought of that when creating the post, but it makes sense. I admit that in my region, our repeaters are always civil. Our worst problem is the lack of protocol, as in people cutting each other off or people rambling for well over the accepted three minute rule. I’ll get my first taste of big city repeaters soon though. I’ll be traveling to NYC… I’ll report back. Again, welcome.

By the way, both @KW4TO and @W4DOI have 7100's. They're actually quite expert at it. So if you have any questions about it, feel free to start a thread in the transceiver forum. Good choice. Nice all around radio.

David, I'll add my two cents worth. I've done a lot of operating in National and State parks and have found that there is no universal rule. You'd think there was, but there is not. So I have always operated with the 'most likely acceptable' approach. I'm like Glenn, I like mobile operating in a park. And if I do decide to operate on foot, which does happen, then I use the same approach as Glenn does on SOTA, super light, end fed, thin wire, QRP, cut to the band. This said, over the years I have also experimented with helium balloons, and even kites. They're fun, but lots of work and have their own down sides. As far as what antenna I use when mobile operating in a park. I have three go-to setups. Alpha Antennas FMJ mounted on my roof with a counterpoise for NVIS and a ground (when I have permission to put a ground stake (not 6-foot rod)). I usually ask first. My favorite setup is an 80m doublet (so basically 138 feet tip to tip), strung from the tip of a SotaBeams 23-foot pole, that I mount onto the car hitch with a metal contraption I built to support it. (Next time I set up, maybe this weekend) I'll take detailed photos. Then comes the clincher. Usually I set up two more 23-foot poles at either end and set it up as a flat top. The problem is that those poles get staked into the ground. Now, because I said I like going for the safer route, recently I've developed a new approach. I set the doublet up as an inverted-V and use sandbags to hold the tips in place. Recently, a ranger came up to me and congratulated me on my no damage approach because, as mentioned, the center mast is off the ground (on my hitch) and the sand bags (the standard small striped kind) are inoffensive. I have also developed a vertical approach on my 65-foot spider beam mast which also goes into my hitch. In this case, I use a 57-foot vertical wire and, if there is space, a full wave counterpoise that I roll out as needed based on the band. Again, photos needed. I'll try to oblige. Hope this was helpful. Jim

Hi Jamison. Yeah, the post surprises, but it's our way of engaging you. Speaking of engagement, don't be surprised if the community is a little calm. We are slowly growing our membership but the engagement is not quite there yet. This said, being the obstinate hams that we are, we have a couple of tricks up our sleeve to hopefully, someday soon, this place will be hopping. That said, those of us who do hang around here try to be as engaging and friendly as possible. Again, my warmest welcome.

Welcome Jamison. Great to have you on board.

Hi David. I'll give you my answer shortly, but first I want to try and poke the master of SOTA/POTA, etc @KW4TO. Hey Glenn, thoughts?

A really interesting, albeit sad, story regarding the sunsetting of EZNEC, which I use profusely. This is clearly an opportunity for someone to program a fresh antenna modeling software... https://qrznow.com/eznec-pro-antenna-modelling-software-will-be-free-from-2022/

For anyone who has half an hour to listen to it, enjoy! It's a really nice nostalgic ride. Thanks Bill. When I was a kid I used to listen to WOR on 710 kHz in NYC. As it turns out, so did my wife (Brooklyn girl).

Thoughtful, appropriate, inspirational.

Hi Lind, I went to their website but I could not find any amateur radio antennas. Maybe I’m looking in the wrong place? Btw, Eimac seems to have been bought out by this other company, here is the link that I found: https://www.cpii.com/products.cfm/15

Did it feel normal again? Did you have as many people? Did they feel safe?

Sorry for the delayed welcome Randy; great to have you aboard this young attempt at forging a new type of collaboration-oriented community.

This deserves some additional thinking... several aspects to it. In principle I really like it, though. I'll draft a set of thoughts/questions and maybe we can discuss and then put it to the Caboose people.

I've tried it both ways. Frankly, by the time you get to the end of the 24-hours you've exhausted the possible contacts. Also, most of the bigger groups, with bigger antenna setups have set up early because of the installation time needed for larger antenna arrays, and they're gone. The only real 'catches' left are the big gun home stations in Class D who, although being limited to 150 W, usually have insane antenna setups. The advantage here is that you can get them more easily because the pile ups are smaller. This said, I've never had more than a handful of QSOs then. My personal advice to people, take the time to build a good antenna array early and work your 24 hours solid. As to what I mean by a solid antenna array, I mean setting up for multiple bands and multiple directions (depending on where you're located in the country). So Lind, my long way of saying... better antenna work, op for 24 hours. But you knew all this already 😉