NA8SA & WA2LQO: check!

Thankfully, Tim found NA8SA and WA2LQO and I was able to make contact with both. I was really excited about those.

I've been watching the replay of the Apollo 11 mission on WeChooseTheMoon.org and it's pretty interesting. I wasn't around during that time, so it's been fun getting to see it, and relive it with my Daddy, who was very young at the time but remembers the mission well.

It's a great thing, celebrating this anniversary. The Apollo 11 mission paved the way for many more explorations.

Upcoming Hamfests

There are two upcoming hamfests in the East Tennessee/Western North Carolina area that I thought I'd list here if anyone were interested.

MCARC (McMinn County Amateur Radio Club) Hamfest
This is an Outdoor Ham Radio Trader's Fest
Location: Athens Regional Park - Athens, Tennessee
Date: Saturday, July 18th, 2009
Time: 7:00am - Noon
Talk in: 145.310 (-) 141.3 - monitored in normal and reverse, should be able to get a response you hit the I-75 Exit 49

Directions: Take Exit 49 off I-75, turn east towards Athens. Go approx 1 mile, park will be on your right. Follow the signs.

Limited under-roof spaces: $10 each - Tailgating $5 each (bring your own table) - 6:00am setup

Admission free to buyers!

Breakfast for sale from 6:30am to 10:00am - Go Here for Additional Information

Contact Info:
NA4IT - Scott Duckworth
(423) 263-1989 or email at kg4fzr (at) yahoo (dot) com

Western Carolina Hamfest (aka Waynesville Hamfest)
Location: Haywood County Fairgrounds - Waynesville, NC
Date: Saturday, July 25th, 2009
Time: 8:00am - 4:00pm
Talk in: 146.91 (91.5 PL) and 147.39 (94.8 PL)

Directions: I-40 to Exit 24, NC 209 Lake Junaluska. Go South approx 2.5 miles to Hamfest on Left. Follow signs.
OR
From 19-23/74 on NC 209, go North approx 1/2 mile to Hamfest on right. Follow signs.

Tickets: At the Gate $6.00/person - in advance $5.00/person

Vendor space in building - $10.00 per 8 foot table, Tailgating free with paid admission
Covered "Flea Market" spaces - $5.00 for 8 x 8 space

VE Exams given on walk-in basis at the Clyde Fire Department at 2:00pm

Contact Info:
KN4ST - Elwood Miles
(c) (828) 216-0690 or (h) (828) 253-4490 or elwood3 (at) charter (dot) net
http://www.wcars.org


Hope you all have a great time. If you go to either one, send me a comment telling me all about it!

The End... W4H

Between web design work, running a business, and getting my lesson plans ready for this school year (I homeschool our daughter), I was finally able to sit down and work some W4H.

I worked PSK31 on 14.070 this evening and made quit a few contacts on the last day of the special event.

It was great fun, and I want to thank all of those who contacted me, and all the other 470 ARG members that worked W4H this time around. Great job to all of you!

For a QSL card, see the sticky above. I'll also confirm via LoTW and eQSL for W4H.

Thanks to all for making this Special Event a success!

PODXS 070 40m Firecracker Sprint

Yup, I worked it. Had loads of fun, too. I did stop for about an hour or so to let the little one check out some neighborhood fireworks, but I ended up with 80 contacts and 33 multipliers for a point total of 2640 points. So, not too shabby I don't think.

I worked in the Low Power category, if anyone is wondering, at 50 watts or less.

Also, if you're looking for my confirmation on LoTW or eQSL.cc - I'm having a little trouble with the upload, but should have it soon. For all the ones that have confirmed me so far, thanks a bunch.

And for the character that kept throwing dead call signs at me last night, I'm smarter than you, and didn't add all that **** in the log. So, have your fun, but don't insult my intelligence.

Thanks to everyone who made this sprint a success for me! I truly enjoyed every minute.

New: Twitter

Please take a moment to divert your eyes to the right of your screen.

See that cute little blue bird with that cup o' hot latte?!

That, my friends, is the link to the brand new AJ4IJ twitter page.

Find out what I'm doing, when I'm doing it, and what frequency I'm on, by clicking on that link.

Thanks to all of you avid readers, and thanks for looking.

I adore all of you!

W4H Special Event

Hey Everyone!

Don't forget to be on the lookout for the 470 Amateur Radio Group's Fourth of July QSO Party Special Event.

Listen for W4H from July 1st until July 10th from 1700z to 0300z.

Frequencies, thereabout, will be 14.260, 7.260, 28.400, 3.960 mhz +/- 20 khz.

If you contact W4H, please QSL to the operator you contacted.

Happy Fourth of July!

Field Day 2009

I know I should have posted this earlier in the week, but it's been crazy playing catch up around here.

Field day was a success, despite the Jeep needing a new water pump and some hoses. We got her patched up enough to run us up in the field, but she's still not feeling well. Now her timing's off, and she's failing to idle correctly. *sad face* Poor little Jeep. She still needs quite a bit of work.

There was also a lot that went wrong once we got up there. We discovered first thing that someone had stolen one of our antenna ropes that we use to lift the wire in the air. We made due though, because we're hams, with a length of camo rope and a sports drink bottle, and subsequently produced quite a few laughs and "HEAD'S UP!"s.

Once that was up, we ate our quick and fancy field day supper. Yum.

After eating, we got to work on getting the radio set up and everything in order. That went pretty smooth, although we did have issues with using the Traveler headset in conjunction with an external speaker on the FT450 we had brought with us. So, we ended up just using the hand mic and having an extra person to log the contacts. That also worked more smoothly this year, but I give props to the table for that. We took a larger table this year - 6 feet in fact - and although it was heavy, awkward to load, and potentially hazardous to the health of the Jeep window while bouncing up the ridge-side, it was efficient and gave us tons of elbow room.


Matter of fact, the table wasn't the only thing new we took. This year, having learned from the past, we took two fans (totally sweet in the 90 degree heat), the new FT450 (smaller, functional, done a great job, but I missed the fish finder on our radio), the little netbook, an Air Card that allowed us to have Internet connection, a lamp that DIDN'T run on batteries (last year, our lamp died halfway through, this year we collected beetles with our 100w bulb), and the shortwave radio -- which we found good use for later in the evening.


Clover seemed to enjoy herself as well. She loves the field. We took her frisbee this time, and she played until late in the evening. This picture was taken right before she crashed out on us. haha


And I have to add that the bugs were horrendous this year. Worse than last year. I'm making a note now to take some of those bulbs that don't attract bugs for next year.


Tim worked so many Field Day stations that I can't remember how many. I had searched, and piled, and pulled all the stuff out at home. Had stuffed, piled, tucked, and shoved everything in the Jeep. Had pulled, tugged, and dropped everything out on arrival. Then set up while Tim was going back down for the rest of the family. So, to be quite honest, I was so exhausted once I was there, I only made 6 contacts and one was a dupe. I had fun regardless.


Later in the evening, Tim called in to WMRI to tell them about our Field Day. Shortly after midnight they called back and put him on the air.


After that, Ashby wanted to play radio. She did a great job, making quite a few contacts for herself.


And I guess it was shortly after 1 o'clock am that the generator finally started begging for more gas. At that point, we all decided it was time to pack up. So we did, minus the antenna, which we went after on Sunday.

In all, even though we had plenty of set backs, Field Day was fun. But now I'm exhausted again just thinking about it.

73!