KM1NDY
A Secret Little Adventure Ham Radio Blog
We did it! Three Summits-On-The-Air activations in a single day! Now, don’t get me wrong. We did not pick Everest, K2, and Denali as our destination peaks. In total, we hiked about 6.5 miles, with the hills all within a half hour drive from one another. But our February 13, 2021 RaDAR (Rapid Deployment Amateur …
A snowy hike in mild temperatures toward the end of winter while playing radio? Does it get any more New England than this? Watch WX1MAR and I on our Summits-On-The-Air journey on this classic loop hike of Mt. Watatic W1/CR-009 in Ashburnham MA on February 28, 2021.
Dear [Fill-in-the-Blank]-On-The-Air Chasers and Hunters: I want to let you know how much you mean to me, so I thought I would write you a letter. The world sure has gone to Hades in a handcart lately, huh? I’ve been told that almost everyone is hiding inside watching the modern variant of the television and …
Thank you POTA hunters for finding us at the Happy Hams Valentine’s Day Special Event Station on February 14, 2021. The QSL valentines are all set to go! I am looking forward to the next time we meet up on the air!
The following is a list of materials required to make a 49:1 unun impedance transformer for an end-fed half wave antenna. You will also need a half-wavelength length of wire (14 or 12 gauge typically) in order to construct an antenna radiator for whichever ham band you choose. Please note that I will not be …
Oddly, WX1MAR and I celebrated Valentine’s Day this year. Odd because, well, in 27 years we have almost never celebrated Valentine’s Day… But! We had a great excuse! I had secured callsign K1S (get it?) for the “Happy Hams Valentine’s Day” special event station. And since February 14th was a Sunday this year, it meant …
WX1MAR and I will be getting on the air tomorrow for Valentine’s Day. We hope all of you ham radio operators track us down. Because, it means you will get a valentine as a qsl! 73s and 88s!
Antenna modeling for the amateur radio hobbyist has always struck me as uniquely esoteric. I mean sure, hams build plenty of antennas, but we have all seen the predicted idealized radiation blobs, donuts, and figure-eights associated with the usual dipoles and end-feds. We know that for typical HF wire antennas, the closer to the ground, …
The first summit of the 2021 is actually an old friend — Peaked Mountain in Monson, Massachusetts. Well-traveled, the short 1 mile summit trail consisted of a few inches of hard-packed snow, making microspikes the choice footwear accessory. Especially given that temperatures creeped above freezing most of the day, assuring a slick refreeze for our …