QRP in the Driftless
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Battery testing, part 2
Following up on my previous post, here is some more data: I finally got one data set without interruptions or loss of data; 49 hours of continuous receive by the (tr)uSDX, from an initial 12.36 volts to shutdown at 9.40 volts. The Watt’s Up meter indicated 2.968 amp-hours, 31.2 watt-hours. Now here we have a…
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Sandwich Hamfest, 2026 edition
This year I took a different approach to the 200+ mile drive; after loading a heap of stuff in the minivan on Friday, I left on Saturday around noon and drove to DeKalb IL (a nice little college town), where I had an excellent dinner and spent the night in a hotel. Sunday morning I…
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Back to Mecan River and the IAT !
Operating at Buckhorn last week felt so good, so right, that I was ready for more, and on Sunday I had most of the day free. The radio bag was in the car, I got lots of coffee at Kwik-Trip, and I was off to the spot that I activated back in January. It was…
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A spring afternoon at Buckhorn SWA (US-12077)
Once all the tax paperwork was signed, copied, and in the mail, I could turn to something more pleasant: getting out to play radio! Between weather, household tasks, and the general chaos of life, it has been months since the last time I got out to do some POTA; when I look at my logbook…
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Battery testing, part 1
This is a follow – up to my post in late February, “A battery project”. I was curious about the actual amp-hour capacity of the battery, compared to the nominal capacity printed on the label, and generally interested to learn a bit more about a key element of portable radio operating. The setup: The equipment:…
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I had an idea yesterday
(it does happen from time to time) while soldering a 5.5 x 2.1 barrel connector onto a piece of 20 AWG silicone zipcord. Easier to show a picture than describe it in words: I have a powerpole Y-connector around somewhere, and I was thinking about making another one, when it occurred to me to just…
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Finishing touches to the minimalist EFRW
Last weekend, when I put this little EFRW together, I searched the radio room for the assorted heatshrink tubing collection and came up with nothing. I’m sure it will turn up one of these days … Twelve dollars and three days later, I had a new box of clear, glue-lined tubing, and I was ready…
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A minimalist EFRW antenna for the KH1
I no longer recall the chain of URLs that led me there, but I read this article by Thomas Witherspoon over at qrper.com maybe ten days ago, and that was what got me started on this project. The crucial part of the article that caught my eye (and imagination) was this: “My friend Adam (K6ARK)…
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A battery project
Sometime early last year I bought a pack of 4 lithium ion cells for no better reason than that they were crazy cheap, and seemed (to my (apparently) befogged consciousness) like they might be useful for portable radio. Then, to get some use out of them, I needed to get a battery management system board…
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Antenna notes
So it has been about a week (or more?) since I dried out all the Buddipole components (I hope, lol), which is to say about a week that the testing and inspection has been … pending. I started this morning by identifying the 3 calibration plugs for the NanoVNA (this turned out to be easy…
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Nano VNA
Caught a real bargain on Amazon, a NanoVNA-H for about $40 after the $10-off coupon, even including the state sales tax. I’ve been thinking about acquiring one for quite a while … now I’m very happy that I didn’t buy the much older (and much more expensive!) one that I saw at a hamfest last…
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Wildcat Mountain, again
I was feeling kind of “on a roll” this morning, after two successful activations. When I set out today, I had a couple of options; do some POTA, or run errands. Even as I left home I was not certain which way to go, but I brought the radio bag just in case. It was…
A backwater of the Mississippi River in the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife Refuge on a gloomy, chilly day in early November, viewed from the Lower Diversion Dike Trail.
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