New Antenna Up Today

I got a new antenna up in the air today. I picked up a G5RV Jr. and some feedline at the Orlando Hamfest last weekend and was able to devote some time to get it up in the air this afternoon. I currently have a full size G5RV up and it has performed well for the last year or so. I decided to put another antenna up in a slightly different orientation to see if I could get a different transmit pattern. My son Zane helped me get the antenna up in the trees. The Jr. is only 52 feet so we had plenty of room. I duct taped some line to my "magic softball" and was able to fling that sucker up higher than my current antenna. Well, it did take more than one fling. I would say it's up at about 45 feet in a flat top configuration. Got everything tied off and ran the feedline from the shack. I connected both antenna feedlines to a new switch that I got at the Hamfest last weekend so that I can switch from one to the other without disconneting anything. I backed the power down and check the SWR. Good to go. Guess what happened next? I checked the DX Cluster on 20 meters and saw a Japan station in the General Class portion of the band. Now, I have never heard Japan let alone talked to anyone there. But I thought, what the heck? I tuned to 14.288.50 and I heard the station! No way! Then I thought, there's no way I can reach Japan on a G5RV Jr at 100 watts from my backyard. But I sure did! I talked to Kentaro Suzuki (JO7CVU) in Sendai City, Japan. He gave me a 57 signal report. Wow!! Not too shabby huh?

Just Started a Technician Class Course

The Coastal Amateur Radio Society (CARS) started a new Technician level class on Feb 19. The class will run for four consecutive Thursday evenings and will be followed by a VE Test Session on Mar 14th. We had seven students and are expecting one or two more next week. Kevin Bell (WD0GFG) and I are teaching the class this time and giving Ken (W4JKG), a well deserved break! The first session went extremely well and the students all seemed to be interested and excited about the hobby. My son, Jackson, is in the class and he is really into it. He's been studying hard and looks forward to getting his license. Kevin knocked out FCC Rules, Station License Responsibilities, Control Operator Duties, Communications Modes and Methods, and Radio Waves and Propagation in the first session. Next week I'll tackle Radio and Electronic Fundamentals, and Antennas. We'll see how much I can remember from my Air Force basic electronics training 28 years ago!

Informal ARES Weather Net

We had some bad weather across Georgia on this past Wed evening. A statewide Georgia ARES Weather Net was activated on 3975 and I checked in to let Net Control know that we were standing by here in Chatham County. As it turns out we didn't get any significant action here in Savannah. But we did take the opportunity to pull together an informal ARES weather net for practice. We started off around 8:00pm or so and had operators check in from all over Chatham and surrounding counties. Operators reported thier name, callsign, location, and spotter number if available. We had around 25 checkins which was great for a "no notice" net. This also gave us the opportunity to leverage the newly operational Savannah Echolink node on the 146.700 repeater. We were able to monitor the Georgia Skywarn Echolink Node and even connected to it briefly to provide the information on the 146.700 repeater. We quickly tore this connection down as not to interfere with the emergency traffic. We will test this functionality again to be sure we are ready for the next event. As the EC for Chatham County, I want to thank all of the operators who took the time to participate. We can not practice too much. Remember.....When all else fails.......Amateur Radio!

Orlando HamFest (HamCation) 2009

Had an awesome time at the Orlando Hamfest this year! Dan Scott (KF4MND) and I drove down together. We met at the Cracker Barrel Friday morning for some grub at about 0700. Several other local HAMs met there as well. Once we had stuffed ourselves we proceeded to transfer all of Dan's gear over to my truck. Dan brought his "go kit" which includes a laptop running Echolink. After a few electrical issues which we creatively overcame (we were both trained by the military afterall) we had the rolling Echolink node up and running. We were transmitting on the radio side on 146.520 and had the Echolink node connected to the Internet via data link on Dan's cell phone. We were able to establish a link to the newly operational Savannah Echolink node W4SGA-R which is hosted at the QTH of Jerry, W4SGA. This node runs to the CARS W4LHS repeater on the RF side. We were able to communicate with other operators on the 146.700 repeater as we traveled down I-95 on our way to Orlando. We also took the opportunity to connect to the Brunswick repeater Echolink node as we passed through.

We arrived at the Hamfest around 1500 or so and kept the node up and running in the truck as we went into the Hamfest area. We both carried handhelds and talked back to the "go kit" in the truck on 147.555 which in turn allowed us to talk to the guys back in Savannah on the 146.700. It was awesome being able to tell the guys about the things we were seeing and doing throughout the day. We were also talking with some of the other guys at the Hamfest on thier "Bubba Net" on 446.625.

Well we stayed till after 1700 or so and headed to the hotel. Got checked in and grabbed some dinner at the local Japanese Steak House right there at the hotel. After getting settled in and checking in with our respective XYLs, we called it a night. Woke up at about 0700 on Saturday morning. This is "sleeping in" for Dan. Remember, he is active duty Army! Gorged ourselved at the breakfast buffet then headed back over to the Hamfest for more fun and to lighten our wallets a bit! Did the same drill with the Echolink Node and had a blast walking around in a Ham Operators paradise. We ran into Andy and Beth Ann, Steve and Sue, Lester, Bob, Bill, Ryan and his family and others. Dan picked up an Arrow antenna for working satellites, an audio mixer, and some accesories for his IC-91AD. I purchased several connectors, patch cables, a G5RV and some feedline, an MFJ Wattmeter, some RF Antenna switches, a scanner antenna for the mobile, an old D-104 microphone, and a Yaesu VX-2R which will be my son Jackson's radio when he get's his license in March. Wow, what a blast! After a great day that seemed to fly by, we hooked up with Bill, Bob, and Bob's friend Jeff from Ohio out in the camping area. They set up a portable QRP rig with a BuddiPole antenna and worked some 20 meters right out in the field. Awesome stuff. After that, Dan and I hit the road and headed back to Savannah. Stopped in Daytona and gassed up and grabbed some chow. Talked to the 146.700 in Savannah via the rolling Echolink node on the way back. We pulled back into the Cracker Barrel around 2200 and tranfered everything back to Dan's truck and parted ways. What a great opportunity it was to exercise the Savannah Echolink node from out of town. I had a great time playing radio with Dan and am looking forward to next year!