Light the Path

At our last club meeting, several members gave back-to-back presentations on POTA/SOTA/field operations. All the talks were good, and even old dogs can learn new tricks... 😀

There were a few fairly new-ish hams in the audience, and after the presentation I heard one of them comment, "Goodness, there's just so much to learn. I don't know where to start". This fellow hit on one of our major problems in ham radio. There's too much to do, and too little direction.

Think back to the early days of Amateur Radio in the US. Let's use 1947 as a starting point. WWII was over and many servicemen were starting their civilian lives with a interest in radio and electronics. The things the military taught them had 'clicked', and radio electronics was a growing field. Amateur Radio licensing saw a surge like it had never seen before. Guys who a few years before had manned CW keys on ships in the middle of oceans, or from foxholes in Europe or the Pacific, wanted to keep doing it from the comfort of home, for fun. 

In the mid-20th century, the Amateur Radio learning and progression process was pretty well laid out, and every ham had to follow it. You started out with a teacher and guide - an 'elmer' - who taught you CW, radio theory and practical operations on the VHF & HF bands. You took a test, got a Novice license from the FCC (which was only valid for one year). Under the guidance of your elmer, you concentrated on code speed, more advanced radio theory, improved your operating practices, maybe built a kit or two under his tutelage. You were learning and practicing the fundamentals with the training wheels on. Before that  year was up, you toddled down to the local FCC field office and sat for the General class written and CW exams. If you passed, your training wheels came off and you could begin operating with the big boys. What's important in this paradigm is that the training wheels didn't come off until the new ham was rock-solid in the fundamentals of radio theory, design and operations, and that someone was by his or her side for the the entire journey.

Today the licensing process is much different. You buy a book or look on-line, study the answers to the questions (let's be honest, we've all done that), take a fairly easy exam, get a license and buy a toy. Some just sit and stare at the toy (an HT), and wonder what's next. Others have been watching and listening, and soon understand that there's an unbelievable range of things you can do in ham radio, but to a new ham the choices can be overwhelming. This highlights one of the fundamental problems in Amateur Radio today - elmer is dead. The concept of an experienced counselor who will guide a new Technican through the process of becoming an experience Amateur Radio operator is... well, it's like the weather - everyone talks about it, but nobody does anything about it.

(And no, the internet is not an Elmer, and AI won't help you get over mic fright or talk you through the  RF issues in your setup.)

The broad expanse of things new hams can do in the hobby is fascinating, and intimidating. This often drives people away, or causes confusion and a lack of focus on the fundamentals.

I was a victim of this myself. In 2003, when I got my General ticket, I was going to rule the Amateur Radio world - CW, SSB, VHF voice & packet, RTTY, PSK, APRS, satellite comms, fixed base and mobile HF operations. I tried to eat the elephant in one bite. For a few years I struggled. I did most things merely OK, nothing particularly well. I burned time, effort and money until I decided what I really like is long-haul HF operations and EMCOMM. My journey was not a waste, not at all. But it could have been a straighter path if someone had just whispered in my ear "focus boy, focus".

Too many choices and nobody to light the path. The breadth of ham radio activities can be what 'saves' amateur radio, but unless we get the concept of one-on-one guidance baked back into the system, we'll continue to see disappointingly high attrition rates among newly licensed Amateurs.

Have you ever guided anyone through their ham radio journey? Has anyone asked you to be their guide? Think about 'elmering' as the equivalent of a church ministry. It's what you do to support, give back and help the 'church' grow (and no, I'm not equating ham radio to a religion, it's just a metaphor). So, help spread the gospel to a congregation of one - be an elmer.

W8BYH out

More Battery Chemistry Talk

In ham radio, we pay a lot of attention these days to lithium iron phosphate - known as LiFePo or LiFePo2 - batteries. They are all the rage, and they really are good - great performance, lightweight (compared to lead acid batteries), lots of neat features like Bluetooth integration for battery monitoring, and thanks to the Chinese, remarkably low cost for the larger capacity units.

Before moving on from this brief LiFePo battery discussion, I have to pause to sing the praises of a little company out of California called Bioenno. My observation is that Bioenno, with their very high quality, small capacity batteries (3 Ah up to 20 Ah 12 volt units) is almost singularly responsible for introducing the benefits of the LiFePo battery to the American ham radio community. Bioenno also bends over backwards to support the ham radio community not just with excellent products, but with excellent customer support and expert advice. Whatever success the Chinese LiFePo battery manufacturers have today in the American ham radio market (and it's a lot), they owe credit to Bioenno and its early efforts with ham radio. Now, on to today's real topic.

On this blog I've discussed a lot of battery chemistry types. LiFePo, but also regular lithium ion (ya' know, the ones that catch fire, explode, and can't be extinguished), regular lithium, lead acid (for over 100 years, the ham radio power standard), NiCad (as late as 4 years ago, Yaesu was still selling new production radios with NiCad battery packs), and good, old, leaky alkaline. But one battery chemistry flew under my radar until fairly recently, and now I'm giving it a serious look: nickel-metal hydride, or NiMH.

Actually, I've known about NiMH batteries for a long time, but not by their chemical name. Instead, I've known them by a major commercial brand name - Panasonic's Eneloop brand. While NiMH batteries don't have the capacity or run time of lithium or even alkaline batteries, they come close, plus they are rechargeable and don't leak or burst into flames.

I got re-introduced to NiMH when I purchased my Elecraft KX3. The KX3 comes with an internal battery tray and charger that can take AA size NiMH batteries. It's an awkward charging setup, and it's slow, but it works and it allows you to power the rig at low output levels without an external battery. Plus, there's little danger of leaking cells damaging the radio if they are stored in the radio.

My foray into the world of NiMH batteries has revealed an odd little sub-culture of battery geeks who love testing different chemistries in different devices. It seems that there's a lot of respect out there for the NiMH chemistry, and a lot of respect for the Eneloop brand. So much so that on many forums the terms NiMH and Eneloop are interchangeable. Within the limiting physical envelopes of the AAA, AA, C & D-cell form factors, it seems NiMH offers the best power delivery chemistry that is rechargeable, doesn't leak, and is non-hazardous. 

The undisputed champ of AA-sized power cells are the lithium batteries made by companies like Energizer (Energizer Ultimate Lithium). These things are not just good, they are very good. I've had some installed in my wi-fi enabled smoke detectors that have lasted years, and still put out plenty of voltage. But they are pricey - about $1.75 per cell if bought in bulk through Amazon. If you grab a supermarket 4-pack, expect to pay almost three bucks per cell. And, they are not rechargeable. This makes them uneconomical to use in a high drain device like a transceiver. 

Alkaline batteries still rule when it comes to a 'penny per watt' calculation. I go through a lot of them, and buy them in bulk from Amazon (the Amazon Basics brand). They are a great power source for high drain devices like an HT - good power output for their size, and reasonable run time. Very economical. But the damned things leak. I'll only use alkaline batteries in cheap electronics, or use them in important electronics like HTs for specific events (camping trips, local ham radio event support, etc.), then toss 'em. I throw away a lot of alkaline AA batteries each year, and I feel better for it.

NiMH batteries are not inexpensive, but the are rechargeable and safe, so the total
cost of ownership is actually on-par with alkaline cells

Back to NiMH batteries. Panasonic isn't the only manufacturer. As you can imagine, a lot of companies make them. Some are quite good (like Tenergy), and some 'off' brands that have interesting back-stories. The most famous one is the rumor that the Ikea LADDA brand of rechargeable batteries are actually re-branded Eneloops. But most of the NiMH batteries sold through on-line retailers like Amazon are, in my experience, poorly made garbage. I just stick with Eneloops, and buy them on special.

Right now NiMH batteries power my KX3, I'm testing them in an HT, and I have them installed in two of my larger table-top receivers that I want to have ready to go at all times without worrying about leaking alkaline cells. These table-top radios use D-cells, and I'm running a NiMH battery brand called EBL in them.

Here's my current battery management philosophy. Critical low use devices that I want to have always ready to go without worrying about batteries get NiMH cells installed in them. I don't really expect the NiMH cells to power these devices for very long - a few hours perhaps. But when they do die, I have alkaline cells ready to replace them for the remaining emergency period (power outage bad weather, etc.). When the emergency is past, the alkaline cells get tossed, and recharged NiMH batteries get put back in. This way I know the radios, flashlights, lanterns, etc. are ready to go, but don't have to worry about alkaline batteries leaking and ruining the devices. I've had to throw away far too many expensive electronic devices due to leaky alkaline batteries. I use them, but I no longer trust them.

W8BYH out

Red Light District

Why don't more Amateur radio manufacturers put back-lit buttons on their rigs designed for outdoor or mobile use?  Most QRP radios I'm familiar with (IC-705, FT-818, KX2 & 3) and the IC-7200 and 7300, which I've adopted for field use, don't have back-lit buttons. Yaesu, which used to be very good at putting out rigs with back-lit buttons (FT-450D, FT-991A, FT-891, etc.) flubbed it with their recent FT-710, and I can't get any clear answers on the FTX-1, so I suspect the answer is no.

Why are back-lit buttons important? I like to operate under low-light conditions, particularly when camping. At night, with no other illumination, the buttons on the IC-705 are tough to see. And while you can control a lot of rig functions from the touch screen interface, you can't control everything from there. For some functions you still need to poke a physical button. The problem is even more acute with radios like the KX2 or KX3, and the 7200. The 7200 is the worst - in low light conditions the front panel is nothing more than a featureless black sheet. 

A method to illuminate the control buttons and switches of field radios used to be a common feature. In the old days it was usually something like miniature 'grain-of -wheat' bulbs placed around the control panel back-plane and threw light at semi-transparent buttons. In even older systems it was small screw-in flashlight bulbs in hooded sockets directly on the front panel. Not elegant by today's standards, but it worked quite well. Today, low output LEDs can be integrated directly into the control buttons, and the brightness controlled via the radio's firmware - an elegant low power solution that no HF rig manufacturers seem interested in implementing in modern radios.

The awkward solution is the simple flashlight, but for night operations, a flashlight will just blind you. There are some head lamps that offer red light options, and those work well but I dislike wearing a headlamp for any length of time.

One neat solution I've found are small goose-neck LED lamps designed for use as book lights, or on music stands. If you go to an orchestral concert, you'll usually see these clipped to the music stands, so the musicians can see the sheet music. In the old days, musicians used candles clipped to their stands, which is why concert halls burned down a lot. Today it's small LED lights. I guess these days the fires are mostly insurance related 😄.

Here's a picture of a red LED goose-neck lamp clipped to the side of my IC-705. Simple, effective and cheap (about $13 on Amazon, as I write this).

Why red light? Haven't you watched any WWII submarine movies lately? Everyone wore red tinted goggles before they went topside at night to watch for Japanese ships. A red light source (or filter) has far less impact on night vision than white light. Red light won't cause your pupils to constrict as much as white light, so red light will help preserve your night vision. The US military has known this for a long time, which is why all military flashlights come with a red light option. 

The classic old (and now obsolete) Army angle head
flashlights always came with a red lens stored in the base. 
Use of the red lens was mandatory in tactical situations

LED technology has made red light almost a design afterthought. Most headlamps and LED lanterns I've seen have a red light option. These work well, but I much prefer the goose-neck lamp option, because it allows me to put the light right were I need it on the front panel of the radio, and keep it there. 

Most LED head lamps and lanterns have a red light option. I'll use a lantern
for general illumination purposes on my field operating table. However, for lighting
up the radio panel I'll use a directed light source like the goose neck LED lamp

The lamps I buy on Amazon are sold as book lights, and they work great. They are rechargeable, and the base has a strong clip that really fixes the lamp in place. Or, the base can serve as a stand. Very effective and, as I mentioned above, very inexpensive.

Hooga red book light

Until Icom & Yaesu get their heads out of their 4th points of contact (an old paratrooper saying - look it up) on this back-light issue, we're stuck with having to front-light our radio panels when operating in low light conditions. I'd love to toss the Icom and Yaesu design engineers into a dark room with one of their recent offerings, and tell them to operate it effectively with no extra light. Maybe then they'll understand the problem. Until then, keep buying those red lights!

 W8BYH out

Ticking Along Two

Fate and luck can play some funny tricks. A few weeks ago I put up a post titled Ticking Along where I highlighted some small communication center clocks that only rarely pop up on eBay. How rare? A few years between sightings, at least. Or so I thought.

Within a day of putting up my post, I was surprised to get a hit on one of my eBay searches for a Franklin comms center clock. It was used, but the seller stated that it ran. The price was good (he accepted a low-ish offer), and it was mine. It arrived a few days ago and is in pretty good shape. If there hadn't been any scratches on the plastic crystal, I would have thought it was brand new. 

The clock runs fine, as good as its two siblings (it uses a Kienzle movement from Germany, like the other Franklin clock), and some plastic polish took care of most of the scratches and haze on the crystal. I'm tickled pink to have three good examples of these clocks. I think I can stop searching now... but I won't 😄.

The new clock is in the center. In front is a 42mm Seiko solar quartz wristwatch movement
that also does duty as a station clock. The Seiko is, hands down, one of the most consistently
accurate movements I own - +/- 1 second per month.

My communications center clock obsession started years ago, and I wrote about in a 2022 post titled Message Center Clocks. The US message center clocks I highlight in that post are actually fairly common, and several can be found on eBay on any given day. Since the Army was buying these right up into the 1970's, they are not particularly rare. But they are large - 6" & 8" dial faces - and as they use mechanical movements, they need regular service and adjustment.

At the opposite end are the brilliantly designed and executed German WWII-era communication center clocks. I'd argue that these smaller clocks were better suited to a mobile communications setup - they were easy to pack away, could stand by themselves or be hung on a wall, and the clock movements didn't require a key - there was a large winding wheel on the back of the movement. Interestingly, a lot of the movements for these clocks were manufactured by Keinzle, the same company that made the quartz movements in my clocks.

This design was so successful that it stayed on production well beyond WWII, and the newly constituted West German army & air force started buying them again in the 1950s.

If some enterprising manufacturer started making copies of this clock, but with a quartz movement, I'd be first in-line yelling, "Take my money!"

W8BYH out

POS

I've owned several of the Midland-produced weather radios with SAME functionality - the ones where you can program in your county code, and you'll receive over-the-air alerts specific to your area. None of these radios worked particularly well. I'm not saying they didn't work, I'm saying they didn't receive very well. I live in an area that sits between two NWS weather radio broadcast towers. Neither of the two stations comes in very strong to my location. This is as much a factor of my physical location (on the side of a hill), and the two broadcast stations in relation to my location. Still, I can normally receive one or both of the signals reasonably well with a general coverage receiver with a built-in antenna.  

As general weather radio broadcast receivers, these Midland radios are poor performers. Considering their purpose in life - to receive NWS signals and trigger alerts - they just don't do their job very well. Several folks I've brought this issue up to say, "Brian, just fiddle with it a bit. Move it to a new location, hook up a better antenna, get a new power supply..." To all that I say, bullshit. Here's why - a weather alert radio is a piece of life-safety equipment, like a fire extinguisher or a defibrillator. You expect it to work right out of the box, no fiddling or tweaking necessary. 

I know radios, and I'm willing to experiment a bit to get these Midlands working as they should, but even I've had little success. Plus, think of Midland's target market for these radios - the average consumer who lives in tornado alley. They want a radio they can trust to wake them in the dead of night and tell them to get to shelter. They want to put it on a table, plug it in, pull up the antenna, power it on, and feel safe. In my experience, unless you live right next to an NWS broadcast tower, you are likely not going to get what you expect out of these radios - they are at best middling receivers. 

The Midland's a piece of s**t, a lousy receiver. And it's not just this particular radio.
I've found the whole range of Midland receivers to be underwhelming.
The Sangean weather radio is a far better receiver. What's the difference between the two?
The Sangean will receive weather channels 5 & 7 with no problem. The signal is a bit
scratchy, but otherwise clear and strong. The Midland, in the same location (upstairs bathroom),
is deaf to any NWS frequency

Save up your money. Buy something better.

W8BYH out

Ticking Along

We're back to clocks, and time. While I've slowed down (just a wee bit) on accumulating clocks and watches and assorted timing devices. my fascination with time is still strong. The past week I had two clock-related issues converge, and I thought I'd show you what's going on.

First, batteries. Huh? What do batteries have to do with a clock? Everything. All time keeping devices need power. Whether it's a hand-wound mainspring in a ridiculously overpriced Rolex, or the solar charged batteries that power the atomic clocks on a GPS satellites, they all need some form of power. For most quartz watches, the small button batteries they use provide a lot of power density and can run your wristwatch for years. For larger wall or mantle clocks, it's usually the plain old 1.5 volt AA battery. The AA battery has the capacity to power a modern quartz movement for over a year. That's where my problem started. I've got larger (8") desk and mantle clocks scattered around the areas of my house that I spend a lot of time in - my ham radio shack, my computer room, etc. Since my XYL doesn't share my affinity for timepieces, especially ones that look like they were just ripped off the bulkhead of a WWII battleship, I keep them out of the common spaces of our house. 

I have two Chelsea quartz clocks sitting almost side-by-side down in my computer room. One is intended to go into my shack, but I'm doing some re-configuring down there, so I placed it next to it's brother. They have different faces, but the movements in both are the same - a pretty good US-made quartz movement that Chelsea has used for years.

With these two clocks side-by side, I can take both in with a single glance. Yesterday I noted one was running 5 minutes slow. Hmmm... must be time for a battery change. I popped the clock open, looked at the movement, and let out a stream of words my grandkids should never hear. The alkaline AA was leaking. Not a lot, but enough to cause some minor corrosion on the contacts. I'm surprised it was still providing enough voltage to keep the clock running; I must have caught it early in its failure cycle. Alkaline batteries have been on the market for over 60 years. Why the hell can't the manufacturers figure out how to make them so they don't leak?

Two Chelsea 6"Patriot clocks. Same quartz movements, different faces.
These are intended to 'hearken back' to the mechanical clocks Chelsea made by the
thousands during WWII for the Army & Navy.
The clock on the left suffered the leaky battery, but both are running on lithium cells now.
So far they are staying in pretty good sync (focus on the minute hand, not the second hand).
Yeah, I know, I need to dust...

Many of the clocks I own are not expensive, but were hard to find. This includes several 24 hour wall clocks made for the US military, and small 3" or 4" diameter military  communication center clocks. The latter show up very rarely on auction sites like eBay. In fact, it's far easier to find a good condition WWII era mechanical communications center clock or Navy deck clock made by Chelsea or Seth Thomas, than it is to find these small communications center clocks with quartz movements. So, it's worth the effort it to take care of them. These make pretty neat ham shack clocks. They are true Army surplus, and were designed during the Cold War for use in mobile communications vans, bolted to a bulkhead. Plus, with clock faces between 3 1/2" & 4", they are an ideal size to sit on a desk next to a radio.

The Franklin clock (right) is all plastic with a simple friction fit housing.
The Timecrafters (left) is a very sturdy and complex aluminum housing and mount.
Franklin is still in business, but Timecrafters is long gone, and there's no info
about the company on the web. I suspect it was connected in some way to Timex

It's interesting that these two clocks carry the same National Stock Number  (NSN), but their cases are completely different designs. The Franklin is all plastic, with a simple friction fit mount. The Timecrafters is a delightfully Rube Goldberg-ish contraptions that includes a machined twist-fit mount with a spring loaded keeper, and a small aluminum billet that holds the AA battery in-place when the clock is bouncing around in the back of a comms van. It also has instructions on the mount that aren't just stickers, they are curved, stamped aluminum pieces with what looks to be silk-screened text. Well designed, well executed, and probably overkill for the intended purpose, but who cares. I love it! Both clocks utilize German made movements, and both keep excellent time. I've run the Franklin for almost a year, and it keeps time to within 2 seconds per month. 

The Timecrafter's off its base. Note the details on the base, including the brass spring loaded detent
for locking the clock to the base, and the aluminum billet that holds the AA battery in place. 
Unnecessarily but delightfully over-built!

The Timecrafters movement. This is the only quartz clock movement I've seen that incorporates
a 'hack' feature - the Stop - Start switch. I wish other quartz movement manufacturers
incorporated this in their movements

What about the wooden stands these two clocks are mounted to? They are just appropriately sized bookends I got off of Amazon. They look good and work well as clock stands. 

I'll wrap this up by answering the question many of you may have - do they glow? Why yes, they do! Each of these clocks have hands and numerals that have been painted with lume. I'm assuming it's not radioactive, since these fade out fairly quickly after being exposed to light. But the fact that 40 year old clocks can still glow is neat.

What's next? Well, I'd like to find at least one spare, either a Franklin or Timecrafters. Each of these are the only ones I've ever seen come up for auction on eBay, so I'll continue to haunt the auction sites and on-line dealers to see if I can score at least one more. If anyone out there knows where I can find one of these, or a similar design, I'd love to hear from you!

W8BYH out

This 'n That

It's been somewhat quiet on the home front, radio-wise. I've been distracted by things that take my attention away from the microphone - website development for our church, visiting relatives, dealing with computer issues, and wrapping things up at work as I get ready for retirement (yeah!). But, there have been a few interesting tidbits to talk about.

First, computers. If you read any of my blog posts you'll soon realize that I've got a strong interest in computers. I'm not a gamer, and I don't write code. I just find computers, and their applications in the real world, somewhat fascinating. My involvement with computers goes back to the time of the introduction of the earliest 8-bit processor units, and I've been working with, or on, computers since the early 1980s. What fascinates me today is the application of form factor to function. I really like things such as lightweight tablets, ruggedized field systems, and special purpose devices. Over the past several years I've tested, and acquired, a number of Microsoft Surface tablet computers, both the Surface Pro and Surface Go models, and a small range of Panasonic and Dell ruggedized computers. 

I really like the Microsoft Surface format, and as long as I'm not paying for them (my employer does) I'm delighted to use them. It took until the release of the Surface Pro 7 for Microsoft to get the design 'right', but with the 7 they got it really right, and I've enjoyed using both the Surface Pro 7 & 9 models for a number of years. Sadly, both of those devices have developed issues that will have them headed to the recycling center soon. The Surface Pro 7 has suffered the inevitable fate of all Surface devices - the battery is dying. Since it can't be replaced, off to the shredder it must go. Sad, because it really is a good little tablet.

The Surface Pro 9's issue is altogether different, and unique in my experience. It's developed a hardware issue (I think with the system memory) that causes frequent Blue Screens of Death (BSOD). In my experience the BSOD is a rare event with Windows 11, so the fact that this thing blue screens about every 10 minutes tells me it too just needs to head to the shredder. Again, a sad fate for a pretty good piece of hardware.

BTW, the new(ish) Surface Pro 12 looks like a very good little tablet. I think it would make a great replacement for its older siblings, but the memory and storage specs are way too low for the asking price. Plus, Microsoft nickels and dimes you with the accessories, like the detachable keyboards, which aren't really accessories, but must-haves.

Now on to some older Dell systems. I've got a few of the Dell rugged laptops and tablets, and they are great devices. I mean, they are REALLY good. I'll say this - Dell does rugged better than Panasonic, which invented the market for rugged computers. Unfortunately for me, most of what I bought was released when Window 10 was at about mid life-cycle. This meant that they were crackerjack Windows 10 machines, but when Windows 11 came out they were not eligible to upgrade due a 'hardware compatibility' issue - either the CPUs couldn't handle Windows 11 or a the units had missing our outdated a hardware devices known as the Trusted Platform Module, or TPM. I was OK with this for a time - Windows 10 was perfectly fine for what I did. Then late last year Microsoft announced it was sunsetting support for Windows 10. While Microsoft doesn't give a damn about the average computer buyer, they do pay attention when their large corporate and government customers start complaining, and complain they did. Many were sitting on large installed bases of perfectly fine Windows 10 hardware that couldn't be upgraded to Windows 11. They told Microsoft, either you continue Windows 10 support, or provide an upgrade path to Windows 11 for this older hardware. Microsoft miraculously found a way around the 'hardware compatibility' issue, and released versions of Windows 11 that run just fine on older hardware. Funny how that happened, eh?

Earlier this week I pulled out two of my older Dells - my Latitude 5404 laptop and a 7210 tablet running on an i3 processor. I had tried updating both of these to Windows 11 earlier in the year, but with no luck. Microsoft told me repeatedly that my hardware was not compatible with Windows 11. Since neither computer had been turned on for months, I figured it was time to grab the latest (and perhaps last) Windows 10 updates available. I was surprised to find an authorized Windows 11 update package waiting in the update queue for both computers! 

My old Dell 5404 can run Windows 11!
This is easily one of the best laptops I've ever used, rugged or not, so
it's great that I can keep it going with a new OS.
This computer taught me that Steve Jobs was dead wrong about laptops with touch screens

What changed in Redmond, I don't know. All I know is that I'm delighted that these Windows 11 installs have extended the useful life of these fine computers for a few more years.

Last, a failed POTA activation, but still some success. Last week I traveled to Philadelphia to spend some time with my sister. She lives in a 31 story condo just south of Washington Square, which itself is just a block behind Independence Hall. Washington Square is also a part of the Independence National Historical Park. This means a POTA activation in Washington Square counts as 'activating' the Independence National Historical Park (US-0738). The square is really more of a regular city green space, and on any given day is filled with local retirees feeding the squirrels and bitching about Donald Trump (some of the conversations are hilarious - I strongly suspect a TDS cocktail is added to Philly's drinking water along with the fluoride), kids riding their scooters, folks walking their dogs, bums and homeless people passed out under the trees (really charming), and the occasional tourist group that wanders over from Independence Hall to view the memorial to the Unknown Revolutionary Soldier in the park. It's rare to see a park ranger or a Philly cop, unless there's demonstrations or a medical emergency. I figured if I activated the park I would be pretty safe from unwanted scrutiny from the law. Well, I did, and I was right. I activated the park at noon on Sunday, and only park visitors that showed any serious interest in me were some passing dogs. In fact, considering the bums, the dope smokers, the panhandlers, the tattooed gay lovers playing slap and tickle under one of the trees (really guys, you didn't think anyone could see you?), and the guy in rainbow tights roller skating around the park with a boom-box, I was the least weird thing in the park that day.

Unfortunately, I had zero contacts. Even though I spotted myself twice on the POTA website, I had no luck making any contacts. Of course my setup didn't help. There was no way I could have gotten away with setting up a 100 watt rig and a wire, or even large vertical antenna. I would have been either robbed or arrested, or both. Instead I was using my Elecraft KX2 in it's 'pedestrian mobile' configuration - handheld, with a 20 meter whip antenna (the Elecraft AX1), a drag line for a counterpoise, and some earbuds. Don't laugh - I've talked from Georgia to Indiana with this exact setup. The problems I faced were poor band conditions and operating from an urban canyon. Yes, I was disappointed, but I learned some good lessons. Next time I try this (and there will be a next time), I'll be using a better antenna setup. I can't get away from a 20 meter whip, but I can set it up better.

Now to the successful part. The night before the activation I decided to test my equipment by going up to the roof of my sister's condo and doing a test run. The roof holds a swimming pool and cabana area. I set up on one of the tables, clamped the 20 meter whip to a lounge chair, and started listening for people calling CQ. I was delighted when WD6T out of northern California answered my call. Philly to California on 10 watts with a seriously compromised antenna. Hey, I'll take that! I then added the 40 meter extension coil to the whip, and contacted W9ISF, the Indiana State Fair ARC station. Not too shabby. The night was cool and clear, with a light breeze. It was wonderful to be able to sit 31 stories up, by myself, and spin the dial. A wonderful night all-around.

My roof-top poolside view, looking south towards Delaware.
Note the whip antenna clamped to the lounge chair. With this setup I was
able to contact California and Indiana on SSB. A wonderful night!

A KX2, a wonderful night at a great location, and some neat contacts

This clamp by Pro Audio Engineering is extremely well made 
and perfect for the task of holding small whip antennas

I'm now in a downhill slide to retirement (scheduled for November). I'll be plenty busy until then, so I'll have limited in radio time. But after November, let the radio fun begin!

W8BYH out