OK, time to fess up. Someone has been searching Google for “beaverton qrp” and has been landing on my blog. I’d love to know if there are other QRPers here in the Portland-area besides me and all of the big QRP luminaries like W7ZOI and KK7B. Please leave a comment below if that’s you!
DXing is something that has never really been a part of my ham career. Not because I haven’t had any interest in it, but mainly because I haven’t had much of station to speak of. Being restricted to compromise antennas and low power does a lot to dissuade you from seriously pursuing DX (especially during these sunspot-lean years). Yes, I know it’s possible to make DX contacts with such a station, but it takes a lot of time and dedication. Frankly, I just didn’t have the attention span to sit at a pileup for hours trying to get lucky.
Now that I’ve got a decent, permanent multiband antenna up in the air, it seems like a good time to give DXing a more serious try. When I heard about the K4M DXpedition to Midway Island, I figured that would be as good of a chance as any to get my feet wet. It’s not very difficult to make trans-Pacific contacts from my QTH, and with thousands of miles of salt water between us and very little land, I knew I had a decent chance.
The first few days were a bust (thanks frequency cops and jammers), but by the time the operation was starting to wind down, I managed to get 3 QSOs with K4M, all on 19 October. Right around dawn (the best time I’ve found to hear trans-Pacific DX from here), I snagged them on 40 meters CW then QSYed a bit up the band to get them on phone. Neither attempt took a ton of effort, although I found the SSB contact to be particularly easy…although it shouldn’t be that tough with 100 watts. A few hours later, I saw them spotted on 17 meters, so I gave that a try as well, and got them in the log after about 15 minutes. Pretty cool!
I’m sure this isn’t very impressive to most of you old timers, but it was fun for me. I watched eagerly for the next logbook update to make sure I made it in the log. Sure enough, all three QSOs were up there by the end of the day. I was so happy that I made the donation so I could get the QSL sent direct to me. I feel like I’m doing everything backwards in ham radio, but it’s great fun to finally experience what just about everyone else already knows.
I realize that this has very little to do with my normal blog content, but I hope that you will indulge me for a moment and check out this post.
As many of you probably know, I work 3rd shift, which can get pretty lonely at times. In order to keep myself from going insane listening to nothing but the air conditioning, I lean pretty heavily on my iPod to provide some entertainment. There’s a pretty decent sized music library on there, but I usually get tired of listening to music all night, so at least 50% of the time I listen to podcasts.
One of my favorite podcast genres is serialized fiction; it kind of reminds me of the old-timey radio shows. When I first stumbled upon podcasting, the very first fiction podcast I discovered back in 2006 was 7th Son by author J.C. Hutchins. 7th Son is a lightning-fast, kick-ass, potboiler of a techno-thriller, delivered free of charge as a podcast novel. I can’t give you a better synopsis than the official web page, so I’ll defer to it:
The president of the United States is dead. He was murdered in the morning sunlight by a four-year-old boy…
So begins 7th Son: Descent, the technothriller novel by J.C. Hutchins. Originally released as a free audiobook podcast, Descent will be in bookstores in late October. 7th Son has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time.com, Wired.com UK, and on the cover of Blogger & Podcaster magazine.
As America reels from the bizarre presidential assassination committed by a child, seven men are abducted from their normal lives and delivered to a secret government facility. Each man has his own career, his own specialty. All are identical in appearance. The seven strangers were not born, but grown — unwitting human clones — as part of a project called 7th Son.
The government now wants something from these “John Michael Smiths.” They share the flesh as well as the implanted memories of the psychopath responsible for the president’s murder. The killer has bigger plans, and only these seven have the unique qualifications to track and stop him. But when their progenitor makes the battle personal, it becomes clear John Alpha may know the seven better than they know themselves…
Although the techno-geekery is a guilty pleasure, the characters are not relegated to the back burner. In fact, I think that Hutchins has done a wonderful job creating fully fleshed-out, three dimensional characters that you really connect with (and a few that you despise). I’m no professional literature reviewer, but I can tell you that entire story was immensely enjoyable. Listen to the audio promo to get a taste of it for yourself.
7th Son: Descent Promo7th Son is composed of three acts: Descent, Deceit, and Destruction. J.C. Hutchins managed to leverage his dedicated podcast following (tens of thousands of listeners if I remember correctly) into a print book deal for the first act, Descent. The other two books are contingent on the success of the first. Besides the enjoyment of the story, I greatly admire the way that Hutchins was able to use the “DIY ethic” to do an end-run around the traditional gatekeepers of book publishing and snag his first major book deal. To give you some idea of the creative ways in which he is promoting his book and blurring the lines between fiction and reality, he has also released a 6-song EP from a character in the story! I believe that’s what the kids call a “transmedia” experience.
You can preorder the book from Amazon.com, or if you’re still undecided you can go to J.C.’s site to download serialized PDF files of the story and subscribe to the all-new reboot of the podcast; all for free.
You might wonder why I’m posting this promo on my ham radio blog?
So if you made it this far, it just might intrigue you a bit. Get yerself over to the 7th Son website and start reading or listening. If you enjoy the story, tell your friends and consider buying the book so you can help out someone working hard to put the “DIY ethic” to great use.
I just updated the shack PC to Ubuntu Karmic beta and I’m impressed. Nothing earth-shattering, but lots more polish compared to Jaunty, and seems quite a bit snappier. I think it’s worth the upgrade if you’re already an Ubuntu user. If you are not, then download the ISO and try it in live CD mode. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
While I occasionally get a bit worried about ham radio having to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century, there are encouraging signs that some hams get it. The two areas in ham radio where this seems most pronounced is in Radiosport and DXing/DXpeditions. Outside of the United States, these aspects of the hobby seem to be doing a decent job of attracting folks under 50 to our nerdy little world (no offense to you crusty old guys; without you our hobby would be non-existent). I’m not quite sure why, but inside of the US, these pursuits haven’t quite had the same pull on the younger crowd. Speaking for myself, I’ve never felt I could seriously tackle either activity without having the ability to deploy a half-decent antenna, something I’ve only recently been able to do because I just purchased my first single-family house. Perhaps other younger folks have had a similar problem.
Anyway, let me show you the efforts of a few people who have helped in blowing a little dust off of our vintage hobby. First up is the website and video blog of XR0Y, the Rapa Nui (Easter Island) DXpedition. These guys have a very visually appealing website with tons of information about the operation, a blog to keep you updated on the latest news, a Twitter feed, and perhaps best of all, a really cool video blog. The production values are top-notch (they are promising HD video of the actual operation) and it’s interesting to get a behind-the-scenes look at a DXpedition from start to finish. Here are the first three videos in the series; it looks like many more are on the way:
Next, a topic a little bit nearer to my heart, courtesy of W2LJ. Larry was contacted by VK1AA regarding a new QRP transmitter kit from GenesisRadio called the Q5. It looks like this kit is geared towards the new kitbuilder/homebrewer, perhaps as something to build on a club “kit night”. The design uses CMOS logic for the LO and driver amp, which feeds into a class-A PA (about 1 watt output). I don’t see any low-pass filtering on the output and there’s no specification on the spurious products, so an outboard filter might be in order.
GenesisRadio got an excellent video spokesman for their kit; young VK2FJDX. Check out the FB job he does in promoting the new kit:
Grandma’s obituary, as written by my mother:
Margaret “Peggy” Tucker, 84, of Newberg, Oregon, died October 2, 2009 at home surrounded with loving family.
She was born December 17, 1924, in Lakeview, Oregon, the daughter of Zera Thompson and Lola Kline. Peggy was married 50 years to Cliff Tucker. She retired from Caterpillar Tractor Company 20 years ago. Peggy’s family describes her as a very intelligent, spunky, resourceful and gifted woman. She was a talented artist, oil painter, writer, seamstress, crafter, and chef. She loved to fish, hunt, camp, travel, decorate, and collect fine glassware and antiques. Her family was the essence of her drive for life and most knew her as someone who appreciated debating any subject. Her family called her their “pistol and their pearl”.
Peggy is survived by daughter, Pat Terrell of Sarasota, Florida, son, Les Fay of Portland, Oregon, daughter, Phyllis Griffin of Dayton, Oregon, daughter, Denise Perkins of Park City, Utah and son, Jeff Tucker of Monmouth, Oregon. Sisters, Lola Raschka, Oroville, California, Mary Germond, Oakland, California, and Bessie Duncan, Mountain Home, Arkansas, as well as brother, Bill Thompson of East Wenatchee, Washington. 20 grandchildren and 31 great-grandchildren.
Peggy was preceded in death by husband, Clifton Tucker, sons; Joe Fay and Gene “Buster” Fay, and sister; Martha Credille.
Grandma & Baxter
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