2014 Amateur Radio Highlights

It is again time for our annual 2014 Year Amateur Radio highlights post. First, I’d like to thank our readers for their continued interest in our Blog. Our blog was viewed about 100,00 times in 2014 from 165 countries worldwide. You, our readers, have made 2014 our busiest year yet, and this provides Anita (AB1QB) … Continue reading

ARRL Centennial Convention This Week – Come Join Us In Hartford!

Anita (AB1QB) and I will be attending the ARRL Centennial Convention in Hartford Connecticut, USA this coming weekend. We are looking forward to seeing the vendor exhibits, Contest University and the many fine forum presentations which are scheduled. I will be doing a presentation on the design, construction and operation of our station at the ARRL … Continue reading

Station Automation Part 3 – Antenna Cutover And Final Integration

The final article in our microHAM installation series will be about our station’s cut-over, configuration, and integration testing. The first step was to bring the second radio in Anita’s (AB1QB) position into the microHAM system. We also added a PR 781 microphone and boom from Heil Sound to her setup at the same time. Anita’s … Continue reading

Station Automation Part 1 – microHAM SO2R And System Design

As some of our readers probably know, it has been part of our plan from the beginning to setup our station for multi-SO2R operation . We took the first step in this direction some time back with the installation of a microHAM MK2R+ SO2R Controller (the box one top of the left radio in the picture … Continue reading

Station Automation Part 2 – Second Operating Position And Antenna Switching

We have continued our work on automating our station’s operation using microHAM equipment. I have integrated the second operating position into our station into the system via the installation of a second microHAM MK2R+ SO2R interface and two more Station Master Deluxe (SMD) antenna controllers. This position has a Yaesu FTdx5000 Transceiver and an Icom IC-7600 … Continue reading

AB1OC’s 2014 CQ WPX SSB Contest Results – Another Station Goal Met

The CQ World Wide WPX Contest is one of my favorites and 2014 was another improvement year for me. This was the first year where I was no longer in the “Rookie” (<3 years licensed) category. I received a nice surprise in my email today – a certificate with a first place finish in Area … Continue reading

The 2013 ARRL DX Phone Contest – Occasionally, Everything New Works Out

I participated in the 2013 ARRL DX Phone Contest from our recently completed New Hampshire, USA shack. This was my first serious effort in a Phone contest, and I participated in the Single-Operator, High Power Assisted category within the W/VE segment of the contest. We have been enhancing our station’s contesting hardware and software recently. … Continue reading

Receive Antenna For The Low Bands Part 2 – Second Shack Entry And Ground Point

When I began construction of a dedicated 8-Circle Receive Array antenna system for the low bands (160m – 40m) some time ago (see part one in this series for details), I knew that I’d have to locate the new antenna system as far away from my tower and other transmitting antennas as possible to avoid … Continue reading

Receive Antenna For The Low Bands Part 3 – Connections To Shack And Final Integration

We have completed the final construction and integration of our DX Engineering 8 Circle Receive Array Antenna System for the Low Bands. We built our array to cover 160m, 80m, and 40m some time ago. We also had previously constructed a second entry and grounding system to connect our shack to the new Receive Array System. … Continue reading