Blog
Upcoming Turks and Caicos Islands DXpedition (VP5/KD8RTT)
From January 28th through February 2nd, 2025, I will be visiting the Turks and Caicos islands for vacation and will be bringing radio equipment with me for holiday-style satellite and HF operations. My main radio focus will be on satellites, FM, APRS, and SSB, but I...
Upcoming Turks and Caicos Islands DXpedition (VP5/KD8RTT)
From January 28th through February 2nd, 2025, I will be visiting the Turks and Caicos islands for vacation and will be bringing radio equipment with me for holiday-style satellite and HF operations. My main radio focus will be on satellites, FM, APRS, and SSB, but I...
Ham Shack Lightning Alerter with Raspberry Pi Pico
Our work amateur radio club, WA0RC, is very lucky in that we have been given a dedicated room for a club shack and have roof access. However, it is in what used to be a mechanical room, and as such, it is in the middle of the building with no windows. This means there...
2024 Kansas QSO Party and POTA US-2345 Report
For this year's Kansas QSO Party, I participated again as a 1x1 station, K0B, traveling around central Kansas. Unlike previous years, I decided to make only two stops and enter under the new "Expedition" category. This meant visiting one location on Saturday and a...
Replacing Antenna Switch Relay in Yaesu FT-817
I recently bought an old FT-817 with the intent of using it to get back on the linear satellites. Upon receiving it, I found that no matter which connector I set the antenna output to (front or rear), it always transmitted from the rear SO-239 antenna connector. As my...
QMX Portable Clipboard Setup
I've seen several ham radio clipboard mounting solutions aimed at portable operations like POTA and SOTA, so I thought I'd take a shot at making my own for my QRP Labs QMX, American Morse Equipment Mini-B Paddle, and NiMH battery pack (affiliate link). I took an old...
2024 Field Day Report
For Field Day this year, I participated in the Waypoint Amateur Radio Club, WA0RC, operations from the club shack. WA0RC is the club of Garmin employees in Olathe, Kansas, and has a new, dedicated shack space that was just opened earlier this year. We previously had a...
2024 June VHF Contest/EN20 Grid Expedition/POTA US-2619 Report
For June VHF this year, I decided to put EN20 on the air (after my previous failure) due to its relatively rare status for being a midwest grid as reported by FFMA chasers. My plan for this contest was to use my general setup from previous roves including my 25 foot...
DIY Paddle Interface for VBand CW Practice Website
UPDATE (5/12/2024): Turns out my little DIY project below is not so novel. Check out OZ1JHM's website to see their solution which is basically the same solution as mine, but posted long ago! I recently came across VBand, CW Hotline, and the USB Paddle Interface sold...
2024 WA0RC 2m Simplex Contest
The Waypoint Amateur Radio Club, WA0RC, made up of Garmin employees at headquarters in Olathe, Kansas, held a 2m Simplex Contest on April 13th. As Vice President of the club for 2024, I decided to take the lead on this event after seeing some examples online and...
Failed SOTA Activation – W7A/CS-066
Earlier this month, I spent a week in Flagstaff, AZ finishing my Hybrid Wilderness First Responder course and wanted to try a SOTA summit before I headed back to Kansas City. After searching around for summits nearby (of which there are many), I decided to try...
2023 Kansas QSO Party Report
This year for the Kansas QSO Party, I participated as a Kansas rover station with plans to hit several counties throughout the weekend under the 1x1 N0S. This had me generally setting out to the east from Kansas City early...
2023 Kansas QSO Party Plans
On August 26th and 27th, I will once again be participating in the Kansas QSO Party as a rover hitting up several counties around Kansas! This year, I will be using the call sign N0S and operating from the following counties on 20m and 40m: Saturday: Riley...