Let’s goto Cloudland for a break from troubleshooting a radio. I have been working on this Ten Tec 6 meter FM machine for a week or two at this point and finally redrew the oscillator circuit so I could more easily understand the point of all those varactor diodes…
After studying this for a while I decided to get on the air with a different radio and have some fun with CW. I didn’t have a lot of time so I decided to goto the Sittons Gulch parking area of Cloudland Canyon State Park (US-2169) and setup inside the truck. The parking area was packed on a Friday morning and I almost didn’t get to setup here!!! So much so that the only available space was next to the entrance on the shoulder of the road. You can see how close I was to the gate in the photo below.
Here is a special trick I figured out too. The one radial I cut for 20 meters and then subsequently was broken and twisted back together…(making it short for a resonant antenna on something just higher than 20 meters…). This poor radial sees so much use, I really need to make a new radial wire that is this length but without the broken spot. Another thing is that it also works with my 17 meter antenna too. So one radial works on two antennae!!! Sweet!!!
Today saw me using the Penntek TR-35 QRP CW transceiver and none of the extra widgets I have been using. Headphones are needed since it has no speaker of any kind. Another quirk with this radio is that it is wired from the factory for a mono headphone connection (this is user adjustable by dismantling the radio and changing the connector wiring physically) so I need an adapter to be able to hear the audio in both ears. For DC voltage requirements, I simply plugged into the truck power cable I recently installed and I was off to the races!
If you look at the log sheet, you will notice I started 11 minutes before I made my first contact. This is because I setup on 17 meters to start with and called CQ for ten minutes with zero answers. I finally learned my lesson and moved down to 20 meters where all the hams were located. Things immediately improved and I made quite a few contacts once I made the move.
I hope you have enjoyed this little excursion to my local park and seeing what I do when time is tight and also space is limited. Until next time, get out and get on the air.
72
WK4DS - David
