Returning to HF!

I’ve been off the HF bands for quite some time. Not because I didn’t enjoy it or anything, just life got in the way and after having my truck break down and needing to sell it, I never had another vehicle to easily put this HF antenna on or easily get to the battery with newer firewalls.

With concerns over expanding emcomm and some local hams talking about HF data modes, I thought it was time to check back into things. I never did data modes before I only ever did voice and I still spend a good time on voice but sometimes keyboard to keyboard or messaging over HF and Winlink has a lot of appeal in possible grid down or local disasters, plus it’s just a lot of fun.

I attempted to use my FT-100D. I did not have luck getting mobile antenna to work at home in the attic, so I decided to get a wire in the air. I did a little research and ended up picking the Par EndFedz Antennas EF-8010. It’s worked great for me on voice however I can’t get great SWR on 80m so I’ve got some work to do there, but SWR is great or acceptable on the other bands. On the data modes but things were not easy and quite frustrating to get working even for a computer guy. I got a digirig and the appropriate cables, but thing still didn’t seem to always decode properly and it would just stop working without reason and I’d have to go back through it almost daily.

I broke down and just got a IC-7300. Other than my DSTAR handheld I’ve never owned or used any Icom radios before but everyone I talked to say this one is easy to use and works very well with data mode and it looked like there was plenty of online support and videos on setting things up so, I pulled the trigger. Most advanced radio I have to date, the waterfall is useful, but it really shines on the filtering and sound. Highly customizable screens are a plus.
Data modes are just a pleasure to use now. I’m drawn to the VarAC, JS8Call, Winlink VaraHF, and a little FT8 when bored.

Hope to work you on the bands!

73,
Russell, KV4S

Comet GP-9 on the Air in Chelsea!

I finally got around to putting a base antenna at the house. It seems like it’s been a lifetime since I’ve had a decent antenna for home use.

I want to thank my bother-in-law for helping mount the antenna to the house, driving the ground rod and ground cable, and running coax into my office in a professional looking way with minimal impact exposing the house to the elements.

I also want to thank Paul K9PTF who was my Elmer on the project. He helped with putting the antenna together and testing SWR and coax impedance as well as guidance on grounding, mounting, and soldering coax ends.

I’ve used it a full week at this point, and I can’t be more pleased with the performance. At a bare minimum hitting the tall tower was one of my goals and it met and surpassed my expectation there. I’ve participated in 3 simplex nets at this point and I’m hearing and contacting stations I could barely hear (or hear at all) on my previous setup. I’m hearing tons of simplex stations and I’m easily able to hit repeaters 20~30 miles away even with Oak Mountain and double oak mountain to my north. I’m even hitting a few repeaters 45 to 50 miles to the north.

[Resolved] Emergency maintenance IRLP 0091/Echolink KV4S-R

Update 9/5/23:
I was able to stand up a new server, so I’ll be able to bounce back and forth as needed depending on host issues.

My cloud host for my IRLP/Echolink server is having emergency maintenance on the host machine my server is located on.

I’ll monitor the situation and provide updates. I’ll also investigate standing up a replacement/backup server for situations like this in the future.

Huntsville Hamfest 2023

I’ll be attending the Huntsville Hamfest 2023 this year.

I’ll be running my FT-5DR and monitoring the following:

146.550 TSQ: 88.5
145.5625 and 445.5625 C4FM Simplex
APRS beaconing and Messaging.

The KV4S Discord Community

I’ve decided to set up a Discord Community for an extension of the website for real-time communications and Q&A. Join here.