Operating notes from the last week or so:
Extra Elmer Net
After publicizing the Elmer Extra Net on LinkedIn, EHam, and QRZ.Com, I got a few new checkins to my Monday night net. Most checked in via EchoLink. I noticed that some dropped out before we finished, but that’s OK.
We’ll do it again this Monday night at 9pm EST (0100Z), covering section E4B of the Extra Class question pool. We meet on the W8UM repeater, 145.23 MHz if you’re in or near Ann Arbor, MI, W8UM-R via EchoLink.
“Making” 2m J-poles
Thursday night, I visited one of the “makerspaces” here in Ann Arbor, All Hands Active, and showed them how to make 450-ohm ladder line J-pole antennas. A bunch of the members there have attended my one-day Tech class and now have their tickets. It was fun working with these guys, and more hams should be reaching out to the maker folks. More on this later.
Another ham author
About a week ago, I got an e-mail from Joel, K9PSV. He had just purchased my No-Nonsense Extra Class License Study Guide and was having some difficult downloading it. We started swapping e-mails and found that we had a lot in common, so we met for lunch on Friday.
One thing that we have in common is that we both share an interest in self-publishing. He is an award-winning reporter (he wrote for the Detroit Free Press) and has books that have been published by traditional publishing houses and has self published books as well.
Of interest to radio amateurs, is his book, Mouse Code. Mouse Code is a “tale of how mice invented radio to save themselves and their friends the moles, voles, shrews, groundhogs, badgers and yes, even a blue racer, from death by development.” His other books include:
- Up the Rouge, a chronicle of a five-day trip made by Joel and a photojournalist up the abused Rouge River in metro Detroit.
- Shoestring Reporter, a book that describes how you can get professional writing experience without paying for an expensive college journalism degree.
- Plug Nickel, Joel’s account of the trials and tribulations of restoring a wooden Lightning sailboat.
Running with the big boys
Friday night, I was on 40m CW and made a couple of contacts. Nothing special, really. Then, I tuned across a couple of big pileups, and it dawned on me that it was Red Badge Night. Red Badge Night is an attempt to get some of the ARRL honchos on the air, and because they’re worth a lot of points in the Centennial QSO Party, these folks are in demand. I don’t know how many points he’s worth, but PJ2/K8ND seemed to have the biggest pileup going.
When I heard fellow HamTwit, Pete, @NS0D, work someone in one of these pileups, it occurred to me that a contact with me is worth something, too. I’m an Assistant Section Manager, and those 35 points are nothing to sneeze at. When I tweeted that I should try to start a pileup of my own, Pete replied that he’d spot me.
I started calling CQ CENT on 7031 kHz, and pretty soon, I did have a pileup going. It got to be such a big pileup, that I had to start operating split. The pileup didn’t last long, but it was fun. I made about 50 contacts in a little over a half hour.
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