Clams+broth+cream+QRP Afield=Chowdercon!

Ah, a bowl of chowder, Four Tree Island, and thou, oh CW paddle!*

It’s b-a-a-ck! Chowdercon 2011 is 11 days away, and I can smell the ocean now. It sure beats musty socks!

To recap: Chowdercon is a breakfast-to-dinner affair with a heaping helping of QRP operating in between. This year, the date is Sept. 17. The event coincides with QRP Afield, a 12-hour operating event organized by the New England QRP Club. That’s where the operating comes in.

Chowdercon is about as sure a sign that fall is around the corner up here in New England as just about anything this side of migrating geese. You can pick up one ham’s recap of last year’s event here. This year promises to be even better. Why? Who knows? But it’s hard to beat the combination of friends and acquaintances, some fresh-air operating, and great eats.

And after last year’s sartorial surprise (one club member showed up in a kilt, aye, but nae pipes), you never quite know what you’re going to see.

The gig starts with breakfast at  8 a.m. EDT at the Golden Egg restaurant in Portsmouth. From there, folks meander to Four Tree Island in the Piscataqua River to set up and begin operating about 11, when QRP Afield starts, then break for lunch at Geno’s Chowder & Sandwich Shop, a short walk from the island.

And just where is that island? (in case you want to skip breakfast)?

View Larger Map

Four Tree Island, a municipal park, shuts down around 5 p.m., so folks typically pack up and head for the Kittery, Maine, side of the river for dinner at Warren’s Lobster House. For additional details, you can get in touch with Carl Achin, WA1ZCQ.

It’s a great way to spend a late-summer Saturday. And who knows? With all these smart phones proliferating, it should be easy to call up QRPSPOTS.com (no relation to Pete Spotts), and see who’s operating Summits and Parks on the Air that weekend. Snag some QRP Afield points and some SOTA points at the same time!

Sweet!

* Photo courtesy of PDPhoto.org.

I’ll take a tin of NEScaf to go, please!

The NEQRP Club's NEScaf audio filter, packaged for the road.

Traveling light with my FT-817ND or my KX1 is great fun. Both have nice, tight IF filters for use with stations sending Morse code. But I’ve learned through operations at home that the New England QPR Club’s NEScaf audio filter can bring out the best in those filters, and visa versa.

So off I sent for another kit — and an Altoids tin to house it — for portable operations. What, another chick magnet?? (See this post, paragraph 13-ish, for an explanation.)

If you’re familiar with the NEScaf filter you’ll notice that one control knob is missing. If you’re not familiar with these, I’ll give you a hint: One control knob is missing.

I’ve found that I rarely, nay, never change the center frequency, which is what the missing control does. At the same time, I’d read accounts from others who tried to pack the as-kitted filter into an Altoids tin. Once all the knobs and switches were installed, you needed truly thin fingers to operate the filter. Discouraged, these folks would remount the electronics in a large box.

Update to ‘Stone Soup’ battery-capacity estimator

How long will this 7.2 amp-hour battery really last?? Try the updated version of this battery-capacity estimator.

The “open sourced” battery-capacity estimator, a.k.a Stone Soup, has just received another tweak to improve its accuracy, thanks to Moe Riggins, AB8XA, Terry Fletcher, WA0ITP, and “an interested user of the spreadsheet,” whoever he or she may be. You can download the update here:

Battery-capacity_estimator_for_portable_ops

Many thanks to these contributors, who have taken the concept much farther than my newbie’s understanding of batteries allowed me to take it!

FBB 2011 — tap like a CW op, flit like a bee

A pad and pen, a key and radio, and thou. My set-up for July 31's Flight of the Bumble Bees at King Street Memorial Playground in Franklin, MA.

Ah, the window has closed on Flight of the Bumble Bees 2011 — one of the most anticipated outdoor operating events for low-power enthusiasts during the year. Thanks for the contacts, folks!

For me, it was a low-intensity event. I set up at King Street Memorial Playground in Franklin, MA. It’s about two miles from home. A nice change after various excursions across the state to activate state parks for Parks on the Air.

I picked the site in large part because, aside from proximity to a shower, the park hosts trees with sufficient spacing that I could set up my Norcal doublet, instead of operating with a wire vertical antenna. Or so I thought.

Just how close am I to the nearest SOTA summits?

Over the past two weeks of activating state parks for Parks on the Air, my path has crossed, with increasing frequency, folks involved with Summits on the Air.

Yeah, it’s catching. And as I was lurking on the Yahoo site for SOTA buffs in North America, I came across a conversation that dwelt, in part, about software development in support of the program. In that post was a reference and link to an Android app, NextSota, written by German SOTA enthusiast Mario Fletz, DC7CCC.

 Boy, it is slick! It takes from your smart phone the GPS coordinates of your current position,    applies a radius you designate, and through a browser on your phone gives you the SOTA summits  – from hills to mountaintops — within that radius. The chart includes information such as height  above sea level, the number of activation/chase points the summit is worth, and how many  activations have taken place. Oh yes, and it connects you with Google Maps for a location and for driving directions to get there.

Care to try a summit never before activated? This will point you there in a heartbeat.

What a great little tool for planning SOTA outings! You can download it here.

Heads up: Much of the text within the app ist auf Deutsch. But between the icons and the English-German cognates, you’ll have little or no trouble taking advantage of the program.

This may be taking coals to Newcastle for many SOTA enthusiasts. But I gotta say, for a newbie, the app looks like it will be very helpful!

Move over Elecraft KX3, here’s the new hottest rig on the market!

A partial look at a breathtaking new circuit!

I just couldn’t resist! You’ll have to view the latest in hi-tech hamdom here. The image was too big to fit it all on this blog page. I doff my cap to Adrian Rees, MW1LCR, for posting this on the GQRP email list.

QRPxpedition with a digital nag: Turn…left, left, LEFT!

A bit too comfy? Perhaps. But I'll be danged if I'm going to sit on a rock for three hours. I don't care if it is Mt. Greylock!

The final week of a two-week vacation was winding down, but Parks on the Air was still on my mind.

I’d activated the Blue Hills State Reservation and Halibut Point State Park — both for the first time, both coastal, or near-coastal, sites — as “field trips” during my final week vacationing at “Camp Idohwanna.” Now it was time head into western Massachusetts and complete the pilgrimage from sea level to the highest peak in the state.

It was time to bring Mt. Greylock State Reservation into the POTA fold from atop its most prominent feature and namesake.

I’d reconnoitered Mt. Greylock’s summit using Google Earth and maps.  But nothing beats talking to someone who’s been there — a lot. Enter Frandy Johnson, N1FJ, who had dropped me an invitation to hobnob sometime with a small group of hams in western Massachusetts who call themselves the SOTA Jerks. They activate area hills and mountains for Summits on the Air pretty regularly

Frandy had seen my tome on activating Skinner State Park near Holyoke, MA, and sent along the invitation. I figured he was the one to answer a crucial question: Did Greylock’s very civilized summit — with a parking lot, trails, an observation tower that doubles as a memorial to US military veterans (not another observation tower!), a broadcast  tower, and the very hospitable Bascom Lodge — have picnic tables?

Yep, picnic tables. They provide wonderful support for my Jackite pole, aided by a couple of bungee cords. The pole is my antenna support.

Frandy allowed as how he didn’t recall seeing any picnic tables. Then he sent me some pictures of the summit from a previous SOTA activation. The gong went off in my head: Why not invite him to come along?

The deal was done, with a rendezvous set for between 8:00 and 8:30 a.m. July 30.

And that is where I first met the digital nag.