My (far) better half and I had plans to go watch our grandson’s soccer game yesterday, but I still squeezed in a short, early morning activation. I headed over to nearby Valley Forge National Historical Park (US-0761, KFF-0761) and allotted myself an hour of operating time. While I was there, I tried out a few … Continue reading "KH1 Picnic Table Ops"| WB3GCK QRP Amateur Radio
My (far) better half and I spent the past weekend with family out in central Pennsylvania. During the weekend, I squeezed in a quick, early morning POTA activation. The great band conditions made f…| WB3GCK QRP Amateur Radio
A little over a month ago, the finals in my brand new Elecraft KH1 gave up the ghost during my second outing with it. After a trip back to the factory for some TLC from the Elecraft folks, the rig …| WB3GCK QRP Amateur Radio
A while back I purchased one of AD8HK’s end-fed random wire (EFRW) antennas. I tried it for the first time during my ill-fated Flight of the Bumblebees (FOBB) outing. With everything that went wrong that day, the AD8HK antenna certainly deserved a better evaluation—at least one where I wasn’t in a panic over problems with … Continue reading "Round Two with the AD8HK EFRW"| WB3GCK QRP Amateur Radio
Once again, the NJQRP Skeeter Hunt contest coincided with our annual family vacation to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I’m certainly not a hardcore contester, but I wanted to set aside so…| WB3GCK QRP Amateur Radio
In my last post, I talked about using a simple antenna comprising a 15-foot radiator, a 7.5-foot counterpoise, and a 4:1 unun. It worked well, but I found it a little touchy to tune on 40M. Today, I tried the same configuration, but with a slightly longer radiator and counterpoise. I wanted to add a … Continue reading "More Antenna Testing in Valley Forge"| WB3GCK QRP Amateur Radio
On Wednesday, August 7th, I set out to do some antenna experimentation. So, why not get in a POTA/WWFF activation at the same time? To kill those two birds with one stone, I drove down to Ridley Cr…| WB3GCK QRP Amateur Radio
Actually, this bumblebee barely got off the ground at all this year. It started off with a heartbreaking rig failure and ended with some horrendous local noise. I had a late-breaking change of pla…| WB3GCK QRP Amateur Radio
Wanting to take advantage of the excellent weather today, I drove up to Evansburg State Park (US-1351, KFF-1351) for a quick morning activation. I wanted to give my Gabil GRA-7350TC vertical some a…| WB3GCK QRP Amateur Radio
For various reasons, I’ve found myself bumping into LoRaWAN as a wireless networking construct over the last couple of years. If you’re not familiar, this is IoT-oriented low power, long range (sometimes), low bandwidth kind of stuff that integrates with the larger connected world if needed via Ethernet, Wi-Fi or cellular backhaul. (Read more on […]| wirednot
Ordinarily, in order to establish communications at locations such as disaster sites, rescuers have to transport and set up relatively bulky, costly satellite dishes. Soon, however, a simple tubular antenna made of woven strips of material may get the job done.| New Atlas
