Posts Tagged ‘NPOTA’
Had a wonderful time today
January 17th, 2016 | 
Author: 
If you saw Dave's setup, you would swear that you died and went to Ham Radio heaven. Dave recently purchased a minivan, which has become a custom outfitted portable communications center. Dave has hand crafted a wooden bed frame, with storage underneath that allows him to cart along everything he needs for portable Amateur Radio operations. If the need arises, Dave can operate quite comfortably from either inside or outside the van. He is equipped for just about any eventuality that you can think of, and if need be, he can "camp out" in semi-luxury as needed. I should have taken pictures for this post, but I was so excited about helping to activate an entity for NPOTA that I plumb forgot! (See my update below)
I got to the park shortly after Noon. It's been years since I've been up to Jockey Hollow and I took a few wrong turns. I ended up driving through Harding, NJ. Wow! Talk about seeing where the "1%" lives. What estates! But I digress.
I got to the Jockey Hollow parking lot and Dave was already good to go. He had his hybrid homebrew/commercial Buddipole on a painters pole at about the 15 foot level. He had just finished conducting a run when I drove up, so he was ready to take a break and stretch his legs for a bit when I arrived. We chatted for a bit while I admired his set up. Dave was using a Yaesu at 100 Watts off a deep cycle marine battery, and it was doing him in good stead.
Shortly after, we got back down to business. Dave folded down the seat, so I could set next to him (very comfortably) on his padded bed frame/bench seat/storage cabinet. I offered to log for him while he took the microphone. Dave called "CQ NPOTA" for a bit and we had a few bites. Then I decided to whip out my cell phone, bring up DX Summit and spot him on the cluster.
Quite literally, all Hell broke loose! It was like standing next to a dam when it decided to burst. We were at the business end of a pileup and were having the time of our lives. A little over an hour later, Dave decided to take another break, so I operated station KD2FSI for a few more QSOs, while he stretched his legs. When things quieted down, we both took a break to discover that we had made over 100 QSOs in that short amount of time. We worked all up and down the East coast and as far West as Arizona and New Mexico.
While Dave was operating solo, he also worked into Canada, the Netherlands and Belgium, I believe. It was a great time and I'm very grateful to Dave that he let me be his wingman for the day. As far as Amateur Radio goes, Dave is still considered a "rookie" as he is licensed for less than three years. Let me tell you, Dave is no rookie! Dave has taken to HF operating like a bird to the air or a fish to the water. He is completely at home behind the microphone for phone operations and behind the keyboard for digital operations.
And, oh yeah, he's also learning to get comfortable behind the key for CW operations. I'm hoping that he'll really be comfortable by Field Day!
UPDATE:
Dave posted some photos to the SPARC Facebook page, so I am going to do a little cross posting here, so you can see his wonderful set up.
Dave's minivan parked on his homebrew mast holder. The mast is an extendable painter's pole. I'm guesstimating about 15 feet high. His Buddipole is a hybrid of homebrew and commercial W3FF parts. By his outing yesterday, it was obvious that Dave's concoction is a huge success!
From the back of the minivan looking forward. Dave's laptop is sitting on his handcrafted bedframe/storage unit. As you can see, it also serves as a desk. He had only a thin cushion on it, as he was not spending an overnight at the park. For sleeping purposes, Dave has a much thicker and comfortable memory foam pad that his son gave him for Christmas. This thin pad was just the thing for using his bedframe as a bench when Dave was running stations while I logged for him.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
NPOTA: ARRL’s Best Idea?
The National Parks on the Air (NPOTA) is off and running. Making contact with a handful of stations currently operating from NPOTA locations has made me wonder if the ARRL has had a good idea with NPOTA as a way to help celebrate the anniversary of the National Park Service.
From ARRL: “Throughout 2016, Amateur Radio will be helping the National Park Service celebrate their 100th anniversary. Hams from across the country will activate NPS units, promote the National Park Service and showcase Amateur Radio to the public.”
I am a huge fan of both the National Parks and the National Park Service. Anyone who is interested in the history of our National Parks would be well rewarded to start with the Ken Burns documentary The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. Yellowstone generally gets credit for being the first National Park back in 1872. However, the National Park Service was not established until 1916. That period in between provides us a very good reason that there are times when we need a government organization to protect us from ourselves. During that in between period, the Army was given the mission of attempting to protect both Yellowstone and Yosemite. Like most missions the Army received, they were underfunded, under equipped, and undermanned. They did, however, do the best they could to protect these amazing areas. Many Americans saw these new National Parks as areas for economic exploitation. If it wasn’t for many individuals working long and hard for the establishment of the National Park Service, it is very likely we would not be able to enjoy the parks we have today. Stephen Mather and Horace Albright were the two primary individuals who secured the establishment of the National Park Service. Ken Burns talks about these two individuals in his documentary and there are also a few books that do a great job telling the story (Creating the National Park Service: The Missing Years and The Birth of the National Park Service: The Founding Years, 1913-33).
The National Parks exist for our enjoyment. Generally that enjoyment manifests itself in some type of hiking, camping, fishing, watching for wildlife, or learning about history. This interaction between Park and citizen can be passionate, emotional, revitalizing, inspirational, and an educational experience.
With all that being said, I was a bit surprised to hear stations making contacts for NPOTA locations like it was a contest. Each NPOTA location is identified by a letter-number combination. No discussion of where they actually were. No description, no discussion. It is a bit sad to see there is a Leader Board – which only facilitates looking at NPOTA as a contest rather than an actual celebration.
I also wonder how these activations are impacting those non-amateur radio enthusiasts who are visiting a NPOTA site. Is this putting amateur radio in the best light?
Are these NPOTA activations promoting the National Park Service or showcasing Amateur Radio to the public?
If so, how?
What would Stephen Mather and Horace Albright think about NPOTA?
It will be interesting to see how NPOTA progresses over the coming weeks and months.
Guys who build stuff
Jim was putting out all of about 2 Watts to his antenna, but it was enough to garner him a 569 report from me. His signal was a little chirpy and a tiny bit raspy, but it was still pleasant to listen to and fully copyable. Shortly after our QSO, Jim e-mailed me the above photo. I know how satisfying it is to build a kit and have it work. I can only imagine how much more satisfying it must be to build something from scratch and have it work. I'm not the greatest scratch builder, but the few times I have and have had the finished product work were enough to make the ol' shirt buttons pop.
Another friend who is into building from scratch is my good buddy, Bob W3BBO from Erie, PA. As mentioned before, Bob is my Ham Radio mentor, and I've learned so much from him that I don't even know where to begin. Here are some photos of a series of regen receivers that he's been homebrewing.
Now does he do nice work, or what? Very nice work, indeed! I know that Bob has been conversing with Dave AA7EE, who's listed on the blog roll to the right. As far as I'm concerned, Dave's one of the Master Builders. His creations come out looking so good as to be museum pieces, in my humble opinion.
I wish I had an nth of the talent that these guys have. My creations always seem to come out looking more like something Dr. Frankenstein would have created. Functional, maybe, but definitely not pleasant to look at.
This afternoon, I worked three more NPOTA stations:
AC9FL - SSB - TR55 - Ice Age National Scientific Reserve
N4MJ - CW - BF04 - Fort Donelson National Battlefield
KS4YT - SSB - NP30 - Hot Springs National Park
Sadly, my SSB pileup breaking skills are nowhere near my CW pileup breaking skills. It's going to be interesting to see if they improve as the year progresses.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
New Year’s Day
I got on for a bit last night for SKN. I don't know if it was just bad band conditions with the remnants of that CME lingering; or perhaps it was my atrocious bug fist. I made no contacts last night.
During the day today, I did a bit better. I worked five different NPOTA activations (6 QSOs):
N8XX - TR04 - North County National Scenic Trail
W1BXY - NS76 - Weir Farm National Historic Sight
NC8IN - NS55 - Ninety Six National Historic Sight
NR3P - SS01 - Assateague Island National Seashore
KK4ZUU - BP02 - Mnasassas National Battlefield Park
K7UPJ - NS55- Ninety Six National Historic Sight
I just realized now that I worked NS55 twice. Basically, I was dial twiddling, working the ones I could hear decently. There were a few others, but QSB was so bad on 20 Meters at times that I bypassed a few, thinking conditions would get better. They didn't, and going back to try and work those again, I found them to be gone. Sometimes the Propagation Princess is a cruel mistress!
Only N8XX and NR3P were CW, though. I had to break out the microphone and resort to SSB for the others. As Yoda would say, "A disturbing trend in The Force, I sense".
As mentioned in an earlier post, the 2016 NJQRP Skeeter Hunt will be featuring NPOTA - but let that be just a foot note. I would hope that a lot of you who read this blog regularly will step up the plate and activate NPOTA entities using CW (and QRP).
Remember, it doesn't have to be an elaborate set up, with multi ops and crazy antenna installations that last all day. This NPOTA program was tailor made for portable QRP ops! Go to one of the entities, throw a wire into a tree, or perhaps break out the Buddistick, Buddipole, Alex Loop - what have you. Get on the air for a few hours and hand out some contacts!
Also, remember that this is a year long celebration. There were a bumper crop of NPOTA activations on the air today. It seems that everyone wanted to be active on "Day One", but there are 365 days left (this is a Leap Year, don't forget). So get out there and have some fun. That's what this is all about - going outdoors, setting up and having some fun.
This is OUR specialty, guys! Let's show them how it's done!
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Skeeter Hunt – NPOTA News
First - The NJQRP Skeeter Hunt for 2016 is moving from the second Sunday in August to the third. So please mark Sunday, August 21st on your calendar for this year's Skeeter Hunt. There are two reasons for this. The most important is that yours truly has an outstanding monthly commitment each 2nd Sunday of the month. That's the Sunday I go help out at the soup kitchen in the next town over. I kind of blew that off the past couple of Augusts, and that's not right. There are some things more important than Amateur Radio, and this is one of those.
But hey, the organizer shouldn't go AWOL, right? (That's how I feel, anyway). So I have moved it back a weekend to the third Sunday in August, where it shall occur forever more. Another added benefit is that this makes the spacing between Flight of the Bumblebees, the Skeeter Hunt and QRP Afield and the Peanut Power Sprint a bit more even.
Second - I have gotten blessing from Sean Kutzko KX9X to incorporate NPOTA into the NJQRP Skeeter Hunt this year. Is that COOL or what? I'm not exactly sure how it's going to all work out. Maybe bonus points for activating an NPOTA unit for the Hunt - or possibly some special "memento" for activating an NPOTA unit during the Hunt. I'll have to ruminate on that one for a bit - but there's time.
Third - On a personal level, Sean announced some new NPOTA units the other day. This was a biggie for me, because in the Northeast, the Washington - Rochambeau Historical Trail was added. This is the route taken by General Rochambeau's French forces and General Washington's Continental forces as they both marched on towards the siege at Yorktown, which all but brought the American victory in the Revolutionary War.
The Washington - Rochambeau Historical Trail is within a stone's throw from my house - literally. To make this situation even better, there is the Frazee house located on the trail in Scotch Plains, NJ - the next town over. Rather than try and explain the significance of the Frazee house in my own words - allow me to post something from the official Website.
"As the legend holds, after the Battle of Short Hills, General Cornwallis and his troops passed by the house while marching toward the Watchung mountains, located a few miles to the north. Known to the locals as a prolific baker, Aunt Betty was baking bread at the time. Hungry and tired, the troops smelled the bread and Cornwallis approached her stating, "I want the first loaf of bread that next comes from that oven." Betty is said to have replied, “Sir, I give you this bread through fear, not in love.” Evidently impressed by her courage, Cornwallis is said to have stated, “Not a man in my command shall touch a single loaf.” While history offers evidence that Betty lived in the house and did, indeed, bake bread, the story of the actual conversation is not authenticated by primary source documents. The words allegedly spoken by the principals are found in the earliest authoritative source on the subject, F.W. Ricord's History of Union County, page 513, which is one of the sources cited in the National Register of Historic Places filing that led to the Frazee House being placed on the Register."
I'll have to look onto getting permission to operate from the property that the house is on. If that's not obtainable, there are plenty of other locations that can be operated from on the Trail, right in my local area. In fact, right in front of the Ashbrook Golf Course, is a monument to The Battle of Short Hills.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
LHS Episode #157: Canada Goes Dark
Hello, everyone! Welcome to the latest installment of Linux in the Ham Shack. Today your hosts discuss a new, incredibly inexpensive single-board computer, an ARRL contest slated to last all of 2016, politics vs. emcomm, a re-written DOS-based contest logger and much, much more. Thanks as always for tuning in and we hope you have a safe and happy holiday season.
73 de The LHS Crew
National Parks On The Air
From the ARRL: “Throughout 2016, Amateur Radio will be helping the National Park Service celebrate their 100th anniversary. Hams from across the country will activate NPS units, promote the National Park Service and showcase Amateur Radio to the public.”
This should be an exciting event for me. This past summer I got to enjoy some extended travels through a few of our national parks (visited a total of 5). This coming summer I am planning the same but hopefully am going to be able to visit even more.
While I do not intend to conduct any extended activations, I do plan on getting onto the HF bands from my mobile while I am at the parks.
I am getting closer to locking in my summer travel’s calendar. Most parks start taking reservations at six months out… just about there.
ARRL is already selling quite a bit of National Parks On The Air (NPOTA) swag. One item that I have ordered is the NPOTA map, which I’ll post in the room where I will do my trip planning.
I will need to think through how I cam going to do my logging. For QSL cards, I can use postcards from the park and stamp them with each park’s National Park Passport stamp.
