[AK-VHF] AK-VHF Net: 29 Jan - 146.52 FM

Mon Jan 31 19:30:00 EST 2022

Brandon,

Aww yes - experience the teacher!  My eight years volunteering as a ham 
on the Iditarod as a ham (1982-1988) did that.  After a few times I 
developed workable antennas and a good check-list for packing up what I 
needed (flown 3-times into the Alaska Range staying in a one-room cabin).

A compass is handy.  If you have cell coverage some cell phones will 
work as a compass.  Then there is the old backwoods use of the position 
of the sun (if sky is clear).  In my old backpacking years I took along 
USFS maps which one could identify mountains or lakes, etc.  Of course 
there were usually well defined trails in the seasons I hiked.  I did 
only day trips on xcountry skiis (nice warm condo at night).

How long is your vertical?  A 30-foot telescoping pole is useful (but 
not to pack in with).  Those stackable 5-foot fiberglass poles might be 
the solution (but would require six).

I used a wire dipole cut for the lowest band and often only 10-12 foot 
off ground.  I cut the wires at the point to make shorter dipoles and 
used a short piece of 1/8-inch nylon cord as insulator with alligator 
clip on the short jumper to connect for lower band.  I can see a 
80/40/20m/6m dipole made this way.  Of course you need trees or poles to 
string it,  No radials needed and only path under the dipole to stomp 
out with snowshoes.  Tuner might be useful (or not); I never had one.

I did take 2m-SSB/FM with yagi on some of my trips where 2m would reach 
another checkpoint (over 70-miles in some cases, but I had 150w amp). 
Of course a ski plane flew me in so I could pack more than one can carry 
on their back (2-3 boxes), 600w gen & gas, sleeping bag and pad.

I was almost late for our psk31 sked and so no trace of any signals. 
Didn't operate 0n HF as I shoveled snow in the afternoon.  FT8 sure 
works weak signals well!  :-)

I got WL7PM (Homer) on 3940 at S9+30 (he gave me S5) for the swap net at 
11am.  My inverted-V is 40-feet at the feed point and about 15-foot on 
the ends.  Kind of hard to do that on a hike-in scenario.

73, Ed - KL7UW

On 1/31/2022 1:30 PM, Brandon Clark via ak-vhf wrote:
> Hello group,
> 
> The trip went pretty well, although I ran into more issues than I expected. To start, when I got to Shem Pete Lake I got North and East mixed up (lazy routefinding on my part, and fatigue), so I set up camp with a sizeable hill to the south-east. That blocked a lot of lower-48 signals that I needed for the contest, and prevented good VHF/UHF reception to Wasilla.
> 
> Also, right before the event I put together a 2m/70cm j pole and didn't have time to test it. When I hooked it up for the Saturday net there was a high SWR issue, so I had to switch to a backup 5/8 wave that didn't give me nearly good enough reception. I could hit the repeaters well enough, and chatted up a few people on there, but repeater contacts don't count.
> 
> My HF antenna was a new one that I built, based around an LDG 4:1 unun. Electrically it is a non-resonant vertical antenna, utilizing a tuner to work multiple bands. The 4:1 unun brings the impedance down to within range of my autotuner. It worked well, but I needed a taller support for it than the fiberglass fishing pole that I brought along. The radiating element was strung out at about 45 degrees, instead of vertical. I also should have spread out the ground wires a little more, but I got lazy and didn't want to trudge out a whole lawn worth of snow to set up the ground wires. (I have a plan to address that next year.)
> 
> Also (and very surprisingly) the tuner couldn't match that antenna on the 6 meter band. I couldn't get in on there to try PSK31 with the group. Goes to show: always be sure your gear is adequately tested before going afield.
> 
> Anyway, WDF contacts were pretty light with the bad location, minimal VHF capability, and hill to the south-east. Nonetheless, I managed to wrangle a few contacts on 20 meters using PSK31. With my compromised antenna setup and the tree-covered hill in the way I decided to fall back on a strictly-POTA activation, and ran FT8 most of the day. I ended up with about 50 contacts in total, covering the US, Canada, Japan, and Asiatic Russia. Not bad for compromised antennas, portable gear, and a campsite in the middle of nowhere.
> 
> Photos of the activation can be viewed at:
> https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=kZRP1cXZmjCIS6JWRP4K2O9hRuvzFbGRc4qV
> 
> The link above also has a map of the grids I worked. In a few weeks I'll be putting together a full write-up of the activation on my website. I also got a ton of videos from camp and the trail, so I'm looking into getting those available on Vimeo around the same time. Stay tuned.
> 73,
> 
> Brandon Clark, KL7BSC
> https://brandonclarklabs.com/
> 
> Sent with [ProtonMail](https://protonmail.com/) Secure Email.
> 
> ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
> 
> On Saturday, January 29th, 2022 at 21:13, Ed Cole kl7uw at acsalaska.net wrote:
> 
>> Net Report:
>>
>> 146.52 FM (noise was S4/5 which is unusually high):
>>
>> KL7XJ - S5 on yagi, S7 on vertical
>>
>> KL7HJ - S9 on yagi*, S5 on vertical
>>
>> KL6M - S7 on yagi, S5 on vertical
>>
>> -
>>
>> off back of the beam
>>
>> 223.50 FM
>>
>> KL7XJ - 2bars
>>
>> KL6M - 2bars
>>
>> Never activated 6m SSB because talked too long on 223.50
>>
>> attempts to reach KL7BSC/Nancy Lake area unsuccessful at 10:45
>>
>> decided to shovel snow in afternoon (knee deep) so did no more ham radio.
>>
>> 73, Ed - KL7UW
>>
>> On 1/28/2022 8:40 PM, Ed Cole wrote:
>>
>>> Being the last Saturday of January the net will be held on 146.52 FM
>>>
>>> starting at 9:30 am. I will also monitor 223.50 FM.
>>>
>>> We have a new member (93) to the Group, Craig-KL7HG from Sterling that
>>>
>>> is a new ham with a dual-band HT (no external antenna, yet). I met
>>>
>>> Craig for lunch on Thursday to give him some info on our club & net and
>>>
>>> some general info for getting started in ham radio. He may try to check
>>>
>>> in on 2m, tomorrow. KL7GRM or KL7RHJ may hear him.
>>>
>>> We will dove-tail 6m-SSB on 50.125 after the net at 10:30 and at 10:45 I
>>>
>>> will be attempting to work KL7BSC/KL7 on 50.250/psk31 in the Nancy Lake
>>>
>>> area who is working the WinterFieldDay (WFD). He will be using an HF
>>>
>>> vertical on 6m with 100w. Brandon has posted his plans to the list a
>>>
>>> few days ago.
>>>
>>> 73, Ed - KL7UW
>>>
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>>>
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