Off the Random Wire (Week 6): Empire Strikes Back

The life of low-power, low-profile amateur radio contesting @ 25 watts? My random wire antenna drew serious attention like the power generators on planet Hoth. The home owner's association grimaced at KA3DRR's wooden mast. I engaged the entire board in conversation as they busily jotted notes. Basically, amateur radio is slipping from the American consciousness as a valuable community resource. Perhaps the warden in Cool Hand Luke said it best, "What we have here is a failure to communicate."

The rebellion forced to close shop on Hoth moves to the B-plan. Frustration gripped me. This is not about standing wave ratio, proper filtering of radio frequency interference, or software glitches. This is an amateur radio operator pursuing his radiosport bliss.

Real estate aesthetics is the rule of the dense urban land. Location and view at least from my perspective is everything.

In contrast, I recall the lore years of the late 70s, when one could put up an antenna without repercussion. Perhaps association regulations are a localized phenomena specific to coastal California. View spoilage and other factors drive the intent of our association. I recognize the needs of the many outweigh the need of one especially in population pressured California.

When given lemons make lemonade. KA3DRR reframed frustration into a challenge. My goal is continued radiosport activity. How will one accomplish the goal? Rethink possibilities. Look at the box again then step outside the box.

I called a team huddle with my girlfriend. Certainly, we want to maintain a 'good' relationship with the association board and property management. I want to maintain a 'good' relationship with my girlfriend. Solution? KA3DRR looks for new antenna territory within the fenced property of our condo. Options fell away like search droids for example, no permanent fixtures attached to the unit, no roof mounted antenna of any type, or outside wiring. Does one sense the breath of Darth Vader?

If one cannot go horizontal then one goes vertical.

KA3DRR's mission name is Project Vertical. An airmen can retire from the Air Force but the Air Force never leaves the airmen. In addition, the project is another teaching tool because my understanding of electrical principles is limited.

My candidate vertical is the Hustler 5-BTV namely for its positive performance feedback and budget friendly price. Other candidate verticals are 1.) Hy-Gain AV-14AVQ and, 2). the Cushcraft MA5V however the cons outweighed the pros when compared against the Hustler 5-BTV. Further recommendations and suggestions welcomed.

Well, this is the life of operating low-power, low-profile. On the other hand, I operated a portion of CQ WPX CW and that's another article, till then.

73 from the shack.

P.S. Thursday Night Madness still continues because if Luke Skywalker can then KA3DRR can.

Stadium Earth

CQ WPX CW 2007

Just Operate

Off the Random Wire (Week 5)

Road trip weekend on Highway 1 too Big Sur for a wedding. One travels through Morro Bay, Cambria, San Simeon, Ragged Point, Gorda, and Pacific Valley before entering eclectic Big Sur. Each town along the route requires at least a day to thoroughly capture its spirit. The winding climb to Big Sur keeps any driver focused. However, one can daydream between the many hairpin curves and sheer drop offs.

I did between pristine ocean views where para gliders roamed above and surfers plied mushy conditions on the big blue Pacific.

My girlfriend asked as the car drifted a little toward the white line, "What's wrong with you?"

I replied, "It's the bug. Its got me."

Her retort, "Oh, you need more height?"

My explanation fell flat but we are crossing the bridge of understanding. The bug, at least from my perspective, is welcomed. It is not a nasty little creature like the ones from Starship Trooper. Indeed, the bug can be one's best parasite sharing the same appetite for operating under any conditions.

We arrived at our accommodations in downtown Big Sur. There really is no downtown among the redwoods that populate the steep ridges towering above. I noticed something amiss in the hotel room. Yes, for the first time in my life, neither a phone, television, or high speed Internet connection existed within. Wow, perfect conditions for the bug but first the wedding.

Admittedly, while the bride and groom exchanged vows my thoughts drifted, "What are band conditions like on 20-meters or 30-meters right now or CQ WPX CW is next Friday."

One gets that peculiar operating look especially in the eyes followed by a twitch between the thumb and forefinger. My girlfriend looked over and said, "It's the bug isn't it?"

Busted with no back paddling. We enjoyed the sights and sounds of Big Sur throughout the afternoon. If one ever gets to Big Sur check out Big Sur Roadhouse for dinner and the River Inn just below Apple Pie ridge for an all organic breakfast.

I squeezed in listening time on Sunday afternoon and called a few CQs on 20-meters thus satisfying the bug. Radio Dawg who spent the night at doggy day care napped next to the operating chair. Meanwhile, my girlfriend is beginning to understand the bug and its relationship to height.

My best to all operators keying up for CQ WPX CW this weekend. It is a great opportunity to satisfy one's best parasite while enjoying the fun of operating amateur radio under any conditions.

73 from the shack.

Jamie Dupree, NS3T

Thank you Jamie, NS3T for answering a few questions regarding Radio-sport dot Net - Your home for ham radio contest news.

Radio-sport dot Net, what about that?

"Scot - thanks for giving me the opportunity to talk about my new ham radio contesting web site, http://www.radio-sport.net/.

I have been a ham for over 25 years and almost all of that time I have been a contester. I really love the hobby and I want to see it grow. That's why I've been sort of puzzled in recent years to watch our hobby develop on the internet.

We have very useful sites for the contest community like the cq-contest and 3830 reflectors. The ARRL has made great strides with Logbook of the World and their on-line contest results. But no one is telling the story of our contests on a weekly basis. There was really nowhere to go in the days leading up to a big contest weekend to read anything up-to-date about that contest, or how others were preparing.

I've been grumbling about this for awhile and simply decided to do something about it - so I started radio-sport.net. As I say on the web site, my main goal each week is to tell the story of what contests are coming up, what happened the previous weekend and more - basically a "sports page" on ham radio contesting.

I want to write articles about strategy for big contests, VHF/UHF contesting, new results of contests, etc. I have also developed a rankings system to determine who is the #1 single op in the world. It uses the top ten results of 15 world wide contests, assigns points for those finishes (10 for first down to one point for 10th) and then crunches the numbers. W2GD is our first #1. He might be more well known as P40W.

The rankings have already produced some grumbling, but that's fine. I've always been intrigued that we have all these contests each week and yet there is little effort to find out who is "the best." It would be sort of like the NFL playing games each week, determining a winner and loser of those games, but there wouldn't be any overall standings to show who is the best."

Why the name radiosport?

"I wanted to use radiosport for the simple reason that we engage in competitions each week - they are much like sports in that there is strategy, head to head competition, rivalries and more.

I also think the term "sport" can attract people into contesting. Lots of people are competitive and I think that is what I want to emphasize more than anything else - the competition aspect of ham radio contests. What contests are this weekend - what happened last weekend - who is prepping for the next big contest...that's my focus.

Look at my stories previewing the WPX CW. I found out that the defending single op champ is going to change categories this year and won't be seeking individual honors. Several other top ten finishers also won't be in the hunt this year.

There is nowhere on the Internet, nowhere on any reflector, nowhere in the world that you could get such pre-contest information except at radio-sport.net."

What can we expect from Radio-sport dot Net?

"Most importantly, I want the site to read like a sports page. What is happening now in the radio sport world. For example, the Potomac Valley Radio Club has decided to forfeit the November Sweeps takes gavel it won in the ARRL club competition in 2006 over the Northern California Contest Club.

That's a real story about contesting that we should be reading now and not six months later when it gets mentioned in QST. There are quotes from the presidents of the PVRC and NCCC and you can see the letter that the PVRC President wrote.

In coming weeks, we will focus on the ARRL June VHF contest, the IARU and more. I want this site to have more than just a W/VE focus, so you will notice that I am trying to interview many contesters from the rest of the world as well - I think that is very important...and the reaction from those hams has been very positive.

There will be more articles when the big contests are happening, the ARRL DX, CQ WW, WPX type tests. Then I will do more in-depth articles about strategy. There will be a couple of those on the site before WPX CW.

I want to use the site to report the news of ham radio contesting and to generate more excitement about it. I hope people look at the ratings and say to themselves, "I can make top ten in that category and get some points in the World Rankings" and then they go out and do just that.

In your email to me, you called this a "groundbreaking moment" for radiosport. I really agree with that. We don't have anything like this on the Internet - or in magazine form. I think this could be really interesting. Whether the greater ham radio community agrees, that will be the question.

I was in Dayton for one night and met up with a number of contesters at the Crowne Plaza. I was really surprised that so many seemed excited by the prospects for the web site. Some other more established contesters seemed a bit underwhelmed. Maybe the Old Guard doesn't realize that change is needed."

Any plans for CQ WPX CW?

"My personal plans for WPX CW will be to work a few hours here and there - nothing major. I have two small kids (3 and 9 months) and it's a little hard to put in an all-out effort. I might spend sometime on 80 and 40 meters at night to hand out the NS3 prefix, since there aren't too many of those active in this contest.

I do hope to be a bit more active in the June VHF contest, as I finally got some antennas up on my chimney last month for 6, 2, 432 and 1296."

Energetic, compelling, determined, and groundbreaking that is NS3T at http://www.radio-sport.net/.

Thank you Jamie for your thoughtful commentary.

73 from the shack.

Reference:
J. Dupree (personal communication, May 19, 2007)

What about Radio-sport dot Net?

Jamie Dupree, NS3T, received his novice ticket in 1981 at 18-years of age while attending the University of Florida. He gained valuable operating experience at W4DFU the Gator Amateur Radio Club. Jamie credits W4DFU and the 1983 running of the CQ WW SSB event as his definitive radiosport moment.

Furthermore, Jamie soloed W4DFU to a sixth-place U.S. finish in the single-operator, high-power category of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) HF World Championship in 1984. He described his 1984 radiosport experience at the Gator Amateur Radio Club as, "Very cool."

Recently, Jamie operated the '07 CQ WPX SSB event. He produced 351 -Qs in an all out 80-meter endeavor. His budget friendly antenna configuration as stated by Jamie, "I have no tower, just a lot of wire in the trees..."

Jamie is passionate about radiosport and from this foundation a groundbreaking website http://www.radio-sport.net/ was born.

Catch my chat with Jamie Dupree, NS3T about Radio-sport dot Net this Wednesday.

73 from the shack.