High Mountain Ham Radio Adventure

Beach Boys Amateur Radio Club members DRR, QDH, and PE enjoyed ham radio adventure atop High Mountain Road in San Luis Obispo County. Picture one is DRR at the Bencher Paddles logging IOTA contest stations. Picture two is QDH working a few Eu stations on 15m this afternoon using his Yaesu FT450 into a quarter wave, ground mounted vertical. Picture three is our north by northeast take off while picture four is our south by southeast take off from High Mountain Road.

Quote of the day delivered by PE, "He is one bar short of a full signal."

Ham radio is shackadelic!

QDH & DRR Day Expedition

It is Saturday and ham radio fanatics are waking up all across the country. Some listening for and log ST0R while others chat on their local repeaters and others are operating high frequency for the first time.

We are leaving for High Mountain Road in less than an hour. Local weather is shaping up as sunny and warm. Local high frequency conditions have improved as  SFI soars into triple digits. Local very high frequency conditions unknown however my transmitting frequency on 6m is 50.090 thru 50.095 through the day. The magic band is due at least along the west coast?

Turn on, Tune Up, and Operate! 

Beach Boys QDH & DRR Plan Day Expedition

QDH and DRR are planning a day expedition to the peak of High Mountain Road in San Luis Obispo County on Saturday. Our focus is 6m, the magic band, with high frequency operation planned for twenty meters, conditions willing of course. Antennas include one 3L yagi (6m), one moxon 2L (6m), and a dipole. Wireless sets include one Yaesu FT450 and one Yaesu FT100. Modes of operation are SSB and CW.

6m CW operating frequency is 50.095 and SSB operating frequency to be determined.

Ham radio is stellar fun!

Five Cities DXer TK Bags The Rhino ST0R

Congratulations TK! DXCC honor roll experience meets heavy metal in the sky mixed with Alpha juice resulting in ST0R in the logbook for the da' kine in Nipomo. A job well done considering it's the first few days of a major DXpedition.

This morning, after brewing my first cup of java then turning on the wireless, I connected a flat screen monitor to my Acer notebook. I'm totally digging the flexibility of a second screen in the shackadelic because I can watch SpotCollector while DXView with maiden fields runs on another. It's off the hook.

I'm leaving in an hour for tower maintenance at SL's QTH and best to all those chasing the rhino signal out of Southern Sudan.

Ham radio can be shackadelic.