V44KF

Tempus Fugit. It was only like yesterday I sat down to pencil an update, so we may really be into the last days. Some time ago I read a book by Og Mandino, maybe it was 'the greatest salesman", and I vaguely recall one of the the things that we should seek to do is to "Live each day as if it is our last". Well, I am a senior now so Og don't have to tell me that again, I am not wasting my time, I am on the move 24x7. Of course some days you could feel like s**t, and need a double portion, but I am not taking steroids, Cialis or Viagra, because I find that CLO and PRAYER works for me. CLO as in Cod Liver Oil. For the last week I have been totally pain free, [thank GOD] feeling 17 again, and out in the hot Caribbean sun working on the vertical antennas. Prayer everyone should know about, especially in these "hard" times. To update on everything over the last few weeks will take more than 3000 word and I am practicing to keep things small, neat and econo...

Today will be indelibly etched in the minds of some Caribbean folks for ever. Things like hurricanes impact some people unto death, but for some of us it is a total non issue. I am not one of the non issue subscribers, I am somewhere in the middle, the supposedly safe zone. When you and your community come under hurricane warning or watch it is a serious matter and only those of us who live through the experience know how it really is. There are other severe weather occurrences like tornado and tsunami, but they are not in the same category as hurricanes and storms. It is said that in our recent hurricanes the presence of tornadoes were suspect, and I believe that would add another dimension of destruction and violence to our already killer type hurricanes. I am not waxing on hurricane Tomas which passed through the Windward Islands today, October 30, because the reports are available on line everywhere. I picked up on the severe weather in the South Caribbean on Facebook an...

It is hard to believe that another month has zipped by so quickly, but this time I can see how and where it went. We must be in the end times, even though that is being said now for the last couple hundred years. I recently stumbled upon this link while searching for the original story to make a point. I am flabbergasted, but not loosing any sleep over it. Follow the link and draw your own conclusion. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/06/01/1054406077856.html Hurricane Earl passed North of V4 land on 29/30 August 2010. Since it was not going to be a direct hit on the island I elected to leave my 40-meter vertical with 3 nylon guys up in the air, for that ultimate test. After a few hours into the wind I was beginning to feel sorry for the belly-dancing vertical. Some time during course of the next morning my neighbour called to inform that one of my antennas was down. A few hours later when it was safe to check I found that the nylon guy ropes were still intact, but the 31-foot ve...

No storm or hurricane for this Independence celebrations is most welcome. The stormy season was already here when Independence came along, and since it is not going anywhere, nor away, we just have to live with the weather and integrate as best we can. I believe that the people and the Country have adapted, and the weather does not unduly spoil their joy. Worst case scenario we have a storm on our shores and the celebrations have to be cancelled, but that has only happened once to my knowledge. The real thing about Independence for most people may be the holidays, the partying and the lime, and the adverse weather helps by adding more days [off from work] for merriment. This is just a Caribbean way of life and I love it. The partying begins today even though Independence day is 19th September.  The 16th is National Heroes day, a public holiday. You may be lucky to catch some folks working hard on the 17th and 18th since the 19th is another public holiday. I think the Labour laws ...

... and the winner is Flex Radio ... with a 40-meter collinear vertical. Over the past week I find myself playing with my Flex radio and rather enjoying it .... and up to now it has not costed me one cent. In other words, I am enjoying my Flex radio for free, and while doing that I am also introducing and demonstrating this technology to other open minded hams. I don't want this to sound like our hams are not progressive, knowledgeable or open to the technology, but as easy as change and adaptation may be for some of us, it is certainly not so for others, especially those who may not be daily impacted by some aspect of technology. I have worked with technology since 1968 so I am extremely comfortable with the Flex radio ... and even more so since the designers have not skimped on its performance. Let me back up and explain that my FREE Flex radio refer to the PowerSDR software, and irrespective of which hardware package I ultimately use later, today I can play with, access and eva...

I am still out of a decent transceiver on the operating table. The Drake TR4CW is decent, but not decent enough for me to spend more than 15 minutes on the air chatting with my local ham radio buddies, during which time I have to touch up the dial and bring it back on frequency at least once, maybe twice. I agree with my ham radio neighbour that if I switch the radio on early it will be steady on frequency when I am ready, but I will also have a steady increase in paying for electricity which I am not using but for heating up a rig. That I do not agree is a wise thing to do. I am looking forward to the Kenwood TS940SAT being on the bench shortly, maybe for the long holiday weekend, so I can justify staying home and talking to some new friends on the other side of the world if we can find the propagation. On a long holiday weekend like this it would be extremely nice if we had a clubhouse where we could congregate and work some DX too. Club house as in the ham radio Society Head Quarter...

The TS940SAT is now outside awaiting pickup and subsequent maintenance. The hammer has failed to resuscitate the receiver on the last few attempts and I had no choice but to pronounce the T940SAT dead to ham radio. A couple days ago V44KO dropped by with his antenna checking devices, and that forced me to remove the Kenwood from the operating table and replace it with the Drake TR4CW . After a few minutes and antenna connector cleaning we had audio. If you had told me that after 10 years plus you could just take up a Drake transceiver, plug it into 240 volts ac, connect an antenna, and it would function just like today was the tomorrow of ten years ago, I would tell you "you got to be making joke", but that is the reality, and maybe someone can explain the "why" of it to me. So why did V44KO bring his modern antenna checking devices? I don't trust the built in Kenwood SWR meter 100%, but I am still guided by it. My old Heathkit HM-102 meter does not agree with ...

This was the comment made by V44KW at the conclusion of the exercise last evening. We were at that time in the Red Cross HQ building on Horsford's Road which housed the EOC and emergency station for the Basseterre communications district. I did not hear any dissenting comments, neither did I hear any verbal response to acknowledge that anyone else in the group heard his comment. For my part I agree, and now that I think about it, it is a great idea, but it does not have to be the full blown operation with establishment of the National network, etc. I also got to thinking that maybe we could use this platform to launch weekly DXing and operating sessions, either from the Red Cross HQ building [until our site is ready] or from portable and mobile locations. Weekend evenings may be most convenient for other hams, but any and every evening is okay for me as I am still unemployed. I have been ready for this operation since last year when my portable top and bottom loaded vertical antenn...

Gosh!!! I must be slipping ... it's like a whole month between blogs, but then I did not promise to be on a roster or a schedule. I am not one of those people who create the news to make the news, like buss your face with a hammer so that I can scoop and report on it, that is desperation journalism, not that it does not happen, but surely not in our Caribbean ... so you have to be careful with the information sources these days, all of them are not decent and honest, like once ago. I understand that my comments last month seemed to cause a ruckus and hams were calling for me on two meters one evening to either clarify or verify or explain, what I wrote in plain language. I did not write in any code, but I now get the impression through the grapevines that everyone is quite clear, and may be in agreement, of sorts, with what I said and what I did not say. The facts are UNDENIABLE, indelibly written in history, but some people have a hard time with it because the word POLITICS may be...

I just came from the restroom and you know how you sometimes get ideas when you are in there. I don't want to call it inspiration but if you think that what it is I will back you up. Actually, my flash came when I was under the shower and the water was slightly below body temperature for mid morning. I was thinking photography not ham radio, so I don't know where the flash came from, and since it seems to be a truism I will say a few word, very few, on this. Some people have a way of wanting to tell others what they must do and say, and could do and say, and I am not into that foolishness. Every person has a right to do and say what they wish, anytime and any place, but if in so doing they violate any laws and bye laws, to which a penalty is attached, following any recourse that was taken by those who felt 'hurt' or mischievous, you can either suck it or appeal the judgement, if it was legally obtained. The long and short is, if you don't like it lump it or deal wi...

WOW!! It is just a week short of a month since my last ham radio blog, and time seems to be just zipping by, and I must be slowing down real fast ... but no, it can't be me because I am always right and perfect, so it has to be you and everybody else. I learn from today's youths that anything that's wrong in the world is your fault, it can't be me ... even when you catch them with the cookie in hand. Some world we live in nowadays, but one day when they get old like us, they will suddenly awake and make the discovery, and new meaning may be given to certain words like radical. When these youths get hot under the collar, they hot, too hot for Jerry Springer's show. Every now and then I see mine take off, and "like a dirt bike" is no longer an appropriate description, maybe "like a backhoe, bulldozer and dump truck" is more accurate. Anyway, when thing are normal we still love them, we have no choice, we brought them into the world ... even though...

Today I saw my first Flex 5000A on eBay, and I just had to lay down a bid on it. There were also a couple Elecraft K2 and Ten Tec Omni 6 rigs. I suspect that even though things are tight some hams are not letting go their top-of-the-line Ten Tec Orion or Elecraft K3 transceivers, until it is absolutely necessary. Well, I wouldn't either, something else would have to go first, second and third, but not my ham radios nor my fishing tackle. I know that some happy hams will be camping out on eBay, on the coop, and I myself might loose some sleep watching the auction minutes counting down. My Kenwood TS-940SAT is calling for maintenance again, so I am honoring the message about MTBF. I used to think that I was the only person who had been turned off by an unexpected, albeit unwarranted, response from a supplier for a ham rig made in Japan. I now find that I have friends with similar experiences, for the same brand of equipment [it is not Kenwood]. I will endorse the equipment for it...

GOD is good all the time. Some of us believe and some of us don't, but it is a personal thing and I am not getting into your business. On the other hand I can afford to share my business as by doing so it may help someone to better find their way, even if it is only one, I have won. Humbly, I believe that I am making headway, but even if I am not, doing this keeps me out of trouble, and trust me, trouble is running wild in these days. You see them "petite jeune filles", they are trouble, not just in Arima, but all over. Anyway, I have my ham radio for entertainment and more importantly, to keep me focused. When seniors loose focus, it can be the beginning of the end, so, all you seniors and prospective seniors, [and youths don't work, if you live you will arrive too] don't ever loose it, find something to do and stay with it, forever, stay focused, and stop watching the girls suntanning on the beach ... Yesterday one of my ham radio buddies dropped by. We have be...

Well, at last everything is back to normal at this QTH, as far as the impact on ham radio over the last few months is concerned, given all the excitement surrounding the general elections, the winning 4-peat Government and subsequent swearing in ceremony for the newly elected constituency representatives on Sunday 7th February. The national political action is not over but its impact on my own local ham radio is done. So I am picking it up where I left off last year. The 18-foot length of aluminum tubing is already mounted on the mast. You may recall earlier I was going for the option to re-install the single band 40-meter top and bottom loaded vertical dipole antenna. This is the first step towards my 2010 antenna experiments, that of phasing two top and bottom loaded vertical dipole antennas. The two masts are already about 30 plus feet apart, so that limits the number of phasing combinations and configurations. The vertical elements are only 1/8 wave tall, even though I prefer 1/4 ...

Over the last few weeks being pressed for time I blogged here and posted that content to the Verticals2 discussion group . Today this will work in reverse, and the forum post from earlier today follows ""Greetings again to all the fine members of the Verticals2 group. At last we are back to normal in the Federation of St Kitts and Nevis. The general elections are over and we still have the same government for another 5-years. It is a 4-peat. Though there is still some politics in the air everything is virtually normal, so ham radio down here can now continue where it left off a few years back. My brand of ham radio was not impacted by the local politics. I may be considered as a by product of the politics given my roots, but other hams got caught up in the fray, more like sucked in, but they should now be back to normal, even though they did not get the Government they tried for, and that is no reason to hold ham radio to ransom. So where do we go from here. I am of the view ...