About Me

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Welcome to my little piece of the cyberworld. I am an Amateur Extra Class ham radio operator from Kentucky. In addition to ham radio, other interests include paddling kayaks and canoes, camping, flyfishing, shooting and photography...I am a major Jimmy Buffett fan (fans are known as Parrotheads). But, location, work and finances sort of got in the way of being a beach bum as a career. I am also an animal lover and have several pets. I also have a Facebook page at steve.kj4kki.

Monday, August 15, 2011

This Week's Progress

Well, progress has been made...  I finished my standoff with clamps, pulleys, water-proofing, etc.  I borrowed a safety harness from a buddy (my rope rescue harness from the 80s doesn't quite fit anymore).  Another buddy will help me from the top of my roof, while I'm 40 feet in the air.  Anyway, once that is done, I can run the wires and tune the 80m OCF.  It should outperform my 20m vee by a good margin (I hope).

I'm hoping to get that done by this weekend, as it will be Lighthouse/Lightship Weekend.  I'd like to make some contacts.

In other news, I tried out my EndFedz 20m.  Haven't run it through its paces yet, but it seemed to do well.  I got some QSL cards during the past week or so.  Today, I got 3 cards.  N7LE Central Oregon DX Club, K1MQ from Rocky Hill, CT, and W5WAZ for the Maritime Net check in on 14.300 MHz.  That was the first time I've ever checked in on it.  Sounded interesting though and I'll try to catch it again.

Some other cards from the past couple of weeks include SP4XQN from Poland, PD5DB in The Netherlands, and S51ZZ in Slovenia.  I'm happy to get a card from W4LEX, from Museum Ships Weekend aboard the USS Lexington.

Anyway, don't forget about trying to get a lighthouse this weekend.