This week, I did make a few contacts on HF. I took a trip to Dallas and on the way home, I picked up two new counties southwest of Dallas. Now, I’m only missing like one county east of I-35 in Texas.

Outside of my travels, I have picked up a few Parks on the Air (POTA) stations on 20 meters while driving around town. I made a few in Albuquerque and Rio Rancho from the Crown Vic and a few in Socorro and Magdalena from the Malibu.

I checked into the Albuquerque SCAT Net a few times last week as well.

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This week, I took a trip from Rio Rancho, NM, down to Castroville, TX, to see the eclipse. Unfortunately, the skies were cloudy, but it still got dark, which was neat.

Along the way, I ran several counties, picking up three new ones. I missed one that I needed in West Texas, but I did get three new ones. I’m slowly chipping away at the counties I need. I will update the county map when I return home and get the contacts off my phone and into my logbook.

In my absence at NMT, the Tech Amateur Radio Association (TARA) was able to get a few things square with our budgeting. This was a relief, as I knew I would be out of town for the important meetings.

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I have not yet updated my logs from this week’s grand adventure, but I decided it was time to post on here anyway.

This week, I went to HamCation 2024 in Orlando with my father. He has been wanting to go for a while, and I have wanted to go, so this year, we made it happen.

HamCation was a blast. There was so much neat gear- I was thankful that I had flown, as I knew that anything I bought, I would have to haul back on the plane. I did not end up spending much money.

Vendors at HamCation

More Vendors

Tons of tailgaters

N1DUC and friends

Emergency communications trailer

Inside an emergency communications trailer

Another view inside an emergency communications trailer

Elaborate mobile radio setup

More from the same car

Another view

On Saturday, we drove over to Kennedy Space Center and looked at all the neat things there were to see there. I had never been there, but Dad had years ago. I will talk about this on my personal blog. In terms of radio, I was able to scrape together enough contacts for a park there, including my brother and my nephew. That’s the first time I’ve talked to them on the radio outside of New Mexico.

Rockets at KSC

Saturn V Rocket

On Sunday, we left HamCation and drove down to Miami. I ran a few counties along the way as I had no counties in southern Florida. Mostly, I stayed on 20 meters. I ran a small park for POTA and had a giant pileup. I had to cut it short so I could get back on the road, but I still made quite a few contacts there.

Fort Zachary Taylor on Key West

On Monday, we drove down to Key West. Neither of us had been there, so it was a lot of fun. I’ll post more about Key West on my personal blog, as I only made a few contacts while I was there. I ran a park there, and got the county, but didn’t have the pileup I did on Sunday.

On Tuesday, I had planned to run Miami-Dade and Broward, both of which I had missed, but I just ran out of time. We flew back and ended a great adventure.

Thanks, Dad! That was a lot of fun!

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I spent the last week in North Carolina. I brought along my Yaesu FT-857D, a small 3x magnet mount and my collapsible mobile antenna. I did not bring anything for VHF/UHF this time around, but instead focused on HF.

In North Carolina, I ran 20 meters and 40 meters, picking up 10 new counties, plus I made a few contacts in a county I had already ran in the past. I am pleased with how that went, as I don’t think I could have traveled much farther or picked up any more counties than I did, all things considered.

Outside of my travels to the east coast, I ran Socorro county, NM, on 12 meters and 17 meters yesterday, and picked up several contacts there as well. I was also able to check into the Albuquerque SCAT Net yesterday morning as well.

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I was quite active this weekend on amateur radio. I flew to Savannah, GA, and brought along my Yaesu FT-857D. I operated from several new counties in Georgia plus one in South Carolina. The highlight, however was operating from Fort Pulaski in Georgia. I made something like 48 contacts on Friday, just running the park. I had quite the pileup on 20 meters and then again on 15 meters.

Earlier today, I ran 10 meters on my Radio Shack HTX-10 from the Ranger. I picked up one new 10-10 number and made several other contacts. I worked NH, OH, and several other states as well as SK and Chile.

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I wasn’t very active on amateur radio this week on account of my trip to New York. However, once I arrived in New York, I rented a car and ran five new counties along Long Island and Staten Island. Overall, the run wasn’t pretty, and I only netted a few stations at each location. I tried running Parks on the Air and finding parks in each county, but I could never get more than a few contacts in each.

My rental car with the magnet mounted antenna on the front. I thought “3-sign, 73” was a good license plate for me, with my 3 call.

That having been said, my new mobile-ish setup seems to work. I have a very compact antenna that I was able to tune for 20 meters relatively easily. The magnets are probably not strong enough to run it mobile, but I would stop at each destination and put it back together.

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I made quite a few contacts on my return trip from Ohio. I ran new counties on 20 meters and 17 meters in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Kansas. I don’t know how many new counties or how many contacts, as I am still going through my voice recorder and logging contacts. When I have finished, I will post a few updates to this page.

I tried working my nephew and my brother on 17 meters, 20 meters and 40 meters, but was unable to hear them.

This weekend, I also played around in the ARRL Field Day contest. I only made a handful, ~20 or so contacts, but it was good to get in and compete.

Sunday night, I checked into the Caravan Club Net, but my radio kept powering off again, so I didn’t get to do much talking.

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I feel a lot better about the amateur radio bit. I went county hunting in central Ohio and picked up a few new contacts and counties. They were tough to get, based on the road network and the fact that I was driving through very slow Amish country, with bicycles and buggies, but it was worth it.

Today, I will continue my drive back to NM, but I will weave through southern OH, northern KY, and southern IN, and will run as many counties as I can along the way on 20 meters SSB.

I’m not sure which route I will take exactly, but I will be going south and then eventually west, meandering back to NM over the next few days.

Thank you for reading my post.

This week, I was really active on the radio, particularly on Wednesday and Thursday. I was on the east coast, and I brought radio equipment to run counties. I made ~60 or so contacts, picking up eight new counties in NC. I also ran my first lighthouse (Bodie Island, NC, USA-067) and a park whose name is escaping me.

I did lose my 20 meter antenna- it broke when I was taking it down to pack it up for flying back to New Mexico. I knew it was in bad shape and I realized the bottom inch was turning, but the top wasn’t. I will need to replace it- I almost didn’t bring it because I knew it was on its final hours.

On Sunday, I spent the day updating my logbooks. I haven’t updated Logbook of the World (LotW) yet, but I will soon. I did update DX4Win and my paper logs.

On Monday, I played on 10 meters, and made a contact or two.

Thank you for reading my post.

This week, I have been quite active on amateur radio. I drove from Rio Rancho, NM, to Wichita, KS, to Chicago, IL, to Wyandotte, MI.

On the first leg of this trip, I started out by making several 6 meter contacts. Then, I detoured slightly to operate from Moore, TX, which was the last county someone needed. We made the contact, so that was neat.

On the second leg of the trip, I ran several counties in Kansas and Missouri on 20 meters.

On the third leg of the trip, I ran several counties in Michigan on 20 meters.

Yesterday, I spent about an hour playing on the radio from my car in the hotel parking lot. I picked up a contact on 40 meters (and another county). I tried to give out the grid square on 6 meters, with no luck. Just for fun, I tried 2 meter SSB, and made one. It was across town, but it still counts!

I will update the graphics after I have updated my logbooks. Right now, I have audio recordings of my contacts (in two places…leaving them in only one is a bad idea, and I made that mistake once before!)

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