PARC | Ham Radio

A very common question at any of the Playground Amateur Radio Club meetings, pile-ups or importune events is “What are you working on?”

It seems to come from any member, because everyone is looking for something interesting, potentially for their next project. I have even asked that question, of other members, when I hear snippets of conversation that pique my interest.

In the past year I have been asked the question several times and have not really had a good project to talk about. Not because I have not been busy or not looking for things that I wanted to work on, but mainly because I have been listening and taking notes and investigating, that is if you consider watching YouTube videos investigating. Yes, I have been looking for what I want my HAM radio experience to be.

Let me digress, I have had my license for over 25 years, but I came from a club in Birmingham that was very active in the weather warning scene. The club (BARC) had networked repeaters that covered the entire five county area that made up the Birmingham metro area. Lots of members that were active on the VHF bands at all hours of the day and night. I was content to be just one of the members and because of a job that kept me mobile most of the time, I was one of the Ratchet Jaw operators you found on the bands during the normal work day.

In 2013 I purchased a home in FWB to serve as a vacation home with the intent to retire there or at least in the area in the future. While I was working on the house trying to get it ready for that retirement day, I monitored the bands but was very disappointed because of the lack of traffic. I did make a few contacts and enjoyed having breakfast with a few of the operators that I met on the local repeater. Those were few and far between because I was still traveling back and forth to Birmingham for work. Of course, the restaurant, Mother Earth, closed and I lost contact with the few HAMs that I knew from this area.

When I retired in 2017 and moved to FWB full time I had lost interest in Amateur Radio and to downsize I sold my tower and all most all of my gear. I thought this area was void of radio activity.  Unfortunately, I had just not met the right people.

All of that changed when I connected with Bill, KQ4ATC, which lead to an invite to PARC’s field day, where I meet several operators and had a very good time. That activity earned an invite to Tech Night at the PARC club house and then to membership and then to that question, What are you working on? I did not really have a project to talk about.

That led me to ask myself, What do I want my HAM experience to be?

I became an active participant in the club, attended tech night, the business meetings and the swampfest, along with other club activities. I found that my interest in Amateur Radio was renewed and I started looking for what I wanted to do to enjoy this hobby.

I dusted off the old Icom IC 7000, built a LiFePo4 battery box, purchased a wolf river coil vertical antenna and started making contacts on 20 meters (chasing POTA) something that I had never done in the past. That was fun but, hearing the other club members discuss the projects that they were working on still left me with a feeling that I was not really embracing the experience yet.

Other members were creating things with 3D printers, experimenting with an assortment of antenna, incorporating digital modes of operating and then trying to bring the information to the club members at tech night. Wow, what a varied assortment of activities they were involved in. I started making notes in my little black book. I made list of components that were used in the various projects, websites for sources of the components and/or YouTube videos describing similar projects.

I would take my list to the hamfests, tailgates or swap meets that I attended. I ordered torriods, enameled wire, printed project boxes and began to build transformers, balum, ununs and chokes. By collecting the various parts and pieces an idea of a project that would allow me to expand my radio experience formulated in my mind. I wanted to build an antenna that would allow operation on the low bands that would work within the confines of my lot size and the HOA restrictions.

I assembled an antenna mast out of chain link fence gate post, used push-up antenna mast and 1” Lowe’s PVC pipe that combined to form a 30-foot base for an EFHW 40-10-meter antenna. This was installed in the back yard next to my storage shed. The 20-foot flag pole in the front yard anchored the other end of the 63.5-foot 18-gauge EFHW wire.  This arrangement did fit into the 38×150 foot lot size of my property and kept the antenna wire behind the front of the house.

The tuning process required raising and lowering the wire many times pulse adding a counterpoise and trying to compensate for the metal roof on the shed which is under the feed point of the antenna. Finally, after two days of tuning, an acceptable antenna SWR was achieved for the 40-10-meter bands and the IC 7000 was hooked to the coax and powered on. When the 40-meter band was selected the radio came alive with Net traffic at 7.185 LSB.

I was able to join the net and made 35 contacts on 40-meters, which I had never operated on before. Those contacts ranged from Wisconsin to Connecticut down the east coast to Virginia and even one in ST Augustine Florida, all within 20 minutes. I was operating mobile from a patio table on my deck, on an antenna that I built. This was quite an accomplishment for my first project build, made possible by the influence from the members of Playground Amateur Radio Club that renewed my interest in the core activities embraced by the HAM radio community, Experimentation and Implantation.

So, can I ask you, “What project are you working on?”