My 50th Park Activation!

Obey the Rules or Pay the Fines

Sometimes reaching goals can be so exciting, and so anti-climatic at the same time.  Today I completed my 40th POTA activation at US-4183 Atterbury Fish and Wildlife Area.  That makes 50 times I have gone to a park and made at least ten contacts. The goal of 50 activations was something I was sure I'd hit last year but life isn't all ham radio and playing outside, other things happen.  As you can see here, my operating position was on the shore of beautiful, bug infested, Beaver Bottom Lake in the Atterbury Fish and Wildlife Area.  This place is almost uninhabitable in the early summer, as the bugs are so thick you're certain to be carried off and drained of all bodily fluids. This time of year the lake is clear of weeds, the bugs haven't come up out of the ground yet, and it's just a great place to spend an afternoon hour or two enjoying the hobby of amateur radio. 

So today I loaded up the Trailblazer as soon as work was finished at 4:15PM, traffic this time of day can be thick, and it was.  I arrived at Beaver Bottom around 4:45PM, I had the antenna up, the table installed, my chair unfolded and the 10 Watt KX-2 connected to the Eagle One antenna by 5PM.  The first contact rolled in on 14.046 Khz at 5:02PM...which is always a good sign.  The first station logged was Steve in Texas, K5SJC and I ended up with 19 total this time before I decided to pack up and head to the home shack.  Signal was getting out well.  Montana to the west, New York to the east so almost coast to coast.  I can setup the Eagle One and the coax with a couple radials in less than 10 minutes. 

DNR Supplied Ham Shack

I was very surprised to see the DNR had already installed the portable ham shacks this early in the year.  Usually this doesn't happen until mid April.  The lake was busy today, I counted close to two dozen fishermen scattered around on the bank.  This lake also has a nice aluminum walkway that provides wheelchair access to some nice spots to fish from. 

I don't think I could have asked for better weather today, it was sunny and it was warm, and not a raindrop in sight. That might change later this week, here in Indiana, this time of year can bring on some pretty treacherous weather, including tornadoes, hail storms, and high winds. 

Here's my basic setup, the KX-2 of course, my little 3D printed paddles, the round ball looking thing is an external amplified speaker to pull out the really weak ones. I found these little notebook things at Dollar Twenty Five Tree. 

KX-2 Station for POTA Action

My QSO Map from Today 

Reverse Beacon Spots the last half of my Activation of US-4183

Well that's about all for now. Until the next adventure! 

de KB9BVN

Brian

New Park for Me!

US-12023 Cikana State Fish Hatchery

The Cikana State Fish Hatchery is one of the newer parks that has been added to the Parks on the Air program. It's a very nice state property that has hiking trails, and picnic tables for observing the local wildlife.  Where there are fish ponds, there are numerous birds and other animals around for your viewing pleasure.  

The fish raised here are not for sale to the public.  These fish are for stocking the public waters of Indiana.  Indiana currently uses the site for raising bluegill, largemouth bass, red ear sunfish, black crappie, sauger, channel catfish, and walleye. 

This state property is open from dawn to dusk, and the office here is opened Monday through Friday from 8AM to 4:00PM, closed for all state holidays. 

When I got to the site, I came in off State Road 44, on my way home from Martinsville.  The entrance is clearly marked and there is a information kiosk thing about 250 yards into the property.  Behind the kiosk is a couple of picnic tables overlooking some of the ponds, and the woods. 

Information Kiosk at Cikana 

A couple of the hatchery ponds 

Welcome and some information about the property

Since I was going to be using my KX-2 and the portable AX-1 antenna, I was perfectly at home at this picnic table.  I was ready to get on the air about 3PM EDT.  Like my beer glass coffee mug? 

KB9BVN about to jump into action

Spotted, on 14062 Khz, and ready to copy the POTA hunters!

So, here's where things started to not go as planned.  I fired up the KX-2 at 10 watts...in almost an hour I had worked one station.  N4CD at a park in Oklahoma.  So I shut down, and raised the Eagle One hitch mounted vertical on my SUV, tossed out a couple of radials, and tried it again. 

This was a good move, I nailed down another eleven contacts in about 30 more minutes.  Covering OK, TX, LA, MO, ID, NY, MN, SD, and FL.  Not a bad effort.  I had 12 in the log and it was time to pack up and go home.  

I checked the space weather for band conditions and today it wasn't good.  Normally I don't have any issues working DX with the AX-1 antenna...but that was not happening today.

Band Conditions: SSN:90 SFI:148 A:34 K:3  

NOT GREAT!!!

Lots of opportunities when I come back! 

73 de KB9BVN

Homemade Battery Packs for KX-2/KH-1

Operating KX-1 on Field Day 2007 

The bane of operating portable is running out of battery power before you are ready to QRT and close the station.  Now that I am using the KX-2 as my primary out and about radio, I needed to find a way to supplement the battery situation.  I have two of the batteries that Elecraft sells, and they are about 3 or 4 years old and they work fine, but I thought I might start looking for some spares.  

Being a frugal (aka tighfisted) ham, I was deterred when I saw the pricing for brand new Elecraft batteries.  

Now I am certain they are worth every penny, as Elecraft makes nothing but good goods in my experience with them over the years.  My ham brain just insisted I dig deeper and see if I could cobble some battery packs up on my own.  This is what I came up with. 

The battery pack that is used in the KX-2 and the KH-1 is a pack made from three Lithium Ion cells, commonly known as 18650's.  If you have an EV, you probably own a thousand of them and maybe did not know it. 

The Lithium Ion cell is not to be confused with the Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries.  The Lithium Ion batteries used by the KX-2 and KH-1 are not smart batteries.  They have no built in battery management chip (BMS), so you CAN overcharge them, and they CAN catch fire. 

I found these battery packs on Amazon.  They were marked about $32 for the pair. I think they are $39 now so keep an eye out. 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BJ5QJ2GS

The power connector for the KX-2 and KH-1 is a male DC plug, 5.5mm by 2.1mm in size.  So I bought a bag of plugs, snipped off the 2 pin connectors on the batteries and soldered on the DC plugs. 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083J24LTZ

You need to do some thinking ahead on this.  I used a piece of shrink tube on each of the two connections, and then I used a bigger piece of shrink tube to cover the connections and help to support the connection at the plug.  Harbor Freight sells a fantastic little heat gun that is perfect for shrinking shrink tube, shrink wrap or softening hot glue.  It runs about ten bucks. 

Super Cheap Harbor Freight heat gun

So basically for less than fifty dollars I was able to make two spare battery packs.  I charge them with the Elecraft Tenergy Lithium Ion charger that I bought with the KX-2.  Any smart charger that is acceptable for use with Lithium Ion batteries will work.  Never leave Lithium Ion batteries on the charger unattended.  They ARE a fire hazard. 

Still cold here this week...we're promised temperatures in the 60F-70F range next week.  Fingers crossed.  Looking forward to getting back out in the parks and operating. 

On another note these batteries run my K1, K2, KX-2, and Hilltopper rig very well, apparently they all accept the 5.5mm by 2.1mm DC power plug.  Nice. 

73 de KB9BVN

Brian