70 Degrees!! What a day!

Oh man it was great today.  I got my very first social security retirement pay today, I finally feel like I am officially retired, and now a bargain hunter extraordinaire.  This being Ash Wednesday I headed to Mooresville to attend Mass with my son and a few of the grandkids this morning.  Mass was at 9:30AM, and my  eleven year old grandson Erik had an 11AM appointment to sit for his FCC Exam for the Technician Class Amateur Radio License.

So as soon as church let out we made a bee line for home so we could get the laptop setup in time for his exam.  He was tested by the N1UVO Online ARRL VE Team, and they did a great job with making him comfortable and ready to test.  He aced it.  

He didn't just squeak by, he scored 32/35 and it was because he and I have been using the Hamstudy organization online for test preparation.  He started studying about 5 weeks ago and passed with flying colors today.  We will begin working on the General Class license next week.  

So after that exciting event, I headed out to play radio outdoors at the Atterbury Fish and Wildlife Area in deep southern Johnson County.  This is US-4183 for the log books.  It was kind of a rush deal, I was only there about an hour, and on the air maybe 30 minutes.  I made 13 contacts using my Elecraft KX-2 and the portable magnetic loop antenna called Alex Loop. 

KB9BVN with his portable POTA station

It was weird seeing Pisgah Lake frozen over when it was 70 degrees and bright sun, but it has been near zero and below for almost two solid weeks.  I imagine that ice was a foot thick at one point. 

Pisgah Lake - Still frozen, all 62 acres

Did not work any DX today but I did make contacts from California to Florida today and my signal was being heard in Central and South America as well as Northwest Canada.  8 watts again for the win! 

Today's Log from US-4183 on 20 Meters

Beautiful sky today, made a nice backdrop for this shot of my loop antenna setup. 

Alex Loop Portable Magnetic Loop Antenna...about 8 feet high

Well that's it for today! Tomorrow the WX says thunderstorms, possible tornado activity, and dropping temperatures.  It's great being retired and able to take quick advantage of days like today.  

73 de KB9BVN

Brian

Snow finally Melted! Time to POTA!

I don't know about you, but this winter has been a difficult one. For one we've had more snow this winter than we've had for the last five or six years, then to make it even more miserable it's been below zero more than several times.  Cabin fever is a terrible thing.  As you may remember I retired the 2nd of January, in the middle of winter....what else did I expect?  We had about a foot of snow land here almost three weeks ago and the the temperatures dove down below zero for better than a week.  

Today, the snow is finally almost all melted, and the temperature hit a balmy 58 degrees.  Not exactly swimming weather, and most of the lakes around here still have 4 or 5 inches of ice, but the sun came out for a bit and I left the cabin and took a drive down to Morgan County to see a couple of my brothers in law and to make a jaunt over to the Cikana State Fishery in Martinsville IN (EM69tk).  It was glorious just being outdoors in the sun. In just 33 days it will be spring. 

So today I setup the Elecraft KX-2 and the Alex Loop.  I have REALLY enjoyed this little portable magnetic loop antenna. It does such a great job on  15 meters and 20 meters, which is what I used it for today.  I was running about 8 watts today when I started on 15 meters (21047 Khz).  My first contact was Bill VE7KIN way up in British Columbia, then I worked Scott KJ7DCF in Idaho, and finally Eric VA2IDX in Quebec...after that I moved down to 20 meters (14043 Khz).  I spent about 50 minutes on the air and logged a total of 20 contacts with this little setup.  Check out the map. 

Contact Map for 02/16/26 from Cikana State Fishery - Martinsville IN

After I finished I was planning on hiking one of the trails there but the mud was about 4 inches deep, so maybe the next time.  Here is what my signal strength was showing on the Reverse Beacon Network. 

And last but not least is a decent picture I took of the Alex Loop portable magnetic loop antenna system. I have it mounted on the  bottom half of a old music stand that Ivin N9IVI gave me a few years ago. 

Until next time! 

73 de KB9BVN

Brian