By Jack Roland, CBRE, AMD and CBNT
KLove /Air 1 EMF Colorado Engineering.
Storm brewing above our KRKA (Air 1) Site NW of Ft. Collins.
We have had quite an active severe thunderstorm season in NE Colorado this year. Quite a few tornadoes, large hail, much lightning, etc have been pretty common most afternoons this season. As of this writing the weather has quieted down and sunny hot skies seem to be in place in NE CO. This picture was pretty spectacular as I was heading up to KRKA to reset a set of overloads on the Armstrong transmitter (lightning strike). This particular storm moved out onto the eastern plains and had some pretty torrential downpours and hail associated with it. I ran back into it on my way down along I-25 to Denver. There was no rotation associated with this cloud, but it sure looked vicious.
Our good friend Chris, WXØPIX, who lives in College Station Texas has a really great looking mobile installation for his commute each day. He uses an Icom IC-706Mark2G as I do in the truck here in Colorado. Nicely Done Chris!
Chris and I have worked each other on 40 meters from Texas to Colorado. Lots of fun!
Traveling around for EMF/KLove gives me frequent opportunities for adventures and many ham radio contacts using my Icom 706 MK2G mobile rig. During a trip to Gunnison 40 meters was a lot of fun. I kept in touch with Greg, WB7AHO back in Denver, and I also participated in the OMISS Net on 7.185 in the evening. (Check out the OMISS net website, the “Old Man International Sideband Society”at http://www.omiss.net/Facelift/). This net is a traffic and worked all states net, full of friendly operators and lots of different states checking in. During the evening I was driving home I checked into the net and as it turned out since I was a ‘newcomer”, there were a lot of stations who wanted to work a mobile in Colorado. Plus you get to see some outstanding views of God’s creation.
Talking to WB7AHO on 40 meters from Monarch Pass CO, elevation 11,312 feet
DXLab is a freeware suite of eight interoperating applications that can be installed independently in any order. When multiple applications are running, they sense each other’s presence and automatically interoperate to support your Amateur Radio DXing activities. Dave, AA6YQ writes and distributes this software mainly out of a love for ham radio and computer software coding. I have been using this for several months now and it evens controls my older Yaesu FT757GX2 rig. You can spot dx, do your logging, see where the station is in the world you are trying to talk to, make your own dx spots, have a direct interaction with Logbook Of The World and EQSL, and just tons more of features. And all for FREE! One of the nice features too is that when you log a callsign it will automatically lookup the call and give you all the hams information, either via a callbook you have on your computer, or via the internet to a couple of different sites if you are a member, OR for free via Hamqth.com.
Speaking of HAMQTH.com, I really like this website for finding other amateurs QSL information and other news about Ham Radio. You can also upload your logs to the site for others to see, plus it is great backup storage. Saved me a few weeks ago when I lost a hard drive and 700 plus contacts in a log. The website is free to use but accepts donations.
And, please check out this very important information for amateurs, especially those who live in CC&R neighborhoods:
From EMF Engineer/Ham Dan Ethan, WA6CRB
“Many hams across the country live in new developments which are governed by CC&Rs. CC&Rs are Codes, Covenants, and Restrictions and they are killers for ham radio. Most CC&Rs prohibit the installation of ham antennas and as you all are aware, you can’t operate HF without a good antenna. The FCC determined that states, counties, and cities can’t prohibit the erection of antennas but did not carry their edict to cover CC&Rs, leaving that change for guidance from the U.S. Congress. There is currently a bill in the House of Representatives to allow a reasonable accommodation for a ham antenna for someone who is governed by CC&Rs. We all know someone who is affected by the restrictions but now we can do something to help. There is a petition at change.org that requests that the House pass the bill and we need every ham in the country to sign it. Please forward this link to all your ham friends (or anyone else you think might sign it). You can sign the petition at: “
I am working on setting up Linux Ubuntu on my computer at home, running it side by side at this time with Windows XP. It is my intention to make Ubuntu my primary operating system for all my Hamshack needs and activities. I will be writing more about this as time goes by here in the KEØVH Hamshack.
Don’t forget the SBE IRLP (and Echolink) Hamnet, the first Saturday of the month. AND the EMF Hamnet now is the same manner on every Monday evening at 7pm Mountain time for radio discussions, both broadcast engineering and Amateur radio. Details on how to join are at http://www.qsl.net/ke0vh/sbehamnet. I hope you will be able to join us and share your engineering and ham exploits!
73’, God be with you, & see you next time! KEØVH