Gear – KC8JC

Field Operation Log and Experimentation

Posted on October 3, 2022 by KC8JC

This past weekend was a good one for radio. I managed to squeak in two activations of Cuyahoga Valley National Park – K-0020. Along with that, I tried something new with my mast and my bike. On Saturday, I drove out to the park. There were still stray bands of the ragged edge of the…

OSPOTA 2022

Posted on September 13, 2022 by KC8JC

OSPOTA 2022 The first Saturday after Labor Day each year is the Ohio State Parks On The Air contest (OSPOTA). For me, 2022 has been a year of POTA and being as I’m really into it and it’s sponsored by my club, PCARS, I decided to pick a park and activate. I chose Salt Fork…

Field Operation Log – 27 and 28-Aug-2022 – With Extras!

Posted on August 30, 2022 by KC8JC

My wife and I have been big on the cycling thing since we acquired our new bikes. Since the previous weekend’s trip to Cuyahoga Valley National Park [K-0020] was so much fun, we decided to do it again. But this time, we would hit a less traveled area where I’d never been. The ride was…

Field Operation Log – 20-Aug-2022

Posted on August 22, 2022 by KC8JC

It’s been a while since my last trip out to a park for an activation. This time of year, things get really busy and it’s hard to make time to get out to a park for a bit. So I intentionally put together a bit of a micro expedition to Cuyahoga Valley National Park [K-0020]…

Field Operation Log – Farm Field Work

Posted on July 19, 2022 by KC8JC

Since we got a camper, we started spending time with Hipcamp. It’s a place where you can find private campgrounds. In essence, someone has a chunk of land and they set it up for camping and rent it out through this service. Kinda like Airbnb for camping. Using that service, we found a nice farm…

Field Operation Log – 02-Apr-2022

Posted on April 4, 2022 by KC8JC

My last trip into the field was to activate Tinker’s Creek State Park [K-1997] and it ended in a cold, wet mess with only 4 contacts in the log. This Saturday, I wanted to settle the score and get my activation. This time around, it was clear, sunny, and in the 30F range. So sure,…

Winlink Portable

Posted on March 21, 2022 by KC8JC

This weekend wasn’t a great one for portable operations in NE Ohio. The weather was cold and rainy. As someone who spends a lot of time outside, I get that there is No Bad Weather, Only Bad Gear. That said, I’m not out to prove anything and if it doesn’t look fun, I’m not gonna…

Field Operation Log – 27-Feb-2022

Posted on February 28, 2022 by KC8JC

This was supposed to be a quick trip out to Wingfoot Lake State Park (K-3516). The variables for this operation were narrowed to simply making 10 FT8/FT4 contacts. I will lead with this: yet again, I got 8 contacts. This time, I was out there for about 2 hours working on 20m. The bands were…

Field Operations Log – February 12

Posted on February 14, 2022 by KC8JC

This year I have several Stupid Arbitrary Goals that center on radio. One of them is a number of portable operations and the other is activating parks. I decided on these SAGs later than I might and thus January was out. So this weekend, The Big Plan was to get outdoors and activate a park….

The Hardrock 50 Amplifier Kit

Posted on December 20, 2021 by KC8JC

Portable operation has been a lot of fun for me since the IC-705 showed up in my shack. It’s a really great QRP rig and I have had a wonderful time getting out and making contacts. One of the things that I’ve found while messing around at parks or on vacation is that it would…