K1RA

K1RA as KW4VA /M in VaQP 2012

k1ra — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 05:25:27 +0000

VaQP is over! You can read about my weekend experience by clicking the following K1RA as KW4VA /M in Virginia QSO Party 2012. In the article you can read and learn more about my operation as well as see pictures and videos from the weekend event.

I activated KW4VA from the mobile this past Mar 17-18 for the 2012 Virginia QSO Party. I ran 10 bands: 160-6m (SSB/CW) and 2m, 1.25m, and 70cm (FM). As the contest was broken into two segments 10A-10P Sat. and 8A-8P Sun., I’ve decided to run 2 separate routes.

Day 1 on Sat. I was to run west of Warrenton and down Skyline Dr. That consisted of 10 stops covering 12 counties: FAU, LDN, CLA, FRE, WAR, RAP, PAG, MAD, RHM, GRN, ALB and AUG. I didn’t quite make all the counties I planned.

Day 2 on Sun. I was to run an eastern route towards D.C. and south down I-95. That was to consist of 17 stops covering 17 counties and cities: FAU, PRW, LDN, MAX, MPX, FFX, FXX, FCX. ARL, ALX, STA, FBX, KGE, CLN, SPO, ORG and CUL. Again I didn’t quite cover all the ground.

You can see my planned route on the map below. It not exactly what I managed to cover. Read to follow on article mentioned above to find out the actual details.

View Larger Map

Above you can click on the icons to read more info about the locations. You can also view a larger more interactive map by click the link under the map.

For more info on the Virginia QSO Party please visit the SPARC VaQP 2012 web page and the VaQP statistics and tips page.

K1RA @ K8GP Rover Jan 2012 VHF Sweepstakes

k1ra — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:34:56 +0000

Terry W8ZN and I attempt to rove in the past ARRL Jan. VHF SS. If you care to check out the article I put together that covers our preparations leading up to the contest as well as our adventure on contest weekend please click here or the picture below.

K1RA @ W1RT Rover Sept 2011 VHF Contest

k1ra — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 20:49:53 +0000

Check out the untold story of the adventures of John W1RT and Andy K1RA in the ARRL September 2011 VHF contest. Click the picture below to read more and see the pictures and videos of that weekend’s event.

CW QRP Foxhunts

k1ra — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 04:01:44 +0000

I’ve been participating in this winter season’s 80m CW QRP Foxhunt as both a fox and a hound. The event occurs every Tues. night from 0200-0330 GMT between 3550-3570 kHz. Two stations (foxes) are designated to transmit and the rest (hounds) are poised to attempt and contact the two foxes within the 90 minute time window. More info can be found at the QRPFoxhunt web site or their QFOX Yahoo Group. I’ve been collecting fox contact logs for both the 80m and 40m events and plotting various statistics on Google maps. Check out my 80m analysis and my 40m analysis pages for some interesting graphics.

KW4VA WSPR Beacon

k1ra — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:45:27 +0000

I’ve developed a script to pull data from WSPRnet and display who has been copying my 20 milliwatt beacon. Below you will see a Google map on which I plot stations who have received my signal over the last week. The red 0 icon is my beacon location at the intersections of all the lines. The other blue icon #’s are placed over the 6 digit grid square or approximate latitude and longitude of the receiving station. Those blue # icons represent what band (in meters) my signal was received. Click on the icons to read more information about the receiving stations to include their call sign, grid, distance, beam heading, average signal to noise ratio, # of reports posted, frequency and first and last times I was spotted. The color of the lines represent received signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) in dB [red <-20, -20 < yellow <-10, green >-10] and line thickness represents the number of beacon transmissions copied [thin<5, med< 10, thick>10]. Click on the View Larger Map link below this map to see a larger and more interactive map with the same data.

View Larger Map

My beacon is running W3PM WSPR PIC controller code on a PIC-EL III microcontroller board by AA0ZZ. The transmitter is a DDS-60 20mw 0-60 MHz synthesizer board by N2APB. My antennas consist of a full wave 40m loop in the attic and a 20-15-10m wire beam also in the attic. Antennas are roughly 30′ above the ground. The wire beam consists of an all band dipole driven element and directors on either side, giving bi-directional gain. It is beaming NE and SW. The antenna is 2 elements on 20m, 3 on 15m and 4 on 10m.

Field Day with W4VA

k1ra — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 21:48:55 +0000

I had the opportunity to operate in the ARRL Field Day this June with my local Fauquier Amateur Radio Assoc. I was captain of the VHF station and organized the construction and operation of that station. We had a tremendous 50 MHz band opening all day Saturday into Sunday morning, contacting over 400 stations all over the USA from New England, through the mid, north and south west and even out to the west coast and down into South America! Click the thumbnail below to see pictures of the VHF station as well as the other HF stations that were set up across the field in C.M. Crockett Park.

Direct album link

Below is a video of a 6 meter E-skip opening to New England with Rich K1HTV at the mic.

The video below is of Tom KG3V operating cw on the 15 meter band.

The next video is of Steve KW4H operating cw on the 40 meter band.

Finally here is a panoramic video of the Field Day site where we operated 3A VA, plus a VHF and GOTA station.

Virginia QSO Party 2011

k1ra — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 17:15:52 +0000

This February, with some help from John KX4O, I created and presented a PowerPoint slide show for my local Fauquier Amateur Radio Assoc. The presentation centered on the upcoming 2011 Virginia QSO Party. It covered general information including dates and times, rules and categories and contest exchanges and scoring. Also covered was past performance of the FARA club and its members for the various competition categories that were entered. Finally, some contest ‘hints & kinks’ were presented to give members an idea what to do pre-contest, contest weekend and post-contest to ensure they were prepared for the upcoming radio event.

If you missed the meeting or would like to download and review the PowerPoint presentation (6MB) please visit my W4VA page here and see the presentation links at the bottom of the page.

K1RA and WebSDR

k1ra — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 20:43:28 +0000

Check out my WebSDR recording of my operation as a Fox in the QRP 80m Fox Hunt back in November of 2010.

I will be operating again as Fox this Tues night 2/8/2011 from 0200-0330Z somewhere between 3550-3570 KHz. See if you can find me and make a QSO! I’ll be running 5 watts and calling CQ FOX K1RA (UP or DN). I will most likely operate split receive, so please call me anywhere from 0.5 – 1.5 KHz above or below my operating freq based on whether you hear me send UP or DN during my CQ’s and TU’s.

CQ de K1RA

k1ra — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 04:00:52 +0000

Hi,

I’m AndyZ, F.C.C. amateur radio station K1RA, and this is my Radio Activities web site. Here you will find articles, pictures and videos of my various Radio Adventures. I’m mainly interested in a facet of the hobby known as contesting, or radio sport, though I also enjoy DX’ing (long distance), QRP (low power) and mobile 2-way radio operations. Please navigate the menu bar at the top of this page beginning with About to see and read more about my hobby and the other radio stations, clubs and members I associate with. If you are more interested in just seeing my radio picture albums, click on the collage below.

Please visit my W4VA page for a list of topics I have recently presented to the Fauquier Amateur Radio Assoc. There you can download the Power Point presentation slides.

I recently finished a rove with John W1RT in the ARRL Sept VHF 2009 contest. Take a look at some pictures and read more about our adventure by clicking here.

For those in area of Fauquier county, I have an Echolink Internet-Radio gateway running on the W4VA 147.165 MHz (PL 167.9) FARA repeater. Read more about it under the VHF & Above link. The node covers Warrenton, Virginia and surrounding areas out into Fairfax and Reston to the north and east and Stafford and Shenandoah to the south and west. Link your portable or hand held radio to the internet and talk to the world!

73 and hope see you at a local club meeting or hear you on the radio or in an up coming contest !

AndyZ – K1RA