Copasetic Flow

 I had dreams of activating the US-1178 each of the three days I planned on being there. I didn't get it done. Oh, but the other stuff I did do! Strap in. I may have to split this into a few different posts because there's so much stuff!  I documented the updated transit route from furthest away San Francisco BART station to Pantoll Campground I tested Starlink—a system I worked on a few years ago—with regard to doing my new work while out camping (how meta ☺️) I hiked the Dipsea Trail for the first time in over a year. Ouch. I camped for two nights. I'd hoped to play radios from four different locations in three different parks. I wound up playing radios from two different locations in one park, the one I was camping in,  Mount Tamalpais State Park . Here's a view of the campsite and its very adjacent hiking trail. And here's how the radio was installed at the campsite It's in the TouCans and a Stick configuration with its carbon fiber mast vertical whip . No...

 A classmate of mine had an interesting question about my recent post on using magnet wire inside a carbon fiber mast as an antenna . He wanted to know if I saw any differences in the signal between the internal wire and the external wire cases. Using the Utah SDR , and GloTEC F2 layer data , I was able to compare the two antennas. It turns out that just looking at the S meter at that time of day in Utah, there's almost no difference. Both the external and internal wire antennas are between S8 and S9 on the two different days.  The s-meter I was able to view on the Utah SDR station, KD7EFG is also reported as SNR on the RBN. The maximum reading for the exterior wire was 38 dB while the maximum reading from the interior wire antenna was 39 dB. The two measurements were appoximately 20 minutes apart on different days. The exterior wire antenna readings are from 8:39 AM PST the 7th of Januay. The interior wire readings taken at 8:53 AM PST on the 12th of January. So, the questi...

  Carbon-fiber masts don’t have to be the villain. For Straight Key Month I ran a quarter-wave 20-meter vertical two ways—first with 12-gauge wire taped to the outside of a Goture carbon-fiber mast, then with 18-gauge magnet wire laced inside the mast. Result: both versions delivered S9 into Utah from downtown San Francisco, and the internal-wire build was far stealthier for city operating. I finally got to do a long term—a few hours—test of the TouCans and a Stick vertical antenna with magnet wire on the inside this week! The interior magnet wire setup worked just as well as the same antenna rigged with 12 gauge wire taped to the outside of the carbon fiber mast did. The rig was S9 into the Utah SDR that morning. Here's a look at the antenna setup and results. There are more text details below the video.. Construction To construct the antenna I removed the brass bottom of the carbon mast, removed the upermost segment, and then inserted 18 guague magnet wire through the...

 An AM broadcast station was loud in my headphones for about two minutes. Then, TouCans mysterious noise cacnellation circuit charged, and the POTA was off and running. According to the POTA website, I haven't activated US-0757 , aka the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park , in about eight months. It was nice to be back! We'd had about a week's worth of atomspheric river rains, so it was pretty phenomenal to have this view during the activation. The temperature was in the low 60s which was very pleasant. I didn't go for a swim this time, but I'm going to get back to that soon as well. View of the Golden Gate Bridge from over my shoulder The transit ride—SF MUNI 54 to BART to San Francisco MUNI 30—was a piece of cake as always. The video below shows part of the route as seen from the bus window. I just now realized that I copied my opeining into the video twice. You didn't imagine it. Sorry about that :) I stopped for lunch at the Buena Vista I...

 I made a run to New Mexico a few weeks ago. I took the chance to attempt POTA activations from Ciblola National Forest, Lincoln National Forest, and a few other places I'll talk about later this week. My first activation in Cibloa National Forest the day I arrived in Albuquerque was by far my most successful in terms of raw QSO count. Having just arrived in town, I of course made my way to Blake's Lottaburger for a green chili cheeseburger. I've been trying to reduce my food intake a bit so I ordered an itsaburger as opposed to a lottaburger. (Seriously. It's an excellent naming scheme, no pun intended.) Next, I made my way out to Simms Park. The park is operated by the city of Albuquerque, but it's completely contained within the boundaries of Cibola National Forest, US-4514 , so voila. I taped the Project TouCan's vertical antenna on its carbon fiber support mast to a wooden railing post and got to work. I've found several references warning not to u...

  After contacting Alaska from San Francisco on 14.0574 MHz with 5 watts power delivered via a 1/4 wave vertical antenna through an apartment highrise last week, I started building models of HF propagation around buildings. This culminated in several new tools that I'll be discussing in more depths in future posts and the propagation map you can interact with towards the bottom of the page. What's in the Map Radio Contact Paths The map shows the QSOs (radio contacts) I made from the park on the top of One Maritime Plaza . Each contact is mapped out by a solid line running along the ground as well as a likely path the high frequency radio signal took as it bounced off the ionosphere on its way to the receiving station. I've talked about mapping F2 bounces before .  Fun F2 paths near a moutain outside El Paso, TX The paths in the map below use the maximum F2 layer height of the ionosphere at the time of the contact as it was reported by NOAA Glotec data . If you'd like t...

  While analyzing the skip path of a a 5-watt QSO I made last week from the San Francisco to Argentina with Project TouCans, I stumbled across a set of NOAA resources that completely changed how I look at ionospheric conditions. From real-time aurora dashboards to animated MUF forecasts and electron flux data, these tools offer hams powerful insights into propagation—and some surprises along the way. I made a grey line QSO from the campus of City College San Francisco to Argentina with our 5-watt Project TouCans rig last week. Last night, KO6BTY and I found ourselves deep in the rabbit hole of ionospheric conditions. What started as curiosity about the Kp index and whether aurora activity might have influenced the QSO's skip path, led us to discover some powerful NOAA resources. From aurora dashboards and global ionosphere forecasts to animated MUF predictions and GOES electron flux data, these tools give ham radio operators new ways to understand HF propagation, F2 layer behavior...