Miles Above Me (Us)

Ovation Aurora Data

When I make my way into my shack and turn on my radio, my first glance is to my Spectrum Scope in my Icom 756PRO. When I see nothing on that scope, I check to make sure my remote antenna switch is on. If that is on, I double check that the antenna selected is the proper antenna for the band. If I don't hear or see anything, I can assume that something is going on miles above my home. Today is just one of those days (again). I have slowly tuned through all bands with not one single soul being heard. In checking some of our space weather technology websites, it does not take long to figure out how strong and for how long. The Ovation Aurora site shown above is one of my favorites. 

HAARP's Magnetometer

If you have read any of my previous posts, you will find I make reference to HAARP on a regular basis. Controversial to some, admired by those who follow the effects of solar wind and solar flares on propagation. HAARP is in our Alaskan backyard so it's a great resource to see what's going on miles overhead to the earth's magnetic field. To the right, you can see the arrival of the Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) that took place not long ago.  This was due to a solar flare from the active regions around sunspots 1520 & 1521. This was a disturbance I sure would of loved to see happen during the winter as I'm sure the Aurora would of been pretty spectacular. But, with our many hours of daylight here during the summer months, that is one event that tourists and locals alike won't be able to see.

HAARP's Riometer

HAARP's Riometer is another useful tool when propagation is nonexistent. To communicate around the world via radio waves, those waves need to bounce off of the Ionosphere. When they are absorbed rather than reflected, our HF radios become very quiet. The "E" and "F" layers are the ones you probably hear referenced the most in our hobby. Tomas, NW7US writes and posts many informative articles on the effects of solar activity (or lack of) on our wonderful hobby. 

When I first got into ham radio many years ago, these resources were not available as the World Wide Web and Internet were in its youth. I would have read about events like this days or weeks afterwards in publications. Now, all you need to do is log into these websites and see solar weather data as real time as local weather radar map data. All of these websites are a must for the avid DX enthusiast. These are just three of the many websites that I check while enjoying my morning cup of coffee. One thing I'm not sure science has solved is why lots of this activity happens on contest weekends? That, we many never know...

Weather, Space Weather and IARU

HAARP Data during IARU Contest 2012

It has been nearly a month since my last post but summer is in full swing here. Our weather has been cool and damp on a regular basis and just a few mornings ago, I saw a local temp of 38 degrees. Highs have peaked (lately) in the 50's. We have received a nearly 6¼" of rain since I uncovered our rain gauge at the beginning of May. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining as I see the extreme temperatures those in the lower 48 are experiencing so I will take this weather any day over that heat!


The sun has been pretty active and I had intentions of giving a run in the IARU Contest. Normally, summer is a tough time to get on the air as we have so much going on and it's our busy season. With the geomagnetic activity of late, the bands were very poor here. There were times at the beginning of the contest that I could not hear a single station. Thankfully, 15 meters opened up a bit on Saturday afternoon allowing for me to make a few contacts. I did not spend lots of time in the shack as I had some home projects going on but I did manage a bit over 50 QSO's. Last year, I made well over 100 contacts but that was not going to happen this year. I just did some S&P (Search & Pounce) on 15 and 20 meters when I had a few minutes here and there. Lots of flutter on signals, especially those back east in Zone 8. I'm limited to low power yet but most everyone I called with my 100 watts heard me. Not bad considering the conditions.


The photo above shows the absorption increase as recorded at HAARP. Now, I'm not blaming the sun on my computer error but maybe my DELL is also effected by solar activity! For some reason, it wanted to tell Microsoft all about it! 


I recently dropped my 6 meter beam and removed my wind damaged 2/440 vertical from my second tower. All I need to do now is put my 6 meter beam on my high tower above my HF beam and get my Hex Beam up on the small tower. That would give me a beam on 12 & 17 meters! I'm looking forward to getting on those bands. I'm hoping I don't run out of time as I have in summers past. Winter normally arrives here in September so I have a few more months yet before we enter back into our hibernation season. Working a bit of CW today made me excited for the upcoming contest season. Until then, I plan on enjoying as much of this midnight sun as possible.  

2011 ARRL 10 Meter Contest Results & Overview

2011 ARRL 10 Meter Contest Results - AK

I just picked up the latest QST from the Post Office and I was excited to see the 2011 ARRL 10 Meter Contest  results had been posted. Looks like I was not the only one who enjoyed the great propagation last December! Lots of records fell, worldwide! 10 meters is probably my most favorite band of all. Lately, there has been little to no propagation but then again, I have not been active for the last few months due to it being summertime in Alaska! The "shack" is at the bottom of my priority list in the summer months and my family and I have been enjoying the summer camping season. Summer is in full swing and temperatures have peaked into the low 70's here for highs with lows still in the upper 30's. There is plenty of sunshine with the return of the midnight sun. Alaskan's are called outdoors to thaw out and enjoy our short summer and we've joined them!

KL8DX Claimed Score 2011 ARRL 10 Meter Contest

In looking at my claimed score, I thankfully did not lose any multipliers but obviously I lost a few QSO's, 7 to be exact. Since moving to Alaska in 2003, this is in the top 3 of my most memorable contests. Most of the time, propagation is predictable but with 10 meters, like 6 meters, you just never know! I just checked my DXCC on LOTW (Logbook Of The World) and I have 65 countries confirmed on 10 meters. My 10 Meter WAS (Worked All States) award shows I have all 50 states confirmed on 10 meters with CW, 17 states with JT65, 12 with PSK31, 44 on RTTY and 48 on SSB. 


I want to personally congratulate Larry, N1TX for his outstanding performance at KL2R! Also, congrats to all of the other AK stations for a super job! I've been lucky enough to personally meet and know several on the list above and I can tell you, Alaska has an outstanding group of driven and talented operators. I've learned lots from these operators and friends who I look up to. Even after my days in Alaska are long gone, these are experiences and advice that I can carry with me no matter where I operate from. 

BIG Wildlife

Tree Breaker and Guy Wire Shaker

We have had this moose frequenting our yard for the last few days and she has been pruning the trees around our house and garage. Of course, the guys for my wire antennas and towers are always a concern. Not so much during the summer as we experience almost 24 hours of daylight and fewer Chinook systems, but more so during the dark winter season. I use plenty of black Dacron and it can be very hard to see in the dark. Thankfully, I have never had an entanglement with wildlife but it is something I consider when hanging antenna's. I try to get my guy wires above moose level but when I crank down my Hazer to lower my antennas due to high winds or weather, they all become a potential hazard for local wildlife. These moose are much taller than us humans and I'm sure they can make short work out of pulling down wires and even towers.  These are big beautiful animals and we enjoy seeing them in our yard. Not only do we need to be inspecting for electrical hazards when putting up antennas, we need to always consider that welcomed surprise guest(s) that may be roaming around the neighborhood. 

Camping Season 2012

There has been little time for radio as summer season is almost upon us. I have my portable station ready to use while on the road but so far, I have not had the time to break it out. The home shack is nearly closed down for the season but hopefully in the days and weeks ahead, I will have several chances to operate portable or QRP portable. It has been a long cold winter so my blogging and updates will be sporadic as 6 meters but rest assured, I'm never far away from an HF rig no matter where I may be. Summers here are very short and although I'm looking forward to the 2012-2013 contest season, I'm hoping it does not get here to quickly. 

Quest for Georgia interrupted by Funshine!

Spring in Alaska - 2012

I wanted to chase a few of the Georgia QSO Party stations giving a few the Alaska multiplier. There seemed to be a huge turnout and lots of activity from GA. Even with my small station and 100 watts, I was able to snag a few of the mobile stations roaming the state giving out counties. The only mobile that I encountered that I could never work was N4ZZ. Each and every time, the pile-up was just too big for me to make it through. The band (20 Meters) was not that great anyhow so, that made it even more of a challenge to work the mobile and some of the QRP stations.

Once the dust settled, I only worked 22 stations in Georgia this weekend. Of those contacts, the mobiles I worked the most were AD8J, which I worked three times and W1NN, which I worked twice. AD8J was the easiest to work and had the best signal into my part of Alaska. W1NN was a close second. I also snagged the special event callsigns K4F, K4N and N4A. 

I did not have lots of time this weekend as I had plenty to do outdoors. With local temps peaking into the 50's, it's short sleeve weather in these parts. The snow is beginning to fade as the sun and warm temperatures return. Sadly, this means lots of mud but that's the cycle here. We go from winter season, to mud season and from mud season to skeeter season. Arriving about the same time as skeeter season is tourist season. We experience a brief summer season followed by hunting season and then back to winter season or as I like to think of it, CONTEST SEASON! Since we started camping, our summer season is also known as camping season, or portable operating season.

The photo above was taken with my Android phone as we traveled west on the Denali Park Road on Sunday. We took a drive yesterday and encountered several moose along with a large herd of Caribou. It was a beautiful day for a drive and although I wanted to chase many more Georgia stations, the outdoors was calling me louder than any signal from Georgia on 20 meters. As much as I would like to support every contest, there are just those times that one has to wave the white flag and surrender to Mother Nature.  It's been a long and cold winter and this ham is ready to experience once again, some midnight funshine! 

Mixed Bag of Fun Even With Absorption and Wind!

QRP ARCI Contest Rig

This weekend was one of those weekends where I did not have all weekend to play radio but for those hours I did, I wanted to operate in 3 separate contests. The first of the three was the PODXS 070 Club PSK31 Flavors Contest. This was a rolling contest by local time so the contacts I made were all Search & Pounce (S&P). The second contest was the QRP ARCI Spring QSO Party. I was excited about trying to work stations while running QRP (5 Watts). The bands started out pretty rough and I had stations CQ'n in my face however, 20 meters started to become a bit more cooperative as Saturday progressed and I was able to log a few QRP QSO's. My trusty Icom 703Plus (seen pictured above) was set at 5 watts output to my Mosley TA-34-XL 4 element tri-bander. With the exception of non-members, I don't know how much power the other stations were running. Non-members gave their power output rather than the required ARCI membership number. I recently renewed my membership after having it lapse a few months. I've become interested in running QRP and enjoy running it portable as well. Now that the weather is becoming a bit more favorable, I'm looking forward to some portable operating.


My third contest, I wanted to make an appearance in was the SKCC Weekend Sprintathon. I very much enjoy using my Navy Flameproof CW Key and this was a good weekend to blow the dust off of it. Saturday was by far the best day play in this contest as once Sunday arrived, the bands folded due to ionospheric absorption. It just so happened that an incoming weather system started to once again produce winds which created lots of QRN. So between the solar conditions and the wind, Sunday was a bit rough when it came to adding contacts to my logbook. 


With the Easter holiday, the bands were quieter than normal. We received thee inches of fresh snow on Friday so we are not out of the woods yet for winter weather. April will usually produce a good snow storm or two but once May gets here, it will be time to defrost the camper and get ready for summer fun! I also need to complete my HF radio install in our truck! Antenna has arrived and just a few more small parts are needed and I can begin that creative project. Thankfully, I have an understanding wife and I don't have to "Lobby for the Hobby." 

Propagation Returns - Slowly

JT65A

It was very nice this morning to hear European signals once again on 20 meters. I fired up JT65HF this morning and made a handful of contacts. I'm still having issues with this program shutting down when it's attempting to decode multiple signals. I've even set it at a higher priority and still have the issue. The original version I had never experienced this problem but the last few versions have seen the same problem on my XP machine. I can call CQ and sit on a frequency for hours without a shutdown as long as Enable Multi is unchecked. I don't experience this issue with any of my other multitude of programs I run, thankfully.


The sun is returning and the days are getting longer here in Alaska. Temperatures the last few days have reached near the freezing mark, sitting nicely in the mid 30's! March has not been an active month for me on the radio due to propagation and personal obligations. As summer approaches, the rig and shack will fall silent as activities will be moved outdoors. Not that I don't enjoy ham radio but I love summer! As the contest season wraps up, the summer season begins. You will never hear me complain about the midnight sun!