After the hike, I was enthralled. I volunteered to provide communications support for a late-fall endurance race, and met my radio mentor WB6YOK, Chuck. He opened the world of HF radio to me, showing me how it works and letting me operate from his 'shack' in his home. He taught me how to operate in voice as well as digital modes. In 2010 I upgraded to a "General" class license so I could operate on HF frequencies, and I soon bought myself a 100 watt mobile rig capable of HF, VHF and UHF operation.
Fast forward one divorce and four years later. I remarried and moved into my wife's house about 30 miles south of where I had been living. Our house was in a treeless neighborhood, and she balked a bit at my simple 8' VHF antenna. There was no way to convince her to let me install an HF antenna. My interest in radio remained, but the opportunity to operate dimmed.
It is now nearly 2018. We recently relocated (ironically about 10 miles north of where I was originally). We have a home in established trees, where the right HF antenna can be easily obscured and therefore not detract from the home's aesthetics. I've decided to become "radio active" again and start operating. This blog series will be dedicated to applying the lessons I've learned both times I've gotten into HF operations. It's meant as a "don't make the same mistakes I made" guide, to help newer operators save time, money, and frustration.
For me, amateur radio is about two things: 1) it's about the project, and 2) it's about the contacts. I enjoy researching and planning a project, because I learn a lot and I like to tinker. I've been able to tackle several projects, such as:
- installing a voice compression module into a microphone, to improve my radio's ability to transmit legibly.
- building a CW (Morse code) radio that fits into an Altoids tin
- Building an antenna tuner for my low-power radio
- Building a Hendricks PFR3 CW radio (my favorite project to-date, even though it took 3 years)
- Building several antennas, from simple wire antennas to a backcountry 2m dipole
As I said, projects increase my knowledge. I am a kinetic learner, too, so any project pretty much ensures a better understanding of the subject.
I also enjoy making contacts, very much. Whether it's voice on 40 meters or digital PSK on some other band, it is thrilling to me to talk with people around the world, without using any infrastructure. I'm independent of the Internet, phone or other communications networks (and the associated costs). My biggest issue with HF so far has been that, if you could do something a wrong way, I did it. My logbook is very thin, with only about 12 contacts logged. I didn't feel I was giving much up when I stopped pursuing HF radio, quite honestly. But now it's time to go back and redo things, and do it right, so when I power up my radio I can be relatively confident I'll have a successful conversation (or more).
Successful HF radio is a factor of several things:
- Antenna
- Radio
- Output power
- Band conditions
- Patience
- Luck
My biggest mistakes starting out were primarily due to using inefficient antennas, radios with insufficient receivers, and low-power radios. Band conditions are beyond our control as operators, but understanding the bands, their conditions, and related solar cycles is a big deal and helps the operator prepare, thereby increasing contacts as well.
So throughout this blog series, I'll address each of these (some multiple times).
