Summer Fun

We are in mid summer, we are lacking in rain and everything here is unusually dry. But there is still some fun to be had, Only about a month and a half and the contests begin. The Washington Salmon Run is in September, looking forward to my first serious contest.

I joined the fine folks of the Williamsburg Area Amatuer Radio Club at their monthly breakfast yesterday and had just a wondeful time! Met Hershel's wife Allison and their adorable little girl, Emmma! Hershel is working hard to get me invited to join the Potomac River Valley contesting club, how cool is that?! We also met Dave and his son Isaac. They are super nice folks and made us feel really welcome.

I've been a little slow in getting this posted but I wanted to put up my QSL card.

Hope everyone is having a fun summer and getting some HAM time in.

Happy Hamming!
73s

Here's to good friends......

Anyone else remember that commericial? No? Okay it is just me then.
The blog has the power to reunite!

We have gotten back in touch with some of my hubby's friends we haven't seen in a while. Hubby is KA3MYK. Two of his friends who recently found him again through and internet search and led to this blog are, Richard KA3KYW and Bruce WB3JPB. They are members of the Green Mountian Repeater Club in Maryland. Check them out! I'd call them the Green Mountain Boys but I think that name as been taken. LOL.
www.gmramd.org


We are hoping to have a reunion later this month! What fun!

Just in case Rich or Bruce happen to check out this blog again.....HF guys, HF.LOL

73s,
Milly

A Good Day

I stayed home from work today, not feeling my best and thought well I'll turn on the HF rig see what I can hear. What a great day!
I met Ken KC2RJR and we had a great QSO for a while. Ken is my second contact from NY state and they are certainly some friendly people up there.
My first contact was Jose in NY, NY N2LRB, if you get a chance check out Jose's website he has some great photos of his antenna set up! www.n2lrb.com
Jose, the QSL card is on the way :-)

Surprisely 10 meters was open some today, I didn't think it would be, but there were a few people out there.

It is clear and about 85F here today. There is a bit of a breeze out there which is nice.


Lets not forget Field Day coming up! woot!

Happy Hamming!
73s

More DXing and other fun stuff

I haven't been on the radio as much as I would like because I am trying to sell my house, but I got on tonight and man was 20m open! I got Ireland right away and I can never seem to get Ireland. The Czech Republic had a special station going to celebrate 100 years of scouting, that was fun!
And there was the Alabama QSO party this weekend, so lots of folks out there to talk to.
And wouldn't you know some hobbies seemingly unrelated to lead to interesting contacts.
I met Margaret Biggs through my knitting blog or rather her knitting blog. She lives in Virginia also and we were talking about our love of knitting. She had some pictures of her hubby climbing a tower, so I asked her if it by chance was a HAM tower and it was! Margaret herself is not a HAM, but her husband and all of his brothers are and they are big into contesting. You should see this tower he is putting up! It is really impressive. I will post the link below to her pictures.
Maybe some of you know them, K1ZM, K3ZM, and K2DM.
Here is the link:lotsofyarn.blogspot.com

Hope everyone is enjoying the bands!
73's

First QSL Card!

I got my very first QSL card in the mail yesterday, it was for the special event station for the 3rd anniversary of the 7.272 rag chew, K1R!
Very nice card!I'll try to post a picture this weekend!

Hope everyone is having lots of HAM fun!

The Weekend is Gone!

Well, I was kinda disappointed with the whole thing really. The weather on Sunday wasn't the best. I didn't do so great in the Mid-Atlantic QSO contest, I don't know if it was my timing or what but I only got like five contacts and couldn't find another soul out there. I know there had to be because the contacts I mean had already gotten 50+ contacts but maybe they sat for the full 12 hours. Sadly, I couldn't.
Hope everyone else had a good weekend though and if you participated in the QSO party I hope you did really well.

Happy Hamming.

The Weekend is Nearly Here!

Okay folks,
It is almost the weekend, I am lucky enough to have tomorrow off. (our office is closed for the Jamestown 400 Celebration) And the Mid-Atlantic QSO party is this weekend! I am going to give it a shot. It is my first time, I have some pretty realistic expectations for my performance, but you have to start somewhere! Why not just go ahead and jump in feet first!
I am trying out some different logging software to see which is the best for me. I have had some great advice and tips on which ones to try, thanks to Bill NR4C, Joe, KI4XLT and George K4GAM. I need to work on it tonight and tomorrow and hopefully have one in place for this weekend. Perhaps this weekend will be a testing ground for the software as well.
I have ordered some more supplies and an LDG 250Pro automatic tuner that should arrive today. Plus some jumpers and a couple of books on contesting. Pretty exciting stuff this weekend.

For all participating in the QSO party this weekend, good luck! Don't forget that the special event station W4J will be operating from Jamestown this weekend!
Happy Hamming!

Productive Weekend

Well you probably know that 20 meters was wide open this weekend especially on Sunday. I made 13 contacts and they included Serbia, the Czech Republic and Spain!
Lots of contacts in the New England area.
so my little barefoot rig is working great. I was running 100 watts on my Icom 718 into a 20/40 Hy Power dipole mounted in my attic at about 20ft.

Hope everyone else had fun this weekend!

First International Contact

I am having a productive weekend. I have worked several stations in the U.S, so far the furthest is Michigan, but today I worked two stations in Italy.
I walked in the shack about 6pm and thought I would see what was happening on 20M, I didn't even have to search the frequency I had stopped on this morning had a station calling CQ. I tuned him in and responded. It was part of a contest in Italy. I moved down the band and worked another station in Italy. It was awesome!
I also worked the Indiana and New England QSO parties.
And a special event station for the 7272 rag chew.
And there is still tomorrow!

73s

One of my antennas arrived!

The 20/40M dipole arrived on Wednesday. I got it set up and the hubby did the actual hanging of the antenna in the attic.
So last night I worked two stations one in New York City and one in South Lyon, Michigan (outside Detroit). I was pretty excited about my first contacts.
Jose in NYC (N8LRB) was great we had a nice chat for a few minutes!We were running similar equipment and set ups.
I worked these two stations on my IC 718, on 100w on 40Ms.
Can't wait for this weekend to try and work some more stations!

Happying Hamming!

They're Here!

My 20/40M dipole just arrived here at work. I can't wait to get home and open it up. I will have to take some measurements to night and tomorrow run by the hobby shop and get some coax for feed line.
Still waiting on the 10M but I really wanted this 20/40M sooner. My random wire antenna hasn't been working too well. I didn't even try it last night, was just too tired when I got home from work and cut the grass and trimmed the dog and such.
But tonight I will certainly be prepping things for hooking up the antenna tomorrow.
Bonus! I'm off tomorrow!

How I Spent My Sunday

I decided to try and do a little organizing around the shack and get things grounded properly. The hubby (KA3MYK) and I bought the necessary supplies a couple of weeks ago; a length of copper pipe, some 10 gauge wire and clamps. We got some things grounded at least the things we use, but not everything yet.
I am still waiting on the antennas I ordered from Universal, in one more week they will be one month past the back order date.
I put out a random wire antenna yesterday and today trying different positions and heights tonight it is tossed over the roof of the house in a sloper position. I can receive on 80M, 40M and on 20M but cannot seem to transmit. I couldn't tune it to 10M. I wasn't expecting much but was hoping I could at least make a contact or two.
I hope everyone is having better luck with their HF work.
Here are some pictures of the shack in progress.
This is before I started working on it.


Copper pipe being put into place.


This is an after picture, but not the final because I still have some work to do.


I ran the ground out of the house through a hole provided by the cable company. I do not have cable so this was very handy. It is then connected to the cold water pipe outside with the DSL and other connections.

Details on the RV

I'm posting this here in hopes fellow HAMs will see this. I think this little RV would make a great mobile command for someone; either someone into DXing or Emergency Managment. It would be great on field day. It is fully self contained, has a new microwave, an oven and stop top, double stainless steal sink, refrigerator, tons and tons of space for storing gear or radios. A shower, tub, toilet and sink in the bathroom and can sleep four. And it is only 21ft. long so it fits in the driveway!
We have enjoyed it for a couple of years and plan on changing to a trailer style.
Email me for more pictures or info at mlwstory@gmail.com

Antennas UG

I believe I am cursed when it comes to antennas. First, three weeks ago I ordered an end fed 10m and a 20/40 dipole, I was notified they were on back ordered and would be in on April 10th. I still don't have them. So this weekend I decided to get the 2m up finally after having all the parts needed to do so. We got one PL259 on one end and was preparing to put on the second when suddenly!The second reducer is smaller than the first. It won't fit down on the cable. I checked the all the other reducers we have with the other PL259s we have they are all smaller like the one I am currently fighting with. I'm not sure how this happened how there was only one that was large enough. I went as far as attempting to put vasaline on the cable but it didn't help. So will have to run out tomorrow and get one but seems like antennas see me coming and form their own conspiracy to stop me.

It's Official!

My upgrade to General appeared on the FCC website yesterday! I'm so excited and we have a field day coming up so I am really looking forward to making some serious contacts.
It seems that all the upgrades from our testing session on the 31st showed up yesterday so my fellow testers got theirs yesterday as well, so congratulations to all of them!
I am still waiting on my antennas from Universal to be shipped. It is becoming quite painful to wait for them. I want to get on HF!

'73s

The Knack

It would seem we are all suffering from the "Knack" some of us in various forms and to different degrees of severity. But, we've all contracted it. Probably were even born with it, unbeknownst to us and our parents. Over the years it is grown, even been nurtured until we are the people we are today!
I beg you to be more aware of the symptoms of the "Knack" and nurture and feed them as much as possible!

'73s
Milly

Welcome to the Old Virginia HAM

Greetings! Glad you stopped by the Old Virginia HAM blog. As you might guess we are located in Virginia. Hampton Roads to be more precise. We have some great HAMs here and some great clubs. I will post links to them here. If you would like your webpage or clubpage listed just let me know I would be happy to post it here.
I have been a HAM since 2005 and recently upgraded to General. I plan to upgrade to Extra this summer, along with my husband who has been a General for quite some time and as been my Elmer.
Being that I am somewhat knew to HAM I am still trying different things to find my niche. I am hoping to get into contesting and DXing. I really think that would be fun and appeal to my competitive nature.
I have a friend Hershel Kreis (W4TMN), who has agreed to help me get started. He is a great guy! Looking forward to get started there.
We are developing our shack. We have an ICOM 718 all band HF rig, a President 10M, and Icom IC2100 2M mobile unit as a base here in the shack. We each have Yaseu 1802s for the vehicles. I love my Yaseu! Awesome radio.
We have some really good repeaters in the area. In Hampton we have the 145.490 machine. It is colocated on a communications tower and is 400ft up! John Howe(KE4UP) is the man that makes that happen and he does a great job.
In Gloucester, we have the 145.370 repeater with the daily Crab Net, we have a great time in there! Mark Lowe (N1LO) is the genius behind this repeater and others! Mark is a master of antennas! He has a webpage linked here.
We have plenty of other repeaters, there are two more in Hampton, two in Williamsburg, and not to mention Newport News and York County. So if your in our area, drop by one of them and meet a great bunch of people!