Author: Admim
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Antenna notes
So it has been about a week (or more?) since I dried out all the Buddipole components (I hope, lol), which is to say about a week that the testing and inspection has been … pending. I started this morning by identifying the 3 calibration plugs for the NanoVNA (this turned out to be easy…
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Nano VNA
Caught a real bargain on Amazon, a NanoVNA-H for about $40 after the $10-off coupon, even including the state sales tax. I’ve been thinking about acquiring one for quite a while … now I’m very happy that I didn’t buy the much older (and much more expensive!) one that I saw at a hamfest last…
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Wildcat Mountain, again
I was feeling kind of “on a roll” this morning, after two successful activations. When I set out today, I had a couple of options; do some POTA, or run errands. Even as I left home I was not certain which way to go, but I brought the radio bag just in case. It was…
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Winter Field Day
On Sunday morning the weather had moderated a bit; the pre-dawn temperature was -12F, and I felt a bit more energetic than I did on Saturday. I still waited until about noon to set out, and I needed to deploy my battery charger / jump starter to get the car started. As usual, my first…
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Winter Field Day ?
WFD is coming up this weekend. Am I going to turn out for it? (Scroll down to the bottom for updates ! ) In the end, like every other year, I will make the actual decision around noon on Saturday. Right now I am feeling some reluctance; Wisconsin is going through the Polar Winter phase…
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Activating Mecan River SFA and the Ice Age Trail
Drawing upon my experiences last Monday, I left the house as the sun was rising: A quick stop at KwikTrip for lots of coffee, then rather more than an hour of driving, finally brought me to the perfect twofer spot that I scouted out last week. Though the day was sunny and the forecast promised…
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What turned out to be a scouting trip
The forecast was for temperatures above freezing, and I wanted to activate a new (to me) park this morning. Noodling over this in the living room over coffee, my wife reminded me of a spot she had visited last summer, kayaking with a neighbor: Mecan River State Wildlife and Fishery Area. I had noted at…
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Resolutions for 2026
It’s the season for that, after all. Here are a few, all radio related: That’s all for now. Thanks for visiting driftlessqrp!
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Probably the last hike of 2025
The last few days have been overcast but rising above freezing for a few hours, and today was the same. The Ice Cave at Wildcat Mountain State Park Still had plenty of ice anyway. The trail was a mixture of granular refrozen snow and softish melty ice; easy walking, not too slippery … and it…
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Winter weather
Thanks to K4SWL for this article, which really helped me make the selection ! Thank you for visiting driftlessqrp! More, soon!
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Day 1: learning the KH1 menus
It’s a very cold, but sunny day, following on a scant inch of snow overnight, so playing with the new radio has been an indoor thing today. The KH1 has a lot of menu functions that I am working through with the aid of the Owners Manual. I found the real-time clock, and set the…
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Hello, KH1 !
Every individual piece of the Edgewood package came separately packed, so a bit of assembly was needed; installing the battery and the log tray, mostly … putting the pen and whip into their clips finished the job. There it is. A complete radio station that will fit in my back pocket! I think I’ll want…