Dreamin

I was not planning to buy an amplifier.  I’ve operated barefoot all my life and had no compelling reason to change that.  Then a fellow ham about 45 minutes away from me decided to sell his 600W Ten-Tec Centaur for a price too good to pass up.

Unfortunately, Ill need to have an additional electrical circuit installed in order to use it.  It draws just 12A at 110V, but with everything else here in the shack on a single circuit I’m sure I would pop the breaker when I key the Centaur up. It will run on 220VAC. If I’m going to have an extra electrical circuit put in, I might as well make it 220V 20A circuit in case sometime in the future I move to a bigger amplifier.

Heathkit has just announced a new ket: a rather sleek and sophisticated power meter. I want it.

There was a time when everything in my ham shack was Heathkit. My hf rig was an old tired HW-100, and I learned a lot about electronics keeping it running.  Sometimes I went to the local Heathkit store and bought something just because I wanted to build another kit.

Now, as I plan my move to a new QTH and envision setting up my ham station there, I want this power meter to be a part of it.

Please indulge me while I walk on air for a bit.  I just finished a contact with K1N, the Navassa DXpedition.

Navassa Island is on the air for the first time in 22 years and won’t be back on the air for at least another ten.  I was determined to bag this one, even with my very modest station:

Kenwood TS-590S
100W
Attic dipole

I figured that 10M would be my best bet.  And today little ol’ me did it.

I want to thank my fellow members of the Central Arizona DX Association. Without their help and encouragement it would not have happened.

Yikes!  My business was so busy during 4th Quarter 2014 that I think I turned the radios on maybe once or twice.  Time to get back in the groove!

I still haven’t figured out a good way to support my VHF/UHF antenna since the wind took down my tree last fall. The replacement tree looks like it has died.  I have a couple of very nice diamond verticals but I need to camouflage them so the HOA nazis don’t see them.

I’ve erected a 17M bazooka antenna under the eaves in the back for the purpose of working some South/Central American stations, and sadly I’ve not put it to use.

Time to get back on the air!

(I’m headed to the Central Arizona DX Association meeting tonight and I’m expecting that wlil provide additional motivation.)

This morning I was scanning 15 meters and I happened upon an OM5 (Slovakia) station. And the pileup hadn’t started yet! I pounced. And missed. I tried again. Several times.  Then the pileup started and it was time to move on. My 100 watts of power and dipole in the attic were just not enough. How many times has this happened to you too?

RemoteRadio.com has the answer. Imagine sitting at your desk at home with an Elecraft K3/0 and remote access to a station nestled in the Catskills at 2100ASL in New York  with:

• 6m – 5 element Yagi
• 10m – 5/5/5 Stacks + 7 Element Mono bander @ 100′
• 15m – 5/5/5 Stacks
• 20m – 4/4 Stacks + 5 Element Mono bander @ 100′
• 40m – 3 ele 40M yagi
• 80m – Full size 4 Square
• 160m – 3 Sloper EU/SA/JA  – 4 Square being built
• WARC – Dipole @ 100′

And remote access to a station in Southern Dutchess County NY with:

• 6m – M2 6M7 @ 77′
• 10m – 4 Full Size Elements 2X Arrays 2/2/4 WRTC Antenna @ 73′
• 15m – 2 Full Size Elements 2X Arrays 2/2/4 WRTC Antenna @ 73′
• 20m  – 2 Full Size Elements 2X Arrays 2/2/4 WRTC Antenna @ 73′
• 40m  – Cushcraft 40-2CD 2 Element Yagi @ 85′
• 80m  – 4 Square in a swamp
• 160m – INV L also in a swamp

And… Well, I could go on. Right now they have six of these world-class big-gun stations, all of which can be at your disposal.

I spent some time with Lee Imber, WW2DX yesterday while he demoed the setup to me.  They provide a web interface that allows you to select stations, antennas, beam headings, etc. You control the station’s Elecraft K3 via the K3/0 on your desk.

It’s expensive but not outrageously so.  For example, the Silver plan is $3999/year. For that you get a K3/0 and everything necessary to connect it via the internet to each station’s K3. You get 900 minutes of access the first month and 300 minutes/month after that.  Additional minutes are 17-50 cents per minute depending upon station.

They have a monthly payment plan available, in which you to pay half up front then the balance over the remaining 11 months. For the silver plan that would be $2K the first month and then about $180/month for the remaining 11 months. I don’t know how they price years 2-n on the monthly payment plan.

Expensive?  Maybe. Or maybe not depending upon how you look at it. $180/month for on-demand use of six (and more coming) world-class big-gun stations to operate from sounds pretty reasonable to me.

Disclaimer: I have no connection with these guys whatsoever.  I just thing that what they’ve put together is brilliant.