Author: KH7AL
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SOTA Activation – Spokane Hills W7M/HB-135 and Reflections on QSL Cards
07 April 2025 Back Home and Buried in QSL Cards Sorry for the delays in any regular updates. I have enjoyed my time at home on break from Wake Island for the past few weeks, and I honestly have not been too inspired to key up the radio until today. When I first arrived home… Read more
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30 Meter Thursday, Second Edition
13 March 2025 This was an odd evening on the air. After dinner I set up my 30m dipole to get ready and noticed a high level of noise. I could distinctly hear the hum of a nearby generator that resulted in an S7-S9 noise level. This was the first time dealing with QRM like… Read more
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On The Home Stretch
13 March 2025 As I see my travel date quickly approaching for my break from Wake Island, I feel the urge to log as many contacts as I can. Therefore, I have planned a multi-day (evening local time) radio activities to dish out some QSOs before I am wheels up and heading home for some… Read more
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Wake Island Walk About
03 March 2025 On my day off today I went exploring. First let’s talk about Australian ironwood trees. The phase “you can’t see the forest because all of the trees are in the way” comes to mind as I bring this up. These ironwoods are not native to Wake but they have found a home… Read more
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Home Away From Home
02 March 2025 Apparently I’ve been busy. Without meaning to do so, I broke from my normal two activations per week. Since 21 February I have been on the radio every day (9 days in a row) and logged over 1,400 QSOs, mostly on CW. That is also why my updates have been lacking. The… Read more
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QSB Rollercoast
24 February 2025 I used to check the band conditions before heading out. I stopped doing that because it did not seem to matter. Unless the conditions are really bad under an extreme geomagnetic storm, you can probably make some contacts under less than ideal conditions. After setting up my 12m dipole for more CW… Read more
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Radio Network
22 February 2025 Wow. No pressure at all…. I went out to get on 15m and my linked dipole SWR would not get below 8:1. What was going on? A quick inspection of the alligator clips used to make the mechanical connections have rusted significantly in the time on Wake Island. As my activity time… Read more
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Meat Grinder Radio
21 February 2025 Some days it just all comes together. Last evening I met a new friend I’ve been corresponding with over the past few weeks on the air to have a quick QSO on 12 meters SSB. After a brief chat, I switched over to CW and started calling CQ. This time I was… Read more
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10 Meter CW and Split Operations
18 Febrary 2025 My alarm clock seemed to chime too quickly this morning to get me up and ready for another run at CW from Wake. I was up until close to midnight the night before after some fun on 12m, uploading my log to all the places and typing up a quick blog post… Read more
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Gas-&-Go 10K, with a side of Ham Radio
17 February 2025 Part of my reasoning for not getting on the air in the morning on my day off today, on Presidents’ Day, was due to the fact that several people and I put together a 10 K race. It was scheduled for the morning, but due to a work conflict we needed to… Read more