Getting into Parks On The Air / POTA Lately

 Its been a while since I have posted here, so I am about to fix that. Having recently retired, I now have more time to spend doing various ham radio things.  Specifically, Parks On The Air. This is a relatively new event that goes on 24/7/365 - as in any time you want to. As a ham who likes contesting, specifically Field Day, Parks On The Air, aka POTA is like Field Day every day - even though its not really a contest.

The idea is you take your gear out to a park that is registered on their site and set up. When you do this, you are what is called an Activator. Once your station is set up, then you become this rare entity that other amateur radio operators want to talk to. They are called hunters. Being from Ohio, with lots of Amateur Radio operators in this state, we don't get the opportunity of being on the receiving end of a pileup too often - except during a POTA Activation!

Additionally, the Parks On The Air program has done several good things for us Amateur Radio Operators. It pushes us to develop our own way of operating our radios at a park (obviously) which usually means buying or building portable antennas and usually coming up with some sort of off-grid power solution. Since our primary justification for our frequencies we use is emergency communications, POTA encourages us to develop such off-grid radio systems, such as what is called a go box, or in my case, a go frame.

Another good thing that the Parks On The Air program has done for amateur radio is a renewed interest in Morse Code, otherwise known in the amateur radio community as CW. Several years back, the FCC decided to do away with the Morse code requirement to get an amateur radio license so as to encourage people to get their license. This has proven to be successful as there was an increase in the number of people obtaining their license, however there were many amateurs who lamented this change. Truth be told, there was quite a noticeable decrease in the number of Morse code contacts that were being made.

When POTA first started those of us that knew CW were doing better with our activations that those who ran SSB. In my opinion there were two reasons for this. Of all the different modes that us amateur radio operators can use, CW is the mode that gets through when propagation conditions are poor. This gives us CW guys an advantage no matter the conditions. When POTA was getting started we were going into a sunspot minimum. This meant that radio propagation was going to be poor at best. As a result, this generated a lot of interest in learning Morse Code. 

I also know one ham who has become my friend who was bored during the Covid lockdown. On a random whim he decided to learn Morse code just to keep his brain active. Then one day while he was watching a youtube video, he learned of this thing called Amateur Radio. His response was "you mean people actually still use Morse code?" and "you mean I can talk to people around the world with a radio?" He ended up getting his license and then discovered Parks On The Air. He and I regularly chat on the air.

And speaking of friends, I have made all kinds of friends all over the country that I have talked to. A lot of them I have not met in person, but when I hear their call come back to me, I stop and chat with them for a minute to see whats new in their life.

Since the sunspots are picking up, propagation on the bands is improving. This has caused growth in another area of amateur radio. Running low power, otherwise known in the Amateur Radio community as QRP. Typically when running QRP you are running 10 watts or less. For me, I have two QCX mini transceivers that put out a whopping 5 watts of power. They are a bit bigger than a pack of cigarettes and great fun! This summer I went on a boat trip with my friend Kevin, KE8ONI to North Bass Island in Lake Erie. We had a blast and I used my two QCX mini's there along with my DIY 40 through 20 meter vertical antenna. Good times! 

If you have read this far and you are a ham radio operator, hopefully we can work each other on one of my activations. 

73's  -- Mike WB8ERJ 

Read Ohio Edison's Net Meter

Having just installed solar panels, Ohio Edison came out and installed a Net Meter at my house. They can be confusing to read, so I called Ohio Edison for the low down on the display codes. They Use Display codes 4, 5, and 40. For a complete explanation of these particular display codes for a Net meter, and how to read a net meter, just go over to Mikes Tech Blog for a complete explanation.

-- Mike

Here Are My Steampunk Coffee Pour Over Stands

The latest craze in the world of coffee, is the Pour over method. Thanks to the owner of a local coffee shop, Relax Its Just Coffee, mentioned to me that it would be cool to make a pour over stand out of copper, but he didn't know how to solder. Being an Electronics Engineer, I have been soldering practically all my life. I quickly piped up "heck I can solder", so the discussion proceeded, and I built my first coffee pour over stand - Steampunk style out of copper pipe. People like them a lot, so I decided to make a few  and start selling them on Etsy.

Below is a gallery of my Steampunk / Industrial coffee pour over stations on my Etsy store.




-- Mike

Mikes Color Organ using an Arduino

Usually when I tell people about my color organ, I get a stare like "What is that?" A color organ takes the audio spectrum and breaks it up into sections, then it measures the audio level in each section. In my case, I turn on LED strips proportional to the loudness in each section. Think of it as something like a giant graphic equalizer.

I used an Arduino Microprocessor with a SparkFun MSGEQ7 Spectrum Shield to sample the audio, and a Power Driver Shield to drive the 6 different 16 ft. long LED strips.

I plan on taking it to some shows in the area in the near future. Here is a video of my Color Organ in the front window of my house. Music by The La De Les - They are amazing musicians, and wonderful people. Check them out if you get a chance.

UPDATE: Here is an article on my other blog complete with the Arduino source code: Mike's Color Organ

-- Mike

Here is an HDTV antenna that I built

Last summer I finally had time to build my HDTV antenna since my old antenna was damaged by ice the previous winter. In searching the internet for building an HDTV antenna, I found several HDTV antennas that used coat hangers. Since my antenna needed to be outside, using coat hangers would not work due to corrosion. Since I live between Cleveland and Columbus, both of which are about 70 miles away, my HDTV antenna had to have high gain. I am quite happy with he performance of my HDTV antenna, which I mounted on top of my 30 TV tower.

Finally Finished Building an Electric Guitar!

Well it has been quite a learning experience building my first electric guitar, and I am very pleased with how it turned out. Actually I should say "they" as I built two electric guitars at the same time. Here they are:


The top one I built for myself, and the bottom one I built for my son. It was a great experience building them. I will no doubt be building more electric guitars, as I already have several things that I want to try like a slightly different method to attach the neck to the body, and some other tweaks to the humbucker pickups that I built.

If you are interested in how I built my electric guitar, feel free to check out my website: www.BuildMyElectricGuitar.com.

-- Mike

Morse Code dead? Never!

Back in 1967 is when I first got my ham radio license. I was only 14 years old, and it was quite the big deal. Especially when I upgraded to my Advanced class at 16 years of age. Back then, you had to go in front of an FCC official, and it was very scary! But in order to pass, you had to be able to copy (or receive) one solid minute of Morse code at a speed of 13 words per minute without error, which is pretty fast.

I didn't get my Extra class license until much later, but I have always enjoyed using Morse code, or CW, as it is referred to in the ham radio world. Unfortunately, it has been a while for me since I have actually talked to anybody using Morse code.

The other day, I stumbled on to an interesting site, lcwo.net. Which is a site for learning Morse code, as well as allowing you to practice online. Being curious, I tried a couple of the tests, and was surprised at my score! I was able to copy Morse code at 28 words per minute! Wow!

But then Mike, don't get too cocky! (yes, I talk to myself) Because my ranking was 235 on words and 769 on call signs. Yeah, there are lots of guys that are way better than me, but that's ok, I'm just glad that I still remember Morse code!

If you want to learn Morse code, lcwo.net is the place to do it.

By the way, I should also mention that if you are interested in getting your ham radio license, you don't need to know Morse code anymore. But just so you know, Morse code is still cool!

-- Mike