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Hey, good evening everyone. It's time for HamTalk
Live. It's episode number 154, Working Portable
Events, recorded live on Thursday, February 28th,
2019. I'm your host, Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. Thanks
for tuning in to another episode of HamTalk Live.
We're back. If you missed us last week, we'll
tell you what was going on there, but that was
scheduled. We're back tonight and we've got Sean
Kutzko KX9X with us tonight to talk all about
working portable and some ways to make that fun
and interesting and some ways to make that easier.
So we'll talk about that. Last week I wasn't
here and I kind of announced that ahead of time
because I was I'm also the PA announcer at the
school where I teach and The final regular season
basketball game of the year is always on a Thursday
night. Normally we don't play on Thursday night,
but it was on Thursday night, so I had to do
that. But in addition to that, our coach became
the winningest coach in Indiana high school basketball
history. So not only did I have to do the game,
which included senior night and all that stuff,
but then... He had a big postgame celebration
for him afterwards and had to take care of some
audio for that and everything so That's where
I was last week and two weeks ago We had open
lines for dating stories, and I have to say we
ran out of time There were so many people calling
in and sharing their stories. So thanks again
to Val, NV9L, for suggesting the topic and everybody
who called in. And I forgot to mention at the
end that the kids in my school club said that
they want to have a special event station at
the wedding with Julie and I. So Julie said it
would be okay, but I don't know. We'll see if
that happens. You just never know but if you
missed that show listen anytime ham talk live
comm or on your favorite podcast app or on YouTube
or Don't forget. We're on WTWW now 5085 a .m.
Saturday evenings at about 630 p .m. Eastern
So get your portable questions ready to go And
if you're listening to us on Thursday night,
you can give us a call after I talked to Sean
a little for a little bit by calling the phone
number and yeah we're still on our temporary
number so let me give you the temporary number
again it's 812 -650 -9556 again 812 -650 -9556
is the number to call tonight And hopefully we're
going to get that switched over soon. You can
also tweet us. We're still at HamTalk Live on
Twitter. So we'll check the tweets out in a little
while as well. And I'll be back with Sean right
after this word from Icom America right here
on HamTalk Live. Create your own band opening.
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radios. Welcome back to ham talk live Thanks
to icon America for sponsoring the show once
again tonight and check out their deals and and
that IC9700 coming soon, so be sure to check
them out. Icomamerica .com slash amateur is where
you will find them on the web. And my guest tonight,
once again, is Sean Kutsko, KX9X. He's the former
contest manager and media and public relations
manager at ARRL. Sean enjoys portable operations,
satellites. and QRP. He's an avid DXer and has
had the chance to be the DX several times. Sean's
been licensed since 1982 and was originally from
central Illinois and attended the nearby University
of Illinois. After being on staff at ARRL for
10 years, he's now a public relations and communications
consultant and he works over at the Mark Twain
House and is the owner of a company called QRP.
baking. So Sean, welcome back once again. Hey,
Neil, it's good to be back on the show. How you
doing? I'm, I'm doing, I'm doing all right. Got
a little, little sign of stuff going on. So if
I have to do that a few times, you understand
why, but I completely understand. So, so, so
does QRP baking have like, um, like, you know,
stuff available for, for like portable operations?
Well, you know a lot of baked goods are very
tiny and could fit into a small backpack So I
think we could probably work something out it's
actually called qrp bakery and What's going on
with that real quickly is the Connecticut? Legislature
the Connecticut State Legislature just passed
a law allowing Certain types of baked goods to
be made in a home kitchen So any type of baked
good that does not involve anything that can
spoil or require refrigeration, you can sell
it in very limited circumstances if it's made
from a home kitchen. So I'm just starting to
explore all of that. So stay tuned. Maybe you'll
have some nice cookies and loaves of bread that
you can get from me through the QRP Bakery. So
we'll see how that plays out. Yeah, that might
fit well with Wimploda. It could be. Although,
you know, you might get, you know, the folks
at the folks for Walmart parking lots on the
air, you know, I have a feeling that there are
a lot of like little Debbie snack cakes that
are consumed during that, so. Probably. Probably
so. Well. Well, enough of, enough of that. Let's,
let's talk about some of these portable operating
events and we are actually going to talk about
Wimploda here in a little bit. Uh, but let's
talk about some of these and let's talk about
some reasons why our listeners should go portable
to operate and how to do that. Well, I think
you know most hams are probably familiar with
field day where everybody you know goes out on
the fourth full weekend in June and operates
either solo or with your club and you know gets
gets your equipment outside of your home QTH
and go set up in a park or You know someplace
like that. So I think most hams have experienced
that kind of portable operating but there are
a lot of reasons why portable operating can become
major component of the way that you enjoy amateur
radio. There are a lot of external noise sources
that are cropping up at various parts of the
country. If you live in a home that's next to
a factory or a store or something like that,
you might have an external noise source, powerline
noise, things like that. So being able to take
a station out to a park or someplace that's away
from those noise sources If you can't eliminate
the noise source yourself, you can take a smaller
station and go set up away from those noise sources
and enjoy the hobby. I personally like the idea
of just being able to go out and set up. portable
somewhere for the sake of testing your deployment
skills. If you're interested in emergency communications
and emergency preparedness, making sure that
you have the equipment and the skills to go set
up portable quickly will be very beneficial if
you're actually ever called into service to do
something like that. It's a great way to get
some exercise. You go out and you can go hiking
on a trail, up to a mountain summit, row a kayak
out to an island. So there are a lot of different
reasons why portable operating can become a major
focus of the way that you enjoy the hobby. And
that's what happened to me. Many years ago, I
lived in rural Illinois and I had a 70 foot tower
with a lot of stations up. You know life changed
course and I ended up downsizing all of that
and moved out to Connecticut and started working
at the league and Housing out here is a little
bit more expensive than it is in rural, Illinois
so I've been living in apartments for quite a
while and I don't really have the ability to
put an antenna up here in the apartment so my
entire focus of how I enjoy amateur radio changed
because the way that I live changed and I wasn't
gonna simply go QRT and not get on the air anymore
so I had to come up with a new strategy and what
I found was Being able to operate portable and
have a small station that I could take anywhere
Really became a much more simplistic but enjoyable
way to stay on the air and I found now that I
actually prefer that style of operating to having
a big tower and giant antennas. Don't get me
wrong, that's always fun. It's nice to be loud,
especially if you're in a contest or trying to
work a rare country on, on HF or something like
that. But the simplicity of a small station that
you can take anywhere is tremendous fun. Absolutely.
And you know, it's, it's a situation that a lot
of people are in is if you want to get on HF,
you're you may not be able to put up any antennas
or if you do, you're going to have to hide them
really well. And it's just a way to do that.
And I find that, you know, you got me started
on this whole satellite thing on this show about
two years ago. And what I'm finding is I spend
more time doing that in the car because I can
use that time while I'm in the car. And, you
know, I have a limited amount of time and I don't
always have time to just go, you know, sit on
the radio for a couple of hours. But by going
out in the car, I can be, you know, driving somewhere
and maybe I pull over to grid line or maybe I
just keep on driving and get a few contacts on
a satellite and it works really well. Mm -hmm,
and it's specifically talking about satellites.
We were talking about a small simple station
and it's hard to beat The simplicity of being
able to get on an FM satellite once you get a
little bit of experience under your belt You
know a handheld dual band Yagi in one hand and
a handy talkie that can be on two meters and
70 centimeters at the same time That's a pretty
small station. It fits in the backseat of your
car. And for satellite work, you're not reliant
on the band being open. You know when the satellite
is going to pass overhead, so you can predict
your activity time. And at least for now, the
satellites are low enough in orbit that they
only pass overhead a maximum of about 15 or 20
minutes. So you can... as you said you know you
can be out doing other things with your day and
then a satellite will pass overhead and you can
enjoy amateur radio for 15 or 20 minutes at a
time and hand out the grid square that you are
currently in or work people in other grid squares
to add to your total so it's an enjoyable way
to have like this this micro experience of amateur
radio wherever you may be. Well, you talked a
little bit about the gear for satellite. So let's
talk about You know having the right gear that
can make things a lot easier. So what do you
suggest for HF? Well for HF, you know, it really
depends on how you want to approach Portable
operating to begin with you know, I am you know,
I'm an advocate of super small station super
low power qrp power But that doesn't necessarily
have to be the only way that you enjoy portable
operating. I mean, if you think about it, portable
operating just means you're using amateur radio
from a place that is not your home station location.
So if you extrapolate that out... You know a
lot of the major d expeditions are portable operations
You know, they they bring several tons of equipment
with them and it costs a lot of money to do to
go to some of these places But that's still a
portable operation. So if if you if you're not
comfortable with the idea of you know can just
consolidating your station down to a five watt
radio and you know six or seven pounds worth
of gear There are certainly all sorts of other
alternatives that you can do. You can have a
station in your car and be able to go mobile
and set up in a park somewhere that way. It could
be as simple as taking your HF transceiver that
you have in your house and hooking up a 12 -volt
battery and taking that to a remote location.
Maybe you could rent a cabin in a different state
or a different county. and you could set up a
station that way. So it really depends on what
level of operating you're comfortable with. You
probably don't want to take 50 pounds of gear
up the side of a mountain if you're walking up
there. You can if you want, I wouldn't recommend
it. But if you simply want to... Say put on a
rare county during your state's QSO party You
know you can you can fill your car up with as
much stuff as you want and go take it to a park
or a rental Cabin or something like that if you're
more interested in doing the the super low QRP
portable stuff. There's there's tons of great
equipment out there for you to consider wire
antenna I think the half wave dipole kind of
gets a bad rap as an antenna I think a resonant
half wave dipole up a quarter wavelength will
do wonders for you I think you'd be surprised
how good one of those can work under decent conditions
And you know there there are all sorts of other
things available to you too if you're if you're
interested in QRP and you're a kit builder there
are there are dozens of lightweight QRP kits
that are available for you. There's still some
CW only radios that are out there that are super
cheap and would work very well. Digital modes
open up a whole opportunity of other equipment.
So you have a lot of options that are available
to you. I can't recommend just one way of doing
it because amateur radio is about experimentation
and trying new things. So whatever works for
you. Now, what about power? I know the picture
you sent out promoting this episode, you had
one of those battery charger things. I've got
one of those that are cool. You use that to power
your HF ring? You can. The portable car starters
work as a decent power supply in a pinch. There
are dozens of other power sources that you can
use. You can go solar if you have a solar panel
and a charge controller. You can use sealed lead
acid batteries that are pulled from emergency
power supply sources from maybe your computer's
IT team has some of those that they have to rotate
out of operation for where you work to keep your
IT system up and running. The lithium polymer
batteries are fantastic if you're interested
in super lightweight stuff. You can get a deep
-cycled marine battery at any one of your automotive
or farm supply stores. So you have a lot of options
for you in terms of power. It really comes down
to, again, how much equipment you want to take
with you out into the field, how much weight
you are willing to lug around, and what your
style of operating is gonna be. If you're gonna
be in one place for a weekend, the needs for
power are gonna be... A little bit different
than if you're going to try to operate from say
a mountain summit for summits on the air For
a few hours where you're trying to keep weight
down to a minimum. So Again, it really comes
down to what your style of operating is How long
you're going to be at a location and what your
tolerance is for? weight and lugging equipment
around Okay, well What about bands and modes
now we talked about HF we talked about satellite
water some of the bands and modes that are more
portable friendly. It's hard to argue against
the benefits of being able to get on 40 meters,
especially if you're interested in digital modes
or if you're doing one of the operating events
such as Parks on the Air or Summits on the Air
or the US Islands Award or things like that.
40 meters, even during the day, you're going
to have a whole lot of fun. A dipole is not is
not too far out of reach, especially if you can
get a portable mast to elevate it in an inverted
V configuration or throw it over a tree. There
are NFED wire antennas that work very nicely
as well. So 40 meters is a great band for HF
portable operating. You'll have a lot of fun
with it. Certainly if the higher bands are open
and you're interested in working more DX, 20
meters, I don't think we're gonna see too much
action out of 15 or 10 anytime soon, at least
for long haul DX work. But it does the talking
about those bands segues nicely into the VHF
and UHF bands as well I'm I'm a big proponent
of Enjoying 10 meters and 6 meters during the
summer sporadic e season and if you're not familiar
with sporadic e Sporadic e propagation occurs
in the summer months here in the northern hemisphere
between roughly May and say late August and it
is a short, a relatively short range of propagation
mode that occurs in the E layer of the ionosphere
and on 10 meters and 6 meters during the summer
months the band will open even during periods
of low sunspot activity. It's not completely
reliant on the 11 -year sunspot cycle in order
for it to work. So during the summer months,
on 10 meters and 6 meters, sporadic e -propagation
will allow you to communicate, oh, say, you know,
anywhere from 750 to 1 ,500 miles out, which,
you know, that's a whole lot of fun if you're
set up in a park and you've got a simple dipole
thrown into a tree. So six meters especially
a six meter dipole is less than 10 feet long
and If the band is open Six meters is a tremendous
amount of fun and technician class licensees
have access to six meters as well As as they
do on ten meters sideband, too. So these are
these are things to Keep an eye on during the
summer months 10 meters and 6 meters and and
the VHF stuff is is a tremendous amount of fun
And there are contests geared around the VHF
bands 6 meters and 2 meters and 70 centimeters
and all of them So, you know the a double RL
has the June VHF contest, which is the second
weekend in June and that's 6 meters and up CQ
has the VHF contest in July. So uh... there are
uh... there are operating events that are geared
towards the summer sporadic e -season so you
have to keep an eye on the ionosphere that is
true good play you can't tell a chemistry teacher
can you yeah exactly well hey Now that we're
talking about, we've talked about, you know,
what bands and what equipment and all that kind
of thing. There's some cool events that are going
on that are definitely geared for portable operation.
You created the wildly successful national parks
on the air program. Now Canada's picked up on
it. And so let's talk about the Canada version
for a little bit. And then some things like,
uh, us islands and, and something that you also
came up with. Right. So I was, I was pleased
to hear that, uh, uh, radio amateurs of Canada
and a group of Canadian hams came up with Canadian
national parks on the air for, for 2019. Uh,
this got started, uh, thanks to A gentleman by
the name of Doug Grace, Victor Echo One Delta
Fox Golf. He's up in Nova Scotia and he was having
coffee with some of his local hams up in Nova
Scotia and was commenting on how good National
Parks on the Air was going back in 2016 and he
asked the question that so many projects are
born out of, which was, hey, why can't we do
that? And so he got together a team of volunteers
who basically said we can do this and and they
it took them a little while but they they put
together Canadian National Parks on the air and
they got it up and running for this year and
there are 220 different national Canadian National
Historic sites and and national parks that are
going to be on the air all year long just like
the National Parks on the air event back in 2016
here in the States So I'm really, really happy
for them. It's been a good event so far. There's
been a lot of good activity. And there have been
US hams that have crossed over into Canada and
activated parks as well. We all know one of the
stars of national parks on the air was Pete Kobach,
K0BAK. And he took his mobile operation up and
activated six parks on the very first day on
January 1st this year. And I know that there
were a couple of satellite operators. From the
US that went into Canada and activated a few
Canadian historic sites on January 1st on satellite
as well So it's if you had if you were looking
for something to do for 2019 for your vacation
grab your passport and take your gear and head
up north and take a look at one of the 220 sites
in Canada that are going to be Available to you
for Canadian National Parks on the air this year.
You can they got a website. It's CN pota .ca
and you can also follow CNPOTA on Facebook and
Twitter as well and just like what happened with
National parks on the air here in the states
There's a whole lot of operators that are congregating
in the Facebook group and they're posting Daily
activities who's going to be on from where? And
there's a lot of information on their website
again as well. And again, that's CNPOTA dot ca
so be sure to check that out it's going to be
one of the best events of the year all right
and and before we take a break here let's talk
a little bit about uh the us islands as well
well us islands uh uh is all about operating
um islands that are found within the united states
borders so it doesn't have to be in salt water
they can be in lakes rivers streams uh along
the the coast But but it's all designed for islands
that are in within the within the United States
territory and this year happens to be their 25th
year of being around and they have a special
USI 25th anniversary award going on this year
so for people who collect islands if you confirm
a QSO with 25 different islands during 2019 you
qualify for an award and if you like operating
portable if you activate 25 different islands
during 2019, you qualify for a special award
for that as well. and they have all the rules
and all the information and the list of eligible
islands for the U .S. Islands program is on their
website and that is usislands .org and it's getting
on the air from an island is a tremendous amount
of fun and there are a lot of islands that qualify
for U .S. Islands that you can drive to. You
don't need a boat to take part in this program
in many instances. and uh... another part of
u s islands that's a tremendous amount of fun
is there are about 17 ,000 islands in the United
States and not all of them have been qualified
or identified for the U .S. Islands Awards Program.
So if you enjoy geography and enjoy poking around
with a map, you can pretty easily find islands
that would qualify for the U .S. Islands Program
but simply haven't been added to the list yet.
So there's a heavy incentive of being able to
be the very first person to ever transmit from
an island For ham radio and I know for me I find
that incredibly compelling So I spent a lot of
time looking at maps and again all of that information
is on the u .s Islands website at u .s Islands
dot o RG check it out the 25th anniversary award.
It's a lot of fun All right, and then you had
this idea you ended up on the injured reserve
list here for But but tell us a little bit about
this this CT 90 idea Well, it's you know for
me. I just enjoy going out and being portable
operating portable and I was looking at the world
the worldwide flora and fauna foundation which
is all about transmitting from parks and nature
reserves and things like that all around the
world and then in addition to that there's a
spinoff organization here in the states called
parks on the air and State parks qualify for
both of those wards and I got to poking around
and I saw that there were 90 parks 90 90 eligible
units in the state of Connecticut So I thought
why don't I try and see if I can transmit from
all 90 state parks in in Connecticut and I got
started on that about a year and a half maybe
two years ago and I got I got about 12 of them
under my belt and I was out doing an activation
February of last year and I sprained my ankle
really really badly and to be truth be told I
still haven't fully recovered from that so it
kind of slowed me down last year and I had some
had some other things going on with work and
whatnot and I didn't get on the air nearly as
much as I would have liked to last year but that's
just a that's just an example of Finding a personal
goal to motivate you to go out and get on the
air whether it's transmitting from all of the
Islands in your county or all of the the summits
on the air summits in your state or Or state
parks in your in your area, whatever the case
may be It's always nice to be able to have you
know, like something to motivate you, you know,
like a carrot at the end of the stick to keep
you moving forward and see how many different
things you can activate. So for me, that personal
goal is trying to see how many state parks in
Connecticut I can transmit from. And you know,
everybody's going to have something different.
I'm not going to get a prize for doing it. It's
just something that I thought would be fun and
unique and, and keep me motivated. So that's
why I chose to do it. And I'll bet that there
is something similar for everybody who's listening
to this show out there that they could do, uh,
uh, in their area with, uh, not too much effort.
All right. And we, we got to go, but, uh, I do
want to get this in cause this just was announced
here in the last week. That the second annual
Walmart parking lots on the air weekend, which
is actually wimplota three I think because we
didn't like a special one, but that's just been
announced. It's july 6th and 7th So get those
shopping carts ready to roll Walmart parking
lots on the air for satellite operators is like
it's it's it's a remarkably cool idea and it
makes total sense because Walmarts are everywhere
It's easy to set up a portable satellite station
in a Walmart parking lot fairly fairly simply
and each store has a unique store identifier
So you can you can hand out a different Walmart
store Each time you you you mosey down the road
a few miles So it's it's a lot of fun and and
it's a very unique event And I have to tip my
cap to the to the satellite guys who came up
with it It's not something I would have thought
up, but it's it's brilliant And you fit right
in you don't you don't look unusual at all. Nope,
not at all even when you're wearing Black and
green pajamas in the middle of a morning opening,
you know Exactly. There you go. All right. Well,
we gotta take a break. We're gonna come back
And we've got a lot of questions coming in already
so we're going to get to those and talk about
some more portable operations right after this
word from Tower Electronics right here on HamTalk
Live. Is this getting serious? I think so. Well,
how do you feel about it? Just imagine if you
hadn't run out of PL -259s. Just imagine if your
connectors weren't from Tower Electronics. Consider
the sophisticated quality of connectors from
Tower Electronics. Their silver -plated end connectors
are so good, they've even been used on the International
Space Station. I'm not so sure why I ever used
any other PL -259s. Mine are better. Besides,
you deserve the best. You know I love you. Don't
be caught without PL259's. Visit Tower Electronics
at a ham fest near you or visit them online anytime
at pl -259 .com or call 920 -435 -2973. They
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Tower Electronics, the hams dime store since
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812 -NET -HAM -1. That's 812 -638 -4261. Now,
here's more HamTalk Live. If a man says something
in the woods and there are no women there, is
he still wrong? You're listening to HamTalk Live
with Neil Rapp. Thanks again to Tower Electronics
for bringing you HamTalk Live coming up this
weekend. They're in Cave City, Kentucky on March
2nd. Then they'll be in Toledo, Ohio March 16th
and March 30th, Sevierville, Tennessee. or you
can visit them anytime at PL -259 .com and HamTalk
Live is on the air every Thursday night at 9
p .m. Eastern Time right here at HamTalkLive
.com and be sure to check us out on Facebook,
Twitter and Instagram and we're going to take
some questions here but the phone number again
tonight is the temporary number it's 812 -650
-9556 if you have a question give us a call.
at 812 -650 -9556, or you can tweet us at HamTalk
Live. If you're listening to us on WTWW or the
podcast edition, you're not going to reach anybody
because it's Thursday night right now when we're
doing this show. So. So you won't be able to
get through Wow, we've got a lot of Questions
typed tonight. So let me get to Twitter first
Nathan k a 3 MTT Has a question here. Let me
make sure your audio is back up here Okay, it
says my son k a 3 mt you and I are looking to
do an iota Activation in April any suggestions
for traveling with gear using commercial flights
and TSA issues Okay, so I just it I just flew
to London last June and I took an HT and a portable
satellite antenna with me. Depending on where
you're going, I would certainly recommend that
you check the TSA website to make sure that you
are meeting all of the regulations that they
have in play. The big one that they are going
to be concerned about is if you're bringing a
lithium battery with you, you can't put that
in your checked baggage, I believe is the case.
So you're gonna need to make sure that your lithium
batteries, if you're using lithium batteries,
you gotta make sure that those are in your carry
-on. I have heard a lot of stories of people
who have had absolutely no trouble with bringing
small amounts of radio gear on board in their
carry -on luggage. Checking it, I would not recommend
checking it if you can get away with it. I took
a complete HF station with me down to Antigua
many years ago admit I admit this was several
years ago, but Despite my best efforts in packing
it. Well, it just got banged around too much
in the in the checked baggage And I actually
ended up with a cracked display on my icon rig
from that experience so that turned me off to
Packing radios in in checked baggage unless there
is simply no other way to do it If you have to
check if you have to put all of your radio gear
in in your checked baggage It is absolutely worth
the money to get a hard shell case with foam
on the inside such as a pelican case or something
similar to that because you don't want to end
up on your iota expedition Without a functioning
radio that will ruin your entire experience.
So Check the tsa website about what you can and
cannot bring on board the plane And make sure
that if you have to put it in your checked baggage
that you use a hard shell case such as a Pelican
case with with foam on the inside to properly
protect your radio But anecdotally I can tell
you that when I flew over to London last year
All I was bringing an HT and a portable dual
dual band Yagi for satellite work and nobody
cared I didn't have any questions during check
-in or going through customs or anything like
that nobody cared however that is my anecdotal
story and that is not a guarantee that that will
happen to you all right good disclaimer and we've
got some Some advertising to do here because
it just so happens that in two weeks on this
program Dan Henderson is going to be on and we're
going to talk about traveling With your gear
and more specifically licensing issues. So if
you're crossing borders going into other countries
and dealing with some of those licensing issues.
I'm sure we'll talk a little bit about traveling
with your gear and this kind of thing, but the
main focus is going to be on the licensing bit.
So tune in in two weeks and we'll get you caught
up on all that. I would strongly recommend to
anybody who is considering operating in a in
a different country to To tune in and listen
to Dan's take on this He's the regulatory affairs
manager at the league and he's been dealing with
operating and licensing issues in different countries
for US hams and a double RL members for a very
very long time He knows what he's talking about
All right. Well there you have it. So Tune in
in two weeks. That's March 14th. We'll have that
program on. ChrisAA4CB says hello and Nathan,
canine CPO, which I haven't heard from Nathan
in a while, he wants to know what you would suggest
as a good CW paddle key for portable ops. Boy
Gosh, that's you know, there's no one answer
to that. It depends on again It depends on what's
your what your operating style is, you know for
somebody like myself who enjoys the the super
lightweight station I want a paddle that is going
to be as lightweight as possible and for me And
if I'm operating under those conditions, I really
like the palm paddle that was manufactured I
believe in Germany Which was a teeny tiny paddle
is about three and a half inches long Completely
encased in aluminum you could read you could
pull the the paddle elements out of this aluminum
protective case And operate and then when you
were done operating you could slide the paddle
portions back into this aluminum case but unfortunately
they It went out of business and they're not
being made anymore. And so I really hope that
One of the manufacturers steps up to the plate
and comes up with something like that for for
for the portable lightweight qrp operations Because
it was a fantastic paddle But there are plenty
of times especially if i'm doing operating in
my car I'll just you know, i've got i've got
an old an old bencher chrome paddle that you
know is in almost every ham shack in the United
States. I lug that thing out and I set it up
on a clipboard and put it in my lap and operate
with that. It's not the lightest weight solution,
but one thing that is nice is because it's not
lightweight, it doesn't slide around all over
the place, so I don't have to use my second hand
to hold the thing in place while I'm sending,
which you have to do if... in a lot of cases,
if you're operating portable with super lightweight
gear. So, you know, if you've got an extra paddle
lying around, I mean, you know, the Benchers
or the Vibraplex or the Begali, if you want to
take your Begali paddle out with you portable,
you know, all of those will work just fine. You
know, there are certainly other options as well.
I encourage you to experiment and find the proper
fit for the kind of operating that you're doing,
how much weight you want to bring, and whether
or not you're comfortable having the thing slide
around or not. Okay, very good. Next one, Robert.
Ke4al says, enough about Sean, it's Jarvis in
the studio. What's his take on portable operations?
How long has he been activating parks with Sean?
And what is his most memorable portable op that
Sean would be too embarrassed to mention? Well,
let's see. Okay. So for those who don't know,
Jarvis is a tiny stuffed alligator that I have
had with me for probably 30 years now. He's kind
of like my portable operating mascot. He's been
on every major portable operation that I've done
since the early 1990s. I don't even remember
where I got him anymore. But he's kind of like
the mascot for all the stuff that I do. We got
to keep this light and fun. So he comes with
me on all of my trips. What does he think about
it? I think as long as he gets fed, he's probably
okay with anything. Yeah, there's a there's a
great photo. I took a couple years ago in August
of 2017 I went roving through ten or twelve grids
around some Great Lakes in Ontario and Michigan
and Ohio and He certainly enjoyed Tim Horton's
coffee. I'll say that. Oh, yes the Tim Hortons.
Yeah Do that you can give that a Dayton though,
too. You can yep. Yeah Dayton has but so There
is something very special about having Tim Horton's
coffee in Ontario. I will say well, yeah So as
far as what? What what's the most memorable portable
op that I would be too embarrassed to mention?
Well, let's see from his from Jarvis's standpoint.
I think I was doing I was doing a park for for
my CT 90 project last Fall so this would have
been the fall of 2017 and I was set up next to
the Farmington River here in Connecticut while
I was operating a little Dinky State Park with
a trail system in it and I thought it'd be nice
to get a photo of Jarvis next to the water and
Poor guy fell in. I don't know how that happened,
but I don't think he was very happy with me that
day Well, I guess the closest I had was Was it
a year or two years ago? I guess it's two years
ago. We had flat hammy We had him talk live mascot,
you know, and you could take pictures with With
flat hammy. So it was kind of kind of the same
idea. I know the same thing. Yeah Okay, we got
another one. Uh, and I don't see a call sign
here. So I'm not sure who this is but the classic
satellite question And he says for soda too Arrow
to or elk Well, you know They both work very
well the the arrow the the arrow to is is my
personal choice just because I enjoy having the
ability to To rotate each each band separately
because on an arrow the two meter antenna and
the 70 centimeter antennas are 90 degrees Out
of phase, you know, so if if one is horizontally
polarized the other one is automatically vertically
polarized because they're on a square mast But
you know, I know Fernando and before JV down
in Arizona is a huge Elk user and he has great
success with them. I know Clayton W5 PFG is used
Elks with great success He's one of the best
satellite operators out there. I don't think
there's any one answer to that question. They
both work exceptionally well Okay, there we go.
Troy W9KVR says, uh, we used a Tar Heel screwdriver,
uh, from the back of the school bus, uh, with
a TS four 80 and 12 volt battery to operate from
Turkey run state park during school club roundup
in October, 2016. I remember that because we,
we worked them. That's just down the road here.
Um, and, uh, that worked out well on the school
bus. Well, that's if you're operating from a
school bus, that's a heck of a ground plane for
your tar heel That's a See that's to me. That's
that's just one of the beauties of operating
portable is you know, you can you can You can
rig up almost anything and and get us and you
know The RF is gonna go somewhere and you're
gonna work some folks and you know Troy mentioned
that he was doing this during the school club
roundup. That's fantastic You know, we've talked
a little bit about some of these Awards programs
that are geared toward portable operating But
you know you you really don't even need to have
a reason to do portable operating You can just
go do it for the sake of doing it Go set up in
a park somewhere on a enjoy a nice sunny afternoon
Maybe run a special event station You know you
can create a special event station for any event
whether there's something going on Within your
town maybe your town celebrating an anniversary
or it's the fourth of July or Labor Day Parade
or something along those lines I know that there
were special one of the slides that I used to
use in my presentation for Portable operating
was for special events was the Texas armadillo
barbecue, you know So you know you you don't
you don't need a reason for a special event and
it gives you It gives you a wonderful excuse
to get out And enjoy ham radio and interact with
the public and show folks what ham radio is about
and and have fun in a low -key Low stress endeavor
And maybe maybe even a special event station
for a wedding You could do that if you want I
would recommend that the groom steer clear of
that Yeah, I guess I'm better Also better make
sure that doesn't get into the sound system That
too that could be problem. I might be that might
be a You know, that might be a deal breaker Troy
says yeah, it was good timing He had a geology
field trip and so they were on this geology field
trip Which happened to fall right in the middle
of school club roundup? And so it's like well,
we're not gonna be able to operate school club
roundup unless We just take it with us So that's
what he did many many years ago many years ago
I was uh finishing up college and I was taking
a field botany class and we went on an overnight
trip to some park in central illinois and uh
identified various plant species while we were
out and I took uh I took my uh I took my icom
745 uh out into the field and threw a wire in
a tree and everybody was absolutely fascinated
with it so you know I had fun The folks in my
class got to see ham radio up close. They, you
know, most of them had never even heard of it
at that point in time. Uh, so, you know, all
sorts of little opportunities like that exist
to get the word out about amateur radio and,
uh, do a little one -on -one, uh, if not outright
recruitment, maybe just some consciousness raising
and public relations. There you go. Well, uh,
we we've got through all the questions that have
come in and we're already. five minutes over,
and I don't want to keep you too long here. But
you did mention that, you know, you were going
to mention some ways to make portable operating
even more fun. And besides Jarvis, you have anything
to add here before we hang it up for the night?
I would say the biggest thing that you can do
is get one of your friends involved and make
it a team effort. Do a contest from a rental
cabin. Do a state QSO party as a mobile. from
your car and activate a couple of different counties.
Do something like I was talking about earlier
with my project CT90 where you try to activate
a certain number of units that are in your area.
The US Islands program is going on this year.
You get points if you can, you get a special
award if you can transmit from 25 different islands
in 2019. That's a very reasonable goal. so check
out their website and check out the websites
of all of the other programs that we talked about
here and Give yourself give yourself an incentive
to go out and and and operate make an attainable
goal bring a friend with you and And and keep
it fun because that's really that's really what
all of this portable operating stuff is about.
It's about having fun All right. Well sounds
great Thank you so much for coming on. It's always
a pleasure to have you on. And I'm sure it won't
be long until I'll be on your email account again
saying, Hey, Sean, can you come back on show?
I'd be happy to do it. Quick note, if you heard
something in here that you wanted more information
about or if you want to ask me a question about
portable operating outside of the show, I'm happy
to answer any questions. You can reach me at
kx9x at yahoo .com. You can also follow me on
Twitter and Instagram at Sean Cutsco. That's
S -E -A -N -K -U -T -Z -K -O. Okay, we're good.
Oh and Chris mentions Florida State Parks on
the air is also yes, it is Check out check out.
Yep. Check out all of the events in your state
get online do a web search for Your state and
then the phrase ham radio and you'll find a lot
of different on -the -air events that are going
to be taking place in your area Well, we're going
to end it there, but thanks again for coming
on and good luck with the baking and the CT90.
If you get back into that again and all that
you're doing, we appreciate you being here. And
I don't know, I'm thinking QRP bakery items for
Wemploda. It could very easily happen i'll have
to reach out to the organizers and see if we
can muscle in on that little debbie contract.
All right well that's a wrap for this week's
edition. of HamTalk Live. Thanks to Sean Cuttsko,
KX9X, and everybody out there in cyberspace for
listening and writing in tonight. And I invite
you all back next Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern
Time when Sterling Mann N0SSC will be here to
talk about the YARC. Youth Contesting Program
for a list of all of our upcoming guests. Just
go over to HamTalkLive .com and if you like the
show, please consider leaving us a review on
iTunes or wherever you listen. That helps others
find us faster. So for now, this is Neil Rapp,
WB9VPG, saying 7375 and may the good DX be yours.
Thanks for watching!