N7RGF

03/06/2024

Nice POTA weekend while attending the SeaPac convention. Got four new to me parks even with poor radio conditions. Thanks to Morgan N7WBV for coming along.

17/01/2024

Ice Storm challenges. Hex beam collapsed yesterday but did spring back when it started to thaw today, however, not without damage. Of the five bands, only 20, 12, and 10 meters are reasonable. I can see the 17m wire is broken and laying ontop of 15m and 6 meters is questionable. Repair will need to wait a few months when it's safe to get on the roof and likely won't happen until I can get the tower up.

02/01/2024

I had an excellent activation today with Morgan (N7WBV) at Shotgun Creek Recreation Area K-10358. Really lovely spot with covered picnic shelters that are in good condition. I forgot my battery box, but fortunately, Morgan could loan me his after his activation.

01/01/2024

Contest: ARRL RTTY Roundup Date: Jan 06, 1800Z to Jan 07, 2400Z Rules: https://www.arrl.org/rtty-roundup

08/12/2023

Two awesome QSL cards from Dxpeditions

27/11/2023

New park today in the frosty cold! Worked with Morgan N7WBV using some new band pass filters, worked beautifully on 10m and 20m and only about 20 foot apart. K-10357 Shotgun Creek OHV area.

17/10/2023

Scored a 30-foot Rohn 25g tower from a fellow Rotarian. He was in the Civil Air Patrol for several years and didn't need the tower anymore. Morgan and I managed to get it unmounted and down without damage or injury!

It will sit for a while, probably until next spring, and I can get it back in the air as a better base for the Hex Beam.

29/09/2023

Haven't had much time to work POTA stations this summer. Managed to cross over 400 total parks yesterday!

18/09/2023

Make a plan to add to your each week until you are two-weeks ready. Start small by adding a few extra cans of food or bottles of water to your next grocery list.

For a 12-week plan with an easy-to-use checklist, visit http://bit.ly/prepare_now. The list is customizable for families, including special notes for children and pets.

15/09/2023

I had the opportunity to operate as the W1AW/7 Station for Oregon last week as part of the ARRL Volunteers On the Air Celebration. I worked three shifts for 184 contacts in North America, South America, Asia, and Europe. It was an excellent opportunity and one I would gladly participate in again given he chance. https://vota.arrl.org/index.php

02/09/2023

Sometimes I have too much help. She was quite happy to enjoy the warm spot to nap.

03/08/2023

03/08/2023

Had a great time with my wife on a quick vacation to California. She was gracious enough to humor me and activate a couple of parks. First stop was Castle Crags State Park K-1135. It was a 2'fr with Shasta-Trinity National Forrest K-4465.

Later we went for a drive inland to Big Basin Redwoods State Park K-1129 for another activation. These three parks pushed me over the threshold for POTA Gold Activator!

14/07/2023

W7FLO Wires-X Workshop July 29th, 2023, 11:00am at Miller Park Are you interested in working with your Wires -X Capable Radio more than you already are? Maybe you would like to brush up on operating skills or just learn more about digital radio. We will practice connecting and disconnecting to the club repeater, entering, and exiting the wires-x rooms as well as finding nets to participate in. All hams and perspective hams are welcome.

This is a Ham teaching Ham workshop, so please share your knowledge, interests, or homebrew projects.

Bring your Wires-X capable radio out to Miller Park in Florence July 29th 11:00AM to 1:00PM Eastside main parking lot.
If you don’t have a wires-x radio, come anyway, and borrow one!

Questions: Please contact KC7BWK [email protected]

15/01/2023

This is "Valley Radio Club: Eugene Science Center - Ham Radio Demonstration" by Tom Reitter on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who…

09/01/2023

I forgot about this until the certificate arrived in the mail the other day. The 13 Colonies Special Event occurs around the 4th of July each year. The goal is to make contact with a special station in each of the original 13 Colonies. Getting all of these stations results in a "clean sweep." In 2022 I was able to get all of them but didn't get the three bonus stations (Phillidelphia, Great Britain, and France). I recall hearing the Philidelphia station but couldn't make a contact. For more info: http://13colonies.us/

06/01/2023

https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.smithsonianmag.com%2Finnovation%2Fmorse-code-back-looking-ditch-twitter-180981309%2F&data=05%7C01%7C%7Cef4b2e597b9940cd141908daef91ecf0%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638085707284301378%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=%2FKmNL8jaqvd61TzN0QuUs6RRsEZBSskQULDAf%2FLRowE%3D&reserved=0

Reviving a 200-year-old system, enthusiasts are putting the digit back in digital communication

06/01/2023

While we were in Idaho, Morgan (N7WBV) convinced me to do a quick activation for the New Year's award. I grew up in the area and it's been a long time since I've been to Malad Gorge, especially in the winter.

12/12/2022

With the turn of the weather - I've been playing with the IOS - SDR-Control for Icom by Marcus Roskosch. This is an amazing bit of software and I prefer it to the windows version of RS-BA-1. The FT8 app has a little bit of a learning curve and can be a little challenging, but it's nice not going to the shop in the cold/wind.rain. :)

11/12/2022

28/11/2022

Did a quick Drive-up Activation of Jasper State Park on Sunday in the rain.

21/11/2022

While I was waiting to pick up Bridgett at the Portland airport, I set up to listen to Air Traffic Control. I was able to catch the final approach exchange for her flight Delta 179. I was in the parking deck so I couldn’t make out the flight crew very well, but the tower was clear

20/11/2022

Caught a RTTY contest the other night, the IC 7610 has a built in decoder/encoder that works extremely well. Very clear signal and decode. I couldn’t quite figure out what the contest exchange was though. I’ll need to watch for the next one.

13/11/2022

Super awesome catch on FT-8. The Dxpedition T33T to Banaba Island! A Dxpedition is usually a group of Hams that will travel to difficult or underpopulated areas to activate an area. Banaba Island is among those areas. More Info here: https://dxnews.com/t33t/

13/11/2022

Yesterday I had just set up my second park and a Camper Van pulled into the lot. RVs put out a ton of Interference - this one, in particular, was horrible and they seemed fixed to stay awhile. The log was small enough that I couldn't really move either. I managed to scratch out the bare minimum needed to activate though.

12/11/2022

While my lovely wife is away in Europe I took a day trip to the coast to activate a couple parks. Finally got the last two to hit Silver. Activator awards are a bit harder to get as they go based on unique park activations.

29/10/2022

I think the hex beam is making a little difference. It's subtle and more noticeable on FT8 and other digi modes. I get just a bit more increase in signal in/out. I've been able to get deeper into Australia and hit Africa a bit better. A few new Dx entities: Ghana, Benin, and Finland.

For POTA - I seem to be able to have a little better luck on voice on the eastern US aspect. Still missing a few states though.

24/10/2022

Hex beam up! Thanks my lovely wife and son N7WBV.

17/10/2022

Had a rough park activation yesterday. Tons of weird technical problems. Morgan N7WBV showed up and helped me out so managed to get the activation! Still very smoky so the air quality is bad, rain will be welcome to help dampen the fires.