Dose of January Radio-Activity

Once again, the Winterfest. Our biggest hamfest of the season. Lots of banquets, forums, commercial vendors and above all, the huge indoor flea market. Collinsville, IL on Saturday, January 27. Surprisingly, quite balmy weather this year compared to the freezing cold many years before.

Winterfest is always interesting. It would take pages of pictures to show the atmosphere and cover all the activities, so I will just add two that got my attention:

Display of Radio Scouting with some APRS equipment

Revolutionary portable ground system

Unfortunately, this was also the last day of a DX-pedition to Clipperton Island, TX5S. Many of us were trying to score last QSOs in the morning of the Winterfest:

TX5S Live Stream

To make it even more interesting, this was also the weekend of a major HF contest, the CQ 160m CW. Enough? Oh no .. this was also the weekend of the Winter Field Day. Quite a busy weekend! I have worked TX5S, made some CW QSOs on 160m, attended the Winterfest and even visited the portable location of the STL QRP Society in the Babler Park:

Cochran Shelter in the Babler Park

STL QRP Club guys during the WFD

I was very impressed by the outdoor activity the STL QRP guys set up in the Babler park. There was a fire place in the shelter, but the shelter itself is open, so the operation was far from convenient or "home-like". I have only visited for a short time, but I have seen enough challenging things to last me a year or two - nice QRP radios, portable antennas and above all very friendly and welcoming atmosphere. Too bad that I spent the previous night operating in the 160m contest.

To my knowledge, there was at least one other group from our area, the Missouri Outdoor Club, W0MOC attending the Winter Field Day. They operated in about one hour driving distance West from Saint Louis close to I-70, but I was not able to visit them due to lack of sleep on my side. Fantastic activity, beating the elements while generating some waves!

To make things even more complex, the SLAMS club had the regular breakfast meeting at Denny's just the next Sunday morning. It was one of the nice meetings where everybody was having fun on top of eating the traditionally good food. Everything considered, one of the most active weekends we have ever had.

WB9PNU/B January RS

 Not much in the way of local microwave activity this winter.  Yesterday, January 25 the St. Louis metro area had a rainy day.  I decided to drag my 3cm rig next to my back porch doorway to see if I could hear the WB9PNU 3 cm beacon.  I am happy to report that it is working nicely!

                              Screenshot of the rain moving away from the area.  When I listened for RS, the rain was filling most of the above screenshot at the time.

ARRL VHF January 2024 Contest

It's that time of the year again - time to freeze while trying to be radio-active. At least in theory. Practically, some of us decided not to get exposed to the elements and the rest just minimized the exposure. We decided to avoid the predicted cold on Saturday and scheduled a limited activity for Sunday, January 21st. Well, it wasn't much warmer and the stay outdoors on the open spots where we usually go to for VHF+ contacts was far from pleasant.

Herbert AF4JF set up his SUV for the usual roving activity, just limited the number of bands to 3 and only worked on two of them - 144 and 432MHz. Harry WA0CNS set up his minivan in similar fashion and operated on 144MHz. Our new member Tony KB9LLD operated on 144 and 432 using a "drive-on" stand with a pole that carried very nice dual band beam. Ron KO0Z supported us from his home station.

We probably did not break any records and I am afraid that we won't win this contest either, but the activity was way higher than couple of last years combined. We have even worked some FM stations only using their handhelds! Hope this trend will spread, we need more activity!

Several pictures from today's outing:

Herbert AF4JF in EM48qs

Herbert AF4JF in EM49oa

Tony KB9LLD in EM48qs

Tony has a nice "drive-on" stand

Herbert worked Marshall WD9EXD in EM57
(142 miles) on the small 70cm loop