This past weekend I participated in the IARU HF World Championship contest. I chuckle at the phrase “world championship” because I’m a casual contester, a Sunday driver. I took this opportunity to practice my CW operating, as I have in other contests recently. My goal this year was to make 250 QSOs to qualify for the fancy certificate. This goal would require me to be a run station: sit on a frequency, call “CQ”, and copy other stations callsigns and exchanges (sent via Morse code) as efficiently as possible. I also thought 250 QSOs would be a good goal considering that I didn’t expect to be at the radio for the entire 24 hour contest period. ...

The RARS Portable Operating Group met on May 28, 2022 at Blue Jay Point County Park in northern Wake county to activate the Mountains to Sea Trail (K-8313), as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA) program. Attendees included over a dozen hams, some experienced and some new, who came to enjoy the mild May weather and HF propagation. Several hams generously brought their portable stations to share with participants. Icom was well-represented with an IC-718, IC-7300 and two 706’s present. Yaesu was also represented with the FT-857, FT-757, and FT-817 rigs. Vertical antennas were the most popular with a variety of Chameleon, Wolf River Coils, and TN07 antennas deployed. Deployment of an end fed half wave antenna was attempted, but ultimately unsuccessful when after several attempts with an arborist throw line, a zip tie failed resulting in a pile of wire on the ground. ...

I managed to sneak in a Parks on the Air (POTA) activation during a recent Cub Scout camping trip at Falls Lake, K-3841. As part of setting up camp, I threw up a SOTABeams Midi Bandspringer in a tree behind the tent, snaking both aerial and ground wire back in via the rear tent door for later use. After a long day of activities and eating, we settled down in the tent around 9:30pm and the youngest was out by 10pm. Sensing that opportunity was near, I waited a few minutes to ensure he was out-out, then starting wiring together the station. This was the first trip out for my new BioEnno 15Ah battery. After spending a few minutes tuning using my EMTech ZM-2, I checked my work with an analyzer and found that I had a 1.22 SWR on 7.070. Good enough. ...

Today marked the beginning of a new CW contest geared towards the intermediate CW operator. I’ll put myself in that bucket. The Medium Speed Contest is geared for operators aiming to work at speeds of 20-25 words per minute. The exchange is your name and a serial number. My goal is to use this contest for practice. That means I’m sending by hand with my Bench BY-1 paddle and I’m not using spots. I’ve been participating regularly in the K1USN Slow Speed conTest (SST), and I’ll likely add this contest to the rotation. ...

The RARS Portable Operating Group met on April 23, 2022 at Umstead State Park near Big Lake for our second outing. Attendees included a dozen hams, some experienced and some new, who came to enjoy portable radio on a very pleasant spring day. The program was on public service events and was presented by the RARS Public Service Chair, Jeremy Lindsley K2HJX. Jeremy gave an overview of different types of public service events, explained how they normally operate, and demonstrated the portable VHF/UHF station that he regularly uses to run a public service net control station. His portable station consisting of two dual-band radios, vertical antenna with collapsible mast and tripod, combined with a versatile battery power source generated a lot of interest from participants. ...