Year End Review

I am very pleased to learn that Ham Radio Outside the Box appeared in 2 of the top 10 posts in 2023 on Ham Radio Weekly. The post “A strange but proven antenna” occupied 8th place and “A 200ft wire antenna up zero feet” came in at 4th place. Many thanks to Cale K4HCK who has kindly published more than a few of the posts on this blog this year. I strongly encourage everybody to visit HamWeekly.com and, if you haven’t already done so, subscribe to Cale’s excellent newsletter published every Saturday.

I also want to give a big shout out to John Schouten VE7TI, editor of the SARC (Surrey Amateur Radio Communications) Communicator newsletter. John graciously invited me to become a regular contributor to the Communicator – a bi-monthly newsletter read all over the world. Posts from Ham Radio Outside the Box appear in each issue. Subscription to the Communicator is highly recommended; it contains a hefty selection of excellent articles on a wide range of amateur radio topics.

Now that another year is in the history books it is time to re-examine the purpose and direction of Ham Radio Outside the Box. To start, I am going to re-commit to the non-commercial intent of this blog. Ham radio is my hobby, it is not a business; it is not even a hobby business. It is tempting to use fundraising tools like Patreon to generate some income to help pay for new equipment and I have no problem with other hams who choose to go that route.

Everybody’s circumstances in life are different. I am retired and after leaving the corporate world, where I worked in the telecommunication and computer fields, I spent quite a few years operating a small business. I have no desire, or need, to be a salesperson any more so, to re-iterate, ham radio is my hobby not my business. The purpose of this blog is to openly share what I learn about amateur radio without any commercial influence.

Wherever possible I prefer to build my own equipment – especially antennas. I get a lot of enjoyment and satisfaction out of using equipment I have built with my own hands. However, despite owning multiple soldering irons and breathing large volumes of solder smoke, my eyesight cannot keep up with the miniaturization of modern electronics. As a result I don’t build radios from kits unless the assembly only requires handling larger components.

But, that still leaves a lot of scope for experimentation. a lot of wire gets used in this shack and the family garage holds shelves full of old radio experiments, now collecting dust. There are also bins full of aluminum and steel tubes and a lot of plastic items. Plastic can be melted, dissolved in acetone or otherwise molded into useful gadgets for ham radio!

My home shack is located in the small city of Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada. Owen Sound is located at the southern end of the incredibly beautiful Bruce Peninsula that stretches 100km north and separates Georgian Bay from Lake Huron. Owen Sound was once a hub of Great Lakes shipbuilding and retains a small, little-used harbor. Giant “Great Laker” ships often spend the winter in the harbor which is also the home of the “Chi-Cheemaun” passenger ferry which plies its trade between Tobermory (at the northern tip of the Bruce Peninsula) and South Baymouth on Manitoulin Island every summer.

Increasingly, my home shack is losing out to another operating site that I call my “Big Blue Sky Shack”. The area where I live is blessed with many Parks On The Air entities so I am spoiled for choice when it comes to choosing which Big Blue Sky Shack to operate from. Nearly all of them feature incredible scenery ranging from spectacular waterfalls to tall cliffs and open views over the Great Lakes. Consequently, Parks On The Air (POTA) features prominently in many of the posts here.

What’s Coming Up on Ham Radio Outside the Box?

A number of projects are planned for 2024. Following the success of the experiment with long wire antennas on the ground (read “A 200ft wire antenna up zero feet“) I would like to try a POTA activation using a similar wire – perhaps as long as 300 feet – laid along a trail. One thing I have learned is that ground isn’t always ground – meaning physical ground is not the same as electrical ground. Here on the Bruce Peninsula (which is part of the Niagara Escarpment) there is bedrock very close to the surface, beneath a layer of good conductive top soil. The ground effect will likely vary from location to location. Sometimes the bedrock is fully exposed at the surface so who knows how far down electrical ground is then?

2024 is an El Nino year so we may be blessed with a milder than usual winter this year. All the same, it can get pretty darn cold outside when the wind blowing across more than a hundred miles of Lake Huron hits the Bruce Peninsula. How then to continue outdoor radio operations during brutal winter weather? A number of ideas are going to be reviewed, ranging from temporary shelters to clothing options.

We are also going to review the field antennas that we deployed in 2023. Which ones worked best? What were the pros and cons of each? Rapidly deployable field antennas are nearly always “compromise” antennas. Laying out 120 radials to get the best efficiency from a vertical antenna is just not an option for a POTA deployment lasting as little as a half hour! There is an easy way to improve the effectiveness of a compromise antenna – just crank up the power. Remember: QRP when possible, QRO when necessary.

We are also going to take a look at manpack radio operations. I was rebuked by a friend for using the term “manpack” but, of course, “man” is my abbreviation for “manually transported”. A manpack is a complete radio system – including battery and antenna that can carried by hand, or in a backpack, and can be operated while in motion. That brings several challenges; such as ruggedness, antenna efficiency, safety concerns from overhead wires and RF exposure.

This is going to be another great year in amateur radio. A ham radio license is a ticket to learn about radio technology, and learning is a lifelong activity. Not everything we try works but success means experiments that worked outnumber those that didn’t. I hope you will contribute to the conversation by adding your comments at the bottom of each post. And finally, a big vote of thanks to all the new subscribers who have joined us here on Ham Radio Outside the Box!

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