We had an eventful effort for the JOTA event with the 68th Toronto Scout Troop

John VA3BOF, Igor VE3IGG, Vince VE3VZB, Frank VA3QCD, Carlos VA3CRL, Chris VE3NRT all came to help out

We made 37 POTA contacts, a link with W8EDU on 40m and various Echolink contacts into South America (Columbia)

Thanks to Icom Canada for some swag for all participants and support for the new ham radio youth

I ran my Icom 7200 and PackTenna Linked Dipole with the Chameleon MPAS as a back up and John operated a Icom 7300 with his Buddipole on 20m.

Vince set up his Clansman PRC320 and Military mast antenna

Igor ran his Icom 7300 using a Hamstick on 15m

Frank sent Winlink messages to each of the scouts using VARAFM

Carlos ran net control and managed the Echolink repeater contacts

We had some quasi tornado wind and horizontal rain happen that tore John’s shelter off its ropes and went careening down the parking lot in a tumble or mangled metal and canvas.

I stayed put while trying to check into ECARS with Jeff NJ2US while my operating set up was drenched in water. My Icom 7200 gets a lot of usage outside of my home shack because……….

“Tough construction against water intrusion. Waterproof protection technologies that are used in Icom’ s marine radios are applied to the buttons and knobs on the front panel to provide a measure of protection against water intrusion”

• IC-7200 is NOT waterproof but did provide protection from the horizontal rain

I am now packing some towels in my go kit for the next time this happens as well as a mylar sheet to put over the gear if it happens again. OR get a better shelter

All in all the scouts got exposed to Ham Radio and learned a few things and next step is to get them licensed.

I was registered as C6A66Z and Carlos used his registration and VA3 Be Prepared Radio callsign

I did bring the D-Star Radio Icom 5100 out for the comms on the JOTA reflector but we got too busy on HF to set it up

Icom 7200 HF Radio

Thanks to Icom Canada and Radioworld for Support

Vince had his Military Mast antenna up in 10 minutes for some 6m activity

Keeping everything neat and organized makes for “better” operations

Every Buddipole user starts their day at Hamvention in the Buddipole booth

The use case is to be used with the Yaesu FT-891, 991 or 100D or even the FTDX-3000 or my FTDX-101MP

Here is an inside view

I get asked a lot about what antennas do you use for POTA.

If you are driving to a park then you can bring more antennas or heavier items making deployment easy

Well, it depends but I do go to my primary antenna most often than not because it just works

I tend to use a PackTenna 1:1 balun in a linked dipole configuration I made for 40m/20m the POTA money bands

I will bring out other antennas as desired to experiment or for a specific use case. For example, we enjoy 6M simplex so there is a lot of local activity to make contacts with

For successful POTA you must register, spot yourself and submit the logs

Lo Scoglio on the Amalfi Coast 

Ingredients

• 1 qt sunflower oil
• 6 medium green zucchini
• 4 ounces spaghetti
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 basil leaves, torn into small pieces
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 8 tablespoons grated Pecorino Romano cheese or  grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Directions

1. Place sunflower oil in a deep fryer and heat to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Slice zucchini into 1/8-inch rounds.
2. Add some zucchini to the hot oil and deep-fry until lightly browned, 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer to a single layer on paper towels to drain and repeat to cook remaining zucchini. Let zucchini cool to room temperature.
3. Transfer cooled zucchini to a bowl. Cover and refrigerate, 8 hours to overnight.
4. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook spaghetti in the boiling water, stirring occasionally, until it’s 2 minutes away from being tender yet firm to the bite, 9 to 10 minutes.
5. As you are cooking the spaghetti, heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add zucchini and salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until it starts to release juices, soften, and break down, 3 to 5 minutes. Add a couple splashes of the pasta water to the zucchini, but don’t overdo it. Break zucchini into small pieces with the edge of a spoon or spatula. Reduce heat to low and toss in basil and butter; stir until butter melts.
6. Grab spaghetti with tongs and transfer it right into the sauce; stir until coated. Mix in Pecorino Romano and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheeses. Add a final splash of pasta water and adjust salt if needed.
7. Serve with more grated cheese and fresh basil.

Sunflower oil is key and overnight rest is key and morse code is key

Use a grass fed butter

You can have a custom opening screen on your beloved Icom’s IC-705 transceiver when you turn the radio on.

The IC-705 opening picture is easy to set up with a major trick stated below

I use Microsoft’s Paint.

The IC-705 needs a bitmap or BMP file which is 480 x 272 pixels with a depth of 24 bits.

When your are done with your edit and using the Text icon to add your call sign, save your bitmap to the 705’s SD card in a folder called “OpeningPicture”

On the radio, navigate to Menu, -> Set -> SD Card -> Opening picture.

Select the picture that you want to use. The radio will display the picture then press Set, and YES in the dialogue box.

If the file is incorrect then you will get an “Illegal Data Warning”

When you turn the radio ON your opening screen will show up.