Ham radio – AB4UG Radioblog

On the air for SKYWARN Recognition Day 2024

I had the 7-10 AM shift with Tom AJ4UQ at the NWS Charleston office for SKYWARN Recognition Day 2024. Tom was already there when I arrived, and mentioned the previous shift was having SWR issues with the HF radio and antenna. Stations were really quiet and they weren’t able to make any HF contacts.

The HF antenna is a ground mounted Butternut vertical. After the sun came up a little more, we went to check out the antenna to see if we could figure out what was going on. Didn’t take long to find the problem.

Broken feed line connection at the base of a ground mounted vertical antenna.

The feed line connection to the antenna had corroded away and was completely broken off. It was a pretty cold day and we didn’t have any tools, so the repair will have to wait for a warmer day.

Without HF, all we had were the VHF DMR and FM radios so we threw out the WX4CHS call periodically and managed a couple dozen or so contacts from across the state through the statewide linked repeaters over the three hours we were there.

The staff at the NWS Charleston office are great, welcoming, and appreciative of the amateur radio operators that volunteer there. Always a fun time operating there.

SKYWARN Recognition Day 2024

It’s been a while since I’ve had the time to participate in SKYWARN^™ Recognition Day. This year I’ll be on the air once again helping out with activating the National Weather Service Charleston office (WX4CHS) Saturday morning (December 6).

This year marks the 25th year of SKYWARN ^™ Recognition Day. Should be a fun time.

SC QSO Party 2024 results

Just saw that the SC QSO Party 2024 results are available.

According to the results, W4BXC had 115 QSOs, 58 multipliers, 29 counties, scoring 21498 points (including 850 bonus points). Looks like 4 QSOs got busted or something.

That got us to 13th place in the Phone only category.

This year’s SCQP had a total of 406 logs submitted and 27468 QSOs this year.

Next edition of the SC QSO party is February 22, 2025. Looking forward to it.

CW key collection: Begali Camelback

The Begali Camelback is the newest addition to my straight key collection. I had been wanting to get a Begali straight key for a while and finally got one at Hamcation last year.

If any company can lay claim to being the Cadillac of CW key makers, I’d say it would be Begali. The Camelback isn’t their most expensive key, but it’s still beautifully made and crafted. It’s a nicely designed key with a simple, elegant aesthetic. It is without question my favourite straight key in my collection to use.

The Camelback weighs in at a hefty 1.8 kg (4 lbs), by far the heaviest of anything in my collection. The weight means it’s not moving anywhere on my desk while I’m using it which is good because you definitely don’t want this thing sliding off your desk.

Two knobs at the rear of the key make it easy to adjust the contact spacing and spring tension to fit your preference.

Like most straight keys, it’s pretty simple and there’s not much to it. The wiring connections are made by soldering wires to terminals in a recessed channel at the bottom of the base. The cable is routed through the channel to the back and makes things nice and tidy.

Bottom view of the Begali Camelback showing the terminal connections and recessed channel for the cable

It makes a satisfying thunk-y sound while I’m tapping out Morse code, as opposed to the more clacky sound that the J-38 makes. This is just a really comfortable key to use.

CW key collection: Vibroplex Vibrokeyer Standard

I don’t remember how I ended up with this Vibroplex Vibrokeyer Standard, but it’s been part of the collection for a few years.

The Vibrokeyer is a nice paddle and doesn’t take a lot of effort to use. It’s built on a solid weighty metal base and has a pretty nice, smooth action. The feet on the bottom have become hard and slick from age so it tends to slide around on the table a bit. I have to hold it still with my other hand when I’m using it. The feet are screwed in to the base so they should be easy enough to replace with fresher, softer feet that will grip the table better.

The key has seen a few years, and based on a compilation of Vibroplex serial numbers by WW7P, the serial number stamped on the plate (272333) dates this particular key possibly around 1973. It’s still in pretty good condition though.

Based on pictures of current Vibrokeyers, it looks like this one might be missing an adjustment knob that goes in the hole at the top.

This is a single lever paddle and needs to be connected to an electronic keyer that generates the dits and dahs. Connected properly, pushing the lever to one side makes the keyer generate dits, and pushing to the other side makes the keyer generate the dahs.

Connections to the keyer are made using the three terminals at the back. The center terminal is the ground/common connector, and the left and right terminals are for the dit/dah sides.

I suppose it could be used as a side-swiper style key or by pressing the lever just to one side like a sideways straight key if a keyer wasn’t available.