K2FR Mountain Top QRP fun. Mt Beacon NY 1500+ feet elevation FT-817

[Karl036]

Great video..

73..Karl

VK7HDX

[maurilucca]

nice nice radio

[steveinkentucky]

Beautiful day... Great location. Nice to make some contacts, but perfectly great day either way. Sort of like flyfishing. Nice if the fishies bite, but nice to be there anyway.

[48alfaone]

Very cool, even Howard Armstrong himself may have stood there thinking about FM? Thanks!

[saspgmer]

I agree ~ Can you connect your Yaesu VX-8R to that di-pole? curious to see how that would sound.

[KC2UOO]

I could I suppose, but FM work is vertical polarization and having a horizontal dipole would probably not pickup much if anything .

[redman840]

Tom,a video of actually making contacts might stoke a bit more interest for non hams.Nice to show others what QRP HF rigs can do with simple wire antennas.Dipoles or inverted "V" antennas makes the most sense for this.I would try to make some type of standoff on tower for antenna and get it higher above ground to make antenna work better.Maybe near top of tower.A vertical would not be practical on a peak like this due to losses in near and far fields of antenna radiation.73 Dennis/W7KB.

[zookie85]

Climb that dang fire tower and throw the antenna up there, dont have to stay up there if it is unsafe, just antenna. LOVELY spot, wish I had some like that in ohio, I dont have a clue where I could get a spot like that within 150 miles... Too bad for the contest, its like listening in on city phone lines, lol...

[fleebus090]

when i was about 7 years old (1981) me and my mom walked up to the top of mt beacon. about half way up, in the forest, there was an abandoned, half way burnt down house. I went in and had a look. it was pretty spooky. kinda like blair witch style. I wonder if its still there. if anyone else has ever found this place, it would be cool to hear about it.

[ab8xx]

Operating HF portable is awesome.

Something you may want to try is a vertical antenna. It would give you a lower takeoff angle of radiation and may skip over PA next time hi hi.

[raccoonnyc]

If there is QSO party going on, why not just join in? Contests are good sometimes for QRPers. I like the CA QSO party. It's fun to see what you can do with a few watts coat to coast. Most contesters by the second day are anxious to work anyone.

Good video.

Tom, ak2b

[KC2UOO]

Hi Tom,

I had been working the contest from home the day before and had forgotten what my serial number ended on. I wanted to play but didnt want to screw up logs by not having the appropriate serial for the other stations.

[USNERDOC]

Very cool view and an excellent view from your location. I enjoy your videos . . . very instructional and inspirational for a brand new ham. Keep up the great work!

73

de David - KF7TX

[GeoDon999]

Nice Video. Just a couple of constructive critiques.

Take the lens cap off the camera. It was tapping on the camera blowing around in the wind.

Play some music in the beginning and end and during if you can.

Not complaining, Just trying to help make your next vid better.

73,

Don - N4TZH

[KC2UOO]

Thanks for the input. I kinda saw the lens cap tapping around in the wind, but figured naw that will not make much noise. It seems a lot louder then i thought sitting up there freezing.

as for the music in the vid, I would but Youtube is cracking down quite hard on any music that's copyrighted which is everything, id rather not deal all the audio from my track being wiped after youtube stomps it for copyright nonsense.

[chichimus]

I just dusted my 817 off and was out in the backyard playing around. I'll have to fine tune some kit and get and do the same as you.

I've a small netbook I can drag along, maybe do some digital...

nice video :)

[KC2UOO]

Yeah, I was on the back porch getting it setup before heading up there, but even that didnt prepare me for what happens when your on the mountain. It certainly was fun and looking forward to doing some other peaks in the area.

[VA2SG]

Andy, do yourself a favor: get your code. You'll enjoy the 817 a lot. It'll be a pleasure to QSO with u on 30 or 40.. 72!

[KC2UOO]

Learning the Code, is the most challenging part of the hobby for me.. but im slowly trying to make progress towards being able to send and receive competent code.

All in good time =)

[VA2SG]

Absolutely. Good luck OM.

[VictoreCelia]

cool

[KC2UOO]

Yeah, I had a good time up there =)

[ArkAngelz]

Looked like a lot of fun!

[KC2UOO]

It was cold! 20mph winds upon reaching the top, and having sweated the entire way up, it was quite chillly up there.

But fun!