Forrest, that sure was fun having you stop by and experience running some EU stations on 10M. You are really doing a great job with CW. It's clearly based on the work you have put into learning the craft. 73 and I hope to have you up again some time. Max NG7M
Dude, the smile at 13:33 says it all! You said I was good at CW....I am not even in the same league as you my guy. You rock! I see many DX CW contests in your future!
I had to jump in one more time. I'm sure most everyone knows I didn't start off with my current station. I started off with a home brew dipole, cut to who knows what length back in 94 or 95 causing all kinds of RFI to my neighbors with the apex on the chimney and the legs down low to the ground in the back yard. As time goes on you can try different things and as family and work gets in the way, the hobby can even be put on the shelf. The station I have today started very simple at the home in the video. I got the bug after been off the air for about 8 or 9 years when we built the house. I started with a G5RV on the roof (with deck screws and zip ties) and then I pulled out my FT-1000MP that hadn't seen the light of day for those 8/9 years. I haven't looked back. That was in about 2007 or 2008. I didn't put the beam and tower up until 2017. I ran the SteppIR vertical for 10 years. The thing to keep in mind is that the best antenna there is, is the antenna you have. That goes for your rig too. Put the effort into the antenna and not the flashy transceiver with all the flashing lights and gizmos (I try to give this advise when ever possible, but few will listen). That flashy rig can come later. And do all you can to put a nice signal on the air and make sure you can hear as well as you can get out. Nobody wants an alligator on the other end, as in a big mouth and tiny ears. Antenna, antenna, antenna whenever possible. A poor signal is never a virtue. Don't make the guy on the other end do all the work and then take credit. ;) Most of all, and I think you guys already know this... have fun! POTA is fantastic and I can't believe it's taken me so long to start doing some activations locally. Why use a gain based beam on a tall tower with some power in a comfortable shack when you can go 10 miles from your house and setup a dipole / EFHW and work guys while you curse at the bugs! :) I had my 93 year old dad with me today for a POTA activation. We drove an hour and twenty minutes to Mt McKinnon at 9080ft here in Utah to activate the Monte Cristo Rec area. The time with my dad (getting him out of the house) was priceless as he read a book in the cool air and breeze while I ran 155 stations on CW and SSB. 73, Max NG7M
The great thing about ham radio to me is that there is something for everybody. For me, i am not into DX or code, i enjoy all the local stations. I’m in So. Cal. And i spend my time on 2M and 440. I talk with a lot of people. I am glad to see more young people getting into the hobby to keep it alive. 73, Don KJ6PMR.
Max has such a wonderful station, and it is so cool you got to hang out with him (and your uncle). You are ripping through that pile-up like an old pro! Nice job! You had me laughing when you told Max to go take care of the pizza. Hi Hi. @Max thank you for being so generous. I'm a local, and I've seen your willingness to share with mere mortals such as I. It's great to be in the presence of CW gods! :-) 73
Sweet… I had 600 watts with a tower when I was in my teens at my dad’s house… moved out and have only been using an EFHW and 100 watts for the last 40 years… most of the time I use 50 watts
Same, I was into 11 meters as a kid, middle school. The farmers market old man sold me 2 Dave Made boxes. One was 2x 2290s into 6 2879. Then that fed into a bigger box, I can’t recall, it was either 32 or 64 2879’s My passion was battling locals who “keyed” over me on channel 31, I went from walkie-talkie to that stuff haha. At the time, I didn’t know much, my antennas held me wayyyyyyy back. Lucky SWR didn’t ruin it immediately, eventually it did and I lost it all. That was 1996-ish
I thought of running power. But after blanketing half of the contiguous US with the 7 mW ERP from my 1750 meter band BPSK xmitter I thought, "Why spend money when knowing RF works so much better?" Having said that, I did build an amp for HF on the ham bands. With it on, my rig is pushing a full 5 Watts now just like the big boys. :)
I have been running QRO since 2010 and maaaan that changed a lot. Prior to that (from 1999) i was using 100W only. Antennas came first. Got me a 5el TH5DXmk2 in 2000 and when i moved out from Warsaw (2016) that is when things sped up. A tower, 7el 7bander by GXP, 20m CAP HAT GP for 160m, vertical delta on 80... BEVs, EWEs and with 1,5kW (gotta be using my QRO call then - SN5V) ... the comfort of using 1,5kW, that comfort of good signal QSOs... i never wanna go back to 100W ;-)
He called that average? Man, compared to my home brewed rotary dipole and working the world with 10 to 30 watts max P.E.P. with the right conditions, I'm pretty much happy with it. But having said that, a big congratulations to the owner of that station.
One of my good friends in New York has a pretty sick tower on a lot of land with a radical field. But he basically only runs it QRP. Still makes contacts all over the world!
The cool thing about dx’ing es contesting is , you don’t need a tower that tall. 40 ft with a force 12 c3. Minimal rig and a decent amp. I realized throwing money at the antenna is the best move you can make. Max says he has a modest station but it works extremely well for his geographical location. Most people this side of the Mississippi can’t hear as well as max. That k4 just polishes everything. Hope it got you thinking 🤔
Yeah huge K4 guy now. Awesome rig. When you say a decent amp what do you think is a good power to shoot for? For me here in Utah. My city will allow a 45’ tower. I was hoping they’d allow bigger…
Thanks Jay, great to have you comment here on Forrest's channel and thanks for the kind words. You do a great job and it's always nice to hear you on the bands. You are correct... it's a different game out west. Stations in EU love to hear Utah / 7 land on CW and especially on 10M. Forrest picked a great day to stop by and play around a little, conditions were pretty good. Many of these stations Forrest worked likely couldn't have worked him without the gain based beam and the KW from Utah. If Forrest was 539 in Spain or Germany, then Forrest is running the right amount of power. I'm preaching to the choir. :) The thing that singles Forrest out IMHO is his fearless approach. That is not to say he doesn't have fear of calling CQ with a KW on a gain based beam for the first time, it just was that he didn't know what was going to happen. Most operators with the amount of time he has on the key wouldn't do it. Running stations is scary and I love how POTA gest guys on the air and gets them calling CQ. It's a great way to get them to run stations. Forrest was certainly nervous, but after a few QSOs, he starting relaxing and getting into the groove. The smile on his face said it all.
@@ng7m-ham-shack I think of the 500 people that do POTA videos and post them on TH-cam , I noticed he’s the most fearless about jumping into the deep end. I would freak out getting in the chair. It took me a good 16 months or more before w5mx threw me in the chair and said run. 😆 He did stay with me and help me through some calls. He smacked me on the shoulder and left the room. I just turned the speed down and slowly worked through the pile. It was nuts for awhile. He kept telling me this is the best practice. On my 4th year now and I’m finally comfortable running piles. It’s pretty neat to learn common contest calls. After a few years I start learning the faces of dits. I think Forrest would do great with a small tower and tribander BUT it’s those moments contesting with just wire that makes one a better op. You guys could multi single sometime maybe ? I can tell he’s hooked. Reminds me of getting on a roller coaster for the first time! Glad you and k7co are there for good mentoring 😃
@@Utahforrest yeah the city communist. I repaired my deck and they showed up with a fine and cease letter. Failed my inspection told me I had 90 days to fix it. That crap went in the trash can. Sooo, I’d talk to the city inspector before doing anything. 2 things people never dig up, towers and septic tanks. Well Hoffa too maybe but I’d get a general idea before tackling it. If you decide to go beam, I wouldn’t recommend any trapped yagi. Jk, hex, opti beam maybe the best option. Longer boom the better. :)
Yep. Extremely capable. By the way Brian I activated with the TR-35 last night and I did the drill mod for the sidetone volume like you told me. Thanks for the tip.
People with unlimited money are what is wrong with ham radio! Who can compete with stations like this! It took me 40 years to achieve DXCC, with a wire antenna and 100 watts.
40 years is too much for dxcc. With my balcony Buddipole and 100 watts I have 331 countries worked from 2006 (18 years). No digitals at all. CW and some SSB only. de EA4CWW
Italy 😂 don’t do QRP….. I Swear you could be on the surface of Mars with an wet noodle of a antenna and still here a Italian stations drowning everything out.
Ha, you caught my comment and you knew exactly what I meant. :) It was like a drug for Forrest, I started getting questions about a tower from him that evening or the very next day.
Very interesting video. I've just replaced my vertical on the ground with 300 radials, and now have a elevated vertical with 4 radials, and it works better. 73 zl3xdj
your happy face at the end operating was priceless! this is what ham radio all about, getting together and learning from each other.
Love this! Nothing cooler than a DX pileup!
Forrest, that sure was fun having you stop by and experience running some EU stations on 10M. You are really doing a great job with CW. It's clearly based on the work you have put into learning the craft. 73 and I hope to have you up again some time. Max NG7M
Dude, the smile at 13:33 says it all! You said I was good at CW....I am not even in the same league as you my guy. You rock! I see many DX CW contests in your future!
Haha yeah man! I was in heaven! You’re a great Op, Neil! I still have a ways to go with CW but I practice everyday!
I had to jump in one more time. I'm sure most everyone knows I didn't start off with my current station. I started off with a home brew dipole, cut to who knows what length back in 94 or 95 causing all kinds of RFI to my neighbors with the apex on the chimney and the legs down low to the ground in the back yard. As time goes on you can try different things and as family and work gets in the way, the hobby can even be put on the shelf. The station I have today started very simple at the home in the video. I got the bug after been off the air for about 8 or 9 years when we built the house. I started with a G5RV on the roof (with deck screws and zip ties) and then I pulled out my FT-1000MP that hadn't seen the light of day for those 8/9 years. I haven't looked back. That was in about 2007 or 2008. I didn't put the beam and tower up until 2017. I ran the SteppIR vertical for 10 years.
The thing to keep in mind is that the best antenna there is, is the antenna you have. That goes for your rig too. Put the effort into the antenna and not the flashy transceiver with all the flashing lights and gizmos (I try to give this advise when ever possible, but few will listen). That flashy rig can come later. And do all you can to put a nice signal on the air and make sure you can hear as well as you can get out. Nobody wants an alligator on the other end, as in a big mouth and tiny ears. Antenna, antenna, antenna whenever possible. A poor signal is never a virtue. Don't make the guy on the other end do all the work and then take credit. ;)
Most of all, and I think you guys already know this... have fun! POTA is fantastic and I can't believe it's taken me so long to start doing some activations locally. Why use a gain based beam on a tall tower with some power in a comfortable shack when you can go 10 miles from your house and setup a dipole / EFHW and work guys while you curse at the bugs! :) I had my 93 year old dad with me today for a POTA activation. We drove an hour and twenty minutes to Mt McKinnon at 9080ft here in Utah to activate the Monte Cristo Rec area. The time with my dad (getting him out of the house) was priceless as he read a book in the cool air and breeze while I ran 155 stations on CW and SSB. 73, Max NG7M
The great thing about ham radio to me is that there is something for everybody. For me, i am not into DX or code, i enjoy all the local stations. I’m in So. Cal. And i spend my time on 2M and 440. I talk with a lot of people. I am glad to see more young people getting into the hobby to keep it alive. 73, Don KJ6PMR.
Max has such a wonderful station, and it is so cool you got to hang out with him (and your uncle). You are ripping through that pile-up like an old pro! Nice job!
You had me laughing when you told Max to go take care of the pizza. Hi Hi.
@Max thank you for being so generous. I'm a local, and I've seen your willingness to share with mere mortals such as I. It's great to be in the presence of CW gods! :-)
73
Sweet… I had 600 watts with a tower when I was in my teens at my dad’s house… moved out and have only been using an EFHW and 100 watts for the last 40 years… most of the time I use 50 watts
Same, I was into 11 meters as a kid, middle school.
The farmers market old man sold me 2 Dave Made boxes. One was 2x 2290s into 6 2879. Then that fed into a bigger box, I can’t recall, it was either 32 or 64 2879’s
My passion was battling locals who “keyed” over me on channel 31, I went from walkie-talkie to that stuff haha.
At the time, I didn’t know much, my antennas held me wayyyyyyy back. Lucky SWR didn’t ruin it immediately, eventually it did and I lost it all. That was 1996-ish
Hey Forrest - now you know the power of the Dark Side of the Force! K7WA
Haha best comment!
Dude watching you work that insane DX was awesome. What a cool opportunity! Awesome job!
@@ke5dxx thanks man! It was intimidating at first for sure haha!
Bumper Sticker: My other rig is Project HAARP.
I ran 1500w on 2.4 GHz for four minutes. Frozen pasta tasted great.
Bummed I wasn't there to join you all! Next time for sure! Contest season is starting up soon! Let's goooo!
QRPer's sacrilege right there.
Not jealous, just appreciating.
Very, very cool!
Thanks buddy
What a cool experience! Someday I'll have a nice station, I just have to escape the HOA life.
I thought of running power. But after blanketing half of the contiguous US with the 7 mW ERP from my 1750 meter band BPSK xmitter I thought, "Why spend money when knowing RF works so much better?" Having said that, I did build an amp for HF on the ham bands. With it on, my rig is pushing a full 5 Watts now just like the big boys. :)
NG7M: This is an average station.
Me and my EFHW in a tree: 😢
Very impressive.
wow that set up!
Too cool. Maybe one day 🥹
Thats a dream setup
I have been running QRO since 2010 and maaaan that changed a lot. Prior to that (from 1999) i was using 100W only. Antennas came first. Got me a 5el TH5DXmk2 in 2000 and when i moved out from Warsaw (2016) that is when things sped up. A tower, 7el 7bander by GXP, 20m CAP HAT GP for 160m, vertical delta on 80... BEVs, EWEs and with 1,5kW (gotta be using my QRO call then - SN5V) ... the comfort of using 1,5kW, that comfort of good signal QSOs... i never wanna go back to 100W ;-)
@@sq5ebm That’s awesome! Yeah it’s an incredible privilege to have access to 1.5kw. Someday!!
I can't even imagine a station like that! 73, KF4LMZ
He called that average? Man, compared to my home brewed rotary dipole and working the world with 10 to 30 watts max P.E.P. with the right conditions, I'm pretty much happy with it. But having said that, a big congratulations to the owner of that station.
Pretty sick station!
One of my good friends in New York has a pretty sick tower on a lot of land with a radical field. But he basically only runs it QRP. Still makes contacts all over the world!
@@Utahforrest Yeah, the antenna makes a MASSIVE difference
He is awesome... He worked swains Island while we were on a podcast! 😅
Max knows his stuff!!!
@@AA0Z Coolest CW op and just a super humble/helpful dude. Plus he hunts me when I activate POTA!!! 😀
Dude! I turned my rig up to 20w last month once! QRO for life😎
The cool thing about dx’ing es contesting is , you don’t need a tower that tall. 40 ft with a force 12 c3. Minimal rig and a decent amp. I realized throwing money at the antenna is the best move you can make. Max says he has a modest station but it works extremely well for his geographical location. Most people this side of the Mississippi can’t hear as well as max. That k4 just polishes everything. Hope it got you thinking 🤔
Yeah huge K4 guy now. Awesome rig. When you say a decent amp what do you think is a good power to shoot for? For me here in Utah.
My city will allow a 45’ tower. I was hoping they’d allow bigger…
Thanks Jay, great to have you comment here on Forrest's channel and thanks for the kind words. You do a great job and it's always nice to hear you on the bands. You are correct... it's a different game out west. Stations in EU love to hear Utah / 7 land on CW and especially on 10M. Forrest picked a great day to stop by and play around a little, conditions were pretty good. Many of these stations Forrest worked likely couldn't have worked him without the gain based beam and the KW from Utah. If Forrest was 539 in Spain or Germany, then Forrest is running the right amount of power. I'm preaching to the choir. :)
The thing that singles Forrest out IMHO is his fearless approach. That is not to say he doesn't have fear of calling CQ with a KW on a gain based beam for the first time, it just was that he didn't know what was going to happen. Most operators with the amount of time he has on the key wouldn't do it. Running stations is scary and I love how POTA gest guys on the air and gets them calling CQ. It's a great way to get them to run stations. Forrest was certainly nervous, but after a few QSOs, he starting relaxing and getting into the groove. The smile on his face said it all.
@@ng7m-ham-shack I think of the 500 people that do POTA videos and post them on TH-cam , I noticed he’s the most fearless about jumping into the deep end. I would freak out getting in the chair. It took me a good 16 months or more before w5mx threw me in the chair and said run. 😆 He did stay with me and help me through some calls. He smacked me on the shoulder and left the room. I just turned the speed down and slowly worked through the pile. It was nuts for awhile. He kept telling me this is the best practice. On my 4th year now and I’m finally comfortable running piles. It’s pretty neat to learn common contest calls. After a few years I start learning the faces of dits. I think Forrest would do great with a small tower and tribander BUT it’s those moments contesting with just wire that makes one a better op. You guys could multi single sometime maybe ? I can tell he’s hooked. Reminds me of getting on a roller coaster for the first time! Glad you and k7co are there for good mentoring 😃
@@Utahforrest yeah the city communist. I repaired my deck and they showed up with a fine and cease letter. Failed my inspection told me I had 90 days to fix it. That crap went in the trash can. Sooo, I’d talk to the city inspector before doing anything. 2 things people never dig up, towers and septic tanks. Well Hoffa too maybe but I’d get a general idea before tackling it. If you decide to go beam, I wouldn’t recommend any trapped yagi. Jk, hex, opti beam maybe the best option. Longer boom the better. :)
Nice set up. Very effective but not too crazy.
Yep. Extremely capable. By the way Brian I activated with the TR-35 last night and I did the drill mod for the sidetone volume like you told me. Thanks for the tip.
Now you have the driver for next PA !
awesome
Nice! Makes me want to start pouring some concrete in my backyard….
Same! I’m already looking into it
Like a kid in a candy store.
Exactly
What is the model of the antenna on the tower?
Steppir
How about that hotub?>
LOL, that's funny you picked that out. I need a new cover. :) Just think of the ham radio party potential. ;)
People with unlimited money are what is wrong with ham radio! Who can compete with stations like this! It took me 40 years to achieve DXCC, with a wire antenna and 100 watts.
Try a elevated vertical ant. Zl3xdj
Focus on what you have and not what someone else has!
40 years is too much for dxcc. With my balcony Buddipole and 100 watts I have 331 countries worked from 2006 (18 years). No digitals at all. CW and some SSB only. de EA4CWW
What would a station like that cost a guy? Ballpark of course.
Italy 😂 don’t do QRP….. I Swear you could be on the surface of Mars with an wet noodle of a antenna and still here a Italian stations drowning everything out.
has your smile wore off yet?
Nope!
Not in this life time
14:25 "this is gonna cost him a lot of money" 😅😅😅
Ha, you caught my comment and you knew exactly what I meant. :) It was like a drug for Forrest, I started getting questions about a tower from him that evening or the very next day.
@@ng7m-ham-shack it's gonna be fun to watch his station morph over the years!
Very interesting video. I've just replaced my vertical on the ground with 300 radials, and now have a elevated vertical with 4 radials, and it works better. 73 zl3xdj
Is the beam quieter than the mag loop?
Are you using software on the pc that decodes the cw?