KE0ZAR

8/12/25

In 2023, I moved to a new house in Roxborough Park which is located 25 miles SSW of Denver, Colorado.   We are tucked into the low lying foothils at 6150 feet elevation and bordered by Pike National Forest and Roxborough State Park.  The area is beautiful with lots of wildlife visiting our QTH including black bears, mountain lions, coyotes, deer, turkeys and (unfortuantely) rattle snakes.   A new house requires lots of work, so my radio activity has been very limited since we moved.   Hopefully, I can spend more time on the radio now and start working the rust out of my (CW) fist!   The newest additon to the shack is a Yaesu FT-710 acquired in December 2023, so I've been enjoying a bit more power!

7/31/23

In June and July, I began investigating how ground plane antennas work and decided to build one with the hope that I could improve my low angle propagation and have a bit more success with DX while operating /P and at QRP power levels.   Here is a picture of the final product after a few revisions.  It is deployed on a rocky and wooded ridge at 6100' elevation near my QTH.    Because our ground conditions here in Colorado are so dry with very low conductivity,  I deploy resonant elevated radials.  2 radials appear to be sufficient based on a number of field tests.  Typically, I slope them downward at about 30° - 45°, depending on local conditions, and can achieve a SWR < 1.1.   While this antenna should be fairly omni-directioanl,  I have noticed (based on cantacts made) that it seems to have some directionality toward the azimuthal direction of each of the two radials.

Some recent 20 and 17 meter DX contacts with my new homebrew elevated 2 radial ground plane antenna fed with about 5 watts power.

8/22/22

Working 17 meters with the TR-35 has been a lot of fun.   Over the last month, I've had some nice DX contacts while running only 7 watts into a N-S oriented EFHW antenna.  A big 'thank you' to all those operators that have made the extra effort to work my weaker QRP signal.  QRP works because of you!

7/11/22

The newest addition.  It's both trail and shack-friendly.   This rig has an optical variable encoder that is silky smooth and is a delight to use.   It also can pump out a bit more than a full QRP gallon so with this turbo boost, I can complete with the big boys!

3/3/22

A quick trip to an off trail location in the Denver foothils with my SW-3B, PacAntenna SOTA tuner and a EFHW inverted V.  A nice winter day in Colorado at 7700'.

1/27/22

A fun build and nice addition to the QRP shack:  the QRP Guys Digital SWR / Power Meter with Dummy Load

Update: 9/24/21

I added a companion QRP rig to my 20 meter QCX.  It's a Venus SW-3B which was just recently brought back into production and now includes a nice power meter display on the LCD screen.   This little radio is lots of fun and hopefully soon will be out on the Colorado trails and peaks calling out to you!   Behind the radio is pictured a TalentCell 3-cell Li-ion battery pack with a rating of 3000 mAh so it will keep the SW-3B well fed for many hours of use.   Both the radio and battery are tiny.  If you are interested in QRP, this is a great trail-friendly combo.

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I got both my Technician and General tickets in January 2020 and finally got the courage to get on the air at the end of July.   My main interest at this time is CW and QRP so I purchased a 20 meter QCX kit from QRP Labs.  I built this rig over a three day period, got it aligned and then strung a 20 meter resonant end fed wire out the window.  Then, after learning to copy CW and send with a paddle, I sent out my first (slow) CQ on July 22, 2020 and quickly got my first QSO in the log.    I imagine that most new hams feel the exhileration that I did when this happened; what a great day!

FISTS Member:         20559