Ham Radio Station – Kilo Three Triple R – The K3RRR Anomaly

Welcome to the K3RRR Anomaly – Where the Laws of Physics Cease to Exist

Hi, my name is Robert and I have been a ham since I was 14 – over half a century ago. As you might imagine, I have seen a lot of changes to our great hobby. Having been inactive for a dozen years, I reactivated my interests again about ten years ago and have been rediscovering the joys and many changes, both positive and negative, to my favorite hobby.

The good news: From my perspective, almost all these changes have been GREAT!

(Whadda MEAN Extras no longer have to take that horrific, complex written test and pass 20 WPM any more???)

These days, most of my ham radio activities usually encompass daily focus on the ham sats (ham radio satellites), FT8 on HF, SDRs – like my SDRplay, operating portable HF and even operating portable ham radio satellites.

Here’s a little slideshow of several dozen photos from my ham radio past and present – including shots from this year’s Hamvention that Wife Jan and I attended.

(If you look closely, you can see a double headed arrow in the upper right corner of the photos that will take the slideshow full screen if you want.)

My main rigs, which I bought at Hamvention this year, include an ICOM 9100 for working the satellites and ICOM 7300 for HF.

I also very recently bought a Kenwood TH-D74a – primarily for DSTAR which I primarily use for portable satellite operation with my handheld Elk antenna. Also, just got a new Icom 7100 as a dedicated mobile rig and a new Diamond SD-330 mobile HF screwdriver antenna for 80m through 10m.

Fortunately, I work from home as a semi-retired, mild-mannered management consultant who helps startup company start and stay started.

The good news is that my ham radio shack is in my office on a side desk within easy reach of my desk chair. This makes it easy to just swivel – and take a break throughout most every day to work the ham sat birds, FT8, DSTAR and lately – being a Hunter for Parks On the Air or or Summits on the Air.

When I have the time, I also use Camtasia to produce a variety of ham radio videos for my YouTube channel at:

YouTube.com/K3RRR (See samples below.)

About two dozen years ago, I went inactive when I sold the big house and started high rise condo living.

That part remained true until about ten years ago – but especially five years ago when we moved from our beachfront condo on Sand Key Island near Clearwater Beach, Florida where we had lived for eight years before moving to our current home in Potomac, Maryland – 15 miles from the White House and the United States Congress.

We are also only 8 miles from the magnificent Great Falls National Park which is where I took the below picture that I had previously used for my banner.

I have pages and posts and links galore here – so please meander and rove and enjoy your visit here!

New QTH & New Call Sign – K3RRR
Kilo Three Triple R

For the first time in over 25 years, I have a new call sign: K3RRR – instead of AA5FR.

(If you were looking for the old AA5FR.com site, it has now been forwarded here – with most of the pages ported over to here.)

Kilo Three Triple R = Robert Robert Robert, or = Radio Ready Robert or = Roger Roger Roger, or = Well, you get the idea.

Now, for the first time in more than 20 years, we are in a single family home with a backyard that is adjacent to a city park with lots of trees – and 8 miles from Great Falls National Park.

While this living environment appears to be a lot less restrictive than high-rise condo living, I still have some HOA issues and limitations. I am erecting wire antennas with my focus on stealth end fed wire antennas using a 9:1 unun.

Currently, my primary radiator is an end fed wire antenna that is 175 feet long at a height of about 60 feet that has less than a 2 to 1 SWR on most HF ham bands without using a tuner. More about that later.

Connect With Me on Twitter

@K3TripleR is where you will find me – usually making several ham radio only tweets per day.

I have about 2,300 other hams as followers – so I get a great flow of up to date ham radio info, ideas and happenings that I share with my other ham radio followers.

(This Twitter account is 97.7% devoted to hamradio… With the remainder focused on other stuff I just find interesting – or that I think my followers would enjoy!)

Follow me – and share the stream!

Subscribe to My K3RRR YouTube Channel for Ham Radio

You can find my nearly three dozen, and growing, ham radio related videos that I have already posted to YouTube at YouTube.com/user/K3RRR.

Here is a taste test of some of them.

Note: Most of these are best seen full screen so you can see the details I am explaining.

      

     

     

     

     

      

     

It’s a big help to me if you would please Like, Share and Subscribe!

Plus, as a Subscriber, you can get immediate notification when I post a new ham radio video.

 The Equipment at K3RRR

At this stage in my life, I approach many things, including my renewed interest in ham radio, with a minimalist philosophy…where less is more. Things have changed from the wall of equipment I used to have.

Both rigs  are dwarfed by the three computers and the two 32″ LED screens that flank the middle 55″  LG computer monitor (all three monitors are 1080p HDTVs) on the 8’ X 4’ teak conference table that I use as my desk (I need all of this for my businesses helping startup companies start and stay started.)

Here’s a list of my very modest station at Kilo Three Triple R with links to pages with more information about many of the items (coming soon!):

Home Station: Icom 9100 for Satellites and D-Star and some HF. Icom 7300 for all things HF including mostly FT8!

Antennas on HF: Stealth End Feds 9:1 Unun longwires: 175′ or 123′ both at 65′ – or Chameleon Magnetic F Loop and/or P Loop 2.0. All HF longwire antennas – 160m through 6m (though both end feds suck on six!)

Antennas on VHF / UHF / Beyond: Dual Band Arrow J Pole / Diamond D-130 Discone 25-1300 MHz coverage / Both in the attic for HOA reasons.

Satellite Antenna Array: AMSAT LEO Pack 16 element 436 MHz 436CP16 and 8 element 144 MHz 2MCP8A with AZ/EL Yaesu G-5500 computerized rotator with Fox Delta ST2 controller.

Antenna for Portable Satellite: Handheld Elk 2M/440L5 Dual-band Log Periodic antenna (used with Kenwood TH-D72a and Kenwood TH-D74a.)

Mobile Station: For HF, a brand new Icom 7100 which gives me a dedicated, all mode / all bands 160m – 70cm mobile rig again that includes D-STAR and touch screen. Aso, have a Diamond SD-330 mobile HF screwdriver antenna for 80m through 10m with a Diamond dual band antenna for VHF/UHF. I also use my Kenwood TH-D74a which does surprising well as a mobile radio using the same Diamond dual band antenna – with the added benefit of also having DSTAR and APRS. The mobile setup also usually includes my openSPOT and GL min-router for D-STAR where I usually hang out on 30C. Wife Jan and I both have been having fun with POTA activations – and the new Icom IC-7100 should up that game.

HTs: Kenwood TH-D74a JUST added to the shack for 144, 220 and 440 amateur bands D-Star, broad band receive, etc. Also have the BaoFeng UV-5R (3 of them with 2 in the Faraday Cage.) 136-174/400-480 MHz Dual-Band – BaoFeng is mostly for monitoring and throwaway high risk operations. I have to say: the D74 is a GREAT HT.

Other Ham Stuff: openSPOT for DSTAR for my Kenwood TH-D74a and Icom 9100. LDG Z-11 Pro II Autotuner – nicely powered by either of my ICOM rigs. The Joplin Amateur Radio Club Antenna Launcher which is fantastic for erecting my longwire antennas near the top of the 65’ trees that fill the woods behind my home. The RigExpert AA-230 Zoom which is a great antenna analyzer. My Heil Pro 7 headset (bad mistake: waiting so long to buy this exceptional addition to my shack.) Bencher key. MFJ-1263 Microphone Switch. Rolls Min/Max Pro MX122 mixer to feed my choice of rigs into my JBL Control 2P speaker.

SDRs: SDRplay RSP2 and Three NooElec RTL2832U USB Sticks. I am really very impressed by how good the SDRplay is! What a nice surprise!

Computers: Main Computer: Homebrew Twelve Core i7-8700 @ 3.7GHz / 32 GB RAM — Ham Radio Computer: Twelve Core i7-8700 @ 3.7GHz / 32 GB RAM— Triple monitors: Main 55″ LG HDTV with dual 32″ Sceptre HDTV all running 1080p @ 1920×1080. Apple iPad Pro. Portable Computer: HP DV6 i7-3720 @ 2.6GHz / 8 GB RAM.

Software: Windows 10 x64 / PstRotator for Sat Tracking, Rotator control and rig control / Ham Radio Deluxe 6.4.0.888 / Digital Master 780 / HRD Logbook / WSJT-X for FT8 with JTAlert / HDSDR, SDRuno, RTL Sharp for SDR software depending on application / AGWTracker / UZ7HO Soundmodem Software Packet-Radio TNC, etc. / UISS for ISS and APRS contacts / etc. etc. etc.

Short Term Goals for Additions to the Ham Shack: 65” 4K main monitor to replace the 55” and a Kenwood D74a HT. Also, I have GOT to replace my notebook computer for something faster and that can hold more memory. Man does not live by 8GB alone. Also, looking for ANOTHER MFJ-1026 Noise Canceler again – I have owned three of these – sold them all – but new QRN noise in the hood on 40m. This time – I am not going to sell it!

Other Interests:

Everything! Including my Wonderful Wife Jan (absolutely my #1 favorite way to spend my time – Sunday is OUR day to explore the Washington D.C. area and 100 miles any direction), digital photography, computers, writing, helping startup companies really get started and, of course, more ham radio!

Prior interests (prior to my four spinal surgeries) included: mountain hiking, sailing, biking, scuba diving, etc.  Wonderful Wife Jan and I still hike – but sissy trails compared to the miles we used to hike on the Appalachian Trail when we lived for four years in the Smoky Mountains near Gatlinburg.

Memberships

I am a member of ARRL, AMSAT and the Montgomery Amateur Radio Club.

Previous Calls:

These were all my previous calls before getting my new call K3RRR:

WN4LEJ – Novice
WA4YFH – General
KD5SB – Advanced
AA5FR – Extra

The above photo is from the 1963 Radio Amateur Callbook showing my first listing as a licensed amateur radio operator.

I remember how nervous I was as a 14 year old kid going, on that cold and cloudy winter morning, to the local FCC office to take the test and pass the 5 wpm code test.  I got just as nervous trying to make that first contact on my crystal controlled Knight Kit T-60 that I had built.

Since the Novice was only good for one year, I had to get my code up to 13 wpm so I could pass the General. Then, a few years later, I passed the test for the Advanced. Piece of cake. Then, came the requirement for 20 wpm for Extra. It took me 7.53 eternities to get my code up there to pass the test.

Now, no code.

Don’t get me wrong – I think it is a GREAT thing they dumped the code requirement…but I think those of us who had to take it should have “Plus” added to our license, i.e., Amateur Extra Plus!

Listen For Me

As I mentioned, my primary activities are all things satellite or digital…though you never know….you may hear me even using a microphone or key from time to time on HF.

My current new focus for HF that actually requires a microphone: Parks on the Air (POTA) and Summits on the Air (SOTA!)

When I had the TH7DX and tower and that wall of equipment back at the big house, I KNEW that I could contact just about anyone I heard. Now that the entire RF portion of my shack occupies little more than two cubic feet, I am learning the pleasures of NOT knowing I can contact just anyone.

With low power, if not QRP, stealth antennae and new modes and sats galore, the challenge and the enjoyment of the challenge are back!

73 / 72,

K3RRR

-.- …– .-. .-. .-.
73 de Robert K3RRR
http://K3RRR.com
@K3TripleR
http://YouTube.com/user/K3RRR
-.- …– .-. .-. .-.

PS: “K3RRR Anomaly – Where the Laws of Physics Cease to Exist?”

Okay, I get a lot of questions as to why this title? Many, many years ago there were a group of about 10 of us guys back in in the Dallas area who were hams that had similar interests – especially in ham satellites and more specifically data and ham satellites.

After 55 years as a ham radio operator, I will tell you that ham sats are the most challenging, confounding, exasperating – and most prone to cockpit error niche in ham radio – partly because there are so many moving parts and changes that have to be made that vary between satellites.

It is absolutely one of THE most fun niches in all of ham radio!

“If it’s easy, it’s not rocket science.” Robert Goodman. (Side note: I was a physicist at NASA at Marshall Space Flight Center when Neil and Bud landed on the moon!)

Anyway, during a month from hell trying to get a bunch of new satellite equipment working, nothing was working. I swore to my group of friends that nothing in my ham shack was obeying the laws of physics anymore – and from that point on, my ham shack was referred to by all of them as “The Anomaly!”

QED!