HF

Greater Houston Hamfest 2025 was this weekend in Rosenberg, TX. I made it out Saturday, was trying to make friday but got too busy with work calls. The hamfest was much bigger than I expected. I drove out from Houston to Rosenberg, and had my APRS on for tracking, checked the map when I got back home, there were a ton of trackers there! Was pretty neat. I didn’t win any door prizes or the raffle, was hoping to win something. ...

Just a quick note. I cut some old speaker wire down to a little under 8ft. Crappily soldered it to a 15yr old SO-239 chassis mount, and trimmed it down until I could get the SWR under 1.8. Clipped it to the top of the fenceposts in as “straight as I can” fashion. Hooked it into my FT-710, and I’m on the air! Got two contacts with FT8 Nevada and Michigan, (K1BMW and N8RJP), I think I got logging setup, but unsure what to use, so I logged them both to LOTW and QRZ logbook, we’ll see if they confirm! ...