Back in March, I volunteered for three events: the Keweenaw Winter TSD Rally, The Copper Dog 150, and the Great Bear Chase.

The TSD Rally was a blast, i got to ride all over the the Copper Country with Jack Swift N8WAV, one of the most interesting people I’ve ever met. Leaving Houghton late in the morning we sped across the western UP setting up and running check points throughout the course. Being a TSD rally the racers weren’t driving full speed, so we could take shortcuts from  checkpoint to checkpoint with a little time to spare and set them up before the racers would arrive. In Jack’s own words “the job was a lot of hurry up and wait.” Although, when the racers would cross the check points it was a mad dash to to take down times and pass out tickets as each car crossed; and alot of them were very close together. After about five hours or so we were back in Houghton enjoying dinner at the North Shore Grill and passing out awards.

Two weeks later I volunteered with net control at the Copper Dog 150, this was by far the most fun I have had in HAM radio yet, I got to work with Bill KD8JAM and Howard KD8ABP, who were very helpful in teaching me the ins and outs of acting as a net control operator, and a lot of really useful general HAM info as well.

The Copper Dog 150 is a three day dog sled race. On day one the sleds left from downtown Calumet and raced up to Eagle Harbor. On day two, they raced up to Copper Harbor; and on day three back to Calumet. Day one I was mainly observing, although I did get to make a run out to a checkpoint in Laurium, where reception was low, to assist with radio communication. As day one drew to a close and the sleds made their way into Eagle Harbor, one team stalled out 2 miles from town. This kept a small handful of volunteers in the field (including a good friend of mine, KD8OXB) up until a little after 3am. On day two I actually got to work net control all day with KD8JAM. Day three I helped track the race official car locations. Both day two and day three ran smoothly with a couple small hiccups here and there.  In the end it was bib #23, JR Anderson, and his team that took First place, a first for him and his team. Congrats.

A week after that  I volunteered as a field radio operator in the Great Bear Chase, a cross country skiing race. This was the most uneventful of the three races I helped with that month. I mainly worked at checkpoint as a HAM operator and providing refreshments to the racers, nothing noteworthy happened related to radio operations.

All in all, Volunteering was pretty fun, and something I look forward to continue in the future.

Over the past couple week I’ve been reading a lot of all over the web about all the fun things to do in HAM Radio: DXing, satellites communications, antenna construction, moon bounce, etc. One thing I latched onto was Amsat, I spent a lot of time on their website. After downloading some satellite tracking software I headed up to the Ham Shack with the anticipation of picking up a beacon from something overhead.  To my dismay the only VHF/UHF radio that was capable had a misaligned antenna, and I didn’t end up hearing anything from space. But I did pick up some DXers on 20-meters, while playing with HF transceiver. To my amazement I was able to pick up signals from Tennessee, Florida, and Arizona. Being only a Technician Class Operator I could not legally attempt to make contact. But it did light a fire under me to get studying for the next HAM Exam.