Thanks to Gunther (AK4OC) and Mike (KK4OKU) I activated Cumberland Mountain State Park and Ozone Falls State Natural Area. Was a lot of fun to activate both and to see how Mike and Gunther do mobile activations. We met up at Cumberland in the afternoon, did the activations, and then we all drove o...

The park is about 45 minutes from us. My son and I headed out just before lunch and found a nice spot on the north side of the park near Look Rock around 1p. After a quick snack from the back of the Jeep, we tossed the end-fed half wave antenna up over a tree branch and pulled the KX3 out. We mad...

Since unpacking my radios from the move, it's been great to get back on the air. My Elecraft K-Line is working well with the 80m doublet, Hustler 6BTV, and a 40m dipole.

My wife came across an older Ameritron AL-811 at an estate sale this week. It's now happily producing RF for me along with the...

It's been a while since I've been on the air. Actually, a bit over 3 years since my Elecraft K-Line (K3, P3, and KPA500) has been out of storage and powered up. It took a full day to get everything out and hooked up along with getting my old Hustler 6BTV setup. Everything worked as expected and I...

I was traveling back home and took a short break to activate Sassafras Mountain.  The drive up to the base of the summit was easy and there's a very nice parking area.  There's access to the Foothills Trail as well, so there's a good amount of foot traffic across the summit.

Most of the summit has...

I made a stop at Snowbird Mountain, W4T/SU-035, on June 22 2016.  The approach road gets pretty steep within the last 2 miles of the summit.  I was happy to be in my jeep!  I arrived around 5:30p.  There was no gate at the top as described by some others, just a gravel area surrounding the VORTAC wi...

Am really enjoying the CWOps CW Academy Level2 class.  Jack Ritter (W0UCE) and Jack Hubbard (NI8N) are awesome as well as the rest of my classmates.  If you want to increase your proficiency with CW or learn the code for the first time, I'd highly recommend this course.

Had a lot of fun working CQ WPX SSB this weekend.  I'm not a real contender for any awards, but I had fun working a lot of Asia stations on 10m.

We were out camping over the July 4th weekend.  I pulled the KX3 out for a couple of contacts in the 13 Colonies Special Event.  Used the LNR EndFedz on the 31' Jackite pole.  Worked great!  I think I've found a decent portable kit.  Maybe a magnetic loop antenna for when I can't put a wire up, but...

Had a good time last weekend with the ARRL Nov SS Phone.  I hadn't really operated in a while, so it was good to spend some time in the chair.  Of course, I'm a very casual contester, doing more search-and-pounce than anything.  Although living in South Carolina, I was somewhat in demand for those c...

After a long time looking I finally got the go-ahead from the XYL to put a tower up.  I priced various solutions, new and used, and had almost settled upon an Aluma Tower T-50H with a Mosley TA-33-XL-WARC.  My concern with the Aluma Tower was it's dead weight carrying capacity of only 125lbs.  Ron w...

Well, well...  I've been on the go for several weeks and haven't had much time to mess around with the radio's or other things.  But, today's the day.  ARRL Sweepstakes is next weekend and I need to make sure everything is working.  Seth and I made it out this morning and picked up 1000ft of 18ga ba...

Spent some time at the C6APR memorial station being run by the Trident Amateur Radio Club.  Jason (W3VT) volunteered his station which has been operating under the TARC callsign of N4EE.  Last time I operated using N4EE was ARRL Field Day 2009 with one of the people involved in the accident, Randy (...

I took some time today to clean up the shack and to make some shelving.  What an improvement...  Especially for the mic boom with the PR-781 which I relocated and is now much more functional.  Now to just get everything reconnected and operating.

I snagged a couple more contacts in the WAE DX contest while mobile this afternoon.  This was more by chance than anything.  I had to run over to the grocery store and had nothing better to do during the short drive.

I just need some decent logging software for my Nokia e61.  Or better yet, anothe...

Seth and I spent some time out on Folly Island yesterday.  During the ride home I switched over to the 20m and spun the dial.  I was pleasantly surprised to hear some strong EU stations during the WAE DX Contest.  So, I made several contacts while on the way home.  The Scorpion Screwdriver worked gr...

It's been several weeks since I've even had a radio on...  Today I had to run a couple of errands and pickup lunch for everyone.  While out, I turned on the trust Icom 706MkII in the truck and spun the dial around on 20m.  As I pulled into the grocery store parking lot, there was an OZ9 station boom...

What a surprise today when I received a certificate from the ARRL for finishing first place in High-Power Phone during the 2008 ARRL November Sweepstakes.  I'm not a die-hard contester.  Just a casual operator that enjoys OCD-like exchange of a contest.  But this is enough to make me want to dedicat...

Where is NK4I's: QTH /  Truck (NK4I-10) /  Car (NK4I-11)

2021 Update

This installation has long since been retired. I have an Icom ID-4100 that has built-in APRS reporting.

November 2017 Update

I haven't had these trackers active for a long time.

April 2014 Update

I don't drive th...