Making amateur radio contacts from a van in Florida during the New England QSO Party

It’s not been that long since I was began operating amateur radio equipment from my van and I’m still working out ways to make it better.

This past weekend there was a ham radio contest involving stations located in the New England states and those outside the area. I decided to try and make some contacts from my van parked in Florida during the New England QSO Party.

Amateur Radio equipment setup inside a van

Using an antenna on the top of my van, and ham radio equipment setup on a folding table inside the back of the van I attempted to make contacts with other amateur radio operators. I’ve decided not to permanently install radios or furniture in the rear of my cargo van so as to mitigate theft concerns and also to allow for maximum flexibility in how I use it.

The photo above shows an Icom IC-7100 transceiver being used with an LDG AT100ProII automatic antenna tuner. Down on the floor of the van there’s a Powerwerx battery box containing a Bioenno Power LFP battery for use as a power source. There’s a small Renogy LED light sitting on top of the tuner but it’s not being used at the time of the photo.

During the contest I made 3 contacts with stations in New England using the microphone of my radio to send the sound of my voice. This mode is called Phone in general and I was specifically using single sideband (SSB). The photo above shows the radio set to 7.248 MHz which is in the 40 meter amateur band but the contacts I made were using the 20 meter amateur band. 2 stations were in Rhode Island and 1 was in New Hampshire.

Three contacts isn’t that good of a result even for only a short time of operating. I also wanted to try a different mode of operating that uses a computer attached to my amateur radio station to generate a signal for transmission and to also decode the signals from other stations that I can receive.

A notebook PC setup for logging ham contacts

I had placed a notebook PC on the table in the back of my van and was using it for logging the contacts I made into the N1MM+ software application. While some ham operators prefer to use pencil and paper for logging most have been using computers in recent times.

On this same PC I have installed a program called WSJT-X which is an application that allows for amateur radio operators to use a variety of digital modes to contact others. I ran this program using a mode called FT8 and was able to contact a number of stations including those in the states of Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, North Dakota, and Montana. I also contacted stations in Puerto Rico, Mexico and Ecuador.

In the photo above you can see the black and red colored Renology LED light and powerbank that is connected to the small fan on the table below it. This does a good job of lighting my keyboard and moving some air around inside the van if I have the windows covered and the doors shut. I also have a number of spare bungee cords hanging up in the back in case I need them.

Making contacts using some radio frequencies requires reflecting the signals off upper layers of the Earth’s atmosphere and having them return to the surface at a distant location. This mechanism is influenced by Space Weather. Here’s to hoping for better conditions tomorrow.