Why Albania?

Some readers know that my other hobbies are photography and videography with drones. The opportunity to go to Albania offered me a chance to participate in all of these hobbies plus do a heckuva lot of hiking. And just regular old walking.

My smartwatch says I walked 14km (9 miles) the first day in Tirana and 26km (16 miles) the second day. All of that was in the Blloku District of Tirana, previously off limits even to Albanians until 1991. Blloku was the upscale part of town, only open to political party officials.

I also have an interest in Cold War history and Albania offers an up-close chance to explore that interest. I may elaborate on that a bit in a future posting.

But really, I'm just a boy who likes his drone. 

The scenes below were shot with a DJI Avata 360 in an area about halfway between Bogë (pronounced Boga) and Theth in the northern part of the country.

This is the southern Alps, known in Albania as The Accursed Mountains. 

 

Or watch directly on YouTube 

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Video: Iceland by drone and operating as TF/AE5X

I am amazed at the stunning scenery of Iceland - the trip was bucket-list incredible.

The video below is about 2/3 drone video (followed by 1/3 radio) of the places we saw as we drove around the country.

In all, we put 950 miles (1500km) on the car and I activated 4 parks. Each park was a first-activation for that park. I had no trouble making contacts but my time at each park was limited. The KX2 at ten watts into a roof-mounted vertical worked well and was portable enough to travel with easily.

Pota-graphy?

For a while now I've been wanting to include both of my hobbies - ham radio and photography - on this blog, with the realization the latter hobby is off-topic as far as postings go.

Textually, the blog will still be 100% 95% ham radio...but, from time to time, a bit of photography will creep in. Usually in the form of nothing more than the header image.

Blame it on POTA. The header image may appear off-topic but the fact is that it will probably POTA-derived.

A side effect of activations (coupled with retirement and time to travel) is that I'm usually bringing my camera along for the ride.

This image was from K-3013 Galveston Island (TX) State Park.

I took a break from the activation due to a passing storm and saw that a baptism ceremony was taking place as oil tankers passed in the distance. I shot the pic in color but thought the simple elements and textures made it a good candidate for B&W.

A 10-stop ND filter allowed a 20-second shutter speed, blurring the waves completely - the clouds & participants, partially.

OK, back to ham radio and awaiting my sBitx.

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"We ride the waves; distance is gone"

I had the absolute funnest POTA activation today. Ever.

First was the new rig. Awesomeness, encapsulated into a rectangular form. More on that in a future posting.

Then a QRP-QRP POTA contact with Thomas K4SWL. I've worked Thomas a number of times from Texas but this was the first time working him since moving to FL. He was one of my few contacts on 40m - the bulk of them were on 20.

To top it all off, I had two visitors, both of whom were so interested in what I was doing that they lingered. Not obtrusively, but with a sincerity of curiosity that made them a pleasure to have at the site.

White Sands National Park K-0970

Alamogordo, NM is 17 steep downhill miles and a 4000' descent from our Cloudcroft QTH - therefore, no liquified dinosaur bones are required to propel our car into town. Coming back up is another matter.

Just west of Alamogordo is White Sands NP - a sea of white gypsum, not sand - in a brown landscape. Sunglasses are recommended required.

The gypsum is of a very fine texture and is quite unlike beach sand. Being completely dry, it has no adhesive qualities at all, so it doesn't stick to the skin. Not even a little. It also doesn't absorb heat. After hours of direct desert sunlight, it remains cool to the touch.

 

After driving the park road and making some exploratory excursions among the dunes for future photographic possibilities, I attached the Hamstick to the car, plugged the battery into the FT-891 and started calling CQ.

A perspective on taking expensive rigs outdoors

And the Peovi brand is $135

Every now and then I see a posting from someone with a radio like the IC-705 who is hesitant to take it outdoors due to the "cost of the radio".

If they do take their expensive radio to such a harsh locale, they first must take the precaution of embedding it into a metallic frame that adds to the inconvenience of operating the radio and makes it a bit less portable - but provides the illusion of protection.

I suppose some actual protection is offered if the unlucky IC-705 owner is considerate enough to drop the rig in such a way that it hits the ground in the correct orientation.

On my recent trip to Colorado I met a lot of other people who, like me, were there specifically to photograph the beautiful scenery. Many of us had traveled from other states. None had cheap cameras.