Living in a densely populated neighborhood of Los Angeles presents quite a few problems when attempting to operate an amateur radio station, mainly the lack of space to string up any kind of antenna, and S9+++ noise which is always present, no matter the time of day. These conditions have guided the choices I made when building a modest 100 W station, the main criteria being portable for field work, and to escape the noise and have an opportunity to put up an working antenna. Continue reading →

I will apologize right up front to Dave, VE3LDT for calling these amazing USI awards “Vintage”. These are award plaques from the start of the US Islands program thru the late 90s. I took over as awards chairman and co-webmaster in 2006. USI was pretty slow about then as the website hadn’t been updated in quite a while. I can’t recall who I got the Honor Roll number plates from but when VE3LDT mentioned his name wasn’t on the website for the 1500+ Honor Roll, I just had to ask him for a photo of his awards. (NS4Jay)

The Rules have been changed for Qualifying an island see Rules and Program Information for details.

NFARL (NF4GA) set out in early 2017 to celebrate their 40th club anniversary with a very unique USI adventure. Their goal, as a club was to operate from a minimum of 40 U.S. Islands. 10 menbers, Scott Straw KB4KBS, Jeff Otterson N1KDO, Jim Paine N4SEC, Terry Joyner W4YBV, Grant Register KK4PCR, Daryl Young K4RGK, Lori Young K4UPI, Bob Hensey K4VBM, John Norris N4IHV, and Bill Cobb K4YJJ joined forces to exceed their goal and operated from 46 USI with a total of 902 QSOs for the year.

The following Rhode Island island was Qualified by W1SYE:

Little Gould (RI031R) – Sakonnet River / Narragansett Bay – Newport County

73 – Ted – W8TTS
USi QM

Hi all,

Well, we’ve been working, again, under the hood on the USI Island Directory. Most of what was done will be transparent to you but will make it easier for us to maintain the various lists. All of the State, Territory, and Protectorates are now in tables.

One nice little thing that came out of it is the ability to search the individual lists. Sorry, but you can’t search the whole list.

73 – Ted -W8TTS
USI QM

Hi all,

We’ve been busy. We’ve added a Google map to each of the state/territory lists, and it shows the location of all the islands that are on the list. You will see a Google map icon next to the blue island counts, click on that, and it will jump to the map. The map, except for the full USA map which is on its own page, is at the bottom of every page. The little white square in the upper right corner of the map will make the map full screen.

Click on a marker to see the island name and number.

73 – Ted – W8TTS
USI QM

On July 5, 2017 I set out for my qualification of Green island WI062.  A year ago I was successful in getting the island approved by USIsland Awards Program and received permission from the island owner “Roen Salvage Company”, Sturgeon Bay Wisconsin to conduct a ham radio operation from the island.  I was not able however, to qualify the island that year.

Continue reading →

Newport County Radio Club

The North Fulton Amateur Radio League (NFARL) has devised a US Islands focused contest that will last throughout 2017, our 40th Anniversary Year!

Continue reading →