This past weekend was the Museum Ship weekend. I hope everyone got a chance to work the ships. I think that this event is one of my favorites when it comes to special "Get on the Air" events. This event is sponsored by the Battleship New Jersey Radio Station (NJ2BB). There were 85 different ships operating on the bands from Saturday June 6th - Sunday June 7th.
I was able to make contact with about 10 of them. Which was pretty cool as I made contact with some ships I hadn't contacted before (i.e. USS North Carolina, USS Indianapolis, and more). If you made contact with at least 15 ships, then you earned yourself a certificate. All you have to do is mail in your log information. The Battleship New Jersey Radio Station website linked above has all the info on that.
The next big event coming up is Field Day. June 27th - 28th. If you don't know about Field Day, then your either new, or you've been living under a rock, Hi Hi. Anyway this is one of the biggest events of the year. Operators from all over will be out in the field, mobile, or even in the comfort of their home QTH making contacts all over the bands. For more information about Field Day check out the Field Day link above.
We will be up in our Aunt Betty's field operating on the 27th. We plan to be running the Yaesu FT-450 that we went in half with Dad(KU4ME) on. We will have that hooked to the LDG AT200 Pro auto tuner and a ZS6BKV multiband dipole as well as a G5RV antenna, both homebrewed. You can check those out in previous posts of our out in the field experiences: HF in the Field With New Homebrew G5RV and Our Early Field Day.
Anyway, if you are on the air for field day, listen for us and feel free to make contact. Catch you down the log.
73 and good DX,
Tim - AJ4JD
Showing posts with label Antennas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Antennas. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Cubs Radio via the HF Rig
Bear with me on this one my fellow Hams. The thought occurred to me this afternoon while I was at work and I looked on the Chicago Cubs website to see if the game was going to be televised this evening on a venue I could watch. Well to my dismay, living here in East Tennessee and only being a basic digital cable subscriber out in the sticks, I do not get Chicago Sports Net, the only channel on TV that was carrying the game this evening. Then I saw, as always, that the game would be aired on Cubs Radio 720 AM. **Insert Lightbulb turning on here**
So this evening upon returning home from our run/walk.. I sat down at the ICOM 756 Pro and was tuning around to see what the bands were like (not that great by the way due to local noise that is best left as a story for another time) when I remembered oh yeah the Cubs game. (They just won YAY Cubs Win!!! Cubs Win!!!). So I got to turning that dial when at last I came across 0.720.00 on the display and turned the mode to AM. Sure enough, there it was the AM broadcast of the loveable Cubs. Several summers have past and I've wished I could get the, untelevised to me, games on the radio. Well thanks to the HAM Radio and the big homebrewed Windom in the trees, I can sit in satisfaction and listen to my beloved Cubs on the HF Radio. Hi Hi. I know I could probably pull out the shortwave and pick it up but the thought had never occured to me previously considering it just winded up here at the QTH last summer.
Well that's all I have for now.
Take care, Good DX, and best of 73 de
AJ4JD - Tim
So this evening upon returning home from our run/walk.. I sat down at the ICOM 756 Pro and was tuning around to see what the bands were like (not that great by the way due to local noise that is best left as a story for another time) when I remembered oh yeah the Cubs game. (They just won YAY Cubs Win!!! Cubs Win!!!). So I got to turning that dial when at last I came across 0.720.00 on the display and turned the mode to AM. Sure enough, there it was the AM broadcast of the loveable Cubs. Several summers have past and I've wished I could get the, untelevised to me, games on the radio. Well thanks to the HAM Radio and the big homebrewed Windom in the trees, I can sit in satisfaction and listen to my beloved Cubs on the HF Radio. Hi Hi. I know I could probably pull out the shortwave and pick it up but the thought had never occured to me previously considering it just winded up here at the QTH last summer.
Well that's all I have for now.
Take care, Good DX, and best of 73 de
AJ4JD - Tim
Saturday, February 7, 2009
The Antenna is Finally in the Air
Well today we finally got the antenna in the air. Last week we put it all together and made a valiant effort to try and get it in the air but failed miserably. The odds were against us as the wind was blowing something fierce, and we ended up losing one arrow in the tree and the other lost its notch.
So today, we tried again. This time we had a different plan. Instead of bow and arrow, we opted for a sling shot and a 3oz. fishing weight. Our first few attempts were for naught. The weight was too big and kept getting caught on the sling once it was release. So we decided to cut the thing in half. Once we did that we started having better results. Unfortunately, where we originally wanted to put it on one side was too tall for us to achieve. So we opted for a bit shorter beech tree. By doing this we no longer has a need to run a support rope or pulley system as before this we were going to run it up in a tall pine tree.
Well after a couple of attempts we finally had the short side up in the tree and it was time to trek to the other side. This one was more than we bargained for. Getting the rope up in the old oak tree up the ridge wasn't the problem. The problem came when we tried to raise the antenna. We found that as we raised it the long side was going to get hung up on a branch of a dogwood tree and there was no way to guide the wire out from under it. With this in mind we only had one option... Chop It Down. I trekked back down the ridge to get the ax and the saw. 2 blisters and a bruised thumb later, we had the dogwood hewed and the antenna up in the air. The battle was won with the exception of running the coax into the house and connect it to the radio.
With daylight, strength, and energy waning rapidly, we decided it was time for some dinner before finishing our small war. So we ran out to Cap'n D's for some fish and brought it back to the house. We filled ourselves on fries, fish, and hush puppies and decided it was time to put a hole in the floor. We had originally planned to connect the coax running from the antenna to the house into a lightning arrestor, and take a second run of coax on into the house. This would have required us to put another hole in the house and to find screws to mount the arrestor to the house as well. So instead we ran the one run in through the garage door in th basement, into the crawl space under the shack and up through the floor until such time comes when we have screws for the arrestor and enough motivation to put a new hole in the house.
It wasn't long before we had our Windom connected to the radio and were ready to see how it performed. On 80 meters, the SWR is pretty good up to about the DX Window. after that the tuner needs to be used and past 3.900 MHz we have to cut the power back a bit. On 40 meters the antenna is mostly flat. On 20 it is completely flat without a tuner. same on 10. The only band it won't even tune on is 15 meters. Other than that, it does quite well for a multi bander that's supposed to work 80 - 2. So far I've made about 5 contacts with it and one of those were to the Bahamas. All reports have been 5-9 except the Bahamas reported 5-7. So I can't complain considering we can only run 100 watts at this time.
So we accomplished what we set out to do, with a few exceptions of course. In the end the result was good. We are finally on the air and that's all that matters. Stay tuned and I will get some pictures posted in the next couple of days or so. Anyway, many thanks go out to dad (KU4ME) for helping us out tremendously in this project and to the XYL Robin (AJ4IJ) for all her hard work too.
Till next time, 73 and Good DX.
AJ4JD Tim
So today, we tried again. This time we had a different plan. Instead of bow and arrow, we opted for a sling shot and a 3oz. fishing weight. Our first few attempts were for naught. The weight was too big and kept getting caught on the sling once it was release. So we decided to cut the thing in half. Once we did that we started having better results. Unfortunately, where we originally wanted to put it on one side was too tall for us to achieve. So we opted for a bit shorter beech tree. By doing this we no longer has a need to run a support rope or pulley system as before this we were going to run it up in a tall pine tree.
Well after a couple of attempts we finally had the short side up in the tree and it was time to trek to the other side. This one was more than we bargained for. Getting the rope up in the old oak tree up the ridge wasn't the problem. The problem came when we tried to raise the antenna. We found that as we raised it the long side was going to get hung up on a branch of a dogwood tree and there was no way to guide the wire out from under it. With this in mind we only had one option... Chop It Down. I trekked back down the ridge to get the ax and the saw. 2 blisters and a bruised thumb later, we had the dogwood hewed and the antenna up in the air. The battle was won with the exception of running the coax into the house and connect it to the radio.
With daylight, strength, and energy waning rapidly, we decided it was time for some dinner before finishing our small war. So we ran out to Cap'n D's for some fish and brought it back to the house. We filled ourselves on fries, fish, and hush puppies and decided it was time to put a hole in the floor. We had originally planned to connect the coax running from the antenna to the house into a lightning arrestor, and take a second run of coax on into the house. This would have required us to put another hole in the house and to find screws to mount the arrestor to the house as well. So instead we ran the one run in through the garage door in th basement, into the crawl space under the shack and up through the floor until such time comes when we have screws for the arrestor and enough motivation to put a new hole in the house.
It wasn't long before we had our Windom connected to the radio and were ready to see how it performed. On 80 meters, the SWR is pretty good up to about the DX Window. after that the tuner needs to be used and past 3.900 MHz we have to cut the power back a bit. On 40 meters the antenna is mostly flat. On 20 it is completely flat without a tuner. same on 10. The only band it won't even tune on is 15 meters. Other than that, it does quite well for a multi bander that's supposed to work 80 - 2. So far I've made about 5 contacts with it and one of those were to the Bahamas. All reports have been 5-9 except the Bahamas reported 5-7. So I can't complain considering we can only run 100 watts at this time.
So we accomplished what we set out to do, with a few exceptions of course. In the end the result was good. We are finally on the air and that's all that matters. Stay tuned and I will get some pictures posted in the next couple of days or so. Anyway, many thanks go out to dad (KU4ME) for helping us out tremendously in this project and to the XYL Robin (AJ4IJ) for all her hard work too.
Till next time, 73 and Good DX.
AJ4JD Tim
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Playing Catch Up
I know it's been a while since my last entry so let me play a little catch up. January has been a busy month and to be honest I haven't done a whole lot of radioing. What radioing I have done has been on 2 meters, checking into the different nets and the occasional QSO here and there. We attended the Morristown hamfest a couple of weeks ago where we bought all the wire we needed to build our own Windom antenna to put in the backyard. We bought a 100' of RG-8, 25' of RG-213, 140' or so of some 13 awg copper wire, some PL-259 connectors, and a couple of dog bones insulators. While at the hamfest, Robin (AJ4IJ) won a major award... a 2008-2009 ARRL repeater directory. That's the first time any of us has won a prize at a hamfest. We all thought that was pretty neat.
Since the hamfest, we've purchased a 4:1 balun from The Wireman, some thimbles, and we are still waiting on an I.C.E. lightning arrestor to arrive. Once that gets here, we will have everything we need to build and raise our antenna, and bring our HF radio home. Yes we finally purchased an HF rig. What did we purchase you ask? Well, we got a great deal on an ICOM IC-756 Pro. Gotta love the fish finder on that rig. It's been over at Dads(KU4ME) ever since. It works quite well and has great audio. I can't wait to get it over here and get on the air to see how we do with the Windom.
What else has been happening, well last weekend Robin and I went to take our EmComm level 1 and 2 tests. We passed with flying colors and are now EmComm 1 & 2 certified. We await our certificates. With me passing the EmComm tests, I have officially been appointed as EC for Union County ARES here in Tennessee. Up until now, Claiborne County has been taking care of our counties needs when it comes to emergency communications. We have quite a bit of work to do to get the ball rolling but look forward to get an Amateur Radio presence going on in our county. There are several hams in our county so we have a good base to recruit from.
Anyway, that's all I have for the time being, until next time...
Good DX and Happy Contesting
73 de AJ4JD
Tim
Since the hamfest, we've purchased a 4:1 balun from The Wireman, some thimbles, and we are still waiting on an I.C.E. lightning arrestor to arrive. Once that gets here, we will have everything we need to build and raise our antenna, and bring our HF radio home. Yes we finally purchased an HF rig. What did we purchase you ask? Well, we got a great deal on an ICOM IC-756 Pro. Gotta love the fish finder on that rig. It's been over at Dads(KU4ME) ever since. It works quite well and has great audio. I can't wait to get it over here and get on the air to see how we do with the Windom.
What else has been happening, well last weekend Robin and I went to take our EmComm level 1 and 2 tests. We passed with flying colors and are now EmComm 1 & 2 certified. We await our certificates. With me passing the EmComm tests, I have officially been appointed as EC for Union County ARES here in Tennessee. Up until now, Claiborne County has been taking care of our counties needs when it comes to emergency communications. We have quite a bit of work to do to get the ball rolling but look forward to get an Amateur Radio presence going on in our county. There are several hams in our county so we have a good base to recruit from.
Anyway, that's all I have for the time being, until next time...
Good DX and Happy Contesting
73 de AJ4JD
Tim
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Antenna Maintenance, My First Asian Contact, and W4H Update (My first real pileup)
Well, yesterday we decided to go over to dad's (KU4ME) and play some radio. This was of course after we did a little maintenance to the wires we have up in the air over there. We needed to remove some of the tension on the ZS6BKV multi bander. There was a branch that was creating tension on the twin lead close to the choke as well as to much slack in the support rope we have strung the wire on. So after cutting out a whole big branch and removing the slack in the support rope we moved to the inverted vee for 80 meters. The balun had slid down a little back towards the house and had dropped a little as well. So we moved the balun back up the support rope and hoisted the antenna a little higher. We also got the multi-bander up a little higher as well. After we finished the antenna maintenance we went inside to eat supper that mom (KF4SSI) had made and watch an episode of Dexter.
Once we finished with supper we headed out to the shack to see how well our maintenance improved things. I started scrolling around on 20 meters and heard a station calling CQ contest from Japan. Ever since the Summer Olympics special event, I've been aiming at making a contact with Japan. Unfortunately, we've never heard any station from Japan when we seen that they were spotted on the DX Cluster. Well, I heard this station calling CQ contest on 14.317 and realized that it was a Japanese station (JR5VHU). So I tried a time or two but my timing was off. On the third go round I threw out my call and running a bare 100 watts, he picked me up. I was so elated that it didn't matter to me that it was a very short contact due to the station being a contester. I couldn't believe it, I had just made contact with Japan on 100 watts. I started doing my little Japan DX dance in the commanders chair and asked my XYL Robin (AJ4IJ) if she wanted to try. So she sat down and proceeded to make contact as well (her first Japan contact also). So she did the Japan DX dance as well. We finally convinced dad to give it a try even though the station was starting to fade. He almost gave up after the third try but went more time and made contact as well. It appears that the maintenance we had done had paid off. Robin made another contact with a Japan station (JH4UYB) shortly there after and we decided it was time to start calling CQ for the special event W4H.
It was about 8:00pm and I was all set up to log. However, Robin did not want to take the first shift calling CQ so we swapped spots and she logged and I called CQ. I found us an open spot on 80 meters as 20 was dying fast and there wasn't much happening on 40 meters other than noise and broadcasters. So 80 it was and I was able to find a spot on our special event calling frequency 3.850. My very first call and N1UK came back to me. We ragchewed for a few minutes and when we signed with each other he said he'd put me on the DX cluster. Sure enough he did and it wasn't long before the pileup started. It wasn't to bad at first. It was a slow trickle and I had time to give each calling station a little information about the event and how to receive QSL cards from us. I must have called CQ for about 40 minutes and made contact with 24 stations. I did talked to Mrs. Teresa (KI4ZQO), Mrs. Cathy (KI4YPO), Rick (N4JTQ), Bill (N4BHK), and Kevin(KG4LGL) . These are all local hams that are active on the 470 repeater and active on the 470ARG net. As a matter of fact, Rick is out NCS for the net and Cathy is the NCS for the 470 ladies round table.
So after about 40 minutes I was desperately needing a break and Robin was more than happy to take the reigns. She called CQ for about an hour and let me tell you the hornets nest of a pile up she had. There were a couple of times where everyone was calling at once and she couldn't make out anything to call for in return. She instead had to go back and call QRZed again just to try and pick out a call. Well in the hour she called CQ, she ended up with 46 contacts. Some of the most notable were with N3FJP (the maker/programmer of the logbook program we are using). She also had special event station N8F for the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald event contact her. In total now Robin has made a total of 51 contacts for the special event in 21 states.
Well after her hour she still had a pileup that wouldn't quit. However, she was needing a break and we tried to get dad to take it over. He declined and so I had to take it back over. I must have taken it for almost another hour and made another 30 contacts or so and ended up with a contact in Puerto Rico(KP4BAI) and many different states. Overall I now have made 88 contacts for the event and have worked a total of 32 states and 1 DX entity.
So with a week to go on the special event, I don't know if I will be able to get back on until Saturday. Hopefully though, Robin and Dad, along with other 470ARG participants will be able to get on during the week and call CQ for the event. I know that Rick has worked the event a little bit but I'm not sure of anyone else at this moment in time. Anyway, that's about all I've got for the present moment in time. I now await the QSLs to start rolling in. I just hope I can use the special event call towards my WAS award.
Anyway, until the next post,
73 and Happy DX de AJ4JD
Tim
Once we finished with supper we headed out to the shack to see how well our maintenance improved things. I started scrolling around on 20 meters and heard a station calling CQ contest from Japan. Ever since the Summer Olympics special event, I've been aiming at making a contact with Japan. Unfortunately, we've never heard any station from Japan when we seen that they were spotted on the DX Cluster. Well, I heard this station calling CQ contest on 14.317 and realized that it was a Japanese station (JR5VHU). So I tried a time or two but my timing was off. On the third go round I threw out my call and running a bare 100 watts, he picked me up. I was so elated that it didn't matter to me that it was a very short contact due to the station being a contester. I couldn't believe it, I had just made contact with Japan on 100 watts. I started doing my little Japan DX dance in the commanders chair and asked my XYL Robin (AJ4IJ) if she wanted to try. So she sat down and proceeded to make contact as well (her first Japan contact also). So she did the Japan DX dance as well. We finally convinced dad to give it a try even though the station was starting to fade. He almost gave up after the third try but went more time and made contact as well. It appears that the maintenance we had done had paid off. Robin made another contact with a Japan station (JH4UYB) shortly there after and we decided it was time to start calling CQ for the special event W4H.
It was about 8:00pm and I was all set up to log. However, Robin did not want to take the first shift calling CQ so we swapped spots and she logged and I called CQ. I found us an open spot on 80 meters as 20 was dying fast and there wasn't much happening on 40 meters other than noise and broadcasters. So 80 it was and I was able to find a spot on our special event calling frequency 3.850. My very first call and N1UK came back to me. We ragchewed for a few minutes and when we signed with each other he said he'd put me on the DX cluster. Sure enough he did and it wasn't long before the pileup started. It wasn't to bad at first. It was a slow trickle and I had time to give each calling station a little information about the event and how to receive QSL cards from us. I must have called CQ for about 40 minutes and made contact with 24 stations. I did talked to Mrs. Teresa (KI4ZQO), Mrs. Cathy (KI4YPO), Rick (N4JTQ), Bill (N4BHK), and Kevin(KG4LGL) . These are all local hams that are active on the 470 repeater and active on the 470ARG net. As a matter of fact, Rick is out NCS for the net and Cathy is the NCS for the 470 ladies round table.
So after about 40 minutes I was desperately needing a break and Robin was more than happy to take the reigns. She called CQ for about an hour and let me tell you the hornets nest of a pile up she had. There were a couple of times where everyone was calling at once and she couldn't make out anything to call for in return. She instead had to go back and call QRZed again just to try and pick out a call. Well in the hour she called CQ, she ended up with 46 contacts. Some of the most notable were with N3FJP (the maker/programmer of the logbook program we are using). She also had special event station N8F for the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald event contact her. In total now Robin has made a total of 51 contacts for the special event in 21 states.
Well after her hour she still had a pileup that wouldn't quit. However, she was needing a break and we tried to get dad to take it over. He declined and so I had to take it back over. I must have taken it for almost another hour and made another 30 contacts or so and ended up with a contact in Puerto Rico(KP4BAI) and many different states. Overall I now have made 88 contacts for the event and have worked a total of 32 states and 1 DX entity.
So with a week to go on the special event, I don't know if I will be able to get back on until Saturday. Hopefully though, Robin and Dad, along with other 470ARG participants will be able to get on during the week and call CQ for the event. I know that Rick has worked the event a little bit but I'm not sure of anyone else at this moment in time. Anyway, that's about all I've got for the present moment in time. I now await the QSLs to start rolling in. I just hope I can use the special event call towards my WAS award.
Anyway, until the next post,
73 and Happy DX de AJ4JD
Tim
Thursday, October 9, 2008
October ARES Meeting
Well this evening we had our ARES meeting up at the Claiborne County Hospital's Education Building. We went over our thoughts on our SET operation over this last weekend, discussed the rotation on our Nets for Monday night, and as a treat, Bruce (KI4QIS) took us over to the hospital to show us the radio equipment at the hospital that is used during emergency situations. This equipment was donated/bought for the hospital by FEMA and is maintained by our ARES group.
The equipment in use is an ICOM 706 MkIIG. On the roof are a few antennas that are used with the radio: a 2meter verticle, a UHF antenna, a J-Pole for 2 meters, and a foldable dipole. We got to fire up the radio and Bruce made contact with Dave (KI4NSA) while he was out mobile after the meeting on 2 meters. We then tuned around on HF and learned the issue of the dipole as Bruce and Rick (NX6R) has told us about before. It is rather noisy.
After checking out the radio, Bruce then took us up on the roof to see the antennas. Upon reaching the antenna site, we noticed immediately what the problem with the noise is. The dipole runs parallel with power lines that are about 50 feet away. Additionally, there are two poles both with sets of transformers. So with seeing that Bruce and I may make a weekend project of moving the dipole, of course all of our ARES members are more than welcome to come out when we do this. Bruce also demonstrated a problem with the J-pole having a bit of noise. I think that Bruce is correct in that there is probably some water in the coax as the connector from the antenna to the coax is not sealed in any way. That will be something else we shall remedy when we move the dipole.
I'd also like to mention that we had a visitor join us on the tour and one of our other members as well, Harold (N2BFD) along with Robin (AJ4IJ), and Ashby (KJ4EGJ).
Until next time,
73 de AJ4JD
Tim
The equipment in use is an ICOM 706 MkIIG. On the roof are a few antennas that are used with the radio: a 2meter verticle, a UHF antenna, a J-Pole for 2 meters, and a foldable dipole. We got to fire up the radio and Bruce made contact with Dave (KI4NSA) while he was out mobile after the meeting on 2 meters. We then tuned around on HF and learned the issue of the dipole as Bruce and Rick (NX6R) has told us about before. It is rather noisy.
After checking out the radio, Bruce then took us up on the roof to see the antennas. Upon reaching the antenna site, we noticed immediately what the problem with the noise is. The dipole runs parallel with power lines that are about 50 feet away. Additionally, there are two poles both with sets of transformers. So with seeing that Bruce and I may make a weekend project of moving the dipole, of course all of our ARES members are more than welcome to come out when we do this. Bruce also demonstrated a problem with the J-pole having a bit of noise. I think that Bruce is correct in that there is probably some water in the coax as the connector from the antenna to the coax is not sealed in any way. That will be something else we shall remedy when we move the dipole.
I'd also like to mention that we had a visitor join us on the tour and one of our other members as well, Harold (N2BFD) along with Robin (AJ4IJ), and Ashby (KJ4EGJ).
Until next time,
73 de AJ4JD
Tim
Friday, August 1, 2008
I Feel Like a Ham
The more I'm in this hobby, the more I learn and the more I want. Do you ever get that feeling? It all started when I got my technician license back in April of this year. Robin (AJ4IJ) got me my first HAM radio after I got my ticket. It's a Yaesu VX-170 2 meter FM HT (for those non-hams HT means handy talky). It was long after that that we were both itching for a base station at the house. We've been driving dad's (KU4ME) jeep and it is equiped with an Alinco DR150 2 meter FM mobile radio. It wasn't long before we put a Kenwood TM-261A 2 meter FM in the car. This was Robin's old 2 meter rig she used to have in her old Saturn. It wasn't long before we finally got a base station set up. Dad let us have his old Radio Shack HTX-212 2 meter FM transceiver. To add to all that equipment, you might already know that we have a Jetstream JTB-1 2 meter/440 antenna put up in the air in the back yard. You can check out the post Hoisting the 2meter Vertical for more info on that. Robin has a Kenwood TH-22AT 2 meter FM HT radio, and our daughter Ashby (KJ4EGJ) was presented with an Alinco DJ-V17 2 meter FM HT upon getting her Ham ticket.
So we've been having fun rag chewin on 2 meters with our different radios. We check in to various nets around our area here in East Tennessee. We rag chew late into the night, and recently, as you may well know, we steal moments over at mom (KI4SSI) and dads to chase some DX and play on dad's HF radio (Icom IC-756 Pro). We've worked on his existing antennas, we've put up an inverted V cut for 75 meters (aka 80 meters), and we built a mutliband HF dipole for field day, which we now have up in the air over at mom and dad's as it gets out a bit better than his gap verticle.
The next thing we have to work on, is to hook up the Alinco DR430 70cm FM transceiver radio that dad has lent us to play with. We also have to help dad ground mom's radio and antenna, she has a Ten-Tech 526. This was dad's radio (I guess it still is) but he's set it up for mom to use. So as you can see I'm well into the Ham world since I started back in April. I've since earned my General back in May, and then my Extra ticket in June.
However, I think the thing that has made me really feel like a HAM is that I got my first ever issue of QST magazine. That's right folks, Robin signed us up for a family membership to ARRL earlier this week. Today I got my membership card and my first issue of QST magazine. I thumbed through it almost immediately when I got home from work. I drooled over all the HAM gear that was in it (well I didn't really drool by my eyes were as big as a kid's at Christmas when they first walk into the room and see all the presents under the tree). I read a few little columns and letters, and started to read a really interesting article on grounding your station (which I need to finish).
Anyway, between all the gear, catalogs, the ARRL memberships, and much more (like working toward earning the Worked All States, aka WAS, award) I can honestly and happily admit that I am a HAM.
Good DX everyone.
73 de AJ4JD
Tim
P.S. I promise I'll get some station pics, antenna pics, and rig pics of our stuff up here soon.
So we've been having fun rag chewin on 2 meters with our different radios. We check in to various nets around our area here in East Tennessee. We rag chew late into the night, and recently, as you may well know, we steal moments over at mom (KI4SSI) and dads to chase some DX and play on dad's HF radio (Icom IC-756 Pro). We've worked on his existing antennas, we've put up an inverted V cut for 75 meters (aka 80 meters), and we built a mutliband HF dipole for field day, which we now have up in the air over at mom and dad's as it gets out a bit better than his gap verticle.
The next thing we have to work on, is to hook up the Alinco DR430 70cm FM transceiver radio that dad has lent us to play with. We also have to help dad ground mom's radio and antenna, she has a Ten-Tech 526. This was dad's radio (I guess it still is) but he's set it up for mom to use. So as you can see I'm well into the Ham world since I started back in April. I've since earned my General back in May, and then my Extra ticket in June.
However, I think the thing that has made me really feel like a HAM is that I got my first ever issue of QST magazine. That's right folks, Robin signed us up for a family membership to ARRL earlier this week. Today I got my membership card and my first issue of QST magazine. I thumbed through it almost immediately when I got home from work. I drooled over all the HAM gear that was in it (well I didn't really drool by my eyes were as big as a kid's at Christmas when they first walk into the room and see all the presents under the tree). I read a few little columns and letters, and started to read a really interesting article on grounding your station (which I need to finish).
Anyway, between all the gear, catalogs, the ARRL memberships, and much more (like working toward earning the Worked All States, aka WAS, award) I can honestly and happily admit that I am a HAM.
Good DX everyone.
73 de AJ4JD
Tim
P.S. I promise I'll get some station pics, antenna pics, and rig pics of our stuff up here soon.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Hamfests Ahoy, Special Events and Severe Weather Oh My!
Well, I thought I would jump in here and share a few more experiences. We've been kickin' it on HF lately and workin' special events. As you know we worked the FBI station and 4 of the Collins stations. I think our next special event we are going to try and work is the Olympics event. There are 5 stations one to represent each of the rings of the Olympic Rings. They are operating from China and the station calls are as follows: BT1OB, BT1OJ, BT1OH, BT1OY, and BT1ON. The QSL cards look pretty neat. I know my daughter would probably like to get one from each station, of course she will need to get her upgrade if she's going to work them on HF, unless 10 meters opens up. Anyway, they also have awards they will be giving depending on how many of the stations you work, what band, and what mode. For more info on it check the following website: http://www.bj2008ses.com.cn/.
So tomorrow is the Waynesville hamfest in Waynesville, NC. We (including AJ4IJ, KU4ME, KF4SSI) are going to be waking up real early and heading out that way to check it out. Maybe we will get lucky and find a great deal on something, or at least win something. Anyway, one can dream right. Stay tuned as I'll be sure to provide updates and pics later. Speaking of pics, I've still got to get some pics of the antenna we put up over at dad's (ku4me).
This past week we had some pretty bad storms roll through. Luckily we fared pretty well other than being without power for 24 hours. I have to commend the Skywarn folks here in the area for running effect weather nets on 145.230. Speaking on this point, I've been giving thought about joining the local ARES club here in Union/Claiborne County. I've checked in on their net on 147.360 repeater over the last two weeks. I've still got some thinking to do on it and I'll let you know what I decide. If anyone has any advice on the topic let me know by leaving some comments.
Well I'm going to say 73 for now. Got to get up early in the morning and head out to the hamfest.
Take care everyone.
73 de AJ4JD
Tim
So tomorrow is the Waynesville hamfest in Waynesville, NC. We (including AJ4IJ, KU4ME, KF4SSI) are going to be waking up real early and heading out that way to check it out. Maybe we will get lucky and find a great deal on something, or at least win something. Anyway, one can dream right. Stay tuned as I'll be sure to provide updates and pics later. Speaking of pics, I've still got to get some pics of the antenna we put up over at dad's (ku4me).
This past week we had some pretty bad storms roll through. Luckily we fared pretty well other than being without power for 24 hours. I have to commend the Skywarn folks here in the area for running effect weather nets on 145.230. Speaking on this point, I've been giving thought about joining the local ARES club here in Union/Claiborne County. I've checked in on their net on 147.360 repeater over the last two weeks. I've still got some thinking to do on it and I'll let you know what I decide. If anyone has any advice on the topic let me know by leaving some comments.
Well I'm going to say 73 for now. Got to get up early in the morning and head out to the hamfest.
Take care everyone.
73 de AJ4JD
Tim
Saturday, July 19, 2008
In The Land of HF Part II
Hello everyone. I thought I would get on here and give everyone some updates about our adventures in HF here recently. I believe that last week I mentioned we were going to put up the ZS6BKV Multiband HF Dipole antenna that we built for field day. Well it is up in the air now and we've got it up there about 45ft or so. So far it seems to be working rather well. We've been getting great signal reports from stations that we've contacted around the world.
So last weekend was the IARU HF World Championship contest. Robin (AJ4IJ) and I (AJ4JD) decided to make some contacts just to test the antenna out. I mean after all, what better way to find out how well your antenna is doing right? Even though we really weren't competing in the contest, it was good experience seeing what contesting was all about. We ended up making around 22 contacts overall to stations all over the place including: Brazil, Argentina, Uraguay, Australia, Hiwaii, New Jersey, California, Washington, and Arizona.
Over the last week or so, we've been trying to work the Rockwell Collins S-Line Anniversary stations. There are 6 (N0CXX, W0CXX, W5ROK, W4CRC, W6CXX, F6KNZ) in all, and you need to contact 4 to qualify for the certificate they send out. We finally got all 4 the other day. Another special event we've been trying to get was the FBI station (K3FBI). They've been celebrating the 100th anniversary of the FBI. If you make a contact all you have to do is send a QSL card and they will send back a QSL and a real nice certificate. You can get more information from the ARRL's Special Events page. We've also been trying to work all states on 20 meters and have been doing some DX as well. Some of the states and countries we've worked this past week or so include: Ecuador, St. Barthelemy, Portugal (The Azores), Mexico, Columbia, Argentina, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Cuba. Some of the states include: Texas, Florida, Iowa, Virginia, Missouri, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Louisiana, Alaska, and Pennsylvania.
So, with special events, working all states, and chasing DX, we have all certainly been abuzz about HF around here lately, even dad (KU4ME) has gotten real excited about it. Anyway, that's about all I've got for now. I'll try to get some pictures of the antenna in it's new home and post them soon. Everyone take care and I hope you enjoy reading the entries. If you do please let me know. Until next time....
73 and good DX de AJ4JD
Tim
So last weekend was the IARU HF World Championship contest. Robin (AJ4IJ) and I (AJ4JD) decided to make some contacts just to test the antenna out. I mean after all, what better way to find out how well your antenna is doing right? Even though we really weren't competing in the contest, it was good experience seeing what contesting was all about. We ended up making around 22 contacts overall to stations all over the place including: Brazil, Argentina, Uraguay, Australia, Hiwaii, New Jersey, California, Washington, and Arizona.
Over the last week or so, we've been trying to work the Rockwell Collins S-Line Anniversary stations. There are 6 (N0CXX, W0CXX, W5ROK, W4CRC, W6CXX, F6KNZ) in all, and you need to contact 4 to qualify for the certificate they send out. We finally got all 4 the other day. Another special event we've been trying to get was the FBI station (K3FBI). They've been celebrating the 100th anniversary of the FBI. If you make a contact all you have to do is send a QSL card and they will send back a QSL and a real nice certificate. You can get more information from the ARRL's Special Events page. We've also been trying to work all states on 20 meters and have been doing some DX as well. Some of the states and countries we've worked this past week or so include: Ecuador, St. Barthelemy, Portugal (The Azores), Mexico, Columbia, Argentina, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Cuba. Some of the states include: Texas, Florida, Iowa, Virginia, Missouri, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Louisiana, Alaska, and Pennsylvania.
So, with special events, working all states, and chasing DX, we have all certainly been abuzz about HF around here lately, even dad (KU4ME) has gotten real excited about it. Anyway, that's about all I've got for now. I'll try to get some pictures of the antenna in it's new home and post them soon. Everyone take care and I hope you enjoy reading the entries. If you do please let me know. Until next time....
73 and good DX de AJ4JD
Tim
Saturday, July 12, 2008
In the Land of HF
I know it has been a little while since I've last posted an entry here. After vacation and trying to get back into the swing of things, I haven't had much time to sit down and write. So, now I sit here before the screen pouring my thoughts onto this entry form.
Just to let you all know, vacation was a lot of fun. I only made but a few contacts out on the road. Mainly a couple of HAMs that we normally talk to around here on the local Knoxville area repeaters (KJ4CGG and N4CQW), one HAM in Chattanooga (N4AOW), and 1 HAM in Panama City (KD5RBR). I was surprised that I didn't hear anymore than I did while we were mobiling around Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, etc. However, I will just mark it up to the approaching Field Day and everyone making preparations. While in New Orleans, we were glad to see that the local news channel had a nice segment during field day where one of the news people were at a field day event. Actually, the news cast went back to the reporter several times while at the event. It's nice to see HAM radio getting some recognition.
So now that vacation is over and we have gotten back into our routines, we've been playing around in the world of HF. We've been going over to Dad's (KU4ME) these past couple of weekends and playing on his HF radio (ICom IC-756Pro). Last week I worked on some more states and made a DX contact to a station in Ecuador and on St. Barthelemy. Robin (AJ4IJ), worked her very first PSK31 contact as well. As a matter of fact, she's the first one of our big HAM family to make a PSK31 contact.
Last night I was able to make contact with a station in Portugal on the Azore Islands. I tried my darnedest to work a station on Crete, but the pileup was so large and even when the station called for stations for a first contact, there were still other operaters making contact with the station who had previously contacted the station. So unfortunately I was unable to make contact before he went QRT. Robin was able to make contact with a station in Mexico last night as well. After she made that contact she got up to let me try but the station dropped out. It was very similar to when she worked Austrailia on our early field day. LOL.
Anyway, today we plan on going over to dad's and work on putting up the dipole we used during field day so we can get better HF results over there. It's been hard to bust through the pileups so we are going to see if we can improve that a bit today. Once we get that up, we will probably try to work some of the special event stations that are operating this weekend like the FBI station, the Collins Radio special event stations, and the funniest one I've ever heard of, NU5DE, the Naturist Ameteur Radio Club in Texas.
So that's all I've got for now. I'll get on here later and give updates on the antenna project and how we fare on those special events.
Until then, 73 de AJ4JD
Tim
Just to let you all know, vacation was a lot of fun. I only made but a few contacts out on the road. Mainly a couple of HAMs that we normally talk to around here on the local Knoxville area repeaters (KJ4CGG and N4CQW), one HAM in Chattanooga (N4AOW), and 1 HAM in Panama City (KD5RBR). I was surprised that I didn't hear anymore than I did while we were mobiling around Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, etc. However, I will just mark it up to the approaching Field Day and everyone making preparations. While in New Orleans, we were glad to see that the local news channel had a nice segment during field day where one of the news people were at a field day event. Actually, the news cast went back to the reporter several times while at the event. It's nice to see HAM radio getting some recognition.
So now that vacation is over and we have gotten back into our routines, we've been playing around in the world of HF. We've been going over to Dad's (KU4ME) these past couple of weekends and playing on his HF radio (ICom IC-756Pro). Last week I worked on some more states and made a DX contact to a station in Ecuador and on St. Barthelemy. Robin (AJ4IJ), worked her very first PSK31 contact as well. As a matter of fact, she's the first one of our big HAM family to make a PSK31 contact.
Last night I was able to make contact with a station in Portugal on the Azore Islands. I tried my darnedest to work a station on Crete, but the pileup was so large and even when the station called for stations for a first contact, there were still other operaters making contact with the station who had previously contacted the station. So unfortunately I was unable to make contact before he went QRT. Robin was able to make contact with a station in Mexico last night as well. After she made that contact she got up to let me try but the station dropped out. It was very similar to when she worked Austrailia on our early field day. LOL.
Anyway, today we plan on going over to dad's and work on putting up the dipole we used during field day so we can get better HF results over there. It's been hard to bust through the pileups so we are going to see if we can improve that a bit today. Once we get that up, we will probably try to work some of the special event stations that are operating this weekend like the FBI station, the Collins Radio special event stations, and the funniest one I've ever heard of, NU5DE, the Naturist Ameteur Radio Club in Texas.
So that's all I've got for now. I'll get on here later and give updates on the antenna project and how we fare on those special events.
Until then, 73 de AJ4JD
Tim
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Radio Vacation
Hello my faithful fans and friends. LOL. I just thought I would get on here and let everyone know how the vacation has been going. For those that do not know, we are in Panama City for the week and then we are heading to New Orleans for a couple of days before heading back home. We've been here at the beach for a couple days now and have had a really enjoyable and relaxing time so far. The beach hasn't been to good due to rough surf, jelly fish, seaweed, and garbage but other than that we can't complain.
As for the radio, we've been doing some radio during the trip. On the way down we talked with KJ4CGG until he made it back to Chattanooga to conclude his week. After that we carried on a QSO with a HAM from Cleveland, N4AOW, on simplex all the way down to Altoona, GA. He was rather impressed with Dad's (KU4ME) setup we were operating on (A Yaesu FT-90 on a 1/4 wave trunk mount). We didn't talk much after that as I was behind the wheel the rest of the trip down. We did pick up a repeater in Dothan, Alabama and a repeater in Chipley, Florida. Today, on our way to get lunch, I made contact with a HAM, KD5RBR, here in Panama City on their club repeater, 146.210. I was under the impression there wasn't much activity in the area, however, I've mainly listened on the HT and I don't think I was picking up anything. Anyway, the week is still young and they have an echolink repeater I may give a try at some point and see if I can make contact with home. I'll let you know how that goes soon.
Until then, be safe, have fun, and most of all, behave. LOL
73 de AJ4JD.
Tim
As for the radio, we've been doing some radio during the trip. On the way down we talked with KJ4CGG until he made it back to Chattanooga to conclude his week. After that we carried on a QSO with a HAM from Cleveland, N4AOW, on simplex all the way down to Altoona, GA. He was rather impressed with Dad's (KU4ME) setup we were operating on (A Yaesu FT-90 on a 1/4 wave trunk mount). We didn't talk much after that as I was behind the wheel the rest of the trip down. We did pick up a repeater in Dothan, Alabama and a repeater in Chipley, Florida. Today, on our way to get lunch, I made contact with a HAM, KD5RBR, here in Panama City on their club repeater, 146.210. I was under the impression there wasn't much activity in the area, however, I've mainly listened on the HT and I don't think I was picking up anything. Anyway, the week is still young and they have an echolink repeater I may give a try at some point and see if I can make contact with home. I'll let you know how that goes soon.
Until then, be safe, have fun, and most of all, behave. LOL
73 de AJ4JD.
Tim
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Our Early Field Day
I know, I promised to post sooner than this but I have a very good excuse for waiting this long. I have been studying/cramming all week for my Extra exam. The great news is that all the cramming paid off. I went to the Knoxville Hamfest yesterday with the HAM family and took my Extra exam and passes. That's right I'm now an Extra Class. No more testing for me. Woo Hoo.
Anyway, to the good stuff. As you may or may not know, we decided to do field day early due to the fact we were going to be on vacation during field day. Our Aunt Betty has a huge hayfield up on a ridge behind her house. She lets us use the field to do our astronomy stuff and now our radio stuff too. At the very top of the field the elevation is right around 1400ft. There's nothing up there but hay and trees. There's no electrical or cable lines or anything like that to get in the way.
The view from atop the hayfield
So, on June 14th we got all of our gear packed in the jeep and on our way we went. I was quite surprised that we made it out of here on time, we were actually a few minutes early on our departure (I think that's a record or something). We were up in the field in no time and setting up.
The Field Shack
KJ4DLD in a tangled mess
Field Day Power
KU4ME takes aim.
KJ4EGJ ready for the Antenna to go skyward
The Ugly Choke
The Antenna at the Feedpoint
KU4ME and KJ4DLD Tune up the radio and Antenna
Tune Up Complete
With the tuning having been completed, it was time to get on the radio and start making contacts. It appeared that the only success we were going to have was on 20 meters. We were actually quite surprised as to how long 20 meters held up. We checked around the other bands that we could tune to but nothing else was really happening so 20 meters it was. We had a blast, we contacted stations in Arizona, New Mexico, Florida, Texas, Hawaii, right here in Tennessee, and Robin even made contact with a station in Australia. One of the stations in Hawaii was the USS Missouri Amateur Radio club station on board the USS Missouri. That was a real neat contact. Anyway we talked well up to 12:30 to 1:00 in the morning before the band finally died out. Mom and Ashby made some contacts on 2 meters with their handy talkies and dad sat around helping us operate the HF rig. All in all we had a wonderful and most enjoyable time. We didn't get home until well after 3:00 in the morning and were beat.
Now for the rest of the pictures.
KJ4EGJ on the HT
KF4SSI Sittin' Pretty
AJ4IJ and KU4ME operational
AJ4IJ Working 20 Meters
Clover aka b3ene
Well that was our field day.
73 de KJ4DLD
Tim
Anyway, to the good stuff. As you may or may not know, we decided to do field day early due to the fact we were going to be on vacation during field day. Our Aunt Betty has a huge hayfield up on a ridge behind her house. She lets us use the field to do our astronomy stuff and now our radio stuff too. At the very top of the field the elevation is right around 1400ft. There's nothing up there but hay and trees. There's no electrical or cable lines or anything like that to get in the way.
The view from atop the hayfieldSo, on June 14th we got all of our gear packed in the jeep and on our way we went. I was quite surprised that we made it out of here on time, we were actually a few minutes early on our departure (I think that's a record or something). We were up in the field in no time and setting up.
The Field Shack 
KJ4DLD in a tangled mess
Field Day Power
KU4ME takes aim.
KJ4EGJ ready for the Antenna to go skywardWe finally got everything setup thanks to the hard work of all of us. If it hadn't been for Robin staying up in the field when I went down to get the rest of the gang, we might have taken longer in getting set up. By the time we got back up there she had the shack set up and the alot of other things. The only thing we had left was to get the antenna up run the power to the generator, get everything squared away, and tune up the radio.
The Ugly Choke
The Antenna at the Feedpoint
KU4ME and KJ4DLD Tune up the radio and Antenna
Tune Up CompleteWith the tuning having been completed, it was time to get on the radio and start making contacts. It appeared that the only success we were going to have was on 20 meters. We were actually quite surprised as to how long 20 meters held up. We checked around the other bands that we could tune to but nothing else was really happening so 20 meters it was. We had a blast, we contacted stations in Arizona, New Mexico, Florida, Texas, Hawaii, right here in Tennessee, and Robin even made contact with a station in Australia. One of the stations in Hawaii was the USS Missouri Amateur Radio club station on board the USS Missouri. That was a real neat contact. Anyway we talked well up to 12:30 to 1:00 in the morning before the band finally died out. Mom and Ashby made some contacts on 2 meters with their handy talkies and dad sat around helping us operate the HF rig. All in all we had a wonderful and most enjoyable time. We didn't get home until well after 3:00 in the morning and were beat.
Now for the rest of the pictures.
KJ4EGJ on the HT
KF4SSI Sittin' Pretty
AJ4IJ and KU4ME operational
AJ4IJ Working 20 Meters
Clover aka b3eneWell that was our field day.
73 de KJ4DLD
Tim
Friday, June 6, 2008
Early Field Day Update
Well everyone, sorry I haven't updated in a few days. However, I promise to have something good this weekend. Right now we are just having our normal night owl QSO on the 145.470 repeater. It's about a nightly ritual now that lasts well until 2:30 am or more. If your ever in the area tune in a drop in.
Tomorrow we are going up to the field to have our early field day. We had to postpone last weekend due to weather and the fact that the field hadn't been cut. However, tomorrow we are going to take our home brewed ZS6BKV multi-band HF antenna. We will definitely be taking plenty of pictures so be sure to check back soon. We will be operating on Dad's (KU4ME) ICom 756 Pro HF Rig.
Well I don't have much more to say at the moment. I will let this rest for the moment and I will update after our adventures tomorrow.
73 de KJ4DLD
Tim
Tomorrow we are going up to the field to have our early field day. We had to postpone last weekend due to weather and the fact that the field hadn't been cut. However, tomorrow we are going to take our home brewed ZS6BKV multi-band HF antenna. We will definitely be taking plenty of pictures so be sure to check back soon. We will be operating on Dad's (KU4ME) ICom 756 Pro HF Rig.
Well I don't have much more to say at the moment. I will let this rest for the moment and I will update after our adventures tomorrow.
73 de KJ4DLD
Tim
Friday, May 30, 2008
Early Field Day Update
Well, we had planned on doing our field day this weekend however the threat of storms and the lack of preparation has led us to postpone until next weekend. With that being said, we started to make a pole to raise our dipole and will continue to make plans for next weekend. We just hope that the weather will hold up for us.
To further clarify, as I didn't mention it in the last post, the dipole we built is a ZS6BKV multi-band HF antenna. Of course as was mentioned in the last post we used an ugly choke on this to balance the twin lead to the coax.
Anyway, I don't have much more to add other than we've been keeping late hours on the local 145.470 repeater just outside of Knoxville, TN with various subjects of interesting conversation. Anyway, if your in the area, join us anytime.
73 de KJ4DLD
Tim
To further clarify, as I didn't mention it in the last post, the dipole we built is a ZS6BKV multi-band HF antenna. Of course as was mentioned in the last post we used an ugly choke on this to balance the twin lead to the coax.
Anyway, I don't have much more to add other than we've been keeping late hours on the local 145.470 repeater just outside of Knoxville, TN with various subjects of interesting conversation. Anyway, if your in the area, join us anytime.
73 de KJ4DLD
Tim
Monday, May 26, 2008
Field Day Antenna Building
So today we decided we would build a portable dipole to take to our Aunt Betty's field for an early field day next week since we were going to be on vacation during field day. We decided to build an Ugly Balun using two pieces of PVC fitting pipe in which we super glued together, then wound with our RG-8 coaxial cable which connects to the radio. The coax is connected to twin lead line that is 32 ft. in length. The dipole spans a total of 92'2". When we were completed with the antenna, we hooked it up to dad's HF rig, an ICOM IC-756 Pro. We were able to here some stations on a few bands which was a good thing as we built it to be a multi-band antenna. We made a couple test transmissions on 70, 20, and 10 meters without any issue.
Once we were done we wrapped everything up and stored it neatly so we can use come this next weekend. Anyway, that's all I have for now.
We will say 73.
Oh yeah, I forgot, I made my first HF contact on 10 meters this afternoon. I talked to K2WS, Alan in Long Island, NY. Anyway, Alan if you happen to read my blog, it was a pleasure talking to you this afternoon.
Tim
KJ4DLD
Once we were done we wrapped everything up and stored it neatly so we can use come this next weekend. Anyway, that's all I have for now.
We will say 73.
Oh yeah, I forgot, I made my first HF contact on 10 meters this afternoon. I talked to K2WS, Alan in Long Island, NY. Anyway, Alan if you happen to read my blog, it was a pleasure talking to you this afternoon.
Tim
KJ4DLD
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Radio Repair and Antenna Lifting
Hello everyone. I hope you all have been having a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. We have been having a wonderful weekend ourselves. I took a half day off of work on Friday, and I don't have to go back to work until Tuesday. So we've done a few projects so far this weekend. Yesterday, we worked on the little Yaesu FT-90R in mom's car. The receive was really broken so we took it out the car and hooked it up in dad's shack. Upon doing that we found that the radio was fine. So then we started looking at the antenna. We found the problem was in the small coax extender from the feed point was disconnected from big coax. So we pulled out the soldering iron and made the patch. The radio is now in good working order and in time for our trip down to Panama City.
Our other project for the day was to raise dad's 2 meter vertical antenna another 7-9 feet and guy it. His mast for that antenna is a three section mast and the middle section has not been raised in some time. Anyway, we sat around and did the math for how long to make the ropes for guying the mast. Once we had the measurements made we cut the ropes and prepared to raise the mast. Once it was all said and done, we raised the antenna another 7 feet or so and he was able to hit Mount Mitchell with no problem.
Today we have just been sitting around cooking out steaks and burgers, having a good ol' time listening and talking on the radio, and celebrating the start of my 33rd year in life. At this moment we are on the 147.360 repeater having a wonderfully odd QSO with Rick (KG4BGF), Cathy (KI4YPO), Dennis (KI4ZVU), Karen aka Mom (KF4SSI), Robin aka Wife (AJ4IJ) and myself aka Computer Monkey aka Tim aka Me (KJ4DLD).
Anyways, I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Memorial Day.
73 to all.
Tim
Our other project for the day was to raise dad's 2 meter vertical antenna another 7-9 feet and guy it. His mast for that antenna is a three section mast and the middle section has not been raised in some time. Anyway, we sat around and did the math for how long to make the ropes for guying the mast. Once we had the measurements made we cut the ropes and prepared to raise the mast. Once it was all said and done, we raised the antenna another 7 feet or so and he was able to hit Mount Mitchell with no problem.
Today we have just been sitting around cooking out steaks and burgers, having a good ol' time listening and talking on the radio, and celebrating the start of my 33rd year in life. At this moment we are on the 147.360 repeater having a wonderfully odd QSO with Rick (KG4BGF), Cathy (KI4YPO), Dennis (KI4ZVU), Karen aka Mom (KF4SSI), Robin aka Wife (AJ4IJ) and myself aka Computer Monkey aka Tim aka Me (KJ4DLD).
Anyways, I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Memorial Day.
73 to all.
Tim
Monday, May 19, 2008
Hoisting the 2meter Vertical
I thought I would post the pictures from our antenna project.
The brackets to hold the antenna were mounted.
The brackets to hold the antenna were mounted.
KF4SSI holds down the chair while KU4ME reads the instructions.
AJ4IJ (formerly KE4TKH) and KU4ME looked perplexed.
The Beast before the raising.
The Beast in the Air
We always forget something.AJ4IJ putting on the radials.
Tough work for KU4ME and KF4SSI holding up the antenna.
KJ4EGJ Sittin' Pretty.
AJ4IJ with the drill, Look OUT!!!
AJ4IJ mounting the lightning arrestor.
KJ4DLD Patchin a hole.Well That was all of it.
Here is one last look of the final product.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
HAM House part Deux
Well, it's official. We can now be considered HAM House II. You see my father in law (KU4ME) has this sign outside his house that is etched with the words HAM House and below it are three callsigns: (KU4ME, KF4SSI, and KE4TKH). Those calls represent him, his wife, and his daughter (My Wife). Well, as you may well know, and if you didn't know, well know you will, our daughter went and took her technician test and passed. At the ripe ol' age of 11 our daughter is now a HAM which makes all three of us in this house HAMs, and I'm thinking about getting a sign for our house and have put on it: HAM House II, and have our calls put on it as well. Of course I may wait until I pass the Extra and have my call changed to a 2x2. That way I won't have to have it redone like the one over at mom and dads will have to be once Robin gets her new call since she passed her Extra yesterday.
So with that, I will inform you all now, that we all passed and we now have 2 Extras, (Dad and Robin), 1 General (That's me), and 2 Technicians (Mom and Ashby). Additionally, we got our antenna up yesterday and we were on the air by the evening. WooHoo. Anyway, I guess the next goal is to get studying up for the Extra Exam and Robin is going to help mom upgrade to General. I think the rugrat will probably stay a tech for a while but that will all be up to her.
I reckon I will take some time to get some pictures ready for posting on here for our antenna that we put up yesterday so you can see what we ended up with. I still have to take a picture or two of our station as well. Once I have all that done, I will get them posted.
Until then, 73's to all.
KJ4DLD
So with that, I will inform you all now, that we all passed and we now have 2 Extras, (Dad and Robin), 1 General (That's me), and 2 Technicians (Mom and Ashby). Additionally, we got our antenna up yesterday and we were on the air by the evening. WooHoo. Anyway, I guess the next goal is to get studying up for the Extra Exam and Robin is going to help mom upgrade to General. I think the rugrat will probably stay a tech for a while but that will all be up to her.
I reckon I will take some time to get some pictures ready for posting on here for our antenna that we put up yesterday so you can see what we ended up with. I still have to take a picture or two of our station as well. Once I have all that done, I will get them posted.
Until then, 73's to all.
KJ4DLD
Friday, May 16, 2008
Testing, Upgrades, and Antennas
Good morning folks. Just thought I would jot a few lines before I go let my brain absorb all the info I've consumed. I've been studying to upgrade to general class all week and really crammed it all in tonight by taking test after test on QRZed. I've taken at least 35 or so practice tests and finally got to where I was steadily passing them with high 80's and 90's with the occasional 100 here and there. Robin (KE4TKH), my wife, has been studying all week as well to upgrade to Extra. She has finally gotten to the point where she is passing her practice tests with 90's without having to look at the math formulas on paper. Finally, our daughter has gotten to the point where she should breeze through the technician exam without any problem.
Anyway, my brain is finally tired, well has been tired, and I'm about to sign off for the night. We have finally gotten in all the components to put up our 2M/440 antenna tomorrow, well that all depends really. We are still waiting on more thing to get here and it's possible that it might show up in the mail tomorrow which will be excellent. We only lack the split nuts for attaching the ground wire to the grounding rods. Once those show up we will be diligently working on getting the antenna up and the rig ready for communicating.
So ladies, be ready to hear Robin on the net from somewhere other than the car.
That's all I got for now. 73's and wish us all luck tomorrow.
Tim
KJ4DLD
Anyway, my brain is finally tired, well has been tired, and I'm about to sign off for the night. We have finally gotten in all the components to put up our 2M/440 antenna tomorrow, well that all depends really. We are still waiting on more thing to get here and it's possible that it might show up in the mail tomorrow which will be excellent. We only lack the split nuts for attaching the ground wire to the grounding rods. Once those show up we will be diligently working on getting the antenna up and the rig ready for communicating.
So ladies, be ready to hear Robin on the net from somewhere other than the car.
That's all I got for now. 73's and wish us all luck tomorrow.
Tim
KJ4DLD
Monday, May 12, 2008
Gathering Antenna Materials and Studying for Upgrades
Well folks, our stimulus check has arrived and we are beginning to order the supplies necessary to put up an antenna for our 2 meter base station. We are getting the Jetstream JTB1 208" 2 meter antenna. With that we already have a mast to erect next to the house. We have purchased out #6 bare copper grounding wire and are waiting for it to arrive. We are getting ready to order our coax cable. We are ordering 2 25ft. RG8/U double shielded coax cables, a 300U ICE lightning arrestor, mounting brackets, and some grounding strips. I believe that's about all we have to get. We've already got the rig and the power supply. The rig is a Radio Shack HTX-212 and the power supply is a Samlex America SEC 1223.
So once all the stuff gets here, we will have quite the project to work on. I will try to take pictures and post them once we have them. Anyway, That's about all I have for now. I've got to go do some more studying so I get my General Ticket. Wifey is also working on getting her extra, and the both of us are helping the youngin study to get her tech.
Until next time, 73's
KJ4DLD
T.
So once all the stuff gets here, we will have quite the project to work on. I will try to take pictures and post them once we have them. Anyway, That's about all I have for now. I've got to go do some more studying so I get my General Ticket. Wifey is also working on getting her extra, and the both of us are helping the youngin study to get her tech.
Until next time, 73's
KJ4DLD
T.
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