Archives: 2017
December 27, 2017
Can't get enough antenna. One end of my lot to the other is 133ft, which is just about enough for an 80m off center fed dipole. This antenna requires a 4:1 balun. I went with an MFJ again because of price and because it had next day Amazon Prime. At some point I will upgrade to a Balun Designs I…
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December 22, 2017
Being in Florida I'm concerned about lightning. Someone at the club recommended the ARRL Grounding and Bonding book which I purchased and read. I followed the information in the book to create a single point ground panel outside the house using a DX Engineering utility box . Coax from the antenna…
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December 3, 2017
It didn't take long for the "more!" feeling and I quickly added 40m speaker wire to the balun and put it on a roof tripod. I did a fan dipole in an X pattern on the roof. This got me on 40m and 20m. I used the 468/f formula to measure out the speaker wire. By this point I also joined the local…
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November 25, 2017
After doing quite a bit of research I purchased a used Icom 7410 radio. I was looking for a radio with USB connection for digital modes and the ability to do an IF tap for a panadapter since I already had a couple RTL-SDR dongles. I found a Icom 7410 on eHam classifieds that had the filters and the…
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November 21, 2017
I've always been interested in electronics. Most of my radio experience was with RC cars. I considered getting into ham radio when I was younger but the code requirement scared me away. An episode of NCIS got me interested in it again. With my EE background I was able to pass the Tech practice exam…
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