Whipping up an antenna …
Since there isn’t much going on here just now, I thought I’d let you see a few of the toys I’ve acquired recently.
The first is a pair of telescopic whips. They are long enough (5.6m) to make a quarter wave on 20m and up. With the pair they will make a dipole for that band.
They have a metric thread on them (M10x1.5). I don’t know what I thought I was buying metric taps for, a year ago. Now I know. I found a chunk of hardwood and threaded some holes in it and a dipole is on the way.
I was at Princess auto today and saw (but didn’t buy) some 6ft long 1/2″ solid fiberglass rods, which makes me think a 30 metre band dipole might be doable. Coax, etc. can wait until spring.
From hardware to software …
Next up is a little SDR receiver covering from LF to 30 MHz and the FM broadcast band. It isn’t the best receiver in the world. Far from it. But it copies W1AW on 160, 80 and 40 with a few feet of wire tossed on the floor.
Some paddles with no creek …
Also in the “good enough” category is the cubic inch paddle set. Like its bigger brother behind it, 3D printed keys and paddles work better than you would expect. I wish they were around when I was getting started.
The straight key in back is in the picture just because it didn’t want to be left out. By the way, all three of them are on a 1mm steel plate. I really like magnets to hold paddles and keys so they don’t move until you want them to.
Reading riches …
On a related topic, I was at the library reading the November QST and noticed that the North Fulton Amateur Radio League (nfarl.org) was subsidizing the USD 10 or 7.50 fee for ARRL code proficiency certificates for American AND Canadian individuals under 21 years old. If you have ever winced at the cost of a small US money order, especially as a young person, you would really appreciate the offer.
That’s all for now.
73
keep warm.
mk.
Last Updated on 2025-01-15 by AdminOARC