One nice spring day in 2019, my grandson and I went outside for a walk around the property. I happened to notice a piece of aluminum tubing I had lying beside a shed. On further investigation I realized it was half of a 20m beam element that another ham had left behind after a field day. It had been a half wave dipole for the event and he told me to just keep it. I asked my grandson, 6yr old at the time if I remember correctly, if he would like to help me build an antenna. His reply was a curious, "What's an antenna papa?". So, we had the unforgettable experience of building a ground mounted 1/4 wave 20m vertical together. A few days ago I got the idea to add more bands to this antenna. I did some digging around and found some wire, purchased a few pvc fittings and hose clamps, and started putting additional 1/4 wave elements for 17m, 15m, 12m, and 10m. I know, some of those bands are going to be very inefficient ground mounted, but what t...
I had acquired a used but like new 590SG, with the intention of using it portable from the wall tent. I found the radio liked to drift from around 30Hz low to 10Hz high depending on ambient temperature. This was not going to cut it in the tent with temps being all over the place when camping, so I ordered the SO-3 TCXO. I would recommend anyone who is thinking about installing one of these to do it. It is about as easy as it gets without being plug in. Yes, you need some soldering skill, but a little research of technique and some practice and anyone should be able to successfully complete this. This is the TCXO and box it came in. The TCXO and provided adjustment tool. Put the radio on its top and remove the bottom cover. The yellow square below indicates the area of interest for the installation. Unplug the connector noted by the red square. Remove the indicated screw. NOT...
I thought I would share a little project that I was just involved with. I have several photos of the progression of moving a broadcast station from the basement of an aging house into a new building on the same site. The old house that used to house the studios and transmitters was getting in bad shape and the station owners decided it was time to make a move into a new building. We had to dismantle the station from its 15+yr home and extricate it from the basement. This is the BE FM 2C backup transmitter. I didn't get a photo of the FM 4C coming out. Below is the old "ice bridge ", if it can be called that, that carried the cables to the tower. You can see the new building and icebridge in the background. The antenna switch. Have you ever bolted the flanges of your feed lines together? That is rigid 50 ohm line from the transmitter to the switch. The 90 degree fitting going on the switch. The gray box behind the sw...
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