Where ham brains come to fry
Look in any hamshack today and you're gonna be hard pressed not to find a computer sharing space with the tranceiver. We them for, most importantly, buying equipment, but also for logging QSOs, looking up someone's details from their callsign, looking for active DX spots... OR, operating digitally! In this first episode of a series on operating digitally, we'll begin by hooking up a SignaLink to an Elecraft KX3. ...
For sometime I have had a MFJ-259B that I had purchased from an SK estate. I have treasured the device for a number of reasons. I knew what I had paid for the device was helping that ham's family and I felt like I needed to honor his memory by using the analyzer. Use it I did! KB5NJD even helped me mod it so it would give us readings down to 470 kHz and I could tune my 630M antenna. As my knowledge has improved, I came to find that there are a lot of things this model of antenna analyzer ...
For a long time I have wondered WHY do people always scream a warning at you if you plan on using a small magnetic loop. “Be careful, there is a lot of voltage across the capacitor!” yeah, yeah. . . OK, whatever. . . I’ll be careful. But Why?!? I asked a number of friends. …
As you may remember I left you at a metal can with a hole cut out to an incorrect size and then mashed over. You may also remember that there were a few components that I needed to acquire to complete the kit. While I definitely had a stock of BNC panel mounts, I did not…
The FOBB is a contest put on by the Adventure Radio Society. These are the people who also host the spartan sprint once a month. The idea is to get portable and operate your radio. The FOBB and NJQRP Club Skeeter Hunt are the events that I actually learned radio doing!! I’ll never forget the…
I mentioned previously that I had won a tuna tin 2 at a NORTEX QRP meeting. Well, I’ve finally started building on it. Step 1 is to read the manual. I know. . . shocker. . . The Manual is pretty straight forward, but I was surprised to learn that it doesn’t actually come with…
This episode we’re talking about the WSPRlite flexi. https://www.sotabeams.co.uk/wsprlite-antenna-tester/ Now this is a cool little device made by the folks over at SotaBeams in the UK that lets you test your antenna’s actual transmit propagation in real time. It uses the WSPR protocol (Weak Signal Propagation Reporter) originally developed by Joe Taylor K1JT. (Quite an…
Some friends and I decided to go on a camping trip recently. Camping in June, in Texas is generally NOT a great past time. BUT. . . My friend’s dad had passed away recently and we all felt like we should get together and enjoy nature. Much as his father had. As with all camping…
After buying a WSPRLite I decided I needed a QRP antenna tuner. I was first looking at the QRP Kits SOTA tuner, but after a recommendation I took a look at Emtech’s ZM-2. I looked at a couple others, but after reading a bunch of Eham.net Reviews, the ZM-2 looked to be the best choice…
The weather in Colorado is spectacular this time of year. Even better at altitude. Crisp, dry, cool mornings are WAY better than the Texas Humidity Enhancer! I seriously need to look for a job up there. 🙂 I am blessed to call Myron Schaffer (WV0H) a friend. He has allowed my family and I to…
I was SO excited for field day this year, as it was the first year I’d be operating from the comforts of my own shack. My wife and I recently moved out of a 7th floor loft in downtown Dallas and into a house in the burbs of Jackson MS. This wonderfully opened up my…
The NE602 Direct conversion receiver has been a good project. I’ve learned a lot. This last week of studying the schematic and trying to understand what I can do to peak the performance has been instructional. Since I was focused on the band spread capacitor I first tried to understand what the spread of the…
