• Please be sure to read the rules and adhere to them. Some banned members have complained that they are not spammers. But they spammed us. Some even tried to redirect our members to other forums. Duh. Be smart. Read the rules and adhere to them and we will all get along just fine. Cheers. :beer: Link to the rules: https://www.forumsforums.com/threads/forum-rules-info.2974/

Tower finally raised

JEV

JEV

Mr. Congeniality
GOLD Site Supporter
Three fellow hams and a friend came over yesterday and we finally got my tower raised. I put a 10m Shakespeare vertical on the mast at 31' (top at 47'), and my first contact was with a portable station in Washington state. He reported a solid 58 signal that did not waver, and I was pushing about 75-80 watts. After about a 4 minute QSO the band was fading (it was already sundown here) and I was satisfied the antenna was operational. My concern was that as the third owner of this antenna, that something might not be up to snuff, but it performed well. Now it's time to get the 40m dipole connected up and relocate the Arrow OSJ 146/440 to a yardarm on the tower to get it up another 10 feet from it's current location in the attic so I can work more 2m simplex stations in the area.

HamTower-2121311.jpg


HamTower121311.jpg
 
JEV

JEV

Mr. Congeniality
GOLD Site Supporter
Jim, right now I'm just on QRZ.com to log my contacts. i've heard a lot of Europeans calling for US 10-10 contacts, but I haven't had teh time to explore it any further. ARRL also has a logging site that i want to look at.

dds, I waited awhile till this one came available. I think it's easier to find one in teh lower 48 than up where you are, and probably cheaper. I paid $175 for a 30' steel unit.

Squerly, I'm now running an Alinco DX-77 at 100W, and my backup radio is a Ten-Tec Omni D. The Ten-Tec is fully operational, but currently disconnected, and this Winter I hope to get the shack in better shape so both rigs can be operational with the flick of a switch. I'm powering up the shack with an Astron VS-35M power supply, and tweaking the antennas with an LDG AT-100ProII Autotuner. It's all basic used equipment but seems to be doing the job. I don't believe in buying new unless it's a really, really good deal.
 
JEV

JEV

Mr. Congeniality
GOLD Site Supporter
Just logged a contact in Los Cocos Nicaragua...YN3M, a missionary from Iowa, so the vertical works Southwest as well as Northwest. I believe that's a little bit North of where Big Al wishes he could be right now, instead of fighting the elements.:yum:
 
squerly

squerly

Supported Ben Carson
GOLD Site Supporter
JEV said:
Squerly, I'm now running an Alinco DX-77 at 100W, and my backup radio is a Ten-Tec Omni D. The Ten-Tec is fully operational, but currently disconnected, and this Winter I hope to get the shack in better shape so both rigs can be operational with the flick of a switch. I'm powering up the shack with an Astron VS-35M power supply, and tweaking the antennas with an LDG AT-100ProII Autotuner. It's all basic used equipment but seems to be doing the job. I don't believe in buying new unless it's a really, really good deal.
Click to expand...
That's neat. I miss playing with the radio but I either had time and no money, or money and no time. Back in the late 70's I had a Yaesu 101e with a moon raker 4 and lord did it get out. Had an additional linear but I don't remember the make or wattage. I remember my neighbors were not happy when I wandered into the 11 meter band.
 
T

the old trucker

New member
Hello...I am new to this. I have a CB radio that I had fine tuned about 18 yrs. ago & still works OK. Do you need a licence to operate these ham radios ? What would a fellow need to get started on the ground floor ? How far away can you talk, is it like a VHF radio used on boats ?? I live in Newfoundland, Canada, Don would I be able to talk to you in Alaska ??

The Old Trucker
 
Snowtrac Nome

Snowtrac Nome

member formerly known as dds
GOLD Site Supporter
the old trucker said:
Hello...I am new to this. I have a CB radio that I had fine tuned about 18 yrs. ago & still works OK. Do you need a licence to operate these ham radios ? What would a fellow need to get started on the ground floor ? How far away can you talk, is it like a VHF radio used on boats ?? I live in Newfoundland, Canada, Don would I be able to talk to you in Alaska ??

The Old Trucker
Click to expand...
yes you do need a license the tech licens is simple check with a local ham club qrz.com has some practice test's you can take for free and yes through the miracle of irlp google that up you can talk to any place in the world with an ht if you are close enough to a node sation i suggest you take the plunge you will have fun talkng around the world
 
JEV

JEV

Mr. Congeniality
GOLD Site Supporter
the old trucker said:
Hello...I am new to this. I have a CB radio that I had fine tuned about 18 yrs. ago & still works OK. Do you need a licence to operate these ham radios ? What would a fellow need to get started on the ground floor ? How far away can you talk, is it like a VHF radio used on boats ?? I live in Newfoundland, Canada, Don would I be able to talk to you in Alaska ??

The Old Trucker
Click to expand...

Here is the information on becoming licensed in Canada. There are different levels of licensing (just like the US) with different privileges. Good luck!
http://www.eham.net/newham/howtobecome
 
JEV

JEV

Mr. Congeniality
GOLD Site Supporter
I finally finished installing the dual-band J-Pole I built for 146/440, and installed the wire & coax for the 40m dipole yesterday. The J-Pole tuned to 1.2-1.3:1 across the 2m band, and 1.4-1.5:1 across the 70cm band. The long wire tuned to 1.5:1 on 40m and my first contact was to a fella in North Carolina for about 15 minutes while he was driving home. 40m sure is a lot quieter than 10m, but the nightly radio programs will drive you batty.

That's it for the Winter. I'll do some enhancements in the Spring, but for now I'm well covered from 40m up to 70cm. Here's teh J-Pole on the aluminum yardarm, and the pulley for the 40m dipole.
P1040063.jpg
 
JEV

JEV

Mr. Congeniality
GOLD Site Supporter
Galvatron said:
Jev....whats the range you are getting from that???
Click to expand...

I routinely talk all over the UK and Europe, Spain, Italy, north Africa and Central & South America. I have taked to Australia beck in October on 10m...all off of wire antennas. The 146/440 is for around town in the truck. The are not long distance bands.
 
Snowtrac Nome

Snowtrac Nome

member formerly known as dds
GOLD Site Supporter
jev if yould get your own irlp node and a diamond f22 antenna you could talk all over the world on vhf mine is only 30 feet in the air at sea level and i can hit it from 30 miles out with a mobile radio
 
Galvatron

Galvatron

Spock and Galvatron < one and the same
JEV said:
I routinely talk all over the UK and Europe, Spain, Italy, north Africa and Central & South America. I have taked to Australia beck in October on 10m...all off of wire antennas. The 146/440 is for around town in the truck. The are not long distance bands.
Click to expand...

well i never thought you would get that sort of range...back in my day 20 years ago i had a CB set up at home and the furthest i got was the other side of town:yum::yum::yum:....only on a clear day may i add:yum::yum::yum:
 
JimVT

JimVT

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
we even have a few repeaters for GMRS in our area now.
I thought I would just throw this in. It stopped in last week .
Snapshot112-17-20118-47AM.png
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top