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Posted: 11/23/2016 9:11:54 AM EDT
[#1]
Forgot about the SKCC 2-Hour Sprint last night!
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Posted: 11/23/2016 11:20:06 AM EDT
[#2]
Loaded up RMS Express to do a Winmor/Winlink session to run an email connectivity test. Received existing email & sent a short message to verify I still could.
Nick |
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Posted: 11/23/2016 11:34:35 AM EDT
[#3]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Forgot about the SKCC 2-Hour Sprint last night! You and me both. Someone should post a reminder here..... |
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Posted: 11/23/2016 3:31:24 PM EDT
[#4]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
75 Meter phone Radio: Kenwood TS-480HX, set up in my house Antenna: G5RV Jr dipole, made by True-Talk...this antenna is not rated for bands below 40 Meter, but my Dentron Super Tuner tuned it up no problemo Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Made my first QSO on HF Congratulations!! Tell us more  What band/mode?75 Meter phone Radio: Kenwood TS-480HX, set up in my house Antenna: G5RV Jr dipole, made by True-Talk...this antenna is not rated for bands below 40 Meter, but my Dentron Super Tuner tuned it up no problemo I've been routinely successful in using 40m OCFD and G5RV jr on 80m when fed with 100' of coax. After going to 50' of coax i can't tune up 80 any longer on my 40m OCFD but I can tune up 160. Thinking about switching back to the 100' of coax to get 80 back. Worked well enough for NVIS as it's only 40' AGL but it worked nonetheless. ETA: Today i stayed up till about 2am working JT9 on 40. |
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Posted: 11/26/2016 6:16:07 PM EDT
[#5]
Mounted the Rig Runner power strip I bought yesterday and hooked up the power supply to it and my two radios.
Tested it out. |
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Posted: 11/26/2016 7:56:41 PM EDT
[#6]
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Posted: 11/26/2016 9:25:26 PM EDT
[#7]
Made a ground rod driver for my hammer drill.
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Posted: 11/27/2016 1:27:49 AM EDT
[#8]
I opened up my FT-450D again and connected the shield of the coax for my IF tap to ground in the radio. I have been putting it off for a month or so and finally got around to it. I also re-routed the little cable inside the radio slightly.
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Posted: 11/28/2016 12:20:41 AM EDT
[#9]
I and 6 other club members provided auxcomms for our county's holiday parade. The good news is that the county sheriff thanked us for our efforts and that we had no significant events to report to the 911 folks. One stalled antique tractor that blocked the route for a bit and one broke down old fairlane convertible that had to have a flatbed because it blocked a parking lot exit. I and my wife used our uv82-hp HTs.
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Posted: 11/28/2016 1:23:43 AM EDT
[#10]
Added a 50A Anderson Powerpole connector to my Astron SS-50M power supply so I can quickly connect and disconnect the 12V power strip without finding a screwdriver.
Also made an adapter so I can still loan out my strip to someone who doesn't have this connector on their power supply. I'm going to add some ferrite rings to the new power leads. The originals run through a loop but there's not enough room to add two new 10ga wires there. Didn't have any on hand. Next job is to figure out what the fan is supposed to be keeping cool and add a thermocouple to that device/heat sink to slow down the fan when it's not needed. It is annoyingly loud. 
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Posted: 11/28/2016 1:37:35 AM EDT
[#11]
Also fixed up an old battery backup box from an old Siemens phone system.
It had old batteries from ten years ago that had dried out and split open spilling acid crud all over. Got that stuff sanded off with my multitool and threw on some paint to pretty it up. Cut off the old wall mount tabs too so it sits flat. Added Powerpoles to the connector so it's plug and play with the rest of my stuff. It was originally wired with 4x12 5AH in series for 48V so I made a new harness to put the four batteries in parallel for 20AH. I ran my 7300 for a couple of hours on it this weekend with a little 100W TX thrown in. It held up well. I thought the 12.5A breaker would blow when I set for 100W but on SSB the radio only draws about 12A. Same with CW. I haven't done any digital like RTTY at 100W yet. That will be the real test. For now I bought a Black & Decker 2A trickle charger and put Powerpoles on it so I can keep this pack charged up between uses. It works real well. Eventually I want to get a solar setup for off grid operation but will use LiFePO4 batteries for that instead of these heavy SLAs. The SLAs were free from a big UPS that blew up. 
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Posted: 11/28/2016 6:12:40 PM EDT
[#12]
Drillin' & punchin' the chassis for the vacuum tube VFO QRP transmitter.
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Posted: 11/28/2016 9:49:30 PM EDT
[#13]
I worked on some DSD+ scripts
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Posted: 11/28/2016 10:15:16 PM EDT
[#14]
Got my Heil headset today and hooked up to my FT-450 and spun dial and listened I think I missed alot not having a headset. So hopefully tomorrow I can make some contacts and see how it sounds. Got a foot switch since I am accustomed to that from work as a dispatcher so my hands are free.
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Posted: 11/29/2016 2:34:20 AM EDT
[#15]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Drillin' & punchin' the chassis for the vacuum tube VFO QRP transmitter. http://www.ar15.com/media/viewFile.html?i=94562 Cool! I want to get one of those.punch sets one day. I have been using "unabits" step drills but they can wander off center the larger you make the hole. They are convenient for when you just need a hole to install a grommet or something on a back panel that doesn't need precise alignment but holes for knobs and stuff that.is mounted to a board below need to be located precisely. I have gotten a lot of use out of a nibbling tool for square and rectangular holes. |
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Posted: 11/29/2016 9:54:45 AM EDT
[#16]
Those punches were bought back in the '50s and '60s when I was doing a log of building. They were expensive, but have held up well. They get a rubdown with an oil soaked cloth after use.
Surprisingly, the multi-punch set is a cheap Japanese one. I've never had much luck with a stepped bit so prefer a tapered reamer. |
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Posted: 11/29/2016 11:02:31 AM EDT
[#17]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I have gotten a lot of use out of a nibbling tool for square and rectangular holes. Where oh where can one get one of those hand nibblers nowadays? I used to have one years decades ago when I was in high school and making stuff. Went to look for it to help a buddy put a square hole in his power supply for some powerpoles and can't find it anywhere. It looks like the original manufacturer no longer makes it. I think mine came from Radio Shack. |
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Posted: 11/29/2016 7:23:50 PM EDT
[#18]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
..Where oh where can one get one of those hand nibblers nowadays? www.jameco.com, P/N 18810 |
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Posted: 11/29/2016 10:46:20 PM EDT
[#19]
Picked up a Raspberry Pi. Wrote an application to send the Flex's IQ stream to a UDP socket. Reconfigured OpenWebRX to consume the UDP stream providing a waterfall and demodulation via the web.
Replaces the extremely inefficient streaming of just my capturing my SSDR program and allows users to listen independently of me. Hope to continue working on this to consume multiple IQ streams. |
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Posted: 12/1/2016 1:05:44 PM EDT
[#20]
Quote HistoryQuote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
..Where oh where can one get one of those hand nibblers nowadays? www.jameco.com, P/N 18810 Thank you! I have great google-fu but never found one. Jameco never came up in my search. Ordered and on the way! |
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Posted: 12/1/2016 11:01:52 PM EDT
[#21]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Thank you! I have great google-fu but never found one. Jameco never came up in my search. Ordered and on the way! Jameco stocks a lot of items similar to what Radio Shack used to have. Have them send you a catalog. |
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Posted: 12/2/2016 3:15:57 AM EDT
[#22]
After a week of being off the air I made a QSO to European Russain.
Tomorrow I will be on 20m JT65 at 1700UTC to try and make a contact with Germany. |
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Posted: 12/2/2016 9:08:10 AM EDT
[#23]
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Posted: 12/2/2016 11:13:49 AM EDT
[#24]
After taking down the fan dipole to put up an inverted L attached to the 6BTV, I went around all the tree mounted pull points to back out the decking screws on the tie-down cleats. I had run into a couple that were growing around the cleats enough to pinch the pull line & make removal difficult (one required cutting the line for removal).
Nick |
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Posted: 12/2/2016 2:36:33 PM EDT
[#25]
I strung the roll up J-pole up in the top floor of the condo, which works great with my HT. I'm still working through what I'd like to buy for my next rounds of radios. I'm heading to my first hamfest tomorrow morning for the hell of it. Should be interesting.
https://superstitionsuperfest.org/sf_audio_ad.html |
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Posted: 12/2/2016 3:15:35 PM EDT
[#26]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I strung the roll up J-pole up in the top floor of the condo, which works great with my HT. I'm still working through what I'd like to buy for my next rounds of radios. I'm heading to my first hamfest tomorrow morning for the hell of it. Should be interesting. https://superstitionsuperfest.org/sf_audio_ad.html Wow your hamfest has insane prizes, around here its a 2 meter fm mobile rig usually. Have fun at the fest. |
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Posted: 12/2/2016 3:18:02 PM EDT
[#27]
Quote HistoryCool! Looking forward to hearing this show. My local club has been installing AREDN 3GHz nodes for emcomm around the city. |
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Posted: 12/2/2016 10:06:04 PM EDT
[#28]
Found some capacitors in the mailbox today, so managed to get a project back on the bench. I don't power these old critters up until I know all the leaky caps are gone, so you do this work and wonder if the thing will have any life in it, but... it's alive!
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Posted: 12/2/2016 11:40:27 PM EDT
[#29]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Found some capacitors in the mailbox today, so managed to get a project back on the bench. I don't power these old critters up until I know all the leaky caps are gone, so you do this work and wonder if the thing will have any life in it, but... it's alive! How many slices can you open up? 
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Posted: 12/3/2016 5:06:52 AM EDT
[#30]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Wow your hamfest has insane prizes, around here its a 2 meter fm mobile rig usually. Have fun at the fest. I've quickly learned, radio guys are cheap old bastards, so my chances of getting lucky with a couple raffle tickets will be nill, but I'll still throw money in the pot for the club. Most of those radios are on my short list to buy, too. I'll snap some pics if I see anything cool. I'm kind of hoping some of them will have HF stuff setup to see them up close. |
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Posted: 12/4/2016 3:00:26 PM EDT
[#31]
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Posted: 12/4/2016 5:50:15 PM EDT
[#32]
I gathered/purchased materials to relocate my dual band J-Pole.
I have a plan in my head for the mounting and all the materials, except 25 feet of RG-8X. So with any luck, I'll get the coax next week and have everything in place to slap it up and get back on the air! |
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Posted: 12/4/2016 6:27:43 PM EDT
[#33]
I want to see what a 40m trap would do on the inverted L I attached to the top of the 6BTV (after mounting the 80m resonator on the far end of an aluminum angle crossbar added to the top of the tube). I had a couple of coax coil trap constructs I had played with a while back, but never tuned, laying around. Although I had tried using the AA-170 as a dip meter a while back using a wire loop, the results were not real clear so I tried something different this time.
This time I used a BNC "T" off a BNC-UHF adapter on the analyzer. One side of the T got a 50 ohm terminator & the other got a BNC - binding post adapter. The trap ends were connected to the binding posts & I ran a sweep from Antscope on the PC, looking for a spike in the return loss graph. I figure that when the impedance on the trap goes high & it looks like an open switch, the only thing the analyzer will see is the 50 ohm terminator & maximum return loss. The first look at the most likely trap saw a spike around 6.6 MHz, but after some changes (shortening) got it at pretty much 7.100 Mhz. After a bit of weather-proofing, I'll attach it at the L take-off point on the cross-bar and see what happens to the sweep pattern. Nick |
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Posted: 12/4/2016 7:35:46 PM EDT
[#34]
Put a 9:1 UNUN on my RX Antenna.
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Posted: 12/4/2016 8:50:35 PM EDT
[#35]
Finally got my IC-7300 to play nice with the JT65-HF software and started making some contacts.
Just closed one from Tulsa, OK to Charters Towers, Queensland, Australia. On 17m. With my Alpha vertical portable antenna. 35% drive on the rig. 8545 miles according to qrz.com. Been adjusting my power upwards slowly all day to figure out how much to feed the antenna to get low but adequate signal reports so I don't blow the band and be one of "those guys" that blast 100W out. It's amazing how well JT65 can see into the noise. Unlike 20 and 40, the 17m sounds like pure static but it still decodes. Had one earlier today from Tulsa to North Pole, Alaska. Near Fairbanks. I have lots of CQ from South America but from my position there are lots of metal buildings close to the south in the way of my launch angle so I haven't been able to make QSO with them yet. I'll go work a park with a clear horizon sometime on battery to see if I get down there. |
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Posted: 12/5/2016 6:45:02 AM EDT
[#36]
I studied some more to prepare for the Extra exam.
This last week, I started getting passing scores on the eham practice tests, up from 40% where I started  .... 76%, 76%, and 78% on the last three tests, which were the first ones I passed.
I don't yet feel ready to live-fire the thing. |
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Posted: 12/5/2016 12:33:23 PM EDT
[#37]
Not today, but Saturday I got Unitrunker and DSD+ mostly working to decode my county's P25 system. I think I'm fighting simulcast issues because decoding the audio is spotty. I fought this last week, but didn't have any benchmarks to compare with. I finally realized a local army base has a P25 system and was able to monitor that without issue.
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Posted: 12/5/2016 1:09:58 PM EDT
[#38]
I received my Kenwood D710G on Friday so I got to play with it this weekend. Mostly on APRS as I've never done any of that before. Rig is sitting on my desk in the basement and still managed to snag a GPS lock, which is pretty neat. My area is extremely sparse for digipeaters/igates, and I've long suspected that my house is ideally situated for a fill-in digi & igate, and my experience this weekend all but confirmed that suspicion. I need to talk to the local APRS folks and see if there's something I'm missing, but it seems we only have one digi and one igate (separate sites) here in the Anchorage area. And neither one is a mountaintop site, so coverage suffers. The D710 decoded a lot of traffic that didn't make it into the APRS-IS or go through a digipeater, and my Radio Mobile Online coverage predictions seem to be holding true. Once I finish getting the mast up on the house, I'll start looking at building a digi/igate. I've got a V8000 2m rig and a KPC+ just sitting on the shelf, so all it'll take is some cabling and maybe another raspberry pi.
Oh, and since the X50 is still leaning against the wall and not on the roof, this was all done with a J-pole hanging from a tree
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Posted: 12/5/2016 7:05:01 PM EDT
[#39]
I got my 9:1 matchbox built and tried it out today, its noisy as all hell. I guess I need to ground it. I had to buy 5 cores so I might put another in a box and see if I can sell it to recoup some of my material costs. I used all stainless hardware and a waterproof box so hopefully someone will bite.
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Posted: 12/6/2016 1:39:17 AM EDT
[#40]
Nothing ground breaking today. I ordered some nylon dog bone insulators for playing around with wire antennas.
I listened to 80m SSB for a little while tonight. I also tried out the latest December 3 beta version of HDSDR. It seems to work ok. I would totally order a buffer amp for my IF tap, but the G4HUP ordering process is as clear as mud. |
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Posted: 12/6/2016 11:30:37 AM EDT
[#41]
Started building the Hendricks SOTA tuner from qrpkits.com. First part was to build the Tayloe SWR Indicator Kit, which is implemented into the full kit. Completed that last night. Hope to make some good progress on the remainder of the kit this evening. The plan is to use this as part of a larger project, which is a BITX40 with QRPLabs Signal Generator kit. This will also include a GPS Receiver Kit.
Also finally put in an antenna switch in the shack so I can swap between the main FT-450D and whatever else I may be testing. |
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Posted: 12/6/2016 12:39:13 PM EDT
[#42]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Started building the Hendricks SOTA tuner from qrpkits.com. First part was to build the Tayloe SWR Indicator Kit, which is implemented into the full kit. Completed that last night. Hope to make some good progress on the remainder of the kit this evening. The plan is to use this as part of a larger project, which is a BITX40 with QRPLabs Signal Generator kit. This will also include a GPS Receiver Kit. Also finally put in an antenna switch in the shack so I can swap between the main FT-450D and whatever else I may be testing. I am interested in the 450D. What antenna are you using and is it doing what you want it to do? The 450D sounds like it will be good starter radio so will not have to upgrade for awhile. |
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Posted: 12/6/2016 12:40:12 PM EDT
[#43]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Started building the Hendricks SOTA tuner from qrpkits.com. First part was to build the Tayloe SWR Indicator Kit, which is implemented into the full kit. Completed that last night. Hope to make some good progress on the remainder of the kit this evening. The plan is to use this as part of a larger project, which is a BITX40 with QRPLabs Signal Generator kit. This will also include a GPS Receiver Kit. Also finally put in an antenna switch in the shack so I can swap between the main FT-450D and whatever else I may be testing. A bitx40 is on my christmas list to do exactly this. I have visions of it being an around the camp site radio. I am pretty sure my wife is getting me the U3S wisper kit for my birthday and I ordered the QRP Labs clock last night so I hope they are a solid company I am going to have alot of their stuff soon. |
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Posted: 12/6/2016 1:05:49 PM EDT
[#44]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I am interested in the 450D. What antenna are you using and is it doing what you want it to do? The 450D sounds like it will be good starter radio so will not have to upgrade for awhile. I'm using a EFHW for 80-10M and it's doing a great job. Granted, this is my first HF rig, but it was well reviewed and in a good price point. I have not tried using the internal tuner on this antenna yet, as I have a LDG YT-1200. I was running a 44' EFLW before, and the internal tuner did not cut it, as it can only tune a 3:1 mismatch. DSP options are good, but certainly not contest rig grade. I'd say it's a great bang for the buck radio. I do a fair amount of digital modes as well, works great there too. |
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Posted: 12/6/2016 1:13:06 PM EDT
[#45]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
A bitx40 is on my christmas list to do exactly this. I have visions of it being an around the camp site radio. I am pretty sure my wife is getting me the U3S wisper kit for my birthday and I ordered the QRP Labs clock last night so I hope they are a solid company I am going to have alot of their stuff soon. Similar visions for me as well. I have a FT-817ND with the LDG Z-817 tuner, but it would be nice to have something that sips power along with a minimalist antenna system. |
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Posted: 12/6/2016 1:22:47 PM EDT
[#46]
We are pretty much the same guy, I too have an 817 setup. I am trying to sell mine to fund a 100 watt rig. What made you decide on the SOTA tuner? I am looking at manual tuner kits too, and the 15 dollar ebay unit if tempting for the price, I have seen that the instructions lead alot to be desired.
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Posted: 12/6/2016 1:50:11 PM EDT
[#47]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
We are pretty much the same guy, I too have an 817 setup. I am trying to sell mine to fund a 100 watt rig. What made you decide on the SOTA tuner? I am looking at manual tuner kits too, and the 15 dollar ebay unit if tempting for the price, I have seen that the instructions lead alot to be desired. You nailed my answer in your question. Documentation of the instructions. I've done some soldering in my day, but I'm no circuit expert. Wanted something I could build, but with decent enough instructions to follow. The qrpguys.com site has basically the same tuner, but without the case. I just wanted a little something there to protect it from banging around. It runs $25 and while it has no case, the instructions are good. |
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Posted: 12/7/2016 5:59:48 AM EDT
[#48]
I built one of the China eBay QRP tuner kits a while ago. It took some digging around but instructions are out there. The hardest part is winding the toroid with all the taps, and soldering them to the rotary switch.
Also the capacitors can be damaged if the mounting screws are too long. Other than that, it was an easy kit to build. |
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Posted: 12/7/2016 8:39:14 AM EDT
[#49]
Not ham/amateur but did get a Motorola MSF5000 110 Watt UHF repeater back from the dead, after replacing numerous capacitors and a couple of transistors, next is some pots on the RF Tray, hoping to get the test kit I ordered in, and burn the codeplug for my frequency. We narrowbanded the repeater so it will be compliant on Part 90 (well compliant as meeting specs)
We tuned the Notch/Pass duplexer and get the radio to push at least 80 watts, add a preamp and switch out the slot on the tower to the top antenna and get rid of the shadow I have behind the tower to gain some better access on portable. New slot will be 240 feet with a 10dbd Omni, currently at 220 feet on the east side with an 8dbd Omni. Goal is to get full quieting or at least an S4 on the RSSI for portables at 15 miles in gulley's. |
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Posted: 12/7/2016 8:53:00 AM EDT
[#50]
Finished up the SOTA tuner last night. Now, does anyone have a trick for accurately measuring out long lengths of wire, or do I simply get the tape measure out and mark off every 5' to keep track?
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