My Childhood
I probably mentioned this story before to my friends, but to the folks that are new to the site. Many years ago in the mid 70's I found a radio just like this one in the trash. I took it home and tore it apart and then reassembled it. Only to find that it worked afterwards. In south Texas at the time there wasn't allot of options for TV and radio, but I had found this one station that at 10pm would play radio serials and these were those serial (link below). From there on I was bringing all manor of junk home and learning and building new things just for the end result. It was like junkie needing a fix. It just snowballed from there to where I am today.
Relocated the VHF/UHF Antenna
When I moved it from the chimney to the attic I didn't think there would be a problem. However that apparently that wasn't the case. It's literally been raised 5ft now. I think I really should have did this to begin with a year ago.
Slinky Antenna Failed
Well the Slinky antenna failed. Seems I went through this before and failed. Anyhow yesterday when it was almost dark I slapped up a 53ft endfed. I scabbed together a bunch of pieces of 14thhn until I hit the magical 53ft. Took the 9:1 unun from the slinky antenna. Then I climbed the tree again for my rope and bungie. I hope it doesn't matter that the source is higher than the end. It's going south-south-east to north-north-east. Maybe this will work for Tuesday.
Dangit. I keep forgetting about that phone box hanging by it's wires.
Slinky Antenna Revisited
It was this or spend 27$ at HRO for a hamstick. Mmmm, that sounds kind of tasty right now. Need to check the fridge for some hickory farms snacks. Anyhow, back to this. I'm kind of short on cash at the moment. So I revisited this old idea. Build list is as follows.
- This is the same fishing pole from field day. 20' Shakespear crappie pole.
- The two slinkys I've had for awhile, but originally got from Wally World. I used to take them with me whenever my wife would want to go shopping. I will play with them on the escalators. Nothing like a little embarassment to hurry the shopping experience along. Pretty handy not having any couth or be embarassed by doing retarded things or just oblivous to such things. Being retarded helps.
- A 9:1 Unun from China, given to me by Craig WB5KUO.
- The tripod was from M&M Wholesalers.
- A bunch of little things from the junk box.
- And the pièce de résistance one of my 25' tape measures for the counterpoise. Easily adjustable and easily stowed in my bag. I wish I had thought of this sooner.
No idea if it works. It receives awesomely.
Server Wall Done (Mostly)
Well I have the server wall mostly done in the ham shack and functioning. I still have a bunch of camera work to do. Rewire and replacement of many. It might seem like overkill, but does have a purpose. It's identical to my job. I can do testing here before releasing into my production environment.
