ham radio operators?

[Stanley76]

And BOOM! Look what was in my mailbox this afternoon. How awesome is this? And it's from a real Cardinal to boot. Many many many thanks. I will be kicking the CW studying into Warp 9.

[durangopipe]

And BOOM! Look what was in my mailbox this afternoon. How awesome is this? And it's from a real Cardinal to boot. Many many many thanks. I will be kicking the CW studying into Warp 9.

WooHoo!

Great key.
I love mine.

[Jocose]

Glue the badge back on, its driving my OCD crazy!

dit dit

[Stanley76]

Glue the badge back on, its driving my OCD crazy!

dit dit

Will do. Thanks again. Got my 80 meter dipole up today and I'm exhausted after crawling around on my roof. Also moved my VHF/UHF antenna from the porch rail to the roof peak. Didn't make a bit of difference. Oh well, got the dipole up anyway.

[durangopipe]

Glue the badge back on, its driving my OCD crazy!

dit dit

Will do. Thanks again. Got my 80 meter dipole up today and I'm exhausted after crawling around on my roof. Also moved my VHF/UHF antenna from the porch rail to the roof peak. Didn't make a bit of difference. Oh well, got the dipole up anyway.

Height should make a difference.
If the coax is significantly longer, the lack of improvement might be due to loss in the coax.

What kind of coax did you use, Stanley?


Good news about the 80m dipole.

[Stanley76]

Glue the badge back on, its driving my OCD crazy!

dit dit

Will do. Thanks again. Got my 80 meter dipole up today and I'm exhausted after crawling around on my roof. Also moved my VHF/UHF antenna from the porch rail to the roof peak. Didn't make a bit of difference. Oh well, got the dipole up anyway.

Height should make a difference.
If the coax is significantly longer, the lack of improvement might be due to loss in the coax.

What kind of coax did you use, Stanley?


Good news about the 80m dipole.

I used RG-58 for my VHF/UHF antenna and it's two lengths with a connector. It's just barely long enough to reach the antenna. For my dipole I used RG-8X.

I only tried the 2 meter on some local repeaters. I could connect with the three I could connect with before but couldn't connect with three others that 30 to 50 miles away (like before). I really didn't expect to connect with those repeaters, lots of pine plantations between me and them in addition to the distance.

What I really put it up on the roof for was Simplex but I haven't really tried that yet, the only other HAMs close enough weren't on the air I thought but I'm going to set up a time to try it out with a buddy that lives about 8 miles south of me and see what happens. I'm not complaining though, I still have three repeaters that I can connect with and that's where most of my new friends are anyway.

I've been listening on HF tonight and picking up a LOT more than I was. I like this new dipole. I found a cool group called "The Friendly Bunch" at 3.919 tonight. They meet there every night at 7PM so I'll be back. Nice guys and very welcoming to a guy new to HF.

Truth is, I'm still a little gun shy about transmitting on HF and I mostly listen. I want to get familiar with normal practices and unwritten procedures before I start transmitting much.

[durangopipe]

Glue the badge back on, its driving my OCD crazy!

dit dit

Will do. Thanks again. Got my 80 meter dipole up today and I'm exhausted after crawling around on my roof. Also moved my VHF/UHF antenna from the porch rail to the roof peak. Didn't make a bit of difference. Oh well, got the dipole up anyway.

Height should make a difference.
If the coax is significantly longer, the lack of improvement might be due to loss in the coax.

What kind of coax did you use, Stanley?


Good news about the 80m dipole.

I used RG-58 for my VHF/UHF antenna and it's two lengths with a connector. It's just barely long enough to reach the antenna. For my dipole I used RG-8X.

I only tried the 2 meter on some local repeaters. I could connect with the three I could connect with before but couldn't connect with three others that 30 to 50 miles away (like before). I really didn't expect to connect with those repeaters, lots of pine plantations between me and them in addition to the distance.

What I really put it up on the roof for was Simplex but I haven't really tried that yet, the only other HAMs close enough weren't on the air I thought but I'm going to set up a time to try it out with a buddy that lives about 8 miles south of me and see what happens. I'm not complaining though, I still have three repeaters that I can connect with and that's where most of my new friends are anyway.

I've been listening on HF tonight and picking up a LOT more than I was. I like this new dipole. I found a cool group called "The Friendly Bunch" at 3.919 tonight. They meet there every night at 7PM so I'll be back. Nice guys and very welcoming to a guy new to HF.

Truth is, I'm still a little gun shy about transmitting on HF and I mostly listen. I want to get familiar with normal practices and unwritten procedures before I start transmitting much.

RG-58 has a loss of around 6dB/100’ at 144 MHz and nearly 12dB at 440MHz - at 1:1 SWR. Any mismatch makes it worse.
That means the loss from the coax alone at that length with, say, 50w of power from the transmitter on 2m would be to take it down to 12.5w at the antenna and on 440MHz 50w at the transmitter would be down to just over 3w at the antenna - with equal losses in receive strength going from antenna to receiver.

On VHF and most especially UHF, coax losses can be severe. If your run is long, you should use an RG-8 type (9914) coax or better and try to situate the antenna to keep the feedline as short as possible while still getting height. I’m running about 25’ of RG-58 to my 2m vertical, and I just talked myself into changing it out this summer. It was a temporary installation 25 years ago.

When I put up my 6m antenna last summer, I ran about 75’ of 9914 to it.

On HF, with a resonant antenna, coax loss is not as much of an issue - but I use an open wire feedline to my non-resonant, multiband doublet. The SWR on that type of antenna is all over the place and no coax would be able to handle it satisfactorily.


Don’t be afraid to transmit on HF. If you tell people you contact that you just passed your General and you’re new to HF, they will be very welcoming and wanting to help. We were all new once. Few people on the HF bands are more welcome than a new ham. Honest!

[durangopipe]

So there I was sitting at my desk, trying to get some work done when the morning light through the window seemed to make the bug paddles glow ...



(I'm easily distracted.)

[Stanley76]

Glue the badge back on, its driving my OCD crazy!

dit dit

Will do. Thanks again. Got my 80 meter dipole up today and I'm exhausted after crawling around on my roof. Also moved my VHF/UHF antenna from the porch rail to the roof peak. Didn't make a bit of difference. Oh well, got the dipole up anyway.

Height should make a difference.
If the coax is significantly longer, the lack of improvement might be due to loss in the coax.

What kind of coax did you use, Stanley?


Good news about the 80m dipole.

I used RG-58 for my VHF/UHF antenna and it's two lengths with a connector. It's just barely long enough to reach the antenna. For my dipole I used RG-8X.

I only tried the 2 meter on some local repeaters. I could connect with the three I could connect with before but couldn't connect with three others that 30 to 50 miles away (like before). I really didn't expect to connect with those repeaters, lots of pine plantations between me and them in addition to the distance.

What I really put it up on the roof for was Simplex but I haven't really tried that yet, the only other HAMs close enough weren't on the air I thought but I'm going to set up a time to try it out with a buddy that lives about 8 miles south of me and see what happens. I'm not complaining though, I still have three repeaters that I can connect with and that's where most of my new friends are anyway.

I've been listening on HF tonight and picking up a LOT more than I was. I like this new dipole. I found a cool group called "The Friendly Bunch" at 3.919 tonight. They meet there every night at 7PM so I'll be back. Nice guys and very welcoming to a guy new to HF.

Truth is, I'm still a little gun shy about transmitting on HF and I mostly listen. I want to get familiar with normal practices and unwritten procedures before I start transmitting much.

RG-58 has a loss of around 6dB/100’ at 144 MHz and nearly 12dB at 440MHz - at 1:1 SWR. Any mismatch makes it worse.
That means the loss from the coax alone at that length with, say, 50w of power from the transmitter on 2m would be to take it down to 12.5w at the antenna and on 440MHz 50w at the transmitter would be down to just over 3w at the antenna - with equal losses in receive strength going from antenna to receiver.

On VHF and most especially UHF, coax losses can be severe. If your run is long, you should use an RG-8 type (9914) coax or better and try to situate the antenna to keep the feedline as short as possible while still getting height. I’m running about 25’ of RG-58 to my 2m vertical, and I just talked myself into changing it out this summer. It was a temporary installation 25 years ago.

When I put up my 6m antenna last summer, I ran about 75’ of 9914 to it.

On HF, with a resonant antenna, coax loss is not as much of an issue - but I use an open wire feedline to my non-resonant, multiband doublet. The SWR on that type of antenna is all over the place and no coax would be able to handle it satisfactorily.


Don’t be afraid to transmit on HF. If you tell people you contact that you just passed your General and you’re new to HF, they will be very welcoming and wanting to help. We were all new once. Few people on the HF bands are more welcome than a new ham. Honest!

Thanks. I moved my antenna from my roof back down to my porch rail today. It's further away from the covered part of the porch and I mounted on a PVC pipe, so it's base is about 15' now. Working great again but I'm still going to replace the RG58 pieced together coax with LMR-400. I ordered 50' feet of it. I'm starting to think this pastime might possibly end up being slightly expensive. Thanks for the advice and information.

I've been checking in with some talk groups on 80 meters the last few days. I'm also checking in with the Coastal Carolina Emergency Net as a guest. Once I have logged 10 check ins I'll be a member of it.

[durangopipe]

I used RG-58 for my VHF/UHF antenna and it's two lengths with a connector. It's just barely long enough to reach the antenna. For my dipole I used RG-8X.

I only tried the 2 meter on some local repeaters. I could connect with the three I could connect with before but couldn't connect with three others that 30 to 50 miles away (like before). I really didn't expect to connect with those repeaters, lots of pine plantations between me and them in addition to the distance.

What I really put it up on the roof for was Simplex but I haven't really tried that yet, the only other HAMs close enough weren't on the air I thought but I'm going to set up a time to try it out with a buddy that lives about 8 miles south of me and see what happens. I'm not complaining though, I still have three repeaters that I can connect with and that's where most of my new friends are anyway.

I've been listening on HF tonight and picking up a LOT more than I was. I like this new dipole. I found a cool group called "The Friendly Bunch" at 3.919 tonight. They meet there every night at 7PM so I'll be back. Nice guys and very welcoming to a guy new to HF.

Truth is, I'm still a little gun shy about transmitting on HF and I mostly listen. I want to get familiar with normal practices and unwritten procedures before I start transmitting much.

RG-58 has a loss of around 6dB/100’ at 144 MHz and nearly 12dB at 440MHz - at 1:1 SWR. Any mismatch makes it worse.
That means the loss from the coax alone at that length with, say, 50w of power from the transmitter on 2m would be to take it down to 12.5w at the antenna and on 440MHz 50w at the transmitter would be down to just over 3w at the antenna - with equal losses in receive strength going from antenna to receiver.

On VHF and most especially UHF, coax losses can be severe. If your run is long, you should use an RG-8 type (9914) coax or better and try to situate the antenna to keep the feedline as short as possible while still getting height. I’m running about 25’ of RG-58 to my 2m vertical, and I just talked myself into changing it out this summer. It was a temporary installation 25 years ago.

When I put up my 6m antenna last summer, I ran about 75’ of 9914 to it.

On HF, with a resonant antenna, coax loss is not as much of an issue - but I use an open wire feedline to my non-resonant, multiband doublet. The SWR on that type of antenna is all over the place and no coax would be able to handle it satisfactorily.


Don’t be afraid to transmit on HF. If you tell people you contact that you just passed your General and you’re new to HF, they will be very welcoming and wanting to help. We were all new once. Few people on the HF bands are more welcome than a new ham. Honest!
[/quote]

Thanks. I moved my antenna from my roof back down to my porch rail today. It's further away from the covered part of the porch and I mounted on a PVC pipe, so it's base is about 15' now. Working great again but I'm still going to replace the RG58 pieced together coax with LMR-400. I ordered 50' feet of it. I'm starting to think this pastime might possibly end up being slightly expensive. Thanks for the advice and information.

I've been checking in with some talk groups on 80 meters the last few days. I'm also checking in with the Coastal Carolina Emergency Net as a guest. Once I have logged 10 check ins I'll be a member of it.
[/quote]

All very cool.

[Jocose]

So there I was sitting at my desk, trying to get some work done when the morning light through the window seemed to make the bug paddles glow ...



(I'm easily distracted.)

Beautiful picture, Steve.

[durangopipe]

So there I was sitting at my desk, trying to get some work done when the morning light through the window seemed to make the bug paddles glow ...



(I'm easily distracted.)

Beautiful picture, Steve.

Thanks, Jo.
I’m taking a CPS break for awhile.

Please keep in touch by email.

[Jocose]

So there I was sitting at my desk, trying to get some work done when the morning light through the window seemed to make the bug paddles glow ...



(I'm easily distracted.)

Beautiful picture, Steve.

Thanks, Jo.
I’m taking a CPS break for awhile.

Please keep in touch by email.

Breaks are a good thing around here sometimes. I'll look for you on the air too.
dit dit

[Stanley76]

So there I was sitting at my desk, trying to get some work done when the morning light through the window seemed to make the bug paddles glow ...



(I'm easily distracted.)

Beautiful picture, Steve.

Thanks, Jo.
I’m taking a CPS break for awhile.

Please keep in touch by email.

Breaks are a good thing around here sometimes. I'll look for you on the air too.
dit dit

Maybe this will lure Durango back.....look at what I just ordered!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vibroplex-Mode ... 0227.m3827

[durangopipe]

So there I was sitting at my desk, trying to get some work done when the morning light through the window seemed to make the bug paddles glow ...



(I'm easily distracted.)

Beautiful picture, Steve.

Thanks, Jo.
I’m taking a CPS break for awhile.

Please keep in touch by email.

Breaks are a good thing around here sometimes. I'll look for you on the air too.
dit dit

Maybe this will lure Durango back.....look at what I just ordered!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vibroplex-Mode ... 0227.m3827

It worked, Stanley!
Great bug. Enjoy it.

It will take practice, but once you get the hang of it, it will stay with you forever - sort of like riding a bicycle.

(I am going to stay away from other threads for awhile. Maybe until Covid is history.)

[Jocose]

So there I was sitting at my desk, trying to get some work done when the morning light through the window seemed to make the bug paddles glow ...



(I'm easily distracted.)

Beautiful picture, Steve.

Thanks, Jo.
I’m taking a CPS break for awhile.

Please keep in touch by email.

Breaks are a good thing around here sometimes. I'll look for you on the air too.
dit dit

Maybe this will lure Durango back.....look at what I just ordered!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vibroplex-Mode ... 0227.m3827

It worked, Stanley!
Great bug. Enjoy it.

It will take practice, but once you get the hang of it, it will stay with you forever - sort of like riding a bicycle.

(I am going to stay away from other threads for awhile. Maybe until Covid is history.)

Nice Bug, Stan! (and good plan to get durangopipe back too!)

I recently picked up a "new in the box" 1962 Vibroplex making it a second "NIB" bug made in the sixties.

Yours looks like a 1952, great looking bug, congrats.

[Stanley76]

So there I was sitting at my desk, trying to get some work done when the morning light through the window seemed to make the bug paddles glow ...



(I'm easily distracted.)

Beautiful picture, Steve.

Thanks, Jo.
I’m taking a CPS break for awhile.

Please keep in touch by email.

Breaks are a good thing around here sometimes. I'll look for you on the air too.
dit dit

Maybe this will lure Durango back.....look at what I just ordered!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vibroplex-Mode ... 0227.m3827

It worked, Stanley!
Great bug. Enjoy it.

It will take practice, but once you get the hang of it, it will stay with you forever - sort of like riding a bicycle.

(I am going to stay away from other threads for awhile. Maybe until Covid is history.)

Nice Bug, Stan! (and good plan to get durangopipe back too!)

I recently picked up a "new in the box" 1962 Vibroplex making it a second "NIB" bug made in the sixties.

Yours looks like a 1952, great looking bug, congrats.

I'm still struggling with CW but I'll get there. Last night a local Ham (Gary Faust N4PIR) gave a presentation at our club meeting on POTA. I really enjoyed learning about that. I have had a QSO with a a guy doing that from a park in Tennessee but I didn't really know what it was, I just checked in with him. Now that I have a better understanding I want to learn more about it.

Gary brought some of his equipment that he uses. He is mainly a QRP CW guy. The coolest thing was an Elecraft KX2 Transceiver. That thing was in a case smaller than a lunch box along with a lithium ion battery that would run it for up to 8 hours and a dipole, all in that one little case that weighed next to nothing. He brought some other set ups and some other antennas he uses but I really was impressed with that tiny little KX2 set up.

As I learn a little at the time about Ham radio I am starting to develop interests in certain areas and this POTA thing really sounds cool. We've got plenty of parks, National Forests and Wildlife refuges around here and at some point in the future I'd like to give being an activator a shot. In the meantime I'll be a hunter. You guys probably are already doing it but it's new to me and I'm wanting to learn more about it. I've already checked out the website.

Also, living in hurricane country I've been wondering about a good back up for my base station in the event of a real disaster such as a Cat 4 or 5 storm that could knock out power for 2 to 4 weeks. I think a set up like that KX2 with a solar panel to charge the batteries would be a pretty good investment.

Anyway, good to hear from you Durango.

P.S. I now have Jocose's Bencher, a J-38 in the straight key category and will have this Red Bug soon, so now I HAVE to step up my game as far as CW goes. Y'all have a Blessed day.

[durangopipe]

Back in the day ...

I used to pack/climb with this little kit-built radio with an internal 9v battery:



With this antenna:



Wire antennas wouldn’t work because once you get above around 11,500’ here, there are no trees (not as big a deal as it sounds - if I drove to the top of a pass before hiking I’d likely already be at 11,000 before I started climbing).

I’d throw them in a backpack and carry them up to a summit. The radio put out about 3w, but it was amazing what I could work on 20m with that rig from up high. I almost always got some DX.

That was long before POTA or SOTA existed. Before Elecraft, too.

SOTA and POTA, and just operating portable, are a hoot and CW is definitely the way to go for that.