Category: Uncategorized

Since my last post (gee, maybe I should start a(nother) blog)*, I’ve installed an M2 Systems HO Loop in 6m on the roof out back — up about 20 feet is as far as I can get it at the moment — and connected it to the 450D.  It just works for the local 6M repeater with the external LDG tuner kicked in.  It’s really meant for SSB farther down the band, and it seems to work fairly well for that.

I also bought and installed last Sunday an End-Fed Matchbox Antenna from these folks and got it about 20 feet up in a tree sloping down to the side of the house at about 8 feet.  It tunes everything from 40 and up pretty well.  80 is problematic (likely just need more wire) and 160 is fuggeddaboudit (as I figured it would be).  It also works 6 in the repeater end of the band much better than the loop.  Sunday I was able to listen in to the Sunday INARES voice net on 3.900 LSB but I doubt I would have been able to check in as it was very fade-y.  It would be fun to get my hands on a 30′ push-up mast and see how well the end-fed works as a vertical.  I think most of my trouble with it right now is that it just isn’t high enough off the ground, and frankly it’s oriented in the wrong direction.

Sometime in the next few weeks I hope to have the boy down from Fort Wayne to help me get the G5RV in the trees.  And I really want to install a vertical in the back yard this spring after the thaw 🙂

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* Which, as you see, I have now done.

I took and passed the Amateur Extra exam today at the Fort Wayne Hamfest. W00t W00t.  A big shout-out goes to Ham Test Online.  I easily passed the Tech and General exams by studying on my own from the ARRL handbooks.  The Extra was a different story.  I couldn't have done it without help.  Believe me, I tried.

I did go out to WD9BSA a couple of times this summer.  I am not sure how welcome I was.  Unfortunately this seems to be the normal experience of new guys in this hobby.

The radio stable now includes, in addition to the UV-5R, a Yaesu VX-8GR HT; a Yaesu FT-7900 (which lives on my desk but is destined for my car); and a Yaesu FT-450D sitting in the back room waiting to be connected to this G5RV antenna that I need to throw up in the trees.  I know people who spit through their fingers and make the sign of the Cross when the word Yaesu is mentioned, but the fact is that they're a lot less 'spensive than the corresponding Icom or Kenwood models and they seem to get reviews that are just as good.  There are people out there who have thousands of dollars to drop on the latest and greatest radio equipage, but I ain't one of them, and the Yaesu stuff puts enough of a crimp in my pocketbook as is.

I took and passed the General exam today. W00t.

I’ve recently started in the Amateur (Ham) Radio hobby, passing the Technician exam on April 13, 2013, and receiving my call KC9YTJ on April 18, 2013.  I’ve always had an interest in radio, but never acted on that interest until two things happened: 1) W9KIZ told me about these cheap Chinese handheld radios that you could buy on Amazon for $40, and 2) she also told me that the exam was stupid simple, only 35 questions out of which you could miss 9 and still pass, and only cost 15 smackeroos to take.

I am active (if you want to call it that) on 2 meters, primarily on the local 146.700 and 146.970 repeaters that are close enough to hit with what equipment I have.  Mostly I listen.  Throw my call out, and I’ll talk if I’m monitoring.

I have in mind to offer my assistance to the WD9BSA folks out at Camp Belzer but I want to get a little more of a feel for this thing before I do.  Plus I’d like to upgrade to General first, as well.  I’m planning to take the General exam in June 2013.