Spinning & GrinningAnother long day and lots of rain. I left the hotel in Cleveland around 8:15am and found a place to park near the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and put my antennas back on. I put on the 40M Hustler to see if it would make a difference with the problem I was having [...]
NEWINGTON, CT, Mar 30, 2007 — Iraq Amateur Radio Society (IARS) President Diya Sayah, YI1DZ, says a ham radio blackout in his country remains in effect, with no end in sight. As part of the new security plan in Baghdad, the Iraqi Ministry of Defense earlier this month requested that radio amateurs remain off the [...]
I left yesterday at about 10:20am, having done a poor job packing and generally having any semblance of organization. I ended up dumping a lot of extra stuff in a footlocker, piled everything in the backseat of the truck and headed out. Not more than a few feet out of the driveway I answered a [...]
Part of the Smithsonian collection… The telegraph key Samuel Morse used on his first line in 1844 was very simple–a strip of spring steel that could be pressed against a metal contact. Alfred Vail, Morse’s partner, designed this key, in which the gap was more easily adjustable because of changes in its spring tension. It [...]
There was something wrong with the power connection on the back of the IC-706MKIIG. Power would sometimes cut in an out, usually when I was driving over bumpy roads. I pulled the cable off and noticed that the pins were bent out of shape. The pins in the connector (cup shaped) were spread too far [...]
Was having high SWR on 40M and I checked my ground out of the shack window to the grounding rod. I knew there was something wrong when I saw the braided grounding cable slack… I looked closer and saw it was no longer secured to the grounding rod. The dog had chewed through it. I [...]
I made the trip over to Ft. Story this morning to activate the Old & New Cape Henry Lighthouses (USA 122 and USA 121). I wanted to accomplish a couple things: (1) activate the lighthouses. I’ve activated them in the past with limited success and wanted to give ARLHS members a chance to earn the [...]
Have you read MAKE magazine? If you haven’t – pick up a copy. It’s full of inspired projects, hacks, and other interesting goodies. Most projects use inexpensive or junk box parts. The magazine comes out quarterly, I discovered it last summer and have since bought (and devoured) all the back issues.
After being away from my CW paddle for quite some time, I’ve been trying to get back into CW. Over the past few days I’ve been having success with a few QSOs. Tonight I went down to 80M and had a QSO with Ed, AB8DF, from Michigan. Ed was operating QRP with an Elecraft K2 [...]