N5MTJ

New Club

2011-05-26T18:36:00.001-07:00

Well it has been a while. Of course I've been a little busy with new job and new baby. However, I have been very busy working on ham radio over the last 2 months. I felt strongly to start a school amateur radio club at the school I work at. So I got some key people to agree to get involved and before I knew it I officially had a club started. I got a club license and already got a vanity call sign assigned. Since the name of the school is Northside Methodist Academy (NMA) I got the call sign N4NMA. We have our first event that will be with the Wiregrass Amateur Radio Club here in Dothan. NMA will host the event on June 18th for Kids Day. Lots of excitement is building with the potential for this new club and I am excited in the response I have received. I got a logo designed and a banner currently being made. So we are ready to start this new school club for the fall semester. Over the summer one of our science teachers will be working to get his license and the two of us will work to help students and anyone in the Dothan area get their ham license.

Echolink App for Android

2010-09-03T17:13:00.001-07:00

Just a couple of weeks ago I purchased a new cell phone because the coverage in Dothan was not acceptable with AT&T. So I went with Sprint and got the HTC Hero. The first app I downloaded was the Echolink App. I did not know it was even out yet although I knew they were working on it due to the success of the iphone version of the app. So today I got to play with the new app and let me say it is awesome. I did not have to do anything but download the free app. I was able to connect to a repeater in Rowlett TX just outside of where I used to live and talk to my friend K5RXQ. Later I talked to my Dad N5ME in Memphis on the repeater there and directly using his computer. It worked great and I did not have to do anything with the settings. If you are familiar with Echolink for the PC, you know there is a lot of setting up to do just to make it work. I think they hit a home run with this app and really makes me want to play more with Echolink.

First Buddipole Try in New Town

2010-07-24T14:37:00.001-07:00

I decided to put up my Buddipole to see what I could do in the new home location. I have to say it wasn't too bad. I made the following contacts in just over an hour of operating:

* Indiana
* Mexico
* Canada
* Guadalupe Island
* Germany
* Ukraine
* Italy (twice)

I also heard Israel, England, and Bosnia as well. So I guess it is working and working quite well. I think those long whips make a difference for good solid DX contacts.

Picture is of Buddipole Vertical with long whip with some stray clouds of Tropical Depression Bonnie in the background.

2010-07-15T13:05:00.000-07:00

This is the big week for my big move with the family from Texas to Alabama. Of course I could not drive a moving truck 900 miles without having access to some 2 meter and 440 repeaters on the way. I put my dual band mag-mount on the truck with my HT to help pass the time. Two full days of driving will be tough, but looking forward to getting to Dothan and getting on the air ASAP.

Over the past weekend while visiting in-laws, I put my buddipole up with the psk31 setup just off Lake Whitney Texas. I made several psk31 contacts along with some ssb and cw contacts during the contest over the weekend. I put the Buddipole up in the vertical configuration using the settings my Dad and I came up with for long whips and it work perfectly and I did not even have to use my tuner. The SWR meter on my FT-857D did not register most of the time. I had to check to make sure it was still working right....it was.

RARC Recognition / Moving

2010-06-26T18:56:00.000-07:00

Today was the Rockwall Amateur Radio Club's annual Field Day event. Always a good time to see the area Hams get together and operate on the radios for this event. Shortly before the contest started on the air, the club presented me with this plaque for the work I have done for the club this year. I was elected as an officer for the club and had to step down last month because my family and I are moving to Dothan, Alabama to start a new job there. I will miss the Hams in the local club here. I have really enjoyed being a part of the group and helping the club grow this year. As I was leaving tonight, Eric N5EBW even gave me a Tiny Trak 3 that he built. I know I will have fun playing with APRS and that unit. Thanks again to all the Hams in Rockwall making me feel welcomed and more importantly, needed this past year.

73 to you and I hope to see you on the air when I get to Alabama.

Settings For BuddiPole Vertical and Long Whips

2010-05-15T16:42:00.001-07:00

I have been experimenting with the new longer whips for my Buddipole Antenna. My Dad recently got a new Buddipole Antenna and purchased it with only the long whips. So yesterday evening, my Dad and I got the MFJ antenna analyzer out and decided to find the settings for a vertical using the longer whips. Below is what we came up with. We did 10-40 meter except for 12 meters which you can use the 10 meter settings with a tuner if you needed 12 meters.

*Note that these settings were found with 50' of coax and the Versatee at about 6' off the ground.

Great Day for Buddipole

2010-04-14T14:50:00.001-07:00

This afternoon it was such a nice day I decided to put the Buddipole up. Les (K5RXQ) let me borrow a long whip to try out so I tried the vertical with the long whip. Instead of telling how I think it worked, just look at the contacts I made on 20 meters this afternoon.

Arizona
Ukraine
European Russia
Italy
Argentina
Spain
Slovenia
Rockwall, TX

I would say it worked quite well. I noticed I was able to pick up weaker stations that I have not in the past and usually was able to make contact with them using just 50 watts. I guess I will need to buy some of the longer whips for my Buddipole.

Tigertroncis Signalink - Has Many Applications

2010-04-05T06:48:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I went over to Les' house (K5RXQ) and we set up our Buddipoles and our portable HF stations. It was fun to compare how the two antennas worked in different configerations. Toward the end of the day with PSK31 not working as good as I had hoped. I started to tune around the CW band just to see what activity was on there. Then I heard a stations calling CQ so It thought I would try to make contact with my CW software in DM-780 and my signalink. This was not the first time I had tried this, but I was able to make contact with this station. He was in Brazil. The Tigertronics Signalink allows me to operate in modes I thought I could never do. With the use of my laptop and the free software, DM-780, it makes any station one that can operate just about any mode. If you have never operated CW or any of the new digital modes, you might be surprised how much fun it is. It is almost to the point I don't like to operate on SSB phone because of how easy it is to make contact to the USA and especially DX stations. If you have been thinking about jumping into these modes, I would recommend the Signalink for its size, ease of setup and ease of use.

PSK31 Presentation

2010-03-13T06:18:00.000-08:00

I have only been operating with PSK31 for a couple of months. However, I am already doing a presentation about this mode to my club this coming Tuesday night. I plan to give a power point presentation on the history of the mode and some tips to getting started. In addition, I will bring my entire HF station, laptop, and Buddipole to the meeting in an attempt to do a live qso with the mode. I hope I can get a signal with the antenna as close to the building as it will be, but should be interesting to try.

I'm a Believer in the Buddipole

2010-02-18T14:05:00.000-08:00

Well the foot of snow melted finally here in the Dallas area and today was a nice warm day in the 60's. So this afternoon I decided to try my new Buddipole now that I have the needed extra coax to get the antenna away from the house. My first try was to put the Buddipole in a vertical dipole position. On PSK31 I made a quick contact to Ohio with a 599 report. I felt comparing the Buddipole and the Slinky dipole, the Buddipole was picking up stations better.

When I ordered the coax from Buddipole, I decided to order the counterpoise as well so I could try out verticals with the Buddipole. So after my PSK31 contact to Ohio, I put up the 20 meter vertical per the directions of the Buddipole user group website. As you can see from the pictures it is pretty tall. The mast goes up 16 feet, then with the whips and extra length poles I estimate it is up about 25 feet. You might be able to see the counterpoise dropping down toward my daughter swing set. I tested the antenna with my Dad's antenna analyzer and found it was resonate on 20 meter band and had a SWR of under 2.

So time for the test. Right away I noticed a major increase of stations on PSK31. I immediately made contact with Venezuela and Azores Island with only 50 watts. So then I thought I would tune around the SSB area on 20 meters and heard more stations than I have ever heard. Mostly stateside, but also a few DX stations including Trinidad and Venezuela. Then I listened around the 17 and 15 meters and heard phone stations there as well. I am a believer in the Buddipole, but more a believer in the vertical version. I will try to play with a 40 meter version as well tonight.

****UPDATE 2/21/2010*****

I put the buddipole back up today to see what I could do on a weekend. On 17 meters I got a 579 RST report from Northern Japan and 599 RST report from Mexico on 20 meters PSK31. This antenna is working great. Oh and I was only using 40 watts out put to contact both.

Future Ham?

2010-02-15T18:48:00.000-08:00

While watching TV tonight, my daughter (age 4) picked up my QST magazine and appeared to start reading about antennas. You tell me if she is a future ham or not.

Buddipole J-Pole

2010-02-10T15:09:00.000-08:00

This afternoon, I decided to play with my new Buddipole a little. I have not had a lot of opportunity to play with my new antenna because the coax is too short to run into my house and it has been too cold to take radio outside. So before the snow storm hits tomorrow, I thought I would try making some j-poles with the Buddipole. I have been reading on the Buddipole users group that you can make a j-pole for 2 meters and 6 meters. So I did. I had my Dad's antenna analyzer and found it works really well. On 2 meters I was able to get the antenna resonate at 146.3 MHz and an SWR under 2. Same was true with 6 meters as well. Resonate at 52.67 and SWR under 2. I even read you can have a 440 antenna with no attachments as well. I did try it and it worked ok, but I had no way to test SWR. I was able to hit many local repeaters on 2 meters and 440 with my HT.I also read that some have used cell phone antennas for 440 j-pole, but I was not able to try that. Pretty fun to play with. I should get more coax to try next week, so hopefully the weather will improve and I can play more with the antenna on HF.

2 meter J-Pole

6 meter J-Pole

440 Buddipole

First Transatlantic Contact with Slinky's

2010-02-07T08:27:00.000-08:00

I made my first official transatlantic contact with my slinky antennas this morning. I talked to ON7GB from Belgium on 17 meters and PSK31. I got a 559 report from him, but it was my first contact outside of North and South America. Above is the location of the station according to QRZ.com.

RARC on Facebook

2010-01-27T07:06:00.000-08:00

I put up a Facebook page for the Rockwall Amateur Radio Club. Many of our members expressed positive feedback when the question was put out on whether to put up a Facebook page about our club. I think it will be a positive thing once the word gets out about it.

New Antenna

2010-01-23T07:52:00.001-08:00

I did something this week that I never thought I would. That was to purchase a portable antenna. I was blessed this past Christmas with some extra money and I decided I would try to complete my ham set up. At least get close to what I envisioned several months ago. Over the past several weeks, I have been looking for a used Buddipole for sale. I did not have enough to buy one new, but thought I could find a used one with what I had left over with my Christmas money. After searching several sites daily, I had the thought of putting my own ad on QTH.com. So last Saturday afternoon, I put an ad out stating I was looking for a Buddipole deluxe and the long version. Within an hour of putting that ad out, I got an email from a ham in the Georgetown Texas area that had one. After emailing back and forth, I purchased it from him and since I was already planning to be in Georgetown the next weekend, it was too perfect. I met him and several other Hams at McDonalds in Round Rock Friday morning. I had a good time meeting some other Hams from the area. I bought the Buddipole and got it back to my in-laws house. I put the new antenna up and made a PSK31 contact to UTAH on my first try. Soon after, all the bands died and there was nothing to be done with HF after that. However, I am excited about my new antenna. I am anxious to try it out on camping trips and Ham Radio in the Park. No it has not replaced my Slinky antennas in my attic, but I will see how it works in my attic in the up coming days.

Before I left town, I played with APRS using my new Signalink USB. All I had to do was download AWG software from the Tigertronics website and I was up and going. It was fun to play with. Using the Signalink for a base station APRS works really well. It doesn't appear with the way the signalink is designed, that mobile APRS would be very easy.

DIGITAL AND SLINKY'S: PERFECT COMBO

2010-01-19T14:13:00.000-08:00

Well I have had fun today. About 11:30am, my Tigertornics Signalink USB came in the mail. I have looked at these units for over a year thinking it might be fun to try. After getting some Christmas money, I decided to buy one. Set up was not real difficult, I had to put in some wires for the jumpers specific for my radio. They nice thing was they sent me a cable pre-made for my radio. After plugging it in I had to make some setting changes to the sound card on the computer, not hard with the detail instructions that came with it. Then I just fired up the software. I started with Digipan software first and made my first contact after several cq attempts. I had a qso with a station in West Virgina on PSK31, 20 meters. Then I wanted to set up the Ham Radio Deluxe software. After a few attempts, I got it working. Not long I was hearing a station in Cuba on 20 meters. I called him and made contact. Now that was fun. So that is working I thought why not try to see how CW works. I was able to decode a W1AW bulletin on 20 meters at about 75% copy.

So success with the signalink. I have some more playing to do but they set up with my slinky antenna in the attic seems to work really well on the digital HF mode.

Cowtown Hamfest

2010-01-14T11:16:00.000-08:00

This Friday and Saturday is the first swapfest of the year in the Dallas Ft. Worth area. Cowtown Hamfest starts tomorrow. This will be the second year I will be out to this swapfest. I was able to pick up a lot of "needs" for my ham station last year. Looking forward to seeing what all is out there this year.

http://cowtownhamfest.org/

Signalink Update: I will get my new Signalink USB digital unit Tuesday. Woo Hoo!!!!

Update to Cowtown - I had a good time at the swap fest. I was able to pick up a couple of items for my Dad that he had been looking for. I only went out Friday, but had a good time. Look forward to the swap fest in San Antonio next weekend.

Slinky Billboard

2010-01-04T15:55:00.000-08:00

Over the Christmas Holidays, my family and I went on a big road trip. We drove over 2000 miles and visited family in Tennessee and Alabama. The weather did not allow me to do any portable HF work even though I took my radio and some Slinky's along. All is not lost because just outside of Hope Arkansas, I saw this billboard and I couldn't help but take a picture and put it up. Enjoy.

I received the January issue of QST as I was leaving town two weeks ago. I was interested in the PSK31 article in there. A simple free download of digipan will allow you to receive digital transmissions. So one afternoon I found time to download the program and tune in to the PSK31 frequency on 40 meters. Using my Dad's Slinky antenna that he has in his attic I was able to hear PSK31 immediately. I was excited that it was that easy. Then I heard the station that made me want to do digital. I heard a station in Kiev Ukraine.... on 40 meters.... with a Slinky antenna. I'm hooked. I ordered a Signalink USB unit that I have heard a lot about with Christmas money and now I am waiting to receive it and try out my Slinky antenna. I am anxious to transmit on digital HF with my Slinky antenna to see what I can do. Stay tuned for updates on my new endeavor.

Rockwell-Collins Follow Up

2009-12-13T16:30:00.000-08:00

The latest newsletter from the Rockwell-Collins radio club, mentioned me and my Slinky presentation that I did for them last month. I got a kick out of the article above and excited that someone else wanted to try the antenna. I really enjoyed my visit to their club and hope I can join them again.

To see the full newsletter, go to: http://w5rok.us/Newsletters/SignalsDec2009.pdf

Today I got back in town just in time to try to make a 10 meter contact with the contest going on. I have not been able to even hear anything on 10 meters with the Slinky Antenna so I fired up the radio this afternoon and scanned around for a station. I heard a very strong signal running a contest station in Ohio. I gave him a call and he came back with a 59 report on my first try. I did not hear anything else on the band with my antenna, but happy I was able to make at least one contact on 10 meters.

Radio Programming Software

2009-12-09T17:20:00.000-08:00

Ok a post that is not about Slinky Antennas. :-)

When I purchased my Yaesu FT-857D, I decided that a must accessory for that radio was programming software. After owning the IC-706mkiig, I had several occasions where I had to completely reset the radio, losing all my programming frequency's. Living in the Dallas Ft. Worth area, there are lots of repeaters to program. With my dual band J-Pole antenna, I can hit over 40 repeaters from my house. I purchased the programming software from Yaesu and it worked like a dream. So if it works so well with that radio, why not get software for my HT, Yaesu VX-3? I purchased the USB cable off of Ebay and after a month of waiting, it finally came (shipped from China). So now for the programming software. The place I bought the cable from said they would give me the programming software, so after downloading it, I found out it was not compatible with my radio, only the VX-2. So I researched the other software options and I found two. One was by the same company who makes the ADMS software for Yaesu at $25 and one from a Ham in Great Britain for $15. Since I could download the last one for free to try it out, I opted with that one. It connected to my HT and pulled all the frequency's I had already programmed in. If you are familiar with the "banks" feature in the VX-3, you know how cool but a pain it is to program. This software makes that easy to do. I love this software and would recommend any of this programming software for the radios if has. Check out his website at: http://www.g4hfq.co.uk/

---Click on the images to see the screen shots better.

Update to attic slinky antenna

2009-12-09T12:47:00.000-08:00

When I tell other Ham's what kind of antenna I have in my attic for HF and how it is configured, everyone says the same thing..... "That won't work!" Well I have proved that it does. However, I know there are some things I can do to improve the design. While cleaning my office/Ham station today, I ran across my LDG 4:1 balun that I had connected to a long wire. I got to thinking about the group on Ebay that sells Slinky Dipoles and how they have baluns on their design. So with my LDG Z100 auto tuner, why not try it with the slinky antenna I have in the attic? It was really easy to put up with a piece of wire connected to each side of the slinky antenna. After I did, I noticed less noise on the bands and receiving more stations, or at least I was able to hear more stations with the reduction in noise. I even noticed I could hear WWV on 15 MHz which I never noticed being able to do before. The biggest difference I noticed was the reception on 40 meters. At 2:30 in the afternoon when I usually do not hear anything on the band, I heard several stations on. Mostly all in Texas including a mobile station in Amarillo. Could be band conditions, but for my set up here it was unusual. May not be a big change in the performance, but every little bit counts I think.

Rockwell-Collins

2009-11-19T19:11:00.001-08:00

Tonight I was asked to speak to the Rockwell-Collins Amateur Radio Club about Slinky antennas. It was a great privilege for me. A member of the Rockwell-Collins club was at ham radio in the park and asked me to come talk about it. I had a great time putting together the presentation and speaking to their club. I equally enjoyed meeting and visiting with the members of the RCARC club and appreciate their receptiveness to my presentation. I really enjoyed chatting with Bob Kirby (K3NT) and appreciate him giving me a tour of the ham shack they have there. It is a very nice set up. And yes, I was in awe of the 50th anniversary Rockwell-Collins S-Line radio there. Thanks again to all who were there and I look forward to seeing you again.

73's
Matt

Guest Speaker

2009-11-19T09:45:00.000-08:00

I have the privilege to speak about Slinky Antennas at the Rockwell-Collins radio club tonight. I look forward to it.

http://www.w5rok.us
http://w5rok.us/Newsletters/SignalsNov2009.pdf

Ham Radio in the Park - Rockwall

2009-11-08T16:49:00.001-08:00

Saturday was a full and busy day for me. To start the day, I helped with communications along with other ham's for the CASA Fun Run in Rockwall. It was similar to other events the club participates with here locally. A good way to test out the radios to see if they are working and training for R.A.C.E.S.

After that, I met up with my Dad and we went to the RARC sponsored Ham Radio in the Park. Several hams from around the area came to Harry Myers Park in Rockwall for this event. And you couldn't ask for better weather especially in November except for a little wind. It was fun to see what other hams had to bring and set up for mobile stations. Along with the Buddipole that Les Darlington brought (K5RXQ), there was all kinds of attempts at antennas. With the wind, Les put up a kite and the idea came to put an antenna on it. Just as the antenna was attached, the wind died down enough not to support the antenna. Good try though. We brought our new antenna that we just created this week, the Slinky J-Pole. It worked OK, but not like I had hoped. We tried some other configurations with the Slinky's and had some success. We took the long 20' pole and made a 40 meter vertical dipole and made a couple of state side contacts and even heard a station in Spain. We also trying a 40 meter inverted V that worked well also. Have to do some more work with the j-pole idea, but we are convinced it will work very well once we get it logistics of it tweaked a little better.

The Slinky J-Pole?

2009-11-02T16:43:00.000-08:00

When my Dad and I were playing with the slinky Buddipole, we started to talk about other possibilities. We talked about doing a j-pole for HF with regular size Slinky's. I have a j-pole that Ed Fong (WB6IQN) made for me off his design and article in QST. It works great for 2 meters and 440. I have that j-pole inside my chimney at the top of my house so no one can see it. From here I can hit repeaters in Arlington, Ft. Worth, Denton, Waxahachie, and even Commerce Texas. I had plenty of Slinky's so why not give it a try. I found this really good j-pole calculator (http://www.hamuniverse.com/jpole.html) and figured that it might be possible. Since a 40 meter j-pole would require a long side of almost 100 feet of wire, why wouldn't a slinky work since one slinky is 65 feet of wire. So off I went to Lowe's and Home Depot to find materials. PVC is easy to work with, but is really wobbly the taller you make it. I found some electrical conduit PVC pipe that was 1.5" in diameter. I picked this type because it had a built in coupler to join another piece. The 1.5" by 10' pipe should be sturdy enough for one 20' pole. I also found a 6' piece of re-barb. These three pieces cost me $7. I put the re-barb into the ground about 18"-24" and slipped the PVC over it. To my surprise, it did not tip over as I was sure it would. I tried to knock it over but is stayed up right. Must be the hard clay we have in the ground in Rockwall. I tried once to put a 20'-25' PVC pole up using 3/4" and 1" pipe, it would not stay up. I used what I already had in 1" pvc to make the short side of the j-pole at 10'. I joined two Slinky's together for the 20' pole and just one on the 10' pole. I heard several stations on 40 meters which I thought was a good sign since it was during the week and during the day. I heard a CQ from WA4PUB in Marietta Georgia. He and I talked for several minutes. So yes this antenna works. This is a quick set up and really cheap to make. This antenna would be great for Field Day or just hanging out in the back yard on a nice Saturday afternoon. Without modifying this antenna for 20 meters, I heard several stations as well, including one in Hawaii, Ecuador, and Chile. A 20 meter j-pole would be easier than 40 meters since it is about half the height on both legs. Next is to try this antenna at our club outing this Saturday. RARC's first Ham Radio in the Park. Should be really nice weather and a good time. Can't wait to try this antenna there.

The cost of the items for this antenna (40 meters):
3 Slinky's at $2.99 each at Target
3 10' PVC or PVC electrical conduit at $2.70 each
2 6' re-barb at $1.30 each

Total is about $20

2009-10-31T15:13:00.000-07:00

Today, my dad (N5ME) was in town and for some time we have talked about making our own Buddipole. I have been very impressed with the design of the Buddipole and since they are out of my budget right now, I thought why not build one. So today my dad and I constructed one. We used four mini Slinky's (much smaller than the original slinky) and two whips from an old TV (rabbit ears) set. As seen in the picture we also used PVC pipe to hold it all up. We used my dad's antenna analyzer and found after some tweaking, we were resonate close to the 40 meter band. So I grabbed my radio and we gave it a test. We heard several stations on 40 meters and then I heard W0O calling CQ. I called and he came back. Kent was working a special event station in Frankenstein, Missouri for Halloween. What a great name for a town on Halloween. So it worked! I also heard several stations on 20 meters as well all over including Michigan, California, and Florida. So not bad for a cheap quickly constructed Buddipole. Now we have to decide if it works well enough to construct something more stable or try another design. Hopefully we will have something together for Ham Radio in the Park in Rockwall next Saturday.

MY HAM STATION

2009-10-25T16:35:00.000-07:00

Compared to many hams out there, my ham station is pretty small. I have the Yaesu FT-857D all mode HF/UHF/VHF mobile radio and the Yaesu VX-3 dual band hand held radio. My first HF rig was the Icom 706. I actually owned two of these. First was the first model that came out with just 2 meters and HF in it. Then the most recent one that came out which was the 706 MKIIG and it had 440 in it. I liked that radio a lot, but seemed to have issues with it and it was in for repair more than I had it. So I decided to sell it after getting it back from Icom service and got the Yaesu. I really like this radio. The size and features are more than I could want or need in an all mode radio. I put this radio in the car on long trips and use it as my base station radio.

After I bought the FT-857D, I did not have any money left for an antenna. So I did many things to try to get an antenna to get on the air. My first attempt was connecting my rain gutter and it did pretty well. I also had a long wire that my Dad gave me that never really performed very well. My most recent antenna took four Slinky's that I bought from Target. My first configuration was in an "L" shape in my attic. It did ok, but never really performed any better than the rain gutter. A couple of weekends ago, I decided to change that configuration. As seen in the picture, I took the two long Slinky's and put them parallel along the top of my attic. They are stretched out about 17' and have about 12"-18" of gap between them. What a difference that made! I did this on the Saturday of the PA and AZ QSO party contest. Before I changed anything, I heard only two stations on 20 meters. After the change, I could hear stations all over the place. It was like activity I am used to hearing on Field Day. I made several contacts to PA and AZ in minutes. Later in the week I talked to Mexico City and Ontario. Not to mention I could hear stations in Bulgaria and Croatia. Not bad for a $2.99 toy.

I cannot take credit for the Slinky idea. My Dad had been using Slinky's in his attic for a couple of years. He has had success with Slinky's in a vertical formation with some radials and has made several cw contacts as well as phone contacts. We still have not been able to get a QSO between the two of us with any antenna we have tried,but maybe one day we will. He will be coming for a visit next week and we are going to try to build a buddipole from some mini-slinky's I found on Ebay. That should be fun.

R.A.C.E.S Drill

2009-10-24T17:59:00.000-07:00

Today I participated in a emergency management simulation with Rockwall County (Texas) Emergency Management and Amateur Radio operators. The exercise was to simulate emergency situations that could come about from any kind of natural or terrorist disaster in Rockwall. HAM Radio operators put together and set up a station for HF and VHF/UHF. This was my first simulation drill since becoming a R.A.C.E.S member and will probably take part in another one next year. The experience gave me the itch to get my HF Station and go out into the woods to see what I could do. So as a result I took my station and my family to Lake Tawakoni to see if I could make contact with anyone. I figured I could just go to one of the campsites and plug in for a few minutes, however once we arrived EVERY campsite was occupied by a cub scout troop. So instead it gave my wife an opportunity to do a photo op of me and my HAM set up. Notice my Slinky Dipole set up behind me.