New Antenna

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.