Ham Life: The Struggle

Well now, seems like we had ourselves a little storm or something last night.
I knew this had happened:


Fallen is the Dipole!



Fallen is the W3EDP!



because I'd seen it on the ground the day before. There was a mighty wind a'blowin'. What I didn't know was that the W3EDP had lost a support too.



Woe is me! I got to thinking about the situation. My reason for going ahead with the stubbed antenna project was because the dipole had fallen. No better time than the present to go ahead and make something better. First things first though, I needed to secure the W3EDP in a position where if it's going to be up at all, I want it to be usable.

I broke some rules about how you are supposed to orient ladder line:



Yep, it's Bent!

 It's all good though, pragmatism trumps theory all the time.
Right now the W3EDP is deployed to a single support. It does not touch the tree the support wire drapes across, and is in free space as an inverted-vee. I checked it to see if it got noise, and sure enough, it's noise on 40m, and tunes up nicely. Tonight I may try to get "The Killer Watt Radio" on the air, and see if it can't snag me some tasty DX.

After doing my "radio check" I decided to roll up the 40m dipole. I need to work on it some, the whole thing is over ten years old, and it's beginning to look a little worn. I plan on using the spot it was in to deploy the new antenna I introduced yesterday. Don't tell anybody, but I'm also thinking about putting up a dipole for 80m, and fed with ladder line. The W3EDP will tune 80, but I have a plan for getting another antenna up high, like about 50' high.




What does ten years do to an antenna?

A bit Crufty She Is

Makes the outside go from copper red to dirt brown/black.
Funny thing is that when this antler was in the church attic, it didn't get too bad over the couple of years it was there. It spent a lot of time in storage, and was sitll a lil shiny when I deployed it in the yard the first time. Now it has almost a film on it. Strange. I'm thinking I should replace the wire at a minimum. The wire is about coming out of the ears where it attaches to the balun too. Not too bad I don't think. The UHF Connector still shines good. Must be something to using Coax seal and electrical tape over the connection...

Now tonight, if I'm still awake when I get home, I'll get the Decoupling Stub Antenna on the workbench!
If you have a copy of "More Wire Antenna Classics Vol2" by the ARRL, it's Chapter 3, page 17 should you want to follow along.
73!



******UPDATE******
Ok, Last nite I got the first phase of the antenna built. I attached a center insulator to two 8 foot pieces of ladderline. Then I realized I was doing it wrong! LOL!
Pics during testing phase to follow...

Amateur Radio! Hobby, Adventure, Nerd Fun at it's Finest.

Hi!
I've had a lot of hobbies in my day. I mean that these are things that I enjoy doing just for the enjoyment of doing them. Two stand out in my mind especially, bird watching and ham radio.
Yeah I know, birdwatching makes me a nerd, and ham radio makes me a geek, but what can I say, I yam what I yam!
I want to talk some about amateur radio, especially in light of the current tsunami/earthquake/nuclear meltdown situation in Japan.
First watch this video:
About a contact hours after the tsunami. Here, you hear two radio operators talking about stuff, one in Japan, the other in America. The Japanese operator is glad to talk to someone. My point? When all other communication infrastructure degrades, amateur radio can get through! One of the reasons I became an amateur radio operator is because it can play such a vital communications role in times of emergency. It's also a lot of fun to build antennas, fix radios, build radios from scratch, talk to people all over the world, and just generally explore science.

So what is amateur ('ham') radio? Technically, it's a government mandated service regulated by the Federal Communications Commission. Here's the purpose as outlined in Part 97 of the FCC's rules and regulations:

§97.1 Basis and purpose.-

The rules and regulations in this Part are designed to provide an amateur radio service having a fundamental purpose as expressed in the following principles:

(a) Recognition and enhancement of the value of the amateur service to the public as a voluntary noncommercial communication service, particularly with respect to providing emergency communications.

(b) Continuation and extension of the amateur's proven ability to contribute to the advancement of the radio art.

(c) Encouragement and improvement of the amateur service through rules which provide for advancing skills in both the communications and technical phases of the art.

(d) Expansion of the existing reservoir within the amateur radio service of trained operators, technicians, and electronics experts.

(e) Continuation and extension of the amateur's unique ability to enhance international goodwill.

Practically, it's a group of hobbyists dedicated to having fun building, fixing, and using radios to communicate with people both near and far. We stand ready to help establish communications with cut off groups of people, stand ready to accept and pass along messages of hope when disaster strikes close to us, and we like having a good time. A soldiers life is filled with long periods of boredom, followed by brief moments of terror. Hams find a way to not be bored while waiting for the terror.

Many amateur radio operators have become electrical engineers, computer scientists, and other 'nerd' skills. Many of us have done other things with our lives, we are janitors, preachers, broadcast journalists, doctors, policemen, firemen, soldiers, (shudder) lawyers, politicians. Hams come from all walks of life. Even Ted Nugent is a licensed amateur radio operator.

In today's world, it's hard to understand how something like amateur radio can still serve a purpose. Communication infrastructure is everywhere! We all have cellphones, internet access, text messaging, smart phones, satellite phones, anything! Much of this communication infrastructure is interdependent and fragile. With one hurricane/In 2004, my wife and I endured 3 hurricanes while living in Orlando. She was impressed with the fact that while our cellphones only worked every once and a while, I could communicate and get news via my hand-held ham radio. Or consider the case of Gary. I Guarantee you ham radio made a difference to Gary that day.

Ham radio makes a difference in the world today. It's present, whether you see it or not, in every natural, or man made disaster. If you would like to know more about how ham radio helps in emergencies, and find out what it takes to become a ham, visit The ARES page. If ham radio has helped you, or you have a story to share, post a comment! Tell it!

73, (how hams say 'best regards')
DE KG4GVL (DE means "this is", and KG4GVL is my ham radio call sign)