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The Ham Shack - B&B's Amateur Radio Club

NK8M here, kinda quiet until I get a decent antenna on the big truck

Quiet here until I get…a decent rig! [emoji1] I've only been back in the hobby a couple years and only have a Heathkit QRP rig and indoor random wire antenna. And I live on 22 acres so I have room for 160 meter antennas! So if I'm now getting great shaves (I'm also new to traditional shaving) and smelling good, maybe the XYL won't mind me springing for an Elecraft KX3. Kind of hypnotize her with the smooth shave and manly scents.

I can try! [emoji16]
 
Quiet here until I get…a decent rig! [emoji1] I've only been back in the hobby a couple years and only have a Heathkit QRP rig and indoor random wire antenna. And I live on 22 acres so I have room for 160 meter antennas! So if I'm now getting great shaves (I'm also new to traditional shaving) and smelling good, maybe the XYL won't mind me springing for an Elecraft KX3. Kind of hypnotize her with the smooth shave and manly scents.

I can try! [emoji16]
qrp is a lot of fun. I love doing jt65
 
Hi,

I have been hamming longer than shaving, and this is Year 40 for shaving. ;)

I run QRP on MF and HF: 10-20 watts depending on just where I happen to be by way of frequency. The antenna is a 500 foot long end-fed long wire with no tuner. But, that works out fairly well. On VHF and UHF I run 20-30 watts mobile and 50-100 watts base.

My current project is putting together a 4 channel repeater system on 900 MHz. Each channel is 1 watt per, 1 MHz apart, combined into a one antenna for Tx, one for Rx (12.5 MHz separation). Each channel will have link radios to other bands: 6m, 2m, 220 and 440. This way, I can run around the farm with a 900 MHz handheld and work another band without having to run upstairs over my workshop to the ham shack. :)

Stan
 
I really need to get back into this. I got a Technician class license over a decade ago and never renewed it.

Get back to it, lots of changes in the last decade. I seem to spend more time on digital HF modes than anything else now. I think it is because I can log contacts while working on something else, digital doesn't require 100% attention.
 
My bride picked up needing help Heathkit HW-16 for Christmas for me. Tubes seem good as it receives well but has an awful hum. Needs some new capacitors and maybe resistors. Haven't worked on tube gear in many years. Gonna be fun.

Oh, and I have to relearn code as well since I haven't used it in about 15 years or so. Might be a bit of a challenge but I'm up for it.
 
My bride picked up needing help Heathkit HW-16 for Christmas for me. Tubes seem good as it receives well but has an awful hum. Needs some new capacitors and maybe resistors. Haven't worked on tube gear in many years. Gonna be fun.

Oh, and I have to relearn code as well since I haven't used it in about 15 years or so. Might be a bit of a challenge but I'm up for it.

Neat. Got into hamming as Heathkit was shutting down the ham gear.

My knowledge limits me to replacing the caps and tubes, and building basic accessories, like power supplies & filters. I have a friend that only uses WW-II military, mostly Navy, gear, quite a shack he has. The worse the condition of the gear, the happier he is to get it.
 
Hi,

Man. Tubes. Last tubes I messed with in a ham rig were hybrid transmitters like the Kenwood 520 back around 1980. Last tubes in broadcast was around 1990. The only thing I have around with tubes in it is a 1932 RCA Radiola 80 AM broadcast receiver. A big console radio. I keep it because it was the first superhet design and done by Major Armstrong. It was the first radio given to me as a kid, and it still works. ;)

Stan
 
First rig was a KW 520s. I would give most anything to have it back, foolishly traded it for a solid state Icom 740 that turned out to be a major ***. Don't know if all 740 were, but mine was. Lousy receiver, half the "features" worked about 50% of the time - never when you really needed it though.
 
Hi,

I cut my teeth on really old boat anchors like an Electro-Voice receiver and a Multi-Elmac transmitter. I would have *loved* a 740! ;)

I didn't get a decent rig until I was out of school and working at IBM. Money! I bought one of the very first KW 430s. I am still using, and it all still works, so that was a good design.

I still want what my uncle who got me going had: Sets of Collins gear. Yeah. Sets. Three of separates and one transceiver. Man, how I loved going over to his shack. I'd run in ahead of mom and dad, hug my aunt and uncle, and disappear into his shack! No question of 'where has that kid got to?' for my folks. :)

Plus, he was an Extra, so I could go places I wasn't allowed on my own as a novice. :) :)

Stan
 
Hi,

Yeah. Any one of his setups was certainly drool-worthy. His oldest were the black cube style. Collins lovers will hopefully forgive me for not knowing model numbers. I think the way it worked was he had those first, then as new designs came out, he got those and never unloaded the older ones. He used multiple antennas, so each setup had its own.

I did sort-of the same thing with boat anchors given to me. First was that RME Electro Voice 4350A and Multi Elmac AF67. Then came a National NC109 and a Johnson Ranger. Finally I put together a Drake R4B and a Johnson Valiant with SSB adapter. I was in 6th grade when I got the first units, and the other two came while I was in High School. The second two pairings were 'technician specials', but by then I was getting pretty good at fixing such things.

I was ye olde geek. I didn't ask for the usual b-day and Christmas presents. I asked for meters and scopes and signal generators. Mostly Eico kit stuff. There was also a huge amount of ex-fire truck FM radios, too. 6m, 2m, 440 and modifying some to 220. By the time I got out of high school, I not only had a ham ticket, but a 2nd class commercial one as well (so I could work on the radios that were currently in the fire trucks).

Anyway, it has been a great hobby. :)

73s

Stan
 
Hey all, just checking in to say hello. Not very active on the bands these days. Did alot of HF back yeas ago. Keep thinking the bug will hit again, maybe when I retire, how knows.
 
Bump

Bands have been less than spectacular of late, few contacts. Been working on my portable setup Yaesu FT-857D, MFJ 901B tuner, and assorted antenna bits & pieces. Can do a short vertical, long wire, dipole and most anything else I can dream up on the spot. All fits in a large Pelican case, except some of the longer antenna parts. Grab and go. Looking forward to some campfire operating this summer.

Looking for a small, high cap battery, laptop for digital modes while out. All my current laptops are large, clunky, battery hogs.
 

FarmerTan

"Self appointed king of Arkoland"
Bump

Bands have been less than spectacular of late, few contacts. Been working on my portable setup Yaesu FT-857D, MFJ 901B tuner, and assorted antenna bits & pieces. Can do a short vertical, long wire, dipole and most anything else I can dream up on the spot. All fits in a large Pelican case, except some of the longer antenna parts. Grab and go. Looking forward to some campfire operating this summer.

Looking for a small, high cap battery, laptop for digital modes while out. All my current laptops are large, clunky, battery hogs.
Funny you should post this today, as just yesterday I was thinking of how LONG it's been since I even monitored 2 meter....
 
Hi,

The past week has seen at least three days of band openings on VHF here in NC. On Six, that isn't worth reporting, but I have been working 400 or so miles on Two and, what really opened up, over 650 miles on 222. And, that was FM since I no longer have 144 or 222 SSB.

I used to live on a mountaintop in New York, so such things were fairly common. I moved to a river valley in North Carolina in 1997, so all the VHF SSB gear wound up sold. I just figured it wasn't worth keeping without the mountain. I wonder how much further those openings were really good for??

73s

Stan - WA2KQY
 
There was a brief opening on 10 last night, the local repeater had guys checking in reporting such. By the time I turned on the rig all was silent. I want to get more active on VHF/UHF, have a J-pole up for 6, sometimes get some local ragchewing on it. Otherwise it is FM and repeaters.
 
Hello from Canada. VA6INF. Not very active right now between work and kids just too busy. Like to have my HF gear just in case.
 
Hi,

I was just on the road, running between Raleigh, NC and Dallas, TX. That is two days each way. Lots of activity on 6m. E-skip mostly, but also F-layer following the Gray Line around sunset each day. :)

73s

Stan
 
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