back OTA....

[inerlogic]

Been wanting to hit the Fall River machine from New Bedford, the rubber duck on the HT wasn't making the trip...

"A rubber duck is basically an air-cooled dummy load" - N1JOY

So i went on a mission to find antenna fixins....

RG-58 from CellphoneShack in Wareham (the closest one to me still open) was a bitch trying to find the twinlead....

Ended up at Fairhaven Hardware, they had a pre-cut piece, 9.5' for a buck....

Picked up some self-sealing rubber tape and a 10m (well... 11m but once i get an swr meter, i'll trim it) mobile antenna from Walmart...

The solder wasn't even cool and i threw the antenna out of ny BR window... was hitting the 515 machine in FR....

Now that i actually own a house (since '08) it's time to put something on the roof...

As for 10m..... i cleaned out my dad's basement and he had an old Ranger (7950? Don't have it in front of me) i rigged up a dipole but couldn't hear anything but static.... (hence the walmart mag mount) gonna put it in the car and try again at some point....

No swr/power meter or analyzer anymore.... ebayed that stuff long ago....
Time to get back in and study for General methinks....

I used to have an Antron 99 i used for 11m, but, New Bedford being New Bedford, it eventually disappeared....

Also have a 2m mobile rig (nothing fancy, some cheap chinese radio) and a 2m mag mount coming from Amazon....

A lot of things have changed in the hobby since i put the mic down 10 years ago....



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[blindfire]

Awesome! Welcome back. There is a Cape and Islands NTS traffic net that goes on a couple times a week. I think it is hosted on the Falmouth machine. You should check in to say hi and maybe take some traffic. You can find the specifics here : http://nts.ema.arrl.org/node/38

 

[inerlogic]

I can hear that machine, and i think in keyed it, but i'm not sure i'm getting in.

I'm in a hole though, i'm in the shadow of the SEMARA tower.... practically under it... but i can only hear 1 or 2 of the nightly weather net guys on the input...
There are 3 or 4 east of me (fairhaven, acushnet) whose signal has to go past me to get to the machine, and i can't hear 'em.... so.... yeh, need to sort my antenna situation...

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[inerlogic]

Battery in the D104 lollipop mic i rescued from dad's basement....

July '94 on that battery... that's the month i left for basic training.... 22 years ago....







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[cockpitbob]

Did it do much damage beyond the battery connector? Doesn't look too bad inside.

 

[inerlogic]

No, none at all, it wasn't like a AA which rots everything, this was just like.... i don't know..... dry foamy dust......

I don't know how it sounds because i haven't been able to get out. There's a local 10m net but no one's heard me, i'm using a crap antenna though.... (walmart cb mag mount on my fridge )

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