Author: Admim
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I had an idea yesterday
(it does happen from time to time) while soldering a 5.5 x 2.1 barrel connector onto a cubit-length of 20 AWG silicone zipcord. Easier to show a picture than describe it in words: I have a powerpole Y-connector around somewhere, and I was thinking about making another one, when it occurred to me to just…
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Finishing touches to the minimalist EFRW
Last weekend, when I put the little EFRW together, I searched the radio room for the assorted heatshrink tubing collection and came up with nothing. I’m sure it will turn up one of these days … Twelve dollars and three days later, I had a new box of clear, glue-lined tubing, and I was ready…
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A minimalist EFRW antenna for the KH1
I no longer recall the chain of URLs that led me there, but I read this article by Thomas Witherspoon over at qrper.com maybe ten days ago, and that was what got me started on this project. The crucial part of the article that caught my eye (and imagination) was this: “My friend Adam (K6ARK)…
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A battery project
Sometime early last year I bought a pack of 4 lithium ion cells for no better reason than that they were crazy cheap, and seemed (to my befogged consciousness) like they might be useful for portable radio. Then, to get some use out of them, I needed to get a battery management system board (or…
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Antenna notes
So it has been about a week (or more?) since I dried out all the Buddipole components (I hope, lol), which is to say about a week that the testing and inspection has been … pending. I started this morning by identifying the 3 calibration plugs for the NanoVNA (this turned out to be easy…
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Nano VNA
Caught a real bargain on Amazon, a NanoVNA-H for about $40 after the $10-off coupon, even including the state sales tax. I’ve been thinking about acquiring one for quite a while … now I’m very happy that I didn’t buy the much older (and much more expensive!) one that I saw at a hamfest last…
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Wildcat Mountain, again
I was feeling kind of “on a roll” this morning, after two successful activations. When I set out today, I had a couple of options; do some POTA, or run errands. Even as I left home I was not certain which way to go, but I brought the radio bag just in case. It was…
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Winter Field Day
On Sunday morning the weather had moderated a bit; the pre-dawn temperature was -12F, and I felt a bit more energetic than I did on Saturday. I still waited until about noon to set out, and I needed to deploy my battery charger / jump starter to get the car started. As usual, my first…
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Winter Field Day ?
WFD is coming up this weekend. Am I going to turn out for it? (Scroll down to the bottom for updates ! ) In the end, like every other year, I will make the actual decision around noon on Saturday. Right now I am feeling some reluctance; Wisconsin is going through the Polar Winter phase…
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Activating Mecan River SFA and the Ice Age Trail
Drawing upon my experiences last Monday, I left the house as the sun was rising: A quick stop at KwikTrip for lots of coffee, then rather more than an hour of driving, finally brought me to the perfect twofer spot that I scouted out last week. Though the day was sunny and the forecast promised…
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What turned out to be a scouting trip
The forecast was for temperatures above freezing, and I wanted to activate a new (to me) park this morning. Noodling over this in the living room over coffee, my wife reminded me of a spot she had visited last summer, kayaking with a neighbor: Mecan River State Wildlife and Fishery Area. I had noted at…
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Resolutions for 2026
It’s the season for that, after all. Here are a few, all radio related: That’s all for now. Thanks for visiting driftlessqrp!