QRP in the Driftless
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A day at Wildcat Mountain
I mainly went out to Wildcat Mountain to test and adjust my wire antennas, so I brought a couple of radios, all of my antennas, and a variety of test equipment. I set up just off the upper parking area near one of the trailheads of Old Settler’s Trail, which is one of my favorite…
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Another mini-mic (lol)
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I purchased all of the parts needed to make a few more mini-mics to use with other radios. I had one of each sitting out on the benchtop for a day or so while I noodled about what to use to give it some structure … then a…
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Adapting the (tr)uSDX mini-mic to the X6100
I posted a few weeks ago about building K6ARK’s Mini-mic kit for the (tr)uSDX, and my plan to adapt it to the X6100 to save weight and pack space, and I have been moving that project forward a little bit at a time. Today I finally had time to try out the result and write…
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Homebrew EFHW from scratch
I have been thinking about making a couple of minimalist EFHW antennas with SMA connections for use with the (tr)uSDX. After weeks and weeks of out-of-stock conditions for my preferred kit, I ordered up some parts and started to make one from scratch. Starting with an FT50-43 toroid core, I wound the 49:1 unun: The…
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projects, projects, projects… so many projects …
Since I finished off those half-built kits a few weeks ago I have been purchasing a variety of electronic parts to start a new round of projects; here is a representative collection of them, tastefully arrayed in a cardboard flat (which is one of my favored containers for organizing projects on the workbench). I have…
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K6ARK Mini Mic kit for the (tr)uSDX
Next-to-last (for now) in the current series of kit-build posts, the K6ARK Mini-Mic: Time for a functional test! This mic has lots of nice features like being tiny and lightweight; another one that I plan to take advantage of is that it uses a standard double-ended 3.5 mm 3 conductor cable. My next project will…
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Back in the field (at last!) – Wildcat Mountain, K-1480
It was 7:44when I pulled into the only partly-shaded space in the upper lot at Wildcat Mountain State Park; I shut off the engine and thought “let’s see if I can be set up and on the air by 8:00!”. By 7:55 the 17′ whip was up on the Buddipole and I was turning on…
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Building the QRPGuys Digital Power/SWR Meter w/Dummy Load
Next up in my series of kit builds; the QRPGuys Digital Power/SWR Meter w/Dummy Load: QRPguys kits have excellent instructions, and as soon as it arrived I printed them from the website. I followed them precisely, checking off each component as it was inserted and soldered. I made one minor error; placing c 4, a…
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Building the QRPguys Multi-Z tuner kit
Building this kit was good exercise; if it works properly when I try it out in the field it will be entirely due to the truly excellent and detailed instructions that I downloaded and printed from the QRPguys website! Get ready for lots of pictures and discussion as we go through the process! The whole…
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Wrapping up some kit building …
The workbench has been developing a backlog of kits that need to be finished; a QRPguys Multi-Z Tuner, a QRPguys Digital Power/SWR Meter w/Dummy Load, and a K6ARK Mini-Microphone are the principal ones (there are others, but … ). QRPguys Multi-Z Tuner This one got stalled right out of the bag! Step one is assembling…
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This is how you lose readers, isn’t it?
It’s been almost a month with nothing new posted here. That doesn’t seem like a good thing! I haven’t done a park activation since Field Day; I have been preparing another gear-bag post, but all that means is taking pictures and transferring them to WordPress; I’ve taken a few hikes, but nothing special. Most of…
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A gear bag post
All winter, and well into the spring, I was operating from the car; only rarely was my radio pack used for anything but carrying to and from it. I wasn’t entirely satisfied with either of the existing packs, they exemplified the old saying about “the two standard sizes; too big and too small”. Operating portable…
A backwater of the Mississippi River in the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife Refuge on a gloomy, chilly day in early November, viewed from the Lower Diversion Dike Trail.
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