Tag: homebrew
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Found-materials antenna challenge
It might have been 2 weeks ago that I stopped in a wayside and saw a tangle of something orange-ish laying on the blacktop as I was leaving; naturally I stopped to pick it up just for the sake of keeping the area clean. It proved to be two lengths of something like 24 gauge…
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Finishing the (tr)uSDX amplified speaker
June 24th: To quickly recap, the story begins here, and is continued here. All it took, in the end, was actually sitting down at the bench and (gasp!) actually working on it for maybe 40 minutes; I had the last remaining part, an input jack, right there. Finding one was the last thing I did…
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A hike around Camel Bluff, and an amplified speaker for the tr(u)SDX
On Saturday I was en route to the nearest Aldi store and realized I would soon be passing by Mill Bluff State Park, which quickly led to trying to remember the last time I had hiked the Camel Bluff trail, or any of the other hikes at this small-but-fun park … I still have no…
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Hung a new antenna today!
It seems like just yesterday I was thinking about getting an antenna up in the trees at home … Now, as the sun sets, I have one! The day started sunny and cold, but after noon sunny was winning and the temperature got up to around 30. I had all the necessary stuff handy (I’ve…
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A post about many things
re: Field Day 2023 The December issue of QST arrived a while ago and I invested maybe 15 minutes looking through the fine print for my score: 440 points. I think that my claimed bonus for Public Information Display was rejected; not unfairly mind you, it was a bit skimpy. Eh, surest way to fail…
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Touch paddle project, with updates
October 24th: I want to start off with a word of praise for UPS; yesterday evening my package was in Louisville KY; this morning at 5:30 it was in Rockford IL; but I lacked faith, I didn’t believe it would get here today … and there it was on my doorstep at 3! Thanks, UPS!…
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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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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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Finishing that antenna
I really hate to lose momentum on a project, but that was more-or-less happening with the short base-loaded whip antenna I was making after the pattern of the QRPguys DS1; the mounting wasn’t going to fit on the tripod head, so I ordered new copper clad board (G10 this time), and for no reason, the…
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Making a common-mode choke
Over the winter I bought a couple of different EFHW antenna kits, not all of which are assembled yet. (More about these in the weeks & months to come!) I have been wishing for a common-mode choke to work with them because of all the stories that one reads about RF-on-the-coax-shield interfering with the operation…