My Ham radio hobby(new thread, old one is buried)

[MaryB]

Decided to echo test tonight. I could just hear my own echos off the moon... but I wanted a good picture and that I got! 144mhz, the return echos are extremely weak...

[fivegunner]

I operate field day from home as a 1e category since the entire HF station is 100% solar powered.

Mary W0AAT

Hi , nice looking tower and antennas. are you getting ready for field day? its 4;30 am here as I am going to a ham fest today . what type of equipment do you use. best regards Frank. KD8OHS

[w5pv]

Made my first contact in 1975 and mostly work the low bands on inverted Vee but the best antenna that I have had was a 160 meter loop up about 35 feet and with a tuner you could work all bands,another good antenna is one cut 90 feet on each leg use 600 ohm feed line (use #14 copper wire spaced 6" apart) and a 4 to one balun and a tuner. Capable of working all bands.The only draw back is the balun will become saturated and you have to replace it ever so often.Until my hearing went south 90% of my work was CW.

[myg30]

Mary, Congrads on the moon bounce. I never got into vhf much except fer mobile operations.
The shack here is an FT-890at and running an indoor dipole 40-10m. Not real active these days.
If plans go well an we retire in 4 yrs, I promise myself to be more active ham !

73, Mike

[Beagle333]

My part of it is all mobile. I was 10m only for a few years in 80s and 90s. I have a shoebox of QSL cards from around the world that I worked pretty hard to get, all from the front seat of the ol' pickup, with a 25W Uniden President HR2600 and a mag-mount antenna. I don't stay up that late anymore though. All of my chatter goes on 2m now through the local repeaters (still from the truck with a trusty mag-mount and Kenwood TM-241A).

[popper]

Nice phased Yagi array! Really nice NF meter too. You use a Rotector to phase it? Guys I worked with for KU arrays did a #2 stripline rig to replace the 'cowboy' coffee cans - cowboy broadcast antenna was ~100 mi away. 2 meter stuff was all experimental stuff when I was a kid, but they were bouncing scanner stuff off the moon.Don't think they could get the NF below ~5db back then.

[OS OK]

That's a great picture...looks like two moons rising in the night sky. I've enjoyed a modified long wire with auto tuner...all the bands work well and it's exciting to talk with New Zealand or some far off place like that...haven't reinstalled the Ham since moving to this ridge top location...to dang scared of the potential for lightning as it takes much more than arresters to protect the eqpt. and home once you have drawn it's attention.
It makes me a little miserable every time I stop to gander at the boxes full of radios and such, still packed away from our move.

KI6ITU...over...

[myg30]

That's why I'm on an in door dipole. I don't climb either anymore so limitations exist.
That picture Mary should be on cover of QST !!

Mike WA2DLN

[Echo]

Ex-W5HZM (Hollyhocks, Zinnias, and Marygolds), I was a Ham (and FCC Certified 2nd Class RadioPhone engineer) at one time. Hammarlund HX-50 exciter, home brew linear (2 811's in parallel, grounded grid, 2kv on the plates(!)), and Drake 2b Rx. Worked that rig - until I got a job working as a communicator in the Looking Glass program. Talking on the radio (HF SSB, VHF, UHF) between airplanes, and to the ground, and on telephone - we had a Dallas phone number in our plane - caused me to gradually lose interest. When I retired, I donated most of my stuff to the local MARS program - but sold the Hammarlund & Drake.

[MaryB]

I no longer climb either! US Tower TMM433hd crank up. All the way down the crossboom is at 13 feet and the bottom antennas are reachable off a step ladder. I use am AlphaSpid AZ/EL rotor so I can literally rotate 180 in elevation and put the top antennas at the bottom for service!

That's why I'm on an in door dipole. I don't climb either anymore so limitations exist.
That picture Mary should be on cover of QST !!

Mike WA2DLN

[MaryB]

I have a pair of FT-991 radios(one is dedicated to 2m, other is hf/6m and 70cm), Beko HLV-1000 1,000 watt 2 meter solid state amplifier, AlphaSpid Big RAS az/el rotor on the 2m Array, Hygain Ham IV on 6 and 70cm, 4x M Squared 2M12 yagi's on 2 meters and an M2 4 port power divider. I have an M2 6M5XHP yagi on 6 meters and an M2 432-9WL on 70cm on tower #2.



My custom built(by me) radio desk!

6m and 70cm tower



On HF I use a base tuned 43 foot vertical on 80m,40, 30m, 20m, and 17m and a base tuned 22.5 foot vertical on 17m, 15m, 12m, and 10m. 17 can be better on one antenna over the other depending on conditions and radiation angle I need. The 43 foot vertical is better for stateside on that band and the 22.5' is better for DX usually due to a lower radiation angle. Looking into an antenna for 160 meters but I have zero trees that can act as supports for a dipole. Thinking maybe a low sloper off the rohn 25 tower next to the house... The 2 antennas should help as a capacity hat.

Day we raised the towers we had the first snow of the year last fall. Got the boom truck stuck in 3 inches of sloppy wet snow and had to use a 4wd truck to tow it out. House brackets are homemade and way stouter than the rohn versions. I know what my winds are like and I have to build stuff to survive 90mph winds at least once a year and 60+ in winter conditions.

[MaryB]

Preamp that is inline right now is .5DBnf, my spare is a .27 that I need another high power relay to finish then figure out a housing for it all.

Nice phased Yagi array! Really nice NF meter too. You use a Rotector to phase it? Guys I worked with for KU arrays did a #2 stripline rig to replace the 'cowboy' coffee cans - cowboy broadcast antenna was ~100 mi away. 2 meter stuff was all experimental stuff when I was a kid, but they were bouncing scanner stuff off the moon.Don't think they could get the NF below ~5db back then.

[ozarkhillbilly49]

congrats on the moonbounce mary. i am mostly a low band op. shack is a full dress k3 driving a drake l7. matching is handled by a kilowatt johnson matchbox. antenna is a full wave 80mtr. loop feed in the middle of a leg with 450 ohm ladderline. 73's to all. aa5ez

[popper]

Back in the 80s when I was doing RC135 stuff, 2DbNF was great but wideband 1-2, 4-8-8-12 Ghz. We did TSS & N.B. NF for VHF. Mini SMA connectors were 0.2Db. Is that K3 a Collins?

[WebMonkey]

https://www.qrz.com/db/KB0WLF

that's me

I enjoy hf digital modes and the ssb satellites the most but work everywhere I can.
'monkey

[TCFAN]

I was never a Ham but my dad was a long time ham radio operator.Got his first license in the late 1930,s.His call letters was W0FNN and then when he got his extra class he changed it to K0AW.It would be interesting to me if any one ever worked him. He was good about sending QSl cards.He passed away in 2014 at the age of 98 years and 7 months.
Here is a photo taken in better days..........

[OS OK]

That is a great picture, he built a remarkable looking shack...I wonder if his spirit still sits that chair? Bet you can sit there and feel his presence!

[TCFAN]

That is a great picture, he built a remarkable looking shack...I wonder if his spirit still sits that chair? Bet you can sit there and feel his presence!

It was a life long hobby for dad.Unfortunately when he passed the house was sold and most of his ham "stuff" was disposed of.Lots of it went to the city dump because we could not find any one that wanted any of it.He was old school and eveyone we tried to give the stuff to didn't want to mess with the old type radio equipment. I threw away several thousand vacuum tubes new in the box because no one used them any more and E-bay was not worth the trouble.

[farmerjim]

The old stuff will work after an EMP. The new will not. I still have my 75 watt CW (Morse Code for you non hams) tube transmitter that I built to get started in Ham Radio. I still have boxes of spare tubes, but not thousands. WB5SZT

[OS OK]

Gee, I'm sorry to hear that, mostly the old schoolers understand the equipment your father had. I was schooled in it in the Corps but like the newer fellas gravitated to the newer, flashier and easier to operate newer equipment. The old stuff was 'rock solid' and to hear of all the vacuum tubes in the dump might make some of the hams out there cringe a bit!
I had opportunity to help an old Army vet of 80 years old re-setup his shack like the one your father had, built racks for the pull out eqpt., erected his tower rotator and beam and was proud to do so for him...eventually his children may do the same with his eqpt. Perhaps the local club in 'Hangtown' will take it.

At least you have the picture...worth a thousand memories...OS OK