Spent most of the afternoon reading "The Dark Tide" by Andrew Gross.
This is the type of book I can not seem to put down, starts with an explosion, killings, and plenty of action. I just finished "The Blue Zone" also by Gross, another mystery with a great ending. If your looking for a good summer read be sure to check out one of his books.
It was a super nice sunny day here in New Jersey. This evening their is a slight cool breeze which feels nice for a change considering the warm hot sticky days so far. Forecast is another nice Sunday so hoping to break out a radio outside and see how the bands are.
Building Kits, Small Circuits, & Amateur Radio Stuff!
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Saturday Evening Post
After my usual Saturday morning chores I did some afternoon building on the back picnic table.
Picked up a Philmore DATAkit 40 Meter VFO kit# 80-1404. VFO tunes from 7 to 7.3MHz. This kit is built around a Clapp Oscillator, instructions mention stable and a configuration for high proformance. Kit is broken up into five bags of components, finished first two bags in a slow take your time type of build.
This circuit will be fun to play around with, no crystals to mess with and individual frequencies to content with, even thou bandwidth is not that wide. Only one toroid core to deal with just in case your not a fan of winding, I hope for the best when I start counting the loops.
Kit includes about 26 components or so and a small size 1.6" x 3.0" screened PC board, schematic, and general write up about VFO's. Street price is $20.00 give or take.
A few months ago I downloaded from the ARRL website an easy to read article from Jan. 1980 QST by Doug DeMaw,W1FB, A Beginner's 3-Band VFO. Includes some good reading info: What is a VFO?, Design Points, Types of Circuits, Schematics, and Drift Characteristics.
Just a few throughts on backyard building, its great to be outside and out of the basement, plenty of time for that in the winter. Just be careful with the soldering iron if kids or pets are around. Plus with a slight breeze there is no need to worry about the smoke from your iron. Just being outside adds to the building experiance.
Tonight between Cops and America's Most Wanted on the tube, I will be reading up on the VFO's.
Enjoy The Rest of The Weekend!
Picked up a Philmore DATAkit 40 Meter VFO kit# 80-1404. VFO tunes from 7 to 7.3MHz. This kit is built around a Clapp Oscillator, instructions mention stable and a configuration for high proformance. Kit is broken up into five bags of components, finished first two bags in a slow take your time type of build.
This circuit will be fun to play around with, no crystals to mess with and individual frequencies to content with, even thou bandwidth is not that wide. Only one toroid core to deal with just in case your not a fan of winding, I hope for the best when I start counting the loops.
Kit includes about 26 components or so and a small size 1.6" x 3.0" screened PC board, schematic, and general write up about VFO's. Street price is $20.00 give or take.
A few months ago I downloaded from the ARRL website an easy to read article from Jan. 1980 QST by Doug DeMaw,W1FB, A Beginner's 3-Band VFO. Includes some good reading info: What is a VFO?, Design Points, Types of Circuits, Schematics, and Drift Characteristics.
Just a few throughts on backyard building, its great to be outside and out of the basement, plenty of time for that in the winter. Just be careful with the soldering iron if kids or pets are around. Plus with a slight breeze there is no need to worry about the smoke from your iron. Just being outside adds to the building experiance.
Tonight between Cops and America's Most Wanted on the tube, I will be reading up on the VFO's.
Enjoy The Rest of The Weekend!
QRP Lecture
This morning had some time to listen to George Dobbs G3RJV QRP lecture.
He is a wonderful speaker and it was a very informative talk about QRP building and operating that was down to earth and easy to understand. A few of the projects were very cool and look like fun to build and fire up on the air.
You can check out the lecture at www.batc.org.uk and go to film archive section. There are other amateur radio instructional type stuff if QRP is not your interest.
Radio construction is rather like a pilgrimage.
Where the journey is often more important than
the destination.
George Dobbs G3RJV
I like what he said at his closing that amateur radio is a hobby, have fun with it!
He is a wonderful speaker and it was a very informative talk about QRP building and operating that was down to earth and easy to understand. A few of the projects were very cool and look like fun to build and fire up on the air.
You can check out the lecture at www.batc.org.uk and go to film archive section. There are other amateur radio instructional type stuff if QRP is not your interest.
Radio construction is rather like a pilgrimage.
Where the journey is often more important than
the destination.
George Dobbs G3RJV
I like what he said at his closing that amateur radio is a hobby, have fun with it!
Thursday, July 29, 2010
2 Meter Listening
This morning I fired up my Icom IC-207 2M/440 radio for this first time in months. I keep in on a corner table in the office and listen in once in awhile.
My frequency of choice is simplex 146.520, not a ton of activity but different than the usually repeater chatter.
Plus in the past I have made some decent contacts on simplex.
Suppose to be a hot sticky day with some rain tonight with the weekend looking nice, beach weather for sure.
My frequency of choice is simplex 146.520, not a ton of activity but different than the usually repeater chatter.
Plus in the past I have made some decent contacts on simplex.
Suppose to be a hot sticky day with some rain tonight with the weekend looking nice, beach weather for sure.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Old Mags
In the basement I keep a box or two of my old CQ, QST, and World Radio magazines. This weekend during the night time TV hours I went through a small stack of World Radios, neat to get some new ideas and read a few articles.
Came across a cool loop antenna using zip cord, going to do some more research on this one but might be on the future build list.
On the tube they are promoting the new shows for the fall season, Hawaii Five-O, Law & Order LA. When I was a kid in the summer I use to hate that because it meant school was right around the corner.
"Book'em Danno"
Came across a cool loop antenna using zip cord, going to do some more research on this one but might be on the future build list.
On the tube they are promoting the new shows for the fall season, Hawaii Five-O, Law & Order LA. When I was a kid in the summer I use to hate that because it meant school was right around the corner.
"Book'em Danno"
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
The Heat Is On!
The 5 day forecast is calling for Hot Steamy weather. Per weather.gov, here is a look at the high temps. for the next few days.
Today 102 deg. F
Wed. 97 deg. F
Thur. 91 deg. F
Fri. 92 deg. F
Sat. 88 deg. F
Listed today is a Heat Advisory, Air Quality Alert, Hazardous Weather Outlook.
Fun stuff, where is that air conditioner dial?
Friday, July 2, 2010
Stealth Antennas
Its early Friday night in NJ and I am trolling the web for ideas about putting together an stealth antenna using some magnet wire. Yes I need a life!
So far thinking of going with an inverted vee with fishing line as insulators. Magnet wire is just about invisible but not very strong. This should keep the neighbors who seem to have nothing to do at bay, not that I care, but it would be nice to operate under cover. Yes as I have mentioned before I have a small lot, only one tree by the patio that is not very big.
Back to web searching and hopefully get some wire in the air tomorrow. This should be a fun easy project. Details to follow.
Enjoy your weekend!
So far thinking of going with an inverted vee with fishing line as insulators. Magnet wire is just about invisible but not very strong. This should keep the neighbors who seem to have nothing to do at bay, not that I care, but it would be nice to operate under cover. Yes as I have mentioned before I have a small lot, only one tree by the patio that is not very big.
Back to web searching and hopefully get some wire in the air tomorrow. This should be a fun easy project. Details to follow.
Enjoy your weekend!
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