by Jim Stafford, W4QO. February 6, 2008. When non hams, who are looking at getting their ham licenses, ask me what they should do, I give them this list of what I think are the 10 things to increase their ham radio FUN!! I’ll write this as if I’m speaking to YOU the prospective ham. If you are already a TECH and tired of those 2M repeaters, you may skip step #2, but do NOT skip the others! more …
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The Half-Square versus the Loop Skywire
by Jim Stafford, W4QO Appeared in QRP Quarterly, Fall, 2006 Up until about 8 years ago, I had an 80 foot tower with a TH-6DXX on it. It was quite fun working QRP with it on 20 thru 10 meters. Reports of “WOW, you can’t be QRP!” or “are you pulling my leg?” were quite common. But then an unfortunate incident involving a bulldozer and a hooked guy wire meant the tower was no more. Oh, it’s still out back awaiting the day when I can put it back up (if I ever do). I had been using a full […]
Continue readingHam Shack Lightning Protection
By Hal Meyers – K4JHM SK First of all, lets get some basic concepts in mind. The thing that “gets” our equipment is the voltage difference between the various conductors coming into the equipment, not the magnitude of the voltage. Lets just take a simple modem as an example. It has two sets of conductors coming into it: the power and the `phone line. If you get a transient on one of these conductors but not on the other, then there will be a potential difference between the two sets of conductors. This is what zaps the device. In the […]
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