On Sep 18, 2007, at 12:47 PM, ku8e at bellsouth.net wrote:
>
> It would be interesting to hear what's going on with everyone
> else.....
Well, life is very busy, especially on the weekends, so my contesting
time is very limited. I don't think you'll find me putting in many
full-time efforts for a while yet. I am looking to put in a few
serious 160m efforts this season, since this may be the last season
for a while with really low absorption.
I'm virtually maxxed-out antenna-wise with my single 15m tower QTH.
Doing too much more would either require more towers (which I don't
have room for) or lots more money (which always seems to be in short
supply). I put up a couple of half-sized K9AY loops in early
September, and they are pretty amazing on 80 and 40m. On 160m, they
are almost too short -- they work, but signal levels are really,
really low.
My 30m/17m trap dipole has a connection problem somewhere that I need
to fix, but there's not much contesting to do on those bands. (I want
to add traps for 12m, too) I also want to replace my untuned 80m
doublet with a trap 80m/40m/20m dipole. This will make the second
radio work much easier. I can build the traps, no problem. Anyone
know where I can find about 150 feet of RG-8X or RG-58A/U cheaply to
feed this thing?
( Last year I built a two-tube crystal-controlled 40m transmitter for
SKN, and this year I'd like to build a matching receiver. I've got
some circuits in mind. The transmitter may use tubes, but the
receiver will use all integrated circuits! I'll call the pair the
"odd-couple" )
In addition to 160m, I'm hoping to get full-time efforts on all three
NAQP contests this winter. The NAQP is easily my favorite contest
these days.
Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL Mail: aa4lr at arrl.net
Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
-- Wilbur Wright, 1901
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