Folks,
I've been off the air for awhile but with
the winter months coming in for us in the
Northern Hemisphere & my love of Topband,
it's time to get ready for the chase. Add
to that, there's a shiny new K4D looking
at me smiling. Haven't powered it up yet,
I'm studying the manual first. I might
fire it up tonight after I've read all the
manual.
After the couple hurricanes (Henri, the
eye missed us by 20 miles) & Ida, not to
mention some hellacious storms over the
year I expected to find my 160 antenna
(sloper wire resting on top of trees) down
but amazingly everything is completely
intact. I'm making a couple WD-1A 160
antennas just to be ready for Old Man
Winter, usually I have to replace the 160
antenna 2-3 times a season. No choice,
it's the best I can do here.
Had problems with my Rx antenna. Long
story made short, it's a circle 8 made by
Lee at HI-Z and thanks to his patience and
excellent advice, I found the problem was
the western element's coax (#7) was pretty
much chewed in half and chewed thoroughly
in several other places. Somehow it was
not the flooded coax the others are. Proof
Flooded keeps chews to a minimum.
Now my Circle 8 again has the wonderful
directionality I'm used to having and it
is in every way running like new.
I'm looking forward to this new topband
season, the new rig, some fun contests and
antennas that work.
Good luck to us all!
73,
Gary
KA1J
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