Still working on the ham shack situation. Not sure if I'll be setting up in the garage yet. It would be a temporary thing anyway. Still thinking about my old office in the basement. Just have to figure out the pass through for the cables. Need to get my handyman friend over to figure it out. One thing at a time.
Fixing the Antenna
For now I'm working on fixing the redneck engineered antenna my youngest son and I put up a couple years ago. It was assembled during a time I was not feeling well at all. Connectors are not crimped well. Stuff like that. So I'm going to redo some of it. Get it right this time. Currently waiting on some connectors and other parts to arrive via Amazon. Should have everything by end of this weekend. Start working on it Monday and hopefully be on air for our weekly check in for the radio club by Wednesday.
The Radios
Going to get my VHF and UHF on air soon. That's the 2 meter and 70 cm bands specifically speaking. I have the radios for it. A TYT TH-9800 which is a quad-band radio. And a Baofeng 5RM Plus. Both will serve me well on those bands for now. Especially since I can bounce off some local repeaters.
The Real Fun
The real fun will begin when I get my General license and can fire up the Kenwood TS-570D using a dipole antenna. Start working more HF bands. Start talking around the world. That's the goal.
Eventually I'll have a permanent setup in the office in the basement. It's just going to take time to get it right. Kind of like everything else I'm working on these days. A piece at a time. No rush. Do it right. I'll post pictures when I have something worth showing.
Thanks for reading,
Joe
Notes:
-All content is mine unless otherwise annotated.
-Images are my own unless otherwise noted.
-Photos edited using Linux photo editor and drawing and/or iPhone SE.
-Page Dividers from The Terminal Discord.
This is exciting, @coinjoe, What a wonderful thing to work towards. I'm glad your son helps you with some of the stuff.
Talking to people around the world. Not only fun but important, especially in challenging times. You won't have to read the news somebody else wrote. You'll be able to learn about events first hand.
Keep us informed !
Well, he helped me with it when he lived here. Hoping he stops by this week for old time sake and helps again :)
Can't wait to get things going. Been receiving parts and tools needed this weekend. Ready to get at it.
What a shame we also don't have a ham radio. Now that would be cool!
Jamie used to run a pirate radio station back in the day...
That would be really neat. I could give ya a call out on a regular basis.
Sounds like you're up for different fixes, but it's good that you are not rushing. The radio sounds exciting, especially when you will be able to talk with anyone around the world!
More excited about it. Been on the air a few times with my handheld. But it doesn;t get very far. This week I get the bigger radio going.
Being on air was always something I wanted to do. I have some friends who I'd could have great and probably interesting conversations with. Plus the music part, sharing that is always fun. Wishing you all the best for the endeavor!
Yeah, it would be great for those long distance contacts if they had radios too. As far as music goes. There are rules for that.