KD3Y

You left out the option I'd have chosen... 0 They should've kept the CW requirement for everyone but me. LOL Seriously, I like CW and enjoy it but I'm glad it isn't mandated. I'm still learning. I probably learned 1000 times more about ham radio AFTER I was licensed than I did before I got my tech ticket. When licensing becomes and obstacle rather than a tool, then it chokes the hobby. I'm a VE and I get eMails via our club website all the time from people who want to take the tech exam but say they don't think they can learn and pass the morse. Apparently a lot of people were never told the CW requirement was dropped over a decade ago. www.w4ymi.org One thing I've learned is that sending is a whole lot easier than receiving. I can send pretty good, but I just can't hear the words. I get lost and once I lose my place it all just goes to garble. When that happens I send "OK" and then tell them I have to leave and go eat supper LOL. If I had to demonstrate CW to get a tech license today I'd be on the "breaker breaker 10-4 good buddy" band.

Thanks Jim That was the answer I was searching for. So the "zero degrees" is straight up directly above the antenna, not on a horizontal plane like you would see if you were using a compass and it was pointing 0*. That's what was confusing me was the degrees. I didn't know if that was vertical or horizontal.

Hello gentlemen, I've seen these or awhile now but never paid much attention to them. But now I'm curious...What exactly am I looking at? What is this telling me? Am I looking at the antenna from the side, as I'm standing on the ground...it's showing me the antenna is sending all the signal in a "donut shape" with little signal being sent straight up vertically? Or am I looking at the antenna from the top as if I was in a balloon above it...it's showing me the antenna is basically "directional" and sending the signal in the direction of 270 to 90 degrees with a "dead spot" at zero degrees? Or do I have it all wrong and it's something different altogether? Thanks in advance. KD3Y

Now see what you've gone and done Jim. My OCD isn't going to just let me leave that alone. 😁

Hey I never thought of it either. It just hit me when I saw it at Habitat for Humanity. Some things you just have to see in your mind when you see it in person. I didn't even know they built such a thing. I had to google it from the info on the label to know what it was. The manager at Habitat didn't know what it was either. He asked me what it was when I brought it up to the checkout. If he knew what it was I suspect it woulda been more than $40.

I guess HOAs can be a good thing, but too often they simply go power hungry and go to the extreme with their hobby. And thats what it is basically is a bunch of old retired snobs that need to find something to do with their life, and a bunch of crybabies who got picked on it high school and now want to show everyone their new "authority". I've never seen the benefit of paying someone money to make rules about what I cant do on the property I own and pay the taxes on. The way I see it, when the HOA starts paying my mortgage and my property taxes, then they can tell me what I can't do. If what I'm doing on my own land isn't hurting anyone and isn't illegal, then I should be left alone. And by "hurting anyone" I don't mean they don't like my American flag or they don't like the color of my house. Me and a Home Owners Ass-ociation would never get along. I'd be in prison at the end. I reckon I've got too much of that good old American freedom in me to live with an HOA's boot on my throat. If what I do on my own property is so harmful then the town/county should pass a law prohibiting it. If it doesn't rise to the seriousness of needing a law prohibiting it, then it's too trivial and people need to move on and get a life. Thats just my opinion and worth every penny you paid for it. 73 de KD3Y

This ad for "Radio Girl" perfume appeared in the December 1945 issue of Radio Mirror magazine. It was manufactured by Consolidated Royal Chemical Corporation in Chicago. You can pick up a bottle at the local beauty counter for only a dime. But I recommending splurging and buying the pint bottle for a quarter. 😁

Not only do I have no antenna restrictions where I live, but Ham antennas are expressly protected under the towns ordinance. That's what happens when your town board is made up of all hams. 🙂 Even if the Karens wanted to form an HOA where I live, no rules they made would supercede the towns ordinances. In fact, that's how I found my buddy a few blocks away when I was first licensed...he has a 60-foot tower in his front yard beside his house with a vertical 2-meter antenna on top and an inverted V dipole coming from the top to the trees in his front and back yard. I just pulled in his driveway and knocked on his door and asked him if he was a ham. Larry's been a great pal since.

Thanks Jim.

This is what the one I bought is like. The legs fold out to make it stable. I made the insulated bushing from PVC. The jpole sits in the bushing so it wont flop around.

Sure no problem at all. I appreciate the attention. LOL Here's a couple pics of my 40 meter dipole in the backyard showing the threaded insulators close up. Once it's trimmed to frequency the extra wire just hangs out the end. Don't laugh at the blue smurf tube going up the tree. My recent very expensive lesson in amateur radio was... squirrels like the flavor of RG-213. Smurf tube was cheaper than replacing 100' of coax every month. I don't know why the pics are sideways. They were right side up when I uploaded them but I don't see a way to rotate them. But you get the idea of the friction insulator. I had never thought of that...using sticks as a field expedient friction insulator in a pinch.

Several months ago I built a 20 meter dipole. They're so easy to accidentally cut short. So I made it with PVC insulators on the end in a way that it didn't have to be tied off and soldered. Last month I made one for 40 meters the same way. Saved me from measuring and wrapping the ends, then finding out I cut it too short and have to add in a piece and re-tune it. Here's the video... https://rumble.com/v1ie68x-no-solder-no-wrap-no-re-wrap-dipole.html I hung it up 26 feet into some pine trees in the back yard.

Well I bought the Yaesu FT-65 at DX Engineering for $92 I thought that was a pretty good price for a brand name not-chinese dual band HT. So far its been a good radio.

Yes thats the key I built. The lamp I built as well. Its not that bright. The camera just makes it look so.

For a mobile its good.

No its this one. Solid steel. Doesnt sway at all. I dont see it on Dicks anymore. Maybe they discontinued it. https://sklz.com/hit-a-way-portable-training-station.html

Greetings from Coastal North Caarolina. Thanks for the welcome. Although I've been an Extra for some time, I've just recently got an HF radio and have been hanging out on 40 meters lately. 73 de Anthony, KD3Y www.kd3y.com

I found this cool gadget at Habitat for Humanity. It was a heavy powder coated steel stand that was designed for baseball practice. It came with a bungee type attachment with a baseball on it. The idea was you practice hitting the baseball and the bungee brings the ball back to you. When I saw it I thought, "That would make a great portable mast base for an E-coms J-pole". I bought it for $40 bucks and when I looked it up I saw Dicks Sporting Goods sells it for $199. After I took off the baseball part, it did make a great mast base. The first time I put it up for practice in the backyard, the day was sunny and clear. About 30 minutes later a dark cloud came up from the west. I decided to take it down so all my connections wouldn't get wet. I was disassembling it and had the 16 foot aluminum mast with the copper J-pole on top of it in my hand when I heard a loud BOOM and felt a little tingle. Lightning struck a pine tree about 50 feet away, blew pieces of pine tree all over the yard, and set the tree on fire. I grabbed my cell phone and called the FD. They were out in about 9 minutes and put the tree out. LUCKY ME! I'm glad the lightning thought the tree was a better ground than me! https://rumble.com/v1kv6ut-31-emergency-coms-setup.html

I found this Yaesu FT-890 at a ham radio shop in Georgia (used of course). The guy was asking only $275. What a deal. It's my main HF radio now for 40 meters with my home made dipole.

I really like my "obsolete" DR-605. Mainly because of the ease of use. Not a lot of complicated menus and buried settings. It's just easy to operate. I also like the dual watch feature on the 605. It's literally like two seperate radios built into one. The left button controls one channel and the right button the other. I wish all radios came with such simplicity and ease of use. I made the DR-605 my "GoBox" radio. Together with my solar panel and the roll-up ladder line J-pole I made, it's truly portable. I can just throw a line over a tree limb and hoist the antenna up and be ready to TX.

I own the Baofeng UV-5R Mainly take it on the boat when I go diving. I can hit the repeater with it from 13 miles offshore. The benefit is if it gets dropped overboard or one of my clumsy buddies drops a scuba tank on it, I don't cry because it's only $25 VS my Yaesu HT.

Hey Ham Community, this is an automated post on behalf of our new member: KD3Y, On behalf of Ham Community, let's give KD3Y a warm welcome. KD3Y, we encourage you to browse around and get to know the Community's many sections. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask, as with all things HAM, we all love to give advice 😎 For everyone's information, KD3Y joined on the 11/18/2022; this is their profile: View Member.