We recently completed the finishing touches on our new VHF and Satellite Tower. The first step was to install a second set of entry conduits into our shack and a new ground block for our satellite antennas…
Our Tower is finally complete! We’ve added an additional entry into our shack for coax and control cables and we’ve installed 7/8″ hardline coax cables to reduce losses in our 6m, 2m, 70cm, and 23 cm feedlines. You can see some photos and details of this part of our project via the link above.
We are working on upgrading our Flex-6700 SDR based Remote Gateway to include Satellite operation. Stay tuned for an article on this part of our project.
We have held the first three sessions of New Ham Boot Camp the past few weeks to help our newly licensed members learn the skills they need to get on the air.
Session 1 was held at Fred, AB1OC’s and Anita, AB1QB’s QTH. The session focused on UHF/VHF. The following activities were part of this session:
HT Programming
Station Tour including Antenna Towers and Mobile Stations
Echolink Setup and Use
Satellite Operating Demo
Antenna Demo
Practice QSOs and Repeater Net
Jamey, AC1DC, elmers Randall, KC1KSY as he makes an HF Contact
Session 2 was also held at AB1OC/AB1QB’s QTH. During this session, members were able to Get on the Air to make contacts via HF SSB, Satellites, and HF Digital.
70 cm Ground Plan Antenna
In addition, we built a 70 cm ground plane antenna and members got kits to build their own antenna. and Jamey, AC1DC spoke about SOTAs and demonstrated a Buddipole antenna.
Fred Advises on Selecting Wire Antennas
Session 3 was held at Ham Radio Outlet in Salem, NH. Peter, KI1M opened HRO during the evening of March 19th exclusive to NARS New Ham Boot Camp members. Fred and Peter advised members and answered questions on selecting HTs, Transceivers, Antennas, Headphones, Microphones, Coax and other Amateur Radio components.
Peter shows us the repeater
We have two more sessions of New Ham Boot Camp to be held in April:
Session 4: – Saturday, April 6 – How to set up your first station, Getting on 6 meters, What do all the buttons and knobs on my HF Transceiver do? How do I use them to work DX
Session 5: Date TBD – Building and Tuning up HF Wire Antennas
Stay tuned to the General Information Forums – we will post there when Session 5 is scheduled.
Our next Tech Night will be on Tuesday, April 9th and we’ll be talking about the basics of Radio Direction Finding (aka Fox Hunting). During this session, we’ll also be building a 2-meter tape measure yagi using Joe Leggio’s, WB2HOL plans. I have built 2 of these tape measure yagis and they are pretty easy to make and I have had very good success! You can use these antennas for fox hunting, summits on the air or just hitting a distant repeater.
Here is a list of equipment that you will need to bring to the class to build your very own 2-meter tape measure yagi!
Metal Tape Measure – 1″ wide and at least 10′ in length
You can buy one cable with a PL-259 on each side and cut it in half if you would like to share with someone else to cut costs – You may want to go with 8′ – 10′ if you are going to make two cables
Pigtail for connecting RG-8x (PL-259 connector) to handheld (sma)(sma female)
Optional:
Sandpaper for sanding edges of the tape measure and removing coating to solder on coaxial cable
Wire strippers/cutters
Soldering iron
Shears or scissors for cutting tape measure
2 Meter SWR meter
Rubber Bands or Bulldog clips for securing the elements when folding up
I will bring all the PVC pipe pre-cut to the proper lengths along with the T and cross connectors.
After we all successful make our tape measure yagis we can celebrate the following Saturday as we have our first Summits on the Air (SOTA) and Parks on the Air (POTA) activation of Mount Pack Monadnock. This is a fairly easy summit and members can hike or drive up to the summit to test out the new yagis!
If you plan on attending or have any questions please let me know so I can plan for the right amount of equipment. You can reach me by email at [email protected].
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