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Thanks for posting this Layne. We will probably do something similar when we launch our balloon in May.
73,
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Made a pretty cool DX contact while out with Dave, K1DLM looking at potential Field Day sites. I was able to work TU7C, the Ivory Coast DXpedition from our mobile HF station. QSO was on 20m SSB operating split. An ATNO from the mobile for me.
73,
Hi Anthony,
The masts and rings that we used at field day came from Max-Gain Systems. You can find their website here. Don’t know how well their rings would work with standard PVC. Maybe some combination of flanges that you could glue to the PVC along with a hose clamp for support and then drill for guy connections would work? A good place to get this stuff would either be Home Depot or County Store in Milford, NH. As far as a base goes, your can make one using some pressure treated lumber. Here’s an article showing what we did for our mast at our home QTH.
Hope this helps,
All great points Hamilton, thank you for sharing your thoughts. Hope that you’ll respond to the ARRL’s survey with these ideas.
73,
Hello Everyone,
Several members of our instructor team have discussed this and we do not support what the ARRL is doing for several reasons:
1) We do not see the current Tech class license as being too difficult for new HAMs to earn. We have provided Tech class trying over 50 folks in the last 2 years and we have not had a single person fail to earn a Tech license. This is also true for several young people. With over 100 students taught in our class and a 98% success rate, we believe that what is really need is for HAMs to do more in terms of elmering and youth outreach.
2) The ARRL is in the process of revising the current Tech license question pool and could easily address any perceived difficulty problems that don’t effect a HAM’s ability to build and operate a their station with the FCC rules with appropriate adjustments in the question pool.
3) What is really needed is for the Amateur community to do a better job with youth outreach and particularly elmering. We already have a problem with many folks getting Tech licenses and never becoming active. Adding a simpler, entry level license will simply make these problems worse while wasting time and resources that could be better utilized elsewhere.
Many countries have only two license classes these days – some sort of beginner level license and an “expert” level. Creating a 4th license class in the US is also out of step in this fashion.
We are fortunate to have members in our club who are very dedicated to helping folks to become licensed through classes and then providing lots of training and other opportunities to get on the air and to build a first station. We are also doing great work on youth outreach with the goal of getting young people interested in our hobby. We believe that that ARRL should focus its energy and resources to get more clubs and independent Amateurs involved in these sorts of activities instead.
I wanted to take a moment to let everyone know how we are feeling about this topic. We encourage all of our members to respond to the ARRL’s request for feedback in whatever way you best see fit.
73,
Hi Ed,
Here’s a reasonably priced wrist strap which should do the job –
Hi Ed,
I like Mike’s approach of using a wrist strap that is grounded to your K3’s chassis. If you can find a large anti-static bag, set your radio on this and keep the board in the anti-static bag it will come in until you are ready to install. Put the two bags on top of each other and remove the board. Then install it. The use of the overlapping anti-static bags with the radio chassis ground by one of them will help to avoid static buildup and potential discharge through your board.
– Fred, AB1OC