I finally got my 2.4 GHz antennas on the roof with a Mikrotik ac3 router serving as the radio. The AREDN Mesh software looks for other amateur radio stations that make up the MESH network. So far, I haven’t found a target and until someone puts one up, this will be one very lonely radio.…

Anyone who likes to experiment with electronics, especially radio equipment, simply can’t go wrong buying an oscilloscope. I recently picked up a Hantek DSO2D15 for about $200. on Amazon. It goes to 150 MHz and works great! I did several tests with tones and RF and it picks up every waveform accuarately. It even has…

So the Raytown Amateur Radio Club took over this annual event from the Shriner’s Amateur Radio Club. The turnout was great! Lots of tables full of goodies to be had. My prize find today was an HT I’ve had my eye on for a while now, the Motorola XPR 7550 HT. It’s a UHF radio…

I was on the Spider Web net on 14.347 MHz last week when I heard someone mention a tower for $200. I didn’t catch any details beyond that but I made the comment that I’d drive a long distance to pick up a tower at that price. Then I got what I asked for. Turns…

There’s a ham I met about 20 years ago when I lived in Dallas. He was from out of town and we knew each other from the hamsexy.com website. We met up for a bite eat Joe’s Crab Shack and had a pretty good time visiting. Fast-forward 20 years. We lost touch when I cancelled…

This project has been fun so far. I built a corner reflector antenna for 2.4 and 5 GHz. I had an old Dell server that I was having difficulty getting rid of. The trash man wouldn’t take it so I knew I’d eventually have to disassemble it and throw away the parts. I was thinking…

Something went wrong with the feedline and I decided to replace the j-pole when I observed it had a high SWR at 144.39. I could have re-tuned it but I wanted a stealthier antenna that would hang in a tree in the front yard. I found this gem called the Slim Jim at https://www.kc4rcr.com/2m-slim-jim/. It’s…

I think I’ve soldered my last PL-259. They are my single greatest cause of failure. Over the past month or two, I’ve soldered up a couple of new cables and re-did a couple. I got some of them right and some wrong. I’ve been doing this for over 30 years and I still make too…