What's Happenin' from AE7JS

What have I been doin’? Well, let’s see . . . I decided to make some J-Pole antennas from copper tubing that was brought down from Anaconda, Montana. Got one for 2 meters finished and checked out with antenna analyzer and coax attachments marked. Then I decided to build a J-Pole for VHF/UHF. This was quite tricky – putting the coax up inside the elements and soldering to tiny hand-made terminals. Plus, the plastic manufacturing of brackets for the UHF elements took a little time.

Later, I installed a stainless steel HF receive only, magnetic Balun antenna between the top of a tree and the opposite of the trailer on the bottom of the mast. I ran RG-58 Coax into a white wall plate behind my easy chair with a BNC connector in the living room. I wanted to listen to HF while in my easy chair. I used RG-174 (tiny coax) from the wall plate to my Grundig G3 Global Traveler receiver located on my small table next to my chair.

Boy! Did I have a blast listening to the pile-ups on the contests going on this weekend! There was a little rag chewing on noisy 80 and 40 meters, but 20 meters had great reception for contestants and rag chewing. I have been having a great time listening all over the U.S. and in the tropics.

I removed the 2M/70cm vertical Yagi and put up a discone over the top of the trailer. I am going to clean up the Yagi and install it over my garage for connecting to my Yaesu FT-8900R and FT-2900. My J-Pole will go onto my FT-897 along with the long wire I want to run in the trees around my property. But, I’ll need some help installing a tower I bought from John, WB5AVP. I did discover my Comet UH-4 for my 8900 is bad.

Dave, NV5C and I spent the weekend of June 25 working with the “Texas Water Safari.” We had a great time helping keep track of canoeists. Now I am trying to get my old RV batteries set up for backup power to this shack. I still need to put up my fold over tower, fix Dave’s O’Scope, and my old Hammerlund 180. I also have an old EICO VTVM (Vacuum Tube Volt Meter) to get working. My long wire is working good with the tuner on FT-897. I never lack for things to do around my shack!

73s to everyone

JIM AE7JS