Niner
01-19-2013, 10:36 AM
Warning....this is a non-political posting..........for a change of pace.
I woke up early this morning (about sunup), got a fire started in the wood stove, then decided to fire up my ham radio and see what I could hear out there while I let mama sleep in a bit.
I tuned into 15meters (21Mhz) and was a little surprised to hear northern Europe rolling in strong. They were having a dx (long distance) contest in Hungary, and I racked up several contacts within a half hour or so.
The surprising part is my setup. I have a 1980's vintage radio that puts out a little over 100w. My antenna is the real joke. I made it out of stuff I found in "junk boxes" in my basement....some old TV 300 ohm feed-line (remember that flat two lead cable that went to that outside TV antenna back in the day?). That runs from the radio up to 66 feet of wire that I have running from the eave of the house to a tree in the back yard.....and that's prolly not 20 ft off of the ground.
Prolly pretty boring stuff to most of y'all, but I have a bit of fun with it.
I woke up early this morning (about sunup), got a fire started in the wood stove, then decided to fire up my ham radio and see what I could hear out there while I let mama sleep in a bit.
I tuned into 15meters (21Mhz) and was a little surprised to hear northern Europe rolling in strong. They were having a dx (long distance) contest in Hungary, and I racked up several contacts within a half hour or so.
The surprising part is my setup. I have a 1980's vintage radio that puts out a little over 100w. My antenna is the real joke. I made it out of stuff I found in "junk boxes" in my basement....some old TV 300 ohm feed-line (remember that flat two lead cable that went to that outside TV antenna back in the day?). That runs from the radio up to 66 feet of wire that I have running from the eave of the house to a tree in the back yard.....and that's prolly not 20 ft off of the ground.
Prolly pretty boring stuff to most of y'all, but I have a bit of fun with it.