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Showing posts with the label Stealth radio

KH6JRM's Amateur Radio Blog

This has been a busy week in the newsroom, with budgetary issues raised by President Barack Obama and Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie dominating the local news.  In short, Hawaii, like many states on the U.S. mainland is defacto bankrupt.  In his state of the state address on 24 January 2011, Governor Aber- crombie vowed to implement a round of tax and fee in- creases to reduce Hawaii's $844 million deficit.  Of course this pales beside the nearly 15 trillion dollar shortfall projected by federal economists.  For amateur radio operators, that means available dollars will buy less of what's available.  It's time to make do with what we have, spend wisely for things we need, and stay out of debt.  I still have that Elecraft K-3 somewhere in the future, but for now, it's time to buckle down and get creative.  The older rigs will just have to run a bit longer and those antenna projects will focus on the home-brew variety.  The operating situation isn't

KH6JRM's Amateur Radio Blog

Now that I've survived New Year's Day, it's ever onward into the news cycle at the radio station news cubicle.  Due to work requirements, I wasn't able to do much on Straight Key Night, but I did fire up the the Icom R-75 receiver in the studio and "read the mail" between news breaks.  The antenna projects slated for the first days of the year are nearly done.  While I'm happy with the  40-meter loop under the house, the 40-meter vertical still needs work. The old MFJ fiberglass mast has been battered by the elements. It needs to be replaced.  I have a jackite pvc mast in the garage that will be standing in the backyard soon.  Hopefully, a spare weekend will be available to install the mast and get a decent ground screen in place.  The old system was a variation of a 33' vertical wire with tuned counterpoise--all this fed with 450- ohm window line.  The setup worked reasonably well and could work bands from 40-10 meters.  No complaints a

KH6JRM's Amateur Radio Blog

Christmas is almost here.  Things are slowing down a bit in the newsroom--a much appreciated break after Hawaii Island withstood a fierce winter rain storm. The Saddle Road, which is the shortest connection between Hilo and Kailua-Kona, was closed due to flood- ing and runoff.  Many travelers on the island had to divert their itineraries to the longer perimeter roads. Even these highways got thoroughly soaked.  The newsroom was kept busy with all of the traffic alerts and advisories.  Local amateur radio operators stood by just in case emergency communications channels were needed.  Thankfully, the flooding emergency was confined to the evening hours.  State and county crews are still cleaning up the debris and directing motorists around the flooded areas.  With all of this going on, there wasn't much time to "ham it up".  I got home rather late, so I'll make up the hamming later this week.  Christmas Day is a full work day -- I have to stand by in c